A/N: I'm alive. Kinda. Anyway, here you go. Enjoy!
"Zanpakutou."
"Thinking."
She narrowed her eyes, chewing on the end of her brush. She was sitting at her desk, Hyourinmaru's sheathed length bound to her back by the pale-blue obi, trying desperately to look like she was focusing on the stacks of paperwork before her instead of the hastily-drawn diagram on her lap. She'd gone back down to see Aizen yesterday, again under the pretense of a nightmare, and while inside Muken had quickly and efficiently doodled a sketch of Muken's various weaknesses. She'd also carefully examined the restraints strapping Aizen into his chair, contemplating the kido she'd need to reverse the binding.
Never before had she seen something so complex and intricate before. The kido inscriptions that kept the power sealed into Aizen's chair were multilayered and overlapped like linking scales. And each one of Aizen's bonds was separate, unlocked by different keys of myriad design and shape. Getting him out of the chair would be hassle enough - breaking him out of Muken would be another thing entirely.
Unless...
She broke the thought off, nervous, her mind drifting back to the Wildfire Kenmeinarei spirit whom she had met the night she'd been disowned. Akaen, he'd called himself. Hyourinmaru stirred in her soul.
"He is a mere beta." the dragon snorted somewhat derisively, though he seemed more amused by his wielder's uncertainty than anything else. "And I am a Cardinal Spirit - together we are the Alpha of alphas. If you ask for his help, he will grant it."
"...I don't want to free Aizen, though." Toushiro replied, her fists clenching on the brush in her hand and the sheet of illicit paper in her lap. "After what he did to Momo...to me...to Seireitei...Even if I can sympathize..."
"I cannot make your choices for you, fledgling." Hyourinmaru said gently. "I can only stand by them."
Toushiro groaned and slid the makeshift map back into her haori pocket, her face somewhat sour. She felt bitter beyond belief about the thought of committing treason, but if the Royal Family came for her at any point, she needed backup. The Gotei 13 would be honor-bound to pursue her if so ordered, and though she already knew that the Kuchiki would protest if any noble clan came after her, they could not stand against the Soul King. Aizen was the only shinigami she knew - besides Ichigo - who would be willing to stand against the Gotei 13.
Besides, Aizen had suffered more than anyone had known.
The thought sobered her, and without warning a image of Aizen's face, bloodied with terror and howling loss, flashed through her mind. Her hand flitted back to Hyourinmaru's cold hilt, massaging the familiar blade gently. The ice-dragon hummed comfortingly in her soul.
"I'm here, my little one." he rumbled tenderly.
Hyourinmaru was half of her soul - without him, she would be maddeningly incomplete, a half-wraith wandering around in agony every day of her wasting life. She'd be a soul without a heart, a shinigami without a spirit. She'd be empty nothingness. She couldn't imagine it. Yet Aizen had lived with it for a hundred and fifty years.
And then, the pity was back, and she found herself once again able to contemplate treason.
"Healing Aizen's mind will have to be a priority if I'm to use him." she decided. "He's driven by revenge and loss, but it makes him too ruthless to be a justified ally. I won't work with someone like that."
"He is Tamashino Kenmeinarei, same as you." Hyourinmaru offered unexpectedly. "If you ask the Kenmeinarei, I'm sure they would watch over him."
Toushiro turned the idea over in her mind. The only area of the Kenmeinarei-realm that she'd seen had been Akaen's cave and the soft nest she'd woken in, but the innate connection she'd felt to that plane of existence had been immediate and freeing. It had eased her soul while she'd been hurting. Perhaps it would alleviate Aizen's pain long enough for him to regain his moral nature?
"He may not regain his morals until he regains Kyoka Suigetsu, fledgling." Hyourinmaru warned her gently. "Even the newest shinigami understands that the Zanpakutou is born from the innermost part of your soul. Tearing away a Zanpakutou - especially a Tamashino Kenmeinarei's Zanpakutou - is like tearing out a piece of your heart."
