this is a side story for the previous story "the untold chapter" there is also a smiliar version from shunsui's veiw called "the end of a friendship?" these stories are simply to explain what happened in "jushiro's coma time"

i do not own bleach, kubo tite does

The fight was finished, aizen had gone leaving a trail of blood behind him, the captains had very much lost the battle, and I had heard news that captain unohana had started to work, I had been left in hueco mundo so I could heal but as soon as I was finished, I was to follow her through to karakura town, once I did, I was horrified to see what the fake town had become, rubble and water.

I saw the captain had set up a camp for the healing, very few people were up, there were strangers too, I made my way over and I sensed who was there, both captains and lts were there, I must have been there just when my captain needed me because as I walked up, she said this, 'isane, go to captain kyouraku immediately, now, captain ukitake is in a critical condition, go'

My heart dropped and I did as I was told, afraid for what I would see, I searched for captain kyouraku's sp, he must have been with ukitake, but I barely sensed captain ukitake at all, upon arrival, I saw the scene.

Kyouraku was beside ukitake, he was frantic, captain ukitake was on his back, he had been turned over, I could tell because he was covered in his blood, he had landed in rubble, he looked broken, there was a wound on his chest, he was bleeding from it, also from his head and various other smaller wounds, he was unconcious and he was barely breathing, I could tell he had broken many bones so I figured he had fallen from a great height, his zanpaktou was sealed laying nearby him, blood staining his once beautiful blade, it looked awfully dull, like the presence in it was dying, because it was, captain ukitake maybe had minutes left to live.

I started to cry, and I rushed over and began to work, first on his chest. 'no... No... No... No...' I kept saying over and over, upon further examination, he had been impaled, it was a miracle he was even alive, but he showed no signs of life apart from faint breathing. Captain kyouraku was practically crying 'save him... please... ' he said in a desperate voice, he talked to ukitake then, he told him he has to stay here, he wasn't allowed to leave, he went on about how he had a promise to keep, it was upsetting to watch.

'I will captain kyouraku, I will' I replied tearfully, I kept saying that in my head, I will save him, I will, but I had strong doubts, I didn't want to think like that but I couldn't help it.

There was no real sp traces around the chest wound, it healed relatively quickly for a wound that size, It took about 10 mins to heal his chest, captain kyouraku gave ukitake sp to try and keep him alive, with his chest healed to a point he could breath properly, his breathing started to improve slightly, he was still very much close to death though, I stopped the rest of his bleeding, that was important, he had already lost so much blood already though.

Captain kyouraku kept talking to ukitake, he was giving him sp while he was holding his hand, he was not paying attention to anything else accept ukitake's well being. I was still telling myself, I will save him, I couldn't stop the tears, I had done the most urgent of the healing, he wasn't bleeding, and he could breathe, now I continued to heal his chest, he had many broken ribs and he was probably bleeding internally, I just healed everything.

By then, I didn't know exactly how long but I think I would have been working for a few hours, in that time, some members of 4th division had come and hooked him up to blood, I had healed his chest so it was not fatal and had moved to his head, his head was in a bad shape, he must have fallen on it pretty hard because it was cracked and there was a gash that was bleeding profusely, his white hair was stained the colour of his blood.

In the situation, I healed to the point it was not fatal, his condition had seen very little to no improvement, I was starting to think he would die, his heart had already stopped once, and I had to use kido to bring him back, I was still saying over and over, I won't let him die, I will save him.

He needed to be taken to soul society now, but moving him now could be fatal, captain kyouraku was silent now, he was frantic, worry for his best friend written all over his face, he was faithfully giving ukitake sp, I think that was what was keeping him alive.

I had to make a decision, to move captain ukitake and possibly kill him in the process, or to stay here and probably watch him die. Either way, only one of the choices ment he would get the help he needed.

I created a hell butterfly and sent it to captain unohana requesting permission to move captain ukitake to ss, she confirmed and I had a stretcher brought to me, with a team of people, we delicately put him on the stretcher and with utmost care, we had him taken to soul society.

I stayed in fake karakura town to help captain unohana with the rest of the patients, she had dealt with the most urgent but she had many squad members helping her, she told me to oversee the transportation of the patients while she was healing, among the people that were ready to move were captain hitsugya, soi-fon, lt Matsumoto, hisagi, and various others one team moved the patients one at a time, being as careful as they were with captain ukitake, eventually there were only a few patients left.

