"Let me get this straight," Gin said, looking at Miyako suspiciously. "You want to take both of the boys for multiple days and nights?"
Miyako glared back at him. "Only until Rangiku is home. And please take this as a critique of your parenting skills. I don't think they need to spend multiple days with only you to look after them."
"Oh, I agree," Gin answered, smiling. "Might as well leave them unattended as with me. I think Kin-chan's in the division library harassing Shiro at the moment if you'd like to take them now."
Miyako's frown grew. "What about their things. Don't you think you should pack them an overnight bag?"
"Oh, I'm sure Shiro can do a better job than I could—tell them I said to be good." And with that Gin hurried Lady Shiba out of his office.
—
Toshiro did not mind staying with Miyako and Kaien. They were always pretty nice, and Miyako didn't expect him to spend his time watching Kin-chan. In the morning she sent him on to the Thirteenth with Kaien and kept his little brother with her. It was altogether a nice change of pace.
He spent the morning following Kaien around, checking on various people around the division, and Kaien explained more to him about how various assignments were supposed to work than either of his parents had ever bothered.
At lunch they picked up bento boxes from the kitchen and went out along the wooden walkways across the water to Ukitake's pavilion.
"The Captain's having a good day," Kaien told him as they walked. "I'm sure he'll want to see you."
"Ok," Toshiro agreed, although he knew that all a good day recently meant was that Ukitake wasn't currently trying to drown in his own blood as his lungs disintegrated, not that he was going to be able to talk or play Go like they used to.
There was a barrier on the pavilion, not that Toshiro was surprised. It was February and Captain Ukitake was even worse in the cold. It hadn't been much of a winter, in Toshiro's opinion. It had barely dropped below freezing once and hadn't snowed at all, except what he made for his mother at New Years.
The barrier kept in an insane amount of heat. It felt to Toshiro like he might as well be walking into a sauna, not just within the pavilion but in a wide circle around it, shown by the fact that the reeds and water lilies surrounding the wooded supports were still green and growing.
It was all Nemu's fault, or, Toshiro supposed, it was really thanks to her, that the captain could avoid the winter's chill. She and her father had invented a small, portable heater that created its own sealed space in a radius of fifty feet that was as warm and comfortable as late spring, just for Captain Ukitake. It was kind of her to do so, and Toshiro knew it, but he really hated the stupid heater.
Toshiro even managed not to frown when he saw Nemu sitting near the captain enjoying lunch with him.
Ukitake was sitting up at least, although on a futon, and eating lunch on one of those folding tables like Toshiro's mother brought him when he was sick enough to eat in bed. Even in the heated space Ukitake wore an extra coat over his captain's haori. He looked very tired, but the gray pallor of last winter that had slowly faded over the year had not returned.
Ukitake raised his head, his dark eyes meeting Shiro's for a moment before he smiled. "Shiro-chan," he said softly. "Kaien tells me you have something to show me."
"What?" Toshiro said, looking back at Kaien.
"Your zanpakuto, Toshiro," Kaien answered. "I know it's in your bag. Why don't you take it out."
Toshiro's eyes widened, and he took a step back. His father hadn't told him exactly what had happened when he passed out two days ago, but he had said there was nothing to worry about, that no one had been able to find him, and his secret was still safe-so how the hell did Kaien and Ukitake know about it?
"You don't have anything to be afraid of, Shiro-chan," Ukitake said gently. "You are among friends, and the barrier Nemu gave to this heater is strong enough to prevent anyone however powerful from eavesdropping or entering uninvited. All of your secrets are safe here."
Kaien stepped past Toshiro and sat down on the tatami floor of the pavilion. "Relax, Toshiro, we're worried about you. We're not going to hurt you," he said, and then, instead of keeping his eyes on Toshiro, he got out his bento and untied the strings.
Toshiro knew Kaien was probably just trying to make him relax, and he was probably still watching him and would react instantly if he tried to run, but still, it was hard not to relax when it was just him and Ukitake-Nemu, too, but she didn't even have a zanpakuto; it was hard to consider her threatening. "How do you know about Hyorinmaru?" he asked finally.
"I was with your dad when he came and got you, when you'd passed out. I got a small taste of what you can do with it, too. You had frozen every plant inside the barrier and buried it all under under a few feet of snow," Kaien said. "Your dad said you'd probably pushed yourself too far trying a new move in bankai. He was right, wasn't he?"
