Encounter
This will be kept short because I re-wrote the whole thing. Gomen... This is due to the fact that from the Soul Society arc till now, we're still not sure how Ichigo and Hitsugaya met. It was hinted in Heat the Soul 2, so I'll be making some referrence to it. Let's just say that their first encounter was...amusing. To say the least XD Too bad I had to fight Ichigo, though. Disclaimer: Bleach is getting better. I am getting worse. See the connection? Yes? Good. This chapter is sort of a continuation from the previous one. All I have to say is...poor Hitsugaya.
His shift should've had been over hours ago.
Scratch that, he wasn't even supposed to be here in the first place. His intention for coming to Soul Society was merely to have a sneak preview of what the old head captain had in store for him and his friends. The idiotic strawberry had no idea what had happened to the famous boy genius of the Tenth Division before he came and now he was to watch over the unconscious taichou until the shift Unohana assigned to him was over, which was allegedly three and a half hours ago. She warned him, with a tinge of chemically explosive danger flashing in her assumingly kind, motherly eyes, that if he were to take one brave step out of the ward, she would have no guarantee which of the wards specially assigned to the Eleventh Division members he would end up in as a result.
At least it wasn't as hot and stuffy here as the world outside. Fortunately - unfortunately, rather - for Ichigo, Hitsugaya was having such a dangerously high fever that not only was he knocked out cold, but he was also subconsciously letting the dragon-like might of his icy reiatsu leak out into the ward, and slowly yet unknowingly freezing the compounds of the medical division. The orange head couldn't ask for any better, though he did wish that Toushirou would wake up as soon as possible and seal the reiatsu back.
"A-ah, Ichigo-san!" The timid Fourth Seat Hanatarou scampered into the room, closing the door behind him with a tray of medicine and pills in tow. Ichigo turned, a blank look plastered all over his face. "Anou...Unohana-taichou said that you don't need to worry about Hitsugaya-taichou. He would be fine after resting here for a few more days. And, um...ah, she also said that if you want, you can leave now. Ano--Ichigo-san...?"
Said strawberry made no gesture or reply. He only kept his chocolate brown eyes glued to the sleeping figure of the Tenth Division captain lying on the bed - whilst thinking about how adorably peaceful the snow angel looked like when he was sleeping - and another chain of thoughts and images flashing in his mind a split second later.
"...Hanatarou."
"Ah, hai, I-Ichigo-san?"
"You remember that day? Sometime after I first came here?"
Ichigo would've had, admittedly, gotten lost in the many interlocked paths and corridors of Seireitei if not for the presence of his mousy newfound shinigami friend running for his life behind him. While it was true that Hanatarou did not know exactly which path led to which due to his nature of fearfully staying away from the boundaries of the fiercer and more violent divisions, at least he had the vague idea of excellent places to hide from the crowds of shinigami lusting after Kurosaki's blood with hope of gaining some sort of a reward for slaying the orange-haired ryoka. The underground used to be the best hiding spot until the big idiot known as Kurosaki Ichigo decided that it was pointless hiding throughout the day when he could make use of the time to look for Rukia and the rest of his friends and get out of the horrendous Soul Society more quickly than he anticipated. Yes, it was this thoughtlessness that led him to where he was at the moment.
It was rather, no, extremely unlucky for them to chance upon the entrance to the Eleventh Division's barracks - Hanatarou figured that he should better himself by using the underground paths more often to familiarise with Seireitei more - once they stepped out into the daylight. All shinigami on duty started charging after them with their katana unsheathed and their bloodthirstiness revived. When Ichigo defeated one out of the many hundreds, ten or twenty more would join in the pleasure of lunging after their sole prey.
"Damn the annoying bastards!" he yelled out after grabbing Hanatarou and slashing a Getsuga Tenshou at the growing crowd of shinigami. He repeated his action until all shinigami were knocked off their feet and sent flying into the air or collapsing into the walls. With only three left following, the orange-haired strawberry smirked at his achievement and sent one final Getsuga Tenshou to take them out before placing Zangetsu back in its original position. "Oh finally... Can the day get any worse?"
As if answering to his question, Hanatarou gave a soft gasp while being smuggled under Ichigo's left arm. "I-Ichigo-san, you're heading into--"
"Stop right there, ryoka."
Upon hearing a foreign voice cut off the Fourth Division member in mid-sentence, Ichigo forced himself to halt to a stop, his feet dragging along the ground and drawing dust and sand particles from it. As he layed his inquisitive, chocolate brown eyes on the lithe yet seemingly commanding figure standing not further than ten feet away from him, he blinked. And blinked. The person who apparently attempted to stop them in their path didn't seem like he was any older than a regular twelve-year-old in human standard. If he had to be frank, the shinigami sounded like a mature adult stuck in a body of a child.
Then again, shinigami age at a much slower rate than humans do. Rukia was the perfect example right from the start; if she was at least ten times as old as he was, he didn't need to guess what age the snow white-haired shinigami was. That marshmallow-like hair was astoundingly pure from any dirt particles, Ichigo noted while staring into the sharp, piercing turquoise-teal orbs glaring back at him. The only thing about him, other than the fierce aura he was giving off, that attracted the orange-haired ryoka was that white cloak of some sort. He hadn't seen any other shinigami wearing a particular white cloak. Did that mean...?
"Hi...Hitsugaya-taichou!"
Did Hanatarou just say 'taichou'? Ichigo's eyes widened slightly, still staring at the seemingly younger one in front of him.
"Juuban tai taichou, Hitsugaya Toushirou," the aforementioned taichou merely scoffed under his breath, arms stubbornly folded. He continued glaring. "Oi, ryoka, if you must know, I won't let you get past me. I don't know what you're after but I do know that my duty is to stop and capture you, so you can choose to leave Soul Society right now."
"I won't! I have to save Rukia!" was the first thing that came out of Ichigo's lips, his right hand naturally grabbing the hilt of Zangetsu strapped to his back.
Hitsugaya sighed, "It can't be helped." That was when he noticed; the taichou wore his zanpakutou just like he did. It was strapped to his back with support from the forest green sash he slung across his shoulder and the golden pin attached at the centre. The atmospheric air surrounding them visibly froze and falling back to the earth as particles of ice, shattering. Ichigo was stunned rooted to his spot as the ice-like reiatsu began engulfing him - and it didn't look like the little one (what was his name again?) was releasing any reiatsu at all. "I'll kill you if I have to, then."
Even till now, the memory of what occurred after the short fight was nothing but a haze to him. All he could remember was Hanatarou calling out his name while begging the white-haired taichou to stop before he totally blacked out from reality. The next thing he knew, he was recuperating with the raven-haired Fourth Division's Fourth Seated Officer loyally attending to the wounds from the battle. Whenever Ichigo tried to ask, Hanatarou would either change the subject or pretend that he knew nothing when it was blatantly obvious that he was present throughout whatever had happened that day.
"...Ichigo-san, do you really want to know what happened?" the mousy healer asked, playing with his fingers.
"Hah? Of course I do," the eldest of the Kurosaki siblings replied with a raised eyebrow. More than anything.
"U-umm...well, the truth is..."
A/N: As I promised, there will be a continuation to this. The next prompt will be about Ichigo's violent reaction to whatever Hanatarou informed him about XD Don't worry, Toushi-chan will be actively conscious throughout the next chapter (though there are no promises about that since I'm so evil) so you can expect an insult or two from him. Sorry, this chapter seemed very abrupt...I am getting worse, after all. Eh, I think there are two more chapters before the previews end, so I can get back to working on Spiritual Bond. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing.