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Hitsugaya blinked once, twice. Then he blinked again, just in case he saw wrongly and was being delusional. Apparently, he was not, considering the white-skinned snake in front of him just flicked its tongue in the air again. It didn’t disappear like he thought it would, but then again, why would he dream of snakes at all?
He didn’t really know what to do. In the first place, he wasn’t aware that there were snakes at all in Soul Society. Not many animals lingered in the after life, purely because when they died, they were often immediately reincarnated into other living things. Those that did linger around were transformed into smaller hollows, more sentient beings with remaining features from their previous life. Take most of the arrancar, for instance.
And as far as he could tell, the snake wasn’t exactly living either. It was definitely a soul, exuding reiatsu and made of reishi as it was. It flickered its forked tongue in the air once more. Its eyes seemed to glimmer up at him. How did it even get this far in the Seireitei without being noticed? Any sort of animal spotted in the Seireitei were quickly captured and placed in a shop. They were then sold for marked-up prices to noble houses.
Hitsugaya quirked an eyebrow. Was– was the snake laughing at him? He couldn’t really tell, considering all that came from the snake’s mouth were insistent hissing sounds. But its mouth was curled up in what seemed to be a grin. It was definitely laughing. Despite it being an animal that shouldn’t have been that intelligent, it was reacting to Hitsugaya’s facial expressions and body movements.
Interesting.
The white-haired captain kneeled down, stretching a hand out towards the animal. Creating a soft pspspspsps sound (that was what you did right? Or was that exclusive to only cats?), he beckoned the snake over. The snake donned an irked expression as much as it could, mouth curling down into a frown so expressly that Hitsugaya nearly cackled. However, it still came over and placed its head onto his open palm.
Hitsugaya smiled, the other hand reached out to softly pet its head. He had always loved the concept of pets, but was never rich enough to purchase one. Plus, there was the little issue of being a Rukongai rat. He would’ve never gotten the chance to be sold one, even if he had the funds. Were snakes allowed in the Gotei 13? If Captain Kuchiki could get a pond full of koi fish, he could get his own pet right?
“I think I’ll keep you for myself,” Hitsugaya muttered happily, admiring the holographic scales stretching across its body. In the dim lighting at the edge of the tenth division barracks, the white scales gleamed blue and pink. The snake hissed in reply, winding itself up the captain’s arm. “Yeah? You’d like that?”
Standing up, Hitsugaya waited for the snake to move its way up his body and twine itself around his neck like a scarf before moving back to his personal office. “I should give you a name then, if I’m going to keep you,” humming lowly to himself, Hitsugaya pondered to the steady sound of his geta along the corridors. The snake settled down into the white hair atop the captain’s head, placing its head calmly atop Hitsugaya’s own. Instinctively, he knew that the snake was a male. He didn’t even know how to tell the two genders apart, but it was something that spoke to his soul. Like Hyourinmaru, except more vaguely. “Ginji. I’ll name you Ginji. After someone I used to admire a lot.”
The snake hissed happily, snuggling further into the head of hair. Toshiro appreciated the cold skin settling against his, finally finding a being of the same body temperature. It was a struggle to hold the strongest ice zanpakuto around, since his body temperature ranged on the extremely cold. Being physically close to Matsumoto as he was, he found her too warm to go out of his way to initiate contact. Even if it was just a simple hold from her, her skin seemed to scald him.
He guessed it was almost like good luck finding a cold-blooded being right outside his window, in a place without a lot of animals. It was nearly comforting, finally getting the touch he desired for without feeling like he was frying from the outside in. He slid the door close behind him, stepping out of his geta. He plodded over to his bed, staring briefly. “Would you like to sleep on my bed with me, Ginji?” He heard an answering hiss, and smiled involuntarily.
A yes , it sounded like. Settling down into the downy pillow, he made sure not to squash his new pet snake. That night, he dreamt of happy hisses and scaly skin exactly his temperature snuggling further into him.
“Uh, Captain?”
“Yes, Lieutenant Matsumoto?” Hitsugaya replied, not bothering to look up from his mountain of paperwork. “What is it?”
