Part Two - Regression

Chapter Six - Some Things Are Worth the Fight, Some Things Aren't

...

There was once a man who only knew how to fight. He made a good soldier, he protected people and he was adored by all. He defeated enemy after enemy, slaughtered dangerous animals, and won wars. So, he thought that fighting was all there was to life. Eventually, he found a pretty woman to stand by his side, settled down, and made his family, but he fought them too.

...

"Captain Hitsugaya, can we speak with you?"

Toushiro raised his head from his paperwork and nodded to the small group of female shinigami. He hoped that they were not going to request a division transfer, but as things stood now he wouldn't have been surprised if that was the reason for their visit.

"How can I help you?" he asked, pushing his papers aside and setting his bush on the rim of his inkpad.

The small group looked nervous and one girl, a short girl with shoulder-length, brown hair, was nudged forward.

She held out a sheet of paper and Toushiro took it with a raised eyebrow.

"My name is Kaede Sasaki, unseated member of the Tenth and I – we would like your permission to start a gardening club."

Toushiro almost physically reeled backwards; he had not been expecting that. "A what?"

"A gardening club, sir. We know this might not be the best time to make such a request, but... it's just that we have nothing else to do and there's a lot of space that's not being used that we think could be turned into a garden."

"No, actually, I think this is a great idea. I don't see any problem in you starting a club, especially because there is so little work to go around." He skimmed through the paper he had been given. "I, of course, will need a full list of the members, a description of what you intend to do, and any materials you might need."

The girls began to smile widely amongst themselves. "Of course, sir. Thank you, sir." Kaede said breathlessly as she bowed deeply.

"And if you know of anyone else who is interested in starting any groups or clubs, please send them my way."

They all bowed gratefully and left the office in a fit of giggles. Toushiro found himself smiling slightly; maybe things weren't as dreadful as he thought; at least some people had a positive outlook. The budget for the next few months may suffer a bit, but he was sure it was nothing he couldn't handle, even if he had to dig into his own pocket to make sure things were running smoothly.

That's what I've been saying, little one. You are too hard on yourself; there was only one transfer, and thus no need for you to think that all your men hate you. Hyourinmaru rumbled.

I never said they hated me; I just thought they were disappointed in me.

Hyourinmaru sighed, You can put those fears to rest.

Toushiro shook his head and turned back to his paperwork. There were still a lot of small filing issues that he needed to attend to even if all the Tenth's missions had been re-distributed. His smile faltered; forming clubs was not a suitable substitute for missions and assignments, but it was all he could offer his men at the moment. Still, it was better than having them sit around do nothing.

The gardening club was due to commence a week later, as well as a poetry and creative writing club, and several clubs dedicated to swordplay and martial arts. His spirits were lifted slightly, but came crashing down again when he got the second transfer request. He stared at the form for almost a full day and his stomach churned painfully as he signed his name.

...

Toushiro remembered that he was supposed to have been doing exercises before bed as soon as he entered the physiotherapy room. More often than not he ended up falling asleep at his desk, so doing exercises was out of the question. He swore in his mind as Captain Unohana gestured for him to sit on the examination table so she could examine his leg. Toushiro hissed as she prodded his thigh; she clicked her tongue at the noise and proceeded to dig her fingertips into the scarred muscle. He clenched his jaw and breathed deeply through his nose.

"I was hoping that we could take you off the crutch this week, Captain Hitsugaya, but it appears that there has been very little progress since our last meeting," Unohana said grimly.

Toushiro hung his head. "I apologise-"

She held up a hand to stop him. "I know how tricky this process can be, and you know what can happen if you don't exercise your leg properly. It would be a pity if you had to use a cane for the rest of your life."

Toushiro chewed the inside of his cheek at the off-handed warning.

Unohana surprised him by sitting down next to him on the examination table. "I know these past two weeks have been trying for you, and I can understand how stressed you are right now, but, please Captain Hitsugaya, do not put your health at risk."

"I... I wasn't..." he paused, unsure what to say.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

He shook his head. "No, I really do appreciate your concern, but as I've told everyone else, I can handle myself. All of this is something I've dealt with before."

Unohana raised her eyebrows in mild surprise but she also managed to look extremely knowing at the same time. "Is that so? Because I would have thought that this exact situation is a first for us all. Now, do you need to talk to anyone?"

Toushiro shook his head again. "No, not right now, at least."

"Very well then, we'll start with the treadmill and then move onto floor exercises."

...

Toushiro found that he was more exhausted than usual after his physiotherapy session. He wanted to crawl into his futon a sleep for a few days. Maybe then he'd wake up to realise that all of this was a bad dream. But, as he neared his office he recognised the voices of Captains Ukitake and Kyoraku. Sleep would have to wait.

"Ahh, Captain Hitsugaya," Kyoraku smiled as Toushiro entered the office.

Rangiku had served them tea and a small selection of wagashi cakes, and was chatting animatedly with them, but stopped and smiled brightly when she saw Toushiro enter.

"Captain, how was physio today?" she asked brightly.

