Karin fingered the pass she had been given in her fingers, her mouth pushing together as she followed her brother. It would finally be her first time in soul society, the first time she got to see where Toshiro in fact lived. Except he wouldn't be there like she had wanted and instead she was visiting to pay her respects. The whole thing honestly felt so wrong and she wished that everything could suddenly be made right.

She watched as her brother paused for a second. "Hold on. I need to get him."

She turned her head to watch her brother disappear into his room from the outside only to come out with Yuzu's stuffed bear. The toy was yelling only to be gagged as her brother reached his fingers in, plucking a small green ball from the toy causing it go limp. He then pushed it into his mouth after wiping it off and popped out of his body. He turned to the person. "You behave. You know the rules."

"You don't have to..." The fake Ichigo suddenly looked at Karin. "Wait? What's she doing here?"

Ichigo looked away in annoyance, his eyes dulled over. Karin took a deep breath. "Ichi-nii's taking me to pay my respects to Toshiro."

"That little brat?" The fake Ichigo folded his arms in annoyance, only to receive a quick kick from the girl.

Ichigo grabbed her shoulder, his eyes dulled over. "Hey... that is still my body you know. I have to deal with any damage that occurs to it when I get back."

"Sorry..." Karin glared at the fake Ichigo only to spin on her heals and follow her brother in his Shinigami robes. They arrived at Urahara's shop. "What are we doing here?"

"I can't open gates like Rukia can. So I need him to open a gate for me."

The girl let out an irritated sound as she followed her brother into the shop. The man snapped his fan. "Going back so soon to Soul Society Ichigo after paying your respects to Hitsugaya Taicho?" The man paused. "You did pay your respects, didn't you?"

"I'm taking Karin and we're doing it together." Ichigo would have normally gotten cocky with the man but instead simply looked straight forward, rather emotionless.

Urahara stood up and went digging through his things before tossing a phone at Ichigo. "Here. You'll need this."

"What is this for?"

"Regular phones don't work in Soul Society." The answer was simple for the man but Ichigo decided to leave things at that. "I'll send word for you and get the gate ready as soon as they've got the passage way stabilized." The man got up and left, leaving the two siblings standing there.

"Going to Soul Society is a complicated process, isn't it."

"There are a lot of rules as well."

A few minutes later Urahara came back, a smile on his face. "You're all set to go!"

Karin watched as a door opened and her brother took hold of her wrist in a protective manner. Her brother didn't look down at her and simply looked forward. They started walking and Karin felt a shiver run down her spine as the walls slowly oozed. They finally arrived at the glowing end and stepped through. Karin's eyes widened to see an entire world that looked like feudal Japan. Her brother let go of her wrist in time for Rukia to glomp her. "Karin-chan! What are you doing here?"

Karin hugged the female back. "Hi Rukia-nee. I'm here to pay my respects to Toshiro."

"To To..." Rukia pulled black blinking a couple of times. "Hitsugaya Taicho?" The female had a look of confusion on her face. She flinched suddenly, turning her eyes to glare at Ichigo. "You..."

"What?" Ichigo frowned, looking at her in confusion. "It's really their business."

"I'm not talking about that! I'm talking about the fact you didn't show up at the wake yesterday! Matsumoto Fukutaicho was upset that you didn't show up. She wasn't the only one! I mean, I expected you of all people to be there paying your respects. I had to make up some kind of lie about how you blame yourself and don't like the fact everyone wants you to take the position of the tenth division captain! I mean, it could be true... but still!"

"Well... it is true." The orange haired teen frowned at her while she simply stared at him. The female let out an irritated sound before motioning the two to follow them. They walked for awhile until they got to the tenth where the division members greeted Ichigo when they saw them and he came a halfhearted wave back accompanied by a halfhearted smile. Rukia rolled her eyes. "I wonder why people want you to replace him, what with how chummy you've gotten with the division members."

Ichigo flinched at her comment. "Hey... wasn't that a little uncalled for?"

Karin watched the two and noticed that they were at a small building. Rukia opened up the doors and they slipped in. "This is the tenth division meeting hall, though they haven't been using it for that since... well, since they placed the shrine in here."

The younger Kurosaki sibling swallowed as she looked towards the front of the room, noticing the massive shrine. It wasn't that the shrine was simply massive. She kind of expected that as he was a taicho. What she hadn't expected as the items surrounding the shrine. There were flowers and toys... toys she never imagined Toshiro touching with a ten foot pool. She let out a deep sigh. "I wonder what he would think of all of this."

Ichigo took one look and stepped out of the room. "I really couldn't handle this. He shouldn't have died."

Karin took a deep breath. "We didn't bring anything."

Rukia frowned. "Don't worry about it. The fact you're here, that your brother was able to get this far into the room." The older girl let out a sigh. "Who am I kidding. Ichigo's not going to recover from this any time soon. We were victorious, but we ended up losing so much."

Karin turned her head to the girl, only to look away. She suddenly felt ashamed of the fact she wasn't able to cry. It then hit her, something strong. "I still don't believe that he's dead."

