Petrichor

War is not kind enough to give time for recovery. Post Fake Karakura battle AU.

Part II

Tempest

"And once the storm is over,
you won't remember how you made it through,
how you managed to survive.
You won't even be sure whether the storm is really over.
But one thing is certain.
When you come out of the storm,
you won't be the same person who walked in."

- Haruki Murakami

.

Hitsugaya was entirely apprehensive of the situation. His men knew precious little about Sunbeam Valley's terrain, and he was unfamiliar himself - he hardly had business at the Fifth, and now he was expected to fight here. The Fifth and Tenth divisions had assembled before him, with Matsumoto on his left and Hinamori next to her. He didn't dare to look at her - he was too terrified of what he might see, too afraid of what Hinamori might think of him that he would see reflected in her eyes. Not now, when he needed all of his strength and concentration. Maybe later, later he could deal with his own emotional war. Now there were greater things hanging in the balance.

'Each unit from the Tenth is to pair with its corresponding unit from the Fifth,' he instructed the large group. Two divisions meant nearly three hundred people, and he did not want to look at the faces of three hundred people, not knowing which he might not see again. 'Fifth Division soldiers will take charge of the Tenth. Each unit is to report to their allocated patrol location. I will be in charge of the battle, and Acting Captain Hinamori will take command from Unit Two. For today, all of you will take orders from both myself and Hinamori. Move!'

The effect was instant – the large mass of soldiers breaking up and scattering in all directions amidst the noisy clatter of boots on the ground. Matsumoto shot him a look. 'Did you just annihilate my brilliant persuasive efforts?' she asked furiously under her breath.

'Don't you understand that now is not the time to let emotions cloud my judgement?' he whispered back, just as furious.

Matsumoto smiled, a gleam in her eyes. 'You're a teenager,' she reminded. 'Now is always the time for hazy, emotional decisions.'

'Not now,' he hissed through gritted teeth. 'I am a captain first. Everything else is second.' He glared fixedly ahead, and the subject was dropped as abruptly as it was brought up.

They ran in silence to their assigned post, just shy of the eastern border, where the valley scooped sharply up in neatly arranged terraces, resplendent in lush green that faded with altitude into boulders. It would only take one battle to ravage this tranquil haven of its beauty, Hitsugaya thought as he focused on memorising the curve and angles of the terrace. The wind was growing, swirling with intensifying grandeur, picking up loose leaves and sending them spiralling through the air. Heavy clouds were gathering and multiplying, rolling in a thick coalescent mass, reflecting orange and golden in the setting sun's light.

'Captain?' Matsumoto interrupted the steady silence, half a pace behind Hitsugaya.

'Yes?'

'When they said that Granite Plateau was deserted, did they mean they were all dead? Or just gone?'

Hitsugaya nearly missed a step. '…That has been bothering me too,' he admitted. 'They could be both dead and gone. We don't know.'

'I guess we'll just have to beat it out of those suckers coming down the mountain straight for us, then,' she said, referring to three figures clad in white descending the rocky mountainside. 'I could employ my feminine wiles.'

Hitsugaya rolled his eyes as he slowed the pace. 'As long as they don't get in my way.'

'You could employ your, uh, masculine wiles?' Matsumoto suggested.

'Matsumoto, this is not a battle of raging hormones amidst the unforgiving storm of puberty. If you are going to be employing any wiles, let them be intelligent, please.'

'I know, Captain, but if nobody lightens the atmosphere around you on a regular basis you would sink into the ground and your height will plunge into the negatives-'

'Thank you for the lovely mental image.' He cut her off but was inwardly grateful, for the pointless bickering and meaningless banter provided a temporary distraction so he could clear his mind.

He had only a moment to gather his composure before the communication link crackled to life, with a controller from the Twelfth calling for roll call. Once they had run through all fifteen double-units, he said, 'Three intruders sighted at east-north-east; be ready for battle.'

The stormbringers appeared to be in a hurry – they scrambled down the steep drop of rocks above the terrace, the weather worsening steadily as they approached. Meanwhile, Hitsugaya and Matsumoto had stopped, sheltering in the shadow of an overhang, listening through the howl of the wind as Hinamori reported the movements of the three intruders from her unit's position atop a nearby hill just south of their position. He tried to block out her voice without losing his concentration on the content of her message - he couldn't take this fight, not when he was sure he would somehow end up mortally endangering her once again.

