Meh, first storyOoO hope I dont do too too bad!
Waring! This is after the Winter War, so it might have a few spoilers (although some parts are made up, since I really only know what I do from AMVs and a few friends:/)
(wow, pretty short:p)
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach
A young boy swiftly walked into his office and closed the door quickly but silently. Toshiro Hitsugaya sighed as he remembered what had just happened a few moments ago.
*Flaskback*
It was over. The winter War has finally ended.
It brought some good with it. Gin was fortunately able to be saved from the harsh blow dealt to him by Aizen, and, after much pleading from Rangiku Matsumoto, his childhood friend and lover, was saved from execution for his actions towards Seireitei. But he wasn't given back his title as captain to the Third Division, and instead put into the third seat position.
Also, the Espada were all eliminated, except for Grimmjow, who had survived the blow Nnoitora gave him, Tia, who had also escaped death, and Stark who, along with Lilynette and the other remaining Espada, now only roam the deserts of Huecho Mundo, after making a deal with the shinigami that if they would not invade the Soul Society or the World of the Living, the shinigami would not attack them.
But alas, as expected, the war also brought much pain to many people. Tousen Kaname* was killed by his long time friend, Sajin Komamura, and his faithful lieutenant, Shuhei Hisagi. They had no choice whether to save him or not; he was far too gone for them to help. But in his moment of death, he finally came to his senses and, with his dying breath, thanked the two for doing what they did. "I wouldn't... want to hurt anymore people who believed in me...would I?" he said.
However, though many has suffered during it, the one who has had the most pain thrown to them during the war was Momo Hinamori. During the time, she had went to the battlefield, but not to fight. She had came to try and convince the shinigami that Aizen was good. But instead, while defending herself against an Arrancar, she was able to see that, while facing off Ichigo Kurosaki, the substitute shinigami/visored with as much power as a captain, Aizen was stabbed from behind through his heart by a Bankai infused Toshiro Histugaya, Momo's best and childhood friend. It was, as far as Momo could tell, a planned attack, as before Toshiro's blade went through, Ichigo lept back to avoid the sword. Toshiro, with his sword deeply in Aizen's chest, thrusted it upwards and, to Momo's horror, sliced through Aizen head, splitting it in half, with his blood spraying in many directions. Kisuke, who was there to help the shinigami in the war, then shunpoed to Aizen and shoved his hand into the area where he knew the Hogyoku, which was the reason as to why Aizen was so powerful, was, and pulled it out so it could not regenerate him again.
She screamed. She screamed for her broken heart at seeing the horrible given to her captain. The thoughts of "How could he? Why? Why would he do this to him. To me? He knew how much Aizen Taicho meant to me. Aizen Taicho was innocent! It was all just a trick by Inchimaru! Why couldn't they all see that?" and so many alike them ran through her mind as anger and hatred towards the one who took her captain.
Whichi lead Toshiro to the situation he was in.
He dodged the vase that was thrown at him by Momo, and the glass broke into many pieces onto the floor behind him due to the force of the throw.
"Momo, please, just listen to me!" Said Toshiro, but she wouldn't listen.
"No! How could you do that to him? Why would you of all people kill Aizen Taicho? He did nothing wrong!"
"Nothing wrong?" Toshiro repeated "Momo, he betrayed you! He betrayed everyone! Can't you see? He was just using you!"
"No!" screamed Momo "No he wasn't! Why can't you see that he was forced to do what he did? He would never hurt anyone on his own! He would never hurt me! It was all Ichimaru's fault that Aizen Taicho did all of those things! You're letting a dangerous man walk the streets of the Seireitei! You killed an innocent man!"
"Momo!" Toshiro snapped at her "Look at the facts! He betrayed your trust and love, he turned his back on you! And that scar didn't just appear from mid-air! Don't you see? He was using you, using everyone, just for his own desires!"
"Get out." Momo suddenly whispered.
"What?"
"I said get. Out!" she screamed "I want you out of my life, Hitsugaya taicho!"
Toshiro would've flinched if the situation wasn't what it was. Momo never calls him that, no matter how many time he told her to. But hearing her say it now, with her voice filled with venom...it hurt.
"Momo, please-" But he couldn't finish as Momo continued.
"I hate you! I hate you with all that I have left in me! I never want to see you again! I want you dead! I want you to be killed like the way Aizen Taicho was! Do you understand me? Huh? Do you?"
Toshiro stepped back, pain and saddness filling his entire being. How could she? How could she still have so much love, so much loyalty to someone who has done so much to her?
How could she say those things to the one person who was always by her side?
Toshiro hung his head low, refusing to look into Momo's hate-filled eyes, and said, "So that's how you want it? To never see me again? I'm sorry Momo, but that isn't going to happen anytime soon."
