Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, this belongs to Tite Kubo.
The hell butterfly lazily flew into the tenth division office where Captain Hitsugaya and Lieutenant Matsumoto sat at their desk doing their paperwork (or for Rangiku, thinking of ways to get out of doing paperwork.) Captain Hitsugaya extended his finger for the butterfly to land and to transmit its message.
Attention: Captain Hitsugaya and Lieutenant Matsumoto your presence is required in Head Captain Yamamoto's office immediately. That is all. The butterfly flitted off once the message had been delivered.
"Rangiku, we need to go see Head Captain Yamamoto." Captain Hitsugaya ordered as he rose from his desk, Rangiku followed when they flash stepped to the first division office.
Appearing at the First Division, Captain Hitsugaya and Lieutenant Matsumoto walked into the office where they met Head Captain Yamamoto sitting behind his desk.
"Captain Hitsugaya and Lieutenant Matsumoto, I am pleased that you could meet on such short notice." Captain Yamamoto stated to the two as they politely bowed to the head captain.
"Your message seemed most urgent, Head Captain that is why we arrived so quickly." Captain Hitsugaya responded as he looked back up to Head Captain Yamamoto.
"On to business, we have seen an unusually high occurrence of hollows in the world of the living over the United States of America." Head Captain Yamamoto notified the pair as they looked on slightly confused.
"Head Captain Yamomoto, I was not aware that the countries in the Western Hemisphere fell under our jurisdiction." Captain Hitsugaya asked in respect to his superior officer.
"Under normal circumstances that hemisphere does not, however due to the increased activity of hollows it has come to my attention that this area needs to be investigated. This is your mission Captain Hitsugaya and Lieutenant Matsumoto: I want you to travel to the United States of America to take care of the hollows in that area and make clear as to the reason these hollows have appeared. I will have the gate prepared for your departure and have it open above the location where the hollows have appeared." Head Captain Yamamoto ordered and Captain Hitsugaya and Lieutenant Matsumoto bowed in response, then turned leaving the office of the Head Captain.
Captain Hitsugaya and Lieutenant Matsumoto ran to the senkai gate where they would be sent to the USA.
"Captain, why do you think there are so many hollows all of a sudden?" Rangiku asked when they stopped at the gate.
"The only reason I can think for the increase of hollows would either be an increase of souls or someone who has a large amount of spiritual pressure, like in Karakura." Captain Hitsugaya answered as the gate opened allowing the pair to cross into the world of the living.
"We are about to find out." Captain Hitsugaya stated before he and Rangiku ran through the gate to emerge over a city in the middle of the day.
Looking around there was nothing out of the ordinary: there were cars traveling here and there through the city, people were entering buildings to escape the midday heat, and it appeared that people young and old were enjoying the crystal clear blue sky. There was neither a soul nor a hollow in sight.
"Captain, are you sure we are in the right city? I don t see a hollow anywhere near." Rangiku asked in doubt.
Hitsugaya was about to respond when he spotted a dark spot moving behind a tall mirrored building.
"Rangiku, follow me!" Hitsugaya ordered as he flash stepped down to the black spot, upon reaching the ground the two stared in awe at the number of hollows. There were at least 25 hollows in a single area.
"RANGIKU!" Captain Hitsugaya ordered and Rangiku nodded her head in agreement as they both began attacking the hollows. The first few hollows were simple to destroy since they were so preoccupied with feeding on souls. The destruction of the first five alerted the remaining hollows to the soul reapers' presence. The remaining hollows attacked the pair. The simple hollows were no match for a captain and lieutenant in the world of the living. In a matter of minutes, all remaining twenty hollows were destroyed leaving the alley empty except for Captain Hitsugaya and Lieutenant Matsumoto.
"Captain, what is going on?" Rangiku looked around as they both became even more perplexed: such a large number of hollows do not arrive at the same spot without being directed by an adjucha or without a large number of souls, even weak souls.
