Winter's Sons
Summary: When a body turns up at the Eastern Wall, run through with a zanpakuto and a sword of ice, all evidence points to Hitsugaya Toshiro. But this is only the first in a string of killings. With Central Forty-Six having issued an order for his execution, Hitsugaya must work against time to clear his name and find a killer strong enough to take on a captain. The past is never dead…
X: SUPERHUMAN DAMNED
As the week ended, the Tenth Division returned the King's Seal to the Central Forty-Six compound. The ceremonies were subdued; their Captain was missing, and wanted by Soul Society. While Lieutenant Matsumoto performed her duties impeccably, the absence of Hitsugaya Toshiro, the Captain of the Tenth Division was a glaring gap in the ceremony as it continued.
Lieutenant Matsumoto performed the required ceremonial release of Haineko, as ash coalesced in the shape of a giant cat that smiled and bared its claws before dissolving into a heap of ash and then reforming as her blade. The King's Seal was then conveyed, under six guards, back to the vault in which it would remain until it was next required by the Central Forty-Six, which was to say, almost never.
As Matsumoto sealed the doors of the vault, she didn't glance behind her.
A small figure detached himself from the shadows, and settled in to wait.
As it was, he wasn't disappointed. He didn't have to wait for very long.
Hitsugaya knew when the vault doors first slid open.
He knew, because there was the faintest glimmer of light at the end of the long hallway, and because the seal on the door was only so sensitive. His reiatsu and Kusaka's reiatsu were almost identical, enough to fool Mayuri and the team of scientists from the Twelfth Division, enough to fool Matsumoto and anyone who was familiar enough with his reiatsu.
Enough to fool everyone, except Hitsugaya himself.
When the door had been primed to respond to the touch of Hitsugaya's reiatsu, it had been primed to respond to Kusaka's reiatsu as well. It wasn't able to make as fine a distinction between the two different reiatsu as it should have. Hitsugaya had argued long and hard with Ukitake when he'd learned of the man's plan, but he had ultimately decided to trust the Captain.
And so he waited, here in the vault itself, for Kusaka to make his approach. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness without the need for a Tsukero light spell. As Kusaka approached the vault, Hitsugaya saw that Kusaka had chosen to create a Tsukero light, anyway. It floated above him as he walked on.
Hitsugaya's hand clenched on Hyorinmaru's hilt. Knowing that he had to kill Kusaka was one thing. Looking on Kusaka while he remained hidden, waiting for the moment to strike, was something else entirely.
Kusaka Sojiro had never existed, Kyoraku had said.
Kusaka entered the vault.
Hitsugaya forced himself to relax, released the tension in his shoulders, which would slow him on the draw. Kusaka smiled. He approached the pedestal on which the King's Seal rested.
In a smooth movement, Hitsugaya drew Hyorinmaru, in a textbook-perfect The Lotus Unfurls Its Petals. The cold steel of the zanpakuto slid through the air, the point of the sword coming to rest just before Kusaka's throat as Hitsugaya stepped forward from the well of shadow.
"Oh," Kusaka said, "I was wondering how long you were going to wait."
Unperturbed, he stared at the tip of Hitsugaya's sword. He was relaxed, as if he had all the time in the world. Kusaka said, "So you figured it out after all. Really a tensai."
Hitsugaya stiffened, but gave Kusaka a cold nod. "It was obvious," he said, "Once I'd thought about it. I was right about Kyoraku. You hadn't attacked him because you had targeted him. It was opportunity. You ran into Kyoraku when you were scouting out your various angles of approach in the Central Forty-Six compound. You were after the King's Seal. Ukitake provided the final clue. The Seal breaks all boundaries, he said. All laws of nature are nothing to the Seal because it is imbued with the power of the Soul King, who is the linchpin anchoring reality. The Seal rewrites history, Ukitake said, but he meant it rewrites reality to its bearer's will. And that is what you were after. The only question is, how did you know about that?"
Kusaka applauded, slowly, mockingly even. "Oh, very good, tensai." He said. "Almost full marks but I'll give you credit for trying."
Hitsugaya narrowed his eyes. "Which was it?" he asked.
