The Visoreds picked Toshiro's unconscious body up.
Hachi clapped his hands together, causing a section of the floor to rise up and reveal a staircase leading underground.
'Can you hear me, Toshiro?' Shnji though as the descended far below the ground level. 'In a few moments you're going to fully transform into a hollow. Don't let it consume you. Consume it instead. If it devours you, it's all over.'
They exited the staircase and entered a vast, rocky expanse just like the one under Urahara's shop.
They set Toshiro down in the center of a flat section of the terrain. Hachi summoned a kido barrier kido barrier around Toshiro, as well as five stone pillars to keep the boy's body pinned down.
Standing in his inner world, Toshiro faced down his doppelganger.
"What's the matter?" the other Toshiro asked. "Why do you look so glum?"
Toshiro's eyes slowly scanned the barren landscape. It was just the to of them there.
"Is there a reason Hyorinmaru's not here?" he asked. "Is this another test, like when I fought Kenpachi?"
"Who knows?" the doppelganger replied. "All I know is, this time, there's no one around to stop me from killing you."
Toshiro looked behind him. He carried a zanpakuto on his back. He could tell by the comfort of its weight that it was the blade of Hyorinmaru.
"Tell me something,' the doppelganger asked, "did you enjoy humiliating that little girl? Was it cathartic, after losing twice in a row to the Arrancar?"
"You know it wasn't," Toshiro responded. "You know full well that I don't like fighting. I needed the Visoreds to respect me."
"And as former Shinigami, what they respect is strength," the other Toshiro finished. "You're lucky it wasn't one of the former captains who took you on. You'd never have beaten one of them."
"What makes you so sure I couldn't beat them?"
The doppelganger smiled. "What are you here for?"
"I suppose, I'm here to figure out what it is you want."
"Well, that's simple enough. I want death and destruction! I want to wreak as much havoc as I can using your body!"
"Then why didn't you?"
The doppelganger looked at him with a confused expression.
"What do you mean?"
"I was willing to let you take control, and instead you just froze me up."
"You think you were letting me take control, but in fact you only did that once."
It was Toshiro's turn to look confused.
'Is he saying, that time with Byakuya, I was responsible for him taking over then?'
The doppelganger reached behind his back and drew a zanpakuto. Toshiro's eyes narrowed as he saw that the sword was an exact replica of his Hyorinmaru.
Toshiro reached back and drew his own weapon.
'It looks like we start fighting now. At least this time I've got Hyorinmaru from the start, so we're evenly matched.'
The other Toshiro grinned. "You think that since we've both got the same sword, we're evenly matched, don't you? Well, YOU COULDN'T BE MORE WRONG!"
Toshiro raised his blade, just barely blocking the first powerful blow from the doppelganger.
The Visoreds felt a surge of reiatsu from Toshiro's body. The ground beneath their feet began to shake violently.
Shinji frowned. "Here it comes," he said seriously.
A high-pitched wail emerged from Toshiro's body as his limbs began to twitch and move. The five stone pillars holding him to the ground shook violently.
He lifted his head, revealing half of his face to be covered by a hollow mask.
He stood up, the pillars breaking apart and collapsing behind him.
One of the Visoreds rose. She was a girl in a sailor school uniform. With braided black hair and glasses. She picked up her zanpakuto.
"Hachigen," she said. "Open the barrier. I'm going in first."
"Try not to kill him, Lisa," Shinji advised her.
Lisa looked back at Shinji in exasperation. "Yeah, if he doesn't kill me first."
The twin Hyorinmaru blades clashed again and again.
Toshrio and his doppelganger launched another attack, moving even faster than before. The momentum of their charge made them continue past each other even after their blades met.
They turned around to face each other again. The doppelganger grabbed the sickle at the end of Hyorinmaru's chain and began to twirl the blade itself around.
He threw the blade at Toshiro, just as he did the first time they fought. This time, the boy held Hyorinmaru instead of a weak zanpakuto, and he was able to deflect the thrown sword.
"I thought you said you were stronger than me," Toshiro said as the doppelganger pulled his sword back. "We seem pretty evenly matched to me."
The doppelganger grinned. "As a not-so-wise person once said, if this feud is ever going to be resolved, we both have to use our true power."
