"Corpulent generals safe behind lines
History's lessons drowned in red wine
Poppies for young men, death's bitter trade."
Sting: 'Children's Crusade'
The miles that Ichigo traversed seemed in his mind to stretch on forever. He could have sworn that they did, and would have been sorely surprised and insulted if anyone had said he'd been imagining it all. But in all honesty he had no way to tell the passing of the time or the passage of miles, save for the tire and strife that built in accordance with each. If there was ever at all a way to do so, Ichigo would have killed to be in the company of such methods. But, sadly, he was not, and so instead he was left to his own devices against the shifting sands Hueco Mundo hoped to swallow him with.
But his hope was preserved, against all odds, because of all things he had signs leading his way for the first time in what felt to be forever. On this entire journey he felt as if he'd been tumbling around in the dark; plummeting into some swallowing unknown like the passageway he'd fallen through when exiting Las Noches. But now that uncertainty was gone, pushed away by solid evidence towards something other than his own intuition and convoluted dreams.
He'd been following the increasingly large indentations in the dunes he'd been traipsing over for a decent amount of time, but with each step he felt that he was actually getting somewhere. To be following actual tangible evidence was heartening, and so he set his unhappiness at being alone in the desert aside in order to focus on the task at hand. The cogs in his mind turning a million miles an hour as he carefully watched the trail signs go by, he began to wonder when he would actually stumble upon whoever or whatever had made them.
Because, at this point, the trail was one of blood splattering over the dunes, and he couldn't help but think that the poor wounded creature was close by, judging by how wet the blood still was. The slow gruesome trail had slowly been revealed from the sands, and Ichigo could only guess that the reason it had disappeared before was because the shifting sands of the desert had covered it over or moved it away by the time he'd reached the beginning of the trail. But now the blood was beginning to show in much more noticeable quantities, and was even getting to the dangerous point of being wet as it lay coagulating against the sand.
Ichigo skittered to a halt when a massive looming figure rose up from beyond the dunes, ducking behind the one he'd just been about to tromp over in favor of hiding behind it now. He looked in awe as the massive Hollow rose up, and he could only figure that a few dunes over there must have been some manner of substantial drop, because there was no way something so large could have hidden in the shallow dunes he'd been traipsing about for the past unknown segment of time.
But as he watched, his face paled, seeing that the Hollow that had risen from the dunes was holding the neck of another Hollow within its gruesome bony mandibles. The centipede-esque thing was snarling against the other Hollow it seemed to be trying to devour, as the poor creature being eaten struggled vainly. It was already pretty severely wounded from what Ichigo could see, which meant that it probably didn't stand much chance. His stomach turned, and even though he knew that this was how Hollows grew and became stronger, he couldn't help but find it disturbing and sick. Consuming another for the sake of empowering yourself, there was just something morbid inhuman about it. But then, he supposed, Hollows were a far cry from humans at best, so that was a bad thing to think in the first place.
But, much to his surprise as his spectatorship was honored, the smaller white hollow did fight back. The neck it had been being dragged up by twisted around, ramming a crowned head of spiny horns onto the body of the insect Hollow that had been trying to consume it. As the face twisted into view, Ichigo's entire body froze. A deafening roar had torn out from the wounded Hollow's bony maw, the chiseled face of the dragon swinging into his view.
It was the same roar that had come whispering over the dunes at him earlier, and it was the same exact roar from the dream that had rocked him before even that. His heart thundered, and he bolted forward without heed to what his brain was telling his body was a very stupid idea. But Zangetsu was firm in his grip, and he swung down with crushing force against the attacking Hollow's head. The bone mask of the centipede split easily, the mandibles finally letting go of the smaller creature that had been struggling to fight back. The segmented body dissolved from beneath him, leaving him empty air to fall through before he fell on the dragon-esque Hollow he'd been trying to save.
He was panicked for a moment that the dragon Hollow was going to whip around and try to consume him, and considering he really didn't have much reason to have protected the thing other than a vague association, it was a well founded fear. But the dragon didn't, instead, thundering down onto the dunes beneath it as its legs crumbled beneath it.
