• Chapter 7
    ______________________________________________________________

    “I’ve been wishing you would come.”

    It wasn’t a question. Just a quiet statement. Damn. She’s shutting down again, I can just feel it.

    “All this hallucinating just isn’t healthy, you know?”

    “Who said you were hallucinating?”

    “I must be. You’re not real. You can’t be real. For one thing, people just don’t wear outfits like that outside of a con. I’ve never been to a con. As if a con would come here anyway. And even if you were real – blast it. I couldn’t show love for you in real life because no matter how old you really are, you look like a teenager. That just screams ‘*****’. And I’m not going to do the LDS number and pretend you’re my son in public so we can be ‘married’ in private.”

    “Whoa, whoa, you’re going too fast for me. *****? LDS number? Are those codes of some kind?

    She stared at him. “And innocent too. Another good reason not to get involved with you.”

    “I never – I mean, I didn’t come here to make love to you.”

    “Too late. I fell for you already. Now I need to find a way to burn it out.”

    Hitsugaya was frustrated. How was he going to make her understand? “I just want to be your friend. Is that allowed?”

    “Every time I try to be ‘friends’ with a guy, I fall in love with him. Must be because friends are kind and life isn’t. But there it is. If I try to be friends with you, I already know I won’t be able to limit it to that.

    “I don’t want you to go, but I can’t deal with the consequences if you stay. Does that make sense?”

    This wasn’t going the way Hitsugaya wanted. She had to stay open to him coming or she would lose control again. “Tell you what. I’ll try to watch out for you and be ready to come if you call. Is that all right? I’m really concerned about you. I don’t want to see you that… upset again.”

    “Yeah, I was going to ask you about that. I remember something about dragons in that dream of mine. A great big purple one, and a bigger blue-white one that looked like it was made of ice. I figured the purple one must have come from the Naruto Shippuden movie, but where the other one came from is anybody’s guess. Do you remember anything?”

    He blinked several times. As if I could ever forget that night. “I know that the ice dragon has a name. He is called Hyourinmaru. And he is my friend too.”

    “Is he a sentient? Does he talk to you? Or is he more animal?”

    “Definitely sentient. We talk to one another, after a fashion. He is quite… loyal.”

    She sighed deeply. “I sure could use a friend like that. All I have are the constructs within my own mind, and they do me no good in a pinch.”

    Time to try to make her understand. “You do have a friend, just like that. But she doesn’t know how to talk, or you don’t know how to listen, yet.”

    She shot him a sharp glance. “You mean the purple dragon.”

    “Exactly. She said her name was Oshidamaru.”

    “O-whatta?”

    “O-shi-da-ma-ru. You would say, Silence.”

    She closed her eyes, and her head hung heavily. “Figures. I who have been silenced am to find an ally in Silence. So be it.”

    He wasn’t quite sure what to think of that. Most people would be pleased to know their zanpakuto’s name without having to go through a lot to learn it.

    Then again, she probably didn’t even know what a zanpakuto was. And living people weren’t supposed to have zanpakuto, either. Which begs the question of why she has one in the first place…

    She gave a mirthless laugh. “Are you sure you’re not making that up? When I made up the Scout RPG character all those years ago, one of the things that appealed to me most about Sailor Saturn was the fact that she spent most of the S story arc as a pseudo-villain. Somebody the Outers were trying to avoid. The Sailor Soldier of Silence, she was, and she was supposed to have enough power to destroy a planet. But her alter ego Hotaru was just a lonely girl with some healing abiity and a majorly psychotic father who had done the traditional pact-with-the-devil number and was trying to use her and her latent possesions – ‘Mistress 9’ was the one he knew about – to bring an intergalactic invasion. Of course by the end Sailor Saturn saved the day by sacrificing herself. There’s enough there that I can identify with that it was natural to base an RPG character on her. OK, not Saturn herself, but her loyal ally, Scout – an assistant or helper or follower or maybe lesser successor. Bloody North American eviscerated dub version called them the Sailor Scouts instead of Sailor Soldiers.”

    It made a little more sense, knowing the history, even though he didn’t understand all of what she was talking about. Apparently this fantasizing survival tactic was several years old, and some of her long-standing techniques had either engendered a life of their own or – in his opinion more likely – had attracted something quite compatible to take up residence. Like a certain dragon whose domain was silence. It wasn’t really that different from how he had met Hyourinmaru, except in Soul Society it would have been far easier for a dragon to choose a compatible human.

    Someone just as lonely and isolated and empty as she had been. He understood that. He understood what it was to have a friend become less close as life’s paths diverged. Even though he had eventually joined the shinigami, things were never quite the same with Momo. It was different, and he was different. And some of that emptiness remained. Most of the time, it didn’t matter. There was always work to do. The recent upheavals in Soul Society had kept everyone busy, especially the ranking officers. The Aizen matter was still far from settled. But when he let himself slow down enough to feel – that empty space was there, something he couldn’t fill even with Hyourinmaru or his ice. He was missing something, or someone, that he hadn’t any idea how to remedy.

    Until he met her.

    “Taichou, we have a problem.”

