On the third day Toshiro began to tremble.
"Its all this cold water, I can't believe you didn't start shivering before now." Ichigo sat in the shower and put his hand against Toshiro's forehead. He was still hot but when he moved his hand down further his cheek was deathly cold. His fingers and toes were practically frozen.
"If I leave, it will just get worse."
"I don't know Toshiro, this looks pretty bad."
"I'll be okay." he spoke through chattering teeth. It didn't take long for Ichigo to realize he would not be okay. He left for some food and came back to find Toshiro unconscious, his lips blue, skin white.
"That's it."
He pulled the small body out of the shower and then looked at the sword. Maybe if Hyorinmaru stayed cool, it would help Toshiro. He had to hope. When he lifted the small captain into his arms he realized with shock that this body was rigid, he could not unbend him. He had sat three days in the cold water unmoving and now his muscles had seized in that position.
"Oh I whish I knew kido."
This thought was only reinforced when Toshiro woke. Ichigo had done his best to dry him off and change his clothes and had wrapped him in warm blankets on the bed but the damage was done.
"Take me back."
"You turned blue! And you've gone all stiff."
Toshiro tried to move but couldn't. Pain creased through his face.
"I can't move." There was an edge of panic and Ichigo dreaded to think of how painful it would feel.
"You need a hot bath."
"Ha, yeah right." And as if to emphasize the point hot pain lanced through his abdomen, but it wasn't as bad as previously.
"I know, the heat would make you worse but I don't know what else to do."
"Just unbend me."
"I tried."
"Just do it."
"I don't want to uh– break you."
"Don't be stupid."
"Fine." Ichigo hauled the blanket's off Toshiro and the captain noticed he was changed.
"You changed me."
"Umm, Toshiro, I've been taking care of you for a month, what did you think–"
"Never mind."
Ichigo sighed and moved Toshiro to the centre of the bed where his body remained rigidly in the sitting position. "Here we go."
He tried to force Toshiro's shoulders down with one hand and hold his legs down with the other. He was terrified the small captain would snap in two.
Eventually, after Toshiro let out a long suppressed scream, he stopped.
"Why did Rukia never teach you Kido?" Toshiro sighed after the pain subsided.
"Hey, I can do this, I am the son of a doctor after all." He pushed Toshiro onto his side and pulled off his shirt.
"What are you doing?'
"I'm going to unknot your muscled the old fashioned way, and its going to hurt."
He pressed his thumbs into Toshiro's back and felt the taught muscle. He began rubbing out the knots one by one with his strong hands. He was right, it did hurt, but it also felt relieving, especially when a muscle finally relaxed. They lost count of the hours but by the end of it Toshiro could move again. He pulled his shirt back on and lay out flat, taking pressure off his stomach. He was still gasping in both pain and relief when his eyes closed and he drifted to sleep.
Ichigo had been right in suspecting that Captain Hitsugaya hadn't slept in the shower. He spent the whole of the following day asleep, though every once and a while a moan of pain escaped him and he would shift to make his stomach more comfortable. Ichigo reinserted the needles with some intravenous sustenance and whatever the medications were that Unohana had been trying.
...
Ichigo woke to find himself alone in the room. The needles had been carefully removed and the covers hardly disturbed, there was no sign of force. Still, he couldn't help but feel a wave of panic as he made his way from the room and tried to find the small captain.
It didn't take long. He couldn't feel his spiritual pressure but he knew where the boy must have gone. He was right. Toshiro stood in the shower, his forehead against his hand on the tiles, eyes shut.
"Your on your feet." Ichigo exclaimed and the teal eyes shot open. He hadn't even heard Ichigo come in.
He looked as if he wanted to say something but then didn't and shut his eyes again.
"Toshiro?"
"I'm fine, you can go back to bed Ichigo."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, look I'm standing."
"Yeah, that's great but..."
"Ichigo..." but the harsh edge from his voice faded and he looked at the teen not as an inferior but as a friend. "I thought if I could get up and walk all the way here, he would answer. But I was wrong."
"Hyorinmaru is still silent?"
"We can't wait much longer. Everyone is depending on us."
Ichigo knew this, he'd been waiting a month for his only hope to wake and now he couldn't do the one thing they really needed. But Ichigo had also learned a great deal of patience in his time alone.
