Everything was black for her now. Her body gradually turning cold as ice. She felt as if she were drowning in a dark pool, moving ever downwards. She thought she heard someone speak, then there was nothing.
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Yuzu was standing, eyes wide in fear, as the hollows surrounded her. She was only glad that the big one had disappeared before it could hurt Karin any more. She could see a shimmering between her and the hollows, almost like a mirage, and it seemed to be stopping them from attacking her. Karin was there with her and she wanted to go to her, if only her feet didn't feel like they were frozen to the floor.
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By the time Yuzu had finished screaming for Karin the hollow above her had already started to disappate. Kira put Yuzu down and placed a barrier before turning his attention to Karin. Renji had followed, protecting them even once the barrier was up Toshiro was on the offence; he was the one who had jumped in first and killed the hollow about to stamp on Karin.
Toshiro had never felt so angry and he wasn't sure why. He had killed the hollow before he even consciously thought about it. Then when the horde behind where it had been standing rose up, instinct continued to rule his actions. He didn't even realise until afterwards that when he released, he hadn't actually said anything.
Frost started forming around everything and snow started falling from the sky. The hollow closest to him were frozen completely within seconds but still the frost kept moving, amplified further by the snow. Renji was so caught up in protecting the barrier that he didn't realise at first. Not until the snow caught him and started to freeze his arm.
Renji looked back to the barrier as the hollows around him froze in place. Even inside the barrier the temperature was dropping. Kira was using kido on Karin, his breath coming out in a white mist, and Yuzu's feet were covered in frost. Then there was Karin. A thin layer of ice was already covering her body and getting thicker by the minute.
Kira heard Renji calling as he concentrated on Karin. He hadnt had any idea whether kido would work but it was all he could do. Theoretically it should stop her from dying even if it didn't heal any wounds. So to say he was worried when the gash on her back started to close was an understatement. It meant that, most likely, there was a body lying around somewhere.
He shivered as it grew colder and colder. Hitsugaya-taicho wasn't meant to release his sword until he had recovered and it seemed like he was even losing control of the situation. The more ice there was the harder it was to move at all. Strangely, his kido was healing Karin even under all the ice. The only problem was that as the ice became thicker it was more difficult for him to see.
Toshiro looked around as Renji called him, irritated at being interuppted. He growled and broke the frozen hollows into pieces. Then he saw what his ice had done. He powered down his sword and stopped his techniques. The hollows that were still alive were retreating, as was the ice. Yuzu collapsed, shivering and unconscious as Toshiro rushed to Karin and smashed the ice barrier above her.
Toshiro simply stared at Karin as Kira tried to control the situation. First he tried to engage the captain and brief him on what had happened but he soon gave up and concentrated on Renji instead.
Toshiro growled, finally paying attention
Kira looked at him sadly and simply nodded at Renji, who immediately used shun-po to recover her human body. Kira turned Karin's soul over and paused as his eyes widened in shock. He stared at where he had been hoping to see an intact soul chain and instead saw none. Instead there was a faint soul ribbon linking her and Yuzu.
He shook it off quickly and placed Karin back in her body, amazed as they melded back together. He tried to keep his thoughts hidden as he picked Karin up and gestured for Renji to go to Yuzu. As soon as he told Toshiro that he was ready they were off, heading back to the clinic.