Chapter 8:
It took her quite some time to get Hitsugaya to calm down. Rangiku hoped that that was the end of his rampage. She gave him some blank pieces of paper and some pens for him to draw with. He was shy but once he got warmed up there was no stopping him.
At last she finished her letter and sealed it up. "Yes! It took me an hour more than I had hoped, but it's finally done!" She breathed a sigh of relief and got up to send the letter out. But wait! She couldn't leave Hitsugaya all alone. And she couldn't tear him away from his drawing now that he had finally settled down. Perhaps she should wait until later to do it.
She looked over at the pile of paperwork waiting for Hitsugaya. But he wasn't likely to be doing it anytime soon. Not in this metal state.
Ten minutes passed when she felt something tugging on her kimono. She looked down. Hitsugaya was rubbing his eyes and stared at her sleepily. "What's the matter?"
"'M sleepy…" he yawned. "I wanna take a nap… Please?"
She smiled. He was so cute. "Alright. Go ahead."
He pulled on her arm and managed to get her on her feet. He dragged her over towards the couch and pushed her onto the cushions.
"What's this about?" she asked him.
Without a word, he climbed up into her lap and laid down. He rested his head on her lap and drew her arm around his body.
"Uh, Captain..?"
He held up something in his hands. It was a piece of paper with a drawing on it. "I made this for you…" he mumbled sleepily.
"Uh… thank you..?" She took the drawing from him and set it down next to her on the couch.
"Aren't'cha gonna look at it?" he asked, eyelids fluttering.
She held up the drawing and got a good look at it. It was a stick figure drawing of two people and a smiley-faced sun shining down on them. One of the stick figures was short with white spiky hair. The other was a tall woman with a large chest and long wavy hair and a mole on her lower cheek. They were holding hands and smiling.
"Do you like it?" she heard him say softly.
She smiled and stroked his back tenderly. "It's beautiful, Captain." That was the truth. It was a very nice drawing. She really liked it. It showed her just how much she meant to her captain. He really cared about her.
He smiled back and snuggled into her warm lap. "Thanks… 'M glade…"
She sat with him until he fell asleep, curled up on her lap. She hated to move him, but she had to send that letter as soon as possible. After a few more minutes, she gently lifted his limp body up and wormed her way out from underneath him. She set him back down gently and tiptoed out of the office with the letter in hand.
As she made her way down the hall, she heard something coming from the next corridor. She made a detour to check it out. There was a group of Soul Reapers all huddled around in a semicircle. Rangiku pushed her way through and saw something that made her want to scream out loud.
There were three Soul Reapers. One of them was Kira. The other was Ikkaku, who seemed to be cheering him on. Kira was screaming in a captain's face challenging him to a fight. The captain was none other than… Byakuya.
"Just what are you babbling about?" Byakuya asked coldly. He was not impressed by Kira's supposed tough-guy act.
Kira got on his toes and literally shouted in the captain's face. "I told ya! I challenge you to a fight! Unless you're chicken!"
"You tell him, Kira!" Ikkaku cheered. "Way to go!"
Kira then started to shove Byakuya into the wall to rile him up and get some sort of fight out of him. "Come on, tough guy, come on!" he jeered. "What'cha got? What'cha got?"
Rangiku's jaw dropped. He was just digging his own grave! Kira was so dead!
"Come on, bring it on!" Kira began to box the air around Byakuya's face as he taunted him. "What'cha got, tough guy? What'cha got? Bring it on, man! Bring it on!"
Byakuya's eyes narrowed in annoyance. Kira was wearing on his last nerve. Kira pushed him again and taunted him. Byakuya reached for his blade.
"Kira!" Rangiku pushed passed the other Soul Reapers and grabbed Kira's earlobe and twisted.
"OW! Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-OW! What- OW- Are you- OW- Doing- OW- Rangiku?! OW!"
She twisted his ear and dragged him away from the furious captain. "So sorry, Captain! Sorry about him! Sorry!" She pulled Kira through the crowd. "What are you all looking at? The show's over! Get outta my way! Move it!"
