Winter's Sons
Summary: When a body turns up at the Eastern Wall, run through with a zanpakuto and a sword of ice, all evidence points to Hitsugaya Toshiro. But this is only the first in a string of killings. With Central Forty-Six having issued an order for his execution, Hitsugaya must work against time to clear his name and find a killer strong enough to take on a captain. The past is never dead…
VII: WATCH IT BURN
Hitsugaya wandered around the outskirts of Junrinan for a bit, letting the cool wind ease the last remnants of the dream from his mind. At the same time, he thought, trying to decide what Kusaka's next move would be.
Kusaka had been planning something. He'd read that sense of cool deliberation from the sword of ice. More than a game? Hitsugaya wondered. Why a game? Kusaka had said as much; he hadn't wanted a final fight to the death. He'd wanted more than that.
Trying to piece together Kusaka's motives was difficult. Hitsugaya wondered…Kusaka hadn't been that subtle a strategist the last time they'd crossed blades, and he'd no doubt they'd be forced to do the same again this time. He wore a black shihakusho this time, he realised. Not the blues and whites of the Academy. Hitsugaya wondered if that changed anything. If Kusaka had simply stolen it. And what of Hyorinmaru?
The sword had shattered when they'd fought. Had it been reforged when Kusaka had come back? How had Kusaka come back?
He drew a deep breath. He had too many questions, and too few answers. He took out the stolen scarf, and carefully wrapped it about his head so it concealed his hair. That would make moving around the Seireitei a little simpler, though he still expected to be challenged.
They had been messages, Kusaka had said. Were the first two swords of ice meant to give him hints as to what Kusaka's plan had been? Hitsugaya thought about breaking into Kurotsuchi Mayuri's private laboratory, and then dismissed the thought. It would attract too much attention, and if he tried to sneak in, it was almost certain that he would be caught. Kurotsuchi was by far too paranoid to leave his private sanctum without all sorts of nasty traps and tricks, and for Hitsugaya, it was not yet worth the risk.
That left his original plan. To intercept Kusaka as he moved against his next target.
There were so many people the next person could be. Kyoraku. Matsumoto. Imai. Any of his instructors at the Academy. Kusaka might go after the new Central Forty-Six, but after what had happened with Aizen, Hitsugaya doubted that Kusaka would find them an easy target. So perhaps not the Central Forty-Six. What about fellow students at the Academy?
Hinamori. Etsuko. Takei.
No. Kusaka wasn't just killing anyone connected to him. It couldn't be. He'd had plenty of time to kill Granny, but hadn't done so. Instead, he'd waited. To draw Hitsugaya to him. To play the game. He'd known Hitsugaya would not have risked open combat in a small house that hampered movement. Not when dodging a spell might easily kill Granny.
He'd heard the hate in Kusaka's voice when Kusaka spoke of Soul Society.
And then Hitsugaya knew, with certainty, though he couldn't say how that it was Kusaka's goal. To destroy Soul Society, and to take every measure of the vengeance he could.
And as a Captain of Soul Society, there was only one place that put him.
At the other side of Kusaka's blade, damn him.
Which was exactly what Kusaka wanted.
When Matsumoto got back to the Tenth Division, Sone had already been looking for her. "Lieutenant Matsumoto!" he exclaimed. "There's been trouble."
"What is it?"
"Tani's discovered that someone's broken into supplies." Tani Jurou was the tenth seat of the Division, and the quartermaster. "Possibly two days ago, he didn't realise as he was in the middle of stocktaking. But there's no mistake about it. Supplies are missing."
"Which?" Matsumoto asked.
"A box of Hollow bait. It can't have been misplaced."
Coin-sized and therefore highly portable, Hollow bait was crushed to draw Hollows to a site. Often used for training exercises, Hollow bait was a highly dangerous thing to misplace, and Tani knew better than that. It had been stolen. Requests for Hollow bait required a good deal of paperwork. Sometimes, it was thought to be far easier to simply request for patrol duty, or to hunt down a rogue Hollow that the Twelfth Division had detected.
A box of Hollow bait, gone missing…
Matsumoto's blood ran cold.