"It will take as long as it takes."
"Not good enough."
"It has to be."
"No. I'm going to go through Unohana's supplies, then Kurotsuchi's. There has to be–"
He clenched his gut and doubled in pain. Ichigo caught him as he tumbled soaking wet out of the shower.
"You shouldn't be moving."
"I've wasted enough time." Toshiro tried to shake Ichigo off but failed and in his defeat went limp in the young man's grasp. "Tomorrow." he said after a bout of panting. "You are taking me tomorrow."
"Fine. But for now please just try to survive the night."
...
Shortly after dawn Toshiro woke. Ichigo was already up, preventing the captain from leaving on his own again.
"If you're really determined to do this, you're going to need something for the pain. I brought these but I didn't want to give them to you in case they were the wrong thing."
He laid a few clear bags on the table with writing on them. They were for IV lines and he read the black lettering carefully.
"These are painkillers, but they inhibit the senses."
"Your senses are already inhibited by pain."
Toshiro considered. "Do you know how to regulate the dose?"
"Yeah."
"Okay then, put it a quarter of the regular dose. That should be enough to take the edge off."
"What about this?" Ichigo showed him the bag of the medications he'd been giving him for the month.
"I don't think this is much good. Its an anti-inflamatory but I think that this is all being caused by Hyorinmaru. He's the one that needs treating. If only I could connect to him."
"We'll figure it out. Fruit?" He handed the boy the pre-peeled fruit that he sucked on. He still could not swallow solid food. Ichigo swallowed a roll and a piece of Byakuya's fruit then taped down Toshiro's IV and administered the drugs. They made their way Unohana's supply room and went through everything, one by one.
"I still think she probably used kido to cure me."
"Can you still do kido without hyorinmaru?"
"I tried. Nothing."
"Could you teach me?"
"I don't know, but if we can't find an answer, that may be our only choice."
"Toshiro, do you think they went to the world of the living to look for us?"
"...Yes."
"And?"
"We must hurry, Ichigo."
They found nothing at Unohana's except for a book of healing kido spells that Ichigo grabbed in case it came down to him trying to learn. Next they moved to the twelfth division.
Toshiro walked slowly, leaning heavily on his IV pole, searching for clues. He kept slipping lower and lower and Ichigo wanted to help him walk or make him sit down but he knew the captain would only resent him. He didn't want to treat him like a child but it was hard not too after all that time taking care of him.
During their search Toshiro's trembling legs finally gave out on him. Ichigo wanted to call it a day but Toshiro insisted he increase the pain medication ever so slightly and help him to Kuortsuchi's main terminal. Toshiro took a moment for the medication to kick in and sat breathing heavily in the scientist's seat. After a moment however, he shook his head and concentrated on the screens.
"Good, he's still logged in." he murmured, scrolling through page after page of scientific mumbojumbo Ichigo could not understand in the least.
"Does it say anything useful?"
"The last reading...the air quality was normal during my surgery and when you arrived but somewhere in between there was a spike in something called Railean. Hmmm..." He pondered it for a while and Ichigo didn't want to interrupt his thoughts. "It doesn't make sense. If this was a threat to the Soul Society, Kurotsuchi would have had time to let us know. There must have been something else that he saw." Ichigo had explained the expression of shock that had been etched in the man's face. "Wait– there!"
"What is it?"
"Nothing."
"What do you mean nothing?"
"I mean nothing. Someone deleted the data after everyone passed out."
"Aizen?"
"Or one of his minions. He doesn't want us to be able to figure it out."
"But what's this Railean thing?"
"I think its probably when he entered the Soul Society– the dark spiritual pressure he and the arrancars emit probably unbalance some of the spiritual particles."
"So we don't know anything more than when we started?"
"No."
"What about your injury, did Kurotsuchi investigate that at all?"
"Possibly, I'll have to go through the rest of the computer's history." Ichigo almost suggested they take a break but he knew there was no point so he bit his tongue.
It took another few hours before Ichigo heard a satisfied hiss from his companion and rushed to his side to see what he'd found.
"I got it."
"What?"
"A few months ago Kurotsuchi got a reading from this same arrancar. He analysed its venom...according to this he has a cure."