"Did you know Kyoka Suigetsu, Hyourinmaru?" Toushiro asked curiously, absently flicking through a report from her Ninth Seats. For a long minute the dragon was quiet, and Toushiro took the time to authorize her Ninth Seats' requested missions and deploy their teams.
"I did, yes." The ice-drake's voice was heavy with something like regret, and it was clear that the wise dragon was saddened greatly by the separation of Aizen and his Zanpakutou spirit. "She was a wise, just spirit with a large, kindly heart. She would never have permitted Aizen to kill so indiscriminately."
"Someone's waxing poetic." Toushiro thought with a smirk, and Hyourinmaru sniffed haughtily.
"Kyoka Suigetsu is not my version of your boyfriend, you anklebiter!" he huffed, and Toushiro grinned impishly, knowing that the dragon was blushing silver. "We were friends, I admit, but she was infinitely more of a dear younger sister than a love interest. She was a very sweet-natured spirit - much like her master before we learned the truth of Aizen's cruelty. An omega spirit through and through - she was never suited for leadership, but there was never a phoenix quite so generous or giving."
Hitsugaya reached for another report, grimacing at the sight of the always-unwelcome budget report. How much damage had her men caused this time?
"So it's likely that Kyoka Suigetsu was deeply connected with Aizen's kindness, then." Toushiro deduced quietly. Her white eyebrows knitted together. "And to think...someone took his kindness for mere want of power..."
Hyourinmaru growled in her heart, and Toushiro felt the restrained, vast coldness boiling angrily beneath the three seals on her collarbone. Her full transcendental power simmered with fury, and the December sky, already overcast through nature's wiles, began to darken with thunder.
"We will watch their blood rain, little queenling." Hyourinmaru snarled. "For nothing but blood can satisfy the wrath of a dragon when such anger is aroused."
"Yes. But not today." Toushiro said firmly, her emerald glare flashing with controlled rage. "Because unlike other spirits, the wrath of a dragon can simmer for a thousand years. Patience will win us the day."
"Yes."
The conversation over, Toushiro returned to her paperwork, simultaneously mulling over plans in her mind and deducting reparations from the salaries of her troublemaking officers and underlings. The aim of her goal with Aizen was, ultimately, to claim the throne of Seireitei and restore his Zanpakutou to him. If everything went well, she'd probably end up setting him up as a steward - she sure as hell didn't fancy the title of Soul Queen for a long while yet, whereas Aizen already had a demonstrated interest in the throne. It would also keep him happy and busy. But she wouldn't need to break him out of Muken until after she came out as transgender.
And she wouldn't come out as transgender until she'd fully mastered her Bankai,, Fukyuukai, and learned a passable amount of the Kenmeinarei 'Deep-magic' that she'd need to control whatever 'Aspect' would open up to her upon her First Flight. Whatever a First Flight entailed.
At least her Bankai and Fukyuukai were coming along at a respectable pace. She was now more than able to effectively fight and move about in both forms, though her Fukyuukai form was still giving her trouble - the three extra limbs were hard to manage. And she'd even managed to cast what Hyourinmaru had proclaimed to be a rudimentary attempt at a 'Deep-magic' spell. She hadn't known what she'd been doing, but somehow she'd ended up spinning around in a perfect circle and clapping her hands exactly the right number of times for an early winter snow to roll in. That had been yesterday - and the snow was still on the ground outside. It hadn't been made through reiatsu, but rather the inborn Kenmeinarei powers that her transcendent Fukyuukai form possessed. She'd been extremely startled to find that the power simmering on her skin was in fact not reiatsu, but pure magic.
It wasn't to say that she didn't have reiatsu in that form - because she had enough to flatten most of Seireitei - but it took more of a secondary, supportive role that she didn't fully understand. It had something to do with reinforcing her soul as to make it able to withstand the all-consuming power of the 'Deep-magic'...
But suffice to say that she'd be hiding her transgender self for a while. Unless she had a sudden breakthrough somewhere.
