His hands slumped slowly as Aizen finally lay still, reiatsu vanishing. The silence in Aizen's throne room was deafening, the only sound Ukitake's rough breathing next to him. He stood still for several long minutes, trying to get his sheer rage under control, rage and desperation and fear at the things Aizen had shown him. If he was too late…
After a long silence, Ukitake said gently, "Kyouraku…He's dead. Come on, we have to find Ise-san."
Shunsui was silent for a moment, before he said, "Yeah…you're right." Almost savage with barely contained rage and desperation, he flash-stepped towards one of the arrancar still starring in stunned silence, placing one of his bloody blades at its throat. "Take me to where Ise Nanao is being held, now," he snarled softly.
The arrancar's eyes widened in fear as he found the blade of the shinigami who had just killed Aizen before his eyes at his throat. "Y-yes, sir," he said instantly. He bowed and led them down the white hallways.
Every muscle in Shunsui's body was screaming in protest, demanding to lie down, to rest. He didn't care. He'd rest after he found his Nanao-chan. She was going to be all right. She had to be all right. If she wasn't… He felt Ukitake fall into step by his side, and Isane behind him. "Kuchiki-taichou and the others are staying back to finish cleaning things up."
Shunsui grunted assent, unable to come up with anything else to say. He was straining to feel any hint of his fukutaicho's reiatsu, desperately searching for any sign that she was still alive. He barely noticed where they were going—it seemed like forever before the arrancar nervously said. "She was being held here. I don't have a key, I'm sorry."
Shunsui raised his hand to the door, but Ukitake stopped him gently. "Let me…you're still too angry to do it safely." He put his hand against the door and muttered a Kido spell, blasting the lock and the handle out of the door. Shunsui steeled himself for what he might find inside as the door swung open. Please, he begged silently, let her be all right.
The moment the door was open enough to move inside, he was in the door, his eyes immediately drawn to the still, bloody form on the ground. "Nanao!" he said, dropping to his knees by her side.
She looked terrible, fresh blood and filth indistinguishable from the scabs and dirty white uniform covering her body. She was so thin…her high cheekbones protruded painfully from her face and her hands were nearly skeletal. The reiatsu-seal they had around her neck was loose, as well. Shunsui removed the seal, his hands clumsy with suppressed rage and grief at seeing her hurt like this. "Nanao? Come on, sweetheart. Wake up," he said softly.
After a minute, she opened her eyes, her reiatsu faint and barely there, but present. He breathed a silent sigh of relief. "We've got you now, Nanao-chan. Just hold on." She didn't look at him, her eyes blank and unseeing. Shunsui was fighting panic, but he took her bony hand in his gently. "You're safe now, and we're going to get you home and healthy and fed again, all right?" He looked up at Isane, who was also kneeling by Nanao's side, doing a diagnostic. "Isane-chan, can we move her?"
"Just a moment, Kyouraku-taichou. I need to finish repairing an injury to her back first," she said softly, the green glow of her Kido over Nanao's back.
Shunsui nodded, stroking Nanao's hand gently while he waited. "You're going to have to be all right, you know. I don't know how I'll catch up with all that paperwork on my own. You know, if you aren't there, I might put extra sake in our budget for next month, and then what will happen?"
Ukitake sat by his side, offering silent support. Shunsui was fighting to control his emotions, and more importantly his reiatsu—in her weakened state, if he let his reiatsu flare, it would probably suffocate her. That bastard. That absolute son of a bitch, daring to hurt Nanao like this. The death Shunsui had given him was far too quick for what he deserved, but they had needed to finish it quickly so they could get to her. "We can move her now, Kyouraku-taichou," Isane said quietly. "But we should get her back to Fourth quickly."
Shunsui nodded, not trusting himself to speak just yet. He gently gathered Nanao into his arms, frowning at how light she was--he could count her ribs easily, right through the pathetic excuse for clothing they had given her to keep her warm in the frigid cell. And she was burning up with fever too, her breathing strained and raspy. Hold on, Nanao, he begged her silently.
Ukitake closed the communicator he was holding and looked at Shunsui. "Kuchiki-taichou says they've opened a gate back into Soul Society," he said. "We can meet them in the throne room."
"Good," Shunsui said shortly. "Let's go. Oh…wait a moment." Despite the unnatural heat of her body, Nanao was shivering in his arms. He took off his (admittedly bedraggled) pink haori and wrapped her in it gently before nodding to Ukitake and flash-stepping back to the throne room as quickly as he could.
Matsumoto looked up with a worried expression when Shunsui reappeared. "Is she…?" she asked.
"She's alive," Shunsui said.
"Good!" Matsumoto said. "Knew she was too stubborn to go dying on us, right, taichou?"
"Let's just get her home," he said quietly, stepping through the Gate.
They arrived on the other side of the gate to a flurry of activity. Unohana gently took Nanao from his arms, laying her on a stretcher and rushing her to the emergency wing of Fourth Division. Shunsui was taken to Fourth as well, to be healed and bandaged—two straight months of fighting hadn't been kind to him, after all. It was all a blur, as the healers asked questions and poked various things into him. He was given something to eat and drink; he ate it, but didn't taste a bite. He just kept seeing Nanao's blood, the blank look in her eyes…he knew it would be haunting his dreams for months.
