Toshiro was sleeping peacefully in his bed with his wife in his embrace when an urgent knock came to his door and shot him awake.
He started cursing at whoever it was that dared to take away his much needed sleep.
Though, when he felt Karin beside him to start and stir, he figured that that was the only sleep he was gonna take. He groaned and reluctantly let go of her so he could go and open the door.
On the other side of the door, a maid was waiting looking like she had just woken up and hurriedly at that as she was still wearing her sleeping clothes.
Her expression though was that of a worried woman being in a hurry. Worry and apology was etched on every inch of her face.
At that particular moment, Karin started sitting up and as the maid saw her inside, some of the worry left her face. She had apparently already gone to her room and when she didn't find her there, she was worried that something had happened.
"Toshiro, what is going on?"
"I don't know…" And after he said that, he turned expectantly towards the woman in front of him waiting for an answer as to why she had woken them up this early in the morning.
She just bowed in respect before speaking
"Please excuse me for the intrusion this early in the morning Hitsugaya-sama, but Matsumoto-san told me to wake you up because she is expecting you in the library. Karin-sama's brother and sister-in-law are downstairs too. I went to Karin-sama's room too but when I didn't see her there I was worried that something had happened. Thankfully, she was here with you. Could you please come downstairs? Matsumoto-san said it was very important."
At her words Karin woke up fully while confusion and happiness adorned her features.
"Ichi-nii is here… and Orihime-nee too? Why are they here?"
That was what he heard from her before he saw her by his side looking excitingly at the maid. She just bowed and said the usual greetings before repeating what she said about them going to the library.
They decided to just go with it and see what was wrong.
At the library, Ichigo was passing around the room in front of his crying wife while Matsumoto and Momo were trying to comfort her. They still didn't know what was wrong, since they were waiting for the other two to come before they say anything, but if it made the happy-go-lucky always smiling and gentle girl cry her heart out like that it must be pretty serious.
That was the position that Toshiro and Karin found them when they went inside.
Karin's face lighted up and she went straight to hug her brother. She couldn't see the crying girl as she was hidden by the other two.
Her brother, upon spotting her, made a gentle and hurt expression. When Karin saw that, she stopped on her tracks and that's when she noticed an out of character Orihime.
She just looked quizzically at her brother expecting an answer but instead of saying anything, his expression became even more saddened.
When Toshiro came besides her, observing the situation from a corner till now, asked a question that was on his mind till he saw the situation.
He was very observant you see and figured that something from the whole picture was missing.
Karin had mentioned that her brother had a cute little baby, but now there was no baby at all inside the room. The crying of the mother and the saddened expression on the brother put everything together.
Something had happened to the baby. If he remembered correctly, his name was Sora.
"Where is your son?"
At that statement, Karin looked frantically around in search of the one that even she hadn't noticed. She didn't see him.
Instead, she saw her brother's head lowering and noticed for the first time that Orihime, the always happy Orihime, cry her heart out in the hands of Matsumoto and Momo even more if that was possible.
Then it downed to her, but she definitely didn't want to believe it. She refused to believe it… so she asked Ichigo.
"Where is Sora really? Is he somewhere hiding from his aunt and you decided to tease me? Sora…Come out Sora. Aunt Karin wants to see her favorite nephew…" When no answer came but Ichigo's hands on her shoulder and saddened look on his face, reality downed.
Sora was indeed missing. She instantly turned around and cried on Toshiro's embrace. He tried to comfort her with a hug while talking to Ichigo.
"Come, sit down and tell us everything. We must find him and bring him back. Do you know who took him?"
Ichigo went and sat besides his wife taking her in his embrace and trying to sooth her by rubbing her arm with his own.
Her crying stopped a little after a while, since she didn't have any more tears to shed but her red eyes and broken expression said that she wanted to. She just looked ahead without focus with her head on Ichigo's shoulder.
Matsumoto and Momo left to let them talk and prepare something to drink to sooth the pain.
Toshiro sat down in front of him at his desk with Karin still in his arms.
After a while, Ichigo's voice broke the silence that existed in the room.
"His name is Aizen Sousuke. He is the lord of a town, a little farther from our kingdom, which belongs to no one. He came the other day to negotiate, but his offer of what we do was very violent and there was also a lot of word fighting and screaming that day. I wasn't in front at the moment, because I had gone for a walk at the gardens with Orihime and Sora, but we arrived as my father was about to throw him out. Sora saw this but of course didn't understand what was going on. He went to welcome our new visitor like nothing had happened, and then I saw the man's eyes sparkle with scheming. Then he said that we were gonna pay for what we said to him and took off with a smile on his face like he had won the best prize there was. That was the last we saw of him. The other morning, when we went to wake up Sora, he was missing. A note was on his bed saying that this was war. That bastard Aizen has taken my child. I'm not gonna leave it that way. That's why I came to ask for your help."
"Of course and we are gonna help you. This Aizen is gonna pay for taking away my only and favorite nephew. Ne, Toshiro?"
"Of course… I have unfinished business to settle with him anyway. Time for my revenge…"
This is where Momo and Matsumoto got in and heard the name Aizen.
When Momo heard it, the things she was carrying came in contact with the floor with a loud bang. Thankfully, Matsumoto was there, otherwise they would have heard Momo's bang too as she almost fainted.
They all looked at that direction and before you could say flipping-bird, Toshiro and Karin was at her side looking if she was okay.
Since no one could answer the questions that were running through Ichigo's, Karin's and Orihime's head, Matsumoto took the task into her own hands as Toshiro was carrying his cousin to lie on the couch.
"Aizen was the first love of Momo-chan. She was sixteen then while he was twenty. He told her that he loved her and he was gonna marry her someday, but he only used her for his own selfish reasons. She was heartbroken when he left her, and Hitsugaya-sama promised to make him pay for hurting his family. If it wasn't for Kira-kun, her fiancé, she would have still been like that, even now. We all warned her that this Aizen guy was trouble, but when you're in love, you believe only what your heart tells you and not your mind or even people who love you for real and want only the best for you. Thankfully, this is in the past now, but it still hurts this family. Now he just had to go and do something to you too. He is gonna pay dearly for this."
As Matsumoto was explaining, her eyes became fiercer by the second and that startled the others as she rarely made that expression. Then, when Momo had opened her eyes, Toshiro spoke.
"He really is gonna pay for what he did. We will also ask for help from the Kuchiki kingdom."
"Hold on a minute. Kuchiki, as in Kuchiki Byakuya or Kuchiki Rukia…? Those Kuchiki…?"
"Uh… Yes, I forgot that you already know each other. I was very surprised when I heard it from Karin. We were there just the other day to make a peace contract, and I was startled when I saw them react like they were long lost sisters."
"Uh… Yeah, we have a past with Rukia. Anyway, are you sure that she is gonna help us? Isn't Byakuya the king? I'm not on the best of terms with him."
"Yeah… She is gonna help us. Did you know Ichi-nii that she is now married to Renji? When we went together with Toshiro I was truly surprised to see her there as well, but she looks very happy. She also asked about you and Orihime-nee. She was startled when I told her that you were married and with a son at that. I'm sure she is gonna be fired up about saving that son of yours. You know how Rukia-nee is."
"Tell me about it! Anyway, how are we gonna inform her? Her palace is very far from here."
"I'm gonna sent immediately a messenger to inform them of our situation together with the faster eagle we have before that. We will start getting ready for battle and meet with them on the way."