The door remained shut before him as he attempted to calm his nervousness. Night was approaching but Toshiro knew he couldn't wait too long. The final test was different for every king-to-be and with such little time left he knew he couldn't afford the luxury of waiting another night.
He pushed aside any distracting thoughts and knocked softly on the door, waiting a few moments before opening it and stepping inside.
"Come in, Toshiro." Satoru's weak voice called out to him.
The young prince stepped over to the bed quickly, noticing how thin and pale the man was now, never having gotten out of bed for a week or two. All it served to do at the moment was confirm he was at the last of his days.
"What is it you need?" The king questioned with a weak smile.
Trying to follow Kirio's advice, Toshiro replied with a small smile of his own and held his hand forward, his mark glowing in the darkness, easy to see.
"Ah, you've done it!" Satoru gripped the small hand before him with his weak ones, looking with pride at the glowing emblem. "I knew you could."
"I wish it hadn't taken so long." Toshiro replied in a quiet tone.
"Nonsense, you're the fastest one yet. It's only been five or six months, perhaps less…I lose track of time sometimes. Nevertheless the fastest one before you still took over two years to complete it, the tasks are not easy."
"And the last?"
Though it took effort, his father managed to grin mischievously.
"That's up to me." He chuckled at Toshiro's confused expression. "Though I would love to give you the final mark at this moment, due to being blood related I cannot and I must give you a set of tasks in order to prove to me you really are ready."
Toshiro nodded, standing tall to show he was ready.
"But, before we begin." Satoru shifted himself, turning to sit on the side of the bed, legs thin and bony like an old man's would be in the World of the Living. "Help me to the balcony, if you would."
There was no hesitation as Toshiro put one pale arm over his shoulder and helped his father over to the railing to look outside. He had once said he liked the outside view, no matter how open and dangerous it was. He could see everything happening from that view, could still sense if something was amiss. Toshiro was getting good at that as well, able to notice when something was off from the norm.
"I want to know what you think of all this." The man said, gaze panning over the landscape. "The youngest king ever to take the throne, the first Dragon King, first wielder of two dragons in centuries…it must be a lot to take in."
"It is." Toshiro leaned on the railing. "But I have to do it."
"Actually," Satoru let out a small sigh, "you don't."
The prince's head snapped up, widened eyes looking at his father in surprise.
"Dethmaiyn was chosen before you, which leads to some…unique circumstances, especially due to your age. If the Soul Prince isn't deemed capable of ruling yet before his father dies, another can take his place for a short time while they continue training."
"Are you saying you want Dethmaiyn to take over for me?" Toshiro was both surprised and a little betrayed. "Then what was all this training for?"
"It doesn't have to be Dethmaiyn." Satoru corrected, remaining calm despite Toshiro's panic. "I heard about Kadin Thane. And then there is Ichigo Kurosaki. Both are capable candidates if they so wished, and it would only be a temporary rule until you felt you were ready. They wouldn't need to go through the same process you do."
"I'm not going to force something like this on them." Toshiro refused. "And Kurosaki's family is no longer royal or even noble. Thane doesn't even want to return to his family; his memories are gone."
"So you're going to take this position even if it's too much for you?" Satoru asked.
Hesitation. Toshiro turned away from that blue-green gaze for a moment as he thought over what he was going to say. Was this part of the test? Well, anything goes, but he couldn't help wanting to be completely honest.
"I…I'm scared." He admitted. "Something like this…I still haven't wrapped my head around all of it. But," He took a deep breath, "I can't back down now. I have to do this."
Satoru watched his son closely, still sharp enough to see the determination in those teal depths. At that he smiled.
"Well you seem certain enough." The man nodded. "Now, what to do for your test? I suppose I'll have to see what all you know and how you interact with others."
"Are you well enough to do that?" Toshiro asked, concerned.
"I am." A frail hand was placed on his shoulder. "Don't worry about me, son. You'll see in the end."
"See what?"
Satoru gave a mysterious grin before turning once more to the outside. Deciding not to push it, Toshiro stood silently next to his father that night.
Down in the Soul Society, everyone was on high alert. They welcomed the Kurosakis back with great joy, as well as their companions, glad to have more fighters with the strength of royals to aid them. Thanks to the others they had been able to repair what was lost and recover, putting up strong defenses against the demons. With Ruala's help they had made the walls demon-proof so they wouldn't be able to get inside through shadows again.
