Author's note: There isn't a lot said about where everything is located in Soul Society, so I just made some stuff up. So if you guys read something that you've never heard before, don't take it as canon information! Sorry for making you all wait so long for this chapter! School's just been really busy. School has to come before fanfiction writing, right? This chapter's more of Hinamori-centric. Gomen nasai! I assure you all that he'll show up more in the next chapter, which I just got an idea for. Yay! Final exams start in a little more than a month, so I can't promise an update anytime soon. But I'll try!

Disclaimer: Bleach is not mine. What a shame.

Moments

Chapter 4- Change

It was early July and a month since Class 1-1 had ventured into the world of the living to practice soul burials and been saved from the hollows by Aizen-taichou and Ichimaru fukutaichou.

And dear Hinamori was obsessed.

Instead of going straight to her room after classes ended for the day, she went to the library, poring over books covering recent happenings within the Gotei 13. She wanted to learn as much as she possibly could about Aizen-taichou; such information was what she craved more than anything. It was a miracle she was able to keep her grades up, some of her friends thought. They tried to divert her attention by giggling and talking about the attractive boys in the school, but their attempts weren't successful.

It she wasn't finding things out about Aizen-taichou, she was telling stories about a friend in Rukongai whom she referred to as 'Shiro-chan'. But such stories were being told less frequently as time went by.

If her friends heard any news about the Gotei 13 taichous visiting the Academy, particularly Aizen-taichou, they did their best to conceal the information from Hinamori. At least they rarely visited and students didn't have to deal with anything outside of school until after their fifth year.

And thank goodness summer break was finally approaching. All of the students were glad to hear of it. The weather was getting pleasantly warmer with each day and the students were paying more attention to the progression of nature outside rather than the classes they dragged themselves to each morning. Further excursions into the world of the living for soul burial practice were cancelled until the school administration found a place that they determined to be more suitable. At least that meant that their evenings were free again. What would have been their excursions into the living world, the members of 1-1 discussed their summer plans. They were allowed to stay in the dormitories, particularly those who came from the less pleasant areas of Rukongai. Hinamori was more than eager to go back to Rukongai, she had so many stories to tell her Shiro-chan! But she admitted that she would miss Abarai-kun and Kira-kun. In the past month, the three of them had quickly become close friends. Abarai-kun had chosen to stay in school than go back to Rukongai and Kira-kun was going back home; as a lower-class noble, his home was not located within Rukongai. Life in Seireitei was just so busy, and she found it so peculiar that people within Rukongai seemed oblivious to everything going on within Seireitei. But even then, the Academy seemed so far away from Seireitei. Hinamori hadn't seen Aizen-taichou since the Hollow incident and she was terribly anxious to see him again. One afternoon, Hinamori was in the library looking for more information about Aizen-taichou, but she wasn't having much luck. Hinamori admitted to herself that she had probably gathered all the information that existed on him. Convinced that was true, she resigned herself to sitting down at one of the tables and began to stare out a nearby open window. The transparent red window curtains danced in the air as a breeze gently flew by. Hinamori felt a sense of peace wash over her as the breeze continued to blow and cause some of the outdoor wind chimes to begin their pretty, dainty music. How she loved summer…

"You haven't prepared to go home yet?" a familiar voice asked.

Hinamori opened her eyes to see Abarai Renji looking at her quizzically from the entrance of the library. She smiled and shook her head.

"I don't have a lot to pack, so it's not a problem if I wait until tonight to gather everything together."

Renji nodded. "Well, in that case, are you up for some sword practice before it gets dark?"

"Eh? Didn't you ask Kira-kun earlier?"

Renji pressed his hand to his forehead and grunted. "Che. The idiot backed out at the last minute saying that he needed to start packing. And here I was hoping for one more practice before you two go back home tomorrow morning."

He had a mad glint in his eye during the last sentence, which Hinamori didn't have a good feeling about at all. "Actually, Abarai-kun, I…"

Then one of the other girls within the library let out a soft squeal. "It's Kuchiki-fukutaichou! Did you just see him walk by?"

A couple of the girls with her began to squeal as well, annoying the old woman who had the great misfortune of being the librarian that day.

Hinamori looked confused. "Kuchiki-fukutaichou? I haven't heard of him before."

Renji's face suddenly became stern. "There are five main noble families in Soul Society; the Kuchiki clan is one of them and inarguably the greatest of the four. He is the current leader of his clan and serves as the 6th Division's Vice-Captain."

And then he realized Hinamori wasn't there sitting next to him anymore.

Silently cursing himself for noticing sooner, he went off into the hallway to look for Hinamori. He had no luck though; the hallway was swarming with girls chattering excitedly about the handsome vice-captain. He didn't dare walk through the crowd of girls; Abarai Renji was completely set on keeping his sanity.

Due to her small figure, Hinamori was able to make her way through the crowd. Since Kuchiki-fukutaichou was an important member of the Gotei 13, then he surely knew Aizen-taichou!

Then she heard several books fall to the floor.

"Ah! I'm truly sorry," a girl's voice said.

