Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Endurance ❯ Part II ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Part II

Hitsugaya woke to muffled voices and a pounding headache. Someone was arguing near him with Matsumoto; he could recognize her voice anywhere, especially when she got mad. Lazily, he wondered what they were arguing about, but when he heard his name mentioned more than once, he realized that he should probably try to wake up fully.

But damn, his eyelids were heavy. Rather, his entire body felt like it weighed a ton, and he was starting to notice just how uncomfortable he was. Not that he was laying on anything hard - in fact, his current location felt rather soft and pleasant; a bed, perhaps - it was more the fact that he felt as though one of those human “cars” had run him over. Five times, at least. And then backwards.

Ugh, he grunted, mostly to himself.

“Captain…?” he heard Matsumoto question in a soft voice, after hushing the other person with a harsh hiss.

Oh, had he actually grunted aloud? He hadn't meant to. Struggling to open his eyes, he squinted as harsh light poured rather rudely into his vision. Once his eyes adjusted, he could make out the frown on Matsumoto's forehead as she leaned over him, and wrinkled his nose when her long strawberry-blonde hair tickled his face. He wanted to reach up and bat it away, but somehow he didn't have the energy.

“You feeling alright?” she asked, keeping her voice low. Cloth rustled, and he felt something lift from his forehead before her cool hand brushed against it.

He wanted to answer, but he was having trouble finding his voice. “I-I've felt better,” he managed to croak, but his throat protested angrily as he spoke.

The answer seemed to be enough to lessen a few of the worry-lines from his vice-captain's forehead, though. She replaced her hand with a cool cloth on his forehead, and it was then that he realized he must have a fever. No wonder he felt so horrid. He hadn't felt this sick in a very long time… if his memory served him well at all.

“Here, drink this,” Matsumoto instructed as she helped him lift his head a little. When a straw was placed to his lips, he drank greedily, and the water soothed his sore throat and dry mouth. “You're back at Urahara's now, Captain. The Fourth Division has been contacted. Your paperwork is in good hands, and your teacher has been informed that you will be missing some school,” she continued as he drank.

He stopped drinking. “How long have I been here?” he asked with a frown.

Matsumoto bit her lip. “You passed out not quite an hour ago, so not long,” she replied. “But you're running a fever, and your injuries aren't quite healed yet. Orihime is on her way. Why didn't you tell me you were sick before you went on that walk?”

“I wasn't sick.” Sore, maybe, but definitely not ill.

Matsumoto sighed. “You don't have to lie about it, since it's obvious that you're plenty ill now.”

With a frown, Hitsugaya repeated, “I wasn't sick.”

A strange look came over the vice-captain's face, and for a moment Hitsugaya wondered what she was thinking. But it was readily apparent that she believed him, since she didn't insist on it anymore. It was hard to focus on her face, though, as he suddenly realized that his vision was blurring, and that he really didn't feel well at all. His back stung uncomfortably, and his wrist throbbed, but most of all he felt as though an invisible hand was trying to wring out his brain within his skull. And the room was far too hot for his liking. But despite all irritation, he lost the battle against fatigue, and couldn't stop his eyelids from sliding down once more.

“Captain?”

He tried to answer. The cloth was being removed from his forehead, and he heard a hissed curse and some distant shouting, but suddenly he didn't care.

Of all the emotions Abarai Renji had seen the buxom vice-captain Matsumoto display, none of them had ever been panic. When she had originally burst into Urahara's shop with the limp captain in her arms, eyes wide with fright and voice shrill with alarm, he had stared at her with open-mouthed for a moment before he had moved to assist her.

“He's just sick, Ran-chan,” he had said easily then as he helped her ease the young captain down onto a futon. “Probably overworked. I'm sure if he takes it easy a few days, he'll be back to his workaholic self in no time.”

He had argued with Matsumoto about calling in Captain Unohana, and told her that shorty would be fine if they had Tessai take a look. Matsumoto told him that he had gone with Urahara. Renji offered to take care of the wounds until Urahara came back from wherever he had run off to. But that had been before the captain began showing signs of a very serious illness, and was only getting worse as time passed.

