Fanfiction || Treading Icy Waters 20
Title: Treading Icy Waters
Fandom: Bleach
Main Character: Hitsugaya Toushirou
Rating: PG-13
Genre: General/Action/Suspense
Warnings: Occasional language, violence, gore.
Timeline: This story follows the manga's timeline. It begins directly before the Hueco Mundo arc and diverges from there.
Summary: The board has been laid out. The pieces have been set and moved. The pawns are scattered across the floor, and Ichimaru’s fingers are wrapped around a stark white bishop. “That’s another check, little taichou.” The game has only begun.
~*~
“I know why the caged bird sings”
-Maya Angelou
~*~
Chapter Twenty
Retro Virus
~*~
It hadn’t taken long for Matsumoto to wake up again, and it hadn’t been long after that before she had insisted on showing off and learning how to harness her new power. Hitsugaya was loath to admit that Kurosaki’s assessment of her bankai had been right on the mark, but that wasn’t enough to hold back his prideful smirk. She had only had her bankai for a matter of hours now, and she was nowhere near skilled enough with it to use it properly, but give her a few months, and he knew she’d have it down to an exact science. Before long, she’d be able to give Abarai some trouble. He knew she wouldn’t let him keep boasting for long. She’d do almost anything to cut him down a notch, even if she had to kill for it.
And his smirk disappeared as quickly as it had come.
“Hm? Something wrong, Taichou?”
Hitsugaya Toushirou looked up as his fukutaichou plopped down beside him, sweat mixing with the dust she’d upturned in her training. It was Friday afternoon by now, and the young taichou had ditched school the first excuse he’d gotten. They’d spent all night going through the motions and experimenting with her newfound abilities, and they hadn’t stopped to rest until everyone else was waking up. She looked tired but energized, practically vibrating, and Hitsugaya understood her ambitious expression all too well.
He shook his head. “You shouldn’t overexert yourself so soon. It will only slow down the process, not speed it up.”
She took him at his word and let herself fall back so that she was lying on the grass behind him, Haineko sheathed at her side. A minute of comfortable silence passed between them before she started giggling. Hitsugaya finally gave in. “What?” he prompted with a huff, and she only laughed harder.
“Sorry, Taichou. It’s just … I was the one who helped you with shikai, but now you’re the one helping me with bankai. It’s funny. My baby taichou is all grown up!”
The boy snorted. “Just in time apparently,” he grunted, his tone bitter. Now he had Matsumoto frowning as well, and he mentally scolded himself, not even realizing that he’d just been called a baby and had actually let it slide.
“Is there any way I can help?” was all she asked.
Hitsugaya hadn’t planned on responding. He could have ignored the question easily enough. But somehow his mouth seemed to move of its own accord, and the words stumbled out of nowhere. “How was everyone after I…?”
Matsumoto didn’t move, but she managed to force out another chuckle. “Everyone was pretty shocked,” she began, methodically picking through what information was okay to give and what wasn’t. “I figured out Ukitake-taichou knew you’d left, so I beat everything out of him. He was really worried about you. It’s because of him and Kyouraku-taichou that I was allowed to come down here on my own. Soifon-taichou acted all tough and stuck to the rules as always, but when she thought nobody was looking, I saw her fidgeting. I don’t think she liked that you disappeared right after an arrancar attack. Izuru and Shuuhei were really awkward; I’m pretty sure they were nervous that Gin or Tousen had done something to you.” It took everything in Hitsugaya’s power not to wince. “And of course Unohana-taichou was anxious, blaming herself for not being there to help Kotetsu heal you, but Zaraki-taichou was just as soon ready to believe you’d run off to fight them all yourself. It took Kuchiki-taichou and Komamura-taichou both to keep him from trying to get to Hueco Mundo first. Yachiru was even looking for you under flower pots and in puddles. More than anything else, I think Yamamoto-soutaichou was just angry. But none of them really believed you were a traitor.”
He refused to look at her. “And Hinamori?”
“She … didn’t believe you were a traitor either.”
“Right.” He heard what she said and interpreted the unspoken answer in between the carefully chosen words. He was no where near Aizen Sousuke’s level to her; Hinamori Momo’s faith in him would eventually run out. When she realized that nothing else made sense, she could only assume that he’d left her behind. And that was exactly what he’d done.
The thought left him wondering whether he would have felt guiltier if they’d had this conversation a week or two earlier. As it was, the only thing that disturbed him was that he wasn’t more disturbed. Somehow, he had pieced it together in a detached part of his mind, though he hadn’t given it enough thought to actually acknowledge it. Whereas when he’d first arrived, he could hardly live with himself after what he’d done, now he was feeling rather justified in his actions. He supposed he had Matsumoto and Kurosaki to thank for that. His life was worth something to them for some inexplicable reason, and a nagging voice that sounded disturbingly like Urahara kept telling him that if he was so damn important to them, then he should be important enough to himself that he could afford to put himself first every once in a while.
It was an interesting revelation but not one that he was willing to vocalize just yet.
“Kazuki-kun and Suzume-chan were pretty worried too, you know,” the buxom fukutaichou interrupted his introspection, obviously trying to steer the conversation away from Hinamori. “Kazuki tried to finish all your paperwork again, but as usual he worked himself into a fit until I agreed to give him a shoulder massage. Suzume-chan was taking control of everything in that quiet way that she always does, so she’s probably handling the division well enough.”
