Bitter Sweet

The only thing that kept her going was the thought of saving her captain. When she awoke from her coma she had been told by the kind fourth captain, Unohana, what had happened.
She refused to believe that Aizen was behind it. She argued and cried and blamed it all on Ichimaru. She tried to explain to Hitsugaya over the monitor in the first division that it was all Ichimaru’s fault. But even he would not be swayed by her words. No one believed her.
With the war approaching she decided that she must act how everyone wanted her to. That was the only way they would allow her to be part of the battle. She just had to say…
“You right Captain Unohana. I realize now. Aizen is not a good man,”
With a relived sigh the fourth captain smiled. “Good Hinamori-chan. I’m glad you at last understand.”
From then on she trained. She took care of the fifth squad. Did Captain Aizen’s old duties. And she dreamed of the day when her captain would be back in his rightful place at his desk.
“I’m glad your doing better Hinamori-chan,” said Kira dropping off some paperwork.
“Kira-kun,” she said happily. “How are things in the third division?”
Kira shrugged. “Suffering. Not work wise of course, Ichimaru never did any paper work or anything like that but moral wise, he was always keeping spirits up. It really isn’t the same with out him,”
She smiled at Kira. Her poor friend. Couldn’t he see that Ichimaru was a terrible person? Poor thing.
“You know Hisagi-san keeps saying that he’s going to drag Tousen back.” Kira chuckled at the thought. “I was thinking maybe I could do the same for Ichimaru. But I don’t know how tightly Aizen has him wrapped around his finger. If I try as hard as I can, I don’t think I could bring him back.”
Hinamori turned away from Kira. “How do you know its not the other way around?”
“Excuse me?” said Kira.
“Ichimaru has Cap- Aizen wrapped around his finger?”
Kira dropped the paper work onto her desk. “Look, Hinamori-chan you weren’t there when Aizen, Ichimaru, and Tousen left. Aizen is the ring leader in all of this. You should of seen Ichimaru’s face when he said bye to Matsumoto-san.” Kira shook his head. He didn’t want to fight about this. “Look I have a lot of work to do,” With that he turned on his heel and left the office.
Hinamori stared at the paper work angrily. They were all wrong all of them.

XxX

Then sooner then anyone would have liked the winter war was upon them.
The shikigami stood against the traitors.
By the time Hinamori got there the battle had already started. And she had been knocked out not much later. Oh how it hurt to breath. Kira was busy healing Matsumoto.
Her eyes winded as the large group of flames was extinguished and out stepped her captain. Ichimaru and Tousen by his sides. She wanted to run to him and tell him that she would save him. She tried getting up, but her broken body didn’t seem to want to move.
“Aizen!” called a voice.
Everyone turned in the direction of the voice. A group of strangers were here.
And powerful strangers they were. They took out menos after menos. But they weren’t powerful enough to get to her captain.
And all she could do was watch as the remaining shikigami and these new allies fought.

XxX
Watching had been more terrible then fighting. Watching when you could do nothing to help.
She watched Hisagi be cut down by his captain. Why did he fight? He was in no shape to be fighting against his captain. Everyone who had been fighting the second Espada was dead. Captain Soi Fon and Omaeda-san. And Shiro-chan? Where was he what happened to him? All that was left from that fight was the little blonde haired girl who looked around to see who was left of her friends.
And no one had been able to kill the first Espada Stark he had moved on to fight the Head Captain. Aizen fighting the short haired blonde with the weird teeth. And Ichimaru.
He was making his way towards them.
She was so scared. She couldn’t move.
Kira looked up at his former captain still trying to heal Matsumoto. All his friends were dying or dead. What could he possibly do against his captain.
“Izuru,” said Ichimaru the name spoken softly on the traitors lips. “Stop healing her.”
Kira shook his head. “She’ll die,”
Ichimaru’s smile winded. He kicked the young blonde’s hand away. Pulling out his small sword he held it over the broken body of the strawberry blonde. The blade shot out piercing Ichimaru’s oldest friend threw the chest.
“There now she is dead.”
Kira hands shook. He killed her.
Momo couldn’t stop the tears from falling. He was a monster. A monster. “How could you,” she whispered.
Gin still smiling withdrew the blade from the female’s body. “She had the life she had because of me. It was mine to take away,”
Quite suddenly Aizen appeared beside Ichimaru. Blood splatter on his white robes so clearly not his own.
“What should we do with the remain’ shikigami Capin’ Aizen? ”
Aizen looked around trying to see who was left. There were still the captain’s back in Los Noches to consider.
“Anyone who is lucky enough to still be alive, we’ll take them back with us. They will experience real hell when we return. Have the Espada gather up the survivors. In the meantime break the rest of these pillars and bring the real town to me.”
With a nod Gin again unleashed his sword sending the blade into one of the pillars making it crack in several places and collapse.
The spell was broken the fake town fading away and the real one replacing it.
Hinamori could once again only watch as she was being pulled away, as the town that so many had lost their lives to protect was blown away.

