Free Talk- This chapter is very Hitsugaya-centric and was thus a bit difficult for me (he's a tough character to write). At this point, it may seem like the only characters who have gotten much of a part are Momo and Toushirou, but that will change. Aizen, Izuru, Gin, Tousen, and Tobiume all have important roles planned out for them and will feature more prominently in future chapters. I am very excited about the parts each character has to play in this story (even if I can't quite do them justice). Please comment and tell me what you think.
Sympathy
For the Devil
By Miss
Angel Maxwell
fourth chapter
THE
BREAKDOWN COMES WHEN YOU STOP CONTROLLING YOURSELF AND WANT THE
RELEASE OF A
BLOODBATH
"I can't believe it!" Captain Hitsugaya spat. "I can't believe the way they reacted to the news about Momo! It was so awful I had to extricate myself from the scene! Can you believe it, Matsumoto?"
Back in Orihime's living room, standing about six feet away from her superior, Vice Captain Matsumoto Rangiku closed her eyes and sighed. "You know that I always try to support you in every way I can. That's why I left when you did. And you know I hate to disagree with you, Captain, but what Ichigo and the others said is true. There really is very little we can do for her right now. We don't even have proof that Hueco Mundo is where Hinamori is. And if she really did go to seek out Captain Aizen, she did it of her own free will and doesn't want to be rescued."
The young man's face contorted into a mask of utter displeasure. "So you agree with them?" he growled. "I thought that of all shinigami, you would be able to see this situation as clearly as I do. It doesn't matter if she chose to go, Momo is an innocent victim. That bastard, Aizen has had her completely under his spell since the first time she saw him. He hypnotized her and ultimately lured her away. This is no different from a kidnapping!"
Taking a step forward, Rangiku held up her hands and gestured for her captain to calm down. "I'm not trying to absolve Aizen of responsibility for Hinamori's disappearance, Captain. I'm just saying that we need more information and a good plan before we go charging off to try and rescue her… Which is what you seem to want to do. I don't think I've ever seen you this worked up before, and it worries me. I mean, you've never walked out on an important meeting before."
"The meeting was going nowhere," Toushirou said scathingly. "Nobody else even seems interested in actively making a plan. It's now painfully clear that I'm the only one who really cares about Momo… the only one who really wants to get her back." He crossed his arms over his chest and began to pace, reliving in his mind the meeting they had just prematurely exited. Hot air snorted from his nostrils as he recalled Vice Captain Abarai calmly saying that they should wait for further development before taking any action.
Watching him, a small, unintentional smile spread over Rangiku's lovely features and she shook her head gently. "You really are a lot like that orange-haired boy," she sighed. "Even though I'm sure you would never admit it, Captain." Hitsugaya's frown deepened and she felt the need to explain her reasoning and appease him. "I mean that you both have a certain passion when it comes to the people you care most about. It's the kind of passion that makes you do things that go against your friends' advice as well as your own better judgment. He illegally trespassed into Soul Society to prevent Kuchiki Rukia's execution… And from the way you're acting, I can tell that if you knew how to get to Hueco Mundo you'd have already left by now."
The frown on Hitsugaya's face remained firmly in place and he grumbled something low and incoherent. As always, his vice captain's keen sense was able to dissect him like a zanpakutou, and as always, he was incredibly annoyed by it. In all honesty though, Toushirou had few objections to being compared to Kurosaki Ichigo. He was a brave and dedicated young human who possessed all of the characteristics of a great warrior and a great leader. If he had been a shinigami growing up in Soul Society, Ichigo would undoubtedly be a division captain by now. The comparison didn't bother him at all. It was the fact that Matsumoto so lightheartedly mentioned it at such a serious time. Was she trying to cheer him up? He swore sometimes that woman acted more like a meddlesome older sister than an adjutant.
"Are you alright, Captain?" she asked him, after he'd been silent for several minutes. "I didn't mean to make light of the situation. I was just trying to provide some additional perspective. After all, that guy was successful in his mission to rescue Rukia, wasn't he? If anything, that should give you hope." She smiled at Hitsugaya again. "You know… Kurosaki Ichigo isn't the only one you share the same traits with…"
The boy captain raised an eyebrow curiously, though he tried to keep his level of intrigue well disguised. "What the hell are you talking about now?" he asked gruffly.
