Bleach 1. Chapter 1

"Karin-chan!"

I turned around. A blonde-haired girl was racing down the stairs to catch up to me. "Wait up, Karin-chan! I'm coming!"

I let out a small smile. It was always refreshing to see that carefree twin sister of mine, Yuzu.

"Come on, then."

As we exited the house, however, there came a shout from the street's end. "Yuzu-chan!"

It was Innane Aoka, one of Yuzu's friends. Despite being twins, our friend circles were kinda different. Yuzu was your typical girly-girl, while I was your typical tomboy.

Innane came running up to Yuzu. "Yuzu-chan, we have to go to get Dana-chan's gift, remember?"

"Oh, yes!" cried Yuzu. Then she turned to me. "Do you want to come along, Karin-chan?"

I shook my head. "I have football practice."

We parted way and I started walking towards school. _Another normal day_, I thought. It had been three years since Ichigo, our elder brother, had gone to Soul Society as the fifth squad's captain. He came to visit regularly, but duties were piling up on him. Our daily routine has been pretty much the same since then.

I guess an explanation is due.

Our family is what you'd call spiritually aware. Me, my dad and my brother Ichigo can see, feel, sense and touch spirits. Yuzu, unfortunately, can only see a very dim outline, and she can neither sense nor touch them. Ichigo by far has the strongest spiritual pressure amongst us. Four years ago his life, and indirectly ours too, was drastically changed when shinigami Kuchiki Rukia transferred her power to Ichigo to save us all, thus turning him into a substitute shinigami. As a substitute, he went on a rescue mission to Soul Society, and in the end became a key feature in a war against The Espadas.

After all that, three years ago, many captain and vice captain seats were vacant thanks to betrayers and casualties. Desperate, the head commander made Ichigo captain of the fifth squad. The vice captain, one Hinamori Momo, was made captain of some other squad and Rukia was made vice captain in Ichigo's squad.

I realized I was smiling as I thought of Ichigo and Rukia together. My brother may be one of the strongest shinigami around, but honestly, he's one of the biggest idiots I've seen. He still doesn't realize he likes Rukia, goddamnit!

I reached the school and started making my way to the football field.

"Kurosaki-san!"

It was Awazaki-sensei, my football coach. "Kurosaki-san, I'm afraid there won't be any practice today."

"What! B-but Awazaki-sensei, the match is just a month away!"

She sighed. "I know, Kurosaki-san. But something wrecked the football field last night, and we can't use it till tomorrow at the earliest."

Something wrecked it? What could wreck a football field so bad that it becomes unusable?

"Awazaki-sensei," I began. "Can I see it?"

She nodded and led me to the field. When I saw it, I let out an involuntary gasp. Sure, the place looked like it had been bombed, and splinters from the bleachers was stuck in the mud like spikes, but that was not what surprised me so much. It was the _reiatsu_ I could sense from it. It was faint, but it was definitely there. During the Espada attack, I learned to distinguish between _reiatsu_ to a fair amount. This was not an Espada, or a shinigami. There were traces of a hollow, but there was some unknown _reiatsu_ overruling the hollow's. Something was definitely up.


	2. Chapter 2

I was staring out of the window, my mind not able to concentrate on the history lesson going on. I was still thinking about the unknown _reiatsu_. I hadn't told Yuzu about it. No point. She couldn't sense it anyway.

I was hoping Ichigo would choose today to drop in. We hadn't seen him in three months anyway, and I just had to tell him this.

"Kurosaki! You can stare at the sky later. Pay attention, please!"

Oh, great. Reluctantly I turned away from the window and-

Shit!

The immense spiritual pressure came up so suddenly that I almost fell off my chair. Thankfully no one noticed. Best part, I recognized it. It seems my wish is about to come true.

I didn't even bother getting a hall pass. I just ran out of class. Luckily my teacher turned out to be Ochi-sensei. She taught Ichigo too, so she never seems particularly surprised when I or Yuzu run out of class. All she says is, "Just like their brother."

I ran out of school, trying to track down its location. No luck. I'm not that good yet.

But I guess it was my lucky day, because just then, the source of the power passed over me. And luckily this particular shinigami in question was not using that super fast flash technique. I decided to give it my all in one shout.

"Ichi-nii!"

Ichigo, for that was who it was, stopped in his tracks and whirled around, trying to find me.

It was the first time I had seen him in the captain's haori, as most other times he came in his human body. It suits him. It suits him as well as it suits Toshiro.

He looked down and spotted me. "Karin!"

He definitely seemed happy to see me. But I knew there was something worrying him because he had that signature scowl of his behind the smile.

He came down. I hugged him. It's always good to see your elder brother. Even though I never show it out very much.

"Aren't you supposed to be in school?" he asked me.

"I had to tell you something….so I decided to make a run for it."

"What about the teacher?"

"Ochi-sensei."

He smirked at that. I guess he was remembering his own escapades with Ochi-sensei.

"So, what did you want to tell me?" he asked, but before I could open my mouth, another shinigami appeared on scene. "Kurosaki-taicho, I have the report."

Ichigo sighed. "Let's talk over dinner tonight."

"You're coming home?" I asked, unable to keep the delight out of my voice.

He smiled at me. "Yeah. Tell Yuzu to make something good. And tell the old man to keep out of my way."

I smirked. Dad has this uncanny ability to get on Ichigo's nerves, and back when he was staying, every morning they had an involuntary sparring session, which ended with dad sprawled on the floor.

"Will do. Oh, and remember, curfew's at 7."

He smirked at the old rule, then, with a wave, was off in a flash.


	3. Chapter 3

"Unknown _reiatsu_ at the football field?"

We were sitting at the table. We must be the only family around which discusses spirits and their _reiatsu_ over dinner.

