"They say the meek shall inherit the earth.

How long will you keep it?

They sow a harvest, but what's it worth?

There's no one left to reap it."

Sting: 'Visions of the Night'

The silence settled heavily about the room as Urahara stood before them all, his quite mischievous smile unabashedly bared at all of them as he stood protecting the heaving dragon that lay on the ground behind him. Ichigo could hear an unsettling wet sound rattling in the dragon's breathing, and knew that bleeding into his lungs wouldn't be unlikely with the amount of damage he'd sustained. He grimaced, using a flash step to descend back down onto ground level to join the eccentric shop keeper, looking probably with just as much of a pained expression as Toshiro bore down at the struggling behemoth's bony face. It was making his heart wrench just to look at him. But he knew that he would never look away; not when there was so much that he needed to see in order to resolve this conundrum of a situation.

"Kisuke, have you lost your mind?" Renji barked, sounding disbelieving in spite of having already lowered his sword. Ichigo knew that he would probably have more than a decent amount of trouble believing what was about to unfold, but he would have to push aside his disbelief when the truth really did hit him. "That is not Captain Hitsugaya!"

Ichigo almost cringed at the violent thwack he heard follow Renji's statement, only realizing afterwards what had happened. The punch to Renji's arm had been a damn good one from what he could hear, and he didn't guess that there was more than enough emotion behind it from the look on Matsumoto's face. He knew that she was thrumming with emotion over the whole ordeal, and it had come out in her strike. He noted with a bit of worry that there were tears in her eyes as she stepped forward tenuously, but the strength in her voice dissuaded him from being too concerned.

"Yes it is, Renji, you idiot," she said, biting her lip as she got close enough for her shihakusho to be ruffled by the dragon's strained panting. She walked closer still, past Urahara, who watched her with the eyes of a falcon gleaming beneath the shadow of his hat, until she knelt down to place a gentle hand on the long snout of the dragon. "Can't you feel his spiritual pressure at all?"

"Of course I can, Rangiku," Renji bit back automatically, before actually taking heed of her words and blinking slowly, his narrow eyes widening as he realized just what Matsumoto had. That the massive, threshing spiritual pressure bearing down on the small room, in spite of being beyond what any of them had expected, was still very much the same as the icy Captain whom they all knew so well. "Oh my God," Ichigo heard him whisper, the grip on his sword looking so loose as to be near dropping Zabimaru onto the ground beneath Renji's own feet.

Renji's surprise was then transferred to Ichigo, the whites of his eyes still visible even from Ichigo's post some distance away. "Ichigo, how did you ever know how to find him?"

"Or where for that matter," Rangiku said, shifting her worrying eyes to him for a moment as she finally realized the strangeness of their situation. As if it hadn't been strange enough from the very beginning. "No wonder you were gone so long; Renji and I feared that we would have to go back in after you when the portal opened." She glanced back at her Captain, her eyes softening for a split second. "I'm glad we didn't; you would have run us over if we had, and then we'd all have hell to reckon with."

"I wouldn't have let you go back in anyway," Urahara interrupted before Ichigo was forced to bring forth an answer, snapping his fan open as he drew it out of the inner folds of his coat. But Ichigo could tell that this time, he wasn't smiling behind it. His tone was serious; lacking its usual playful lilt. "It would have wasted time that none of you have. And, in going along with that, I'm going to forbid you from dawdling too long here. You're still wasting time that you don't have."

Ichigo looked at him suspiciously, knowing that the man always knew more than he showed, but wondering now just how far that omnipotence went. Ichigo was also aware that the former Captain had a nasty habit of hiding pertinent secrets whenever he deemed them unfit for common knowledge. But this time, Ichigo was almost willing to let him get away with it, because he got the ominous feeling that Urahara knew almost as much about the intimates of this situation as he did.