'One hostile headed north. All units in North and West regions to engage as soon as possible. Two hostiles approaching the eastern terraces. All units in East and South regions to converge,' Hinamori's voice echoed in his ear. 'Unit Two will join the battle in the east; the Twelfth Divison will take over surveillance,' she said shortly before cutting the communication.

Rain had begun to fall in a crescendo, water flying in all directions with the gale, and the mountains were now swathed in thick storm clouds which Hitsugaya noticed a moment before the storm had begun were siphoning away towards the southeast.

'The centre is southeast,' he reported, hoping his message would get through, then turned to Matsumoto. 'Let's go.'

A controller from the Twelfth had entered the network. 'Pressure 930 hectopascals,' he reported monotonously. 'Wind speeds 60 knots. Ice and hail expected towards the centre.'

Releasing an initial burst of wind that dispelled the surrounding rain for a mere split second, Hitsugaya ducked out into the icy cold downpour, negating the violent winds around them as he ran. It was all too familiar - running through muddy terrain while getting soaked through to the bone - so familiar he feared he would let his guard down.

The storm seemed to have a mind of its own, combating their efforts efficiently. Is this what Aizen had been doing? Refining their powers? Was it even possible to retain such a high degree of control over such a large area? Normal stormbringers couldn't counteract specific interruptions outside of the eye, but this one was evidently fighting back. He could practically feel the energy evaporate from his being as he doubled his efforts while the air grew more unstable - he knew he was probably already sweating from exertion, but with the rain, there was no way to tell. He glanced over at Matsumoto - this was the third storm they'd fought in just as many nights, and if she was human like he was (she'd better be, or he'd probably die of shock), she was already tired. They didn't have time to follow the spiral of the storm inwards as they usually did, then.

If he was going to have to fight twice as hard as before, he might as well make it quick. 'Matsumoto, we're cutting in.' Turning sharply left, he blasted a wall of the freezing torrent apart, darting in before the stormbringer had the time to react. Once the wall of the spiral repaired itself behind them, he said into the com unit, 'Unit One cutting through.'

He promptly received a response. 'Unit Two cutting through. Remaining units spiral in as per normal,' Hinamori commanded. He could feel his control over the surrounding winds slipping, and could feel Matsumoto pushing more power into countering the storm.

When he whirled around to face the next coil of the spiral, he found Matsumoto had positioned herself at the front, gearing up to decimate the next wall with her feet diagonally apart, knees bent in a slight crouch and arms stretching forward as a channel for the blast of energy, her hands laced together for added stability.

'When did you start stealing my techniques on top of my stationery?' he questioned, only half-serious.

'Ever since I saw that they worked,' Matsumoto smiled slyly. 'That goes for the stationery too.' Sheets of rain and wind dissolved momentarily with a violently explosive gush of air, and they surged forward.

'Of course they work. I'm the captain,' he smirked, temporarily brushing the issue about the stationery aside. 'And it would work even better if your anchor foot is perpendicular to the direction you're shooting.' Hitsugaya demonstrated as they faced the next layer, centreing his weight.

They moved in again, and traded places. 'Don't lock your elbows,' Hitsugaya advised. 'It makes the recoil worse.'

Matsumoto fired, then fell back while Hitsugaya moved forward. 'Any advice about the stationery?' she joked, although she knew it wasn't the time to distract him, with hail and sleet barely missing them every minute while they forced their way through layer after layer of intensifying rain.

'Just one,' he replied. 'Buy your own.'

Matsumoto's witty retort died in her throat when they broke into the centre of the storm. The shift in weather was always too sudden and disorienting. At the very centre of the eye, a girl was perched atop a large boulder with one leg crossed over the other, her chin propped up in her hand while her elbow leaned relaxedly against her knee. She smiled serenely at the two disgruntled leaders of the Tenth.

'Are you the next round?' she asked, stretching in a most catlike manner. Her voice was angelic, clear and sweet like the tinkling of glass bells, yet had a certain rough edge that sounded as if the bells were grating against rock. Matsumoto instantly decided she didn't like her. The stormbringer absently swept a lock of cropped brown hair behind one ear before she continued speaking. 'There aren't quite nearly as many of you as there were in the last group,' she grinned menacingly, spreading her arms theatrically towards the grass behind her where Matsumoto noticed, for the first time, tens of figures clad in black were strewn motionless across the usually-calm meadow.