XxX

“Hey! I think I found a captain!”
The sound of footsteps running in his direction.
“Is he still alive?” It was a man’s voice.
“Ya,” this one was a woman. “He’s lucky he fell into the fake town,”
The man sighed. “It’s hopeless now.”
“It’s not hopeless,” said the woman. “Not everyone is dead. We’ve got some survivors here. And there some still alive with Aizen. And Ichigo! He’s back there too. There is still hope!”
Blue green eyes tried to focus. Everything was blurry. Where was he? The fake town? Back in Soul Society?
“But the king..” the man again.
“Yeah well, its not like he really did anything. Just means we have to knock Aizen off his thrown.”
“I’ll look for more,” said the man.
His eyes at last started to focus. He looked up to see a dark skinned woman with violet hair. “You’re-” but he couldn’t place a name at the moment. “Wear cat,” was the only name that came to his mind.
The woman laughed. “Does Byakuya boy still call me that?” her smile faded for a moment wondering what would be come of the noble brat? Did he make it?
She patted the spiky white hair.
She looked up again to see her male companion. His head was bowed his hat covering his eyes, he was carrying another captain. This one didn’t seem so lucky. She saw the long white hair. “Oh no,” she murmured. She picked up her one tiny charge. “Ukitake,” she ran a hand through the blood stained white hair.
“Shunsui is going to take this really hard.” said the man.
The violet haired woman shook her head. “We just told him about the old man, Kisuke,”
The blonde haired man took a deep breath. “I tell him,”
Yoruichi held back her tears. She still didn’t know the fate of Soi Fon but feared the worst. She had found one of the metal rings that the captain wore in her hair. It had been partly dissolved. She feared Soi Fon was dead and all that remained was that metal ring.
“Whose left?” she heard the young captain in her arms ask.
Her yellow eyes looked sadly at him. “Its hard to say,”
“Then who have you found?”
She brought him to an empty house. “This is the fake town,” she explained. “The real one is gone,” Toshiro said nothing. His voice would shake if he did. He looked around seeing who still lived.
There weren’t many. Shunsui was holding onto a Ukitake’s body his head bowed his shoulders shaking. His lieutenant holding his shoulder. She would not cry. She had to be strong for her captain. Hisagi was barley alive. For the moment anyway. His breathing was heavy and his bandages were blood soaked. And Yumichika from squad eleven. He was alone.
“This is it,” he whispered.
“Some where taken by Aizen.” said Kisuke. “And we mustn’t forget that there are still captains over in Aizen’s palace.
Toshiro still looked around. There were a line of bodies covered in sheets though. He struggled out of the Yoruichi’s grasp. He saw something that made his heart stop.
He struggled to make his way over to the line of fallen comrades. He pulled the sheet off the one with orange wavy hair sticking out.
He couldn’t hold back a small cry of despair. “Matsumoto,” He ran his hand along her cheek. She was so cold. She was gone.
He looked at the other bodies covered by sheets. “Momo,” he whispered. “Is she here too?”
The shop keeper shook his head. “I haven’t seen her.” he looked over to the defeated tenth captain. “But we are still are recovering bodies.”
“Captain Hitsugaya,” said Nano.
He looked over to her.
She gestured him over to her and her captain. He swallowed his damn pride. He went over to them to greave. To have his wounds, that he hadn’t really noticed till now, treated. To cry silently, no one would care. Not right now.

