In the Squad 1 Barracks, in the Vice-Captains' waiting room.
While the captains held a formal inquiry regarding the invader attack and the failure of Squad 3 Captain Gin Ichimaru to eliminate them, all twelve vice-captains had been summoned to a separate chamber. It was an unusual summons. Kira Izuru, the Vice-Captain of Squad 3, felt the weight of his badge of office as he walked forward with a determined stride.
"—Hinamori?"
When he opened the door to the waiting room, he found a single, lovely girl sitting there, hugging her knees. Her head was bowed, her face clouded with an uncharacteristic darkness.
"...Kira."
"Are you all right? You look pale."
"Oh... no, it's nothing...!"
She offered a weak smile at Kira's concern.
Momo Hinamori.
She was the Vice-Captain of Squad 5, the most successful of their academy class, and the woman he had cherished for half a century. She had become a vice-captain five years before he had, and she was renowned throughout the Seireitei as a master of Kidō, even serving as a division leader in the Kidō Corps special forces. Despite all that, she was a sincere, humble, cheerful, and kind girl. It was almost unfair how cute she was on top of it all. He swore that one day, he would confess his feelings to her.
What could possibly be the cause of such gloom in her? The sight of her withdrawn figure pained Kira's heart, leaving him paralyzed with indecision, unsure of the right thing to do as a man. Should he ask her directly, or should he just leave her be?
"—Ah, there you are, Hinamori."
As he stood there dithering, a listless female voice called out, and another of his colleagues entered the room with a tired look on her face.
Rangiku Matsumoto.
She was a famously beautiful vice-captain whose popularity among the male Soul Reapers was rivaled only by Momo Hinamori. Kira didn't know her well personally, but she was good friends with Hinamori, and at least three of his respected seniors had a crush on her, so he'd heard plenty about her character. Just as her revealing and seductive fashion sense suggested, she was said to be quite the shrewd operator.
"Ms. Rangiku, it's been a while..."
"Hinamori, have you been fighting with my Captain? He's been all irritable lately, saying you're avoiding him, and he won't slack off... I mean, he's been piling more work on me. It's a real pain."
"...No... it's not like I'm avoiding him—and besides, that's because you never do your work, Ms. Rangiku."
"How rude. I do plenty. I haven't been fired yet, have I?"
Isn't that setting the bar at 'not getting fired for misconduct'? Kira couldn't help but think. Rangiku shot him a sharp glare, and the flustered young man hastily latched onto a different part of their conversation.
"Th-That's right, Hinamori, you and Captain Hitsugaya were childhood... you were like family, weren't you? The story of that training exercise we did in the World of the Living when we were proctors is still legendary at the academy... but..."
Kira immediately regretted his words. He had been so tormented by the romantic rumors surrounding the woman he loved that the words had just slipped out. Too late now.
"Oh, you mean the one that's part of my Captain's legend as a child prodigy. ...Wait, you were there too, Kira?"
"...Well, as you can probably guess, I wasn't able to do anything."
Remembering his own pathetic past, Kira scratched his head to distract from the sharp sting in his chest. He had finally become a vice-captain and could stand by her side, but back in his academy days, he had been consumed with facing his own fear. That humiliation had been a crucial foundation for his growth, forcing the man he was today to always look forward.
Even so, he had yet to surpass the man he admired, Sōsuke Aizen, let alone Toshiro Hitsugaya, the younger boy who had protected the very girl he had wanted to protect right before his eyes.
"Hah... Whatever. Just make up with him already, Hinamori. My Captain is one thing, but seeing you so gloomy is throwing me off, too~"
Looking uncomfortable with the delicate topic, Rangiku offered the advice, trying to change the atmosphere. It was a knack of hers, a certain worldly wisdom that kept her meddling from feeling unwelcome, despite her laziness.
However.
"...I'm sorry, Ms. Rangiku."
The girl's whispered words were pained, tragic; a confession like a scream being crushed by unbearable agony.
Kira stared at her, shocked by her grave demeanor.
"...Hinamori? What in the world is—"
Rangiku's eyes went wide as well, and just as she opened her mouth to question her.
—EMERGENCY ALERT, EMERGENCY ALERT!
—INTRUDERS HAVE ENTERED THE SEIREITEI!