    His receiver crackled. Matsumoto had insisted he stay in contact if he was going to try to reach out to her.

    “What is it?”

    “We have what looks like an Arrancar headed your way. We’re coming as fast as we can, but you’ll have to deal with it until we get there.”

    “What?”

    “We think it – information is pretty sparse yet and we’re not sure of much except –“

    A crash reverberated throughout the apartment.

    “ – it’s headed your way – “

    “It’s here.” Hitsugaya raced out to meet the beast. It was perhaps eight feet tall, and resembled some sort of marine animal, maybe a stingray. Good thing they’ve already placed a barrier, or this place would be dust. Straight combat wasn’t going to cut it – past battles with the Arrancar had proven that. He was just going to have to hold it off until reinforcements arrived, and there was no way a limit release would be approved before that.

    “Bankai!” Great ice wings formed, and Hitsugaya leaped up, trying to take it at a dive. The Arrancar disappeared, and reappeared behind him, swinging its spiked tail. The blow sliced across his back, shattering one wing. Hitsugaya pulled back, breathing heavily, reforming the wing from the abundant humidity. Just because this wasn’t one of the more intelligent Arrancar didn’t mean it wasn’t going to be a tough fight. He swung upward, scraping the carapace. Mid stroke, the tail caught him straight in the face, snapping his head backwards. He did a flip, landing mid-air. Blood was streaming down his face.

    “Toshiro!”

    Damn it, not now! “Get out of here! Now!” he screamed down at Sharon. The Arrancar noticed her at the same moment and dived straight for her.

    Hitsugaya came between them and shouted “Ryuusenka!” The blast from his Dragon Hail Blossom hit the Arrancar square on, but it wasn’t enough to stop its momentum. It slammed into Hitsugaya and drove them both into the parking area asphalt. As the Arrancar reared up to take another dive, the call “Growl, Haineko!” sounded through the air. A cloud of ash surrounded the Arrancar and shattered it.

    “Taichou!” Matsumoto yelled. She got there moments before Sharon did. Hitsugaya was out cold. Tears were streaming down Sharon’s cheeks.

    “He jumped in front of… that… that thing… to save me…” she choked.

    “Is there anything you can do for him? I have to go get help – “

    “No! Don’t leave us alone!”

    Matsumoto was brought up short. “What on earth are you talking about?”

    “We need a chaperone.”

    “A what? Now isn’t the time to be thinking about that sort of thing – “

    “I said, we need a chaperone. Who knows what will happen between us if we’re left alone.”

    Matsumoto shook her head. “Then I’m the wrong person to ask. I personally think all kinds of things ought to happen between you two whether you’re left alone or not. And I would wholeheartedly approve!” A look of shock crossed Sharon’s face. “You can’t be serious. If what he said is true – if there really is a dragon inside me – don’t you think it will come out, and cause another one of those… those…”

    “Arrancar.”

    “…Arrancar things to come after us again? Isn’t that what drew it here in the first place?”

    Matsumoto closed her eyes for a minute. “You win. For now. I’ll get you your chaperone, then I’m getting help!”

    She flash-stepped away while Sharon cradled Hitsugaya’s head in her lap. “Now whose turn is it to say ‘don’t die on me’, eh?” she mumbled, tears dripping on his face.

    “I’m not dead yet, and it would take more than that to kill me,” Hitsugaya growled as he tried to sit up. It didn’t work. He slid back down, his head still on her lap. Sharon was stroking his hair, trying to wipe some of the blood off of his face. Her tears wouldn’t stop. “Yeah, and I really don’t want to see what would.” She laughed, choked short. “Don’t ever do that again, Toshiro. Ever.”

    “Don’t what? Save you?”

    “Damn straight. Don’t put yourself at risk like that. I’m not near worth it.”

    He tried, and failed, to sit up again. “Don’t bother. She’s gone to get help. Just rest for a minute.” Sharon was still trying to get the blood out of his eyes. “As if anything I could do would help…”

    “You are helping.” A voice from behind them startled her. It was Abarai Renji. “Matsumoto said you needed a babysitter. No, that wasn’t the word – she said you needed watching?”

    “Chaperone. We need a chaperone.” Sharon was laughing again, crying and laughing and couldn’t stop.

    Head tilted to the side, Renji said, “I can’t see why. I say a captain can do whatever he damn well pleases.”

    “Oh yeah?” Hitsugaya said. He struggled again to sit up, this time succeeding in catching Sharon’s head in his hand and pulling it down toward his. There was nothing restrained about the kiss this time. Her tears and his mingled on their faces. A silent scream broke out, and the forms of the dragons began to manifest around them both. Hitsugaya broke the kiss roughly. “Any questions, Abarai?”

    Renji’s eyes were wide. “So it was you who caused that the other night. Point taken. But don’t expect much sympathy. I think she would do you good.”

    “Shut up,” Hitsugaya replied. Sharon held him tight in her arms, rocking him gently back and forth, until Matsumoto returned with help from the 4th.

    Renji and Matsumoto exchanged a significant glance over the couple. They nodded. They really had to do something – just not here…