The orange strands of a kido net wove through the points. Each node marked a spot where a piece of Hollow bait laid. Kusaka drew Hyorinmaru, and gathered his reiatsu.
The blade burned with dark midnight-violet fire as his will gathered. Then he thrust the blade point-down into the piece of Hollow bait directly underfoot.
The Hollow bait broke, flaked apart into tiny spirit particles, each of which were irresistable to a Hollow. The bruise-hued reiatsu spread out from the point of contact, snaking along the kido net almost instantaneously. At every single node, Kusaka knew, the crushing force of his reiatsu would break the Hollow bait placed there.
"Let the games begin," he said aloud, to the howling wind.
She heard the howl of the dragon on the wind. The sky overhead darkened, and Matsumoto felt something cold land on her cheek.
"Hail," Sone whispered. Small pieces of ice kept falling from the sky. They exchanged glances. Matsumoto hadn't told him about Kusaka, but they all knew Hyorinmaru was at work. "Lieutenant Matsumoto, what shall we do?"
"Gather the squads," Matsumoto ordered. "Sone, you're in charge here. Gather as many as you can and leave guards for the King's Seal. I'll take the squads and head out to Rukongai."
Sone cursed. "The Hollow bait."
"Yes."
She was out of the door, even before the alarms had begun to sound.
Hitsugaya had been heading towards the West Wall when he saw the sky darken, felt a whisper of Hyorinmaru's reiatsu on the wind. He raised his head, felt tiny pieces of ice brush his cheek. It had begun to hail.
Kusaka, what are you up to?
And then he heard it: the hunting cries of a thousand hungry Hollows.
At a run, Hitsugaya headed straight back for Rukongai, Junrinan, and prayed he would be in time.
A hell butterfly fluttered over to the Eighth Division. Ise Nanao held out her fingers, and waited for the hell butterfly to find its perch.
"All Divisions of the Gotei Thirteen, this is an emergency. The detection system has noted an incursion of Hollows in Rukongai. All Divisions are requested to turn out as many squads as possible to the first few districts of Rukongai. This is an emergency."
She adjusted her spectacles, and turned to her Captain. Kyoraku was still lying back on the verendah, his straw hat shading his eyes. "Captain. We have to leave."
Kyoraku sucked on piece of straw. "Yare, yare," he sighed. "I guess it can't be helped. Nanao-chan, you take the squads into Rukongai."
"But what about you?" Nanao asked. "The order came for as many shinigami in Rukongai as possible!"
Kyoraku sat up, adjusting his hat. "Ah, Nanao-chan…the Division will do just fine without me. There are some things I need to see to."
"What?" Nanao asked, frustrated. "Captain, you can't abandon the Division like this!"
Kyoraku stood up, and picked up the daisho pair that served as his zanpakuto. He took his time about it, sliding the longer sword into his obi first, and then the shorter one. He took his time about his reply too. "Go collect our squads, Nanao-chan. No sense in making Yama-ji angry right now."
She could see she wasn't going to get more out of him in this mood. With a sigh of frustration, and determined that next time, she would drag him by the scruff of his neck if she had to, Ise Nanao went off to call up the seated officers of her Division.
Rips in the fabric of Soul Society appeared all over Rukongai. Through these portals, Hollows, giving their signature ululating cry emerged to attack the inhabitants, drawn by the crushed Hollow bait that Kusaka had strewn all over.
Hitsugaya was the first shinigami to respond to the incident. He sensed the first Hollow approaching him from above, and drew Hyorinmaru in a swift motion, striking upwards in a ground-to-sky sweep. The momentum of his run went into the sweep; he cleaved the Hollow in two in a smooth motion, and then charged on.
A Hollow shaped like a mantis bisected a man in half with a sweep of its claws, and then bent down to feed. Hitsugaya snapped, "Soten ni zase, Hyorinmaru!" The dragon of ice roared, released, and dove forward with the swing of Hitsugaya's zanpakuto. It smashed into the Hollow, pinned it, and killed it in the same move. The Hollow flaked apart a few moments later, crumbling away as pieces of ice.
