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Fate Still Rests Our Friend
The troublesome upshot of arming oneself to the teeth with unusual tinctures culled from poisonous plant extracts as emergency-use revival drugs was losing said extracts. Then again, she had not counted on getting sniped in the Royal Realm, stripped down by the lackeys of a Zero Squad member who had been her late Captain’s mentor in the healing and medical arts, thrown into two hot springs to be patched up, and given a crash course on the finer points of using Kaido to repair nerve damage and undo the compression from expanded blood vessels, reflected Isane Kotetsu wryly. Far too much had happened lately and she felt as though she had been dragged along the wheels of a speeding chariot and mangled without knowing where the vehicle in question was careering towards. When the metaphorical chariot comprised a slew of non-stop measures and countermeasures in response to a war, her bewilderment was understandable. Even now, when the conflict was ostensibly at an end, she had been brought back to health and her younger sister restored to her, Isane hardly knew what to make of the things she had been told. The part about the elite Quincy version of the royal guard and their god-king slaughtering Zero Squad, she understood with no trouble. She could accept that the monk leading the Zero Squad had drawn the spiritual essence and power from Ichigo Kurosaki (who had come to the aid of Soul Society) to restore himself and then used some of his own spiritual pressure to return the slain members of the Zero Division to life because they were tied to the existence of the Royal Realm. She could even grasp the manner in which the Quincy god-king had been defeated, despite the absurdity of it given said being’s powers. At least in that case, she and the surviving Gotei’s captains and acting captains, of which she was one, had been debriefed as to what became of the body of the putative enemy’s self-proclaimed monarch. For all that she was appalled by his ultimate fate wherein he was used to keep the three worlds of Soul Society, the human world and Hueco Mundo separate, and for all that she was repulsed by his reprehensible treatment of his followers and loyalists despite declaring himself their almighty all-father, she grudgingly and despondently conceded it was necessary to prevent more unnecessary loss of lives, particularly innocents who had not been drawn into the late conflict.As it was, she had more pressing matters to attend to, such as combing through the rubble of the Quincy city transposed over the Royal Realm in search of the padded rolls of poison medicine vials that had unravelled and unknotted themselves from her ankles when she fell upon getting sniped. It had been three days since she had been unceremoniously treated as a teabag in two healing hot springs and put to hard labour vis-à-vis healing and providing medical aid to the survivors of their number who had gone to the Royal Realm, and she had only just had a breather. Looking for the tinctures where she had been felled was not proving successful so far and she was beginning to fear someone had accidentally ingested their contents when her sister, who had accompanied her to expedite the search before they were sent back to the Seireitei, bellowed at her. Instead of responding, the statuesque silver-haired chief medical officer was desperately heaving aside pieces of mortar and debris.“Big Sister, I found your jewellery roll but everything inside has been smashed. There’s none of your dodgy revival medicines left,” hollered the petite Kiyone Kotetsu from a precariously leaning tower that looked as though it could topple at any moment. On receiving no reply, she poked up her dark blonde head from the area she had been searching and clambered over the uneven cobblestones, trying again: “Did you hear me, Big Sister?”Isane was not paying attention, for she had found a hand attached to a body and it still had a faint pulse. While that may seem impossible when the personage underneath must have been gravely wounded and left under the rubble for the past three days, she had caught the glimpse of a badly stained white sleeve and the herringbone hem on the cuff. That could only be a Quincy, she realised, and if this individual had been left for dead, they were in need of urgent medical attention. The plan was to do what she could for the superficial wounds and send the person on their way, as the war was over after all and the Captain-Commander had issued a general amnesty on the Quincies who were opposed to the god-king with the coconut bristle brush moustache. However, this reasonable course of projected action was abandoned when she saw the condition of the body and cast diagnostic Kaido. The tall, slim-built male with the long blond hair lying crumpled underneath the wreckage was barely breathing and diagnostics revealed him to be a touch-and-go case as they would say in the Fourth.“Kiyone, hurry and find Captain-Commander Kyoraku. We need to get this one to an operating theatre for immediate Kaido surgery. Straightforward Kaido isn’t going to do it. I don’t know how much longer he can hold on. One of his lungs is under-performing and he has suffered massive blood loss. There’s stenosis of the left coronary artery, possible aortic lesions and several blockages. We need to open him up and initiate cardiac catheterisation for me to tell what’s wrong,” came Isane’s urgently uttered injunction as she patted down the front of her shihakusho and the lining of her shitagi for something she could use to carry out emergency thoracentesis to aid in the unknown man’s breathing.“But Big Sister! He’s a Quincy. If he’s here, he must be one of their elite royal guards. He could be the one who shot us,” expostulated the younger Kotetsu as she arrived at her sister’s side.“No. This one has a sword. He wasn’t the one who shot us,” was the simple reply as Isane jabbed her fingers to the side of his neck, bent the side of her head to his chest and cast another round of diagnostic Kaido to better discern which part of the man’s lungs were compromised.“Just leave him, Big Sister. We’re going to be sent home in half an hour anyway. Zero Squad can do what they want when they turn everything up here back the way it was,” Kiyone protested, grimacing at the recumbent form as the acting head of the Fourth pulled out an unused syringe from a pouch strapped to her upper arm.“They will kill him. We don’t need more senseless killing when the war is over. Besides, he’s in no condition to do anything. And well… he’s suffered enough,” Isane reasoned, removing the safety cap the syringe and jabbing it into the neck. Quickly inserting a catheter after this and draining the bloody effusion, she murmured comforting words to the body out of habit when she saw the unconscious form take a few shallow breaths. “He was abandoned by his comrades and king at the end. He deserves our compassion. We’re taking him back with us. I need an operating theatre to save him. Please find the Captain-Commander and tell him everything. If he disagrees, tell him that we might get information out of this one of possible reserves the Quincies may have. I doubt they have any in sizeable numbers or we’d be attacked by now, but it’ll do as an excuse.”“The other captains and lieutenants will call you soft. They would have killed him on the spot. Captain Unohana would have,” argued Kiyone, scowling at the figure on the rubble as her sister continued to frown and mutter why diagnostic Kaido showed that everything wrong with the man was centred on the left side of the chest.“Captain Unohana took no prisoners, but I do. Rehabilitation is always possible except for the worst of the worst. This one deserves our pity for being used and cast aside. He should be given a chance at leading his own life and doing what he wants for a change now that the empire he fought for is gone and his king is… Well, effectively neutralised. Captain Ukitake would tell us that it’s not wrong to value life,” Isane countered, fixing her pleading grey eyes on her sister’s mutinous steel-shaded ones. Biting her lower lip, she reluctantly called on the wartime protocols still in place to propel her sister into falling back and following her orders. “Please find the Captain-Commander and tell him that I’m making this decision as acting head of the Fourth Division. We’ll keep this one with us in isolation. Captain Kyoraku can do what he likes with him when this Quincy recovers and insists on being er… uncivil. But until he’s well again, he will be in the custody and care of the Fourth. Please hurry. The stop-gap measure will only improve his breathing for so long. His heart can give out at any moment. We need to operate on him.”Kiyone stamped her feet and snorted, “I’m only going because Captain Ukitake would agree not to kill unless necessary. You’d better know what you’re doing, Big Sister. If you end up dead because this one massacres everyone at the Fourth when he’s up and running again, I’m going to tell Mother you got exactly what you deserved.”Somehow Kyoraku raised no objection so long as he could personally question the man when the fellow regained consciousness, and through means that Isane did not want to know, Kyoraku also smoothed over the issue with the Zero Squad member tasked with sending the Shinigami currently stuck in the Royal Realm back to Soul Society. She was satisfied that in under twenty minutes since dispatching Kiyone, they were en route to the Seireitei.On arriving, she was pleased to see that the Fourth had remained more or less intact, save from some superficial damage when the Quincy buildings phased over them in the second invasion had been pulled up and rebuilt over the Royal Realm. Immediately issuing orders to her staff to prepare the patient and sweeping in the scrub room next to the operating theatre usually reserved for Unohana’s use, she got herself ready. Silently praying that she was not too late to save a patient’s life, she headed into the operating suite when her cap, protective glasses and loupes were on.“What did the scans show?” was the tired query as she was tied into the surgical gown and helped into gloves.“Lack of oxygen from his anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery syndrome; severe mitral valve incompetence; the left anterior descending artery is completely blocked due to extensive calcification; the right coronary artery has a ninety-nine percent blockage from blood clots. There’s also evidence of an aortic rupture and fatal myocardial infarction. He shouldn’t be alive. None of us, the Relief Team leaders or operating team has seen anything like this before, madam,” came the reply from the head surgical nurse when one of the assistant nurses put on the music that Isane had requested earlier.Cringing inwardly at the appellation of ‘madam’ that had hitherto been used by the nurses and non-Shinigami staff to refer to Unohana, Isane instructed as bracingly as she could: “Well, we’ll shortly see what it’s really like when we open him up. With his impaired heart and lung functions, he can only be kept under anaesthesia for two hours. To work in that time limit, we’ll have to keep everything stabilised with Kaido as we simultaneously conduct a left coronary bypass, aortic repair and continue with the mitral valve repair. Ready the heart-lung machine, lower the body temperature to eighteen degrees and put him under, please. We’ll start with the bypass on the right coronary artery and remove the blockages.”“Are you sure, Kotetsu?” demanded Iemura across the operating table.