When Toshiro arrived at the scene, he saw a big guy eating a human. Disgusted he let out a burst of ice that hit the thing right in the chest.
Madarame also got out his weapon and didn't wait a second before attacking him.
Thankfully, Matsumoto and Ayasegawa used the distraction to get most of the humans out of there.
Not so thankfully, they didn't have time to ask for permission to remove their limiter, so the fight was harder than they thought. Especially since the quiet one had a stronger aura than the big one and if he joined the fight… Toshiro wasn't sure they would survive without removing the limiter.
After five more minutes, Toshiro made a decision. What better way to test usefulness of magic in a fight, then now, when they still had the upper hand thanks to their numbers.
Getting out his wand he pointed it at the big guy and whispered, "Expelliarmus". Then he put it away in hopes that no one saw him. It wouldn't be catastrophic if Aizen knew, but they wanted to use it as a surprise attack against him.
And to his great pleasure and confusion to everyone else, the man's weapon flew right out of his hands and landed in front of Toshiro. Toshiro smirked, it worked!
This turn of events got the smaller one's attention as well. He looked at the weapon and then at Toshiro.
'This one is smart!' thought Toshiro.
But then their eye contact broke and the guy looked over at Orihime, who was healing Madarame.
Seeing the Arrancer's new focus he stood protectively in front of the girl. He was unsure if he could win a fight against the second one, but thankfully he didn't have to. At that moment Kurosaki, Urahara and Shihoin arrived.
After an impressive amount of fluctuating reiatsu from Kurosaki, and pathetic attempts from the Arrancer to fight without a weapon, the other one finally joined in. Just not as they had expected.
He impales his own comrade with one hand.
"Urghh… Ulquiorra! What was that for?"
Ulquiorra? What an interesting name, thought Toshiro.
"That's enough Yammy," oh, so his name was Yammy, "Stop being so reckless, it was clear the moment you lost your sword, that you would lose. Also, the wanna be Shinigami that Aizen has his eyes on is nothing more than trash. Not even worth killing. Let's go."
He opened a Garganta and both of them disappeared.
Toshiro looked around. Except for Madarame, Sado, Kurosaki and himself no one was hurt. But still, the fight had him worried. Those Arrancer were stronger than any hollow they faced before. They have been on the defense for the entire time until he used the spell. Even with Limiters, it shouldn't have been that hard…
Urahara met his gaze.
"Hitsugaya-kun, I appreciate that we now know that magic works against them, but with our luck, you just performed it in front of the smartest of all Arrancer. Which means, we have lost the surprise effect." Urahara said seriously and hid his face behind a fan, so that only his eyes could be seen.
The atmosphere turned tense. Funnily enough, everyone except Toshiro and Urahara was tense. Those two only smirked at each other.
"Yeah, that's why I didn't show him the wand and whispered. The only thing he knows is that I used some method to disarm this Yammy. All he saw was the weapon flying to me. That is not enough information to link it to magic."
Urahara started laughing and clapped him on the back, "Good job kid!"
"I'M NOT A KID!"
"To me you are!"
And so the day ended with Toshiro chasing the shopkeeper around the clearing.
...
The next week was spent with school, training and patrolling. But nothing happened. Not even normal Hollows. This set Toshiro more on edge than the attack of those two Arrancer.
But no, instead of actually doing something productive they wasted their time at school. At least school had Kendo, which turned out o be the best idea Madarame ever had. It was the only time he could just fight for the fun of it. Without Urahara trying to kill them and without fighting for anothers or his own life. He didn't even know how much he missed such sparring sessions until he had them again.
It was a little sad that no one could keep up with him except Abarai and Madarame but as long as he didn't use any reiatsu it was good enough. Though it didn't help with the stares and rumors at all! Everyone wondered now how he's so strong at this age. But at least the bullying that started at first stopped, the moment a video of how he beat the crap out of Kurosaki started spreading. Though it was never really bullying because he simply ignored them and his friends laughed in their faces for even trying.
Today he could once again go to the club, since Kurosaki and Kuchiki had patrolling duty.
"OI! Captain Hitsugaya you wanna spar?" asked a grinning Madarame, "I'm in a good mood today. Today is the day I'm gonna win!"
"Dream on idiot."
