I LIIIIIVE!
so yeah, sorry for the long hiatus. things happened and I hit a nasty case of writers block. it seems to be gone, for now, so here goes our dive into the final act.
Uryu Ishida was in a bind. Aura Michibane had 'incentivized' him to stay neutral with a promise of their survival in whatever vague new order she had planned.
The threat was unsaid but obvious. Should he get involved with assisting Soul Society against them, the quincy would be enemies of this new order, and their subsequent eradication was all but guaranteed.
However, the status quo wasn't much better. Kyoraku, while a man of good intentions, was himself almost as much of a monster as his mentor. There was no doubt in Uryu's mind that he would slaughter the quincy to the last if that was what was needed to protected the balance. Staying on the sidelines would thus undermine his goal of eventual peaceful coexistence with the shinigami. Something that was his entire reason for initially helping them against her in the first place.
The sharp ringing of Uryu's phone snapped him out of his thoughts. He checked the number after fishing it out of his pocket.
"Isshin?" Ichigo's father was not someone he would have expected to be called by, especially since the end of the war. He flipped the phone open and answered. "Hello?"
"Ah, great, the number Urahara gave me is still good," Uryu sighed, he simply wanted to get this over with.
"What do you want?" Uryu was not in the mood to entertain the antics of the utter buffoon that was Isshin, even if he and his father were surprisingly close colleagues.
"Oh, yeah, so the hollow situation I was responding to is taking a lot longer to resolve than I was expecting. Could you drop by the clinic and make sure the girls are okay? I could swear I felt something coming from there," Uryu was surprised. He thought that the flare in reiatsu was Isshin. The clinic was too far away for him to identify one flare from another, only its general location, but the fact it wasn't him was alarming.
"I felt it too, I would check it out but I don't have a way in," This could be troublesome. Sure, Karin was capable of defending herself and Yuzu from most threats, but she still was nowhere near as strong as Ichigo was when they stormed Soul Society. There was still a lot that could get the better of her.
"Your father should have a spare Masaki gave him after we built the clinic. Should still work for the house," Uryu almost facepalmed. Of course his father would have a spare.
"Alright, I'll check it out and call you when I get there," Uryu flipped the phone shut and prepared to leave.
"So Isshin asked you to do a wellness check on Karin and Yuzu?" Ryuken had heard his son's side of the conversation and deduced what was going on.
"Yes, he said you have a spare key?"
"Yes, Masaki had given it to me should I ever need to help them for whatever reason," Ryuken had tried to maintain a close friendship with her, as she was family, but his own work combined with having to raise Uryu complicated that. "here," Ryuken then pulled out a lone key.
Uryu took the key before turning to leave.
The walk to the clinic was largely quiet. While Tokyo rivaled New York for collective insomnia, Karakura was on the very outskirts of the prefecture and was relatively sleepy compared to the other towns within the city. Thus Uryu only had his own thoughts and the streetlights to accompany him.
The past year had been a lot for him. He made a mistake, and that mistake has had lasting repercussions. He was largely no longer welcome in Soul Society even though he ultimately was instrumental in stopping Yhwach.
He had gained the trust of many in the Gotei over his time assisting Ichigo, and Rukia had come to call him a friend even.
His choice to join the Wandenreich burned all of that away. He had killed many shinigami in the war as a member of Yhwach's own bodyguard.
He remembered shortly after the war observing Shino Madarame patrolling Karakura, ready to jump to her aid if need be, like he had with Ichigo often enough. Only to feel the cool steel of a sword touch his neck.
"If you know what's best for you, you'll stay away."
Rukia's words bit him like the dead of winter even now. He betrayed her, he betrayed all of them!
He still would patrol with Ichigo on occasion in the intervening year, but he would largely stay out of the affairs of shinigami, as they no longer welcomed him as they once did.
So the fact Isshin still treated him as though nothing happened always messed with him.
When asked, Isshin would always deflect. A nasty habit of his that Uryu had noticed.
It was then that Uryu had noticed he had reached the clinic. He did a prospective observation of the local reiatsu. Karin had grown quite strong, and so he should be able to tell if she and Yuzu were fine without having to enter.
Yet he sensed nothing.
Uryu ran to the entrance to the Kurosaki household proper, running up to the door as he fumbled through his pocket for the spare his father had given him only to notice the door was slightly ajar already.
He quickly ran into the foyer and closed the door behind him before running up the stairs uncaring of the racket his running was causing. when he opened the door to what was once Ichigo's room, nobody was there.
Uryu's heart sank. He then checked what was now only Yuzu's room and saw she was gone as well.
His thoughts raced. Uryu quickly walked back down to the foyer trying to find something, anything, that said they had simply only decided to do something stupid, and not what he feared was actually the case.
The absence of any notes however killed that idea, and so Uryu called Karin's phone, only to hear the ring tone coming from her room.
