so. here's some of Karin in action. only a peak though as it doesn't really need any long-form stuff yet. though I hope to give more the next time I have her fight.
Karin wondered if her family's luck was just plain rotten at this point. Her first day shadowing Shino and not only did they come across a hollow, it just had to be one that preferred shinigami as its prey.
Fortunately, it wasn't subtle.
Unfortunately, it was fast and had blades on its forearms that were much longer than they had any right to be. The blades were easily as long as the hollow itself was tall, which was massive as the damned thing was at least one story tall!
Karin had narrowly dodged one of the scythe-like blades as it struck down at her, leaving a clean puncture through the asphalt and into the ground below.
"What the hell is this thing's deal?" Karin shouted over to Shino.
"No idea," Shino dodged a wide-sweeping strike meant for her that cut down a telephone pole.
"Now now, there's no use in resisting, you'll only die tired," the deranged voice of the hollow spoke as the mantis-like hollow readied itself to strike again.
Suddenly the hollow came at Karin with a sweeping blow that cleaved through several shopfronts. The strike was too fast to dodge, and she couldn't block it head-on, the hollow was too strong. Karin's only options were to deflect or parry the blow.
Karin quickly changed her stance, then right as the hollow was about to strike her, she moved to parry the blow. She didn't notice her reiatsu building up as she prepared to deflect the blow.
The loud and shrill clang of sharpened claw and zanpakuto rang through the night air.
The failed blow threw the hollow off balance, causing it to stumble, this created an opening for Shino, who lept in the air and in one clean slash cleaved the mask in two. The beast faded to dust mere seconds later, and the stench or the hollow's reiatsu began to fade.
"Gotta say, you're pretty good with that sword," Shino was breathing heavily. She wasn't sure how long she could have held out without Karin giving the hollow a second target.
"It was just the basics… Hiyori literally beat them into me," Karin was significantly less winded. Shion surmised that it had something to do with her noble blood. Whenever she reached out to sense her reiatsu, it was almost like staring into the damned sun. Then a thought captured her mind.
"Wait. Hiyori? That girl who occasionally works the counter at the shop?" Shino had known many in Urahara's group were not exactly normal, but Hiyori seemed… too normal.
"Yeah, turns out she was Urahara's lieutenant when he was captain of the twelfth," Shion's face was simply blank with shock.
Rukia had let out a breath she didn't know she was holding as she let go of the railing on the platform that overlooked the thirteenth's nerve center. Her white-knuckle grip had left minor indentations in the wood. Karin facing a hollow like that on her first patrol was something that scared her. If a member of Ichigo's family go hurt on her watch, she didn't know what she would do with herself. She had been ready to make a full sprint, possibly even shunpo over to her division's senkaimon.
But none of that was necessary.
Shion and Karin were able to handle it together and take it down. Now came the matter of payout, as that hollow had quite the bounty on it.
"Lieutenant Kuchiki, take a rest. I'll handle the rest of the day," Rukia wasn't going to argue with Sentaro about this. No, after that hair-rasing experience, she was going to rest. The thoughts that were going through her head then were not ones she wanted to remember.
As Rukia stood off to the side as she let Sentaro take over the rest of her shift her mind wandered. Over the years of knowing Ichigo she had come to see Karin and Yuzu as family. Much the same way she saw Byakuya now, and more so before he had revealed to her that Hisana was her sister.
She sighed. That family had caused too much change in her life, but that seemed to be the effect the Shiba had on the world around them. They were a stone thrown into a glass-still pond, they can't help but make ripples in the world around them. Kaien and Ichigo had proven that to her.
A small smile crept to her as she thought about her time in the living world. It helped give her perspective on things. The world to her before meeting Ichigo seemed stagnant and dour, with only a short bright spot during her time learning from Kaien.
Once it was clear she was no longer needed she began walking back to her quarters. The modest room was all she needed for herself. At least for now.
The stuffed chappy by her bed was a guilty pleasure of hers, but entirely necessary.
Her eyes however fell on a photo that now lay on her personal desk. It was a photo of her, Ichigo, and the few friends that were allowed to know the reality of Soul Society.
It was nice seeing them again.
But her eyes fell on Ichigo. He had stood behind her due to her diminutive stature with subtle hand on her shoulder. Ironically the very shoulder that was mangled the night they first met, she still didn't know how to process it.
They knew they loved each other, but Rukia couldn't bring herself to take the leap. Not yet. An absolute hurricane of reasons flew through her head as to why.
She was an acting captain, she was a noblewoman, her mind went on and on with reasons why she couldn't, shouldn't, pursue a relationship with him.
In reality, she was anxious. In all her time as a shinigami, as a person even, she had never once been in a genuine romantic relationship. She hadn't even entertained the idea since she had learned her late mentor had been married, and the depression she had suffered since Kaien's death had convinced her she was unworthy of it.
