I'm sorry, Toshiro.
There is... one more chapter.
"Everyone... wait for me!"
***
In the void between the three worlds—the Garganta—a young man raced along a path of spirit energy. Ichigo Kurosaki was desperate to rescue his friends and protect his home, Karakura Town. Beside him, the Captain of Squad 4, Retsu Unohana, explained the gravity of the situation.
She spoke of the "Heavy Spirit Zone" of Karakura Town and the enemy's true objective. She spoke of the zanpakuto of the root of all evil, Sosuke Aizen—and how Ichigo, who was not under its influence, was the Soul Society's only trump card.
And then...
"I had no idea..." Ichigo muttered.
"Yes," Unohana replied. "Fifty years ago, while still a student at the Spiritual Arts Academy, former Lieutenant Hinamori protected her classmates—including Lieutenants Abarai, Kira, and Hisagi—from a Hollow attack. She was kidnapped and taken into the Garganta. That attack was likely orchestrated by Sosuke Aizen. That was the moment she fell into his clutches."
Ichigo had asked about his mysterious benefactor, Momo Hinamori. Unohana knew her well; Hinamori had frequently visited Squad 4 to learn healing kido.
"She was always busy," Unohana continued. "She balanced her duties as a Lieutenant with her role as the Third Seat of the Kido Corps' elite Third Squad. In her spare time, she studied healing with my squad and taught flower arrangement and cooking at the Women's Soul Reaper Association."
"That's incredible. To do all that while being forced to help Aizen... how did she even have the time?"
"Indeed. If the woman we've seen is not a complete illusion of Kyoka Suigetsu, then we all hope the crimes she was forced to commit were few."
Ichigo glanced back at Unohana. He felt a wave of relief. This woman—this "big sister" figure who had helped him control his Hollowfication and protected his sense of self—was loved by many. It strengthened his resolve.
He also thought of the boy who was trying just as hard to save her: the youngest Captain, Toshiro Hitsugaya. He had seen Toshiro's face darken with despair during their recent reunion.
"I've heard they grew up together in the Junrinan district of the Rukon District, like family," Unohana added. "The Gatekeeper Jidanbo would know more about that than I."
"Jidanbo? Oh, right... Hinamori was always close with the people in the Rukon District, just like him."
Thinking back, Ichigo realized how many people and places were connected to her. Unohana provided more context, much of it deduction, but it made perfect sense to Ichigo.
Momo Hinamori had become a Soul Reaper not just to protect the people of Junrinan, especially Toshiro, but to restrain her own massive power. Unfortunately, the first person to reach out to her was Aizen. She had been captivated by his strength and the way he hid his power to be loved by everyone. And when he defected, she had bargained for the safety of Toshiro and the others in exchange for her loyalty.
"Despite her power, she was humble, kind, wise... and perhaps, fearful. She couldn't bear the loneliness of the strong, yet she knew that very strength was what protected those she loved. I've known many who, if things had gone differently, might have ended up just like her."
Ichigo fell silent. Over the past six months, he had grown distant from his high school friends—Tatsuki, Keigo, and Mizuiro—who hadn't awakened to any special powers. He understood Hinamori's dilemma. He wondered if she ever had comrades who fought by her side, the way he had Chad and Orihime.
He remembered the words of the Arrancars who followed her:
"Eternal glory to our Army Leader!"
"The Espada is where we can be closest to her..."
"She would believe that living has meaning."
How had she felt, leading the Arrancars who revered her?
"This is a charm from your big sister."
"I'm sorry, Ichigo, this is all I can do right now..."
"I see. You really are still just half-baked."
How had she felt, helping him gain strength even while serving Aizen?
"I'm sorry... Toshiro..."
"You... have to live."
"If you come, I will strike you down!"
How had she felt, pointing her blade at the person she loved most?
"Sorry, Captain Unohana," Ichigo said, breaking the silence as they raced through the void. "I'm the one who has to defeat Aizen. He's trying to kill my friends and destroy my town. I'll take him down."
"..."
"But... saving her? That's not my job. I'm not the one who should save Hinamori."
