Chapter Text
Karin first goes over to the Shouten because she catches sight of some of the weirdo’s that’ve been around in the past few months, back when Ichi-nii could still see and hear ghosts. Honestly, she’s pretty curious as to what they’re doing now that they don’t need her brother to fight their battles for them, and it’s been three months since they apparently totally cut ties with him.
(She also hopes that they’re not here to try and take Ichi-nii away again, because while it hurts him to not have his powers, there’s a large part of Karin that can’t help but think, good, now maybe he’ll be safe.
It’s a childish part – she knows the monsters, Hollows, will still be attracted to her and Goat-face and even Yuzu, and Ichi-nii won’t be able to see them, to get away.
As if he’d ever just run if they came.)
It occurs to her, a few minutes after following one with long, bright red hair, that maybe they’re here for her, now. They needed one Kurosaki to fight their war, and now they need another one.
Karin scowls at the thought.
If they’re here to take her, she’ll make sure to put up a fight – except, Yuzu. If they’re here for another Kurosaki with powers, Karin is easily the next choice, but there’s also Yuzu, who’d be so much easier to kidnap. She still can’t see regular ghosts well enough, or even hear a lot of them most of the time, to be able to fight them off, let alone a Shinigami, and there’s probably a way to train her so she gets strong quickly, but it’s probably like steroids and not anything Karin wants near her younger sister.
Shit.
Well, she’ll think of something. It’s not like Red has noticed her, yet, although considering how he’s running on air and rooftops, and she’d running down shaded allies, she can’t really blame him.
There are a bunch of other, better, things for her to blame him for.
And then the Shinigami touches down in front of an old-fashioned candy(at least, she thinks it's supposed to be candy) shop, and the guy Ichi-nii calls Getabōshi is there, even if he doesn't look incredibly happy to see Red. Sure he’s got the green and white bucket hat, and the geta, and the old-fashioned clothing that makes him look like he’s maybe supposed to be in the next NHK period drama, but Karin doesn’t get the sense of “sadistic but helpful, if you need it” that Ichi-nii had told her and Yuzu about with as close to a smirk as he got those days. These days.
Getabōshi actually looks like he’s berating Red. While smiling and messing with the fan.
(Ichi-nii really seemed to hate that fan, the one time he described it.)
And if this Shinigami, Red, was one of Ichi-nii’s Shinigami friends? Well, Karin is all too happy to see him be berated. She’d appreciate it if she could hear too, because Ichi-nii was pretty sparse on the details of what exactly had happened with Rukia-san, and then he’d been really serious about what was maybe going to happen when Inoue-san went missing. And now? Karin really isn’t going to ask Ichi-nii about anything relating to Shinigami right now, not unless he brings it up first.
Apparently, Red had disappeared while she was lost in thought, and now Getabōshi has his eyes on her.
Well, if she could see them under the dang hat.
But his face is pointed right at her, and he’s not shooing her away, and this is the man that Ichi-nii had told them to go to if somethingreallybad ever happened.
So she goes up and meets him.
“Kurosaki-san,” Getabōshi says, “I’m surprised to see you here.”
Karin snorts. “And I’m surprised to see some of Ichi-nii’s friends in town, because none of them have stopped by.”
“Ah, well, Abarai-san is always a little…late.” The sentence was phrased to make it sound like a tactful commentary about the Shinigami in question. It did not sound tactful in the least, not with that tone.
“Yeah? Well, why haven’t you gone and seen him, then? You taught him for a bit, right?”
“I guess Kurosaki-kun has been telling stories,” Getabōshi says, noncommittally.
“Yeah,” Karin affects nonchalance. “Like he told us about Rukia-san, and he told us about the fact that maybe he was gonna die fighting a war for Shinigami, and how we should go see the man at Urahara Shouten and ask for Getabōshi because he’d protect us since Ichi-nii figured that guy would probably protect us ‘like he does Jinta and Ururu-chan.’”