Momo glared at him and said, "And why not? Are you so selfish that you can't do even give me this, when you've already taken so much from me? Why can't you do this? Tell me!"
But instead of answering her, Toshiro just turned around and left, leaving an angry, broken Momo behind him.
*Flashback End*
'Damn, that didn't turn out good,' thought Toshiro. He had hoped that he could help Momo get over Aizen, since he knew how much he had meant to her, only to stab her in the back and toss her away like garbage. But he had not expected things to get so out of control like they did. He never thought that Momo could hold so much anger towards him, towards anybody really, but now he did.
And it couldn't hurt more.
Momo Hinamori, his only childhood friend besides Jidanbo Ikkanzaka. The person he grew up with, had so many fun times with. What happened to that? What happened to all of the memories they shared? Chasing each other in the fields, spitting watermelons seeds at on another's faces, watching the sunset together, were they all just useless trash compared to Aizen, a man who had shattered her dreams? A man who took her love and loyalty as a mean to hurt her? Was he really below that?
Apparently so.
'But I can't think about that right now,' he thought once more, 'I have much work to do, especially since Matsumoto won't do her share...in fact, where is she? I haven't seen all day."
And that's when he noticed that Rangiku was in fact not on the couch, or behind her desk, though that he would expect, she wasn't anywhere.
He just shrugged it off and guessed that she was most likely getting her ass drunk off sake in a bar somewhere, which means that he will most likely have to find. 'Although, Ichimaru has been taking care of that responsiblity for a while,' he mused, but thought nothing of that either. They were also childhood friends and, unlike him and Momo, have no hard feelings over each other ever since Gin had filled everyone in as to why he had betrayed everyone.
So, as he walked around his desk to start the paperwork, he saw something that he found... unexpected.
It was a transfer paper.
And it read 'This form shall give Rangiku Matsumoto, leiutenant of Squad Ten, the Tenth Division Squad captain, Toshiro Hitsugaya's permission to transfer to Squand Three under acting Taicho Izuru Kira as forth seat.'
Toshiro's hand was trembling. Rangiku wanted to leave the Tenth? But why? Has he done something to upset her? 'This must just be a sick joke,' Toshiro told himself. Rangiku can't leave him now. He would never admit it, but she helped him cheer up whenever he was troubled by anything, and he was in desperate need of cheering up. But as he looked on his desk once more, he saw that there was a folded sheet a paper with the words 'To Hitsugaya Taicho' in Rangiku's handwriting.
He, knowing full well what suffering one letter can do to someone, slowly picked it up and unfolded it. It read:
'Dear Taicho,
Or should I call you Hitsugaya Taicho now?
Anyway, I am writing this to you now because I knew once you read the transfer papers you would start to think that you have done something to me to make me decide to do this (this caused Toshiro to almost have a smirk on his face. Almost.), but I wanted to clear up that this was my decision alone.
I have loved working under you for all these years, Hitsugaya Taicho. We have become quite close, haven't we? But the reason why I'm transfering is because... I wanted to be around Gin... more than I wanted to be in the Tenth.
Please don't take this the wrong way, Hitsugaya Taicho. We are still friends, but I've missed Gin...I've been away from him for far too long. I want to be as close to him as I possiby can. I... love him, you could say.
I hope you can understand my reasons, and let me transfer to the Third. But if you don't, I will understand as well.
Always friends,
Rangiku Matsumoto.
The paper fell from his hands.
"Rangiku... wanted to be with Gin more than me," he said to himself. It was understandable. Rangiku has been away from Gin for two whole years, thinking that he had betrayed her. But now that he's back, it's only likely that she would want to be with him. But, knowing that your lieutenant, someone who has been your lieutenant for many years, would rather be with someone else, who has raised a blade against her, who broke her heart... it was like a blade through the stomach.
'But at least he did that to her to protect her, not for greed, like Aizen,' Toshiro thought. Yes, that was much more bearable info to grasp upon.
So, after much thought out hesitation, Toshiro took the paper and signed where it needed his signature, his approval, of allowing his lieutenant what she wants.
It has been a few months since he had signed the paper and had seen Momo that day. Rangiku, upon being told by her now "ex" captain that he has approved her transfer, she hopped and squealed with joy, thanked Toshiro, and jumped into the arms of Gin, who was with them to hear the news. They were so happy with each other, that they had missed the look of anguish and pain that had dulled the eyes of the small captain (who has only grown about an inch after the war, much to his dismay).
Life was taking its time to adjust to normal, Toshiro having not found a new lieutenant yet, and also having not fixed the torn relantionship between him and Momo. She still has not forgiven him for killing Aizen and said one thing that was starting to really frighten the captain.
