"How's Renji?" Karin asked, bursting into the elevens' hideout. Renji was lying on a futon in the corner, covered in wet cloths in an attempt to keep him cool despite his rising fever. The elevens were all crowded around with worried expressions.
"What the hell happened to you?" Ikkaku inquired, indicating Hitsugaya's muck covered clothes and his rapidly swelling cheek. "You get attacked by a swamp creature or something?"
"I fell," he said sharply. "Now is not the time for stories. Abarai's status?"
"He's breathing normally," Hanataro replied. "But the poison's still spreading. I'm having a hard time bringing his temperature down." Hitsugaya knelt at Renji's side and studied him briefly.
"It's still reversible," he observed. "But we have to work fast. Kid, lend me your medicine kit." Hitsugaya and Hanataro set up shop on the kitchen table. As the anxious elevens (and Karin) peered over their shoulders, Hanataro mixed various ingredients while Hitsugaya performed the meticulous, and rather revolting process of extracting moss toad saliva from ten extremely unhappy toads. He was a master with his hands and was quick and adept, as if this procedure was as second nature to him as breathing. Karin was dying to know where he learned all this, but especially after the fight in the swamp, she held her tongue, more concerned about Renji at the moment than satisfying her curiosity. At the same time, she couldn't deny that she was unwaveringly impressed. She had grown up with Hanataro and knew how much time and energy he devoted to learning medicine. Mastering this art was no small feat, and Hitsugaya was clearly exquisitely skilled, maybe even more so than Hanataro.
"It's done," Hitsugaya announced at last, holding up a small vial of a pale yellow liquid that was as viscous as maple syrup. "Karin, help me a moment will you?" Karin held Renji's head still as Hitsugaya gently eased the antidote down Renji's throat. There followed an extremely tense moment as everyone waited for Renji to wake up like Rip van Winkle.
"Well?" Karin prompted nervously. "Did it work?"
"It worked," Hitsugaya assured her, and the crowd released a collective sigh of relief. "But it will take a while before he's fully recovered. Let him sleep for now. He'll probably wake up in a few hours and he'll feel really dizzy, so Yumichka-san, please prepare something warm for him to drink. Ikkaku-san, can you grab some blankets? His body temperature's still elevated, but we need to warm him up now or he'll freeze as the fever breaks." Everyone scurried to follow Hitsugaya's directions and there was pandemonium as every sheet and blanket in the house was collected and heaped onto Renji's lifeless form. Yumichka raced around the tiny kitchen, grabbing everything edible he could find and shouting out painfully each time he realized an ingredient was missing. Yachiru and Zaraki sat in the corner, enjoying the spectacle. In the shuffle, Matsumoto managed to whisper in Hitsugaya's ear,
"Way to take charge taicho. And I love the new look by the way. Lover's quarrel?" Hitsugaya scowled.
"Hey," Zaraki boomed. "As long as we're waiting, why don't we put this new girl to the test?" He drew his sword, a crazed gleam in his eye. "You wanna spar?" A smile spread all the way across Karin's face.
"Absolutely!" she replied eagerly. None of the elevens were willing to miss this, so they poured outside and formed a ring around the circling vultures.
"Ready?" Karin asked. Zaraki grinned maniacally, then attacked. Karin deftly blocked his first swing, then returned with an upward thrust of her own. Zaraki swatted her away like a fly, then slashed repeatedly, pushing Karin backwards. Not to be outdone, Karin parried each swing with one sword and returned with an onslaught of her own with the other. Zaraki was incredibly skilled, but Karin was up to the challenge, and fought him evenly.
"This is getting interesting," Zaraki said hungrily, licking his lips in anticipation.
"I'm just getting warmed up," Karin cried before launching her next attack. The elevens cheered excitedly as the battle progressed. Zaraki bore down on her like a crazed animal, but Karin used the size difference to her advantage, slipped between his legs and spun around, her sword firmly attached to his throat.
"You know this ain't the end, right?" he threatened, raising his sword high.
"Oh yes it is," Ikkaku announced, jumping into the fray. "You've hogged her long enough. It's my turn now!" Zaraki scoffed.
"As if you're strong enough to take her," he mocked. "I'd like to see you try." Zaraki left the field as Karin and Ikkaku faced off. After Ikkaku went Yumichka, Matsumoto, and Kira. Zaraki had a second go. Each of the elevens were excited for the chance to face a new sparring partner, and Karin was more than up to the challenge.
"You're not interested in sparring Toushrio?" Matsumoto asked as casually as she could, watching as Karin easily deflected a swing powerful enough to fell a moderately sized tree.
"It's rather difficult to spar with a sealed sword, don't you think?" he replied lightly, indicating his own.
"Your skills will get rusty if you don't practice."
"And just what makes you think I have any skills?" he said darkly, glaring at her ever so slightly out of the corner of his eye with a look that clearly screamed, 'don't get any closer to the fact that we know each other.' Matsumoto shrugged.
"I just thought that everyone else had a turn so maybe you'd like one. You can borrow my sword if you want." Hitsugaya scowled.
"I don't want to touch an unsheathed sword," he mumbled so that only Matsumoto could hear. "Lay off me." Matsumoto pondered this for a moment.
