[F] Fire and Ice: Legend of the Dragons

[sweet_angel]

Chapter 1: A New Enemy

A/N: I don’t own Bleach but I do own my character and her attacks. This is set after the Aizen incident and the Bounto arc. It takes place during the Arrancar arc and is mostly from Soul Society

10th division headquarters

Things had somewhat returned to normal in Soul Society. The wounds hadn’t quite healed yet but the Captains were working hard to return things the way they had been before Aizen, Gin and Tousen had turned traitor and gone to the Hollow Realm. The 10th division had started to return to the normal routine, especially the scolding of the captain to the lieutenant about her laziness among other things. A fiery haired woman approached the administration office bearing two cups of tea knowing that the captain would need it. Once she arrived she knocked,

“Shitsuree shimasu. 10th division 3rd seat Hotaru requesting to speak with Hitsugaya taicho. Is Hitsugaya taicho present?” In almost no time the voice of her young captain spoke up,

“Open the door.” She smiled softly and went inside placing the tea on the table and looked around before sighing softly. She could feel the cold gaze of her captain and just smiled softly,

“Matsumoto fukutaicho is lucky to have a taicho like you.” She also saw the large stack of documents of both the 5th and 10th division. After Hinamori went into a coma, Hitsugaya had taken all responsibility for both divisions. The child captain raised an eyebrow and looked at her,

“What do you mean Hotaru?” She looked at him through large green eyes and giggled softly,

“Most captains would be furious and request to have a new fukutaicho after all this time. But she does respect you for that. Taicho, is it true that sou taicho is sending shinigami to the living world to quell a hollow uprising?”

“Who told you that?”

“It’s all over Soul Society.” Hitsugaya sighed and nodded,

“Sou Taicho wants to send three members from each division. I don’t know who to send from the division. I’ve already passed out the orders for the 5th division. Still not sure who to send of my own men.” Hotaru could tell that it was stressing her captain out because who ever he sent would have a high possibility of disappointing him and making the division look bad.

“If it’s not too out of line taicho, and if I was in your position I would send the three people I could trust to get the job done and that I could trust.” He looked at her questioningly before taking the tea she’d set at the corner of his desk upon entering the office.

“Which three would you send?” Hotaru shrugged slightly,

“You could send Matsumoto fukutaicho to give her something to do? As for the other two I wouldn’t know.” She bowed slightly before turning and leaving,

“Shitsuree shimasu.” Hitsugaya spoke before she could leave,

“Would you want to go to the living world?” She turned and looked at him smiling softly,

“I would like to go. But who else will you send taicho?” He shrugged,

“I trust you to let you decide.” This shocked her for the captain to let someone other than the lieutenant to make such decisions.

“I would recommend Domon, the 4th seat of the division.” He nodded and quickly wrote it down before standing and coming around holding the orders in his hand.

“You leave as soon as you can. I’ll track Matsumoto down and tell her. The gate opens tomorrow morning from Soukyoku hill.” She bowed and closed the office door heading to go find Domon to inform him of the captain’s orders. It wasn’t that hard to locate him seeing as how he was on guard duty.

“Domon-san!” The blue haired shinigami looked at her,

“Hotaru-san, what’s up?” She sighed and crossed her arms over her chest,

“Hitsugaya taicho has ordered that you are going with me and Matsumoto fukutaicho to the living world to stop the hollow uprising. We leave tomorrow through the gate, if your not there then we leave without you.” He nodded and she turned heading toward the lake. It was always her favorite place to go and think. Her dual swords clinked softly making the only noise as she moved silently toward the lake. The sun was out so it was a rather beautiful day and there was a pleasant breeze passing through the grounds. Hotaru took off her sandals and stuck her feet in the water letting her mind wander.

A lot had changed in the last couple of months. Everyone was looking at each other with hidden suspicion even if they were in the same division. The 5th division was starting to get back on its feet with Hitsugaya’s help but it needed its own captain and soon. The swords at her side hummed softly and a large red dragon circled around her small form with its head resting slightly on her shoulder, it literally looked like the dragon was going to burn everything around it as fire flowed around its body. A voice spoke in her mind and Hotaru didn’t even have to ask who it was because she knew that it was Ryuukoshin.

You’ve been training hard these last few months Hotaru. Bankai is almost within your reach. You should be careful though; Aizen will have more than likely figured out that you bear the dragon’s crest on your back. I can protect you but only to a certain point. Have you told Hyourinmaru about what I said? Hotaru sighed and scratched the dragons under jaw where the scales were weaker and the fire wasn’t as hot. Although it didn’t matter to her since she was pretty much immune to the heat and the possibility of being burned.

