I! Don't! Own! Bleach!!

GGAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!! NOOO!!! Finally… it has come to this!! It's the… last chapter!!! tears this is really really sad for me because it's been 18 long long weeks… or so and also because this is the probably the best fanfic I've ever written!! It's booted Shouldn't Love you Anymore out of its number one position and its gotten me the most reviews ever!! Awww… and now, everyone, I'm a Soul Reaper, but I Love You is ending!!

Waaaaahhhhh… I need a hug!!! Sniff… but… my wonderful awesome gnarly friends and readers out there… here's the last chapter!! Read and review, okay??

This is the very end!! TTTT Thankyou so much for all your overwhelming support!!! Arigato gozaimasu!!

Chapter 18: The Happiest Sky

Hitsugaya sat on the rooftop of the house that overlooked where Karin normally played soccer with her friends. The Tenth Division Captain grumpily took out his phone and pushed a couple of buttons, checking for Hollows. Then he shoved it back in his pocket, gazed down at the soccer field below him and sighed.

It had been two days now.

And so… it was just like this, that they had come full circle from where they had begun in their story. It had turned around and started all over again from the very beginning.

Hitsugaya closed his eyes for a moment. Ahh crap, he was so exhausted.

Karin… Even though it had been two days since he had returned her to her normal life, she had never left his thoughts. Sure, it wasn't like she'd forgotten him completely or anything. It was just that… she'd never love him the way she did again.

All that they'd been through together in Soul Society… all that trouble they had to go through to hide the fact that Karin was a human… all the shinigami Karin met and befriended… the effort she put into training and getting stronger… her love for him… Why did it all have to be gone from her mind??

"Taichou…" Matsumoto murmured.

Hitsugaya didn't look up or glance at her. The Assistant Captain sat down beside him, and also stared down at the soccer field. It was empty, but Matsumoto could easily imagine Karin down there, kicking around a soccer ball with her little posse.

"Taichou," Matsumoto started, a smile deepening on her face, "There's something I've been meaning to tell you. It's about Karin-"

Hitsugaya grunted in annoyance. "I don't want to hear it."

"But-" Matsumoto tried to continue, but once again Hitsugaya clearly showed his disapproval. "No! It doesn't matter anymore!"

Matsumoto frowned at Hitsugaya and while he wasn't looking, stuck out her tongue at him in a childish manner. Fine then!! You'll just have to find out yourself!!

Thinking about the wonderful news, she couldn't stop the happy smile breaking across her face again. Just think about what Captain Hitsugaya's reaction would be like!! Heh heh, it'd be so funny!!

Matsumoto was interrupted by her train of thoughts when suddenly she heard someone shout.

"Hey!! Toushirou!!" Karin stood below the house, looking up at Hitsugaya sitting on the roof.

Hitsugaya's heart immediately started racing, but then he remembered what had happened and he felt greatly saddened again. The snowy-haired captain looked down at the black-haired girl waving at him.

"Eh? What's up?" He said in his monotonous emotionless voice.

Anger marks appeared on Karin's face. "What do you mean 'what's up'??" she yelled.

Hitsugaya was a little surprised at how angry Karin was. He stared down at her, eyes widened.

Karin glared back and him and said loudly, "It's been two whole days, Toushirou!! You're so darn mean!!"

"HUH?" Hitsugaya clearly voiced his confusion.

Karin shouted: "You didn't have to put me to sleep and then take me back home and shove my soul back into my body without letting me say goodbye to everyone at Soul Society!!"

"EH?" Hitsugaya frowned at her.

Karin's anger finally died down a little and she said a little quieter, "You're really heartless.

You didn't even say goodbye to me when you left…" She gazed down at the ground and Hitsugaya picked up the slight redness in her cheeks.

He stared. So she didn't lose her memory?

Karin looked back up at Hitsugaya and stared ferociously at him. "And it's been two days since then!! You didn't have to ignore me!!"

Hitsugaya turned to Matsumoto who was giggling at his bewildered face. "Matsumoto…" he said, annoyance at the edge of his voice.

"What?" said Matsumoto innocently. "You said you didn't want to hear it!!"

Hitsugaya glowered at her. "Explain this!!" he said.

Matsumoto couldn't wipe the satisfied smirk from her face as she explained. "Captain-general Yamamoto was actually very angry at you for breaking the rules. He really was considering taking away your position, but then remembered that you are still a child. He was very serious about erasing Karin's memory and he would've done so if it wasn't for Ikkaku, Yumichika, Renji and myself!!"

The anger was starting to disappear from Hitsugaya. Relief and happiness was starting to return. "What did you do?" he asked.

Matsumoto winked and grinned. "We went to the captain-general and persuaded him to change his mind. I told him the sad sad story about poor ol' Tachio and his love for Karin, and the old geezer turned out to have a heart after all!!"

"…how did you know?" Hitsugaya muttered under his breath.

Matsumoto continued, "And then Ikkaku and Yumichika said all this stuff about how Karin was Ichigo's sister. And the shinigami representative was very protective of his sister. They said that if Karin was happy with her memories and then lost them, Ichigo would be very very angry, and who knows what he would've done?"

Hm. He'd have to watch out for Ichigo himself, Hitsugaya thought. Ichigo had chucked a huge spaz when he had decided to take Karin to Soul Society.

"Finally," Matsumoto concluded, "Renji said that Karin had incredible spirit energy, like Ichigo's. He said that though it was not as strong as Ichigo's, Karin was young and Soul Society could use that to train her up as an extremely powerful shinigami. After all, Karin's zanpakuto is immensely powerful, and if Soul Society trains her right, it would greatly advantage us."