He released all restraint on his reiatsu then; flared it, as the sky rumbled with the promise of rain to come. "Come on!" Hitsugaya screamed, as at least a hundred pairs of Hollow eyes fixed on him. He allowed himself to burn with reiatsu, to burn so brightly that he formed a far more tempting target than any of the souls that inhabited Junrinan. Was it just Junrinan that was under attack? He had no way of knowing; the number of Hollows flooding into Rukongai threatened to swamp his senses.
He darted among them, flash-stepping away from one attack to parry the next with Hyorinmaru, and then kicking off a white-bone mask to descend upon yet another Hollow from above, cleaving it into half with a sky-to-ground slash.
But shinigami could be overwhelmed by sheer force of numbers, and Hitsugaya took a glancing slash to his arm as he dodged an attack he barely saw out of the corner of his eye. The screaming and the cries of the Hollows never seemed to end.
He put his hand to Hyorinmaru's hilt and marshalled his strength, gathering even more reiatsu about him. "Guncho Tsurara!" he cried out.
The first thing Matsumoto heard was the screaming.
Junrinan was a series of ruined buildings; in places, it was in flames. She heard the screams of the wounded, the dying, and the triumphant cries of Hollows. "Hitomi," she called, and the other seated officer was already by her side.
"Lieutenant?"
"Have the squads fan out," Matsumoto said. "They could have gone beyond Junrinan. I want the squads to perform a sweep across Junrinan first, and then move onwards. If there's a Hollow that's too powerful to engage, the officer in charge has responsibility."
"Yes, Lieutenant." Hitomi calmly turned and began barking out orders to the other seated officers.
"I need a wedge," Matsumoto told her squad, and they obeyed, spreading out behind her. The point of the wedge had to be able to penetrate the mass of Hollows, and that meant point often went to the most capable and most experienced officer.
In that case, the duty fell to herself.
Drawing Haineko, Matsumoto charged into the fray.
Hitsugaya fought on.
He didn't dare to call on his bankai now, not in such close proximity to the inhabitants of Rukongai. He swept Hyorinmaru in an arc, flinging icicle daggers at some of the Hollows, but all he did was to create space for himself. Even as he killed them, more came. He wasn't killing them fast enough.
It was the most unforgiving game of mental chess he'd ever played, sending dragons of ice to harry the Hollows and relying extensively on Hyorinmaru's techniques in order to help him even the odds.
A single misstep wouldn't just mean death for him, but for the people of Junrinan.
For Granny.
He faltered, trying to get a sense of where she was. Pinned down by the mass of Hollows he was fighting off, Hitsugaya knew he couldn't get to her. Frustration built as he sliced through two Hollows in one stroke and fired an ice dragon point-blank at the next Hollow's mask.
The longer he delayed, the more likely it was that he would be faced with the other shinigami. He'd have to fight his way out, then.
He had to end this. Fast.
"Unare, Haineko!" Matsumoto called out, releasing her zanpakuto. Ash whipped across the three Hollows in her path, cutting them apart in an instant before her blade reassembled. She dodged a Hollow's force-attacks, and struck out with the blade of Haineko, bisecting the Hollow neatly in half.
Behind her, the members of her squad kept the Hollows from flanking her, and lent support by directing zanpakuto attacks and kido spells at the Hollows they were cutting a path through. Matsumoto could sense his reiatsu, even now. Somewhere in the heart of this crowd, her Captain was fighting.
A whole box of Hollow bait, she thought. And then she heard a familiar voice crying out, "Hyorinmaru!"
A dragon of ice smashed into the Hollows directly in front of her, turning them to ice. Matsumoto dashed on ahead, past the crumbling ice, towards where her Captain had chosen to make his stand.
"Matsumoto!" Hitsugaya had never been so relieved to sense his Lieutenant's reiatsu as he had been, now. The last time, he thought, had been when she'd stepped between Hinamori and Ichimaru's zanpakuto. "What took you so long?"
Haineko snarled, and scythed across the necks of four Hollows. He ducked away and thrust Hyorinmaru straight into the mask of a Hollow attempting to swoop down on them.
"I'm sorry, Taicho! A girl always wants to look her best when fighting Hollows!"
"Shakkaho!" one of their squad members blasted another Hollow apart, as they cleaved their way into the ice-slicked ground their Captain had been defending for a good amount of time now.
