Set 200 years after TYBW...


It was an ordinary, routine day for Hitsugaya Toushiro, Captain of the Tenth Division of the Gotei 13.

Paperwork was more than abundant due to the incurable laziness of his Lieutenant, and so he worked soundlessly and faithfully on the work. Biding his time, he remained patient and utterly silent, heedless to any of Rangiku's words or pleas for him to respond to. Brush in hand and ink pallet close, he dutifully wrote suggestions, signed his name and approved operations of his squad.

And he waited.

"Captain."

"…"

"Captaiiiin."

"…"

"Captain! C'mon, respond or something!"

Given that he had been afflicted for 200 some years with Matsumoto's inability to contribute to official work meaningfully, and he knew all she searched for was a reaction out of him, he remained resolutely silent. The only sound was that of the swish of his brush, and the gentle rustle of his clothes.

"Why are you doing this to meeeeee, Captaiiiiiin…" she whined, slamming her hands on his desk in an attempt to get a rise out of him. His quick reflexes swiftly prevented ink from staining the papers, and from the stacks of papers to be disrupted and to fall.

'Because you have a chronic inability to act your age, and the unrelenting petulance of a child in spite of your age,' he thought cynically, continuing to ignore her existence and her pleas, as she had so done before with him; colloquially known in the human world as a "taste of her own medicine," and he was happy to provide it to her.

Then, he froze before raising and turning his head to look behind his right shoulder. His brow furrowed slightly, before rising from his desk and heading towards the sliding doors behind him, sliding them open to peer in that direction. Grim contemplation overcame his features, keen, turquoise eyes seeing things unnoticed by Rangiku, who tensed at her captain's movements.

If he was acting like this, then something was most certainly wrong.

A sigh was released from his now taller figure, and with a dutiful, calm voice that carried a hint of reluctance, he broke his silence with a command.

"Rangiku."

The Lieutenant jumped a bit at the sound of her captain's voice, which was the first she had heard of it in 12 hours. Involuntarily grinning at the fact he was responding to her again, she chirped, "Y-Yes, Captain!"

"Attend to the paperwork; there is a situation," he ordered before stepping to the edge of the walkway, the pressure of his meticulously controlled reiryoku beginning to spike as he gathered reiatsu to perform shunpo.

"Ye—wait, what?" her smile falling off her face as her captain—who had really grown far too much over the years—disappeared before her eyes, a lingering chill in the air the only indication that he had ever been there.

Glancing towards the piles upon piles of paperwork her captain had completed of his own workload, and the piles of work that remained by her desk completely untouched, Rangiku was overcome with the thought that she would rather face an Espada than have to do any more paperwork. With a great world-weary sigh, she slogged towards the devilish sheets of paper before plopping down in a great heap before her stack.

"Captain is the worst…"


Murmurs unheard, said captain was speeding across the Soul Society with unbelievable speed, a monochrome blur unseen to all of the Lieutenant-level Shinigami, with even some of the comparatively newer captains only able to see an unidentifiable blur.

Zaraki's eye fixed on him unerringly, before flickering closed, aware of the threat but uncommitted due to the weakness of the enemy. Now, if it was Hitsugaya himself, he might have considered trying to go for a duel, but the younger man had become far too stoic and dutiful to allow a duel to interfere with his duties in the recent century.

'Maybe I'll rile him up afterwards… see how that goes… it's been a while since his bankai has been released…'

A sly, almost frightening smile stretched across his sharp, thin, angular face as his scars stretched. Disturbing laughter that had the more cowardly of the 11th Division shiver with fear, and the more battle hungry of the Division tense in anticipation, thundered through the barracks.


Tendrils of reiatsu flickered through Toushiro's vision, icy eyes searching for the telltale location of the Hollow that was rapidly approaching West Rukongai. Perhaps if it had been any other district, he might have been willing to allow the psychotic 11th Division to handle it, but considering that his hometown was close by the Hollow location, he refused to allow those ruffians to sloppily handle their job.

'...There.'

Leaping forth at impossible speed, Toushiro elegantly stopped at the border of the 80th district of West Rukongai, the area closest to Hollow attacks.

Souls from all over jumped and skittered away from the sudden emergence of the tell-tale white, sleeveless haori of a Shinigami captain, with the symbol of the 10th Division contained within a black rhombus on his back. Strange white hair fluttering from the wind with his haori and clad in a void black shihakusho, the Shinigami removed his long, star-hilted katana from his sheath. Instantly, an almost crushing reiatsu emerged from the individual, forcing even the hardened and lawless 8oth District souls to break out into cold sweats.

"Evacuate the premise; evil approaches," came the icy words of the tall figure, turquoise eyes lined with pale lashes staring forth into the depths of the forest, a grim expression on his handsome face.

