Bleach: The Captain Part Two & Three, Toshiro Hitsugaya x OC

Chapter 10: A Reunion in Rukon

Around the edges of my subconscious, I could hear people conversing. The voices were challenging to make out at first, but I picked up on Yuki's voice immediately. I wasn't ready to open my eyes yet, so instead, I listened in on their conversation.

"So what happens now?" someone asked, it was a voice I didn't recognize. Maybe one of the vizards?

"We won't know until she wakes up. I'm guessing Kisuke told her the plan because I don't have a clue what our next move is," Yuki answered.

"So you're telling me your brother sent us to the Soul Society with no other instructions except to wait for a signal?" the other person sounded frustrated.

"Yeah that's all he told me, but I didn't expect Kiri to show up."

"It's weird that she attacked Shinji out of nowhere, what the hell was that all about?"

I could hear the long, drawn-out sigh Yuki made. "She said something about him stabbing her, but when I pressed him about it, he was tight-lipped. I sent him away until she wakes up, in case she reacts the way she did back there."

The other person laughed. "Your sister is a little spitfire, that's for sure. I've never seen so much blood pour out of someone's nose before!"

"Sounds like he deserved it though. Won't know the whole story until Akira wakes up. How long do you figure that will take, Hachi?" Yuki asked another person in the room.

I almost jumped at how close the person was to me. "She's healing just fine with my kido; I suspect she'll be up and moving about in an hour or two," the other man replied.

"I'll let Shinji know," the other voice said, and I heard a door close as they left. 

I waited a little while before opening my eyes, just to be sure they didn't know I had heard them talking. The man who was kneeling next to me, Hachi I think his name was, was humming a quiet tune to himself. After what felt like an eternity, I opened my eyes.

My back was sore from laying on a hard surface, and it took me a moment to find my bearings. I immediately recognized the pink haired man kneeling to my left; he had his hands outstretched over my stomach, with a look of complete concentration. Whatever he was doing, it worked magic on my wound. I couldn't feel an ache anymore, in fact, I felt almost entirely normal. He noticed me staring and smiled. I attempted to get up, but he shook his head and urged me to lay back down. After assessing me, Hachi covered me with a blanket and quietly left the room.

I propped myself up on my elbows to check out the room. From the looks of it, I had been brought to one of the run-down houses nearby because the room was barren apart from a fireplace I could see at the far end of the room. Someone had stoked it before I had woken up, and it provided some well-needed warmth to my body.

I spied Yuki sitting near the fire, perched on a chair with his heels drawn to his hips, whittling away at a piece of wood with a knife as if he hated it.

"Hi," I broke the silence between us and sat up, pulling the blanket up around my shoulders.

He looked up from his work, relief evident on his face.

"Hey yourself," he smiled, tossing the wood aside. Yuki hopped off the chair and found a seat next to me.

Without any preamble, Yuki exposed my dressing by pulling up on my shirt and fussed over it just like the mother hen he'd always been. He pressed firmly on it and gauged my reaction. I was surprised that I felt nothing when he did that, but it seemed Yuki was pleased with the treatment that Hachi had given me.

"How long was I out for?" I pulled my shirt down after he'd finished checking it over. 

"A few hours I think. . . But before you go running off in search of Shinji, I sent him away. We'll go and find him once you're ready. Also, it was one of the other girls who cleaned you up in case you were wondering," he answered, most likely because I was giving the gaudy pink shirt a queer look.