No spoilers this time. Yay!

Matsumoto's former captain had been much older than her current one, and had been the first man she had served under. She had respected him, sure, as any vice-captain should, but not nearly as much as she respected Hitsugaya.

Part of it had to do with his power, and his youth, but that wasn't nearly all of it. She thought she had realized just how much she respected her current captain one nondescript day about twelve years before a fifteen-year-old human boy had shot through Soul Society and turned everything upside down.

It had been a routine patrol that day, and she hadn't expected anything to happen. Kill off a few hollows, make the report, blah, blah, blah...same old, same old.

And it had started that way, certainly.

But then she and Hitsugaya had found a hollow that was chasing another spirit. A young girl of about twelve or so, by the look of her.

The look on Hitsugaya's face when he'd seen that child's spirit was simultaneously hot and cold, fierce and calculating. Like a bonfire trapped beneath a sheet of ice.

He had leapt over the girl and sliced the thing clean in half with one swift movement, drawing his sword and sheathing it in a matter of a single second.

He turned, approached the girl, and began to speak to her. Matsumoto couldn't remember now just what he had said to her, but it had calmed her.

And when he'd performed the girl's soul burial, stamping the hilt of his zanpakutou on her pale forehead, she had seen the marked difference between her current captain and her previous captain, between Hitsugaya and most other shinigami in general.

His eyes were glistening.

As he stood, slowly walking back to her, a single tear slid down his face. He wiped it away irritably, but not before she had seen it.

Matsumoto realized that every time she had ever seen him perform the ancient ritual, he always seemed to get choked up, especially when dealing with young people.

"What's wrong, Taichou?" she asked innocently. "Did you know her or something?"

He shook his head. "Never heard of her. Name was Rachel. But...well...nothing. It's nothing."

"Taichou? C'mon, what is it?"

He sighed heavily, looked up at her, and evidently had seen something in her face that reassured him, because he spoke again.

"It's just...they died before their time. It's why they continue to wander like they do, as if they're lost. It's why they're vulnerable to hollows."

She knew that, of course. The majority of spirits she met in the line of duty often refused to accept the idea that they had died, even though the proof was right in front of them. It was a bit disconcerting, sure, but to get so emotional about it?

"...I died before my time..." Hitsugaya murmured softly, and Matsumoto jumped a little. She had expected him to leave the explanation at that and prided herself on the fact that she had even gotten that out of the usually quiet boy.

"T-Taichou?"

Hitsugaya's eyes, at first so blazingly determined, then soft and empathetic, now were clouded and far away.

"I don't remember much...it was a long time ago and I was very young...but I died in a blizzard. I don't even remember what I was doing there in the first place, but...I was headed somewhere."

Matsumoto realized as he spoke that she was probably the first person to ever hear this. If anyone else at all had heard it, it would have been Hinamori.

She felt honored.

At the same time, though, she felt sad.

The expression on Hitsugaya's young face was heartbreaking. "My...parents...they lost me. They abandoned me. I don't know how I know this...I couldn't have been more than six...but I do. I just do. They ditched me. Probably didn't even bother trying to find me."

"Taichou..."

Hitsugaya shook his head. "I don't like to think about them. It's in the past. But...but I hate seeing spirits like me...lives that ended before they even had a chance to begin. It's not fair. It's...part of the reason I became a shinigami in the first place."

Not power, not glory, not to escape poverty...he had become a shinigami for reasons completely unlike those of most.

Her previous captain had said he'd done it simply because he'd been bored.

Yes...she respected Hitsugaya far more than her previous captain. He was young, and still a bit naïve when it came to certain things, but he remembered something that so many of her colleagues had forgotten.

The spirits they sent to Soul Society were human beings, just like they were. The spirits they saved from hollows had died, just like they had.

Hitsugaya hadn't allowed himself to forget that. As hard as it was for him to deal with the repercussions each time he performed a soul burial, he never allowed himself the relief of forgetting. He refused to think of those spirits as lower beings, helpless sheep in need of guidance.

He refused to let go of his own humanity.

It was just one of the many things Matsumoto loved about Hitsugaya Toushirou. One of those things that only she, as his vice-captain, knew about him.

Shinigami don't cry. Death Gods don't cry.

But humans do.

I don't know what to say about this one. It was inspired by #6 and by something else I read that I don't remember the name of now (sorry!), and I think it turned out decently well. One of my attempts at philosophy, I think. I don't know. Whatever. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it. This took me a while to get out, and I'm sorry for the wait.