Hesitantly, the souls fled from the man, relocating farther into the District in hopes of escaping the suffocating pressure the young man exuded.

Ever vigilant, the young Captain utilized his highly refined reikaku to locate exactly where the Hollow was; with his monstrous reiatsu, the Hollow should be willing to change course for the more delicious meal, but considering its own presence, Toushiro felt it would not be that simple. Narrowing his eyes, he heightened his senses, pushing his sixth sense outward before pulling back the brevity of his reiatsu.

'Either it will ignore me for another meal, or search for me. Either way, it wouldn't be good for the 80th Division souls to be exposed to my reiatsu for too long; I don't want them getting hurt.'

With that, he entered the forest, flying through the foliage and trunks with a calculated silence that would make one think he was merely the wind. Probing with his reikaku, he discovered a highly problematic situation that made panic burst within his chest, a deep feeling of worry coming forward.

Another soul with far too much reiatsu for their own good was in close proximity to the Hollow, and judging by the erratic spikes and flares of the reiatsu, the soul was panicked and most likely evading the Hollow. Brow furrowing, Toushiro pushed his shunpo speed and swiftly recalculated the direction of his movement.

It would take roughly 50 seconds for him to arrive at the location—but 50 seconds was 50 too many when Hollows were concerned. It only took a second for Hollows to kill something, and he prayed fervently that he would arrive before any unnecessary deaths occurred.

Toushiro never did like casualties.


The soul in question was sprinting as fast and unpredictably as she could to remove herself from the Hollow's gaze, but the monster steadily closed in on her, white mask laughing eternally as chills crawled up her spine. Long, sinuous, and armored, the Hollow resembled some demented lizard with a concerning amount of plating along its spin and chest. Enormous claws gouged deep divots into the forest floor, ripping trees and slicing trunks in its pursuit of the female soul.

Ebony hair whirling as she turned, she grabbed a fallen tree branch and javelined it into the eye of the beast, only for its claw to catch it with an inhumane laughter emerging from the jagged toothed maw of the beast. What it didn't expect was what occurred next.

"Explode!" she hollered before the branch began to steam, then burn, then glow with heat that even the Hollow could feel before it combusted right in its face, bright red flames igniting and cracking part of the mask. A horrific scream that shook the ground and made her wish to rip her eardrums thundered from behind her, and she fell, disoriented.

A mess of disjointed limbs and suddenly non-functioning balance, she scrambled to her feet and continued to push herself as far as she could from the Hollow that was now enraged by her attempts at protecting herself. Stumbling over fallen trunks, raised earth, and all other natural obstacles, she hurried to find some way of hiding herself or escaping the beast, as clearly she wasn't going to be able to kill it; a quick backward glance confirmed the mask to already be healed from her pitiful attack.

An unsuspecting root that had appeared in her glance back had her tumbling down a slope, rolling through vegetation and bumping her head against various obstacles until she collapsed in the middle of a clearing in the forest. Slamming her tentatively protected head against the sand at the impact, her mind whorled and colors blurred into a mosaic of green paint strokes, the white blur the only indication of the steadily approaching Hollow. Its wails rumbled through her mind painfully, a splitting madness ripping through her at the too-loud noise.

Shaking while trying to get up, she all but crawled from the monster, not trusting her legs to carry her further.

'So this is where I die? Some stupid jungle from a junkyard with a monster eating me? C'mon, what did I do to the gods to hate me so?'

Too much was apparently the answer, as a beam of uncomfortably hot energy that was scarlet brushed past her, missing her by the margin of a hair. If she hadn't sensed the gathering of the energy and rolled—which did not agree with her headache and vertigo—she would have been cooked.

In some macabre sense of payback, the Hollow had launched a cero at her.

'Well, that was quite the reaction,' she sweated, adrenaline pushing back the weakness and vertigo from her mind as best as possible as she turned to stare the Hollow down. 'Nothing like a close encounter to clear the mind, I guess.'

Dragging herself to her feet, she shakily poured all that remained of her energy into a burning flame of scarlet before placing it on the ground and readying her foot to launch the ball. She would not die before she forced even the smallest amount of her bitterness upon her hunter, in retaliation for all the suffering this thing had brought.

"Y'know, the fact that you might've once been like me really irritates me, you monster," she spat, gray eyes hateful as she zeroed in on the beast. "It makes me mad that you couldn't let go enough to spare others of your pain; but, what I hate even more was that no one even tried to help you."

Cocking her leg, she let loose a vicious kick that aimed at the mask precisely while yelling, "Consider this an apology, you freakin' monster!"

With a howl of pain, the beast tanked the blow and barreled toward her, swiping her into a tree where she slammed against her spine and back, breath rushing out of her before collapsing on her side. As the Hollow writhed, trying with no avail to remove the flames, she felt the world slip out from under her feet, the all too familiar feeling of death hovering over her.

