I know that I told you guys I will update on December 7 but I can't take it anymore! Have to write…
forever122: Well, like you already know, this story idea belongs to my friend Midori (or Mi-chan for short). In the beginning, we didn't plan to take Shi-chan to Hueco Mundo. But then I read your review in chap 7 and I decided to use that idea. It was way too much better than Mi-chan's previous idea and it fitted perfectly well with chap 9. So yeah… thanks for the idea.
Well, this will be the last chapter of TCA. But don't worry, the sequel is already up. Check it out!
Disclaimer: Don't own Bleach. You can't sue me…
Chapter 10: The adventure begin!
Toshiro groaned and slowly opened his eyes. His head hurt and so did his abdomen. He blinked his eyes slowly and looked around. But all he saw was darkness.
He blinked again. His eyes were opened, but why couldn't he see anything else except darkness?!
Toshiro slowly sat up and looked down to see where was he laying on. It was a white futon. He looked up but still saw nothing. It was like this world had nothing but him and the said futon.
And Hyorinmaru, which was right next to him.
'Hyorinmaru?!' he called.
"Yes, Master?!" Toshiro signed in relief when he heard his Zanpakuto replied.
'Hyorinmaru, what's going on? Where are we? Why are we here?'
"You don't remember?!"
'Remember what? All I remembered was that I went to Central 46 to find Aizen and that teme stabbed me when I told him I knew his secret… Oh…'
Hyorinmaru chuckled, "So you remembered that."
'Of course I remembered that,' Toshiro snapped, 'But that still doesn't answer where are we?'
"I don't know either, Master…"
Toshiro twitched.
But before he could snap at Hyorinmaru, a black portal appeared right in front of him. And from the portal, a girl stepped out.
"Oh, so you finally awake…," the girl said with a soft and melodic voice, "How do you feel?"
Toshiro didn't say anything. Instead, he just stared at the girl.
The girl was, in Toshiro's happiness, short, shorter than Toshiro himself. If he had to guess, Toshiro guessed that the girl was just about 3'6''. She had a doll-like face with porcelain white skin. Her hair was as white as his with the long front hair on the right side and rest of her hair was pinned into a tied bun at the back by 13 black hairpins (A/N: Kotori's hair looks like Mito Reina's hair from Danball Senki except for the color). And her eyes were pure silver. She wore a short black kimono that looked slightly similar to Nemu's uniform, with a slit on the right side of her dress where underneath she wore a white shorts. The upper part of her uniform was a normal black kosode. Around her waist was a white obi that tied behind her back, which secured a white straight katana on her lower back. She also wore a pair of white calf-high boots.
'A Shinigami?!' Toshiro thought to himself.
The girl tilted her head to one side, "Hey, can you here me?"
Toshiro, being a polite person he was, said the first thing popped into his head.
"Who the hell are you?"
The girl was slightly taken back, but then she laughed.
"My name is Sohma Kotori, nice to meet you, Hitsugaya Toshiro."
Toshiro's eyes narrowed, "How did you know my name?"
The girl, now dubbed Kotori, giggled.
"Of course I have to know the name of my victim," she said.
"What do you mean by that?" Toshiro took his Zanpakuto and prepared to unsheathed it. If this Kotori wanted to harm him, he had no hesitate in killing her.
Kotori blushed a little and muttered something.
"What?! I can't hear you?" Toshiro snapped.
"I said I'm the creator of the vortex that brought you to the future," Kotori replied.
Silent.
"WHAT?!"
Kotori just kept blushing.
"Wellll… sorry about that," she mumbled, "I have no control over that thing… It just does whatever it wants…"
Toshiro pointed a finger at the white haired girl.
"Y-y-you…," he stuttered.
"Gomen."
Toshiro took a deep breathe to calm himself. Then, he asked.
"So where am I? And why am I here?"
"My vortex, by some odd reason, seems to like you. So when it knew you were in the hand of Aizen-teme, it decided to bring you here."
"That thing kidnapped me again? And what do you mean by in the hand of Aizen?"
"Apparently Aizen thought you know something about his plan and Gotei 13's plan in the future so he decided to capture you. But then, my vortex appeared…"
"Where is this place?" Toshiro looked around.
"I called this place 'Setsuzoku' (1)," Kotori answered, "From this place, I can open the portals to go to any dimensions."
"How come you have this power?"
"I'm a Shinigami, as you already know by now," Kotori chuckled, "But I'm from the future. 200 years after the Winter War to be exact…"
Toshiro looked confused, "What is the Winter War?"