She doesn’t scream the quote at end, doesn’t tack on how she thinks that anyone who considered themselves a teacher for Ichi-nii should be responsible enough to protect him, too. But that’s only because she knows Ichi-nii would be incredibly embarrassed if she voiced that thought.
Getabōshi seems to read the judgement in her face, regardless, and combined with her statement, seems very, very sad for a moment, before his face goes blank in general.
Karin can’t help but think, “Good.”
(Yeah, maybe she should’ve gotten Yuzu first since she’d probably be so much better at this, but she’s not putting her sister in the way of any Shinigami, now that they’re back and might want another Kurosaki. And Ichi-nii didn’t say, but it seems pretty obvious that of course Getabōshi is a Shinigami.)
He sighs, and says instead of anything resembling an apology, “I owe your brother a great deal.”
No. Shit.
And Karin? Karin isn’t used to being this mad at the world like this, is used to having an older brother as protection and shelter, and something of a dad that doesn’t do much but is at least something resembling present in her and her sister’s lives. Karin isn’t used to the responsibility of being the oldest in the Kurosaki family and having to account for everyone else.
But Ichi-nii needs a break, can’t keep up the façade he’s wearing as he goes back and forth from school trying to pretend things are normal, even vaguely, and Karin desperately doesn't want to lose her brother as she knew him before the damned Shinigami showed up and this man is the best hope she has, so she keeps a cool head like she’s practiced these past three months, squares her shoulders and asks as bluntly, as coolly as she can, “Yeah, and? What’re you gonna do to help?”
She’s learned from watching her brother, watching other people, watching TV shows with Yuzu, that exploding in temper isn’t something conducive to making people take you seriously. And now it’s not her fate on the line, but Ichi-nii’s.
Getabōshi eyes her critically, but then nods, says, “We should discuss this over tea,” and turns back into the shop, flipping the sign to “Closed.”
Well, that wasn’t the reaction Karin was expecting.
(Karin learns that Urahara Kisuke almost never does what she’ll expect him to do, but at that point, she should just ask Ichi-nii anyways.)
What follows is an explanation on how to get Ichi-nii’s powers back, but in a way that potentially requires the help of the top-level Shinigami, and a lot of research and testing by Getabōshi, whose real name turns out to be Urahara Kisuke.
Yeah, nah, Getabōshi is what Karin is sticking with.
He pouts. He literally pouts.
“Yeah, well, you wanna be called ‘Edo Hobo?’” She asks, eyebrow raised.
“No, no ‘Getabōshi’ works fine…”
“Great, now, how can I help?”
(And if Karin’s eyes remind Kisuke of Ichigo’s, well, that might just be the reason he’s given in so easily to her, let her see as much as she has, even if Kurosaki-chan knows that he knows Kurosaki-kun is going to kick his ass as soon as he finds out.)
That’s the start of Karin’s increasingly frequent visits.
~IiI~
A week later, Karin shows up with workout clothes and demanding to be trained.
Getabōshi is genuinely surprised, she thinks, based on the tone of his, “Why?”
Although, that could be because he’s probably going to get his ass kicked even harder by Ichi-nii if he teaches her how to be a Shinigami.
“Because who’s going to protect Yuzu or Ichi-nii or even Goat-face if I don’t?”
Getabōshi looks actually angry for a moment – and, wow, this is the most possibly real emotion she’s seen from him, but also wow, scary – and then he opens his mouth again. “You do know that Kurosaki Isshin was a Shinigami and has recent regained those powers?”
And Karin stills.
“What?”
Getabōshi looks at her, mouth grim, and says, “Your father, Kurosaki Isshin, was once the Captain of the 10thsquad in the Gotei 13. He had temporarily lost his powers for the past 20 years or so, but has recently regained full use of them.”
“How recent?” Karin croaks.
“…The final battle with Aizen.”
