Disclaim: manga belongs to Tite Kubo (even if you probably all knew that by now...)

Be warned, as this text may content some extremely painful grammar mistakes...

Chapter 18: Balance

"I said, I think I know what is wrong with Ryuu," he said in a flat tone not to betray his worry for the little boy. He could see confusion painting Rangiku's face.

"What?" she said in a nearly inaudible voice.

"Do I really need to repeat myself, Matsumoto?" She just shook her head as her senses came back. "Good." He sat down again behind his desk. What to do?

"And what is it you know?" she said weakly in the silent office.

"Let me tell you a story you probably don't know. It all started the third year I was visiting Kurosaki," he trailed off leaning into the chair and looking up toward the sealing.

...

"Kurosaki focus."

"You know Toshiro, I think that is your favorite sentence lastly," said the girl on the floor for the nth time that day.

"Well I wouldn't have to, if you actually focused," he responded while tossing her the bottle of water.

"Thanks," she responded while patting the place beside her. He just sighed before laying down on the soft grass. They had been training hakudo for the last two weeks and no matter what, her mind was somewhere else. She imitated him and laid down beside him.

"When do you think you will be ready to tell me what has been on your mind since the beginning of this month?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about," she brushed it off. Standing again, they were back at their usual training. He didn't push it but every day was worse and eventually he didn't stand it any more.

"We are not training before you actually tell me what is going on with you," he stated when she was once again sprawled on the field.

"I have," she started to push the subject away.

"Karin, what in the world is going on?" He asked staring down at her with his ice cold eyes proving he was losing his patience.

"I see you tonight," she simply said as she walked away. At that moment he thought that it would be a good idea to let her have some space, but she never appeared near the railing that night, nor did she show up the next day at practice. It wasn't before the second day this happened that he started feel like something was off.

"Ah, good evening Hitsugaya," said Yuzu as she opened the front door of the family house. "Is everything alright?"

"Good evening Kurosaki, is your sister here?" She gave him a skeptical look before letting the door ajar. He could hear her scream after her sister and he only waited to hear the reply the eldest would give. It never came.

"She's not home," finished Yuzu when she came back out. "Is something the matter?"

"She hasn't been showing up for practice these last two days and I haven't managed to find her anywhere in town. You wouldn't know where she is?"

"Not in the slightest. Has something happened?" A small part of him felt guilty for the mini interrogation but how else would he learn what was wrong with her.

"Actually," he said when an idea struck him, "she has been really distracted lately, you wouldn't happened to know why?"

"Oh that." The look she gave the floor confirmed that the twin knew. "Karin have been having really horrible nightmares this month. She hasn't told me what they are about but she usually wake up while screaming or crying."

He saw the youngest of the Kurosakis on the border of crying, something he had no intention to stay for. So instead he thanked her and promised to tell if he found something out.

It took him a week to figure out where she was and still he wasn't so sure he wanted to know. He traced her energy back to a cave protected by a kido spell. He had managed to find this cave because of the blood left behind on the ground. Whatever happened the night he let her go, couldn't have been pretty.

Figuring out he didn't have much choice but to get her himself, he wandered deeper into the tunnels. It didn't take long before he appeared inside the cavern in it self. It was a huge round space that was at least twenty meter upward. And there, not so far away, he could see her tied up with chains to the wall, her body bruised and bloody.

As if she sensed his presences, she opened her eyes before focusing on his figure. She was about to say something when the little captain felt the electricity course through his body and the blackness consuming him.

When he woke up again, he could only curse himself for not thinking about a trap. He was a captain and yet he has been too preoccupied by the sight of her destroyed body that his mind blanked and he walked straight into a trap.

"Awake, are we," sing song a grave masculine voice. "You know captain Hitsugaya, I never thought you would actually fall into such an obvious trap."

The booming laughter made him want to cover his ears even if his arms and legs were stuck to the wall. Opening his eyes slowly, he could see the cavern he entered and straight across from him was Karin's unconscious body.

"Don't worry about her, I'm finished with that little lady for now." The captain directed his eyes back to the person that spoke. It was a middle aged man with gray long hair that reached his mid back and that was decorated with small black stones. Each of his eyes had a different color, where one was a clear blue, the other was dark orange.

"I suppose you have a lot of questions," he continued unfazed by the glare given by the captain. "but don't worry, you won't figure out anything before it's too late. And don't try to froze those chains, they absorb your reiatsu." The sadistic smile he offered told him his jailer wasn't an ordinary opponent either.

Looking closer, the man didn't look anything like an arrancar but in the same time he had an atmosphere around him that resembled that of a hollow. When the man turned around, Toshiro could clearly see the mark on the back of his black and white kimono and the small dagger like weapon that could most definably be a zanpakuto.