XxX
Aizen smiled happily the key in his hands. “Lets go home for the moment to take care of the pests in my castle then we’ll continue on. By nightfall I’ll be a God, and you two, my angels.”
Gin nodded his smile plastered to his face. “Okay, but I demand a halo,”
Tousen sighed. That joke was getting rather old.
Aizen opened the doors back to the world of the hallows. Leaving the giant crater that was once a happy town behind.
However home was not quite what he expected it to be. To start off his throne room was destroyed. He sighed in annoyance. “Ulquiorra,” he called.
Gin looked around.
Aizen’s frown deepened. “Ulquiorra,” he called again.
“Maybe he’s fighting that Ichigo kid.” Gin explained.
“No,” the woman that they had kidnapped walked over towards them. “That fight is over.”
Gin and Aizen looked at her. She certainly looked worse for the wear.
“Over?” asked Tousen. “Did they kill each other?”
The girl shook her head. “Ichigo has gone off to fight that other Espada Yammy,”
Gin tilted his head to the side. “Eh?”
Aizen gripped the key tightly. Impossible.
“It’s only fair though,” she said. Tear falling from her face. “If your back that means that all my friends are dead. That my home is gone.”
Aizen said nothing and walked away. Perhaps to really go and see if the fourth Espada was really gone.
Gin couldn’t really cared less. The less Espada the better as far as he was concerned. He decided to go and see what was being done to the prisoners that they had caught.
Tousen also left the girl. Offering no words of comfort. Her pain was none of his concern. There were captains about that needed to be taken care of. This was no time to be careless.

XxX
This was where his fourth Espada raitsu was the strongest. And yet it was terribly faint. Had he really been defeated? It seemed so unlikely. The orange haired boy would suffer for this.
“Aizen,”
The dark haired man looked up to see a blood covered noble. He was holding someone in his arms. That person was unnaturally still.
“I do hope you are also grieving for a loved one that you have lost. For if you are not, I know where I can find one, and I’ll rip his heart out in front of you,”
“Is that someone you love in your arms? I didn’t know you where capable of such an emotion,”
The captain of the sixth squad set down the body gently. Aizen caught a glimpse of the face. It was as he thought. Rukia.
Byakuya was in no shape to fight him. Aizen none the less pulled out his sword.

XxX
She was alone in her dark cell. Her body ached. Her heart cried out for those who were gone. Matsumoto-san, Iba-san and so many others. She didn’t know what happened to Toshiro but she had to assume he was dead. She felt tears run down her face.
She heard soft footsteps coming towards the cells.
“Good evening everyone,” said a cheerful voice. She struggled to pull herself up to the bars. She glared at the man, The reason behind all of this.
Seeing her glaring at him threw the bars he smiled at her and walked right to her cell.
“Judging by ya pouting face I’d say that ya still you believe me at be the masta mind behind this whole thing, ne?”
She glared at him. “I’ll save Aizen from you,”
His grin grew wider. He moved so fast she didn’t even have time to react. All she knew was that he had her by the throat.
“Your so stupid.” he whispered. “That’s why he picked ya, ya know. Cause ya an idiot.” She whimpered in reply. “He hates ya. He hated every moment ya were with ’em. Ya drove him so crazy he couldn’t even kill ya properly.” He squeezed her throat tightly “So I suggest you wake up, cause if you wanna live longer then tomarra ya better make friends with meh real quick,” He at last let her go leaving her gasping for breath. She fell to the ground in a fit of tears and coughs. “How many people he gotta kill in front of ya till ya believe he’s the real bad guy?”
With that he walked away from her cell. He was still there he could hear him talking to someone else now.
She crawled into a corner of her cell. She didn’t want to believe anything that evil man said to her. She didn’t. Yet the words wouldn’t stop echoing in her head.