It was unfair to say that Ash was unfazed. He was pretty scared, in fact. These creatures- they looked like hollows, but were much stronger than the ones Ash had seen before- were pretty damn powerful, and he was aware of the fact that he might actually lose. This fact scared him. He wasn't about to let his fear control him, though. Trying to calm his fears, Ash stepped forward, in front of Toushirou.
This most definitely caught Toushirou's attention. "Hey," he said to Ash, "What do you think you're doing?!"
"What does it look like? I'm going to fight. I won't let anyone hurt Marona." Ash sounded a lot more confident than he actually was at that moment.
Apparently Toushirou wasn't pleased with this. He reached forward and grabbed a hold of Ash's arm and said, "But you can't beat them! Even I can't do it right now, and I've trained for decades!"
Ash pulled his arm out of Toushirou's grasp and said, "I'm different than you."
Then he looked back to Marona. Marona nodded to Ash, and then focused her powers on him. Soon Ash's spirit had joined with a nearby rock, and he was ready to fight.
This wasn't an entirely hopeless battle. Ash actually did have the strength to fight on-par with a Numeros-level Arrancar now. However, there were a couple things that kept this from happening.
The first thing was that these Arrancar didn't fight fairly. Instead of fighting one-on-one, they both attacked at once. And, since Ash was the one that had stepped forward, he was their target. He found it difficult to keep up with two at once, and thus he couldn't effectively defeat either of them.
The second problem was Marona's choice in confining materials. A rock would have been a good choice for a regular battle, as it greatly increased his strength and physical defense. Neither of the Arrancar could get a good hit on him, because it just plain didn't hurt him. Ash also found that he could damage the two Arrancar, though it was mostly shallow wounds. This was fine, though; since the Arrancar couldn't hurt him physically, he could theoretically just chip away at them until they were defeated.
However, every good thing has a downside, and this current arrangement had two: speed and magical resistance. Ash was as hard as a rock, but he was as slow as one too. As soon as the Arrancar figured this out, they were able to dodge his attacks easily. And, when physically attacking didn't work, one of the Arrancar tried an energy blast. Since Ash's resistance to any nonphysical attacks hadn't changed, all it took was one high-powered blast to knock him to the ground and out of the fight.
The last thing he heard, was Marona screaming his name, and before he blacked out all he could think was, 'I've failed her. I've failed Marona…'
"ASH!"
Marona rushed forward to help her fallen friend, but Toushirou stopped her with his arm. She tried to push past him as she said, "Let me go! I've got to go help him!"
Toushirou still didn't let her pass, though. He knew that those two Arrancar would kill her the moment she stepped past him, and he had to protect her at all costs. "It's okay," he said, sounding calm, "He's alright. If you try, you can still feel his spiritual presence. He's hurt, but he's not gone."
"You know, he's right," one of the Arrancar said to the other, "That one's not dead."
"I'll fix that quickly," the other said, preparing another blast.
Before he could fire it, though, Toushirou jumped into action. With one quick swing of his sword Toushirou stopped the Arrancar's blast and effectively distracted them. "You better forget about him," he said, "You've got bigger problems now."
The Arrancar, of course, just laughed at him. "You think you'll do any better," one said, "You're barely stronger than him! We'll wipe the floor with you!"
Toushirou began to plan at that moment. His bankai wouldn't last very long, so he had to make sure that he could end the fight with it. He would have to wear them down with his shikai first. This presented a problem, though. Toushirou's shikai would probably be about as effective as Ash's attacks had been, and he definitely didn't have the defenses that Ash had. He would get beaten up a lot quicker, so he had to make every strike count.
While Toushirou fought with the Arrancar, Marona ran over to Ash and checked him over. Toushirou had been right: Ash was hurt, but still alive (well, as alive as a spirit can be). So, Marona decided to use some of her other abilities to help Ash.
Marona's main power was definitely her ability to confine spirits to objects, thus making them stronger. However, her parents also had spiritual abilities, what with being Chromas and all, and Marona had inherited a couple of them. One of those abilities was healing powers. It wasn't very strong, and she probably could only ease his pain a little, but it was better than nothing. She healed Ash up a bit, then turned her attention to the fight between Toushirou and the two Arrancar.
