Bleach: Can a Hollow Have a Heart?

Chapter 3: The Girl from District Eighty

-Ichigo takes kana to kisuke urahara's shop-

"Hey mister clogs! Is toshiro here!" Ichigo yells from the doorway.

"Welcome Ichigo." Kisuke smiles from under the shadow of his hat. "Yes of course captain hitsugaya is here where else would he be."

Just then renji and toshiro exit the back hallway and enter the shop area. Toshiro is immediately worried about kana when he realizes she isn't conscious. "Ichigo. Is kana alright?"

Ichigo nods. "Yeah... she just needs some rest. I brought her here because I figured she'd be safe. That's cool right clogs?" Ichigo looks at kisuke.

Kisuke nods. "Of course. You can bring her this way." Toshiro and renji follow kisuke and Ichigo to the back. Kisuke opens a room that used to be empty but now contains two twin beds against the wall. "I was allowing renji and toshiro to use this extra room because it was inconvenient to ask captain hitsugaya to find some place to stay while he does his mission." Kisuke looks at renji. "I hope you don't mind but in this condition she'll need the bed so you'll probably have to sleep on the floor."

Renji nods. "It is fine I couldn't ask captain hitsugaya to do it so it is fine I'll sleep on the floor if necessary." He folds his arms in a sort of pouty way but he knows there isn't a point in arguing. He'd never make somebody injured sleep on the floor.

Ichigo leaves kana with renji and toshiro. "Later renji later toshiro." He smiles as he walks out of the room.

"THAT'S CAPTAIN HITSUGAYA!"
"THAT'S LIEUTENANT ABARAI TO YOU!"

Ichigo grins. "Yeah whatever." Then he leaves.

"Auuuug arrogant prick!!" renji growled scowling at the door.

"He has no respect for his superiors!" Captain Hitsugaya says a vein on his head. "I swear that Ichigo is more trouble than he's worth." He scowls and looks over at sleeping kana and the scowl becomes a frown. "It would seem that if anything I owe him a favor now... he brought her back in one piece... that's all I wanted."

Renji looks at kana and then back to toshiro. "I think I know her but you know I'm just not sure where from."

Toshiro smiles a bit. "You do know her... after all it was after she met you that she decided to become a soul reaper."

Renji tilts his head slightly. "Really? How do you know that?"

Captain Hitsugaya sighs and crosses his arms. "She met you a long time ago while you were in training still. She told me." 'If you always try your best people will support you.' "That when she was feeling down, because she had no family, you told her if she would just always try her best... that people would support her."

Renji smiles a little. "Really. I guess I might have said that." He looks at kana.

'I remember this girl I met one time in the rukon district. It had to be pretty far in the outer ring maybe 79 or 80. I was out there training my stamina trying to run around the whole 80th district ring because somebody told me it was impossible so I had to prove them wrong. There was this little girl and an older woman who took me in after I collapsed from exhausting myself after I had only run a portion of the way around the outer ring. In the end I guess it was impossible.'

Renji's eye widen. "Wait! That can't be that same girl from the outer ring of the rukon!" he looks at toshiro. "You're telling me this is that girl?!"

Toshiro nods. "Yeah she's from the 80th district. She told me after she met you her life changed. The old lady she had been living with died and so she was all alone. She decided she wanted to be strong like you and train and so she entered into the academy."

Renji bites his lip. "I didn't know the old lady died... damn that sucks she was so kind." Renji sits on the floor next to the blanket kisuke had been kind enough to toss out for him to use. "It must have been difficult for her to get into the academy. It was challenging for me too and rukia. I can't begin to imagine what she must have gone through."

Toshiro nods. "Well what's important is that she never forgot what you told her. Sure it was difficult but she always tried her best... I guess that's why I couldn't help but support her." he smiles a bit and sits on the edge of the other bed. "She has always worked twice as hard as anyone else I've ever known, and she's the only member of my squad that isn't a constant pain to deal with. I should have made her lieutenant but rangiku was already lieutenant."

Renji smiles a bit. "She's come a long way then if you think she's capable of being on par with me."

Toshiro nods. "Actually she could probably be a captain if she wanted to at this point."

Renji stares at toshiro. "Really?!"

Hitsugaya nods again. "Yes. You see kana has this unique gift... she claims she can speak to the heart of zanpakuto. Doing so allows her to predict her opponent's movements. It also allows her the best use of her own zanpakuto."

"The heart of... the zanpakuto?" renji questions.

"Actually I did some research on it with the help of the captain of the research department." Toshiro yawns and stretches. "Apparently it use to be a rare gift every now and then a soul would come to the soul society and they had the ability to speak to the heart of all zanpakuto. Doing so allowed them to use other soul reapers swords in combat. However central 46 believed that the gift was something to be feared because these people could turn our own zanpakuto against us."

Renji frowns. "Let me guess... central 46 order them executed..."

Toshiro nods. "Yeah they tend to do that a lot when they don't like groups of people..."

"So is she the last one then? What even is she?" renji asks.

"hatokenshi." Toshiro looks at the ceiling. "Hato means heart... and ken means sword..." (According to google translate.)

Renji looks over his shoulder at kana. "Hatokenshi... the heart of the sword..." renji smirks a bit and looks at toshiro. "That's interesting... but can a hollow even have a heart?"

Toshiro slaps renji across the face without even realizing it. "Don't you ever say that!" after he takes a moment to calm himself down he realizes what he did. "Sorry..."

Renji frowns with his hand on his face over the big red mark. "Jee your touchy... why'd you slap me for."

"Sorry I just... kana isn't a hollow alright... so don't you ever say that to me..." Toshiro flops over onto his pillow facing away from renji. "This conversation is over. Don't bring it up again." 'I could never forgive myself if one of my subordinates became a hollow.'

'Oh he didn't like it when I said she was a hollow...' renji looks at kana. 'He's right though she isn't a hollow she's just half of one. Why did I even ask? Why did i assume she was a hollow?' renji is about to strike up another conversation with hitsugaya but stops when he realizes he's fallen asleep. Renji smirks. 'That guy acts tough but in reality he's so like a kid. I guess it's to be expected we trained really hard today and even fought a few hollows. He must be worn out I'll let him sleep. I should take the time to rest too.' Renji lays down on the floor and frowns. 'Not that I mind giving up the bed but really why couldn't there be a third bed. Whatever...' he rolls over and pulls the blanket up. 'No extra rooms either... we have to share. Though I doubt toshiro would have wanted to be separate from kana right now after what happened today.'