"I don't know. Something drew them to this location, but what?" Captain Hitsugaya tentatively stepped into the alley and his foot crunched on some glass. The sharp crack of the grass startled whatever was sleeping as the pair heard a small cry.
"What's that?" Rangiku asked again, listening very closely Captain Hitsugaya was able to locate the sound coming from behind a dumpster. Pushing the dumpster back they stared at a tiny baby. The baby was a soul since they could clearly see the broken soul chain dangling from the baby's chest as it cried. Without thinking, Captain Hitsugaya calmly walked up and gently picked the baby up. Staring down at the tiny pink bundle he gently rocked it back and forth easing the cries of the infant to sleep. As he gently cradled the baby in his arms, he started looking around the alley again.
"There is no way 25 hollows would appear for a single baby's soul. It barely has any spiritual pressure at all." Rangiku looked around most infant souls were automatically sent to soul society since there is typically nothing to keep them in the world of the living, so when an infant dies its spirit moves on. There has almost never been a soul burial for an infant before.
"I know, Rangiku. There has to be something else here to attract all those hollows." Captain Hitsugaya answered and carefully looked down in his arms where the baby continued to sleep.
"There would have to be a city's worth of souls for that many hollows in a single place." Captain Hitsugaya whispered to himself. He looked up and noticed Rangiku was walking around, she too was perplexed by the situation they had found themselves in.
She started opening up doors looking for any hiding souls.
"And there was no fighting between the hollows gathered, so that means there were more than enough souls for those hollows to feed. So, where did they all come from?" Captain Hitsugaya mumbled to himself as he watched Rangiku continue to search the buildings. Opening another door, Rangiku peered into another empty warehouse. Turning around, she saw some more doors on the side where Captain Hitsugaya had found the baby soul. Approaching the other set of buildings, she hesitated in opening the first door there was a part of her that sensed death near this place. Opening the door, she shed light into a nearly empty room taking a step inside her footstep echoed in the small room. This small sound was enough to awaken the occupants. A wave of infant cries resounded in the small room echoing off the walls and growing stronger.
Rangiku ran into the room and turned on a light switch, the sight she saw made her scream.
"AAHHH!" Rangiku screamed holding her hand to her mouth Captain Hitsugaya ran in and gasped at the sight. On the cold floor there were thousands of infant souls wiggling and flailing around, each one carrying a tiny broken chain of fate hanging from the chest. A door opened on the other side of the room and a blonde woman with wire rim glasses casually walked into the room. She wore a doctor's lab coat and her blonde hair was tied up in a bun, she walked into the room and stared down at the babies.
"I wish they would stop crying." She coldly stated then she tipped the one nearest her foot so that it was flailing on this stomach trying to move and screaming all the harder.
"STOP IT!" Rangiku yelled and reached for her sword.
"RANGIKU! STOP!" Captain Hitsugaya stopped her with his extended left arm blocking her movement.
"Captain?" Rangiku asked with her stormy eyes flaming with rage.
"There's no need, she's already dead." Rangiku blinked and looked back to the woman, as her Captain had noted a broken chain of fate dangled from her chest.
"Yes, I am dead. Probably from one of those terrorists," she tapped her foot and glanced at her watch ignoring the strange woman and young man still holding a baby.
"Who are you?" Captain Hitsugaya asked, Rangiku could hear the rage in his voice and his eyes burning with anger toward this callous woman.
"I'm an abortionist at this clinic." She proudly stated as she glared at the pair. "I'm actually supposed to come into work in the next few minutes, I'm sure that my colleagues will notice my absence in another thirty minutes when I don't arrive."
"What's an abortionist?" Rangiku carefully asked, she glanced at her captain out of the corner of her eyes and his anger at this woman surprised her.
"An abortionist is a Doctor who performs abortions." She explained with a bored expression on her face looking down at the two.