“The Captain would tell us to use any means possible to save a life,” was the soft rejoinder as Isane held out a hand. “Electric scalpel. We’re going to start with the separation of the left anterior descending artery and find those clots.”“This is bad. It doesn’t look like normal calcification,” muttered the officers of her surgical team as they looked into the chest cavity once the heart was exposed.“It could be linked to something in the reiatsu flow in the blood,” Isane speculated, tracing the hardened artery with a gloved finger while summoning threads of environmental reishi in her free hand, imbuing it with her reiatsu and drawing a woven net over the heart to coax out the patient’s reiatsu over the organ. Holding the spiritual pressure gathered in reserve, she went on: “Metzenbaum scissors, please. 6-0 on standby. We’ll use that for the separation of the artery.”These two implements were applied, the artery opened and some of the hardened clots were removed into a waiting kidney tray, her Fourth Seat watched her channel the Kaido weave into the open artery and gasped in disbelief, “This calcification is metallic.”“Iron or silver, I think,” Isane hummed in a detached fashion, listening to the piano music in the background and breathing slowly behind her mask. “Mosquito forceps, please. 1.5 shunt tube on standby. Iemura-san, take over the Kaido and impose the same amount of your reiatsu into the weave that I’ve drawn out from the patient. Use it to maintain the artery’s integrity and keep his reiatsu pulse steady. I’ll need both hands to suture and anastomose this section of the left anterior descending artery. 7-0 on standby, please.”“You’d tear the tissue!” retorted Iemura, though he did as he was told.“The patient’s arteries are in a delicate state, let’s not force things for him,” intoned the de facto head of the Fourth gently. Further tense work on the separation of the artery, the removal of more hardened metallic chunks and suturing followed. “What happened to you that your vascular walls are this fragile? Was your life essence stripped from you? You were terribly used and abused, poor thing,” she murmured with a frown at the patient as there was a blood spray and she calmly applied gauze while gesturing for the suctioning of the pooling blood in the cavity. “Well, since we can’t remove the clots sticking to his arteries, let’s remove the entirety of the metallic calcified branch. Bulldog clamps, please. We have to stop the bleeding to see what we’re doing. More suction.” After the clamps were applied and she had a clearer view of the interior of the left side of the heart, her brow creased. “Oh, it’s badly clogged. We’ll have to do something else then. Beaver forceps, please.”“What are you going to do? You’ll kill him if you remove that much of the artery,” Iemura shot back, earning himself from a sigh of reproof as Isane adjusted his hands to keep the Kaido channelling steady.“Please don’t look at me. Focus on the patient’s heart. We won’t kill him if we incise and remove the part calcified with the metallic clots and reconstruct it with a long onlay patch as a graft that we keep in place with sutures. His compromised artery wall will be thicker and reinforced. He should be fine after we redirect the blood and reiatsu from his heart through it after we’ve anastomosed the patch,” she smiled, after giving a reproving shake of the head to the Third Seated officer. Picking up the forceps and suturing thread, she directed for water to be squirted into the cavity to clear the blood and pointed at the other members of her surgical team. “We’ll need the internal thoracic artery for the long onlay patch. You, please do that. Hanataro, apply cell regeneration Kaido over that area once that section is removed. Let’s continue before there’s another blood spray and he dies from excessive bleeding. The poor thing has lost enough blood from whatever he’s gone through before we brought him home. We only have two hours to save him. Micro-scissors on standby, please. Once I start suturing with the 8-0, have the carbon dioxide blower lowered to 1 litre per minute. Iemura-san, focus an alternate Kaido weave on the pulmonary artery. Follow the same pattern as the one in your right hand and don’t remove the Kaido channelling from that section.”The relevant section of the vein for the onlay patch was handed over as soon as Isane had cut away the thoroughly blocked artery. The rest in the operating theatre, though tasked with their own responsibilities held their collective breaths as the woman at their head continued to deftly work on graft bypass, quietly calling for instruments and giving instructions at regular intervals. Every person present let out audible exhalations when the clamps were removed and there was no bleeding. However, they had reason to tense again when she proceeded to do the same to the right coronary artery. No hiccups from the first attempt at removing the blockages of the left anterior descending artery marred the work on right coronary artery where the long onlay patch yielded only a trickle of blood post-suturing before the heart began beating slowly.After a few deep breaths in time to the piano music she had playing on loop in the background, she touched the heart with closed eyes and imbued it with part of her reiatsu to guide circulation and direct the patient’s reiatsu to where the organ was feeling stressed. This resulted in a wince from her when it came to the aorta where she felt an unpleasant gushing of the patient’s reiatsu, and a bite of the lower lip when she came to the mitral valve that had been damaged in whatever had been done to him to strip him of his vitality and powers. She made shushing sounds under her mask as though to calm the angry gurgle of the heart as it strove to beat normally, murmuring, “It’s all right. We’ve removed all the visible metallic clots around your heart arteries. You’re doing well. So long as you hang on, we’ll see to that valve for you and ensure there’s nothing else impeding blood flow.”“Don’t your waste your time, Kotetsu! Are you intending to kill him? You were lucky that the risks you took didn’t kill him. The Captain wouldn’t have done any of that! What about the patient’s mitral valve incompetence and aortic lesions? Have you forgotten those are problems as well? Saturation is decreasing and blood pressure is dropping,” rebuked Iemura, interrupting her and earning the ire of the lead surgical nurse and the other officers of the surgical team who had had their opinions that he was rigidly sanctimonious confirmed.Isane sighed deeply and levelled a look of searing disappointment at him as she worked Kaido over the patient’s lungs to ease breathing and quietly returned, “Always assume the patient can hear you, Iemura-san. We must respect the patient even as we respect their life. The Captain would not hesitate to save any life that could be saved, and well… It’s a jejune assumption to think that the Captain and I kept secrets from each other. She knew about my er… unorthodox methods for decades before she left us.” When Iemura averted his gaze sheepishly, she sighed and addressed everyone else present while redirecting a complicated constellation-esque Kaido weave over the left side of the patient’s heart to slow its movement: “Shall we start before the patient gets a myocardial infarction? Hook him up to one pack of red blood cells, please. The poor thing needs it. Turn on the heart-lung machine and stop his circulation. We’re going to repair the aortic dissection first. Hanataro, take over my Kaido, follow the pattern and overlay yours on top of mine. Pour in it in at a trickle until his reiatsu is strong enough to pull it into his right ventricle. Metzenbaum scissors, please. And prosthetic vessels on standby.”When she could see what was wrong with the aorta and the tear that that had been made by a metallic shard resembling a pointed ball bearing, she furrowed her brow and removed it. “Something was done to him to cause his blood to form these metallic clots to block the arteries of his heart. Let’s set things to rights for him.” She paused and held out a hand after a last reassuring pat to the heart. “Nitric oxide, please, I’m going to check for additional metallic fragments. Aoga-san, maintain suction in the cavity.”Several more misshapen fragments of shiny metal were extracted from the torn aorta and tapped into a kidney tray with the pieces of the left anterior descending artery and the right coronary artery that had been calcified with the silvery substance. When the scans on the monitor revealed no metallic traces left, she continued quietly, “I’m going to suture the tear. 3-0, please. Iemura-san, follow me with the thread.”As instructions swiftly thrown out, Isane began suturing with her customary neatness and rapidity until she asked for the prosthetic blood vessel, gauze to soak up the blood and more suction to clear her path for that which she intended to apply to the ruptured aorta. It took no time for the personnel working in concert in the operating theatre to heed her gentle admonitions until she had placed the prosthetic valve in the aorta. “Let’s see if his unidirectional blood flow is restored. Remove the clamps, please,” bade the head of the Fourth in all but name as the clamp forceps was released and she stared hard at the heart. “Blood pressure?”“Stable, madam.”“Thank you. Please keep an eye on it.” Retaining a glowing green hand over the heart, Isane submersed a combination of external reishi and her reiatsu into the Kaido she had focused on her fingertips and massaged it into the organ until it began beating. She waited for a few minutes to ascertain that there would be no ventricular fibrillation before patting it and manually working the Kaido into the aorta to get a feel of the patient’s reiatsu pulse tugging at the chunk of hers that she had infused into the Kaido to circulate in the blood and initiate cellular repair. “You must have unfinished business if you’re hanging on tenaciously. You’re doing very well. Please hang on, we have one section left to operate,” she soothingly told the owner of the heart before flitting her gaze above the chest cavity to her staff. “We’re going in with beating-heart mitral Kaido surgery. Prepare arterial and venous lines, please. Let’s repair his mitral valve.”“Yes, ma’am,” echoed everyone present.“Nurse, switch out Chopin’s Preludes Opus 28 for Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit. Let’s go with something more beautiful to remind us that we need to focus and centre ourselves in difficult times. Scalpel, please,” she went on, nodding at them. Following the incision and a cursory look at the valve in situ and on the screen above the operating table, she breathed in time with the piano solo playing, “Oh, yes, I see the problem. One of those metal shards forming in the heart tore through this part. Cooley mitral valve retractor, please. We need to keep this in position.” Immediately after this was done, she called for the suture ring and channelled Kaido with a fair amount of her reiatsu into her left hand and focused it on the heavily damaged mitral valves.“You can’t do this single-handed,” sputtered Iemura loudly, watching his superior officer tuck the suture ring into place with the forceps using one hand and channelling Kaido to keep the blood flow rerouted through her other.“We don’t have a choice. The patient’s blood vessels are fragile and we need to work as gently as possible,” Isane replied quietly, putting down the forceps on a tray and holding out her hand. “2-0, please, I’m going to suture the mitral annulus. Hanataro, you have a gentler touch. Follow the thread and move it for me as I go in, please.” When it was done, she called for another suture ring. “Hanataro, keep up with me. 4-0, please, we’ll need to anchor it. Arterial and venous lines at the ready, please.”After another fraught few minutes after she finished suturing and surveyed her work. Not long after, the surgical nurses confirmed that the heart rate and blood pressure were normal.