Which was a scary thought, considering the higher ups in the Soul Society knew damn well close to all of it, so for Urahara to know, or even have guessed more than them was a rather intimidating prospect indeed. But he waited, and listened patiently for the other man to explain. He knew that it might have been expecting a little much from him, but he had to hope for something. And something told him that Kisuke would at least have to explain why, one, he seemed to know so much about the situation, and, two, why he seemed to know exactly what to and not to let them do.

"What do you mean by that?" Ichigo asked at long last, breaking down to goad the other man into telling. Urahara's face still had the faint undertones of seriousness on it, insuring that he wasn't just going to brush them off like dust on his lapel. The keen gray eyes glanced back at him from beneath the shadow of the shopkeeper's hat, but he held his ground. He knew that Kisuke would be looking for signs of weakness; reasons not to tell him. And Ichigo knew that if he gave the man even one, he would say nothing, regardless of how much he begged, prodded, and yelled.

"I mean that by asking such silly questions, you're wasting opportunities you may have to rectify this situation before it becomes irrevocable," the ex-Captain state, his tone grave as it may as well have chilled the room just as well as Toshiro's undulating spiritual pressure. "You cannot fix your problems here, Mr. Kurosaki. I would suggest your adjourn your little group back to somewhere where you can."

"Got any bright ideas?" Ichigo asked, his tone a bit biting. He knew that Urahara was pretty much telling him to hurry up and get his ass moving, but he couldn't exactly do that without knowing what exactly he was supposed to do with a one and a half story dragon once he got back to the Soul Society. He'd been flying blind for long enough, and he wanted at least some minor direction before he started going so again. And, from the look in Urahara's slate eyes, he knew exactly what they needed to do and where they needed to go.

"Actually, yes," he replied, surprisingly cooperative with the Substitute for once in his convoluted little life. Ichigo could have growled at him, but waited as the other man snapped his fan shut once more, pointing towards Ichigo himself. "It is imperative that you take Captain Hitsugaya back to the Soul Society immediately. Should something become of his body whilst he is here, it is unknown what would become of the soul inside or the body lying in the 4th Division as we speak. The less dimensional space we put between the two, the better of he will be."

"But what good will that do if we don't even know what will happen to the body if they're close?" Renji quipped, making a quite solid point. Ichigo couldn't answer it, so he glanced back questioningly at Kisuke. The man couldn't just keep running from all of these implications that he was making, no matter how hard he was going to try. In this case, there was no way that Ichigo was going to let him get away with messing around in the shadows. Not when he knew something that could obviously help Toshiro.

Urahara looked as if he were almost on the verge of rolling his eyes at the temperamental Lieutenant. "Because at least in the Soul Society you have the minds and the means to figure out what's going on. Here, you have neither the equipment nor the convenient access to the body in question." He glanced over at Ichigo furtively. "And before you even ask, I'm keeping my nose out of this because if Head Captain Yamamoto catches wind that I've been examining the body, you'll never get anywhere. He'll destroy Toshiro before he'd let him be examined again. He'll do whatever it takes to avoid another incident like the one with the Hogyoku, Ichigo, I promise you that."

Ichigo hated the fact that he could easily picture Yamamoto doing just that. It was disgusting revelation, but one that he couldn't avoid. He was clenching his teeth, so hard he was sure he was going to crack them and break his jaw. Toshiro had already needlessly suffered at the hands of Central 46's abhorrent traditions and under Yamamoto's ludicrous habit for jumping to conclusions. And now history was about to repeat itself, and put the young man through trials that would have easily crushed grown men. Ichigo was almost to be point of being done protecting the Souls Society, considering how horribly they treated their own Captains. But he knew that the alternative was supporting a raving lunatic who had a quite serious God complex, so there was little wiggle room left for him to question in.

He was, however, actually impressed that neither Renji nor Rangiku had said anything in response to Kisuke's statement. Yamamoto was their Head Captain, and yet apparently even they could see his flaws. They were kind of difficult to miss, when they allowed things like this to happen. He glanced down at Toshiro, wiling himself not to crush his own jaw in anger. Urahara was quite right; they had no more time to linger here. Not when Toshiro's condition was deteriorating by the second.