'...I wonder what happens to souls when they die… if I'm forced into a world like this again, I think I'll pass on reincarnation.'

Flames put out, the creature gazed at her with madness in its glowing red eyes, its smile rising with disturbing mirth and hatred that would have caused her to fear, if not for the steadily fading sensations of reality. Stalking towards her slowly, it sensed the hunt was almost over, its elusive and troublesome prey finally still for its consumption. Roaring with delight, it speedily encroached on her, a shadow against the sun in the sky.

'Dang,' she thought as the shadow consumed her, 'I didn't wanna die like this… not again…'

It was then a smooth, icy baritone voice rang out with all the finality of winter in his voice.

"Reign over the frosted heavens, Hyorinmaru."

Instantly, the Hollow whipped around, a strange panic in its movements as it backed away from the voice, the ambient temperature of the entire clearing dropping drastically at the arrival of a suffocating being. The sun was blocked out with clouds promising snow and frost, the lone figure releasing an indescribable pressure that made soul and Hollow alike breathless.

Rising above their heads, an enormous dragon forged of ice and winter roared into existence with a flick of the man's blade, white hair and strange sleeveless cloak whirling with the movement. Frozen turquoise eyes glared at the Hollow with disdain that seemed colder than even the temperature, paralyzing the Hollow with a terrible sense of helplessness.

"Rejoice, Hollow—I have come to cleanse your sins."

As if waking up from a dream, the Hollow shrieked before immediately turning to flee, but clearly it had been a fool to showcase its back to the man, to even deign to defy the man its' death.

The pale dragon roared and with a flick of his blade, the ice monster flew towards the Hollow, biting its head off with a decisive blow. A horrific sound of hierro, bone, flesh, and soul tearing was all the noise in the suddenly silent clearing. It didn't even have the chance to give one final wail, or fire off a cero before it was erased from existence.

Somehow, the monstrosity that had offered her so much trouble was defeated nigh-instantaneously by the man. Turning her gaze away from the Hollow, she was surprised to feel strong, cool hands raise her shoulders, cradling her upper half to a black clothed chest. Looking up, the man sheathed his blade and sternly observed her condition, brow furrowed worriedly.

Up close, he was far more handsome than she would have suspected, with an angular, pleasing face, startling turquoise eyes, tanned skin, and silver white hair. Strangely, he seemed rather young when compared to his gaze, which was as ancient as the permafrost.

"My apologies—I came later than I should have. You did well to survive so long against such a Hollow, especially with no training. Rest assured, I will apply kido to you as a temporary fix, then I will escort you to the 4th Division for healing."

Closing his stunning eyes, he appeared to concentrate before placing his palm on her abdomen and releasing something into her. A gasp escaped her lips unwillingly as a wave of cold circulated into her limbs with a shock, the cold somehow comfortable and discomforting all at once. Instinctively, she began to writhe, hoping to free herself of the sensation, but he simply responded by tightening his grip on her. His eyes opened, and his gaze that seemed to advise her to cease moving froze her.

"Please, hold still—that will make the treatment more effective. The cold is merely a product of my reiatsu, the energy that is healing you right now; I know it is unpleasant, but please, be at ease for now. It will get better."

And he was right—over the course of a few minutes, the pain was receding in the wake of the now soothing cold, and with it came a loosening of his expression, just a tad. Soon, the flow of the energy—reiatsu as he called it—ceased, and she was left with a strangely comfortable numbing afterglow. A deep sigh was released from the man, and with it a small cloud of cold.

Glancing up, she felt her heart thunder as she read his placid expression.

Beneath the returned sun, he looked strangely melancholy as he stared at her, the emotion inlaid into the semi-precious color of his eyes while his face remained stone cold and impassive. He seemed to search for something in her ash gray eyes: a question, an identity, maybe even a memory. However, the strange sadness was hidden with a blink of his eyes as he hauled her up fully into his arms.

"You should be sturdy enough now to be able to handle shunpo—I'll protect you with some of my reiryoku though, just to be safe. Are you ready?"

Nodding at his almost clinical tone, a chill swept through and around her, like a glove carefully fitted to her skin. And then, they were moving faster than she could comprehend, faster than she could see, and faster than her thoughts that ran rampant while she tried to determine the reasoning behind his gaze.

"Do you have a name?"

The unexpected question was almost lost on her, but she had enough presence of mind to reply faintly, "Yeah… Karin, I think."

An infinitesimal tensing that she only sensed due to her direct proximity to his chest revealed more of his reaction than his facial expression did, his voice belying nothing as he acknowledged, "Then you have my word as the 10th Division Captain of the Gotei 13, Karin—you will be healed, and your life will be better."

Closing her eyes at the overstimulation of the surroundings, she found herself drifting off in the cold veil that surrounded her, feeling like she was sleeping in a snowfield…