Glacialus Sub Ubi (Bleach Fanfic)

Bitterness

Ichigo hurried away from the captain's meeting, Toshiro held under his arm in a rather undignified matter. The small boy was rather in shock, but eventually managed to choke out, "Put me down…"

"And have you go and throw a tantrum in front of the entire captain's council while you try to take out your former taicho due to the fact that you are mad at him, hell no," Ichigo stated, suddenly running through the forth division, his feet pounding on the floor as he ran to Toshiro's room. "I'm in enough trouble for letting you get lose like that."

"Since when do you care about soul societies rules and letting them tell you what to do!" Toshiro stated.

"Since I agree with the fact that it is in your best interest," Ichigo stated, flinging him onto the bed. "Look at yourself… half dressed like you are!"

At this, the small taicho glanced down at his clothing and turned a bit red. "I don't usually…"

"Yeah… you're one of the coolest kids I know Toshiro. You don't care about your appearance in the regard that you're narcissistic, but you do care about how you present yourself to others, even a bit scared of giving off the wrong impression."

"Did you just call me a kid… and Toshiro in the same sentence? It's Hitsugaya-taicho…" the boy grumbled. "And I am not scared of anything!"

"Can it. We know ever since the incident with Sojiro that you are a kid, with a very shrewd mind," Ichigo sat down next to where the small body was lying all amuck.

"Sojiro…" Toshiro paused and closed his eyes. "Did you know that he knew about Sojiro's death… even that I was friends with him… and the dual swords?"

"What?" Ichigo blinked a couple of times.

"When Sojiro died, I almost quit the academy, and went back to live with grandma…" the boy stated. "Isshin-san taicho… this was before I even knew he was a taicho, came and talked to me about it…"

"How did he know," came the question.

"How should I know! I hate him! I really hate him!" came the reply half way between a yell and a sob. Ichigo suddenly pinned the small boy to the bed. "Let go of me! Let go! I hate him, I really do!"

"I am not letting go until…" Ichigo started, only to see the look of fear in the small boy's eyes. "Has… someone hurt you before… like she did?"

"Matsumoto didn't mean too… and it wasn't her," Toshiro closed his eyes. "I don't…"

"… want to talk about it," Ichigo muttered. "But… I know I promised I wouldn't, but… I have to push on this one Toshiro. What happened? Who hurt you? Aizen, Gin, Tosen?"

"No…" Toshiro went completely limp. "You can't tell Hinamori."

"You're grandmother!" Ichigo's mind came to a sudden false conclusion.

"No… Hinamori just doesn't know… and I would rather she didn't. Granny knew… and she couldn't do anything about it, though she did try."

"Toshiro…"

"Scapegoat…" the boy stated firmly. "You know what that is, right?"

"You mean to tell me, that the people in your district treated you as the reason for all of their problems?" Ichigo stated, suddenly unable to get the boy to look him in the face. He let go of Toshiro's arms.

"Taicho and Matsumoto only know a small bit of it. When I first met Ran-chan, I was buying sweet natto in the market, and the guy refused to give me my change into my hand and just put it onto the counter," Toshiro let out a small shudder. "As she lectured him, I turned around and had…"