In an attempt to make up for how long you've all been waiting, I've decided to upload this chapter, which I likely could have split up into several. This marks the longest chapter I've written so far, and an attempt to get back into the swing of writing these characters after quite a while away from them.

I hope that I've managed to keep things in character, but if I haven't, then I apologize. I may need some practice.

Well, that's enough of that. Let's begin, shall we?

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Sleep.

Need sleep? Yes.

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Read...

...File...

Sleep.

"...gaya-tai..."

He blinked.

Well, no. He didn't blink. He...mentally blinked. His eyes were still closed, so he couldn't blink. But he thought he blinked. He...

He shook his head.

"...tsugaya-taichou!"

Ah, yes. Of course. The voice. The distant voice, the voice always heard as one woke up from sleep. Like a train speeding toward the exit of the tunnel. Getting louder. Clearer.

More urgent.

"Hitsugaya-taichou!"

Damn it.

He opened his eyes.

Somebody was shaking him. Who the...what...?

It was a rank-and-file soldier, and Hitsugaya might have been able to remember his name if he'd been even partially coherent. Groaning, he stumbled to his feet before saying a word.

"...What?" he growled.

He finally turned to face the man.

And went pale.

"What?" he asked again, breathlessly.

The man could only point.

Hitsugaya looked.

"...Oh, God."

"Hinamori-fukutaichou! Tell him quickly! We need to get you to the...!"

Hinamori shoved her fellow shinigami off of her, pulling her arm away, brown eyes wide and wet as she drew in horribly shaky breaths. "H-H-Hitsu...Hit...sugaya...taichou..."

Her voice was barely there. She was holding her neck, blood flowing over her thin, shaking fingers as she stumbled into the office, barely keeping her feet. Her clothing was stained and tattered as if it had been gnawed on by rabid wolves.

Hitsugaya leaped to his feet and practically flew over to her, holding her up just as she began to fall. "Hinamori! What happened to you?!"

"I...it looks...worse than it...than it is..." Hinamori muttered in her haggard rasp. "Ko...Kotetsu...fukutaichou says that...I'll be fine...b-but...but..."

"But nothing!" Hitsugaya shouted. "You're barely conscious! You! Why didn't you take her straight to the infirmary?!"

The target of Hitsugaya's anger, a member of Hinamori's own division, quailed beneath the boy captain's glare, but drew in a deep breath and forced himself to stand straight.

"It was...an order...sir. Directly from Madarame-taichou. He ordered that Hinamori-fukutaichou report to you. Kotetsu-fukutaichou has given her a cursory inspection and...signed off on the order. Hinamori-fukutaichou! Tell him, so that we can get you to—"

"Enough!" Hinamori snarled, surprisingly sharply. "I'm not the one that matters here! I'll survive, Sasaki!"

"Not if you continue to push yourself like this, Fukutaichou!"

Hinamori turned her eyes back to Hitsugaya, who was staring at her with a look that was half-fear, half-fury. "Hinamori...what is it? What would your captain deem so important that he would order you to...you could have sent for...what's going on?!"

Hinamori flinched, lowered her eyes, and seemed as if she couldn't bring herself to speak. But in a visual battle with herself, she forced in a deep, shuddering breath, and looked at him.

"...It's Matsumoto-fukutaichou."

The way she said it cut straight into Hitsugaya like a white-hot knife. His face paled, slackened, and his fingers twitched into half-fists.

"Rangiku..."

He vanished too quickly to see.

"Get her to the infirmary!!" came a yell from halfway down the hall, a fraction of a second later.

"The next time the second in my division is critically injured, I expect a damned report immediately!!"

No member of any division would have envied Iemura Yasochika's position at that moment. Fury rolled off of Hitsugaya's compact frame like the seething breath of the great serpent within his sword, and it had taken such a furious hold on the white-haired shinigami that his breath puffed out in clouds that were so cold they burned.

"H-H-H-Hitsugaya-s-s-s-s-sama...?"

"Get out of my way!"

Hitsugaya thundered through the infirmary like a hurricane.

"We were j-just about to...to...! S-Someone was already sent...! I..."

"Save it!!" came the snarled reply – that sounded like a roar. "I'm not interested!"

Yasochika rushed after the Tenth Division captain, looking like it was the last thing he wanted to do, and when he saw that Hitsugaya had been stopped in a hallway by Unohana Retsu, he dared to look relieved.