"Fine," he said, casting the former Squad 12 Captain a very wary glance. Urahara still had far too solid of an answer to not be under suspicion. He'd been anticipating questions, for which he had obviously prepared answers. Now the only question was why, and just how long had he been anticipating a game of Twenty Questions to be thrown his way. "But when this is all over, you and I have some talking to do."

Kisuke did not deny him, instead just glancing down at where Rangiku still sat stroking the muzzle of her Captain. "Don't worry, Captain," she said, sounding much too much like a worried mother consoling her blubbering child. "We'll figure this out, I know we will. Everyone in the Soul Society is going to help. Ichigo has already done so much, I know that with him on our side we won't let anything bad happen to you.

Ichigo brushed off the praises, glancing back at where Rangiku still knelt next to a very unresponsive Toshiro. He almost felt sorry; knowing how much he himself hated to be fawned over. He couldn't imagine how much Toshiro would loathe it now, especially considering how much he needed the actual medical attention that fawning prevented him from getting. But he also knew how much he was hating how hopeful Rangiku sounded. It wasn't just going to be fixed with an X-ray and a Band-Aid. This was no simple fix; this was no simple situation at all. How she could even think like that was beyond him, but he supposed that she was trying to stave off her own worry by reassuring herself with words that were probably irrational.

"You seemed mighty skeptical about us being able to bring him back with us when we left," Ichigo commented, looking at his mentor out the corners of his eyes with a bit of a slanted glare. Here he was, trying to stave off his own frustration with words. Admittedly much differently contextualized words, but the fact remained that he was using the same tactic. "And now you go gallivanting around like you knew we'd be back. Quite the change of heart, Mr. Kisuke, even for one as black as yours."

The blond man only laughed, tittering in his usual way behind his fan, which was now reopened in front of his scraggy face. "Ooh, I almost felt that one, Mr. Kurosaki," he said, walking over to Rangiku. She glanced up at him, apparently ten times the amount of skeptical that Ichigo was at their little exchange. But she stood up when he motioned for her to do so, in spite of that apparent suspicion. She stepped away as Urahara knelt in her place, taking a hand to the snout of the dragon. "Now then, Captain Hitsugaya," he said, the smile in his voice just barely able to mask the seriousness behind his words, "do you know where you are presently?" At least Urahara wasn't stealing their escapist patterns.

A low grumble burbled up the dragon's throat, vibrating the floor beneath their feet as the enclosed space made the already decently loud noise reverberate and double in volume. Ichigo was unaffected; already used to the dragon's much louder musings from their time alone together. But Renji and Rangiku had been caught totally unawares, both of them covering up their ears and their eyes going wide at the guttural sound that had come from the bestial body that lay before them all. But Ichigo's trained ear could still hear the quiet modulations in the sound that did indicate a very purposeful vocalization.

Urahara's laughter broke the descending silence in the room, sounding for once like he was almost genuinely amused. He, unlike the rest of them, was actually touching Toshiro, and had apparently caught quite well what the other man had said. "You always were quick on the uptake," he commented, patting the dragon's nose as the great black nostrils flared in what Ichigo was amusedly able to discern as a snort. Even beneath all the scales and armor, it seemed that Toshiro was still Toshiro. Knowing that eased him a bit, and made him more patient than he would have been privy to being otherwise. "Now, and I suppose this is the more important question, can you move?"

This time the silence was not broken by Urahara's laughter. Instead, they all stood and watched as the dragon, still heaving and bleeding a damn bloody mess onto Urahara's floor, righted itself to sit on its stomach. Ichigo stepped forward when Toshiro raised his head shakily, seeing the muscle beneath the plated armor spasm in pain from the wound inflicted at the juncture of his neck. The teal eyes were clenched shut in concentration, but the struggling of the functioning legs to lift seemed to not be enough. There was simply not enough energy left in the being to exert a push strong enough to get it up. Ichigo couldn't blame him; the tax of wounds on top of exhaustion on top of overall mental strain would have kept him incapacitated for quite a while. But, without a second thought, Ichigo stepped around Urahara and Rangiku back towards Toshiro's torso. Wounded though it was, he knew it could handle a bit of pressure.