"Yo, Ikkaku!" she called. "Lend me your spear!"
"Huh?" Ikkaku wondered stupidly. "Whadaya want my spear for?"
"Just do it," she replied impatiently. Ikkaku threw his long wooden spear at her and she caught it deftly and held it out to Hitsugaya.
"Why don't you use this?" she offered. "You can even use the blunt end if you want." Hitsugaya considered this. A wooden weapon wasn't the same as a steel one. It wasn't sharp and would only be deadly if he landed a proper wallop to the head. This, he could use.
"Mind your own business," he scoffed, grabbing the spear and flipping it upside down so that the blade pointed towards the ground. Matsumoto smiled cheerfully. Hitsugaya stepped into the ring. Karin and Zaraki were at opposite ends, planning their next attack, but they paused as they saw Hitsugaya come between them.
"Mind if I have a spar?" he asked. Karin's eyes widened, then she grinned broadly.
"I thought you'd never ask!" she said eagerly. "But what's with the upside down spear?"
"Just thought I'd give it a try," he replied calmly. Karin looked confused, but the thought of sparring with Hitsugaya was too exciting to let it bother her. Zaraki scoffed and left the ring, leaving Karin and Hitsugaya in the center.
"Attack me with whatever you've got," Hitsugaya said, and Karin didn't need to be told twice. Tired as she was from sparring so many matches in a row, she felt a new rush of energy as she raced towards Hitsugaya, swords held high, ready to slice him from both sides. At the last second, Hitsugaya jumped, leaping above Karin's blades and over her shoulders, landing behind her with the grace of an eagle. Karin was momentarily stunned by the impressive move, but her adrenalin had kicked in, and she whirled around with a powerful swing directed to where Hitsugaya should have been, but he had already moved out of arms' reach. She jabbed forward, but Hitsugaya slid back, again effortlessly evading her. No matter what Karin threw at him, he avoided it with the ease of a snake. Karin had never sparred someone so frustratingly fluid, and to make matters worse, he never attacked. Not once. He held the spear almost as an afterthought as he danced his way around the ring, sometimes giving Karin a wide berth, sometimes missing her sword by less than an inch, but never once allowing her to make any type of contact. Eventually, Karin was utterly fed up.
"What's with you?" she barked, as he slipped past another attack, clearly not seizing on a golden opportunity to counter. "This isn't sparring, it's circle walking!"
"Knowing how to evade your opponent is one of the most useful skills one can have," Hitsugaya stated soundly. "You let them waste their energy on unnecessary movements as you wait for the right time to deliver the final blow."
"But you've never fought like this before!" Karin yelled. "That time with the robbers, and just now with the wonder bubbles, you don't hold back like this!"
"I wasn't using a wooden weapon," Hitsugaya explained. "If you hit this spear with your sword, you'd slice it in half." That was true enough, but it wasn't a satisfactory answer for Karin.
"Then use a real sword! If you can't fight properly with the weapon that you've got, then you need a new one." Hitsugaya's entire body seemed to stiffen. He shoved the spear at Ikkaku, who was almost bowled over by the suddenness of the action.
"I'm well aware of that," he replied, looking anywhere but at Karin. "Thank you for the spar. I'm sorry it wasn't enough for you."
"That's not what I…" Karin began, but Hitsugaya had already marched off and disappeared into the house. Karin scoffed.
"I don't know what's gotten into him today," she said, shaking her head. "He's so…out of it or something. This isn't like him."
"His sword is sealed," Hanataro pointed out. "Maybe he just really doesn't like aggressive sparring anymore."
"Maybe you're right," Karin agreed. "He's never sparred with me before, so I guess I should just be grateful that he did today."
"Who cares," Ikkaku brushed it off, entering the ring. "Come on, it's my turn." During the fight, while everyone's attention was on Karin and Ikkaku, Matsumoto managed to slip unseen into the house. Hitsugaya was alone, checking the still unconscious Renji's vitals for lack of anything better to do.
"That wasn't very nice," she noted. "Karin wanted to spar you for real." Hitsugaya didn't reply. "Are you still upset about what I told you?" Hitsugaya's shoulders fell.
"Of course I am! If that's really true then…then…then there may come a day when I need to unseal this sword once again." Matsumoto looked at him with horror.
"Taicho, you can't do that?" she said desperately. "You promised yourself. You promised me…"
"That was on the condition that he was dead. And don't call me taicho"
"But you don't want to kill anyone anymore! I know that! Even him."
"I'll do what I have to do when the time comes. Now get back out there or everyone will start to wonder where you've gone." Matsumoto looked at him with pity.
"I have faith in you," she said, her hand lingering on the door. "I know you'll do the right thing."
Yeah, so Karin probably couldn't take on Zaraki head to head, but hey, it's an AU and Bleach has never been particularly good with maintaining proportional power levels, so I think I'm justified. Besides, it will be important in Karin's mind that Zaraki hasn't beaten her, so I hope it didn't jar anyone, but I need it for the story to work. And I PROMISE that we'll get Hitsugaya's backstory in full at some point, but right now is not the time.