“Well done, everyone. Let’s close him up,” she smiled, continuing to channel with one hand as she beckoned for her officers. “Iemura-san, suction. Nurse, I’ll need the tweezers. Hanataro, prepare the gauze, please.”No sooner when all was done, she stepped back and waited a few minutes as she consulted the monitor with the running figures of the patient’s vitals. The moment she was assured all was stable, she lifted the loupes from her protective glasses, stripped off her gloves and bowed at her team. “Thank you for your hard work, everyone. Please send someone to fetch me in an hour to check on the patient. Hanataro, start him on standard trauma-reducing post-operative Kaido as well as reiatsu and cellular recovery post-operative Kaido. Please tell Matron to put him in a private room in the critical care ward.”Despite saving the mysterious Quincy’s life and the lack of complications in the aftermath of the surgery, Isane spent the next two days sequestered in her quarters after suffering a stress-related breakdown in her office when she was beleaguered on all sides by her officers demanding to know what to do. It was an understandable state for her to be, considering she had been working nigh continuously since the start of the war and was shouldering the burden of running the Division alone, overseeing the care of the high influx of patients, worrying over the shortage of medical supplies, and making what was left of their food last for officers, nurses and patients. That did not mean she did not follow up on the patient at the Fourth, however. In spite of spending most of her time sobbing in bed and mourning for her departed captain, she had requested the matron of the hospital wing keep her abreast of how everyone was doing. When the Captain-Commander paid a social call to schedule the obligatory captain’s examination for the promotion she did not want and debrief her with the details on the ins-and-outs of the late conflict, the skill set of the incapacitated god-king as well as the intelligence gathered on the unknown gentleman they had picked up from the Royal Realm, things finally began to make some sense to Isane. If the information gleaned by Kyoraku’s men vis-à-vis the strange Quincy was correct and the personage was indeed the Grandmaster of the Wandenreich, then it more than explained his tenacity in staying alive even after his life force and powers had been drained. His immense spiritual power certainly accounted for the lingering dregs of reiatsu still in him even though he was barely breathing when the Kotetsu sisters found him.“It is my lot in life to have beautiful women take me to task. Your delicacy in doing so in a tête-à-tête behind closed doors instead of a captains’ meeting touches my jaded heart immensely,” the Captain-Commander chortled at Isane’s flustered expression after she had softly but resolutely lambasted him for the sacrifices of her captain and her sister’s, the devastation to the world around them, and the pyrrhic victory his leadership had brought about. “Nanao-chan will arrange for some corpses for your captain’s examination the day after tomorrow. Now, about your guest that you insist on having, any sign of him regaining consciousness yet, Isane-chan? There are several questions I would like to put to him.”There was a shake of the head and a placidly uttered: “He hasn’t come to. I don’t expect him to until his baseline reiatsu levels have recovered and his body has healed a little more from the wartime and surgical trauma he sustained. We’re still administering courses of various post-operative Kaido on him, and he’s responding well, if slowly. If you can spare Nanao to come later today and reinforce my barriers to his room, sir, I would appreciate that.”This was arranged in accordance to both Isane and Kyoraku’s wishes as a precaution, though the chief healer believed her patient would not be in any fit state to break free until he was both conscious and had regained three-quarters of his strength. It transpired that her prognostication was right. The patient remained unconscious for the better part of a fortnight following his surgery, and life went on for others at the Fourth – the lady who had kept their numbers intact during the war and organised their makeshift field hospital was promoted following a scaled down examination and interview, said female’s sister was transferred to the Division as her lieutenant, debriefing sessions alternated with rounds of back-to-back Kaido surgery and follow-ups with patients, and periodic checks were made to ensure the parties in the intensive care unit and critical care ward were stable. Not one to exempt herself from the night duty in the wards when they were presently under-staffed in the immediate post-war period, Isane spent such scheduled shifts monitoring those whom she had personally operated on and had yet to wake. For those whose charts revealed a propensity to taking unexpected turns for the worse, she made a point to spend the night in a chair by their bed to be ready to cast diagnostic Kaido and perform immediate emergency aid.On one such night almost fourteen days to the date the Shinigami captains and lieutenants had returned from the Royal Realm, Isane had dozed off while stretched out in a cramped chair in the private critical care room housing the grievously wounded Quincy Grandmaster. It was then that the bleary eyes of the man lying supine in bed peeled open. Already disorientated from finding himself on a comfortable surface, hooked up to a drip and breathing apparatus, and in a strangely cool room that reeked of something far too clean and sterile, he grew more confused and mistrustful when he felt a hand loosely clutching his. Was that to comfort him or prevent him from leaving? Having no desire to find out, he tried to move and thus make a hasty exit but found himself racked by excruciating pain with each tiny movement. It was then that he recalled all that had been enacted – the Auswählen which befell him in the midst of his protracted battle with Uryu Ishida and his exhortation to that same young man to transfer all the wounds he had sustained onto him because he was dying. As far as the Grandmaster knew, he had indeed been on the brink of expiring when he collapsed from the Auswählen. Since that had been the case, why was he in a hospital room with a definite Shinigami spiritual pressure nearby? That led him to the only logical conclusion he could draw at the present – he was under some form of house arrest.In the dim light filtering in from the crack underneath the door, he saw that the curtains were drawn and there was a tall individual with legs extended fully in front of the seat they occupied. The head of this individual had lolled forward and the hand that was holding his was attached to this person. The rhythmic slow rising and falling of the chest demonstrated this person was alive. Closer inspection yielded the information that the person was a female. One who was in full mourning, if the full black of the kimono and obi were anything to go by, and going by the white haori sleeve, this was a Shinigami captain. Analytically turning over all the known facts and data gathered in the past millennium, he ruled out several candidates and concluded this was probably one of the newly promoted captains. Judging from his current state, he determined someone had intervened to save his life. The overwhelming scent of antiseptic from the hand over his and the hint of something vaguely fresh and floral from somewhere near his bed as well as the proliferation of medical equipment near him attested to the fact that he was currently held in the Fourth Division. He would be instantly wary if the reiatsu he sensed from the woman in the room had an undercurrent of menace, but he felt only weariness and fretfulness from her well-modulated reiatsu. It was the right Division but the wrong captain. If there was a new captain, then the old one must be dead because Retsu Unohana had neither retired nor slowed down in the past thousand years. Unable to fathom how the former incumbent to the captaincy of the Fourth had passed away when no Sternritter had received a direct order to engage with the first Kenpachi turned chief healer of the Gotei, he directed a slight narrowing of the eyes at the slumbering female. She did not look to be armed and was either naïve or stupid if she let her guard down to sleep in the same room as someone who was the sworn enemy of her kind. However, he was contradictorily wary. His spies had conducted a millennium of reconnaissance on the Gotei when the Quincies had retreated into the shadows of the Seireitei after the first ill-fated war. As a consequence, he knew Unohana had handpicked her lieutenants both at the Eleventh and the Fourth. Seen in that light, this woman who succeeded Unohana to head the Fourth was probably not the simpleton she seemed.That he was somewhere in the bowels of the Fourth Division could mean all had been lost as he had the misfortune to glimpse in one of the visions he had seen when he swapped powers with His Majesty Yhwach. Had the defeat gone as foreshadowed? How long had he been unconscious? Whose idea was it to resuscitate him and transport him back to the Seireitei? There would be time enough for him to find out later, he decided. He had to first assess his own condition, which was admittedly bad if the pain coursing through him was any indication; then pump the new captain of the Fourth for information, and contrive some means of escape. From the messily tousled hair and thin plaits to the side of the head, there was no doubt Isane Kotetsu had come into the captaincy. She had been mildest mannered of all the lieutenants he had observed for the past millennia and was an aberration among Shinigami for her gentleness. However, he was unable to forget that she had trained under Unohana and that bloodthirsty woman had chosen this female to succeed her as chief medical officer for a reason. Calling to mind the data his agents had gathered on the current crop of notables in the Gotei, he ran through all he knew about Isane, mentally ticking off the titbits that were most certainly true.From his bed, he could feel a reiatsu that though suppressed was commensurate with a lower mid-tier captain. Due to the subtle changes in her reiatsu pulse in the past twenty years or so, it was a possibility she had achieved Bankai but no one had verified this. He made a guess that it was likely something she had managed in the recent decade at most. As far as he knew, her zanpakuto’s abilities were supposedly ice-based but less about freezing and snow, and considerably more ephemeral like clouds. The details he could recall referenced the usage of water vapour to cauterise wounds by freezing and the filtering out of impurities, though she had deliberately allowed the environmental impurities to enter an opponent’s wound on a few occasions and slowed their movements with humidity on clothing. If that was a gauge as to her Bankai, he had an idea of how it might work to inflict pain and cellular damage. She had the unconscious habit of digging in any blade she wielded outside of a surgical context; liked pottering around plants; grew beautiful poisonous plants in pots outside her quarters; visited the Library adjoining the Academy regularly for medical journals, mysteries, poetry and romance novels; oversaw the day-to-day running of the Fourth; was family orientated; sent monthly living