I wish I had a good excuse for you all, like I was sick or something, but I don't. I guess I'll use writers block as my excuse, since I had absolutely no idea how to write this scene. Must have rewritten it a dozen times, scrapped it, restarted, thought it was stupid, and scrapped it again. I'm still not so sure I'm proud of this, but I think this is the best I can do, and I feel really terrible that it took me so long to post. I think fight scenes just really aren't my thing.
"Whew, just in time," Kain sighed in relief, jumping off of Matsumoto's back and surveying the room. Hitsugaya was crumpled in a bloody heap on the floor, gasping for breath, his face strained from pain. Aizen was looking at his hand in mild contemplation, obviously wondering why his kidos were failing to fire properly. Ichigo had disappeared under the enormous black sphere of Tousen's bankai. And Gin was leaning lazily against a back wall, observing the scene with his characteristic smirk.
"Something wrong, Aizen-sama?" he asked, his lips spreading even wider and disappearing somewhere around his ears. "Looks like yer having a bit o' trouble with that."
"Gin," Matsumoto growled icily. She had a fierce, wild look on her face. She seemed ready for battle, very different from her usual, carefree self. And before Karin could stop her, she had bolted into the room.
"Damn it, you fool," Karin cursed. She undid the invisibility illusion around Matsumoto just in time, making it appear that she had just shunpoed in front of Gin, rather than sprinting across the room like a raging bull. Before Gin could process her presence, she had her sword at his throat.
"I was wonderin' when you were gonna show up, Rangiku," Gin said, his smirk unfaltering. "You never do leave yer precious taicho's side, do ya?"
"Of course not!" she snarled. "I'm loyal to those I've sworn allegiance to."
"And so am I," Gin replied. Matsumoto's eyes narrowed.
"Gin. You're going to pay for deserting us. For deserting me!" She pressed her sword deeper into his neck, but Gin drew his own sword and pushed her back with the ease of swatting a fly.
"I didn't want ta' have to be the one ta' kill ya' Ran, but it looks like I ain't got no choice."
"Just try it!" Matsumoto threatened. And with that, they attacked, their swords clanking and clashing, the sound of metal on metal reverberating across the room, as both moved too quickly for the untrained eye to follow.
Hitsugaya watched them for a moment, trying to recover from the shock of finding out that both Karin and Matsumoto had followed him here.
"I shouldn't be too surprised," he thought. "But still. Those two. They can't sit still if their lives depend on it huh?" But now was not the time to think about that. Karin had given him an opening, and he needed to use it. But as he tried to get back on his feet, he found that he didn't have the strength.
"Well, it seems that you've learned to negate kido recently, Hitsugaya taicho," Aizen surmised, coming to the only logical conclusion he could develop given the circumstances. "But no matter. It doesn't look like you can move much anyway. Don't worry, I'll make this as painless as possible." He began walking towards Hitsugaya, raising his sword as he did so.
"Move!" Hitsugaya ordered himself. "Move, move, MOVE!" But nothing happened. He had lost way too much blood and his body wasn't listening to him anymore.
Suddenly, a blue crash kido shot directly at Aizen, forcing him backwards.
"It looks like I'm just in time," Karin smirked as she appeared in the doorway clad in a very well illusioned shinigami uniform. "You really are hopeless without me, you know that?"
"Well well well, who are you young lady?" Aizen asked in a feigned friendly voice. "I don't believe I've met you before."
"It doesn't really matter who I am does it?" she replied with a shrug. She snapped her fingers and Tousen's bankai disappeared, revealing a panting Ichigo and a thoroughly confused Tousen. "All that matters is that today is the day you are finally defeated."
She walked over to Hitsugaya and stood next to him.
"Get up!" she barked.
"In case you haven't noticed," he replied through gritted teeth, "I have a rather severe leg wound."
"You do?" Her eyes twinkled momentarily. Hitsugaya looked back down at his leg and gasped. The enormous gash was gone, as was the pain. The hole in his stomach had closed too. Hitsugaya knew it was just an illusion to fool his body, and that he would need proper healing later, but he didn't care. The temporary healing allowed him to fight. And that was all that mattered. He found his way to his feet and stood beside Karin, once again ready for battle.