"Yeah," I told Ichigo, who was back in his human form. Surprisingly, Rukia was with him too, and you should have seen Yuzu when she saw them both.

They were the same old teens as I remembered, and Rukia still seems to love kicking Ichigo in the shin.

"There were slight traces of a hollow's, but most of it was unknown," I continued.

I saw Ichigo and Rukia exchange a charged look.

"Has this happened before?" asked dad, clearly catching the look.

"Kinda," said Rukia. "Once in Soul Society, and once in the outskirts of Karakura Town."

"I say we take a look," said Ichigo.

"Good Idea," agreed Rukia.

"I'm coming too!" I said.

"No way," said Ichigo, Rukia, and dad together.

"What?" I cried. "This is not fair, I discovered this thing."

"Karin," said Ichigo, bending down. "It's dangerous."

"What could be more dangerous than this old man?" I asked, pointing to dad.

Ichigo smirked and Rukia stifled a laugh. Yuzu just looked plain shocked. She never likes it when we hit back or talk to him like that.

Ichigo controlled himself (with difficulty, I noted) and said, "Seriously, Karin, its real danger."

"Trust me; it's all I can do to keep your big brother out of trouble. I don't know how many Kurosakis I can handle."

"Yeah, she's…..hey wait a sec!"

Before they could start their bickering, I stepped in between. "I'm coming, and that's final."

"But.." started dad.

"Oh alright," said Ichigo. "If you want to come so badly, then fine."


	4. Chapter 4

It was nice and dark by the time we reached the school. Ichigo had got another shinigami from his squad, apparently to protect me if something happened. Che. I'm not a kid, you know. I'm in tenth grade already.

The other guy had spiky blond hair, almost golden amber eyes, and he was about a foot taller than me. He seemed about my age too, but you never know with shinigami. He was definitely not like Ichigo, because he smiled at me when he saw me.

The field looked dark and deserted, but you could still feel the _reiatsu_ coming from it.

"It's the same," muttered Rukia. "We must report this at once."

"Do we tell Yamamoto now?" asked Ichigo, perplexed. "I mean, other than a connection between these incidents, what else do we have for him?"

While they were discussing this, I went to the middle of the field. _Reiatsu_ was strongest here, so I wanted to see if I could find anything.

I bent down, my hand on the ground.

"What are you doing?"

I turned around. It was that shinigami assigned by Ichigo. He must have been watching me all along.

"Nothing," I said, turning my face away to hide the slight blush which I was sure was creeping up my face. That guy was _cute_.

He smiled. "You can't be having such a serious expression for nothing."

He bent down next to me. "You're just like Kurosaki-taicho," he said.

"Why so?" I asked.

"Your favorite expression seems to be a scowl, just like him."

I scowled at that, and he laughed.

"By the way, what is your name?"

"Kurosaki Karin," I muttered, still scowling. "What about yours?"

"Inakura Daryun, 3rd seat, squad 10," he replied. "But call me Daryun only. I have a feeling we'd be getting to know each other pretty well."

"Inakura!" came Ichigo's voice. "Come here!"

Daryun looked up. "Yes, taicho!"

Then he looked at me and smiled. "Be right back," and then he was off.

I watched him go to Ichigo, then turned my attention to the ground again.

I wanted to see if I could sense something else, something to help make sense of this whole incident. But nothing else felt out of place, at least to my untrained senses.

I walked over to where the three shinigami were standing.

Ichigo and Rukia seemed to be having a heated argument, while Daryun looked plain puzzled.

"What's this about?" I asked Daryun.

"No clue," he replied. "Kurosaki-taicho called me here, but since then these two have been going on nonstop."

I couldn't hold back a soft chuckle. Ichigo and Rukia had always been like that, since the very first day.

"I am not going to be cleaning out the barracks!" shouted Rukia, turning away from Ichigo.

My eyes widened in surprise. "Seriously?" I asked. "You'd been fighting all this while about who's gonna clean out the _barracks_?"

Both of them looked at me, realizing maybe for the first time that I and Daryun were hearing everything they said.

"Uh," started Ichigo, while Rukia blushed a little in embarrassment. "We were just discussing the, um, consequences of sending the Head Captain a wrong report."

"And where does Daryun come into the picture then?" I asked him sternly, while from the corner of my eye I noticed that Daryun was trying his best not to laugh out loud.

"Uh, well…that is…" he began, then suddenly realized something. "Wait a sec! Since when are you both close enough to use first names?"

Now it was my turn to stammer. "Uh, well….since now!"

Ichigo glared at Daryun, who inched a step back out of nervousness.

"Um, Rukia-neesan," I asked her. "Why is Ichi-nii emitting such a dark aura?"

She stifled a laugh. "A brother's sense of protectiveness."

I still didn't understand, but I let it slide. Well, I guess I had to, as just then Rukia's phone started beeping.

When Ichigo was just a substitute, Rukia would get all messages from Soul Society on her phone. Now, even though Ichigo could get the messages directly, he still seemed to prefer letting Rukia handle that area. I guess some things never change.

"Unidentified reiatsu, 30 km west Karakura," read Rukia, then turned to Ichigo. "You know what that means,"

Ichigo nodded, grim determination setting on his face. "Let's go."

He then turned to Daryun. "Inakura," he said, all dark auras from the past lost. "Take Karin home. The going gets dangerous from here."

"Yes, taicho," Daryun replied immediately.

"If anything happens, call me. I don't care what."

Daryun nodded. Ichigo looked at me next.

"And no whining!"

"Yeah, yeah," I said. "I'm not stupid."

"Sometimes I wonder," he muttered, and before I could respond, he and Rukia shunpoed away.


End file.

Bleach