expenses to her mother; scrupulous about checking stitches on clothes; projected an image of harmlessness and self-effacement yet dedicated to the care of patients; wept when listening to moving music and operas in her quarters; utilised more than Kaido in healing; played with plant poisons as medicines; known to sit on patients who escaped and fond of immobilising them with Kido and acupuncture; and willing to enter the male toilets to strip patients naked and drag them back to the Division for medical treatment. No match for him when he was at full strength and had all his faculties in peak condition, but still not one to be trifled with since no place was sacred to her, he concluded.The knowledge that he had the advantage over her in various facets and in terms of information was scant consolation when he was unable to move with his customary grace and silence. Being riddled with pain when one was saved despite being supposed to die slowly and painfully from blood loss and the sensation of ever-increasing heart seizures did that to one, he reflected dryly. If Kyoraku had ordered him to be brought back and given medical assistance, an inquisition was likely in store for him. If Isane had brought him back to the Seireitei, she must have her own inscrutable reasons, for it was possible Unohana had told her all manner of things about the Quincies from the Gotei-Lichtreich War of a thousand years ago. Both scenarios did not bode well for him in his assessment. The Grandmaster shut his eyes again and tried to get a feel of what he could detect from the reishi from the room. His upper lip bent back at both the snuffling noises made by his gaoler-healer in her sleep as her fingers curled over his hand, and at the barriers pushing back at him when he probed the reishi. There were at least three barriers – a healing energy one within the room toggled to the new captain’s reiatsu which prevented anyone but herself from entering without her permission, one outside the door that impeded base-level Quincy reiatsu from leaving or entering and had basic defensive capabilities with a soupçon of the captain’s reiatsu again, and another layer imposed over that which the Grandmaster recognised from the vibration of the weave and the reiatsu signature as Nanao Ise’s work. They had taken precautions to keep him in, it would seem. Not cunning by any means but reasonably effective given his current state.With some effort, he pulled his hand from underneath his presumed captor’s. It had been his intention to turn away from her and consider his options, but his motion had started her awake to turn on the lights by his bed and rise to her feet.“Please don’t fidget too much or the pain might affect your breathing. You’re still recovering, so please take it easy. Are you feeling a little better, Herr Haschwalth? You’ve been sleeping fitfully ever since the anaesthesia wore off. Whatever nightmares you might have of the war, that’s over now and you’re safe here. I won’t let anyone harm you under my roof,” she soothed with a tight smile, going to the foot of the bed and scribbling something on his medical chart.As the notion of anyone other than His Majesty doing him harm was ridiculous, he scoffed, “No one can touch me unless I will it.”“Normally, that would be true. It is common sense to run from a man with too large a broadsword, no? But you see, we had to operate on you, bandage you, turn you over, sponge you down and re-bandage you. So we did touch you. Please don’t worry. We’re professional with our patients, and our nurses only admire the handsome and well-built ones from afar after discharge. They’re too afraid of you to gawk at you, so you’re safe. I’m a little scared as well, to be honest.” She lifted her eyes from the chart and checked the drip as well as the screens displaying the running figures for his vitals. “Please try to take things easy. We’re really not going to do anything untoward to you. Perhaps acupuncture when you’re better to improve your reiatsu circulation, but not right now when your body is still recovering. While Captain Kyoraku will want to talk to you in a day or two when sitting up is less strenuous for you, he has assured me it will be just between you two and there will be no violence. We’ve had enough of that, I think.” She paused to sigh and shake her head dolefully on the loss of lives both sides had incurred when she observed him struggling to push himself up. “You’re not strong enough yet. The Captain-Commander and Nanao told me all about you, Herr Haschwalth, so please try not to flee when you’re still healing. Oh, or do you prefer Sir Jugram? I don’t know what the convention is for your people.”“Since when do Shinigami savages care about what became of my kind? And what makes you think I will tell you anything?” he shot back, regarding her with froideur as she helped him to some water.Her face fell and she sank back into the chair by the bed where she hung her head and flushed to her ears. “We must seem that way to you after everything you experienced in the original war, but your side was no different in this recent war. Would it help if I used another language? You don’t have to reveal anything about your role as the aide-de-camp to your king. I just need to make sure you’re all right. You were in a bad way when we found you and you remained unconscious for a fortnight after you came out of Kaido surgery,” she ventured, cocking her head sheepishly at him as she switched to very hesitant Latin with incorrect conjugation. “What language would make you more comfortable?” She paused when he hooded his eyes at her, and she bit her lower lip before trying again awkwardly in English. “I’m sorry. I would try old Chinese, but I don’t suppose you know it. Latin and English are about my limit, so…”“Your pronunciation of both is criminal.” Jugram scowled at her and endeavoured to look down at her despite his recumbent position.“Well, I learnt them by reading ancient medical texts and medical journals from the human world that we have in our Library. They’re very different from ancient Chinese medical tomes.” She coloured rapidly and lowered her eyes. “Speaking is more difficult when I only know medical terms and I’ve never tried extended conversation before. The Captain Professor who manages the administration of the Academy and the Library speaks dated forms of several languages from the Occident in the living world. She teaches those of us who want to learn how to read them though.”“That sickly academic can’t go a month without a seizure or an angina attack, though the tales she concocts in her Bankai are formidable. Spending half her time being ill, of course, she can’t impart any of the rudiments of those languages adequately,” he snorted derisively.“Oh, so you really know all about us, who we are and what we can do. Well, it would behove you to know everything you can about an enemy’s abilities and tastes, and then use what you know to psychologically taunt them and all that. No wonder we felt cornered and pressured.” Isane contemplated him curiously. “What happened at the end that you were abandoned and left for dead? From the Captain-Commander and Nanao’s accounts, I thought you were indispensible to your king and shared his confidence.”“No one is indispensable to His Majesty,” was his dispassionate reply as he studiously averted his gaze. “When Auswählen is initiated, His Majesty takes into himself the lives and powers of Quincies he deems expendable. He can either redistribute it to those he perceives as worthy or use it for himself when he needs the extra might for his powers vis-à-vis an enemy who won’t stay down.”“Oh, that was why those bright beams of light were accompanied by so much screaming and the reiatsu of everyone affected were thrumming with pain. Such terrible pain and anguish…” Leaving off with a cracked watery cadence and visible distress, she shuddered involuntarily and ducked her head. Discreetly wiping her eyes with a knuckle as she recalled what she had witnessed and felt during the second invasion of the late war following the transplantation of the Quincy city over the Seireitei, she reached out and covered his fingers with a sympathetically squeeze. “I’m so sorry. That is no way for a father to treat his children or anyone who put their whole trust in him.”“I don’t need pity from a Shinigami.” Wrenching his hand free, he harrumphed scornfully though he inwardly pondered as to how there was such a thing as a genuinely kind Shinigami and how such a soft-hearted creature like the current head of the Fourth managed to survive this long in a military organisation without being killed or growing cynical. “Shouldn’t you have finished me when you had the chance? It would have been the logical thing to do when an enemy was down and unable to fight back. Your captain would have done it.”“If the Captain was still with us, she would. But she’s the type who would… How can I put it? Well, outright Armageddon was her thing when she unsheathed her blade in earnest.”“Not yours?” He lifted a brow in interest.“Oh, no.” Isane shook her head vehemently. “I don’t like unnecessary killing. The Professor’s ethics course at the Academy taught that violence usually begets more violence and I believe it. The enmity between our peoples proves that, no? Besides, killing is like healing and medicine. The healing arts are about striking a balance between that which is salubrious and harmful—much like poisons and healthful substances can either kill or heal depending on the amount—so deciding how and who to kill should be an act of mercy undertaken after great thought and only when there is no other choice.”“Not sound judgement in the middle of a war when it is either kill or be killed,” Jugram countered, almost half certain that his agents had been right to disparage her as meek, soft and impractical.“But the war was over when we found you and there was nothing left when your god-king was defeated. Since you’ve suffered enough, saving you and giving you an opportunity to lead your own life free from the shadow of your king was an act of mercy. Well, at least, I think so.”“I find it difficult to believe you didn’t kill during the war.”“Oh, I did.”“My kind?”There was a rueful shake of the head as she pinked and lowered her voice as though abashed. “None of yours. Some of ours were beyond saving and it would be a kindness to them when they were delirious and nothing could be done for them.”“You’re telling me you didn’t use your Bankai during the war?” He eyed her with scepticism.She blinked and fixed a wide-eyed look on horror on him. “You know about that too? Until the captains’ examination recently, only Captain Unohana knew.”“We don’t have any data on yours, but it was suspected from changes to your reiatsu pulse over the years that you were capable of it,” he explained, seeing no point in hiding the truth. “What does yours do when your late captain’s causes Armageddon for its victim as you call it?”“It’s merciful, thankfully, and brings things to a clean end, though getting there can be a little… unpleasant,” was her incurably honest yet vague answer. “But health and illness are two sides of the same coin, no? The oxygen we breathe from the air around us… Well, that has dust and grime. Clouds aren’t nice balls of cotton wool because they’re full of impurities too, ice can burn, and snow crystals have pointed edges under the microscope though snow looks soft and delicate. It’s all a reminder of ‘media vita in morte sumus’.”