p/s this story is set up till Aizen's sentencing by the members of chamber 46 but with Ichigo's shinigami power still intact. The EXECUTION arc did not happen in this re-imagination.

disclaimer: Tite Kubo is god.

one / fast forward. rewind.

The feeling was intoxicating. How the cold wind swept upon him, forming spots in his skin from the chill and the light fluttering of his hair. How weightless his body felt, like a feather floating mindlessly in the air. He felt nothing but serenity, not a care in the world yet at the same time felt that he could do anything he set his mind to. Hitsugaya Toshiro loved the feeling of freedom that shunpo offered.

How ironic then, that as he jumped from roof to roof, his feet barely touching the terracotta tiles, that his heart filled with heaviness as he made his way around the familiar town of Karakura. Six years have been a long time, Karakura's inhabitants have aged half a decade older and there are several new buildings adoring its landscape yet everything about the town remained the same. All the while blissfully unaware of the year-long Winter War that ended with the sentencing of Aizen Sosuke's imprisonment for twenty thousands years.

'If I had my way, I would sentenced him to be locked for an eternity instead'

Hitsugaya landed on the edge of the local high school's rooftop and surveyed his surroundings. It was the same as every other night, peaceful and not a hollow in sight. A little too peaceful. He looked to his left in the corner of his eye expectantly and a voluptuous blonde shinigami appeared.

"Taicho." The red head sang playfully.

"Matsumoto." Hitsugaya made a passing nod and returned to supervising the horizon.

"Negative hollow sightings today, taicho and I've received confirmation on this from substitute shinigami Kurosaki Ichigo and thirteen division's Kuchiki Rukia." A beep was heard. Matsumoto Rangiku flipped open the soul pager and cheerfully added, "Soul Society has just verified this information as well."

The frown on Hitsugaya's face grew more visible."This marks nine days of ground level investigation and twenty-nine days without a hollow entering area 3600."

"Do you want me to ask for an extension, taicho?"

He contemplated the next course of action while absentmindedly staring at the moon. "There would be no need for it. We will leave for Soul Society at 1200hours tomorrow as planned." Hitsugaya said with finality. "That is all. You're free from tonight's duty, Matsumoto. Get some rest."

"Finally!" Matsumoto mumbled with such delighted relief that Hitsugaya expected her to shunpo back to Inoue Orihime's house instantly and was surprised when his fukutaicho remained as she was. Hitsugaya broke his gaze from the moon and turned to face his subordinate. He did not missed the passing look of concern in her eyes. "Yes, Matsumoto?"

Matsumoto grinned a little more enthusiastically than normal. "Want to grab a bottle of sake with me, taicho? It's a perfect companion for a cool night like this."

Hitsugaya eyed his fukutaicho with disbelief. "After all these years? No, I will have to pass. There's something I have to do. Goodnight Matsumoto."

"Goodnight taicho." Then Matsumoto teased lightheartedly. "Don't stay up too late though. Children your age shouldn't stay up after dark!"

"Oi!" A vein popped on his forehead with Hitsugaya ready to give his playful fukutaicho a earful but she had shunpoed off to safety, leaving traces of her giggling in her wake. Hitsugaya sulked for a second then shake his head with a sigh.

'That woman is too mischievous for my own good.'

Furrowing his brows, Hitsugaya folded his arms. 'What are we going to do? Twenty nine days with no information and no hollow. The soutaicho will not be pleased.'

He looked upwards towards the atmosphere and saw that purple was spreading into the night sky, much like watercolor diluting clear water. It could be only one thing: the start of dawn. His mind flashed back to a single memorable scene that took place six years ago, at a time much like now with the weather a little more damp and cooler.

'As in dawn of a new day, a new start at life with promises of possibilities.'

Ichigo, Rukia as well as both eleven division's Madarame Ikaku and Ayasegawa Yumichika had taken on the four arrancar that had entered Karakura in a fit of rebellion against Aizen. As an extra precaution, Hitsugaya and Matsumoto had decided to patrol around town separately to make sure that there were no errant arrancar who had chanced upon any unsuspecting humans when he spotted a tiny figure sitting atop the roof. Cautiously, he shunpoed to the figure as quietly as possible while accessing the situation. 'Substantial reiatsu but not enough to attract any interest. But why does this reiatsu feels familiar?'

In a beat of a second, he noticed the building of said roof: the Kurosaki clinic; Ichigo's house. He instantly remembered her face, the football match between her elementary friends and a group of unruly middle schoolers and the surprise he felt when he found her to be the shinigami representative's younger sister. He had his suspicions at her having the ability to sense and see hollows but it was amazing that she was even able to see him in his shinigami form.

Hitsugaya stood there for twenty minutes and even after Ichigo- who was then the only one still battling the arrancar- defeated said arrancar that she was still not aware of his presence. It was only by the sound of his foot deliberately stepping on the roof that caused her to notice him at all. Her reaction was hilarious. He had barely manage to keep his composure when he found himself staring into her eyes. It was the first time he noticed that her eyes were not just black but a satin midnight black, looking vulnerably back at him. It awoke a primal instinct inside him, like he must do whatever it takes to make sure nothing harms her. A slap on his hand jolted him back to reality. That feeling of instinct was gone as briefly as it appeared. He eyed her with a mask of indifference while studying the determined girl in front of him. 'She is a Kurosaki. If she is her brother's sister, she has no use for a knight in shining armor.'

