"You're being too lenient with an opponent you've only hit once. Haven't you ever heard of following through?" —Tōshirō Hitsugaya.
°
°
°
°
°°°°°°°°°°
[POV: With Tōshirō Hitsugaya]
One of the earliest lessons Tōshirō had learnt as a Shinigami was concerning the fact that their Zanpakutō spirit was a reflection of their inner soul. It was the baring forth of who they were at their depths.
Initially, Tōshirō refused to accept the fact that he was an inherently cold and unfeeling person at his core. Sure, he was a little brash, rude and an all-round little shit, but he wasn't what he saw in Hyōrinmaru. That frozen heaven, as beautiful as it was, wasn't who he was.
Except he hadn't understood then. Props to that man for being right as usual.
Tōshirō had not known it was possible for a person to be… this. To have their heart turn so cold that it scared them so much that they faked warmth.
He had to, because he was terrified of what he would look like if he so much as stopped for a single moment. For the others; for Momo, for the chief priest, for Rangiku and the rest of his friends, he had to lie and show them that he wasn't as hurt as he really was.
Kusaka had been like a brother to him, his best friend, and it meant the world to him when he found out that they shared the same Zanpakutō spirit, despite the taboo nature of it.
He had promised… and that was why it probably hurt more than it should have. He had promised them that they would be alright, and they believed him, of course they would, after all he was Itachi Uchiha.
If anything, Tōshirō felt that he should have been the one to die. Kusaka had gotten used to Hyōrinmaru in a fraction of the time that it took Tōshirō, and if nothing else, Tōshirō knew that being a Shinigami meant more to Kusaka than it did to him. He would rather he had died than Kusaka.
Then again, maybe Kusaka would not have had to die for him if Itachi had done something. He had no idea what Itachi could have done, or even if he could, but he didn't care. He hated him a cold hatred because Kusaka had died.
It was a dark irony that even after everything, the man never stopped teaching him something new.
...
He ducked under a wild swipe and stabbed his blade into the face of the Hollow behind him and instantly froze it to death.
Another Hollow, an avian type, swooped down and bit away half of his body, only for its eyes to widen as it saw that what it bit was an ice clone of its target, that and a part of its mouth was now frozen.
Its eyes widened in panic when it felt something land on its back.
"Not a particularly smart one, are you?" It heard a cold voice say, "Not like I blame you."
It couldn't even screech as it fell to the ground dead.
Tōshirō released a breath of frozen air and the small pieces of ice all over his body started flaking away.
"That takes care of these guys."
He turned towards the sounds of footsteps behind him and saw a tired Shinigami, Gozu, being from one of the groups that had been beset by the sudden inflow of Hollows.
"Oh, you took care of the rest? Man, you're a lifesaver, Tōshirō." Gozu exclaimed with a relieved sigh. His eyes were wide in wonder as he saw the remains of disappearing Hollows.
"If you hadn't showed up when you did, me and the others would have been dead and gone." Gozu admitted, sounding a little sober.
"Don't worry about it. It's literally my job." He said, his words somehow making Gozu chuckle. And this was the reason he stopped himself from falling completely to the cold.
"Are the others alright? Any critically wounded?"
Gozu shook his head. "Other than some broken bones and nasty cuts, nothing effectively dire. Which is not really a comfort if you think about it. It was only dumb luck we survived."
Tōshirō smacked the rather muscled man on the back. "You're alive, that's what matters. Don't go downplaying it."
Gozu deflated and smiled weakly. "Yeah, you're right."
Tōshirō sheathed his blade and looked around with a studying glance. "Are you guys going to be okay?"
Gozu nodded grimly, knowing why Tōshirō was asking. The frequency of Hollow attacks on the Rukongai citizens had increased in the last week and every now and then they had groups like Gozu's who had very close brushes with death when fighting back these Hollows. Some weren't so lucky like they were.
They were probably other groups like his that were tasked with culling the recent Hollow problem, and they too had very high chances of being overwhelmed.
"We'll be fine. We can all walk so we shouldn't have any problems getting back. Go on ahead, don't worry about us."
Tōshirō said nothing except give Gozu a nod before hurried away for the nearest group. The only bright side for the increased activities was that it kept his mind occupied and gave him real targets to vent his heart on."
He came to a stop when he came across some stray Hollows and took in their surroundings with hard eyes. The remnant traces of Reiatsu and the patches of destruction was a telling sign of battle, except that there were no Shinigami present.
The glee he could sense from the Hollows was a clear giveaway.
The first one noticed him too late until he was cutting through its neck where its hole sat.
The second one was more alert, the springy type — the type he hated the most.
It opened its mouth and shot out a concentrated volley of coiled-tipped carapaces, but Tōshirō was already out of its line of sight, and it turned its head to follow.
"Bakudō #9: Geki."
A red flare lit up around the spindly Hollow and paralyzed its movements for a short moment, its mouth wide open in preparation for another attack, but one that would never come as a thin line of ice divided its body into two equal parts.
Tōshirō turned to the last Hollow, only to frown when he saw that it was already dead. Immediately his guard went to the max and that was what saved him from whatever had tried attacking him behind.
A block of ice grew behind him but it quickly broke apart as something smashed through it into where he had been.
He landed in the air, but only for an instant, as he had to move away when someone dropped down on him from above.
He sliced an arc of ice that collided against a ball of fire travelling towards him that promptly exploded.
"Who are you?" he asked the three black clad figures around him. He initially thought they were from Stealth Forces but he dismissed that thought from the feeling of wrongness he got from them.
"It's him, alright." One of them said, his tone gleeful and smug. "Come with us silently and we won't harm you. This is for your own good."
"Or resist and we'll bring you with us either way, makes no difference." Another said, carrying a huge tri-pronged glaive. The last one was a generally huge guy, and was also the one who had broken through Tōshirō's ice with ease.
The three of them, their weird Reiatsu apart, were all wearing Hollow masks, but they weren't like the typical Hollows Tōshirō had seen. They might be those Arrancars they were taught about in the Academy.
"And why are you trying to kidnap me?"
The first one, the guy who used the fire attack, chuckled, and Tōshirō instantly decided that he liked him less than the others.
"You don't have to worry about that, brat. Come with us quietly.." He let the word settle, not quite the subtle threat but he didn't care, and neither did Tōshirō.
Hyōrinmaru thrummed in his hands as an ice dragon grew from its tip and slowly wrapped itself around Tōshirō's torso to his left shoulders.
"So be it."
The other two blurred into action and flanked Tōshirō, who immediately frowned as he felt the weight of their attacks, and made a snap decision of having the dragon wrapped around him attack the huge brute as he blocked the glaive.
His feet immediately buckled under his attacker's strength and he realized he'd grossly miscalculated.
They weren't just strong, they were leagues above him. He briefly saw his ice dragon easily broken apart and the behemoth responsible for it fly towards him as he fell.
It was the culmination of luck, instinct, and training that allowed him the risky maneuver of dodging and attacking the bullheaded thing in the last second before it crashed into him.
He was hardly given reprieve as a giant glaive tore through the air and through the erected ice wall to strike against his sword, sending a bone shaking tremor through his bones.
Cold sweat ran down his brows as he took stock of the harrowing situation he was in. The three of them effectively blocked off any path of retreat, and Tōshirō couldn't help the cold worry that settled in his gut.
––––––
Patreøn*com/QuackVader
––––––