"What is an abortion?" Captain Hitsugaya asked his mask of fury lifting for a moment.
"An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy." The female doctor stated and almost laughed at their expressions of shock.
"You mean all of these babies died from an abortion?" Rangiku asked in shock and the female doctor rolled her eyes.
"They're not babies, they're clumps of cells." This time Rangiku had to hold her Captain back by placing a hand on his shoulder, he paused at her touch but she could hear him snarl at the doctor.
"How can you call them clumps of cells when you can see their soul's right here?" Rangiku asked gesturing to the carpet of babies squirming on the cold floor.
"We'll they're not people." She coldly stated and she wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"You're not one of those crazy pro-life terrorists are you?" The doctor's odd question shocked the anger out of Captain Hitsugaya.
"Since, when is being called pro-life a terrorist act?" Captain Hitsugaya asked taking a small step back from the woman.
"Well, you attack our fellow doctors and I'm sure you're the reason I died in that car accident." The cold doctor's evil smirk would make Aizen proud. "You see, the brakes in my car suddenly gave out and my car flew off a bridge."
"Sounds like you should have gotten your brakes checked." Rangiku growled at the woman.
"Indeed, but that's all water under the bridge." She paused and laughed at her own joke. "I'm not too worried I was Catholic when I was alive so I'm sure there's nothing to worry about." She inspected her nails as her foot tapped on the ground in impatience.
"You ended the lives of all these babies and you seriously expect to go to heaven? It was my understanding that murder was one of those things that blocked a person from going." Captain Hitsugaya coldly stated to the woman and she rolled her eyes.
"I told you they were only a bunch of cells. Besides, I go to mass every week. I have nothing to be ashamed of, I am actually proud of my work. Although, the total number of abortions has declined in the past few weeks which means that I don't get a bigger pay check." She looked back at them and their expressions of shock and disgust surprised even her.
"There were more babies killed besides this number?" Rangiku asked as a look of pure horror appeared on her face, the doctor scowled in disgust.
"YES! All thanks to you and your pro-life groups for scaring away all our patients. There have been hundreds of women we have been unable to help-"
"YOU THINK YOU'RE HELPING THESE MOTHERS?!" Captain Hitsugaya screamed at the woman, he forgot about the sleeping baby in his arms until it screamed in fear from Captain Hitsugaya's outburst. He looked down and eased the baby to sleep again with an easy rocking motion back and forth until it had calmed and was, once again, sleeping soundly.
"Yes, you see abortion is a legal medical procedure in this country. We do young women a favor when they don't want to deal with the consequences of un-protected sex, so then we relieve them of their burdens." The doctor smiled and glared down at the hundreds of babies wiggling on the floor.
"There are women who don't want their babies?" Captain Hitsugaya whispered in shock, he had always pictured a woman as being kind and loving especially to their children. One of the problems with being a soul reaper was that it could wear on your psyche, especially when there were small children involved. Since soul reapers, and souls in general, were incapable of having children, many of the women and young girls in soul society yearned for a child but they knew that it would never occur.
"Yes, and we help them along." The doctor waved her hand in the air in indifference as she looked around.
"What are you looking for?" Rangiku asked in disgust since she noticed the woman had been looking around for quite some time during their conversation.
"I'm looking for the pearly gates of heaven. I've been a good catholic girl, I go to mass every week and I go to all the church functions, so I am entitled to go to heaven when I die." The doctor stated in confidence and looked around again.
"You do realize that when a baby is born from a pregnant mother it becomes a new person. Don't you?" Captain Hitsugaya asked and she glared at him in pure hatred.
"Like I told you, IT'S NOT A REAL BABY!" The doctor screamed and Captain Hitsugaya clutched the baby in his arms to his chest.
"Each of these babies that you terminated has a chain of fate, the same as you. You see when a human dies then their chain of fate is severed allowing the soul to wander free in the world of the living." Captain Hitsugaya gently showed the doctor the broken chain of fate on the baby in his arms and then he pointed to the one connected to her own chest.