Uryu quickly canceled the call before redialing Isshin.
"Hey-"
"They're gone, and Karin's phone is still here!" Uryu didn't even give Isshin a chance to finish his sentence. This was urgent.
"I'll be right there," The line quickly went dead and Uryu was again left alone with his thoughts.
Isshin had dropped everything he was doing.
Sure, he had responsibilities as a shinigami and a former captain, but his daughters were above that. Them and Ichigo had become everything to him after Masaki's death. Like hell he would let anything keep him from them when they might need his help.
So when he arrived at the clinic and saw what Uryu put out on the kitchen table Isshin was in shock.
Both of the girls' phones, Yuzu's handbag, and both of their keychains were on the table. All were things they would never leave without. But worst of all was the Shinigami badge.
Karin had been holding on to that as if her life depended on it ever since Ichigo gave it to her. She would never forget that. No, someone had taken them.
"Do you have any idea who did this?" Isshin didn't know how to process what he was feeling. This creeping dread at the edge of his soul was discomforting, unfamiliar. He wanted to quickly return to emotions he better understood.
"Not for certain," But Uryu's answer denied him the simple out of anger. For now there was no face to point the blame to, no clear direction for him to cut a swath through with burning rage. No, life would deny him this once again.
However, worry quickly gave way to frustration. He was helpless to do anything to save his daughters right now. They could be anywhere and he couldn't help them!
Suddenly Uryu's hand was on his shoulder, snapping him out of his emotional death spiral.
No words were exchanged for a while. There was nothing to be said. The girls were gone and they had no idea who did it or where they had been taken to.
All they could do was wait.
Isshin hated waiting.
When Karin woke up she found herself in an unfamiliar location. The floor was the same cold white stone as the walls and ceiling, her arms and legs were bound by red cord which then connected to what she could guess was a collar around her neck. However, what unsettled her the most was she was not wearing what she was when she last remembered.
The white robes she was wearing were not the pajamas she put on tonight, and the implications of that on her mind were terrifying!
She then heard someone stir awake next to her. That was when she remembered Yuzu was also kidnapped alongside her, and that fear was amplified.
"Karin? Where are we?" Yuzu was clearly shaken as well.
"I… I don't know," Karin felt fear at that reality. She hated fear with a burning passion. It made her feel weak and helpless. It reminded her of the times where she needed to be saved. It reminded her of her vulnerability, that she was still a burden.
Karin stopped herself. No, letting anger take over wouldn't solve anything. She needed to figure out how to break out, but as she pulled on her bindings she realized how much they sapped her strength.
Gone was the neer superhuman strength her powers provided her, leaving only the strength of an athletic fourteen-year-old girl. Hardly enough to even strain the bindings.
That was when a door opened, revealing a man with black hair and a grin that chilled her bones.
"Ah, Yuzu and Karin Shiba. Don't worry, I won't harm you beyond what has been done to subdue you. And while I may be a monster, there are certain kinds of violence that disgust even me," The voice was overly jovial and informal. The tone reminded Karin of tea that had too much sugar put into it.
"Cool, so you're only into kidnapping little girls, like that's any better," Karin bit back, looking into the emerald eyes of this man simply made her shake even more.
Tokinada laughed.
"Ah, just as feisty as the rest of your family. Though I wonder if your sister is the same," Tokinada chuckled.
"Karin, what is he talking about?" Yuzu however was far more open in her fear. She was confused, what was this man talking about? Why were they here? How did he know their family?
"Oh my, I knew your father has a nasty habit of keeping secrets, but I thought he threw that off once he had to explain your mother's lineage to your brother," The man gleefully threw more fuel on the fire. "I thought you would be the one to force him to explain it to all of you, I find you going along with his secrecy to be quite disappointing Karin."
"Shut the fuck up!" Karin all but snarled at him. But she wasn't ready for what came next.
"Karin… you…" Whatever Yuzu was going to say died in her throat, but the look of utter betrayal on her face when Karin looked said it all. The two had always been close, inseparable almost. Yuzu had been forced to become the home maker since their mother's death. They both had to grow up quickly and Yuzu suffered the most for it.
Sure, she had more of a social life now that they were older, but those were friends she made because they were sisters. Yuzu hardly had time to herself, and so Karin served the role of that closest friend. And Karin kept something from her. Something big and damning. Karin could only look away in shame.
"I'm sorry…"
All Tokinada could do at the sight before him was laugh. Laugh at how the hypocrisy of the status quo was being exemplified before him!
How one who would claim to be better than him lied to her own sister to hide the nature of this world! How being transparent to her about the reality of the world would likely have done less harm then keeping her in ignorance!
The irony was so, so sweet!
"I will leave you two to have some quality time together, after all, you have some explaining to do~," and with that Tokinada left.
you know, in my head Tokinada sounds like Christofer Walts, specifically his portrayal of Hans Landa.
As always, feedback is welcome.