Hidden Hollow

Chapter 5

Karin walked home. Although it wasn't yet time for dinner the sky was dark with ominous clouds. She idly kneed her soccer ball as she walked. She wished she could have kept playing with her friends but they were right, soccer was not as much fun in the mud. She sighed giving the ball a halfhearted kick this time. It swung back towards her wrapped in its netting. Then something caught her eye. At the top of the hill the wind blew at something white pulling small drifts from it into the air. Snow, this time of year?

Curious, Karin climbed the hill at a jog. Once she was closer she was stunned. She had seen snow, but she was not expecting to find an injured boy lying in it. His breath showed as faint puffs of steam, but his eyes were closed. Occasionally he would moan, as he gasped for air. While his back didn't seem to be injured she could see he was lying as much on his arms and left side as he could, almost as if he was trying to cushion his stomach from the ground. She bet that was where he had been hurt.

Something about him seemed familiar but she couldn't say what. Still she knew what she needed to do. She dropped her soccer ball and ran to a nearby pay phone. Quickly she inserted the money and called the clinic. Thankfully Yuzu and not their father answered the phone. She told Yuzu where she was and that she needed to have goat face drive down there as quickly as he could. Yuzu said that she understood and Karin thanked her before hanging up. She returned to the boy's side. He hadn't moved. She couldn't tell for sure but it sounded like his breathing was the same.

"Hey," she said softly. He didn't respond. "Hey, are you okay?" she said a little louder. Again nothing. She was afraid to move him in case he had broken bones, so she contented herself with resting a hand on his shoulder. When he groaned she jerked her hand back as if it had been burned. She bit her lip in concern and willed her father to get there faster. It was then that she remembered where she had seen this boy before. With Ichigo. It was shortly after he had returned from wherever he had been all summer.

Ichigo had brought Rukia home and Yuzu had been listening outside Ichigo's door with their father. Karin remembered going to her room after that and watching this boy jump from the adjacent house to Ichigo's window. Later he had walked off with a tall beautiful woman. She wondered how he knew Ichigo. Did it have something to do with him being a Soul Reaper?

The screech of tires brought her out of her contemplation. Goat face had finally arrived. He jumped from the car pulling a medical bag from the trunk and ran towards her.

"Are you okay? You're not hurt are you?" She shook her head and it was then that her father saw the boy. He dropped the bag nearby and immediately began searching for broken bones. Satisfied he rolled the boy onto his left side. Even though Karin was now at the boy's back she was still shocked by the strong stench of blood. He coughed weakly and groaned but otherwise didn't respond. Isshin's face paled at the sight of the wounds. He froze for a moment and Karin wondered what was going through his mind before he finally shook his head. He unzipped the bag pulling out a blanket before wrapping the boy in it and lifting him into his arms.

"Karin grab my bag please." Karin nodded zipping up the open compartment and grabbing her soccer ball's netting before returning for the bag. Her eyes glimpsed the spot where the boy had been lying and the ground was dark with blood. She quickly turned away before she lost the contents of her stomach. Lifting the bag she carried it as best she could. It was big and awkward for her but she managed to get it down the hill. Isshin had placed the boy in the passenger seat reclining it so that the seat belt wouldn't be against most of his wounds. Then he loaded the bag back into the trunk as Karin climbed into the back seat. She sat in the middle so she could keep an eye on the boy's breathing.

Then Isshin climbed in and gunned the car into motion. He did his best to make the ride smooth while also making the best time he could. At first the boy groaned every time the brakes were applied, but after the first few times the groan faded to a pained moan. A faint whisper of discomfort, finally he was silent and Karin had to rest her hand next to his mouth to make sure he was still breathing. Occasionally her father would glance over at her and she would nod indicating that he was still breathing.

Finally they arrived at the clinic and Isshin did a hasty, and bad, parking job. Karin would berate him about it later. He jumped from the car sprinting around to the passenger side to free their newest patient. Karin ran for the door to the clinic and held it open as her father carried the boy inside. He rushed into one of the treatment rooms Karin close behind him. Once they were inside her father set the boy down while she washed her hands.

Karin put on some sterile gloves and returned to the boy's side. She grabbed a clean cloth and used it to wipe away the small trail of blood that had flowed down his cheek from the left corner of his mouth. With that done she placed an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose. She noted that his lips were pale and starting to show a bluish tint. Then her father was there wiggling his fingers into his own set of gloves.