Ichigo landed rather unceremoniously on the dragon Hollow's armor plated side, sliding down it and back onto the sand. The monstrous dragon made no move to notice him, and he slowly prowled his way out from underneath the belly of the behemoth. Glancing at the Hollow, it was made rather apparent that the dragon had been facing similar problems before Ichigo had arrived. There were great tears and slashes littering its thick, plated armor. But it seemed strange to him, considering how many other Hollows he had seen in his lifetime. It may have looked the part of a Hollow at first glance, but there was just something… too aesthetic, almost, about how the armor plates settled together.
It looked like the body had been made in a lab, rather than formed out of pain and misery like all other Hollows were, and that fact alone was what was affirming Ichigo's impulses to save the creature. Striding around the slumped shoulders of the creature, its front legs tucked underneath it in an attempt to steady itself even whilst laying on its belly, Ichigo made to get closer to the face. He knew that, under normal circumstances, that probably could have been about the worst possible thing to do. But he had to make sure of what he was seeing, and the only distinguishing feature that he could think of to look for was unfortunately located on the face.
He felt like he walked for miles before he got to the end of the dragon's serpentine neck, the crown of spines dripping with the blood of the enemy now felled. But the deep gashes along the neck were severe compared to the minimal responsive damage, and Ichigo knew that it had not been a fair fight to start with, considering some of the wounds on the torso of the dragon were far older than what the centipede Hollow could have inflicted. But he trotted around that heavenly crown of spikes, finally making his way to the muzzle of the great felled dragon.
Much to his surprise, his risk of drawing near to the mouth of the dragon was unfounded. From the short distance away, he could see clearly what he had thought to be teeth before were actually just segments of bone that surrounded the jaw. They looked like teeth, but they did not separate in order to allow the jaw to even move. They were more like a cage of teeth, like something that would be found on a mask. That thought striking him rather hard, he looked down the face of the dragon, noting how the black skin of the eyelids stuck out against the rest of the white bony armor as the eyes underneath lay closed.
Unable to think of anything more clever to say or do, Ichigo bellowed out at the creature in an attempt to get its attention. "Oi!" he barked in his loudest voice possible, hoping that the animal wasn't in fact an animal and that his lingering suspicions were proven correct. The black eyelids drew back, unsheathing a pair of glassy teal eyes.
Eyes that, by no stretch of the imagination, could ever possibly belong to a true Hollow.
The glassy eyes seemed to clear somewhat upon seeing him, which he was thankful for, considering that even if the dragon's teeth couldn't get him, the head could probably still quite easily crush him. A rumbling sound rolled up through the Hollow's throat, coming out as a rolling murmur of what was to Ichigo a rather deafening noise. But the pitch of the noise changed, and if Ichigo had any sense of imagination, it almost sounded like the dragon was trying to say something. He didn't know whether to trust that intuition or to shirk it away, considering how obscure it was. But he decided to settle with the former, considering he had little reason not to. He reached forward hesitantly, stepping gingerly to lay a searching hand on the muzzle of the creature that seemed to be laying at his mercy rather than the other way around.
The second he did, the booming sound of the dragon's chuffing died away, leaving an eerie silence behind. Ichigo was so startled that he almost drew away, and surely would have if it were not for the soft voice that had replaced the dragon's booming vocalizing.
"-saki…" was all he caught, and his attention was immediately snared by the toiling creature. He looked at the one teal eye he could see at the close distance clearly, watching the emotions, now suddenly very clear to him, pass over it like a slideshow for his viewing pleasure. "Kurosaki," the small voice said again, and he realized with a chocked sob that it was Toshiro's little voice talking to him. Tired and weary, it sounded very much unlike his usual self, but Ichigo could not contain the joy he had at even being able to hear it. It was like rain falling on a parched desert, his ears the dehydrated soul waiting for the blessing of rains to come.
"Toshiro," he said, smiling weakly and for a split moment removing his hand from the muzzle of the great dragon body that seemed to be containing the part of Toshiro's soul that he'd been searching for. When he did, whatever Toshiro had said next was lost in a rumbling roar, leaving Ichigo to cover his ears at his own mistake. He quickly put a hand back onto the bony muzzle of the fake Hollow, the echoing roar once again dying down to that quiet voice.