"Ready to put your money where your mouth is, kid?" he challenged. The room turned quiet, they learned not to call him kid or small. They learned the hard way what happened.
Toshiro gave him a side glance and saw Matsumoto standing behind him in a corner. With a bottle of sake. Toshiro sighed, that would explain Madarame's behavior. But why show mercy to the guy? He decided to drink with Matsumoto and he called him a kid! Yeah, Madarame was going down.
"Fine, get on the matt." He answered calmly.
"Oh… you… really want to?" Ikkaku looked around hesitantly now, but everyone was giving him pitying or encouraging nods. Only Abarai looked around for a way to sooth the situation. Or for an escape route.
"Come on, what did you say again? Put your money were your mouth it? I agree, but instead of money, let's say… whoever loses has to take the duties of the other for the next three days." Toshiro replied, still sounding completely serious. Now Madarame was sweating but then again, he would also never give up a good fight.
"Fine! Let's do this!"
Now the dojo got hyped up. A fight between the new students is a treat to watch after all.
In less than five minutes, Toshiro changed clothes and waited for Madarame. Said Shinigami was talking about something with Matsumoto and Abarai.
When it was time, Madarame and Abarai walked up together.
"Captain Hitsugaya. I wish to change the spar into either a two against one or a two against two with Rangiku on your team. The bet will remain the same." Abarai told him nervously.
Toshiro raised an eyebrow, "Why would I? He was the one to challenge me."
"Yes, or no, Captain." Came it aggressively from Madarame.
Toshiro thought about it, Sword fight has always been his best subject and he was easily faster than the two. But then again, when it came to pure muscle the two of them were stronger… and there was no way he would fight with Matsumoto, it would most likely turn into a three versus one.
Toshiro smirked at them, "Fine, two vs one. I wanted a good fight for a while now."
The dojo turned into chaos then, with half of them screaming at each other, and the other half making videos and posting it.
On the matt, Toshiro stretched while his opponents talked strategy until they started screaming at each other and decided to just follow their instincts and fight.
Matsumoto stood at the referee's place with a bleeding referee behind her.
"Alright fighters! I don't know the rules and I don't caaaaree! Ju-hic just fiiight!"
Not wasting a second, Toshiro dodged the first blows from both swords. Rolling and jumping to avoid getting hit, he forgot all about his surroundings and concentrated solely on the fight.
He started blocking the hits but was still on the defense. He knew if it looked like he couldn't fight back the other two would get careless, he just had to wait for an opening.
The opening came soon after that from Madarame, who thought he could be more aggressive, since Hitsugaya dodged most of the time. The moment he started to neglect his defense, Toshiro strikes. He got him in his left rib-cage but Madarame was no beginner. He dodged and immediately used Toshiro's attack against him. Thanks to his attack, his legs were too far from each other to effectively dodge. Instead he blocked it and in the last moment used his left leg to kick Abarai, who came from behind him.
Then he used enough force to push Madarame three feet back and attacked Abarai, who had lost his balance for a second because of the kick. Instead of trying to dodge, Abarai blocked the attack. Toshiro noticed a second too late why. Madarame was back and with his sword still locked against Abarai's, his back was unprotected.
With gritted teeth, he decided it was time to get one of them out.
He continued pushing against Abarai, who didn't expect that and wasn't ready for it. At the same moment he lifted his right leg and blocked the incoming sword with his foot.
'I am very glad right now that we're not training bare footed.' He thought.
Twisting his whole body to the left side, he got Abarai's shoulder and made Madarame's sword fly out of his hand. Using Madarame's weaponless state he stabbed him right in the stomach. He tried to dodge, but Toshiro was by far the faster one.
With Madarame out of the fight, he turned to Abarai and smirked, "Not so happy now that you agreed to help your friend?"
Abarai looked scared but determined at the same time, "I have not made the bet, so I'm not really losing anything."
Toshiro snorted, "Yeah, only your dignity."
"It is not a shame, to lose to a captain." Abarai answered confused.
"Yeah, but all the people filming this right now will think you lost against an eleven-year-old." He laughed and attacked with renewed force.
Abarai was good and managed to dodge a lot but in the end, he couldn't keep up with the tempo and got out by a jab to his stomach.