"Matsumoto, I need to see to someone. Can you hold?" He felt like he was abandoning them, yet between the need to make sure Granny was safe, and the need to fight alongside his Division, there was no contest.
"Yes." She added, "We turned out as many squads as we could, and the other Divisions are coming."
"Understood," Hitsugaya said. He didn't sheath Hyorinmaru, but dove forward. Ice smote the two Hollows in his path, and he charged, making a spear of his blade. His momentum carried him in a continuing slash past one Hollow, and then he was free and flash-stepping away to where he needed to go.
Home. He'd been foolish to think leaving would spare Granny further danger. He'd already led the danger to her doorstep once before, and now he simply hoped that he would be spared the consequences of his folly.
He tore down the old path to his home, dodging Hollows rather than engaging them. There was no time to stop and fight, and in any case, he saw members of the Tenth Division fighting off Hollows when he looked.
He had no idea how they'd come to be the first to respond to the Hollow incursion, nor had he any idea what had happened to the rest of the Seireitei. Mobilisation customarily took a good deal of time, as much as Divisions tried to respond as fast as they could.
The door had been broken down, and the surrounding doorframe splintered. His heart in his mouth, Hitsugaya stepped past the gaping hole and into the home—and saw Hinamori standing there, Tobiume released and in her hand.
She whirled about in an instant, crying, "Tobiume!" and Hitsugaya threw himself down as the twin balls of pink fire slammed into the two Hollows that were looming up behind him, disintegrating them with a single blow.
"Don't you look behind you anymore, Shiro-chan?" Hinamori asked.
"Baka," he grumbled. "I was worried—where's Granny?"
Hinamori pointed at the trapdoor set into the wooden flooring. Like the postern gate, the concealing kido made it such that he couldn't quite see it, even though he knew it was there. Many houses in the wealthier districts of Rukongai had a saferoom, a small, hollowed out chamber where an occupant could hide, or flee a Hollow attack. They had built it together, he and Hinamori. In the end, it had been one of the things they still shared.
Hinamori had always been his better at kido. She'd fashioned the kido that concealed the trapdoor.
"What are you doing here?" he wanted to know.
Hinamori just looked at him. "The hell butterflies sent word," she said, raising Tobiume so the blade pointed at him. "There was an attack on Rukongai."
Hyorinmaru's point twitched; he knew he could bat aside Tobiume in a single moment, allowing her to catch Hyorinmaru on the jutting prongs of her zanpakuto, so he could get a clear path to swing Hyorinmaru's chain at her.
If they fought.
Instead, Hitsugaya said, "It was not me."
"Did you kill them?"
"No."
Tobiume's point did not waver. Softly, she said, "How do I know I can trust you, Shiro-chan?"
"Have I given you reason not to before?"
"No," she said. "Not yet."
That stung. Hitsugaya stepped back, and sheathed Hyorinmaru. Outside, Hollows cried out, but he sensed more and more shinigami beginning to arrive. It was safe to leave, if there was a time for him to do so.
"Shiro-chan. Why did you run?"
"Because it was what he wanted," he said. "There's only one way this will end." And deliberately, he turned his back to her. Trusted that she would not cut him down, or bind him with a kido spell. "Protect Granny."
He did not hear her reply. He left.
Kyoraku watched the Seireitei empty itself out; shinigami racing to control the situation in Rukongai. He didn't know how that many Hollows had gotten themselves into Rukongai, but he had an inkling…
He started walking again. In the chaos, he went easily ignored. In any case, no one would have stopped to question a Captain, and not a Captain with as much seniority as Kyoraku Shunsui.
The way to the Central Forty-Six compound was almost empty of all shinigami, and hail was starting to descend by the time he arrived at the barred iron doors. The Archives were off limits even to many junior-ranked Captains, but he suspected a senior Captain would have no trouble. In any case, the guards on the Archives were often supplemented by men from the Eighth Division. He'd yet to see one of them tell their Captain off, even if he wasn't strictly allowed into some sections of the Archives.
"Captain Kyoraku," the guard said. He recognised this man—Hisao? Or was it Aki?
It didn't matter. "I've come to take a look at something in the Archives," Kyoraku said, with his most harmless smile firmly on his face.
