4
Hanatarou woke up with a little whining coming from the side of the window. He looked around to see where he was, then he remembered he was in charge of the kid for the night. He sighed and rubbed his eyes. The task was harder than it seemed. There was some weird energies that prevented him from healing the kid further and he had to clean them up which tired him out – a lot. But the kid – what was the name, Fuji? – was now all healthy. Or wasn't he?
Hanatarou ran to the kid as he finally realized the whining was coming from the kid who was sleeping not so peacefully next to the window. It was nothing much, though; even though he was whining, nothing too harsh seemed to be going on. Maybe it was the anesthetics they had given him so he'd sleep – he had refused to sleep for a long time. He opened one of the bandages (which weren't very necessary now that he was healed) to make sure he was still completely healthy and not burning. Vice-captain Isane had informed him of the burns when she called her, warning him not to tell Captain Unohana. He had obeyed that. He was glad that she told him, though. This way he could make sure if the kid was alright or not.
There seemed nothing wrong with him, but he was still whining, louder and louder every minute. Maybe he was having a nightmare, Hanatarou thought. He wondered if he was supposed to wake him up. Or was he alright like as he was? Still anxious about what he should do, he returned to his seat and sat on the edge of the chair. There was no way he could relax. He wondered if he was supposed to call Captain Unohana or Vice-Captain Isane. He knew almost nothing about the kid after all and he was pretty much sure he couldn't do much for him if something was happening. Then again, it could simply be a nightmare, too. He wouldn't want to disturb his captain for such a simple thing. It was a tough choice. He decided to do nothing and keep observing how the kid was doing for a while. He could always inform Captain if the kid got any worse.
The exact second he relaxed on his chair, the kid started screaming. Quietly. He was in so much pain, and he was shaking like crazy as if he was having a seizure; but he didn't make any sound except for a quiet scream. The arm Hanatarou had unbandaged just now was already starting to blister. The kid was burning, again. He panicked, not knowing what to do, and ran out of the room, to the shinigami that was supposed to be on duty right outside the door. The little guy was dozed off, and looked around stupidly for a few seconds when Hanatarou suddenly came out.
"Go call Captain Unohana and hurry up please!" Hanatarou said quickly, then added "It's very important, very urgent."
"Okay." said the shinigami and practically flew away. Hanatarou quickly returned to the kid's side. He was now seriously seizing and his quiet screams had turned into moans. The blood oozing out of the blisters could clearly be seen. Hanatarou attempted to stop the burning or at least heal the blisters; but there was some weird reiatsu covering the kid and burning his limbs. He couldn't stop or clean the reiatsu, the flow was far too strong. He tried to shake the kid awake, but the anesthetics were still effective; so he couldn't wake him up either. He injected the kid with ephinephrines in order to wake him up, but the condition wouldn't change. There was nothing more he could do, so he decided to keep trying to hold back the reiatsu flow even though he couldn't completely stop it; it seemed to slow down the damage it was making.
"Ohh, the door's open! How lucky!" chirped a flirty voice from the door, "come on, he's here!" Vice-captain Matsumoto entered the room and her expression froze the second she saw the scene, blocking Captain Hitsugaya's path unintentionally. He had definitely heard the moans of the kid, though.
"Vice-captain Matsumoto! Captain Hitsugaya!" Hanatarou greeted them hurriedly, "Could you two please help me push back the reiatsu until Captain Unohana comes? He's started to burn again because of it and I can't hold back the flow by myself."
...
Burn? Had he just said burn?
The time seemed to have stopped. Even though his view was mostly blocked by Matsumoto, Hitsugaya could still see the blisters on the kid's arm. He had thought Matsumoto was simply telling some creative lie before; but she was right, he had totally believed her after witnessing it with his own eyes. And he also felt the hollowish reiatsu particles in the air, assumed it was the alien reiatsu she had talked about. So it was the thing burning the kid like that. Then if they could somehow push it back, the kid would be temporarily okay, huh? And if it didn't work, he could always freeze the limbs, preventing them from being damaged any further.
He quickly pushed Matsumoto to the side as time returned to its original speed and hurried to the kid, thankful that he knew the basics of healing even though he had never been in 4th squad. The reiatsu flow around the kid was a lot more clear now that he was close, it sent a cold shiver down his spine. It was raw, it was harsh, it was cruel... and it was gone.
Hitsugaya's eyes opened with surprise as the reiatsu suddenly disappeared when he had just simply touched the kid's arm. Was it him? Or had it simply ended just like that? The limbs were already in a pretty bad condition, so maybe that was all. When he started to pull back his hand, the reiatsu started to come back too; weaker, but still there. He quickly held the kid's wrist to stop it again.
