A/N- wow, sorry this took so long.
X
Hitsugaya was definitely not in a good mood, but that was to be expected. He had not left the hospital for almost the entire two days since Ayumu had been admitted. She was almost healed enough to leave the hospital, but until then Hitsugaya was pacing around an empty waiting room.
"Um, hello?" Ram said, seeming to pop out of nowhere.
"Huh?" Hitsugaya sat down in one of the many chairs in the room and broke out of his staring match with the floor just long enough to reply "Oh, hello."
"So… did you want to shove me up against the wall and ask me a bunch of questions now?" Ram asked. In fact, that was exactly what Hitsugaya wanted to do, but he said nothing. "Well like 'cause usually after something like this happens you hunt me and Yun down and interrogate us so… yeah. She's waiting in that hat guy's shop if you feel like beating some answers out of us, I'm like hopeless so don't ask me anything…" he muttered on his way out.
"…Fine." Hitsugaya got up and followed him out of the room.
…
"So, um, do you have questions…?" Yun said, trying to break the awkward silence that had descended when Hitsugaya entered the room. He sighed.
"Will Ayumu be alright?"
"Do I look like a medic to you?"
"You asked if I had questions."
Yun gave an annoyed sigh. "Well, I read your incident report—"
"See, this is why Yun's the smart one, she like reads stuff," Ram cut in.
Yun cleared her throat. "As I was saying, that demon probably didn't use any type of technique to stop the wound from healing, so she should be fine soon. It probably couldn't even use a technique like that anyway."
"What do you mean?"
"Well its powers were pretty specific, shadow techniques are almost always used for copying. Chances are that that copy of the woman she made was the first technique she learned, and then learned to simplify it."
Hitsugaya thought about this for a moment. "I see, so that must be how she copied that other demon's powers."
"What?"
"The first demon we ran into used that same power, the one with the creatures that looked like liquid. So this one must've copied it."
"Well, don't assume that, it could be the other way around. But it's probably neither, since it's really hard to come up with a technique to copy another, even with shadows. They could be related… no, because we know that girl's lineage. Probably one of them stole some of those creatures from the other. Or borrowed them to make it look like they could use that power."
"But I saw both of them make some of those things. They came out of the first demon's hands, and Kagemi brought them out of her shadow."
"Hmm, was the first one a high level demon? Like, did they seem really powerful?"
"Well, at the time they did, but now that I think about it they were probably pretty weak."
Yun thought for a moment. "Which did you see make more of them?"
"The first- well, we technically only saw her make one, but there were tons more around her."
"Yes," said Urahara (who had been standing in the shadows unnoticed the whole time), "but if she only showed herself making one than it's possible that she simply hid that one in her spirit body and brought it out at a strategic point to make it seem that it was her power. I also read the report, and the one for the first demon. I've estimated that to create the crowd we saw on the day of the first demon's attack would've taken them about 40 days using their power nonstop, but it would've only taken Kagemi about 25 seconds. So either this demon is so good at possession that they can take control of an army of mindless creatures, or Kagemi was helping it."
"Well there's no way it was the possession thing. Possession is like the hardest move out there, any demon below Kitsune's level would probably die trying to possess a squirrel. And you can't possess a technique—" Yun said, but was cut off by Hitsugaya.
"Wait a second, then what about a vice captain?"
"What?"
"Well, about three days ago Ayumu fought this woman. I couldn't understand them because they were speaking English, but from what I could tell she was a possessed vice captain from America who followed her here."
"Then it sounds like there's some seriously high level demon after you. Seriously, it would've been hard to possess a regular human soul, let alone a vice-captain. What did the possession look like?"
"What?"
"Like, what effects did it have on the person's body?"
"Well, their eyes were completely white. And there were three swords sticking out of her back, they were connected by a chain."
"The white eye thing is typical. The swords… something like that usually reflects on the demon's power. But unless another shinigami did it I can't think of a sword-type demon."
"I don't think shinigami can possess. Well, unless mass hypnosis counts."
"It doesn't."
"Oh. Wait a minute though, if it wasn't possession then that means that Kagemi was somehow in cohorts with that demon?"
"Seems like it," said Urahara. "In any case, we can just ask them after they've been purified. That first demon hasn't been released from Ayumu's gourd yet, has she?"
"No, the hellbird that we fought before Kitsune is the only one so far," Hitsugaya said.
Urahara let out a sigh-like breath and sat down with his legs crossed. "This certainly has become a bit of a mystery, hasn't it?" he said quietly to himself. The other people in the room looked at him to elaborate, but he did not.
…
Figuring that wandering around aimlessly in the living world was better than wandering around aimlessly in the hospital, Hitsugaya decided to pay a visit to Ayumu's body and make sure that her family wasn't getting too suspicious. He tracked down his gegai and headed off to her house.
"Oh, hello Hitsugaya, this is a surprise. Ayumu is locked in her room for some reason, maybe she'll come out when she sees that you're here."
"Oh, thank you," Hitsugaya said, going to Ayumu's room and knocking on the door.
"Who is it?" her
body asked from the other side.
"Um, me," said Hitsugaya,
slightly confused why she would bother to ask.
Ayumu's body opened the door a crack and looked at him through one eye. "Oh, good," she said, opening the door, dragging him in, and closing it again. "Her friend keeps calling me. She's being seriously stalkerish. I keep thinking she's gonna show up any minute. Hey, where's your soul candy guy? He's funny. I keep flirting with him and he just blushes," she said, putting a piece of gum in her mouth.
"Oh… um, no one sees you doing that, right?" Hitsugaya asked, completely forgetting the first part of what she said.
"How should I know? He's cool though, he's my boo."
"Um, I see…" suddenly having the impulse to leave. "Well, um, I'll be going now…" he said, opening the door and backing out of it.
…
"Oh, captain Hitsugaya, I've been meaning to speak with you," Unohana greeted him upon returning to the hospital. That technique that she can use is being analyzed, it seems to be some form of compressed healing technique. Because of this, Ayumu can be released now and complete her healing process at home."
"Oh, good!"
"Yes. And also, please notify us if she has another attack from the poison."
"Will she?"
"We don't know, but if she does please tell us."
Hitsugaya looked down for a moment, his fists clenched. "Alright."
…
Hitsugaya was pacing on a rooftop a few buildings away from Ayumu's. It was about 10:00, but because of her injury Ayumu was long since asleep. Sighing, he jumped down onto her fire escape. He opened her window and slipped inside. Only then did he realize that he was sneaking into her room. He crossed to the wall opposite the windows and sat down…
…He was awakened by whispers and a strange spirit force. Something in his gut told him to pretend that he was still asleep, so he did not move. One person talking was Ayumu, the other he did not recognize. Strangely he understood the voice he did not recognize, even though both were speaking English.
e-
"…"
"Well duh! Didn't I say that?"
"…"
"Yes, I did- well anyway, what, did you think I was just going to ignore something like this? I can't leave you alone for a second, can I?"
"…"
The other voice laughed, and Hitsugaya realized that it was a girl about Ayumu's age. "Well it's true! Your soul candy probably thinks I'm a stalker, I called her so much… oh, and, um, there's some guy in here and I think he's waking up…"
"?!"
-e
Ayumu sat bolt upright, and then relaxed. "Oh, captain Hitsugaya. Um, what are you doing in my room?"
"I could ask her the same question," he said, standing up and pointing at the girl standing by Ayumu's bed.
Ayumu sighed. "Ok, I guess it's introduction time. E- Emma, this is captain Toshiro Hitsugaya- man that sounds weird reversed.-e Captain Hitsugaya, this is captain Emma Quasar."