"-didn't think anyone would come," was what he caught next, and he was able to fill in the blanks easily enough himself. Toshiro's voice sounded relieved and saddened at the same time, and Ichigo could understand why. The young Captain had probably had to toil under the assumption that he was going to die out in the desert with nary a thought of rescue directed towards him. He didn't think that anyone would even realize that he was gone, or if they did, even know where to look. Ichigo drew a comforting circle on the bony muzzle with his hand, still smiling weakly.
"Of course we came, idiot," he said, shaking his head. "I couldn't just leave you where when I found out you were gone. Matsumoto couldn't either. You should know by now, Toshiro, we'd never let anything happen to you." He didn't get any response from the young Captain's voice, but knew that the eye closing was a definite show of relief. "I don't know why the hell you'd think we wouldn't come, with all the crazy shit you've been making me see."
The teal eye of the dragon opened again, looking at him with a vague expression that could only be described as curious. But before Toshiro could ask a question further, Toshiro's massive draconian body froze, every bony joint going frigid as the slitted pupils dilated to a narrow line. Ichigo feared for his life for a moment, before Toshiro's head rose from the sand. With some difficulty, it seemed, with his damaged neck, but the dragon's body pulled through, lifting the great head far above the dunes Ichigo was left behind on. Toshiro's elongated snout was craning in every direction he could get it to face, before the nose seemed to settle on the area that had disconcerted him most.
Sensing the issue at hand just before it reared its ugly head, Ichigo bolted towards Toshiro's body, coming into contact with the body scales in just enough time to avoid getting deafened again. Instead, he was just able to catch Toshiro beginning to speak again, rather than having to bleed his way through another experience of a dragon's audience.
"Ichigo," Toshiro's voice said. Ichigo cold feel the massive heart thundering under the bony plates beneath his hand, and he began to worry minutely for Toshiro's apparent lack of health. He was wounded, yes, but now the only question was how wounded. "There's someone coming. It's one of the Espada." The great head turned down to look at him from its estranged perch in the sky, both teal eyes boring into him. With the pupils dilated so strangely, it almost looked like Toshiro's eyes had become fitted to the animal he was to be impersonating. The eyes looked feral and panicked, a sentiment that he could share. "You need to leave, now. Go find Rangiku and get out."
"Hell no!" Ichigo barked back angrily. "There's no way I would have dragged myself out here into the middle of God-damn-knows-where just to leave you behind!" He pounded an angry fist against one of the plates he'd latched onto, trying to get the idea knocked into the other man's head in some way or another. "Besides, Matsumoto and Renji already went back to Urahara's. They'll be waiting there for us. And Matsumoto would kill me if I came crawling back without you."
The dragon's eyes almost seemed humored, but the humor didn't last long. Ichigo could tell it wouldn't, because the dangerously thin pupils had remained thin the entire time. "Kurosaki, this is serious." Staring down those feral eyes made him not doubt it, but he was still defiant to turn tail after he'd come so far. He didn't know what Toshiro being in the strange Hollow body meant, or how it correlated to the rest of his body's condition, but he knew for sure that leaving him in Hueco Mundo to bleed to death or be devoured by other actual Hollows would not supply the answers. "You need to get out of here, and dragging me along with you will only mean you're slowing yourself down. Go get help if you need to, but don't stay here."
"I repeat my previous statement, Toshiro," the red head barked, ignoring the Captain's orders as per his usual habit. "Hell no. Come on now, get up on those big legs of yours, and come with me. If we can keep within this five mile area, another one of Urahara's portals should be opening up and we can both get out of here. I'm not leaving without you, so just get over that fact and get up off that spiny butt of yours."
Having a dragon glare at you was probably one of the scariest experiences that Ichigo had ever had in his life. But he glared back defiantly, holding his ground as Toshiro's dragon head curled around to face him fully. The teal eyes leveled on him, and he realized with a bit of out-of-body shock that Toshiro's dragon eyes were almost hypnotizing. But he resisted the urge to fall into those reptilian eyes' spell, focusing on what Toshiro was probably telling him. "Kurosaki," he said, his voice sounding very much like a dragon's growl, "I can't."
