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It wasn’t every day that Karin held parties for the soccer team. Only Fridays. That way, her dad couldn’t scold her for not paying attention to her schoolwork.
People who knew Karin understood that she was a stubborn person. In her household, there were two ways to get things you wanted. The first way was by being a persistent little brat. She and Ichi-nee both used that way to manipulate their dad into letting them do stuff. That was how he managed to become a Soul Reaper and live at home, employed at a local business. That was also how Karin managed to get away with certain things, like going to the park alone at a young age and having a boyfriend as well as an ex.
There was a second way to get things you wanted, but it only applied to one person, Yuzu. If she wanted something, all she had to do was not cook dinner. Everyone else sucked at cooking dinner, so their dad would immediately cave.
Though being persistent worked well enough, Karin tended to not sass off to her father. He could be very annoying and pushy, and so she learned to simply obey his words, at least when the words were reasonable.
So that was why she only held parties on Friday. Because as much as she would have loved to hold them every day, her dad would have been terribly annoying to deal with. And the soccer team parties were messy, and she despised cleaning up the mess.
She loved her parties, though. The kids always seemed to have a fun time, and she enjoyed the team bonding energy that each one gave off. Yuzu loved them too. She was not a member of the soccer team, but she cooked the food and seemed to have fun with the games. Everyone in the house enjoyed a good party, even if they wouldn’t admit it.
Since it was a Friday and they had just demolished another soccer team, Karin gathered up her coins and decided to throw a party. She had chosen the date a few days ago, and convinced her dad to have a sleepover at their cousin’s house in the soul society. But unlike any of the other parties she had held, today’s one was particularly special. Because after days of persuading, messages galore, and even a bit of begging, Toshiro had finally decided to come over and join the party, making it a Toshiro day and a party day.
Toshiro days were days when her boyfriend visited. He was a pretty busy guy, and Karin felt bad for making him travel so far, so he didn’t visit that often. He usually came around once every two weeks, although he stopped in for many hours each time. He also usually came late in the afternoon or at night, since the two liked having little movie watching sessions with Yuzu and Ichi-nee. Together, the four would curl up and eat popcorn late into the night, only stopping when they realized that they needed to get to school/work.
And after much pleading, Karin had convinced him to stay on a Friday. Toshiro generally avoided the party days because he was terrified of talking to a bunch of eighteen-year-old punks, but after some persuasive words he had caved.
Since he was coming to the party, Karin made it a pajama night, since recently Yuzu had bought her an adorable pj shirt that said Grumpasaurus with a dino underneath. It was unexpectedly comfortable. She also, for the first time in years, put on mascara. Karin did think it was kind of a waste, since she’d have to wash it off before bed, but she thought her eyes looked slightly prettier with it on.
She checked her phone, which had one message.
moon-princess: <(Just ask him to buy a drink or something, please. Thank you so much again, Karin! :D)
Karin grinned, brushing her hair out and neatly putting it into a ponytail when the doorbell rang. She glanced in the mirror. Yikes, her hair looked horrible. Sighing, Karin placed the hair tie back on her wrist and opened the door.
“Hey.”
It was Toshiro, looking quite lovely as always. He looked especially nervous.
“Hey!” Karin gently dragged him to the couch, where she immediately began tying her hair into a ponytail to try and tame the floofy locks.
“You want me to do it for you?” Toshiro asked.
Karin smiled. “Sure!”
His cold and rough hands shaped her hair into a ponytail, secured with a dino scrunchie Ichi-nee had bought her. Turning her around from the back to the front, he lightly arranged the bangs that were still on her face.
“You’re in a good mood,” He observed lightly, leaning back the couch once he was finished.
Karin rolled her eyes. “I’m always in a good mood. I just get grumpy when I’m tired.”
“Right.” He laughed, grabbing the floofy white throw pillow next to him and hugging it.
With that last remark, the two sat there comfortably in silence, Karin turning on the radio and sitting next to him so that their arms lightly touched. She really did love these quiet days since she literally never got peace. For some reason, time had a way of making each and every day that passed louder and crazier than before, shown by her dad’s insane arguments with Ichi-nee. But when she was with Toshiro, it was almost like the world had stopped: so peaceful and tranquil. At least when she wasn’t partying it up with her friends.
Karin had just closed her eyes when the doorbell rang.
“I’ll go get it,” she murmured quietly as she opened her eyes, patted down her ponytail, and walked over to the door.