"The chain of fate connects a soul to a body. Since every baby has a chain that means each baby was a living human being at one point. A broken chain of fate means that person has died and become a soul." Captain Hitsugaya looked at the woman and stared deep into her eyes from across the room.
"Each and every baby in this room is a child that YOU killed or helped to kill. Every baby in this room was murdered." Captain Hitsugaya kept his voice even but no one could miss the anger and fury flowing from his voice.
"It was a legal medical procedure." The doctor stated, for the first time appearing to be nervous at her situation.
"Just because something is legal by your laws does not mean it is the right thing to do." Captain Hitsugaya explained and he watched the female doctor take a step back, pure fear adorned her face.
"I'm a Catholic."
"Do you feel remorse for what you did in your life?" Captain Hitsugaya asked and she stood her ground her eyes become cold and dark.
"No!"
"And you still expect to go to heaven when you see the lives you took during your life?" Captain Hitsugaya asked with fury dripping from his voice.
Before she could answer, a large pair of red doors rose from the ground. Each door had a skeleton hanging from the door with chains draped between the pair of skeletons keeping the gates closed. No one could ignore the snarls and growls emanating from the closed doors.
"WHAT'S THAT?" The doctor screamed as she stepped back from the growling gate.
"Those are the gates of Hell they only appear when they take a soul to the underworld." Captain Hitsugaya coldly answered and he enjoyed the look of terror in her eyes.
The doctor turned from the doors and started to run. The doors opened with a menacingly deep screech and black chains shot from the opening to wrap around the fleeing doctor. She screamed as the chains circled around her arms, legs and waist. She continued screaming as her arms waved in the air trying to fight the chains off her body. The chains could not be dislodged, but started dragging her into the gates. Her screams were met with silence as she was dragged into the gate, the doors slamming shut behind and disappeared in screen of black smoke.
Captain Hitsugaya and Lieutenant Matsumoto simply stared at the spot where the female doctor was dragged through the gates. Now it was only the two of them in the room full of baby souls.
"Captain, what do we do?" Rangiku asked her captain who could not take his eyes off the child in his arms.
"I don't know." Captain Hitsugaya answered, all of a sudden he seemed so tired and sick to his stomach.
"Do you want to do a soul burial for all these souls?" Rangiku asked and he shook his head.
"No, we can't do a soul burial. All these souls will be sent to the Rukongai, and they would not survive a week if they were sent right now." Captain Hitsugaya reasoned through his mind that was becoming fuzzy now that the fury and anger was dissipating.
"We can't leave all these babies here. More hollows will come." Rangiku stated and he stared down.
"I know, Rangiku. I just need to take a walk." Captain Hitsugaya stated and he turned toward his lieutenant who gazed down at him.
"Will you please hold the baby? I need to get out of here." Captain Hitsugaya pleaded the begging tone nearly broke Rangiku's heart.
"Of course, Captain, take as long as you need." Rangiku kindly extended her arms out and Toshiro placed the baby in her arms showing her how to hold it. She stood there as Captain Hitsugaya walked out of the building into the bright sunlight.
Toshiro squinted his eyes when the light blinded him as he stepped out walking down the alley and out onto the side walk. He took a few deep breaths to calm his nerves.
'Master, how are you feeling?' Hyourinmaru asked Toshiro who groaned in response.
'That bad?'
'Yes, I just can't believe what I saw and heard.' Toshiro admitted to his Zanpakuto, he gently placed a hand on his head as a wave of nausea passed through him.
'I'm sure not everyone shares the view of that horrid woman.' Hyourinmaru's voice held hope.
'I believe you're right, still I need a few moments alone.' Toshiro took several more deep breaths as he corrected his posture.
'I understand, Master.' Toshiro could feel Hyourinmaru retreat within his mind to give him privacy.