The Tenth Division didn’t need him. He knew that, but it still hurt in a selfish sort of way, as did something else. Seeing as he’d already blurted out as much as he had, the young white crowned former taichou figured it would be best to just go the full mile. “Matsumoto, Kurosaki’s father was in charge of the Tenth before I was?”
Her face lit up as she pushed her back up off the ground. “Yup. I learned from the best,” she grinned. A single, pale brow rose in question, and she laughed again. “I learned from both of the best.”
She was still trying to keep the conversation as light as possible, but Hitsugaya just wouldn’t have it. He didn’t have time for that sort of thing anymore; brevity was key, even if he didn’t like what he was about to say any more than she would. When he finally opened his mouth, he was looking away again. “If he and I, if we were both … in danger … who would you go to first? If you had to choose one over the other…?”
He could feel her tense instantly, could almost taste her anger in the air, but he didn’t back down. After a moment of near painful silence, she shifted position, pulling her knees up to her chest. “I was a wreck after Isshin disappeared, you know.” Her voice was quiet but urgent, and he made sure to hear every syllable. “After Gin left me behind in Rukongai, he found me and dragged me here. He taught me everything I knew, even how to hold my liquor.” A bitter, strangled chuckle. “He brought me back to Gin. He gave me something I’d never had before. And then so did you.” She looked him squarely in the eyes, as if daring him to refute her.
“You know very well that I could never make a choice like that, and if you ever ask again, you’re going to be sorry.”
Matsumoto had essentially threatened her own taichou. There was another long silence between them, but this time Hitsugaya was the one to break it as he stood up and brushed himself off. He let loose a long, drawn out sigh before nodding once. “Yeah… That’s what I thought you’d say. I apologize for offending you. Take an hour off to relax and stretch, then we’ll resume.”
One foot in front of the other, and he was already walking away before Matsumoto could comprehend the fact that her taichou had apologized for offending her. He did that on a daily basis, often with great pleasure, and she returned everything he threw at her. It was supposed to be fun. It wasn’t anymore.
“Matsumoto. Don’t change. When the time comes, I’ll make the choice for you. So just be patient, and don’t change.”
With that, he stepped into shunpo and disappeared from the underground training facility. Slowly she pulled herself to her feet, running fingers through long, maple bangs as she stared at the now vacant spot before her.
“Where did that come from…?”
~*~
It was getting late, but it was hardly dark. Street lights and signs lit the way as a group of six looked around in thinly veiled anticipation. The tension in the air was palpable, though they remained impossibly casual as the minutes ticked on.
“Ne, ne? Feel him yet? I’m getting boooored!”
“‘Old your bloody ‘orses. It’s gonna ‘appen tonight; a coupla minutes won’t make a difference.”
“But I can taste all of the reiatsu on the wind…. Makes me all excited, y’know? To think when we got stuck with this sort of assignment, I thought we’d gotten the short end of the stick.”
“Ke. We did. Think of all the fun they’re having in Soul Society right now….”
“Aw, it’s not as bad as all that, is it?”
“…He’s here.”
And everyone silenced as the man they’d been waiting for stepped out of the shadows, a killer smile stretching across his lips. “Been waitin’ long, have ya?” the man drawled cheerfully. No one dared answer.
“S’alright. Ya know what yer all here fer. I jus’ got one rule for ya all before I let ya have yer fun….”
~*~
A loud, derisive snort escaped his lips as a vein pulsed painfully in his forehead.
Meet me on Thursday, she’d yelled. He hadn’t been there. He would have thought she’d dealt with that sort of thing enough to understand. Unfortunately, he’d forgotten one very important detail. Understanding was not the same as acceptance, and Kurosaki Karin was far too much like her older brother to be healthy for her.
And so, really, Hitsugaya had to wonder if it was his fault when, after a long walk out of his gigai and a brief meeting concerning everyone’s locations and the patrol radius for the night, he felt the very distinct reiatsu of Kurosaki Karin hiding behind the sign announcing Karakura Park. Watching that tuft of cropped, black hair sticking tauntingly out above the cement sign, as if just begging him to notice, was perhaps the most aggravating thing he’d had to deal with since he’d arrived in Karakura. And that was really saying something when Urahara was your acting landlord.
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kick your ass straight back home.”
Karin jumped nearly two feet in the air at the voice, peering over the top of the sign to see who had threatened her. When she realized it was him, she smiled. Great. Just great. Now she was getting smug about it. “Man, Ichi-nii’s rubbing off on you.”
Hitsugaya did not want to hear that. “That’s not a valid reason.”
“Che,” the young girl huffed as she stood up straight, arms folding across her chest in a perfect imitation of the shinigami before her. “How else was I supposed to get anybody’s attention, huh? If even you’re gonna ditch me, then I’ve got no choice but to make you come.”
Grinding his teeth, he took a step forward. She had used that same excuse when she kicked that stupid soccer ball at him. “If I can sense you, other people can too. Did you stop and think about that one?”
“Well, now we’re getting somewhere,” she smirked triumphantly. “What other people? I want some answers already. What’s going on?”
“Go home.”
It became crystal clear she had no idea what she was getting into when she marched the distance between them and grabbed his haori in tight, angry fists, glaring him directly in the eye. “I’m not going anywhere until someone tells me what’s going on, and you’re the only one who’s even gotten close! You said there was a war or something, right? Something like that… That wouldn’t make Ichi-nii this anxious!”
Oh, so it was Kurosaki’s fault. Figured. “War does that to people,” he intoned dryly, removing her hands from their death grip.
“Fighting makes him run off without telling us anything. It doesn’t make him fidget around the house and act like the baby sitter from hell.”
