Broken Dawn

A/N: Okay, originally I'm a Naruto writer. I never discovered bleach until last Friday. Yes, I watched the whole series from episode 1 until I guess I'm on episode 113 now. But that was enough to make me write a fanfic about the most disregarded couple there is in the said series. I'm new here so please if I have any mistakes or such please don't hesitate to correct me.

Chapter 1: Redemption

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Hinamori…

"Who's there?" a young shinigami ventured through the endless darkness as she heard the familiar voice calling her name again and again.

Hinamori…

It had been like this for a while. Darkness… silence… solitude… surrounded her in an unknown place. No matter how much she tried to find her way out… the more she got lost. Time after time, she would get glimpses of somebody standing before her… a man wearing a captain uniform and a pair of black framed glasses… then overwhelming pain would spread throughout her body as she realized that the person had impaled her chest with his katana. The physical pain was excruciating but something deep inside her felt immensely unbearable making her physical pain a phantom of what she feels inside. It was as if her very soul was forcefully being ripped from her body. It felt like something break… something precious… something irreplaceable.

Hinamori…

"Who are you?" it was only this voice. Only this… that penetrates the silence and brings her unknown strength and yet it's… a voice so familiar yet unknown. Once in a while, she would feel warmth on her hands… a feeling she only gets when someone was holding it.

Her hazel eyes widened in surprise as she felt a weird sensation on her cheek. Something warm dripped on her face… upon touching it… she saw that it was only water. "But where would water come from in a place like this?" She asked herself as she looked as the darkness above.

"Momo! I won't accept it! Why would you go to a place you know I can't reach! To a place you know I can't follow... I want to be by your side… to protect you. Come back already!"

The voice had somehow turned angry and impatient. As if watching an old movie, images of someone with unique spiky white hair and captivating marine green eyes flashed through her head. How they used to tease each other about their embarrassing moments during their childhood and how they still share watermelon slices under the sakura tree during their freetime. "Shiro-chan?" her whole body trembled as she remembered each and every detail about him.

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A vice captain with long layered hair found her captain's desk empty as she got there. It was always during this time of the day that she would find her superior missing and it was no mystery to her where he was. Ever since the day he was healed, he constantly visits her, each day without fail whether he didn't have time to breath because he was appointed as operational commander or whether he was buried in mountains of paper works. "Taichou…" Matsumoto said sadly as she sat on his chair and continued his paperwork.

It had been a year and a half already, since the day she had almost died. Although the fourth division captain did heal her physical injuries, Captain Unohana told him that her soul took most of the blow. Her emotions were growing into an unstable state that threatens to consume her.

It pains him to see her there struggling to live while he on the other hand can do nothing but visit her everyday. It was during this time, that he found his title as 10th division captain useless. He felt like he was the little boy patiently waiting for his friend to visit after her busy day in the soul academy. He can do nothing but wait… until she returns.

"Hitsugaya-taichou… Himanori's soul… is at its limit. I have done everything that I can. Within a few days, if she doesn't wake up in that span of time…" the 4th division captain didn't need to continue, he doesn't want to hear it. She will wake up… she has to.

His steps were slow and steady as he approached her almost lifeless body. Within a few days… that statement kept reiterating in his head. Within a few days… I'll lose her. Hitsugaya held Hinamori's hand his trembling ones. Placing her hands beneath his cheek, he softly called her name.

His jade eyes wandered to her sleeping face. Why won't you wake up? Unconsciously, he caressed her pale face as his vision grew blurry. Within a few days… he would never see her again, he would never see her pout when he teases her, never see her bit her thumb when in deep thought, never see her smile when she sees him, never hear her sweet voice calling his childhood name. "Shiro-chan," he remembered the last time she called her that at the same time, she held a katana against him. What did she do to deserve this?!

"Momo! I won't accept it! Why would you go to a place you know I can't reach! To a place you know I can't follow... I want to be by your side… to protect you. Come back already!" he yelled at her sleeping form as his tears ceaselessly trickled down his cheeks. The renowned boy genius, the 10th division captain that possess the most powerful ice-type of soul slayer, was openly crying, begging for an impossible miracle.

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"Oi, Ichigo!" a shinigami with a spiky red hair and tattooed forehead greeted his friend with a loud smack on the back. "Ittai!!! What the hell was that for Renji?!" the shinigami with unruly short orange hair yelled as he glared at the vice captain.

"What the hell? Its just a greeting. Anyway, I'm here to tell you that as the 5th division captain, you should choose your vice captain already," Renji put his arms behind his head as he explained. There were a lot of disapprovals when a ryoka was designated as one of the captains of the gokutei but still the decision made by the room 46 stays unquestionable and therefore absolute.

"Eehh?! I thought there is already a vice captain for this division?" Ichigo complained as he sat on the tatami mat of his room. "There was…" "What do you mean was?"

"The vice captain of the 5th division was Hinamori Momo," a female shinigami with short raven black hair informed the 5th division captain. "So? Where is she?" Ichigo asked carelessly as he leaned elbow on a table. "She's in a coma…" so she's the one Toushiro almost died protecting eh… he didn't ask anymore.

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"I don't understand… Hinamori admired you for so long. She worked crazy hard to get to your division. She was so happy to finally be your vice captain… thinking that she was closer to you than ever. But why…"

"There's nothing easier than manipulating the people who admire you…"

There she stood in the middle of the battlefield as transparent as the frozen wind. Hitsugaya summoned his bankai then passed through her to plunge his Hyorinmaru in Aizen's heart. She winced as she saw his body erupt with blood while Aizen walked away carelessly.

"Oi!" she was surprised to hear someone's voice other than Hitsugaya's. The vivid event in her dream faded into nothingness as she faced a man with a sword as tall as he is on his back. "Who are you? Why are you in my dream?" Hinamori inquired in a weak tone.

"Me?" Ichigo put his Zangetsu over his shoulder confidently. "I'm your new captain…"

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His head was aching was if it was going to explode. Last night, he drank bottles of sake just to keep himself from thinking about her and about his helplessness. His eyes remained close as he remembered their times together. His headache seems to have disappeared as he felt as if someone stroking his hair. She always does this when I have a headache. Hitsugaya said to himself.

"Shiro-chan," he didn't know if it was because of his hang over or because he was hallucinating that he heard her voice gently calling his name. Slowly, he opened his eyes. His vision was hazy but he made out a figure of somebody looking at him. Alerted, he quickly snapped his half lidded eyes open and sat up abruptly.

Looking around, he saw nobody. His grip on his Hyorinmaru loosened but then his inhaled a scent that was very familiar to him. The scent, that only she wears… the fragrance of irises. He was about to leave for the fourth division but then his vice captain caught up to him and informed him about a meeting set by the commander-general.

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"Tardy as always. Where's the commander-general? Wasn;t he the one to call forth this meeting?" the impatient captain of the 12th division asked as he tapped his foot. Yes, everyone was there the thirteen captains and their vice captains… except for the commander-general himself.

"I told you to choose a vice captain already. Now, you're going to get a scolding from the old man when he finds out that you're still as stubborn as ever," Renji whispered to the 5th division captain. "Iie… there's no need to choose again," Ichigo confidently replied.

As if on cue, the sliding door opened slowly to reveal a female shinigami with long wavy black hair. "Hi-Hinamori…" Hitsugaya stared at the woman in disbelief.

A/N: Minna-san, action and lemon on the next chapter so plase read and review onegai…