"Rangiku?" Toshiro's eyes peeled open. His body was in agony, he looked down and saw the scars of surgery. Unohana had closed the wound well, there would be no lasting scar, but whatever had taken place inside his body had been severe. He knew he shouldn't be awake. His genius brain knew that in his condition his body should have left him in a deep coma until his wounds were healed. But something had woken him– Hyorinmaru, crying to him desperately.
He spotted his Zampakuto on the floor. Odd, he thought, he was sure squad four would be more careful.
Then he saw her.
Rangiku lay sprawled on the blood stained floor. Suddenly he became aware that there was no spiritual pressure to be felt anywhere– at least, not soul reapers.
He tried to sit up but failed. His torso would not bend, his organs felt inflamed. He rolled to one side and saw Unohana just behind his lieutenant, and others.
"Aizen?" he whispered. In his current state he could hardly sense the dark spiritual power but he was almost certain.
Master, hurry! He ignored his screaming body and hauled himself off the table. With a crash his broken body hit the hard floor, the equipment attached to him crashing all around him. His breathing mask slipped off, the air felt thin. But he ignored it all and crawled to his lieutenant. First he came to his zampakuto. He grasped the handle and drug himself forward again. His fingers reached her face before the pain became too much.
Master you must hide.
He ignored him. "Rangiku." he stretched just a little further, just enough to touch her neck. There was no pulse. "No." he choked and his body retracted in pain. His consciousness was waning.
No, Master! The ice dragon erupted in the room and scooped up his master. But it was too late, someone was already in the building. Hyorinmaru searched the room hastily.
A medical cupboard, just big enough for his master's body.
Toshiro supressed his cries of agony as he was thrust into cupboad. At the last instant, the dragon became a sword again and he pulled it close to him in the small space. His head was limp against the back of the cupboard but his eyes fell to the small crack where he could still see the prone figure of his lieutenant. A small figured espada swept into the room. He felt Hyorinmaru shield his riatsu– what little he had left– and the arrancar went about his business, never noticing him. He trembled in pain and anger. He wanted to leap to his lieutenant's defence but his body would not respond.
The arrancar never touched the woman or any of the other soul reapers, but he did take their zampakuos. When he was gone, Toshiro hauled himself out of the cupboard and tried to crawl his way back to Rangiku but there was no hope: now that the immediate danger had passed, Hyorinmaru's powers faded and he drifted into unconsciousness.
...
Ichigo stumbled through the senkeimon Tessai had raised. He immediately knew something was wrong. Though he was in the dead centre of the rukon district, there was silence. Upon landing to earth, he saw the sea of bodies. Everyone, everywhere, was dead.
"No way..." he breathed.
He made his way into the seireitei. Only bodies met him, everywhere he turned. The boy pressed on, passing the bodies of friends: Kenpachi and Yachuri, the girl cradled in the giant's arms; Ukitake, his face solemn, unaware of danger; Soifon just looked like she was asleep. His heart skipped when he found Urahara. He check his pulse three times to make sure. Reluctantly he left his friend's body behind– there was someone he had to find.
It didn't take long. Rukia lay next to Renji, his arm around her shoulder. It seemed that some people had seen it coming, others not at all, dropping in mid action. But that was not what the boy was thinking. His mind could only feel the weight of so much loss.
"Oh Rukia..." he broke into sobs, gasping next to their bodies, suffocated by the tragedy. It took a long time for him to tune into the voice of Zangetsu.
"Zangetsu?" he said, his voice trembled.
There is one.
"What?"
There is one, in squad four.
Ichigo took a long time to let go of Rukia's hand. Just before he flash stepped he looked down and noticed her empty sheath. Zabuimaru was gone too.
"What the hell?"
Master, hurry. He tore his eyes from them and flash stepped away.
...
"It's the same." he said when he entered the healing house. He opened the doors to the surgical room and immediately was taken aback by the blood. He saw Unohana, then Rangiku then Toshiro, but none were moving.
"I don't understand."
But then he saw it, the green handled blade still in the clutches of the smallest captain in the Soul Society.
"Toshiro?"
Ichigo fell at his side. His heart skipped when he felt a pulse, but it was weak and unsteady. He remembered the phone call and, looking around the devastated room again, realized that this had been where Toshiro had been undergoing surgery.
He lifted the small body back onto the table and began replacing the torn out needles. Last he put on the breathing mask.
Having grown up in a clinic, he knew what to do, but when he was finished he stood helpless. Maybe he could save Toshiro, but how long would it take for the captain to heal? Ichigo could not get back to the world of the living without the help of the soul reapers, so what was he supposed to do, surrounded by a sea of bodies...
...