"Renji," he barked, the red head blinking back at him in confusion, "go get on the other side. We're gonna help him up." The Lieutenant nodded, running around to the other side while Rangiku looked at them both skeptically. He could tell that she was happy they were trying, but thought their efforts perhaps a little foolish. There lay in her eyes that same emotion as before, the one that spelled feminine babblings as a source of comfort to herself rather than those around her.

"Ichigo, if he can't get up on his own, he's not going to be able to walk. You helping him up won't do him any good," she said, apparently hating to sound as despondent as she did. Which surprised Ichigo, considering he could have sworn that she was going to erupt in nonsensical encouragement. But apparently she was able to get a hold of herself, and handled herself sternly. He appreciated it, even though he chose not to voice such.

Turning, Ichigo merely shook his head as he placed to firm hands on the ribcage of the dragon, pushing up with as much force as he could muster. "Trust me, Rangiku, if we can get him up, he'll stay up until he can't stay up anymore. We just need to get him up and he'll be okay for a while," he assured through gritted teeth as he pushed up with all his might. It didn't change the fact that the dragon was massive, but the assistance did seem to help the slightest bit, in that Toshiro was no longer struggling to stay an inch standing, but several feet standing. The labored wet-sounding heaving continued, rumbling snarls of effort rocking the floor through the dragon's feet as he vocalized his efforts. Ichigo could feel the vibrations, but instead only heard Toshiro's swearing to himself as he tried to push himself up.

"Tessai! Come down here please," Urahara called towards the entrance to the training grounds, sensing that the boys would need help but apparently uninterested in offering that help himself. Regardless, the spectacled behemoth descended from the shop above, trotting over and taking a place between the dragon's two front legs to push up on the heaviest portion of the body without even needing to be told. Apparently he'd been listening in on their little conversation, which didn't surprise Ichigo, considering everyone in the damn house knew everything that was going on under its roof. Tessai's added help lifted the torso of the dragon up just enough to where Toshiro could get his joints locked up in a decent position, the back leg still functioning shifting to support the weight.

Again, Ichigo glanced back and winced at the marred tatters of the other hind leg, hoping to God that someone in the damn house would be able to heal him. Or, perhaps not in the house, but in the Soul Society where they were headed. Now that they had Toshiro up, they couldn't afford to have him down until they knew it would be somewhere decently safe. And in spite of Urahara's obvious ability to keep his own shop protected, the risk that the shopkeeper had alluded to earlier weighed heavily enough to keep them from lingering.

Once lurched up, Toshiro took one massive heaving breath, his head sagging. Ichigo watched in minor fascination as the ridge of tines following along Toshiro's spine lifted and sank with each inhalation and exhalation. Toshiro's wings were half folded against his body, not quite tucked back under the armor plates as they were before. The black leathery skin contrasted heavily against the white bone armor, though the gaping areas of red served as a distraction for that.

But something Ichigo saw immediately worried him. As he'd cast a shifting glance at the wings, it appeared that they'd been damaged. The bony struts that were the fingers of the wing stretched out for yards, to quite impeccable distance. But it seemed that a small chunk of one of the fingertips, and the black leathery skin around it had been torn away. Ichigo wracked his brain, trying to think how on Earth the wing had been damaged. It had been perfectly pristine when they'd left Hueco Mundo, but that fact alone made him realize what had transpired. When Toshiro had so expertly steered them away from destruction in the precipice world, he must have nicked his own wing in the process. Hence the unhappy bellow he'd given at that time. Ichigo glanced around the other side of the dragon, seeing that the other wing was left undamaged, thankfully. It just seemed like everything about this entire ragtag mission was out to assure their failure. But Ichigo wouldn't have it. Regardless of what Aizen, or even Head Captain Yamamoto had to say about it, he wasn't about to let either of them hurt an innocent man.