"Hitsugaya-taichou?" Unohana asked in her calm, maternal voice, but it seemed to have no effect on him. "I think I know why you are here."

"Oh, you think, do you...?" Hitsugaya hissed, eyes flaring. "Tell me where she is or get the hell out of my way."

"I think you might want to calm—"

Hitsugaya shouldered past her. "Fine."

"H-Hey!" Yasochika started, holding up a feeble hand. "You can't treat...!"

Unohana held up a hand of her own. "He's distraught. I expected nothing less. Hinamori-fukutaichou was just brought in, and she has worsened her condition substantially. Come with me."

"But...but...he can't...he can't just...I was...!"

"If love caused people to think rationally," Unohana said softly, with a smile, "then it would not be love. Come with me. We must see to Hinamori-fukutaichou."

Yasochika lowered his hand.

He followed his captain.

And blinked suddenly, head snapping up.

"...Love?"

When Hitsugaya lay eyes on his vice-captain, his heart simultaneously raced and sank.

Matsumoto lay with her eyes closed, bandages covering almost every inch of her, looking like nothing so much as a mummy. The only part of her that was completely untouched was her face, but even it was contorted with pain.

"Rangiku...oh...no...no, no..."

He felt any sense of self-control slipping from him faster than his own heartbeat, and wondered if he had ever felt so helpless before.

He didn't think so.

He rushed to his lieutenant's side and took hold of her left hand with both of his, pulling back the urge to cry only because he knew the tears would freeze on his face.

"Rangiku...Rangiku, are you...?"

He stopped the question.

It was a stupid one.

Matsumoto's striking gray eyes fluttered open, and she managed a smile. "You know..." her voice cracked, "...I don't think...that I'll ever get tired...of hearing that name from you..."

Hitsugaya smiled despite himself. "Rangiku...you...oh, for the love of...Rangiku, what happened?!"

She reached out with her other hand, the ring finger of which was bent at a horridly wrong angle, and pressed her index finger against his lips. "You...have a...have a lovely voice... Toushirou...but...if you wouldn't mind lowering it...just a bit?"

Hitsugaya bit his lip. "What...what...?"

"One of them..." Matsumoto said, some of her voice coming back to her in sudden bitterness. "One of Aizen's...got the jump on us...on patrol. Standard...procedure. No...reason to call for...for backup...we thought. For some reason...he let...let us retreat. The bastard's mocking us...I was going to stay, but...but Hinamori insisted...he hit fast, hard, and I was...was injured long before I'd even realized what the threat was. She...she forced me to come back, and...and I guess she was right."

Hitsugaya blinked at her. "What do you...?"

"If I'd stayed..." Matsumoto said, stroking her captain's cheek with her free hand, "...I probably wouldn't have come back at all...and I'd never have had the chance to...see your face again. And it's...such a handsome face, too..."

Hitsugaya blushed. "Rangiku, don't talk like that...please don't talk like that."

"I know..." Matsumoto's smile widened. "No flirting on the clock...right? Sorry, Taichou."

"No," Hitsugaya said, shaking his head. "Don't...don't talk like you're dying."

She actually laughed.

"Silly boy...I can't die yet. Some people still think it's just a...just a rumor that you've kissed me."

He laughed with her, but it was weak, and died almost instantly. "Rangiku, don't...stress yourself. Just rest. Okay? You need to rest."

"Awww..." Matsumoto said. "Is Taichou-sama worried about me?"

"Taichou-sama is petrified."

Gratitude twinkled in her eyes, and her own grip on her captain's hand tightened.

"I...I love you, Rangiku."

Don't leave me.

"I love you...love you, too, Toushirou."

I won't.

"Well, lookie here. Ain't you two cozy?"

Hitsugaya turned sharply at the sound of that voice, and watched as Ikkaku and Yumichika followed a member of the fourth division as she rolled a stretcher – carrying an unconscious Hinamori – into the room.

"Madarame."

Ikkaku shrugged, for once without a grin plastered on his face. "That'd be my name, a'right. Somethin' wicked out there, ain't it? Did a number on your second, too, I see."

Hitsugaya didn't miss the sudden flash of anger that rose on Ikkaku's face as he looked at Matsumoto.

"So many people...worried about little old me..." Matsumoto murmured.