Getabōshi obviously doesn’t mean for that information to hurt as much as it does, just as it’s clear that he thought that Goat-face should have or had already toldher this. And she can’t run back and kick her father for no good reason, because she’s actually trying to keep these meetings secret, so she asks, throat tight and unsure if she wants to vomit or howl and tear something apart, “Do you have a punching bag?”
Getabōshi nods, and that’s the way Karin’s first lesson starts – beating the shit out of a punching bag with Getabōshi commenting on her form as her fury winds down.
(She tries not to take it personally that he doesn’t try and spar with her.)
~IiI~
“Hey, Kurosaki!”
“What’s up Aki?”
“Where’ve you been going for the past month – we’ve missed you at soccer practice!”
Karin blinks. It’s been a month already?
“Oh, some family stuff came up. You still playing pick-up games on the weekend?”
“Yeah, we’re playing at the usual park, but if you come, we’re gonna have uneven numbers again…”
Karin shakes her head. “Don’t worry, I know someone who’ll come.”
Karin shoves the door open and yells into the shop, “Jinta! Do you want to come and play soccer this weekend?”
“I have chores!”
Karin rolls her eyes, “I’ll help with your chores beforehand, okay?”
“Like, I can’t just drop what I’m doing and go play! You – oh. Oh, yeah, okay. But you gotta do them well! You can’t just freeload like the freeloader!”
“The freeloader?”
Jinta snorts, and explains, “Yeah, that red-haired Shinigami with the weird Zanpakutou. He stayed here for a while and was a total freeloader!”
Karin frowns. “Yeah, I’ll definitely notbe like him.”
“Well,” Jinta draws out the ‘e,’ “it’s not like you’re not helping the boss, so I guess it’s not too bad.”
“Thanks, Jinta.”
He scratches the back of his head for a moment before perking up and asking, “Is Yuzu-chan going to be there?”
Karin pasts on the blankest face she can. “No. She has her cooking club that day.”
Jinta wails.
Karin smirks.
~IiI~
“You know,” Kurosaki-chan says pensively from where she’s flopped on the floor, “I never see any of the Shinigami or Ichi-nii’s friends over any more.”
Kisuke doesn’t reply from his spot at the table, pouring over a wide variety of calculations.
“It seems weird that even the people he went to rescue aren’t coming by or talking to him, and Ichi-nii doesn’t even talk about Chad-san anymore.”
Kisuke still doesn’t reply, but he has stopped reading through the papers.
“It’s like all his friends dropped him, and yeah, I know, it’s been a fucking year since they last saw him at least in the Human World, but they’re his friends, right?”
Kurosaki-chan flips so she’s facing Kisuke, and he’s seen that facial expression before, on Kurosaki-kun just before he unleashed a Getsuga Tenshou.
“Who the hell is keeping my brother’s friends away from him, Getabōshi?”
And Kisuke…Kisuke doesn’t say that Kurosaki Isshin came by and said anything, doesn’t say that he has an apology for Kurosaki-kun and while he could have found a way around Isshin’s presence at the Clinic or the house by simply finding Kurosaki-kun when he was wandering around town or even, if Kisuke were feeling particularly daring, at school.
Kurosaki-chan goes quiet. “Was it Goat-face?”
(Which, really, is a name that will forever make a small corner of Kisuke’s heart and soul howl in laughter, even if it is an excellent indicator of how lowly Kurosaki-chan thought of Isshin. And if Kurosaki-kun would have sent his sisters to him instead of bring the problem to Isshin? Well, maybe Kurosaki-kun thought that if he were in severe trouble or dead, then his father would be, too, but then again....)
“Fuck that piece of shit!” is growled and the tatami ends up a bit more abused, but Kurosaki-chan doesn’t rush out the door to confront Isshin. That’s something, at least.
Kisuke isn’t quite sure Kurosaki-kun would be so restrained, but then, maybe he would be.