He strode up, placing one comforting hand on the dragon's neck. He could see small trails of blood dripping out between the slats that served as the fake teeth on the mask, making him realize that it was likely his mental note on internal bleeding was quite possibly correct. "Toshiro, we're going to have to get you through the Senkaimon, and ten to one says that we won't be on the ground. Do you think you can at least glide for a little bit?"

He watched the dragon nod shakily, knowing that talking would probably be just a bit too difficult with his current breathing situation. He knew that it was more than unlikely that Toshiro could fully fly again at this point, considering the damaged wing would be a massive hindrance. However, gliding was a possibility, so long as it didn't require a lot of steering.

"Ichigo, what are we going to do once we even get back to the Soul Society?" Renji questioned, sounding serious yet incredulous as he did often times. It was a rather impressive mix of emotions, yet he pulled them off surprisingly well. "We can't exactly just fly him into the Seireitei; everything would fall into chaos."

"We won't," Ichigo assured, and a room's worth of eyes settled on him. He looked at all of them, knowing he would have to explain his hair brained scheme before they could embark. "We'll take him out to the forests outside the Rukon District, keep him hidden until we can get help. He'll glide out to somewhere where he won't be seen, lay low, and keep his spiritual pressure down so he won't attract any Hollows or Soul Reapers. Then we'll go the Soul Society and get help. I'll go get Captain Unohana, and you guys go explain what's happened so far to Head Captain Yamamoto. We'll just have to work our way from there."

"I couldn't have said it better myself," the shopkeeper said, smiling for once as he continued to fiddle with his damnable fan. "Now, shall you all get a move on, or would you like me to serve up a pot of tea while you waffle over any more decisions?"

A low growl from Toshiro told Urahara clearly enough that it was the former option they would be opting with, and Ichigo couldn't help but smile.

Ichigo didn't ever think that he would find something comparable to riding on the back of a dragon in his lifetime. It was something too extraordinary to be outdone, especially as the expanses of the Soul Society stretched out underneath him in a swirl of noonday color. Toshiro wisely kept his gliding low, just barely skimming over the tops of the trees as they retreated from the Senkaimon door and out into the crawling forests outside the Hakuto gate to the west of the Seireitei. Ichigo was unfamiliar with the districts further out, away from the wall, but he knew that they would be close enough to Squad 4's barracks to make for a short trip. For him at least. Renji and Rangiku would have a bit further to go in order to reach Head Captain Yamamoto, but he was strangely alright with that.

If anything, it would actually allow Captain Unohana to perhaps do something for Toshiro before Yamamoto forbade it or did something else that was unhealthily stupid.

He barely noticed that they'd been making to land until Toshiro's front feet dipped down slowly to scrape against the ground. This landing was much smoother than the one back at Urahara's shop, considering he'd been allowed to come to a more prolonged stop. However it was still rather halting, considering he had to skip in a strange, awkward motion to keep from landing on his bad leg. He paced for a moment, letting his momentum die off from the short flight before stopping to let off his passengers. Ichigo was tempted to make some kind of comment about flying Air Toshiro, but decided to save it for later when it might actually be appreciated.

He, Renji, and Rangiku hopped off the back of the dragon as it reigned in its spiritual pressure, keeping the crown of white tines well below the tree line in spite of them being well away from where even the smallest shacks in the closest district began. Renji and Rangiku both looked to him for a moment, and he in turn looked back to Toshiro. The dragon seemed to be having a very difficult time choosing whether or not to stay standing and risk being seen, or lie down and risk never getting up again. Or at least risk not being able to get up without assistance. Lots of assistance. Finally, he seemed to resign himself to his own exhaustion, and settled himself slowly down onto the ground, letting his head rest down as he tried to keep his breathing from devolving into panicked heaving.