"Got good reason to, crazy lady," Ikkaku said. "Damn near got yourself killed. Soutaichou's sayin' we oughtta stay low on this one, play the defensive cards. Take this slow. One o' Aizen's big boys, I guess, if it's got the old man tuckin' his tail between 'is legs. Either that 'r he's just gettin' paranoid."

"No one's on this?" Hitsugaya asked sharply. "Are you goddamn kidding me?!"

"Somebody's pissed," Ikkaku noted. "Don't often hear words like that come outta Mister Tightwad-Tenth. Yeah, that's basically the rundown, 'fraid to say."

"So...is that why you're here?" Hitsugaya asked sharply, dangerously. "To tell me that I should sit on my hands and wait like a good little boy?"

Ikkaku smirked. "Who you think you're talkin' to? No, Hitsugaya, I'm here to cover for your ass. Now go freeze that bastard's face for me."

He glanced at Matsumoto and Hinamori again.

"...For them."

And Hitsugaya realized that was precisely what he wanted to do. At the thought of it, he felt his blood sing with anticipation, and his right shoulder twitched, arm instinctively beginning to reach for Hyourinmaru's hilt.

Ikkaku crossed his arms.

"Zaraki's goin' out. Back you up. This guy's mean, pullin' shit like that on a vice-captain. Ya can't afford to think like a boyfriend if yer gonna take this prick down."

"Think like a..."

"Don't even try, lover boy. Ol' receptionist, Yasochika, damn near wetting himself out there. You tore off his damn head, and you know well as I do what you did that for. Now go. Show this son of a bitch who we are."

Hitsugaya hesitated.

"Go on," Matsumoto said. "Stake your claim, Taichou."

"That's not what—"

"I know," she cut him off. "You don't think of it like that. I'm glad you don't. But...I can't handle this one. Any more than I could...handle Gin. So...go. Please. End it."

Hitsugaya scowled.

He took her hand in both of his again, brought it to his lips and kissed it. Matsumoto smiled, and leaned her head back, closing her eyes and letting out a slightly relieved, but still painful, moan.

Hitsugaya let go, bit back a cry (damned if he was going to lose it in front of Madarame Ikkaku), and stalked toward the door. And when he spoke next, he almost sounded like himself.

"I'm going for a walk."

Did this one have a name?

Hitsugaya didn't know it.

He didn't care to know it.

The cocksure bastard hadn't even bothered to try hiding himself. When Hitsugaya found him, he seemed to have stumbled across a pair of patrollers. If forced to guess, he might have pegged them as part of Hisagi's ninth division.

"The Gotei 13!" the arrancar crowed. "Well, well! Such magnificence! I can see why Aizen-sama is taking things so slowly! I don't think I would dare to cross you!"

The two shinigami attempting to stave him off weren't even trying to fight; they were scrambling to defend. The arrancar's weapons were...something like pincers. Or...or...scissors.

Yes. Scissors.

Two...pair, on the ends of each arm. They snipped and tore and pinched and plunged, and it was clear to Hitsugaya that he—no, it was simply playing with them. This was no fight. This was no battle. This was...hunting.

Hitsugaya fully intended to keep it that way.

As he stalked forward, Hyourinmaru took flight.

The great dragon crashed onto one of the arrancar's arms, and it whirled to face its new prey.

"Save the speeches. No one cares to listen."

"Well, well! New fish! Step right up, then, shinigami!"

Hitsugaya's face twitched.

He shot forward, leaping into the air. "If we're going to exchange inane non-pleasantries, then I suppose it's my turn: I am going to kill you. Deal with it."

He gave in to the fever.

And the world erupted.

"I don't think...I've ever seen him like that."

Matsumoto couldn't help but chuckle at the irony. Here she was, lying in a hospital room next to Hinamori Momo, and she didn't want to strangle her.

"You'd be surprised," Matsumoto replied. "He...doesn't let it show often. I'm not surprised he'd have wanted to hide it from you. But...Toushirou is...well, don't let him know I said this, but he's...vulnerable. He still feels insecure here...and he fights it. By ignoring it. But sometimes...sometimes he loses his grip. And...and it's just..."

"It's wrong," Hinamori said softly, almost awe-stricken. "It's wrong that he should feel so sad...so lonely...that he should think that he has to hold it all together by himself... I've been so stupid..."

