Hi, this is my first fanfic so please be gentle. It's mainly about Hinamori, with a bit of Hitsugaya later. First chapter takes place before Hitsugaya and the gang are called back to soul society. It closely follows the same timeline as the manga/anime, at lease for now. Italics are Hinamori's thoughts.

Disclaimer: does not own Bleach

"Limit, release!" she said in almost a whisper. Beneath her shiginami uniform, the Gotei 13's fifth division insignia glowed on her chest.

There, she stood in the sky of the living world, on a mission to eliminate her foe. For the first time since she became a shinigami, she was ready to fight, wanting to fight. Her former taichou was a passivist, he loved the world. A kind, loving man. Never have she seen him unsheathe his zanpakuto, and was always able to settle disputes and much more with his heavenly voice. Or so she wanted to believe. And just like the man she admired, she would walk the right path. The first time she saw his zanpakuto, was almost the last thing she would see. In a way, Aizen really had killed her. That part of her she used to be had died in her heart, along with the man she looked up to. To her, the ex-shinigami that sat in on the throne of Hueco Mundo was someone else.

"What was that? Limit release? Is that your full power?" the arrancar scoffed. He then released his own powers to its true form. Through the smoke came a figure that resembled something like a werewolf. His beastly face made Hinamori cringe. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the four huge, long (probably as long as her) blades for claws at the end of hand. Hinamori had a tough time with the arrancar to begin with. Now, it'll be even worse. She thought to herself, trying to come up with a plan. I have to continue dodging his attacks. It was hard enough already!

Noticing her lack of concentration, the arrancer took the chance to attack first. Hinamori was starring at him one moment, then with a blink of an eye he vanished. Where'd he go?! The wolf-like arrancer appeared right above her, cocked his arm back and swung his claws, aiming for her throat. One, two, three times he tried to slice her. Clutching her zanpakuto as hard as she could, she blocked. The shock of each powerful swing resonated down her arms, up to her shoulders, wearing her down with each blow. Tobiume won't be able to keep up with the bashing much longer,and neither will I.

Lifting the limit on her reiatsu still wasn't enough as the arrancer released his true form. This is getting nowhere, Hinamori said to herself, while continuing blocking and dodging as much as she could. After each of his waves of attacks, Hinamori tried to counter, shooting fireballs, kido, even binding spells. But every time the arrancer saw the shiginami point her finger, he knew to dodge. With the speed of something faster than she had ever encountered, he was too quick for her long ranged attacks. The arrancer started to run towards her, claws sharp and ready for shinigami blood.

If only I can get closer...

Panting and out of breath, Hinamori tried to steady her stance as she tried to withstand the beast as he struck her zanpakuto hard, it sounded like metal clashing against metal. She winced at the sound, forgive me Tobiume, hold on for just a bit more. The arrancer knew she was getting tired, he pushed against Tobiume, trying to knock her down. Hinamori gasped as her strength faltered for a split second. That was all he needed to slip one of his blade claws past Tobiume and pierce Hinamori's right shoulder, shattering her collar bone. Too out of breath to scream, she wheezed for air. Trying to hold in the pain, she clenched her eyes shut, her head facing down. The beast laughed with joy, sounding like a hyena as he held the blade, still skewered through her body in the air. He abruptly stopped his snorting when he caught a glimpse of her face, more specifically, her smile.

"Heh..." she smirked. It was the first time she wore a self-satisfied smile offensively. And it felt good, she noted. "Immortal Black Flame", Hinamori called in almost a whisper. Still holding Tobiume in her left hand the blade burst with black rather than the normal pink flames, igniting Tobiume on fire sweltering so hot anyone would think her zanpakuto itself would melt.

"Check..." With one swift swing Hinamori sliced through the base of the arrancers blade claw like butter, detaching the claw from its hand.

"What?!" he gasped in pain like a wounded dog.

"...MATE!" she screamed, swinging down dead center of the beast, giving it her all.

His feet was frozen in shock as he realized a little too late that she purposely let him stab her to close the gap between them and let his guard down. Instinctively, the arrancer raised his arms in front of his face in reaction to her on coming attack. Through the gaps between his arms, he could see a pair of unwavering eyes, full of determination to kill him. Then, all he saw was dark burning flames of her zanpakuto.

As Hinamori watched the figure in front of her slowly dissipated into nothingness, she let out a sigh of relief and exhaustion. Her body was shaking from the rush of adrenaline in her first arrancer encounter. Sheathing her zanpakuto, Hinamori flew to the rooftop of a nearby building. After landing she collapsed on her knees, still out of breath, her left hand clutching the opposite shoulder that still had the blade from the arrancer in it. Her right arm was overflowing with blood running down her arm, creating a small puddle on the floor.

