Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach! It belongs to Kubo-sensei! Hey, Kubo-sensei, can I have Hitsugaya? PLEASE?

emichii: Bwahaha! You thought you got rid of me, didn't you? Well… here I am again! And yes, bringing you a new hitsukarin! ^_^ This will be my fifth hitsukarin story! It'll be quite a different setting from the others, and probably a lot more light-hearted than Growing Up and Your Bandages. Hope you enjoy! Please read and review!

"Argh! I hate wearing skirts!" Karin complained as she glared at the grey regulation skirt laid out on her bed. Grumbling, she started buttoning up her white school blouse.

"Karin-chan, are you done yet?" Yuzu called from the corridor. "We're going to be late!"

"Eh?" Karin called back out to her twin sister. "What's the time?"

"Ten minutes till school starts." came the reply. "I'm leaving without you. You haven't even eaten the breakfast I made especially for you!"

Karin swore under her breath. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!"

Looking for Toushirou

Chapter 1- Remember the sky that day?

She burst out of her bedroom, went running down the hallway, then turned around and ran back to grab her socks. Yuzu was smiling endearingly at her rowdy sister from the hallway before she left, carefully closing the front door behind her.

Karin stumbled into the kitchen, pulling on her socks as she made her way towards the table, picking up the toast that Yuzu had left for her. Shoving the toast in her mouth, she went rushing to her room again to pick up her school bag.

"Awww! My daughters are starting high school today, Masaki! They're growing up so fast!" Isshin bawled to his Masaki poster.

"Shut up, old man." Karin said automatically as she thundered across the living room to get to the hallway, skidding across the floorboards in her socks. Pulling on her school shoes and swinging her bag over her shoulder, she was almost out the front door when she heard footsteps behind her.

"Watch out for Hollows, Karin." Ichigo said, somewhat sleepily, scratching the back of his head. "Be careful."

"Yeah, I know!" Karin said crossly, almost dropping the toast from her mouth. She hurriedly swallowed the last bite with difficulty before turning to glower at her protective older brother. "I'm always careful! I can look after myself!"

She huffily went out the door and Ichigo was left shrugging his shoulders, feeling the familiar spiritual pressure of his sister fading away.

The morning air was crisp and fresh as fourteen-year-old Karin Kurosaki went racing down the road to school.

The weather was pretty darn fine for the first day of the hell-hole called high school, Karin thought wryly. She self-consciously ran a hand through her short black hair hurriedly as she ran, having forgotten to brush her hair before she left. Her legs felt really bare in the short grey skirt she wore, and she was glad that she had decided to wear her bike shorts underneath.

"Whoa!" She narrowly avoided crashing into a boy on a bike, and had to swerve to miss the woman walking her dog. "Sorry!" she called back, as she went on her way.

"Hey Karin-chaaann!" It was a singsong voice.

She turned her head to see the hat-wearing shopkeeper waving his fan at her from the porch of Urahara Shoten.

"If you run fast enough, you might run into Jinta! Silly boy also slept in today!" Urahara hollered cheerfully after her.

Karin smirked to herself as she ran faster.

"Morning, Karin-chan!" Orihime was waving from her apartment window. "Good luck at school today!"

"Thanks, Orihime!" She waved back at the orange-haired girl as she passed.

"Sorry about this," Karin apologized as she ran straight through a ghost on the path. "I'm in a rush!"

As someone who saw ghosts, it was courtesy not to walk right through them as if they weren't there. It was always much nicer to go around them and treat them like a living person.

"Morning, gramps!" she greeted the old man sitting at the bus stop, waiting for the bus that never came. The ghost pursed his lips at her and shook his head at her disrespectful manner. "I'll have you know I'm still in my prime!" he muttered, as another man walked past, wondering who on earth Karin was talking to.

Coming up to the school, Karin slowed down a little, trying to catch her breath. Looking up ahead, she recognized the garish red hair of Jinta Hanakari. Snickering, she slowed down behind him, carefully positioning her school bag to swing it at him.

"Oi, Jinta!" She swung her bag around so that it hit him on his back.

"Ow!" Jinta let out a string of swear words. "What was that for, Karin?" The red-head turned around to glare at her.

Karin grinned wickedly at her friend/rival/fellow-freak-who-could-also-see-ghosts.

"Heard you slept in today, stupid!"

"Look who's talking," Jinta retorted, "Your hair looks like you were caught in a tornado!"

Karin flushed and reached up to pat her hair flat. "Shut up!"

Jinta sighed with relief, his face also flushed from his run. "At least it looks like we made it," He kept walking down the road towards Karakura High.

Just then, the school bell rang from up ahead. Karin and Jinta both swore in unison before running madly once again down the street.

"Geez, Karin-chan!" scolded Yuzu, "don't you know how to tie a ribbon?"

Karin scowled as her sister tugged at the red ribbon around her neck, trying to fix it for her.

