Disclaimer: I really wish I could own Hitsugaya...
A.C.: Hmm my email doesn't seem to be working, haven't gotten a single mail sent from this account...
wow the midterms are here... -goes off to die-
Warnings: possible spoilers, oocness, breach of grammar security rule number something, something, something, mature themes, implied rape, noncon and general BL-ness that you can ignore by skipping the italicized parts in the beginning.
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"You want me to what?"
'Hit me.'
It was absolutely the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard of.
"You want me to hit you." Said Hitsugaya slowly, "With Hyourinmaru...?" the man nodded enthusiastically and Hitsugaya wondered if he hadn't been better off unconscious like he was supposed to be. Through some latent cognitive ability, he felt himself being moved and pain shot through places where there was nothing more than a stretch of clean skin. He looked from the man and at his still zanpakuto before looking back somewhat dubiously.
'Come on, hit me with that sucker!' Annoyed Hitsugaya flicked his wrists, sending a small wave of water towards the man. The man dissipated it with ease frowning. 'Come on TO-U-SHI-RO. hit me!' Rolling his eyes, Hitsugaya indulged his elder. He ran forward and brought his zanpakuto down, expecting at least an exclamation of pain.
The katana easily sliced through the layer of black kimono but no further. The stark sleeve fell apart to reveal a stretch of tanned skin but not a hint of bruising to show that he had taken a hit from Hyourinmaru.
A zanpakuto's sharpness depended entirely upon its wielder's status. Little to no reiatsu meant brittleness. Little to no bonding meant dullness. Hitsugaya touched Hyourinmaru and found him cold but lifeless.
"Sit upon the frozen sky," Hitsugaya swallowed, "Hyourinmaru!" the zanpakuto sliced through the air, creating a freezing ripple in the void of its passing. The arc ended hesitantly at its zenith, no proud dragon announced its materialization through a storm of ice and snow.
'Can't even call him can you?' the man asked softly pointing towards where Hyourinmaru would have been, should have been. 'You already possessed the ability to perform the initial release when you first got a hold of Hyourinmaru. And that, little-captain, is your problem.'
Hitsugaya bristled at the 'little' comment but decided to stay quiet and hear what the man had to say. 'The bond between you two is not a traditional one but was forced upon you on Hyourinmaru's insistence.'
The look on Hitsugaya's face turned cold. He had worked hard to be a captain and no one, not even the dark haired man in front of him could say otherwise.
"If you are implying that I..."
'Not at all but it means that you never had to work to make your zanpakuto manifest into a physical form.'
It was true. For as long as he could remember Hyourinmaru had been a constant companion in his mind, sending bubbles of nothing whenever the short captain was dealing with paperwork or unruly subordinates.
"What do I do then?"
The man smiled,
'That's why I'm here. You and me Hitsugaya, are going to relearn the basics of bankai.'
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'S'ok, Hyou-chan is just a wee grumpy,'
It was the first thing he heard when he woke up.
He nearly groaned out loud.
"Hyou-chan" Hitsugaya repeated scandalized. The dragon snorted, whipping his tail against the frozen ground in a warning. The man grinned madly knocking on the icy scales with his knuckles.
'Well yeah.' The boy genius got up, noticing that the place was much colder than he had left it. Hyourinmaru nodded in greetings, shaking his body irritably to ward off the older shinigami. The dark haired man's face grew serious. 'You shouldn't let her push you around like that.'
"I don't let her push me around."
'Aho... and I suppose you fell on the ground of your accord.'
"Maybe I did," Hitsugaya sat grumpily down on the ground. "What's it to you?" The man tapped his temple. Hitsugaya's eyes widened, "You didn't..."
'Four seconds are up, bye Shiro-chan.'
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Matsumoto Rangiku had heard her captain's screams long before the actual sound had reached her ears. She had been talking quietly with Renji about Aizen, Tousen, Kira, Gin, Hinamori, and themselves.
Not all of them had followed the three traitors out into Hueco Mundos but all of them had inevitably betrayed the Soul Society one way or another in their actions of the past few days.
The 46 council was decimated, substitutes nowhere to be found. The whole of seireitei of was in disarray with just the nobles reigning in the control. Captain Kuchiki –despite his injuries- had been running himself to the ground of late. Even those from minor families such as Captain Soifon, Captain Ukitake and even Captain Shunsui weren't fairing much well either.