"Ah, Captain…" Hisao mumbled, before his fellow guard elbowed him.
"Of course, Captain. Take your time."
And the iron-barred doors of the Archives swung open before him.
In the middle of the chaos, Hitsugaya slipped back into the Seireitei without being noticed. He had sensed Hyorinmaru's reiatsu, raging unchecked in the moments before the Hollows attacked, and knew that Kusaka had something to do with it. He shed the scarf; there was little it could do to help him, within the bounds of the Seireitei.
While the skies were still dark and clouded over, no more ice fell. He'd sealed his zanpakuto some time ago, and no doubt Kusaka had, as well.
He didn't know what Kusaka was planning, but he had a certainty it had to do with Soul Society. The Hollows had distracted the shinigami, sending them out in force to deal with the Hollow incursion and to protect the souls who lived in Rukongai. So it seemed certain that there was something Kusaka had wanted to accomplish in the Seireitei.
He got no sense of what Kusaka was doing, but didn't expect to. Kusaka hid his reiatsu well. Instead, Hitsugaya made his way to the Eighth Division, walking across the Division compounds and dodging the odd shinigami making his way to a squad rendezvous point.
He didn't know if he expected to find Kyoraku there, but if he wasn't as much of a clear maverick as Zaraki Kenpachi, still Kyoraku did things to his own sense of time, and there was a possibility his former Captain might still be in his own Division.
It was a small possibility, and as Hitsugaya entered the empty compound of the Eighth Division, he was forced to revise his earlier plan. Well, perhaps not. Accidents happened, even in the thick of combat, but there would be too many shinigami for Kusaka to hope to lay the blame on Hitsugaya for this one.
Except he'd already mentioned he wasn't looking to blame Hitsugaya, but to send a message.
Had this attack on Rukongai also been meant to send a message?
And then Hitsugaya sensed Hyorinmaru's reiatsu rise again, and, not for the first time in the same day, he ran.
Kyoraku sensed the presence moving up behind him as he closed the last book, the sound echoing in the empty space. "Well, well," he muttered, cheerfully. "What brings you here?"
"Kyoraku Shunsui," the person said. "Captain of the Eighth Division. Hides beneath a mask of frivolity."
"My, someone's done a fair bit of looking," Kyoraku said. "I'm rather flattered, actually."
"Perceptive enough to search in the Archives," the other man said. Scarlet eyes watched Kyoraku, appraising. The hilt of a zanpakuto was thrust into his obi. Kyoraku thought about how fast he could strike. The wakizashi would be more useful in close quarters. The longer blade of a standard katana-type zanpakuto invariably needed a little more room to be swung. He wore a tattered dun cloak. That could be used as a weapon, to trap a blade, to confuse perception of distance.
"It's kind of rude to know all this about a person but not tell him who you are, don't you think?"
A smile touched the other's pale lips. "Perhaps," he said, evenly. "But who I am is irrelevant. I'm far more interested in what you are here to do, Captain Kyoraku."
Close-quarters, Kyoraku thought. He was an expert at observing without appearing to do so, and so he assessed the other man's stance, and how fast he could draw his wakizashi before getting struck. He gauged the distance between them carefully. "Nevertheless, I know your name. Kusaka Sojiro, isn't it?"
Kusaka smiled. "Clearly, not all of Soul Society's purge was complete."
"Ah, you know, these purges are too much work," Kyoraku said, offhandedly. "Occasionally, one name or two slips through."
Kusaka's eyes narrowed, and he reached into his dark robes. Wha—
Kyoraku's eyes watered, and he started coughing and sneezing as the pungent, dusty black smoke filled the library. A Second Division smoke bomb, he realised, and he barely drew his wakizashi in time to reverse-parry as Kusaka dove forward, reiatsu blazing with killing intent.
"My, my," Kyoraku managed, between hacking coughs. He parried the next two blows, dodged a shelf, and drew the katana with his off-hand. "One might think…that you have lost all respect…for an old man, Kusaka-san!"
Kusaka dealt a two-handed blow, which Kyoraku crossed his zanpakuto blades to parry, and then riposted with his wakizashi. Kusaka blocked that, twisted the wakizashi aside, and stabbed for Kyoraku's abdomen.
