Chapter 02

Enlighten the Path

- Previously -

Everyone then remained quiet now.

Kurosaki Ichigo sat down in his lodge and glared at the two kids with somewhat annoyance when it was obvious which one was his and how the other one was not, but he knew whom the other kid did belong to, but why was he called father from both of them. Kurosaki Daichi was the little boy with orange spiky hair while Machi was the little boy with the white flimsy hair—sure they could be fraternal twins and all, but he did not understand such a drastic difference between the two kids! Kurosaki Machi acted like Ichigo while the other one seemed to be more stiffer around the edges which made the poor captain of the fifth squad completely confused with the entire thing, but he wanted to get an explanation that was clear and simple.

"Alright," Ichigo sighed, "so who's your mother?"
Their heads tilted in confusion, "our mother?"
He stared at them blankly, "yes, your mother…"
"We don't have a mother." They stated easily.

The captain's head fell as he face twitched angrily, "listen here you brats…" his head lifted as he was about to yell at them. "W—!" He saw Daichi handing him a box quietly, and so he took it.

"You said to give it to you when we passed the gates." Daichi stated quietly.
Ichigo opened it and looked through the box, 'these are… journals…?'
"You write a lot Daddy," Machi stated, "you said you'd read them when we came."
He looked up to the boys and then saw it growing dark, "you two should go to sleep."
"Aww," the two whined as they began to stretch and yawn sleepily. "We're not tired."
Ichigo smiled weakly and tried the fatherly role, "don't argue, just go sleep in my bed."
"Kay!" They beamed and scurried to the room in an instant, racing one another.

He twitched at this, but sighed as he opened the first letter to read.

His eyes widened to the things that he already began to read within the first letter that revealed a mountain load of information about the upcoming activities that were going to happen; the orders of deaths and what days they would occur. Then there was the next paper that revealed the days of when attacks begin and the theories of the other captains were—he understood why this was not mentioned to the others now; these were reports to himself to keep in mind. Around sometime during the fifth page of the first letter, it was suggested to him that he should beg the Soul Society government to allow the two exiled captains in order to change the future of the world because in the future, they did nothing of the sort. This was going to take a very long time to have everything sink into him, and he was not sure that he could do this all alone in one night, so he would have to take shifts on the paperwork and take down notes on everything… though help sounded nice.

Ichigo rubbed his head at this and growled in frustration. "Where's Toushirou when ya need him?"

- Now -

(Oba* - Aunt)

After a long agonizing week, the captains eventually gain their composure from the transmission sent from the future, although it did not look like Kurosaki Ichigo was fairing off just as they were—what with having two kids with him saying 'Daddy this, Daddy that' all the time. Actually, Ichigo had been staying in his lodge for the past three days without telling anyone what the reason was about, and continuously added that he was fine and did not need to be worried about… but this made his lieutenant worry. Having it been a couple of days without seeing her captain, Hinamori Momo went to her childhood friend, Hitsugaya Toushirou, and somehow asked him to check on the captain that she was getting attached to now. Though the small white-haired captain had stated that there was a lot going on right now for the fifth squad captain, she was not happy about it and so Toushirou reluctantly came to see the orange-haired captain on the fifth day of his mysterious absence to the world; making it twelve days since the message and been given to them.

Coming to the lodge that was occupied by Kurosaki Ichigo, he sighed and knocked on the sliding door, "Kurosaki, open the door, its Hitsugaya taichou." When there was no reply, he tried to open the door by sliding it, but it was locked from the inside. "Your fukutaichou is worried about you, so stop trying to scare her; you're already doing a great job on that by having her send me here."

The door was unlocked, and Machi poked out his white-haired head and teal eyes at the captain, "Daddy's reading and doesn't want to be disturbed." Hearing his name by his brother, he cringed and turned to look at Daichi who opened the door wider to gaze at the captain.