—ALL SQUADS, ASSUME DEFENSIVE POSITIONS WITHIN THE COURT!
Suddenly, the Seireitei's alarm bells rang out, signaling a dire emergency.
"Wha—!? This is...!"
"Could it be... the invaders!? Forgive me, I must take my leave!"
"Wh-Hey! Kira!"
Kira rushed out into the newly chaotic corridor, using Shunpo to head straight for the Squad 3 barracks without a second glance.
Given the situation, it had to be the group that had escaped his superior, Gin Ichimaru's, blade the other day. Prizing himself on knowing his captain's true strength better than anyone, Kira judged that this enemy was not to be underestimated. He immediately switched his focus to selfless duty, ready to fulfill his responsibilities as a vice-captain.
It was his greatest strength as a vice-captain—and, at the same time, his greatest misfortune as a young man in love...
***
Something was wrong with Hinamori.
Upon receiving the report from his second-in-command, Rangiku Matsumoto, the Captain of Squad 10, Toshiro Hitsugaya, cursed his own uselessness. Everything he did seemed to backfire.
It had all started several years ago. Not long after he had been appointed to the rank of captain, he had finally reunited with his childhood friend in the Squad 1 barracks.
—Maybe I'll let you protect me.
Ever since hearing those uncharacteristically weak words from Hinamori, Toshiro had been tormented. What did she really mean? No matter how much he thought about the past, he couldn't think of anything that would be troubling her. But asking her directly felt too intrusive, and so, nearly five years had passed with him no closer to an answer.
The series of unprecedented events that had occurred this month only darkened his mood further. Rukia Kuchiki's execution sentence, the invader disturbance, the unsettling conflict between Gin Ichimaru and Sōsuke Aizen, the devastation of Squad 11, the defeat of Renji Abarai...
It was in the midst of all this that Rangiku had brought him word of Hinamori's strange behavior.
"...Matsumoto, I'm leaving the squad in your hands for a bit."
Thinking about it wouldn't solve anything. Entrusting his subordinates to his vice-captain, Toshiro decided to go and check on her himself.
"—Well, well, looks like Abarai really got himself beaten up."
"Eep!?"
Momo Hinamori jumped with a pathetic squeak, like a baby bird. In that respect, she was still the same idiot she'd always been, and he couldn't help but chuckle.
He had followed her spiritual pressure to the Squad 4 barracks. He found her standing melancholically beside the bed of Renji, who had been brought there after his defeat by the invader. Toshiro deliberately spoke in a casual tone.
"T-T-Toshiro!? ...Honestly, if you're there, just say so! You scared me..."
"Hey, are you still calling me by that childhood nickname? You'll get another scolding from Aizen."
It annoyed him slightly, but he knew that mentioning that man's name would make Hinamori surprisingly obedient. Lately, Toshiro couldn't shake the feeling that they were growing distant, and he tried to ease her tension with some harmless banter.
But instead of brightening, the shadow on his childhood friend's face only deepened.
"...You're... right..."
Hinamori's body tensed as if she were enduring something. The memory of her sorrow and weakness in the Squad 1 barracks resurfaced in his mind, and a sense of powerlessness tightened its grip on Toshiro's heart.
"Did something happen with Aizen...?"
"...!"
It was the only thing he could think of that would trouble Hinamori so deeply. When he saw her flinch and freeze, Toshiro saw red. His anger was directed at that damned man in glasses, the one who had put such a look on his precious friend's face.
"N-No! That's not it, it's not...! I just... I heard something... unbelievable, and..."
Seeing Toshiro's scowl, Hinamori shook her head as if trying to banish a nightmare. "It's a misunderstanding." But just before her thin, retching voice could reach the heart of the matter.
"—My, my. The princess and the dragon of Junrinan, all alone in a private room. Wouldn't want your passion to disturb Abarai's recovery, would you?"
A playful, Kyoto-accented voice suddenly came from behind them. They spun around to see that unsettling Squad 3 Captain, Gin Ichimaru, peering at them through a crack in the door with an amused expression.
"Ichimaru...!"
"Now, now, Captain of Squad 10... no need for such a harsh glare. Captain Aizen's cute little vice-captain left her post all alone at a dangerous time like this. As the former Vice-Captain of Squad 5, I just came to pick her up out of respect for my senior, you see."