“In the midst of life we are in death,” Jugram translated, his gaze never wavering from her even as she made him comfortable with additional pillows and another blanket from a cupboard. While he was still of the mind she was diffident and far too good-natured to be true, he had to revise his opinion as to her docility. This was no meek female if she introspected as much as he discerned she had. “An unusual premise for a Bankai, though I do not see how you failed to use it on my kind. Don’t you have patients to protect?”“Hiding from the Quincies, operating a field hospital, carrying out Kaido surgery with limited medical supplies and treating patients with post-operative Kaido took precedence, actually,” she laughed nervously, clasping her hands in her lap when she resumed her seat. “We’ll say that it was used as a last resort against those of our number who were dead but cruelly made to er… molest our injured.”“Your captain wouldn’t have approved of you using it against reanimated corpses,” he opined, attention momentarily distracted by the vase of wildflowers on the bedside table. It would appear the new captain was understatedly imposing stamps of her personality over the Fourth already.A crestfallen look fell over her features. “I’m not my Captain and not at all hard-headed, unfortunately.”“What happened to her?”“Captain Kyoraku judged it best that she sacrifice herself in a duel to the death with Captain Zaraki to unlock the latter’s full potential,” replied Isane in a quiet, despondent voice.There was a haughty and deliberate huff from Jugram. “Her death is a godsend. She would have given us a great deal of trouble otherwise.”Isane smiled wanly despite visibly flinching. “You mean she would not have allowed you to live? Or do you mean she would have been more effective at preventing your escape even if Captain Kyoraku hadn't endorsed the plan to bring you back with us? I’m sorry, Herr Haschwalth, but you’re going to be disappointed. You are to be released once you have been nursed back to health and when the Captain-Commander ascertains you’re not a threat to us. I think you deserve to live for yourself for a change.”“You’re a fool,” he harrumphed, turning an impassive gaze on her. “How did you save me from Auswählen? The Still Silver blood clots in the heart should have killed me.”“Oh, thank you for sharing what those are,” she exclaimed gratefully, unlocking a drawer on his bedside table and removing a matchbox from within. “I was going to send them to the Shinigami Research and Development Institute for tests when they had more of their facilities online.” The box was duly held out to him. “We excised them from the arteries of your heart.”Examining the contents of the box and the pieces of desiccated organic matter stuck to the small, uneven silvery chunks, he managed to keep the fascination with the lumps out of his inflexion as he enquired, “What did you think these were?”“Iron from the blood that had solidified when your life force and powers were sucked from you,” was the no-nonsense response. Following this up with a tilt of her head, she leaned forward in her seat. “Why silver though? And why was the damage centred on the left side of the heart?”“Silver is a metal that is symbolic of domination, and I thought it obvious that the left side is the sinister side,” he disclosed blandly, returning the matchbox to her and watching her lock it away once more. “How did you undo the effects of Auswählen? How did you succeed? Anyone struck directly by the light of Auswählen is supposed to die from the Still Silver clots in their hearts.”“A combination of surgical take down and Kaido,” came Isane’s simple answer, omitting the fact that his arteries and blood vessels were rendered fragile by the forcible robbing of his life and abilities. “There can be no niceties in the operating theatre when one is working out how best to channel the Kaido, how much reishi to concentrate where, how much reiatsu can be restored to the affected area or the patient before their body takes over the process, and how much time we have before the patient bleeds out. Neither can one hesitate or stop. The moment one decides on what has to be done, one must press forward with it and not allow fear to get in the way. It’s about repairing what needs repairing and patching what needs patching despite the condition of the patient, like… castling after the Muzio gambit because it’s about having the nerve to do it in spite of the risks. How can I put it? Saving a life under those conditions is never a ‘do or die’ scenario. ‘Do’ is the only thing to be done. And once done, it must be seen through to the end.”He was immediately ruminative as he half lidded his eyes. “There is nothing in the data about you that says you play chess.”“I don’t,” she demurred, fidgeting in discomfiture and shaking her head firmly. “I’ve just read books about openings and endgames to better understand why things have to be the way they are. They’ve helped me understand why Captain Kyoraku gave that final order to the Captain, why she acquiesced to it, and why your people saw the need to do what they did in the war to us. Just because one disagrees doesn’t mean one can’t make the effort to understand, no?”“Your weltanschauung is atypical for the Shinigami, gnädige Frau,” intoned Jugram pensively, meeting her twinkling eyes with an apathetic gaze. “My sword should have been found with me. Where is it?”“Somewhere in my office,” she replied with a smile. “It will be returned to you when it is judged you are ready to leave.”“Who will decide? My attending physician?” He fixed a meaningful look on her.Crimson suffused her features. “We’ll take things one day at a time and see how your reiatsu recovers first. For now though, you need to rest. I’ll bring some books from the Library for you tomorrow. Schiller, Goethe, Hesse or Nietzsche?”“I wouldn’t trust a Shinigami’s taste,” sniffed he with hauteur, turning his back to her with much heaving of his aching body.“You can sneer at my taste tomorrow. Good night, Herr Haschwalth.”The next day saw Jugram being interrogated by the Captain-Commander of the Gotei as he had anticipated. As much as he resented being rescued by the hated enemy and held under that which was tantamount to a form of house arrest, he had to admit he was treated with affable respect by Kyoraku and hospitality by the head of the Fourth. While the Captain-Commander came almost daily to question him after that, Isane did not seek to probe what had been asked of him and was the consummate medical professional. When he asked why she did not seek to know, she serenely pointed out that he had things he found uncomfortable to talk about and she did not want to pry, and that Kyoraku kept plenty of things from the Gotei anyway. She professed the view that if she was to know, she would be told in time. In the present, all her energies were centred on bringing the Fourth into order and modernising it according to her five-year plans. To her credit, she did seem to be primarily concerned with her patients. In regard to him, she strove to make him comfortable, ensure that he recovered and made his current living arrangements cosy. In the past millennia, he could not recall any reports of Unohana allowing flowers in all the wards and easily digestible treats for patients who behaved. Such things had been restricted to Isane’s patients and the wards under her direct charge for the duration of her predecessor’s captaincy. Nor had he expected to be entertained when she and her sister were the only two senior ranking officers in the Fourth tending to him. The younger Kotetsu had no compunctions denigrating him to his face during check-ups and physiotherapy sessions. The elder tried to keep his mind occupied with conversation during treatment sessions and she read to him when she checked in to ascertain he was not too bored, allowing him to correct her pronunciation when it came to works hailing from beyond the Orient. When he had regained some of his strength a few months later, she permitted him to walk around the grounds of the Division under escort, help in her personal garden outside her quarters, and even loaned him some of her chess books. Infuriatingly, she refused to let him teach her on the grounds that she would turn out to be a shockingly poor player as she had no talent for strategy.If not for the fact that he was under surveillance in accordance with Kyoraku’s orders, his current time at the Fourth could be viewed as a holiday. Regardless as to how kindly he was treated in her domain and was regarded with a modicum of fearful courtesy by her nurses and officers, he was conscious of feeling out of place. He could plot to escape, and there were at least a dozen ways he could leave without exciting too much attention and with minimal injury to her staff, but he was loath to do so without his sword and the memento from his first friend that he had impressed upon it. Sentimentality was an annoying inconvenience, and a part of him blamed Isane for it rearing its head within him. It did not help that he was reminded of his first friend, his only true friend if he was to be honest – the Shinigami chief medical officer was kind to him because she thought he needed it and not because she wanted anything from him, and she seemed to want to find common ground with him so as to improve the way in which they got along. It was irritating and unwanted, which was very much in the mode of his late friend, albeit much gentler and executed in a shyer fashion. If he had been more objective and more himself, he would have ransacked her office for his sword and left. However, doing so without leaving word when he knew she would worry was unconscionable. He snorted reproachfully at himself with a certain measure of self-disgust. This was why he did his best to be detached and ambivalent.By the time it was winter and several more months had passed, he had felt much better and more like himself again. Minor aggravations, such as his attending physician insisting that he undergo massage therapy for his back, endure acupuncture for fuller reiatsu recovery, and application of scar-reduction creams she had the pharmaceutical department create, he accepted with stony-faced insouciance. These, he determined, were part of her quirks like her habit of talking to her poisonous plants that she used for medicines and enquiring after his day. However, the bitingly cold weather also reminded him of Silbern and provided him with the impetus to get going before he got too comfortable. It was with this intention of broaching the subject of his departure that he strode to the office she shared with her sister.Contrary to expectations that the lady would be flustered—given the line of lower seated officers muttering ‘yes, captain’ and ‘right away, captain’ as they shuffled out of the office with clipboards, medical charts, bowls of flowers and sheets of instructions—Isane was in a state of relative calm. Her penchant for nestling poisonous plant specimens amidst innocuous blooms in her floral displays led those familiar with her to not bat an eyelid at the sight of her with surgical gloves on as she arranged the array of leaves and flowers in the vase on her desk.“Is your room too cold, Herr Haschwalth?” she enquired without looking up, snipping off a stem and inserting a half-opened blossom into the side with a cluster of small white flowers. Discreetly probing his spiritual pressure for any discomfort or heightened emotions, she smiled and relaxed her shoulders on feeling nothing more than his habitual nonchalance and a hint of exasperation. “Regardless as to your claims that you’re accustomed to the chill because of a millennium in the freezing depths of the shadows, you had furs and wools then. When Matron comes with her update on the conditions of those transferred to the normal wards, I’ll ask her to find a thick hanten for you. That’s what we call a padded, short winter haori coat. Someone will be reminded to give you a hot water bottle as well.”