Author's Note: Hurrah, I actually had time to move on to chapter two! Let us see how things play out with our heroes now, shall we? Will Ichigo ever find out about the mission? Will Hitsugaya make it out alive? You'll have to wait to find out, heheheh. This chapter will be mostly centered around Hitsugaya, though.
Hueco Mundo.
Dry, barren, and deserted.
Come to think of it, Hitsugaya realized it was a lot like his own plain of ice. Except there was the fact that there was hardly any moisture at all in the air, and instead of ice and snow, he was walking on dead, gray sand.
This made him wonder, what the hell was he doing here again?
He remembered vaguely being debriefed about the mission objective and time frame. Basically, in two days, he and a few subordinates were to infiltrate Las Noches and gather information on the abilities of the Espada, then analyze them and figure out a way to counter them.
That meant he'd have to fight all ten of them, survive long enough to see all of their releases, and escape intact,
If he wasn't captured or killed first.
Now he knew why this mission was classified and so dangerous – he was practically being sent to a painful and extended death. Making his way through the dimensional gate that had led them from Soul Society to Hueco Mundo had felt like a walk to the gallows.
"Be careful," he murmured, turning to the three subordinates that had been instructed to accompany him, "Follow my lead and don't attack unless I command you to."
"Yes, sir."
With a sigh, the young captain turned back around to face forward. "Las Noches should be a half-day's walk from here," he said, "But we should take it slow so we don't waste our energy or strength. We're going to need it later."
And so they walked.
And walked.
And walked.
The dry air was soon taking its toll on the wielder of Soul Society's strongest ice-type zanpakuto, and despite the little effort it took to walk, Hitsugaya soon found himself gasping for breath and struggling to breathe.
He faltered, coughing with a hand pressed to his chest, panting heavily.
Why the hell did he, out of all people, have to be deployed to this damn desert of all places?
"Hitsugaya-taichou!"
"Are you alright, Hitsugaya-taichou?"
"I'm fine," he murmured as his subordinates rushed to his side, moving to support their pretty young captain. "It…It's nothing. We should keep moving."
That was when he suddenly felt it.
A crushing, foul reiatsu that nearly knocked him off balance.
Shouting in confused panic, he could see his subordinates falling on all sides, overwhelmed by the massive reiatsu.
Hitsugaya's grip on the front of his robes tightened against his chest until his knuckles had turned a ghastly shade of white to rival his hair.
Then, it hit him.
He couldn't breathe.
He felt as if the air moving into his lungs was being snatched away before it could reach its destination. Gasping for breath, he choked. He felt as if his chest was being squeezed and crushed by a huge hand. Panting, the boy wheezed helplessly, his sight beginning to blur as dark spots swam in his vision.
As he looked up, his blood instantly ran cold.
He knew that face, That face of a figure who had suddenly appeared before them. The smugly smiling source of this foul reiatsu…Aizen Sosuke himself.
"A…Aizen…"
"Looks like you're having trouble there, Hitsugaya-kun," the traitor smiled, speaking in a smooth, even voice as he took a step forward.
With a whimper, he weakly sank to his knees in the dark sand, still struggling for breath.
"Hitsugaya-taichou!" one of his subordinates cried out, starting forward.
"No! Stay back-"
It was too late.
There was the sickening sound of flesh being torn apart, and the next instant later, hot, crimson blood splattered across the sand, a few drops landing on the horrified captain's face, hands, and clothes, as well as the ones of his remaining subordinates.
With a shriek of pain, the shinigami fell to the floor, his midsection torn open.
Eyes wide and rigid with shock, Hitsugaya glanced from his fallen subordinate back up to Aizen. The man had barely even moved. Shit. The mission hadn't even technically started yet, and already, they were in some really, really, really deep shit.
Hitsugaya forced himself forward, moving to the aid of his fatally wounded subordinate. Maybe, if he focused a good amount of reiatsu into it, he'd still be able to save the man's life.
Before he could reach the injured shinigami, Aizen intercepted, shunpo'ing between them. The white-haired boy didn't even have time to react as with terrifying speed, the ex-captain of the fifth division reached forward and seized him by his snow-colored locks.