At one point, Hitsugaya had awakened and had exchanged weak words with his vice-captain. Renji hadn't heard their conversation, but he could tell from the way that the captain spoke - and eerily didn't move - that he was in trouble. Hitsugaya hadn't even acknowledged any presence other than Rangiku's, and as he was a captain, Renji found it frightening, too. Hitsugaya had passed out, even while just lying down. Then Matsumoto had lost it, especially when the young captain remained unresponsive.

She had a good reason to worry; Hitsugaya's fever had gotten worse. It took both of them to relieve the captain of his torn and dirty captain's robe, and then they stripped him down to his waist. The long wounds on his back had formed ugly-looking black edges. Even the usual healing kidou spells did nothing for the wounds, though Renji knew that it could be because he lacked skill in medical spells. That was Rukia's flavor, and Rukia - unfortunately - was out on patrol. Perhaps the thing that worried Renji the most about the captain's sudden illness was that his spirit force was far more difficult to detect than it should have been. Matsumoto really had good reasons to worry.

Renji hadn't felt so helpless in some time - not since Rukia's imprisonment. All he could do for now was to help make sure that Hitsugaya's fever didn't worsen, and that Matsumoto didn't do something ridiculously stupid in her frazzled state. When she shouted at him to get a bucket of cold water and some cloths, he did so quickly, and found her trying desperately to rouse the captain, using everything she could think of - soft, gentle words, angered shaking, even jokingly telling him that Hinamori was watching. Renji put the bucket down and placed a hand on Matsumoto's shoulder, shaking his head when she looked up at him. Worry was deeply etched into her forehead and mouth and eyes. Biting her lip, she shrugged his hand away and took a washcloth, dipped it into the bucket, wrung it out and then turned and placed it on the captain's bare chest. He was useless to help comfort her, too.

“I'll watch for Orihime,” he offered, turning to the door. “Let me know if it gets worse.” And he somehow he knew it would, too.

Renji also had a feeling that at the most, Orihime would only be able to heal the surface wounds. They did really need Captain Unohana's aid. Soon.

The next time Hitsugaya woke, he realized that almost no time had passed, and was fully expecting to be in pain. But much to his surprise, he wasn't. Well, his back still stung and his wrist still felt sore, but the nasty sick feeling from before had vanished. A cold wind blew against the backs of his eyelids, and behind him he heard the deep, familiar rumbling, one that spoke of warning and comfort. Slowly opening his eyes, he noticed that he was lying against a large, strong body inside of a cave, and that outside the cave there was a harsh blizzard. He blinked, surprised to find himself here. He knew this place well, but something was off.

“H-Hyourinmaru?” he ventured. His `bed' shifted beneath him, and the rumbling ceased.

“Toushirou,” the dragon acknowledged, his deep-throated voice resonating within the beast's chest, and vibrating against Hitsugaya's back.

The captain was horribly confused. With a wince, he forced himself to sit up before he turned to face his zanpakutou, an eyebrow raised in question. The dragon's expression was difficult to read, though as it remained silent, Hitsugaya had a feeling that something was horribly wrong. Why was he here, and why were his injuries from the fight present?

“You don't know what's going on,” Hitsugaya said, managing to keep the question out of his voice.

“I know that you are here, injured, and that it was by no choice of your own,” the dragon replied. “And I know that there is someone unwelcome here.”

Hitsugaya stiffened, eyes widening as he suddenly knew exactly what was happening. “Hyourinmaru, I'm going to need your strength - we're going to have to fight.”

The dragon's cold eyes met with his own, sparkling. “It isn't safe to fight here. Not with an outsider, and not in your condition.”

“We don't have a choice.” He pulled himself to his feet, testing his balance carefully.

The dragon rumbled its assent, also moving to stand. Hyourinmaru knew as soon as Hitsugaya did. The attack that sent many Division 10 shinigami to the Division 4 headquarters in Soul Society. Yamamori. The puppeteer-Hollow.

“…we weren't able to lay a finger on him during the last attack…”

“…all the Shinigami that were injured in that attack came down sick with something really weird…”

And then, the Hollow's voice echoing eerily off the cave's walls. “ You haven't beaten me yet, boy!”

He too had been afflicted, but by now it was apparent that this was no simple illness. It was an invasion.

Orihime gasped and dropped her first aid kit when she saw the furrows torn into Hitsugaya's small back as Renji and Matsumoto gently turned the unconscious boy-captain on his side. She looked like she was going to be ill, but seeming to steel her resolve, she moved quickly to take a closer look at the wounds.