Toshiro shrugged. "It was an experiment. I wouldn't have tried it if I'd known he'd left Seireitei. I knew it'd be risky."
"Then you have mastered bankai?" Captain Ukitake said softly.
Toshiro turned to face him. The gentle captain looked sad, and that frightened Toshiro. He wondered what about him learning bankai could make Ukitake sad. "You're going to make me join the Gotei, aren't you?" he asked. "It's ok. Mom won't like it, but it'd be kind of cool, as long as they'll let me test for captain."
"Test for captain?" Kaien repeated, shocked.
"Yeah, that's what Dad wants me to do-when I join. Why should I bother with the Academy when I've already mastered bankai?"
"When's he planning this?" Kaien asked.
"I don't know," Toshiro said. "I don't think he can decide. Sometimes he tells me I should go become captain of the Tenth so I can make Mom stop being crazy, but he's always made me hide everything he taught me so they wouldn't make me go when I'm still a kid. I guess he didn't like being younger than everyone when he became a shinigami so he didn't want me to either-and it would upset Mom, and he'd do pretty much anything to keep her happy."
"Really?" Kaien said, raising one eyebrow.
Toshiro shrugged. "Yeah, you know, he drives her crazy, but he always gives her everything she wants."
"Then why is he training you so hard if he doesn't want you to become a shinigami anytime soon?" Kaien asked.
"I don't know. It's not like he actually tells me things. He's just always made me work on things, but it's just me, not Kin-chan. He hasn't even make Kin-chan learn to suppress his reiatsu, and I could do that without even thinking about it by the time I was his age. It was always super important that I learn everything, but it's like Kin-chan doesn't even matter. I even taught him shunpo to show Dad that he wasn't weak, and he could learn stuff too, but Dad still just lets him play all the time."
"Why do you think that is?" Kaien asked. "Do you think your dad has some sort of special plan for you?"
"If he does I wish he'd tell me," Toshiro answered. Then he smiled a little bitterly. "Maybe he is just making me strong to protect my mom. That's what he always said when I was little, 'you've got to be strong enough to keep Mommy safe.' Maybe that's what I am, Mom's bodyguard, since he's always gone."
Kaien and Ukitake exchanged looks then, and Ukitake nodded.
"Do you know where your dad goes?" Kaien asked.
"Nobody knows where he goes," Toshiro answered in annoyance. "Out of Seireitei. I've tried to follow him a couple of times, but he went over the wall, and I can't into Rukongai alone-I promised my mom, but if I ever find out it's for something stupid like going to see a girlfriend or something I'm going to kill him."
"Is that what you think he's doing?" Kaien asked. "Something stupid?"
Toshiro shook his head. "No, it's important, whatever it is," he looked very annoyed to admit it. "He wouldn't leave Mom all the time like that if he didn't think it was really important. It really hurts her every single time. For a long time I thought he just didn't care, but-I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm just a kid."
"We don't think you're wrong, Toshiro," Kaien said. "In fact we're pretty sure your dad is involved in something very important and probably very dangerous. We want to help him, but we need to learn everything we can if we're going to be able to. He's been training you secretly so we're hoping he's told you something."
Toshiro opened his mouth to protest, his father had never told him anything real in his entire life, but Kaien cut him off. "I know you don't think he's told you anything, but he's spent so much time and energy training you, maybe he's been preparing you. If there's one thing I've learned about Ichimaru Gin, it's that everything he does has a reason."
"Yeah, well good luck figuring that out," Toshiro said, and he finally sat down. He dropped his bag beside him and opened his bento. "Dad said never to tell anyone anything about Hyorinmaru or my training, but I'm pretty sure you guys are the good guys, and I'm not so sure about him, so I guess you can ask me whatever you want, and I'll tell you if I know anything."
"I appreciate your trust in us, Shiro-chan," Ukitake answered. "And I promise-" He was cut off by a fit of coughing, and quickly raised a handkerchief to his lips. Toshiro cringed when he saw how quickly the cloth was drenched in blood.
Nemu, who'd been silent and still as a statue until that moment, moved at lightning speed, whisking his table out of the way and moving a stack of cushions behind him, and then, just as suddenly, she was moving slowly and carefully, gently laying her husband back against the cushions and stroking his hair and face as the coughing fit slowly passed.
She whispered something to him then, and Toshiro was glad he couldn't hear it, because the way she was leaning so close with her lips almost on his ear, it was obviously private, and he really wished people wouldn't do things like that when he was around. Then Nemu took the bloody handkerchief and washed the last of the blood from Ukitake's lips before she sat back and seemed to become a statue once more.