“What– What is that on your head?” Rangiku stuttered, shockingly. She was rarely caught off guard, being the gossip monger and creator that she was. She knew everything before they even knew it sometimes, her reputation as a psychic far preceding her reputation. Some of their unseated officers even thought Haineko was a telepathic-type sword (which made Hitsugaya snort and grimace at the same time. The winter war would’ve had a much better outcome if it were, but it wasn’t).
“What? You mean my hair?”
“I–” Rangiku spluttered. Hitsugaya looked up in shock, jaw dropping upon witnessing a flush preside on the blonde’s cheeks. He had never actually seen the other blush or get flustered if Captain Ichimaru wasn’t in the room, and it was startling to see it. Especially after the situation with Captain Ichimaru’s death. “Captain! I’m not stupid!”
“Could’ve fooled me, to be perfectly honest–”
“Captain! There’s a snake on your head!”
“Is there?” Hitsugaya replied easily, going back down to his work. He was mindful not to move around his head too much, in fear of disturbing the slumbering reptile resting on his head. “I wasn’t aware. I wonder how it got there. Maybe it’s someone’s shikai release?”
Rangiku huffed, folding her arms and looking out the window of their joint office. Her blonde hair seemed to puff out, like a cat upon failing to chase down its prey. Hitsugaya sighed, placing down his brush and docking his head on an open palm. He raised his eyebrow in a silent query, wondering exactly why Rangiku was so insistent on continuing this line of questioning. It wasn’t exactly the first time one of them brought a strange animal over to their barracks, and it wasn’t uncommon for shinigami to have animals as pets.
However, to give credit to his lieutenant, the part that disturbed her was surely because of the fact that this snake wasn’t a living animal. It wasn’t like the Kuchiki koi pond, where Captain Kuchiki had to continuously restock the animals. Living animals didn’t survive for long in Soul Society. However, they are way more common than dead animals the way Ginji was. Not many officers were able to differentiate the difference between living and dead animals though, since they didn’t give Ginji odd looks on the captain’s way here. Only the lieutenant had noticed at all.
“I apologise, Captain Hitsugaya,” Rangiku hesitantly replied, frowning a little at the admission. “It’s just– that snake. It reminds me of a snake Captain Ichimaru had shown me when we were still in the Rukon District. Yours looks exactly like it, and it’s dead too–”
“It’s a coincidence, Lieutenant. Snakes don’t live as long as we do, even in Soul Society.”
“No, I get that,” Rangiku murmured, teeth biting down on her lower lips. Hitsugaya furrowed his eyebrows, standing up from his seat. His lieutenant was currently unsure of herself, voice wavering as it was. Her hands were less folded and more hugged around her torso, grasping at her black clothing. “Its eyes are just… really blue, huh?”
Hitsugaya frowned, hands grasping blindly into his hair in an effort to take Ginji off his head. Ginji, seeming to understand his efforts, slithered easily into the cold hands and wrapped around his arms. The white-haired male took a look into Ginji’s eyes, half expecting to see brown irises common in living snakes. Yet, they were astoundingly blue. It was the colour of Hyourinmaru’s ice, a frosty sapphire.
What an interesting eye colour it was. The more Hitsugaya peered into it, the more he realised what Rangiku meant. Ginji’s eyes resembled his namesake’s, oddly enough. That was impossible, wasn’t it? It was a mere coincidence, of course, but what a darned coincidence it would be. What a coincidence for Hitsugaya to chance upon a snake with generations of genetic mutation, with the exact eye colour of the man it was named after. “It is quite uncanny, now that you bring it up. What luck.”
Rangiku pursed her lips doubtfully, narrowing her eyes at the snake. Hitsugaya sighed, rolling his eyes. He gestured her away dismissively, settling back down on his chair. “Lieutenant Matsumoto, if you have nothing more to ask, please get back to your work.” She lingered for a while, shuffling in place. Her eyes bounced back and forth from the snake. Hitsugaya wondered if she realised that her hands were placed on Haineko’s hilt.