It was annoying, she sulked. She'd wanted to celebrate the New Year season as a full-on woman. Seireitei always had a slightly-longer-than-a-week party for the New Year, where each of the nine days was a festival of fun and winter-time excitement. There were theme days where people would dress up in fancy costumes, food and game stalls everywhere, and the captains and lieutenants usually sparred with each other in a tournament-style spectacle for their subordinates' benefit. Finally being female for the New Year would have been both fun and a new beginning.
There was also the fact that the noble families were specifically prohibited from complaining about 'commoners' behavior' during the holiday season...
"Captain Hitsugaya?"
Toushiro stiffened in her seat, glancing up to see that a purple-robed messenger stood in the doorway of her office, eyes shadowed. She blinked, then shifted her attention from the paperwork onto the man in front of her.
"Report." she commanded dryly. The messenger dropped to one knee.
"Sir. Yamamoto-soutaicho has called for a joint meeting of the captains and lieutenants at sunset this evening." the messenger said quickly. "He also sends this message to you: The old lotus flower has sent seeds to Seireitei, and the orange Hollow grows ever closer to catching invisible prey."
Toushiro blinked, then glanced dismissively back down at the papers before her.
"Thank you. Dismissed." she said in her usual calm tone, waiting until the messenger disappeared before choosing to panic. She stared at her calendar, gasping for breath, terrified by the message.
It was December eleventh, she noted absently, trying to keep her hands from shaking. The message had been irrevocably clear - and it was horrifyingly dangerous for her.
The old lotus was the Royal Family, which meant that the seeds were likely to be spies or agents of some kind. And they'd been sent to Seireitei. Not Rukongai. Not the generic 'Soul Society.' Seireitei. Somewhere, someone had somehow figured out that the newest female dragon-Zanpakutou was in Seireitei.
She was running out of time, and her Bankai and Fukyuukai were still difficult to control - the Fukyuukai more so. If she tried to challenge the Royal Family for the right to rule now, she'd be slaughtered - assuming their power was the full wrath of a twisted Kenmeinarei spirit. She needed more time, and had no way to get it.
And Ichigo - the orange Hollow - was closing in. She hadn't wanted him to find out about the threat of rape or kidnap looming over her head. But it seemed that he was growing more and more suspicious.
She stood, abandoning her paperwork on her desk, and shot to the hidden training cavern under Sokyoku Hill. She did her best to appear unruffled as she passed by the myriad divisions, but inside she could feel all of her calm resolve crumbling into shards of slight terror. Hinamori passed her with a cheerful wave, reaching out as if to stop her sister from speeding past. But though Hitsugaya saw that, she kept going, barely pausing to offer a quick 'sorry Hinamori, gotta run.'
She reached the cave in record time and ducked into the secret entrance. The kido barriers went up in triplicate, sealing everyone else out, and she took advantage of the sudden wash of relief at her isolation to sit heavily down on one of the boulders. She swallowed hard.
"Akaen. I need your help." she pleaded with the empty air, feeling foolish. But then a shimmering swirl of fire-orange magic licked through the air and a glowing portal opened wide. A massive scaled head poked out of the entrance, scarlet and orange scales gleaming like embers. Then the dragon - who was easily twice the size of Hitsugaya's Bankai - struggled into the cave, wings and tail rustling. The Kenmeinarei spirit let out a soft sigh, blowing wild hot air through the cave. A moment after the last inch of his scaled tail spilled over the boundary between the Kenmeinarei realm and the Soul Society, a large phoenix flew from the portal behind him. The phoenix's wingspan was almost ten feet across, her vivid vermilion wings flickering with gold and yellow feathers, and the sweeping grace of her tail trailed behind her as she landed on the red dragon's massive head.
Toushiro gaped up at them in awe. The red dragon chuckled a bit, lowering his head to gaze straight into Hitsugaya's face with one glowing orange eye.
"Fledgling, you called my name." the dragon said in a rumbling, melodic bass. Toushiro's emerald gaze widened.