The other girl sighed. "Karin... I know you don't want to believe that he is dead."

"I can't. Rukia-nee, I really can't believe the he is dead." Karin looked at the ground, her guilt growing.

"What do you mean you you don't believe that he is dead?" A female voice came from the door, causing both girls to turn.

Rukia looked the person right in the eye. "Matsumoto Fukutaicho."

Karin's mouth moved without her realizing it, her feelings coming out without realizing it. "How can you not know he's not dead? You're his mother."

A silence suddenly fell over the room. Ichigo had been standing outside the doorway and turned his head slightly, his eyes showing that he was shocked that Karin had said what she said. He moved out of his stance of standing there with his arms crossed. "Rangiku-san. I'm sorry. Karin imagined that she felt Toshiro's reiatsu the other day. After he died."

Rangiku took a deep breath, but the pain in her eyes were evident. "Hey, Karin-chan? Can you and I talk for a bit? This is your first time in Soul Society. Why don't I show you where taicho used to work?"

The girl blinked a couple of times. She moved slowly to follow the girl and Ichigo tagged along. When they got to the offices Ichigo stopped outside, letting them go in. "I'm not exactly comfortable going in."

"That's all right. I need to talk to your sister privately." The woman slipped into the office.

Karin looked at the ground. "I'm sorry. Ichigo was right. I crossed the line."

The woman walked over to the window, her arms crossed. "Karin... how did you know?"

"What do you mean?" She blinked a couple of times.

"You said I should know because I'm his mother."

"Does she mean she knows he's alive, or does she mean that she's his mother. She's got to mean the second as she would be out looking for him if she thought he was alive. This said, how did I know she was his mother." The girl looked at the ground thinking about it carefully. "When I first met you Toshiro said that you were kind of like his subordinate."

"He said that because he still feels..." The woman paused. "Taicho thought his taicho would come back and that he was just taking care of things."

"I just... had a feeling." Karin looked at the ground. "I get a lot of feelings." She felt her hands clench her pants. "Are you sure he's dead? Can't you feel he's still alive?"

Rangiku's eyes narrowed. "I know how you feel. Deep down I have this feeling he's alive, but... I think it's just me feeling guilty. Guilty for not realizing sooner. For not being able to tell him. Guilty for not being more of a mother." The woman paused. "He died in my arms Karin. My eyes say one thing, my heart another. You know how I feel, right?"

"Yes..." Karin turned her head away, leaning against the door.

She watched as Rangiku walked over to the desk in the room. "I have something for you. You don't need to read it now, but when you're ready."

Karin looked down at the envelope in her hands with the flowers. "So this was the gift that Toshiro meant? It's a rather strange gift, but so like Toshiro." She held the envelope close to her chest. "Thank you."

Rangiku walked out of the room. "Do you want to see the captain's quarters?"

The girl blinked a couple of times. "Why?"

"I'd like the company. Plus, it means I can spend some time with you." The woman headed to the door, noticing that Ichigo was standing in the doorway. The teen looked up, a rather gloomy look on his face. "You coming Ichigo?" The boy sighed, following after them dressed in his Shinigami robes. They arrived at the quarters and Rangiku slid the door open. "Do you like reading Ichigo?"

"Yes... "

"I'd like you to have taicho's books then." The woman walked into the room, turning to see the look on his face. The look strengthened upon seeing the number of books. "Something the matter?"

"Rangiku-san... should you be giving Toshiro's things like this?"

"I'm not a reader. Taicho would want them to be read."

Ichigo took a deep breath. "There are a lot of them." He and Karin looked around the room while he flinched. "I'm not exactly comfortable with this. Aren't there other people you know who read? I mean, this many..."

Rangiku ran a hand through her hair, pouting as she did so. "I do know of other Shinigami that read. I really don't want the collection to be broken apart though. Taicho doesn't have many things."

Karin blinked a couple of times. "You call this not many things?"

Ichigo sighed. "This looks like a lot of stuff. I mean, there has to be well over a hundred to two hundred books here, all of them classical literature... if not more."

"Practically everything that is in this room belonged to the previous taicho." The woman folded her arms and looked away. "Taicho could make... could have made this room his own, but instead he kept everything. Everything that was originally his I'm still going through. But this stuff... I know you don't want to be the next taicho, but I'd rather you have it then some stranger."

"The previous taicho?" There was a change in Ichigo's demeanor, something that surprised Karin. "All right. I got it. You don't want Toshiro's feelings for his former taicho stomped on, so you've intrusted them to me."

"Yes." Rangiku smiled. "Thank you so much for understanding."

Karin looked around the room, not at all sure what to think about the situation. It was as if there missing pieces to a puzzle. Ichigo's face fell, when suddenly a voice was heard from outside. "Yo! Ichigo!"

"Kukaku-san?"

"We need to talk. I'm glad that you're here today, all though I was disappointed you didn't make it to the funeral."