Hitsugaya blinked. And blinked again. Kurosaki … the baby sitter from hell? The imagery afforded to him by that simple statement finally robbed him of whatever self control he still desperately clung to, and the infamously stoic Tenth Division taichou Hitsugaya Toushirou laughed. It was a short, strangled snort of a laugh, but it was a laugh none-the-less, and when Karin heard it, she couldn’t hold back a chuckle of her own.
“Yeah,” she smirked. “It really is that bad.”
Maybe it was the fact that she’d proven she really did need to know or she’d never stay where she was safe. Maybe it was because the image of Kurosaki wearing an apron running and yelling after two bratty kids had left him semi-dazed. Maybe he was just too damn tired to care anymore. Whatever the reason for his decision, if he had known how much he’d regret it, he would have dragged the girl kicking and screaming all the way home. Unfortunately, he didn’t know, and so he only sighed and finally gave in to Kurosaki Karin’s demands.
“Very well. If that’s what it takes to keep you from running away from home every night, then so be it,” he huffed, making sure to sound slightly more agitated than he really was. “The upcoming war, while it is a dire threat, isn’t our first priority at the moment. When that time comes, we’ll actually be prepared. As it is, it is very likely that an ambush is on its way, one we won’t sense until it’s too late, and we have no means of gaining any back-up support.”
“Huh? Why?” Karin pressed, dark brows furrowed in concern.
“The why doesn’t matter,” he huffed, meeting her eye to eye. “Just understand that no one with any level of detectable reiatsu, including you, should be alone right now.”
“What about you?”
She received a frustrated snort for her accusation. “That’s different. I was in between locations; I wasn’t standing out here making myself a perfect target.”
“In between locations is a perfect place to be ambushed,” she pouted in return before smirking triumphantly. “Besides, I’m with you. I’m not alone.”
“Damn it!” he cursed, Karin’s smirk vanishing to make way for confusion as the small shinigami suddenly tensed. “I’m the last person you want to be protecting you right now! Come on!” He grabbed her wrist, fully intending to shunpo to Kurosaki’s home and demand to be told how she’d gotten past them all, but he never got the chance.
The moment he moved to leave, a cero beam erupted between them, and he only had enough time to yank the girl out of the way before it rocketed past, effectively eliminating a large tree behind them.
Teal-green eyes darted frantically in the direction the blast had originated and came to halt on the form of what could only be an arrancar. Messy black hair stuck out in every direction to frame a well tanned face, pale orange eyes watching him and Kurosaki’s sister in disdain. The body was lean and fit, clothed in typical Hueco Mundo garb excepting for the addition of projecting slits around his wrists that almost looked like talons. His zanpakutou was sitting horizontally against his back just under the characteristic hole, and a bony protrusion followed the right side of his jaw before curving upward to a point. If his expression was any indication, he wasn’t pleased.
“Ke. Of all the people I could’ve come after, I just had to get the two smallest brats of the bunch,” he grumbled, more to himself than to either of his chosen victims. But then he looked up, pointing to Karin. “Oi. You, girl. Your name isn’t Rangiku, is it?”
“Uh … no. It’s Karin….” Her voice was quiet but still there. Good.
“Well, isn’t that just a silver lining. At least I can have fun with you brats.”
Hitsugaya clenched his teeth as he reached for Hyourinmaru, pulling himself back up to his full height. Not exactly impressive, but at least it was better than staying crouched in the grass. “What do you want with Matsumoto?” he seethed, his tone deadly.
Unfortunately, this arrancar seemed immune. The pale, pumpkin colored eyes locked onto him, and a mocking smile rose to the arrancar’s thin lips. “I don’t want anything to do with her. Besides, we have orders not to touch her. You, on the other hand… That’s a pretty big zanpakutou for someone your size, huh?” the creature sneered. “That must make you the little taichou. Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.”
Little taichou. The young shinigami bit down, hard. Ichimaru Gin.
He pointed Hyourinmaru’s blade directly toward the intruder’s chest. “If anyone so much as misplaces a hair on her head…”
But before he could even finish, the arrancar was already laughing. “Kekeke! What the hell do you think you could do about it?! If I killed her now, right in front of you, you still wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing! You’ve got less reiatsu than your little girlfriend!”
Instinctively, his free hand traveled to the collar still situated around his neck. It was his last line of defense against whatever Ichimaru had done to him; it was also what made him completely and utterly devoid of spiritual power. Damn it! This was exactly what he had needed to avoid.
When he didn’t reply, the arrancar laughed again. “That shut you up, didn’t it, Toushirou? Ke.” He bent his arm back to retrieve his own zanpakutou, sliding two fingers down the glistening blade. “Well, now that I know your names, it’s only fair I give you mine. You can call me Buitre; I am one of the Raptores. And this,” he indicated the zanpakutou, “is your new king.”
Shit.
Hitsugaya knew exactly what was about to happen, and he knew he had no time to waste. He dove for Kurosaki’s sister, not even bothering to look at her before pulling her along with him. They didn’t make it very far.
“Rodea, Rey de Carroña.”
A spiral of wind with the force of a brick wall blocked their chosen escape route, and as the young taichou whirled around, he quickly realized it was blocking every escape route. Hair and clothes flew violently about their persons, and tree branches, litter, anything not bolted to the ground was thrown about in the veritable twister that now surrounded them.
He couldn’t see a damn thing.
“Toushirou!” It took him a moment to realize it was Karin who was calling out. Had he ever told her his name…? “What the hell is going on?! What’d he do?!”