“HEEEEEY GIRL!” The door opened and in came a force of nature, one of the star soccer players in her team; a lovely lady named Yeona, who seemed to be calm when you first met her but was in fact wild.
“Yeona!” Karin hugged her and welcomed her in. “You’re the first person to arrive, for once. I mean, from the soccer team, that is.”
“Oooooh! Is…” Her voice dropped to a whisper, “your boyfriend here? ARE YOU GOING TO INTRODUCE HIM LIKE YOU SAID YOU WERE AT PRACTICE???”
Karin’s cheeks turned slightly pink. “Actually-” She turned to the couch, where Toshiro was supposed to be. Except… he wasn’t there. She sighed. “He’s not here right now. Sorry, I’mma head to the bathroom real quick. Yuzu’s in the kitchen, go help her put some stuff in the tables okay?”
“Yes m’am,” Yeona giggled as she walked away, a hop in her step. She was humming a song about being the first person there.
Karin walked over to her room and knocked the door, hands on her hips.
“Toshiro, you in here?”
The door slowly creeped open, her boyfriend’s face looking sheepish and sorry.
“You know you don’t have to hide, right? You’ve seen Yeona before. She was the blonde girl in the pictures.”
Toshiro rolled his eyes. “I’m not scared. I was merely tired. And I don’t enjoy being cornered in a loud person’s conversation. I’ll join you once more people are in the room. That way I don’t have to talk.”
Karin sighed. “Ugh, fine.” She turned to leave, when suddenly Toshiro hugged her from behind.
“Don’t be mad. Please.” He whispered in her ear.
“I’m not mad.”
“Yes you are. I can tell.”
“I’m not mad!”
Toshiro turned her around so that her face would face his. “Hey,” he kissed her cheek, “I promise to come out later, okay? I-”
His pager ringed and he paled. “Sorry, Karin. I gotta answer this.”
“Y-you need help?”
“Nonono, I got this. Go join your friend. I’ll come later, okay?”
And then he had hopped out the window, and he was gone.
Karin closed the door to her room and touched her cheek.
“Well that was unexpected.” She murmured to herself quietly. Her ears turned bright red, and she did a little happy dance. “I mean, I guess it makes sense, since we’ve been dating for like two months, but then again two months isn’t that long, and if you really think about it we’ve been together for years since we were friends since we were twelve, but also-”
“Hey, did Toshiro go out? I heard the ring.” Ichi-nee popped his head out from his door before walking down the hallway.
Karin froze before nodding stiffly. “Y-yeah. He did. Hey, can you go out and buy some drinks for the party? Yuzu tends to go a bit weird with the punch.”
“Sure.”
Karin grabbed her phone and went to her group chat with Orihime.
i-am-soccer: <(Hey, I had him go buy some drinks. Good luck!)
moon-princess: <(Thank you! Hopefully I’ll see you later. Unless of course he rejects my confession.)
i-am-soccer: <(◡‿◡ You’ll be fine. I think Ichi-nee has a crush on you too.)
moon-princess: <(Aww, well that’s a good sign. See you! ~(￣▽￣)~)
She put the phone away after smiling from the cute emote and squealed. What would it be like if Orihime was her sister-in-law? She could imagine the family: her and Toshiro, and Yuzu with her “friend”, her dad, and Ichi-nee with Orihime. Man, Orihime was such a catch. If Ichi-nee rejected her, Karin was definitely going to give him a scolding for letting such an amazing woman go to waste.
Taking a deep breath, she walked into the living room, where all the food had been set up, and where Yuzu was chatting with Yeona.
“Yuzu! Come here please,” Karin beckoned her sister over to where she was standing.
Yuzu obeyed. “What?”
“Toshiro headed out to fight a few monsters, he’ll be back soon. DO NOT TELL ANY GUESTS THAT HE IS HERE.”
“Okay~”
Yuzu skipped back over to where Yeona was. “We were just talking about insanely good the buffalo dip is. Did you know that-” The doorbell and interrupted the rest of Yuzu’s lie.
When Karin opened the door, a few of the guys from her team waved at her.
“Hey! You all came!” She grinned at them in a friendly manner, opening the door further to let them all in.
“Eyyyy!” One of the boys high fived their captain. “That move you pulled on the other team Friday was actually lit! You scared them outta their pants!”
“What can I say?” Karin shrugged and laughed. “That better have taught them not to underestimate our school!”
“Yessir!”
