Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, nor make any money from this fan-made fiction.

5. Love Sprouts

Another two years passed and the quarantine had been partially lifted to give approved family and personnel the ability to visit. Karin, Ichigo's sister, was thankful for this as she made her way to the Urahara Clinic. She did this incognito after telling her sister Yuzu and her dad she was spending time with a friend. The reason for this deception—and the reason she wore a noh mask—was to hide the fact a small sprout was growing out of her nose and getting bigger by the hour. She suspected the school's biology teacher was the source: something he had in an open cup had splashed onto her nose when she bumped into him.

Getting off the train and walking to the clinic, she entered and approached the grey counter that hid an equally grey desk behind it.

"Welcome to the Urahara Clinic!" Fuku said with a smile. "Fill out this form and hand it to me when you're done. Hold on, you seem familiar." She could sense the spirit energy coming off the masked visitor but had trouble identifying it.

Karin pulled the mask to the side to show part of her face to Fuku.

"Oh, Karin, how are you?"

Karin pulled the mask further away to show her pseudo sister her nose, and the two leafs now growing out of it.

"Oh, you're here as a patient." Fuku grew puzzled. "Huh, why not go to your dad?" The Kurosaki Clinic was more than capable of handling something like this.

"I don't want goat-face making fun of me. You know how he is."

Fuku snickered. "He is eccentric, isn't he?" She looked to the computer monitor and what she was researching for a brief moment, then highlighted the text where she left off so she wouldn't forget where she was at.

"More like a big child," Karin complained, "You'd think getting married again would fix that."

Fuku laughed and handed Karin a clipboard. "Just fill out the form and we can talk."

It didn't take long to fill out the form and Fuku looked at it, then quickly changed tabs and typed something into the computer before placing the form under another paper in the patient queue pile.

"So, how's Yuzu?"

"Yuzu's doing well." Karin lowered her voice and leaned over the counter "Has Orihime warmed up to you yet?"

Fuku also lowered her voice. "She tries, but it's pretty clear she doesn't like me being as close with Ichigo as I am. Even when we hang out—just the two of us or with Tatsuki—she sees me as competition for Ichigo."

Karin raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that the case? You do sleep with him."

"Not like that!" Fuku felt a heat fill her face at the implications as she crossed her arms in front of her. Both girls paused to look over to see if they were being listened upon but the only other occupant in the room was busy with a crossword.

"Even so," Karin continued, "you're still in the same bed."

"I said it's not like that," Fuku chided with a harsh whisper.

Karin frowned as she leaned back, no longer hunched over the countrer. "Does Orihime have a reason to worry?"

Fuku subconsciously picked up a nearby pen and started clicking it. "L-look, Ichigo and I... it's complicated. We're being super careful about avoiding sexual stuff, and we've succeeded. And we're trying to figure out how to separate even more, but it's hard."

"Living apart isn't viable?"

"We already do. All my stuff is in Kisuke's spare room and I only hang out with Ichigo as often as I hang out with any of my girl friends here. We only share the same bed every few nights and Orihime is there most of the time."

"I see. Still, only every few nights?"

Fuku frowned. "Haven't I explained this before?"

Karin shook her head in disbelief. "So that connection you share isn't just emotional?" It sounded that way the first time she heard the explanation.

Fuku's shoulders slumped. "It's not; you only sense Ichigo if you try to sense me, right?"

Karin nodded. "But your soul isn't weak by any stretch of the imagination."

"Even so, we feel funny if we don't spend a few hours close to each other at least every few days. It's like an instinct."

"Like breathing or like dodging a punch?" Instinct wasn't necessarily inherent depending on the kind; some had to be practised or was inherited through trauma.

"Like moving your arm."

"Oh, that's..." Karin moved her arm intentionally and tried to feel beyond the movement to how she made that movement; she couldn't—at least not in the few seconds she tried. "Have you told this to Orihime?"

Fuku's frown deepened into a frustrated scowl that looked so different than it used to. "Yeah, unfortunately I've still caused some distance between them."

"Well," Karin stated matter-of-fact-ly, "Orihime is the kindest person I know, and even then I can't imagine her wanting to share the person she marries."

