Aizen's Kingdom
~Ice Dragon~
One of the things that made Hitsugaya Toshiro who he was in the other world was his constant want to control everything around him, so that nothing bad happened. Of course, in this world, everything was out of the child's hands and he found himself exploding with frustration and fear, among other feelings that simply wouldn't go away.
Thus he found himself trembling in the arms of a man he felt hard pressed to trust, a man whose mind was questionable due to the treachery he had been involved in. On top of this, the way that Matsumoto Rangiku looked at him told him that something was not right, no... that something was very wrong, and that his entire world would be shaken up.
That is what caused him to lose it, to call forth his zampaktuo. The fear that even those he trusted had turned against him. So, why not turn to the one person who had always been his friend, whose logic was never failing, never ceasing to amaze the young child. The one person who had always made the pain and hurt go away, once they had met, simply by speaking.
That dragon now towered over him and Ichimaru, and the boy glanced up, his teal eyes filled with a great deal of fear, but not at all towards the dragon above him. Sure, Hyorinmaru was dangerous, he was powerful, but that dragon was a part of him and was someone he had come to trust beyond everything and everything in his life.
At that, the dragon bent his nose downward, but didn't move any closer to the two males. Toshiro's body began to calm, and for some reason, he felt Ichimaru's own body calm upon seeing the dragon. This made no sense at all, due to the fact that the white haired boy thought of Gin as an enemy, not someone he could trust.
As the boy's mouth opened, something happened that he hadn't expected at all. He heard Rangiku's voice suddenly call out. "Roar, Haineko."
At that, the ashes cut across Hyorinmaru's nose, some freezing as they did so. But the effect was there, a large cut on the beasts nose that suddenly dripped blood down onto the two males. At that, Toshiro went back to panicking, as his best friend in the world was being hurt by someone he had come to know and trust. He felt his legs spasm painfully, while he clutched Ichimaru's arms so tightly, his nails dug it. "Hyorinmaru!"
"Rangiku! What the hell are you doing!" Gin spat out his words, not understanding why she was doing what she was doing. But then he saw the level of fright. "Her first instinct is to protect her child at all costs." At that, the man glanced up at the dragon, speaking to him. "Hyorinmaru! Go back into the boy's inner world! Rangiku sees you as an enemy to him, not an ally!"
At that, a voice spoke up in Gin's head. "Hyorinmaru was summoned here by the kid, he can only go back by the child's commands. Look at your son, silver hair! He can't even go to a humanoid form!"
This caused Ichimaru's eyes to dart down, to see the look of horror plastered on the young ones face, the mouth opened ajar as he saw something that to him was absolutely mortifying. At that, Ichimaru glanced back up, his hand going to his zampaktuo. "Rangiku! Stop this! Hyorinmaru isn't an enemy!"
"I'll fight for the two of you and keep her attacks at bay until you can calm the little one down." Shinso appeared to the two males side, drawing his blade. "It doesn't matter if I use my abilities to my full extent anymore, because the reason you were keeping it secret no longer exists."
"Don't hurt Ran-chan." Gin stated, watching the zampaktuo call out his attack, just as Rangiku launched hers. Instead of spreading in a blade like attack, it turned to dust, moving faster then Rangiku's ash could move, deflecting the next blow the woman sent towards the ice dragon. Ichimaru bent his head down, hissing into the boy's ear. "Toshiro... Shiro-chan, you've got to call Hyorinmaru back into your inner world."
At that, the boy's mouth opened a couple of times, and then he squeaked out a few words as tears rolled down his cheeks. "I can't."
Shinso glanced back, having deflected a few more blows. "What is the matter with him! I thought Chibi Taicho was made of sterner stuff then this."
"Gin... I don't don't know what is going on, but I am seriously going to kill you when I'm done with whatever that monster is." Rangiku stated, her words cold as the creature she was trying to attack. "Withdraw your zampaktuo!"
"Rangiku's... trying to kill Hyorinmaru?" At that, the child's face suddenly paled and he raised his hands to his ears and closed his eyes, letting out a scream of pain, despite the fact it wasn't him who was hurting. Ice began to spread farther and farther and spikes began to shoot up as the sobs came down. "I want to wake up!"
At that, Gin found himself shaking the boy hard. "Shiro-chan! You've got to snap out of this!"
The boy simply continued to cry, his sobs loud, knowing full well that a lot of things, more then before, were simply out of his control. A crunching sound was heard, as footsteps approached them, and a familiar voice to the child suddenly spoke up. "Shiro-chan? Toshiro-kun?"
At that, Toshiro's eyes snapped open, taking in the group of people in front of him, confusion spreading on his face. "Taicho? Tomo Atsuo? Shiba Kaien? All of you are supposed to be dead." Tears still fell down the boy's cheeks, but the ice began to melt away, and Hyorinmaru began to shrink, going to his humanoid form and then clattering to the ground in the form of a blade "I don't understand."
Shiba Isshin moved forward, his sister standing beside him and scooped the boy into his arms, taking him from Ichimaru carefully. "A lot of things are confusing, but you need to give the people around you time to explain things to you."
It was then that Isshin began to give out orders to those around him. "Kukuku, your specialty is with fire, so I would appreciate it if you can thaw out the area around us. Kaien, I want you to go down staris and surmise the damage that has been done to the home and take care of Soifon taicho. Tomo Atsuo, I assume that you can take care of Matsumoto Rangiku as she is also a fukutaicho."
The white haired child suddenly found himself bawling into the man's shoulder, gripping the shinigami robes tightly, taking in the familiar, not to mention safe smelling scent. At that, the man smiled. "Now, now Toshiro. You're just making me really wish I had children of my own. You're a lot tougher then this, aren't you?"
Author's note – Ch18 : 1,196; Total: 18,816