Title: Diamond Turned Dust
Time line: Pre-series to Soul Society arc
Summary: AU. It isn't for humanitarian reasons he approaches him the first time. Nevertheless, that's how their friendship starts no matter how one-sided it may seem.
Spoilers: spoilers for Diamond Dust Rebellion
Rating: T
Pairing: none
Chapters: 1/2
A.N.: What possibly could have happened if Kusaka Soujiro was the one to survive?
.
It isn't for humanitarian reasons that he approached him for the first time. In fact, it was forced and awkward. No one was willing to pair up with the strange boy with white hair, the instructor had simply thrown the two together and expected them to work with each other and learn to be a team.
Kusaka had flushed under the sniggers and indignity of having a younger student attached at his hip. This was the first time they would go out and face real hollows on the field (as weak-leveled as they were supposed to be) to purify them. He hadn't needed a resident reject to slow him down!
The thought had seemed justified then, it just shamed him now.
Months on end they learn, train, practice, and struggle to catch up to one another, Hitsugaya to Kusaka's longer legs and Kusaka to Hitsugaya's greater skill. Hitsugaya isn't just good, he is a genius. Anyone could see it from the way he moved, the flawless way he controlled his power usage so it wouldn't go to waste. He had seen many of his fellow students fall in exhaustion during training long before their time because of the energy management. But Hitsugaya had never seemed to tire even amidst the crowd of taller, stronger, and smarter (supposedly) seniors. In fact he was always one of the few to get past the obstacle course to stare down a Hollow several times (several hundred times) his size. He never even flinched when its gaping mouth opened wide to swallow him whole.
One time Kusaka had fallen, a cut tendon in his right leg when he stood too close to a faux Hollow and it had blown up. Another Hollow (again, a training dummy) had landed cumbersomely beside him ready to deal him the blow that could have possibly taken his head off. His friends had all stood in a half-circle out of the Hollow's range and tried vainly to awaken their spineless soul cutters.
Hitsugaya had jumped in front of him without a preamble.
He didn't even bat an eye when the pieces of Hollow dummy fell all around him broken in pieces.
After that, all barriers dissolved as they tended to do when person A saves person B. Kusaka begins to actually hang out with Hitsugaya during meal breaks or after class. It isn't long before they become the best of friends.
-
He grabs Toushiro's hand and dances. It's only when the younger boy doesn't pull away after the initial protest he realizes how attention-starved the 'ghost' of Shinigami Academy is.
From that point on he compliments the younger boy as much as he can get away with—as much as Toushiro is willing to accept. He and Toushiro do nearly everything together. People begin to notice, other students now sneer when he walks past them in the halls. Kusaka doesn't care, not really. He is sad that he isn't as close to as his other friends as before but is more disappointed in them than in himself.
Teachers praise him for befriending such a lonely boy; instructors approve his choice of a strong comrade. On the weekend he receives a package from Momo Hinamori, Toushiro's adopted sister. He thinks there's been a mistake until Toushiro explains the gift with an embarrassed scowl. Kusaka sets the package down beside him gently before pouncing and giving Toushiro the noogie of his life. Toushiro yelps loudly but smiles when Kusaka discovered to his delight he has received colored rice cakes.
When they discover the names of their soul cutters it should have been the happiest point of their lives. But they know, their story is finally at its end. Their zampakuto turn out to be identical and as soon as the tail of Kusaka's Hyourinmaru disappears into the night, the headmaster comes up to the duo with a grim faced look.
-
They spend the rest of their night in the confinements of a cell. Hands bound, they quietly whisper plans of escape into each other's ear. Each plan is more ludicrous than the last. Their Hyourinmarus (almost identical but not quite) lay out of reach behind the thick, wooden bars. Their fingers burn every time they touch the specially erected barrier. In the end they fall asleep in the early hours of morning, pressed tight against each other's side.
Morning comes and they are led out like fugitives. The restraints come free and they are handed back their respective zampakutos. They silently (discreetly) exchange them back, Hitsugaya with his thinner sword and Kusaka with his broader, longer one. The somber first division officers flanking them, they enter the corridors of Central 46 Chambers.
The conditions were simple written in ink. No two shinigami may possess the same soul cutter. One must kill the other and take the soul cutter as his or her own.
Kusaka stands with a stunned look on his face and Toushiro protests vehemently,
"I won't fight him; I'd rather denounce my claim."
The judges' voices blur into soft rumblings. The commander-general spits out questions to which Toushiro answered for him. He noticed the ring of darkness closing down upon them and realizes that they are the Special Forces. He shook his head, marveling at the naivety of his younger friend. He unsheathes his double of Hyourinmaru from the obi around his waist and pointed it at Toushiro's face.