“Just stay down!” he shouted back, over the thrashing, howling wind.
He could feel her shift position next to him, but not a second later she jerked back into his side, screaming. “Behind you!”
They both tumbled down just in time to see a giant weapon swoop overhead with the rest of the debris. He’d only seen it for a second, but that was all it took to realize how deadly it was. The main body was nothing but a round, metal circlet the size of a person’s head, but spinning around the circlet were two, curved, sickle-like blades, each one almost a meter in length and half as wide.
“Like it, do you?” sneered the arrancar, Buitre. Hitsugaya couldn’t see him, damn it! He was hiding in the dense winds. Either that, or he was outside of them altogether. “By all means, take a closer look.”
He pushed Karin down to the ground, not even hearing her protests as the swirling blades flew toward them again. A glint of light, a vortex of sound next to his ear, and the sickles burst past. He saw the spray of blood before he felt the pain.
“Toushirou!”
Blood was splattered all down her front, but none of it was hers. Thank goodness. His shoulder was split clean through, the blood dripping down the length of his arm. It was his left, not his sword arm. He could still wield Hyourinmaru effectively. Military mind running on overdrive, he cursed himself for his stupidity and vulnerability. He searched frantically for any way out, any strategy that would keep them alive. The dog tag attached to the collar jingled erratically in the rushing wind, but he refused to acknowledge it.
There had to be another way out. He just had to think of it.
Karin was on her feet again, and Hitsugaya hastily moved to cover as much of her as he could. “Knock it off, would ya?” she insisted with a light shove. “I can’t see when you do that.”
“See?” he hissed in frustration. This definitely wasn’t helping.
“There’s this flicker before the thing comes flying at us! I think it’s that guy in the wind!”
Knowing where it would come from would help, but they couldn’t dodge forever, and if he couldn’t fight back, they’d be left with only the option of enduring until help came. If help came. Hitsugaya sincerely doubted this arrancar was the only one. Damn, damn, damn. Maybe they could still use it to their advantage. If they moved at just the right moment, maybe they could expand the flicker, disrupt the wind flow, and make a run for it.
There!
A flicker in the wind, and Hitsugaya forced his companion out of the way as the weapon careened past them. She was right.
What happened after this revelation was all very, very fast. One moment he was opening his mouth to ask just how fast she could run, and the next he felt an unexpected weight push against his back followed by the sharp point of a blade digging into his flesh. Eyes wide as his mind supplied the only explanation, he pulled away to another spray of blood and whirled around just in time to catch Kurosaki Karin before she slumped to the ground, one of the blades piercing her clean through. More blood than ever was now flying through the wind, scattering her dying life force across the small, city park.
It had detached. One of the sickles had detached from the ring and skewered her.
And he had let it happen.
He’d been so busy trying to find a way out that he hadn’t considered the possibilities of what could happen within. There was no soul connected by a chain. She was so damn stubborn, and she was clinging to life like a child to its mother. But she didn’t have much time, no matter how stubbornly she struggled. And it was his fault. There were a million and one things he could have done differently to avoid this.
That finally clinched it.
Carefully, he set Karin down in the middle of the spiraling vortex of wind. As soon as he was sure she wouldn’t move, he stood up once again and grasped the specially prepared dog collar. Urahara had given it to him with a promise of at least two more weeks. Now he was going to give that time to Kurosaki’s sister.
A fierce tug ripped it right off and sent it sailing on the wind with the other debris.
Holding Hyourinmaru at the ready, determined to block out the pain that still assailed his shoulder and back, he called upon the last vestiges of his strength and went through with his final, desperate option.
“Set upon the frozen heavens, Hyourinmaru!”
~*~
Matsumoto Rangiku’s head instantly shot upward, forgetting all about her prior frustration.
Her taichou had told her they would resume training in an hour. It had been two, and she was on the verge of stalking after him and demanding to know what could have possibly distracted him. But there was no reason to do that now. The answer was crystal clear.
Hitsugaya Toushirou had just released his shikai.
She didn’t look back as she raced neither past a frowning Urahara Kisuke, nor as she side-stepped Shihouin Yoruichi and the kids. She shunpo’d right out of the underground training facility, bulldozed into Urahara Shoten, and phased through the tiled roof before speeding toward her taichou’s reiatsu signature.
“Nuh-uh. Not yet, ya don’,” scolded a painfully familiar voice, and Rangiku instantly stepped out of shunpo, bracing her feet on a floor of air. “Not after I worked so hard ta get ya all ta myself.”
Her teeth ground shut when the former Third Division taichou stepped unabashedly out in front of her. “Gin.”
“Ran-chan. S’been a long time.”
“What the hell are you doing here?”
The silver haired man cocked his head playfully, his ever-present smile glinting in the gray light of the coming dusk. “What? Ya mean he didn’ tell ya? I warned ‘im to look after his pretty fukutaichou. I guess he wasn’ listenin’.”
Matsumoto had her hand on Haineko, though she doubted she’d be able to win such a confrontation. She couldn’t give up, not with her taichou out there. At his words, however, he grip on the feline zanpakutou slackened ever so slightly. “Gin… You…?”
“Yare, yare. C’mon, Ran-chan. Did’ja think Aizen would go outta his way ta play wit’ the little taichou?”
Ichimaru Gin smiled.
All Rangiku wanted to do was cry.
~*~
Spanish Index:
Buitre - Vulture
Raptores - Birds of prey
Rodea, Rey de Carroña. - Encircle (Surround), Carrion King.
