Rah, the fourth chapter!
Another Friday, so another installment. I'm also working on other stuff, and those will be uploaded whenever completed.
Title: Long Way to Goodbye IV
Rating: The much beloved T, where characters may swear and possess sexuality, but not so much that I will be banned for posting this.
Summary: Rukia and Ichigo disappeared and, although she tries, Karin has no idea what happened to them. Did Ichigo abandon everyone or did he and Rukia die?
Series: Bleach
Genre: Thrilling murder mystery melodrama with a sense of humour
A longer chapter than the previous, in which things happen.
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IV
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There was a fake living in her bro’s body. Chad was up to something, as were Ishida and Orihime (though Karin now knew they were looking out for her). A slime ball of a Hollow almost killed Yuzu. Rukia was missing. And Karin was supposed to sit around and do homework?!
Yeah, June was hell. Her afternoons were wasted in cram school; Karin didn’t even have a chance to confront Chad, nor could she vent her anger out on Hollows. Her brain was being pounded by information she didn’t care about, and she despaired of ever getting those ink-stains out of her hands. Yuzu didn’t help. Well, she did help, just not the way Karin wanted; Yuzu appointed herself Karin’s tutor and told her sister, in no uncertain terms, that Karin was not going to be held back a year. Dad was even worse.
Karin had no idea where he found the time to be obnoxious, as the clinic kept getting busier, but he never missed a chance to nag Karin. His rants, his body movements were just…shudder.
“Since when did you care about our marks?” Karin snapped at him one day. “You never got on Ichigo’s case!”
“He always got good marks,” shrugged Dad. Abruptly, manly tears leaked out of his eyes. “And he’s never been my baby girl!”
And so summer began. Perhaps it was only Karin’s imagination, but she never remembered it being hotter. Within the prison known as cram school, the outside never felt more alluring. The soccer field called to her, but she could not answer its summons. She cooked inside a room without air conditioning, paying penance for her sins.
Furthermore, learning the names of Japanese emperors and mathematic formulas left little time to reflect on Ichigo, Rukia, Chad and the others. It was school in the day, school in the evening, and then time to sleep. Real life (if it could be called that) was keeping her away from much more concerning matters. Desperately, Karin desired to be free of the endless studying.
Until the seventeenth day of June arrived and changed everything. She woke up that morning next to Yuzu, who must have snuck into her bed during the night. With a start, she realized it was the anniversary of their mother’s death.
---
Hey, mom, it’s been another year. I hope the afterlife is treating you well. I can’t believe you’ve been gone for eight years…
Karin prayed at her mother’s gravestone as her yearly tradition dictated. A few clouds cluttered the sky, but the sun reigned supreme; once again, Karin wished she had brought her hat. It hadn’t rained in forever and a drought had been declared, but Karin reckoned there might be a small shower-it always seemed to rain on the seventeenth.
The goatee-bearing freak of destruction known as Dad is, uh…Karin glanced to the side. Dad was hyperactive again, challenging Yuzu to a race. He is…so healthy it’s sickening. Yuzu’s doing pretty great, although I’m worried that boys will start chasing after her. This one moron, Jinta, in particular…well, you probably already know about him. Karin’s sister was running from Dad, but she was not participating in a race. Karin sighed and grimaced. I almost let Yuzu join you a few weeks ago…Yuzu hadn’t asked for an explanation about Hollows, thankfully, but Karin was reminded of her own failure whenever she saw Yuzu. I hope you’ll forgive me for being such an idiot, Mom.
To the right, “Ichigo” strolled through the graveyard, as if he didn’t belong with Yuzu, Karin and Dad. The fake had muttered that he was searching for the absent priest. Yeah, as if.
Your other two children are not so well. For one thing, I’m in homework hell, which is stopping me from doing what I want. I’m also stuck with a fraud and that’s what really driving me nuts. She couldn’t resist glaring at the fake. Ichigo is…I just don’t know about him. Can you believe that “Ichigo” forgot what day it is today? Either he’s vanished somehow (and then I really need to find him!) or that imposter actually is my brother. I’m not sure which would be worse-I’ve never accused him of being a fake in case he is the real deal, but…
Something wet prickled against her arm: a single raindrop, the first she’d seen all month. Time to finish her respects.
I just hope Ichigo isn’t with you, if you know what I mean.
---
Out in the woods by the graveyard, two students lurked far away from the eyes of the Kurosaki family.
“Doesn’t feel right being here, I’m just saying. Like we’re intruding…”
“I know your opinion, Inoue-san, and note it with all due respect. However, you must agree that we need to stay close. It has not been long since young Yuzu nearly lost her life.”