"I was just thinking out loud," Rangiku replied.
"Thinking about what?"
"Well," she went on. "I was thinking that Hinamori is the same way as you and Ichigo. Ichigo would do anything for Miss Kuchiki. You would do anything for Miss Hinamori. And she would do anything for…"
"…Aizen…" Hitsugaya finished coldly. "That's what you were going to say … but it's not the same situation. Neither Rukia or Momo is an evil monster like he is."
"But if they were, I don't think you or Ichigo would care," Matsumoto replied with a coy expression. "You probably wouldn't even acknowledge it. Just like Momo refuses to acknowledge that Aizen is evil."
In a rare expression of defeat, the young captain closed his eyes and hung his head. "But he is evil, and I should have seen it earlier. Then maybe… maybe I could have done something to save her from his filthy clutches… I could have made Momo see the truth about him…"
"Toushirou…" Rangiku said. She knew she was breaking protocol calling him by his first name. "Nobody knew. This isn't your fault. And maybe…" She hesitated for a moment. "Maybe we need to have more faith in Hinamori. She's a talented young woman, not a child. And I think if anyone can get through to Aizen… if anyone can find something good in him… It's Hinamori Momo."
What followed the gently spoken words was absolute silence. Toushirou stared at his vice captain with a detached green gaze, unable to form any verbal response. In his heart he didn't even want to think about what she had just said, didn't want to face the smallest possibility that it could be true. When he finally did think of a reply, it came out in an aloof monotone. "I'm going up to the roof to think for awhile. Please do not follow me Rangiku." And all she could do was watch with pensive grace as her captain ascended out of the skylight window.
The stars were dimmer than they had been the last time he was here. Dawn was creeping up as an orange glow at the eastern rim of the sky and was beginning to blot out the little white specks. Hitsugaya didn't want to face the morning. He wanted to freeze time and live in a state of suspended animation. No, that's not what he wanted. He wanted to go back in time. Back to before Momo first enrolled in Shinigami Academy. Back to a time when he had been her entire world.
"That's just selfish," he mumbled to himself. "And stupid. Only idiots and little kids dwell on the past and wish they could go back."
All of the sudden, he could hear Momo's voice, clear and bubbly, in his head. 'But Shiro, you are a kid. Even if you don't act like one.' It was exactly the sort of thing she would say.
"Where are you Momo?"
"I'm here, Shiro," her voice came lilting from behind him. It sounded so crisp and so close that, for a moment, Toushirou thought that she was actually standing behind him on Miss Inoue's roof. He caught his lapse in judgment before he even turned around to check. But the voice continued. "I'm right behind you, Shiro. Please turn around so I can talk to you."
Defying the rational part of his brain, the young man turned around and she was there. Hinamori Momo was standing there next to him as if he'd willed it, dressed in strange but attractive clothes, her black hair pulled back in an elegant ponytail. Slack-jawed and weak-limbed he stood up and approached her, still not completely sure she was really real. "Hinamori," he breathed. "You're here… I thought you'd gone to Hueco Mundo to find Aizen… but you're here, in the Living World. Why? Why did you leave Soul Society without telling anyone? Do you know how worried you made me?"
"I never meant to worry you Shiro," she replied, her big brown eyes full of emotion. "I don't blame you for thinking I went to Hueco Mundo. I figured Izuru would have told you about my research. But that's not why I was doing it. Shiro, I need to tell you something very important. Your life depends on it. Someone… someone is going to try to kill you, Shiro."
"What? Who?" her friend asked, extending his hand to touch hers. "You can tell me anything."
Momo pulled away. "Not here," she said with hushed urgency. "He probably has spies monitoring this house. No, we need to go somewhere more secluded, just the two of us. Meet me at ball field behind the high school in ten minutes… And come alone."
"Wait!" Hitsugaya pleaded, but she had already vanished.
Ten minutes later, the young captain was waiting in the specified location. He had followed her instructions and came alone, told nobody even though his initial instincts told him he should bring along back up. For some reason, Hitsugaya could not betray Hinamori's trust. By now the orange glow in the east had spread and taken on a pinkish hue. Sunrise was about an hour away. Across the field, standing in front of the soccer goal, a small figure was waiting. He walked over to her cautiously.