The crowd parted like the Red Sea and allowed her to pass. When Rangiku was mad, which wasn't very often, she was mad. There was no telling what she'd do to them if they got in her way. It was best if they all became silent wallflowers.
Rangiku dragged Kira by the ear all the way down the hall and out of sight around the corner.
Ikkaku whined. "Aw, man! And just when it was getting good!"
Byakuya lowered his hand from his sword and stared off in their direction, wondering what on earth had gotten into that crazy Kira. Drunk, I assume…
Rangiku threw Kira up against the wall and pined his shoulder to it, releasing his ear. "What in the world were you thinking?! What possessed you to challenge someone like Byakuya like that?!"
"I was thinking that he was a big chicken!"
"So you tried to fight him?! Are you nuts?!"
Kira gave her a death-glare. "It's none of your concern who I fight and why!"
"It's bad enough that you were fighting Ikkaku, but Captain Byakuya?! Have you lost your mind?! He'd kill you!"
Kira scoffed. "We'll just see about that..!"
Something was terribly wrong. Kira was far too cocky for his own good. "What's gotten into you, Kira? What's this all about?"
He looked her in the eye and smirked. "I just had this awesome feeling that I needed to fight something! I already beat Ikkaku…"
"Wait… You beat him?!"
He shrugged. "Well… Not exactly… But close enough. We called it a draw because it was only a little spar. But nonetheless, I really, really wanna fight someone strong! I just had this overpowering urge to rip something apart, ya know?"
This definitely wasn't Kira. This was a nightmare. She had to fix him before something terrible happened.
"Hey, you don't suppose I could take on Hitsugaya, do you? That'll be a blast!"
She shook her head and refused that offer. "No way! You can't fight him! And not now, of all times…"
Kira groaned. "Yeah, you might be right… He's probably up to his neck in paperwork anyway…"
"Yeah, but it's not like he's gonna do it anytime soon…"
Kira looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean?"
Rangiku looked over her shoulders to make sure that they were completely alone and whispered to him. "Ok, the truth is… When you and Hanataro got hypnotized, so did Hitsugaya."
"He what?"
"Yeah. Now he's all quiet and shy, but when he opens up, he's all hyper and playful. He won't go anywhere near the paperwork."
Kira smirked. "So you want to find a way to change him back so you won't have to do it?"
She frowned. "No! I want to change him back because it's the right thing to do."
"And you don't want to do paperwork."
"That's beside the point!"
Kira glanced over her shoulder. "So where is he now?"
"Taking a nap in the office." She held up the letter. "That's why I'm taking my chance to deliver this now."
"What is that?"
"This is a letter I'm sending to that hypnotist woman. I'm asking her to come back so she can cure you guys."
"You guys? What do you mean 'you guys'?"
"Hitsugaya, Hanataro and you, of course. Hanataro's a rude, pervy slob! I can't have him spend the rest of his life like that! You already know what's wrong with Hitsugaya… And you..! You can't stay like this your whole life!"
"Why not?"
"Because you'll end up killing yourself! And this is still a mild stage… Who knows how much worse you can get? I have to send this letter to her so she can change you back."
In the blink of an eye, Kira's hand reached up and snatched the letter out of her hand. He ripped it in half right in front of her.
"What are you doing?!"
Kira began to shred the letter into a million pieces. "I don't want to change back!" He threw the torn up pieces of paper in her face.
"What?!"
"I like myself! I like how I am now! I don't want to go back to being that wimpy, indecisive Kira! I'm better now! I'm great friends with Ikkaku, I get praised for my work… I'm better this way! I don't want to be changed back! There's nothing to fix! I'm fine! Better than ever!"
"But you could end up dead if you don't know when or where to stop! You can't-"
"I don't wanna hear it!" Kira shoved her aside and stormed away. "I told you, I'm fine! I don't want to change back! So just leave it alone! Leave me alone!"
She watched him, dumbstruck, as he stormed down the hall and out of sight. This wasn't good.