Some indeterminate time later—Shunsui couldn't have said if it was minutes or hours—he was led into a room with two beds, and told to rest for a while. He would have laughed if it wasn't so serious. He wasn't going to be resting anytime soon, not until he knew Nanao was stabilized. Ukitake was in the next bed over. Shunsui just sat on the edge of the bed, his head sunk onto his hands.
"She's going to be all right, Kyouraku," Ukitake said. "She's strong, and Unohana is an incredibly talented healer."
"I know she is, but…" rage swelled in him. "You saw what that bastard did to Nanao! You saw what he showed us! More than two months he had her, and she…she…"
"I know…" Ukitake said, quiet anger in his own voice. "What he did to her was unforgivable."
Shunsui was silent for a moment before he spoke softly. "Jyuu, I don't know what I'm going to do if I lose her. It's…it's just like Lisa. I put her in danger. It's my fault she's lying there. It's my fault she was hurt."
"You know that's not true," Ukitake said softly.
Shunsui shook his head. "I left Nanao alone, just like I sent Lisa out alone."
Ukitake sighed and didn't try to push the subject, which Shunsui appreciated. His body really was aching, and he lay down to rest. He wouldn't sleep, just give his muscles a chance to relax for a moment…
When Shunsui opened his eyes, it was dark out. Unohana was in the room, listening to a sleeping Ukitake's lungs with a stethoscope. Shunsui opened his mouth to speak, but changed his mind and waited for her to finish. When she was done, she turned towards him and gave him a small smile before approaching Shunsui's bed. "How are you feeling?" she asked.
"I'm fine, just sore. How's Nanao?" he asked.
Unohana looked away for a moment before she made eye contact again. That was never a good sign. "I healed the worst of her injuries," she said, "but Ise-san is very ill. She has severe pneumonia and several infected wounds, so much depends on the next few days."
He swallowed past the lump in his throat. "What…are her chances?" he asked.
"If she makes it through the next three days, her chance of physical recovery is fairly good," she said, "although there will be extensive scarring." She paused and looked down for a moment before looking at him. "If all goes well, she'll be in Fourth for at least a month. However, her physical recovery is one thing, but her mental recovery is something else.
"Without a doubt, there was a great deal of psychological trauma done," Unohana continued. "I don't yet know the extent of the damage, but you should prepare yourself for the fact that it may have changed her a great deal."
Shunsui nodded, his eyes distant. The mere physical pain must have been excruciating, and if the way Aizen fought them was any indication, he probably tortured her psychologically, as well. "When can I see her?" he asked.
"Tomorrow, after you've rested," Unohana said firmly.
"I'm rested now," said Shunsui, trying to prove it by getting to his feet…and promptly falling over. Unohana caught him and eased him back into the bed.
"Rest now, Kyouraku-san. You're exhausted. You can see her in the morning," Unohana said as she pulled the blankets up around him.
If she's still alive, he thought. Aloud, he only said, "You're right of course, Sempai. But...call me if anything happens, all right?"
"I will, I promise. Good night, Kyouraku-san," she said as she turned out the lights and left the room.
The next day found Kyouraku up with the sunrise. Had Nanao been awake to witness it, she would have commented that she needed to mark the date of this unprecedented event on her calendar. But even the thought of her critical remarks (which Shunsui had always found irresistibly adorable) only barely brought a smile to his face. Because his Nanao-chan wasn't in the office, waiting for him with a stack of paperwork and a cup of tea; she was lying in a hospital bed, still fighting to survive what Aizen had done to her.
After checking him over briefly, Unohana had allowed Kyouraku to go to Nanao's room. He stood in the door for a while, his heart breaking for his fukutaicho. She seemed so dwarfed by the hospital bed. Most of her body was bandaged, including the right side of her face. She had an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose, and various IV lines in her arm. He pulled up a seat next to her bed, gently stroking her hair and face in one of the few places that wasn't bandaged or bruised.
"I am so sorry, Nanao-chan," he said softly, taking her hand with his as he continued to stroke her hair softly. "This is my fault, and I will never…never be able to forgive myself for that. For letting him get to you. For taking so long to rescue you. Hell, I should have been there in your place to begin with—you should never have had to endure something like this."
He stood up and placed a very gentle kiss on her forehead before he slid back into the chair, still holding her cold hand tightly. "You don't know how proud I am of you, though. When Aizen was…taunting us, he told us how you wouldn't tell him anything. You're such an amazing, strong, beautiful woman, Nanao-chan. And you must be so tired, after so long, but you can do this. You can survive.
"I've watched you get through so much. You were so tiny when you came to Eighth, but gods help anyone who insulted your Kido. And you adored Lisa-chan, I know you did. But even when she disappeared, you wouldn't let it hold you back. You kept right on going, right on fighting. I've never seen a Kido master as young as you, you know that? You darn near burnt the hat right off my head during your fukutaicho test. My poor hat…
He chuckled, and found tears rolling down his cheeks, but he didn't try to stop them. "Please, Nanao," he said gruffly, "You don't know how much I need you. I love you. I love you so much, and something in me is going to die with you if you go. I know I don't deserve it. I know I didn't keep you safe like I should have, but please. Please keep fighting, Nanao. Come back to me."