Aizen was appraising Karin carefully.
"Well isn't this a surprise," he said, not sounding surprised in the slightest. "You've finally managed to drag yourself out of bed, Hinamori." Hitsugaya and Karin both checked, which Aizen took as confirmation.
"Why?" Hitsugaya asked himself frantically. "Why does he think she's Hinamori?" And then it hit him. "He can tell that Karin's an illusionist, based on the techniques she just used. And he must know that Hinamori is an illusionist. She fought alongside him for too many years, and she trusted him implicitly, so surely she would have told him. And there isn't a single other illusionist in Soul Society at the moment who could illusion away a taicho-class bankai." Hitsugaya fought back the urge to smile. If Aizen really thought Karin was Hinamori, he would underestimate her. They finally had the upper hand.
"How did you know?" Hitsugaya growled, playing along completely and hoping like hell that Karin would get the message. Aizen smiled.
"A mother must protect her son, correct?" he replied. "Although you needn't have worried. He is perfectly safe in my care."
"Give me my son back!" Karin shouted, catching Hitsugaya's hint. Aizen's face softened.
"I'm sorry to have worried you, Hinamori-kun," Azien said gently, switching back to the more affectionate version of her name as he slowly made his way towards her. "I did not intend to take our son by force. I only wanted to see him and care for him as a father should."
"You…you expect me to believe you," Karin stuttered, her voice attempting strength that was quickly waning. "You abandoned me. After everything you said to me. Why…why didn't you take me with you? Why couldn't you trust me?" Her voice was breaking now. She seemed to be on the verge of tears. Hitsugaya was more than a little impressed at her acting ability. So this was her infamous sweet-talking skills in action. He wondered for a moment if she had ever used them on him, and if he would notice if she did.
"I'm sorry, Hinamori-kun," Aizen replied, demonstrating his equally extraordinary acting talent. "I'm truly sorry. Now, will you do me the pleasure of removing this illusion from your face?" He reached out and placed a hand on her cheek.
"Gotcha!" Hitsugaya thought triumphantly. And, sure enough, the Aizen in front of Karin disappeared into thin air, his illusion completely lifted, and the real Aizen was revealed, standing in the corner, observing the scene with an expression that was as close to shock as Aizen's face ever got.
"Well now," he said, his smile returning rapidly. "Isn't think amusing?"
Flashback
"Neh, Toushiro?" Karin asked as she passed him a bottle. "Is there a way to get rid of illusions?"
"Yeah," Hitsugaya replied, raising Hoshi's head to feed him properly. "If you know you're under an illusion, and you have enough reiatsu, you can usually push an illusion off. But you have to know exactly what the illusion is, and a really skilled illusionist can keep an illusion going, even if they are illuding a person who has higher reiatsu than them." He shifted Hoshi up higher in his arms and tipped the bottle to a sharper angle.
"How?" Karin asked eagerly.
"You have to confuse whoever you are illuding. If they try to remove something that isn't an illusion, nothing will happen. So in order to keep them under their illusion, you have to convince them either that they're not under one, or that something real is an illusion. If they try to remove something that isn't an illusion at all, it dramatically increases the strength of your illusions and decreases the strength of theirs." He put the bottle down and lifted Hoshi upright to burp him.
"Oh, and there's one more thing," he added. "Physical contact magnifies all of this. If the illusionist can actually touch the illusion, it becomes a hundred fold easier to negate it. Unfortunately, I can't create illusions, so I can't help you practice it." Karin smirked.
"Don't underestimate me," she said confidently. "Now let's get back to training."
End of Flashback
"Well done," Hitsugaya complimented Karin, his eyes never leaving Aizen's face as he lifted his sword.
"Thanks," Karin replied smugly.
"So Soul Society has actually managed to procure a second talented illusionist," the real Aizen commented as he approached them.
"Not exactly," Karin smirked. "Since I'm not technically a shinigami." She shrugged off the illuded shihakusho to reveal the soccer shorts and white tank top she was so fond of sleeping in. "But who I am doesn't matter. You're done for, Aizen." She knelt down and placed her hands on the floor. The ground around Aizen's feet suddenly rose up, curling around his legs and trapping him in place.
