Thwarting Walls (Chapter 1)
KARIN'S POINT OF VIEW
All that I remembered when I woke up in district 72 was that I was called Karin. I didn't know anything else, but that's okay, because I made friends quickly. Not because I wanted them, but more because I needed them to survive. Every day in district 72, life is tough.
Really tough.
There is not enough to eat and my group of friends and I haven't had a permanent place to live ever.
And things are just getting worse.
Apparently, the squad 12 captain from the seretei decided that it would be good as an experiment to let hollows free in some of the poorer districts, to observe their behaviour. Rumour has it that he is being trialled by central 46 for his actions. Needless to say, the mortality rates have rocketed, and now soul reapers have been flooding the district trying to find the hollows that have been set free.
"Karin! We're all out of water, and it's your turn to fetch it!" Hitomi yelled from across our make-shift shack.
"Oh, Karin, if you're going out, could you steal some food? I'm starving!" Takeshi added
"Urghh, fine .I'll be back in ten." I reply, picking up the water jug and heading out towards the river.
The river wasn't that far, only about an hour's walk away, but it was the middle of winter and freezing cold. On top of that, I can't remember the last time that I ate, and I'm wearing a kimono that only just covers my unmentionables.
As I approach the river, I find that it has completely frozen over. Fan-fucking-tastic! I know what I have to do. My friends and I can't go another day without water.
I untie my kimono, checking no one else is around, and tread out onto the ice. I walk gingerly into the middle and find a particularly thin bit of ice, and stamp down, hard, with my right foot. I go straight through the ice and am up to my waist in ice cold water. I fill the jug and clamber out, shivering.
I place the jug down and redress. As I turn round, I hear an almighty roar. Shit, it's a hollow.
I'm about to turn and run for it, but I'm pulled backwards by a huge tail. The water jug slips from my grasp and smashes, as I am dangled ten metres off the ground, upside down. I do the only thing that I know how to do in this situation. Scream.
I screamed as loud as I could, until my lungs were on fire and my throat was raw. Then I heard something I never expected to hear in my life…
"Reign over the frosted heavens, Hyourinmaru!"
I could do nothing but stare at him. I stared as memories came flooding back to me. I was not just Karin, but Karin Kurosaki. I had a brother and a twin sister, and this boy who was saving me, his name is Toshiro Hitsugaya. I played football with him in my previous life and he saved me from a hollow like this one. I remember all of my human life.
Hitsugaya swung his sword, cutting the beast's tail and I fell to the ground, landing on the serrated edges of the broken jug. My arms and legs were shredded and a rather large bit of glass had embedded itself in my right lung, but those were the least of my worries at the moment. The hollow's severed tail was about to fall on top of me. I stood up and ran, but something snapped in my foot. A tendon or a muscle, probably, and I fell to the ground once again. I closed my eyes, and vaguely wondered about my family from my previous life, as I prepare for the end.
But it never came. I peeked through my lashes, to find that the boy with snowy white hair was standing over me, the tail in two and the hollow was lying dead on the ground.
"You can open your eyes now, you're safe." He extended a hand to help me up. I accepted, but stood on my injured foot. Piercing pain shot up my foot and through my leg. I gasped and transferred my weight onto my other leg, feeling the bits of glass being pushed further into my foot. It hurt like hell, but there was no way I was going to act weak in front of a captain.
TOSHIRO'S POINT OF VIEW
I was giving orders to my men, trying to find these hollows that the crazy bastard Mayuri set loose in district 72, when I heard screaming. As I flash stepped to where it was coming from, I saw a girl, who looked physically the same age as me, more or less. She was being hung upside down by a giant hollow. I called out my zanpaktou's name, and cut off its tail. My eyes widened in horror as I saw it was heading straight for the girl, so I flash stepped and cut it in two before slashing the hollow's mask, killing him instantly.
I walk over to the girl, and I can't help feeling she looks familiar.
"You can open your eyes now, you're safe." I say, monotonously.
I offer her my hand, and she takes it. As she stands up, she lets out a small gasp before putting her weight on the other foot. She obviously isn't doing too well.
Up close, she looks even more in need. Her kimono is ripped and I can see each one of her chest bones. I can see her hip bones sticking out, even though she is covering them. Her right arm and leg are badly cut, and she is bleeding for what looks like her lung. She is soaked from head to toe and shivering violently.
She opens her mouth to say something but then convulses, doubling over and coughing up blood. She drops to her knees, glass embedding in them, and continues to retch.
I drop to my knees beside her, gently rubbing her back, feeling each of her vertebrae, trying to soothe her. After a few minutes, she stops coughing and sits back on her heels, smiling weakly. She stands up, trying to hide the grimace of pain the passes across her face.
"Thanks. It looks like I owe you ag-" Suddenly, her eyes rolled back into her head and her body went slack. I caught her just before her frail body hit the unforgiving ground, cradling her to my chest; I panic when I saw that her kimono was slowly turning deep crimson.
I flash-stepped as fast as I could to the seretei and went straight to the fourth division. I had not been in there a second when Captain Unohana took the fragile girl from me, declaring that she had to operate. As I took a seat outside the operating room, my mind wondered to what she had said
"Thanks. It looks like I owe you ag-"
Was she going to say again? And why can I not shake this feeling that I've seen her before?