"I think you have gotten enough information as it is," said the man again, sitting behind some kind of counter. The little captain could see him touch the button before it went black again.

He woke up to an immense headache. To his pleasure he wasn't tied to anything any longer and he was free of his movements. Blinded by the light, he needed to blink several times before being able to focus on his surroundings.

"I thought captains were supposed to be smart." The voice wasn't threatening or mean but definitely sarcastic. But at the moment he could only be relieved to hear her voice like if everything was normal.

"How are you doing?" He asked as he took in their new environment. It was more like a prison, than a cavern, that let the light come in through the opening that was covered in steel bars. They were sitting opposite of each other and strangely had all their things with them.

"Better than you," she said looking out the opening, showing a green valley with water down below. "I've been awake for an entire day already."

"Do you know what is going on," he said while trying to sit up straight against the hard rock wall.

"No. And by the way," she turned back to him with a smug smile, "how in the world did a captain fall into such a pitiful trap?"

"I wasn't thinking," he mumbled ashamed of this stupid act. He just hoped Karin wouldn't go tell the other captains, or Matsumoto, or her brother for that matter, ever.

"Focus Hitsugaya," she teased as he send a death glare back.

"Are you willing to tell me what and where you have been all this time," he said cutting short to the silence that was growing uncomfortable. She did respond eventually.

"I went home the other day and suddenly you have this stupidly big hollow that came out of nowhere. So obviously, I when for it. Defeated, I saw this dude that you saw in the cave, that hit me unconscious." Her way of telling the story was a clear sign that she didn't want to talk about it. "How did you find me?"

"I followed your energy and your blood," he said as a matter of fact. They didn't speak much the rest of the day and eventually they both fell asleep. The next time Hitsugaya woke up, the sun was already far gone and Karin was sleeping calmly in the other corner of the cave.

Feeling slightly better, he stood up to take in the cave from another point of view. Tracing the wall to see if there was any way out, he soon touched an ice cold subject. Looking closer, he found their zanpakutos tossed in a little hole in the cave. Why would someone, that is trying to trap them, let them have their zanpakuto?

Reaching deeper into the little hole his fingers came in contact with a another cold surface that he couldn't move from it's place. Letting his fingers trace the small letters, he gave up when he noticed his hand was too big to touch the letters that were the deepest in. He was able to understand 'Bala', whatever that meant.

The small noise made him turn back to his partner, only to find her holding on to her body and seemingly protecting herself from the cold. The moon gave a nice view of the cave and he understood why the cave had been placed as it was: the moon was straight across from them.

She woke up the next day with some extra cloth on and a shirtless captain that stared amused back at her.

"What," she asked glaring at him.

"It's warm," he answered simply. He looked at her as she took in what he said.

"You' okay?" She asked.

"Not really, but I'll survive. I'm not really a fan of the heat." She chuckled calmly before taking her zanpakuto, but not before asking him through her eyes if it was okay.

"Actually I need your help with something," he stated and stood up. Showing her the little hole he indicated her what he had found in the night. "But my hand isn't small enough to dig deeper."

"the first is a 'B'," she stated calmly with her hand down the hole.

" I already figured out 'Bala' but after that the hole is to smal."

"I think the next is a 'G'. Oh wait it's a 'C'. Then I think it is an 'E' and a strange shaped 'C'." She turned around at him expecting an explanation.

"Are you certain you didn't skip a letter," he frowned. "The world we have know is 'Balacec'."

"Nobody said this was actually going to make sense."

"Please just take it from the top," he sigh.

"Well the first thing is a drawing because I don't recall that a 'O' has pointy triangles coming out."

"Focus..."

"Kurosaki," she finished, "I know. Then there is 'B', 'A', 'L', 'A', 'C', hey wait that's an 'N'."

"'Balance," he frowned.

"Balance as in the object balance or as in the verb? Well that explains the sun and the moon." Then he got the message.

"This makes perfect sense," he smiled at her, or you know smile in Toshiro style, more like a smirking thing. "Everything the gray haired man did had something to do with balance or equality. He is dressed in black and white, his eyes are of opposite colors..."

"What does that have to do with us?"

"Just look at me and tell me that for yourself." He half enjoyed how her eyes traced his body before her eyes settled on his hair and the zanpakuto in his hand.

"We're opposites," she gasped as she looked at her own zanpakuto in her hand.

"Not exactly but he must think so. Did you tell him what ability you have?" She shook her head but kept analyzing the cave as he did. "It is cold in the night for you and it is warm for me the day."

"Then how do we balance it?" She asked, as he could tell she had caught up to him by now.

…

"Oh, so you had to do some funny things to get out, you know to become one and stuff," grinned Matsumoto from the couch taking notes of everything he said, surely to spread the information to whoever wanted to listen.

