The Guardian
Chapter 7
Thank you for the wonderful reviews! Special thanks to:
KazumaKaname
DeltaGreyFraza
WinterySkies1220
Random Guest
Thank you all so much! As such Toshiro will now make ice sculptures!
Me: Oh Toshiro where are you? . . . You have to make ice sculptures for the amazing reviewers now. . .
Toshiro: *cricket sounds*
Ok I will find him and we will have ice sculptures after the show enjoy!
Aizen sat on his throne with his head propped up with his left hand while he impatiently drummed the fingers on his right hand. He was definitely annoyed. Here before him stood his prized hunter, completely empty handed. Ichigo had never failed him before.
"So let's make sure I heard you correctly?" Aizen began through clenched teeth. "Not only have you failed to retrieve boy I asked for, but you say he managed to escape to the world of the living with the help of another Shinigami?"
"Yes, Lord Aizen" the hollow hissed, nearly as annoyed with his failure as Aizen was.
"So pray tell how you were beaten by a mere Shinigami?" Aizen sighed.
"I was not beaten, he escaped!" Ichigo growled. "He unleased this strange power, and this dragon image grew up the side of his face. . ."
"What did you say?" Aizen visibly stiffened and paled slightly, causing the hollow to feel uneasy.
"This dragon image grew up the side of his face and he began using this strange but admittedly powerful retsiu. Oh, and his eyes started glowing red." The hollow shrugged.
"No, that can't be possible." Aizen mumbled to himself causing this hollow to raise an eyebrow. Aizen sat, silently pondering this new information before suddenly turning his attention back to his hunter. "You have failed me Kurosaki, and you know the punishment for failure."
The hollow's eyes widened at the thought of what was to come. Without warning, the glyphs on the metal collar began to glow, and the powerful creature fell to its knees writhing in pain. Aizen waved his hand to two of the guards at the end of the room.
"Take Kurosaki to his cell, I will deal with him later." The two arrancar bowed and left without a word with their prisoner in tow. "Oh and send in Grimmjow."
Aizen patiently sat on his throne as he waited for his espada to arrive. All the while pondering everything Ichigo had told him. After ten minutes, the teal haired espada strode in the room, head held high and fists shoved deep into his pockets.
"Aw, Grimmjow, so good of you to show up." Aizen mocked causing the espada to growl under his breath but otherwise remain silent. This only furthered Aizen's amusement.
"I have a mission for you." Aizen began. "I need you to go to the world of the living and retrieve the former captain Toshiro Hitsugaya for me, alive."
"That brat is still alive?" Grimmjow sneered.
"So it would seem, and he has something that I need so I do need him back alive, but you can do whatever you have to do to get him back. In fact, . . ." Aizen walked down from his throne and pulled out a small black collar from his pocket causing the arrancar to sharply inhale and hiss in response. This only caused a wicked grin to pass over Aizen's features.
"Yeah, you remember this device don't you? This wonderful thing is what finally broke you wasn't it. You were such a free spirited hollow back when we first met. I kind of miss it." Aizen teased as he placed the collar into Grimmjow's hands along with an accompanying device. "Use it on Hitsugaya is needed, or if you just feel like it. As long as he is alive, I do not care what you do."
Aizen waved Grimmjow off, and the hollow quickly turned and left the throne room. Aizen decided to head to his library and do some research. This was definitely some interesting information that he had just acquired. As far as he knew, the Guardian of the Oken had been passed down from head captain to head captain, but the Guardian only ever sat silent on its barer, at least for the past few millennia. The only ones to have ever been granted the Guardian's abilities was an ancient noble family that died off long before the formation of the Gotei 13. He needed to do some research.
/
Slowly beginning to gain consciousness, Toshiro blinked away his fuzzy vision until he could see clearly. He was looking straight up into a grey overcast sky. He slowly sat up and took in his surroundings. All around him was the decaying remains of Karakura Town. Not a single building was untouched. Walls half crumbled, rubble littered the streets, and on top of that it was deathly silent. Putting his hand on the ground to help himself stand up, Toshiro gave a gasp of pain as he suddenly remembered his shoulder injury. Looking to his left he found an unconscious Byakuya, bleeding out from his stomach next to him. His shoulder injury could wait. He needed to find a safe place to for them to hide so he could bandage and try to heal the injured noble.
Briefly looking around, the teal eyed man spied a small shop down the street that was still fairly intact, and decided that would be the best place for them to hide for now. Using his other arm to push himself off the ground, Toshiro walked over to the dark haired man and carefully pulled his arm over Toshiro's shoulder so he could support him better, and they began slowly moving down the street.