He sighed softly and sat down next to her on the couch. "It was fine."

Rangiku's smile faltered somewhat, but she didn't press him further. He turned to the two other captains and clasped his hands in his lap. "How can I help the two of you?"

"We've gotten the report back from the Rukongai. It was rather interesting, and we think you should take a look, before we decide on how to pursue this further." Ukitake held out a small stack of papers.

Toushiro wordlessly took them, scanned the first page and felt as if there was a knife in his stomach. There had been an increase in hollow activity since his squad had been called back roughly a week ago. He hadn't expected the increase; his team's reports said that there wasn't a marked increase in hollows, but Ukitake's report said otherwise. He frowned and continued on to the next page. This page detailed the attacks and described the hollows; for an unknown reason his spine began to tingle. When he neared the bottom of the page the knife in his gut twisted painfully and he had to read the paragraph twice to be sure. Around the same time that his squad had been recalled the number of hollows had increased by ten; the exact number of men that were missing. Ukitake's squad had been tracking the hollows' reiatsu signatures and keeping tabs on their activities. According to the report, the number had increased overnight. His eyes widened and he looked back to Kyoraku and Ukitake.

"So what do you think?" Kyoraku asked upon seeing Toushiro's expression.

"I... I don't know how to explain this," Toushiro muttered.

Kyoraku hummed, "Neither do we. I'm sure you've heard of the experiments through which Aizen turnedshinigami into visored and hollows. Unfortunately, this seems eerily similar to what he did a hundred years ago."

Toushiro sighed as a his gut twisted again. The details about Aizen's experiments on shinigami were made public knowledge during the Winter War when the Gotei Thirteen had to team up with the visored from the World of the Living.

"We cross-checked this with the reports you sent us earlier," Ukitake said, "It could be a coincidence, but with Aizen on the loose it more than likely it isn't."

A hard lump had wedged itself in Toushiro's throat and he suddenly found it hard to breathe. His shoulder and leg began to burn slightly. This was entirely his fault; if he had just restrained Hinamori then none of this would have happened. He clenched his jaw and took a few deep breaths, hoping that no one would notice. Rangiku noticed, however, and she handed him a cup of tea, making sure that her fingers brushed against his as he took the cup from her.

"Can we do any more investigating?" Toushiro asked softly.

Ukitake nodded. "We still need to verify that the hollows' reiatsu signature matched those of your men. Right now we're only working with numbers, so the details are still very hazy."

"And have you told anyone else about this?"

Ukitake shook his head.

"I... I think we should go to the head-captain."

Rangiku turned towards him with a deep frown on her face. "Captain? I don't think that's a good idea."

"The Tenth is not supposed to be handling any outside missions, Rangiku. This situation is out of my hands."

Her frown deepened. "Captain-"

"Not now, Matsumoto."

She closed her mouth, but he could tell that she was not going to let this rest.

"I think we should do more investigating before we bring this to everyone else's attention," Kyoraku sighed. "We don't have much evidence and I, for one, would like to make sure this is Aizen's handiwork before sounding the alarms. Everyone's worked up enough as it is; we need to examine the situation properly before we cause any more panic. Jyushiro and I will do our best, but you just sit tight, Toushiro."

"It's Captain Hitsugaya," Toushiro mumbled, "Thank you. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate this."

Kyoraku nodded and Ukitake smiled gently.

When the two men left Toushiro turned to Rangiku. She was still scowling as she moved to clear the table.

"I thought we were past this, Matsumoto. You haven't questioned my authority in company for a while now."

"That's because you've always made good calls, before now."

He took a deep breath. "Explain."

"I don't want to chastise you, Captain, but don't you understand our situation? We're being accused of working with Aizen," Rangiku said, her eyes flashing.

"I'm well aware of that, thank you very much."

Rangiku folded her arms across her chest and stared at him for a moment. "Then you cannot turn this mission over to Yamamoto. What will he think when he hears that our men are the ones that turned into hollows? That's more evidence to stack up against us; it ties us closer to Aizen-"

"Well, it's not true; we aren't even sure of the situation ourselves. Plus, I would never sacrifice my own men. I'm surprised you'd think that, Matsumoto-"

"I don't think that, but they – Yamamoto, Soi Fon, the Central Forty-six – are looking for any reason to incarcerate us. They don't care if it's true or not."

"If the evidence is false then they can't-"

"They can and you know it!"

There were few times that Rangiku raised her voice at her captain. She often played around; calling out after him and yelling to tease him, but she rarely, if ever, shouted over him. The office was dead silent for a few minutes as they stared each other down. Rangiku's chest rose and fell as if she had just returned from a battle. Toushiro clenched and unclenched his jaw and his left hand subconsciously went to rub his right shoulder.

"I'll get into more trouble if they find out I was hiding something from them," he eventually muttered.

"Then we have to dig a bit more to find anything that will not incriminate us when we turn the case over to them. Please, Captain, you should know how slippery these things are..."

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Fine, Matsumoto, I'll wait before going to Yamamoto."

"Thank you, Captain."

...