"What? No, what are you even blabbering about," he said annoyed of the sudden interruption. Whatever Matsumoto thought balance stood for, was either totally biased or just plainly wrong.

"So what happened?"

"The word 'Balance' Matsumoto is similar to equal: for one to find balance you need the two side to be the same, in other words equal. The normal temperature can be too cold in the night because of the fresh air but it can also rise to immense degrees because of the sun. On each side of the metal plate we found, was a moon and a sun: two opposite forces."

"The moon and the sun are not opposites," she commented.

"In ancient believes, they are. Like the day and the night, the fire and the ice, the moon and the sun. Everything is balanced."

"So how did you guys get out if it wasn't by become one with the other?" She sounded disappointed?

"In order to achieve what we thought was what the person wanted, Kurosaki learned to release her zanpakuto. Strangely, even after three years training, it only took her a week in that cave to archive it. Anyway, the man was searching for the perfect opposites."

"So you eventually managed to succeed his test and get out? Right?"

"Not at all. We failed." He winced remembering the blood covering the walls of the cave when they had no more energy to go on. Cuts, burn marks and frostbites covering their body like a second skin. "We never really knew what or how, but then one day we were out of the cave again, waking up not so far away from Karakura."

"He just let you go?" She asked incredulous. "I would have thought he'd torture you or something."

"We didn't eat at all and nearly died of lack of energy. Is that torturous enough for you," he asked in a hash tone. She looked away just so slightly.

"But why let you go? Actually scratch that. Even if I love listening to your ancient experiments that you have never told me about, I still don't see what this has to do with Ryuu."

"You don't get it," he said annoyed and stood up to look out the window again. Maybe Ryuu was bringing something with him after all. Something not that great to be honest. "Ryuu's zanpakuto is based on balance."

"Captain, he freezes things and he is burning them up, I don't see the relevance."

"The man didn't let us go just for the purpose of it Matsumoto. He came back some years later to 'reclaim' what was his. That being the two of us. He kept on trying to see if our ability could nullify the other. He wanted to know if it would kill us or make us stronger. He was and is most definitely still searching for the perfect opposites. The psycho had other experiments too, but all those I know about, died somehow before they archived whatever he wanted to archive."

"But you didn't die. So technically doesn't that mean you two are somehow successful opposites."

"I don't know," he said still mad by the lack of knowledge he had on this guy. "What I know is that few are those who has the two opposite forces as their zanpakuto. It makes me wonder if Ryuu is another experiment or not. Ryuu is a 'perfect opposite'. Are you getting what I am saying?"

He looked at her to see if she was getting what he was telling her. "Think Matsumoto, he burns things and he freezes them." As her eyes moved just so little he understood he go the message through.

"Karin knew," she said realizing. "That explain why she always hated the fact Ryuu had two blades and the time he froze parts of his hair. Wait does that mean Ryuu is in danger. I must warn Renji," she trailed off lost in her own world.

"I think he is more in danger from himself." She looked up questioningly. "If I am right and his zanpakuto is truly based on opposite forces, he is the biggest threat to himself." He sighted when he understood his mind worked too fast for his mouth to follow. "Eight years of ice, right? I would guess it simply is a way of telling something is out of balance and he is missing a part. Letting him leave could both be dangerous and smart."

"So technically what you are telling me is that Ryuu might destroy himself?" They both jumped at the sound of someone knocking on the door, even if Matsumoto was the only one to let escape a small scream.

"I'm sorry captain Hitsugaya, lieutenant Matsumoto, It wasn't my intention to scare you," said Renji as he entered the room, looking amused at both of them.

"It is perfectly fine captain Abarai," said Toshiro back with his expressionless face as unfazed by what they discussed.

"Renji, you have to hear this," was Matsumoto's reaction as she leaped up from the couch and made the second captain sit down beside.

"To answer you question Matsumoto, I think he need to understand for himself what he is capable off and then he needs to learn to balance the two forces." Renji looked up with a questioning look at the other captain. Luckily Matsumoto surpassed him and told the other instead

"Ryuu's zanpakuto is based on fire and ice and he needs to balance the two forces. The lack of control is what is causing the extreme perturbations."

"Not exactly," Toshiro cut her off before she went on telling something totally different. "Ryuu doesn't used fire and ice, he uses the cold and the heat. Their opposites but it's not the same as ice and fire. And I still think the perturbation is due to another thing too. After all, Kurotsuchi had a point and it would be bad to underestimate his researches. The fact that his reiatsu is starting to be similar to mine is strange."

Looking back at the two others in the room, he added: "Please ask Kurosaki about what she knows when you go visit." And then he half pushed them out of the room.

…

"Who are you?"

