They taught him how to control his spiritual pressure. They made him spend a whole week recovering in the white room– the novelty of the bed had quickly worn off. Still, they kept him isolated. Even in walking down the halls of the fourth division he received a number of startled looks from soul reapers who muttered his name and stared after him. He hated that they all thought they knew him. But he was happy to finally learn something about the powers that had been draining him so much.

Eventually, he was led to a small court yard in a quaint manor. It was the home of the white haired soul reaper that had rescued him.

"Hello again, Toshiro. My name is Captain Ukitake." He didn't try to remind Toshiro of his past and the boy was glad. "I'm going to teach you about spiritual pressure so you can control it."

"Where is Kenpachi?"

"He is with my good friend Captain Kyoriku. He has been getting the same instruction as you. It is very important that you both learn to control your powers. You know first hand how dangerous uncontrolled spirit energy can be."

Toshiro didn't answer. He remembered very clearly just how terrifying that power had been.

"I heard that you used flashstep. That is a form of using spirit energy. So is the ice you made."

"And the kido?"

"Yes, that too. But using it without control is very dangerous."

Toshiro remembered the charred corpses. It wasn't like he hadn't killed before, but in that instance, he had had no control over what happened. He could have killed Kenpachi.

"How about we start with simply being aware of your own spiritual pressure, okay? Come sit with me." he sat in the middle of the grassy yard and crossed his legs. Toshiro watched him for a moment, but the captain waited patiently. After a moment, the boy sat across from him. Toshiro couldn't imagine that the other guy had had much luck getting Kenpachi to do anything like this.

"Can you feel the power that comes from your body?" Ukitake asked. Toshiro tried but all he could sense was Kenpachi, only a few miles away. He didn't run, however, his spirit was calm, for now his friend was fine. He listened to Ukitake intently. In his years with Kenpachi he had never really had any sort of instruction before but here he learned quickly– incredibly quickly.

The more he learned the more he entertained the idea that maybe it he had learned it all before. By the end of the week he could control his spiritual energy without problem. Ukitake insisted they let him stay in his house so he got a room with no seki seki stone. With the training he received, he could finally wake up without being covered in snow. He liked his teacher. Ukitake was kind but it was his intelligence and calm composure that Toshiro admired. He didn't want to betray his trust, but on his first night in the house, he felt out for Kenpachi and left.

Kenpachi was not in a manor like Ukitake's, he was still at the healing house. He wasn't injured but it seemed an easy place to keep guard over him. Toshiro flash stepped past security– it was much easier for him to do since learning to control his spirit energy. Still, he was a bit clumsy, having had no real training. He landed in the room and skidded across the floor in his sock feet, only stopping when he hit the bed. He flipped up and landed directly on top of Kenpachi.

"Hey Ken." He said when he caught his breath.

"Nice entrance." Kenpachi sat up and Toshiro rolled off of him. He noticed the black eyepatch over his friend's face for the first time.

"What happened?" he nearly cried.

"Calm down, Kid." Kenpachi removed the eye patch and revealed his perfectly healthy eye. "It helps me keep my spiritual pressure down. Once I learn to control it though, it will be easy to bust out of here."

"Bust out..."

"Don't tell me they've gotten to you."

"No, of course not." he said unconvincingly, "but I think that I can learn a lot from them."

"Kid, who do you think you're fooling?"

"Tell me you don't think its strange. Why would they be lying? We woke up wearing those clothes, we had no memory, we were together...and now these dreams."

"Doesn't matter, its not who we are."

Toshiro was frustrated. "Maybe its who we could be."

"Since when did you ever want anything more than to find a good fight?"

"I don't know, since I found out there was more to life."

"Geeze they really got you playing into their fantasy."

"Shut up! You're just being stubborn. What about that girl with the pink hair? I saw the way you looked at her."

Kenpachi was suddenly very angry. "Listen kid, I don't remember these people! You don't either! I thought you'd figured out by now that we're the only people we can trust! So it doesn't matter if we have a few weird dreams and a couple a girls say they know us, okay?"

Toshiro clenched his teeth. "Fine." he shot back. "But it won't be easy getting out of here."

"No, but we'll do it. Just wait for me to get a handle on this spiritual pressure and then we'll bust out."

"Fine." He walked to the edge of the room and disappeared in a flash step. When he landed in the court yard he stumbled and fell, rolling on the grass. He lay where he landed.

"You're flash step still needs some work." Ukitake said from behind him. He stretched back his neck and looked up at the tall soul reaper.

"You gonna kick me out now?"

"No Toshiro. I don't want you sneaking off in the middle of the night however, you are not my prisoner." he paused. "So, you saw him then?"

Toshiro nodded.

"You understand, then, why we've kept you separated. I want you to have a chance to make up your mind for yourself. You don't have to do what Kenpachi says."

"How can I trust anyone over him?"

"You can trust yourself." the boy had no answer. He was conflicted and stared up at the stars as if they might offer some answer, but of course, they could not. "Come on." Ukitake walked into his field of vision and offered him a hand. "It's late. Time for bed."

The two returned to the manor and went to their rooms. Ukitake trusted Toshiro. After what he'd done, Toshiro expected to be locked up, but Ukitake had been calm and unconcerned. He rolled into this blankets and shut his eyes. It wasn't long before he drifted off.