"For Hyorinmaru?"
"I don't know, its probably what Unohana used on me but maybe it will work for Hyorinmaru as well.
"Where is it?"
"That's the problem, it doesn't say."
"Well how are we supposed to find it?"
Ichigo was hovering behind the chair staring at the nonesensical figures on the screen.
"Toshiro?"
The boy didn't anwser and he looked down. He saw the white head against the keyboard and two small arms clenched around his abdoment.
"Oh Toshiro." He increased the painkillers. Toshiro's sweat covered face turned his way in silent protest but then the drugs took effect and he relaxed.
"Ichi...go..." he was not asleep but his head flopped to one side as Ichigo straightened him out in the chair. "Turn it...turn it off..."
"No, you're killing yourself, you need to rest."
"...find it." his eyes were glazed but they stare ahead at the screen and Ichigo read what Toshiro had highlighted with his cursor before the pain. It was a number, some part of Kurotsuchi's complex filing system. He looked around at the endless walls of vials but even through the haze of drugs, Toshiro's eyes screamed determination.
"Fine. But you are staying put until I find it. Just try to go to sleep." he left the captain to begin his search at the back wall, covered in glass cabinets. Toshiro tried to watch him but his drug induced haze was getting worse.
He didn't know how long he sat there but he had to admit that the pain was considerably less and he tried to give in to sleep, but something was wrong.
"Hyorinmaru!" the boy's shout nearly knocked Ichigo off the ladder where he was standing. As it was, he spilled the purple contents of one vial down his, or rather Renji's, blue jeans.
"What is it?" He said trying to shake Toshiro into consciousness when he reached him.
"I don't know. I just felt like he was in danger."
"It's the drugs– " But then Ichigo felt it too. "What is that? A hollow?" Then it dawned on him. "Oh no, its probably attracted to Hyorinmaru's spiritual pressure. But that must mean..."
"He's awake." The boy whispered.
Ichigo swallowed hard and grabbed the small captain. He quickly pulled out the IV and flash stepped back toward the showers.
A massive hollow loomed outside the fourth division. Ichigo's heart leapt, so many people were inside and defenceless.
"Go, Ichigo." He didn't hesitate. He set the little captain down on the grass and unsheathed Zangetsu.
"Hey you!" He called as he struck. The hollow turned away from the baracks and slashed out with large claws. Their battle raged, Toshiro became aware that Ichigo was losing. The hollow had become stronger with no soul reaper powers to diminish its dark spiritual pressure.
Ichigo took a hard blow and even though Toshiro couldn't see very well, it didn't look like the boy was moving anymore.
"Ichigo..." he crawled forward. He could feel the connection with his zampakuto. It should be enough.
The beast was baring down on the teen, he was struggling to rise, dark blood poured from his shoulder. He couldn't raise the sword.
"Hado 33!" Toshiro screamed, his vision blurred, he hoped his aim was at least close. He felt a thud and knew the beast had at least been partially stunned.
"Toshiro!" Ichigo staggered and fell next to the boy. They were both panting.
"Where is he?" Hitsugaya breathed.
"He's coming back."
"Use you're bankai."
Ichigo nodded. "Ban– " Out of no where they were hit by a spiked tail. Ichigo barely saw it retracting into the creature's body as he flew through the air. He felt a barb deep in his leg and another jammed between two ribs, causing him agony with every breath. The monster was coming back, Toshiro was no where to be seen.
...
"Ichigo?" Toshiro saw three black barbs that pierced his hand, wrist and forearm but could feel no pain. Unohana's painkillers were still pumping inside him. He tried to stand but nothing happened.
"Ichigo!" but his voice was weak. Even if he couldn't feel the damage, his body was still growing weaker by the second.
"Looks like I got here just in time." He heard the voice and looked up. Through the fog all he could see was the glint of glasses.
"Aizen?"
"No." then he saw the blue shimmer of a bow and arrow and he knew it was the quincy. He tried to follow the arrow as it arced through the air and watched as the hollow fell dead. The last of Toshiro's strength left him and his head sank to the ground.
"Well, I'm glad that at least someone is alive." Uryu said, hefting the boy to one shoulder. "Even if you are a soul reaper."
...