I made a discovery today that I simply must share with you all. Anyone who has watched Full Metal Alchemist knows that Ed has the same voice actor as Hitsugaya. It's obvious the second he opens his mouth. What's not so obvious is that his brother Al's voice actor is also the voice actor for…wait for it…KARIN! No I am not joking. Is that a match made in heaven or what? Ok, sorry for my fangirlism and sorry if you haven't seen Full Metal Alchemist (you should, it's amazing), but I just had to put that knowledge out there for anyone who doesn't know. Ok, I'm done. On with more interesting things…
Hitsugaya felt like the world had just fallen out from under him. The snow was still accosting him and the night was still more substantial than it should have been, but none of that seemed to register with him anymore. His cover had been blown and he was in the worst situation imaginable.
"How…how did you know?" he asked, trying desperately to keep his voice firm and commanding.
"He was calling to us," Uloquiorra replied. "Surely you are intelligent enough to have felt that. Or has the ranking of taicho fallen so low?" Hitsugaya gasped. The darkness! The heavy darkness that felt like it was drawing him to something, like it was designed to bring people together; that had been Hoshi?! So he was an illusionist after all. Then that moment with Karin had been nothing more than forced attraction engendered by the illusion? He shook his head. Now was not the time to think about that.
"Toushiro, what's he talking about?" Ichigo asked. "Aizen's son? Don't tell me that kid is…"
"Aizen's son," Hitsugaya answered the unfinished question. "Does that change anything?" Ichigo smirked.
"Yeah it does," he replied, raising his zanpakto. "It means we have to work even harder to protect him. Bankai!" The force of Ichigo's release blew away the snow, creating another temporary open battlefield.
"Interesting," Yammi said in amusement, as if he was enjoying this immensely. "I never thought Aizen-sama's son would be hulled up in a pit like this. But whatever. We just got ta' get the brat right? I'll take the eager one, eh Uloquiorra?"
"Do as you like," Uloquirra replied in a bored voice. Yammi disappeared and reappeared instantly beside Ichigo. The clashing of Ichigo's blade against Yammi's iron skin was the only sound Hitsugaya heard before they were smothered once again by the snow, the respite of sight gone.
Hitsugaya raised Hyourinmaru, expecting an attack at any second, but it never came. Instead, he heard Uloquiorra's cool, collected voice, faint through the snow, but no less nerve-wracking.
"I have no wish to engage in unnecessary fights, little-taicho-san," he said, his words putting Hitsugaya even more on guard. "So if you would please hand over the child, there will be no need to hurt you."
"Like I'll let that happen!" Hitsugaya stated firmly. "Bankai! Daiguren Hyourinmaru!" He spread his imposing ice wings above him, shielding himself from the driving storm, as his tail made a rapid sweep around him, in a vain attempt to draw Uloquiorra out of hiding.
"The weather won't beat me!" he thought to himself. "I am the ice prince!" Using more concentration than he ever thought he would need, Hitsugaya spread his reiatsu out as wide as he could, pushing the snow away from him and creating a nice sized area to fight in. But Uloquiorra stayed outside of the expanding zone.
"I'm impressed," Uloquiorra said without conviction. "It looks like you have some skills after all."
"Show yourself!" Hitsugaya demanded. Not that he expected Uloquiorra to appear any more than he expected him to engage in combat willingly. But that wasn't what Hitsugaya was focused on. Yammi, he knew, cared much more about killing Ichigo than any mission he was sent on, so he wasn't worried about that front. But Uloquiorra was another matter. The Espada was almost as mysterious as Aizen himself, but Hitsugaya knew that he avoided fighting whenever possible and put all his effort into accomplishing his task. He had to distract him from Hoshi no matter what. If he got anywhere near the house, everything was lost.
"I'll just have to beat him before that happens," he thought with renewed determination. He still couldn't see Uloquiorra, but weeks of training an illusionist had given him a myriad of new battle ideas. Sending Hyourinmaru out randomly into the abyss of the storm would be fruitless, he knew. Uloquiorra was too fast, and it would take too long to find him. But, as he had told Karin countless times, ice was his weapon. Summoning up as much reiatsu as he could, he sent it out in all directions. This time, instead of pushing the falling snow away, he infused it with his reiatsu, turning each snowflake into an extension of Hyourinmaru.
"Over there!" he directed, and sent a forceful wave of snow, helped along by the dragon from his sword, towards the area he knew Uloquiorra was hiding in. He wasn't sure how much damage it would cause, but the intention was to keep pushing him away from the house.
"Ryusenka!" he cried, sending a block of his own ice at the still invisible source of Uloquiorra's reiatsu. Hitsugaya shunpoed to the site, sword raised high, ready to engage. It made contact, and Hitsugaya used his reiatsu to push the snow far enough away to see Uloquiorra's expressionless face.
"The rank of taicho really has fallen," he said. Hitsugaya gasped. There was no sign that he had attacked at all. Uloquiorra looked completely unfazed. He raised a single finger and pointed it directly at Hitsugaya, and radiant green ball began to form on the tip.
"Cero!" Hitsugaya panicked. He jumped backwards, out of the path of destruction, and protected himself with his wings just in time. The cero washed over him, but his ice shield, reinforced as it was by the sheer quantity of snow in the air, protected him well enough. He unfolded his wings, but due to the storm, he had lost sight of Uloquiorra again.