He didn't sleep well that night, even after he had exhausted himself with his exercises. He woke up at least once every hour and, when dawn rolled around, his eyes felt like charcoal: dry and grainy. Still, he dragged himself out of bed and put on his mask of indifference as he made his way to his office. Matsumoto was not in yet, of course, and he decided that it was best to brew a cup of tea before starting any work.

Just as he was about the slide open the office door, a hot cup of green tea in his hand, his seventh seat came jogging up to him.

"Captain Hitsugaya, Captain Hitsugaya!" the man shouted.

Toushiro looked over his shoulder and sighed inwardly; what did he need so urgently so early in the morning?

"Captain Hitsugaya!"

"Yes?" he replied and turned around, wincing as some of the tea splashed over the rim of the cup.

"Is it true, sir?"

He leaned against his crutch as he switched the mug from his right hand to his left to shake away the scalding drops. "Is what true?"

"There's a rumour going around, sir, that the squad that was monitoring hollows in the Rukongai went missing and when you found them they were all hollows."

Toushiro almost dropped his cup. He blinked a few times as his heart began to thud heavily in his chest and his mouth went dry. "Where did you hear that?" he asked, narrowing his eyes.

"I can't remember from whom exactly, but a few people were talking about it last night. They said they saw the report."

Toushiro swallowed heavily. No one was supposed to know about this, especially not every soldier in the division. How had they gotten the report? It should have been locked up in his office last night; he thought that no one besides Rangiku and himself had access to the office. He also knew that if the soldiers knew about the report, it wouldn't take long before the other captains and Yamamoto found out. A sudden chill began to creep through his body, starting at his stomach and working its way outwards.

"Captain Hitsugaya, sir?"

His eyes snapped back to the man. "That was confidential information. I don't know how you found out, but it would be best if you forgot it. We are unsure if this situation is false or not, so I would appreciate if you didn't spread rumours."

The seventh seat nodded. "Yes, sir."

He dismissed the soldier and entered the office. Rangiku still wasn't in yet. He clenched his jaw and rooted through the files on his desk. Sure enough, the report from Captains Kyoraku and Ukitake was still there, so how had the information gotten out? This was another thing he would have to investigate. It would not do to have an information leak in the division. Plus, his squad was already disheartened about the fact that they were on a form of probation, and finding out that some of their fellow soldiers had been turned into hollows would be adding salt to their wounds. He ran a hand roughly through his hair and plopped down into his seat. Why was it that everything seemed to be falling through his fingers the harder he tried to grasp at it? He chewed his bottom lip and clutched the edge of his desk with his good hand. He gripped the wood so tightly that he felt his nails start to push against their beds, but the sickness that had risen in his stomach drew most of his attention.

Toushiro, Hyourinmaru rumbled.

Everything is going to shit, Hyourinmaru. My squad is falling to pieces, none of the captains trust me, and Aizen might be experimenting on my men. How am I supposed to deal with all of this?

The dragon was silent for a while, but if he had been planning to say something Toushiro never found out. Rangiku burst into the office, her eyes were ablaze and her hair fell messily around her shoulders. She looked like she had been awake for the entire night.

"It's too early to deal with this," she hissed as she threw herself on to the couch.

"I assume you found out about our information leak?" he asked.

She growled, "I've been running all over trying to find the person who did it."

Toushiro blinked. "It's only eight thirty; how much have you done already?"

"I found the rat; one of the newer members who was on custodial duty. We're talking with her later today. I can't believe that we're even having the problem; every soldier knows that stealing information is prohibited. They know all reports are confidential; you're not allowed to talk about missions unless you're assigned to them! That's the first thing I tell them when they get here; if you steal, you will get fired. That girl knows how much trouble she's in; she burst into tears when she saw me coming her way."

Toushiro sighed heavily. He always forgot about the custodial staff; they did have access to most rooms in the division. He should have locked the file up in one of his drawers, but he never had this problem before. Usually, the cleaners knew not to touch his desk. She was new after all, but he still could not fathom that someone would not only read a report, but share the information with most of the division. This was a grave offense; he knew of a few soldiers who had lost their jobs because of their loose tongues.

"And how are you holding up, Captain?" Rangiku asked, breaking his trail of thought.

His expression hardened. "I'm fine. We should get to work."

By the end of the day Toushiro's jaw hurt from grinding his teeth and one of his fingernails was bloody from picking at the edge of his desk. They had spoken to the girl. She sobbed her way through the meeting, and, as hard as it was for Toushiro to do, he had no choice but to relieve her from duty. She may have been truly sorry for her actions, but the damage she had caused was great.

Toushiro found out exactly how his squad's mindset had been swayed when the number of division transfer forms he received had gone from two to nineteen. The taste of disappointment and failure sat bitterly on his tongue. His men didn't trust him anymore; he didn't trust himself anymore.

...

The two players chuckled loudly.

Like I said; things are going to get much worse before they get better and the worst has yet to come. If it seems like I'm stacking the deck against Toushiro, it's because I am.

Reviews are always welcome, and even encouraged.

-Mymomomo