Fandom: Bleach
Main Character: Hitsugaya Toushirou
Rating: PG-13
Genre: General/Action/Suspense
Warnings: Occasional language, violence, gore.
Timeline: This story follows the manga's timeline. It begins directly before the Hueco Mundo arc and diverges from there.
Summary: The board has been laid out. The pieces have been set and moved. The pawns are scattered across the floor, and Ichimaru’s fingers are wrapped around a stark white bishop. “That’s another check, little taichou.” The game has only begun.
~*~
“I know why the caged bird sings”
-Maya Angelou
~*~
Chapter Twenty
Retro Virus
~*~
It hadn’t taken long for Matsumoto to wake up again, and it hadn’t been long after that before she had insisted on showing off and learning how to harness her new power. Hitsugaya was loath to admit that Kurosaki’s assessment of her bankai had been right on the mark, but that wasn’t enough to hold back his prideful smirk. She had only had her bankai for a matter of hours now, and she was nowhere near skilled enough with it to use it properly, but give her a few months, and he knew she’d have it down to an exact science. Before long, she’d be able to give Abarai some trouble. He knew she wouldn’t let him keep boasting for long. She’d do almost anything to cut him down a notch, even if she had to kill for it.
And his smirk disappeared as quickly as it had come.
“Hm? Something wrong, Taichou?”
Hitsugaya Toushirou looked up as his fukutaichou plopped down beside him, sweat mixing with the dust she’d upturned in her training. It was Friday afternoon by now, and the young taichou had ditched school the first excuse he’d gotten. They’d spent all night going through the motions and experimenting with her newfound abilities, and they hadn’t stopped to rest until everyone else was waking up. She looked tired but energized, practically vibrating, and Hitsugaya understood her ambitious expression all too well.
He shook his head. “You shouldn’t overexert yourself so soon. It will only slow down the process, not speed it up.”
She took him at his word and let herself fall back so that she was lying on the grass behind him, Haineko sheathed at her side. A minute of comfortable silence passed between them before she started giggling. Hitsugaya finally gave in. “What?” he prompted with a huff, and she only laughed harder.
“Sorry, Taichou. It’s just … I was the one who helped you with shikai, but now you’re the one helping me with bankai. It’s funny. My baby taichou is all grown up!”
The boy snorted. “Just in time apparently,” he grunted, his tone bitter. Now he had Matsumoto frowning as well, and he mentally scolded himself, not even realizing that he’d just been called a baby and had actually let it slide.
“Is there any way I can help?” was all she asked.
Hitsugaya hadn’t planned on responding. He could have ignored the question easily enough. But somehow his mouth seemed to move of its own accord, and the words stumbled out of nowhere. “How was everyone after I…?”
Matsumoto didn’t move, but she managed to force out another chuckle. “Everyone was pretty shocked,” she began, methodically picking through what information was okay to give and what wasn’t. “I figured out Ukitake-taichou knew you’d left, so I beat everything out of him. He was really worried about you. It’s because of him and Kyouraku-taichou that I was allowed to come down here on my own. Soifon-taichou acted all tough and stuck to the rules as always, but when she thought nobody was looking, I saw her fidgeting. I don’t think she liked that you disappeared right after an arrancar attack. Izuru and Shuuhei were really awkward; I’m pretty sure they were nervous that Gin or Tousen had done something to you.” It took everything in Hitsugaya’s power not to wince. “And of course Unohana-taichou was anxious, blaming herself for not being there to help Kotetsu heal you, but Zaraki-taichou was just as soon ready to believe you’d run off to fight them all yourself. It took Kuchiki-taichou and Komamura-taichou both to keep him from trying to get to Hueco Mundo first. Yachiru was even looking for you under flower pots and in puddles. More than anything else, I think Yamamoto-soutaichou was just angry. But none of them really believed you were a traitor.”
He refused to look at her. “And Hinamori?”
“She … didn’t believe you were a traitor either.”
“Right.” He heard what she said and interpreted the unspoken answer in between the carefully chosen words. He was no where near Aizen Sousuke’s level to her; Hinamori Momo’s faith in him would eventually run out. When she realized that nothing else made sense, she could only assume that he’d left her behind. And that was exactly what he’d done.
The thought left him wondering whether he would have felt guiltier if they’d had this conversation a week or two earlier. As it was, the only thing that disturbed him was that he wasn’t more disturbed. Somehow, he had pieced it together in a detached part of his mind, though he hadn’t given it enough thought to actually acknowledge it. Whereas when he’d first arrived, he could hardly live with himself after what he’d done, now he was feeling rather justified in his actions. He supposed he had Matsumoto and Kurosaki to thank for that. His life was worth something to them for some inexplicable reason, and a nagging voice that sounded disturbingly like Urahara kept telling him that if he was so damn important to them, then he should be important enough to himself that he could afford to put himself first every once in a while.
It was an interesting revelation but not one that he was willing to vocalize just yet.
“Kazuki-kun and Suzume-chan were pretty worried too, you know,” the buxom fukutaichou interrupted his introspection, obviously trying to steer the conversation away from Hinamori. “Kazuki tried to finish all your paperwork again, but as usual he worked himself into a fit until I agreed to give him a shoulder massage. Suzume-chan was taking control of everything in that quiet way that she always does, so she’s probably handling the division well enough.”
The Tenth Division didn’t need him. He knew that, but it still hurt in a selfish sort of way, as did something else. Seeing as he’d already blurted out as much as he had, the young white crowned former taichou figured it would be best to just go the full mile. “Matsumoto, Kurosaki’s father was in charge of the Tenth before I was?”
