Hi again! Here is the third installment of my series. It follows Frosted Veil and Heart of Ice so if you haven't read those you may wan to. I haven't finished the whole story (though I'm about 11000 words in) so please give feedback and if there is anything you would like to suggest please do! So far the story is featuring Toshiro, Kain, Grimmjow, Hie (my OC), Ichigo, Renji, Yuoichi, Rukia, Uryu, Chad and Urahara. Will probably work Rangiku and others into it later.
"Ichigo!" Karin screamed her brother's name as he fell from the sky, crashing into the turf of the soccer field. In the sky, ringed by a black shadow, stood a creature of unfathomable power. She regarded him as a creature because though in every other sense he looked like a man, his face was twisted with evil in every way. Black eyes that poked through even blacker wisps of hair. A long, thin nose pointing to a wicked smile and jagged teeth. And shimmering in one hand was an ebony sword, the edge just as jagged and twisted as its master. He had appeared from nowhere, attacked, and now Ichigo lay barely breathing on the earth, his own blood running down his throat and choking him.
"Ichigo!" The girl cried again, rushing to his side and tilting his head so the air could reach his lungs.
"Just...run..." She ignored his plea and set her hands on his stomach where the cruel blade had penetrated him.
"Hold on." She felt the consciousness inside her soul, Koorimizu, and willed her to guide her power. With no formal training, the only things Karin could do were those things that were instinctual. And growing up in a clinic, healing was definitely instinctual. Ichigo sputtered blood but felt the cool sensation of water flowing into him. It was not actually water, he knew, but that was how it felt, when his sister's spirit entered him.
"Enough." the voice was immediately above them. The enemy had reached their side without them even knowing. The creature made a fist in Karin's hair and hauled her away.
"Bastard!" Ichigo rolled to his side and tried to sit up. The blade struck him before he could even see it. Only the trail of his own blood on the tip of the black blade could be seen, arcing through the air, coming down for a second, final blow.
"Stop!" The word struck the air, a force of its own, and just behind it came a thin vein of ice, spreading through the air like frost on a window pane. As fragile as it appeared, the dark blade was stopped, just before it fell on Ichigo's neck. Karin dropped from the creature's grasp, her arms still outstretched in the effort.
"Well," came the gravelly voice of their foe, "you really are our kin."
"Kin...?" She whispered the word as if it were a sin to say, her head turning slowly to face the creature.
"Indeed, you will fit in very well with us." he sheathed his sword, ignoring the barely conscious strawberry-headed boy still sputtering on the ground and this time, reached out and took Karin's hand. "Come home now, Karin, and," his hand darted forward before she could react, resting on her chest, "Koorimizu."
Her heart felt very cold at hearing another speak her soul's name. She was stunned for a moment and her body moved robotically forward as the creature lead her away.
"Karin no!" her brother's cry snapped her back to reality and she pulled back.
"Do not struggle." Commanded her captor, yanking her forcefully.
"Hmmm. Aren't you an interesting one." The voice floated across the playing field melodically. Both the girl and her enemy turned. "But, no matter how much you intrigue me, I think its time you go." A man in wooden clogs, a green cloak and striped hat stood pointing a cane at them. "But one thing. What is your name?"
"They call me Hie. Now prepare to die old man." The enemy shot forward, dragging Karin with him. However, the moment he reached the clog wearing man, his body slumped lifelessly to earth. It took Hie a second to realize it was a gigai, and that second was all Kisuke Urahara needed. He brought his zampakuto down, slicing through the arm that held Karin. Hie reeled back in agony, but the second blow rang harmlessly off his darkly veiled skin.
"Hmm." Said Kisuke as he scooped Karin into his arms. "It seems that your shield only drops when you touch another. I'll have to remember that." The shop keeper leapt away before the enraged being could strike with his sword-wielding hand. A blast rocket toward the three, and releasing Karin into her brother's arms, the former squad 12 captain raised Benihime before him, calling on his bankai.
It was not enough.
