Snowflake Chapter Twelve
"I don't need you, I don't need your help-!"
"Shut up little Brat and watch!"
Szayel stood at the now non-moving snowflake, tilting his head to the side. His first thought was that he had knocked Hitsugaya out until he seen his movements shift slightly. He went to the control panel in his hand and sent another jolt through him but he didn't make a sound.
"Hey you, the gay, pink-haired scientist." Said Toshiro, looking up at him, hollow eye glowing a menacing red. "If you continue you're just gonna piss me off further."
Szayel raised an eyebrow.
"Piss you off further?" he sneered, "I think I'M the one that's pissed off. The red-head… I expected that from him, but from a mere experiment I didn't. you will need to be punished Hitsugaya."
"Who said Hitsugaya had any control of his movements right now?" said Toshiro, getting to his feet. One eye was closed while the other was glinting slightly. The collar round his neck glowed brightly from the strain of the Snowflake's hollow trying to break free.
"It's futile, you won't be able to-" Szayel quickly covered his face as a huge explosion happened where Toshiro had been standing and moments later he found the prodigy in front of him, sword now materialised in his hands and pointing right at him.
"I do believe you underestimated me." Said the Hollow, "Thanks to my 'Master' having so much skill already, it enabled me to get just as powerful, maybe even more powerful than that."
Szayel let out a laugh and the pointed his hand towards him, his hand clenching.
"You are the strangest Arrancar I have ever made!" he laughed, "Never once have I known for an Arrancar to still be closer to a human! Never once have I known an Arrancar to be overtaken by an INNER hollow. You still have qualities that only a Vizard should possess!"
"Maybe your precious Aizen never meant for me to be a normal Arrancar." Said the Hollow, raising his sword in the air. "Maybe he wanted me to be like this, for Hitsugaya to have a n inner hollow whilst actually being an Arrancar. Perhaps he wanted to favour him more than the Espada he currently has."
This instantaneously flared Szayel's anger to the max. How dare a mere experiment talk to him like that! How dare he treat him as if he was trash! He was nothing, NOTHING!
"It seems I have sent your mind in turmoil."
"What are you talking about?" screeched Szayel, glaring at him and quickly trying to analyse the situation, but he was failing miserably.
"Can't you tell?" said the Hollow evilly, "I am muddling up your thoughts, you can't think straight and you'll be dead before you can un-muddle your brain."
"ICHI-NII!" LET GO OF ME!" screamed Karin, struggling for all she was worth. Ichigo wasn't having it.
"You seriously think I'm just going to let you run into danger?" shouted Ichigo, pinning Karin's arms behind her back.
"I DON'T CARE! HE'S HURTING HIM!" she screeched.
"He wouldn't want you getting yourself hurt!" snapped back Ichigo. Karin stiffened and sighed.
"Ichi-Nii, let go of me. I don't want to hurt you." Said Karin seriously. Ichigo sighed.
"Karin-." He then let go of her as flames flared around her, blocking access of any of her friends.
"I'm sorry." She said, "I can't let them hurt him, he's done nothing to deserve this at all!"
She then began running, flames trailing after her so no one could follow. The place she was going was simple: the place where the explosion had happened. She could year everyone's angry and frantic yells echoing down the corridors, begging and pleading for her to come back out of harms way. She knew Ichigo was planning to follow her so she quickly turned round and skidded on her hell, a burst of flames coming off the skid mark and hiding the ceiling, causing it to collapse.
"Karin!"
She turned round and let out a low sigh as she closed her eyes.
"Coming back to me are you?" sneered her inner Hollow, gold eyes piercing the bleak darkness in her head.
"I don't really have a choice, we both know I'll be more powerful if I get more help from you." Replied Karin quietly, forcing the darkness to disappear and then appeared inside her inner world. The world was to be expected, it was dark rocky ground and there was a volcano at the centre of it. Her hollow stood leaning against the volcano smirking.
"Have you came to make me submit to you?" said the hollow, brushing her white hair out of her face and staring at her with piercing gold eyes.
"We can do this the easy or hard way." Said Karin quietly. The hollow smirked and then raised her hands.
"I don't see why I shouldn't help you," she said with no hesitation. This made Karin suspicious instantly, why would a hollow want to help her? "After all, if you died I would die to."
Karin nodded her head, it made a lot more sense than it did earlier.
"I don't think you noticed, but there is another being here to. My guess was that it was your Zanpaku-to, but then I figured out you were fully human so I don't know who it is."
Karin looked round and saw nothing.
"What do you mean? No one else is here!" replied Karin stubbornly, looking round.
"You are not really focusing to much." Replied the hollow coldly, "She lives inside the volcano."