She tried to swallow her panic. The only unit that had been closer to the eye of the storm than they had been at the start, and had cut through just as they had, was-

'Hinamori,' Hitsugaya choked out, though he refused to take his eyes off the enemy. 'What have you done?' the twisted look of rage and horror that he wore was a terrifying sight.

'Oh, don't worry,' the stormbringer laughed flippantly. 'They're not dead. Not yet, at least.' Her stone-grey eyes twinkled dangerously.

'Then what about the people of Granite Plateau?' he asked.

'I heard you were smart, Tenth Captain, so let me ask the questions instead. Why do you tire after controlling a storm?'

Hitsugaya spared a glance in Matsumoto's direction - both of them had both hands on a gun - then turned back to the intruder. 'Controlling a storm takes energy. Life energy, not physical energy,' he intoned.

The girl nodded placatingly. 'We can't boost our powers by harnessing external energy. Only humans produce life energy.'

'So?' his patience was wearing thin.

'So, say you don't want to wait for your body to recover its lost energy. Say you want to explosively expand the power in your reserves. How would you do it?'

Hitsugaya stopped dead, breath caught in his throat as the world seemed to stretch around him as realisation dawned. 'Absorbing life energy is illegal,' he spat aggressively, and paused for a deep breath to calm down. 'Actually, murder is also super illegal.'

The girl threw her head back and laughed as if it was the best - or worst - joke she had ever heard.

Hitsugaya flicked the safety off his first gun, the sharp click silencing the stormbringer instantly. 'I know you're not alone,' he said venomously. 'We saw two of you headed this way. So where is your companion?'

Matsumoto turned, taking one step back so she and Hitsugaya faced opposite directions, and readied her gun.

'Oh, very good. Not a stupid one, are you? The rest of them,' the girl jerked a thumb at the unconscious Unit Two, 'didn't even notice. Why don't you guess where he is?'

The storm was still raging, and at first it looked as if this girl was its centre - she was in the very middle of the meadow it spanned - but the eye of the storm included a portion of the mountain slope. So the centre of the meadow was not its core. If he had to pinpoint an area that was both the core of the eye and a hiding place, it would be-

Hitsugaya turned his gun's aim on a stout tree, thick with leaves, along the edge of the meadow, close to the foot of the mountain. He pulled the trigger down to its first click.

The girl's face twisted into an asymmetrical grin. 'Come out, Ares,' she called. 'You've been discovered.'

A white figure dropped soundlessly from a branch in the tree, landing agilely in the grass. As he moved, the storm shifted in accordance. He strode over, all long limbs and long torso, with a head of messy black hair. Neither he nor the girl could have been older than twenty, Hitsugaya estimated.

When the pair was side by side, the storm seemed to grow in intensity, and he tried to push back his worry for the units out in the storm.

'You must be thinking,' the girl said abruptly, '"When will the balance disintegrate?" Such a large storm cannot maintain itself for so long, right?'

Hitsugaya glared at her. At least mind-reading didn't appear to be one of her talents.

'Let me teach you something,' she continued, exuding conceit. 'Ares here has a lot more power than you think - this whole storm is his. I control his storm. You can call me Athena.' She was still seated atop the boulder, looking down on the world with immeasurable superiority.

'Athena and Ares? Apt,' Hitsugaya commented.

'Two on two sounds fair, don't you think?' Athena said sweetly. 'Captain and Lieutenant of the Tenth Division, Hitsugaya Toshiro and Matsumoto Rangiku, we challenge you to a death match.'

Hitsugaya set his aim straight and fired wordlessly, unsurprised when a violent gust carried the bullet off its course, causing his shot to miss its mark by an embarrassing margin.

'Just because you're not aiming at me,' Athena seethed, 'doesn't mean I won't stop you.'

Meanwhile, Ares stood unfazed and unscathed, seemingly unperturbed that he had just been shot at and was only spared because his companion had acted.

If Ares lost his concentration, Hitsugaya concluded, the storm would dissolve, allowing their troops in. But as long as Athena was defending him, chances of that happening were slim.

'We take the girl down first,' he muttered to Matsumoto, who nodded almost imperceptibly. 'The moment she falls, I want you to take the other one out.'

With one smooth, practised motion, Hitsugaya had flipped his gun over and holstered it. 'How do you feel about hand to hand combat?'