(Someday, Kisuke will stop comparing Kurosaki Karin to her brother. It’s been another three months of constant exposure from that first day she followed Abarai-fukutaichou to the Shouten, and it hasn’t happened yet, but some day. She hasn’t said anything about it yet, at least, but then, most of the comparisons he’s kept to himself.)
~IiI~
Karin sees the various pieces of equipment, sees reams and reams of paper covered in data points and charts and has no idea what a lot of it all means.
Sure, it’s something to help Ichi-nii get his powers back, but like. How?
So she asks.
“How are you planning on getting Ichi-nii’s powers back?”
Getabōshi kinda mumbles at her.
Which. Fair enough, it looks like he’s doing math.
Karin should also probably be doing math. Just, less hard math, ground in the Human World and not dealing with…reiatsu waves?
Yeah, no. She’ll ask later when Getabōshi is at least a little less distracted.
She’s still a little surprised he didn’t look up at her when she talked about Ichi-nii. Usually that’s enough to start him out of anything he’s working on, but maybe the numbers are that important.
Karin shrugs and wanders over to grab her backpack.
It’s quiet, and peaceful, which is in short supply in her normal study spot given that it’s in her room.
(Peaceful is not how Karin would describe the Kurosaki household.)
But then Getabōshi crumples the paper with a quite curse, and well, guess the numbers really were important, but not helpful.
“Hey, Getabōshi, you keep spending all this time trying to get Ichi-nii his powers back…have you actually told him that?”
Getabōshi blinks at her. “Oh, Kurosaki-chan, you’re still…here.”
Karin snorts. “Yeah, it’s only been like an hour or two.”
Then she stares him down. “But, more importantly, have you actually told Ichi-nii that you’re getting him his powers back?”
“Ah, no…not as…such.”
Karin rolls her eyes. “Well, you’ve got those phones that aren’t really phones, right? Can’t he just use that? Get around the whole ‘can’t see, can’t hear’ problem.” And around the absolutely moronic mandate Goat-face gave. Not that Getabōshi, as a mad scientist, is probably overly worried about laws and stuff, but he seems really weirdly reluctant to go against Goat-face. Like, okaaaay, he was a Captain and now he’s back at the power levels he used to have, but mad scientist. Why go have a head-on fight when you could be sneaky?
(If Karin has been mulling over the problem and asked Yuzu about it, well, they’re twins. If they can’t share their concern about their older brother, then they really can’t share anything, can they?)
“Those phones are powered by reiatsu…”
“Okay, but, like, can’t you get it to run off ambient stuff? Or I can just charge it for him.”
“That could work – the majority of the electronics aren’t that different from a regular phone, and with a secondary converter of some kind inside and hooked up to the of the general ambient reiatsu drawing through the synthetic case…”
Getabōshi spirals off to plan out a new phone.
Which he’d better get to Ichi-nii. Because as much as Karin loves her brother and knows her brother loves her back, it probably means more coming from the guy that was something of a mentor had his back.
And Getabōshi has grown on Karin. Kinda like a fungus. A green and white fungus. That spits out math, and science, and knows how to fight, and has some kind of hang up on her older brother.
(Alright, that’s a terrifying picture.)
She’s not sure how he’s going to get it to Ichigo, but he’s a mad scientist, and a Shinigami, and really sneaky.
~IiI~
Karin doesn’t say anything else about the phone-that’s-not-a-phone, but she does see something that looks like someone (Getabōshi) just mixed an anatomy textbook of someone’s torso and a phone schematic.
That takes about a day.
Getabōshi retreats back to a lab after that, so Karin shrugs, and sets up shop behind the counter with Tessai-san, because he’s cool and occasionally teaches her how to mess with her own powers. It’s also more fun than taking over the kitchen table with all her homework, but, well, Karin isn’t going to admit that.
Tessai-san is really cool anyways, so she doesn’t have to.
~IiI~
“Kurosaki-chan~!” Getabōshi freaking sings as he emerges from the lab a day or two later.
