Captain Ukitake pulled his blade out of the Primera Espada, splattering blood across the white floor. As the enemy's body fell, he gave a small smile down to Toshiro, whose eyes where wide.

"It's good to see you're back with us, Captain Hitsugaya."

Toshiro blinked up at him a couple times before dropping his gaze, knitting his eyebrows together.

"Captain Ukitake... You really shouldn't have come..."

Skeptically staring at Toshiro, Ukitake gave him a questioning look.

"Well," The boy continued, seeing the other man's expression. "You look kind of pale. I'm sure you shouldn't actually be moving about, much less about to go into a big battle."

"Captain Hitsugaya..."

"And I'm not a captain anymore either, so stop calling me that."

"Fine then." Ukitake narrowed his eyes. "Toshiro, I made you a promise, and I'm going to keep it."

The boy shook his head. "But I shouldn't have said that! I don't know what I was thinking, and you and everyone else don't need to get involved in this!" He glared at the floor. "You should go before you get hurt, this is my battle."

"You're really hopeless, aren't you?"

Toshiro's eyes widened a little.

"We're all here to help you, and we've been through enough that none of us are going to turn back now.

So, if you want us gone...

You're just going to have to deal with not getting what you want."

Still glaring at the floor, Toshiro frowned more, hating himself for dragging everyone into the situation. His fist tightened in rage, he ignored the voice of his zanpaktou, telling him it wasn't his fault.

Ukitake stared at the unresponsive boy, sympathetic. The shredded remains of clothing covered him, all with a heavy layer of dirt. Most of the skin the showed of his arms and chest were only dried blood, and the bandage that was wrapped around his stomach had more blood leaking through it.

The man sighed. He should have come sooner, Toshiro really had been through a lot.

"Captain Ukitake,"

Ukitake turned at the sound of his name, knowing the voice of Hisagi.

The lieutenant stepped forward until he caught sight of the boy on the other side of the captain. Stopping short, Hisagi's eyes widened, the report he was about to give cut off.

"You..."

Toshiro stared silently at the floor, fearing contact with the lieutenant's eyes, narrowed in rage.

"...So you're still alive??"

Hisagi's hand twitched, filled with desire to draw the zanpaktou by his side. The only thing that kept him from finishing the job he was prevented from doing earlier was the possibility that Rangiku was still alive.

Continuing to avoid Hisagi's glare, Toshiro tightened his gaze to the floor even more.

"Enough, Hisagi."

Ukitake stepped in front of Hitsugaya, blocking Hisagi's view. "You can take your grudges later, right now we must focus on our mission."

"...Fine." Hisagi consented with one last glare at Toshiro. He turned as the others in their group began to emerge. Orihime ran forward, followed closely by Chad and Uryu. Byakuya appeared from the other side of the room, his white haori and bluish scarf unscathed.

"Hitsugaya! So you're-" Orihime was interrupted by a blast from the side, catching everyone off guard.

White dust flew through the air again as rumble crumbled around them, flying through the air. Luckily, they were far away enough from the wall to be safe from any damage.

"Sorry about that..."

A voice echoed through the room, and someone stepped out of the dust.

"... That arrancar kinda went out with a boom."

Ichigo appeared, his face as arrogant and blank as ever, though his eyes widened when he saw the new arrivals.

"Hey, so you guys finally made it!" He ran the rest of the way, looking around at the familiar faces.

"Ichigo..." Ukitake's eyebrow twitched. "What you did was very reckless, and-"

"Yeah, yeah, but it worked. You okay, Toshiro?"

The boy nodded, his frown deep.

"What! No! Sit down and I'll heal you, if could look at yourself you wouldn't say you were okay!" Orihime, her eyes wide, put her hands on Toshiro's shoulders and gently pushed him down against his will, until he finally caved in to sitting while a golden light began to form around him.

"The passageways out of the next couple hallways lead down into some living quarters." Everyone turned to Byakuya, who had just walked closer to them after concentrating his spiritual pressure. "Aizen has his reiatsu cloaked perfectly, so I have no way of finding where he's gone, but he;s probably somewhere where he can keep a close eyes on us..."

"There's a surveillance room, down that way, I think." Toshiro nodded towards a different corridor.

Ukitake nodded grimly. "And he probably has Hinamori with him, just to keep you under his control. And he's just waiting, letting things play out out of sheer interest."

Staring thoughtfully at the halls, Uryu glanced around. "Since Aizen has control over Hinamori, and therefore Hitsugaya, there's not much we can do to get you out in any way that you'll approve of." He said slowly.

Toshiro fingered Hyourinmaru. Uryu was right.

"No." Ukitake gave a glance at Toshiro before turning to Ishida. "I know our objectives were to keep Hitsugaya away from Aizen, but I promised him Hinamori would be saved as well. I won't go back on that."

Toshiro looked up at him in surprise.

"But then..." Uryu rubbed his chin. "There's another possibility, but...." He stared at Toshiro.

"I have an idea. But we'll have to split up. And I can't explain it because Aizen is probably listening. And one more thing." His gaze continued to linger on Toshiro. "You're going to have to completely trust us."

Everyone looked at Toshiro, who had just thanked Orihime for the healing and was getting to his feet.

"What do you mean?"

Uryu continued. "You seem like the kind of person who may have trouble with this kind of thing, but if you want to get Hinamori and everyone else out alive, you'll have to place your trust in me and Ichigo. If things play out the way I think they will, then you'll know when."

Toshiro narrowed his eyes. "I don't think I can do that."

"Well, you'll have to. Ichigo, you'll come with me. I think everyone else should try to find your way out of Las Noches."

Ukitake frowned. "That's all you can tell us?"

Apologizing, Uryu turned and began to run down the hall that Toshiro said led towards the surveillance room, beckoning Ichigo to follow.

The teenage substitute soul reaper turned, and started to follow, but gave Toshiro one last glance.

To place all of my trust into them... Toshiro thought. I really don't think I can do that.

Gar gar gar!! There's supposed to be a thunderstorm tomorrow!! YESSSS!!! I LUV THUNDERSTORMS!! lil shiro can control the weather.... hey lil shiro, if I give u a happy ending, will you give me a thunderstorm? It would b nice if you cud leave the power on thou, except at my school. Cud u cut all the power there so we can't have any school??

My twin thinks I'm gonna die soon, because we had a retreat yesterday and I almost passed out... the nurse said my blood pressure was about 20 degrees too low.... I really don't know how bad that is... but apparently my twin thinks im gonna keel over and die....

nomnomnom NOM I made pop overs... they were gooodddd... now i'm gonna go and watch soul eater and play world of warcraft... WHEEEEEE!! I GET TO KILL SOME CENTUARS... im such a geek... anyway... have a good day everyone and plz review!!