She looked into the mirror of her private restroom, another benefit of her rank, and what she saw wasn't the accomplished lieutenant of squad 13, one of only two shinigami to kill an espada without Bankai, a feat only matched by the current head captain.
She didn't even see Rukia Kuchiki, the esteemed noblewoman who was the sister of one Byakuya Kuchiki.
What she saw, what she always saw, was Rukia. The street rat from Inuzuri who was the only other survivor of a friend group whose faces she had already long forgotten.
She knew her own strength, she had Bankai, but the feeling of unworthiness remained.
Rukia took deep breaths. She had nothing to prove. Not to anyone, even herself.
If she really didn't deserve the position she was in, her late captain wouldn't have given it to her.
The anxiety slowly melted away, and Rukia slowly prepared herself for her off hours.
Nayura had to admit that even she had underestimated the head-captain's political acumen.
His sponsoring of the reinstatement of the Shiba clan so that it would be earlier on the docket for the 46 had seemed to be a way to restrict how they would deal with Ichigo through their own case law. While that was true, a new angle was now revealed to her.
Ichigo Shiba was a quincy.
That opened a whole can of worms that made the entire process of dealing with the quincy as a whole far more complicated.
The Central 46 had several restrictions in dealing with the great houses. First among these was that they could not make a ruling that would needlessly harm a member of one of those houses else they are likely to be overruled by them.
This had not happened with the punitive measures with the Shiba as the Tsunayashiro had voted to uphold the decision.
Now, however, Tokinada was not likely to make the same mistake. Due to this, as a sage, and knowing that Ichigo was a quincy, she cannot allow the body to rule on dealing with the quincy in a way that would harm the Shiba clan, and since a major branch of that family were all quincy, the quincy were safe from wholesale extermination.
She had to commend Kyoraku. He had even chosen to tell a sage who took her job so seriously that she would never consider just not divulging this information to be an option. No, the situation from that was far too likely to bite them later.
Their solution for how to deal with the quincy now required much more nuance.
The fact he had said this after they had talked about his apprentice program was no coincidence. If she were to make a guess, it would be that Kyoraku was considering tapping into the captive population of quincy to replenish the ranks of shinigami.
She was unsure about this, but from a pragmatic perspective, it made sense, but that was for another time. Her job was to prepare to submit the head-captain's proposal and her own arguments on the matter. After that began her own political game of getting the Judges to agree to it.
Isane had just gotten home from a long day at the fourth.
There wasn't anything unusual, and they weren't undermanned. Yammamoto's final order saw to that.
No, Isane had begun training for her captain's examination.
She had bankai yes, Unohana had assisted her with that. She bared no scars from that training due to the capabilities of Unohana as a healer, but it was her capabilities as a swordsman that made her feel inadequate.
That wasn't training. Unohana had simply butchered her over and over and over until she had finally achieved it.
The worst part?
With every clash, with every cut, with every fatal strike, she could feel her mentor's feelings plainly.
Boredom, apathy, disappointment.
She had spent a week being trained like this. Only taking breaks to eat so that her captain could replenish her reiatsu.
She understood why she was so hesitant to help her initially.
It took her four days to fully realize the ability of her shikai. Then that disappointment turned into something far far more terrifying.
Excitement.
The last three days of her training were relentless. No breaks, no rest, nothing. Only death after blood-soaked death. She never thought she would have borne witness to her captain's bankai, let alone have it pointed at her, and it was not what she was expecting.
Then, after countless deaths, she had it. She attained bankai. Then suddenly Unohana had hidden away her bloodthirsty self once again, and Isane learned what it meant to be the captain of squad four. To be the one so strong, so vicious, so ruthless, that none dare cross blades with you, and she had to become that!
She brewed herself a late tea to calm her nerves. The test was the easy part. She knew she would pass. Her bankai was simple, her kido mastery had only grown, and those seven days had done well for her swordsmanship.
But she lacked the killer edge she saw in Unohana.
How could she be the shield the fourth so desperately needed?
"Isane, you're home late," Kiyone had noticed her sister's arrival.
"Just another long day," she had yet to inform Kiyone of the appointment. Such matters were traditionally confidential due to the very political ramifications of an appointment. It was often best to keep things quiet until after the position had been officially filled, and Isane didn't even know if she was going to accept at this rate. However, who else could be the captain? She was the defacto best healer in the Seireitei.
"Just make sure you get some rest. I have enough to worry about already with keeping Lieutenant Kuchiki from working herself to death. Don't make me have to have Iemura keep an eye on you," Kiyone only half-joked. She could see the same thoughts go through her sister's mind that went through her superior's. The same self-doubt, the same feeling of inadequacy, but she didn't say anything outright, because she didn't know where to start.
"I'll be fine," Isane spoke in an attempt to reassure her younger sister, but her voice faltered slightly. She didn't know if she would be.
and that's the chapter. I hope you enjoyed and remember feedback is welcome.