~*~*~
She went back to the office to write another letter now that Kira had torn up the original. She opened the door and slipped inside. Hitsugaya was still fast asleep on the couch, completely undisturbed. She tiptoed passed him and over to her desk. She pulled out another sheet of paper and the address.
"Let's try this a second time…" she murmured to herself and got ready to work.
"I don't want to change back!"
Rangiku stopped, remembering Kira's words.
"I don't want to change back!"
His voice was echoing in her mind and she couldn't shake it off. She couldn't get his voice out of her head.
"I like myself! I like how I am now! I don't want to go back to being that wimpy, indecisive Kira! I'm better now!"
Did he really mean that? Was that really him talking and not just his alternate self? He liked being that way, the way he is now? He enjoyed it? Hearing his voice made it impossible to concentrate.
"I like myself! I like how I am now! I don't want to go back to being that wimpy, indecisive Kira! I'm better now!"
"I'm better this way! I don't want to be changed back! There's nothing to fix! I'm fine! Better than ever!"
Rangiku banged her head on the desk. What was she supposed to do? Kira didn't want to go back to the way he was, but it was in his best interest. He couldn't go on the way he was now. Things would only get worse! And Hanataro… What if he mouthed off to the wrong person? Unohana had no idea about the hypnosis. What would she do if he started to mouth off to her or worse? Rangiku drew her arms over her head and moaned. She just couldn't win. She knew what the right thing to do was, but they didn't want to be cured. Kira was a definite, but Hanataro she still wasn't sure about. But judging from the way he was acting, it was a pretty safe bet that he'd side with Kira on this one.
She heard a small noise like shuffling feet moving towards her. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and saw a sleepy looking Hitsugaya staring back at her.
"Are you ok?" he asked innocently. "Are you sad?"
She shook her head. "No, I'm fine, Captain."
"You sure?" he asked softly. "You don't look fine. You look upset. What's the matter?"
Nothing got passed him. Maybe being more childish gave him a more innocent perspective of the world around him. He was more sensitive to other's emotions.
She smiled at him and put her hand atop his. "It's nothing, Captain. I'm sorry I woke you."
Without warning, he started to climb into her lap and sat down. He threw his arms over her shoulders and gave her a hug. "I know you're upset. I can tell. What's wrong? Was it something I did?"
She blinked. He was blaming himself? She turned him around so that she was looking at his face. "No, no… Of course not. You didn't do anything." She patted his head. "I'm just worried abut a friend, that's all."
Hitsugaya rubbed his eyes, still pretty drowsy. "Is he being bad?"
"A little. But it's not all his fault."
Hitsugaya yawned and rested his head on her shoulder, making himself more comfortable. "Then don't be mad at him. Maybe he doesn't know he's being bad."
She stroked his back. "But I don't know whether I should try to help him even if he doesn't want it because it's the right thing to do, or let him do what he wants and let himself learn the hard way and let him get into trouble. I know deep down he doesn't want to do all this, but he also says that he doesn't want to go back to being the old him because he hated himself. Maybe he was just saying that or maybe he really does mean it…"
He snuggled up to her and closed his eyes. "If he was a better friend before, then I think he should go back… Even if he thinks he likes it this way, if he's just getting into trouble all the time and hurting people's feelings, then I think he should go back to the way he was. It's better that way. And even if he didn't like himself before, if he sees how much other people liked him before he changed, maybe he'll realize that it's better this way…"
Rangiku smiled. Even in this state her captain was still a genius. He knew what was going on. His childish perspective must have allowed him to see the world in a more straightforward manner than usual. He knew what he was saying. She gave him a small hug in gratitude. "Thanks, Captain. You're right."
He nuzzled his cold nose into her warm neck and sighed, falling asleep again in her lap.
She stroked his head and picked up her pen. This was in their best interest. Kira, Hanataro and Hitsugaya all had to change back to their normal selves. It was best if they all did. She knew she was doing the right thing.
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OMG Kira's nuts! 8O Hitsugaya's cute as can be! XD
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