"Damn it!" he cursed. He desperately searched for the source of Uloquiorra's reiatsu. He found it, to his surprise, as far away from the house as he could be. Not bothering to wonder why Uloquiorra was allowing him to remain in his defensive position between him and the house, he raised his hand and shouted,
"Way of destruction 33, blue crash!" The brilliant kido lit up the imposing night, shot through the snow, and made contact with its target. The snow around it fizzled with the pure energy created by the attack, allowing Hitsugaya to glimpse Uloquiorra for the tiniest second as he deflected the kido with a single hand.
"Is that all?" Uloquiorra taunted. "How disappointing." He still didn't move. Why wasn't he moving? Wasn't his goal to retrieve Hoshi? Hitsugaya flew forwards, sword out, but Uloquiorra shunpoed out of the way at the last second, but, to Hitsugaya's enormous surprise, he moved backwards.
"Isn't he trying to get into the house?" Hitsugaya said to himself. "Why…" And then it hit him. Uloquiorra had no intention of entering the house. He was just trying to draw Hitsugaya away from it, which meant…
"There's another Arrancar here, isn't there?" he asked into the howling wind. But a flair of reiatsu answered his question for him.
"Karin!" he cried. He knew her reiatsu more than well enough at this point. But instead of being stable and calm like it usually was, it was fluctuating wildly, as if she had lost control.
"You really are quite slow for a taicho." Uloquiorra's voice rang in his ears, but Hitsugaya didn't care anymore. Turning around, he shunpoed as fast as he could towards the house, halting at the window, since he couldn't fit inside with his bankai released. Karin was lying on the floor unconscious. There was no sign of blood or a struggle and Hitsugaya could still feel her reiatsu, so he knew she was alive and uninjured. But what brought his heart to a standstill wasn't Karin. It was Hoshi. His basket was empty. He was gone.
"No!" Hitsugaya shouted, but he could barely hear his own voice anymore. He sealed his bankai and climbed back in through the window. He knelt at Karin's side and shook her shoulders urgently.
"Karin!" he called to her. "Karin, wake up!" Karin stirred slightly at his voice and groaned.
"Karin!" Hitsugaya said again. He knew how alarmed he sounded, but at the moment, he really didn't care. Karin cracked her eyes open and looked up into his pleading face.
"Toushiro?" she asked in a weak voice. "Is that you?"
"Karin, are you alright? What happened? Where's Hoshi?" At that, Karin seemed to come to her senses.
"Hoshi!" she yelped, snapping to attention and grabbing Hitsugaya's shoulders. "Toushiro, Hoshi…"
"Toushiro, what's going on?" came Ichigo's voice from the window. "I was in the middle of fighting that Espada bastard, and all of a sudden he got taken in by that yellow Negacion light thing. Why would they just leave like that? Unless…"
"Hoshi's gone," Karin said, dropping her head in shame. She couldn't bring herself to look Hitsugaya in the eye. "I tried Toushiro. I really tried. But he caught me off guard, and his shunpo was too fast and I…I failed. I'm sorry."
"Sorry?!" Hitsugaya snapped. "Sorry doesn't cut it! You let them take him! You said you'd protect him!" Rage, uncontrollable rage was coursing through him like wildfire. He felt himself start to shake. "I said I wanted to stay! I could have stopped him! But instead, I trusted you. Well, I'll never make that mistake again."
"How dare you?!" she shouted back at him. "I did my best…"
"Well, your best clearly wasn't good enough!" he spat. "I should have known you weren't ready to fight."
"Oi, don't yell at her!" Ichigo defended, but Hitsugaya wasn't listening. He stood up, turned his back to her, and began making a series of complicated looking seals with his hands. Karin felt herself on the verge of tears. She had never felt so horrible. Hitsugaya had entrusted her with Hoshi's safety, and she had allowed him to be kidnapped right under her nose. It was her fault.
"Toushiro, what are you doing?" Ichigo asked.
"I'm going after him," Hitsugaya replied harshly. "I can't let Hoshi fall into that monster's hands." He finished his seals and held his hands out wide in front of him. A black hole materialized from his palms and created a large door in the center of the room.
"Wait," Ichigo stopped him. "I'll come with you."
"I appreciate that Kurosaki," Hitsugaya replied. "But this is my fight."
"Oh shove it!"
"Kurosaki!" Hitsugaya barked threateningly. "Don't you dare speak to me that way! I am a taicho of the Gotei 13!"
"Yeah, and quite dumb at that!" Hitsugaya swelled with indignation, but Ichigo was adamant. "There's no reason to go barging into Hueco Mondo by yourself. I'll watch your back." Hitsugaya deliberated for a moment, but he really had no time to waste, and Ichigo did have a point.
"Fine," he agreed.
"I'm coming too!" Karin piped up, finding her way to her feet, her resolution back. Ichigo was about to protest, but Hitsugaya beat him to it.
"You'll do no such thing," he said icily. Karin stood her ground.
"Look, I know you may want to protect me or something, but I can take care of myself!"
"Who said anything about wanting to protect you?!" he retorted. "I just don't trust you anymore."
"Toushiro!" Karin gasped. His words had hit her like a punch to the gut.
"Let's go Kurosaki," he ordered. And without a backwards glance, he disappeared into the door to Hueco Mondo.
I'm not so thrilled with how that battle turned out, but I'll be the first to admit that I'm not very good at writing fight scenes. Oh, and the darkness thing will be explained further in the next chapter, since I know I didn't do a good enough job here. But I just thought adding the full explanation here would detract from the fight. And don't be too mad at Hitsugaya. He's really emotional right now :P
