literature

Fire and Ice- Chapter 12

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     Toushirou walked into her room after school.  Yuzu was downstairs, cooking, and he decided to check up on her before doing his homework.  To his surprise, she was breathing normally and the sweat on her body was dry.  “Karin?” he asked softly, approaching her bed and dropping his bag.
     “Tou… shirou…” she mumbled.  She opened her eyes slowly.
     “I’m glad to see you’re awake,” he said, still in the same soft tone.
     “She told me… to trust… her…” she croaked.  Frowning, she said, “Water…”
     After she drank the water Toushirou gave to her, she sat up.  “My zanpakto, she said to trust her…  She kept saying that, and I still don’t get it.”
     “Why don’t you tell me exactly what happened?” Toushirou asked.
     “I was in my inner world.  She told me that she was making my reitsu-production speed up because Tessai blocked the regeneration place to slow my healing rate.  Well, anyway, she had me train.  I was supposed to jump through rings of fire over and over until I couldn’t jump through them because they shrank every time I jumped through them.
     “Then, I fell asleep and I had a nightmare.  When I woke up, she told me that if I didn’t trust her, my inner world would light on fire and I’d die.”
     “And?  You kept telling her that you did trust her, right?”  Toushirou didn’t know what to make of this story of hers.  Rarely did zanpakto show the destruction of their world.  They usually told ominous tales to their shinigami, and it was left at that.  No one wanted to see how their world would be destroyed.
     “Yeah!  But she didn’t seem to listen to me!  Anyway, after a million times of doing it, I stopped and tried to figure out what I was doing wrong.”
     “What were you doing wrong?”
     “I was scared of the fire.  That’s what was wrong.  I looked at it, and it didn’t seem scary anymore, so I picked it up.  I guess she was pleased, because—” she gulped another glass of water “—she let me sleep and wake up here.”
     “Well, it’s true; your reitsu is at its original level.  We’re glad you’re awake.”  He gave her a small smile.  “Now, I think it best to let Yuzu take over, because I don’t know what you’re supposed to do now.”  He stood up and turned to leave the room.
     “Hey, Toushirou, do you know why she was pleased when I finally wasn’t afraid of the fire?”
     Toushirou stopped, and thought a moment.  “Maybe it’s because she is fire.  You finally not being afraid of it made her happy.  Though I can’t be sure, since she’s not part of my soul.”  He shut the door behind him.
     “I wonder…  Maybe he’s right about that.”  She stared up at the ceiling, preparing herself for her sister.
     Sure enough, when Yuzu saw her, she started crying out of happiness, ran to her bed, and squeezed her tightly.  “Karin-chan, I’m so happy you’re awake!” she cried.  Wiping the tears from her face, she switched to nurse-mode.  “Do you feel like you can walk?”
     “Yeah.”
     “Do you think you can take a shower?”
     “I think I need one.”  Karin’s nose wrinkled.
     “Do you need me to be in the bathroom with you?  Just in case?”
     “I’ll be fine, don’t worry.”  Karin stood up, and with Yuzu’s assistance, she walked to the bathroom.  As soon as Yuzu let go, she easily walked on her own and shut the door.  She smiled at Yuzu’s surprised gasp.  Yuzu, you’ve got a lot to get used to.  Just because you know what’s going on doesn’t mean you understand it.
     Coming out of her shower fifteen minutes later, dressed in her comfortable clothes, she headed downstairs to talk to Toushirou—to plan, to discuss.  “Hey,” she said, plopping down into the chair across from him.  “I think we need to get my training schedule planned out.”
     “Before any of that happens, you need to do your homework.  And we have play practice before school, so it makes being able to get sleep difficult.”  He thought a moment, and moved the script he was holding aside.  “You are in perfect shape, so we can practice sword-fighting every day after school.  After dinner and when you’re done with your homework, we can practice kidou.  At least, what I know of kidou.  If you really want a good teacher for that, you’d have to ask Tessai or Captain Kuchiki.  Rukia Kuchiki is pretty good at it too, so we could have her train you too.”
