XIII. Winter Rains of Fire

"Howl, Zabimaru!"

The white-haired half-hollow looked up to the sixth division's lieutenant, Abarai Renji, and with a slight twisting of his body, he evaded the supposed damage that he should have taken. The lieutenant commanded his zanpakuto to extend once more, and shifted its direction slightly so that it should hit the target who was still in his former position, thinking that the time allotment would not be enough for him to dodge. His target just snickered, and blocked the beastly blade with one finger, and connected it with a quick shunpo towards Renji and landed a punch on his face, sending him rolling on the ground. He slowly stood, albeit shaky, and spit blood in his mouth. He gathered his resolve and stood firmly with Zabimaru in check.

"Hitsugaya-taichou! You must stop this at once!"

The half-masked hollow sneered, and looked at him cockily, tilting his head to one side as a display of his arrogant air. "Hitsugaya-taichou? You mean Toushiro? Sorry, but he's not here…"

The red-haired shinigami's eyes narrowed. "You… who the hell are you?"

"Who am I? You know what… the truth is… I DON'T KNOW!!!!"

He gathered reiatsu on his palm, slowly building up a very powerful cero blast. He directed it towards the solid-hearted man who dared stand against him, and let it make its way toward him. Having been partially able to gauge its power, and knowing that he didn't stand a chance in hell against it, he got out of its way using shunpo. He quickly reappeared to what he thought was a safe spot, but was surprised to find his enemy's palm right in front of his face with a nearly-completed cero charging on it. He couldn't move a muscle. He knew that there wasn't enough time to move out of its way if he fired it.

He was going to die. God, he was going to die.

"Destructive Art #4: White Lightning!"

Hitsugaya's hollow looked to his left, and quickly dissipated the cero he was forming to swat away the concentrated lightning-like energy coming towards him. Renji took this opening and quickly moved away. The half-hollow made a quick glance at his supposed prey, and scoffed. He focused his attention on the newly-arrived figure that stood just a few meters before him, holding a zanpakuto in his right hand. He noted that his enemy wore a kenseikan, and had a white scarf. He looked at the powerful masked creature apathetically, with a sharp piercing air in the manner he stood.

"Tenth division captain Hitsugaya Toushiro, you have been found guilty of developing hollow powers illegally and of assaulting your fellow shinigami. By the law of Seiretei, you are hereby labeled as a fugitive and are allowed to be taken back dead or alive. Your evident assault of Soul Society is viewed to be a treacherous act of your newly-pledged allegiance to the arrancar. You, who disturbed Soul Society, must be cut down."

He started raising his reiatsu, but offered no sense of terror to the amused enemy. He quickly glanced at the powerful arrancar watching them, who made no other move to even help the newest traitor to Soul Society. He shunpoed towards the child, and slashed him across his chest, only to find his attack to be blocked by a bare arm. The other hand tried to land a punch on Byakuya's face, and with a quick tilting of his head, avoided it. He moved back and started raising his reiatsu to be able to cut through the child's tough steel skin. He charged toward his enemy again, who tried to anticipate his attack with a punch, but he quickly sidestepped out of its way and made a clean gash on his shoulder. He followed the attack with a quick burst of red energy in the form of a ball hurled at Hitsugaya, who was apparently startled, and took the powerful rendition of the spell fully. Byakuya moved back, and waited for the smoke to clear to make his next move. Hitsugaya came out of the clearing, with Hyourinmaru out of its sheath. He charged towards Byakuya while a white ceramic material reminiscent of the hollow's mask formed on the gash made by Senbonzakura. He hacked the former, who blocked the attack with his zanpakuto. He continued attacking Byakuya, and the captain constantly blocked the powerful one-handed attacks, eventually being forced back slowly. He made a move back, and raised his reiatsu once more. He dropped his zanpakuto to the ground, which dissolved into sakura petals upon contact.

"Scatter, Senbonzakura Kageyoshi."

