Back in the Hospital

Picking up where we left off, when Gin carried Amber to the entrance of the Fourth Division, the moon was already high in the sky.

The blood of the two men left a long, winding trail behind them, stretching from Sōkyoku Hill all the way to the gate of the Fourth Division.

Gin's Shihakusho, now reduced to strips of cloth, was soaked in blood and clung to his body; Kou had lost consciousness sometime along the way, his weight pressing down on Gin's shoulders, aggravating his own wounds, and with each step, new blood seeped from the reopened wounds. Gin could only endure the stinging pain and shuffle along.

The office at the entrance of the Fourth Division

When it was Hanatarō Yamada's turn to be on duty, he yawned, looked up when he heard footsteps, and saw two blood-covered figures staggering towards him in the moonlight.

Upon hearing Yin Youyou's greeting, his yawn froze mid-air, and his pupils contracted sharply.

"A ghost--!"

Yin raised his eyelids, his ever-present smile freezing on his face. "... They're all Soul Reaper, what's there to be afraid of! It would be strange if there were any living people here!"

Hanatarō then came to his senses:

That's right! Soul Society is full of spirits; in a sense, everyone is a demon. So, these two are...

He looked closely and saw that both of them were bleeding profusely, with some areas of their skin torn and bleeding so badly that their faces were unrecognizable.

One of them had lost consciousness and was being supported by another; his pupils contracted again. He picked up the microphone in the office and broadcast:

"Urgent emergency! Urgent emergency! Fourth Division main gate! Fourth Division main gate! Ninety-nine! Ninety-nine!"

Yin was startled by his suddenly increased volume and tilted her head. "Ah... there's no need to make such a fuss..."

Before she could finish speaking, Isane Kotetsu, the Lieutenant of the Fourth Division, rushed out with a team of members. She immediately recognized Gin, who was covered in blood, and waved to him without saying a word.

Two team members supported Yin from both sides, removed the amber from his shoulders and placed it on another stretcher. Then, the two of them, along with the stretcher, were lifted up and rushed to the emergency room.

"Wait, it's nothing serious—"

"Third Division Captain Gin Ichimaru has lost too much blood. Multiple wounds are healing poorly and bleeding continues unabated. The cause is currently unknown." Isane gave him no chance to speak, running alongside the stretcher while issuing orders to her team members, "Notify Captain Unohana and ask her to come to the emergency room immediately. Also, send someone to the Third Division to inform Lieutenant Izuru Kira that his captain is injured."

Yin lay on the stretcher, watching the ceiling recede rapidly, opened her mouth, then closed it again.

Fine, let them call it whatever they want.

The news of the Third Division Captain's serious injury spread like a pebble thrown into still water, rippled through the Seireitei night.

Izuru Kira was organizing documents in the Third Division barracks when he heard the messenger's words and the pen in his hand fell to the ground.

He didn't ask for details, grabbed his coat, and ran outside. He walked through corridors, through courtyards, through the stone-paved streets of Seireitei late at night, his footsteps echoing on the empty streets, one after another, like heartbeats.

He nearly bumped into someone at the corner. Long blond hair, dressed in Shihakusho, but carrying a sake bottle in his hand— Rangiku Matsumoto.

She had clearly just come from a liquor stand, her cheeks still slightly flushed, but her eyes cleared the moment she saw Kira's serious expression.

"Kira? Why are you in such a panic—"

"Captain Ichimaru is injured," Kira said in a low voice. "He's currently being treated at the Fourth Division. I need to get there right away."

Rangiku's sake jug wobbled and fell to the ground, spilling sake everywhere. "... What?"

"The specifics are still unclear; we'll only know once we reach the Fourth Division."

"I'm going too." Rangiku turned and rushed towards the Fourth Division, and Kira followed suit.

The news spread even faster in the Second Division.

The intelligence capabilities of the Stealth Force are no joke—Gin and Kou had barely been brought into the Fourth Division when Aya Fon Shaoling found out.