"Sorry, Daddy's busy; you have to come back later when he's done." Daichi stated sternly.
Toushirou scowled at the boy, "stand aside, this is between me and …Kurosaki taichou."
"But—" Machi was interrupted by his brother's arm that raised for him to be silent.
"We're not supposed to tell him a word of that subject, you heard Daddy." Daichi stated.
"I know, but it's not fair to hide it from him." The white-haired child frowned. "Why not?"
Growling, the twin stretched his lips, "because Soi Fon taichou hasn't been rejected idiot."
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Daaaaddy!" Machi whined desperately. "Wah! That hurts! Let go!"
Toushirou scowled at them both and tore them apart, "that's enough you two."

"What's going on over there you brats?" Ichigo's voice called out in the room and the two boys cringed. Eventually he came into sight and grabbed the two by the collars, "sorry about that."

Ichigo's face was pale and his eyes were barely open to bother seeing who was at the door before and plopped the two on the ground so he could return to his work on the desk against the wall and acted as if no one was there. Toushirou raised a very confused eyebrow at the scattered papers on the wall and slid the door closed behind him after he walked in; something was definitely wrong with the fifth squad captain, so he had to be reasonable. The twins silently watched the little captain sit down five feet away from the taller one, which made the two glanced at each other while they understood, so they stood up and headed to the sliding door as if they knew that there was going to be a serious talk between the two captains.

"Daddy, we're going outside for a while, do you want some food?" The twins asked in unison.
Ichigo rubbed his face in thought to understand, "no, thank you. Go ahead, but stay in the unit."
"Kay," they replied and left the lodge and closed the door behind them; leaving the captains alone.
"Damn this all…" the orange-haired captain whispered beneath his breath after the boys left.
Toushirou watched quietly, wondering if the man was all right, "when was—" he halted.
He jolted at the voice and turned to look at the young captain, "T-Toushirou… what the Hell?"
His eyebrows raised with confusion, "for the moment, I'll ignore that," the little man looked at him.

This man looked like he was dead tired, causing him to wonder when it was the last time he had went to sleep because with those bags under his eyes, there was no way in Hell he had just woken up from a nap anytime soon. It seemed that Momo had a right to worry about her captain and was right about coming to him or else she might have used demon magic to knock him out and then tuck him into bed as if none of this had ever happen, and that was beyond the truth. The boy cringed when the orange-haired captain stood up with aches and grunts, most likely his body was aching seeing how he wobbled a bit, but there was no reason for him to deprive himself of sleep right now.

Toushirou continued. "You missed two meetings, you're not doing your reports, you've been in your lodge for five days," he watched the man turn away, "you're scaring your fukutaichou."

"Yeah, well right now I'm scaring myself," he replied went over to the door and locked it.
The little captain watched him closely, knowing that he had to ask. "Are you… alright, Kurosaki?"
"Honestly?" Ichigo laughed tiredly and went to his desk to gather the journals—
"What are those? Reports you failed to turn in?" He bitterly joked with sarcasm.
"Pretty much," his hand came up and rubbed his forehead again, "but I can't tell you."
Not liking that this future 'second in command' man was hiding something, "why not?"

"Because right now I don't even know who—no, I don't even know what I can trust right now." He sighed and just looked the boy. "Those kids brought more than just one message though. One for the Gotei 13, but dozens for me to take calculations on to change the future." Ichigo groaned and rubbed his temples. "I've been trying to sort everything out for the past few days and note them."

"Then you should turn them in for investigation." Toushirou announced almost immediately.
His head shook, "and scare everyone of who lives and dies? No, I want to avoid that right now."
"What you're doing is playing with lives right now," he scowled, "if you're trying to play God—"
"I'm not," Ichigo sighed, "jeez, I thought I could trust you with just a little of the information."
"You're weakening the strength of the Gotei 13 by containing yourself in here." The boy glared.