"There is a break in the demon's attacks now." Shinji told the new arrivals, having been one of the ones to greet them at the gates as they came back to the Seireitei in the fading light of afternoon, the Lieutenants heading back to their squads after a 'see you later' to the siblings. "You guys just finished the Five Trials so you better rest up good. No telling when they'll come back."
"Any word from dad?" Ichigo questioned.
"Oh yeah." The Visored turned, leading them towards the Squad Four barracks. "He and your sister Yuzu came here for now. He told the humans you're all on some kind of vacation for a while. Captain Unohana is teaching Yuzu healing since her dragon is a healing dragon."
"Kisuke help her get here?" Karin asked.
"Yup."
They reached the healing quarters and spotted Yuzu pacing outside under the light of the entrance lamps, having caught word of her siblings' return, with Shimmer sitting nearby, watching her partner worry. The white dragon was a little bigger now, suggesting she'd earned her powers over the last seven weeks.
"Karin! Ichigo!" She cried out excitedly upon spotting their approach in the darkness, launching towards them and wrapping them in a tight hug. "I'm so glad you're back! We were so worried about you!"
"Easy, Yuzu." Ichigo replied with a slight laugh. "We're fine, and now we're here to help."
"About time." A familiar snarky voice replied and Ichigo stiffened.
Standing at the door was his Quincy friend, Uryu Ishida, in his ever pristine white uniform, complete with mantle. Smirking, the black-haired man pushed his glasses up in front of his dark blue eyes as if to scrutinize him.
"And so you get even stronger." The archer huffed teasingly. "Is there no end to your needless amount of power?"
"Shut up you." Ichigo growled. "I can assume you got stronger, too, after hearing about the demons."
"Of course I did. What's more, the Soul Reapers seem to care less if I destroy them or not. Apparently the souls of demons do not originate from a human source and so need to be destroyed, nor will it tip the balance of souls."
"Yeah, Toshiro told us that." Karin nodded, managing to squirm out of her twin's grasp. "The King of Hell actually asked him to make sure they were destroyed."
"The King of Hell?" Uryu seemed intrigued by this. "Cap-I mean, Prince Hitsugaya met the King of Hell?"
"Well yeah, he's gonna be Soul King soon, and the two of them keep in touch. Normally the King of Hell can keep the demons under control, so Toshiro told me, but Dethmaiyn has caused a riot. The demons don't really listen to Satan anymore, not that they ever really did. They were just tolerated. They don't actually belong here."
"Gee, Karin." Yuzu looked surprised by this. "He told you a lot, didn't he?"
"I was just curious, he didn't have to answer." Karin shrugged, looking uncomfortable with the topic now. She spotted two new figures approaching behind Uryu and used them as a distraction. "Hey Orihime, hey Chad."
The two Fullbringers grinned, though Chad's was more of a simple twitch of the mouth upward, and waved to her. The auburn haired woman came up and hugged the teen, breasts nearly smothering her if Karin didn't have experience avoiding Rangiku's. The tall Japanese-Mexican simply shook her hand.
"So you guys are in on this, too, huh?" Ichigo smirked, crossing his arms. He was glad to see his friends again but there was a hint of worry in his eyes.
"We always help you, Ichigo." Chad said in his deep voice.
"Just in case you jump in head first again." Uryu added, causing a tick mark to appear on the orange-haired man's head.
While those two started to bicker once more, Karin turned to her sister, the pearlescent dragon Shimmer now beside her and greeting the raven teen with a soft purr.
"You got bigger, Shimmer." Karin said to the dragonling, scratching her chin. "How's your speech?"
"Better." She chirped. She did sound clearer in her tones than before, not making them out as questions all the time. "I heal better, too."
"Good to hear, I bet Captain Unohana loves your help."
The dragoness nodded. She took a moment to greet the fire drake nearby before turning back to Karin, looking a little more serious.
"Something painful?" Shimmer reported, tilting her head. The dragon scrunched up her nose, realizing that wasn't the way to say it. "Um…you are…hurting? Emotionally?"
"Oh…" Karin understood now. "No, I'm fine."
A crystal tail flicked.
"You can't get past my dragon." Yuzu huffed. "Spill. What's wrong?"
"Nothing, nothing's wrong." Karin attempted to push past the honey-blonde but was quickly pulled right back to her previous spot by said twin. "Look, Yuzu, I'm fine. Just tired. The Five Trials me and Ichi took were really hard and we're exhausted."
"Not stopping him." Yuzu pointed out how their brother was upping the volume of his shouting match with Uryu, Orihime attempting to step in between her boyfriend and the Reaper. "But nothing does…"
"Exactly." The Substitute nodded. "I'm tired, though."