The right eye was damaged as he stared at them both, the bony plating clawed asunder by something, leaving blood-dyed bone there instead. That eye was squinted, apparently almost swollen shut, but the hypnotizing effect didn't change anything, and for a moment longer than he would have liked, Ichigo was left numb. He shook his head when the spell passed, growling himself. "Yes you can!" he barked, hating to think that the other's strong will had gone from being defiant to defeatist so quickly.
"God damn it, Kurosaki, listen to me!" Hitsugaya barked at him, this time the roar actually rumbling the ground he stood on. "I am physically incapable of going anywhere! Now stop playing the hero and do something practical for once in your life!" One of the front legs of the massive dragon reached out then, brushing him off surprisingly gently in an attempt to shoo him away. But the force of those massive knuckles still managed to knock the wind out of him.
But, being who he was, Ichigo refused to accept defeat.
So, he latched onto that bony, clawed hand like his life counted on it, glaring at the dragon as he was hoisted into the air. Toshiro's eyes glared back at him, and Ichigo could tell that Toshiro was probably two seconds away from violently shaking him off. Which, probably would have been rather comical if not for their shared current situation. Instead, he clambered onto the more steady part of Toshiro's strange reptilian hand to stand on the wrist, which hadn't moved if only for the sake of him not falling twenty feet to a broken spine. "You seem to be able to move just fine to me, Toshiro," he said, in spite of knowing that the damage along Toshiro's neck and back were probably deciding factors in his mobility. But his hope remained, because it was the only thing he had left.
"Get down, Kurosaki," Toshiro's voice told him coldly, and he was about to argue when those chilling eyes settled on him again, and he decided against it. He jumped down from the lowered hand, from whence said hand settled on the sand beneath Toshiro's lumbering torso. The other front leg pushed up, lifting the deep-barreled chest as the back legs pushed him up.
It was when the back legs lifted that Ichigo realized why Toshiro had assured him that mobility was impossible. His entire left back leg was in shreds. The thick upper thigh was torn across violently, actually leaving pieces of the bony armor missing or falling off, leaving severe wounds open on the black flesh underneath. From the backwards knee the shin of the leg hung limp, turned at an unnatural angle compared to the pristine straightness of the functioning one, alluding to broken bones that left the pad of the foot useless, dragging there in the sand as blood soaked the mangled limb red.
He could also tell that without the support of that back leg, supporting a body as monstrous as the one he was inhabiting was a massively taxing task indeed. He could feel Toshiro's expectant stare at him, but only heard the other growl unhappily at him. He had gotten the point, but that didn't mean that he was going to give up. He'd heard of animals walking on only three legs before. Hell' he'd heard of animals walking on two. He was sure that with some encouraging Toshiro could do it, even if it was painful. And, hopefully he wouldn't have to do it long before the next portal opened up.
"Toshiro, I know it's hard to move around like that, and I know you've probably been wandering around here for a while, but I can't just leave you out here," Ichigo started, staring the other man down seriously. "We've come this far, and risked everything to find you. It wouldn't make any sense to come all this way and just leave you behind, Toshiro. Please, try for us, we've tried for you."
The last comment he made had obviously struck a nerve, and the narrow pupils widened a bit, softening those eyes back to some semblance of humanity. Toshiro's serpentine face lowered, hovering barely a foot away from Ichigo's own face. His hand reached out, gracing the bony nose as he pursed his lips. He watched as Toshiro's weary eyes closed, a deep sigh rattling the shihakusho on his frame as the chilly air blew in a gust out of the dragon's nostrils.
"Thank you, Kurosaki."
Ichigo smiled, patting the nose underneath his hand gently. "Now, come on," he said. "We should get moving now while we have the chance. But we should head back the way you came; the portal opened up somewhere probably a few miles back, so if we stay in that general area, we should be able to catch it when it opens."
The dragon's head bobbed in a nod, before twisting to leave an expanse of neck within Ichigo's grasp. Ichigo looked at Toshiro curiously, and the other only responded by shaking his neck, almost in a welcoming fashion. Ichigo took the hint, and clambered up onto the dragon's neck, perching himself right between a small gap in the crown of horns rimming the dragon's chin. He fit just right between the gap; letting himself have a nice seat as the massive being beneath him struggled up. He glanced back at the dragging leg as Toshiro made a slow turn to head back the way Ichigo had come from, the poor appendage dragging behind him crookedly.