Toshiro bowed to his opponents and left the dojo under loud applause.
Abarai and Madarame were not so lucky though and got ambushed by their classmates.
"Dude, how could you lose against a kid!", "Why did you call him captain?!", "How the heck is that kid so strong?"
The two of them looked at each other and silently hoped the captain would be okay with their answers.
"Well… he was captain in our old school." Abarai said.
"Yeah! And it is not unusual to lose to him! He was one of the strongest fighter at our school. No idea how he got so strong though, honestly." Madarame added with a glare that dared anyone to argue. Abarai nodded along and they boxed their way through the mass of students.
...
That night, Toshiro thought he could relax and work on paperwork a little, since his patrol duty was taken by Madarame.
He was starting to relax and have some time for himself, when Matsumoto ran in. He turned around to shout at her but when he saw her breathing hard with a serious look in her eyes he stopped.
"What happened Matsumoto?"
"Arrancar, six of them. Ichigo is already fighting the leader." She answered.
Not wasting a second, he left his gigai and ran out of the building to search for spiritual pressure. He didn't need to search for long because two arrancars came at them.
The guy that attacked him had an idiotic hat and spoke with a Spanish accent.
"How do you do?" he asked with a drawl, "I am the 11th Arrancar Shawlong."
"Tenth Division Captain, Hitsugaya Toshiro at your service." He replied and parried the incoming sword.
"Tenth Division Captain… that is magnificent news for me… it means… I have hit the jackpot." He said in a bored tone.
Toshiro narrowed his eyes and let his reiatsu surround his body, a blue-white aura shone around his body.
"No, You're wrong. I think you are the unluckiest one." And with that they attacked both at the same time.
He had some trouble because of the limiters, but it looked like he held out better than most others.
From what he can gather, one of the Arrancar is either dead or gone, but Kuchiki also seemed to be hurt badly. But Kurosaki is with her, so hopefully they will be fine.
Another interesting fight was between Madarame and his opponent. The reiatsu felt like someone using bankai… he had to look into it later.
Abarai appeared to have trouble as well, if his fading energy was anything to go by, but he is right next to Urahara's shop, so there's no need to worry.
Thankfully none of the humans with little reiatsu were attacked, that would have been problematic.
Thinking and concentrating about all of this made him an easy target for his own opponent though, so he had to focus on the fight again. He had been careless and was badly hurt already by Shawlong.
'Guess fighting only on instinct without concentrating is a bad idea.' he thought depressed at his current state.
'You have no one but yourself to blame for this.' Hyourinmaru laughed at him.
'And the person who came up with the damn limiters. They knew we had to fight, so why did we have to use them.' Toshiro grumbled back.
'Master, you're not concentrating again.'
Toshiro gasped at another slash. Damn, he really should have been concentrating.
He looked around and saw Matsumoto on the ground. Damn it…, they better give us permission to release the limiters soon, he thought and turned back to his opponent.
Shawlong huffed, "If this is the level of a captain then I am extremely disappointed."
Toshiro gritted his teeth and the fight continued for real.
"Bankai Daiguren Hyōrinmaru". The dragon roared in delight.
But even in Bankai he couldn't do much against Shawlong. But this time the other seemed distracted by something. He thought to make a sneak attack but with the limiter on, it would be useless. So instead, seeing the other wasn't paying attention to him, he concentrated and whispered, "Petrificus Totalus".
All of a sudden, Shawlong found himself unable to move and falling straight to the ground with a loud 'Bam'. This distracted Matsumoto's opponent as well, and he looked surprised from Shawlong to the small Captain, who couldn't stop himself from smirking. But unlike humans, Shawlong was able to cancel the spell with enough reiatsu. Good to know that such spells won't be too much use.
But the fall had angered Shawlong and he looked around to find out what happened until he locked eyes on Hitsugaya, who was still smirking.
"What did you do?!" he sneered.
Toshiro ignored the question and head his zanpakuto ready for the next attack.
"Tch, answer me! It couldn't have been your bankai, it is probably incomplete because of your age and I didn't feel any ice. So what did you do? And what did you do against Yammy as well?" the Arrancer asked. But he was calmer this time and that could be problematic.
But Toshiro kept silent and didn't let his focus waver.
