Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
I strongly recommend that you listen to 'Sunny Came Home' by Shawn Colvin while reading this piece, since that song was my main inspiration for writing it.
Weak sunlight gathered on the windowsill, and Hinamori regarded it coldly. It was filtering in through the shatter-proof glass, a weak remnant of what it had once been. Almost like herself, in a manner of speaking.
The sounds of a scuffle drifted into her room from down the hall, and Hinamori listened to them idly. An enraged, female voice was shouting at several of the lower-ranking Fourth division members. Something about wanting to see a certain patient, and not being allowed... Then came Unohana-taicho's calm voice, and Hinamori was mildly surprised to hear her erring on the side of the visitor, softly commanding her officers to step aside. Furious steps pounded down the hall. Hinamori's door slammed open.
She turned to look over her shoulder. There stood Matsumoto, Shiro-chan's fukutaicho. Her fiery hair was swept away from her flushed face into a haphazard pony tail, and her shihakusho was rumpled. Haineko's scabbard was empty - the zanpakuto was whirling about the room in it's ashy, feline form, keeping the leery medics at bay.
Matsumoto stormed across the room and yanked Hinamori's chair around so that they faced each other. She glared down at the younger girl. "You idiot. What do you think you're doing? Assisting a traitor, attacking one of your fellow shinigami, hurting my taicho, and all you can do is sit in a room and mope? Bitch." Hinamori regarded her quietly.
"What else would you have me do, Matsumoto-san? Tobiume won't listen to me anymore. They've sealed my kido. I can't do anything, so why should I try? It won't help." Matsumoto reddened angrily.
"Is that really what you think? Because you're wrong. You can work through it." She jabbed a finger at Tobiume, propped against the wall. "Your sword won't listen because it doesn't respect you anymore. And sitting in here, day after day, doing nothing - it isn't exactly earning you brownie points. And who cares if you can't use kido? You've got a strong body - you've got two legs and two arms and twenty fingers and toes and a heart, and you can use them, I know you can. So do it."
She grabbed the front of Hinamori's simple white kimono and yanked her up to a standing position, then higher, until they were eye-to-eye and Hinamori was dangling off the ground. Several of the seats protested, but Haineko lashed her tails threateningly and they backed off.
"Wake up," she hissed, and smacked Hinamori straight across the face. Haineko howled with sadistic glee. "Help. Fix things with taicho - you two've got a wall of fire between you now, and ignoring it won't fix the problem. You've gotta walk into the fire, Hinamori. Or would you rather sacrifice a friendship that you both spent decades building?" Matsumoto dropped Hinamori back into her chair and whirled out the door in a flurry of ash, heading straight for the Tenth division with Haineko racing at her heels.
The Fourth division members swarmed into the room and surrounded Hinamori, washing her skin in an array of unfamiliar, calming reiatsus. She shoved them off anxiously and snatched up her zanpakuto, plowing through the medical staff and running after Matsumoto. She screamed down the hall. "I want to help! Let me help!" Matsumoto stuck her head around a corner, a broad grin now over her weary features, and shouted back, "Then what are you waiting for?"
She took her first step into the fire.