Then they heard the screams.
They rushed into the room.
What greeted their eyes was a surprise for them both.
Hitsugaya slapped Hinamori with a resounding 'thwack', nearly turning the girl's head 180 degrees as he backed against a wall panting.
The Hitsugaya they knew would have never hurt the girl in any way, shape or form. But there he was, the proud ice prince of the 10th diversion, hand outstretched with the makings of a hand shaped bruise flaring across Hinamori's face.
"Shiro-chan...?"
Her brown eyes were overflowing in denial.
Hitsugaya simply looked horrified at what he had done.
"Hinamori I..."
"Stay away from me!!"
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::He is no threat::
"Why is he here?" Hitsugaya watched, through the corner of his eyes, the man sitting alone on top of Hyourinmaru's many coils. No, not quite alone, he still had that zanpakuto with him. He let out a shuddering breath; perhaps in the physical world someone was healing him again. Hyourinmaru's translucent forehead fogged before clearing.
::Do not be afraid::
"Try saying that when you have a ghost running around in your head." Snorted Hitsugaya ignoring the other death god's protest of 'For the love of god I'm not a ghost!' as he rubbed patterns into Hyourinmaru's frozen skin.
::He is here because there are people who want him to be, he has yet to say his goodbyes::
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The captains meeting came to an end.
Hitsugaya and a handful of shinigami would go to Karakura town to assist the shinigami there with the arrancar invasion. Matsumoto Rangiku had been a must of course and the sixth diversion had offered Abarai Renji, the eleventh had offered Madarame Ikkaku and Ayasegawa Yumichika respectively.
Hitsugaya stood up and walked towards the door when a sudden hand stopped him.
"Hitsugaya-taichou, may I speak with you for a moment?"
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With no captain to supervise her Matsumoto stared out the window listlessly, the paperwork a mere cushion for her feet as she lounged on the couch.
A week...? Maybe a little over that since Aizen, Tousen, and Gin left the Soul Society.
It felt surreal.
Perhaps Gin would drop by later in the day to harass her captain and coax her into ditching paperwork yet again.
And her captain...
"I should have been there... where are you going now Gin?"
She shook her head.
A knock to the door and she sat up immediately, piling the stacks of paper into her lap to make it seem as if she had been working all along. Of course the ploy had never worked on her captain –he never knocked either- but she knew that she had to at least set up an example for her division as the sexy-but-talented lieutenant.
It was Kira.
The blonde blushed and began to look everywhere but at Matsumoto herself.
'Not even at my boobs...' her thought strayed unhelpfully. She put on the brightest smile she could manage at that point.
"What can I help you with Kira-kun?"
The third division's lieutenant seemed startle to hear her talk. It seemed as though he had mentally been preparing for an outright rejection before coming.
"Matsumoto-san... can we talk?"
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The first division's captain had made sure all the others had left before speaking. The old man's face was unreadable, the cloud-like eyebrows obscuring the eyes.
"It has come to my attention that you may play a vital role in Aizen's plans."
Denial died on Hitsugaya's tongue as the door closed behind him. Most of the shinigami that surrounded him were those of the first division, powerful in their own right but no match for the child prodigy.
But it would have been foolish to start a fight there in the heart of the first division.
Hyourinmaru pulsed weakly in his sheath, murmuring warnings for the tenth captain's ears.
Yamamoto nodded approvingly at Hitsugaya's choice of action.
"A wise choice Hitsugaya-taichou."
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They had gone to a small bar nearby and had ordered all the drinks it had to offer. It was empty so no one minded how loud they were when they started bashing Ichimaru Gin. They were drunk and were on the verge of being plastered when a momentary sobriety possessed Kira. He pushed away the next cup of sake and looked broodingly out the window.
Rangiku –who despite her antics had developed an inhumane tolerance for alcohol- noticed this and quickly paid for the bill.
They stumbled out of the bar leaning on each other as they finally stopped near a bench beneath a generic willow tree. Kira seemed to have lost all his previous thoughts and giggled continuously while Matsumoto lovingly nibbled at the rim of her sake bottle.
"-Hic- Matsumoto-san?"
