I'm very sorry it's taken me so long. Things are crazy right now, but I'm already on to chapter 5 and I hope you guys like this one. To answer a question I got in a review, I just like to add a little of the japanese into the story because I prefer to watch it in japanese versus the english. If you compare the two, the Japanese version has some funnier stuff in it I think, and the english version seems a little forced and serious to me. I'll try to keep it too a minimum though, if you have question about a word, just ask me. Again thanks for the reviews and I hope you like this chapter.
Disclaimer: We all know I don't own Bleach(sigh)
Momo awoke gasping for air. Her eyes traveled around her surroundings, taking in her environment. She could hear an alarm going off somewhere but could not bring herself to focus on it. The room was dark, save for a pale sliver of moonlight that peaked through the curtains on the window and the dim light of the machines at the foot of her bed, which were currently flashing wildly with her sudden movements. She looked down at her body, there were wires and tubes coming out of her from all different angles. Momo pulled at the breathing mask that covered her face, she coughed as she took her first few breaths on her own making her lungs burn. She leaned over and began pulling the monitors off her body as quickly as she could.
The door swung open as she was about to take the I.V from her arm. Captain Unohana and vice Captain Isane rushed to the bed, placing restraining hands on her. Hinamori thrashed wildly trying to escape their grasps.
"Hinamori you must relax! Your safe now, you're in the 4th's medical wing, just relax." Isane said calmly. Both women's hands were firm and unyielding, but gentle at the same time. Hinamori struggled all the same, still searching the room for the eyes that had been watching her. Unohana made soothing noises to the young woman trying to calm her. The whole ward had heard her scream, a sound so mournful and terrifying it had sent chills through the older woman's body. The young vice captain seemed to still somewhat caught in whatever nightmare she had just woken from. Whatever it had been, it had been enough to break her from the comatose state she had been trapped in.
Momo began to relax, laying back against the bed. Captain Unohana had propped a few more pillows behind her back, allowing for her to sit up slightly while Vice Captain Isane began to replace the monitor patches on her body. Captain Unohana held her hand and comfortingly smoothed the hair from the young girl's face. She took in the frail woman's appearance. Momo had dark bruising under her eyes, the contrast made stark by the pallor of her skin. Her hair was limp and in disarray, she knew orderlies did their best to clean the unresponsive patients, but there was only so much you could bath on a person while still in their bed. Hinamori's cheek were sunken and hallow, Retsu made a note to have her meals strictly observed, she would need to be placed on a special diet to allow her to regain strength and body mass. As Captain Unohana mad her assessments, she noticed Momo's lips moving, there was no sound but it seemed as if she were trying to speak. She lifted the glass of water from the bedside table and placed the straw into the young woman's mouth. Momo sipped at the cool liquid, she could feel the burning parched feeling leave her throat as she drank.
"The breathing tubes have a tendency to make ones throat raw and swollen, it will pass in a day or two. We removed yours yesterday, we thought it might help to allow you to breathe on your own." Unohana said softly.
"How long?" Momo croaked.
Unohana paused, trying to discern what she was asking. "How long have you been out?" Momo nodded. " You were in the 12th Division's regeneration lab for a little over six months. You were only moved here about a month ago."
Momo's eyes closed for a moment. "Toshiro?" She whispered.
"Hitsugaya Taicho is fine. He sustained a few injuries but he has recovered quickly." Unohana kept her answer vague. There was no sense in over stressing the girl with details when everything had turned out fine. She glanced quickly to the door, but Momo did not seem to notice. Isane finished replacing the monitors and pulled the sheets back over Hinamori's frame. Retsu could see exhaustion quickly reclaiming the girl. She placed a hand over the vice captain's forehead and said a quick kido spell, helping her to relax and let sleep come. "Just relax, there will be plenty of time to answer questions tomorrow."
Momo felt the kido wash over her body, she felt calm and peaceful, her body relaxing back into the bed. She thought she heard someone else come into the room, but her eyelids were too heavy to open. She slowly slipped back into oblivion.
Toshiro watched the scene unfold from the doorway. When she had first started to seize and shake as she awoke, he had run to get the Captain of 4th Division's aid. Her scream had sent his heart into a deep freeze. It was a horrendous sound, even when she had been screaming at the foot of Aizen's fake corpse, she hadn't sounded so terrified. He couldn't imagine what had scared her so.
"Did she say anything?" He asked quietly, his eyes never moving from her sleeping form.
"Just asked how long she had been under, and about you." Retsu looked at the young man, trying to discern the emotion on his face. She had never seen the 10th's captain in such a state, no one had except maybe the young woman who lay there, and she even doubted that. Hitsugaya's shoulders were slumped and his icy persona seemed to be caving off of him in unstable waves. She couldn't imagine the amount of pain he was in. Hinamori was the closest thing he had to family left, and too almost have lost her, not once but twice in the past year, she was certain a lesser man would have broken now.
Toshiro nodded slowly. He watched as Isane replaced the breathing mask and then rechecked the monitors to make sure everything was in working order. She turned and nodded once to Captain Unohana then quietly left the room. Unohana turned back to Hitsugaya and smiled comfortingly.
"Everything seems to be in order now. The kido spell should last till morning and it should help with her nightmares. It's still pretty early, your more than welcome to stay here. I'll have Isane send a cot in if you wish."
"Yes, thank you." Toshiro whispered. Retsu made to leave the room when he stopped her. "Is she- will she be okay?" He asked gruffly.
"Physically, she seems fine, all of her wounds have healed nicely. She is a little malnourished at the moment, but that is to be expected and should be easy to rectify. Mentally" she paused, unsure of what to say, "well it's still too early to tell. We'll just need to keep a close eye on her and wait and see what happens."