He pictured the icy boy with the gloomy expression. He saw a reflection of his own past self—the version of him that was consumed by helplessness because he couldn't protect Rukia.
"Do you trust Captain Hitsugaya that much?"
"Who knows? We aren't close like I am with Rukia or Renji. I only know him as that 'genius' with the amazing zanpakuto. But..." Ichigo grinned. "I can see it in his soul. It's screaming: 'I'm the one who's going to save her!'"
Unohana's eyes widened. She thought of this human youth who had fought through the Gotei 13 and overturned the law of the land to save Rukia Kuchiki. If this man believed in Toshiro's resolve, then perhaps the young Captain's feelings were stronger than anyone realized.
"Why don't you join me in the front row, Unohana? Let's watch him..." Ichigo's grin turned cocky. "...act like a real man and save his first love."
Unohana blinked in surprise before letting out a soft laugh. "Hehe... Yes, let's do that."
She found it fascinating—to be encouraged by a child who hadn't lived a fraction of the time she had. There was a strange charm to him. Suppressing the urge to challenge him to a duel just to feel his blade, the "First Kenpachi" decided to bet on his intuition.
"We're almost there, Ichigo."
"Right!"
After contacting Mayuri Kurotsuchi, the two dived into the light of the opening rift. But the reality Ichigo Kurosaki witnessed upon arrival was no dream...
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING, TOSHIRO!?"
It was the peak of a tragedy, stained by a hundred and fifty years of madness and despair.
***
Squish.
Something warm and wet splashed against Toshiro Hitsugaya's face. As a Soul Reaper, a seated officer, and a Captain, he had felt, smelled, and tasted this many times before. It was the scent of death.
The moment his brain processed what it was, his body reflexively suppressed all unnecessary emotions and physical reactions. But for the Toshiro who looked upon the scene with dried eyes, that reflex was meaningless.
"Ah... h..."
A vanishingly small voice reached his ears—a sound of despair that forced him to accept this as reality.
"Hi... na... mori...?"
Standing before Toshiro, with a dull blade protruding from her chest, was Momo Hinamori.
Her white robes and snow-white skin were stained by a nightmarish crimson. Toshiro couldn't even grasp what had happened before the voice of that man echoed in his ears.
"How disappointing, Momo."
Sosuke Aizen, his face as pleasant as ever, whispered, "I thought you were a bit smarter than this," as he slowly pulled the sword from the girl's lungs.
The spray of her blood soaked Toshiro's face.
"Why...?"
The boy's raspy voice snapped the other Soul Reapers out of their daze. Whether by luck or some celestial mercy, no one else had been killed despite the scale of the destruction.
"You're despicable..."
"Are you discarding her, too? Aizen!"
Shinji Hirako, Kisuke Urahara, Shunsui Kyoraku, Soi Fon, and Sajin Komamura—the strongest of both worlds—rose to their feet.
"Toshiro..."
But then, the unthinkable happened.
"What!? She vanished!?"
The moment the girl collapsed, her blood-soaked form turned to dust and disappeared. It was as if "Momo Hinamori" had never existed at all.
"Hinamori? Hey, where are you!? HINAMORI!"
Toshiro spun around frantically. But the scorched earth and the pool of red blood were the only things left of his childhood friend.
"Aizen! Where did you send her!?"
"Hehe... I wonder?"
"YOU BASTARD!"
Toshiro unleashed a firestorm of rage toward the monster who had taken her. Where he found the strength, no one knew; he had been exhausted, yet the threat to her life had reignited his power. It was as if it were his destiny to fight.
"Wait... could it be Kyoka Suigetsu!?"
"Wait, Captain Hitsugaya!"
"You idiot! Don't charge in alone!"
He didn't hear them. He didn't hear Urahara's logic.
He swung his blade in a downward strike fueled by pure fury. But his full-power strike was caught by Aizen's fingertips as easily as one might catch a butterfly.
"Guh! Damn it!"
"The path of the fool is paved with despair and tragedy written by the strong. That is the only path you and Momo will ever walk together, Toshiro."
"GAAAH!"
