alright. I do hope I did this first scene right (I completely redid it last week), because this is a big moment. So here is another chapter in Karin's adventure in surviving Urahara's training and becoming a Shinigami. this is probably going to be the last chapter covering this for a while.
Kisuke was watching as Hiyori trained Karin. She had been progressing well, and Isshin was reporting that her reiatsu was now flowing out of her wrists. Her soul sleep had awakened.
The creation of a substitute shinigami had such a high mortality rate because it was rare for a human to possess the resilience needed to withstand their soul sleep waking up so violently. Because of this Urahara sought a more gradual means of awakening one's soul sleep, a method that had worked with Karin.
Urahara sighed as he contemplated his next action. While Karin was much stronger than she was before she started training, she could only do so much with just her soul sleep. Today was the day, the point of no return.
Urahara stood up, hefting the bundle of asauchi Rukia had delivered two weeks ago. He wanted to test something, to make sure he didn't have to do what he feared he must. He would hate having to explain her death to Isshin, the man had lost enough people close to him already.
"Well well, Karin you've done well." Urahara walked forward, interrupting Hiyori's training. "But I fear you've gotten as far as you can go and still be able to turn back," His face darkened under the shadow cast by his hat, and his tone became grave.
"Urahara, are you sure you want to try this now?" Hiyori had been briefed on the plan. While she was initially annoyed at his interruption, the bundle of asauchi on his back changed it to worry instead.
"It's the only way forward for her," he then looked at Karin, the mask of the humble shopkeep was gone. In its place was the true Kisuke, the resolute man able to become captain of the twelfth, and the once warden of the maggot's nest. "So I ask you this once and once only, why are you doing this," Karin had told him why when he confirmed her interest, but he wanted to know, to know if she had the resolve needed to go this far.
"I can't stand sitting on the sidelines when I can do something. If Ichigo is going to be forced to leave, someone has to take his place. Someone has to protect the city, the people, the souls," she remembered some of the stories Ichigo told her of his early days as a substitute, about Fishbone D, about Shrieker, about Grand Fisher. Karakura was a magnet for spiritual activity, and one shinigami wasn't enough.
Urahara nodded, she had the resolve, the heart. Isshin raised them well.
"And you don't have to be that shinigami. There is no going back after today, you can only move forward from here. For your sake, for sake of those you love, and for the sake of those who you will be asked to protect, if you feel any hesitation, I ask that you return to your body now, and never return," She could not afford to hesitate in the world she was about to enter. Hesitation meant someone died. It could be her, it could be someone she was trying to protect or even both.
Karin let a smirk form on her face. One reminiscent of Ichigo's when he asked him the same question.
"Dad and Ichigo were pretty clear about that. I know what I'm getting into. So what do we do now?" there was no hesitation. She felt like she could finally do something. Ever since her mother's death, she had been consumed by this feeling of uselessness. Then there were the hollow attacks. Fishbone, Grand Fisher, the poor boy that was being chased by Shrieker. She couldn't do anything then, and often was a liability or even taken hostage. Now though, now she can do something.
Urahara gently lay the bundle on the ground. He then slowly untied the knot on the ropes that held the swords together. Then, carefully, he unrolled the bundle, revealing an assortment of Identical, featureless, katanas. Each with a plain brown saya, and a blank tsuba in the shape of an oval.
"Do you sense any that draw your attention?" Urahara hoped that she did. That he didn't need to kill her to allow her to pick up a blade.
"No," Karin shook her head. She didn't sense anything from the featureless blades. In fact, it almost felt as if they didn't want her like she was missing something.
"I guess that was wishful thinking," With that Urahara drew Benihime, and with a single swift slash, cut Karin's chain of fate.
In that singular moment, everything faded away. Urahara, Hiyori, the training ground, everything faded from her focus. Except for a row of featureless figures standing before her. When she examined them she could only notice that their eyes weren't eyes.
The figures looked her over as if they only just noticed her. She could feel as each one peered into the depths of her soul. One by one each of the figures snarled at her. All except one.