Struck by nearly the full force of Hie's attack, the shopkeeper was sent flying, over the heads of the Kurosaki's and into a berm at the end of the field. His body lay smoking and broken. Ichigo's heart dropped. Surely, the great Urahara could not be dead? Hie stood back, satisfied. He flexed the stump of his arm and in matter of seconds the missing limb regenerated. He smiled.
"Is that everyone? Anymore insects want to interfere?"
Ichigo leant protectively over Karin who now trembled uncontrollably after witnessing the violence done to Kisuke.
"No one? Good. Now I will take my prize and leave."
"Prize? That implies that you've won." Karin stilled a little in her brother's arms and her soul leapt out of joy.
"Toshiro!" she nearly sobbed his name.
"Sorry, I'm late." He tried to smile but his eye caught Kisuke's form on the hill. His jaw clenched and he faced the enemy. "Who are you?"
"I'm past the introductions kid, tell me who you are."
"Fine. I'm Toshiro Hitsugaya, Captain– "
"Of squad 10, my this is a lucky day." Hie darted forward at lightning speed, even faster than Toshiro could move, and grabbed the little captain around both arms. "Of course, this silver light!" and one hand shot to his chest. "And the ice dragon!" Toshiro gasped as the foreign consciousness touched his soul. "The hybrid-boy-genius, the silver-prodigy, the heart of ice, we have many names for you in our realm, and we have been dying to make your acquaintance." Toshiro swallowed against the shock and pain of Hie's soul invading his own. It was not unlike the feeling of Kuortsuchi's foreign raiti entering him. Hyorinmaru reeled back, his heart pounded unevenly.
"Bankai!" He pushed the creature back, and released Hyorinmaru, the ice wings spreading through the air, the shimmering sword glinting in his fist. He breathed in the cool air in great gasps until his zampakuto settled, his heartbeat slowed. "Goodbye, nameless creature." Breathed Hitsugaya, his breath puffing out before him. Ichigo shivered, the captain's power was so vast that the cold could not be contained. Silver struck ebony. The dark blade splintered, then shattered into dust.
Hie stood unarmed and unphased. The shattering of his zampakuto had no effect. He raised his empty arms into the air. Toshiro paused.
"Do you yield?"
A slow chuckle rippled out Hie's throat. "Oh, you are so young. 'The boy genius' they call you, but you seem to be a bit slow on the uptake. That was not my zampakuto." And he lunged forward, Toshiro reacting a split second later. Hand met blade but in truth it was steel against steel, zampkuto against zampakuto. Again and again Hie deflected the ghostly blade, his shadowy aura solidifying. The two beings became locked together in their fierce battle, and no one but they could hear their words.
"Where is your zampakuto? What was that sword?" yelled Hitsugaya over the roar of their own spiritual pressure.
"That thing? Just an old piece of metal I had lying around. The trick is letting your power reach over the object, making it your weapon."
"And your zampakuto?"
"I don't have one. At least, not one that can manifest." And he moved with wicked speed, the battle had been nothing to him, he had just been indulging Toshiro. Hie held Hyorinmaru at bay with one hand, and the other gabbed Toshiro's wrist and forced it over his chest. The small captain struggled to get away, but Hie's strength was undeniably the more powerful. "Feel for yourself!"
Toshiro tried vainly to rip his hand away but he couldn't stop the connection being made. Hyorinmaru evaporated from his hand, filling his heart and suddenly he could see into Hie's soul, into that secret place no one else should see. It was a very cold place. No light save that which radiated from Hyorinmaru's inner glow. Toshiro was aware that they were still on the battlefield, aware that their battle had ended and now they stood in near silence, joined together. But at the same time he saw this dark world, and he felt the consciousness of the soul that lived there.
He felt terribly afraid.
"Hello, little one." Came an invisible voice, low and croaky like a grandmother's. And the darkness flickered, he saw the edge of light somewhere, like light peeking under a door. Hyorinmaru snorted nervously. "You fight well, but you have torn your soul and that can never be undone. However, you belong with us, you are not a soul reaper any more, you are a hybrid, and we can teach you how to use your power."