"We'll be back soon, Toshiro," Ichigo assured, nodding to the two Lieutenants accompanying him to indicate they were to leave immediately. The dragon, not surprisingly, said nothing in return. Even though Ichigo would have liked to keep one of them posted by the young Captain just in case, they needed the strength of two Lieutenants appealing to the Head Captain in order to get anything done. He knew better than to think one person could convince Yamamoto to do anything rational, so there was no other option for that particular effort. Turning, he immediately set off in a set of overly hastened flash steps, shooting past Renji and Rangiku as they made their way back to the Seireitei.

He reached the wall first, seeing as it had been erected in their time of instability. At least this time he could rest assured that Gin Ichimaru wouldn't be waiting on the other side of it to stab him. That thought darkened him a bit, but he pushed it aside. He could worry about Gin's implications later; right now there was rather pivotal work to be done. He looked around hastily, but could not see any of the Gate Guardians around. He knew that it wasn't necessary for him to have one to get in, considering he was now one of the sanctioned few non-official Soul Reapers that was granted unlimited access. He was over the wall in short time, bounding over rooftops in the outer reaches of the Seireitei as the scent of rain-washed buildings flooded his nose. The rain had burned off in the morning, but it's threatening tang still lingered on from the night storm.

He knew that his haste at this point would be the only thing that would keep Toshiro safe. The faster he returned, the less time Toshiro would have to spend alone in the forest. And though he knew he could probably handle small enemies by himself, he wanted to take as few chances as he could to have the other accrue even more bloody damage than he already had.

He almost went over the Squad 4 hospital with how fast he'd been going. But he managed to skid to a stop at the end of the roof rather than jumping again, and leapt down onto the courtyard leading to the front entrance. He went careening through the halls, and managed to glean from a highly fleeting exchange with Hanataro that Captain Unohana was attending to Toshiro's body. He at least knew where that was, and made a direct route to that location through the winding maze of halls that made up the 4th.

Bursting through the door probably wasn't the wisest entrance he could have made, but he was still in such a mad rush that it mattered very little to the besieged battlements of his mind. She seemed to have anticipated him, probably from the thrashing amount of worried spiritual pressure he was letting off, but more likely from the racket he had made, and was already halfway to the door he had just burst through by the time he got to actually saying anything.

"Captain Unohana, I need you to come with me right now," he said, and thankfully she didn't contend him. Instead she just nodded gravely, instructing Isane, whom Ichigo had not even noticed up until that moment, to remain watching over Captain Hitsugaya's body while she stepped out. Thus making it sound like she was under the misguided impression that this wasn't going to take long. Ichigo didn't quite have the heart or the balls to correct her. So just as quickly as they'd rushed in, they rushed out again, back to jumping from rooftop to rooftop as Ichigo's mad dash back out to the forests of the Rukon district began again. Yet again, Ichigo was thankful that Unohana didn't feel the need to ask unnecessary questions. She did ask a few, and he gladly allowed her those, considering they were rather pertinent.

"I assume that Head Captain Yamamoto is being informed of this situation as well," she said, and Ichigo's hastened nod gave her enough of an answer to not need to ask again. She probably could have been justified in doing so, but instead moved to her next question. "What is the situation, exactly, Mr. Kurosaki?"

"I'll explain it to you when you won't say I'm crazy," Ichigo said over his shoulder, earning an amused, and befuddled look from the female Captain. "Trust me, you're going to have to see this to believe it.

And, true to his word, Ichigo found that even he himself was not prepared for what greeted him when they returned to the clearing he'd not left but seconds ago. Toshiro was still there, thankfully, but he was not alone. Not by any means. But, much to Ichigo's luck, this time his companion was someone who was apparently filling the empty role of temporary guardian until Ichigo returned with help. Ichigo himself was smiling, if not a bit confusedly as he strode towards where Toshiro lay, cradled against the massive gatekeeper that Ichigo had missed at the wall earlier.