In the middle of the line of figures, one reached out its hand, and she felt drawn to it. So she walked to it, paying no mind to the other blades as they gnashed teeth and growled. When she grabbed the hand of the figure reality suddenly came back into focus, but she now had a katana resting reverently in her hands.
"What… happened?" Karin couldn't explain what happened. It almost felt like a dream, but also more.
"You were chosen," Urahara took a big risk in that moment. If they had all rejected her he would have had to make a very embarrassing call to Orihime.
Urahara noticed though that Karin's chain of fate had vanished. The asauchi must have caused her soul to finish the process of transforming into a shinigami, preventing the need to use the shattered shaft.
"What happened to…" Karin had just remembered that Urahara had just killed her by many definitions.
"I confirmed a suspicion of mine. Only the dead can become shinigami," Urahara sheathed his blade as he turned to face Karin. "Your soul chain is being used by your soul sleep to supercharge your reiatsu, a critical process in the anatomy of a shinigami," Urahara left out that that process is also what causes a soul to become hungry while in Soul Society, as the chain needs to be replenished as it is consumed. Fortunately, Isshin was already buying foods rich in reishi, so that wouldn't be a concern.
"So I'm dead," Karin wasn't surprised, "So now what?"
"Hiyori, Is she good to continue?" Urahara looked to his former lieutenant.
"Yeah, and kid, don't worry," Hiyori looked over at Karin. "We're not yet at the point for training with real steel yet."
Isshin was waiting for Karin to come home from Urahara's. It was another one of those days where Hiyori would make sure the lessons she taught Karin stuck. It was a once-a-week occurrence, and he was dreading it. He had bitched out Urahara about it once, but he had reminded him that the academy's own zanjutsu training wasn't the best when it came to practical exercises and that it is often the higher seated officers who have to pick up the slack. Isshin was proof of that, he coasted through the academy on his name and talent. Because of that inadequacy, there were often unneeded casualties, especially among patroling shinigami. He hated that. He hated that the way to give Karin the best chance of survival was to allow Hiyori to beat the crap out of her every week.
When Karin came through the door he noticed the change in her reiatsu. There was a new, ever so subtle addition to it, one that seemed to compliment her own. She had gotten her zanpakuto. It was a weak presence, like a faint flickering flame, but it was there. She had committed to this course of action.
Isshin sighed. He never wanted this for any of their kids. He wanted them to live out their lives in peace, away from all of this. Masaki was the first to mention that it was wishful thinking. To mention that they would be dragged into this eventually. She was ultimately right. Uryu had confirmed that Yhwach had wanted to capture Ichigo and turn him to his side. There was no escaping their lineage.
"Hey dad, has Yuzu started dinner yet?" Karin walked in and looked at her father with an exhausted expression. She had been through the wringer again, and it hurt something fierce. Each failure to defend herself was a sore spot on her body. She just wanted to eat, take a hot shower, and sleep.
"Yes, and it's your favorite," Isshin responded in his usual over-dramatic fashion, though it wasn't enough to provoke Karin in her current state.
"Alright," that usually meant Yuzu broke out mom's old cookbook. She didn't really have a favorite meal, but if she did, it would be from that book.
The recipes were a mix of Japanese and European origin, probably quincy stuff now that she thought about it. She'd have to ask Uryu if he had similar recipes or if it was their mother just being a great cook.
When she sat down she almost melted into her chair. To have the weight taken off of her legs was helpful. Fortunately, preseason camps for soccer weren't until the end of summer break, and that's when Hiyori planned on backing off on the intensity of training. There was also the added benefit that while the sensations of spiritual exhaustion carry over, physical exhaustion doesn't carry over at all. Of course, it's going to feel like she did double reps on the more physical days, but that was predicted to taper off as she became more able to tap into her reiyoku.
"Karin, are you okay?" She wanted to tell Yuzu the truth, she wanted to so badly, but she couldn't.
"Yeah, it was delivery day," that wasn't wrong per se. Urahara had gotten restocked on the supplies sold to patrolling shinigami. Well, sold wasn't exactly the right word. The shinigami would pick up the supplies and he'd charge their division, though he did have commodities that he sold that would have to come out of the shinigami's pocket as well as legitimate goods sold to humans. All of that came in on the same day. Stock day was a nightmare, but she was training when that happened today.
