"If somebody had told me, I'd try dieing earlier", Ichigo mumbled. For the nurse it was nothing strange, many people talked nonsense at the verge of death, speaking about people they saw. There was no-one, except maybe the other nurses when they came here to give them medicine.
"Sir, please hang in. Is there anybody you want us to call?", she asked as it was usually. The old man lightly shook his head "Dr Kurosaki, maybe you have children, or grandchildren? Friends, anyone?"
"No", Ichigo replied. He sighed and closed his eyes. Much to his sorrow he had outlived most of his family, which was – considering the inhuman age he had lived so far – not very surprising "Would it be possible for me to be alone?"
"Of course, Dr Kurosaki. I shall return later."
"Wow, he is an anoying one!", somebody shouted, way to loud, way to close to him "How 'bout I fuck him up a little? Would be funny, ya?"
Ichigo reopened his eyes and looked around. Some shillouettes were around him, shaddowy figures he could barely make out. But this voice was one, he would never forget. This loud, anoying voice of a man he had not heared within the last 95 years.
Let that time sink into you. 95 years, and yet the memory of this voice was the clearest memory he possessed. 95 years for one Ichigo Kurosaki to grow up and old, to become a doctor, to retire and enjoy his age, to live one life to the fullest. Married to a lovely woman and have children – they would not be here today. Not this one joyfull day he would die at the age of 111.
"Is that you, Grimmjow?", he asked out of curiosity.
"Hu?" The shaddows moved, drew closer to him, surrounded his bed and waited. They were not clear, just wobbly clouds of something.
"No seriously, that was just Grimmjow Yaegerjaquez who talked, right?", he asked again with a happieness in his voice, that made him look halve as old as he was.
"What, this many people are here, and I am the only one you recognize?", the voice snarrled. It was to his right, somewhere. This mist~y thing next to the monitor watching his heart.
"Dumbass", someone else answered, the cloud left to the one he thought it was Grimmjow "He propobally can't see us and just heared you, kitty!"
"Sounds about right", Ichigo said, trying to remember whose voice that was. A female, of course, but the voice itself was noone he remembered "You seem to get clearer thou." Just some minutes ago the shaddows had been wibbly-wobbly things with no real shape, and now they were nearly human-shaped. Or at least there were clear gaps between the certain clouds.
"Did you just call me Kitty?", Grimmjow hissed.
"Kitty cat!", the unknown woman said.
"You two will not fight in a hospital!", a third voice demanted – undoubtly Rukia. A smile appeared on Ichigos face – Rukia was still there, she was alive and fine! Left to him, someone of those three clouds to his left was Rukia Kuchiki – or was it?
"Ah, is it still Kuchiki?", he asked out of curiosity. Rukia giggled, but it was not her who answered.
"Nah, its Abarai now!", Renji said, also to his left side.
"Byakuya was fine with that?", Ichigo wondered. The upper part of the second cloud moved – was it Renji shaking his head? It was hard to decide. The shaddows were still only vague shillouettes, and his eyes started failing a long time ago.
"Of course!", he said "Even if he'd never admid it, he hated the fact that there were two Captain Kuchikis!"
"You became a captain?", Ichigo asked, before he could stop himself from doing so.
"We are all captains, can't you see?", the unknown woman said, and she sounded angry "Well, except Kitty here!", she added, now sounding happy again.
"Yea?", Grimmjow shouted a lot more angry then she was before "Well, to bad I could beat any one of you, any time!"
"Have fun trying, Vice-Captain!", she replied. It was in an instant, and Ichigo could not see it with his human eye, but suddenly the shaddow of Rukia to his left dissappeared and reappeared between the strange woman and Grimmjow.
"You two will not fight!", she said. Ichigo knew Grimmjow well enought that this would only make him want to fight even more.
"Hey, who else is there, anyway?", he threw in, before they could continue to argue.
"Still can't see, hu?", Renji said.
"Just tell me", Ichigo answered "Tell me, I missed about 95 years, and my eyes aren't that good anyway.!"
It was a day to feel alive. Ichigo had been ill a long time, not being able to do much and this illness became so much worse just lately. But just now he felt better then any time the last 30 years! Screw that, he felt like the 16-year-old again. Whenever a nurse came to check on him, he was laughing and smiling like some unseen ghost made a joke, he spoke about his life like another ghost would listen.
Another old man turning crazy during his last hours.
It went on like hours, until the evening. Around five he turned silend, smiled and layed back and closed his eyes. It was the time he would get all his little pills and drugs to keep him alive and away from pain, just when the nurse entered.
"I can see your eyes right now", Ichigo said. The nurse just stood there and listened; it were sentence like this that made her think if angels existed "You said when I can see the white in your eyes, I would be done for."
He turned his head to some ghost, as there were many ghosts in a hospital. Could a dying man really see them? At one point every nurse asked this one question, but never dared to speak out.
"Can you just answere me one question, please?", the old man said, falling back into his sheets "Will I remember?"
The nures could not say if he hat gottenthe answere from the ghosts he was seeing. He closed his eyes, relaxed, breathed once, twice, and slowly everything stopped. The doctors rushed by, looking for him, trying to safe him, but what good was it to save a man of 111 years?
However, not aware to anyone of the hospitals staff as they could not see spirits, this old mans soul rose, in the form of a young boy, not older than perhaps 20 years. He stood up, rose from the bed and went through the doctors. Greeding his old friends, friendships formed within some months (other even in just some hours), yet holding over 95 years.
"And I really can't stay and haunt the staff a little bit?", he asked jokingly "They have been around the last 30 years!"
"Hey, I get a fight first!", Grimmjow demanded right away "We already made a shedule, and I am at the very top of it!"
"You are placed second!", Renji said, pointing at himself "Anyway you want to give anyone the honor?", he added, pointing at his Zanpakuto. Everyone was eager to send him over there.
Now was the time to be a real Shinigami!