As she sat back down in her seat, she watched absentmindedly as Yuzu chattered with Ururu and Midoriko. Jinta was seated at the other side of the classroom, arguing with Pinta and Donny about something or other. Karin sighed tiredly and sank down deeper into her seat, resting her head on top of her folded arms on the desk.

Gazing out the window, yeah, the weather sure was fine today. Sunlight was streaming straight through the glass and onto her face. She wrinkled her nose and squinted.

Miss Ochi was up the front of the room, ignoring the ruckus and carefree chatter of her new class. She was organizing something with papers and books. Then, as though she suddenly recalled something, she hurriedly stood up and left the room.

The sky is really blue today, Karin thought. And then, it flashed in her mind, she remembered someone who she'd met once before. He… he had enjoyed looking at the sky.

Come to think of it, what was his name…? Karin flushed as she buried her chin deeper behind her arms. Huh. Don't be stupid. As if she'd ever forget his name.

It had almost been four years.

She remembered him, she always did. It was really kinda silly; it had been so long now. She was eleven back then, obsessed with soccer, not very good at keeping check of her spiritual pressure. Even now, she was still obsessed with soccer, but ever since she had discovered Ichigo's part-time job as a shinigami, he hadn't stopped pestering her about being careful of Hollows and ghosts.

But back then…

Karin scowled as she felt her cheeks turn pink.

He had saved her.

He was a short, white haired boy with a cold, unchanging expression on his face. He sat alone at the railing in the afternoons, constantly checking his phone. He was the one who picked up her soccer ball when it fell onto the road.

Tch! Idiot! Karin scolded herself. This is ridiculous! Why am I still thinking about that guy! It was just that one time!

Btu she couldn't help it, all this time, sometimes she found himself drifting back to these thoughts. And she'd be curious, and she'd wonder… what might he be doing right now? I wonder if they play soccer at the Soul Society? I wonder… if he still looks up at the sky with the reminiscing look on his face?

Yeah, that boy… had been a soul reaper captain. Even so, she had pestered him and forced him to come play soccer with her and her friends against the high school bullies. He didn't have to come on the day. "Who knows?" he always said, not committed. He was always like that; he did what he wanted, came and went as he pleased, with that plain look on his face. But that day, just when they had all decided that he wasn't going to show up...

He came! It was kinda lame, now that she thought about it, the way he arrived, the dust in the air, the wind blowing his collar up against his neck. She'd injured herself, hurt her ankle and had just about given up hope when he arrived. And he was the same as always, so coolly detached, but to know that he'd actually bothered to turn up and help her out… that always made her heart swell up with gratefulness.

And then, when the Hollow attacked, he saved her.

Of course, her pride wouldn't let her think of herself as the damsel in the distress. She didn't like depending on someone else, like being in their debt. She could've handled it herself, she thought, but when she kicked that soccer ball at the Hollow's head, it had done nothing.

He was a soul reaper. It was amazing, suddenly he was there in his black shihakusho, white captain's haori billowing behind him as he single-handedly stopped the Hollow's attack. She remembered staring wide-eyed as he quickly defeated the Hollow, without breaking a sweat.

Karin looked up suddenly as the class fell silent. Miss Ochi was back and saying something about a new transfer student. She was sliding open the classroom door now, saying something to someone standing outside.

"Now you all be nice to him, okay? You might all know each other from Junior High, but it's not easy to change schools-"

"Why do you always come to look at the sky?" she had asked him one afternoon.

The sky then was a striking orange colour, streaking across. Shades of gold and yellow lit up the clouds in the sunset. The sky went on for ever. She had thought that it was beautiful. Perhaps the sky at Soul Society where he came from, was nowhere like this. Perhaps there wasn't even sky there, she thought.

"It brings back memories," was all he said.

It had already been so long. Of course, they weren't really close. Just odd friends of some sort, sky-watching companions. But there'd always been something about him that Karin admired, looked up to.

Jerk, Karin thought with a scowl on his face as she grudgingly sat up to look at the front. It'd been a long time, but she still thought of him.

If he had stayed a little longer… I always thought that maybe we would've been friends.

"Now, why don't you introduce yourself? Tell us your name," Miss Ochi's voice was saying.

Heck, I only know his name. It was…

Karin's eyes widened at the boy standing at front of the classroom. He had icy blue-green eyes that pierced through anyone who looked at him and snow-white hair even though he looked so young. His voice was slightly bored and uncaring, his face showed no expression.

"Hitsugaya Toushirou," said the boy.

Thanks for reading! ^_^ Yeah, it's certainly a different theme from the other stories, don't you think? Well, I hope you enjoy! By the way, if anyone remembers the names of Karin's soccer-playing friends, please tell me! I only know Donny (the clown-looking-like boy) and Pinta (the one with the hair that sticks straight up in a point). Please review and tell me what you think!