Toshiro looked at his doppelganger with a grave expression. In unison, they raised their swords.
"Bankai!" the both yelled.
Lisa stepped back as Toshiro's reiatsu spiked again.
A hollow hole appeared in the center of his chest even as the ice wings formed on his back.
The Visoreds looked up as the blue skies of their underground hideout were quickly covered over by dark clouds.
"So it's true," Shinji said, "he can control the weather."
"Kensei!" he called out. "Get in there and switch with Lisa!"
Hyori turned to him.
"What's wrong? I thought we were supposed to take ten minute turns keeping him in check."
"This has become much more dangerous," Shinji said. "The timetables are going to have be moved up. If he doesn't get control soon, we're gonna have to kill him to keep him from destroying all of Karakura Town."
Hyori grinned. "Now that I'd like to see."
"As amusing as that may be," Shinji said, "we're all in a lot of danger right now."
They squinted as a bolt of lightning flashed overhead, accompanied a deafening roar of thunder.
Toshiro and his doppelganger glared at each other. The other Toshiro's ice wings were as white as the rest of him.
Toshiro swung his sword forward, launching the great winged ice dragon at his opponent.
The doppelganger smirked and held out his free hand. He grabbed hold of the dragon's face and through it to the ground.
Toshiro gaped in shock.
"Is that really all you've got?"
The doppelganger pointed his sword at Toshiro. The boy knew what was coming, but he had no time to react as the bolt of lightning struck him.
He closed his eyes and screamed in pain.
The lightning attack ended as quickly as it had been launched. Toshiro opened his eyes, but his doppelganger was nowhere to be seen.
Neither was the icy plain.
Toshiro stood upon a plateau overlooking the Sereitei.
"This is the Sokyoku Hill," he said to himself. "What am I doing here?"
A familiar flower petal floated past his face, reflecting the sunlight back in a bright pink light.
Toshiro turned around, knowing who stood behind him.
"Scatter, Senbonzakura."
Toshiro leapt out of the way of Byakuya Kuchiki's Shikai.
"Why are you attacking me, Byakuya?" he demanded.
The Sixth Division captain ignored his question. "Pathetic. Is that all the power you have now?"
"Tell me what's going on!" Toshiro yelled. "Why am I in the Soul Society!"
Byakuya closed his eyes. "You are a disappointment, Toshiro Hitsugaya."
Toshiro backed up in trepidation as Byakuya turned his sword over.
'This has got to be an illusion or a hallucination!' he thought. 'That's the only thing that makes any sense.'
Byakuya dropped his blade.
"Bankai. Senbonzakura Kageyoshi."
Toshiro leapt into the air to avoid the millions of tiny blades Byakuya launched at him.
He flew up, attempting to get out of range.
"What's the matter?" Byakuya asked. "Fight back!"
He raised his arms, increasing the speed with which Senbonzakura pursued Toshiro.
Toshiro was quickly surrounded by hundreds of thousands of tiny blades. They could not scratch his wings, but they could pierce his flesh.
Toshiro fell to earth, landing on one knee.
"That felt real," he said in pain. He was bleeding from many small cuts.
"Stand up, Toshiro Hitsugaya," Byakuya commanded. "Or else … "
Another wave of flower petals launched at Toshiro, who leapt out of the way again.
Toshiro was flying faster now, Byakuya's attack on his tail. But he was starting to feel the pressure of his Bankai building up in his body.
"Damn," he muttered as he was forced to land and let his Bankai dissipate. The full force of Byakuya's Bankai stuck him head on.
When the flower petals dissipated as well, Toshiro was lying face down on the ground, bleeding profusely from many wounds.
He looked up as Byakuya stepped in front of him.
"I do not know what I ever saw in you, boy. With your power, you are of no use to us."
"Byakuya … " Toshiro breathed, struggling to rise.
His eyes widened as Byakuya summoned his senkei.
The Sixth Division captain summoned one of the thousand swords and raised it over Toshiro's head.
"Those who do not have the will to fight have no chance of deflecting my blade."
Toshiro closed in eyes in anticipation of Byakuya's killing blow.
It never came.
He opened his eyes, and found himself back in the icy plain of his inner world.
"Welcome back," the doppelganger said, floating above him. "It's no fun killing someone who's unconscious."