"You're Akaen!" she yelped. The dragon chuckled, as did the phoenix on his head. The phoenix swept down, wings blazing with werefire, and in a flash of gold, yellow, and pale orange transformed into a tall, willowy woman with pointed ears. Her skin was tinged with golden undertones, the olive color contrasting prettily with the wave of honey-gold hair cascading down her back and over the delicate gossamer butterfly wings attached to her shoulder blades. She, like her husband, wore a loincloth-like garment in shades of yellow and pale orange that exposed her long, tattooed legs, and a simple sash of fabric in the same colors supported her breasts. Her tattoos, unlike Akaen's, shimmered gently in shades of gold and burnished pale orange, calm flares of controlled, comforting power sparkling over them. She had gold bangles on her wrists and ankles, which jingled cheerfully every time she moved. By her side, the red dragon also shifted back into his humanoid form, revealing Akaen's toffee face.
Then Toushiro blinked, studying the tattoos on each Kenmeinarei's collarbones. In a small area spreading from the crook of their necks, they each had a filigree tattoo in their partner's color mixed in alongside their own tattoos.
The gold-attired woman came closer to her and gently cupped the young woman's face in her warm palms, the bright, alert gold of the woman's eyes fixed firmly on the young transgender woman's face. The phoenix-woman softened, her lips curling in a fanged smile.
"Oh, she's so very young, Akaen." she said quietly, the ankle-length pieces of her skirt/loincloth swirling about her calves. "I've never seen a Tamashino so very young before."
The red dragon purred with something like pleasure, approaching Toushiro purposefully.
"Yet even through her youth, her scent is strong." Akaen said calmly. "She is an Alpha, and a very powerful Alpha. Perhaps even one of the Four Cardinals."
He turned a luminous orange gaze on the young woman in front of him. He frowned.
"You called my name."
Toushiro nodded, ignoring their chatter.
"I am not the only balanced Tamashino Kenmeinarei in Seireitei." she said without preamble. Both the phoenix and the dragon blinked in surprise. "Nor have I been the only Tamashino Kenmeinarei to resurface since the Royal Family began to stray from the path they should have chosen."
Akaen's orange glare hardened into a blaze of questioning fury. His wife laid a hand on his arm in a restraining manner, then stepped forward.
"I am Kotabiki." she introduced herself gently. "The Kenmeinarei have no record of other balanced Tamashino in Soul Society for several thousands of years. We know of your Captain-Commander, but he is not fully Tamashino."
Toushiro turned her face away, fists tightening until her nails bit into her palms.
"The noble families and the Royal Family kidnap them." she said, the anger and fear palpable in her voice. "Their Zanpakutou spirits are ripped away, their powers are sealed, and they're raped if they don't submit."
There was silence for a long moment while Toushiro swallowed hard.
"There is a man." she said, her voice shaking. "He...this evil thing was done to him, and he...he betrayed Seireitei and attempted to kill everyone he'd once known. He nearly killed me twice. But I don't think he's sane - he wants revenge on the Royal Family for taking his Zanpakutou spirit from him and forcing him to impregnate their queen."
Akaen and Kotabiki stared, their expressions unreadable, but if the twitching of Akaen's tail was anything to go by, they were furious. Toushiro sucked in another shuddering breath of air.
"He is a traitor to Seireitei, and I am one of Seireitei's thirteen captains." She pleaded. "Since I have become transgender, I have been a balanced Tamashino spirit, and the Royal Family has already discovered my existence, though I do not believe that they know my identity. I will need this man's help - and more importantly, now that I know what he has been through, I can't just leave him to rot in prison. But if I break him out and hide him, I will be executed."
Akaen and Kotabiki, now understanding what Hitsugaya was asking of them, both nodded simultaneously.
"You wish us to free him and shelter him." Akaen said solemnly. Toushiro nodded.
"Yes." she confirmed. "And I need someone to help me learn the ways and magic of the Kenmeinarei. I don't have any more time to puzzle this out on my own."
The pair of mated Kenmeinarei spirits exchanged long looks, and then nodded, determination crossing their faces. Akaen turned to face her.