“You’re right, Ishida-kun,” Inoue-san mumbled, “but I still don’t like it. The dead don’t rest peacefully around strangers, I’ll have you know, and we’re making Kurosaki-kun’s mom very cranky.”
Ishida shook his head, incredulous. It was Inoue-san who first came up with the idea of protecting Kurosaki’s sisters, and she was always the one to say the girls needed more surveillance. He had no idea where her peculiar, superstitious notion about graveyards came from. Especially since Inoue-san had gone to Soul Society; she should know better! Well, whatever the reason, it both amused and exasperated the Quincy.
Not for the first time, he wondered if Inoue-san knew he followed her primarily to make sure no Hollows attacked her. Regardless, he would see her wishes fulfilled and the Kurosaki twins would be safe-Ishida didn’t want them hurt, either.
But he didn’t expect any trouble today. Should be nothing more than a fine waltz through the local neighborhood graveyard. Not unless that one asshole was hanging around somewhere; Ishida recalled how he wasn’t much help when Yuzu nearly died. All that asshole seemed to want these days was to kill Hollows. As if it wasn’t more important to save people.
“Do you think that Shinigami is nearby, Inoue-san?” Ishida asked, saying Shinigami like a curse.
“Oh, don’t call him that!” Inoue-san reprimanded him. “You two used to be such good friends!”
“Friends don’t stop speaking to you for two years, Inoue-san,” Ishida argued. “I can understand why he’s so upset, but that’s no reason for him to ignore the rest of us.”
Inoue-san frowned sadly. “He just…well, he doesn’t know that…it’s perfectly natural to misunderstand, but…”
She glanced at Ishida, went red and trailed off. Ishida had no explanation for her behavior and an awkward silence stiffened the air between them. He hated it when their conversations floundered, as if they weren’t friends.
“Sure is hot,” he muttered after a while to change the subject, wiping sweat off his brow. His cross-patterned shirt clung to his back; likely, it was ruined. Sigh. “We’re not even cool in the shade.”
Inoue-san glanced up in surprise suddenly. “It’s…raining, I think. I can’t remember the last time it rained.” She paused and added, “Not that it feels any cooler.”
Ishida stood still and marveled when a few raindrops landed on him. Improbably, it was raining. Not a whole lot, though; Ishida figured this rain couldn’t last for more than another hour.
They walked down the path, amazed by the tiny shower.
“Wow!” Inoue-san exclaimed, smiling radiantly. Lord, she was beautiful. “I never thought I could miss rain so much! I-what is that?!” Her eyes widened and she pointed to a thicket of trees.
She and Ishida ran over to the spot she had indicated to, and what they saw made both want to sick up.
“Should we call for an ambulance?” Inoue-san asked anxiously, biting her fingernails. Her face was deathly pale.
“It’s too late. He’s dead.” Ishida replied curtly, scouring their surroundings for threats. Danger seemed to lurk behind every single branch.
“Do you think it was a…a Hollow?”
Ishida hesitated. She must have been thinking along the same lines he was. “No,” he finally said.
A few drops of rain fell during the momentary silence.
“Ishida-kun?”
“Yes?”
“I changed my mind. We should stay much closer to Karin-chan and Yuzu-chan today.”
“Agreed!”
They ran closer to the Kurosaki family, no longer caring if they were seen. But Ishida spared one more glance at the man leaning against the tree before dashing away. He must have been a priest at the shrine, judging from his clothes; somebody had slashed him across his throat. Only one kind of weapon cut flesh so neatly. The small rain shower was nowhere near strong enough to stop the priest’s pool of blood from spreading.
---
Inside the graveyard’s shrine, Karin was alone with her “brother”. Occasionally, a lone raindrop pattered noisily against the shrine’s rooftop. Both Karin and the fake made it a point not to look at each other.
Great, how did this happen? She scowled. Karin didn’t know if her nose was playing tricks on her or not, but he didn’t even smell like Ichigo. He smelled worse. Then again, everybody seemed to smell bad since the drought started.
Actually, Karin did know how the two of them ended in this room together. First, everybody rushed inside to cool off. Then Dad went outside again, mumbling something about an annual tradition, and Yuzu followed him to make sure Dad didn’t smoke a whole pack of cigarettes. In the small chaos, neither Karin nor the imposter realized this meant being stuck with each other until it was too late.
Frankly, Karin had done her best to avoid this scenario, but then she went and messed up on the worst day of the year. The only good thing about cram school was it meant she didn’t need to see this lout. She ground her teeth in vexation. Dad’s taking too long, she boiled inside. He’s been gone for what, a-a minute? Man, hurry up!
“Hey.”