Toshiro was still lying face-down, but he realized that the wounds Byakuya had inflicted on him were gone, leaving only the burns from the doppelganger's lightning attack.
He rose, but was unsteady on his feet.
"You really are pathetic," the doppelganger said. "You've been training ever since your fight with Byakuya. You're stronger now than you were when you fought him. So why did you do so much worse this time?"
"Don't be ridiculous!" Toshiro shouted at him. "Byakuya and I settled our differences! Of course I wouldn't fight as-as …."
The other Toshiro grinned.
"So, you're finally beginning to figure it out."
"Tell me, why are you fighting Aizen and his Arrancar?"
Toshiro just glared at him.
"You don't know, do you?"
The doppelganger lowered himself to the ground.
"When you went to the Soul Society, you knew exactly what you were fighting for. You would do anything to save Rukia, and you gained so much power so quickly to do it. You got cut to ribbons again and again, but it didn't stop you.
"What happened to that warrior? Where is the Shinigami who got up again after Renji Abarai bashed his head in, after Kenpachi Zaraki stabbed him in the chest? Would he have gone down after just one kick?"
"So that's it?" Toshiro asked. "I'm mentally limiting myself again?"
"Not mentally, you idiot." The other Toshiro pointed at his head. "Up here you understand that Aizen needs to be stopped, that no one would do what he's done unless they had something diabolical planned."
"But you have no idea what that plan is. You don't know what Aizen or his Arrancar want, or why they're doing what they're doing."
The other Toshiro put his hand on his chest. "You just don't have the heart to fight like you used to. How can you, when you don't know what you're fighting for?"
"Is that why you couldn't take over my body?" Toshiro asked.
"Exactly! Real Shinigami have an instinct for battle. They don't need outside motivation like the life of a friend hanging in the balance to fight to their full potential. That's what made the Visoreds so vulnerable to hollowification. Their inner hollows fed on their need to kill the man who betrayed them.
"But you, who hates fighting, who has always been scared of your own power, you can't fight like that without the proper motivation. And even when in your head you know you need my power, in your heart you still resist. It was only when you knew Byakuya would kill Rukia and all your other friends that you were able to let me in, if only for a moment.
"Don't you get it!" the other Toshiro yelled. "It doesn't matter how many clever stratagems you come up with or how much you train to get stronger! As long as you hold to this ridiculous pacifism of yours, you'll never beat another captain-level opponent again!"
Toshiro looked down in thought.
'This-this is nothing like when I had to accept Hyorinmaru's power as my own. I can remember what it felt like when I was in the Soul Society, like how I remembered my anger when the Menos Grande attacked. But the memory of a feeling like that will only last for a few seconds! I can't fight that way!'
"You're telling me to change who I am," he said, "but I can't do that."
"Then you'll die."
The doppelganger disappeared and reappeared right in front of Toshiro with his blade embedded in the boy's stomach.
"Gurgh," was the only sound Toshiro could make as his doppelganger pushed the blade far enough into his body that it came out of his back. His eyes glazed over as the pain overwhelmed him.
"No, you won't die," the other Toshiro clarified. "But everyone else will. I'll start with those Visoreds. They'll never withstand the true power of Hyorinmaru. Then I'll seek out your friends. It'll be hard to decide who to kill first."
"Orihime would be the easiest to kill, but that will be over too quickly. Chad can take a beating, but he won't scream, so killing him won't be much fun.
The doppelganger lipped his lips. "No, the one it'll really be fun to kill will be Rukia. She can take a hit like Chad, but the screams she'll make when I rip her limb from limb will be exquisite!"
Toshiro's hand shot up and wrapped around the doppelganger's throat.
"Hehe … " the doppleganger laughed. "And then, just to make an afternoon of it, I'll utterly destroy this town until there's nothing left!"
Toshiro slammed him onto the ground, cracking the ice beneath them.
"You … " Toshir hissed in a blind rage.
The doppelganger smiled despite the tightening of Toshiro's hand around his throat.
"There's the fire in your eyes. Can you fight me even with a sword in your gut?"
Toshiro raised his own blade with his other hand and with a roar plunged it into his doppelganger's chest.
The other Toshiro raised his head to look at the sword in his chest. Ice was slowly spreading outward from the wound.