Hinamori covered her face with one arm and winced at the pain that shot up her wounded shoulder.

"So long as you know that," Matsumoto said.

"I do...I know now. And...and I never did thank you for being honest with me. You're the reason I really understand it, and...and...well, I'm glad he's with you."

Matsumoto turned and quirked an eyebrow at her.

"I...I always had to be protected," Hinamori said miserably. "I guess I still do. Madarame-taichou is hard on me, but...but I know he wants to protect me, just like Hitsugaya-taichou did...like I thought Aizen-tai...like I thought Aizen did. And...and...with you, well...you can protect him...and he needs that. He needs...he needs someone to back him. Not someone to keep out of trouble."

Matsumoto laughed.

"Ironic, you saying that now. Look at us. We're both helpless. I can barely lift my arm."

"You still...give him a reason to fight," Hinamori said. "And he needs that, too. So...so maybe this is okay, too...sometimes. You just...do it better than I did."

"You may be doing it for the right reasons now," Matsumoto replied, "but you're still pitying yourself too much. There's more to you than mistakes, girl. There'd better be, 'cuz I've made a ton of mistakes in my own right."

Hinamori smiled.

Matsumoto smiled back.

And both wondered if perhaps they could be friends...when this was over.

Zaraki looked about ready to explode.

Yumichika supposed he wasn't really surprised at his own behavior. Yes, he was part of the Fifth now, but somehow, standing beside Zaraki Kenpachi's gargantuan frame still felt more than a little like home.

The volatile, sadistically charged captain had a fierce, animalistic grip on his sword's hilt, and Yumichika had to wonder what it was that was keeping him from jumping in.

Hitsugaya was doing remarkably, of course, being a boy genius and all, but really...there was no clear indicator that the captain of the Tenth would win.

He really didn't want to go back to the Fourth Division infirmary and tell Matsumoto that her darling captain was dead...he was never much a fan of bad news, really. It was ugly. Obscenely ugly.

And really...he rather liked Hitsugaya Toushirou.

"Zaraki-taichou? Perhaps it would be prudent now to...lend a hand. We are here against orders. Better to come back and face possible punishment with victory on our shoulders, rather than defeat. Wouldn't you say?"

Zaraki grunted.

"...Guess yer right," he muttered in a guttural tone.

He seemed pleased to say it.

And as he strode forward, Yumichika saw something he wasn't sure he thought he'd ever see.

Zaraki Kenpachi ripped off his eyepatch before the fight.

"'S'ain't no fight!" Zaraki snarled, laughter in his voice, and Yumichika blinked, wondering if his former captain had just read his mind. "This is a goddamn execution!"

And Yumichika followed the Eleventh's captain's lead, wondering just what Hitsugaya had done to invoke such loyalty in a man like Zaraki.

With the efforts of Zaraki combined with Hitsugaya's, the arrancar that Aizen-sama had deemed unfit to name (one of many, of course) hadn't any semblance of a chance at victory.

The problem was, it didn't know that.

And it kept up the fight, screaming and cursing and cutting and slashing, and yet the only one bleeding seemed to be itself. Pain, such horrendous, ripping pain! And shame!

No! It would earn a name! It would win!

Yes...it would win!

But then the sky itself seemed to open its mouth, as if to laugh, but the nameless arrancar knew what this meant. Yes, it knew what this meant, and it dared to grin.

Who was it? Who had come?

Was it...was it...?

Oh, God.

No.

No, no, no! Anybody else! God, let it be—

"Well, well, well...lookie there. Somebody's maaaad! Look at that! And Zaraki Kenpachi...wow. You done started up a party, here, din'tcha?"

Hitsugaya froze in mid-strike.

"...Ichimaru."

"Hiya, 'Gaya!" he chirped happily, and even Zaraki blinked incredulously at him.

Ichimaru Gin strolled forward on the air, almost looking like he was skipping, and leaned against one arm of the nameless arrancar like it was a post.

"Lookit this...what a mess we got here. Why, look! Blood dripping off everywhere! Ain't this a shame...well! Who done started this party?"

The odd thing about it was, Ichimaru's demeanor didn't seem all that threatening. On the contrary, it felt legitimately cheery, and it seemed like...like he really had just gone out for a walk.

The stifling, chilling aura about the man that Hitsugaya was used to just wasn't there. And he thought that this must have been the man that his vice-captain had once called her best friend.