“These… how long has he had these?” she asked, uncertainly.

“They're not much more than two hours old,” Matsumoto replied wearily. “What do you make of it?”

“It looks like an infection, but…” she began, but paused, thinking, before she shrugged. “I don't know; I never did well in my first aid classes at school. But I know that looks bad.”

Renji stifled a snort - barely - and Matsumoto caught it just enough to shoot him a glare.

“Do you think you can do anything about it?” Matsumoto asked, keeping her glare trained on Renji.

“Well… I don't know, since I haven't done anything like this before, but I can try!” Orihime said with a forced smile.

Before she could actually do anything about it, the unconscious captain moaned and began coughing heavily, curling in on himself. Matsumoto immediately turned back to Hitsugaya, hovering uncertainly, and motioned Orihime to come closer to help. But when they heard an audible snap, and when blood began trickling from Hitsugaya's mouth and nose, Orihime fainted.

After Hitsugaya took a second wobbling step, Hyourinmaru snorted.

“Are you sure you're up for this?” the dragon asked in its deep-throated rumbling voice. “Though the physical signs of your illness won't pass to this side, your mind still knows of it. And you're still injured, even here.”

Hitsugaya gripped the wall of the cave, and turned to glare at the dragon. “Do I really have a choice?” he asked curtly. “I need to get whatever it is lurking here out, and quickly. I don't like those who intrude on my privacy.”

A low, somewhat familiar chuckle at the cave's entrance pulled a low growl from the dragon, and a glare from the shinigami. No, he knew who it was now, and he understood a lot more - this invasion was directly a result of the Hollow attack from earlier, somehow. He wondered briefly how exactly the final Hollow he had defeated had found its way into his mind.

“I see you've figured at least part of it out, boy,” the puppeteer-Hollow grinned wickedly. “I was beginning to get worried, that I had targeted someone incompetent.”

Hitsugaya reached to his back for the hilt of his sword, only to find nothing. Of course, his sword - Hyourinmaru - was materialized beside him in his mind. He glanced back at the dragon, whose eyes shone with battle excitement and bloodlust. They were going to have to work together; Hitsugaya had never tried fighting without the sword in his hands before. Nor had the battlefield ever been his mind, but this was an inevitable first experience. He wasn't looking forward to it.

“Now that I have your attention, little shinigami, I would like you to take this message with you to Soul Society,” the Hollow began.

“This is my mind, Hollow,” Hitsugaya snapped, interrupting it. “I am the one who will give the orders around here. You are an unwelcome guest, and either you leave by choice or I will have to force you out.”

The Hollow's porcelain lips curled up into a wicked grin. “You are interesting. I think I will enjoy breaking you, young one.”

With a growl, Hitsugaya charged straight at the Hollow, fist balled and pulled back in preparation for a blow. He did not expect to see the Hollow move so quickly, and so he was surprised when he realized that the Hollow was suddenly behind him. Whirling, he barely had time to cross his arms in front of his face to try to block the coming blow. Instead, the Hollow aimed for his gut, and with a muffled cry, sent him crashing into a wall of the cave. Even as he gained his feet, he couldn't block the follow-through aimed at his face. He was even more surprised when he tasted blood in his mouth and felt it trickling from his numbed nose, and when he realized that it hurt to breathe. The blow must have cracked a few ribs.

But it shouldn't have.

He didn't have much time to ponder on it before the Hollow struck at him again. This time, he scrambled just out of reach, and managed to toss a quick kidou back at the beast to buy himself some time. He would have to find a way to work with Hyourinmaru, who still seemed to hesitate despite the dragon's clear desire to fight. His eyes met with the dragon's.

`Be careful,' Hitsugaya was sure he heard, though it was difficult to tell if Hyourinmaru had actually spoken.

Even as the dragon's voice faded from his mind, he saw the Hollow's descent and flipped backwards to avoid it. Not quickly enough - he felt several sharp stripes of hot pain as the Hollow's claw-like fingers raked across his chest. The blow caused him to stumble several steps further, and when he slipped on a rock and fell badly, he realized with horror that he wouldn't be able to block or dodge the coming blow.