A large wave of petals came toward Hitsugaya, who merely stood in his place, and raised Hyourinmaru. A large blue dragon came out of the blade and seemed to swallow the thousands of tiny blades of Senbonzakura, freezing them all on the spot. Byakuya started commanding the petals with the use of his hands, and soon the blades were able to break free of the ice prison made by Hyourinmaru. Once more he directed the wave to attack the boy, but each and every little bit of it was blocked by a barrier of fire that surrounded the lad. After the unsuccessful attack, the wave died down temporarily, and as such, Hitsugaya quickly reappeared in front of Byakuya and stabbed him in the chest with Hyourinmaru, and pulled it off through the shoulder, nearly ripping the captain apart. The royal-blooded fighter finally fell, crimson liquid still showering from the huge wound and bathing his surroundings in a deep red, while Hitsugaya laughed insanely.

"You call yourself a captain and that's all you have? Ha! You didn't even challenge my full skill! Even with shikai I was able to beat the hell out of your ban kai! The hell was that?! You lousy pathetic excuse for a shinigami!"

He kicked the downed Byakuya in his face, and then kicked him at his side repeatedly while laughing like a lunatic. The victim coughed up blood in a consecutive fit, one for each time he is kicked by the powerful young lad. He eventually sat on the former's chest, and started punching him repeatedly on the face.

Ulquiorra did nothing but watch them from a safe distance. Despite the fact that Hitsugaya was now battling against three shinigami officers, he did no action as to help the now-uncontrollable vaizard. He merely watched the whole event under Aizen's command.

The melancholic-looking arrancar stepped inside Aizen's throne room. The man he sought was sitting on his usual place, the Hougyoku in his hand. He stopped just before the arrancar leader and bowed.

"You called for me, Aizen-sama?"

"I am going to send Hitsugaya to Soul Society for a little assessment of his powers. I want you to go with him."

"For what, Aizen-sama?"

"You will do nothing more but watch him while he engages in combat with other shinigami. Alert Seiretei of your presence by showing a little of your reiatsu, just enough to attract high-ranking officials to come towards you. After that, let the boy fight them by himself, but make sure that he doesn't get killed. I still have a lot of plans for him. He has a lot of hidden power, Ulquiorra. Make sure that he lives."

"Hai, Aizen-sama."

He watched every detail of Hitsugaya's exhibition closely. He tried to gauge the power of the boy closely. Though he did not show it, he was really surprised.

That boy… with his reiatsu, his steel skin is even tougher than any member of the Espada. With his current rate of progress, he could even match Aizen-sama's reiatsu given enough room to grow. Furthermore, his conscious self is easily subjugated by his hollow side, so there would be no conflict in power to act as a hindrance to his accessing of his power reserves. He… will become very powerful…

"Ban kai!"

The small whip-like zanpakuto transformed into a large segmented snake-like creature. Renji grew a small fur cowl around his neck, and held the massive creature-like evolution of his zanpakuto.

"Hihio Zabimaru!"

Hitsugaya moved away from the beaten-up captain. He was anticipating the attack from the oversized animal-like zanpakuto. After Renji raised his reiatsu a little more, he got the large snaketail moving, coming after Hitsugaya. He gathered reiatsu into a more compressed form of a cero, and pointed it towards the ban kai coming towards him. The space around Hitsugaya started being distorted, the images around him started to become blurred with the amount of spiritual pressure crumpling the dimension. Ulquiorra's eyes widened, for the first time in ages, eyeing the cero in Hitsugaya's control.

Gran rey cero?! Aizen-sama, is this why this boy is so special to you?

He fired the compressed and very powerful cero at the ban kai, and after the smoke cleared, a cleanly-split snaketail was revealed, as if it was cleaved by a large sword into two. The ban kai disappeared, leaving Renji with a shattered normal zanpakuto. The half-hollow reappeared in front of him, and plunged Hyourinmaru in his stomach. Renji coughed blood, and the predator twisted Hyourinmaru and pulled the blade through his side. In the blink of an eye, he ended his bout with the sixth division's lieutenant. He turned around when he felt the presence of other shinigami's reiatsu. He saw the powerful captains of the seventh, eighth and eleventh divisions.

"I didn't know the little brat could've put up a fight like this," the battle-lusting captain of the eleventh division retorted. "You two get outta my way, 'cause I don't want to be disturbed with my fight."

Komamura's eyes narrowed. "This may be a little harder, Zaraki. Don't take this like one of your games."

The lord of war grinned maniacally. "It's gonna be so DAMN FUN!"