Laying still in the bed, Ryuu couldn't stop replaying his dream over and over again. He wasn't even sure it was a dream or if he actually managed to enter his inner world again. He had never seen the world so empty and white. The last time he was there smoke was covering him and he was blinded by light.

The sudden pain that curst through his body made him scream. The part right under his solar plexus was hurting and felt like an object just when right through him. Taking up the covers to see what had happened, he gulped.

That was definitely not a dream. Right where the pain was slowly diminishing, was forming an ice layer burning his skin. Small drops of blood was starting to form around the marked area. Tracing the purplish bruise, he winced as another shock when through his body.

"This could be your grave," wasn't that what the strange man had said.

He tried to breath the pain away, but he could feel the mark widening by minutes. Slowly, maybe, but each time a little piece of his skin got frozen. He felt it in every fiber of his body.

The sun was shining out side. Leaving the frozen spot in the sun, the pain diminished just so slightly. Breathing a little better after waiting in the sun the next hour, he managed to stand up. That was a stupid idea when he figured out he had frostbites on his entire body.

Doing as anybody would think was best he went to the bath and tried to relax in the warmest water he could find. Thinking this would help he stayed there and waited for the pain to be bearable. The ice spot diminished in size a little but he needed to constantly warm up the water as he apparently managed to freeze the damn thing.

Needless to say, this didn't help at all. When he was sure his body was healing, the water around him would start to freeze. As someone entered the bath, he made a quick dash out of the room, not daring looking at the person that came in.

Back in the room he was in, he found his zanpakuto lying near his bed. But something about it was strange, cold and distance. He never managed to think much about it as he heard three knocks on his door. Dressing up properly as fast as possible, he made sure to cover most of his destroyed skin.

"Ryuu," sang his aunt as he let her in, giving him one of those hugs where you had to be prepared not to die. "How are you doing?"

"Rangiku, I think you are killing him," teased his uncle from behind. Over the last years he hadn't seen them as much as he had wanted. Mostly because he was too afraid to go around the Seireitei alone. He gasped for fresh air when she released him.

"So kiddo, how' you doing," asked his uncle as the two visitors closed the door behind them and they all sat on bed.

"I'm doing better, I suppose," he lied while trying not to think too much about the frozen spot that was growing again.

"I have good news, or we have good news." Both of them looked at him with huge smiles.

"You are going back to the world of the living on 16th of June," said Rangiku as she interpreted his silence by a mean to go on.

"Really?" He could go home?

"But only for less than two month," stated his uncle sitting beside him.

"That's okay," said the boy grinning at his family, "as long as I can go home for a while. You guys have no idea how much I miss them."

He started to tell them about everything he wanted to tell his earthly family when he got back. About the squad, the captains, Sophie... His list went on and on but stopped abruptly when he remembered he didn't know what exactly the captain of the 10th had done to his family.

"Well, hide your joy," said his uncle when he saw the sad look that past through the youngest eyes. "Anyway, you are going to be spending the next two month in my squad."

"What," exclaimed the youngest. "Your squad, really?"

"Yes," said his uncle mockingly in a sever voice as he stood up. "And you Ryuu are going to be listening to my orders for the next months and you'll be training with me."

So much joy, he gave his uncle a hug, ignoring the stabbing pain that was eating his chest.

...

Renji looked at Matsumoto again for the nth time during their short walk. She must be thinking about the same thing.

"You don't believe that it is even possible, do you?" Asked Rangiku from beside him as they walked toward the third.

"I don't know, but if what you are telling me about their little adventure is what happened, it could just be that Ryuu is the product of an experiment."

"An experiment a strange man is going to come for sooner or later," she added.

"I'll talk to the head captain," stated Renji. "And Karin." After a moment he added. "If what we are suspecting is right, then I think I know why Ryuu hasn't had so many outburst in the world of the living."

"Because he wasn't surrounded by immense powers from all sides?"

"More like Hyorinmaru has been keeping his frozen part balanced to the heat."

"Lost you," she stated as they entered the third squad.

"Ryuu told me Hyorinmaru had been present in his mind since he was a child and then this other dragon came. I can't believe everything is starting to make sense. Ryuu stopped having the strange outburst when his own zanpakuto was present in his head to be able to nullify his heated part."

"So in other words, Ryuu must learn to know the other part of him to be able to control the ice," Rangiku finished for him.

"Definitely having a very long conversation with both Karin and Urahara."

Thanks for reading and for all the nice reviews :D

And I'm working on my grammar, thanks for notifying the immense spelling mistakes. I tried to do something about it, but I'm not sure if I made it better or worse...

I've always hated when the story nears it's end. That is the moment you realise that immediately that the words are written, they can not be taken back. Thus this became nothing like I imagine it and frankly it wasn't supposed to sound to stupid so I suppose I'll have to apologize for that...