"Ah," Yuzu bought the lie. She had helped Soul Society with her and her father in the past, but none of them save their father knew what they were actually doing or why. Karin knew now that they were preventing the discovery of the anchors that the twelfth made to swap Karakura with an exact replica in Soul Society.
Dinner was surprisingly quiet. No Ichigo or Rukia meant no bickering or 'future daughter-in-law' theatrics nor any ambushes so far. She didn't know how long that was going to last until she was the one being ambushed.
When Ichigo had heard she was getting his room after he left he had made a point to tell her about their father's favorite ambush tactics and how to counter them. There were far too many utterances of 'if you're fast enough' to make her feel comfortable about thwarting her father's wake-up calls if he does start ambushing her.
She had finished her dinner rather quickly as her father and Yuzu were chatting a decent amount. So she excused herself to go get ready to turn in.
Her first stop was going into her room and putting her bag down. It had most of her stuff in it since someone thought it would be funny for girl's and women's clothing to have shitty pockets. Her modified phone, courtesy of Urahara, some useful odds and ends, some spare clothing, and her brother's substitute badge.
Ichigo had instructed her on how to use it, and how it could remove her soul from her body. As she put away most of the stuff from her bag she left the badge out on the bed before getting her bed clothes out for her to change into. She then grabbed a towel and then went into the bathroom.
The sound of water very quickly filled the room as she quickly got ready to clean herself and get rid of what little physical soreness there was in her physical body.
Isshin was waiting down in the clinic, his specialty gigai was up in the master bedroom in bed. He was expecting Karin to do much the same. This was something he recommended to her after her first day of training with Urahara's former lieutenant. Hiyori was a legendarily hard-assed lieutenant. Of her many legendary ideas, and as far as he could tell the only one that caught on, was 'smoke the rookies day.' So to know that she was training one of his daughters, well, it just made him want to look over Karin's spirit body and help her recover, after all, he may have flaked through most of his lectures, but kaido was something that had always had his attention.
When Karin came down the stairs his suspicions were correct. She showed up in her bed clothes but entirely lacked a soul chain, and her zanpakuto, a relatively plain katana in a dark blue saya, was on her hip. He had been told by Urahara that this may happen if she was allowed to bond with a zanpakuto. Her spiritual pressure was weak compared to his or Urahara's, but for the intent of the project, she is capable to do the lighter work of a shinigami in the world of the living once she was ready.
"How bad is it dad?" Karin had always used dry humor, especially after Masaki's death. She and Ichigo were always more fond of her than their father, no surprise her death caused them to completely change their outlook and personalities. Karin laid down on one of the small beds they have in the attached clinic, and he started looking over her.
"Nothing serious, just minor bruising and muscle soreness. Here," he started using kaido on the bruising areas, accelerating the healing process and helping relieve the soreness in those areas. Karin watched as her father hovered his hands over the sore spots as they glowed with a soft green.
"How does that work?" Karin was interested in kaido. The ability to heal using magic was something she was familiar with from stories shows and games, but to actually see it, even if it was just the effect of giving her a painkiller was interesting.
"That would take a while to explain and require you to finish learning kido theory. It's not as straightforward as you'd initially think," the glow around his hands changed into a soft blue as moved his hands around her as if he was scanning for anything else. "You're good, now go to sleep, I'll guide you on how to meditate with your zanpakuto tomorrow."
Karin nodded as she got back up. Tomorrow was a rest day, she would be allowed 2 days of rest after every 'stress test' Hiyori put her under, so that would be a good time to learn that part. While her father alleviated the pain from the day, it didn't get rid of the exhaustion.
"Night, and please don't do anything stupid," Karin looked at her father before heading back up to her room. She hoped tomorrow wouldn't start the shenanigans. She failed to see the grin on her father's face that did confirm that no, he would start them tomorrow, after all, he had to make up for lost time.
so, I hope I got that first part right. anyway, if you have any feedback, don't hesitate to leave a review.