Athena, who had been casually spinning a knife in one hand, stopped and levelled him with a hard look. 'If either of you draws, the rules are void. I will draw, and your little friends on the floor will be dead before you can shoot,' she threatened, and sheathed the weapon. 'And both of you will be dead before you can regret it.'

They exploded into action, closing the distance in an instant. Hitsugaya had crouched low and was about to launch a double-footed kick when crackling static in his ear surprised him enough to place him at a disadvantage, and a heavy kick to the side of his ribs sent him crashing to the ground. He vaguely registered Matsumoto diving in with a punch, which must have connected since he managed to roll over and right himself without being knocked down again.

'Pressure 935 hectopascals,' the controller droned. 'They have sent you backup, Captain Hitsugaya.'

'Backup?' he managed to splutter. Had the other battles ended?

'Captain Ukitake sends Kurosaki and his regards.'

Ah. So they were in trouble, then, if the outsider boy was all the backup they had to offer.

By the time he had rejoined the brawl, which had to be only a few seconds later, he found Matsumoto and Athena staring each other down ferociously, both bruised and bloody - the latter had a split lip. The stormbringer girl stood her ground adamantly between them and Ares, who stood a short distance away.

'Change of plan,' he told Matsumoto, and charged recklessly past Athena, who moved to block him but was forced to duck out of the way when Matsumoto leapt into the fray.

He feinted left, and tried something he'd never done before, desperately hoping it would work. He threw a wild punch, forcing Ares to step back, then spun a storm under himself and risked a running jump. The gamble succeeded far beyond his expectations, and he found himself being thrown into the air by his own winds. He had a split-second to reorient himself mid-air and tuck his knees up to his chest, legs crossed at the ankles, arms thrown wide for balance. He looked down, and directed his descent with another strong gust.

He nearly missed, but managed to land heavily on Ares' shoulders, and with a sharp kick between the shoulder blades, the stormbringer fell to the ground before he could utter a cry of surprise. A few clouds dispersed and the storm weakened, which served only to enrage Athena.

'Matsumoto, now!' he shouted, the moment she snapped. His lieutenant executed a spectacular roundhouse kick that knocked the wind out of her opponent long enough for her to wrestle and pin her to the ground.

'Surrender. The battle is over,' Hitsugaya said. Under his hold, he could see Ares struggling to keep the storm going.

'We challenged you to a death match, stupid,' Athena snarled. 'Nobody's dead yet.'

Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow. 'A while ago you said I wasn't stupid,' he pointed out.

'I take it back. I would rather take my own life than surrender to a stormhunter,' she sneered, obviously enraged.

Hitsugaya had not anticipated her next move, but took full advantage of the circumstances when Athena unsheathed her knife.

In a flash, he whipped out his gun, flicked the safety off and fired mercilessly. The look of shock, loathe and betrayal on the girl's face was so unexpectedly human compared to her earlier display of bravado that Hitsugaya began to feel guilt gnawing at the edges of his conscience.

'"If either of you draws, the rules are void. I will draw, and your little friends on the floor will be dead before you can shoot, and both of you will be dead before you can regret it." Am I right?' He asked icily.

The storm dissipated without a trace as Ares went limp, except for the wreckage that used to be scenic Sunbeam Valley and the drenched and exhausted soldiers. A metallic stench began to fill the air, drowning out the earthy odour of crushed wet grass.

'I underestimated your cruelty,' Athena laughed drily. She twisted, knocking Matsumoto down with an efficient jab to the base of her neck, and sprang back up, casting her knife to the ground. 'Let's start over, one on one,' she said, wiping her bloodied chin with the back of her hand. She didn't appear too steady on her feet, and seemed to be short of breath. Hitsugaya knew he must look the same way, as he forced himself to remain upright.

Hitsugaya returned his gun to his belt and lowered his stance. 'Very well,' he said. His opponent was obviously waiting for him to rush in so instead, he leaned his weight ever so slightly back as he laced his hands together and raised them, outstretched but not locked. When he released a freezing column of air, he didn't bother checking if it even came anywhere near his mark, and broke into a run, preparing to repeat the manoeuvre he had used to defeat Ares. This time he was less steady, and the dark spots dancing across his vision disrupted his balance even as he flung his arms out, and he felt himself shaking like a machine on the verge ot breaking down. He was almost out of energy, he realised, feeling oddly detached from reality.