“That’s not what I wanted to see you about,” he said phlegmatically, struck by how used she had grown to having him around that she perceived no danger in his unexpected presence in her office.“Well, you should still keep warm. It would be a shame if you should get chilblains. They would make holding a sword painful,” she chided, humming in satisfaction at her flowers and disposing of the gloves she had stripped off. “Please tie up your hair and we’ll have some tea to warm us in a minute. Do you want to try a chocolate tea blend together? They were selling it in one of the shops close to the university when I snuck into that medical lecture I was telling you about last week. We have some leftover Turkish delights from the tea ceremony and flower arranging meeting yesterday. They’re the real things, not the travesties coated in chocolate that you were remonstrating with Kiyone over last month.”“Stop playing the gracious lady and listen,” Jugram cut in firmly, watching her turn her back to him and glide towards the pantry within the room.“Please be seated and we’ll discuss this over tea. It’ll be much pleasanter,” replied she placidly.“I said to stop this nonsense and listen,” he repeated lowly, dexterously closing the distance between them and tugging at her arm. This was followed by a rough spin and shove whereupon she was brought back the vicinity of her desk.Caught off guard, she sucked in a sharp intake of breath and reddened furiously when she suddenly found her back against the shelves of the cabinet behind her desk. Her unenviable situation was exacerbated by the fact that she was fenced in and effectively trapped when he slammed his right hand into the wall beside her head. Being approximately of a height with him did not prevent her from jumping at the loud noise, nor did it quell her rising panic. Had she been too trusting? It would appear so, she assessed, worrying her lower lip. It did not take intense cogitation to know she could not reverse their positions, which meant she either had to brazen things out, find an escape route or give him a reason to back down and coax him to tell her what had set him off. She had believed she had taken every precaution of making him feel at home, and he had no reason to be fractious or distraught. Perhaps he was chafing at his captivity, but he was hardly a prisoner and had the freedom to roam the grounds of the Division despite the Kido barrier at the main gate of the Fourth preventing anyone with Quincy reiatsu from leaving unaccompanied. Furthermore, Kyoraku had not given any orders to detain him, which in turn implied he would be discharged from the Fourth once Isane was satisfied that he was well again. She had thought all that was understood. Going by her predicament, it would appear that he was labouring under some misapprehension. Startled though she was, she noted his demeanour while determined and ostensibly threatening lacked any real menace. Mildly comforted by this observation despite her fear that a horrible fate was in store for her, she allowed her right hand to creep along the cabinet door to the wall beside her.Relieved that she had not misgauged her approximate location vis-à-vis the items around her half of the joint captain and lieutenant’s office, she continued feeling around until she came to the umbrella stand. When her fingers were unable to grasp the hilt of her blade, she decided she had to make do with the next best thing by wrapping her fingers around the curved handle of the closed and buttoned umbrella in the stand that was nearest to her. Hoping that what she was about to do would work when she had only ever done this with her zanpakuto and only to escape when cornered before she had unsheathed her weapon, she lifted the umbrella upwards in a trice so that the little glimmer of stainless steel of its shaft flashed in the light and the rounded curve of the handle projected upwards. In any other scenario against an opponent in close quarters with less finely tuned reflexes who did not know what was coming, the umbrella handle standing in for the hilt of her blade should have hit Jugram square on the chin, stunned him and sent him reeling backwards, freeing her from being pinned to the cabinet’s shelves. However, she had miscalculated the trajectory and misjudged her opponent. Not only did the umbrella handle fail to make contact with his chin; it also did not so much as graze his jaw. To her consternation, he had turned his chin aside and jerked his head backwards instinctively that he was able to adroitly follow the movement and catch the umbrella handle with his left hand before it reached him.“You have confirmed my suspicions that your late captain trained you in more than the healing arts. That was a decent try, but still a little too slow,” he observed, the corner of his mouth quivering sardonically as he turned his hand and pointed the tip of the umbrella at her sternum.Without losing her focus on the point directed at her chest, she blindly groped her right hand above the umbrella stand in the vain hope of reaching the tsuka of her zanpakuto. Alas, the hilt of her blade remained shy of her grasp due to the zanpakuto’s diagonally slanted position in the umbrella stand. Pressing her lips together and finally realising the wisdom of her late captain strapping hidden blades to her forearms, Isane quickly ran over what she could do. The former Grandmaster had superior strength, so fighting her way out was not feasible. As he was a chess player and a cunning one at that judging from the comments he made about her chess books, she knew any strategising she could devise would be easily overturned. That left doing the best she could to deflect and parry with what she had on hand before fleeing and calling for help on the soul pager. Even though she was someone who believed that running from danger was a sign of self-preservation rather than cowardice, especially when against an entity who outclassed one, she analytically realised the probability of her plan failing was high. Still, she had to try. If this was wartime, she would have vials of poisonous medicine and scalpels tied to her ankles, thighs and upper arms. However, she had eschewed all that in the post-war period in favour of ambling in the Fourth with her medical chest like a benign anteater. Deprived of anything she could use on her person and with her zanpakuto just out of reach, she ducked under his arm that fenced her in, lunged at her desk and grabbed at the letter opener. Not the most elegant solution, but needs must when one is hard-pressed, she mused to herself, using the letter opener to block the point of the umbrella in a circle. Although it would not disable him, for he had the advantage in height and reach, it would buy her time.To her utter incomprehension, he seemed to be watching her with quick eager eyes even as they narrowed at her as he agilely disengaged the end of the letter opener with the tip of the umbrella. Odder still was the lack of killing intent even as she attempted a feint to counter-disengage in an exterior line. Unfortunately, with his longer reach by dint of the umbrella, he was able to cut-over the blade of the letter opener with a coupé to block her parry and finish with an effortless flick to knock the flimsy blade out of her hand.The brief mutinous flash in her gaze brought forth another speedily tamped down quaver to the corner of his lips as the letter opener fell in a clatter on the desk atop the draft table listing the Division’s expenditures. “You do possess something of your late captain in you after all, even if that was clumsily done,” he remarked critically, backing her into the desk and noting the dismay and hurt in her expression.Pulling herself to her full height, she exhaled slowly, shut her eyes and contradictorily raised her chin in defiance while whispering in a hurried breath, “If you’re going to kill me and make a run for it, do it quickly and cleanly. Use the letter opener or my zanpakuto. They’re sharper. Please also ensure that someone other than my sister finds my body. I don’t want her to see my bloodied corpse.”A flicker of surprise and amusement darted through his eyes before they resumed their customary indifference. “That spirit of maintaining dignity when cornered is definitely something you got from your late captain, though I feel certain she would have goaded me on instead of putting in a pretty request for the manner of her death. That is entirely you, gnädige Frau. No one can accuse you of being insipid and timid if they saw this aspect of you,” he assessed, spinning the umbrella around and returning it to her with the handle facing her. “You may open your eyes.”“Please don’t do that again or I will embarrass you by fainting on you next time. Once against the wall was enough. You didn’t have to do it again here,” she admonished unsteadily when he released her from the pinned position against her desk.“Didn’t you enjoy having your attention seized and being the centre of scrutiny?” he riposted with blatant unconcern.“It’s frightening being trapped by someone aggressively intruding into my personal space. There’s nothing romantic about it, whatever the living world manga that Kiyone reads might say. That was threatening,” Isane reprimanded quietly, patting her chest and scarlet cheek in a self-soothing gesture whilst sauntering to the pantry. “Why did you do it, Herr Haschwalth?”“I want my sword. It’s time I left,” disclosed he plainly.“You could have at least waited till the weather was warmer and we’ve discharged you with a clean bill of health. I would have filed a request to release you in another two months,” was her slightly disappointed reply. Turning her head from the counter where she was bustling with the teapot, she went on, “Do you have somewhere to go?"“I do.”“With facilities to provide follow-up medical care?”There was a stiff inclination of the head from the former Grandmaster. “Yes.”“In the shadows or elsewhere?”“You know I can’t tell you that.”She sighed and ambled past him towards the consultation room that had previously been Unohana’s office. It took her less than a few minutes to return with a sheathed, long-handled cruciform broadsword that she handed over. The tension eased from her wrist when there was no attempt to withdraw the weapon and she forced a smile. “If you wait another hour or two, I’ll ready some warm clothing for you, and have the cookhouse pack you lunch and dinner.”“Hospitable to the end.” Jugram bowed his head curtly in acknowledgement. “Will your Captain-Commander give you grief?”“I’ll tell him that you’ve gone tomorrow, when his eye socket is due for a check-up. Phantom pains, but very normal for the cold weather,” she clarified, lowering her intonation conspiratorially. “He can’t fuss too much when tweezers are hovering near his good eye.”Jugram suppressed the urge to curl his upper lip. “There is more of your late captain in you than you know.”“Oh, no, she walked out from legends whereas I’m very mundane.” After a brief pause, she questioned softly, “Will you come back to visit?”He regarded her cautiously. “Is this an unsubtle way of asking whether we have a reserve force to launch another invasion?”“No.” Isane shook her head slowly and put the kettle on. “It’s just… Well, you didn’t finish explaining Francesco Cavalli’s Requiem when we listened to it. And you’re welcome to visit in a personal capacity, you know. There will always be tea ready for you.”“I might avail myself to your offer, gnädige Frau, after high quality recordings of Cavalli’s other operas are found,” he conceded, imperturbably staring into the distance outside the window.