Toshiro's eyes closed, trying to fight back the pain and tears hiding in them. For a moment, Retsu pondered how someone could look so young and yet so old at the same time.
"She's strong, Hitsugaya Taicho, remember she's been though this before and pulled through. She just needs her friends around her to support her and lead her through this. Hinamori wasn't made a vice captain for no reason, there is strength in her, have faith."
Toshiro gave her his thanks, and Unohana left the room, closing the door and heading to her office. She would need to write up a report for the head captain. He, also, was interested in the mental welfare and recuperation of the 5th Division's vice captain.
Ichigo lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling without really seeing it. One month, it had been one month since he had last seen or spoken to any ghost, hollows, mod souls, or shinigami. He sighed in frustration and looked around the room. It was too quiet. Kon had gone to stay at Urahara's shop for awhile, the little mod soul had not been able to handle Ichigo's downward spiral of depression.
"Ichigo?"
Ichigo looked at his door. Karin stood in the frame, she was wearing her new middle school uniform, her hair tied up in a ponytail. She had hit a growth spurt in the last couple of months, making her almost taller than Rukia. Ichigo's face scrunched into a grimace when he thought of the 'little shorty' who had turned his life upside down. He spent most of his days trying to block out his memories of her and all the others from Soul Society, it was too painful otherwise.
"What's up Karin" He asked. Karin walked in and sat down at the chair at his desk. She tugged at her skirt a little. She hated the thing, she didn't see why she couldn't just wear pants like the boys. Seriously, how was she supposed to run around or play soccer in this thing without showing everything to the whole world. Not that she had much time for that anymore. Since Ichigo had lost his powers, she had tried to take up his mantle. It wasn't easy, in fact her teacher had just gotten on her today for failing a test, because she had spent the whole night out chasing a hollow instead of studying.
"So how was school today?" Ichigo asked. Karin looked up.
"Oh you know, just the usual stuff. Most of it's so boring I have a hard time staying awake half the time." She said, rubbing the back of her neck and laughing nervously. Ichigo frowned, this wasn't like Karin.
"Actually that's why I came to you. I sort of fell asleep during one of my tests and the teacher failed me. He said that he would let me take the retest but that I had to get this one signed first. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind signing it for me, I don't want Dad to freak out, you know how he can get. I promise I'll do really well on the make up and it won't happen again., please Ichigo?"
Ichigo frowned, this definitely wasn't like Karin. He looked over her face, it had thinned out in the last month, making her look a little older. Ichigo had just thought she was growing, but looking more closely at her, he could see bags under her eyes. He also noticed a large bruise the was halfway hidden by her skirt.
"Give it here." He said. Karin handed him the test and he pulled out a pen to scrawl his signature across it. " Just don't let it happen again. By the way, where'd you get that nasty bruise? You havin' any other kinds of problems at school?"
Karin looked down and pulled her skirt to cover the large discoloration. She laughed again in that same nervous way. "Oh that's just from soccer practice, it's no big deal."
"Right" Ichigo said, unconvinced, "well just try to be a little more careful next time won't you? We don't want that big overgrown drama queen flooding the whole house with tears if you brake something."
"Right, that would be bad. Thanks Ichi-nii." She took the paper from her brother and practically ran from the room. Ichigo watched her carefully. Something was definitely off with his little sister. He got up and went to the window. He watched as a few minutes later Karin ran from the house and headed down the street. Ichigo headed downstairs. He found Yuzu in the kitchen, preparing dinner.
"Smells good Yuz, what is it?" He asked as he leaned against the counter. His sister jumped a little, startled by his appearance.
"Ichigo, you scared me! You shouldn't sneak up on people, it's not nice." She scolded him. "I'm making a new curry dish, one of my friends from school gave me the recipe. She says it's the best."
"Sorry bout that Yuzu, didn't mean to scare you. Hey speaking of school, how's it going? Are you having the same problems that Karin's having?"
Yuzu paused at that. She didn't know her sister was having problems with class. She knew her sister had started going out at night, their rooms were next to each other show she could hear when Karin snuck in and out of her window. Had she started hanging out with a new crowd? Yuzu began to worry.
"No my classes are going great. I'm one of the top of my class, in fact. Why?" She asked.
"Oh it's nothing big, Karin was just mentioning she was falling asleep in class. Maybe she's coming down with a cold or something."
Yuzu paused from cutting up vegetables. "Ichigo" she said nervously, " I didn't want to say anything, but I'm starting to worry about her. I heard her going out the window a couple nights ago, and she didn't come back till almost morning. You don't think she's joined a gang or something, do you?"
Ichigo looked at his little sister's big watery eyes. He shook his head, Yuzu could be as over dramatic as their father sometimes. "I'm sure it's nothing like that. Karin know better than to get mixed up with the wrong crowd. Still, the next time you hear her sneak out, come tell me okay?" Yuzu nodded and wiped at her eyes, reassured by her brothers words.
"Hey where was Karin off to just now? She knows dad'll flip if she's late for dinner." He asked casually.
"Oh she'll be back in time, she said she was just going to Urahara's to ask Jinta for something. I think she said he was in the same class as her." Yuzu turned to find herself alone. She heard the door slam.
Ichigo ran down the street pushing his legs as fast as they would take him. That bastard! He thought. I'll rip his freakin' head off if he's gotten Karin into this shit!
Ichigo made it to the shop in record time. As he came around the corner, he stopped to cautiously look around. The courtyard was empty. Everyone must be inside, not exactly a good sign, he thought. Carefully, he made his way to the side door, slipping in undetected.