He let gravity do its work as he dropped down towards Athena, and the force sent her down and knocked him aside where he crash-landed in the grass, rolling several times before he finally came to a halt, curled up on his side. His lungs were screaming for air even though he was gasping on the verge of hyperventilation, and the world spun so uncontrollably around him it threatened to collapse as he lost his grasp on any rational trains of thought.

God, if only he could just catch his breath.

A pair of hands rolled him onto his back, and he vaguely registered the sight of Fifth and Tenth Division soldiers carrying the unconscious and injured to the side. After an eternity of just laying there motionlessly, his breathing had slowed to a respectable rate and he cracked his tired eyes open - when had they shut? - and saw Kurosaki standing over him.

'Oh, good,' the other teenager said. 'You're back.'

Hitsugaya pushed himself up onto his elbows and looked around. Most of the soldiers had left, presumably proceeding with their respective cleanup duties. 'Water?' he managed to croak. He noticed that all who had been involved in the earlier battle - himself, Matsumoto and Unit Two - still lay where he last remembered. He found himself worrying about how a clear night was falling and he hadn't sent anyone to the lake, which meant they were going to have yet another energy shortage, and groaned.

'Funny you should ask,' Kurosaki joked. 'Heaps of it just fell out of the sky this evening.' Despite his words, he handed him a small canteen of water. 'A medical team is on its way,' he informed the captain.

'Hm,' Hitsugaya hummed in acknowledgement. 'How long was I out?'

'Not long,' Kurosaki replied. 'Half an hour? I saw you fly, by the way. Are you sure you're human?'

He decided not to answer the question and instead pushed himself fully upright, turning to look guiltily at the crumpled forms of Hinamori and Matsumoto. Turns out he really couldn't fight for himself and protect others at the same time - perhaps it was a cruel, fated conundrum he would never solve.

'Uh, are you okay?' the orange-haired stormbringer asked hesitantly. 'You look like you're going to spew- I- uh, shouldn't you lay back down? You're going to spill that water, incidentally.'

He set the canteen down and buried his face into his knees. 'The pressure is changing,' he mumbled. 'Someone's coming.' Then he forced himself unsteadily to his feet. With detached amusement, he recalled Matsumoto saying something about coconut trees. When he looked up, he had to do a double take, because according to his eyes, Aizen Sosuke, traitor and backstabbing murderer extraordinaire was gently floating downwards on a finely-controlled pillar of wind.

'So that's how you break in without crossing the border,' Hitsugaya said sourly, not without hostility once he had figuratively re-hinged his jaw. 'You could have told us, then we wouldn't have driven ourselves mad analysing border activity logs.'

'Nice to see you too, Captain Hitsugaya,' the former captain greeted amicably.

'And what the hell do you think you're doing here?' Hitsugaya demanded, taking a worryingly wobbly double-handed aim with his gun.

'This is my valley, after all,' Aizen said, sickeningly peacefully, spreading his arms wide as if he were surveying the grandeur that was the wrecked valley. 'I just wanted to offer my adoring lieutenant a royal position in my future kingdom.' He turned to Ichigo, who looked ready to reach out and strangle him. 'I welcome you also, Ichigo, to a kingdom of your kind. Imagine a world where Stormbringers and Stormhunters are literally one, where there will no longer be pointless clashes such as this.'

'Hinamori isn't conscious to give you an answer,' Hitsugaya interrupted. 'Try again never.'

'In fact,' continued Aizen, as if Hitsugaya hadn't spoken, 'I would go as far as to say you were obliged to join me, Ichigo, as it was I who spared you the destruction at Granite Plateau.'

'Stand back, Toshiro, this is my battle.' Ichigo stepped forward, but Hitsugaya didn't lower his weapon.

'Why did you murder the people of Granite Plateau?' Hitsugaya plowed forward, completely ignoring Ichigo. The level of communication in the conversation was dangerously close to zero. 'How did you absorb their life energy in just forty-eight hours?'

'Murder?' Ichigo intoned hollowly. Hitsugaya cringed inwardly. Gently breaking shocking news was not one of his strong suits.

'They stood in the way of my unification of stormbringers and stormhunters, as do you,' Aizen reasoned calmly with a blithe gesture, as if he were talking about weather.

'Only madmen think genocide is a solution for peace,' Hitsugaya sneered, readjusting his shamefully shaky aim in his tired arms.