Her face lit up as she pushed her back up off the ground. “Yup. I learned from the best,” she grinned. A single, pale brow rose in question, and she laughed again. “I learned from both of the best.”
She was still trying to keep the conversation as light as possible, but Hitsugaya just wouldn’t have it. He didn’t have time for that sort of thing anymore; brevity was key, even if he didn’t like what he was about to say any more than she would. When he finally opened his mouth, he was looking away again. “If he and I, if we were both … in danger … who would you go to first? If you had to choose one over the other…?”
He could feel her tense instantly, could almost taste her anger in the air, but he didn’t back down. After a moment of near painful silence, she shifted position, pulling her knees up to her chest. “I was a wreck after Isshin disappeared, you know.” Her voice was quiet but urgent, and he made sure to hear every syllable. “After Gin left me behind in Rukongai, he found me and dragged me here. He taught me everything I knew, even how to hold my liquor.” A bitter, strangled chuckle. “He brought me back to Gin. He gave me something I’d never had before. And then so did you.” She looked him squarely in the eyes, as if daring him to refute her.
“You know very well that I could never make a choice like that, and if you ever ask again, you’re going to be sorry.”
Matsumoto had essentially threatened her own taichou. There was another long silence between them, but this time Hitsugaya was the one to break it as he stood up and brushed himself off. He let loose a long, drawn out sigh before nodding once. “Yeah… That’s what I thought you’d say. I apologize for offending you. Take an hour off to relax and stretch, then we’ll resume.”
One foot in front of the other, and he was already walking away before Matsumoto could comprehend the fact that her taichou had apologized for offending her. He did that on a daily basis, often with great pleasure, and she returned everything he threw at her. It was supposed to be fun. It wasn’t anymore.
“Matsumoto. Don’t change. When the time comes, I’ll make the choice for you. So just be patient, and don’t change.”
With that, he stepped into shunpo and disappeared from the underground training facility. Slowly she pulled herself to her feet, running fingers through long, maple bangs as she stared at the now vacant spot before her.
“Where did that come from…?”
~*~
It was getting late, but it was hardly dark. Street lights and signs lit the way as a group of six looked around in thinly veiled anticipation. The tension in the air was palpable, though they remained impossibly casual as the minutes ticked on.
“Ne, ne? Feel him yet? I’m getting boooored!”
“‘Old your bloody ‘orses. It’s gonna ‘appen tonight; a coupla minutes won’t make a difference.”
“But I can taste all of the reiatsu on the wind…. Makes me all excited, y’know? To think when we got stuck with this sort of assignment, I thought we’d gotten the short end of the stick.”
“Ke. We did. Think of all the fun they’re having in Soul Society right now….”
“Aw, it’s not as bad as all that, is it?”
“…He’s here.”
And everyone silenced as the man they’d been waiting for stepped out of the shadows, a killer smile stretching across his lips. “Been waitin’ long, have ya?” the man drawled cheerfully. No one dared answer.
“S’alright. Ya know what yer all here fer. I jus’ got one rule for ya all before I let ya have yer fun….”
~*~
A loud, derisive snort escaped his lips as a vein pulsed painfully in his forehead.
Meet me on Thursday, she’d yelled. He hadn’t been there. He would have thought she’d dealt with that sort of thing enough to understand. Unfortunately, he’d forgotten one very important detail. Understanding was not the same as acceptance, and Kurosaki Karin was far too much like her older brother to be healthy for her.
And so, really, Hitsugaya had to wonder if it was his fault when, after a long walk out of his gigai and a brief meeting concerning everyone’s locations and the patrol radius for the night, he felt the very distinct reiatsu of Kurosaki Karin hiding behind the sign announcing Karakura Park. Watching that tuft of cropped, black hair sticking tauntingly out above the cement sign, as if just begging him to notice, was perhaps the most aggravating thing he’d had to deal with since he’d arrived in Karakura. And that was really saying something when Urahara was your acting landlord.
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kick your ass straight back home.”
Karin jumped nearly two feet in the air at the voice, peering over the top of the sign to see who had threatened her. When she realized it was him, she smiled. Great. Just great. Now she was getting smug about it. “Man, Ichi-nii’s rubbing off on you.”
Hitsugaya did not want to hear that. “That’s not a valid reason.”
“Che,” the young girl huffed as she stood up straight, arms folding across her chest in a perfect imitation of the shinigami before her. “How else was I supposed to get anybody’s attention, huh? If even you’re gonna ditch me, then I’ve got no choice but to make you come.”
Grinding his teeth, he took a step forward. She had used that same excuse when she kicked that stupid soccer ball at him. “If I can sense you, other people can too. Did you stop and think about that one?”
“Well, now we’re getting somewhere,” she smirked triumphantly. “What other people? I want some answers already. What’s going on?”
“Go home.”
It became crystal clear she had no idea what she was getting into when she marched the distance between them and grabbed his haori in tight, angry fists, glaring him directly in the eye. “I’m not going anywhere until someone tells me what’s going on, and you’re the only one who’s even gotten close! You said there was a war or something, right? Something like that… That wouldn’t make Ichi-nii this anxious!”
Oh, so it was Kurosaki’s fault. Figured. “War does that to people,” he intoned dryly, removing her hands from their death grip.
“Fighting makes him run off without telling us anything. It doesn’t make him fidget around the house and act like the baby sitter from hell.”