Fuku shook her head and let out a sigh as she stared at the keyboard in front of her. "I'm not asking to share him romantically," she whined. She looked back up at Karin. "So what's new in your life?"

Karin leaned over the counter once more, this time casually. "Not much, just looking at my options for college."

Fuku's eyes seemed to sparkle. "Ooh, what are you taking?"

Ichigo walked into the room and approached the desk to get the documentation for the next patient when he saw his sister. "Karin? What what are you doing here?" He then saw the leaves growing from her nose. "Oh, come on in. That won't take long."

He then looked more closely at the forms of the next patient in line for treatment before addressing the person sitting on one of the plastic chairs in the middle of the lobby. "Sorry for making you wait Mr. Gima, this won't take long and then I or Doctor Urahara will get you treated in about fifteen minutes." The man nodded and Karin followed Ichigo into the exam room, sitting down on exam the table.

"So," Karin began, "I hear things aren't going well between Orihime and Fuku?"

"I know Yuzu and Fuku get into gossip, but you too, Karin?" He grabbed the potato scanner and scanned Karin's face, confirming what he thought it was. Yesterday, a patient came in with the same parasite. And as much as it looked and acted like a plant, it was actually not a plant. Easy to treat but very dangerous if left unchecked for more than a day.

"Well, your love life is interesting. We've got bets on whether it ends up a harem or not."

Ichigo groaned and shook his head. "Do you want to be awake for this or not? I need to cut into your nose." Ichigo normally wouldn't ask anyone this and just knock them out, but Karin was tough and she didn't like not being in control. She also wouldn't get queasy.

"Awake. So?" Karin laid back onto the exam table, which had been tilted upwards a bit. She closed her eyes when Ichigo asked her to and felt something sprayed on her nose; it now felt numb.

Ichigo sighed. "Just focus on Dad's new wife if you're that interested in romance. Or get your own boyfriend."

"Ma~ybe one day," she drawled, her voice picking up an inflection as her nose could no longer be felt. "So, the waiting room looked empty. How long until this clinic is done?"

"I don't know, but it's looking like it'll be in a year or two if nothing else happens." Ichigo had a fresh scalpel in hand and looked at the clock on the wall, waiting for the numbing agent to fully kick in.

"And Fuku will go with you?"

Ichigo held the scalpel up. "Obviously." He looked to the clock once more. "Now, don't talk."

Starting at the nasal bone, Ichigo cut cleanly down to the tip of Karin's nose and, using a special biological lubrication, easily separated the surrounding flesh without tearing it; keeping it apart with a suitable medical clamp. Using tweezers he grabbed the 'sprout' by the base of the 'roots' and pulled it out. A sample wasn't needed so he simply discarded the offending object into a surgical pan to be disposed of at the earliest convenience.

Afterwards, he scanned her nose again and, seeing that no trace was left, used bio-glue to reattach everything. Three biodegradable stitches later and Karin was bug-free and ready to go home.

"All done. If you wanna hang out with Fuku I'll let her off work... though I suspect Dad isn't aware of you being here?"

Karin smirked. "You know it. I'll come visit Fuku another time with Yuzu."

The next morning Karin found out her school had been shut down due to a "gas leak". Upon asking Ichigo, she discovered the biology teacher had illegally obtained the sample while visiting the clinic with his mother. He somehow convinced another patient to let him cut off a sample. It was assumed the teacher's initial experiments unintentionally spread spores in various places.

Thankfully only one other student had a small sprout grow from somewhere—it was treated at the Kurosaki clinic that day. The teacher, however, had been found in his apartment, covered in large 'leaves'. He had passed away, and according to Ichigo, was cremated at the Urahara clinic. Ichigo was quite melancholy about it: the sprouts didn't directly cause physical death, they drained the soul away to nothing.

A/N:

Ever wonder, if Stark was capable of having a dating life, how Lilynette might complicate things? Well, if you didn't, you're not me... which means you're normal, probably. The mechanics of two people being the same soul aren't exactly specified in Bleach, but I imagine their bond is probably something beyond human understanding, and since neither Stark nor Ichigo are omnipresent by nature, I imagine the separation to be straining over time. I mean, Lilynette did spend a lot of time right next to Stark, and I'm not sure loneliness was the entire reason for that.

Have a great 'until next time' and may God bless you,

SomethingAncient