At that time, she was reviewing documents in her office, and she ordered her team members to report in a low voice:

"The person sent in along with Third Division Captain Gin Ichimaru was Yexing Hu, the intern from the Feimou Corps had just come out of the medical room this morning."

The ink-stained pen fell directly to the ground. Fon Shaoling stood up, forgetting to take the Captain's Haori, and headed straight for the door. She only realized what was happening when she was almost there, turned back, took the haori from the hanger, draped it over her arm, and rushed out again.

The footsteps in the corridor were quick, one after another, like raindrops tapping on a stone slab.

The red light in the emergency room stayed on for a long time.

When Retsu Unohana pushed open the door, she saw two people covered in blood. Gin was lying on the bed on the left, his Shihakusho reduced to rags, his body covered in wounds—stab wounds, slash wounds, bruises, burns, frostbite, all sorts of Kidō wounds, almost no patch of intact skin, except for his left wrist, where the persimmon-colored bracelet was clean, and the Gin Hanabi pendant hung quietly on his wrist.

Hu lay on the right-hand bed, in a worse state than Yin—his body was riddled with bloody holes, and there was practically no place where he wasn't bleeding. The blood slowly seeped into the sheets, but a faint smile lingered at the corner of his mouth, as if he were savoring the moment after a good time, his consciousness already blurred.

She walked towards Hu first.

As she cut open the blood-soaked coat, her fingers didn't pause for a moment. Hu's wounds were all stab wounds—one on her left shoulder, three on her right ribs, four on her thigh, and two on her forearm. Each one penetrated half an inch into the flesh, not deep, but extremely precise. She gently pressed the skin and flesh at the edge of the wound, feeling the angle at which the blade entered and exited. All of them were stabbed from the front, with slightly different angles, but the landing points all avoided vital organs.

Then she walked toward the silver.

As she cleaned up the captain's robe and Shihakusho, which had turned into strips of cloth, her brow twitched slightly. The variety of wounds on Gin's body was so striking that it caught her eye.

The deepest wound was on her left shoulder—the skin and flesh were rolled back, with burn marks along the edges. The cut was wider at the outside and narrower at the inside. The wound still carried the scent of the Shakkahō, but it was a sword wound. She used her hand to pry open the edges of the wound, revealing an even deeper layer of bruising: an impact wound. Aside from the way the wound was cut, it was a very distinctive remnant of Shakkahō damage.

Silver had several blunt force wounds on her chest and abdomen. The skin wasn't broken, but the subcutaneous bruising had spread into large patches of bluish-purple. She pressed gently with her fingers together, feeling a slight collapse in the tissue deep within the muscles—not just simple bruising, but Reiatsu exploding inside after penetrating the surface. She slowly pushed along the edges of the bruises with her fingertips, sensing the depth of the penetrating force. There were signs of broken muscle fibers, but no internal organs were damaged. It was as if the force had been restrained; otherwise, with such penetrating power, Silver's ribs should have been broken.

The most troublesome were the fine scratches. There were seven or eight very shallow cuts on Yin's arms, ribs, and neck, each only a few centimeters long and no deeper than the skin. At first glance, they were the least serious injuries.

But Unohana's hand stopped on one of the cuts, her fingertips hovering above it—the flow of Reishi at the edge of the cut was erratic, as if the wound's healing was being interfered with by something.

She sensed the faint, almost dissipating, ethereal aura from afar. The cut wasn't deep, but the residual spatial properties made healing extremely difficult. If she didn't use the Kaidō to clean up this residue bit by bit, these seemingly minor wounds would end up being the last ones to heal.

In addition, there were a few other wounds—a horizontal cut on the arm, the cut was smooth, a pure slash;

Two extremely fine puncture holes on the shoulder blade, about a palm's width apart, less than an inch into the flesh, but the inside of both holes were through—something shot in at high speed and came out from the other side;

There were several crisscrossing bruises on his ribs, left by powerful blows from the back of a knife or the spine of a sword.