"Looks like you found that killer instinct after all. Don't forget it. The Arrancar are all hollows like me. They feast on the same death and destruction I do. And I wasn't bluffing."
He smiled one last time as the ice began to envelop his head. "If you still can't find the will to fight, I'll find a way to break your heart and take over. And then I'll kill everyone you ever loved."
"So keep that in mind if you ever think of losing."
The ice completely enveloped the doppelganger, freezing his grin in place.
Shinji was fighting Toshiro now, the last of the former captains.
Toshiro's hollowification had progressed faster than they had anticipated, but with his inner hollow occupied in their internal struggle the boy was lashing out on instinct alone.
Over half of Toshiro's body was already transformed, making him a full head taller than he normally was.
"Hang in there, kid," Shinji said as he blocked a swipe from a long talon. "We've all been where you are. The worst is almost over."
The words were meant to comfort himself, not Toshiro, who could not hear him.
The storm outside Hachi's barrier had steadily increased in intensity, to the point where Lisa, Hyori, and Mashiro had been told to flee upstairs for their own protection. Hachi would have gone with them, but he was needed to keep the barrier strong.
At least the creature Toshiro was becoming had not used any ice attacks. It would occasionally scream and cause a formation of ice to form nearby, but it had not used that power in a directed attack.
They were running out of time. If the hollowification spread to all of Toshiro's body, Shinji, Kensei, Love, and Rose would have to jump in and use their full powers to kill him.
Even the wings of his Bankai were transforming, developing scallops like those of a bat.
The creature spun around, knocking Shinji's feet from under him with its elongated tail.
He hit the ground hard and looked look. The creature was much more frightening when looked at from below. It raised its sword arm as high as it could.
And then its shoulder erupted in a fountain of black blood.
The creature screamed and writhed in pain as it started to back away, similar eruptions occurring elsewhere on its body.
Shinji rose quickly. "Hachi, get me out of here!"
The kido master opened a door-sized hole in his barrier to allow Shinji to jump through. He closed the hole as soon as Shinji was on the other side.
A wave of energy exploded out of Toshiro's body, filling the entire barrier.
The five Visoreds watched in trepidation as the smoke cleared and the storm overhead disappeared.
Toshiro stood motionless in the center of the barrier.
The three former lieutenants ran down the stairs.
"What happened?" Hyori asked.
No one answered as the creature's wings broke apart. The transformed parts of Toshiro's body began to fall to the floor one at a time.
Eventually the body stood there looking as he did before he arrived, except for the mask which covered his face.
Hachi snapped his fingers, lowering the barrier, and Shinji stepped forward.
"You ok there, kid?"
"Stay back," Toshiro warned, his voice distorted by the mask the same way Hyori's had been.
He turned to the side and screamed, swinging his zanpakuto. A thin torrent of ice was released from the tip. The attack left a long, six-foot high trail of ice on the ground as it sailed across the rocky terrain and disappeared beyond their sight.
The Visoreds stared in fright as Toshiro continued to scream and swing his sword back and forth, sending more torrents of ice past the horizon of the underground hideout, each torrent leaving a thin, high trail along the ground. With every swing they were struck by a powerful burst of wind.
After around ten seconds, the mask on Toshiro face broke apart and he collapsed to his hands and knees.
Shinji looked to his comrades. Mashiro was shaking with fright. Hyori attempted to look angry as she usually did, but she could not keep from biting her upper lip. Hachi was not even trying to hide his fear.
The others had kept their composure, but they were still clearly shaken.
Shinji approached the boy, who was crying and repeatedly hitting the ground with his fist.
"Looks like you had it pretty rough in there. I hope you're not mad at us for putting you through that. It was the only way."
Toshiro took a long, deep breath and sat up.
"I'm only mad at myself," he declared. "And that'll be enough."
Author's note. I've been avoiding adapting filler like the Bount arc, but I have been considering working with some of the filler of the Shinigami advance team in the world of the living that would be coming up soon, specifically the multi-episode arc with the Arrancar that could clone itself. I've decided to put it up to a vote and see what the readers want. Should I include that story or should I stick solely to non-filler material here?
Much later down the line I will adapt one of the movies. That's already decided. But that will be posted only when it would make sense in the plot.