After the group was led to an isolated room, things began to get chaotic. The best healers in the realm were already bustling about like mad men as they directed Ichigo to place their king on the bed and let them work, pushing the Kurosaki siblings off to the side to be out of their way. Karin surprisingly gave little argument, though she refused to actually step out of the room when prompted. She knew to be out of the way, what with her dad running a clinic, but she wasn't about to be kicked out. Miyuki decided to just keep herself outside from the start, anxiously holding on to the icy zanpaktou in her hands, and Ichibe just bowed his head to the almost forgotten princess and headed off.
"You get some rest, too, it won't help him any to run yourself into the ground." Ichigo said quietly to his sister, motioning with his head towards Toshiro.
"Says the idiot who does that pretty much every time there's a fight." She shot back, her gaze never leaving Toshiro's face, heart clenched painfully at his restless, pained expression.
"I know, I'm a hypocrite, but I'm still going to say it." He patted her back gently before stepping towards the door. He had a job to do. "Keep in touch?"
Karin just gave him a thumbs up and shooed him away while taking a seat on the floor, returning to a brooding silence as the healers continued rushing about. Ichigo was quick to leave and soon could no longer be sensed in the Soul King's realm.
About an hour later, there was some arguing outside the doors, mostly female voices. Curious, Karin got back to her feet and took a peek out. A guard that had been posted at the door was firmly refusing entry to three familiar figures; Unohana, Yuzu and Shimmer.
"But I promised I would help." Yuzu put on her best pout as she was told to stay out, Shimmer letting out a snort when the guard gave her an unsavory look. Not everyone in the Soul King's realm liked the dragons being around.
"A healing dragon can perform miracles when magic can't, it would be wise to let them enter." Miyuki, who was still keeping her own vigil outside, backed up the young woman.
The guard shot her a nasty look as well but got no reaction from the blind mage. She might be the Soul King's sister, but she was raised by their enemy and so had no trust among those in the palace and therefore no authority.
"Let them in already, Captain Unohana is the best healer we got and my sister promised me she'd save her best potions for when we saved him." Karin snapped from the door, the guard jumping in alarm and turning to face her.
"I was told that no one else should enter." The guard argued after regaining his composure.
"Oh just move." Not about to deal with this, Karin shoved the door open and practically dragged her sister inside, Unohana following with a sharp glare hidden behind a smile directed at the guard, Shimmer trailing behind a little less passive-aggressively.
The healers naturally complained until Unohana put them in their place and stepped up to do her job. While her expert Kido did the work of all the present healers combined, Yuzu got her array of herbs and flowers prepared for Shimmer to grind up and use. With dragon and Captain together, Toshiro's injuries were looking a lot less fatal.
"Even with Shimmer able to replenish any blood lost and close the wounds, it will be some time before he should be getting out of bed." Unohana reported as she began bandaging the worst injuries after Shimmer used her breath to settle a salve over them to close them. "He's lost a lot of Spirit Energy and that alone will take some time to recover, even if we asked Miss Inoue in here to deal with the injuries, which I will be doing." She added on the last part just as Karin opened her mouth to ask about Orihime. "Currently she's helping with the injured in the Soul Society, so I will ask your sister and her dragon to remain until she is free to help."
"Thanks, Captain Unohana." Karin bowed her head gratefully to the healer.
"No need to thank me, I'm just doing my duty." She smiled a genuinely kind smile at the Kurosaki twins. "I know you picked up a few tricks from your father, so time to step away from being a fighter and be a healer for a bit. Can you do that?"
"I can try… Yuzu usually did all the nurse stuff, I was usually the patient." Karin ran a hand through her hair absentmindedly.
"You did pick up on first aid after a few times though." Yuzu playfully elbowed her sister. "Don't worry, Captain Unohana, Toshiro is in safe hands! Oh, I mean King Hitsugaya!" She quickly corrected her sentence as the other healers all glared with disapproval. Karin glared fiercely back and they went back to cleaning up, deciding they didn't want to get in trouble with the siblings of the new Royal Guard.
Unohana nodded and left to return to the Soul Society where a lot more patients were awaiting her care. One of the other healers approached the girls as the others left the room.
"Please call for us using a butterfly if anything changes." She told them, correctly assuming that the pair and the dragon would be staying since they had yet to leave previously.
"We will." Karin assured them.
With that it was just the Kurosaki siblings and Shimmer, or at least just until Miyuki poked her head in apprehensively.
"You can come in." Karin told her. After their rescue mission, she felt she could trust the lost princess a little more now, especially after witnessing the fallout between her and her former Lord.