Hitsugaya wasn’t very superstitious nor religious, not at all. In fact, if he had to think more about it, it was a little odd that he wasn’t more superstitious considering the entire circumstance of his being. He was still a grim reaper, no matter if they weren’t called that in the east. In the western side of Gotei 13, he understood that they worked with different forms of hollows and were sometimes called by such an archaic name. Yet, he found himself reconsidering his stance shortly after bringing Ginji into his life.
Ginji was intelligent, exceedingly so. A day ago, he had begun to write Hitsugaya’s name on the paper when the male had jokingly offered him the brush. What disturbed him most of all was the fact that the kanji were all correct. The captain didn’t know anyone who had arrived at the correct kanji on the first try, being a Japanese name as it was. He had to explain the characters, where they came from, the meaning. Ginji had written it, albeit as cleanly as a snake could, stroke for stroke.
There were even occasions where the snake acted as if it could speak, expressively hissing into Hitsugaya’s ears whenever other shinigami passed by. It grew especially loud when Hitsugaya was in the living world. The days where the captain took it upon himself to look over Kurosaki (ensuring that their hero was still alive because Hitsugaya didn’t believe Rukia’s baseless beliefs in Kurosaki’s will to live), Ginji would hiss what sounded like Japanese expletives into his ear whenever kurosaki interacted with Ishida Uryu.
Hitsugaya didn’t understand exactly what that was about, but he trusted his snake’s instincts. Especially since Hitsugaya had a foreboding feeling every time he stared at quincy's glinting glasses. Call him biased, call it confirmation bias, whatever. Captain Hitsugaya was never wrong about his instincts, and if Ginji really was a creature that Ichimaru Gin had sent to watch over him, the snake was right too. Ichimaru Gin and Hitsugaya Toshiro had exceedingly good instincts, closer to feral than the other captains ever were (which was ironic given that Captain Komamura still exists and is a literal animal, or at least, has the image of one).
Flaxen hair was lingering on the edge of his eyesight. Hitsugaya froze, refocusing his line of sight to the blond hair and there– Urahara Kisuke stood in all his majestic shopkeeper attire. He was right beside Hitsugaya, a fan waving carelessly in front of his face. Hitsugaya had known about Urahara Kisuke’s background before coming here, briefed by the captain-commander to be on the lookout. But Hitsugaya had confidence in his abilities, an arrogance that had powered him through the academy in merely a year. He was a prodigy. Kurosaki's mentor chuckled lightly, not looking away from Kurosaki's figure moving about in school, “He looks a little lonely, doesn’t he, Captain Hitsugaya?”
“Urahara-san. I was unaware that you kept your tabs on your student.”
“He is mine,” Urahara replied simply, causing Hitsugaya’s eyebrows to climb up. His? In what capacity was kurosaki ever a property or belonging to Urahara's? Kurosaki was merely a teenager, it couldn’t possibly be what he was thinking about– “No, no. Not in that way, do you have such little faith in me Captain?”
Hitsugaya remained silent, unwilling to admit that his impression of Urahara was unsavoury and was sure to remain that way. No matter how much Kurosaki trusted the other, Hitsugaya hated him. In reply for his owner, Ginji hissed venomously. The snake came out of hiding and in a mere second, lunged towards Urahara with its fangs out. Urahara got a mere graze, not enough to die, but it was an impressive feat. Urahara didn’t get bested often. Ginji twined himself around Hitsugaya’s neck protectively, facing towards the blond shopkeeper with his fangs out. A warning.
Urahara smiled patiently, pulling his bucket hat lower. “I see,” he muttered, chuckling quietly to himself. Hitsugaya narrowed his eyes at the suspicious ex-Onmitsukido member. “Well. If you ever need me, Captain Hitsugaya, I’ll be in the shop. I have something to ask of you, however, so it would be wonderful if you could stop by regardless.”
And so, the white-haired male, one arm full of snake and mouth full of curses aimed at Urahara, thundered through the shouten violently. Pushing the wooden dividers and cabinets aside effortlessly, he pushed past Tessai and Urahara’s two kids. “Where is Urahara-san?”
