He Who Protects
Karin didn't go to school that day. For the whole day, she spent her time looking for Yuzu. She felt bad for running like that and couldn't stand seeing her sister crying alone. She had to be the brave on in her family and she made sure she did her job right. Though no matter how much she wanted to apologized, she couldn't help but walk the whole way there.
The twin had to think. She had to think about what to say and how to react to her sister's emotions. Karin was different from her family in that sense. She knew how to plan and learn from her mistakes. But when she saw her sister embracing a complete stranger, she could do nothing but stare.
"Yuzu!" she screamed, attacking the man with a soccer ball. He swiftly moved out of the way, counterattacking that move while in motion. Yuzu realized what he was doing and screamed against it!
"Ichi-nii! Don't!" she cried.
Ichi-nii? Karin thought as he watched the man's performance in catching the ball. It was perfect. The movement was swift and he perfectly switched from offense to defense in a simple step.
"Hey, is it you Karin?" he asked, snapping her out of the daze. She stepped forward towards the man. Her face showed fear as he walked forward.
Ichigo is dead. He always been dead. He's dead. He's dead. He's de-
"Karin, it's me, Ichigo," he said. He knelt down to hear height with his arm spread wide. She ran forward with tears in her eyes. Yuzu stayed back, smiling at her sister.
"Ichigo!" she screamed. A fist was raised and it connected with the older brother's face. He landed onto the ground, but quickly recovered from the hit.
"Hey, what was that for?" he yelled.
"That's for disappearing!" she screamed back, tears still coming out of her eyes. He stood back up and smirked. Karin knew he had something up his sleeves.
"Oh well, if I'm such a bad brother then I guess I shouldn't be giving you this," he said as he held up a soccer ball. Karin widen her eyes at the sight of it. It was personally signed from her newly deceased favorite soccer player.
"Give it," she demanded.
"Karin," Yuzu warned.
"Steal out of my hand and maybe I'll give it to you," he smirked and ran at an amazing speed. The athletic twin smiled as she ran after him. Leaving only Yuzu to watched the struggle between siblings happen.
Our family is back together again.
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"Masaki, have you seen my girls? They haven't shown up yet and it's getting dark out," Isshin asked. As usual, his wife stayed silent, staring off into space. He sighed and looked out the window to see street lights lighting up one by one.
Seconds later, noise was heard behind the door. The usual voice of the proud father's girls and a boy. Isshin, as overactive as usual, prepared an attacked on the boy behind. It only took his father instinct to take care of the boy. Karin and Yuzu were too young to have boyfriends or worse, to be dating!
The door opened quickly and the father didn't give a moment to see who the boy was.
"Don't worry girls! Daddy will save you!" he screamed, attempting kick the teen's face. The berry head moved aside and slammed the father's leg down into the concrete.
The twins looked at the teenager's face in surprised. No one had ever been able to dodger their lunatic father's attack.
"Where did you said you went to?" Karin asked.
"The army," he replied rapidly. At the sound at the voice, Masaki raised her head. First the daughters entered. Yuzu started to prepare dinner and Karin hiding a hidden smile.
Isshin was the next to arrive, tears flowing out and yelling how the boy was able to surpass his skills.
Finally, the boy walked in through the door. His orange hair filled the room with color. A smile crawled on his face as his mother stood up to embrace him.
The family smiled at the sight of the reunion and savored the words their mother cried out.
"Ichigo, you're home and here," she cried and wrapped her arms around him.
"Okaa-san, I'm sorry," he apologized.
The two remained quiet for a moment, but both laughed for unknown reasons. But it didn't matter. The family was reunited once more and the would do everything in their power to keep it like that.
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Epilogue
"Everyone I'm home!" Ichigo called out. It was late at night, like usual. He had to kill another Hollow and had been doing so for a month. But he still was able to remain in the top ranking students. It was an honor and his family was proud of it.
His eyes laid upon his sisters who fell asleep on the couch waiting for him to come home. His father was probably up stairs rushing to grab blankets before they caught a cold. And his mother, the mother stood in front of him like usual. But this time was different. She ran up and hugged him like the day he first came.
"Okaa-san?"
"You're still here. You're still here." she muttered. "It's not a dream then, is it?" she asked.
Guilt filled Ichigo as he thought about when he should returned to Soul Society. But inside, he knew that he will do everything to stay here.
"No, Okaa-san. I'm here to protect us now. You don't need to worry," he comforted and pulled away from the hug. He looked straight into her eyes to show he was telling the truth.
The mother smiled as she watched her son climbing up the stairs to his room.
"You know you can't stay here," Rukia reminded him as he closed his bedroom door. She had just recently taken resident in his closet saying it was far more comfortable than the Candy Store.
"I have to," Ichigo replied, laying on his bed.
"No you don't," Rukia argued.
"Yes I do. Do you know what my name actually mean?" Ichigo asked.
Rukia shook her head as she climbed into the closet.
"It means 'Number One Guardian' or 'He who Protects'. I have to protect this town, even if it means defying Soul Society," Ichigo concluded and fell asleep.
The officer closed the closet door, leaving her in the dark to her thoughts.
Ichigo, I hope you know what you are doing. She thought and slept through the night.
Thanks to the Following:
Master Solo, ichigos future wife, shadowgouf, Persistence, Yukira-Kuchiki, the awoke'n, bookishangel, derderxp, Fat ppl are harder to kidnap, JediBorme, N2G-Kyosuke, Someone who knows nothing., Neko of death, star-gazing-in-LA, Raju Narisetti, RLE95, BelieveInDreams, Gwen Khan, SplitToInfinity, TopazVampire
Thanks for acutally letting me know you read this story. I hope you like it and hope the ending was sucky. (I hate writting endings.) And maybe another sequel (a real story!) will be coming. It depends on you guys. But thanks again for the reviews and hope I didn't disappoint!