It had taken Marona a few minutes to heal Ash, and in that time the battle had turned against Toushirou. He had managed to seriously injure one of the Arrancar, but the other still looked fine. On top of that, Toushirou was seriously hurting. He was bleeding from several cuts on his body, and his uniform was scorched. He was able to keep up for now, but the injuries were starting to slow him down.
That second Arrancar was being difficult. Any time Toushirou tried to get near it, it would just fire another bala or cero blast at him. He just couldn't move quickly enough or hit with enough power to take him out. He could try his bankai now, but even with that strength he might not be fast enough to hit this Arrancar. On top of that, there was still the other one to worry about.
'Just a little more,' Toushirou told himself, 'Injure that other one just a little more. Then you'll be able to kill them both with bankai.'
Before Toushirou could do that, though, the Arrancar he was fighting managed to land a good hit on him, knocking him to the ground. He struggled to get up as the Arrancar laughed at him. "What's wrong, little Shinigami," the Arrancar said, "Getting tired?"
Toushirou glared up at the Arrancar, but he knew that he was doomed now. He was barely holding his own before, and now he had a large gash down his front and was bleeding heavily. There was no way he could win now.
Unless…
Damnit! How could he have forgotten?! "Marona," he called out, "Use your power on me!"
Marona cried out, "But it didn't help Ash!"
The Arrancar looked a little bored now. Apparently he was done being amused by these people. He said, "I'm done playing now. Time to finish you off," as he rushed down towards Toushirou, sword pointed at the Shinigami's back.
The Arrancar was only a few moments away from the killing blow, and Toushirou knew that this was his last chance. "Please," he screamed, "Marona!"
Finally Marona acted. She chose the closest thing to Toushirou, a small nut, and focused.
The Aarrancar's blade fell, but a split second before it struck Toushirou disappeared, and the blade hit the ground. "What the hell," the Arrancar said, looking at the ground in disbelief, "Where'd he go?"
"Behind you," The other Arrancar called out, "Look out!"
Toushirou struck before the Arrancar could move. In one swing, and with only shikai, Toushirou killed an almost uninjured Arrancar. Then, in the blink of an eye, he was over at the second Arracar, and he killed that one just as quickly. Both Arrancar disappeared, leaving behind no evidence that they had been there.
There was still some time left before Toushirou unconfined, and he managed to get to the ground before he collapsed. As soon as he did, though, Marona got up and hurried over to him, calling out, "Mr. Hitsugaya!"
She kneeled down next to him, looking concerned, and said, "Mr. Hitsugaya, are you alright?"
Marona looked over Toushirou's wounds, and Toushirou hissed in pain as she did so. "…I've been better," he said, "But I'll live."
"Here," Marona said, focusing her powers again, "I'll heal you. Don't worry, you'll be better soon."
Truthfully, though, Toushirou wasn't worried anymore. The Arrancar were dead, and they all were still alive. What's more, the massive spike in his powers when he killed those Arrancar would set off signals in Seireitei, and his comrades would soon come to this island and take care of the wounded (and, ultimately, find out about Marona's powers and how useful they are). No, Toushirou wasn't worried at all. It was quite the opposite, actually. For the first time in nearly twenty years, he was able to relax.
Over in Seireitei, everyone was in a panic. The monitors that the twelfth squad kept an eye on had picked up on Toushirou's fight, and they were now going haywire. The research department was busy trying to compile the data and make sense of it, and the others were arranging a rescue squad for Toushirou. This squad consisted of two captains, Renji and Izuru, and a seated officer from the fourth squad, and they were ready to go fairly quickly.
Renji was worried about his friend, but he was more concerned about the strange readings the twelfth squad had gotten. He had seen the data: Toushirou should have lost that fight. But there was that strange spike in energy, and somehow Toushirou was still alive. What had caused that? Why did things turn out like this?
That wasn't to say that Renji was ungrateful. No, he was glad that Toushirou had survived. All of this strange data worried him, though. As they traveled to the human world, Renji couldn't help but wonder if this energy was what had kept Toushirou away for so long.