He was led through the confusing corridors of the traditional Japanese building by an awkward Ururu. She kept looking over at Ginji, the snake’s curious head wandering around to get a better look at the shouten. She seemed to get spooked by Ginji’s bright blue eyes, unable to look at him straight-on and irked slightly by the constant hissing Hitsugaya’s snake emitted. Hitsugaya didn’t say anything, merely choosing to pet the serpent soothingly. The captain didn’t bother hiding his sniggers though, ultimately amused at how easily a snake changed his own image.
People went from underestimating and poking fun at his height and physical immaturity to balking in fear. Ginji was a godsend. Hitsugaya continued to pet the snake’s smooth scales as he waited for Ururu to call the irritating blond man out. If Urahara wasn’t a better scientist than Mayuri, Hitsugaya would’ve rather– ah, no, that was wrong. Shuddering a little, Hitsugaya amended his statement. Urahara Kisuke, despite his questionable morals, was a million times better than Captain Kurotsuchi.
Urahara trudged out, hand rubbing the back of his head. A foolish smile presided over his visage, back in his shopkeeper persona. Hitsugaya heard Ginji hissing angrily, burrowing his tiny white head closer to Hitsugaya’s neck. Reaching out a hand to soothe his tiny pet, the captain of the tenth division merely cocked an eyebrow. He had no desire to speak any more than necessary around the man, but he was beckoned over to the shop for a reason. He wouldn’t ignore a clear call for help.
“I’m working on giving Kurosaki-san his powers back,” Urahara admitted, pushing the white-haired boy into the lab. Hitsugaya let himself be pushed, shocked and a little disbelieving. It felt like the ground fell out from beneath him and he had nowhere to step on. Instinctively, he reached out towards Hyourinmaru’s hilt and Ginji’s cold skin. “I need you to push a little of your reiatsu inside of this blade. It will kickstart his reiatsu, and assuming it works… it will give him back the full force of his abilities.”
Ginji hissed before Hitsugaya could reply properly. The captain stretched out his arm, looking down at his pet. The snake, originally circling Hitsugaya’s arm, stretched out fully and towards the lab table. The table that held the blade that would give Ichigo back his powers. Hitsugaya and Urahara looked on in morbid curiosity as Ginji crept closer and closer to the blade and to Urahara’s side of the table.
“Ow!” Urahara yelped, recoiling. The scientist clutched onto his dominant hand where the fang bites were placed, blood dripping out of the wound like ruby red rivulets. Hitsugaya snorted, breaking the tense atmosphere that had come over the duo as they awaited Ginji’s actions. It seemed like the white python still didn’t approve of Urahara, but definitely agreed to helping out Ichigo, seeing as the python glided over the sword’s hilt. “Captain Hitsugaya, must you really bring that python everywhere you go?”
“Now that it’s shown proficiency in combat, yes. Of course I must,” Hitsugaya retorted easily, pacing closer to the little table now. He inspected the seeming asauchi carefully, watching the way the metal glinted menacingly in the LED lights. It wasn’t shaped like a normal asauchi that academy freshmen were given. Instead, the metal was thin and sharp in its onyx glory. The hilt was wrapped with crimson, teal and orange cloth, like fire, ice and blood. Interesting. It shouldn’t have a zanpakuto spirit inside it, and wasn't possibly released into a different form. The mentor had chosen for it to resemble this. “Why this appearance?”
“Kurosaki-kun doesn’t have an actual zanpakuto. I wasn’t sure if you noticed.” Urahara grunted, massaging his dominant hand stubbornly. He refused to say anything else, despite Hitsugaya’s questioning gaze. The white-haired male looked back down at Ichigo’s gifted blade, smiling patiently at Ginji’s soft grin. What a curious snake, to be so happy for a person that he had never officially met before.
Ginji’s blue eyes peered down at the onyx blade, forked tongue hissing briefly before he entwined his body over the asauchi. The snake glowed with reiatsu, crimson in nature. Hitsugaya’s eyes widened at the same time that Urahara paused in his effort to ease the pain in his palm. “Interesting.” The blond scientist commented, dropping all pretenses. Hitsugaya observed, gasping once he realised what Ginji was doing.