"It stopped..." Hanatarou sighed with relief.
"Did it..." started Matsumoto started, but didn't finish it. She opened the lights instead.
"It seems to have reacted to Captain Hitsugaya's reiatsu" Hanatarou explained as simple as it could be.
Matsumoto snorted, then chuckled, looking mischeviously at Hitsugaya, "Well, it wouldn't be that weird if Fuji turned out to be a fire type then, exact opposite of yours, huh?"
"It would also explain why he keeps burning; he may not be able to control the reiatsu at night and it goes wild." said Unohana. Hitsugaya hadn't noticed when she had entered the room, she might have entered just a few seconds ago.
"Captain Unohana!" Hanatarou greeted her with both relief and gladness. Unohana smiled at him sweetly.
"It seems you found yourself some aid."
"We were just gonna visit, Captain," Matsumoto interrupted the conversation, "and we just happened to come when he started burning."
"Is that so? Isn't that lucky?"
"Yes, very lucky!" said Hanatarou.
"Matsumoto," Unohana said, "I reported the kid to Commander; I didn't want to keep it hidden any longer."
"So? What does he say?"
"He wants a detailed report on this and maybe he'll let him stay until he's healed enough to go to Shinigami Academy." Unohana smiled sweetly.
"Okay. I hope he will be able to stay." Matsumoto smiled too, "I'm kinda attached to him; he reminds me of a certain someone, I wonder why." She chirped and glanced at Hitsugaya mischeviously. Again. Hitsugaya felt a vein pop on his forehead. What exactly was alike between them anyway?
"Oh, and Fuji woke up too!" Matsumoto chirped happily. Hitsugaya automatically looked at the kid that was starting to sit up, not breaking contact with the wrist he was holding gently in case the reiatsu came back.
"You can pull your hand back now, Captain Hitsugaya." said Unohana, walking towards them, "He won't burn now that he's awake, at least that's what i was told."
"He?" Hitsugaya thought, pulling back his hand. He looked at the kid with doubt and watched them as Unohana examined the burns and took samples of the reiatsu for the report. Then she started healing the kid.
"You know, you're very lucky, Fuji." Matsumoto started talking to the kid, "you'll probably be a first class with this kind of reiatsu."
"Right," Hanatarou agreed with her, "He's kind of in pain now, but it'll be good when he becomes a shinigami. It's so lucky" then smiled at the kid, "right, Fuji?"
The kid didn't reply and just kept on staring out of the window as if no one had just talked. Silence took over.
"Despite the burns, this little boy has a very strong body. It's good for us when we have to heal him." Unohana told Matsumoto as she kept on healing.
"Wait," Hitsugaya interrupted, not able to keep quiet any longer, "Isn't this kid a girl? Why do you keep referring her as 'him'?"
The kid suddenly turned to him, deep purple eyes wide with surprise.
"I didn't feel any need to check the gender since Matsumoto said the patient was a young boy." said Unohana with doubt. "Do you think Fuji is female, Captain Hitsugaya?"
"Isn't that what it looks like?" Hitsugaya replied, "I think you should check if you're unsure, Captain Unohana. But first, why don't we simply ask her?"
"Because Fuji can't talk?" Matsumoto said and rolled her eyes, "Geez, Captain..."
Hitsugaya sighed and turned his head to find the kid looking at him with curious but matte eyes. It didn't seem like she was so frozen as Matsumoto had told him. They could have made a mistake, couldn't they?
"Hey, what's your name, girl?" he tried, looking directly in the kid's eyes. He didn't know why exactly he was doing this, but he felt he couldn't let it go simply by believing she couldn't talk.
"Geez, Captain!" Matsumoto complained. "Why don't you just trust me? What's with you?"
"You can understand what I'm saying, right?" he tried again, ignoring Matsumoto's complaint, "Can you tell me your name, at least?"
The kid blinked and took a sharp breath; her left arm that was being treated by Unohana twithced a little, her face tensed and she blinked, but she didn't avert her eyes. Hitsugaya glanced shortly at Unohana.
"Could you be gentler please, Captain Unohana? It seems like she's hurt by it."
"I am being gentle." said Unohana simply. Hitsugaya looked back at the kid's eyes.
"So? Will you tell me your name?" Hitsugaya tried one last time.
"Geez," Matsumoto started, drawing Hitsugaya's attention again, "he won't answ-"
"Se-..." the kid interrupted her sentence. Hitsugaya immediately gave his full attention back to her, waiting for her to finish.
"Sei... Seiko... Seiko... Seiko..."
"Is that your name?" Hitsugaya asked.
"Un!" she nodded strongly, "Seiko!"
Hitsugaya glanced at Matsumoto to see her surprised face and mentally smirked at her before returning his gaze to the kid.