Ichigo groaned in annoyance of the lecture he was getting from the boy and dipped his head to ignore the white-haired captain for just a few moments to calm his mind before he accidentally snapped at him from being irritated. Toushirou bowed his head in thought by placing himself in the man's position while trying to figure out what he would do, and yet, he had already gone against the law once by giving Hinamori Momo a letter that was from Aizen Sousuke. Both of them, if not all of the captains, have done their share of breaking the law once or twice and even more than that. Therefore, it was not as if Toushirou would be a jerk and rat out about information that could be useful to the Commanding-General and everyone else, especially with Momo being the lieutenant of the man in question. The situation was not exactly the same as it was with the former fifth squad captain because he admitted as to what the letters were about—however, there was the small issue of Kurosaki Ichigo telling the truth about what was on the paper and if there was any foul play. Not that there was any reason to expect such a thing from this captain for so more than one reason: despite whatever he chose it was to help them, they were the ones to request him as a captain, he has been right at Momo's side for her recovery, and also, this man had never lied. It was given to him from the tenth captain, the benefit of the doubt, and so the white-haired boy had quietly got up and went to the man's desk so he could take a look at one of them, but his wrist was grabbed by the fifth squad captain with a loose grasp.

"Don't," Ichigo said tiredly, "I told you what I could until I'm finished reading everything."
"Taking it upon yourself to read all of this is stupid, have your fukutaichou to help." He glared.
"No, I don't want to open up those wounds if she sneaks through papers and finds yours."
Toushirou's was taken aback by these spoken words and took his wrist back. "M-Mine?" He stuttered.
"Damn," his hand rubbed his face to stay awake, "yeah," he answered, "I know what happens."

It took a couple of silent minutes to regain his composure and crossed his arms, "so, how?"

His head shook softly, "what's the point of having you worry about something that…" the rest was mumbled out of hearing—the conversation was making him over think right now.
"What?" Toushirou looked at him, this time giving the man his full attention.
Growling, he raised his tone, "I said what's the point of having you worry about something that I want to avoid? Damn Toushirou, I'm trying my best to avoid panic in Soul Society!"
The boy was forced to take a step back when he was yelled at, "…Kurosaki."
Ichigo looked at the boy, exhaustion written on his face before he turned away, "I'm sorry."

Toushirou watched as the man turned around and returned to the letters foolishly when he should be going to bed but then heard the man's stomach growl lowly, which meant that he was probably hungrier than hell if he had never left the room. It would be a good idea to take him to Unohana Retsu's unit for some attention, but then there would be some issues with someone walking into the lodge to find out any reasons as to what caused him to fall to this condition. The door was being knocked on which drove the white-haired captain to look back and forth from the sliding door to the exhausted orange-haired captain, so he decided to just leave it be since it was not his lodge to answer for. Momo's voice was weakly heard from outside the lodge which made the little captain tense up with annoyance and suspense as to why she would be there if she wanted him to talk to this captain for her; she probably found the courage to speak out.

Ichigo quietly sighed as he got up to the sliding door, "what is it Momo?"
She yiped in surprise on the other side of the door, "are you going to come out today?"
"I need about two more days," the captain replied, "if I don't finish by then, then I'll take a break."
"Okay," Momo sounded a little upset now, "did… did Shiro-chan come to speak with you."
Toushirou growled in annoyance, 'stupid girl, calling me that towards others… damn it.'

"Yeah, Shi-chin came in and harassed me already, thank you." Ichigo replied.
The boy turned around and scowled at the captain, 'I'll kill you Kurosaki!'
"Wah! That sounds so much cuter!" Momo tried it now, "Shi-chin… so cute!"
'Stop calling me these things!' He fumed in his mind at the 'cute' names.
Ichigo spoke, "I need to work Momo, have the squad train some, okay?"
"Okay, I'll do the reports too when we're done!" Momo cheered.
"Thank you Momo, I'll make it up to you." He replied quietly.
"I'll keep you to your word!" With this said, she ran off happily.

Sighing, the orange-haired captain scratched his brow with his thumb and returned to the desk as he whispered to himself to remember, "two days, is it?" He sat down and returned to the work and shifted the papers around, "I'm slacking off too much, these go over here." Ichigo grabbed a few papers and stacked them together and placed them next to the desk—but his hand was taken.

"Kurosaki, you need to stop working on this, and get something to eat, and then get some sleep." Toushirou stated sternly as he kept his grip firm. "If you don't listen to me, then I'll have to request for the fourth squad to come in here and take you in, that or I'll carry you to the unit."

