Lost Child (Bleach Fanfic)

Cruel Life

A soft rain fell outside of the fifth division as Gin worked away at the paperwork. A knock came and he looked up to see Kaien standing there waiting for him. "Kaien-dono-san!"

"Isshin needs your help with something."

Gin forced a frown onto his face despite not actually being bothered by the fact Rangiku's taicho wanted his help. "Better then spending my time with him." The boy stood up and waved at the man he didn't want to spend time with and gave him the smile that he would have given Kaien if he hadn't had the mask that he showed everyone. Kaien told him what was going on and he said that he could handle it.

This was until he arrived at the forth division and saw Isshin sitting there on the bed, his legs and arms crossed with a frown on his face. It was rather obvious there was no reason for him to be stuck in the forth division which was the first thing that clued him in to the fact something was going on. The next thing that clued him in was the small hand that appeared from below the bed that could only belong to one person.

"Shiro-chan... what are they trying to do. Well... I know that they used Isshin's reiatsu to hide Shiro-chan's. I need to get out of here." Without realizing it he spoke up as soon as he realized that they were looking at them. "No..."

He backed up, only to find himself bumping into Kaien while the door slid shut. Isshin began to scratch his bottom while narrowing his eyes at the two. Another hand came out with the teddy bear he had bought a long time ago for the boy. "Why? I can't..."

Gin turned and looked Kaien right in the eye only to see the man standing there with his arms crossed. "You can't what?"

Gin turned his head and watched as Toshiro move from under the bed while everyone watched. Isshin noticed that the boy had moved from under the bed and had actually come out and one of his eyebrows raised up. The silver haired man looked at the boy, his eyes suddenly feeling with panic, his mouth opening again. "I can't..."

Isshin took a deep breath. "Am I missing something."

"O-chan."

"I'm not..." Gin stopped himself from finishing the sentence. "There is no way I can say I'm not his father. All four of them are very intelligent."

"O-chan."

The silver haired man let out a deep sigh before moving forward a few steps and collapsing to his knees knowing exactly what Toshiro would do. The boy crawled over to his lap and climbed right in. A bony hand reached up to ruffle the boy's head of hair and his chin rested on the boy's head. "Why did this have to happen of all things?"

"O-chan."

"I know..."

Isshin took a deep breath. "Wait... if you're the kids father... which I honestly have a hard time believing because you and Ran wouldn't... oh... well that explains that one question. I still hold that you and Ran would hide from us that the two of you had a child."

"That's because I was the one hiding it from all of you including her." Gin leaned his head farther, taking in the nice clean sent that was around the boy. "It's been so long since I could just hold him."

"You know this isn't going to last."

"I know." The man took a deep breath.

Unohana continued to look out the window. "One of the reasons you and Rangiku would have possibly have given him up would have been because the two of you couldn't take care of him. You would have been after all very young parents who were struggling to care for yourselves."

"Yes..."

"But that can't be it. At least no the whole story. I know for a fact that Rangiku did in fact have a child. Others who know are Miyako and Isane. Yet we also know that she has no memory of having said child.." Silence came over the room.

Isshin frowned, continuing to cross his arms. "Why leave him at Kaien and Miyako's place like you did?" Gin's hand tightened slightly at the back of the boy's head. "I mean... why not just tell us the truth. And is the reason you're giving him up again because you don't think you can take care of him without Rangiku? She wouldn't be happy about that."

"It isn't that simple." Gin simply held the boy. "If it were as simple as that..." Toshiro suddenly snuggled in close and the man carefully wrapped his arms around the boy and held him close. "I can't tell them the truth."

"Something the matter Gin?" Miyako looked up at the silver haired man. Silence of course was the response. "Gin... the reason for keeping this secret was because Rangiku didn't remember? Right. There is no reason to keep the fact you are his father and Rangiku his mother a secret any more, right?'

"No. The reason I was keeping him secret wasn't because Rangiku didn't remember?"

"You're not the type to be ashamed of something like this." Isshin scratched his head. "So why?" There came another silence.

Unohana spoke then. "How far would you go to protect the future of Soul Society as the future of your child lies with the future of Soul Society?"

The queston from the older Shinigami surprised the younger Shinigami but Gin spoke then. "I would become a traitor to Soul Society to protect Soul Society."

"Then for all purposes you are if anyone eventually asks acting under my orders."

The child wiggled slightly in Gin's arms and looked up at the man, a frown on the boy's face. "O-chan..."

Gin closed his eyes. "You can't call me Shiro-chan."

"O..."

"No." He carefully turned the boy he was sitting in his lap. "I want you to call Miyako ka-chan. Unohana's granny, Isshin is oji-san and Kaien is your new o-chan."

The boy frowned and opened his mouth only to have a finger placed over his mouth. "I'm not going to be able to see you for a long time."

Miyako patted her lap. "Toshiro... why don't you come and sit in my lap. Kaien... why don't you go and show Gin-kun the painting in the other room. They should be finished cleaning the room."

The boy at first didn't move but a please from Gin caused the child to move over to the woman's lap and he crawled up and began to snuggle with her, his teddy bear clutched to his chest.

Gin stood up, his body feeling heavy. As Miyako guessed the room was in fact empty of anyone else. He sat down on the bed with its fresh sheets. Kaien sat next to him. "I figured you would want to see this."

"I've already seen him."

"How's that even possible?"

"His name is Hyorinmaru but Shiro-chan's always called him Maru-chan or Maru-Maru." The man looked up at the ceiling. "Shinso also says he's grown since we last saw him. They both have really."

"You're saying you went into his inner world though? Seriously..."

"Even I didn't start talking to my zampaktuo at that young of an age. I instructed Maru-chan to hold his powers back for as long as possible. I should have known though that this would eventually happen. I mean... him ending up interacting with the Shinigami. I can trust you and Miyako to take care of him."

"Kiddo... you and Ran-chan are family. This is as far as I push to find out what is going on." There came another sudden pause. "Just promise you won't die too."

"Ran's not dead. I can't explain how I know that though." It was then that the silver haired man got up and left the room.