Laughing, Karin went to go close the door when a soccer ball suddenly flew close to her head, kicked by a figure in the distance.
Eyes narrowed, she hit the ball back to the person’s feet as it grew closer.
“Jaemin…” She growled in a low, grumbly voice, as the person reached her doormat, ball in hand.
The tension rose sky high until-
“EYYY!”
The two high fived each other with a loud slap, both grinning like fools.
“What’s up, captain?!” Jaemin slightly nodded in greeting, placing his soccer ball into the bin outside of the house.
“What’s up, vice cap?!” Karin tried her hardest to wipe of the cheeky grin on her face but miserably failed as he took off his shoes.
The boy scanned the room. “Hey, where’s your dad?”
“Ah, he’s out visiting our weird cousin.” She made a face.
Well, that wasn’t a lie. Karin had persuaded her dad to visit his family in the Soul Society. And her cousin was really weird: so weird, in fact, that he gave her a boar for her 15th birthday.
Jaemin laughed like he always did and walked over to the couch, where he flopped down next to the other boys from the team.
“Who else is coming?” Yuzu asked Karin as she mixed her buffalo dip rigorously, Karin walking over towards the couch.
She paused for a moment before answering. “Erm, a few more people. Esta, Aika, Kazumi and Isamu are all coming together, and Kenji said he’d be late because of a date. Haruto said he was busy, though, so he’s not coming. Oh, and Esta’s gonna leave early.”
A sigh permeated the air. “Oh, alright.”
“Sorry, Yuzu.”
“You’re okay.”
Her phone buzzed and Karin went to go reject the call when she realized she should have the common sense to check who it was. It turned out to be Toshiro, so she was glad she hadn’t rejected it.
“Hey, you okay?” Karin went over to the kitchen area with Yuzu so no one would hear what she was saying.
“Yeah. I’m done, do you want me to come through the doorway? There’s a group of four already walking on the streets, and a couple kissing in the park near your house. The guy looks like the kid you showed me on Wednesday.”
“Oh, the guy is probably Kenji. The group is probably coming to the party, too. Why don’t you come in through the door, then? I’ll distract all the people so that they won’t notice a new person has come in, and you can help Yuzu with some of the drinks she’s making, so that it’s edible.”
“Okay. You know I am sorry, right?”
Karin laughed. “Yes, you are forgiven. Don’t worry ‘bout it, okay? Come in soon.”
“See you.”
The call ended and Karin took one of the pitchers of water that was in the fridge. “Taking this.”
“Alright,” Yuzu responded as she poured in lemonade powder into a bowl, mixing it with a potent fruit juice.
Karin grimaced at the thought of such a strong drink and put the water on the table near the couch, where everyone was sitting. She sat on the loveseat and laid her entire body across it.
“Move over, you hog!” Yeona attempted to sit next to her, but Karin simply shook her head.
“Go sit with Jaemin!” Karin smirked at the sight of Yeona’s slight blush.
“Uh, well-” Yeona spluttered, voice raising pitch before Jaemin patted the seat next to him.
“Sit here, Suzuki. (Yeona’s last name, used for formalities.) Kurosaki clearly doesn’t want to share, that hog.”
Cheeks getting pinker, Yeona squeezed in with him and the other guys, flinching as Jaemin accidentally brushed his hand against her arm.
The doorbell rang again and Karin jumped up. “I’ll get it. Meanwhile, why don’t you guys play some Spoons? The cards are right here.” She took cards from underneath the table and placed it on top.
The group jumped up at the chance to play Spoons, and Karin managed to escape the living room before opening the door.
“Heey.”
“Hello, Karin. The group of four is coming soon.”
She laughed. “Alright, alright. Go to the kitchen, then. When everyone’s here, then we’ll start the party games.”
“Okay.”
Karin smiled as she watched her boyfriend walk to the kitchen slowly, being careful to not get noticed by the others.
“KARIN!” The black-haired girl turned to the door and backed away as three bodies jumped onto her, suffocating her with their embrace.
“GUYS!” Karin fell and so did all three of the huggers, who only squeezed tighter.
They only stopped when they heard the choking noises.
“Karin, are you alright?” The two girls in the group looked at her with concern, and Isamu, who had been standing back watching them, helped her up. Kazmui, meanwhile, hopped away to go say hi to the others. He rarely felt guilty, or bad for others. Karin wasn’t offended by it, she’d known all four of them for a year and could tell what he was thinking.