Hitsugaya blinked. And blinked again. Kurosaki … the baby sitter from hell? The imagery afforded to him by that simple statement finally robbed him of whatever self control he still desperately clung to, and the infamously stoic Tenth Division taichou Hitsugaya Toushirou laughed. It was a short, strangled snort of a laugh, but it was a laugh none-the-less, and when Karin heard it, she couldn’t hold back a chuckle of her own.
“Yeah,” she smirked. “It really is that bad.”
Maybe it was the fact that she’d proven she really did need to know or she’d never stay where she was safe. Maybe it was because the image of Kurosaki wearing an apron running and yelling after two bratty kids had left him semi-dazed. Maybe he was just too damn tired to care anymore. Whatever the reason for his decision, if he had known how much he’d regret it, he would have dragged the girl kicking and screaming all the way home. Unfortunately, he didn’t know, and so he only sighed and finally gave in to Kurosaki Karin’s demands.
“Very well. If that’s what it takes to keep you from running away from home every night, then so be it,” he huffed, making sure to sound slightly more agitated than he really was. “The upcoming war, while it is a dire threat, isn’t our first priority at the moment. When that time comes, we’ll actually be prepared. As it is, it is very likely that an ambush is on its way, one we won’t sense until it’s too late, and we have no means of gaining any back-up support.”
“Huh? Why?” Karin pressed, dark brows furrowed in concern.
“The why doesn’t matter,” he huffed, meeting her eye to eye. “Just understand that no one with any level of detectable reiatsu, including you, should be alone right now.”
“What about you?”
She received a frustrated snort for her accusation. “That’s different. I was in between locations; I wasn’t standing out here making myself a perfect target.”
“In between locations is a perfect place to be ambushed,” she pouted in return before smirking triumphantly. “Besides, I’m with you. I’m not alone.”
“Damn it!” he cursed, Karin’s smirk vanishing to make way for confusion as the small shinigami suddenly tensed. “I’m the last person you want to be protecting you right now! Come on!” He grabbed her wrist, fully intending to shunpo to Kurosaki’s home and demand to be told how she’d gotten past them all, but he never got the chance.
The moment he moved to leave, a cero beam erupted between them, and he only had enough time to yank the girl out of the way before it rocketed past, effectively eliminating a large tree behind them.
Teal-green eyes darted frantically in the direction the blast had originated and came to halt on the form of what could only be an arrancar. Messy black hair stuck out in every direction to frame a well tanned face, pale orange eyes watching him and Kurosaki’s sister in disdain. The body was lean and fit, clothed in typical Hueco Mundo garb excepting for the addition of projecting slits around his wrists that almost looked like talons. His zanpakutou was sitting horizontally against his back just under the characteristic hole, and a bony protrusion followed the right side of his jaw before curving upward to a point. If his expression was any indication, he wasn’t pleased.
“Ke. Of all the people I could’ve come after, I just had to get the two smallest brats of the bunch,” he grumbled, more to himself than to either of his chosen victims. But then he looked up, pointing to Karin. “Oi. You, girl. Your name isn’t Rangiku, is it?”
“Uh … no. It’s Karin….” Her voice was quiet but still there. Good.
“Well, isn’t that just a silver lining. At least I can have fun with you brats.”
Hitsugaya clenched his teeth as he reached for Hyourinmaru, pulling himself back up to his full height. Not exactly impressive, but at least it was better than staying crouched in the grass. “What do you want with Matsumoto?” he seethed, his tone deadly.
Unfortunately, this arrancar seemed immune. The pale, pumpkin colored eyes locked onto him, and a mocking smile rose to the arrancar’s thin lips. “I don’t want anything to do with her. Besides, we have orders not to touch her. You, on the other hand… That’s a pretty big zanpakutou for someone your size, huh?” the creature sneered. “That must make you the little taichou. Maybe this won’t be so bad after all.”
Little taichou. The young shinigami bit down, hard. Ichimaru Gin.
He pointed Hyourinmaru’s blade directly toward the intruder’s chest. “If anyone so much as misplaces a hair on her head…”
But before he could even finish, the arrancar was already laughing. “Kekeke! What the hell do you think you could do about it?! If I killed her now, right in front of you, you still wouldn’t be able to do a damn thing! You’ve got less reiatsu than your little girlfriend!”
Instinctively, his free hand traveled to the collar still situated around his neck. It was his last line of defense against whatever Ichimaru had done to him; it was also what made him completely and utterly devoid of spiritual power. Damn it! This was exactly what he had needed to avoid.
When he didn’t reply, the arrancar laughed again. “That shut you up, didn’t it, Toushirou? Ke.” He bent his arm back to retrieve his own zanpakutou, sliding two fingers down the glistening blade. “Well, now that I know your names, it’s only fair I give you mine. You can call me Buitre; I am one of the Raptores. And this,” he indicated the zanpakutou, “is your new king.”
Shit.
Hitsugaya knew exactly what was about to happen, and he knew he had no time to waste. He dove for Kurosaki’s sister, not even bothering to look at her before pulling her along with him. They didn’t make it very far.
“Rodea, Rey de Carroña.”
A spiral of wind with the force of a brick wall blocked their chosen escape route, and as the young taichou whirled around, he quickly realized it was blocking every escape route. Hair and clothes flew violently about their persons, and tree branches, litter, anything not bolted to the ground was thrown about in the veritable twister that now surrounded them.
He couldn’t see a damn thing.
“Toushirou!” It took him a moment to realize it was Karin who was calling out. Had he ever told her his name…? “What the hell is going on?! What’d he do?!”