Kotori waved her hand, dismissed the question, "It's the future thing, you don't need to know by now. All you need to know now is that I'm from the future and my Zanpakuto can control time and dimension."
"Ok…," Toshiro said slowly, "So you and your vortex saved me from Aizen, and you healed my wound right?!"
Kotori nodded.
"You are the member of Yonbantai?"
"Nope," Kotori grinned, "But I learnt how to use Healing Kido with Unohana-taicho."
"That makes sense," Toshiro mused, "So, can you send me home now?"
Kotori sweat dropped slightly, "Eh…"
Toshiro's eyes narrowed, "Sohma, can you, or can you not, send me back to Soul Society?"
"Basically, I can, because I can open the portal that lead you back to Soul Society. But I'm not sure that whether or not I could send you back to your true time."
"What is that suppose to mean?"
"Well, you see," Kotori mumbled, "You could end up in the future or in the past. Like when my vortex brought you back from the alternate future to your timeline, 2 years had passed already."
Toshiro really, really wanted to strangled the vortex's owner, but he told himself to stay calm.
"So, there is nothing you can do to send me back to my true time?" he asked, gritting his teeth.
"Actually, there is one way," Kotori said.
"Really? What is that?"
"I can't send you straight to your time, but you can go back by the indirectly way. There will be five portals in five different dimensions that can help you. You find the first portal in the first dimension and it will bring you to the next dimension. Find the portal in that dimension and it will bring you to the nest one. When you find the last portal in the last dimension, it will bring you right back to your timeline, 5 seconds before you disappeared."
Toshiro slightly paled, "There's no other way?"
"That's the only way."
Toshiro sighed, "Fine, I will do it."
Kotori beamed, "Perfect! But before you go, I need to connect your Zanpakuto with Mokutekichi (2) so that I can guide you when you do your adventure."
"Mokutekichi?!" Toshiro was lost.
"My Zanpakuto," Kotori brought her hand up, "Now give me your Zanpakuto."
"Why?!" Toshiro asked, clutching Hyorinmaru tighter to his chest.
Kotori rolled her eyes, "Relax, hush. I just need to connect our Zanpakuto together so that I can guide you when you need me. After all, I'm a professor in traveling through different dimensions."
Reluctantly, Toshiro gave Kotori his Zanpakuto. The girl unsheathed both Hyorinmaru and her Zanpakuto, Mokutekichi, and crossed them together. Then, she closed her eyes, muttering something. Suddenly, there was a faint gray smoke coming from Mokutekichi and slowly entering Hyorinmaru. After that, Kotori gave Hyorinmaru back to Toshiro.
"What did you do?" Toshiro looked at Hyorinmaru but found nothing wrong with his Zanpakuto.
Kotori just smiled. And then, Toshiro heard her voice inside his head.
'Can you hear me?'
'Is that you, Sohma?'
"Yep, that's Baka-chan," a new voice appeared.
'Who are you?' Toshiro asked.
"I'm Mokutekichi, Baka-chan's Zanpakuto," Mokutekichi said.
'I'm not a baka, shut up!' Kotori snapped.
"Please don't argue in my Master's head," Hyorinmaru joined the conversation.
"Oh, you are Toshiro's Zanpakuto."
'It's Hitsugaya-taicho!'
"Yes, I'm Hyorinmaru," Hyorinmaru and Mokutekichi ignored the white haired boy.
"Perfectly fine," Kotori giggled softly.
"There is nothing fine here," Toshiro grumbled, "Now I have two other voices inside my head."
"Hush, stop complaining Toshiro," Kotori chuckled.
"It's Hitsugaya-taicho to you!"
"Hai, hai, Hitsu-Hitsu."
Toshiro twitched, "You…"
Kotori ignored the captain.
"Well, you need to go now," she said and her eyes suddenly glowed black.
A portal appeared right after that. Toshiro looked at it, and then looked back at Kotori.
"Uh… I need to go in there?!" he asked reluctantly.
"Yep!"
Toshiro took a deep breathe, "Well, if that's the only way…"
With that, he stepped through the portal.
And so, Toshiro's crazy adventure really began.
This is the longest chapter I've ever wrote!
(1) Setsuzoku: The Connnection
(2) Mokutekichi: Destinations
I hope you like this chapter. And no, there won't be any romance between Shi-chan and Sohma Kotori. Sure, they will become very close in the future stories, but not in the romantic way. They are just best friends.
There won't be any pairing either because I'm sucks at writing romantic stuff.
Well, here is the last chapter of TCA. Look for the sequel, please!