As Hinamori finally reached the end of the crowd, she saw what had happened. Abarai-kun's close friend, Rukia, had just had a run-in with the fukutaichou. Rukia must have not been aware of her surroundings and collided into him. Now Rukia was down on her knees picking up their things and one of Kuchiki fukutaichou's assistants was scolding her.

"As you are learning to become a shinigami, you should be very aware of your surroundings!" he said harshly.

However, Kuchiki-fukutaichou wasn't saying anything to add on to his assistant's comments. Rather, he was looking at Rukia in a way that Hinamori couldn't quite discern. Triumphantly, perhaps? The man's emotions were rather difficult to read. Then he and his assistants were gone. Hinamori blinked. So fast! Without a second thought, Hinamori rushed to Rukia's side.

"Ano, Rukia-san, do you need any help?"

Rukia looked up at her fellow first-year and smiled gratefully, though shaking her head. "I'm okay. Luckily I wasn't carrying too many books," she replied.

"And you didn't get hurt, did you?" Hinamori asked. She knew Renji would be worried beyond words if he found out Rukia got hurt.

Rukia shook her head again as she rose to her feet, books in her arms. "I'm fine, really."

The next morning, Hinamori had her sword put away for safe keeping and locked the door to her room. Her small bag of belongings in tow, she bounded happily to the entrance of the Academy, where hundreds of other students were waiting. Only a few minutes were left before the school gates opened and the students would be escorted by teachers on their journeys to their respective areas of Rukongai and Seireitei.

"Hinamori-san!"

At the sound of her name, she looked around to see who was trying to get her attention. Moments later, she saw Kira Izuru some feet ahead of her, waving hello.

"Kira-kun!" Hinamori beamed.

Kira was rather strange and paranoid for the most part, but she knew there were no ill meanings behind his actions. And perhaps she was mistaken, but she had the feeling that he fancied her. She made a mental note to herself that Kira-kun and Shiro-chan never meet because she knew her classmate's friendliness towards her would more than displease her grumpy neighbor.

Kira made his way to Hinamori and grinned. "Ready for vacation?"

Hinamori nodded cheerfully, then looked up at him curiously. "You told me that your parents died two years ago. So who takes care of you?"

The blonde-haired boy laughed. "I have an older sister who married into another family. She and her husband let me stay with them whenever I want."

Somewhere within the Academy's towers, a bell began to clang, indicating that the school gates could finally be opened. Several teachers stepped forward and called out which sections of Rukongai and Seireitei they would be in charge of.

Kira waved goodbye to Hinamori as his section was called. "See you in September!" he called out as he disappeared among the hundreds of students struggling to find their respective sections. Hinamori soon found hers and followed her classmates and teacher back home to Western Rukongai.

Hinamori was back in the First District of Western Rukongai a little more than an hour after the school gates opened, due to that the Academy was deep within Seireitei and that somebody in her group had misplaced her pass to Rukongai (it had been in her bag the whole time) and as a result, the group had to backtrack until the girl found out where her pass was. Immediately after setting foot within Rukongai, Hinamori noticed nothing much had changed since she left for school. There were children in the main square whom Hinamori guessed recently entered Soul Society, but otherwise they were all familiar faces. Upon reaching the center of the main square, her teacher dismissed her and her fellow schoolmates, allowing them to go on to their respective homes.

As she walked along the path that led to her neighborhood, she found herself further comparing life in Seireitei and in Rukongai. She could remember staying in bed until about mid-day, playing with Shiro-chan well into the evening, and eating meals with her co-op family. In Seireitei, she had to wake up at seven in order to show up promptly to her 8 am class. Students had an hour off for lunch and classes ended at 3 pm. Dinner was served at 5 pm and students were expected to stay in their rooms after 9 pm. Life as a shinigami wouldn't be any different except that she'd work in a division rather than going to school. Hinamori did admit to herself that life in Seireitei was horribly routine, but the things she was learning were amazing and she couldn't wait to put them to use. She often watched the sixth years fight in demonstrations held for the lowerclassmen and she along with the rest of her classmates felt as though it would be nearly impossible to reach the level of her senpais.

Hinamori was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even notice a certain white-haired boy who walked by, stopped, looked at her curiously, then kept on walking.

Part of him was relieved that he wasn't noticed; yet another part of him was hurt that his closest friend had not even recognized him as they walked past each other. Earlier that day, Hitsugaya had resolved that Momo never find out that he really did have reiatsu. He had heard that the village leader had told her about the day it appeared, and he was determined to make it as though that never happened. If she found out, then it would be very likely that Hinamori would find a way to make him enter the Academy next year. No. He refused to become a shinigami and that was that. Now, he figured that the amount of food eaten signified the amount of reiatsu. So if Hitsugaya descreased his food intake, the less obvious it would be to Hinamori that he had reiatsu. Right? He had experimented the week before and it had gone horribly. He had collapsed due to hunger and had finally recovered just the other day.

Then he heard his stomach growl. Hitsugaya broke into a jog and resumed his way to the market to get some food. He didn't plan on collapsing again.