Chapter 14

I jotted down a few notes on my clipboard as Kaname told about his day. He was seventeen years old and lived with his father, with whom he didn’t see eye-to-eye. Much of our sessions were spent trying to discover the root of Kaname’s deep-seated anger towards his father.

“That’s when I left to come here,” he muttered, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back. He was sulking. It wasn’t unusual with him because he often came to see me soon after his arguments with his father. Before I could say anything, Renji ran into the room, in his Soul Reaper form; Kaname wouldn’t see him.

 

“We’ve got trouble,” he said urgently. I glanced his way with furrowed brows. “It’s Toshiro.” My eyes widened and I turned back to Kaname. I couldn’t just get up and leave. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and glanced at it, pretending to check a message.

 

“Kaname, I’m really sorry, but something’s come up. My brother’s in trouble,” I told him with pleading eyes. He nodded.

 

“I understand. I’d do the same for my sister.” I murmured another apology before putting everything away and running out of the room. Kaname would be coming back the next day instead. Renji met me outside and he began leading me down the road.

 

“What happened to Toshiro?” I demanded.

 

“He’s been captured,” he answered over his shoulder.

 

“What?!” Renji stumbled from the force of my shockwave as my anger and fear soared. He continued to run ahead of me, muttering something under his breath.

 

“We’re going to Urahara’s shop. I’ll explain everything there.”

 

I frowned, but nodded nonetheless. My lungs froze in my chest as I thought of my brother and what could’ve possible been happening to him. Breathing only became more difficult as I ran, but I ignored it. I was running purely on adrenaline by then. As we neared Kisuke’s shop, I could see Uryuu and Ichigo waiting outside. Renji and I were quickly brought in, where I promptly leaned against the wall to catch my breath.

 

“Minako,” Ichigo started.

 

“Where is my brother? I’ll kill whoever took him,” I interrupted, my voice low and ominous. Renji froze beside me and I knew it was because he’d never heard me use such a tone. I wasn’t a violent person, unless Toshiro was involved. Not a hair was to be harmed on that boy’s head.

 

“You can’t,” Uryuu answered and my head snapped up as I stared at him.

 

“Don’t tell me I can’t save my brother. If you know where he is, bring me there!”

 

“You physically can’t go where he is. They took him to Hueco Mundo, a place normal humans can’t go without the use of a Reishihenkanki.”

 

“Is that what they used to bring him there?”

 

“Something like that,” Ichigo answered. I sighed heavily and placed a hand on my forehead, tears brimming my eyes. They had taken Toshiro away from me, to a place I was unable to reach him. My hand curled into a fist and I punched the wall behind me. I vaguely noticed Renji flinch as a shockwave flowed from around me.

 

“How did this happen? Wasn’t Rukia with him?” I demanded, staring into Ichigo’s eyes and pleading with my own.

 

He scowled and opened the door to the back room. There, I saw a small figure dress in black, presumably Rukia, lying on the floor. Orihime was kneeling beside her with some sort of energy field around the Soul Reaper. I slowly walked into the room, confusion painted on my features. Was this Orihime’s ability? What was she doing?

 

“Rukia tried to stop them and nearly died in the process. Orihime is healing her wounds now,” Renji explained. I stared down at Rukia, appalled by the wounds she’d received. The worse was a slash down her chest that nearly cut her in half diagonally. She must have done all she could to protect Toshiro.

 

“This is terrible.”

 

“We never said it would be easy,” Kisuke said from behind me, catching me by surprise. I whirled around, wondering where he’d come from.

 

“Nothing was supposed to happen to my brother. You all swore you wouldn’t let him be harmed, yet Rukia’s the only one who seemed to even try!”

 

“Last I checked, you weren’t able to stop them from taking the kid either. Didn’t you say something about swearing to always protect him?” Renji retorted.

 

“Who’s the one who raised him for the past six years?!”

 

“Both of you need to calm down,” Uryuu interrupted. “This is no one person’s fault and no amount of arguing is going to reverse what’s been done. It happened and now we need to focus on getting him back, and figuring out what Aizen wants with him.”

 

“You all keep talking about this Aizen, but who is he?”

 

“Sit down. We have a lot more explaining to do,” Ichigo answered.

Author's Note

The 'Reishihenkanki' is basically a gateway that converts physcial matter into spiritual matter, so a human would be able to go to a place like Hueco Mundo (home of Arrancar and Hollows) or to the Soul Society. It is not used often and I'm guessing is very much looked down upon by the higher-ups of the Soul Society.