Toshiro looked up and turned onto the sidewalk walking to the front of the building. The group in the front surprised him. There was a group of ten people standing on the sidewalk with their heads bowed.
'What are they doing?' Toshiro thought as he walked up to the group, they were in regular clothes and arranged in ages from the young teenagers up to the middle aged. One young girl was walking back and forth across the sidewalk whispering words with her head continuously bowed. Toshiro carefully walked up to her, even though he knew none of them could see or hear him he still didn't want to disturb them.
"They're praying." Toshiro whispered in wonder and surprise.
Toshiro walked around the group and watched them. They were not disturbing anyone just praying, he did not listen in to what they were speaking but their presence seemed to calm him. That female doctor had said that the number of abortions had declined and that she believed pro-life "terrorists" killed her. Toshiro did not believe these people were terrorists for a second.
As Toshiro walked around, he noticed a pamphlet that had fallen on the ground. The pamphlet read "Operation Rescue" in big bold letters at the top underneath a picture depicted a baby in the womb on the front cover. There was another bold sentence written in large letters that read: "The Gates of Hell will not prevail."
"They're trying to stop the abortions." Toshiro exclaimed in awe as he continued to watch the small group. He was relieved to know not everyone in this country shared the same views as that cold doctor, if she could even be called that.
The young girl that was walking as she prayed had stepped close to the street as a car started to speed up obviously targeting the girl. Toshiro quickly jumped over the girl and pushed her to the ground then hit the car along the front right fender with a small blast of kido. No one in the car was injured, but it did some serious damage to the car as it veered straight onto the road avoiding the sidewalk and continued down the road to disappear around the corner.
"That was uncalled for." Toshiro whispered to the retreating car, glancing back to see the girl was okay and the surrounding people warning her not to walk as she prayed anymore. Seeing that she was safe and in good hands, Toshiro jogged back to the room where Rangiku was still standing with the baby in her arms. She looked up when her Captain walked through the door and she sighed when she saw he was calmer and looked better. Before he had left the room, his face was becoming a sickly shade of green. Now, his face was back to the normal shade of cream and his eyes no longer held the fury that was evident before he walked out.
"Captain, are you feeling better?" Rangiku asked and he nodded his head.
"Yes, Rangiku, I'm feeling much better." Toshiro looked down at the babies on the floor instantly becoming depressed again.
"Now, we have to take care of these babies." Toshiro whispered. The pair heard the door open and spun around to see a young boy walk into the dimly lit room. Toshiro and Rangiku stayed in the same spot, hoping that he would leave without seeing anything.
"Hello," the boy stated and Toshiro's eyes went very wide.
"You can see us?"
"Yes, I can. I came back to thank you for saving my sister," the boy smiled and he looked down at all the babies on the floor.
"Were all these babies killed in abortions?" The boy asked and Toshiro sadly nodded his head.
"Yes, I believe so."
"I see, I wish there was something more that we could do," the boy looked down and shuffled his feet on the dirty concrete floor.
"Do you believe that praying is helping your cause in halting abortions?" Toshiro asked and Rangiku stared at her Captain.
"Yes, I do. I know it does, hundreds of abortion clinics like this one have already been shut down. We're all praying for the day that abortion is forbidden again, we've still got a long way to go but we're getting there bit by bit." The boy stated with hope and peace shining in his eyes.
"Why don't you do more?" Toshiro asked.
"Because, the only way to fully extinguish abortion in this country and the world is for the people to have a change of heart, to realize that each child conceived and born is a gift from God meant to bless a home." The boy stated then he looked down on the floor watching the babies for a moment.
"What's going to happen to them?" The boy asked the pair.
"We're going to take them to a place called Soul Society you might consider it a type of heaven." Toshiro kindly explained.
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't say anything about what you saw in here."
"Don't worry, I won't." The boy turned but paused, looking back up at them, "will you please make sure they are taken care of? They didn't get a chance to live in this life can you give them a chance where you're going?" The boy kindly asked and Toshiro smiled at him.