Disclaimers + Author’s Notes for the entire fic

The title comes from these specific lines of Christopher Marlowe’s Dido, Queen of Carthage, Act 1 scene 1 (original 16th century spelling retained):
“Pluck up your hearts, since fate still rests our friend,
And chaunging heavens may those good daies returne,
Which Pergama did vaunt in all her pride." Difference between Br Eng and Am Eng
There are also a few things I must add. I let 2 people read the chapters in their raw, unedited forms. One is a Br Eng person and one is an Am Eng person. Note that Br Eng means British English, Am Eng means American English, and para means paragraph.Kindly also bear in Br Eng and Am Eng, word use, spelling, phrasing, word definitions, punctuation, etc., may differ. I use Br Eng. Please use a dictionary and/or google search when in doubt. I’m sorry if this sounds rude, condescending, insulting, patronising, offensive, etc., but my Am Eng prelim reader (who is my age and an older person) kept arguing that I was wrong, so I feel I must make things clear lest you are like that too. It will save you and me trouble if I tell you now what to expect so that you won’t jump down my throat and go, “You’re wrong! You don’t know English at all! Why don’t you use spell-check? Are you too lazy to do that? Didn’t anyone in your life ever correct your poor/incorrect English spelling, paragraphing, punctuation, etc.”Let me give you some examples of how Br Eng and Am Eng differ. Please use dictionaries and/or google if, like my Am Eng prelim reader, you don’t believe me.
1) One example of spelling difference is “disorientated/disorientating” (Br Eng) vs “disoriented/disorienting” (Am Eng). See also pyjamas (Br Eng) vs pajamas (Am Eng).
2) One example of different phrases that have the same meaning is “home straight” (Br Eng) vs “home stretch” (Am Eng).
3) One example of a word with different definitions is “fanny”, which is one of the acceptable nicknames for the female name Frances in all Eng variants, but when used with a small “f”, it is a cutesy slang word for buttocks in Am Eng but a very rude word for inner lady parts between the legs in Br Eng. Also, in Br Eng, it is used idiomatically as a phrase (see “fanny about”) to mean you’re wasting your time doing stuff that won’t accomplish anything. To know which meaning is intended in Br Eng, you have to know the definitions, read the line/para to understand context, figure it out after that.
4) One example of word that has completely opposite meanings in Br Eng and Am Eng is “moot”. In Am Eng, “moot” means an issue has little or no practical relevance and therefore should be dismissed. But in Br Eng, “moot” has 2 meanings that have zero to do with the Am Eng definition. Meaning 1 of “moot” in Br Eng means to be discussed, thrashed out and debated. That’s why the Faculties of Law in universities (faculty in academia in Br Eng means “department” and doesn’t mean teaching staff like it does in Am Eng) have law students go through moot court where they do this and verbally “fight” each other as though they are in court. This definition of “moot” in Br Eng is also why parliamentary hansards and minutes of board meetings of big companies in the UK, Commonwealth countries and former British colonies say something like “issue X was mooted”, meaning it was thrashed out, debated and discussed. Meaning 2 of “moot” in Br Eng means something is subject to debate and open to dispute because of uncertainty, used as a synonym for “questionable” and “open to debate” and “arguable”, e.g., “It’s a moot point whether smartphones have improved our lives”. To know which meaning is intended in Br Eng, you have to know the definitions, read the line/para to understand context, figure it out after that.
5) One example of different punctuation is that in Br Eng we don’t put a dot after dr, vs, Mr, SOS and so on, but the dot is used in those cases and more in Am Eng. We also use a lot of semi-commas for run-on sentences that join similar thoughts together.
6) One example of different names for the same item is the dot at the end of the sentence, which is “full stop” in Br Eng but “period” in Am Eng.
7) Words ending in "ise", "ises", "ised", "ising", "isation", "isational", “our”, “ourly”, “iour”, “ioural”, “ourhood” are correct Br Eng spellings. Look in a dictionary if you don't believe me. I have to say this because my Am Eng prelim reader keeps saying these are wrong. Difference between Br Eng and Am Eng Paragraphing Rules
Please also note that para rules differ as well. The Am Eng reader complained that the paras are too long and she cannot "digest" or “understand” the information. She insists that each para can ONLY have 3-5 sentences/lines. The Br Eng person had no such problem and they found the paras clear, concise and organised.Why is there this difference? This is because (generally speaking), Am Eng and Br Eng have different unspoken para rules.In Br Eng, the rule is one idea/thought in 1 para, even if this 1 para runs over 1-2 pages. This is something you can see a lot in academic texts, academic papers and philosophical tracts and British editions of novels, where one para really can be 2+ pages long.
In Am Eng, the rule is the shorter the para, the better, so it should be 3 lines at least but 5 lines at most. European linguistic scholars theorise this is because Americans like bite-sized nuggets of info as they find it easier to digest, but users of Br Eng (including people in Europe, the Commonwealth and former Brit colonies) go with the 1 thought/idea in 1 para idea because they need to see how point A connects to point B.If you have the same book but one is the Am Eng edition and one is the Br Eng edition, you can see the difference in para writing/organising rules. I have copies of Am Eng and Br Eng editions of novels, philosophy books and politics books, and I notice this difference. Here is a picture of a Br Eng book, notice that it proves what I am saying about para rules - https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/sites.udel.edu/dist/b/8050/files/2018/06/wiki_grammar_005.jpgEven in academia, long paras are normal, see https://www.jstor.org/stable/20024561, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26401941 and https://www.jstor.org/stable/1400102, notice that all the paras have more than 3-5 lines/sentences. Do you see anyone complaining that their words are confusing and difficult to understand because these writers don't write 3-5 short sentences per para? Do you see anyone rounding up on them with pitchforks and demanding that they write in paras that are made up of 3-5 short sentences only "or else"? If like my Am Eng prelim reader, you think that "good" paras can only have 3-5 lines, please be more open-minded. Difference between Br Eng and Am Eng Punctuation
In British English, the full stop and comma are placed outside the inverted commas (the older generation of Br Eng speakers do not use the term “quotation marks” which is an Americanism borrowed by the younger generation). However, if the punctuation mark is a part of the quote itself or is part of a conversation, then the inverted comma/quotation mark is placed after the period or comma. In American English, the full stop and comma are always placed inside inverted commas/quotation marks.For why I don't use comma before "after all", which my Am Eng reader says is "wrong", see https://www.pristineword.com/comma-after-all/For why I don't use comma before "too" when it ends a sentence, that's how we do it in Br Eng. In Br Eng, we only use commas with "too" if the word is in the middle of a sentence, e.g. "I, too, am tired". In Br Eng, we don't use a comma when "too" is at the end of the sentence, so "I am tired too" is correct. Adding a comma before "too" when it's the last word in the sentence is an Am Eng thing. See https://prowritingaid.com/grammar/1008090/Do-you-need-a-comma-before-or-after-too-As far as possible, I will try to give explanations and word definitions, but if I don't cover something and you don't understand it or the meaning of any word is different from the Am Eng definition you know, please do your own research, search the internet, use a Br Eng dictionary, etc. Why are there footnotes?
While I don’t think you are unintelligent, I am working on these assumptions:
- What my prelim readers understand, you will too.