Karin then stared at the towering volcano and heard a sharp cry emanate from it. She took a step back and braced herself as Lava spurted out along with the most beautiful creature Karin had ever seen. It soared upwards and the swooped down and then landed directly in front of the raven. Spreading out her wings slowly, she glowed faintly before taking a human form. Long, fiery red hair travelled down her back and rolled down to her hips, she wore a short ripped T-shirt that showed most of her stomach and shorts the showed most of her legs as well.
"So I finally get to meet you, Karin-san." She said after a momentary pause, staring at the baffled expression her master held. "Surely you must have known there was something else behind your powers?"
"W-Well…" started Karin, "I knew there would be something that contained my powers… but I never expected you to be so… b-beautiful…"
"I'll take that as a compliment." She replied happily, "By the way, my name is Fenix."
"It goes with the Phoenix form you take." Replied Karin, looking down.
"Don't worry about it Karin, I'm not going to make you fight or anything." Said Fenix, "All I want to do is help that adorable snowball you love so much."
Hold on, wait. Snowball?
"It's Snowflake!" said Karin angrily, causing Fenix to laugh.
"Yes, I forgot, Snowflake then." Laughed Fenix, her expression then turning serious. "I need you to remember this and remember it well."
Karin nodded and looked up at her, her back going straight as she listened to everything she was saying.
"First of all, I should be a Zanpaku-to, but due to you being Human, that was never going to happen." She said lightly, "this is the manifested form of your powers, so if you focused hard enough, you could get me in a materialised form."
"Woah, hold on!" said Karin, "You would actually appear in the room?"
"Yes. But only in my bird form." Said Fenix, "mildly putting it, the lowest form would be able to summon my phoenix form into the real world. The middle stage is actually YOU turning into the Phoenix."
Karin widened her eyes in surprise.
"And the final stage…" Fenix put up three fingers, "Is that you would turn into me. You would be pushed back into your inner world as I fought for you."
Karin was amazed. She never knew she had so many powers and techniques locked away.
"Remember this Karin-san. In each stage there is a different technique, different fighting abilities for each one. The third one you don't need to worry because it is me fighting for you. I shall teach you these techniques while in battle."
"Ok?" said Karin bewilderedly, staring at the form that then bowed her head.
"Of course, every fighting technique has a risk." Murmured Fenix, "the first stage will do no harm. The second stage is potentially risky because it will burn your flesh. If you were in soul form it would not harm you so much. However, if you combine your hollow with that ability, the effects will be minimal. The third technique… however…"
"What is the third technique?" asked Karin, sucking in a bit of air as she partly already knew what the answer could be. Fenix looked up at her with sorrowful eyes.
"You are only human." She said, "Being human means you could die after deactivating the technique, lose your powers or… the simplest of things, lose your memory of recent events."
"One of the bad things doesn't seem that bad." Said Karin, "But then again… losing my memory could be pretty bad too."
"But remember this." Said Fenix, Combine the hollow with the techniques, there is a 50/50 chance of none of them happening at all."
Toshiro opened his eyes and felt the soothing touch of his Zanpaku-to's hand on his shoulder. He let out a small groan as he tried to push himself back up but when his hands came into contact with the icy ground he instantly collapsed again and winced. Hyorinmaru then wouldn't allow him to move.
"Master, please don't move." Said Hyorinmaru sternly, laying him down and kneeling next to him. Toshiro stared at him for a while and then noted that he hadn't seen Hyorinmaru since-
His hands flew up to his face and tried to cover his masked eye, but he felt nothing.
"Master, here you will not have the hollow mask." Said Hyorinmaru, "Or at least, when that hollow is fighting for you, you won't have it."
"The hollow?" said Toshiro, looking round the icy landscape, seeing that various pillars had been destroyed.
"All the damage here was done by your hollow." Said Hyorinmaru sadly, looking at the now black ice pillars, "I tried to reverse it, but it's impossible."
Hyorinmaru widened his eyes as Toshiro rolled onto his side and clutched at his head, his eyes screwed shut in pain.
"Master? MASTER?"
"Make it go away… MAKE HIM GO AWAY!"
Szayel narrowly dodged the blade directed at his head but then blinked in slight pain as pain shot up his shoulder.
"What the hell have you done to me?" hissed Szayel, wrenching the blade away and sonido'ing backwards.
"Didn't I already tell you?" said Toshiro's hollow, wiping the blood from his Zanpaku-to with his fingers, "I am muddling with your thoughts."
"Impossible!" screeched Szayel, feeling another strike go through his shoulder. He couldn't predict his movements at all. "I'll always figure it out! I'll figure out what god damn mind ability you have and I shall crush it!"