"My, my, that was something!" a voiced echoed behind Hinamori. Recognizing the owner of the voice, Hinamori hesitated to face the person. She closed her eyes and slowly she dragged herself around, still inhaling heavily, and even more so with each second. Hazel brown eyes met (in this case, didn't) with those of the former third division taichou himself, Ichimaru Gin.

"I'm so glad to see you alive, Hina-chan." he grinned wider.

"You..." she let out, between huffs of breaths. "you made everyone hate Aizen! You made him do those things!" she cried out to the man standing in the sky in front of her.

Ichimaru didn't react to her accusations as if he was expecting it. "I'm so flattered you thought it was me."

Hinamori sat there on the roof top of a building silently starring at the former taicho.

"Aizen was right in choosing you to be his fukutaicho. Loyal to the end. " he said through the permanent grin on his face. "Gomen ne Hinamori-chan, it wasn't me."

Stunned. Shocked. Dumbfounded. Stupefied. Whatever the word, that was the look on Hinamori's face at that moment. Her thoughts were running around her head so fast she started to get nauseous. Hazel eyes ran back and forth, left to right as she tried to collect her thoughts and heard the voices of everyone telling her it was Aizen behind everything. Aizen killed the elders of Chamber 46. Aizen tried to kill Kuchiki Rukia. Aizen tried to kill her and wasn't being controlled. It was all Aizen! Aizen! Aizen! AIZEN! Her head screamed.

Deep down inside she knew it all along. Even when she lied to Unohana-taicho that she understood everything, Hinamori told herself she would follow along with what everyone was saying about Aizen so she could get out of the care of the fourth division. Since then, she had been fighting a battle within herself. Should she just accept that she was wrong about Aizen? The incident had left a lot of her fellow shinigami hurt, it would be horrible if she was supporting the enemy. But what if she the moment she did it turned out that Aizen was innocent and she had turned her back on him. She couldn't live if that happened.

Snapping back to reality, Hinamori's good arm fell limp to her left side, her eyes lifeless as she lifted her head to look again at the man. He was the proof that she needed to console herself. Ichimaru wouldn't lie, he didn't need to. The truth was enough to destroy the girl.

"Ma, you were his favorite pet if that makes you feel better, Hina-chan!" said Ichimaru, slightly bent over towards her. A few moments passed before one of them spoke.

"Next to you..." Hinamori retorted back. Smirking devilishly for the second time in her life. Ichimaru still had his trade mark grin but she noticed his brows furred a little upon hearing her remark.

"I'm not the one that out lived their usefulness." as he leaned in a little closer so he could hum the words in her ears to travel down her body and wrap itself around her heart, squeezing tightly to shatter whatever was left that drove her to live on.

Ichimaru straightened up,"ikorose, Shinshou". The tip of his zanpakuto hit dead on the base of the blade that Hinamori forgot was still protruding from her shoulder, thrusting her back to hit the wall of the square structure that held the door that humans inside the building would use to access the rooftop. The force was so powerful that it caused the end of the blade that exited out of her back to puncture the cement wall, nailing her to it. Hinamori heard something crack, she could have sworn it was the bones in her right arm if it wasn't the wall. She shrieked in pain and blood ran down the cement wall as she hung there like a ragdoll.

"Gin."

Hinamori looked up to find another familiar face standing in the portal to Hueco Mundo next to a blonde, hunching arrancer.

"There is no need for all this, Gin." Kaname Tousen said in a low tone.

"Ah, I didn't mean for you to see it." he responded in the most innocent voice he could conjure. Tousen raised an unamused eyebrow. Hinamori could only watch as Ichimaru retreated back into the portal that split the sky and the blonde arrancer moved out of the way and hid behind Tousen. The portal began to close once he was fully in, he turned around to look at Hinamori. Before it completely disappeared, Hinamori stared as Gin bent down and waved "bye bye" to her.

The building that she was now attached to overlooked the sea. The sun was going to set soon down behind the never-ending waters. A breeze came and swept across her face and she closed her eyes, feeling a sense of peace for the first time since she could remember. This is it, the end. She was drained, having to release all her reiatsu to fight the arrancer and using her special attack started to take its toll, and not to mention that she was still bleeding. Hinamori looked down at her one good arm, waiting for it to move up and pull out the blade that pinned her to the wall so she could return to Soul Society. But it didn't. She laughed at herself. I guess I really am going to give up here. Hinamori sighed and looked forward, ready to watch her last sunset.

The next chapter explains more on how Hinamori turned out this way. Thank you for reading!