'I wouldn't shoot if I were you,' Aizen contributed most helpfully as he gestured towards the prone forms of Hinamori and Matsumoto lying side by side. Five red target lights flickered over them. 'I wouldn't shoot if I were you, because I, unlike you, have snipers positioned on the mountainside.'

Hitsugaya glared as murderously as he could without falling over.

'Or,' Aizen continued, 'are you willing to trade their lives for mine?'

He couldn't protect if he wanted to fight, couldn't fight if he wanted to save those he had sworn not to let down; it was like a double-edged blade - no matter which way he held it, it would always be pointing straight back at him.

Ever so slowly, Hitsugaya lowered his arms until his barrel was pointed downwards. Then he relinquished his grip on the gun, letting it tumble to the ground where it bounced like a toy.

'Very good,' Aizen smiled his gentle, disarming smile. 'The other gun, Captain Hitsugaya.'

Almost as if he were in a stupor, he repeated the motion mechanically with his spare pistol, dropping it helplessly from his belt. Then slowly, he stepped over and placed himself between the two unconscious lieutenants and Aizen, who was now looking immensely satisfied and superior.

He glanced at Kurosaki, and then closed his eyes as he dredged up every last reserve of energy he could find. The rifling of snipers' rifles was almost always clockwise, which meant if he could create a barrier that spun anticlockwise with enough power to kill its speed, he could stop the bullets. He drew up a cylindrical storm around himself and Matsumoto and Hinamori, creating countless minute stationary points that would become centres of rotation. Trying two new things in one day was new to him - did that mean he was technically trying three? - and he absently wondered what the chances of him succeeding twice were.

He crouched, to minimise the height required of his storm, and opened his eyes.

'Kurosaki,' he called, his voice low. The other boy looked over quizzically, and Hitsugaya closed his eyes again. 'Kill him,' he said frigidly, and sealed off his barrier over the top and set it spinning anticlockwise.

He didn't know how long he held up for, didn't know how the battle went, didn't even know if his barrier worked or if the snipers just didn't shoot, or if the snipers were a farce and Aizen just had some fancy laser pointers. When the air's pressure finally returned to normal, he knew it was finally over - that he could finally stop holding desperately on to consciousness, and felt his barrier of wind peeling away ephemerally as he relinquished his grip on the air. He felt himself sink down into the muddy ground - his height into the negatives? The ground around him was littered with bullets and Kurosaki stood triumphant a distance away, but he didn't have the energy to revel in the success as his vision faded and breath evaded him.

.

.

.

.

The morning sunshine was warm, and it was yet another slow day at the Fifth Division. Being in charge of the archives meant she did spend a majority of her days finding books she had not yet read. Sometimes she wondered what it was like at some of the other divisions, where it was always busy. She paused in front of her mirror, still unsure of her relatively new hairstyle - if it would grow on her the way her bun and ribbon had - but she liked how the bob seemed to give her a refreshing look. Slightly ashamed for worrying about such frivolous things right after a war, she hastily broke eye contact with the tired girl in the mirror and turned away.

Hinamori Momo was brewing herself a pot of tea when there was a knock at the door. 'You have a visitor, Lieutenant Hinamori,' called a voice from outside. Instinctively, she straightened her collar and was suddenly conscious of the plaque on her desk that indicated her as acting captain of the Fifth. She didn't know if she would ever be ready to accept the replacement they had yet to find for Aizen. Her gaze lingered on the captain's desk, which was deserted where it used to be piled high with books and scrolls, a second longer than she meant to.

'Send them in,' she called, hoping the tremor in her voice went unnoticed.

She stopped short when the door opened to reveal her childhood friend, seemingly stuck in the doorway, overladen with hesitation. Hinamori tried her best to school a smile onto her face. 'Come on in, Shiro,' she invited after taking a moment to compose herself. It was funny, she thought, how he always felt responsible for her despite her being a whole year ahead of him. It was funny, she thought, how she used to miss him so much when they had first been assigned to their divisions, yet they had so quickly grown distant.

Awkwardly, Hitsugaya shuffled into the office and stiffly seated himself on one end of a small couch. The jet-black stormhunter uniform made him look smaller than he already was, and the small golden captain's badge pinned to his jacket's breast pocket looked far too heavy, Hinamori sighed. While he always stood ramrod-straight to make up for his lack of height, his shoulders were now slumped with a tiredness she knew plagued herself too.