Hitsugaya was silent for a moment, deep in thought.

Matsumoto grinned at him. "And that," she said happily, "was how we saved Karin's memories and feelings, as well as you, Taichou!!"

Hitsugaya was still quiet. Matsumoto added, "Of course, Old Yamamoto, being Old Yama, just had to go put Karin to sleep all dramatically like that just to shock you and freak you out. He said he wanted to teach you a lesson and warn you from breaking any more rules."

"So… what do you think, Captain?" she chuckled.

Hitsugaya stared out in front of him, so many thoughts and confusions starting to fall away and become clear. He had the faintest smile on his lips. Ha. Who would've guessed? He never would've thought he'd say this.

"…thankyou Matsumoto." he said.

Matsumoto was a little surprised but she cheerfully grabbed the poor captain and hugged her into her large chest. Ignoring Hitsugaya's choking for air, she giggled, "Haha! Anything for you, Tachio!! I would've hated to see Karin-chan forget Soul Society as well!!"

Karin watched the tenth captains from her spot on the field. Finally, she said with a hint of annoyance, "Toushirou!! I was talking to you!!"

Matsumoto released Hitsugaya and he took a couple of steps towards the edge of the roof and hopped off onto the soccer field below to Karin.

Matsumoto stayed sitting in her position on the roof, happily watching Karin and Hitsugaya.

"Karin…" he muttered. He stared at her dark-coloured eyes and felt as though he was reading her thoughts again.

Toushirou… Her gaze was serious and worried.

What is it?

Sorry… Karin looked away from him and turned her head towards the side. Hitsugaya frowned and grabbed her shoulder turning her so that she looked back towards him.

"What do you mean??" he asked.

Karin finally looked at him and said softly, "It's kinda my fault that everything's all awkward between us… It's because I told you I loved you…"

Immediately, Hitsugaya's face grew red.

Karin's own face was burning. She avoided his gaze and continued, "It's okay if you don't feel the same way, but please don't ignore me or treat me indifferently… Toushirou… I still want us to be close friends!!"

Hitsugaya was silent for a second. He stared at her with his icy blue eyes and said, "Karin, please don't say you don't mind if I don't love you back. It's a lie, right?"

Karin lowered her gaze. "Yeah. It's a lie."

Hitsugaya's hard eyes softened for a moment. Suddenly, Karin's eyes widened when he pulled her towards him and kissed her.

When they broke apart, Karin's eyes were spinning because she was just so confused. Hitsugaya watched her funny expression with interest, although he himself was turning pink.

"I love you, Karin," he said quietly, regarding her with his serious eyes. "You still… love me, don't you?"

Karin stared straight back at him sincerely. "Yeah."

Hitsugaya broke into a bright smile. Karin gazed at him in surprise.

"I'm glad." He said with relief, pulling her into an embrace. Karin awkwardly hugged him back.

"…hey Toushirou?" she said.

"Yeah?" he answered.

She stepped away from him and grinned cheerfully at him. "You smiled, Toushirou!!"

"What?" He frowned the way he always did.

Karin couldn't stop the satisfied grin on her face. She said victoriously, "I told ya I'd make you smile!!"

Hitsugaya stared at her in silence.

"You know, when you smile like that, you look really nice!" she said. "Of course, if you went around smiling like that all the time, it'd be really freaky, so don't, okay?"

Hitsugaya glared at her. He muttered with irritation, "Dammit, Karin. I smiled, okay? If you're gonna make such a big fuss about it, then I'm never gonna smile ever again!!"

"What??" The smile quickly vanished from Karin's face. "No!! Don't do that!! You're so cruel, Toushirou!!"

Hitsugaya smirked as he watched Karin panicking. Somewhere deep inside him, he felt that all the pain and troubles that had been burdening him and weighing him down seemed to have lifted.

He glanced over at Karin, who despite herself, was grinning happily at him.

Yeah… it was true… the pain inside was long gone. He looked around quickly to make sure no-one could see and then he smiled his hardest. It was all okay now. Because he should've known. Love prevails all.

Hitsugaya and Karin stood there on the field, and Matsumoto sat there on there on the house roof. They watched the sky as the sun gradually shone its brightest. The sky was the most brilliant brightest blue they had ever seen and the clouds scattered all over it were the purest white.

It was the most beautiful and happiest sky they'd ever seen.

The End!!

Yo. Awww crap. Now I'm done. WWWAAAHHHH!! NOOOO!! AAARGHHH!! I don't have enough sound effects to describe my sadness!! I'm a Soul Reaper, but I Love You is really and truly finished!! NOOO!!!

I'm crying!!! SOB!!! It's been an eventful and wonderful adventure, everyone!! I wish to thank you all sincerely for all the reviews and for reading!! Thankyou so much for all the support and I really hope you'll continue to support and read my other fics to come!!

Oh, that's right. Few of you know that there's going to be a companion fanfic to this one. It won't actually be a sequel, though. I figured after everything I did to give Karin a zanpakuto, it'd suck to have it disappear in the other fics. So… Hitsugaya and Karin will return in a super angsty fic that will come out some time in the future and I don't even know when!! But please read it when it does!! It will be an IchiRuki and quite a dark fanfic too. I ain't giving anything else away for now!! Please check it out when it comes!

Also Kenny and Yachiru's Slightly Violent Soul-Reaping Adventures comes out very very very soon!! It could be next week, for all I know!! Depends on how long it takes me to get over how sad I am that my first Bleach fic is over and get my miniscule brain working again!! Read and review, okay??

Finally, thankyou again so much, everyone!! tears streaming down face

Thankyou and see ya!! Waaahhh… emichii.