She had woken up.
She didn't remember doing it, but she had. All of a sudden she was looking at the ceiling and it was like nothing had ever gone wrong. But at the same time she felt bandages, and she felt something else breathing for her.
The artificial breath was now out of sync with her own lungs, which had always been quicker, sometimes just running from classes had made her lose her breath. Then it became catching up with her captain. Then her captain tried to make her stop breathing.
She took off the mask.
"I'm going to breathe." She said, in a wavering voice. Her throat hadn't been used recently. She was getting used to the feeling of words in her mouth. "I'm going to breathe."
She stood up. She didn't wince despite her wound, thanks to Unohana-taichou's skill as a healer. "I'm going to walk," she murmured. "I'm going to walk."
And she did. She opened the door to the infirmary and walked slowly down the long halls and corridors of Seireitei. Simply taking it in. She wasn't sure how long she'd been asleep. Part of her wasn't even sure she had been asleep, and she almost had to stop and ask herself if she hadn't died and come back.
She went to one of the courtyards. The one where she had found Aizen-taichou. She stared up and had to force herself not to cry.
"Whoissit?" Asked a voice from behind her.
She waited before answering, she didn't turn around. It was the first sound she had really heard for a while, but she knew the voice. She had heard it in her sleep.
"Me." She said, her throat dried and she started to feel a lump form.
She heard his robes as he moved towards her. "You need to stop lying sake-san." He mumbled. She could smell alcohol on his breath, he was almost next to her. "Stop making me see her sake-san."
She turned around and stared up at him. She lifted a hand to his face, and she looked into his bleary green-slate eyes. "Am I the one who did this to you, Kira?"
He sank to his knees. Her hand still stayed on his cheek.
"You look like a goddess." He said. She wasn't sure if she had shocked some sobriety back into him and if that is what she now heard in his voice, "You're a goddess, Hinamori."
She let the robe fall to her waist, he stared up at her face. Worshipping her with a wordless prayer as he tried to tell himself that this wasn't real one second and the next nearly crying for joy that it was.
She bent down next to him and lifted his hand to the bandage over her wound. "I'm not a goddess." She said, her voice cracked as she felt tears come to her. "A goddess can't die. I almost did."
He stared into her tearing brown eyes as he unwound the bandage around her stomach. He let the bandage fall. He placed his big hand over the scar. "What do you mean?"
She smiled and kissed the top of his head. Wordlessly, she mouthed to the sky, "I'm going to love, Aizen."
Then she felt him digging into her stomach. All of a sudden he was brandishing Wabisuke and she backed away in fear but he was strong and he held onto her.
Then Kira melted away and in his place was Aizen. She knew it was him, although he looked different. His glasses were off and his eyes seemed soulless. She had never seen him like this. But she knew it was him.
"Was it good for you, Hinamori-kun?" He asked. A sick smile spread across his face. "Did it seem real?"
Hinamori breathed in sharply, "What are you- how- where is Kira?"
He frowned, "Maybe I chose wrong after all. You were malleable, yes. But you were also dense." His features softened, "Ah yes. You missed the exposition. Too bad you were… incapacitated." He punched her soft underbelly where the scar was and watched her crumple before him as she began to spit up blood and bile.
He picked her up by her hair that was loose around her neck. She felt like a kitten as she watched him, a kitten before a child who plays at wringing necks. A child that would kill one day.
He stood her up, forced her to stand upon her weak knees. "Is this anyway to appear before your taichou?" He taunted.
She felt hot tears run down her face, she coughed again. Blood fell upon the white bandages that bound her breasts.
"Poor Hinamori…" he sighed, "You've just been put through hell haven't you?" Suddenly he wasn't standing in front of her anymore. He was up on the wall again, blood spread in the exact pattern. Hinamori knew that pattern all too well. It was emblazoned in her brain and for the fews days after finding him like that it had been burned onto the insides of her eyelids.
Then his head lifted from the wall, "Maybe it was your fault, Hinamori."
She shook her head. His illusions forced a bloody sword into her hand, she dropped it like it was a hot coal.
He peeled himself off of the wall slowly. First one arm, then the next and the moonlight seemed to make a mask upon his face.
Hinamori stared at him, it were almost as if he were a hollow.
Suddenly he was behind her again. "Poor Hinamori."
He felt the blade run through her again. It was a sensation she could never have forgotten but wanted to so desperately.
She fell again. Before his feet. Just like the first time.
She was unconscious, but he kept talking. "Did you honestly think I'd let you wake up? Did you honestly think I'd let you do any of those things you said?"
Then he was gone.
--
Hinamori rolled over on her bed, she curled inward without really even knowing it. Her brain could not comprehend the pain that she was experiencing.
She gave a shallow breath as she felt the pain.
--
The next morning Kira was the first into Hinamori's room. He was aware that he vaguely smelled of sake. He told himself it didn't matter. She wouldn't be able to smell it.
However when he looked over at her he felt as if ice water had just been poured over his entire body. He started to scream, "Unohana-taichou! Isane! Come quick."
Unohana rushed in and gasped, her hand to her mouth as she stared at the bloodstained blanket that lay over Hinamori. "I don't understand it," she said as she rushed forward to begin healing, "She had been doing well. I don't know how this could have happened."
Kira watched with tears in his eyes as Unohana and Isane worked over his comrade's body. Someone else from the infirmary tried to escort him out of the room but Unohana permitted him to stay.
Unohana finished and put her hand on Kira's shoulder, it had blood on it. "Kira-taichou," she murmured, "I know this is going to seem strange but try not to worry too much about her. Remarkably she seems to be doing better."
Kira looked at her and simply mouthed, "How?"
Unohana smiled slightly, "Remarkably, she's breathing."