- What my prelim readers don’t understand, you won’t too.Therefore, if I explain something that you already know/understand, it’s not because I think you are stupid but because I am working on the two assumptions above. Please be patient. Please be understanding. Notes for this fic
All temperatures are in Celsius in this fic.Japanese names are given in the Western order, with the surname coming after the given name.It is assumed you know the terminology of most of the stuff in Bleach (the manga), e.g., kosode, shihakusho, hakama, haori, Hogyoku, etc. Please look them up if you aren’t familiar with them.It is assumed you know basic Japanese terminology, e.g., genkan, matcha, geta, etc. Please look them up if you aren’t familiar with them.Because my Am Eng prelim reader insisted it should be blonde not blond, let me make it clear:
Blond = used for males
Blonde = used for females
While in the late 20th century, Am Eng (non-academic) uses blond only for all sexes and Br Eng (non-academic) uses blonde only for all sexes, in academic writings of all Eng variants, the old French (Fr) distinction between blond/blonde is still used. It is natural for me to follow the Fr distinction and use blond/blonde as per gender because it's what I do at work. Please be understanding. Please accept this.
For proof, see https://www.dictionary.com/e/blond-vs-blonde/
When/If you see this word/phrase again, please bear this in mind.In British English, there is a difference between inquire/inquiry and enquire/enquiry, meaning you need to know how to use them and when to use them. In American English, only the "i" version is used. Please keep this in mind as you read.
enquire/enquiry = used for asking questions like "where is the toilet" and "how much is that dress" and "how are you"
inquire/inquiry = used for formal investigation and the finding out of information, e.g., a police inquiry into the death of Mr X, or a government inquiry into policy Y working for or against its investment interests, or a detective trying to find out something.
When/If you see this word/phrase again, please bear this in mind.“Defence” will appear as a word in this fic. It is the correct Br Eng spelling.
For “defence” (UK and Commonwealth) vs “defense” (US), see https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/defence
When/If you see this word/phrase again, please bear this in mind.“Disorientate” and “Disorientated” and “Disorientation” will appear in this fic. Those are correct Br Eng spelling.
For “disorientate” (UK and Commonwealth) vs “disorient” (US), see
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/disorientate
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/disorientated
https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/disorientate
When/If you see this word/phrase again, please bear this in mind."Orientate" and "Orientated" and "Orientation" will appear in this fic. Those are correct Br Eng spelling.
For “orientate" (UK, Europe, Commonwealth, former British colonies) vs "orient" (US), see
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/orientate
https://jakubmarian.com/orient-vs-orientate-in-english/
https://www.dailywritingtips.com/do-you-orient-yourself-or-orientate-yourself/
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/orientate When/If you see this word/phrase again, please bear this in mind.Centre / centred / centric / centring (any word formed from "centre") = correct Br Eng spelling, see https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/centre
When/If you see this word/phrase again, please bear this in mind.Theatre / operating theatre / lecture theatre, etc = correct Br Eng spelling, see
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/theatre
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/operating-theatre
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecture_hall
When/If you see this word/phrase again, please bear this in mind.Grey = correct Br Eng spelling, see https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/grey
When/If you see this word again, please bear this in mind.Towards (Br Eng) vs Toward (Am Eng), see
http://www.enhancemywriting.com/toward-vs-towards
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/toward-towards-usage
(explanation from Br Eng POV) https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/towards-or-toward
https://grammarist.com/spelling/toward-towards/
When/If you see this word again, please bear this in mind.Whenever you see hard-headed / hard-headedness, Br Eng meaning is intended. Please bear that in mind.
In Br Eng, hard-headed / hard-headedness means being practical, business-like, determined and realistic; not sentimental. For proof, see https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hard-headed
In Am Eng, hard-headed / hard-headedness is mostly taken to mean being stubborn to the point of wilfulness (correct Br Eng spelling). For proof, see definition 2 at https://www.dictionary.com/browse/hardheaded.gnädige Frau = old-fashioned German for “gracious lady”.References to 4-0 suture, 4-0 silk suture, 5-0 and so on are the diameter of the "threads" used to sew up a patient. Sometimes "silk" is specified because these "threads" can be made of different materials, both natural and synthetic. What size of thread to use and what type of thread to use depends on whether the stitching is external/internal, the organ/vein involved, etc. To save time, surgeons and their team will just say "5-0" or "4-0". When you see these terms again, please bear this in mind.
You may be asking, "What is the size of these threads?" A rough gauge is below:
9-0 and 8-0 suture - 0.03mm and 0.04mm
7-0 and 6-0 suture - 0.05mm and 0.07mm
5-0 and 4-0 suture - 0.1mm and 0.15mm
3-0 and 2-0 suture - 0.2mm and 0.3mmShihakusho = the black "uniform worn by ShinigamiShitagi = white inner robe worn under the black "uniform" of the Shinigami.Kaido = healing Kido.Coconut bristle brush is a real item made from the fibres (correct Br Eng spelling) of the coconut husk. It's used for heavy-duty cleaning. For pictures, see https://www.amazon.co.uk/coconut-brush/s?k=coconut+brushStenosis is a narrowing of a tubular structure or blood vessel, also known as a stricture. Stenosis in the heart is bad because it restricts blood flow from the heart to the rest of the body. When that happens, the heart has to work harder to pump blood. This can lead to complications like heart failure."Head scrub nurse" and "head surgical nurse" are used interchangeably. Please bear that in mind when you see these terms again.Litre = correct Br Eng spelling, see https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/litreAnomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery syndrome is a rare congenital heart defect that occurs when the left coronary artery originates from the pulmonary artery instead of the aorta. This causes the heart to receive deoxygenated blood, which can lead to heart muscle tissue damage and death.Thoracentesis is a medical procedure that involves removing fluid or air from the pleural space (the area between the lungs and the chest wall).Mitral valve incompetence is when the valve between the left heart chambers don't close fully. This causes mitral regurgitation, meaning the blood backs up into the lungs. In "mild" cases, it causes fatigue, fluid retention and shortness of breath. If left untreated, this condition may end in congestive heart failure.Anastomose = a medical term meaning to connect two organs, blood vessels or body spaces in a medical operation.A long onlay patch is a medical procedure that involves grafting a long segment of the left internal thoracic artery as a "patch" that is laid on top of the left anterior descending artery or the right coronary artery. It is done to widen a narrowed artery.Aortic dissection is a life-threatening condition where the inner layer of the aortic wall is torn. As the aorta is the body's main artery, an aortic dissection is never a good thing when it is torn and blood is gushing out of it.Nitric oxide is used in surgery to treat and prevent complications, such as wound repair, ischemia-reperfusion injury and graft failure. In heart surgery, it is used to lower pulmonary artery pressure and reverse right ventricular dysfunction or failure.Chopin’s Preludes, Op. 28 are 24 piano pieces that cover all major and minor keys. Isane having this played in the operating theatre is significant because it means she's really doing everything and anything to save the patient + checking everything that needs checking + covering all her bases.Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit is a suite of piano pieces famous for its difficulty, technical challenges and profound musical structure. The music, however, is mellow and relatively peaceful. Readers are supposed to pick up that Isane switches to this piece playing in the background because the surgery has become more complicated, and though what she + her team are doing looks easy, it's actually something that requires focus and technical skill to get right.Shunt tubes are used in heart surgery to improve blood flow to the lungs. Think of it as inserting a delicate, small tube into the heart to connect the arterial circulation to the pulmonary circulation to improve blood flow to the lungs. Shunt tubes are also used in other kinds of surgeries for other reasons.Titbit = correct Br Eng spelling, see https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/titbitBehove = correct Br Eng spelling, see https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/behoveScepticism = correct Br Eng spelling, see https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/scepticismSinister in Latin means "left", as in the opposite of "right". For proof, see https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sinister#Latin. This is why Jugram says the left side is the sinister side. It's meant to be darkly ironic because Auswahlen in this fic targets the left side of the victim's heart (i.e., the sinister side in the Latin definition) and the intentions are entirely sinister (modern English definition).Tsuka = Japanese term for the hilt/handle of a katana or other similar Japanese sword. The wrapping around the hilt is called the tsuka-ito. For details, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_sword_mountingsAnaesthesia (and any word deriving from it) = correct Br Eng spelling, see https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/anaesthesiaCosy = correct Br Eng spelling, see https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/cosy“Potter” (and variations of it, e.g., pottering, pottered, etc) will appear in this fic.
Potter (Br Eng) = Putter (Am Eng)
Meaning of both Br Eng and Am Eng version are the same, i.e., to move around or walk around without hurrying, and in a relaxed and pleasant way.
We do not use “putter” in Br Eng unless it is as a golf term. Please be understanding of this fact.
For proof, see https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/potter
When/If you see this word/phrase again, please bear this in mind.If like my Am Eng prelim reader, you don’t know what “matron” is in a medical context, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matron. Please bear that in mind when you see “matron” in the medical context throughout this fic.Francesco Cavalli’s Requiem refers to:
(a) Francesco Cavalli (1602–1676), a composer from Venice known mostly for his baroque operas
(b) His Requiem Mass in eight parts (sometimes referenced in Latin as Missa pro defunctis) that is known for its use of the Venetian polychoral style.Gaol and Gaoler are real words in Br Eng.
Gaol = jail/prison in Br Eng. For proof, see https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/gaol
Gaoler = jailer in Br Eng. For proof, see https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/gaoler