Aizen threw him aside. Toshiro was caught by Kyoraku, but he immediately lunged forward again, heedless of his surroundings.
"Calm down, Captain Hitsugaya! Our losses are too high! We need to reform our line—"
"Get out of my way! Tell me where she is, AIZEN!"
He brushed off Kyoraku's hand, thrusting his sword at his nemesis. Aizen looked at him with eyes full of mocking pity.
"Good grief... you really don't understand. Or are you just trying to ignore the truth by throwing yourself at me? Your reckless actions are what stained my Momo in blood."
"Shut up! Who is your Momo!? She doesn't belong to you!"
Toshiro swung his sword again and again.
Everything—her bleeding, her pain, the Hogyoku inside her—it was all this man's fault. Everything.
Hinamori didn't belong to him. He wouldn't allow her to fall into the hands of a monster like this. She was his... she was his alone!
"It seems you still don't understand that your 'possession' is nothing but a pathetic fantasy."
"What—GAH!?"
Toshiro's reckless barrage was easily parried, and his small body was slammed into the ground.
"To possess something is to keep it under one's protection. Since 'you' have always been the one protected by Momo, you are her possession. The reverse is impossible."
Aizen stepped forward as the boy lay coughing and groaning on the ground. The slight movement allowed him to easily evade the combined ambush of Shinji and Kyoraku.
"My, you're quite obsessed with teasing Captain Hitsugaya, aren't you?" Kyoraku noted. "Is there a reason?"
"He's just pissed that his 'precious Momo' cries for another man!" Shinji taunted. "A man picking a fight with another man over a woman is either jealousy or showing off his wife. That's been the rule since the Stone Age!"
The two threw provocations at Aizen as they unleashed their abilities, but the man merely smiled as if enjoying a cool breeze.
"Jealousy... showing off... exposing your ignorance with such words is very like you, Shinji Hirako."
"Oh? Did I hit a nerve, Aizen?"
"If it looks that way to you, then you haven't progressed a single step in a hundred years, back when you used to follow my illusion around with that 'knowing' look on your face."
"You...!" Shinji's face twisted in anger.
Kyoraku stepped in to support him. "I have to admit, your obsession with Momo is unexpected. What exactly do you love about her, Sosuke?"
"Captain Kyoraku, I'm afraid you've already missed your chance to understand her singularity. And even if you did, there is nothing you could do. Just as you were once unable to be the light that illuminated Tosen's darkness."
"You have a big mouth for the man who dragged him into evil!"
Kyoraku bit his lip. He felt a lingering guilt regarding Kaname Tosen—the incident that had turned that good man toward darkness. Even though Kyoraku wasn't at fault, he felt a profound sense of helplessness regarding Tosen's defection and eventual death.
Was Momo the same? Was this another case of someone's "meddling" causing her misery? For a split second, Kyoraku—who always had a soft spot for beauties—felt his heart shake at the sheer tragedy surrounding the girl.
Aizen looked down at them and spoke, his words filled with a mystery that made their instincts scream in warning.
"What she is to me... or rather, what Momo Hinamori is to every living being in this world... there are many words for it, but none are correct. The very fact that the three worlds we inhabit cannot contain her existence is proof of that."
What the hell does this man know?
But Toshiro didn't care about his riddles. He only cared about finding the girl who was currently bleeding out somewhere.
"You've been talking trash this whole time! Did you ruin her life just for this!? Did you make her bleed just for your stupid 'logic'!?"
"Of course. That is the courtesy I owe her."
"Courtesy...?"
How was hurting her a "courtesy"? Aizen turned to Toshiro. "Yes. And as part of that courtesy... Momo asked me to convey an apology to you."
"What...?"
Toshiro's skin crawled. Aizen's lips curled into that same sickening crescent moon shape he had worn at the Central 46. With visible delight, the monster delivered his "apology" to the innocent boy.
"—She apologized for permitting me... her heart, her body, and every part of her that she never once showed to you."
In that moment, the adults were the first to understand. Whether due to childhood innocence or an instinctive denial, Toshiro stood there blankly for a second, but the reaction of those behind him was visceral.
