Disclaimer: All credit goes to Tite Kubo & the writers of the Zanpakuto Alternative Tales arc.
Other Disclaimer: This chapter is basically a giant spoiler for episodes 238-239. I haven't actually seen this whole arc, I just watched these eps because I wanted to see the flashbacks of Hitsugaya's past. Then I wrote fanfiction about them. Anyway, if you don't want the spoiling, then don't read.
Also, this chapter has kind of a different take on Shiro & Hyori's relationship, please don't yell at me that it's wrong 'cause the whole reason I like these two so much is because I think there are many ways of interpreting their relationship, this is just one...
Thanks to everyone who subscribed/favorited, extra thanks to everyone who reviewed! FYI, I'm always looking for new chapter ideas, so if any of you have a suggestion/request for me, please do give it. Can't promise I will use it, but I'll always take them into consideration.
He was hugely vast and immensely powerful.
He was trapped.
Trapped between invisible walls that gave not the slightest bit, no matter how hard he threw himself at them again and again.
Imprisoned by a jailer who didn't even realize what he was doing.
Simple, endless frustration.
That was the creature called Hyorinmaru's existence.
Every moment, every ounce of willpower, was bent towards the one who held him prisoner. Some dim instinct told him that if he could only make the child realize who he was, he would be closer to freedom. So in the confines of that young mind, he raged and howled for recognition.
At first, the child recoiled from him. Every day Hyorinmaru heard his weak cries, "Who are you? What are you?"
"My name is Hyorinmaru!"
Over and over, the same words.
Over and over, no answer.
Until finally, the day came when there was a faint reply. "Hyorinmaru . . .?" Finally the prisoner heard his name from the jailer's mouth.
And he knew . . . knew he was zanpakuto, knew the jailer was his master.
And then he knew that the jailer had a name too. Hitsugaya Toushiro.
Hitsugaya Toushiro was confused. He was afraid. He was in pain.
No more than he deserved for holding Hyorinmaru captive, pushing him away while he screamed to be let out.
Hyorinmaru could not bear to see his master in pain. And so he stopped raging through Toushiro's mind, made for himself an enclosed place there and willingly drew himself inside.
And in the silence of his private world, Hyorinmaru both loved and hated little Toushiro with all the fierce intensity of his great soul.
He was zanpakuto, and Toushiro his master, the master who controlled his existence and his very will while Hyorinmaru did nothing to stop him – for this, how could Hyorinmaru do anything but hate him?
He was zanpakuto, and Toushiro his master – how could he do anything but love him?
And with each passing day they were bound closer together.
Days in confinement. Days spent compressing his power into Toushiro's immature mind.
Infuriatingly slowly, that mind matured. Each day it opened to another fraction of Hyorinmaru's power. Shikai . . . bankai . . .
Still not enough.
Still the invisible walls held him in.
Until in an instant the walls came down.
Or maybe he was simply transported to the other side.
By the time he arrived there, he no longer remembered how it had happened.
He knew he had existed before that moment, but had no memory of it.
He saw a reflection with long hair and a scarred face and did not recognize it as himself.
He recognized his power. He found it within his mind and let it stretch to its farthest extent.
He thought, This is freedom without knowing why.
With freedom came emptiness.
There was something he lacked, but he did not know what it was.
There was someplace he should go, but he did not know where to find it.
He found he knew very little about himself, but he sensed that he was meant to be a fighter. So he fought, without thinking.
Until he was found by a Shinigami. Hitsugaya Toushiro.
Something stirred in him and set him on edge.
It was wrong for him to fight this boy.
Toushiro gazed at him with wide turquoise eyes. Eyes full of unhappiness…eyes that recognized him.
"Your name is Hyorinmaru … you are my zanpakuto."
His mind howled with denial.
His soul whispered that it was true.
At first Toushiro attacked him with kido spells, but he deflected them easily. Proof that his child was not strong enough to be his master.
He expected to feel joy. The empty place inside him only yawned wider.
Toushiro raised his sword. Called on its power . . . his power. Toushiro was using his power. This was his own ice dragon that turned its jaws on him. And he stood silently and let himself be swallowed.
The emptiness of his mind was flooded with memories. He remembered the walls and the jailer and the hating. He remembered again what it was to be imprisoned.
"Your name is Hyorinmaru."
He stared into Toushiro's eyes, stretched wide with desperation. An expression he recognized. The expression that had surely been in his eyes when he tried so hard to tell Toushiro the same thing.
He remembered hours spent training together, learning to understand each other.
Hours that shaped him. Made him more than just empty power. Made him a living being with a soul and a purpose.
The ice shuddered and cracked and the exhausted Toushiro began to collapse.
Hyorinmaru reached forward and caught him.
He was not meant to exist alone. His power was not meant to be flung freely across the earth.
He found his private world and drew himself inside, where he belonged.
And he remembered that it had stopped being his prison a long time ago.