"I said I would stop in two days," Ichigo replied softly, "I can go eleven days without sleep."
"That doesn't help the fact that you're starving yourself." The white-haired boy glared.
He chuckled, "no, it doesn't." He scratched his head, "but after all I've read, I have no appetite."
Hearing this made his grip loosen, "tell me—maybe not about mine, but others…"
"Poisoned, slaughtered, sacrificed, suicide," Ichigo paused, but added, "…illness."
"What are you going to do with that information—" He was startled as Ichigo jerked loose.

There was no intention of replying to this question for some reason which somewhat made the white-haired captain a little upset, but he had to think of what the position was for this man and try to understand it before sounding stupid. It must be hard to know who dies during what time and day, and even worse from how they would die—there was no possible way of actually being comfortable with knowing all of this futuristic information, so then why was he not sharing some amount of knowledge with others? Remembering that he said something about not scaring others about the information that was in these journals and reports were more in his interest than having everyone panic and think that he could control their fate if they were about to die or not. Still, they had time to learn about all of this which meant that Kurosaki Ichigo had no real reason to be up all day and night reading everything and working on this as if the war was on their doorstep tomorrow morning—wait, could that be the reason that he would not give up? Perhaps it would be in his best interest to leave the orange-haired captain alone and let him to do all of this by himself like the man wanted, but to leave his lodge when knowing that he was in this condition was annoying the white-haired captain; the little had to think of something—but not here…

"I suppose I'll take my leave then." Toushirou headed toward the door.
The fifth squad captain nodded lightly, "alright, see you later."
He turned confusedly, "why? Are you going to come out soon?"
"No," Ichigo muttered quietly to him, "it's for self assurance."
His eyes rolled, "you—well, the future you said it was in fifty years."

"Think of it as a virus, small and has yet to spread." He stated. "But within years, it will grow."

Toushirou sighed in annoyance and unlocked the door so he could walk out and close the door behind him, and as soon as he looked around, he saw the two boys sitting on the railing quietly as they looked at him curiously. He raised an uninterested eyebrow before looking left and right and then left again before turning to the two boys while wondering why it was they were looking in, and just how long was the two were sitting there—most likely listening to them talking. His mind quickly swayed the thought away and turned on his heel so that he may return to his unit with thoughts that would not be consumed about Kurosaki Ichigo and the fact that he had a list of who will be killed and so on, the thought alone was annoying.

"You're not going to take him to Unohana-oba*?" Daichi called out, surprisingly stern.
Machi frowned at the twin brother, "no fighting Dai-chan, not with Daddy—"
"Daddy said to keep quiet about it," he interrupted, "but he's nothing like him."
His hand tugged at his brother, "we're not supposed to talk about it, Daddy said so."

"Your father is nothing more than a fool trying to kill himself by not eating or sleeping." Toushirou stated calmly without worry after turning to them. "If you don't mind, I'm going to my unit now."

"So he means nothing to you," Daichi called out sharply, "if he did, you would do something."
"Dai-chan! Stop it!" Machi whimpered. "You're going to get Daddy mad if you keep it up!"
"Don't you see what the downfall of the battle is? It's right there!" He pointed to the captain.
"We can change that, t-that's why we're here!" The other replied, wanting to cry.
'I'm the downfall of the battle?' Toushirou asked himself, watching the two fight.
"Your Daddy is just as stubborn as mine!" Daichi declared angrily.
"That's not fair!" Machi cried. "The—" The door was slammed open.

"That is enough." Ichigo demanded sternly and the two boys piped down.