“What, Getabōshi?” Karin grumbles, but it’s distracted and more directed at the history homework in front of her than anything else.
“Would you be willing to – ”
“Nope.”
“But I haven’t even finished!” He’s probably fanning himself all fake-offended.
(Right now? She can see why he is – was? – friends with Goat-face. Still better than the poster of her mom.)
“No, I’m not giving Ichi-nii anything. Give it to him yourself.”
“But, why, Kurosaki-chan?”
Karin finally looks up. “Uh, because it’s your gift to him? Because I’m trying to make sure Ichi-nii doesn’t find out I’m spending afternoons here before heading off to soccer? Because he should, I don’t know, think you care? Because I’m not a messanger bird – or butterfly.”
Getabōshi closes his mouth. Yep, she guessed right. He was totally gonna go there.
“Why, Kurosaki-chan, are you giving me permission to go see your brother?”
Karin rolls her eyes so. Hard. Never mind, she takes back thinking he was as smart as she thinks he is.
(Only a little bit, though.)
“Hey, I’m not Goat-face. I’m also really not in the position to say anything, cuz, I’m, what, ‘fraternizing with the enemy’ or something by being here, aren’t I? Also,” Karin looks around, and notes that there’s no one in the shop at the moment, because this is a public setting, “fuck if I haven’t wanted Ichi-nii’s friends to come back and show they care, so yes, please, go and give him the damn phone with a smile on your face or an apology or something. Just, you give him the phone.”
Tessai-san looks a little concerned behind his glasses. “Tenchou?”
Right, Tessai-san probably heard about the gag order from Goat-face.
Getabōshi shakes his head and snaps his fan shut with a definitive snap. “Well, I guess that’s all the permission I need.”
Karin nods at him and goes back to her homework.
They’re on the same page.
~IiI~
Kisuke considers his options. The house is out, since Isshin is constantly about, what with the Clinic being next door, and accosting Kurosaki-kun on the way to school is just asking for trouble, no matter how discrete Kisuke can be. If he’s going to do this right, it’s got to be more than a phone slipped into a pocket while he otherwise visibly refuses to acknowledge him.
So that leaves the school.
As much as Kisuke owes Kurosaki-kun an apology, there’s little chance of him confronting him at the high school. Kisuke is good. Very good. However, there’s something about confronting a high schooler at school that has a very high chance of having things go wrong.
(Appearances notwithstanding.)
So, what else?
~IiI~
Ichigo shows up to school the next morning and reaches into his shoe locker for his slipper only to find a black flip phone almost identical to his current one, save for the slight difference in thickness and the bright white fan charm hanging from it, shoved into his right slipper.
There’s a note tucked into his left slipper, but Ichigo really has no interest in dealing with this right now, so he shoves both into his backpack to look at during lunch. At least there’s no visible tampering with anything else in the locker. Or, you know, a possible massive hole in the school, because really, given the amount of time Ishida, Chad, and Orihime still spend at school, a Hollow really should’ve tried a time or three to come and eat them.
And that’s not even counting other people who can see after, well, Aizen.
That’s a bad thought, though, and as much as dwelling on it will carry Ichigo through Japanese Literature, he’s actually in school and he’s not letting the past take it away.
(But he’s got a note and a phone burning a hole in his bag – or, as close as he gets to burning curiosity right now. Better than right after everything, but not great.)
So lunch comes slower than normal, and then he’s off to a tree barely on school grounds and he pulls out the note first.
Kurosaki-kun,
This is not enough, but the phone will at least let you keep in contact with Shinigami who have the number. It acts much like a normal Denreishinki, but it can also keep track of alternative hotspots of reiatsu like your friends (although Ishida-kun is more like a void of reishi). This kuroden does still run off of spiritual particles like a regular Denreishinki, but rather than pulling on reiatsu, it pulls directly on the reishi of the environment.
I owe you an apology, Kurosaki-kun, but as good as a formal apology is on paper, it would likely be more meaningful in person.