Ginji– Ginji was pushing his own reiatsu into the blade. Icy azure eyes stared back at Hitsugaya’s own teal eyes. Chuckling at the endearing serpent, not bothering to question his pet’s shenanigans, the captain of the tenth division reached out a hand to place upon the blade of Ichigo’s asauchi. Pushing his own crimson arctic reiatsu into the blade, Hitsugaya turned to the shopkeeper, “How much reiatsu do you need?”
“Funnily enough, I thought I was going to have to ask more people for this task since Kurosaki-san does have such humongous reiryoku wells…” Urahara paused in his little speech, grinning slyly from behind his hat and fan. Hitsugaya scowled at that expression, hackles rising. “However, it appears that you and your pet have enough reiatsu. I don’t need any more.”
Releasing his hold on the asauchi, Hitsugaya picked up his python’s scaly body and placed it around his shoulders with little hesitation. “Then I’ll go back. Make sure to give Kurosaki back his powers immediately,” And refusing to wait for a proper reply from the suspicious scientist, Hitsugaya left the establishment. Ginji whistled silently in time and tuned with Hitsugaya’s humming. Petting his white scaled pet once more, “Good job on biting Urahara-san. Bite him more, okay?”
“Hey, Toshiro!” Hitsugaya froze up, eyes searching desperately for an escape but to no avail. Long muscular arms wrapped themselves around his shoulders, blazing orange hair and caramel brown eyes coming into view. “Thanks for helping out. I heard from Urahara-san that you and your– pet snake were the ones to put in the reiatsu.”
Nodding simply, Hitsugaya shrugged off the heavy arm and brushed off any dirt and sweat from his captain’s clothes. It had barely been a week since he and Ginji had returned from the living world, and Kurosaki was already causing chaos in the Soul Society. In the first place, he wasn’t expecting the substitute shinigami to come back to the seireitei so soon. “It’s Captain Hitsugaya to you. And stop doing that, you’ll squash my snake. His name is Ginji,” Grinning excitedly at the feeling of scales moving over his neck, he felt more than he saw Ginji leaning out and nodding at Kurosaki. Ginji licked the air, gazing deep into Kurosaki’s intrigued stare. “I found him outside my barracks late at night and decided to adopt him.”
“Is he a living animal or dead?” Kurosaki questioned. The teen lifted a hand to brush down Ginji’s smooth skin, cooing and gazing lovingly into the snake’s face. Hitsugaya pushed down an endeared grin. He knew Kurosaki would be the first one to truly appreciate his pet. “I think I know his breed, actually. He’s a rare, blue-eyed leucistic ball python. He’s really pretty, Toshiro.”
“He’s dead. Interesting that he is, actually. He’s the first dead animal I’ve found in Soul Society.” the captain responded, eager to converse with someone who loved his pet as much as he did. Kurosaki nodded, a gleam in his eyes that spoke of fascination.
“I love snakes. This one reminds me of Captain Ichimaru himself, actually.”
“Oh? Why so? I named my snake after him, but… a resemblance?”
“Toshiro,” Kurosaki mumbled, chuckling a little. Hitsugaya furrowed his brows, scowling defensively. He felt his shoulders tense up and start to rise. “Toshiro, do you know I’m buddhist?” Captain Hitsugaya shook his head, calming a little at the sudden question. It was unexpected, considering the captain would’ve thought that Kurosaki was just as atheist as he was. “We believe in reincarnation cycles, similar to the one in place for Soul Society’s beliefs. If you amass different types of misdeeds, you gain bad karma and can reincarnate as either a plant or an animal.”
“...You really think that snake is Captain Ichimaru?” Hitsugaya asked, eyes narrowed in begrudging interest. He trusted Kurosaki with his life, the other male a person who had quickly gained his faith and signified hope.
Beaming steadily, the fire-haired teen nodded, “I know so.” and surprisingly, Hitsugaya found himself believing the other whole-heartedly. Ginji hissed, nuzzling into Kurosaki’s open palm lovingly. Hitsugaya’s vision lingered on Kurosaki and his snake, taking the sight in.
Hitsugaya Toshiro smiled, shaking his head. It was ridiculous to believe in such a thing, especially since he was atheist. Yet, there was an unshakeable belief in his heart that wanted to continue trusting in Kurosaki Ichigo’s idealism.