"Sorry Daddy." The orange-haired boy dipped his head sadly for getting in trouble.
"Sorry Daddy." The white-haired boy dipped his head— "Daddy you're bleeding!"
"I don't want to hear it," Ichigo growled and scratched his head, "that's the fifth fight."
"Dai-chan started it! Dai-chan was being mean and—!" Machi was interrupted.
"I don't care. If you don't stop, I'll make him take you." He pointed to Toushirou.
Daichi scowled and crossed his arms, "he's the reason why you—"

The orange-haired boy was grabbed by his obi and brought inside the lodge for a time-out by the big bad daddy who was not going to hear any more of this while the white-haired boy smiled lightly at just how familiar it was to see such an annoyed father giving them such small punishments. His teal eyes glanced over to the boy that looked maybe about seven to ten years older than him and smiled even more when thoughts about the past rushed through his mind until the final day came by, and this made him turn away his attention and made him frown. True, these boys were twins—though fraternal twins and from different men, they were twins none the less, and Machi was the one staring at his father right now while his twin brother was being punished by his own father. But alas, the two of them were not allowed to say anything about having two fathers and no mother for it would be greatly misunderstood by others, and their father in this world already understood how it was that they were conceived and seemed to have accepted it.

Still, it hurt to see the family separate, and he looked to Toushirou, "Dai-chan is the selfish one of the two of us, he learned from our other parent, I learned from Daddy in the lodge." He stated.
"Am I the downfall to something?" Toushirou questioned the boy a little sternly.
He smiled weakly. "Daddy told us not to tell you anything." Machi hopped up and balanced on the railing. "We weren't supposed to talk to you even, but, Dai-chan gets really mad now."
"You two are just kids." He retorted in annoyance, adding a glare to the crossed arms stance.

"Did you know that, you'll tell your very first lie right before you die?" The little one asked quietly with his head tilted and stared out at the sunset. "The person you lied to could do nothing because they couldn't be bound to their emotion with the war." He began to tear up and cry. "It got dark…"

A thump was heard. "DADDY!" Daichi yelled immediately afterwards.

Machi turned on the rail and ran into the room, calling out to the man as well while he and his twin shook their father with worry and tears brimming down both of their cheeks worried, which caused Toushirou to come in and look at the group. The tenth squad captain sighed and rubbed his neck as he entered to bandage up the bloody hand and slouch the bigger captain over his shoulder as the boys bickered at him—well, one bickered at him as the other closed the sliding door behind them all. He stated that he was going to take the idiot to the fourth unit to be looked at because it was obvious that their orange-haired father had collapsed from the lack of strength and that it was the only way to get him there; when he is not conscious.

"Kurosaki taichou is actually in a severe condition." Retsu said quietly. "His systems are all in very poor condition, and it seems that even carrying his Zanpakutou would've thrown him down on his face." She watched the forced sleeping man with a frown, "there's a lot of damage on his brain."

"Can Unohana-oba promise Daddy will be okay?" Daichi asked as he intently watched his father.
She smiled softly, "your father will wake in a couple of days, he needs to recovery his strength."
"But he hasn't finished his work, Daddy was almost done." Machi frowned sadly at her.
"I'm very sorry," the healer said softly, "but he needs his rest, and food after he wakes."
Toushirou called out to the two boys, "after he gets a few days of rests, he'll play with you."

The twins perked when they thought of something, "Zangetsu!" They quickly fled the room.

Toushirou's head dipped in annoyance to how those kids did things, "I'll never have kids."
"That white-haired boy looks very much like you, though." Retsu smiled, trying to not tease.
He looked at her, "their twins, and it's not like a man can get pregnant." He shivered at the idea.
Her shoulders shrugged softly at the statement and changed the subject, "will you stay with him?"
The little captain looked from her to the sleeping man, "are you going to leave the room?"
"We know how he is when he's awake, he might try to hurt himself, or others for that matter."

"Stop…it…" Ichigo mumbled in his sleep, clenching the sheets as his brows fused. "…Don't…"

The white-haired captain sighed and rolled his eyes lightly, "I'll watch him for a little while."
She bowed her appreciation to him, "I'll tell Hinamori fukutaichou about the situation."
"…" Toushirou only nodded his head as he watched the man who was dreaming.

After five minutes of silence when there was only the boy on watch and the sleeper, Ichigo's head jerked violently, mumbling the long list of deaths to himself that was barely audible which had the other straining to hear his words, and finally, "can't… tell him… can't… worry… them…"

A/N: I have a lot of stories to catch up on right now, so I don't know when the next update will be.