"Why I want the Seal," Kusaka said. He gently pushed aside Hyorinmaru, touching the flat of the blade. He reached out one hand, and touched the King's Seal, which had begun to glow with a faint light—
Hitsugaya moved to stop him—
The chamber dissolved in a wash of dark violet light, and the last thing Hitsugaya saw was the mark of the King's Seal, the intricate web of lines burning midnight violet—
And then reality twisted, dissolved, and reshaped itself and wriggled into a new place and then settled there like it had always been—
His name was Kusaka Sojiro.
Blink.
He was born in the fifth district of West Rukongai, which is to say that a childless couple adopted him when he first came to Soul Society, sent there by a shinigami.
Blink.
He liked persimmons, especially dried persimmons. He liked the taste of nori, the clear autumn sky at twilight.
Blink.
He first left home because the dragon summoned him in a voice like an earthquake, that shattered the sky like thunder. So he sat for the entrance exams, joined the Academy, made a name for himself as one of the cleverest students in the class.
In his fifth year, he met a young student by the name of Hitsugaya Toshiro.
Blink.
They fought.
Blink.
They did not fight.
Blink.
He was the Captain of the Tenth Division.
Blink.
Reality oscillated, like a membrane, like a taut string, to and fro.
Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink.
What?
Shaken, Hitsugaya struggled to free himself from the tide of images. Worlds both realised and unrealised. The King's Seal has the power to change reality itself, Hitsugaya heard Ukitake say once more in his head. Reality unfurled around them, history rewrote itself, again and again and again on multiple canvasses. Kusaka still held the King's Seal, which was glowing with a dark violet light—from the Seal, electric violet cracks issued forward. They were cracks in the fabric of reality, Hitsugaya realised, wildly. Kusaka did not know how to use the Seal!
Instinctively, he knew that if Kusaka kept hold of the Seal, reality would tear itself apart. This couldn't continue. He charged forward then, struck with Harvesting Barley. Kusaka reverse-drew Hyorinmaru in time to parry the blow, and managed to keep a hold on the Seal.
Hitsugaya ducked beneath Kusaka's follow-up slash before it would have laid open his left eye, and then fell to a knee to strike out with a broad, sweeping slash aimed at Kusaka's torso.
Blink.
Kusaka wore the haori of the Tenth Division. He lashed out in Leaf Floating On Water. Hitsugaya was on his feet now; he blocked the blow and riposted, his blade hammering in low, but it met Kusaka's defence.
He didn't dare to glance away, he couldn't afford distractions in battle, but he didn't feel the familiar feel of the haori as he moved.
He moved backward, ready to deliver a two-handed strike when—
Blink.
Kusaka pivoted and tried Willow in Breeze. Hitsugaya parried with Paired Sunbirds, and this time, his return stroke bit through Kusaka's defence. There was a light tugging, and then he drew a thin line of blood across Kusaka's cheek.
Time returned to normal, sped up.
Blink.
This was the fight they had never had, that they were supposed to have. Hitsugaya attacked with Sickle Moon, Setting Sun, A Thousand Falling Leaves, Pebble In A Brook—he must have initiated a thousand forms and more. Each blow of his sword, each strike was a desperate attempt to overload Kusaka's defense, to force him to drop the Seal and wield his zanpakuto two-handed. Kusaka parried madly, flash-stepped away from some of his attacks.
Htitsugaya ground his teeth together as he stepped up on his attack, and almost paid the price for his recklessness there and then as Kusaka's blade opened a slice along his ribs.
It was only experience that had Hitsugaya turning away so it was a glancing cut; Kusaka's slash would have bitten deep and then the fight would have been over there and then. Kusaka was not an opponent to be underestimated—Hitsugaya reminded himself of that, again and again.
Kusaka was grinning, wildly and fiercely. "I've gotten a lot better since then," he promised, hefting the Seal in his right hand, the artefact still shining so brightly that Hitsugaya had to look away, try to shield his eyes with the crook of his elbow. Still, his gaze was almost drawn to that dark-midnight-violet light, burning with the unbearable brightness of a thousand suns.
Had Kusaka found out how to work the Seal?
"So have I," Hitsugaya croaked, and was surprised to find his throat very dry.
Blink.
Worlds, and timelines—past, future, possible—converged upon the battle in this vault. Think, Hitsugaya told himself, with a growl of frustration. You're not Kusaka's equal with the sword so you can't afford to be stupid! What was Kusaka trying to achieve?
The King's Seal rewrites reality itself. What was reality?
Worlds converged, collided and smashed into each other. Reality squirmed, like a fat worm upon a fishing-hook. Once, at Kusaka's urging, they'd snuck off from the Academy to go fishing. They'd never been caught.