Still holding tightly onto Hyorinmaru, Miyuki entered the room, her wolf quiet behind her and taking a seat just inside the door. They could see the guard watching disapprovingly before shutting the door behind her and returning to his task. Unohana must have said something to make him let her in.
"Oh, hello, I believe we never got to meet properly." Yuzu greeted with a big smile and kind voice as she always did. "I'm Yuzu, Karin's sister. This is my partner Shimmer, the healing dragon."
Miyuki moved one hand from the sword to her wolf, the twin watching in surprise as her once blind, unseeing eyes flashed into the same amber color as her wolf and she could suddenly focus on them.
"Whoa, what did you do?" Karin asked out of curiosity.
"I can bond with my familiar to use her sight." Miyuki answered quietly, her gaze shifting to Toshiro's form sleeping on the bed. "I wanted to be able to see what happened to my brother…"
"Oh, you're Hitsugaya's sister?" Yuzu had heard as such but thought it was strange. "Like his real one?"
Miyuki's gaze snapped back up to her.
"Real one?" Her tone was cold again, suspicious. Considering she had grown up thinking she was abandoned and replaced, Karin realized she needed to remedy this quickly.
"When he was growing up in the Rukongai there were only two people that wanted anything to do with him." She explained. "There was an old lady he called his grandmother and a girl a bit older than him he looked up to as a sister. He didn't think he had anyone else."
"I see…" Miyuki's tone softened after Karin's explanation. "I hope she was nicer to him than my adopted sisters."
"From what I heard he was the bully." Karin snickered, Yuzu lightly slapping her arm.
"You shouldn't be mean to your boyfriend, Karin." Yuzu reprimanded, though she was smiling. "Especially when he can't defend himself."
"Oh he can take it." Karin waved her away.
"Boyfriend?" Miyuki gave a tilt of her head.
The sisters shared a glance. They knew the girl was sheltered but did not expect such innocence, especially since she was older than Toshiro. Then, again, it's not like she had anyone other than her master and sisters around.
"I'm not doing it." Karin stated plainly to Yuzu, Miyuki's head tilting further with almost visible question marks over her head.
"Oh fine." Yuzu sighed lightly and stepped over to the Hitsugaya sister, linking arms with the confused young woman, a bright smile on her face. "Alright, my lady, let's learn about being a flowering youth."
Shimmer found a spot in the room to curl up for a nap after a long week of healing, essentially leaving Karin alone with the unconscious Soul King while her sister went to have "the talk" with the lost princess. Noticing this, Karin finally allowed the worry lines to show through on her face, her gaze settling sadly onto his silent figure. His breathing was less raspy, back to an even, healthy rhythm. She stepped over to the side of the bed and reached out for his hand. Ordinarily, if she noticed someone's skin was this cold she would call a doctor, but this was normal for him. She felt his hand twitch slightly and return her gentle grip.
"Toshiro?" She said quietly, wondering if he was awake. He frowned a bit in his sleep but otherwise didn't respond. A heavy sigh escaped her. "Jeez, I finally get you back and you just go straight to sleep."
Careful not to disturb him she pushed herself up to sit on the side of the bed, her hand always holding his as she just sat silently next to him. Seeing him covered in bandages made her heart ache, knowing he suffered all those wounds just to make sure his people could escape destruction. Every single injury was a life saved because he refused to back down and watch the people around him die. But it also brought him closer to his own death, and self-sacrifice was not the noble thing to do in his case. The world was in absolute chaos and there was no telling how many new souls had entered all of the Soul Societies. Plus, if he hadn't held out as long as he did, the world as they know it could have been gone. Karin was sure a lot of people thought their king a fool for taking such a risk for soldiers willing to die in his place.
"I guess it's hard to forget the life of a soldier, huh?" She muttered aloud from her thoughts. "You're so used to stepping up as a Captain to protect your men and take the hits first that you forget what that could mean for the rest of us… even if the world didn't end with you, I definitely don't want to see you like this again."
"I knew you idiots would come get me."
Karin gave a start at the tired voice that reached her ears. She looked up to see Toshiro had one eye slightly open in a drowsy stare, not completely awake but conscious enough to respond.
"Toshiro!" Ecstatic, Karin leaned over and embraced him, careful with her grip when he let out a hiss of pain. He turned his head to kiss her on the cheek, ignoring the stinging in his limbs to focus on staying awake a bit longer.