Karin laughed lightly as she brushed off the dust on her pjs and smiled at the three. “I’m fine. But what did I tell you guys about hugging me? Cmon, you guys are only two years younger than me. I feel like a mom when I’m around you kids.”
Aika flipped her dirty blonde hair. “We forgot, okay? You were gone for like two weeks and I didn’t see you and Jaemin’s a mean coach. I missed you!”
“I missed you, too.” Esta puffed up her cheeks. She looked like a chipmunk, one with silver hair.
“Well,” Karin smiled and stole a glance at her kendo sword, “I had some stuff to do. But you all know that I’m graduating this year. Then- poof, I’ll be gone.”
She immediately regretted saying these words when the first child started sobbing and the other child started screaming. The third one, Isamu, yanked her back so that she wouldn’t get caught in another killer hug.
“HEY, SHUT UP AND GET OVER HERE BEFORE I KILL YOU!” Jaemin yelled from his seat in the couch and the two girls quickly quieted. Then all four quietly went over to the couch and joined in.
It was getting gradually louder in the living room as the game of spoons continued. After a few rounds, almost everyone had lost a spoon, and it was down to just Jaemin and Yeona. Both of their faces were scrunched in extreme concentration. After all, both were extremely competitive.
“Yeona, good luck!” One of the girls squealed as Yeona continued to shuffle the cards, trying to find more threes. Currently she had a three, four, three, and another three.
On the other hand, the side in which Jaemin was on was dead silent. Jaemin was frowning at his cards in a silent determination to win.
Suddenly, Yeona grabbed a random card, disposed of another, and slammed her cards on the ground. Jaemin was right on her tail as he too took another card and slammed his cards down. The two reached for the spoon.
“OOOOOOOOOH!” Kazmui screamed in Yeona’s ear.
“Ow! Kazmui!” Yeona winced and covered her ears.
Jaemin frowned, looking up as he was reaching for the spoon. “Hey, are you okay?”
“Yea- JAEMIN!”
While Yeona had been blushing at the thought of Jaemin caring about her wellbeing, Jaemin had quickly grabbed the spoon and was now parading it over his head. “I WIN!!!”
Yeona puffed up her cheeks and her face turned a scarlet shade of red. “I’m… I…”
“Better believe it, Suzuki! I WON! Yeah! For the first time, in like, a few weeks!”
“Yeah… you win.” Yeona stopped covering her ears and got off the couch, slowly walking over to the bathroom.
Jaemin looked up at her in surprise and stopped dancing around. “Hey, Suzuki-”
“Come with me,” Karin growled underneath her breath as she took Jaemin by the collar and dragged him with her to out of the living room, dropping him when they were in another empty room.
“You idiot! What is wrong with you?” Karin snapped at him as she slapped him on both cheeks. “Seriously, you know she has sensitive ears!”
“W-what are you talking about?” The grin was still smeared on his face.
Karin grabbed him by the collar again and glared at him, eye to eye. “Oh, don’t you kid me out. I saw you whispering something to Kazmui before the last game.”
“I- Karin, you have to-”
“I know you like her.”
That caught him by surprise and he began backing away. “You’re crazy, Kurosaki. I don’t… I wouldn’t… I can’t-”
“Go apologize. I wouldn’t be surprised if Yeona stopped liking you.” Karin stalked off, but not before she was caught by Jaemin.
“Wait! Does she… she really… likes me?”
“YES, YOU IDIOT! UGH, WHY ARE YOU STUPID?!”
Needless to say, despite Jaemin being an idiot and a simp, and despite Yeona being completely oblivious to Jaemin’s crush on her, the party went on, and the two made up quickly. Soon they were smiling at each other, albeit from opposite sides on the couch, since Karin had decided they were not to be trusted. Esta also left very tearfully, much to Aika’s chagrin.
At least they were able to decide on another game. Usually, it would take a good fifteen minutes for the entire group to decide another game to play. But one of the guys scrolled on his phone and got a game idea. And the name of the game was Mafia.
Mafia was the type of game you played late at night, when your parents were out of the house and when everyone was feeling slightly delusional. It was nearing eight, so it wasn’t really late at night, but at least everyone had decided on a game to play.
With a bit of pleading, Yuzu agreed to be the narrator.
“Pick a card, all!”
Karin grinned as she picked a random card from the deck and groaned immediately. The roles you played in the game would determine how important you were, but also how much fun you would have. And getting civilian was the worst, since you literally had no clue what was going on and had no special powers.
