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The light of the sun reflected off the river in a way too beautiful and happy for her mood. There were few people walking around the banks. A mother was shooing her kid away as he kept jumping in the nearby puddles. A boy and a girl who both would have been around her brother’s age were passionately kissing and petting each other. The image disgusted her, but also made her feel a bit sad.Much too melancholic for someone her age, the frowning face of Karin Kurosaki might have been mistaken for depressed adult instead of the usual depressed preteen that is common near the beginning of puberty. Forced to be wise among her years, especially with the only legal adult being emotionally immature and the one who should be enjoying her childhood being practically responsible for doing the family’s taxes. Leaning over the railing, Karin couldn’t help but watch people, thinking of the alternative path that could have been. She was usually out most of the time, trying her best to cope with the loss of another of her family. If she could, she would roam the confines of her town all night.But all she could do now was think thoughts only adults should have thought.Had he even kissed a girl before he died? Karin wasn’t really interested in boys, but she had no doubt that he had been interested in girls. He had been almost sixteen for god’s sake! Surely someone his age would have had a couple girlfriends by his age. But as she thought about it some more, she realized that he most likely didn’t.After all he never did bring one home. And when dad teased him about it he would hit him and call him a pervert.He was just too honorable to purposely think of anyone that way.(unlike that… Thing.)The Shinigami who replaced Ichigo were not amused by this. They both were serious in way even Karin thought was too depressing. The man who looked like a woman was kinder but the woman was the no nonsense type. She had tried to use those flashing memory things on her more then once but it was just a bright light in her eyes.She tried to help but they would put “barriers” to stop her from following them, a blatant invisible wall. It made Karin feel like a video game character and not a badass one like Lara Croft either.The final straw was when they refused to teach her to be a Shinigami. They didn’t shout, they didn’t yell, they didn’t give them a scorching or disapproving look. They just said that it wouldn’t be what Ichigo would have liked and he never would have let her do it.The fact that it was true didn’t stop her from crying any harder.Karin noticed the things that most people couldn’t see, that some didn’t want to see, but others wished they could see. She certainly believed in them now.She both hated and pitied those people. They could stay happily ignorant of the spirit world and the monsters that came with it, but still they wished that they could have the ability to see the dead, maybe even speak to them like ghosts have nothing better to do then to do then be annoyed by them.“Hey Karin Chan!”Great. The panty sniffer had found her.“Karin Chan!”She silently mumbled something very obscene under her breath, and turned around to briefly face… “It”.At first glance, someone might have mistaken him for her brother. His orange hair was spiky as always, if slightly longer than usual. His eyes were the same, His style of clothing was the same, his lanky build was the same, even his voice was somehow the same.But he wasn’t.And never would be.“Karin… Chan!” Ichigo’s body snatcher said breathlessly as he finally caught up to her.Karin closed her eyes and frowned. She had taken to ignoring him and pretending he didn’t exist just like the ghosts. The only time she would ever speak to him was when she was forced too.“Wow! What’s with the silent treatment?”He Knew exactly why she was doing this, and yet he kept trying to talk to her, like she was one of the girls he had over once a month.He may have convinced dad, Yuzu, and Ichigo’s stupid friends that he was Ichigo but she knew the truth.She didn’t want to admit it at first. She had thought that after he returned that he was just acting strange. Maybe he had finally left the World of the Shinigami behind, and became a normal teenager. Wouldn’t that had been great? Ichigo would no longer need to fight and get hurt.It took her so long to figure it out that she felt stupid for believing that he was ever Ichigo in the first place. It had been so obvious.Ichigo didn’t flirt.Ichigo didn’t whine.Ichigo didn’t come home with bruises.Ichigo wasn’t some pansy who got upset after a bug died.And most importantly Ichigo didn’t smile.It was such a rare thing to see him smile. But when he did… It wasn’t the creepy constant smirk that this imposter had.It was a smile that said that everything would be alright.“Karin Chan?”She turned around and stared at him. His face was etched with concern and pity. “Look, I know you know that I’m not Ichigo but he would-
“Shut up!”
Karin had had enough. It was one thing for him to try to win her love by acting more and more like him, but actually admitting what she had realized just a short while ago instead of just pretending to be her brother… It was just too much for her to bear“I know You’re not Ichigo! So stop acting like you are him.”“And… Just die already!” She yelled as her voice broke.The imposter looked dumbstruck and shocked by her hurtful words. He then sighed and looked at her with concern.“Karin… Are you crying?”Karin didn’t realize that she was. She rubbed her damp cheeks and turned her head refusing to look at the imposter.She couldn’t believe it. She was actually sobbing like Yuzu when one of her dolls broke, or like dad when he… Well just like dad in general. But it wasn’t just that. She was hearkened back to the halcyon days before everything went wrong, not just before Ichigo’s demise but… Just like before mom died.The fraud grabbed her arm, kneeling in order to be at her height. Karin flinched and tried to push it away before he embraced her in a tight hug. Karin beat his back but he didn't react like how he usually did. His breathing was a series of wheezes causing Karin to finally look him in the eyes, ready to kick the pervert in the nuts. He was crying too.Karin had never asked him his name. Allowing Karin some freedom, he clutched her left hand with both hands. She was utterly horrified about how much he looked like Ichigo at this moment. “Come one Karin Chan… Let’s go home… It’s starting to rain…”It was.