How was he doing this?
Blood dripped from the shallow cut across his ribs. Hitsugaya attacked once more, but he'd lost control of the battle. Kusaka easily blocked his attempts at creating an opening, and then his sword slipped into an opening Hitsugaya had inadvertently left him. Hyorinmaru bit into Hitsugaya's leg, and he cried out, already trying to backpedal.
Too slow.
He fell to his knees.
Kusaka said, "I want to live."
Hitsugaya was in the clearing. He held a rock in his hand.
He said, "I know."
Kusaka said, "I want to live."
Hitsugaya said, "I know."
You wanted to survive, in the end. More than you wanted him to live. Do not doubt that. Hyorinmaru, speaking to him. Or a memory.
Time like liquid honey, cool ice in his veins.
Kusaka's blade came down.
Blink.
It stopped.
Blink.
Hitsugaya slammed Hyorinmaru up in a two-handed block. Sparks flew as the two swords shoved against each other, Kusaka trying to overpower him by brute force. He was standing, he had the advantage. Hitsugaya suddenly let go.
He gave in, stopped pushing back, and threw himself out of the way, his leg screaming in protest. He thought of ice and took a moment to freeze his cuts over. It would not heal them. It was a stop-gap measure at best.
He would feel every second of missed pain later. It was like flipping a switch in his brain. Right now, the pain cut out. It was unimportant.
He rolled and came back up on his feet, crouching in a ready stance, Hyorinmaru upraised.
The glow from the Seal had dimmed; but it was still there. He still had to take out the Seal, before Kusaka did something permanent with it. The next exchange brought them close together; recklessly, Hitsugaya attacked, moving even closer still.
There are three rings of attack and defense, Arai said. The outer ring is the safest. Long, sweeping strikes are initiated from the outer ring, but they're also the easiest to block.
Blink.
He parried and then stepped in close and tried to wrest the Seal from Kusaka. Kusaka held on for dear life.
A good swordsman avoids the inner ring. Attacks from within the inner ring are too swift to properly defend against, and it's hard to wield a sword up close. A strategy too risky and best left for the swordsman with a death wish.
Blink. Blink. Blink.
Hitsugaya dug his thumbnail into the base of Kusaka's thumb until he drew blood and Kusaka involuntarily relaxed his grip with a cry. He managed to pry Kusaka's fingers open as Hyorinmaru cut deep into Kusaka's bicep. He gripped the Seal with his bloodied fingers, and then—
Blink.
Reality shifted, settled into place, firmed.
Settled back where it was, like a stretched rubber band with a memory of what it should be. What it ought to be like.
Blink.
He tucked the Seal away in his clothing and gripped Hyorinmaru in both hands. A storm brewed in Kusaka's crimson eyes.
He adjusted his grip on Hyorinmaru, so he, too, was wielding the blade two-handed.
And then, Kusaka said, "Bankai."
Kuso, Hitsugaya thought. It seemed the best time for the word.
Kusaka's reiatsu exploded outwards, vanishing as it met the sekkiseki of the vault. Hitsugaya had gambled on delaying Kusaka long enough for the sekkiseki to drain away the reiatsu he could spend, aware that his plan was risky. Part of a battle was knowing the ground, and Hitsugaya had decided that fighting in the vault itself was for the best. It would limit the damage, and the sekkiseki would drain off Kusaka's reiatsu, if they fought for long enough.
The risk was that in waiting for so long in the vault, Hitsugaya himself would be handicapped, more so than Kusaka would be.
He tried to draw on his reiatsu, to gather enough for bankai and failed. His senses were closing in on him, one of the signs of overexposure to sekkiseki.
Kusaka stepped forward, wings of purple ice stretched out to their limit. This, Hitsugaya thought, was how it felt to look on his bankai from someone else's perspective. The first word that came to mind was, majestic.
Futilely, Hitsugaya held up Hyorinmaru in a defensive stance, releasing it into shikai wordlessly. He had enough reiatsu for that, at least. And then he did something he'd considered, but had never quite developed as a strategy; he sent the resulting ice dragon coiling around him, like a shield.
Why had Kusaka called on his bankai? There wasn't enough room in the vault to manoeuvre.
"Give me the Seal, Hitsugaya," Kusaka said, quietly.
