Karin Quest (Bleach)

You curse to yourself – two Hollows at once! And Ichi-nii's not going to be able to get there in time to help, not without a way to get out of his body himself! You glance at Rukia – can she fight? You repeat the question out loud, and she looks mildly exasperated in response.

"Yes, I am not completely deprived of my power, only most of it – I assume you wish me to assist you until Ichigo can get there?" she inquires, and when you nod your assent, leaps up onto your back "Chop chop then!" you can hear the grin in her voice. You feel a sudden sympathy for Ichigo, having to carry her everywhere, and set off at a run, shihakusho flapping around in your ankles in the wind caused by your passing. As you speed along towards the Hollows' location, Rukia dials Ichigo to let him know.

"Ichigo! A Hollow's appeared, we need you to come to the location I've just texted you through"

"…Yes, I said we – I'm with Karin"

"No, I'm not sending her back! Do you expect me to fight two Hollows myself?"

"Yes, I said two – I could come and get you, but then I'd be leaving your sister alone against two Hollows, which would you prefer?"

"That's what I thought – I'm always right Ichigo, you need to remember this!" She flips the phone closed at that, leaning back into you to avoid the wind chill as you race through the streets and rooftops of Karakura. You frown as something crosses your mind.

"Why didn't you give Ichigo a thingamajig to go into shinigami form, anyway?" you ask Rukia, because honestly "-do you just like smacking him or something?" you can feel her smirking at that, before she responds.

"While I won't deny there's a certain enjoyment to it, no that's not the reason – that device of yours is dangerous; it'll remove the soul from any living body it touches with any spiritual power. My glove, on the other hand, will only affect a shinigami" she says, solemnly. Wow, okay – Urahara had told you not to be careless with it, but you didn't think you were lugging around something that scary! Your brow furrows for a moment.

"So wait, why did Urahara give me this and not something safer? And why don't you get one of those for Ichigo?" you ask, because really, this is pretty important! You feel Rukia shrug her shoulders against your back.

"My glove only works on people other than myself – and that shady shopkeeper didn't have any Gikon – the normal method for removing a soul from a body – in stock, unfortunately. I've placed an order, but I don't know when he'll get any in," she says, a dubious tone in her voice – understandable, you don't like relying on that guy either. You cross the gap between two roofs with a leap, not breaking stride. As you do so, a thought occurs.

"Wait, you said you were okay to fight – but you don't have your sword, right? Ichigo has that – so what can you do?" you throw over your shoulder in query – best know what, exactly you've got on your side before you fight two giant ghost monsters, right?

"A reasonable enough question, I suppose – while I lack the strength I normally would and yes, I don't have my sword – I still have a measure of spiritual power and I am still capable of using the demon arts – that is to say, magic," she says, before listing off some of the spells she knows until you interrupt.

"Yeah – the shopkeeper's been teaching me a few, you don't need to describe them to me- ah, we're almost here" you say as you skip up a fence and land on a rooftop in the area Rukia had directed you to. She hops down from your back, and walks to the precipice, examining the town area around you. It's mostly deserted at this time – you think Ichigo's old karate dojo is near here, now you think on it. While Rukia messes around with her phone-thing, pushing buttons in an attempt to locate the Hollow, you opt for a different approach.

You focus, as if attempting to cast a Kido, but instead of looking inward, you look outward, searching for that wrong feeling of a Hollow's reiatsu. Sweeping your 'gaze' over the area, you don't feel anything…there!

"I've found them!" you say, grabbing Rukia's shoulder and pointing towards the indicated area – a car park, it should be mostly empty at this time of the evening, fortunately. Without needing further information, Rukia hops onto your back and you blur towards the car park, the world becoming nothing more than a smudge of indistinguishable colours and shapes. As you come to a halt just outside of the entrance, you look in – there's someone there! Wait, blue hair - isn't that Tatsuki? One of Ichigo's friends – she used to beat him up at the dojo. She's just sprinted around the corner, clearly frightened. She looks up at you – wait, she can see you?

"Kuchiki! Wait…Karin? Ichigo's sister? You have to run, there's a monster!" she pants, running up to you, hair and clothes askew from her panicked flight. Her eyes flick down to your waist and widen when she catches sight of Nejibana in her sheathe, "Why do you have a sword?! This day is getting far too weird!"

Hm, an impressive amount of spiritual power for a human, no wonder the beasts hunt her. Unfortunately for them, she falls under our aegis this day. Guard her, Karin.

Of course you'll protect her! You consider what to say when a howl splits the evening air, and is quickly echoed in the bone-rattlingly familiar tones of Hollows. From around the same corner that Tatsuki came, they appear, the two beasts that will meet their ends tonight. One resembles nothing more than a goat standing upright, with cloven feet, clawed hands and horns atop its head, affixed to its mask. A wiry, brown fur covers the rest of its body – you suspect it is perfectly capable of slicing through human flesh if necessary.

Its partner, on the other hand, is an unholy fusion of insect and canine, walking on four wolflike legs, a horrific, beetle-esque visage complete with mandibles and an array of spikes sprout from the carapace adorning its back. You hear Rukia muttering next to you and glance at her as she traces a symbol through the air in glowing red.

"…look upon yourself in horror and tear out your own throat! Bakudō Nine, Geki!" she cries, illuminating both monsters in a red glow, paralysing them in place, although it is clearly draining her. "Quickly, take her to safety – I can't hold them long!" she says, her voice straining with the effort she is putting forth. You quickly grab Tatsuki around the waist, slinging her arm around your shoulder to bear her weight.

"Wait, what are-" you ignore her question and blur to the nearest rooftop, setting her down as quickly and gently as you can.

"I'll explain later – just stay here, okay!" you say hurriedly – no time for politeness here – before you blur back down just as Rukia's spell gives out. You unsheathe Nejibana. Time to fight for your life again!

You are in combat with two Hollows, with Rukia assisting you.

Article:

[ ] Holding Action. You only need to hold out for Ichigo to get here, and then it'll be three on two. Fight defensively and just try and survive.
- [ ] Write-in Tactics

[ ] All-out Assault. The best defense is a good offense, right? Go all out and try and take down one of the Hollows immediately, leaving the numbers in your favour.
- [ ] Write-in Tactics

[ ] Hit and Run. Keep their attention with hit and run tactics, only going for a decisive strike once you have an opening from Rukia.
-[ ] Write-in Tactics

Also, do you wish to use Shikai this fight?

Article:

[] Yes, release Nejibana.
[] No, keep your sword sealed.

A/N - So this took me a while, sorry. I've been a bit otherwise occupied and inspiration hadn't really been striking, so I just sat down and grinded it out. Once again, voting will be open a while so feel free to debate tactics.

Note: Due to various reasons, I've removed Tactics from the character sheet. I posted an explanation earlier, but in chief it's this - you weren't really getting anything out of it. I'd prefer things like group cohesion and the like be governed by your IC relationships with people, actual tactics are governed by write-in and the information you get from your enemies is determined by your other skills. Because it's my fuck up I've retroactively canonised and threadmarked Hidden by @Diomedon and I've unlocked Way of the Onmi on your character sheet, which was the runner up from the Urahara vote.

As always, if you have questions in regards to Karin's IC information or similar, feel free to tag me and I'll answer if I'm around. I'd rather you asked a silly question than didn't ask a good one because you thought it was silly.