"Draw your sword Hitsugaya." He says with deceptive calm. He sees the men drawing back and gives an internal sigh of relief. "I want Hyourinmaru." Toushiro looks stricken and almost fragile in his delicate youth. But he too grips Hyourinmaru's hilt in his hands, thin fingers clawing the woven design. The vessels of reiatsu burst into blades of icy white light. Kusaka wants nothing more than to blame it, the notorious dragon of the snow and ice family.
The two Hyourinmarus roar before canceling each other out. They fight, with nothing more than useless steel and kidou crackling in their palms. Kusaka has an advantage in height and Toushiro in his ingenuity. Kusaka can simply raise his head to avoid a vicious slash to his neck. Toushiro can freeze the floor in uneven slopes until the older boy inevitably slips and falls.
Kusaka knee folds and their katanas meet grinding against each other. The screech of metal on metal hurts their ears but they do not part. It's almost like daily training exercise only they had so much more to lose than an extra sweet at lunch.
They grit their teeth, push at each other and call upon the one who started it all
"Sit upon the frozen heavens, Hyourinmaru!"
-
Kusaka kneels defeated, his fingers still wrapped tightly around Hyourinmaru. His right eye burns, seared shut with pearly frost and Kusaka knows this is the end. He trains his eyes towards the demure feet and extends his neck until the first few knobs of his spine are bared. Helpless tears pool at the corner of his eyes before solidifying into erose snowflakes. He awaits his prize; he prays that it will be quick.
"No"
The temperature drops even further, spiraling down until even he has trouble breathing. The black operative soldiers are blown backwards. Toushiro stands (perfectly) in front of him, a frown scrunching up his nose as his sword hand shakes. Hyourinmaru seems to tremble with the said limb; he feels the echo of the dragon's roar deep inside him. His katana too seems to be moving, like a stiff tail of a serpent longing to be free. "No."
Toushiro's eyes roll and Kusaka swears he is the only one who sees it. He has never seen the stoic boy fear, be afraid of anything at all. But if there was a once of such emotion in the boy's tiny body, it rears its ugly head now in the oceanic green. Their loose clothing ruffles around their limbs, Kusaka bows down even further as his hand unconsciously clenches around Hyourinmaru's blade. His hand bleeds and the pain wakes him long enough from the cold to witness the series of events that will change his life forever.
"Bankai," Toushiro pivots on his foot and turns his back towards Kusaka. Hyourinmaru is raised, the silver point aimed at the ceiling. Flowers appear seeming to materialize out of nothing but the thin air they breathe in. there are three in all, four petals for each. They float behind Hitsugaya (a countdown Kusaka realizes unconsciously) each second clarifying the painstaking detail etched in the folds.
Captain Yamamoto looks surprised, Kusaka smirks pinned to the ground in chains of ghostly frost. He would have whooped a praise of encouragement to his younger friend had he been able. More changes appear, wings of translucent ice are slung over the thin shoulders, a tail forms in a rivulet of frozen river, watery scales grow in gentle curves around Hitsugaya's wrist and ankles. Without awaiting a reaction, Toushiro leaps forward propelled by newly formed wings. The Special Forces react a second too late as Hyourinmaru thrusts itself at the Commander-General's neck, cutting the soft skin below the chin and shaving off a good portion of the off-white beard.
Captain Yamamoto jumps out of the way. Toushiro buffets his wings, turning in midair. He repels the Special Force members as he perches over Yamamoto's seat. More than half of them lay buried in ice as a lifelike statue. He glares at the 46 chamber members, defiant and terribly proud. Kusaka has never been proud of him still. Yamamoto looks peevishly surprised and smears the spot of blood against his thickly veined neck.
Without being asked, the men in black jump back and assemble shields around the pompous council members. Kusaka feels a prickle of fear along his spine, it is a sentiment shared with Hitsugaya as the boy floats down and gently lands on the rime-marbled floor. The air itself seems to wilt, sucked into an invisible vacuum. The snow and ice melts, though the wings on Hitsugaya's back remain stiff and strong. The water evaporates into vapor and then there is simply nothing left at all. Hyourinmaru has granted them his protection at least, they know the heat is real (just look at the Special Forces struggling) but it has not reached them yet.
And when the situation turns quiet as all things tend to do, the captain of the first division says softly, "Turn all of creation to ashes, Ryuujin Jakka."
Both students' eyes widen and Toushiro tilts his head away from the shining nova as if it almost hurts to look at it. Kusaka reaches out to him in vain hopes that maybe he can pull him out of the way. But his arms aren't long enough this time. The hand around Hyourinmaru clenches, nearly severing all the fingers on his left hand.
Last thing he sees of Toushiro is the way he stares back at him, spine ramrod straight as his eyes reflected amber wonderment and indecision that came with being a child.
-
Kusaka doesn't speak much after that.