"Tch, what did you say...?"
Toshiro scowled at the fox-faced man's taunts. He glanced sideways and saw Hinamori looking down, her face pale. Could it be that these two had a history he knew nothing about...
"If... if I obey, then Captain Aizen won't be..."
"Don't you worry, Hinamori. That was the promise... right?"
"H-Hey, Hinamori. What are you two talking about..."
After a single, cryptic exchange with Ichimaru, his childhood friend began to drift unsteadily towards him. This wasn't her usual, unguarded behavior that came from being hopelessly good-natured. Toshiro sensed a clear, threatening malice, and for the first time, he felt he had caught a glimpse of the real cause of Hinamori's strange behavior over the past few years.
He couldn't imagine a rift between Hinamori and Aizen; they had always been so close it was infuriating just to think about. That meant the problem lay elsewhere.
Before him, the sight of his childhood friend bowing her head to Ichimaru as if begging for mercy, and the fox-faced man accepting it as his due. And then there was Sōsuke Aizen, who always seemed to be checking Ichimaru's movements...
I see. In the boy's mind, everything clicked into place.
"—Get away from Hinamori."
As if to stop the trembling in his own hand, Toshiro forcefully pulled the girl to his side.
"Wh-T-Toshiro...?"
"Stay quiet, Hinamori."
He ignored the bewildered girl and projected his raging emotions directly into his spiritual pressure. His target, of course, was the root cause of all his precious friend's suffering: Gin Ichimaru.
"Scary, scary. Why're you so angry?"
"Put your hand on your chest and think about it, Ichimaru. The next time you go near Hinamori—I will kill you...!!"
The spiritual pressure of a captain, filled with pure murderous intent, easily made the world groan. In a corner of his mind that was still rational, he managed to shield Hinamori, who was still in his arms, from the pressure. He glared at his enemy, a silent, wordless command to "get lost."
"...I see. Looks like Hinamori already has a knight she can rely on. In that case, I'll quietly withdraw."
"...!"
"Make sure you escort her all the way to Squad 5—right, Toshiro?"
With that ghastly parting shot, Ichimaru left the infirmary, a smug grin on his face. Toshiro held his trembling friend tightly in his left arm until the man's figure had completely disappeared down the corridor.
"...T-Toshiro... um..."
The danger had passed. Hinamori stirred in the arms of the boy, who had calmed his spiritual pressure. Because of their height difference, he had to awkwardly make her bend down to hug her. The out-of-place thought that this would have looked much better if it were Aizen infuriated him. High on the thrill of having protected the woman he cared for, Toshiro felt uncharacteristically bold.
"Hold on, Hinamori."
"Huh? What are you—Whaaa!"
For the first time since that training exercise at the academy, he had been able to protect her. Carried by the momentum, the boy's next action was to sweep the girl up into his arms and leap into the sky.
A brief stroll through the air. In the corner of his vision, he saw his childhood friend's face turn bright red as she stammered in embarrassment, which only buoyed his spirits further. When he reached the Squad 5 barracks, he landed in the courtyard as if to show off to the entire squad. His only regret was that Aizen wasn't there to see it.
"Hitsugaya of Squad 10. When Aizen gets back, tell him this: 'Ichimaru was messing with Hinamori.'"
"Y-Yes, sir! Captain Ichimaru... did that?"
"Just tell him. I was just protec—er, retrieving her after she got tangled up with him."
The reckless, invincible mood of his youth faded, and Toshiro suddenly felt embarrassed by his own actions. He hastily let go of Hinamori's hand, which he had been holding the entire time, turned his back brusquely, and left the barracks with a Shunpo.
"S-See you, Hinamori!"
"Ah..."
—If.
If, at that moment, he'd had the simple courage to see the expression on her face right after he'd let go of her hand.
If, at that moment, he hadn't foolishly and self-servingly concluded that "Ichimaru is the root of all evil," but had instead properly confronted her troubles with her.
If, at that moment, he had noticed the fragments of despair that colored her every frightened word.
If he had managed to grasp even one of those countless "what ifs," perhaps he wouldn't have lost her..
—KYAAAAAAAHHH!!
And then, early the next morning, on August 5th.
Her scream, echoing through the Halls of Repentance, was the signal that the end of everything was about to begin.
***
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