After dragging the unconscious man about a hundred yards down the street, they finally came to the little shop Toshiro had spotted. Carefully, Toshiro opened the fragile door and walked the two of them in about ten feet before laying the dark haired man on a sofa that was up against the wall. The younger man then stood up and observed the shop around him; it obviously used to be a small clothing shop with racks of clothing stacked everywhere. Walking over to the nearest rack, Toshiro picked out the first long shirt he came across and pulled out a small bottle of antiseptic from the pack that was still miraculously still on his back. He then walked back to his companion and set to work sterilizing and bandaging the bleeding whole in his stomach with strips of fabric. Once the wound was fully dressed, Toshiro quietly muttered a brief healing incantation that would help stop the bleeding. He wasn't the best at healing kido, but he knew enough to make due.
Once satisfied his companion was comfortable enough, Toshiro slumped onto the ground next to Byakuya, the day's events finally catching up to him. He couldn't believe that they actually made it to the world of the living in one piece. Without Hyorinmaru, he never though it would have been possible to escape that hollow of Ichigo's. Rolling up his sleeve, Toshiro gazed at the mysterious dragon tattoo that had become the bane of his existence these past several weeks. Sometimes he had wished that Captain Shunsui would have never given this thing to him.
"Hmph, a thank you, would be more appropriate, young one." a rumbled voice echoed in Toshiro's head, causing the boy to stiffen.
"What the hell are you doing in my head?" Toshiro yelled inwardly, feeling uncomfortable about the sudden into his inner world.
"I have been here for the last twelve years, child"
"Then why are you just now communicating with me."
"We have remained safe until recently. I have only intervened when absolutely necessary."
"Well I suppose I should thank you for your assistance." Toshiro sighed inwardly.
"No thanks necessary, young dragon." The Guardian purred, causing Toshiro to pause.
"Are you blind? You're the dragon, not me." Toshiro snapped. The Guardian simply snickered in response.
"I have a proposal for you, Toshiro Hitsugaya. I will lend you my powers to you for the time being to use whenever you deem necessary."
"And in return?"
"After we get your friend here to safety, there is somewhere you and I need to go."
"And where would we need to go and for what purpose?" Toshiro prodded.
"Patience, young dragon, all will be revealed in time." The Guardian sighed "For now, take care of your comrade, and we will find somewhere safe to leave him when he is healed enough. We must take this journey though, but do not fret, you are not alone."
Toshiro opened his eyes as he took in the conversation. Where could the dragon possibly want him to go, and why did he insist on calling him a dragon? Sighing, Toshiro stood up and decided to go rummage the ruins for some supplies, mainly food and water.
The young Shinigami spent the entire afternoon scouring the ruins, and carefully dodging rouge feral hollows that now roamed this land freely. Without any Shinigami, it was much harder for dead souls to find peace, and in such this place was now littered with rabid hollows looking for anything to devour in the wasteland. So far he had not seen any signs that life existed in this city anymore. Any remaining humans had more than likely fled town to seek refuge somewhere else. The question was, was there even a safe place in the world of the living anymore? Sure Aizen's surveillance here was not nearly as tight as the soul society, which is why they came here in the first place, but that also made it more dangerous. There was no law here, it was survive or be killed.
All together Toshiro had managed to collect: three small bottles of water, a couple cans of old beans, an unopened bottle of antiseptic, some aspirin, and a small hunting knife. Not too bad for a few hours of effect, but it wouldn't last forever. He unsheathed the hunting knife, inspecting its quality, before tying it to his belt. He knew a knife never really did much good against a hollow or a zanpakuto, but it was definitely better than nothing. Over the past several years, he had learned to channel some of his spirit energy into a regular blade to fortify its strength and project some of his powers, but the blades always end up broken eventually.
Sighing, Toshiro slumped against the wall next to his companion again. He let his thoughts turn inward towards the familiar plane of ice of his inner world. The raging blizzard calmed his thoughts, but not as much as Hyorinmaru would have. He stained his thoughts, desperately reaching out towards the ice dragon until he could feel the faint hum of his zanpakuto reverberating through the air. Toshiro desperately began to run across the ice, in desperate hopes of finding his friend. But no matter how far he ran he could not find his ice dragon, yet the hum continued as faint but as steady as before.
Toshiro collapsed to his knees, it pained him so much to be separated from his friend. He wondered what horrible things Aizen could have possibly done to Hyorinmaru to prevent the two from making contact.
Had he tortured him?
Toshiro gagged on the thought. That bastard! He would kill him if he harmed his friend in any way. Tears threatened to spill from his eyes and the loneliness and anger he felt pulled at his heart. He tried yet again to reach out for Hyorinmaru.
"You cannot talk with your soul spirit, young dragon?"