"I'm just glad you didn't get hurt." He said quietly as she leaned back up again to look at him. "I'm sure Dethmaiyn knew there would be a rescue."
"Yeah… although he kind of just let us go." Karin frowned as her worries about their easy escape returned to her thoughts. "He was putting up a fight at first, but then he suddenly decided to back off. Miyuki was using a mist to cover our tracks but I don't think that's what stopped him."
"No… there was definitely something he found out while I was trapped there… he must have thought of a new plan as we were getting away." Toshiro agreed with her concerns, which made her feel a bit better knowing she wasn't the only one. "I have a bad feeling he won't be staying in his castle after this…"
"Captain Unohana said it could take weeks for you to recover with how much Spirit Energy got stolen from you… if he attacks soon you'll be stuck here."
A tired grimace crossed his face as he had to accept her words. If only he had taken down the other Demon Lords before Kamai captured him, maybe it would have forced the Dark Master back into hiding to build a new army. Even now he could feel sleep trying to drag him back down into blissful unconsciousness.
"You okay?" Karin asked, noticing the haze in his eyes.
"Just… tired." He sighed. "It's honestly hard to stay awake right now."
"Then you should probably sleep." She rolled her eyes but, while tired, he didn't miss how she avoided looking back at him. Fighting the drowsiness a bit longer he lifted the hand not still holding hers and placed it on her cheek. This got her to look back at him where he could see the sadness in her eyes.
"It's going to be fine." He promised. "I've gotten through worse."
He shifted his left shoulder slightly and she remembered the first time she'd seen the horrible scar left behind from the Winter War. It had been a huge shock, seeing a wound like that, and it had worried her for days until he proved it didn't affect him at all. She had asked why he didn't let Orihime heal him and he had just shrugged and said others needed her skills more, though Karin had wondered what could be worse than having your left side cut off. Now that she was a full Soul Reaper, it wasn't hard to imagine what could be worse.
"I just got you back…" She admitted, a slight pink color covering her cheeks at such vulnerable words leaving her mouth.
"And I'm not going anywhere, I just need to rest." He squeezed her hand in his grip again. "I'm sure I have plenty of lectures to look forward to from my guards."
"And one from me if you sleep too long." She smirked, a smile crossing Toshiro's face as she got some of her usual fire back.
"That's my Karin." His voice was quiet, eyelids beginning to droop as sleep took over.
Before he fell back into unconsciousness Karin leaned down once more and kissed him, hoping the affection would keep away any nightmares, stop whatever fear Kamai had tried to infect him with. He returned the kiss as best he could before he could stay awake no longer and fell limp, eyes closed and hand going a little slack in hers. She panicked for a brief moment before forcing herself to calm down.
'He's just sleeping, Karin.' She told herself, breathing deeply. 'Just sleeping. You can still sense him…he's still here.'
'He'll be awake before you know it.' Homuratei assured her with a purr.
A scaly white head leaned carefully over the bed and startled her.
"Shimmer!" Karin sighed in relief as she recognized the dragon. "I forgot you were in here…"
"Deep sleep." The dragon said, looking up at her with a concerned gaze. Karin tilted her head in confusion. "Don't remember word for it. Really deep sleep. Unresponsive."
"You mean… comatose?" Karin looked back to Toshiro while Shimmer slipped around to the other side of the bed and checked her patient over again.
"Definitely." Shimmer finally said with a nod. "He rest better, but needs food."
"I know what you mean." A butterfly came to Karin's hand, not wanting to leave Toshiro's side but knowing she needed the healers to come back. Shimmer sat patiently with her as the butterfly took off as fast as it could due to the urgency of her message, none of her potions useful unless they wanted to wake him up, which would halt his recovery rather than help it.
'Unohana didn't say anything about this, what if it takes longer than she thought?' She thought worriedly as she waited with the dragon. 'If it does, Kamai won't wait that long. He's a sitting duck.'
'It also means Toshiro can't crown him king.' Homuratei pointed out. 'As horrible as I sound saying it, the only reason Toshiro is alive right now is because Kamai knows he can't kill him until he willingly hands over his position to the Dark Master. The realms will fall apart if the Soul King dies before then.'
'And as selfish as I sound I don't care about that stuff; I just want him with me again, and not in a coma.' Karin huffed.
'Be patient, Karin, he'll come around. He won't leave you.'
Her zanpaktou's words did calm her down, knowing Toshiro had promised the same thing, but that didn't completely stop her worrying as the healers hurried in and Karin was once more shooed away to the wall. Yuzu followed behind them and stood next to her sister as a pillar of support.