Toshiro woke. He was no longer in the surgical room but a private one somewhere else in the fourth division. He had been changed from his bloody clothes, the equipment was arranged neatly around his bed. He was still in terrible pain but he heaved a sigh of relief, glad that he had only dreamed his lieutenant's death.
The door opened and an orange haired boy entered. He was in casual earth clothes that reminded him of what Renji wore in his gigai. He had a mouthful of food and a book in his hands.
Then he saw Toshiro. His eyes widened, the book fell from his fingers, and he nearly lost his balance.
"Toshiro!"
Toshiro weakly pulled the mask from his face and tried to speak bu no words came out.
"Be careful." Ichigo came to his side and pulled the mask off. He reached for a pitcher of water and poured a glass. Carefully, he raised the little captain into a sitting position and held the water to his lips. The pain in his gut was excruciating being bent up like this but he craved the water. The cool liquid soothed his dry throat, though he sputtered and very little actually made it down.
"Take it slow." Ichigo said, his voice breaking with emotion as he stared at the living, breathing boy in his arms. Toshiro began to feel anxious.
He coughed up more water but enough had gotten down to clear his throat. Ichigo gently eased him back to a horizontal position. He lay panting and wincing for a few moments, then his eyes opened again and stared at the boy.
"Why are you here?"
"I came through the gate Tessai opened but I was too late."
"What do you mean?"
"Everyone was already out."
"Out?"
"You don't know?"
The memory rang through Toshiro's mind vividly, but he had been sure it was a dream.
"Rangiku, she had no pulse..."
"I know. Everyone, everyone in the whole Soul Society is like that."
"But they're still here?"
"Yeah. So they can't be dead. It took me a while to figure it out, but I remembered that soul reapers disappear like hollows. So they can't be dead. But they have no pulse."
"Ichigo..sometimes it can take a while."
"Well it has been a month."
The boy in the bed choked. Ichigo realized his mistake.
"How long?"
"I'm sorry Toshiro, I didn't think–"
"Ichigo!"
"I came here, a day after your injury. You were the only one alive– or at least I thought then– any way, that's it. I can't get home without a soul reaper, and you were hurt really bad by what I heard."
his voice faded and Toshiro understood why Ichigo stared at him in that way. Alone for all that time, looking after him and just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"And Aizen hasn't come back?"
Ichigo shook his head.
"A month...I can't believe it..." then his eyes glazed, he was already exhausted and Ichigo watched him fall back into a deep sleep.
...
It was night he woke again. Though he hardly thought it possible, the pain in his abdomen was worse. He couldn't help but let a few painful sobs escape him before gaining some measure of control over himself.
It was enough to wake Ichigo. He was on another bed he'd pulled into the room.
"Toshiro?" he rubbed the sleep from his eyes but could hear the sharp intakes of breath and hurried to Toshiro's side. The boy was trembling and drenched in sweat. He turned his head to face Ichigo but he couldn't speak, he was in too much pain.
"What is it?" Ichigo asked desperately. His hand fell to the boys head. "Oh Toshiro..." his temperature was terribly high. The small captain opened his mouth to speak but only a shuddering breath escaped his lips followed by a half suppressed moan. Even in this state, he was trying to be strong.
"Is it your stomach still?" Ichigo moved his hand to the boy's torso. He lifted Toshiro's shirt and placed his hand on the bare flesh.
He had hardly touched the boy when he let out an agonized scream which subsided into now uncontrollable sobs of pain. Ichigo withdrew his hand immediately, though he had touched him long enough to feel abnormal heat coming form his stomach and his belly looked bloated. He couldn't imaging was happening to his organs.
"Toshiro I'm sorry.." he looked around the room but there was nothing. He'd kept the boy alive with what little knowledge he had and by simply replenishing what Unohana had supplied but he didn't understand soul reaper medicines. He couldn't even tell what was a pain killer.
"Hyorinmaru..." Toshiro hissed through his pain. Ichigo grabbed the zampakuto. He took it by the blade in order to hand it handle-first to the boy but he instantly withdrew his hand.
"Its hot, the blade is hot."
He took it by the handle and showed it to Toshiro who looked back at him through a veil of pain.
"The poison..." he whispered.
"The poison? Oh no..." the realization dawned on Ichigo. "Hyorinmaru was poisoned too? How do we fix it?"
"...ice."
"But there isn't any, I've looked."
Toshiro's eyes fell to the window.
"There hasn't been any snow yet." Ichigo breathed. Toshiro sputtered and crimson stained his lips.
"Toshiro! Please hang on. I need you! Everyone needs you!"
Toshiro knew. He knew that if he and Kurosaki really were the only soul reapers left conscious, then more than just the Soul Society was depending on them, the whole word was. But in that moment the agony was too much to bear and his mind shut down.