"No," Hitsugaya said. He'd sensed reality warp and quiver, almost to its breaking point in Kusaka's hands. Kusaka didn't know how to use the Seal, and the backlash had almost torn reality apart. He raised Hyorinmaru, a little higher. "Come on and take it from me."
Kusaka struck. Dragons of ice lashed out as he swung Hyorinmaru, whipping for Hitsugaya. The large circling ice dragon that Hitsugaya had raised as a defensive shield smashed them to smithereens, but dissolved. Hitsugaya charged in at Kusaka, closing the distance between them with a swift flash-step. Parting The Clouds struck for Kusaka's torso. Kusaka blocked that and elbowed Hitsugaya in the solar plexus.
Hitsugaya staggered back, gasping, stunned.
Kusaka smiled and another dragon of ice formed from the tip of Hyorinmaru and hammered into Hitsugaya. The dragon hit him with the force of a meteor, cold ice crystalising all around on Hitsugaya's clothing, smashing him into the ground.
Hitsugaya flared his reiatsu, as much as he had, ice shifting and melting off him, flowing like water. He had managed to hang on to Hyorinmaru—Arai would have skinned him alive if he still dropped his weapon—and he sprang back on his feet as quickly as he could.
"Guncho Tsurara!" he countered, launching a flurry of icicles at Kusaka. Almost contemptuously, Kusaka gestured, and a shield of ice formed. The icicles clattered off the shield, though one or two of them lodged in the shield, which then crumbled.
Hitsugaya tried a two-handed slip-strike. Kusaka parried and although Hitsugaya was already turning away, his riposte sliced open another long cut along Hitsugaya's ribs.
"Give up," Kusaka taunted. "I was always better than you."
"No," Hitsugaya said. "You were the better swordsman." He shut off the pain, the warmth of his blood spilling, froze the cut solid with an effort of will and came in again on the attack. But Kusaka, as he had said, was the better swordsman, and armed with Hitsugaya's experience, he turned aside Hitsugaya's attacks with relative ease.
Finally, Hitsugaya feinted. Kusaka blocked, but Hitsuagaya threw himself forward, putting his momentum and his body weight behind the strike. Hyorinmaru tore through Kusaka's throat in Kingfisher Spears Fish, and Kusaka opened another cut along Hitsugaya's side.
Hitsugaya turned. Wha—?
He parried the next blow, the one which sent him to his knees, mostly on reflex, but he was already off-balance while Kusaka had delivered the blow with solid footing.
Footwork, Hitsugaya! Arai barked.
How—?
Kusaka stood over him.
"Zahnyo Ningyo," Kusaka said. "I'm sure you remember. Goodbye." He raised the zanpakuto, preparatory to delivering a long, sweeping slash.
The blade came down.
It met another with the sweet bell-note of steel on steel.
"I'm sorry, Taicho!" Matsumoto Rangiku said. "As your instructions ordered, I waited until Kusaka had used the ice clone."
Kusaka said, "What?"
On his knees, Hitsugaya managed a swift uppercut. Hyorinmaru smashed into Kusaka's blade, and then he forced the blade up and away from himself. Rising, Hitsugaya performed a turning slash, just as properly as if it had been under Arai's watchful eye.
Matsumoto flanked Kusaka. "Unare, Haineko!" she barked, and the ash of her blade whipped out, drawing a dark grey line across the icy surface of a great wing. Matsumoto simply smiled, and the ash clumped together in a single spot on the wing.
The next moment, water dripped onto the ground as a hole opened in the middle of the wing of ice. Matsumoto barked, "Hado, thirty-third spell! Sokatsui!" The shortened incantation reduced the power of the spell, but it nevertheless smashed into the great wing of ice in a torrent of spiritual energy. While most of it was deflected, some of it travelled through the hole in the wing to hit Kusaka.
At the same time, Hitsugaya was whipping Hyorinmaru up in a spiraling cut which simply sawed off the tip of the wing as if it was melted cheese. His second stroke sheared off more ice.
"What?" Kusaka said, again.
He was trying to regrow the wings which were his best defense against a pair of opponents, but Matsumoto gave him no chance to do so. She set Haineko's ash to melting more holes in his ice and launching a flurry of kido spells at him.
On the other hand, Hitsugaya kept Kusaka busy with a flurry of bladework, forcing Kusaka on the defensive. Kusaka tried to trap Hitsugaya's blade with Hyorinmaru's chain, but Hitsugaya simply jerked his sword free before Kusaka could tighten the chain. When Kusaka tried again, Hitsugaya stepped closer and rammed the pommel of Hyorinmaru straight into Kusaka's nose.