Toshiro look up into the sky to see the silhouette of a dragon flying towards him. At first his hopes were raised as he thought Hyorinmaru was back, but they were quickly dashed as he realized it was not a blue but a large red and black dragon.
"How can you enter my inner world?" Toshiro snapped, upset that this private moment was being witnessed by another.
"I am attached to your soul; so doesn't it make sense that I can enter this place. For a prodigy you have odd questions." The Guardian scoffed as he landed carefully in front of where Toshiro knelt on the ice.
"Ok then, why can't I talk with Hyorinmaru." Toshiro huffed.
"It would seem, that Aizen has sealed off the connection between you two somehow. Most likely he has sealed away your soul spirit. I do not sense that he has been harmed though, only unable to do anything."
"That is until Aizen decides to harm Hyorinmaru to get to me."
"That is why we are going to recover your zanpakuto as soon as your companion is safe." The dragon cooed, causing Toshiro's eyes to widen with disbelief.
"What are you talking about? How is that even possible? The Seirtei is impenetrable these days."
"Calm down, child." The older dragon chuckled. "I never said our journey would only have one stop. As for how it is possible I will teach you some ancient techniques that will make being stealthy as easy as breathing. For now, though, you should get your rest."
Suddenly feeling weary, Toshiro decided to heed the dragon's advice, and allowed himself to slip off into unconsciousness with the hum of not one but two dragons.
/
After several days of carefully tending to Byakuya's wound and scavenging for supplies, signs of infection were beginning to set in the older man had yet to regain consciousness. Toshiro and the Guardian had both decided that further medical supplies were going to be needed to heel the man.
Toshiro applies another round of healing kido to ease the internal bleeding and soothe any pain the man felt. He then applied fresh dressings to the wound, grabbed his pack and knife, and silently headed out the door in search of something to help his companion.
After an hour of walking, he suddenly felt the crushing spiritual pressure of an espada, and quickly hid behind the counter of what used to be a diner. It was completely silent except for the soft patter of the arrancar's feet as he calmly walked down the street, searching for signs of his prey. Toshiro held his breath and put all his focus into concealing every last bit of his spiritual pressure.
The footsteps continued until they stopped about twenty feet away from the edge of the wall-less building. Everything was deathly silent. Toshiro dared not move a muscle. After a minute, the arrancar continued past the diner and down street, as silent as before. Once Toshiro could no longer hear his footsteps, he decided needed to head back to Byakuya and re-hide the older man before that espada found him.
Running as quickly and as silently as possible, Toshiro thankfully reached their hiding spot without incident. Double checking that he hadn't been followed, Toshiro carefully picked up the older man and headed towards the edge of town, decided it was best not to stick around with an espada so close on their trail.
Near the edge of town, Toshiro picked a well sheltered building that was fairly intact to hide for the night. As soon as he entered the building though, he could suddenly feel a subtle spiritual pressure. Completely on alert, Toshiro carefully and quietly laid his companion on the ground just inside the door as he proceeded further into the house to see who was there.
Hunting knife drawn, he silently walked through the house until he came to the kitchen at the back of the house, and as soon as he entered the doorway alarm bells went off in his head and he barely managed to duck in time for a frying pan to come swinging at the space where his head just was. Reacting on instinct, Toshiro then flipped the knife backwards in his hand and struck the handle upwards, knocking the weapon out of his assailant's hand.
A brief cry was heard before Toshiro then tackled his attacker, pinning then beneath him, with his knife held to their neck, before Toshiro realized it was a girl underneath him. She used this momentary pause knock him off of her and get back to her feet. She had medium length dark hair and fiery eyes, and looked similar age to him. She seemed familiar. Toshiro wasn't able to finish his thought as pain suddenly exploded in the back of his head and consciousness completely left him, leaving the brunette/white haired man to slump to the floor. Behind him stood another dark haired woman, but this one had dark skin and bright yellow eyes.
Oh no who found Toshiro and Byakuya?! ;) Stay tuned to see what happens next!
Me: Oh Toshiro! There you are, I have been looking everywhere for you the reviewers have been waiting for you to . . .uh. . . *stairs unbelievingly at the wonderfully sculpted winter wonderland before me. An entire garden made with intricate crops, a farmer, and even a few chickens and a rooster donned the scene.*
Toshiro: Well what do you think?
Me: It's amazing, Shiro!
Toshiro: Don't call me Shiro.
Me: Wow, you're an artist, do you take requests?
Toshiro: Uh. . . *sweatdrops* I'm concerned what will happen if I say yes.
Please Review, maybe it will convince Toshiro to take sculpting requests! Also it is the fuel for my story!
