Christmas Nightmare
~Hollowfied Santa~
Toshiro and Gin were both counting the number of people that they had, as they approached the castle, and they found it to be and overly large group. There was the two of them, the thirteen fukutaicho, and three people who lived supposedly in the living world. That made it for a total of eighteen people that were approaching the castle.
Toshiro felt his eyebrow twitch. "Seriously… what is the lack of stealth here?"
"What!" Abarai suddenly yelled, as did the fukutaicho of the second division, and the one of the seventh.
"I think that castle is based off of one of Mayuri Taicho's possible redesigns for the lab," Nemu suddenly blurted out.
This caused the small boy, to let out a sigh. This of course meant that his mind, had in fact, gone and provided traps for him and this group to get around. He just wanted to get through this place, and to simply wake up from this ongoing nightmare. It was a complete pain in the neck, and he wondered if he was going insane.
Wasn't Santa's castle, supposed to be more cheerful, more colorful. He suddenly jumped, as Karin suddenly grabbed onto his arm. "I'm scared."
"My ass you're scared!" the boy snapped. "Please… you kicked a soccer ball at my head, of all things, even though you could have possibly have sensed my spiritual rietsu before you did it!"
He didn't notice that Gin was in fact watching the two of them carefully, trying to access the situation between the two. That wasn't until he picked a rather irritated, and frustrated aura coming off of the man. As he glanced at the man, he suddenly jumped as Karin whispered into his ear. "If I act scared, you'll let me be near you!"
Gin let out a sigh, grabbed the small Christmas Devil, and handed her off to Matsumoto. "Can you explain this?"
"Taicho was stalking her in the living world!" the woman blurted out, a smile on her face, which quickly turned to a frown. "Though that … is none of your business."
"I was not stalking her in the living world Matsumoto!" Toshiro protested, then stormed off, with the group into the castle. Everything was rather dark, and the sound of their footsteps fell hollow. He folded his arms, and glanced at Isshin. "What next?"
"What next? Well, we go rescue…" However, his old taicho was quickly interrupted by the fact that a rumbling sound suddenly came. What little light there was, showed that the stones were crumbling, and heading towards them. And just as quick as that happened, all of them were falling, into complete darkness, somehow being separated from each other.
"Baka! You can use shunpoo! You can…" Toshiro stated, as he hit the ground, hard. He glanced around his surroundings, which were a complete pitch black, but then they began to light up. There was nothing above him hole wise, just a ceiling, so he didn't know where he had come from. He also heard some yelling.
Walking forward, he found himself puzzled at this kind of yelling, and continued forward. "Those are the voices of Kuchiki-san and Kurosaki… they weren't with the group…"
"We hear that Toshiro went missing from his prison cell. It is all ready the twenty forth," came Rukia's voce. This caused Toshiro to stop in his tracks, and start backing the other way, his Adam's apple bobbing.
"What did I do wrong?" The small boy stated. He stuck to the rules almost strictly, and had no problem beside the event with Kusaka. He had to get away from there.
"The situation is taken care of," came another voice… this one was belonging to Urahara. "Taken… care… of…"
Then came Ichigo's voice. "…found a message from Ran thinking Toshiro killed him."
Toshiro's mind race. When they were fighting earlier, had he actually killed someone. He heard Urahara speak up again. "The state he's in right now… he's become a monster… not someone that we know… it's too late… we'll have to kill him…"
At that, Toshiro felt like he was going to vomit. What was it that he had done, that made it so that three of those he considered his friends, wanted to kill him. He winced at the word friend, realizing that he almost never used the word, and really should have used it more often. He suddenly turned, and began to flee back down a corridor.
His body was quaking, and he felt that he couldn't trust anything that he saw or heard. This caused him to begin to shake, the fear taking over his body. He tried running faster, but found it hard for his breath to come to him.
"Someone… please… please help me… I don't want to be stuck here forever. I want to see the sky again, the real sky. I want to see the real Matsumoto, the real Karin… this is just a dream, right? I want Momo and Granny… someone…" Toshiro suddenly stopped, his breath panting.
"Hitsugaya?" came a voice from behind him, one he recognized. Gin's… he started walking forward, trying to get away, his body still shaking. "Chibi-taicho? Shiro-chan! Stop!"
"No… can't trust…" the small boy muttered, continuing to shake, only to find his arm grabbed by Ichimaru, and for him to be spun around. "No! Don't…"
"I won't hurt you…" the man placed another hand on the boy's head, in the thin hair.
"Yes, you will. They all will… I overheard them… yelling…" Toshiro stated.
"Toshiro… I need you to come with me… so we can find…" Gin of course, was the last person that he wanted to trust, and he pulled away from the man, and hurried down the hallway, with him keeping right on his heels. He had hoped that something would come up between him, but with his luck, it was his dream that was trying to torture him, not the other way around.