She placed her card in the middle as everyone else began to as well and tried to hide her disappointed expression. Yuzu took all the cards from the middle and said that she would start the night.
“Mafia, who do you want to kill?”
“Okay, MAFIA WINS! Congrats!”
Jaemin groaned loudly and slapped the arm of one of the guys. “Seriously? Guys, there was only one mafia. HOW DID YOU GUYS NOT GET HIM?!”
“Who was it, again?” Yeona came back from the kitchen, holding her glass of water, and sipped. “Nah, never mind. I don’t wanna know.”
“Can’t believe that you paired up Yeona and Jaemin together, and that they were both special members,” Karin muttered and nudged Kenji, who only shrugged and grinned.
“I mean, they’re like the most likely to become an actual couple on the team, so… yeah.”
Both mentioned parties turned bright red.
“You know it’s not really romance based though, right?” The last survivor of the game, one of the guys, chuckled before putting his head in his hands. “Seriously, though, I thought it was definitely Kazmui!”
Toshiro, who had won the game and somehow managed to not get too much attention the entire time he had been there, shrugged.
“I mean, that was a crazy game.” Yuzu admitted. “Cuz Yeona was police and Jaemin was doctor, and they both got linked together by love master Kenji, and somehow Toshiro managed to kill just the right person!”
“Did you find out that I was the serial killer?” Isamu asked Toshiro. They had been sitting next to each other the entire time, two quiet men quietly chilling and murdering people in a theoretical game.
“Yeah. That’s why I killed you.”
Karin scratched her head. “Wait, why’d you kill me first then?”
Toshiro took a large gulp of water, before replying, “Cuz I thought you’d figure it out first.”
“Hey, what’s your name again?” Jaemin asked Toshiro as he sipped his fruit punch.
Toshiro looked quite uncomfortable to be acknowledged by the loudest person in the room. He squirmed in his seat, placing his own glass of water down. “Umm, I’m Toshiro.”
“Ayy, nice name bro! How’d you get to know Kurosaki here?” Jaemin took a big gulp, made a face and patted Karin on the head.
“Actually, we’re-” Karin began, but not before she was CUT OFF BY TOSHIRO.
“We’re friends. I, umm, know her from kendo.”
One of the guys next to Jaemin chimed in. “Right! I legit forgot that the captain did that.”
“How’d you forget that?” Yeona asked him teasingly.
The conversation continued, but she couldn’t focus on it. All she could focus on is the fact that Toshiro wouldn’t meet her eyes. Ugh, what was this? She knew for a fact that Toshiro definitely liked her. He had asked her out, after all, on the balcony two months ago. His exact words were, “I have a crush on you, Karin.” Then again, how could he not?
“Karin. Karin! Say goodbye to the kiddos before they cry!” Yeona took her out of her daze as she helped shove her up.
“Right.” She stood up and waved goodbye to all of her juniors, and soon it was just her, Yeona, Jaemin, some of the guys, Yuzu, and Toshiro.
Her boyfriend. Or so she thought, until he lied in front of her friend’s face.
Unless he wasn’t lying…
“Guys we should totally play spin the bottle!” One of the guys hooted it loudly out as he took an empty bottle from the table and spun it around his fingers.
“Ooh, fun!” Yuzu cheered. “Unfortunately, I’m going to bed. See ya, Karin, Toshi!” She walked off, waving. “It’s already ten PM, kick them out when they get loud!”
“Yeah, let’s play, Karin!” Yeona nudged her. She (and her fellow club members) were all probably slightly high from how late it was. “Cmon, don’t be a grouse!”
Now normally Karin would shut down this entire operation and they would never, ever, mention spin the bottle in front of her again. But perhaps something had been ignited in her, because she smirked and said something she thought she’d never say.
“Okay, sure.”
Yeona, Jaemin, some of the guys, and Toshiro all stared at her incredulously. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, sure. Why not?”
The hurt look in Toshiro’s eyes fuel her to go on further. “In fact, I’m going to spin the bottle first.”
“Woah, there, buddy!” Jaemin took the bottle away. “You’re not seriously allowing this, right? Don’t you think that it’s kind of awkward to want to play a kissing game in front of your ex-boyfriend?”