"Momo," he greeted austerely. "I came, just as you asked. Please, tell me what's going on. Who's going to try to kill me?"
She stared at him for a long minute, her face tinged with barely hidden sadness. "Me," she said softly. "I'm sorry, Shiro." As she pulled out the blade that was tucked into her belt, her timid voice turned into a yell. "Tobiume! Release!"
In a swirl of gold fire, the plain sword transformed into Tobiume, a beautiful, branched zanpakutou of the fire element. Hitsugaya leapt back instantly and instinctively drew his own weapon, hyourinmaru. "What are you doing, Momo?" he shouted. "Snap out of it!"
Paying no attention to her friend's pleas, Momo swung her zanpakutou through the air, sending an immense column of flame hurtling towards him. With amazing reflexes, he dodged the attack, and then raised his own blade to strike back. He couldn't do it. He couldn't attack Momo. "Stop this now!" he yelled. "You don't really want to hurt me! Aizen has brainwashed you!"
She refused to listen and continued her assault. Fire swirled out from her in all directions, scorching the grass in intricate patterns, and Hitsugaya was finding it more and more difficult to evade. "Dammit!" he cursed to himself. "She's gotten a lot stronger! Must be Aizen's help. But I can't fight back. I can't hurt Momo and I can't run away. This could be my only chance to secure her safety."
As he was contemplating his options, an unchecked fire attack from the side leapt up and enwrapped his hand, causing him to wince in pain and drop his ice zanpakutou. In the split second it took to retrieve it, Hinamori had surrounded him with a cage of flames, completely trapping him. She gazed at him with an eerily calm face, and lifted Tobiume to deliver the finishing blow. The only way he could possibly save himself would be to attack. In such a high-pressure situation, could he muster up a controlled attack that would disarm her without hurting her? There was no time to think about it, Momo had already unleashed her inferno and it was headed straight for him.
The attack never hit its intended target, however. At the last possible moment, a figure in black streaked in front of the trapped shinigami, absorbing the attack as his blade sliced through the fire-prison. Hitsugaya recognized the hook shaped zanpakutou and its wielded immediately. "Vice Captain Kira?" he gasped.
"Looks like I got here just in the nick of time," Izuru said weakly before collapsing to the singed earth.
The flames had receded now. Apparently, Momo was just as shocked by the new arrival as Toushirou was, and pulled back her attack to see who he was. She took a few nervous steps forward, still keeping some distance, and stared at the young shinigami sprawled out between her and her target. Toushirou stared too. The blonde's injuries looked severe. The sleeve of his black uniform had been burned completely off and from shoulder to wrist, charred bits of cloth stuck to his burned, oozing flesh.
"Izuru, you dummy," Momo said, though her voice had lost all confidence and was trembling as if she were about to cry. She held Tobiume up in front of her. "Now I'll have to kill you, too. Ban… b-bank…"
Hitsugaya had dropped to his knees to try to evaluate Izuru's injuries and help him if possible, but when he heard Momo's voice it drew his eyes back upwards. He watched her with a mix shock and caution. She was trying to use bankai. Had she really reached that level? She was trying, but she couldn't follow through. She tried to spit out the command several more times before giving up and crumpling in a pathetic heap, sobbing.
"Go after her," Izuru urged, his voice even more feeble than before. "Don't worry about me, Captain Hitsugaya. I came here to help you. Please, go save Momo. I think I bought you enough time, but you have to… hurry… Captain…. Save her…" His words trailed off and his meek blue eyes slowly closed.
With a respectful and gracious nod, Hitsugaya sprung to his feet. Izuru had saved his life. Now that she had stayed her murder attempt, and was shaking and crying and on the edge of complete meltdown, he could finally get through to her. He could finally get through to Hinamori Momo and hopefully bring her back home where she belonged. He was just a few feet away from her, so close, but before he could reach out to her a tall, bronze-skinned shinigami appeared out of nowhere, scooped up the quavering girl in his arms, and then vanished back into the pink dawn sky.
To be continued…