"So, can you tell me your gender, Seiko?"
Seiko tilted her head slightly. It seemed she didn't know the word yet. Maybe it was because she was mostly isolated from the others before.
"Are you a boy or a girl?" he repeated his question.
"Gi...rl?" Seiko tried slowly as she tilted her head more to the side.
"Do you know what "girl" means?" he asked just to confirm.
Seiko looked at Matsumoto and Unohana, then looked back at Hitsugaya to slowly nod full of doubt. It was clear what she meant.
"Well of course they're different. You're just a child and they're overly-grown women..." Hitsugaya said, then snorted, "I hope you don't grow up to be like Matsumoto." he added quietly.
"Mo..to?" Seiko asked curiously. Matsumoto skipped next to them.
"I'm Matsumoto, Seiko-chan, and my name is Rangiku; but you can call me Ran-chan." she chirped, patting Seiko's head.
"Ran-chan?" Seiko asked.
"Yes, that's right!" she ruffled her hair.
"Matsumoto, Captain Hitsugaya, can you let me heal her in peace now? I'll be putting her in your care anyway." Unohana interrupted, with a sweet smile and a sweet voice.
"Sure, alright!" Matsumoto chirped again as she skipped back. Hitsugaya followed her with light steps, then his haori stopped him from moving. He turned around and saw Seiko holding onto his haori with a pleading look.
"Is it alright if I stay with her instead?" he asked, somehow surprised by the strength of such a tiny girl. Unohana simply glanced at them for a short moment.
"Well, it wouldn't bother me too much, i guess; if my patient won't let you go that is." Unohana claimed, calmly. Hitsugaya returned to Seiko's side. Her deep purple eyes were fixed on him instead on the window now and they were full of curiosity.
"Na... name...?" she tried. Hitsugaya suddenly realized he hadn't told her his own name yet.
"My name?" he asked without a reason, "It's Hitsugaya Toushirou."
"Shiro?" she asked – or more like she tried. Matsumoto giggled, trying to hold back a tiny laughter as Hitsugaya twitched. He took a deep breath; she was probably just talking as much as she could. Well, at least she wouldn't call him 'Shiro-chan' like Hinamori liked to call him.
"You can't say 'Hitsugaya' anyway, can you?" he sighed slowly. Seiko tilted her head to the side a little, then shook her head. "Fine then, it's 'Shiro' until you can actually talk."
"Un!" she nodded. He was right, she just couldn't pronounce Toushirou right. She had never even talked before. It was the best she could manage. She would switch to "Hitsugaya" the second she could pronounce it anyway. She wasn't that impudent, no she wasn't. Now that her mind was mostly cleared from the nightmares and the burning, she could think and remember. There was just no way she was alone before and she actually had a fine family before the nightmares, even though she felt no attachment to them. She didn't know what happened ever since the nightmares started, everything was shaded and clouded. All she could remember were the flames; inside and outside. The point is, she could remember her past before that clearly: even though she couldn't get her voice out in the past, she had learned a lot and she had manners.
She stared straight at her new friend's profile. He was looking at her healer and her prickling arm. His eyes were just as cold as the frozen lake she had visited the year before. His hair was like snow piles. His skin was also cold like snow, or maybe she felt like that because she was usually warmer than normal. Moreover his energy was suppressing her weird energy that hurt her. He had also been the only one to fully understand her ever since she left home. She felt close to him. She respected him. He was almost like a god in front of her eyes.
Her healer swithced to her legs. She averted her eyes from her god to check out her arms. They were almost completely healed. Her skin was still a little pinky whitey and sensitive; but she was mostly okay since they'd heal up pretty soon. Mostly. If she didn't burn all over again or if there was no scars left; though there might be scars since her arms were so sensitive even now.
"Don't worry about the soreness or new burns, you'll completely heal in no time." her god assured her as if he'd just read her mind. She looked at his icy eyes filled with a warm light and felt his smile that didn't show on his face from his eyes. She remembered the fairytales her mother used to tell her, especially the one that was about a boy with a frozen time. She tried to smile; it almost felt like her face didn't remember how to smile, but she still did anyway, not sure how successful she was. Her god ruffled her hair tenderly. She felt a soft warmth spread to her whole body and some tickling pinpricks in her heart. She had definitely missed that tender feeling. She tugged on his white cape a little and buried her face in the soft fabric, loving the feeling of the cool hand patting her head.
A/N: it's been really long since I last updated something but here's the good news: i'll upload a new chapter every day till chapter 10. I have them ready in my hand; but I want to be reviewed for each chapter so i'll give it one day. no reviews? it's okay. more than one review? I'll be happy. so please review, thanks!