"Why don't you come to practice?"
Karin asked breathlessly.
"I never clearly promised you that I would come to practice. Besides, I'm very busy. I don't have time to play house with you kids."
Toshiro continued typing his report on the command console, his head lowered.
"What could a grade schooler like you possibly be busy with?"
Karin clearly didn't believe him.
"You're so noisy! How many times do I have to explain? I'm not a grade schooler!"
Toshiro said, sounding very exhausted.
However, Karin clearly didn't believe Toshiro's explanation, because Toshiro looked at most the same age as her.
If it weren't for Toshiro's cold, mature demeanor, he might have looked even younger than her.
"Hey!!! Toshiro, why are you here? Is your house near here?"
Karin suddenly asked.
Earlier, Karin and her friends had said they were going to find Toshiro, but after running for a while, they suddenly realized they had no idea where Toshiro was.
Then Karin had a sudden stroke of inspiration and remembered to come to the place where they had encountered Toshiro yesterday when they were heading home. And sure enough, Toshiro was there.
As for Karin's question, Toshiro simply said lightly: "No reason."
As he spoke, Toshiro looked up at the sky dyed red by the setting sun: "It's just that this is the place where you can see the sky the clearest."
An image involuntarily surfaced in Toshiro's mind: sitting with Momo under the eaves of their home in the Rukongai, watching the sunset together, whispering sweet nothings.
Come to think of it, even though he could be with her day and night in the 10th Division, it had been a long time since they'd done something so romantic and beautiful.
"How nostalgic."
Toshiro suddenly remarked.
"Huh? Nostalgic? How old are you, anyway, Toshiro?"
Kurosaki Karin asked.
"Heh, how old? Probably over ten times your age."
Toshiro said with a light laugh.
"Hah! Liar. Ten times my age? Are you some toothless old grandpa?"
Karin obviously didn't believe him.
"Good grief, what's wrong with this world? Why does no one believe the truth when I tell it?"
Toshiro shook his head and shoulders, putting on an air of affectation.
Beep, beep, beep—!!
Toshiro's command console suddenly rang again.
'Good grief, should I say, as expected of a Jureichi? There are so many Hollows here. It's a wonder the people of Karakura Town are still alive,' Toshiro thought sardonically to himself, then stood up, ready to head towards where the Hollow was.
Slap—
Karin suddenly grabbed Toshiro's arm.
"You can't go over there!"
Karin looked at Toshiro with a very serious expression.
"Hmm?"
Toshiro was taken aback, then realized that Karin was worried he might encounter a Hollow if he went over there.
'What a kind and gentle girl she was.'
"Ah... well... that's not it..."
Seeing Toshiro looking at her, Karin couldn't help but feel a little guilty, not knowing how to explain the matter of Hollows to Toshiro.
After all, Karin thought Toshiro was just an ordinary grade schooler… admittedly a very good soccer player, but that was it. Getting involved with Hollows would definitely be very dangerous for him.
"Well... I don't know how to say this... but there's a bad feeling over there. You absolutely can't go!"
Karin said, her expression anxious.
Beep, beep, beep—
The command console rang again.
Toshiro glanced at it and said, "Was it taken care of?"
Then he carefully sensed the direction where the Hollow had appeared earlier.
'Was it Rangiku who took care of it?'
"Toshiro, did something happen?"
Karin asked, seeing Toshiro's 'phone' ring, thinking someone was calling or emailing him.
"No, it's nothing."
As he spoke, Toshiro put the command console in his pocket and prepared to leave, as it was getting late, and it was time to go back.
"Um... you'll come tomorrow, right, Toshiro?"
Karin looked at Toshiro with an expectant expression.
Toshiro glanced at Karin, then looked up at the sun about to fully set: "Well, who knows?"
…
One day later, at the park on the hilltop, Karin and her friends were practicing soccer here.
Toshiro, however, was on the roof of a nearby building, watching them.
Toshiro had come after all.
Swoosh!
A figure suddenly appeared behind Toshiro.
"Captain, hehe."
A cheerful female voice followed.
Toshiro turned his head and saw, unsurprisingly, Rangiku lying there, looking up at him with a silly grin.
"Captain, are you stalking me?"
Rangiku asked with a giggle.
She had been patrolling this area when she suddenly sensed Toshiro's Reiatsu. Coming to check, she found it was indeed Toshiro.
"Hmph! I don't have that kind of free time to stalk you. I just happened to have some business here."
As he spoke, Toshiro looked back towards Karin, who was playing soccer with her friends.
"Eh!!!"
Rangiku followed Toshiro's gaze, also seeing Karin, and then feigned shock: "Captain! Since when are you interested in girls from the Living World? What would Momo think?!"
As she spoke, she looked at Toshiro as if he were trash.
"It's not like that!!!"
Toshiro retorted loudly.
"Hmph! Save it! You can't fool me, the Love Master, Matsumoto Rangiku!!"
Rangiku said proudly.
"Enough! Cut it out, Rangiku!!"
Toshiro was about to explode with rage at Rangiku.
"Sigh…"
Toshiro took a deep breath, calmed down, and explained to Rangiku: "That girl is Captain Isshin's daughter, you know."
"Captain Isshin's daughter!"
Rangiku exclaimed in surprise.
"Yeah, you'd think you would have remembered his daughter's Reiatsu, since you went to the Captain's house with everyone else last time."
Toshiro scolded.
"Oh, we only appeared in Ichigo's room that time. We didn't even see Captain Isshin, let alone remember his daughter's Reiatsu."
Rangiku said with an embarrassed laugh.
"Come to think of it, Captain Isshin looks so sleazy, but his daughter is this cute. She must have inherited her mother's genes."
"Hey! Captain, since Captain Isshin's daughter is so cute, you're not thinking of trying anything funny, are you? That's why you suddenly came here, right? You wanted to... huh? Captain, where did you go?"
As Rangiku was talking, she suddenly noticed Toshiro had disappeared!
…
A few days later, Saturday afternoon, the soccer field.
"So, Toshiro didn't come after all."
"And in the end, nobody brought any help."
"What should we do? Maybe practicing eating spaghetti with our noses is better?"
"Maybe we should apologize to those middle schoolers and ask them to let us off the punishment?"
The match against the middle schoolers was about to start, but Karin's friends hadn't seen Toshiro show up, so they looked dejected, as if they had already lost before the match even began.
"Shut up! At this point, we just have to fight them! We can't back down no matter what!!!"
Karin said loudly.
"Sigh—"
Seeing Karin looking ready to fight to the death, her friends sighed even more deeply.
"What's wrong with you guys! Come on! We're going up!!"
As she spoke, Karin raised her right arm and shouted loudly: "Come on! Shout with me… 'Victory!!'"
"...Victory..."
The crowd shouted weakly and sparsely.
Beeeep—!
With the referee's whistle, a soccer match between 'elementary schoolers and middle schoolers' officially began.