Oh no. Suddenly, he wanted to talk to her. Her worst fears were coming true. However, that didn’t mean she had to listen. Nor did she need to dignify him with a response.
For a moment, both were quiet. The atmosphere between them was deadlier than a hurricane, an avalanche, and a volcanic eruption all rolled together.
Alas, he was persistent. “Hey, listen to me, ya brat!”
Karin did not view the fake as her brother, but it still shocked her to hear those words coming from Ichigo’s mouth. Startled, she jumped and turned to face him. In an instant, anger replaced surprise.
“What?!” she glared daggers at the ugly guy who looked too much like Ichigo. Okay, she would listen, and then he would listen to profanities she wasn’t supposed to know.
He was glaring, too, she noticed. “I’ve got something I need to tell ya, so stop treating me like I’ve got the ugly disease and listen up, will ya!” he snarled. Yeah, more proof; her real brother would never treat Karin like this.
Despite her anger, Karin was intrigued. “Something to tell me?”
Could it be?
“Yeah, something to tell ya. I’ve been wantin’ to for a while but haven’t had a chance to ’til now,” he elaborated. “And I need to do it fast before papa smurf comes back.”
Papa smurf? She snorted and stifled an honest giggle. Be serious, Karin, he’s on the cusp of something important!
“What is it?” she demanded, crawling over until she was right in front of his dumb face. Her earlier hostility vanished.
“Say you won’t tell your dad that I told you -”
“I won’t, I won’t,” she swore, shaking her head, too curious to register his request as odd.
“Okay, then, I’ll tell you,” he said and his shoulders appeared lighter. Karin leaned even closer. She’d been waiting for this for so long. “It may surprise you to hear but, believe it or not, Karin, I am not who you think I am,” he revealed dramatically.
Karin’s heart hammered against her chest: the truth. This fake was finally telling her the truth. Maybe he wasn’t so bad. Sheer excitement tightened her throat. She breathed in and out, calming herself enough to say, “W-what do you mean?”
He sighed, acting strangely…what, did he actually think Karin was surprised by his confession? Give her a break.
Her heartbeat kept getting faster and faster.
“I am not Ichigo Kurosaki,” he told her at last. “Let me properly introduce myself. The name’s Kon. I’m a modified soul currently subbing for your bro. Sorry for acting like him, but I swear I don’t wanna.”
And then her heart came to a crashing halt, leaving Karin with a baffling sense of emptiness. She was right all along; he wasn’t Ichigo. Shouldn’t that make her happy? She’d been wanting to hear those words from him for so long, perhaps she hadn’t realized what it would mean if her hunch was right:
So what if he wasn’t Ichigo? That didn’t get her any closer to finding out what really happened to her brother. Instead, now knowing this person was not Ichigo only meant her real brother was that much further away. This Kon guy’s answer spawned more questions.
Her pulse quickened once more, driven by a powerful concern for her brother. She was suddenly free to imagine any number of terrible fates that could have befallen him.
A slightly-rattled Karin grabbed Kon by the collar. “Then where is he?” she demanded, trying to figure out which questions to ask. “What-no, how-I mean, why are you in his body?”
“H-hey, I don’t know where he went, either!” he wormed away from Karin and dusted himself off. “As for how I ended up in his body…”
He paused theatrically, all but begging Karin to demand for more.
She acquiesced. “Uh huh, uh huh, go on.”
“Well, it’s a long, sad tale of woe, but it begins when I was supposed to be discarded,” he recounted slowly, passionately. Karin would have punched him in the mouth if he didn’t need his mouth to talk. “And then Rukia the Goddess (and your brother, I guess) found me and she saved me! And from there -”
A paper door slid open loudly.
“Hey, we’re back!” Dad shouted warmly, and then took in his daughter and Kon in surprise. “Hmm? You two are getting along okay? That’s a change.” His eyes narrowed on Kon.
“Oh, we were just, you know, talking…” the fake made up a lame excuse.
Argh! Of course, Dad had to show up and ruin things! Right when Kon was going to explain things to her!
Karin’s mind wandered. What happened to Ichigo? I think Kon really doesn’t know-he did a horrible job acting as Ichigo and he’s too dumb to lie, besides. And Rukia? What about her? That big lug Chad would come in handy for these questions, she believed; he had to have some answers and she would beat them out of his thick skull, post-haste.
Abruptly, Karin noticed Yuzu had come in with Dad and that she was smiling.
“Aw, Karin,” she cooed cheerfully, “you’re finally talking with Onii-chan again!” She positively beamed.
However, Karin couldn’t muster a smile. Ichigo’s absence was far too distressing now that this Kon had thrown away his veil. Again, on the seventeenth of June, it seemed another family member had been taken away from Karin. Yet, she still refused to cry-more than ever, it was essential that Karin remained steadfast.