He flash-stepped to the side, and delivered a series of twin strikes with both his zanpakuto. The smoke was beginning to clear, and Kyoraku was regaining the offensive when he heard the words:
"Soten ni zase, Hyorinmaru!"
The hallway was slick with ice, and Hitsugaya walked carefully. Occasionally, his straw sandals slipped. While he'd never had a trouble with his own ice before, this brought home the knowledge that it was not ice he'd created with Hyorinmaru.
This was Kusaka's, entirely.
He knocked out the sentries with swift bakudo spells, and was moving quickly in the direction where the icy reiatsu had streamed from. Icy, familiar, and yet different at the same time. He sent a wordless query to Hyorinmaru; when his vision was overlaid with the glints of alien colour that the dragon saw, he noticed all the ice took on bruised purplish tints, gleaming with sinister light in the corridor.
Corrupted, Hyorinmaru breathed. It had been Hitsugaya's first impression as well, though he didn't know how he'd come to it. "Why?" he asked aloud, but the great dragon fell silent. In any case, he could not afford to delay over questions.
Drawing Hyorinmaru, Hitsugaya entered the Archives. There, he found Kyoraku, zanpakuto drawn, defending against Kusaka. Kusaka, he noticed, had always been a fearlessly aggressive fighter and it showed even now. Kyoraku, on the other hand, had always been content to play a defensive fight—but he was being overwhelmed, and Hitsugaya didn't even understand how it was possible.
"Ah, Hitsugaya-kun!" Kyoraku called out in acknowledgement. Kusaka barely turned, but Hitsugaya knew from the tension in his shoulders that his former friend knew he was there.
"Give up, Kusaka," Hitsugaya said, as he moved closer to the two combatants. "You've lost."
One of Kyoraku's blades; the longer, defensive tachi swept out, even as Kusaka dodged the flurry of blows that the Captain aimed with the wakizashi. Kyoraku would normally flash-step past an opponent, but Hitsugaya noticed that Kusaka was masterfully controlling Kyoraku's off-hand; Hyorinmaru's hilt-chain wrapped tightly around Kyoraku's off-hand, temporarily yanking the other man off balance, and creating a gap in which Kusaka could strike.
Ice slicked the ground, testament to the fact that Kusaka had been employing Hyorinmaru extensively in the duel. Hitsugaya darted in, attempting to bind Kusaka's blade with his own. The two Hyorinmarus tangled and clashed; Kyoraku took advantage of Hitsugaya's attack to slash Kusaka across the chest with his tachi. But Kusaka was already twisting away, and Kyoraku's tachi dealt him only a glancing blow.
Hitsugaya followed up with a low diagonal cut aimed at Kusaka's legs, and Kusaka evaded that. He was always the better fighter, Hitsugaya thought once more, as Kusaka whirled away from his blows to strike at Kyoraku.
He was surprised at how well Kusaka employed Hyorinmaru's chain, for all he'd never gotten much practice with that aspect of Hyorinmaru's first release. But Kusaka had clearly gotten better—how?—anticipating Kyoraku and Hitsugaya, playing their attacks against each other so they hampered each other, and using Hyorinmaru's chain to even the odds. It was a finesse that Hitsugaya had never expected from Kusaka, and its presence only caused him to narrow his eyes.
He felt strangely…empty.
Was he supposed to feel sorrow? Unexpected happiness at seeing Kusaka alive?
He wasn't sure. He'd spent too much time chasing Kusaka to think, too much time trying to decide about the what rather than the how.
He staggered backwards as the pommel of Hyorinmaru met his solar plexus with astounding force, and then Kusaka shouldered him into a bookcase. Hitsugaya heard wood splinter, felt broken wood jab at him as he hit the bookcase with a large crack! and the bookcase gave behind him.
Blood trickled down his side; Kusaka was barely holding his own as Kyoraku attacked him ferociously now, both blades a blur of motion.
Could it be…
Kusaka was laughing now, the ice all across the floor flowing like water as he spoke two words. "Hyoten Hyakkaso."
Dazed, bleeding from a good many lacerations, Hitsugaya watched as the snow began to fall.