'Kira must have never had the time to go out often.' Matsumoto thought idly as the paler blonde slithered into her lap. He seemed to have realized what he was doing for immediately he got off, somehow managing to look redder than before.
After a few seconds had passed by, Kira continued his original question. "Is it -hic- true...? -Hic- Hitsugaya-taichou I mean... -hic-"
Matsumoto frowned, not at all liking where this was going.
"What about Hitsugaya-taichou?"
Her only reply was a garbled recipe for making hangover cures –she'd have to ask him later- and a name that sounded suspiciously like 'Abarai Renji'. Hadn't she gotten a message in form of one of first division's hell butterflies about that? How she and Renji would be one of the six shinigami dispatched to the human world.
The sake bottle drops from her hand.
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He should have fought, he thought sullenly as shinigami reinforced their kido bindings. When this was done, Yamamoto himself checked the restraints to see that Hitsugaya wasn't going to break out any time soon.
The door opened behind them and Hitsugaya's heart flared in hope that someone would deliver him out of this hell.
It was Kurotsuchi Mayuri followed by his daughter Nemu. His stomach dropped as he saw the familiar swagger of the masked man. The pale hand held something covetously to shield it from prying eyes. Smiling –or at least Hitsugaya thought he was smiling- the man proudly dangled the object in front of the teen's face.
Clutched firmly between Mayuri's fingers was what looked like a black marble, or an eye dipped in black dye. Mayuri chuckled nastily as he marked an 'x' over his stomach with a painted nail.
"Think of it as a failsafe Hitsugaya-kun. We wouldn't want you to turn to their side now do we...?"
Nemu moved next to Hitsugaya's head. The demure lieutenant apologized before sticking a needle into his neck. Both she and Lieutenant Sasakibe had to hold him down while the drug took its effects. The white-haired captain's body stiffening then calming as the sedative pumped through his system.
"This is a modified soul-hollow hybrid to counter traitor Aizen's orb of distortion." There was a certain note of pride as Mayuri explained. "Yamamoto-taichou has so generously granted me the permission to experiment with mod-souls and the end result was..." the black orb winked briefly at him. "It is a prototype of its kind but I'm sure... it will be more than enough when the time comes."
"I'm not a cruel man Hitsugaya-kun, just watching out for the good of seireitei." Yamamoto gave a signal for Mayuri to go forward. The two lieutenants moved back.
Mayuri dropped the object over Hitsugaya's stomach –it seemed to float there in the air- and gently nudged it downwards. "This will keep you bound to our cause I hope. Otherwise we will have to take drastic measures."
'The hell? This isn't drastic enough?'
::Silence, I need to...::
The cane in Yamamoto's hands assumed its sword like one briefly before turning back.
'Plan B oh-mighty one?'
::He's not listening...::
'Again'
Hitsugaya watched unperturbed as the black globe dropped down into his stomach. The air above his belly button rippled, replicating the effects of hot and cold air merging together into one. The sphere disappeared from view and his abdomen gave a small quiver as it forced to assimilate with the alien substance. He could already feel the strings of his reiatsu disappearing as the hybrid began to tug on his very soul.
"I will not have you fall into their hands. I cannot let you leave seireitei unscathed but I can give you a choice of death. Stay here with a chance that the final battle will be won soon or go to the human world and seek out those who might be able to help you."
"You..." Hitsugaya's voice was dry and hollow, seeming as if someone altogether was speaking through his mouth. "You would have an ex-captain take the blame for my death?" Yamamoto raised a bushy eyebrow, slightly surprised that the boy had replied at all. Kurotsuchi Mayuri backed away, almost giggling as blackness began to spread across the thick veins coiling the tenth captain's stomach.
"Not at all," Yamamoto smoothly replied. He opened his wrinkled and scarred hands. A black butterfly unfurled its wings, attentive and waiting for further instructions. "I just trust that you will make the right decision."
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Matsumoto had been pacing in the office ever since all of the remaining captains had returned from the meeting and hers had not returned. 5th seat Watanabe Noboru eyed her nervously as she bit at her lips, twisting the cold chain around her sternum as she waited for the familiar, chest-height shinigami.
He never made it back that night.
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A.C.: -smiles- as always, review x3