She proceeded to stubbornly sit back down on the roof and made fun of him, all this classic Ichigo. 'Is this the Kurosaki's family trait?'

Then her cheerful voice stated."I remembered what you said the other time by the railing."

The inevitable association with sunsets caused Hinamori Momo's face to flood his mind. He used to looked up during the evening's play of red and yellow sky and reminisce about their happy childhood together. But now it served nothing but to remind him of the painful events with an Aizen-manipulated Hinamori turning her back against all the time they spent together and fought him with the intention to kill. Hinamori's look of rage haunted him to that very day. He couldn't forgive himself.

Hitsugaya had tried to maintain his cool, acting completely disinterested in participating in Ichigo's sister conversation. Still she persisted. "Don't you want to know what my perfect word for dusk is?"

Then she uttered a syllable that he would never forget.

"Closure."

Her word resonated in him. It was a single, simple word yet it felt like an answer to him. Hitsugaya looked at her with a renewed perspective. Unbeknown to her, her word had became his motto: every time he began to think back about Hinamori, he would think of her word instead and snap out of it. It took many agonizing months but eventually he was able to look at Hinamori without a hint of regret. She had helped to heal him of his wounded pride and emotional scars.

Yet he hadn't known her name.

'I know her name now.' Hitsugaya stared after the now pinkish sky.

Immediately after that fateful encounter, Hitsugaya had meet up with Matsumoto with a negative for any errant arrancar and news of the recent battle when his good-humored fukutaicho commented with considerable shock, "Taicho, you're smiling."

He ignored her and proceeded to ask in what he hoped to be in a subtle manner. "What… what do you know about…" Hitsugaya cleared his throat nervously when he saw Matsumoto giving some sort of a weird expression, "Kurosaki Ichigo's sister?"

She cracked a huge smile. 'Damn. I knew I should have think about the question before I asked Matsumoto about it!'

"Hohohoho! I was right, wasn't I? Taicho does like her!" She emphasized 'like' as much and as slowly as possible while in that high pitched voice of hers.

"Shut up."

"No need to be shy, taicho. You can ask me anything."

"I'd rather be buried in paperwork instead."

Matsumoto paid no attention to him and instead, proceeded to sing with all her might. "Taicho and Karin, sitting on the tree. K, I, S, S, I, N, G…"

Hitsugaya shook his head at the memories with a sigh. 'How fast these six years has passed.'

He admired the sunrise that was in its full glory and couldn't help but feel a bittersweet mixture of emotions. He remembered the incident that unexpectedly shook him five years ago, right after a tired Soul Society had finally incarcerated that traitor. Ichigo and Kurosaki Isshin had come home to a hysterical Yuzu, crying over the disappearance of Karin. When they came home, she had been missing for over a month. When the news hit Hitsugaya, all he felt was shock and a numbness.

There was still no sign of Karin five years later.

It was only by the third beep from his pager that Hitsugaya registered the sound and significance of it all. It was what they were sent down to area 3600 for. 'The first hollow in a month!'

He quickly flipped open the soul pager and check the hollow's location.

Karakura Public Stadium. 100m. 6.45am. +-3mins.

'I'm the one nearest to that hollow.' As if on cue, the sound of the hollow's wail was heard, spurning Hitsugaya into action. Adrenaline pumped hard in his veins as he shunpo to the public stadium in excessive speed. His legs loved the workout he was giving, his mind poising his body ready for battle. After the Winter War, there was little need for a fukutaicho, let alone a taicho to fight in combat; instead seatless members from divisions were sufficient in tackling any opponents.

Hitsugaya was about to make a leap from the top of the street light to the stadium's roof when he felt it. Subtle with precise control yet undeniable, a reiatsu. However, the amount of reiatsu was not strong enough to be identified but it was unmistakably shinigami. Confusion overcame Hitsugaya and he quickly shunpoed to the roof when he saw the hollow. Hitsugaya stopped at his tracks. There was something weird about how the menacingly large hollow looked, as it stood floating serenely mid-air, but its body was frozen in a rigid stance. Then the hollow started swaying its arms in helplessness before it bursted into flames. It screeched in pain before disintegrating and dissolving into the air.

'What the…?'

Instinctively, his hand reached for his zanpakuto as he jumped down and scanned the stadium's perimeters. There were no traces of Ichigo, Rukia, Matsumoto or anyone at all. The repulsive smell of burnt rotting flesh overpowered his senses, dulling his sensitivity to detect any reiatsu. 'Did I really felt that reiatsu? But…'

Half the stadium was badly damaged. There were the hollow's claw marks digging a third of the running track up and some of the stadium's corner walls were in ruins. It ended right in front of where Hitsugaya stood with tell-tale burn marks of the hollow's outline on the scorched patch of dead grass. The sheer violence that took placed chilled Hitsugaya.

"Taicho!"

Hitsugaya turned to see Matsumoto, Ichigo and Rukia running towards him. As they ran, the look of alarm spread on their faces as they took in the situation.

"Taicho." Matsumoto was staring at the patch of burnt grass, as was Rukia and Ichigo. "What happened?"

"I have no idea."

.

Area 3600: Soul Society's formal code for Karakura Town

ps Chapter two was supposed to be posted on 6 August 2011 but college has a way of getting in the way. I am so sorry and will be updating with chapter two soon!