"You will call for the Trial of Two Blades." he stated flatly. Hitsugaya's gaze darkened.
"If I must do so to oust that corrupt king and his family, then yes." she replied.
"Then we will help you, fledgling." Akaen decided. "The Kenmeinarei do not take kindly to the oppression of our own."
"Thank you."
Toushiro released a breath she hadn't even known that she'd been holding, the tension seeping out of her system. The two spirits in front of her watched with concern, and then Kotabiki piped up, something like amusement in her voice.
"It may be my nose playing tricks on me, but I believe I smell a mateling - a suitor - on you." she said, her voice a singsong purr. Akaen blinked at his mate, nonplussed by the sudden observation, then grinned fiercely as Toushiro blushed, her golden cheeks quickly turning rosy.
"...I, uh..." she stammered. "I'm, um, in a relationship, if that's what you mean. But he hasn't been around for the past week or so. It's sort of long-distance."
Kotabiki's golden eyes gleamed, and she sniffed the air again.
"He is not a dragon or phoenix Kenmeinarei." she stated thoughtfully. "But he does have a similarly powerful scent."
Toushiro shifted, Ichigo's handsome face flashing through her mind. Her cheeks pinked again.
"He's a human-shinigami-Hollow-Quincy hybrid." She recited. The two Kenmeinarei stared at her astonished by the complexity of the hybridization. "It's actually the fault of the man you're going to help."
Akaen blinked his orange eyes owlishly at the young Tamashino girl before him.
"Your feelings for him are strong." he said with a smile. "And if you choose him as your mate, the hybridization of his spirit will enable him to dominate you sufficiently. From scent alone, he seems a good match."
Toushiro went about three different shades of red at the sound of the phrase 'dominate you,' her green eyes going wide as her mind wandered down indecent paths. She floundered, and the two Kenmeinarei watched her in amusement for several minutes before taking pity and explaining.
"Fledgling, the mating ritual for the Kenmeinarei is a battle." Akaen explained with an amused grin. "The male attacks the female with the hope of subduing her, and she attacks with the intent of testing his temperament. If she deems him a mate worthy of her - by her own criteria - then she will submit and allow the male to pin her and link their souls. Typically, this transfer of power is done with a bite to the throat. If she deems him unworthy...then she will attack him until he dies or flees. The same holds true in homosexual relationship, except that the role of the female is usually taken by the stronger of the two spirits."
Toushiro felt the naughty images evaporate from her mind, and she breathed a sigh of relief, though the blush on her face stayed fixed firmly in place. Akaen watched for a moment, then laughed.
"Of course, most Kenmeinarei mate immediately after the ritual is complete." he said, orange eyes simmering with wicked mirth. Kotabiki flushed prettily next to him, though she was also clearly amused by Toushiro's innocent reaction to the thought of sex. "It's most pleasurable then for both parties, and many female Kenmeinarei enjoy being submissive to a very dominant mate. It's something about being pinned..."
Toushiro went red again and she curled into a small ball, pressing her hands over her ears and squeaking violently.
"I don't need to know that!" she yelped, blushing madly. Suddenly the shirtless-Ichigo images were back in her head, and she went even redder. Kotabiki and Akaen laughed at the innocence of her blush, and she glared at them, her face warm with mortification.
"Oh, stop!" she complained, and the two Kenmeinarei laughed all the harder. She grumbled, scowling, her blush still vivid on her golden cheeks, and proceeded to pout.
"We're not even that serious yet!" she protested. Suddenly her heart sank. "...he doesn't even know about the danger that I'm in. He doesn't know that I'm trying to free the man who nearly killed everyone he cares about several times over. He doesn't know I'm Tamashino."
Akaen and Kotabiki calmed, the revelations sobering them sharply. Akaen's toffee face went solemn again.
"You need to tell him." he said seriously. "If you trust him, you cannot keep this secret. Especially not if you are being hunted."