I kept along this train of thought, my mind reeling with questions, for two hours.
All that I remembered when I woke up in district 72 was that I was called Karin. I didn't know anything else, but that's okay, because I made friends quickly. Not because I wanted them, but more because I needed them to survive. Every day in district 72, life is tough.
Really tough.
There is not enough to eat and my group of friends and I haven't had a permanent place to live ever.
And things are just getting worse.
Apparently, the squad 12 captain from the seretei decided that it would be good as an experiment to let hollows free in some of the poorer districts, to observe their behaviour. Rumour has it that he is being trialled by central 46 for his actions. Needless to say, the mortality rates have rocketed, and now soul reapers have been flooding the district trying to find the hollows that have been set free.
"Karin! We're all out of water, and it's your turn to fetch it!" Hitomi yelled from across our make-shift shack.
"Oh, Karin, if you're going out, could you steal some food? I'm starving!" Takeshi added
"Urghh, fine .I'll be back in ten." I reply, picking up the water jug and heading out towards the river.
The river wasn't that far, only about an hour's walk away, but it was the middle of winter and freezing cold. On top of that, I can't remember the last time that I ate, and I'm wearing a kimono that only just covers my unmentionables.
As I approach the river, I find that it has completely frozen over. Fan-fucking-tastic! I know what I have to do. My friends and I can't go another day without water.
I untie my kimono, checking no one else is around, and tread out onto the ice. I walk gingerly into the middle and find a particularly thin bit of ice, and stamp down, hard, with my right foot. I go straight through the ice and am up to my waist in ice cold water. I fill the jug and clamber out, shivering.
I place the jug down and redress. As I turn round, I hear an almighty roar. Shit, it's a hollow.
I'm about to turn and run for it, but I'm pulled backwards by a huge tail. The water jug slips from my grasp and smashes, as I am dangled ten metres off the ground, upside down. I do the only thing that I know how to do in this situation. Scream.
I screamed as loud as I could, until my lungs were on fire and my throat was raw. Then I heard something I never expected to hear in my life…
"Reign over the frosted heavens, Hyourinmaru!"
I could do nothing but stare at him. I stared as memories came flooding back to me. I was not just Karin, but Karin Kurosaki. I had a brother and a twin sister, and this boy who was saving me, his name is Toshiro Hitsugaya. I played football with him in my previous life and he saved me from a hollow like this one. I remember all of my human life.
Hitsugaya swung his sword, cutting the beast's tail and I fell to the ground, landing on the serrated edges of the broken jug. My arms and legs were shredded and a rather large bit of glass had embedded itself in my right lung, but those were the least of my worries at the moment. The hollow's severed tail was about to fall on top of me. I stood up and ran, but something snapped in my foot. A tendon or a muscle, probably, and I fell to the ground once again. I closed my eyes, and vaguely wondered about my family from my previous life, as I prepare for the end.
But it never came. I peeked through my lashes, to find that the boy with snowy white hair was standing over me, the tail in two and the hollow was lying dead on the ground.
"You can open your eyes now, you're safe." He extended a hand to help me up. I accepted, but stood on my injured foot. Piercing pain shot up my foot and through my leg. I gasped and transferred my weight onto my other leg, feeling the bits of glass being pushed further into my foot. It hurt like hell, but there was no way I was going to act weak in front of a captain.
TOSHIRO'S POINT OF VIEW
I was giving orders to my men, trying to find these hollows that the crazy bastard Mayuri set loose in district 72, when I heard screaming. As I flash stepped to where it was coming from, I saw a girl, who looked physically the same age as me, more or less. She was being hung upside down by a giant hollow. I called out my zanpaktou's name, and cut off its tail. My eyes widened in horror as I saw it was heading straight for the girl, so I flash stepped and cut it in two before slashing the hollow's mask, killing him instantly.
I walk over to the girl, and I can't help feeling she looks familiar.
"You can open your eyes now, you're safe." I say, monotonously.
I offer her my hand, and she takes it. As she stands up, she lets out a small gasp before putting her weight on the other foot. She obviously isn't doing too well.
Up close, she looks even more in need. Her kimono is ripped and I can see each one of her chest bones. I can see her hip bones sticking out, even though she is covering them. Her right arm and leg are badly cut, and she is bleeding for what looks like her lung. She is soaked from head to toe and shivering violently.
She opens her mouth to say something but then convulses, doubling over and coughing up blood. She drops to her knees, glass embedding in them, and continues to retch.
I drop to my knees beside her, gently rubbing her back, feeling each of her vertebrae, trying to soothe her. After a few minutes, she stops coughing and sits back on her heels, smiling weakly. She stands up, trying to hide the grimace of pain the passes across her face.
"Thanks. It looks like I owe you ag-" Suddenly, her eyes rolled back into her head and her body went slack. I caught her just before her frail body hit the unforgiving ground, cradling her to my chest; I panic when I saw that her kimono was slowly turning deep crimson.
I flash-stepped as fast as I could to the seretei and went straight to the fourth division. I had not been in there a second when Captain Unohana took the fragile girl from me, declaring that she had to operate. As I took a seat outside the operating room, my mind wondered to what she had said
"Thanks. It looks like I owe you ag-"
Was she going to say again? And why can I not shake this feeling that I've seen her before?
I kept along this train of thought, my mind reeling with questions, for two hours.