Toshiro remained silent, still trying to track the sound.
"Don't you have a voice?"
He relented. "Why did you attack my friends?"
"Oh, so you do speak, wonderful." Something brushed past him and he jumped back startled. "Oh don't be afraid, I won't bite." Now the voice was right behind him, and before he could react he felt thin arms wrap around him. She was half formed– a head and shoulders and arms, but below that she was a sort of black mist. The room lit up as she furled all her mist around him, like ropes that bound him in place. Her face was grey, her eyes just dark spots. Hyroinmaru roared but could not move, the black mist has surrounded him as well. Toshiro remained calm and let his waking eyes remind him he was still on the field. Collecting himself, he spoke again.
"My friends."
"Oh yes. Well we merely invited the girl to come with us. She is our sister, and belongs with her own kind. As do you. The two of you should be very happy in our realm."
"And who exactly are you, and where is your realm?"
"We do not name ourselves, but you might describe us as whole-beings. We are human, like dear Karin, but could not live out our normal lives on Earth. As for our world, you'll find out when you get there."
"You're human?"
"Yes dear." he felt a wisp of the shadow run through his hair like fingers. "But, with the powers we discovered, we have become immortal...among other things. We will never pass into your afterlife, and that is why you intrigue us so. You share our power, but you are dead."
"Then just leave us alone and go back to your realm."
"We cannot."
"Why not?"
"We must not abandon our kin."
"We are not your kin. What do you and your people want? What are your goals?"
"Oh you will learn all of that, dear child, when we get home."
"Enough." He tried to shrug her off but it was no use. "I've heard enough. Let me go!" He felt himself screaming in the real world. His vision split between the battle field and this place. "Hyorinmaru!"
The ice dragon double its efforts to break free, his tail swung and struck the old woman. Toshiro staggered as his consciousness returned completely to his body, Hyorinmaru to his heart. Hie seemed to have felt the blow as well and stepped back a few paces, though he maintained his vice grip on Toshiro's wrist.
Karin and Ichigo had watched the scene from where they crouched on the ground. Both men looked shaken from whatever had taken place between them just now. Now, Toshiro was struggling to get his hand away from the other man. There was no sword in his palm, just the silver glow of Hyorinmaru's spirit.
"Little one, you'll never succeed. Kazi and I have you."
"Like hell!" he reproduced Hyorinmaru in his right hand and swung. Hie smiled. No matter his will, his power, his determination to save Karin, Toshiro could never match that speed. There was a hand around his blade, but not like before, not a deflection. It was grasping his very spirit, and as Hie squeezed the blade, he felt in the same moment fingers around his heart.
"As I said, you are young, and have much to learn. This will be your first lesson." He yank the sword from its master. The moment the shimmering katana separated from Toshiro's hand it turned solid, like the blade of old. As Hie pulled it away, the fingers clenched around Toshiro's heart and he felt a distinct tug. He fell forward in shock, now only supported by leaning against Hie. His head fell forward and looking down he saw the chain of Hyoriunmaru's hilt, dangling from his chest and up to the blade. Hie pulled it taught and deep inside him, Toshiro felt the bladed end resisting inside of him, pushing outward on his chest.
He had felt the pain of Aizen's blade.
He had endured the uncontrollable power of foreign raiti.
But he had never felt an agony like this.
It was pain of the body, but even more so, pain of the mind and soul. He and Hyorinmaru were one, but like this, half in and half out of one another, they were only bound by agony.
Hie released Hyorinmaru and Toshiro at the same time. They thudded to the earth, utterly paralysed by their pain.
"You'll figure out how to survive it, but you will not be able to fix it. When you can take it no more, we'll be waiting...and so will Karin." In the depths of his mind he was screaming, but his lips did not move. He lay watching as Hie disappeared and reappeared a second later with Karin in his arms. Kurosaki fell flat to the ground, another wound on his back. Karin was screaming, crying, fighting, but all the same a red light washed over her and her captor, some sort of ring from the sky, and then they were gone. Everything was still and silent, and there was nothing for him to do but lay petrified, until help came.