"Come on, Toshiro," Ichigo encouraged as Toshiro's shorter front legs grappled for purchase up the steep dune they'd both fallen down. "You can do it." Quite honestly he was rather confused by the build of the body Toshiro's soul was inhabiting. He'd always considered dragons to be streamlined creatures, built evenly like the twisting lungs of old. But Toshiro's body was more front weighted, with a wider chest cavity narrowing down to a trim pair of back legs with a thick tail trailing after. It just didn't seem practical for any sort of motion that he could think of, and it made him wonder if it had been designed that way.
The dragon below him growled, but made no other comment as the monster dune was crested. Ichigo felt guilty, letting Toshiro carry him, but he knew that traveling in another manner would be more work for both. Ichigo would either be left trailing after Toshiro's far larger strides, or would be pacing ahead and waiting for him to catch up. Either way, he wanted to stick as close to Toshiro as possible, so this seemed to be the best solution. That, and this way he could keep the other encouraged into moving.
But he turned his head when a particularly potent flare of reiatsu came into the stunted range of his spiritual senses. He swallowed, looking down at Toshiro. The dragon's head had snapped in the same direction, and he could feel the shifting worry rolling off the other's vastly encompassing icy spiritual pressure. "Ichigo, get down," the other advised, and Ichigo paused for a moment, trying to think of where the hell he was supposed to go. Ducking behind the crown of spines, he pressed himself close to the soft skin where the neck and skull met beneath. He was dangerously close to Toshiro's wound, and made a point to try avoiding touching it or nudging it as much as he could, but he knew he wasn't doing much of a good job considering he had to get leverage somehow, and that did involve applying pressure somewhere near the damaged area.
Toshiro kept lumbering on, his slow pace making Ichigo feel like the journey was going to linger on forever. But he could feel the opposing spiritual pressure getting closer, and could feel that it was no friend or ally. He clenched his teeth, hoping that he wouldn't have to do anything drastic. It would be hard to offer quick assistance when pressed into such a tight space, and he prayed that it wouldn't have to come to that.
When a low growl went rumbling up from Toshiro's chest, Ichigo was nearly rocked from his precarious seat. He scrambled for purchase, latching onto a bony plate to keep himself rooted. But he was forced to edge back into his hidey-hole, as a rising ridge of spines rose from a crack in the armor that ran down Toshiro's elongated spine. Decently afraid that one was going to gut him, he stayed where he knew the skin was soft and black, and where bones could not rise out to stab him. But he assumed that the spines were raised in a defensive position, meaning that however had followed him had come within visual distance of Toshiro.
Which meant that he needed to be ready to roll at the drop of a hat.
He felt Toshiro's body dip beneath him, the dragon body curling into a defensive position as the head he was hidden behind followed the enemy that now seemed to be circling them.
"There you are, you grimy son of a bitch," he heard Grimmjow's voice drone out. Ichigo's heart nearly stopped, but he kept himself as calm as he could. "Crawling around out here in the desert like the dog you are." He heard the teal man snort. "I'm surprised those idiots didn't find you yet. Guess they turned tail and fled. Must have figured you weren't worth finding."
Another fierce growl rumbled through Toshiro's throat, but this time Ichigo was prepared for it, and was able to brace properly without losing his all important grip. If he could just keep the element of surprise hidden away from Grimmjow for a while longer, they would be fine. They would be just-
He felt Toshiro's muscles tense before he saw why. The dragon's body had given a great start, and the three working legs had tried valiantly to backpedal before a blur of blue jumped into Ichigo's limited vision of the rest of Toshiro's body. There was a gleam of metal, and a gush of crimson blood as Toshiro bellowed in pain. As quick as he'd come, Grimmjow was gone, leaving the toiling dragon with a jagged X carved deep into his side. Ichigo could feel Toshiro's mighty legs quaking with the strain of trying not to fall, and willed himself to wait just a second longer. Just one more minute, and he would go out and defend them, save both of them just in time. But even his second-sharp reflexes weren't prepared for what happened next.