Apparently, the reason why the West Gate had been left unattended was because Jidanbo had purposefully left it to attend to the Captain left toiling alone in the wilderness. The massive gatekeeper had the dragon cradled against his lap, the gargantuan hands holding the head of the dragon and soothing the neck in long, languid strokes. The behemoth was crying, blubbering about how worried he'd been, only bursting into further tears at the sight of Ichigo and Captain Unohana arriving. Ichigo had heard vague rumors that the 10th Squad Captain had a vague friendship with the behemoth of the Hakuto Gate, but had never given it much thought. Now, it seemed the rumors were quite correct.

"Oh, Spiky-Head, I knew you'd save him," the Soul Reaper babbled, massive tears leaking out of the corners of his eyes to drip down his trembling lips. "I knew you wouldn't just let him die." The childish being petted the cheek of the dragon, and Ichigo realized with a very panicked start that Toshiro, in spite of Jidanbo's assuredly gentle ministrations, remained unresponsive to them. He was still breathing, but the breaths were deep and steady, the blackened muscles beneath the white bony armor lax.

He rushed forward, panic coloring his thoughts in a whirl. "Toshiro?" he almost yelled, jumping up onto Jidanbo's knee to examine the face that lay in the massive man's lap. The dragon continued to not respond, and his heart thundered in his chest. He couldn't tell if it was just the eventual building up of exhaustion that had incapacitated the dragon, or the final setting in of the amount of damage he had taken. Had it been too much for him? Would it be the end of him? All of these horrendous possibilities shot through his head, each worse than the last.

"Don't worry, Mr. Kurosaki," he heard Captain Unohana's calm voice intone from the ground. He glanced back over his shoulder at her, finding it very hard not to worry considering their circumstances. He honestly couldn't understand how she could be. "He's only resting. Once we relocate him somewhere more reishi dense he should be able to reawaken and recover a bit more quickly. But for now I would ask that both you and Mr. Ikkanzaka to remove yourselves from him. There is much work that I must do before anyone else arrives and before he is handed over to Squad 12 for examination."

Ichigo physically blanched at the mere thought. If that bastard Kurotsuchi got his grubby little hands on Toshiro, none of them would ever see him again. "No," he growled, hopping down to face the woman as Jidanbo gently resettled Toshiro's body onto the ground. In spite of the guardian's size, he was capable of being surprisingly gentle. "There is no way I'm going to let that bastard Mayuri touch him. He'll kill Toshiro before he'll help him, you can't expect anyone to-"

A single raised hand silenced the rest of his arguments, and he bit his lip to keep from letting himself continue. "Please, Mr. Kurosaki, do not worry," she said, her tone earnest as she spoke to him. He wished he could have been calmed by her assurance, but he couldn't bring himself to be so when so much was at risk. "I have no intention of letting anything happen to Captain Hitsugaya."

"And how do you intend to do that?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Because I have no intention of letting Captain Kurotsuchi touch him either."

-TADA! This took me longer than it should have, and it's probably shorter than it should be, but this fic has gone over some major reconstruction since last I updated. It's now quite a bit longer than I'd first anticipated, and a decent bit more complex. But I think you guys will get that more as we go on. Anyway, I apologize for my lateness, and beg your eternal forgiveness on my pour lazy soul. I'm back to college for my spring semester, and my new major is keeping me quite occupied. For those of you potential linguists out there, taking 2 college level language courses at once is a lot harder than it sounds. Just saying. Anyway, I hope you've all been doing well, and enjoyed this chapter. Feel free to expect another one in February, along with another set of drabbles now that I've gotten his lovely little ditty done. Please vote either in a review or on the poll on my profile for the fic for Freeze to White. And, just so you all aren't concerned, Ichi-Hitsu is just flat out going to happen in the sequel, regardless of the poll. Just thought I'd let you all know. And with that I will speak at you all later, my biffles. Till then.

Renji-Shuuhei: 7

Kensei-Shuuhei: 5

No Pairing: 2

Byakuya-Shuuhei: 2

8-90s love,

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