She groaned and snatched the bottle out of his hand. “That was so long ago, Jaemin. We were literally in junior high.” She placed the bottle in the middle, spinning it, and slowly it spun slower and slower, until it came to a near stop, right at Jaemin’s feet. “Well, guess you don’t have to watch your ex kiss someone else, since it’s basically already landed on you.
The room was quiet as they watched her inch closer, closer-
“This is absolute hell.” Toshiro took the bottle and yeeted it out of existence. Then he grabbed Karin by the collar and kissed her, pinning her to the ground.
A loud gasp could be heard from all of the soccer team members as they continued, his icy cold lips covering over her hot ones. Even Yuzu peeked her head out from the staircase and gasped.
When they finally finished, Karin was red and left gasping on the ground. Toshiro picked up his drink, dumped the rest of the contents in the sink, and left, slamming the door behind him.
“Damn. That was hot.” Yeona said.
“Clearly not the time for that,” one of the guys hissed, shoving her in the arm.
“I-I’m going after him. Stay here, okay?” Karin quickly hurried out the door.
One of the boys picked up the bottle and handed it to Jaemin. “Wanna spin?”
“Y-yeah, sure.” He took it and spun it, round and round till it eventually landed on Yeona.
They both turned red.
“Toshiro!”
It was extremely late at night at that point. The sun had already set ages ago, and Karin was left stumbling around in the darkness, the dim light of the streetlamp barely illuminating her path, wondering where Toshiro had gone.
“Toshiro! Where are you?!”
Her voice grew desperate as time went on. Toshiro wasn’t from there. He knew basically nothing about the human world. What if she’d lost him? How would he survive?
Although, if she thought about it, he would probably not want to see her. Karin wasn’t sure if she could handle Toshiro getting really angry at her or even yelling at her.
“Toshi-” A hand covered her mouth and she turned to see five large looking guys standing behind her menacingly. Each one was bigger than the last. The one closing her mouth shut smirked at his friends, his yellowing sharp teeth peeking out as he spoke.
“Oh, is this the little Kurosaki? What a cute, petite little thing. I’m going to mess you up bad.”
One of the goons piped up. “Who’s Kurosaki?”
“Idiot!” One of them hissed. “That’s the guy who beat up the leader! The orange haired kid!”
“Ichi-nee beat you guys up?” Karin managed to blurt out when the leader loosened his grip very slightly and placed his large hand on her shoulder. He quickly put it back to covering her mouth.
“Listen here, kid,” The guy’s voice was low and scary, “I’m here to take revenge. And if it’s on the famous Karin Kurosaki, who beat up my cousin’s soccer team and is Ichigo’s sister? I’m going to kill you!”
She dodged his punch as he tried to smash her face in. “If that’s all, this’ll be an easy fight.” Karin cracked her knuckles. “Cuz I’ve dealt with way worse.”
All five men came charging at her, but luckily, she wasn’t an idiot. Karin easily dodged them, throwing kicks on their arms as they stumbled around, howling in pain. The leader of the pack tried to get her in the jaw, but she retaliated with her own fist, overpowering him and punching him in the face with her own fist.
They didn’t even last ten minutes.
Karin drew in shaky breaths as she dragged the last one off the road. They were extremely heavy, even for a very fit sword fighting soccer captain. Then, her worst nightmare appeared.
A MENOS GRANDE appeared right in the front of the road, its dull black eyes glaring right into her soul.
“Oh no. This is bad. I don’t even have my sword, or ball, or kendo stick!” Karin scanned the area, looking for a fallen branch or something to hit the hollow with, but it was no use. She was already tired from fighting a bunch of crazy idiots.
She only had one choice.
Karin grabbed her phone and called the one person she had promised herself never to call for help.
“Ichi-nee? I’m sorry, but there’s a Menos Grande here and I don’t have my s-WOAH!” She almost failed to dodge the cero that had been coming at her. “I really need your help! Oh, damn it, his phone’s off!”
The Menos Grande came in for one final blow, and Karin prepared for the worst, when the ice appeared and Toshiro came out to easily dissemble the monster with his sword.
“Toshiro!” Karin ran towards him, but not before remembering what she had done. She stopped. “Toshiro, I’m so sor-”
He hugged her quickly and whispered in her ear, “I’m sorry, Karin. I promised to protect you, and here I am-”
Tears welled up in her eyes and she quickly wiped them away. “Oh, shut up, you idiot. You don’t owe me anything.”
The hug broke and the silence turned awkward. Toshiro coughed. “Do-do you want to go inside?”
“Yeah, let’s go.”