“No I haven’t. He’s more worried about the responsibility of taking care of and maintaining two divisions than what Aizen is really after. I also can’t bring myself to tell him the changes I’ve sensed in Hinamori’s mental state.” The dragon looked at her through a ruby eye before slightly nodding knowing that soon Hotaru would tell him of that as well as what lay in wake of Hinamori waking up. Hotaru sighed again heavily as the fire dragon disappeared just before two arms wrapped around her shoulders and she felt the familiar squeeze of her sister’s arms.

“Hotaru, what are you sighing for?” The red head chuckled and pushed her sister off of her.

“Rangiku nee-chan the taicho’s rather annoyed at you. And I was simply thinking is all, just remembering the changes over the last couple of months.” She took her feet out of the water and brought her knees up resting her chin on them. For a few seconds neither woman spoke before Hotaru looked at her older sister who had raised her since she was an infant.

“I miss him too nee-chan. He was after all the one who gave me my nickname and wouldn’t stop calling me that even after I told him not to call me it. Are you sure you really want to keep going through this nee-chan? All this heartbreaking?” The 10th division lieutenant sighed and smiled sadly sitting next to her younger sister wrapping an arm around the young girls shoulder.

“I don’t know Hotaru. I really don’t. He’s always had a bad habit of leaving us and not telling us where he’s going and just what’s going through his mind. I’ll get over it sooner or later. You’d best take it easy before tomorrow. I’m glad you’re coming with me. I can show a couple of cool places.” Hotaru smiled back at her sister.

“We’re going there to work remember?” Rangiku laughed and stood leaving,

“Yes, but all work and no play makes taicho a dull boy.” That was a common joke among the division but no one was stupid enough to say it to Hitsugaya's face and they almost never meant it or were serious enough when they said it.

Next Day: Soukyoku Hill

Dawn had arrived and the dispatch teams had gathered around the gate that had been erected in place of the Soukyoku cross which Ichigo had destroyed when rescuing Rukia. Sou Taicho was leaning heavily on his walking stick as he spoke,

“Your mission is to quell the up rising and return as quickly as you can. However, you are to not interfere with Kurosaki Ichigo and his responsibilities as a Shinigami Representative. Have I made myself clear?” Everyone nodded and the gate opened. Hotaru jumped through with her sister and Domon so they wouldn’t be split up upon exiting.

Living World

Hollows were moving left and right as the shinigami spread out to cover the entire city killing hollows as they went. Matsumoto had Hotaru and Domon follow her as they tried to locate the ‘hotspot’.

“Something’s not right fukutaicho. How can there be this many hollow in the living world. I know Ichigo leaks reiatsu but not enough to attract this many hollow.” The lieutenant looked at her younger sister.

“I’m not sure about this myself. Let’s keep looking. If we can’t find anything then we’ll just deal with the hollow that are here right now.” The other two nodded and continued to look.

Nothing came up so they returned to help the others. Each had their swords drawn but Hotaru kept her dual swords as regular kattanas hoping she wouldn’t have to reveal that she was the third dual soul slayer user in all of Soul Society; it also didn’t help that she’d graduate a year and a half after entering the academy. Luckily it didn’t take everyone too long. They also had the help of Ichigo and his friends which made things much easier. After running a quick check on the area the shinigami contacted Soul Society and they were given clearance to go through the gate. Hotaru was the last one through and just as the gate closed she thought she saw something come through after her. She barely managed to make out space distortions to the right of the gate. Matsumoto came up behind her and flung an arm over her shoulder,

“Whaccha lookin at?” Hotaru didn’t answer for a few seconds before turning and looking at her sister,

“Thought I saw something. Lets go back, I need to ask taicho something.” Rangiku nodded knowing her sister was very sensitive in her ability to detect reiatsu.

“Last one there buys sake.” Domon, Hotaru and Rangiku sped back to the 10th division squad base as fast as they could so that they could win. Hotaru bounded over rooftops and nearly ran into five other shinigami before sliding under the archway that marked the 10th division. It looked like she was first and started laughing as her sister came in next meaning Domon had to buy the sake tonight.

“You’re buying tonight Domon. I hope you have a lot saved for drinks because fukutaicho here is going to drink you dry. I’ll be back I have to ask taicho something.” She excused herself and walked down the familiar hallway to the administration office….