Hanatarou cautiously lifted his broom and prodded Aizen's glasses gingerly. No hollows materialised in the sky, and no explosions occurred. The only reaction he got was the broken shards of the glass lenses falling out of their frames with a sad tinkle. He swept the glass away before someone (most likely himself) could step on it, and picked up the frame.

It was a good, sturdy frame. Despite having fallen from a considerable height, it was not damaged. Perhaps he could take it back and cut new plastic lenses, to protect his eyes from bloody splatters during operations. Hanatarou was a thrifty shinigami, encouraged by a smaller income due to being unable to venture forth to carry out soul burials as often as those from other divisions could. In case he forgot, he put the lens-less spectacles on and looked up. Turning to face the window, he found himself face to Aizen-bespectacled face with an incredulous Momo Hinamori. In a terrible instant, Hanatarou realised his predicament. He tore the spectacles off, dropping them in the process; and stammered an apology.

"Uh…g-gomenasai…f-fukoutaicho…"

Hinamori frowned to hide her own embarrassment. She had just screamed like a little girl in front of a lowly officer from a different division, an action not becoming of a vice-captain at all. She should have expected to find something like that in Aizen's top drawer, but her own paranoia and mental flashbacks when she saw herself reflected in those lenses had triggered a very emotional reaction. Granted, the healer outside had squeaked also, but at least he had the excuse of surprise. Looking aside, she cleared her throat and addressed Hanatarou as coolly as she could manage, despite her own distaste.

"I'm sorry to have startled you. Please do what you will with the glasses, or throw them away."

Hanatarou had by this time gone pale, but the statement seemed to calm him. He addressed her in return.

"Hai, fukoutaicho…". He bent over to pick up the frame, and tried to put it inside his kimono, but it was already full of other pieces of junk that Hanatarou had salvaged for the day. A handkerchief, a small empty bottle, a spool of thread and other odds and ends fell to the ground instead, which Hanatarou hastily grabbed and shoved back into his clothes. Next he tried to stuff the glasses out of sight into the white bag on his back. Hanatarou found the opening and fumbled the large button open. Then he tried to slip the glasses inside, but unknown to him, he simply ended up releasing them to fall onto the ground behind him. Hinamori continued to watch the clumsy creature in front of her, fascinated. When Hanatarou thought he was ready, he smiled meekly at her and turned to leave.

"Arigato, fukoutai…crack...cho…" The last, pathetic remains of Aizen's eyewear broke under Hanatarou's foot. The flustered man finally sighed and swept the frame into his dustpan where it joined the shattered lenses. This was not turning out to be a good day. 3rd Seat Iemura Yasochika would be furious if he ever found out.

As he beat a hasty retreat, Hinamori seemed to ignore him, but something prompted Hanatarou to turn and look back at her as he half walked, half scampered away. To his horror, she was still staring after him, and he hastily turned away and kept walking. But it seemed to Hanatarou her face now bore an expression of amusement. Still, he decided that he could just be imagining things and did not want to risk worsening the situation, and soon departed the scene.

Behind Hanatarou, Hinamori withdrew back into the office. But this time, she was giggling. She knew her every reaction had scared the poor healer and was a little ashamed of that, but who would have thought that anyone could take something of Aizen's and turn it, however unwittingly; into the basis of a stand-up comedy act? In the meantime, she had to go outside to fetch something. In his rush to get out of her sight, 7th Seat Yamada Hanatarou had unfortunately dropped and left his zanpakutou behind. She would have to return it later, but for now; Hinamori placed Hisagomaru on Aizen's desk in front of her, and began to tackle the small mountain of paperwork, pausing occasionally for a laugh.

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"So you mean to say he took Aizen's old glasses, and left his zanpakutou behind instead?" 10th Division Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya rolled his eyes at Hinamori; though inwardly, even he found the incident funny. Still, her reaction to the spectacles was a matter of greater concern. Picking up the nondescript-looking blade (for it had slid out of its scabbard), Hitsugaya couldn't help thinking about the effect that Aizen had on everyone. Somewhere in the 4th Division was a very, very worried man.

"Hinamori, I'm more concerned about you. I'm glad you aren't having wet dreams over Aizen anymore," Hinamori blushed as he continued, "but if you are to realise your full potential and replace him as Captain, you have to put this behind you. The 5th Division needs a leader they can have faith in, not one that panics when she sees an old pair of spectacles. I know it's been hard…" Hitsugaya rambled on, trying to offer his comfort and support, but Hinamori's mind was already elsewhere.

Hard?! Had he any idea what she had been through? First she had pined for Aizen, before she eventually came to the cruel, crushing realisation that he was not the hero she always believed him to be and made the focus of her life. Hinamori remembered the times she woke up crying at night, recalling Aizen's past actions in a new and chilling perspective; and the times he had touched her, and held her…and the times she did…things with him that made wet dreams seem trivial in comparison. Now there was only hatred of him - and herself - for what he had done; what she had done. She most definitely wanted to forget about him, for even his memory filled her with dread. Hinamori felt tears coming to her eyes.

Noticing the danger signs, Hitsugaya quickly changed the subject. "Hanatarou is probably frantic over the loss of his zanpakutou by now. You should get it returned," he said. Hinamori took a deep breath and nodded her assent. But she surprised both herself and Hitsugaya with her spoken reply.

"Yes Shiro-chan! I'll take it over to the 4th Division right now. Goodbye!"

Hitsugaya's boyish face creased with annoyance at his old nickname, before he raised his eyebrows in astonishment. Hinamori was effectively a captain now and she could easily command someone else to return it for her. Still, as she skipped off down the path with the sword, he decided that the girl's emotional health would benefit from anything, even a little exercise; that would take Aizen off her mind and involve her in the present.

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"Good evening, Kotetsu-fukoutaicho." Hinamori was standing in front of the lanky female vice-captain of the 4th division. "Is 7th Seat Yamada Hanatarou in?"

Isane smiled, eying Hanatarou's zanpakutou. Only minutes ago, she had watched the man wear himself thin scrambling all over the place looking for it. "He should be either in his room at this time, or heading to the canteen for dinner. Shall I call him for you?" she said.

"Yes, thank you." Hinamori waited patiently while Isane rang a bell and summoned another shinigami, who ran off to fetch Hanatarou. Turning back to Hinamori, Isane said, "It's a long walk back to the 5th Division. Would you like to join us for dinner? Our food is simple and plain, but nourishing. And we don't often have guests from the 5th."

"I'm very thankful. Yes, I'd love to accept the offer." Hinamori waited only a couple of minutes before Hanatarou arrived. He took one look at Hinamori, then his zanpakutou, and simply goggled for a moment before regaining his composure and thanking her profusely, his mind still racing over the incident with Aizen's glasses earlier. But she only smiled at him.

"Come, Hanatarou. Aren't we going for dinner?"