"Now Toushiro!" Karin cried, but Hitsugaya was already attacking.
"Ryusenka!" he shouted, directing a wall of ice at the ensnared traitor.
"Did it hit?" Karin asked eagerly.
"Unfortunately," said a voice behind them. "If I know it's an illusion, it's not hard for me to negate it." Hitsugaya whipped around and blocked Aizen's sword from decapitating Karin at the last second. "You're going to have to do better than that." Karin smirked.
"Just watch me." Hitsugaya's sword, which was still pressed up against Aizen's, suddenly grew in size. Hitsugaya took advantage of the added weight to push Aizen away from them in a furious swing that he knew was not entirely his own strength. He raised his sword to attack again, but a sharp cry ripped through the room, forcing his attention elsewhere.
"Matsumoto!" Hitsugaya screamed, taking his eyes off Aizen for a fraction of a second to see the condition of his fukutaicho. Gin had his zanpakto shoved right through her stomach, her blood running down the shaft and over his hands.
"No!" Hitsugaya wailed, but Karin was already on it. An instant later, Gin's zanpakto had disappeared completely and the flow of blood that was pouring out of Matsumoto's wound had ceased. Matsumoto seemed utterly stunned for a moment until she realized what had occurred. She turned to Karin and beamed at her.
"Thanks Karin," she said gratefully. Karin nodded.
"Basic rules of battle, don't take your eyes off of your opponent!" Aizen instructed. Hitsugaya and Karin jerked their heads back, but Aizen was already descending on them. Before either of them could react to the attack, someone else did.
"Damn it Toushiro, if you're going to bring my sister into battle, the least you could do is pay attention to it!" Ichigo scolded. Sparks flew off of his bankai as it pressed against Aizen's sword. The defeated Tousen lay in a bloody, unconscious heap in the corner, the surprise loss of his bankai having been way too much for him to handle. Ichigo didn't look much better. He had a deep gash on his forehead and his shihakusho was in tatters, but, being Ichigo, he still seemed to have more energy than everyone else in the room combined.
Hitsugaya took advantage of Aizen's engagement with Ichigo. The floor was already littered with ice. As silently as he could, he allowed it to creep up Aizen's legs, capturing him the same manner that Karin had done before. Ichigo backed off, readying himself for another attack, and Aizen suddenly realized that he was stuck.
"The same trick won't work twice," he chuckled. He snapped his fingers, but the ice didn't move.
"Unfortunately," Hitsugaya said with a smirk, "that's not an illusion." Hitsugaya didn't have as much time as he would have liked to savor Aizen's genuine look of astonishment as his true entrapment. He leapt forward and rammed his sword though Aizen's stomach, in the same place where he had impaled Hinamori. And he wasn't the only one. Matsumoto had come up from behind and slashed her sword down deep into Aizen's shoulder, just as he had done to Hitsugaya. The effect of the combined attacks appeared to be too much for Aizen, who collapsed, his blood spreading everywhere, his feet still frozen to the ground, as his reiatsu rapidly declined.
"Well, at least I had fun," Aizen murmured before his reiatsu disappeared completely.
"Is he…dead?" Ichigo asked incredulously.
"Yeah," Hitsugaya replied in relief. "He's dead." The group reveled in their stunned glory for a moment, but a sharp cracking sound brought them back to reality.
"This place was programmed ta' collapse if Aizen-sama was e'er defeated," Gin told them, his smirk still not leaving his face. "Good luck gettin' outta' here alive." He shunpoed to Tousen's side, lifted him onto his shoulder, and was gone just as the room began to shake. More cracks appeared in the ceiling and the walls and bits of rubble rained down on them.
"Let's get out of here!" Ichigo said urgently.
"Wait," Hitsugaya stopped him. "We can't leave without Hoshi!"
I'm really not such a fan of this story, in case you can't tell, and I want to apologize to everyone, since I really don't think it's up to par with my other work. Maybe that's why I'm having so much trouble getting it out. Oh well. The next chapter should not take as long to write as this one did, so I apologize again for the wait, and I hope I haven't lost you yet :P