"Let me go, you bastard!" he demanded, struggling wildly, emitting a pitiful yelp of pain as the man gave the locks he had a hold on a hard twist. He reached for Hyorinmaru, only to find Aizen's free hand shooting forward to grab both his wrists, preventing him from using his hands.
"Don't touch me!" he shrieked, hysterical, struggling wildly to wrench free from captor's iron grip, but to no avail. He had to get to his bleeding subordinate now, or it would soon be too late to do anything about his wounds. "Let go of me!"
He looked into the man's maddeningly satisfied eyes, trying to pull away from him with an angry snarl. But it felt like Aizen's very gaze was sucking the life out of him. His eyes were wide as saucers as Aizen released his wrists, which fell limply to his sides.
He couldn't move.
"On your knees, Hitsugaya-kun," Aizen ordered calmly. Hitsugaya didn't move, and with his hand still holding onto his hair, the traitor forced the defenseless boy back onto his knees in the sand.
"You…You son of a bitch…" he choked out, only to be answered to with a swift backhand across the face, a small gasp of pain escaping his lips.
"Let go of Hitsugaya-taichou, you monster!" one of the remaining subordinates shouted, drawing his katana upon seeing their captain being degraded before their eyes.
Aizen raised an eyebrow.
This subordinate, too, was dead before he could even blink. Now two bloody corpses were strewn on the blood-tainted desert sand.
"One more little insect to take care of," Aizen smiled, his gaze turning to the last one of Hitsugaya's subordinates left alive.
"What do you want with Hitsugaya-taichou!?" he demanded, "Release him!"
"What do I want?" Aizen repeated. "Unlike you, Hitsugaya-kun interests me quite a bit," he answered smoothly, "He has power I want…and he's quite the little beauty, don't you agree?"
"You…"
"Enough chit-chat. Now, you can go die, too-"
"N-No!" Hitsugaya spluttered, "Let him live Aizen, I beg of you…Please, don't hurt him."
A wide smile spread across the traitor's face. "Very well then, since Hitsugaya-kun wishes it so deeply, I will let you live," he spoke, facing the shinigami. "Go back to that miserable cockroach hole you call the Seireitei and tell those other worthless insects that their precious, pretty little tenth division captain…belongs to me now."
Then, slowly and deliberately, Aizen reached down to the sash that held Hyorinmaru across Hitsugaya's back, his fingers stopping at the small, sun-shaped pin that fastened it in place.
"What an interesting little item," he mused, "I wonder where you could have gotten it…It looks quite pricey. A family heirloom, perhaps? No, a little boy from the Rukongai wouldn't even dream of being able to touch something like this, let alone have it in his family. Maybe you stole it? No, Hitsugaya-kun, you are much too dignified to be a thief."
"Don't touch it," Hitsugaya managed to snarl through gritted teeth.
The smirk on the traitor's face widened.
"What, does it mean that much to you?" he inquired in a sickeningly smooth tone. "I see where you got it now. You received it as gift, didn't you?" He leaned downwards until his lips were right next to Hitsugaya's ear before continuing in a low, smug whisper, "A gift from a lover…that Kusaka Sojiro, perhaps?"
Hitsugaya didn't answer.
How he hated this man, how he despised him to the very core. He hated everything about him, from the unpleasant, eerie cold he felt whenever he touched him, to the sickeningly smug way he seemed to know exactly what he was thinking and just how to get on his nerves. How to scare the hell out of him, and how mercilessly he did it.
"You don't want to talk to me, I see," Aizen finally spoke. "Well, then I guess you have no more need for this little trinket."
His hold on the pin tightened, and in a swift, fluid motion, he tore it from the sash, the green material falling gracefully to the sand, Hyorinmaru following soon after with a dull thud.
"Take this back to your superiors as my evidence that their little tenth division captain is still alive and well," Aizen spoke, his tone hardening as he addressed the only surviving subordinate, who seemed rooted to the spot with terror. He threw the pin at the subordinate's feet, the smile never leaving his face. "…But tell them that it might not stay like that for very long."