'You've changed,' he said slowly, as if he were choosing his words carefully.

'The hair?' she asked, not daring to speak of anything beyond the superficial. 'I...needed to let go of some things, I guess.' Her old ribbon had been a gift from Aizen, and she had used it all the way through the war before she began questioning its significance.

Another silence passed, its awkwardness exacerbated by the cheery atmosphere of the warmly sunlit room, before Hitsugaya spoke again. 'How have you been?' he asked, still not making eye contact. Then again, perhaps it was her own fault for not acknowledging his presence enough, with the way she stood by her desk, almost afraid to approach the boy she never thought would be a stranger.

'We've all definitely been better,' Hinamori carefully evaded the implications of Hitsugaya's question. She knew that her gear hung loose where it had been fitting just over a month ago, that her equipment belt felt heavier with every passing day, and that her frail composure was like a translucent disguise. 'Captain Unohana says my stamina will return in due time.'

'I'm sorry,' Hitsugaya blurted, as if it would fill the silence. 'If I didn't- If I hadn't-' he faltered uncharacteristically. 'I shouldn't have lost my temper. I should have been more careful. I should have come sooner. I'm sorry I hurt you so many times.'

Hinamori knew that he was talking about more than the most recent battle, that he was referring to the chaotic downward spiral they had plunged down outside the Third's compound in the first violent clash brought on by Aizen's nefarious plot, that this tidal wave of guilt was mostly due to the second last battle that had taken place just over a month earlier. Hinamori knew, not because she remembered but because she had read the reports, that she had been caught in a brutal clash between Hitsugaya and Aizen, that she had crumpled from the unforgiving icy winds of Hitsugaya's storm, and that his gunshot had barely missed her right lung.

She did not remember much from that battle.

'It's okay,' she tried and failed to reassure him. 'You didn't get me that bad,' she said, knowing full well that her lie was about as solid as cotton.

'I know where I hit,' Hitsugaya argued. 'And I know who I hit. I'm so, so sorry. I'll be leaving now.'

'No, wait,' she called out before he could stand. 'We- We've only talked about you. We haven't talked about me yet,' Hinamori started forward, loosening the vice grip she'd had on the table's edge. She relaxed when, for the first time in a year, Hitsugaya peered at her through unkempt hair.

'Do you remember when Aizen left the Valleys?' she said, not waiting for his response. 'I know you tried to make me see sense, and I know he nearly killed you for it. I should have trusted you, and I'm sorry for not listening. I'm sorry for dragging you down with my weakness. I'm sorry for crippling you with my incapabilities.'

'That's different,' Hitsugaya said softly, having reverted to not looking at her.

'You say you know who you hit, but let me tell you something you don't know,' Hinamori sat down next to him on the couch. 'That girl you said you hurt? She'll be fine. She's doing her best at living. And you know what? She forgives you. She forgave you a long time ago.' With that, she drew him into a hug. 'She'll forgive you over and over again no matter what happens.'

They were both thinner, more fragile than she last remembered.

In less than a second, nostalgia returned like a wave crashing unceremoniously onto the shore when Hitsugaya began flapping and swatting. 'Let go, oh my god. You know how I feel about hugs. You know how I feel about feelings.'

'You should sleep,' Hinamori said, not letting go. 'You look like shit.'

'You should eat,' Hitsugaya returned. 'You look even shittier than I do.'

And for the first time in a long, long time, the two of them laughed.

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Fin.

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I wrote a happy ending! Aren't you proud of me? I'm sorry if I couldn't put as much detail into the surrounding world and the concept and each character's conflict as I would have liked, because then it would have gotten excessively long and messy and impossible to clear up, so I focused on Hitsu. (Sorry if you were geared up for some Ichigo badassery and got a pathetic ending instead.) The plight of everyone else is up to your imagination...? Probably. But a review would make everything better, yes?

Also, at a long last, after detracting slightly from my regular weird genre to write this, I've figured it out. My genre is probably gothic. Using the modern lexicon is so much fun, and is a really nice change from the stiff gothic style.

And to answer lovely reviewer kurgaya's question, pretty much the whole universe and concept I used here are completely original, hence its dismal underdevelopment, and probably your confusion. Oops.

Thank you for putting up with nearly 5000 words of solid battle with a terrible open ending followed by emotional sap. Thank you for sticking with me through 13k words of me blabbing on endlessly.