Disgust. Pity. Righteous fury. Their reactions cleared the fog from the boy's mind.
Toshiro was a Captain. Even as a child, he lived in an adult world and knew what those words meant.
Why was Soi Fon so disgusted? Why was Kyoraku so full of pity? Why was Komamura so furious?
Permitted him... every part... heart and body... things she never showed me...
As the pieces connected, a heat boiled in Toshiro's gut like a cauldron of hellfire.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!"
A half-second later, Toshiro's vision turned a brilliant, fiery red.
"No, Shorty! Stop!"
"Don't do it, Captain Hitsugaya! It's a provocation!"
But Toshiro—the boy who loved her more than his own life—could not contain his rage. He saw only his hated enemy. He brushed off the final warnings and lunged forward, thrusting his blade toward the monster's heart with every ounce of violence he possessed.
"DIE, AIZEN!"
With the sensation of piercing soft, warm flesh—a feeling he had longed for—he impaled Sosuke Aizen.
The battlefield fell silent. Had he actually succeeded? Had Aizen really failed to block such a reckless attack?
Everyone watched the two, enveloped in a spray of blood. But even with a sword through his chest, Aizen was smiling.
"What...?"
The change happened slowly, as if to ensure the truth burned into every corner of the boy's brain.
"No way...!"
The man's form began to scatter into pink petals. Starting from the left shoulder, the contents of the "illusion" were revealed.
First came a delicate left shoulder. Then, skin as white as wax, followed by white robes that hid a swelling chest. When the blood-stained Soul Reaper robes became clear—
"Didn't I tell you, Toshiro?"
Aizen's voice whispered as the illusion dissolved completely.
"—It's always you who makes Momo Hinamori bleed."
***
"To... shi... ro..."
A wet, sickening sound called his name. He felt the heartbeat through the sword and the sensation of soft flesh.
She was there.
"Hina... mori...?"
He let go of his sword and caught her. It was the first time they had touched since the Hill of Sokyoku. Yet the joy and happiness he had craved were nowhere to be found.
"Hina... mori...?"
Toshiro slowly descended to the scorched earth, cradling her. Her body was as light as a feather—hardly the body of someone with power that could level a city.
"He... heh..."
A smile appeared on the girl's pale face. A hollow smile, full of sorrow, pain, and resignation.
"I... thought... this might... happen..."
In a vanishingly small voice, she whispered, "Because I did so many bad things." She squeezed the confession out of her punctured lungs, along with the blood from her pierced heart.
What is this? What is happening?
He couldn't stop it. As the warmth drained from the back he held, her body temperature began to fade.
"Thank... you... To... shi... ro..."
Her hand reached out to touch his cheek. It was cold, trembling, and weak—none of the vibrant warmth she used to have.
And then...
"I'm sorry—"
I . L O V E . Y O U .
With those final words, her hand fell from his cheek.
A cold winter wind blew across the scorched earth. When that last bit of warmth vanished, the boy finally called the name of the heavy weight in his arms.
"Hinamori...?"
Tears shimmered on her closed eyelids. Her pulse was gone. Her heart had stopped. She wasn't breathing.
There was no answer.
"Hey... Hinamori..."
He shook her. He begged her to wake up. He pleaded. He clung to her.
But the girl, with that weak, final smile on her face, did not move. She looked like a beautiful, tragic doll.
"Ah... h..."
What is this?
"Ah... a..."
What am I holding in my arms?
"AAAAAAAH..."
What am I cradling on the battlefield where I was supposed to save her?
『—Maybe I'll have you protect me...』
A memory flashed through his mind. A page from their daily lives before everything was destroyed.
She had always been strong, yet at the end of her despair, she had reached out for one tiny, fragile hope.
That hope had been betrayed. She had been cast into the darkness, forced to point her blade at her friends and become a weapon of the Hogyoku. And in her final moment, she had reached out for that hope one last time...
『Toshiro—』
SAVE ME...
"UAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
On that nightmarish February 29th, the boy's fragile, precious happiness was stolen from him.
The "happiness" he had finally recovered... was now a silent corpse.
***
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