Disclaimer - I own neither Bleach nor D Gray Man
Chapter Twenty-Two - Mysterious Music
"Toushirou!" Allen exclaimed as he watched his companion fly across the room, hitting the wall with an audible thud. The young Shinigami/Exorcist slid down the wall and landed on his side, seemingly stunned by the blow. Ignoring the two opponents that they were facing Allen ran toward his friend. "Are you alright?"
"I'll live," Hitsugaya muttered, getting shakily to his feet. He immediately lost his balance and was forced to kneel on the ground, lest he collapse in a heap. It appeared as though he'd hit the wall harder than he had previously thought.
"We need to do something," Allen said, his gray eyed gaze focused on their opponents. Both Noah were standing across the room, glaring at them through cold golden eyes.
"I know," Hitsugaya said, for once agreeing completely with Allen. They were barely managing to hold their own against the two Noah and they definitely needed a plan in order to emerge from this battle victorious. And neither was willing to accept failure.
"Tyki," Road said, her gaze focused on the two white haired youths. The enjoyment of torturing the pair was diminishing with each attack and now the young girl was growing bored. It was time to finish this and move on to something more fun. "I think it's time that we end this."
"Right," Tyki said, a sinister smile spreading across his face.
Neither Hitsugaya nor Allen had any idea what the two Noah were plotting however Hitsugaya's eyes widened as the two Noah began to combine their power. He could actually feel it growing and instinctively knew that neither he nor Allen would be able to survive the attack if they were hit by it directly. An inner voice was telling him that he had to do something and that he had to do it fast. A blank expression appeared in the youth's eyes as he once again got slowly to his feet.
"Toushirou...."
Allen gazed at his friend, a stunned expression on his face. It appeared as though Hitsugaya had gone into some kind of trance; he was staring at the pair of Noah that they were facing off against but Allen couldn't be certain that he was actually seeing anything. And then the boy's eyes changed....
Allen gasped, completely stunned by this change in his friend. "I don't understand. Toushirou.... what's going on?"
As though he were operating on auto pilot the Shinigami/Exorcist held up his sword. It looked as though the boy were going to attack but when the boy finally swung the blade of his sword it was in slow motion. As though he were going through the moves of a kata and not facing off against an enemy.
"I think he's gone crazy," Road commented as she watched the boy swing the sword slowly in an arc in front of both him and Allen.
"I think you're...."
Tyki's words were cut off abruptly as a haunting melody suddenly filled the air. The source of the song was unclear but the two Noah stared in disbelief as a bubble of energy seemed to envelope the two Exorcists. Seconds later the melody faded and the energy disappeared, revealing that the two Exorcists were gone.
"What just happened?" Road demanded, her glaring gaze focused on the spot where their opponents had been mere seconds before.
"I think that we should report back to Lord Millennium immediately," Tyki said, unnerved by the Exorcists' sudden escape. That music had seemed familiar to him but.... it just wasn't possible. That man was long dead and there was no way....
"Right."
Having blacked out briefly Allen opened his eyes and gazed around at his surroundings. No longer trapped in Road's dimension it appeared as though he and Hitsugaya had returned to the dock where they had left their friends fighting against the Akuma.
The only difference was that the ship was gone.
"I hope everyone's alright," Allen muttered to himself before he turned his attention to his companion. There were so many questions that he wanted to ask Hitsugaya about what had just happened but it appeared as though that would have to wait.
The boy was lying on the ground beside him, unconscious.
Reaching toward the boy Allen pulled open one of his eyelids and the young Exorcist actually heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that the boy's eye was teal and not... "I must have imagined that," Allen thought to himself, shaking his head. It was the stress of this journey to track down Master Cross, that had to be the explanation. After all there was simply no way that Hitsugaya could be one of them.
He hadn't even known anything about them after all.
A groan signaled the boy's return to the world of consciousness and Allen quickly moved away from him. He didn't fancy irritating his partner and he had the feeling that his close proximity would do just that. Allen watched as Hitsugaya opened his eyes and then shakily sat up.
The Shinigami/Exorcist gazed around and a confused expression appeared on his face. "How the hell did we get back here?"
"You don't remember?" Allen questioned, his gray eyed gaze focused on the smaller boy.
"No," Hitsugaya snapped, his eyes narrowing as he stared at Allen. "Should I?"
"You're the one who brought us back here," Allen told his friend, watching his face so that he could gauge his reaction to the news. "You swung your sword in slow motion and we were transported back here."
With a shaking hand Hitsugaya reached out and picked up the sword that was lying on the ground beside him, gazing at the blade as though this were the first time that he had ever seen it. The strange blue aura that normally surrounded the blade was gone, replaced by some strange little symbols that appeared to be etched into the steel.
Symbols that had definitely not been there before.
"None of this makes any sense," Hitsugaya said, sheathing his sword and getting to his feet. "So what happened to the Noah?"
Allen shrugged his shoulders. "I don't have any idea."
"Well I suppose that we should hurry and meet up with the others," Hitsugaya said, heaving a sigh. He really wished that he knew what the hell was going on but the answers seemed elusive. Weird things kept happening but there wasn't anyone around who could explain to him what it all meant. And that was starting to irritate the boy.