They paused as Retsu stepped outside to see what the commotion was, looking a little irritated. The shouting stopped at once, both sides looking nervous under the healer's gaze.
"Please remember that this is a hospital and conversations should be kept to a normal voice." She said kindly with her deadly bite to it underneath, coated with sugar. Ichigo and Uryu nodded obediently.
That done, the healer smiled at the twins and their dragons and headed back inside to see to her patients, some of which were still healing from the first demon assault that had brought her back from the Soul King's Realm.
"So?" Yuzu immediately pinned her attention back on her sister.
Karin scowled and refused to answer, arms crossed. Frowning, Dyrilæn decided she would have to be the one to speak, as the unrest stirring in her partner's heart would surely become deadly if not handled by someone the girl trusted. Preparing herself for the shouting she would surely get from her Wyvern spirited half, the dragoness leaned her head down to Yuzu.
"She's upset about leaving the Soul Prince." She reported quickly.
"Dyrilæn!" Karin snapped, betrayed.
"Love sick." Shimmer nodded in understanding.
"Tha-That's not it at all!" Karin denied, blushing furiously.
"Yes it is." Yuzu teased. Then the façade dropped and she looked at her twin with nothing but concern and sisterly love. "It's okay, Karin, I'm sure you'll see him again. You two always bump into each other."
"He was just a Captain, then, he can't just take an off day to come play soccer." The raven haired teen huffed.
"And his father's dying." Dyrilæn added, earning another heated steel colored glare. "It must be said, friend. You can't hide away. Didn't you tell the prince that very thing?"
Her mouth opened and closed again, unable to argue with the fire drake's logic. She was still upset, though, and let her dragoness know it quite clearly.
Purring, Shimmer rubbed against the teen like a cat, her scales much softer than normal dragons even at her age, more like leather. It helped to remove some of the weight on the girl's heart as she reached down to pet the strangely feline drake. Yuzu giggled. Whether through her powers or simple affection, Shimmer had a healer's touch for sure.
Everyone left the Kurosaki siblings alone to get rest, Isshin off in the Squad Ten barracks to see his former Lieutenant and newest Captain and giving his children some peace for the night, which they needed desperately to recover their strength.
The next morning, Karin got to see first-hand the skills Yuzu had managed to master over the course of seven weeks. While her raven haired twin had learned to control her powers to a level above the Captains, she had learned to harness her new spiritual powers into Healing Kido. Likewise, Shimmer had control over her two elements, her main of light and a slight touch of Flora. Her powers worked strangely; she created certain plants before eating them, infusing them with her inner light and creating a special cure that she then breathed out in a soft green light over what she wanted healed. If it was an illness, she breathed the cure into her patient's mouth or absorbed it into their skin if they weren't comfortable with letting a dragon breathe on their face. The latter took longer, so for emergencies it had to be taken through the mouth.
While Yuzu busied herself away healing the wounded with the seated officers of Squad Four, Karin stepped outside to sit peacefully with her dragon. Dyrilæn had calmed her attitude since they had first met, much more relaxed in the presence of humans and Reapers than before, and only snappy when awoken too early or just in a bad mood that day.
"Can you still talk to Myndræl?" Karin questioned her drowsy partner.
"Maybe." She huffed back. As mentioned, she was grumpy when awoken early.
"Come on Dye, help me out here." The teen looked at her dragon.
"If you're worried about his partner then don't." The dragoness sighed, a small bit of smoke accompanying her breath. "The prince has been busy lately anyway, Myndræl hasn't seen him."
"Tch, now he's avoiding his dragon." The teen growled to herself.
"He's not avoiding." Amber eyes rolled. "He's trying to pass his final test. He doesn't leave the palace for that, apparently, so Myndræl is at Dragon Isle."
Karin gave a huff but went quiet. She was still miffed about the white haired prince avoiding her yet regretted not making an attempt to say goodbye to him anyway. Maybe he'd been distracted by something and just hadn't made it out in time. But at the same time she knew that wasn't true, that he'd been avoiding that dreadful goodbye. She briefly remembered his actions three weeks ago when he'd let his vulnerable side surface, asking that she stay. The night before last he had done so again, thinking she had been asleep when he'd pleaded once more for her to stay with him. He'd been desperate.
But that still didn't excuse himself from ignoring her an entire day, in her eyes. Perhaps she should have stayed. Maybe she would have if he'd caught her once again with that painful look in his eyes. She couldn't stand seeing him like that; it hurt her as much as him. Instead he didn't look at her, didn't speak except that single slip of the tongue, two words, no more. That hurt almost as badly as when he had been shaking in her hold.