It never came. In the span of a second, the Hollow was suddenly tossed across the cave, and now the dragon stood in front of its master, eyes blazing as it growled lowly. When the Hollow didn't stand up after a moment, Hyourinmaru turned to face the captain, eyeing him skeptically as he tried to rise and failed. With a grunt, Hitsugaya gave up and worked instead on catching his breath first.

“I… Thank you,” Hitsugaya panted after a moment, but he couldn't seem to find breath to continue saying much. He could still taste blood on his lips, in his mouth and coating his throat, and he was sure now that several ribs were definitely broken. He wondered briefly - with wry amusement - if he could actually pass out in his own mind. “I… I'm a-afraid I can't…”

“Call on me, Toushirou,” Hyourinmaru interrupted, nearly vibrating with a desire for action. “Use my strength. You can't beat him as you are, in this place.”

Of course, why hadn't Hitsugaya thought of that before? He had never fought without calling on Hyourinmaru before. This might be a new battleground, but he should never forget the basics - the zanpakutou is an extension of the body and mind of a shinigami. As a captain, he never should have forgotten that rule. In fact, it should have been the first thing he thought of. God, I'm a fool.

`But you don't have the time now for self scorn,' Hyourinmaru warned.

A shifting of the rock at the other end of the cave accompanied the sound of vicious laughter, and the Hollow emerged from a pile of rock and dust with the cruel grin still etched into its mask. Hitsugaya muttered many curses as he tried to force himself to stand, but was still having trouble. The ribs in his side were grinding painfully, and it was still difficult for him to catch his breath.

“You are most definitely an interesting pair,” the Hollow crowed. “This is the most fun I've had in a long while. The other members of your division were so boring; I was afraid I wouldn't have any entertainment out of your group.”

“Shut up,” Hitsugaya growled, finally finding his feet, albeit unsteadily. Hyourinmaru moved in beside him to offer a shoulder to grab for balance.

“Don't you want to know what I did to each and every one of your subordinates that I occupied?”

“I told you to shut up!”

“First, I just let them wander around thinking that they had a cold. But in reality I was just leeching off of their reiatsu until I was full, and then I would lure them into this place in their own minds and destroy them while they were weak.”

“You bastard!”

“And you've fallen into the same trap. So simple, and yet so effective. Poor little shinigami-captain, unable to defend against a big, bad Hollow like me. Let's just hope you put up a better fight than they did.”

With a strangled cry, Hitsugaya mustered all the strength he could handle, and launched himself at the grinning Hollow.

`Toushirou, no!'

Renji had just finished laying Orihime out on the only couch in the room when he heard the sick captain's cry, and Matsumoto's furious swearing.

“Renji! Help me - he's bleeding!” she shouted, nearly hysterical with panic.

“What the hell…?”

The redhead ran to the bed to find that Hitsugaya indeed was bleeding, from three deep gashes across his chest. Hitsugaya's breath was coming in bubbly pants, blood still leaking from his lips, though the nosebleed had long since stopped. A quick inspection by Matsumoto had determined a bruised nose as the cause of that. But how the young captain only seemed to sustain more wounds as he lay ill was beyond him. Orihime - even if she was awake - would likely be unable to help at this point.

For the moment, things seemed to have calmed down. Hitsugaya was no longer thrashing, and Matsumoto was able to put some pressure on the chest wounds. The young captain's harsh, shallow breathing was the only noise in the room for a few precious minutes. Matsumoto cast a wary and frightened look over her shoulder at Renji, and he narrowed his eyes and nodded, pulling out his communicator.

“I'll call her,” he said quietly, almost afraid to break the silence.

Matsumoto nodded in grateful approval, and Renji dialed.

In the instant that Hitsugaya charged, Hyourinmaru snarled and snapped out at the captain's cloak, catching the back of it with its fangs. Hitsugaya yelped as he was jerked backwards, momentum broken, and nearly fell back into the dragon. With a brusque turn, he glared down the dragon angrily.

“What the hell was that for?” he snapped.

`You were acting out of anger,' Hyourinmaru replied, again refusing to speak aloud. `He was baiting you; he wants you to attack him.'

Hitsugaya's eyes widened in realization. Hyourinmaru wanted to keep their communication quiet; as long as they didn't allow the Hollow to hear what they were saying to each other, they'd be more able to combine their abilities effectively against him. He sighed, slumping as the adrenaline wore off. Hyourinmaru was right.

`What do you suggest, then?' Hitsugaya relented. `I'm not sure how much longer I can make this last.'