A heavy spiritual pressure then enveloped the room and knocked Szayel to his knees. Toshiro's Hollow shuddered but then managed to stay standing, his red eyes glaring menacingly to the man standing in the room.
"I think not Szayel." Said Aizen, brushing a bit of hair from his face, "If this is a part of Hitsugaya's abilities then we shall keep it for MY use."
The Hollow snarled.
"Yeah right, there is no way in hell you'll get a hold of my powers-!" he forcefully leapt back as Aizen appeared in front of him and clawed for his throat. The hollow stopped himself by booting a foot into the ground, cracking it and causing chips to go flying through the air. Aizen stared at the Snowflake's hollow form with fascination written all over his face. His brown eyes travelled down to his pale neck and noted that the collar was now cracked but was still suppressing around half of his power. The hollow looked up to see that Aizen had disappeared. He looked up and raised his hand quickly and blocked the kido ball the had formed in Aizen's hand and forced him to back away, but then widened his eyes as he felt it hit his back.
"Remember this, Hollow of Hitsugaya," said Aizen, "My main power is Hypnosis. Hitsugaya had already seen my swords Shikai so you, being in Hitsugaya's body, succumb to illusions. If you were of a separate body, you would not be under my spell."
The Hollow Toshiro fell to his knees and fell forwards limply and growled before he gave up and allowed Toshiro to come back. The Snowflake let out a gasp and allowed on the floor as the new place filled his sights.
"I'm sorry MASTER." Snickered the Hollow, "I guess I kinda mucked up there."
"Shut up." Snapped Toshiro angrily, "How dare you take over my body in the first place!"
Toshiro snapped out of his train of thought as he felt a foot being planted on his back. He grew rigid but the relaxed when it quickly retracted and arms lifted him up quickly and Shunpo'd out the way.
"I'm sorry Aizen, those illusions will no longer work with me." Said a voice. Aizen raised an eyebrow.
"And why is that, Yoruichi Shihoin?" said Aizen, clearly annoyed that she had somehow gotten through the illusion. Yoruichi smirked as she hoisted Toshiro over her shoulder.
"Well you see, Kisuke came up with this idea." She said after a moment of thought. "You said that if we saw your Shikai then we would fall under you 'spell' right?"
"Yes, I did." Said Aizen dryly, "So will you now explain how you can somehow ignore the illusions."
"It was a genius idea." Said Yoruichi, "Tell me Aizen, if the memory of when we saw your Shikai was erased from our minds how could your Zanpaku-to have a direct link to our brains if we no longer even had the memory?"
Aizen eyes widened in surprise momentarily before he went back to his usual composed state. Urahara Kisuke was a very smart man, he wasn't that surprised that he would come up with an idea like that. He was, after all, one of squad twelve's captains.
"Well, even if you managed to get through my abilities, do not forget I am not alone." Said Aizen.
"And what is that meant to mean exactly?" said Yoruichi, her head turning to the side as two people walked in.
"After all, Aizen isn't the master." Said a male.
"I am." Said a female voice, raising her head up and staring at her. She kept herself from being noticed much but she was, in fact, the leader of the whole idea. "My name is Amelia, and this is my brother Jugo."
Yoruichi kept her feet firm on the ground, hardly believing what she heard. Aizen wasn't in charge? If he wasn't in charge…
The two in front of her were even stronger than the man that nearly destroyed the soul society!
"Do me a favour." Said Amelia once more, staring at the white mop of hair was resting somewhere on Yoruichi's back. "Leave him here, and I'll spare you all."
Yoruichi's grin turned manacle.
"Fat chance." She said, reaching into her pocket for a sphere like object and smashing it off the ground, filling the room with smoke as she flash stepped and made a run for it.
"AFTER HER! DON'T LET HER GET AWAY WITH THE PRIZE!"
"Hai!" shouted Jugo, shunpo'ing after her. Amelia then turned towards Aizen and bowed.
"Aizen-sama." She said quietly, "Did I do a good job?"
Aizen nodded and stepped forwards, petting her on the head.
"You did well; you managed to fool Shihoin, now they'll become less focused on me." Said Aizen, "How are the units in the world of the living?"
"They are doing well, they have all located where Inoue Orihime, Ishida Uryu, Yasotora Sado and Kurosaki Yuzu are." Said Amelia, 2due to the soul society trying to fix the shifting space I made, they forgot completely about the other subordinates in the world of the living."
"Good." Came Aizen's response, "You are dismissed."
A/N: Took me a while to write this but hopefully it's good ^^ Hope you enjoyed it.
Also, I'm thinking of doing story requests, so if there is a stroy you would like me to write just put it in your review or inbox me ^^