“Just stay down!” he shouted back, over the thrashing, howling wind.
He could feel her shift position next to him, but not a second later she jerked back into his side, screaming. “Behind you!”
They both tumbled down just in time to see a giant weapon swoop overhead with the rest of the debris. He’d only seen it for a second, but that was all it took to realize how deadly it was. The main body was nothing but a round, metal circlet the size of a person’s head, but spinning around the circlet were two, curved, sickle-like blades, each one almost a meter in length and half as wide.
“Like it, do you?” sneered the arrancar, Buitre. Hitsugaya couldn’t see him, damn it! He was hiding in the dense winds. Either that, or he was outside of them altogether. “By all means, take a closer look.”
He pushed Karin down to the ground, not even hearing her protests as the swirling blades flew toward them again. A glint of light, a vortex of sound next to his ear, and the sickles burst past. He saw the spray of blood before he felt the pain.
“Toushirou!”
Blood was splattered all down her front, but none of it was hers. Thank goodness. His shoulder was split clean through, the blood dripping down the length of his arm. It was his left, not his sword arm. He could still wield Hyourinmaru effectively. Military mind running on overdrive, he cursed himself for his stupidity and vulnerability. He searched frantically for any way out, any strategy that would keep them alive. The dog tag attached to the collar jingled erratically in the rushing wind, but he refused to acknowledge it.
There had to be another way out. He just had to think of it.
Karin was on her feet again, and Hitsugaya hastily moved to cover as much of her as he could. “Knock it off, would ya?” she insisted with a light shove. “I can’t see when you do that.”
“See?” he hissed in frustration. This definitely wasn’t helping.
“There’s this flicker before the thing comes flying at us! I think it’s that guy in the wind!”
Knowing where it would come from would help, but they couldn’t dodge forever, and if he couldn’t fight back, they’d be left with only the option of enduring until help came. If help came. Hitsugaya sincerely doubted this arrancar was the only one. Damn, damn, damn. Maybe they could still use it to their advantage. If they moved at just the right moment, maybe they could expand the flicker, disrupt the wind flow, and make a run for it.
There!
A flicker in the wind, and Hitsugaya forced his companion out of the way as the weapon careened past them. She was right.
What happened after this revelation was all very, very fast. One moment he was opening his mouth to ask just how fast she could run, and the next he felt an unexpected weight push against his back followed by the sharp point of a blade digging into his flesh. Eyes wide as his mind supplied the only explanation, he pulled away to another spray of blood and whirled around just in time to catch Kurosaki Karin before she slumped to the ground, one of the blades piercing her clean through. More blood than ever was now flying through the wind, scattering her dying life force across the small, city park.
It had detached. One of the sickles had detached from the ring and skewered her.
And he had let it happen.
He’d been so busy trying to find a way out that he hadn’t considered the possibilities of what could happen within. There was no soul connected by a chain. She was so damn stubborn, and she was clinging to life like a child to its mother. But she didn’t have much time, no matter how stubbornly she struggled. And it was his fault. There were a million and one things he could have done differently to avoid this.
That finally clinched it.
Carefully, he set Karin down in the middle of the spiraling vortex of wind. As soon as he was sure she wouldn’t move, he stood up once again and grasped the specially prepared dog collar. Urahara had given it to him with a promise of at least two more weeks. Now he was going to give that time to Kurosaki’s sister.
A fierce tug ripped it right off and sent it sailing on the wind with the other debris.
Holding Hyourinmaru at the ready, determined to block out the pain that still assailed his shoulder and back, he called upon the last vestiges of his strength and went through with his final, desperate option.
“Set upon the frozen heavens, Hyourinmaru!”
~*~
Matsumoto Rangiku’s head instantly shot upward, forgetting all about her prior frustration.
Her taichou had told her they would resume training in an hour. It had been two, and she was on the verge of stalking after him and demanding to know what could have possibly distracted him. But there was no reason to do that now. The answer was crystal clear.
Hitsugaya Toushirou had just released his shikai.
She didn’t look back as she raced neither past a frowning Urahara Kisuke, nor as she side-stepped Shihouin Yoruichi and the kids. She shunpo’d right out of the underground training facility, bulldozed into Urahara Shoten, and phased through the tiled roof before speeding toward her taichou’s reiatsu signature.
“Nuh-uh. Not yet, ya don’,” scolded a painfully familiar voice, and Rangiku instantly stepped out of shunpo, bracing her feet on a floor of air. “Not after I worked so hard ta get ya all ta myself.”
Her teeth ground shut when the former Third Division taichou stepped unabashedly out in front of her. “Gin.”
“Ran-chan. S’been a long time.”
“What the hell are you doing here?”
The silver haired man cocked his head playfully, his ever-present smile glinting in the gray light of the coming dusk. “What? Ya mean he didn’ tell ya? I warned ‘im to look after his pretty fukutaichou. I guess he wasn’ listenin’.”
Matsumoto had her hand on Haineko, though she doubted she’d be able to win such a confrontation. She couldn’t give up, not with her taichou out there. At his words, however, he grip on the feline zanpakutou slackened ever so slightly. “Gin… You…?”
“Yare, yare. C’mon, Ran-chan. Did’ja think Aizen would go outta his way ta play wit’ the little taichou?”
Ichimaru Gin smiled.
All Rangiku wanted to do was cry.
~*~
Spanish Index:
Buitre - Vulture
Raptores - Birds of prey
Rodea, Rey de Carroña. - Encircle (Surround), Carrion King.