"Ugh, he's so damn confusing sometimes!" Karin growled to the air, hitting her head back onto her dragon's body. "Ow…"
Dyrilæn couldn't help but snort in laughter at that despite not knowing why she had shouted so suddenly. Her partner snapped at her to shut up.
Later on they decided to walk around the Seireitei and see who needed help. They were going to be there for a while, so they might as well be of some help. Dyrilæn didn't much like being a heavy lifter, but with her partner hard at work with either repairs or patrols, she didn't have much choice but to make it a little easier for her companion. An aerial view helped with reports of any possible demon attacks.
A tap on her shoulder alerted Karin to someone wishing to speak to her. She turned, spotting Momo Hinamori there, looking a little timid.
"Hey Momo." Karin greeted kindly. The Lieutenant had always been better friends with Yuzu, but they got along well enough. "Need something?"
"Not particularly." Momo smiled. "How's Shiro?"
"Eh, cold as usual." Karin shrugged, hiding how her hand had clenched a bit and the flicker of both anger and hurt in her eyes. She could not get it past the brunette.
"Did something happen?" She stepped closer, perhaps hoping to offer some comfort. "I thought you two were close?"
"I did too." Karin huffed. "It's no big deal, Momo; he's really stressed right now, anyway. To be honest I'd probably be insane with how much he has to do."
"Oh Shiro, always trying to take all the weight." The girl sighed. "You're right, he's probably really stressed. Need any help with that?" She gestured to the building she was helping to repair in the Squad Seven area, Captain Komamura visible in the distance to help with another damaged area.
"Yeah, sure."
The girls set to work, never speaking of Toshiro again.
Something crashed into the shield and everyone froze in place, gazes turning skyward to the flux in the shield. A ripple spread outwards from the impact point but showed no sign of what was the cause.
"What the hell was that?" Ichigo scowled, trying to pinpoint the source.
Many others were as well; all senses on alert for what demon dared try to enter from the sky. Without anyone noticing, Karin slipped off the silver bracelet and pocketed it before putting a firm hand on her zanpaktou, prepared.
Something slashed the barrier again, creating a small crack that allowed two small figures inside. Now in, they used the shadows to move to the Sokyoku Hill.
"Come on!" Momo called out to her companion, both girls Flash Stepping over to the hill.
They were not the only ones to do so, all wondering how these two managed to get in and what they wanted, though considering their form of travel they were obviously demon masters of some kind, not actual demons, though hopefully not Demon Lords. The Seireitei was not prepared to handle that kind of demonic power. Still, such an easy break in the barrier was troublesome.
There ended up being a rather large grouping of Reapers on the hill, Ichigo standing with his sister when he spotted her.
A familiar figure faced them, the silver haired woman from the first attack who was also ordered to spy on Karin. The second was unfamiliar, a lithe man with fair features and silky black hair down to his shoulders, the top braided similarly to Ælfwyn, as if suggesting elven roots. His eyes were as blood red as the woman's.
"Who are you?" Soi Fon demanded.
"Erol Nightstalker." The man replied with a courteous bow. "My companion is Star Blodgharm."
"Since you seem to be cooperating, tell us why you're here. How did you get through the shield?"
"The slightest shadow is our entry point." Erol grinned.
"You came through the sky!" Ichigo argued.
"The shadows of the wind are not easily seen, and never at such a high altitude. They are there, though."
"Enough of this." Star scoffed, clearly not as patient as her partner. "We know the girl has returned."
"But there are plenty of girls," Kyoraku shot back with a grin, "I would know."
"You know of which girl we speak." Star sneered at him, making him frown. "We want the girl who can give us access to the Soul Prince."
Several of the Reapers scowled, understanding now what she meant. There was only one girl they meant when they spoke like that, one person they were interested in enough to go out of their way to break into the Seireitei barrier. The person of their interest was the first to unsheathe her blade; though what had happened still hurt, she was not about to let them kidnap her again, this time for her own purpose, not just to help Toshiro.
"Bring it!" She snarled, several other Reapers drawing their blades.
The she-devil smirked, red eyes alight with glee. She had no intention of running away today, darkness enveloping her form as she prepared to attack. Her partner did the same.
"Rage through the Land, Homuratei!"
Fire spread across the hill.
Darkness clashed.
Hell broke loose.
Though I made it seem like a big deal this fight isn't really important enough to spend several chapters writing so I skipped it. Sorry T^T Enjoy!