Ukitake smiled at Toshiro. "I don't look like I can do much of anything, anymore, do I, Shiro-chan? It must be hard for you to put any trust in someone so frail."
Toshiro shook his head. "I guess if something is going to happen there's no one's side I'd rather be on."
"Thank you," Ukitake answered.
"Something strange has been going on for a while, both in Soul Society and in the World of the Living," Kaien said. "There have been hollows with their masks partially removed. They have greater power and more intelligence than normal hollows, and some carry swords like zanpakuto. It's almost like they have become more like shinigami. They are called arrancar, and the Gotei does not know where they have come from or why."
Toshiro nodded. "My dad told me about them. They killed Captain Shiba and Lieutenant Suzuki, didn't they? And one almost killed Miyako?"
"What else did your father tell you about arrancar?" Kaien asked, and Toshiro couldn't miss the hopeful look in his eyes.
"Nothing," Toshiro answered. "I guess you think he knows about them, but all he told me was that if I ever saw a hollow with its mask even partially removed I was supposed to use shunpo to get away as fast as I could and repress my reiatsu so it couldn't find me. He told me about Captain Shiba and Lieutenant Suzuki so I'd understand I couldn't fight them-you know, you don't have to pretend to want to help my dad. You can just tell me if he's doing something wrong. I'm not going to try to protect him. I know he's not a good person."
"Toshiro, that's your father you're talking about," Kaien said, seriously. "Don't you think you should-"
"He lies to everyone," Toshiro interrupted. "And he steals for the fun of it, and he learns people's secrets and uses them to embarrass them and sometimes he blackmails them when he wants something-you think I haven't noticed just because I'm a kid? I've even heard the rumors he killed a couple senior officers in the Fifth to move up and I believe them. He'd do anything to get what he wants."
"Shiro-chan," Ukitake said softly. "You are right. There are many reasons to believe Captain Ichimaru is not a good man, but he is your father, and in that role I would have to say he has done very well. You have spent your life loved and sheltered and protected from any threat, while still being taught everything you will need to be able to stand on your own. Even with your extraordinary talent and intelligence you could not have come so far so young on your own."
Toshiro's eyes dropped. He didn't want to think of what his father had done for him, and he definitely didn't want to be grateful. His dad was a jerk or worse, probably a lot worse. He didn't want to complicate things by thinking about things Gin had done right. It was like how he'd much rather think about the times his father had made his mother cry than all the times he'd made her laugh. Thinking about everything just became too confusing, and he hated that. More than anything he really hated the fact that he just couldn't understand his father.
"The truth is that we don't know," Ukitake said. "We don't know what is happening or why, and we don't know what your father's part in any of it is. We have seen only pieces of the puzzle and even those are unclear. For now we must watch and wait, comparing what little we think we know with what we have seen and heard, and slowly we hope to gain a greater understanding of what may be coming and to prepare to protect any who may be threatened."
"But how can we do anything when we don't know anything?" Toshiro demanded.
"We know a few things, Toshiro," Kaien said. "The arrancar have been a problem for a long time, and we have been working all that time to learn more about them and to find better ways to fight them. If they are connected to someone within the Gotei we must do what we can to learn who that is, but we are ready to protect Soul Society, and we will remain ready."
Toshiro raised his head. "Then I will too," he said, and that cold, hard determination appeared in his eyes that seemed strange in one so young but still could not be doubted. "I will become a captain. Will you arrange for me to take the test, Captain Ukitake?"
"If not me, you will ask someone else, won't you?" Ukitake said, looking sad.
"If I have to I will go up to the gate of Division One and use my bankai in front of the entire Gotei. I'm strong enough; if Soul Society is in danger I need to help protect it," Toshiro said. Then he smiled slightly. "Anyway, my dad's right; my mom needs a captain to keep her from doing anything too crazy, especially if something big's coming."
Kaien flinched at that, but he didn't say anything, and Toshiro didn't notice. He was too busy waiting for Ukitake's answer.
"I will contact the General, and you will have your test," he said finally. "But, Shiro-chan, you must know that your mother would rather die herself than watch you step into the line of fire to protect her."
"That's 'cause she doesn't know I'm stronger than she is," Toshiro answered, but he knew that wasn't the case. He knew that no matter how strong he got his mother would want to be the one who protected him and not the other way around. But that was too bad; he was stronger, and she'd just have to learn to deal with it.