Finally, she gently placed her hand on Gin's ribs, closed her eyes, and probed in with extremely gentle Reiatsu. The internal organs were slightly displaced, as if they had been jolted by a tremendous external force and then bounced back to their original positions. Fortunately, Gin's internal organs were not damaged or bleeding; they had only shifted slightly.

Unohana opened her eyes and began to treat her wounds.

At the same time, her Reiatsu was also quietly circulating, seeping into those fine cuts like water seeping into parched soil, gradually enveloping, neutralizing, and dissolving the remaining spatial tearing aura within.

One person was precisely pierced several times, each stab hitting the mark perfectly; another person was slashed, stabbed, blown up, shocked, and pierced through, attacked from all directions, each attack having a completely different style, like being ganged up on by several people at the same time.

After she finished bandaging them, she straightened up and looked at the two people on the bed whose bodies were wrapped in bandages.

Although both of them had lost a lot of blood, their Reiatsu was depleted, and they had countless flesh and blood injuries, their internal organs and bones were intact, and their vital points were avoided, so neither of them was fundamentally injured.

Unohana glanced at the two of them:

These two seem to be having a lot of fun...

She took off her gloves, turned around, and pushed open the door.

The red light went out and came on again, then went out again. Members of the Fourth Division went in and out, carrying basins of water, bandages, and medicine, their footsteps light but hurried.

In the corridor, Kira stood against the wall, head down, his blond hair obscuring his expression. Rangiku sat on a bench, her hands clasped on her knees, her knuckles slightly white from the pressure, staring at the emergency room door.

Fon Shaoling stood at the other end of the corridor. The Captain's Haori, her arms crossed over her chest, her fingers tucked into her sleeves.

The emergency room door finally opened. Unohana stepped out and took off her gloves.

"Neither of them is in mortal danger." Her voice was as calm as if she were describing the weather. "They've just suffered from excessive Reiatsu depletion and numerous superficial wounds, but nothing vital. They should be able to be discharged this afternoon if all goes well."

Rangiku loosened her grip. Kira let out a long sigh, leaning against the wall as if all his strength had been drained away. Fon Shaoling's fingers slipped from her sleeve, and she turned to leave.

The next morning, in Gin Ichimaru's hospital room.

Gin leaned against the headboard, bandages wrapped around his body from his chest to his waist, with several bandages on his arms as well. He moved his wrist, and the persimmon-colored bracelet swayed slightly at the edge of the bandages. Rangiku stood by the bed, arms crossed, staring at him silently.

Kira stood in the corner, head down, pretending he didn't exist.

"So," Rangiku finally spoke, her voice so soft that Gin's smile froze slightly, "You mean, you activated your Bankai and fought Koko, who wasn't even a formal Soul Reaper yet, for a whole day, and ended up like this?"

"It's mainly to help him get a feel for Bankai-- "

"Help him find the feeling of Bankai?" Rangiku raised her voice, "Have you ever seen anyone practice Bankai by finding another Bankai and beating themselves to death to get it!"

"This..." Yin was speechless.

"You, a team captain, using Bankai, fought with an intern all day long, until both of you had to be carried into the emergency room—"

"I'm sorry..." Yin readily admitted.

Rangiku's words were cut off, and she blushed with embarrassment. But in the end, she simply took a deep breath.

"Anyway, it's good that nothing serious happened this time. Be more careful next time."

Yin glanced down at the bracelet, then at Rangiku, and the smile on his lips softened. "... Okay."

At the same time, in Hu's hospital room.

Fon Shaoling sat on a chair by the bed, legs crossed, peeling an apple in her hand.

The blade slid along the fruit peel, round and round, the peel growing longer and longer, hanging in mid-air, swaying precariously, never breaking. Hu leaned against the headboard, his body wrapped in bandages no less than Yin's, but he dared not move or speak.

"I just took you out of the infirmary yesterday morning," Fon Shaoling said calmly. "Less than a day later, you've already sent yourself to the Fourth Division, carried in on a stretcher. Do you prefer the hospital ceiling or the hospital bed?"