Shawlong gritted his teeth, "Fine, in that case I will get the answers out of you with force. Be ready to get defeated by my strongest ability. Shear Tijereta!"
Before Toshiro could react, he was hit by five big slashes. Bleeding badly now, he started to get a little worried. Either the limiter got release soon or he had to use magic and give himself and their secret weapon away.
But at this moment Matsumoto's communication device informed them that they had permission to release the limiter.
He smiled at Shawlong, "You shouldn't worry about what happened before. You should worry about what comes next .Lift the Limit!" his, Matsumoto's and Abarai's reiatsu quintupled.
And with that the fight was practically over. Only the one arrancar fighting against Kurosaki was still alive. Toshiro wanted to go and help but with all the blood loss, he could barely stand.
Orihime came running to him and with a jolt he noticed he was lying on the ground already.
'Damn, I hope not all of them are this strong. It won't be a problem for captains but the captains can't fight this war alone…' thought Toshiro while Orihime healed his wounds.
'I hate to be pessimistic master but from the feeling I get from the arrancar fighting Kurosaki, I would say some are even stronger.'
Before Toshiro could reply, he felt it. Tosen's reiatsu. He tried to stand up but Orihime wouldn't let him. Matsumoto was gone to help Rukia and Madarame was out of energy as well. If Tosen attacked now… they wouldn't stand a chance.
Thankfully, a minute later, the reiatsu disappeared together with the last Arrancer.
Kurosaki better tell them what happened later.
...
An hour later they were once again in Urahara's shop with Orihime healing the rest of them.
"Ok, so what did you guys find out in today's fight?" Urahara asked.
Everyone looked at Kurosaki since he was fighting the boss but the boy stayed uncharacteristically silent. Looking at none of them.
Matsumoto sighed and started instead, "Thankfully, mine was pretty talkative. I made fun of him because he had such a high number, which I thought meant he was weak. He told me that from up to eleven, the numbers meant nothing except for their birth date. For example, Eleven was made before Twelve. Those are called Numeros's. But from one to ten, their numbers stand for strength. Those are called the Espada. That's all I found out."
Urahara nodded, "Thank god for all the wannabe villains who can't stop talking about how great their side is." He laughed.
Toshiro went next, "I didn't find out much except that they have some kind of release as well. I wouldn't say it's like Shikai or Bankai, but it definitely makes them stronger." The rest nodded along, they experienced something similar.
With that everyone looked at Kurosaki again. If Kuchiki was awake right now, she would probably kick him for acting like this. Instead it was Shihoin who did it.
"Ow! What the heck, can't you see I'm thinking?"
"Shut up, you're not thinking you're sulking."
Kurosaki stood up. "Fine, you want to know what happened? I fought against the sixth Arrancer, or Espada from what Rangiku-san said. I lost. Then the blind guy showed up and they disappeared. That's it. If you excuse me, I'll go now."
Then it was only them left and after everyone was healed, they decided to go back home for now.
The next day, most of the Ryoka except for Orihime didn't show up at school. Toshiro also skipped a class to write his report to Yamamoto.
For all the commotion at the beginning, the rest of the month was incredibly boring. Not a single attack. They still trained with Urahara and found out that Sado is now his new student. Toshiro also taught them magic but the person who really could have used it disappeared. Kurosaki didn't come back once during the whole month and instead trained with the vizards to control his hollow.
Orihime and Kuchiki planned to go to Soul Society for a while but Matsumoto talked them out of it and gave them lessons instead.
Over the next two months they also found out that the deciding battle should be in winter because that is when the hogyoku will awake.
So it came as quite the surprise when without warning, four Espada came out of a portal right above them when they returned from school.
Orihime gasped, "That's the one from two months ago, Yammy right?"
"Yes, and the rest are definitely Espada as well. Matsumoto and Orihime, stay back as backup for now! And if you get the chance and won't get seen, use magic to help." He ordered.
At that moment the one with blue hair disappeared who knows to where. Toshiro was just happy one of them left.
Kuchiki wasn't. "Sir, I ask for permission to follow him. He is the one who beat Ichigo and is now probably looking for a rematch."
Toshiro nodded and with that Kuchiki disappeared.
Looking up at their opponents he made sure Matsumoto and Orihime were a safe distance away before he readied himself for the fight.