Death on the Ice Field

Long before he wears a captain's haori, Hitsugaya lives in the Junrinan district with his ailing grandmother, unsettled by recurring dreams of a frozen plain and a thunderous voice he cannot place. His friend Momo Hinamori departs for the Shin'ō Academy, and the boy shrugs off the parting even as neighbors keep their distance, wary of his silver hair and cold manner. Years drift past, his grandmother grows frail, and a chance run-in at a candy shop introduces him to the boisterous Rangiku Matsumoto. When his sleeping spiritual pressure begins to freeze his grandmother, Rangiku warns that his untrained power will kill her and urges him to enroll and trace its source. That night he finally glimpses Hyōrinmaru, the spirit behind the voice. Resolved to shield the only family who never feared him, Hitsugaya announces he will enter the Academy.

Hitsugaya's dreams of the icy field and its rumbling voice foreshadow his Zanpakutō. Hinamori leaves for the Shin'ō Academy while he stays behind. Rangiku confronts him at the sweets shop and later finds his grandmother encased in ice. Warned that his power endangers her, Hitsugaya first meets Hyōrinmaru in a dream and resolves to become a Shinigami.

Written by Tite Kubo around the release of the fourth film and printed as an extra at the back of Volume 32 (HOWLING), the piece offers an alternate glimpse of Hitsugaya's origins. Kubo has said it loosely ties to the movie without featuring its original character Kusaka. The material later surfaces in Episode 239 as flashback. Its cast includes Hitsugaya, Hinamori, Rangiku, and the ice spirit Hyōrinmaru.