"Aizen tried to kill everyone he cared about." Toushiro protested. "How am I supposed to tell him that I'm going to free the man he nearly died trying to take down?"
Kotabiki shrugged, her expression sympathetic. Akaen likewise seemed at a loss, and Toushiro sighed and put her head on her knees, her emerald stare downcast. Her face screwed up.
"Lying to him is killing me. But I don't want to draw him into this." she whispered. "One of my friends already knows, and I think that most of the captains do as well. But the more people I tell, the greater danger I'm in."
Akaen shook his head.
"Your mateling is strong enough to impress the Kenmeinarei."he said certainly. "And he has your power to guard his back. The sooner he knows, the sooner he will trust you again. You have everything to lose, but the entire world to gain. Why do you hesitate? You are Tamashino Kenmeinarei!"
Toushiro mulled that over for a long while. Kotabiki and Akaen stood in silence, watching her quietly, their garments rustling in the soft wind of a hot breeze. But finally Hitsugaya raised her white head and stood to her full height. Her white haori, belted with the light-blue obi, hung loosely around her curvy young frame, and suddenly there was steel in her green stare again. The moral compass in her heart was pointing into the wild winter wastes of the North again.
If she wasn't strong enough to defeat the Royal Family or the noble clans, then she'd become strong enough. If she wasn't confident enough to face the world as a woman, then she'd become confident enough. And she'd do whatever she could to right the injustices that had been done to Aizen and the others who had come before her.
She'd found her path. She'd developed the same clear lens that her grandmother had always guided her with.
And it was time to be who she was, without reservation.
Even if it meant losing Ichigo. Even if it meant losing Rukia, and Rangiku, and Momo, and everyone else, she would do what she knew was right. Eventually the admiration and awe would fade and they would understand. And she would not hold their anger against them. It was permissible considering the pain they had faced. But she was growing up now, her body that of an adult woman, her heart and mind maturing at the same time. The young boy-genius of the Tenth Division was a memory now. He'd grown into something more. He hadn't vanished. Hitsugaya Toushiro was still a vast part of her, but he'd changed.
She wasn't Toushiro anymore. But she was still the same person.
Just older, wiser, and more sure of herself.
"I am Tamashino Kenmeinarei." she decided, ice creeping into her voice. "Nothing will change that."
"No." Akaen confirmed. And Hitsugaya stared up into his eyes.
The moment was now. She would not hide. She would not run. If the Royal Family came for her, then she would fight. She would heal Aizen. She would topple the corrupted dynasty.
And finally, she would stand on the heavens.
"Train me." she commanded, her expression fearless. "I will need all my strength to overthrow the Soul King. And I will need all my strength to prove to those I love that what I am doing is right."
Akaen's face split in a wide smile, and he and Kotabiki bowed to her.
"As you wish, fledgling queen." he said, the tattoos on his skin glowing. And then he and Kotabiki dissolved into flame. Hitsugaya tapped her fingers onto her collarbone, her green glare heavy with determination and confidence.
"Gentei Kaijo: Seal of the Third Lotus."
The three seals on her collarbone broke apart, and pale, pale bluewhite reiatsu blasted through the cavern, bowing the sides of the innermost kido barrier before solidifying into a sheen of icy power on Hitsugaya's golden skin. Her pupils glowed.
"Bankai: Fukyuukai Daiguren Hyourinmaru."
And then the world exploded in ice.
(earlier)
A pale hand reached down with curious fingers, picking up the piece of paper left lying the road. Deftly flicking the folded paper open and skimming the paper's contents, the pale hand's owner stiffened. Littered all over the parchment were complex kido-formulas and various diagrams of Muken.
The shinigami who held the piece of paper in their hands stared, then looked up in bafflement, worry shining in their eyes.
Why did Captain Hitsugaya have this?
The shinigami folded the paper back up, then set off towards their division, deciding not to say anything about for the time being. After all, it wasn't as if Hitsugaya would free Aizen or anything...
So? Reviews? Questions? (I might answers questions!)
Please and thank you! :D