"Don't go actin' like you dunno what happened!" Zaraki snarled, grinning his maniac's grin. "We were just playin' with your little friend, here! Got a score to settle!"

"Score?" Ichimaru inquired innocently, and it sounded sincere. "Well, now...what's this? Whatcha been up to, there?"

He directed this at the arrancar, and the scissor-handed creature looked as if it were about to wet itself, if something like that could actually happen.

And for some reason he couldn't quite pinpoint, Hitsugaya felt compelled to tell him.

"Rangiku's in critical condition," he said icily. "She almost died because of this maggot."

Ichimaru's grin vanished, and if at all possible, the arrancar looked even more terrified.

"...What."

Gin's eyes actually opened widely enough for Hitsugaya to see their crimson gleam. And without warning, Ichimaru gripped his subordinate by one of its white, grotesquely long arms and launched it - screaming - into the portal from which he'd come.

Ichimaru watched Hitsugaya, Zaraki, and turned his gaze fleetingly to Yumichika before disappearing through it himself.

Hyourinmaru lowered slowly, held in a limp hand.

Hitsugaya blinked.

"Did...that just happen?"

And the funny thing was, Zaraki looked like he wasn't sure.

"I-I-I-I-Ichimaru-sama! W-W-Wait! What are you...! Why are you...! Give me a chance! I won't fail you, p-p-p-please!!"

Ichimaru Gin turned, and his face was somber.

"Won' fail me?" he repeated, barely moving his lips. "That right...? You...won't fail me. Huh. Well...ain't that sumthin'."

"I-I-I'll do...I'll do anything!! Give me another chance to prove myself! I won't...! I won't...!"

"...Anythin'. Well, now...that's jus' a bit of a probl'm, I'd say...'cuz, uh..."

Shinsou appeared in its master's hand.

"What I want you t' do..."

It gleamed.

"...is..."

It flashed.

"...die."

It drank.

And when Ichimaru faced Aizen Sousuke again, his grin was back, and he reported the execution of a nameless arrancar, for the crime of "botchin' 'is first kill."

And when Aizen asked his former subordinate if that was all he had to report, Ichimaru looked him straight in the eye and nodded.

"There is...no other reason...for this execution, Gin?"

Ichimaru shrugged. "Felt like it?"

Aizen smiled serenely. "I see. Well, then...I suppose that's all."

"S'pose so."

Hitsugaya walked slowly back into the Fourth Division's infirmary abjectly ignoring a summons to the First Division's headquarters. The messenger in charge of delivering this order attempted to stop the boy captain, but didn't quite find the courage to stand up to him...not with Zaraki Kenpachi strolling behind him like a bodyguard.

And as he approached the room in which Hinamori and Matsumoto were recuperating, he thought that every member of the Fifth, Tenth, and Eleventh divisions was standing vigil outside. And as he passed by each of them, they nodded.

Hitsugaya entered the room, and Zaraki and Yumichika joined the others.

Hinamori was sleeping, but when he approached, Matsumoto opened her eyes and smiled. Hitsugaya was tired, keeping his back rigid only by the greatest of willpower, but essentially uninjured.

He answered her unspoken question with a curt nod.

Matsumoto smiled.

"You're...beautiful. You know that, don't you?"

Hitsugaya kissed her.

And although she stiffened as she tried to wrap her arms around his neck, she stubbornly did so anyway, and the pain didn't seem to matter so much anymore.

It would never be known whether Hitsugaya left the door to Matsumoto's room open on purpose or not, but as he stepped outside to allow his vice-captain to rest, he seemed not all that inclined to hide the fact that his face was flushed or that his hair was more disheveled than it had been.

It was hard to tell which of the three divisions currently standing guard cheered the loudest, but he found himself laughing right alongside them, adrenaline rushing through him like the heat of the strongest alcohol, and he didn't feel the slightest bit embarrassed.

Unohana ushered the crowd out of her headquarters with a smile on her face, but it seemed like that smile was what drove most of them out.

As Hitsugaya left and made his way toward his own division's base, his soldiers walking in front of him, he spied Kyouraku Shunsui watching him from beneath a nearby tree, chuckling.

Hitsugaya smiled at his compatriot, nodded, and didn't seem surprised in the slightest when he was informed later that evening that the order to report to the Commander-General had been withdrawn.