"Not if it wants to take out the weaker opponents first… or it knocked him unconscious or made it so he was caged in somehow so that thing could come back later," Toshiro muttered. "I have to wonder how we'll get out of this…"

Atsuo though suddenly tensed up, then shoved the small boy down, causing Toshiro to get a mouth full of sand into his mouth. The next thing he knew, something had pierced his shoulder. He also felt blood splatter from above him, telling him something had hit Atsuo.

Whatever pierced Toshiro's shoulder suddenly removed itself from the vicinity and he heard a small thud as Atsuo fell. The small boy hurried to his side, grabbing Hyorinmaru in his left hand. Setting down his sword, he removed the medical bag from his back, and set it down, opening it to get at the water, as his attack with Hyorinmaru had seemed weak before.

He then picked up his sword and formed a small shield of ice over the two of them, though it had weak points where they could see out, and the shield was rather brittle. He then turned his attention to Atsuo, who was bleeding profusely from a wound that was on his right side, but closer to his center and lower down. Some blood was coming from the man's mouth.

"Toshiro! You needed that water so you don't become dehydrated!" the man protested.

"You saw my attack… didn't you Lieutenant Tomo… I'm not doing very well out here…" the boy narrowed his eyes at the man.

Atsuo closed his eyes. "Do me a favor little one… I don't know if I'm going to make it out of here… cold you just call me Atsuo for once… no san attached to the end? I don't hear that enough from you."

"Don't say such things!" Toshiro protested, his eyes narrowing. He could hear movement of the net outside, as if it, whatever it was trying to figure out how to now attack them.

"Toshiro… death of ones comrades is something that one has to get used to as a shingami," Atsuo suddenly coughed up some blood.

"I can still have some hope can't I?" the white haired boy protested.

"Please… in case I don't die, I'll know you still fulfilled my death wish, right?" the man suddenly stated.

At this, Toshiro bit his lip, hard enough that a little bit of blood came out. He glanced away, a half smile, obviously fake came to his face. "I'll do a little better then that… Uncle Atsuo."

Lieutenant Tomo's eyes had a slight sparkle in them for awhile. "You are a good kid." He then reached for his lieutenant's badge with his left hand and pulled it off. "This should belong to you."

"Your going to live, so what need would I for your lieutenants' badge?" Toshiro narrowed his eyes at the man, thinking this was being carried too far.

However, the man insisted in pressing it into his hand next to where he held his zanpaktou. "Do you know why I've been giving you some of my paperwork?"

"Matsumoto's been giving me hers too…" Toshiro stated. The thing was making a more agitated sound, so Toshiro raised his hand, prepared to disperse the shield if need be to use to attack. "It is so that your jobs are easier on you, isn't it?"

"I was the only one supposed to be giving you paperwork," Atsuo closed his eyes and sighed, coughing up some more blood. "Another question… why do you think you weren't put onto any of the four lists."

To Toshiro's dismay, he found a tear sneaking out of his eye, falling onto the man's hand. "It was because I messed up and needed to be looked at some more, wasn't it?"

"No… no… far from that… I don't think that creature likes your ice very much… the small bit of damage caused by it before has made it wary,"

"Ehh… I guess so," Toshiro sighed. "But what has this to do with anything."

"We wanted to place you at the lieutenants' seat position, under my guidance, but we knew that the approval might not go through because you were so young, and it wasn't as if we were eleventh division," Lieutenant Tomo murmured, his voice becoming softer. "Isshin made us promise to not tell you, as none of wanted to get your hopes up."

"Because I'm not material for…" Toshiro watched as Atsuo shook his head, indicating this thought process was wrong. "But why go against his orders, why!"

A couple of more tears trickled down, and the man tried to look away, his voice slowing and mellowing in tone. "I see it in your eyes… I don't know where, but you've seen death before… and not just your own I think. It isn't my place to ask. But before I died, I wanted to make sure that you knew. And I wanted you to have my badge as your own, Shiro-chan."

"Uncle Atsuo?" Toshiro though received no response from the man, which caused a few more tears to leak forward. "No… a shingami doesn't show such weakness."

He carefully wiped away his tears, and closed the eyes of the man. He then removed the wrap that Matsumoto had given him and placed it over the man's face. "I can't say this is rightly fare, can I?"

Still clutching the badge with his sword in his left hand, he stepped out from underneath the shelter he had created, and walked a bit away, to the edge of the sand net, and stopped right next to it, a plan forming in his head. It was then that the hollow burst forth from the sand, a hollow that looked very similar to a sand crab with a mask. As the crab came up, it went to launch one of its spear like legs at Toshiro, only to have the boy dodge.

A numbing sensation ran through the crabs leg, causing it to somewhat recoil. This caused Toshiro to smirk. "You don't like your own trick, do you?"

He then called out his release phrase, being careful not to hit the net, then launched the moon like end at the mask, shattering it. "You should not have killed someone I looked up to, stupid freak hollow."

However, to his dismay, he suddenly found that with the destruction of the hollow, that the sand began to swirl hard and fast, throwing him outside of the area somehow. Somehow, too he found a way to keep a grip on his sword and the badge he had in his left hand. When he opened his eyes, he found nothing there.

"Lieutenant Tomo? Atsuo-san? Uncle Atsuo!" Toshiro suddenly found himself letting go of the items and banging his hand down hard on the desert sands. Quite a few tears escaped, but he then wiped them away and repacked the zanpaktou and badge up. "No… I have to try to find taicho."

"I'll point you in the direction you came from little one," came the voice of his zanpaktou.

"You choose now to speak up!"

"You were so upset at the time, I doubt very much you would have been able to hear me, but you did well on your own. There is a lot you still have to learn from me. For example, did you know that you have the power to make it snow in the desert?"

"Yeah right Hyorinmaru… with what water?"

"With the water in the atmosphere of course… you turned the liquid form into a solid form, why not the other form… I believe it is called a gaseous substance."

Toshiro carefully stood up and glanced around until Hyorinmaru told him to start walking. However, with his reiatsu and energy burned down, he found that his body was becoming heavy. He also found that he was becoming thirsty and that he needed to cool down somewhere. "Hyorinmaru… do you think I could bring ice from the air to get water inside of me?"

"Not a good idea… it will be to cold for your stomach to handle, and at this point you'll only vomit it up," the dragon warned. Thus, Toshiro instead proceeded to pull off the top of his clothing. "That is a really bad idea! Stop it!"

"If I don't, it will only become worse," Toshiro protested. However, after awhile, he found that his zanpaktou had been right, as his skin had come to burn much like his cheeks all ready were. "Why does it keep getting worse?"

"Your clothes were actually helping you…" Hyorinmaru suddenly protested, only to have Toshiro suddenly fall forward from exhaustion. However, he found two arms catching him.

"Papa-san is sorry he's late little one," a familiar voice stated, worry quite evident in it. "I got buried waist deep in the sand, and it took awhile to get a signal to call for help. Where's Atsuo-san?"

"Gone… find his body for a funeral… please?" Toshiro found himself muttering the words, only to find himself carefully scooped into the mans arms as he fell unconscious.