`What happened to your sense of caution?' Hyourinmaru scolded. `Patience, Toushirou. We need to buy ourselves some time to figure out how he got here, and where he might have weaknesses.'

`I already know how he got here,' Hitsugaya replied testily. `I let my guard down in the last fight, let myself get wounded. He had to have gotten in that way.'

`And now it's time to deal with that mistake,' Hyourinmaru said patiently. `Keep in mind, Toushirou. This is your mind, after all. Your battlefield, your rules.'

`My rules…' Hitsugaya repeated thoughtfully. `Hang on a second, I have an idea.'

The captain closed his eyes for a moment and held his hands out in front of him, forehead wrinkled in concentration, blocking out the Hollow's harsh laughter. As he focused, the Hollow's cackling faded, and even after that, he could hear a high-pitched shriek. With a smirk, he gave himself over to the blissful nothingness of meditation.

`Well done, Toushirou,' Hyourinmaru commented softly. `But I'm afraid our fight is far from over. Take the rest while you can, and I will keep watch.'

It was another hour before Matsumoto sensed Fourth Division Captain Unohana's gentle reiatsu at the edges of her consciousness. The feeling brought a sense of great relief; although the strange new injuries had stopped appearing on Hitsugaya's body, his high fever still persisted, and the boy-captain had been too still. The vice-captain wanted to make sure he wasn't going into a coma; the very thought of it frightened her greatly.

Renji was at the door before Unohana even knocked, and Matsumoto could hear him talking to the healer in hushed, concerned tones. Part of Matsumoto would normally have been curious, but at this point she didn't want to leave Hitsugaya's side. Not after he'd started showing signs of something horribly wrong. With a sigh, she tugged on the strong-smelling gel compress sticker that Orihime had used in place of the cold cloth on Hitsugaya's forehead, when she had finally awakened. The girl had apologized all over herself for passing out, though Matsumoto couldn't blame her; she too had flinched when Hitsugaya seemed to take on injuries from an invisible enemy. The sound of snapping bones and her captain's pained whimper echoed in her mind, and she shuddered. Time to think of other things, like replacing the compress, and how to deal with Hitsugaya's injuries.

Orihime had been unable to heal him at all. Again, the girl had apologized profusely for her inability to do anything for the captain, other than to leave her first aid kit in their hands, along with the gel compresses for the fever. She said that Hitsugaya's body had resisted her healing techniques, and nothing she could do would get around the defenses the captain seemed to have placed around himself. Matsumoto worried her lip with her teeth as she recalled the stricken look on Orihime's face despite her many attempts to reassure the girl that it wasn't her fault. It had been best to send her home, after all.

“Vice-Captain Matsumoto?” Unohana's soft voice said from behind, derailing her train of thought. She turned to face the fourth division captain, and was surprised to see some worry in the woman's eyes.

“It's pretty bad,” Matsumoto breathed, moving aside so that Unohana could take a closer look. “For a while, he was thrashing around, and these wounds suddenly appeared from nowhere. He hasn't woken in at least two hours, and he's been nearly unresponsive for the last hour. I can barely sense his reiatsu signature. Orihime said she couldn't heal his wounds because he was resisting her somehow.”

Unohana's hands hovered over Hitsugaya's bare chest, and Matsumoto could feel the healer's strong reiatsu probing and testing the captain's body. After several moments of silence - uncomfortable for Matsumoto, but she could feel Renji fidgeting just behind her as well - Unohana frowned.

“This appears to have turned into an internal battle,” Unohana stated suddenly. Apparently, Renji had already informed her of the earlier scuffle between Hitsugaya and the other Hollows in the park. “I'll do what I can to help him, though for now, we'll need to make sure he is undisturbed. Please inform Urahara-san and his employees that we will regretfully be taking over this room of his shop for the time being.”

“I'll take care of that,” Renji offered, turning abruptly and marching out the door. Matsumoto could still sense him just outside, guarding the room's sole entrance from the front of the shop.

“I'll need your help, Vice-Captain.” Unohana gave Matsumoto a serious look. “Although most of this battle's outcome will be up to Captain Hitsugaya, we will have to do our best to support him.”

Matsumoto nodded, though she had a sinking feeling that it would be far from easy. They had a long night ahead of them.

. continuedin part III.