I will be frank – I wish I could give that apology to you today, but I am and have been working on a way to restore your powers, and if that can, at least partially, absolve me of my part in your own loss of powers, then I will give you the apology you are owed at the same time.
You are not one to give up, Kurosaki-kun, so I believe telling you to wait a little longer is perhaps unnecessary, but still relevant. It is your powers that I am attempting to return, after all.
At the rate things are going, you should have your powers back within the next year. But you do not need to wait that long to contact your friends with this phone. I have taken the liberty of adding the numbers of a few of your friends, such as Kuchiki-san, but unfortunately, this particular version can only support a phone call of 30 minutes to Soul Society.
If you have any questions, the Shouten’s number is also listed in the phone.
I am sorry, Kurosaki-kun.
Urahara Kisuke
Ichigo blinks at the piece of paper for a few moments, because he can’t say that this is what he was expecting when he found the phone and the note – in fact, he had honestly played with the idea of it being from one of the Yakuza families, but well. It’s Urahara Kisuke.
(And maybe, just maybe, he’s smiling at that thought.)
Refolding the note, Ichigo flips open the phone and scrolls through the few numbers. Renji is there under “Freeloader,” and Rukia is listed as “Chappy.” Somehow every captain of the Gotei 13 except for Yamamoto is in there too.
Why on earth Ichigo would call Kenpatchi (who is presumably the one under the name “Fight Me!”), Ichigo isn’t sure. But whatever.
Urahara’s number is in there too, separate from the shop. It’s. A little weird, actually, seeing his first name written down like that, but “Kisuke” is admittedly a little less unique than “Urahara,” and since Getabōshi is a known nickname Ichigo has for him, he guesses that Urahara couldn’t just use that.
Because Urahara clearly means for this phone to be hidden in plain sight, for whatever reason, which puts Ichigo’s friends avoiding him into an entirely different perspective.
(Well, this is apparently Ichigo’s life, now, even when he’d thought he was done with all that. But then, this is a lifeline he’s been thrown and that sense of potential danger is exhilarating.)
So Ichigo tucks the phone into a relatively hidden if still accessible part of his bag and resolves to go find a white phone charm to add to his real phone to make them even harder to tell apart from a distance.
(And there’s something in his chest, now, something that seems a little bit like it might be hope – because not everyone abandoned him, and those that did might not have done it of their own free will. That they still did is. It’s not great, but, right now it’s less important than someone, maybe even especially, Urahara coming through for him. Because Urahara has pretty much always had Ichigo’s back, even if there was weird scheming going on in the background, Urahara helped when Ichigo asked for it.
And Ichigo hadn’t forgotten that. So he’ll wait, and when he gets his powers back and Urahara apologizes to him, he’ll tell him it’s not necessary. This phone and having his powers will be more than enough to make up for what scheming he did.
Ichigo was the one to act, after all, and Urahara did show up to imprison Aizen, in the end.)
Alright, no ideas when chapter 2 is coming out because I really should get started on those final papers and I've got another performance to practice for next week. But next time they'll actually meet face to face. I promise.
(...Muse willing.)
Fun facts I'm putting here because if I put them in the notes they'll shift:
"Edo Hobo," I mean, I guess I could translate this as びんぼうな江戸, but like. It doesn't translate because that's literally calling the time period, based on those kanji, "poor," but I'm also too lazy for creative insults in Japanese right now. Suggestions are welcome, though!
Kuroden(wa) 黒電話 - a potential shortening of the word for old, black rotary phones. But it's also a literal black phone that Kisuke made, so, there's that too.
On the topic of apologies - a written apology would be pretty formal, but I also can't see Kisuke writing on like that, so you've got the initial one in the note, and then we'll get on to the real one in the next(? look, if you think I know what I'm doing you're wrong) chapter.
Kudos, Comments, Concrit welcome. (And please let me know if the switches in POV are confusing!)
~Fins