Those of you who've read "Best I Am" will surely remember the chapter I wrote where Matsumoto read the riot act to Hinamori. I don't know how to say this other than to just come out with it, so …

I was wrong to write that. It was mean-spirited and ugly, and the only reason I've never thought about deleting it from the story is that it's the single most popular chapter I've ever published online. Clearly it resonated with a lot of people, and I guess I can't fault anyone for that.

It clearly resonated with me when I wrote it.

But I knew, in this story, that if Momo Hinamori showed up in any capacity, I was going to be fair to her and treat her better than I did as a kid.

I won't go into the personal shitstorm that resulted, eventually, in me coming around on Hinamori as a character.

But I owe her an apology, and this is my attempt at it.

.

Hitsugaya sat across the table from the twins, watching them eat with an unreadable expression on his face. He looked amused, worried, irate, and doting all at once. Their matching straw-colored hair was so sun-bleached that it matched his own, and one could have easily mistaken them for his children. They bolted down food with the wild abandon of all hungry children, but specifically Rukongai children, who had no way of knowing when their next meal might be.

Souls didn't need food—well, most of them didn't—but that didn't mean they didn't enjoy food; neither did it mean that they couldn't make use of food as a source of energy.

All that really meant, whenever someone talked about souls not needing food, was that starvation wasn't a death sentence. Watching Izumi and Hibiki put away rice bowl after rice bowl, Matsumoto wasn't sure if that was a blessing or not. What use was eternal suffering? Why couldn't it just end? She wondered how long ago it had been since these little ones were able to enjoy a hot meal.

Matsumoto stood near her captain's left hand, watching the other soldiers mill about the mess hall; none of them seemed to take much notice of Hitsugaya's new arrivals, as they were too busy grabbing their own food to worry about a couple of brats from the outer limits.

Except, it turned out, for Momo Hinamori.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, obviously delighted, as she came up beside Matsumoto. "Captain Hitsugaya has guests?"

Matsumoto turned and quirked an eyebrow at her fellow vice-captain. "We were patrolling in your old stomping grounds. Thought it might be a wayward beast or a civilian brawl. What we ended up finding was these two."

Hibiki took note of someone else paying attention to himself and his sister. He gulped down a bite of roasted pork and wiped his mouth with a sleeve. "Hello!" he cried happily. "We tried to fight Mister Captain! With weapons!"

Hinamori blinked several times. "Uh . . . huh?"

"Seems they were pushed into thievery by . . . someone with ambitions," Matsumoto murmured between her teeth. "We've got one of his flunkies in custody. Seems these little ones had debts to a man calling himself Mister West, and he decided to collect. These enterprising little cutpurses decided that pickpocketing a captain would be their best bet, since it seemed to them the fastest way to fall into enough rings to settle things."

Hinamori snickered, then settled her face. "I, um. I see. Clever. That's good thinking."

"It wasn't smart or clever," Izumi muttered, "since Mister Captain's too strong. He gots a dragon."

"Oh! You've met his dragon?" Hinamori beamed at the twins. "Hyorinmaru is beautiful, isn't he?"

The twins nodded emphatically. "And real strong," Hibiki said.

"What happens when we's done here?" Izumi asked Hitsugaya grimly. "Are we gonna gets excommunicated? Is this our last meal?"

Hitsugaya flinched violently; his eyes narrowed. "Excuse me?" he asked.

"We tried to rob you," Hibiki said solemnly. "That's a criminal."

Hitsugaya's face twitched; he seemed to be working very hard to work out a way to say "You were as much of a threat to me as a stiff breeze to an elephant" without insulting them. He glanced Matsumoto's way, clearly beseeching backup, but Matsumoto found herself just as lost.

Hinamori put on a stern face. "Toshiro Hitsugaya," she said, sharply, and her tone was such that both the twins and Hitsugaya straightened in their seats. "What have you been telling these children? I will not have you punishing them! Do you hear me? They're too young! Look me in the eye and tell me, right now, that you will not have them executed. I want to hear it! From your lips!"

Hitsugaya realized what his oldest friend was doing.

He put on a strained face. "Hinamori," he said, "they did attack a captain. I can't just let this go."

Matsumoto made a show of nodding along with a thunderous frown on her face.

"You can," Hinamori shot back, "and you will. You may be a big important captain now, but this is ridiculous! I won't have it!" She turned to the children. "Did you know I used to watch him when he was little? His grandmama would have me stay at their house while she did errands. Don't you worry. I won't let him hurt you."

The twins looked fascinated, awestruck even, at the idea that their Mister Captain could have once had a babysitter.

Hitsugaya groaned, rolled his eyes, and leaned forward; he was doing his best to look like it was physically difficult for him to speak. "Listen to me," he said; the twins were paying rapt attention. "I can let you go with a warning, but only if you agree to help me. Okay? I need you to understand how important this is. I'll need to have you two trained as recruits in my division, and you're going to have to help me figure out what's going on in Rukongai, with all the blood we saw earlier. You do that, and there won't be any . . . excommunication. Otherwise, the captain-commander is probably going to have to haul out the Sokyoku."

Young as they were, Izumi and Hibiki still clearly knew about the huge naginata that served as the executioner's blade for rogue soul reapers. There wasn't a single universe where it would be unsheathed for a pair of little miscreants with broken weapons, no matter who they'd been coerced into attacking.

But these two didn't need to know that.

Eyes as wide as their bowls, they both nodded.

"Okay, Mister Captain," said Izumi.

"We'll help you with whatever you gots to do," Hibiki said.

"Good." Hitsugaya rose to his feet. "Finish up. We have work to do."

Hinamori and Matsumoto watched the children gulp down the rest of their food, then snap to attention and follow Hitsugaya outside the hall with the devotion of baby ducklings following their mother.

"He's so sweet," Hinamori murmured.

Matsumoto smiled and said nothing.