"Right," Allen said, his gaze focused on the horizon. "But how?"
"Working on it," Hitsugaya said, pulling a strange device from the inside pocket of his Exorcists coat. The youth punched in a series of numbers and then turned his attention back to Allen. "We'll travel back to Soul Society and then use a Senkaimon to travel to Edo. It's the fastest way to get there and, if we're lucky, we should be able to meet up with the others."
Allen nodded and together he and Hitsugaya waited for the gate that would take them to Soul Society. He would be lying if he said that he wasn't somewhat concerned over the fact that Hitsugaya had been able to transport them out of Road's dimension and yet had no conscious memory of doing anything. There was definitely something odd about his companion and, after this latest incident, Allen found himself desperately wanting to know what it was.
When Road and Tyki arrived back at the manor of the Millennium Earl they quickly made their way to the dining room, instinctively knowing that this would be where they would find the Earl. When they stepped inside the room they saw that he was indeed sitting at his place at the head of the table and that Jasdero, Devit, and Skin were there as well.
All eyes turned toward the door as the Noah of Pleasure and the Noah of Dreams stepped into the room.
"Well?" the Earl said, after a couple of moments of silence. "Have you completed your mission? Are the two Exorcist boys dead?"
"There's something that we need to tell you concerning that," Tyki said in a calm voice as he and Road made their way across the room toward the table.
"I'm listening," the Earl said as Tyki and Road both took their customary seats. He gazed at them over the top of his little round spectacles, anxious to hear what they had to say. Anxious to know what had prevented them from fulfilling their mission because he could tell by the expressions on their faces that they had failed.
The two white haired Exorcists were still alive.
"We had them trapped," Road said, her expression cold. She still couldn't believe that the two boys had managed to escape when she and Tyki were on the verge of ending their miserable existences and needless to say she was angry over the entire situation. "And we were about to kill them when the short one, Hitsugaya, started swinging his sword around really slowly. Then the air filled with music, a strange force field surrounded them, and they vanished."
"Music..." the Earl repeated, his eyes growing wide and his perpetual grin turning sinister.
Tyki and Road both nodded and they could tell, by the pure hatred that filled the Earl's eyes, that he had reached the same conclusion that they had themselves; somehow the Musician had returned. But for some reason he didn't seem to remember any of them nor did he seem to have conscious control over his powers.
And on top of everything his appearance had changed. He looked like a child and not the man that they remembered.
"He will die," the Earl vowed, his voice calm and his tone deadly.
The Musician was the one who had betrayed them. A member of the Clan of Noah, the Noah of Praise, the boy had been one of the Earl's favored children until the day that he had betrayed them all. That had led to the Musician's death and yet somehow he had returned.
"I don't know by what magic he has returned," the Earl said, clenching his hands into fists. "But once the new Ark is complete I will personally make sure that the boy goes back to where he came from. Slowly and painfully."
"Come on Allen," Hitsugaya said once the portal into Soul Society had been opened for them. The young captain walked toward the Senkaimon and Allen quickly fell into step behind him. It was important that they meet up with their comrades as soon as possible and this was the fastest way that Hitsugaya could think of.
After all, they couldn't use flash-step without leaving their gigais behind and they needed them so that wasn't an option.
So the Senkaimon really was their only option.
Stepping through the Senkaimon Hitsugaya and Allen traveled back to Soul Society and, once there, Hitsugaya quickly set about forming another gate that would lead them to Edo. To the city where their comrades had traveled. The young Shinigami/Exorcist desperately wanted to seek out Head Captain Ukitake and ask the man if he had any idea what was going on but he knew that he didn't have the time to do that right now.
Perhaps once they had located General Cross he would be able to come back and find out if Ukitake knew anything about his life as a human. Knew anything about the strange powers that he seemed to possess and yet at the same time didn't know anything about.
The powers that he had no explanation for and little control over.
"I will find out," Hitsugaya vowed.
"Are you alright?" Allen asked his companion as the shorter boy set about summoning the Senkaimon that would take them back to the world of the living. Hitsugaya had such a tortured look in his eyes and Allen was worried about him. And after everything that he had witnessed he knew that all was not right with the boy.
"I'm fine," Hitsugaya said shortly. It was obviously a lie but Hitsugaya knew that it would be enough to ensure that Allen didn't press the issue. In truth he was about as far away from alright as it was possible to be but that wasn't something that he wanted to share with anyone.
He had a mission after all and he would complete that mission no matter what. Using a burst of reiatsu to open the Senkaimon he turned back to his companion. "Let's go."
"Right," Allen said.
A/N - and there's the end of another chapter and now it's blatantly obvious what's up with Hitsugaya. Which means that I get to reveal the winners of the contest. Yes winners. I decided to reward everyone who guessed correctly in the chapter where I introduced the challenge and those people are: Black Sun Upon An Icy Sky, FallenHope-Angel and Nebelkind. Congratulations. If you're one of the winners then you can request a one-shot story. Just send me a PM telling me what you want. Now please leave a review and tell me what you thought of this chapter.