"Hitsugaya, we have to go now!" The giant drug the boy-captain down the hall.

"No, Hyorinmaru– I can't leave him!"

"This is our only chance." Toshiro's eyes were wild. He fought back against Zaraki even though one arms hung useless, bleeding, and several cuts and bruises covered his body. His eyes were raw and red and crazed.

Zaraki had found him in Aizen's main chamber, on his hands and knees screaming. Aizen hadn't touched the other captains, but he'd been torturing Hitsugaya for days.

"I'll kill you." he whispered and even Kenpachi Zaraki could never make a more menacing sound.

"Listen, I don't know what Aizen did to you, and I don't know how you ended up alone in that room–"

"I stabbed him."

Zaraki paused in his struggle against the strangely powerful boy.

"You did what?"

"He made me. Over and over and over. She died. She died because of me. But then I did it. He never thought I would but I did it...."

"Is he dead?"

"No...he struck back." the boy's hand fell to his abdomen, Zaraki hadn't seen the blood against the black of his robes.

"Shit, Hitsugaya–"

"Then it all started again...until you came. I don't know how many times, over and over and over, she died. And Hyorinmaru was gone."

He spoke as if to himself . His arm had gone limp in Zaraki's grasp, he was fading quickly.

"You ain't got much time kid, and they'll figure out I'm gone soon. We gotta get out of here."

A moment of clarity passed over the boy. "The other captains...I can't sense them..."

"You what? What is going on?"

"Ichigo..." then his eyes glazed and he was gone. Zaraki picked up his body and slung it over a shoulder. He ran down the corridor to what was left of his cell guard. The arrancar hissed in pain as he was hauled to his feet.

"If you want to live, open the gate." The arrancar obeyed, the cracks appeared and the soul reapers disappeared into black.

In the dark of the soul society two figures sat bolt up right in their beds. The dream rang through their heads, the details already slipping away but the emotions still strong.

"Toshiro what's wrong?" Ukitake burst into the boy's room, feeling the torrent of frightened spiritual pressure when he opened the door. In the dim moonlight he could see the form on the bed trembling and gasping for breath, his skin glistening with sweat. "Toshiro?" He said again, carefully sitting on the bed and grasping the boy's shoulders. Only at this touch did he look up at the captain. His eyes glittered with tears. Ukitake felt the spiritual pressure shift from fear to deep sorrow. The form in his arms shook more violently. "Hold on." He wrapped his arms around Toshiro. For a moment the small body tensed, he'd never been hugged before. Then he gave way to the overwhelming pain in his soul and sobbed into the arms of his mentor.

Kenpachi stood at the window of his room. The door open behind him and he half expected to see the kid again but it was the woman, Unohana.

"I felt you're spiritual pressure change. Are you alright?"

He considered her for a moment, but the dream was still too powerful. He knew, in the deepest part of him, that it had not been a dream at all, but a memory.

"What happened to us?" He said finally. She never changed her expression, she simply began.

"You were in Heuco Mundo. You went to fight Aizen and the arrancars in their own world. But Aizen came here. His power causes others to see illusions, powerful ones that can last forever. Toshiro fought him, but Aizen tricked him. He made him stab his friend, Momo Hinamori."

"She died?"

"No."

"But he thinks she did."

"He was taken before he could find out. You both were, along with many captains fighting Aizen and those who went to Heuco Mundo."

"Did he take you?"

"No. His illusions are weaker on me. I rescued Momo Hinamori, and the Head Captain sent Aizen back, but not before he had captured you all."

"Then what happened?"

"The other captains returned, less than a week later. We set up an escape plan and many made it back. Some however, did not recover their zampakutos and on returning, their memories were lost."

"That's what happened to us?"

"We can only assume, but you did not return with the other captains. When we went to rescue you, your cell was empty. Something happened, they had to leave right away."

"What happened to the kid?"

"Aizen particularly hated him. Before his betrayal, he had been Momo's captain. We do not know what happened in Heuco Mundo, Toshiro was never seen by the others again but they could feel his spiritual pressure with Aizen almost the entire time."

"He tortured him?"

"In one way or another. Most likely, he tried to break him using the memory of stabbing his own friend."

"He kept saying she died, over and over."

"Yes, we suspected Aizen might use an illusion to torment him."

"But then he said he stabbed him." Unohana's face changed a little.

"What is it?"

"Aizen was injured when we made the rescue. No one knew how. It was the only reason we were able to escape and keep him at bay."

"So he's still alive?"

"Yes, but he was badly injured by another, Ichigo Kurosaki, and has remained in Hueco Mundo for many years." She gazed on him for a moment. "What do you remember?"

"Not much. The kid was in rough shape, he didn't want to leave without his zampakuto but he was very confused. Then he said he couldn't feel the captains anymore. He passed out and I made this creature open a gate."

Unohana's calm face faltered. "No..." she whispered. "So we did leave you behind."

"What?"

"Our only defence was compromised, we were forced to leave. Some got separated but everyone made it back, eventually..."

He said nothing. He wasn't angry that they'd been left behind. If they'd been warriors than it was proper.

"Do you remember Aizen?"

"No."

"Good." The woman sighed and left the room in silence. Kenpachi returned to the window and stared that the moon. In the back of his mind he felt that inexplicable yearning– that cry that reached out to him across dimensions.