Chapter 4:
Hinamori quickly whipped her head around to look behind her, unable to believe her ears. Unfortunately, the momentum of her swing was so great that she lost her balance and toppled backwards.
And she would have fallen off the roof too…. Had her companion not rushed to help her regain her balance.
"Easy now, Hinamori" Hitsugaya said with a slight smile as he helped her sit back up. "We can't have you falling for me that easily now, can we?"
"Hitsuga-" Hinamori exclaimed, only to have her childhood friend quickly cover her mouth with his hand.
"Keep it down" he quietly urged. "It'd be troublesome if the others were to suddenly show up now. It would ruin everything..."
The sight of her childhood friend so close to her caused the words to die in her throat. She couldn't help but be captivated by his teal eyes, so fierce and determined that Hinamori couldn't focus on anything else. He had never looked at her like that before….
Hitsugaya took her silence as understanding and slowly removed his hand from her lips. He allowed himself to relax once more, now that he knew his cover wasn't about to be blown mere seconds after his arrival. With the tension gone from his face, Hinamori was able to break free from her trance and regain her voice.
"...Hitsugaya-kun" Hinamori began again, this time making sure to keep her voice down. "W-Why are you here? Are you here to... t-take me with you?"
Hitsugaya didn't reply at first as he sat down next to her. He looked as though he was internally debating something. And judging by the look on his face before he finally spoke, it seemed as though the less favourable position had won.
"...No" He replied with a sigh. "As much as I want to, it would put everything else in jeopardy… and we're just not ready yet for that to happen. So I can't… for now."
"W-What do you mean?" Hinamori asked as she leaned towards him, her curiosity getting the better of her. "Why can't you…?"
"That eager to come with me, huh?" Hitsugaya teased, which earned him a quick glare from his companion. "But in all seriousness, just think about it. How could I have found you so quickly? You're wearing gigai that completely suppresses your spiritual and you're hidden in the world of the living. So, tell me, how did I find you?"
The lieutenant paused for a minute as she tried to think of answer. Her gigai got rid of her spiritual pressure, so he couldn't have traced her… She was in the world of the living, which wouldn't exactly be the first place he would think to look… And it had only been a day since she left, so he couldn't have just so happen to find her... So how did he…
And that's when it hit her.
"Someone… told you" she slowly replied, still trying to process the words as they were coming out of her mouth. "Someone told you exactly where I was."
Hitsugaya nodded. "And that's why I can't take you with me. It took you all of ten seconds to figure it out. How long do you think it would take the Seireitei?"
Hinamori didn't reply, her thoughts desperately trying to piece everything together. Someone had told Hitsugaya where she was, which meant that he had someone working with him on the inside... And that someone had to be of a high enough rank to even know anything about her current circumstances, since her stay in the world of the living was classified information... This meant that they had to be a captain or someone who was currently staying in the world of the living with her….
Or, it dawned on her, they could be both.
"Is it… Ichimaru-taichou?" Hinamori asked as she searched her companion's face for answers. "Is he the one working with you?"
"Ichimaru?" Hitsugaya repeated, clearly taken aback by her question. "Him? Really? That snake is in it for no one but himself… and maybe Matsumoto... The point is, I wouldn't trust him as far as I can throw him. I mean, sure, we did have that one conversation that night, but… Truth be told, I don't even know what to make of it. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is no, he's not the one I'm talking about."
"Then... who?" the young lieutenant questioned once more.
"...I think it would be for the best if I don't answer that" Hitsugaya replied with a sly smile. "I mean, what if I told you and you started acted differently because of it? Then it wouldn't even matter that I didn't take you with me: they would still know you saw me. It then wouldn't take long for them to put two and two together to figure out how I knew where you were…. and everything would just fall apart. So for now, just try to keep your questions at bay, okay? The more you know, the more dangerous this becomes."
"Then why come here at all?" Hinamori asked, slightly hurt and angry at Hitsugaya's lack of confidence in her secret-keeping abilities. "If letting me know anything at all is so dangerous, then why even show up?!"
Before Hitsugaya could urged her again to keep her voice down, a voice called up from down below.
"Hinamori? Everything okay?" a familiar female voice yelled from inside the house. "Is something going on? You sound upset. If you want, I can come up and-"
"Everything's fine, Rangiku-san!" Hinamori yelled back down almost a little too quickly. "There's no need to come up, really! Just give me a few more minutes and I'll be right back down, okay?"
The two childhood friends took Matsumoto's lack of reply as a sign that she trusted everything was indeed okay. However, the two knew that it wouldn't be wise to continue their conversation for too much longer, for fear that Matsumoto really would come up to check on Hinamori.
So Hitsugaya then stood up and began to make his exit. But before he disappeared into the night, he left Hinamori with the answer to one of the questions she had asked him that night.
"I came here because… I just had to see you." he said with his back facing his childhood friend. "Things didn't exactly end well the last time I saw you and… I just needed to make sure that you were okay... That we were okay… I know you're confused and desperate for answers right now, but just try to believe in me, okay?"
"Why did you kill him?" Hinamori blurted out before hitsugaya could leave, causing him to freeze in place. He knew she had a thousand questions she wanted this ask him and he knew it was only a matter of time before she asked him that one. "Oh, Hitsugaya-kun, why did you kill Aizen-Taichou...?"
"...Just believe in me" was all Hitsugaya allowed himself to reply, his hands in solid fists.
And with that, Hitsugaya vanished into the night. Leaving Hinamori alone, once again...
Hinamori didn't even recall falling asleep that evening, let alone even coming down from the rooftop. It seemed as though one second she was staring at the empty space where Hitsugaya silhouette once stood, and then the next she was waking up to the sight of light pink walls and a white sealing.
With streaks of light shining through the open window, the lieutenant surrendered herself to arrival of a new day and got out of bed. As she got dressed, her thoughts wandered to the previous evening. It felt almost surreal, the idea of having met with her childhood friend. Despite everything that had happened, it felt as though nothing had changed at all. He was still the same know-it-all and wise cracking person he had always been.
But at the same time, everything had changed. She had met him yesterday with hundreds of questions, and although he had answered some of them, it felt as though she had more questions now than when she started. The biggest of them being who Hitsugaya's mysterious helper was. She had been so sure that if anyone was involved it had to be the captain of squad three. But now… She was at a lost.
Hinamori was only broken from her thoughts when a sudden knocking began at her door. After doing a quick once-over to make sure she looked presentable, she opened her door and was immediately met with the sight of Matsumoto's massive chest in her face.
"Oh good, you heard me!" Matsumoto exclaimed as she took a step back to give Hinamori some room to breathe. "Listen, you've got to try this new dishe Inoue cooked up. I never knew pickles and eggs could taste so good!"
Had it not been for the fact that she had skipped supper the night before, Hinamori was sure her stomach would have turned at the mention of what was in store for her for breakfast. Not trusting herself to not offend Matsumoto or Inoue, the fifth division lieutenant merely nodded in response as Matsumoto swung her arm around Hinamori's shoulders and brought her towards the kitchen.
Yet, just before they entered the kitchen, the 10th division lieutenant whispered something into her companion's ear.
"So you'll tell me later what Taichou had to say later, right?" Matsumoto said with a hint of amusement in her voice. "I'm dying to know."
Before Hinamori could respond, Matsumoto quickly removed her arm from the fifth division lieutenant's shoulders and greeted Ichimaru and Inoue who were already enjoying their morning tea.