Quick as a flash, Toshiro's body was twisting again, this time the opposite way as his head reared up, his upper body lifting off the ground in an attempt to protect himself from the oncoming strike. The only issue was that apparently Grimmjow had accounted for that, and had aimed with viciously strong force at the juncture between where the dragon's body and neck met. The dragon's already battered body crumbled in response to the rocking strike, and Ichigo had to hold on for that agonizing second of fall before he and Toshiro thundered to the ground in an almighty heap.
He felt the dragon's vocal chords rumbling in agony beneath him, but all his ears could hear was Toshiro's voice, crying out in agony. And a split second of one of his visions tore across his vision, then, of Toshiro laying on the sands of Hueco Mundo, his mouth moving in soundless agony, screaming for help.
His will to wait for a surprise moment broke at that point, and he jumped out from his hiding place, launching a furious swing of Zangetsu's blade at the very much unsuspecting Grimmjow. He knocked the combatant back quite substantially, considering his intention for surprising the other had been accomplished in spite of him feeling he'd come out too early. But he couldn't care, not with that gut-wrenching image stuck in his head.
He looked back to Toshiro, seeing that the other had fared worse than he'd first thought. The gashes on his side were severe, and cut across one of the shoulders of his front legs. The limb could still move, but Ichigo could only imagine how much it would hurt having to put a large amount of weight on that torn muscle. But what worried him most was the gaping wound that was carved against the poor beast's neck. The junction's plates had split beneath the force of the strike, the armor there weaker in the first place not helping to protect him at all. But Grimmjow's blade had cut deep, digging in further than Ichigo could see.
He bolted back over to where Toshiro lay toiling, the bestial simpering coming from him far more than his heart could bear. He knelt next to Toshiro's head, the blue eyes closed harshly at the pain. He glanced over his shoulder, finding Grimmjow had not been able to pick himself back up just yet. But a strange prickling sensation ran over his neck, and he heard the distant, gruesome tearing of space as another one of Urahara's portals opened. He could see it, bursting through the dark sky in the distance. It was far, but not far enough for them to get to in time if they hurried.
He turned back to Toshiro, knowing that he had to get the other up before Grimmjow came back. Much to his dismay, he could hear the Espada stalking back towards them, muttering curses the entire time. He pushed at Toshiro's muzzle, noting how a faint trickle of blood had begun to seep out between the teeth-shaped slats in the bony mask. The teal eyes opened, looking up at him hazily.
"Come on, Toshiro," he said, standing in an attempt to coax even Toshiro's head up from where it lay on the ground. "Come on, we have to go, now."
"You're not going anywhere, you son of a bitch," Grimmjow snarled from behind him, and Ichigo's heart thundered as he turned to face him. His grip on Zangetsu's hilt tightened, but a heave of movement out of the corner of his eye drew his attention away from his blue-haired opponent.
Toshiro, by some miracle, was standing, having heaved himself up off the bloodied sands beneath him. The wide chest heaved, more blood dripping from the white muzzle of the wounded dragon. But something happened then that Ichigo had not expected.
From a wide gap in the segments of Toshiro's armor that ran down his sides, two massive black wings spread. The bony limbs spread out, shadowing over both of them in a monstrous spread, blocking out the moonlight of Hueco Mundo for a short second. Grimmjow had stepped back, gaping in fear as the dragon suddenly appeared thrice his original behemoth size. But Ichigo remained, having a vague idea of what Toshiro was about to do.
Sure enough, the head of the dragon dipped low, and the large body surged forward. Ichigo reached out, catching himself over the snout of the dragon as Toshiro all but steamrolled Grimmjow over, his massive legs churning as he took off with an almighty jump into the dark sky of the Hollow world. The strange dis-balance of weight between the front and the back was now explained, considering the weight could be bore easily by wings so large. The wings pumped harshly for a moment, struggling to get lift, but after a few agonizing seconds of struggling takeoff, everything smoothed out, their ascent finished at an almost insurmountable distance between them and the ground.
Ichigo had almost stopped breathing at that point, perched atop the dragon's brow as he felt the massive body beneath him pumping with the taxes of slight. But he could feel the tension in Toshiro's spiritual pressure, and knew that this had been his last ditch effort at getting them through. Ichigo was on the verge of encouraging him, but knew that the other had to concentrate doggedly to keep himself streamlined and functioning enough for flight.