"I..."

"I sparred with Gin Ichimaru." Fon Shaoling's blade curved, the peel thinning even more. "To figure out Bankai, I fought all day. I fought until my Reiatsu was completely depleted, I lost consciousness, and had to be carried into the emergency room."

"Losing consciousness happened after the attack; I was just tired."

"Still trying to argue! You're running out of Reiatsu, won't you just admit defeat?" Fon Shaoling finished peeling the apple, picked up the whole peel, and threw it in the trash can. "Fighting like crazy, is that what you call practicing Bankai?!"

Hu looked at the complete, thin, translucent fruit peel, then tossed it into the trash can, swallowing hard with a hint of regret.

"Next time, practice Bankai." Fon Shaoling took a big bite out of the apple and shoved it into his hand. "I want to watch."

"... ah?"

"Any objections?"

"No," Hu mumbled, taking a bite of the apple as well.

Afternoon

When Gin was discharged from the hospital, his bandages were still on, but he could already walk on his own. Kira accompanied him, and the two walked along the stone path of Seireitei towards the Third Division. Halfway there, Gin stopped.

Kenpachi Zaraki stood in the middle of the road.

He carried the Zanpakuto, an eyepatch over his right eye, radiating an oppressive aura that instinctively made people want to back away. His gaze fell on Gin—the bandages peeking out from the edges of his clothes, on his wrists, in his collar, and the slight tug at his feet as he walked.

"Ichimaru," Kenpachi spoke, his voice like rusty iron scraping against each other, "I heard you got demoted to the Fourth Division?"

Gin narrowed his eyes. "Captain Zaraki is interested?"

"Enough nonsense." Kenpachi stared at him. "Is the enemy who inflicted such serious injuries on you dead? If not, tell me his location, I'm going to go have some fun with him."

Gin's lips curled into a smile. He spread his hands, showing Kenpachi his entire body covered in bandages, and twirled around as if displaying a work of art. "He's not dead. He's alive and well. But he's not an enemy—he's a friend of mine; I was just practicing Bankai with him."

Kenpachi frowned slightly. He wasn't interested in Bankai; he didn't even know the name of his own Zanpakuto. But to be able to beat a captain like this just through practice...

He looked at the bandages wrapped all over Gin's body, put his Zanpakuto down from his shoulder, and planted the tip on the ground, cracking the stone slab in several places.

Is he very strong?

Yin withdrew his hands, the persimmon-colored bracelet swaying gently on his wrist. He looked at Kenpachi, his smile deepening.

"You're really strong."

Kenpachi grinned, revealing a chilling smile. "Next time, take me with you. I'll go help him too."

"Sure," Yin replied with a smile.

The two passed each other. Kenpachi continued walking forward, carrying his sword, while Gin and Kira continued walking back. After walking a distance, Kira finally couldn't hold back any longer.

"Captain Ichimaru, is that Amber really your friend, or an enemy?"

He had been by Gin's side since morning, and he had roughly pieced together the details of Gin and Amber's sparring session.

But he didn't understand—his own captain, who usually didn't even care much about the team's training, would train a so-called friend, and even use such harsh methods on the first day.

Keep in mind that the person in charge of the treatment this time was the captain of the Fourth Division, a figure standing at the pinnacle of Kaidō, and he spent half the night treating the patient. Is this some kind of rescue from the Hell Gate?

After all, it's common knowledge that Captain Gin Ichimaru has no friends...

"Of course they're friends, close friends!" Yin didn't turn around; his tone was light and cheerful.

Kira glanced back at Kenpachi's retreating figure carrying his sword, then looked at his captain. He couldn't help but feel a moment of sorrow for Koko, whom he hadn't even met yet.

Although I don't know how you offended Captain Ichimaru, please take care, Kou-kun.

Gin seemed to sense something and turned to look at him. "Kira."

"Exist."

"Would you like to come and watch next time you practice? It might be helpful for your reference."

Kira's lips twitched. "... No need for that, subordinate."