“How long are we going to spend on kidou and sword fighting?”
“Longer on sword fighting, since I know more things about it.  We’ll spend two hours only on kidou, since you’ll need your sleep.”
     “What about you?” Karin demanded.
     “I don’t sleep that much.  I don’t need as much as you do.”
     “Oh.  Right.  You’re dead.”
     Toushirou frowned at her.  Before he could reply, she laughed.  “Lighten up!  I was joking.  If that were true, then Rukia wouldn’t have needed to sleep in my brother’s closet.”
     “That’s not…” he sighed and gave up.  “Whatever.  Anyway, how does this sound for you?”   He handed her the schedule.
     Her eyes widened, but she nodded.  “Except I have soccer practice on Tuesdays and Fridays, and games almost every Saturday.  We’ll have to work around those days; because there’s no way I’m going to skip them.  I’m captain of the team.”  Her face dared him to deny her soccer time.
     He sighed again.  His cold personality let her do whatever she wanted.  He was melting, like ice by fire too long.  “Fine.  We have to make a show that you’re still a normal student anyways.  But as soon as you’re done with practice, it’s training time.  I refuse to lose more time.”
     “Fine by me.”  Karin turned to the counter where Yuzu had left a pot of tea, pouring some.  “Want some?” she asked.  He shook his head, so she shrugged and sipped her tea.  “What about today?”
     “Today, you’re catching up on your homework.”  He pointed to the sizable stack of papers she had noticed earlier.
     She groaned.  “You’re kidding!  Stupid.”  Karin pulled the stack towards her and began to plow through her homework.  After half an hour of silence, she spoke again.  “Sooo… what’s been going on at school?”
     “You’ve been a popular subject among everyone.”
     “Really?  How so?”
     “You’ve been gone an entire week.  Apparently you’ve never missed that much school.”
     “No… I haven’t.  But everyone?”
     “The play.  You’re the main character.”
     “Wasn’t our play Pride and Prejudice?”
     “It still is.  I’m Darcy.”
     She stared.  “The two of us… main characters?  Oh… oh wow.”  Karin was rarely speechless, but this rendered her so.  “That’s going to be a problem.”
     “Why?” he asked, slightly puzzled.
     “I’d have to wear a dress!” her face expressed horror.  “I hate wearing dresses!”
     He chuckled.  “You’re not even scared about performing?  Just a dress?  You’ll be wearing a lot of them you know.”
     “That’s the problem.”  Her face expressed fear as well.  “I look ridiculous in dresses.  I mean, the ones Yuzu tries to force me in.”
     “Does she force you into big, poofy dresses with huge bows on your head?”
     “Yeah.”  Her face scrunched into a disgusted look.
     “I hate to break it to you, but none of the dresses so far are poofy.  Or big.  And the bows are quite small.”
     “I… guess that’s okay,” she muttered.  “Are my lines amongst all these papers?”
     “No.  Don’t start ruffling through them.”
     “Are you going to give them to me?”
     “When you’re done with your homework.”
     “Darn it.”  She went back to her English assignment.  The phone rang, but instead of reaching for it, she continued her homework.  Yuzu would pick it up anyway.
     Five minutes later, Yuzu came downstairs squealing and crying.  “Karin-chan!  Hitsugaya-kun!  Onii-chan’s coming home for a few days!”
     Dead silence followed her statement.  Karin and Toushirou stared at one another, and then back at her.  “That’s great!” Karin finally said, cracking a smile.  Yuzu ran back up the stairs, chatting rapidly with her brother.
     Karin and Toushirou stared at each other in silence.
     “We are so screwed.”
Yes! I updated two chapters within a week! I am awesome!

Actually, no, not really, but anyway.

They're not mine... -sigh-

School starts tomorrow. -sigh- Looks like... my winter vacation is... over...

(yes, I stole that from Aya who stole it from Roxas, but I'm going to use it anyway)

Anyway, I decided to give a point towards the "fire and ice" theme. ;D

Ehhhh, it's an okay chapter. Not much.

However, they are screwed because Ichigo is an overprotective big brother. XD
© 2009 - 2024 JeweloftheDesert
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ILOVESTUFF13's avatar
Oh crap
Ichigo's back...