Outside, the rain trickled to a stop.
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Ishida and Inoue-san spied Kurosaki’s family leaving the shrine, concealed carefully behind a nice, big tree. For a second, Kurosaki’s dad paused to glance in their direction and they scrambled to hide better. Then Kurosaki’s dad scratched his chin and hastened to join his daughters. Inoue-san sighed in relief and slumped against the tree.
“I still can’t sense any Hollows. Aside from those few footprints burned into the ground that went nowhere, I can’t find any clues,” Ishida told her, frowning. He didn’t like this. Normally, it was easy to detect violent spirits. “Can you, Inoue-san?”
“No…is that good or bad? Maybe that poor priest had been attacked by a regular hoodlum.”
“A hoodlum with a sword?” Ishida doubted it. “No, something is out there. I can only think of one man who -”
“It’s not him!” Inoue-san interrupted shrilly. She calmed herself and repeated firmly, “It’s not. There’s no proof.”
Ishida eyed her wryly. “All right, it isn’t him until proven otherwise,” he conceded. “But someone dangerous is prowling Karakura and I believe it’s after the girls. I do not think it’s a coincidence that the murder happened so close to them.”
Watching Karin and Yuzu walk down the hill with their insane father, Inoue-san offered no disagreement.
---
Once the twins were home and back in their room, Karin decided that Yuzu had to hear what Kon told her; after all, the freak only said not to mention anything to Dad. Surely Yuzu could hear, though, and she definitely needed to. This deception simply was not right and the lie could not continue.
But why did Yuzu have to be so happy about “Onii-chan” and Karin “bridging their sibling bonds”? There hadn’t been anything of the sort!
“I’m so glad for you two,” she couldn’t stop talking about it. “Tomorrow, I’m going to make a special breakfast! Mom would be happy, I know it,” she hummed to herself, slipping into her bed.
Oh god, Karin put a palm to her forehead. But…No, she thought resolutely, I have to tell her or I’m a horrible sister. Even if it meant Yuzu would share Karin’s worries? She was so happy now. Maybe Karin only wanted her to know so she could have someone to comfort her…No, that’s not it!
Pushing aside her doubts, Karin cleared her throat.
“Yuzu, me and, err, Ichigo didn’t fix anything. It’s not what you think.”
Yuzu blinked before giggling softly. “Oh, I get it. I’m sorry. I forgot about that part of you that needs to act cool and tough,” she said. “You know, you can be cute and, to be honest,” she confessed with rosy pink cheeks, “I’m worried some boy will notice that side of you and…”
What? Karin’s mouth fell open. That was absurd.
“No, you’re wrong!” Karin yelled, regretting her words as they came out. Seeing Yuzu wince and looking hurt, Karin began to panic and tried to clarify herself. “I mean, we didn’t ‘fix’ anything since he’s not even Ichigo. He told me his name was Kon and, uh…”
And, despite Karin telling Yuzu the truth (as she knew it), Yuzu’s cheeks puffed up in anger. Things were spiraling out of control.
“Kon?” Yuzu frowned, most upset. Her cheeks were red, but not because of shy happiness. “That’s the name of Ichigo’s stuffed toy. This is just silly. Here I thought you two were getting along, but you’re still talking about that nonsense of him not even being Onii-chan!”
Karin’s heckles rose. “But it’s true! He told me! Ask him!”
“I will not! You two are probably in on something, trying to fool me into believing something horrible!”
“I’m not lying!” Karin yelled, getting angry, too. Yuzu wasn’t supposed to react like this; she should have been happy they weren’t related to that dork. “Agh!” she growled, “you just don’t want to believe this because the fake Ichigo goes gaga over your food!”
Yuzu gasped and Karin clamped her mouth shut as fast as she could, but it was too late. Her big fat mouth had already made a big mistake: tears gushed out of Yuzu’s eyes.
“Goodnight, Karin!” Yuzu forcefully turned off her lamp and put her back to Karin.
Karin opened and closed her mouth hopelessly, trying to figure out how to apologize. Yet she couldn’t take back what she had said about “Ichigo” (it was true!), and Karin was aware that she, too, was furious at her best friend and twin sister.
She shut off her own lamp and turned away from her sister. “Goodnight, Yuzu!”
The room was pitch-black then, but Karin knew she wouldn’t be falling asleep for a long time. All too quickly, her renewed vow to never cry again was challenged.
Not long after the spat, light creaked in as Dad poked his head inside the room.
“I heard shouting. Is everything okay?” he asked, sounding worried.
“We’re fine!” they both yelled at Dad, frightening him off.