It broke, with a crunch of impact, and blood streamed down Kusaka's face as he let out a cry of pain and struggled to breathe. Matsumoto's Sokatsui had managed to burn a wound in his side, and now Hitsugaya took advantage of the distraction caused by the broken nose to attack with renewed ferocity.
Kusaka was the better swordsman. Had always been. Hitsugaya had been the clever one, the cunning one. He'd chosen the vault as the place they would clash, because the sekkiseki would hamper Kusaka, bite into the amount of reiatsu he could draw on. And it was a confined space; it was hard to properly unleash Hyorinmaru in a confined space.
He'd considered being outfenced by Kusaka and considered that an acceptable risk.
Matsumoto was here, now, and she was still fresh, while they were both tiring. He suspected that the Tenth Division was waiting outside the vault. Even if he fell here, the deck had been thoroughly stacked against Kusaka. At least one of them wasn't walking out of here again.
Hitsugaya attacked, keeping Kusaka on his toes, as blood dripped from Kusaka's broken nose—smashed, rather. With a fluidity and creativity Arai would have approved of, Hitsugaya aborted the forms entirely, throwing a series of overhand slashes at Kusaka, and then coming at him from unusual angles, turning slashes into stabs, and whirling about so that a thrust became a backhand slash. All the while, Matsumoto harried Kusaka with low-level Hado spells, even as the last of Kusaka's ice melted.
The sekkiseki was taking its toll on Kusaka at last. He could not regrow the ice, and soon abandoned that as an avenue of defense.
"Sennen Hyoro!" Kusaka whispered.
The ice that had strewn the floor, the melting ice, all of it solidified, gathered up into gigantic pillars like teeth, like dragon fangs. Kusaka twisted Hyorinmaru's blade. Like a key in a lock.
And then the great pillars of ice crashed in on Hitsugaya, like the grinding of two tectonic plates.
There was no escaping a Sennen Hyoro, Hitsugaya knew. Not a properly prepared Sennen Hyoro. But while Kusaka might have been planning this, this was born as much out of desperation as of the germ of a genuine tactic.
Kusaka was at his limit, and utterly spent. So was Hitsugaya. He pushed and found the last remaining kernel of strength with which to flare his reiatsu and shatter the Sennen Hyoro. Ice smashed and crumbled into tiny bits of dry dust around him. Hitsugaya fell to his knees, and levered himself to his feet, using Hyorinmaru as a crutch. He tried to hide the trembling in his arms.
Kusaka wasn't much better. He teetered on his feet, barely avoided the dark slash of Haineko's ash. He glanced over at Hitsugaya, and his lips moved in a faint smile.
Hitsugaya raised Hyorinmaru, point directed at Kusaka in a silent challenge.
Kusaka moved in the classic response, blade upraised.
He chose Hummingbird Flirts With The Rose, Hyorinmaru and his body responding to his thought, flowing through the form like water into a container, flowing into the container that was Kusaka's defense. Hummingbird met Wintering Bear, and then Hitsugaya was moving on and past Kusaka.
Hyorinmaru, Kusaka's zanpakuto snapped, about a foot from the hilt, as their swords met. Hitsugaya's blade ripped through the sword like a knife through weakened steel. In that same moment of realisation, Hitsugaya was already turning. His backswing encountered resistance as it cut into flesh and tore open Kusaka's torso from side to side in a diagonal slash.
The stink hit him, then, and Hitsugaya knew that it was a gut wound.
Kusaka turned, staggered.
"Finish this," he whispered.
There was only one thing left that Hitsugaya could do. He nodded, and then drew Hyorinmaru back and rammed it through Kusaka's throat.
He left it there.
He was so damned tired.
"Taicho?" Matsumoto asked.
Warmth seeped into his clothing. Only then did Hitsugaya realise that Kusaka's blow had cut open a second slash along his torso. Before his blade had shattered, perhaps. It just hadn't cut as deep. The first wound was bleeding sluggishly again.
Hitsugaya swayed, forced himself to remain upright. "I think we've won, Matsumoto," he said. He wasn't sure, himself.
He never noticed when he fell.
A/N: This is the second-last chapter. Last one will go up on Tuesday, in which some loose ends will be tied off.