His sandaled feet beat a steady rhythm as he continued to try to get away from the man, to try to escape his dream world. Normally, his feet would have been silent, but he had in truth, enough of all of this, and he just wanted to go home, to start having normal dreams again, if he could call the ones he had before normal. Well, compared to this, they were.
He was also heading away from where the voices had been coming from, and sped into a huge, round circular area, Gin almost crashing into him, if it weren't for the fact that he had expecting that. He was more concerned with the fact he was being chased, so he dodged to the side at the last minute, and it was Gin who was left staring at the entire room.
At that point, Toshiro's eyes darted around, looking for an exit, but found that even the entrance that they had come through was now gone. This caused him to look up, and the small boy saw a huge hole in the roof. "Not again…"
"Toshiro…"
"Stay away from me…" the boy stated, suddenly hurrying off to the other side of the room.
"Stop it…" Gin's face was minus one of his customary grins, and his eyes were open, actually revealing a pale, cool teal color.
Toshiro though, wished to keep the man as far away from himself as possible, when they both heard the jingling of bells. This caused Toshiro to glance up, and his mouth twitch, as he saw a sleigh come down, without the reindeer. It landed there, and it stayed put, and he couldn't see the face of the man who had just landed.
"Damn it Isshin… weren't we supposed to save Santa… he looks fine…" the boy muttered, turning back to looking for an exit, and a way to get out of the dream.
"Toshiro, get away from him!" He suddenly heard Gin say, from the other side of the sleigh. The small boy heard the person getting out of the sleigh, and stepping, carefully towards him. This surprised Toshiro, and he suddenly tried to turn around, only to be grabbed around the neck by a bony hand.
"Gin! Let…" However, his eyes went wide, as he saw a very upset Gin shunpoo in front of him.
"Kiddo… your dreams are just downright bizarre!" the man stated, concern possibly etched in his voice. No, this was Gin, and he never really was that way. He brought up his hands to do a bit of kido, but the other person was faster, and used a binding spell on him. "Shiro! Get away from him!"
However, struggle as he might, Toshiro found that he couldn't get away from the man, and as he twisted about, the man turned him to face him, and the sight caused him to let out a terrified scream. "Who the hell are you!"
"I am Santa Clause…" the skeleton face laughed.
"No you're not! You're… you're Baraggan…" the boy sputtered out. "You were the second Espada!"
"I used to be Santa you know," the man stated, as he shook the small boy by the neck, laughing manically. It in fact, looked like Baraggan had once been Santa Clause, as instead of the kings like clothing he had heard Soifon describe him having, he had a Santa outfit.
"Sheesh… chibi taicho… you need to curb your imagination a bit," he heard Gin grumble, as the man tried to get loose of the kido. "Let me ask you, how is an Espada supposed to know Kido? Huh?"
"That is a good question," two teal eyes glared at the man.
"Because I used to be Santa before I became hollowfied," the old man laughed, sending shivers up the two male's backs.
"Gin!" Hitsugaya hissed, feeling that the man wasn't helping things.
"You're dream kiddo, your logic, not mine… mine would have said… Santa become hollow, Santa lose Kido ability,"
"But this isn't a dream," the skull faced man laughed. "It is in fact reality."
"Ah posh it's not," Gin argued. "Don't even begin to believe this guy."
Toshiro opened his mouth to speak, only to find him shaken by the man. "You know… I wouldn't have been turned hollow, if you had just simply believed."
"Believed in what!" the small boy snapped, trying to kick out with his feet, to no avail.
"Let me think, you never believed in me, you never believed in Christmas at all," the man stated. "You would just sit back, and let it go by, every year, taking soul enjoyment in watching others enjoy the season, but never really enjoying it yourself."
"Shut the fuck up!" Toshiro snapped, wiggling again, trying to break free, however, he stopped as the grip on his neck could possibly break it.
"I won't shut up. Why didn't you believe in me? I could have granted your Christmas wish," the man chuckled.
"My Christmas wish… you really think you could have granted my Christmas wish..." Two teal eyes narrowed.
"Toshiro… don't listen to him," Gin sighed.
"Of course… Santa can grant any Christmas wish," the man stated.
"That isn't true, and if Santa were real, even he would know that there is a limit to his power," Toshiro stated. "I refuse to believe in you! You can't grant wishes that lie in impossibilities."
"With Santa, there is no impossibility," the man laughed.
"Yes, there is," Hitsugaya's voice lowered. "Ever since I was a child, I wondered, what my parents were like. How come I of all people, had the luck of not remembering them. Hinamori knew her parents for some time, yet there I was, trying to fish up some memory of them. My Christmas wish, is to find my parents that don't even exist anymore!"
"Don't worry… I can send you to your death so you can see them," the man laughed. "Respira…"
At that, Toshiro felt his body being covered with a miasma, and he felt a chocking sensation, and then complete darkness.
Suddenly, Kurosaki's voice reached him. "Come on Toshiro. I think it is time for you to wake up. You look ready…"
And with that, he began to open his eyes, for real this time.
Author's note - So, Toshiro is finally going to wake up…