Thankfully, though, the genius still breathing behind Toshiro's now frightening exterior had caught onto their intended flight path without even needing to be told. His massive body rocketed towards the portal, so fast that Ichigo was sure that they would arrive far before the portal closed. He was proven correct, when they neared at what he felt to be a dangerously fast pace. He glanced down at Toshiro, feeling the other's tire in how their flying had succumbed to gliding, into free falling to conserve energy. Ichigo was holding on for dear life, a thought suddenly striking him so hard that he felt he'd be knocked right off the head of the dragon.
Toshiro's girth was far too large to pass through the turbulent passage world safely.
He almost shouted out to the dragon, but before he had the chance they'd plunged into the portal, the darkness of Hueco Mundo replaced with the darkness of the precipice world instead. But now Ichigo could understand why Toshiro had been letting them free fall; by increasing speed, he'd allowed himself a long arch of flying distance without needing to have his wings open. He'd anticipated the passage to be difficult, and had compensated ahead of time.
But unfortunately, as Ichigo had been about to warn, the precipice world was not the stable environment that Toshiro had expected it to be. A black wall surged in towards them, and with an expert flick of the wing they were barreled out of harm's way, towards the light at the end of the hellish tunnel that signaled their imminent success. But he could hear Toshiro's voice, growling in pain, in his head, ringing like a bell.
When they burst through the end of the tunnel, he was blinded completely for a moment. The bright light of Urahara's underground training facility was a stark change compared to the dark of Hueco Mundo, and the connective world that lay in between. He felt Toshiro's black wings spread out once again beneath them, but the landing was rough and clumsy, a Ichigo could only assume that Toshiro had long passed his limitations. But still, the fact remained that even as his tattered body drug to a stop, Toshiro kept his great head held up, as if to keep Ichigo from the unkempt landing.
He succeeded, save for when at last his great head thundered down, his neck no longer strong enough to hold the weight. Wisely, Ichigo had jumped off at that point, landing atop one of the monstrous mounds of stone that lay strewn about the grounds. He looked down in misery at the mess that was Toshiro Hitsugaya, a frown settling deep into his face as he watched the tortured soul pant heavily.
But when flashes of color began to sprout up around him, he knew that something was wrong. Renji and Matsumoto had appeared in front of him, down on the ground where Toshiro lay heaving. Their swords were drawn, completely prepared to eradicate the Hollow that had so unceremoniously broken into their designated space. But before Ichigo could call out to them to stop, someone else did it for him.
Urahara, the wily old man himself, stood before them all in the blink of an eye. He had a hand on the fallen dragon's snout, standing in front of him as if his tiny body could protect the massive creature behind him. Ichigo didn't doubt that he could, but the size comparison was a hard one to quantify seriously.
"Now, now, all of you settle down," he said, voice still eerily cheery. "We don't want you attacking Captain Hitsugaya, now, do we?"
-This chapter was primarily inspired by this lovely song that Pandora radio dropped in my lap whilst writing this. It's peppy, but the lyrics had some very potent meaning, and I couldn't help but like it. It was "So Small" by the Italo Brothers. Woot for European techno. Okay, so seeing as I've been conditioning to write several thousand words a day, I figured I might as well use that towards something marginally useful. Thankfully, because of all of the conditioning I did for NaNoWriMo, a multi-thousand word chapter like this, which probably would have taken me several days before, only takes me a matter of one or two. Whether that's sad or kinda cool has yet to be determined. Anyway, I'm still up in the air over the sequel for this fic, which has changed titles for those of you who haven't noticed. The reason why I changed the title was so that the title for the sequel fic could be related. Because, as creative as I tried to be with a proper sequel title, I just couldn't come up with one. But with the title it has now, the sequel will at least now be able to have a related title. Yay for relevance. Anyway the polls are still up for the pairing to be featured in fic 2, and there may actually be two pairings depending on how industrious I feel. I'm still trying to get all of my kinks worked out for that plot, so I'm working on it. Anyway, posted past this point are the stats for the votes on the pairing in fic 2. Here they are as they stand thus far:
Ichi-Hitsu: 10 votes
Renji-Shuuhei: 8 votes
Kensei-Shuuhei: 5 votes
No Pairing (No fic): 2 votes
Byakuya-Shuuhei: 2 votes
8-90s love,
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