He drew his abused-looking zanpakuto and started releasing his reiatsu. The two other captains also started raising theirs, which left them in quite a fit of a skirmish. The boy did not bother charging towards them. He just stood there watching them as Zaraki kept on ranting about fighting the enemy alone. He did that until a ball of red energy came at him, and he swatted it away with one hand. He turned his gaze at the woman who fired it off, with her other arm limping at her side. The captains also eyed her, when suddenly he shunpoed towards Matsumoto, and plunged his hand into her stomach and pulled it out as well. She coughed blood and fell with her back flat on the ground. He started choking the life out of her, and she tried to break free and rambled her hand about, as if grasping for air. Kyoraku shunpoed towards him and slashed in his direction just to free the victim. The boy moved back, evading the blade, and started raising his reiatsu to even more frightening levels. The captains' eyes widened, as they felt the spiritual pressure growing larger and larger every moment while he laughed insanely. He did just as that when one of his hands suddenly grabbed the half-face mask on him.

You bastard… disappear!

He started swaying like a drunk and waving his other hand around.

"Damn you!!! Can't you see I'm doing the job for you?!! It's gonna be finished! Stop that! Bastard... Stop!!!!"

A series of screams followed until he broke of the mask, and the black and golden color scheme of his eyes reverted to the original white and blue-green. He was still breathing heavily, as if he did a very strenuous activity. When he tried to stand firmly, he felt his body drain of energy, his knees shaking and unable to support him any longer, and finally he fell to the ground and the whole world seemed to be drowned in darkness.

The captains were left speechless. Kyoraku slowly digested the situation and walked slowly towards the boy. He was just a few steps away from the boy when a figure cut in between them.

"That is as far as you go. I cannot allow you to take this boy with you, as Aizen-sama wants him back."

"Sosuke-kun? What does he want now? First he got the Hougyoku, and now he wants Toushiro?" he drew his two zanpakuto, ready for a bout. The fourth Espada picked Hitsugaya by the collar, and soon a negacion field was brought down on them, and they slowly rose to a rip of dimensions in the heavens, with several menos grande there looking down on them from the opening.

"There is nothing more that is needed here. Our job here is done, and we shall take our leave. You know better than to attempt to retrieve him, shinigami. Mark my words, and if you can, never seek him again…" with those words they drifted into the hole in the sky and disappeared back to Hueco Mundo.

Grimmjow took Hinamori up by her collar. She slowly rose as he pulled her up at an awful pace.

"Don't be so shaky, woman. I'm not gonna harm you…" he said in a soft tone. His body inched closer and closer towards Hinamori with every moment. She tried to move back, but found her back against a wall. He started to lean in towards her, and she tried to push him back, but he kept on coming at her.

"Grimmjow-san, please… don't…"

He brought his lips close to her ear, and whispered softly, his warm breath creeping up to Hinamori's nerves.

"I'm gonna be gentle with you… don't worry too much… I promise it ain't gonna hurt badly… besides, at least you'd get a real man than that bratty kid. You wouldn't want a little bastard like him, would you?"

She felt her blood boil slowly, and by her gut instinct, a loud whack was heard from Grimmjow's unmasked cheek, still with marks of the hand that came upon it. He gritted his teeth slightly, and touched the red mark on his cheek, and felt a vein pop out slightly from his head. He clenched his fist and, after a few seconds, landed a punch on her face, causing her to be thrown against the wall. She felt the sheer amount of strength he applied on that hit, and she panged in pain. He pinned her against the wall and looked at her in the eye. His warmth slowly made its way to her, as they were very near to exchanging breaths.

"Your little brat of a boyfriend ain't here to pull you outta this one, sweetie…" his hands made their way to her hips. She tried to push him back, but found that she did not have enough strength to do so. She tried to hit him again, but this time he caught her hand, and landed a very strong slap on her face, which made her fall on her knees, and her strength drifted from her. Tears formed on her eyes as he pulled her up by her hair, and forced her to tilt her neck sideways, revealing her neckline undefended, and felt his warm breath close to it. The tears that had just been forming a while now started to run down her cheeks, and she was only able to mutter one thing in a very soft tone, as one hand seemed to try and reach out.

"…Sh-Shiro-chan…"