*Flashback*
Once more, Toshiro went to see Momo to see if she had gotten any better. Some whisper behind his back, and some brave enough to come to his face, ask him why he still bothered with her. One even said "She's just a lost cause, she'll never get any better!". He was promptly sent to another room in Squad Four for hypothermia wounds.
When he made it to Momo's room, he waited a bit before knocking. He usually has to prepare himself before he can actually go into her room. Prepare for the verbal abuse, her anger-filled eyes, and her aura that radiated hatred.
When he opened the door, he waited for Momo to talk -or yell- at him, but found that she was strangly quiet, and also had her back to him. He asked her, "Hey, Momo, are you alright?"
After he said that, she turned around to face him, that look of bitterness still on her face, but also a bit of calm, something Toshiro sees as an improvement. A small one, but an improvement.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, with only a small trace of that vexed tone in her voice.
Surprised at her question, he answered, "I came to check on you."
A chuckle. A small, miniscule chuckle escaped from her lips into the open. Toshiro managed to hear it, but wishes he didn't. There was nothing to laugh about, as far as he knew.
"No, I mean why are you here," she asked again, "when you should be looking for a new lieutenant?"
It wasn't a surprise to him that she, even though she was stuck in a recovery ever since the Winter War ended due to her mental state, knew that Rangiku had left the Tenth to go to the Third. The healers, other than of course healing the wounded, do not have much to do, so gossip and rumor spreading were going to happen, and Momo was going to hear at least one -that one just happening to be this.
What did surprise him was the fact that she would go that low to cause him some sort of discomfort. She knew how close he and Rangiku were. She knew that they were like brother and sister. And she knew how hard it would be for hm to just replace her.
"Oh wait, don't tell me!" she suddenly exclaimed, breaking Toshiro out of his thoughts "You're taking your sweet time finding someone who could be your friend, right? Someone who can be there for you? Well, guess what? You will never find anyone to be anything close to your friend! And do you know why? Because you're a monster. You're a heartless, merciless, block of ice! And you're pathetically weak. What kind of captain can't even get over their emotions and see the truth? Face it, Hitsugaya Taicho, any friend you'll be able to find will either realize the monster you are like I did, or they'll just walk away with someone else like Rangiku!"
Toshiro was shaking with nearly uncontrolled rage. "Yeah," he started "you would know, huh?" and then walked away, leaving behind a wide-eyed Momo.
*Flashback End*
'I guess I'll always just walk away from you, huh Momo?' he asked himself after going in to his private quaters.
He will most likely never forget what Momo had told him, but two specific parts from Momo's rant kept replaying in his mind.
"You're pathetically weak. What kind of captain can't even get over their emotions and see the truth?"
"Any friend you'll be able to find will either realize the monster you are like I did, or they'll just walk away with someone else like Rangiku!"
'Is she right?' he thought 'Am I really weak? And I still have Rangiku! She's still my friend...right?"
"Of course master," Hyorinmaru, the mighty ice zanpactou, said to him mentally.
'But what if she's right?' Toshiro asked Hyorinmaru, 'What if Rangiku really did just leave? What if she did leave me... just to hurt me?'
"Master!"Hyorinmaru roared, causing Toshiro to flinch at the loud noise "Hinamori is still confused, and is not in her right mind! She is still under the spell that Aizen put her under! You can not fall for what she says to you, for they are only to hurt you!"
'But Hyorinmaru!' Toshiro mentally yelled to the dragon, 'What she says is true! They left me...everyone is... everyone is leaving me...'
"Master," he giant spirit said sadly and watched as his master, in the privacy of his own quaters, broke down, no shields up to hide the tears falling down the young boy's cheeks. The dragon pulled the boy's mind into their inner world, and wrapped his wings around the small figure.
But, while Toshiro may not have heard it due to his crying, Hyorinmaru, with his sharp ears, heard the sound of ice cracking, then shattering into pieces far into the distance in the icy plain. He knew what this meant.
To himself only, Hyorinmaru thought, 'So your seals have broken at last, Yuki no Neko Ryuu, No Arashi no Doragon? Your timings could not be better."
Damn, couldnt hit the 4,000 mark:/ oh well, at least i got over 3,000(not including author notes!) :D
hmm, seems like a lot is going on! and Hyorinmaru knows something Toshiro doesnt? wonder hat it could be...
*First of all, I gave NO idea whether the name is Kaname Tousen, or Tousen Kaname:/ second, i havent actually watched that fight, so i made up my own ending for it (i dont watch the subbed version. not that i dont like it, just that my computer is VEEERY slow, and they talk faster than the little subtitles can come up!)
I shall translate those last two names next chapter! if i give them away now it might spoil many thins! sorry!
~Winter Lover in the Snow~