Captain unohana told me to go oversee the division, so with the last patient I had to transport, I went back to soul society, at the division, it was a mass of movement, everybody was doing something, I gave my orders then personally checked on the new patients, they were all alive, their hearts beating as they should and all unconcious, all accept captain ukitake who was still struggling to stay alive.

There were people looking after him, he had been put on fluids and still needed blood, he had been put on life support and was only just now starting to improve, it was slow and painful to watch. captain kyouraku was still beside him, he himself was hurt but had no intention of getting healed, so I went over to him, I said his name but he didn't hear it so I tapped him on the shoulder 'captain kyouraku' I said, a little louder this time.

He looked at me and said quickly 'I'm not leaving, nothing you can do will make me..'

I stopped him, and said 'no, you don't have to go, I want to heal you, please captain' he seemed surprised, and co operated as long as he didn't have to leave the room, he wounds were not too bad, I could heal them relatively quickly and within half an hour he was healed with nothing remaining but a little pain.

I sent out the people and I personally over saw captain ukitake return to a stable condition, he still showed no sign of waking, I deduced that if he didn't wake up in the next 24hrs, he was in a coma and I did not know when he would wake up after that, feeling confident he would stay stable, I posted someone to keep constant watch on captain ukitake and continued my rounds.

When captain unohana returned with the last of the patients, she inspected my work and told me to retire as we had a lot of work set for us in the next few days, I did as I was told and over the next few days, I would sleep while the captain watched the division, then the captain would sleep and we would both work after that, as the weeks passed by, the captains and lts were healed completely and as they were deemed fit, they could go home with orders to take it easy, life in seritei slowly started to come back to normal.

By the end of two weeks, most patients were free, only one was left, since coming back to seritei, captain ukitake had been in a heavy coma, his body had recovered in little over a week and a half and we were anxiously waiting for him to wake, he had been taken off life support, blood and fluids as he didn't need them anymore, he could keep himself alive again, captain kyouraku had not left the room they were in once and refused to sleep, after about 4 or so days we forcefully knocked him out so he could get some sleep and rest, in respect for him, we had left him beside ukitake and we has brought in a bed for him.

Lt. ise had come in a few times to look after kyouraku but he refused any help for himself, not even sake could draw his attention, he didn't leave for the captains meeting, the first since most captains had recovered, captain unohana had told the other captains about ukitakes condition and I recieved word that everyone was greatly saddened by this, kyouraku was told he could stay with ukitake for as long as necessary but he had to see the head commander when the time came.

It seemed to draw on forever just waiting for captain ukitake, after he was healed and stable, a few days after we had brought him here, we felt confident we could move him safely and we could clean him, his haori and uniform was not able to be saved, they were stained in blood and had holes where he had been impaled, we threw them out and had a new haori and uniform ordered for him, he was Put in white recovery robes, his zanpaktou had been cleaned and wrapped in silk to protect it, his uniform and zanpaktou were put in my quarters where they were safe and could be given to captain ukitake when he was well.

Captain ukitake got quite a few visitors, and one of them was rukia, upon arriving back in ss, she came in for a check up and heard that her captain was in a coma, for a day, she kept captain kyouraku company and cried, worried, as we all were for ukitake, but she eventually left and every 2-3 days she would come in with flowers for her captain and talk to him with kyouraku.

We reached two and a half weeks, captain ukitake was still in his coma and now we were becoming concerned for him, I checked on him multiple times a day. One day though, I was just about finished my check up and he woke, he seemed different though, he almost looked like he didn't understand what was going on, he didn't seem to hear us, captain kyouraku had to take his hand for him to realise we were talking to him, he looked at us like he was confused.

Kyouraku asked me 'is he alright?'

I replied I don't know, I then tried talking to ukitake 'captain ukitake, do you understand us' I spoke slowly and clearly so he would understand.

He seemed to take a long time to answer the question, he replied 'I think so'

I breathed out, I realised I had been holding my breath, I couldn't help but smile in relief when he spoke, shunsui did the same.

Then ukitake asked me another question 'where am I'

My smile faded, I had a bad feeling, my heart sank, I replied 'we are in 4th squad' I felt scared 'what's your name' I asked him, I hoped to god he knew the answer.

Ukitake looked confused, then answered 'I-I don't know'

I felt faint, i paled, I realised what had happened, tears came to my eyes.

Shunsui had had nearly the same reaction, he was pale and looked sad and shocked, he said to ukitake 'you are jushiro ukitake, your my best friend'

Ukitake looked at shunsui confused and sad 'I don't remember' he said.

For the rest of this story, read the following story "the untold chapter"

for shunsuis side of the the story read "the end of a friendship"