"Of course, you have nothing to worry about. I'll make sure these babies will be taken care of and put in loving families in Soul Society." Toshiro answered and the boy smiled again.
"Thank you. Good bye." The boy turned and ran out the door leaving Toshiro and Rangiku in the room.
"Captain, how are we going to send these babies to Soul Society?" Rangiku asked and Toshiro looked up at her peace shining in his eyes.
"We're going to carry them through the gate." Toshiro simply answered. He didn't see Rangiku's look of surprise then look around the room at the thousands of babies.
"But, Captain, there are thousands of babies in this room."
"Yes, Rangiku, I know that. So, we're going to need a lot of help." Toshiro answered and removed his phone from his robes. Rangiku looked around and sighing at the work they had ahead of them but she couldn't complain. As long as these babies had good families to go to, all the work would be more than worth it.
They waited for a few minutes then a Senkai gate opened up in the middle of the room and hundreds of Soul Reapers ran through the gate to stare at the situation they were presented with.
"Rangiku, I want you to tell everyone what to do. I'll take care of the report when I return to Soul Society." Captain Hitsugaya explained and she blinked her eyes looking down at him.
"Captain, where are you going?" Rangiku asked and he sighed.
"I need to go for a while and take a vacation. This is too much to take in. I don't know when I'll be back into the office. Please, notify Head Captain Yamamoto that I'll be in Karakura if I'm needed." Captain Hitsugaya explained and Rangiku smiled, she knew exactly where he would be going and she also knew he needed it.
"Don't worry, Captain. I'll make sure all these babies make it to Soul Society and they all go to good families." Rangiku smiled down and he returned her smile.
"Thank you. I'll see you later, Rangiku." Toshiro turned out the door and ran out of the building. As soon as he ran into the sky, he glanced down at the city then he disappeared in flash step.
…………
Karin walked into her house from her soccer practice in the late afternoon. She ran upstairs and ran into her room. Opening her door, she paused staring in surprise to see Captain Hitsugaya sitting on her bed with Hyourinmaru leaning against the open window.
"Toshiro, I wasn't expecting to see you this soon. I thought you'd be too busy in your office." Karin exclaimed as she walked into her room, he did not respond to her and she became very concerned.
"Toshiro?" Karin ran over to him and sat beside him on her bed.
Karin gently held his chin with her hand and turned his face toward her, Toshiro had been crying. His eyes were puffy and red, but it was the look in his eyes the look of pain and sorrow that surprised Karin the most.
"Toshiro, what happened?" Karin cradled his head in her hands and he stared in her eyes.
"I've had a terrible day." Toshiro simply stated and Karin nodded her head.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Karin asked and he nodded his head.
"Yeah," Toshiro rested his head on Karin's shoulder as Karin wrapped her arm around his shoulder in a comforting gesture.
"Karin, can I stay here for a few days?" Toshiro asked.
"Of course, you can." Karin stated without hesitation and he sighed.
"Now, tell me what happened." Karin kindly ordered.
A/N: I know Abortion is a very touchy subject for everyone talking about the debate. It is one of those subjects that elicits an attack response, but that doesn't mean people can't be civil and talk about it. Not everyone will agree on the subject and that's okay, and I know that pro-life and pro-choice will never see eye to eye but that doesn't change what abortion is.
Abortion stops a heart beat. For every heart that stops, another heart breaks.
This story is not mean to offend anyone, but it's meant to explain why so many people on the pro-life side despise abortion with a passion.
The most common defense for abortion is the idea that it is only a clump of cells and it's not human. I believe those people forget that every human that has ever lived was once a clump of cells as well. The only difference is that we were given a chance to live while so many thousands were left to die.
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with the group Operation Rescue, but I value their faith and their courage for doing what they can to protect young mothers and the children that will be born to them.
I pray that this story will touch your hearts.