/ Resilience part IX [ preview ]

Hinamori Momo had decided that she needed a break from the back fifth division paperwork she'd been picking through. The seated officers in her division had done a fabulous job of keeping up with the current reports in both their captain's and vice captain's sudden absences, but even they could only handle so much at one time. She couldn’t presume to expect as much out of them, not when it should have been hers to do in the first place. There were times when she understood where Matsumoto’s tendency to sneak off when reports were due came from.

The transition to taking over for Aizen-taichou had been difficult – and it still was, in most ways. There were many days in which Hinamori nearly forgot that her captain wasn't there anymore, and wouldn't be. She would turn to ask him his opinion on a particular report, or to see if he would like any tea when she went to get herself some, and he wasn’t there. Of course he wasn’t there; someone – Gin – had messed up his mind in there somewhere. It didn’t matter, though; Hitsugaya would bring him back and remind him of who he really was. Shirou-chan had promised as much.

Hinamori looked up just in time to see the sign for the Tenth’s offices as she passed on her walk; she hadn’t even realized she was heading in that direction. Part of her wanted to stop in and say hi to Hitsugaya, but then she remembered that he was still on mission in the Living World. Maybe she could beg Yamamoto-soutaichou to let her call him again soon.

Until then, she would simply loop by the First’s offices and see how things were going there before she went back to work on paperwork. One could only delay the inevitable for so long. But before she could let her mind dwell further on the paperwork, a small commotion of voices down the hall attracted her attention. There was a small clump of shinigami – white coats, captains, Ukitake and Kyouraku and Kurotsuchi and Unohana and… Yamamoto-soutaichou? – moving quickly towards the Fourth Division’s quarters. Unohana’s face glowed the color of reiatsu, her forehead wrinkled in a worried, concentrated frown. They hadn’t seemed to notice Hinamori following them.

She caught Hitsugaya’s name, and her heart skipped a beat. Moving forward with a hand outstretched, she tried to see who it was they were so intently gathered around. Something bad had happened. But suddenly, Koutetsu-fukutaichou was blocking her view of the procession, and she couldn’t see any more.

That wasn’t Hitsugaya-taichou they were carrying, was it?

A choked, pained moan in Hitsugaya’s familiar voice told her otherwise, and she froze. Something was wrong, horribly wrong. Hitsugaya was supposed to be in the Living World – what was he doing here? Why was he hurt? Had something happened to him on his mission?

She followed them to the Fourth Division’s infirmary, trying to pick up as much of the conversation as she could, but the ringing in her ears kept the words from registering. All she knew was that Hitsugaya had been badly hurt, and that Gin had likely had something to do with it, somehow.

Gin. The name turned her vision red with anger at the man who had taken so much away from her. It was Gin’s fault that Aizen had betrayed them, and if Gin had been responsible for harming Hitsugaya… She wouldn’t forgive him.

“Hinamori-fukutaichou?”

Hinamori nearly jumped; she had been so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn’t even heard Koutetsu Kiyone – one of the two shinigami who shared the third seat in Ukitake’s division – come up behind her.

“Koutetsu-san! You startled me,” Hinamori said.

“I know you’re worried about Hitsugaya-taichou, but Isane-nee-sama asked me to escort you back to your division,” Kiyone said in a sheepishly gentle tone. “She said they will contact you as soon as there is news, if you’d like, but they can’t have unauthorized personnel in this area right now. I’m sorry.”

Worry chased the anger away; Hitsugaya must be in really bad shape if they were trying to keep the area clear. “What happened?”

“I don’t know for sure myself, but I heard something went wrong during a questioning session,” Kiyone said. “It’s probably too early to say, but I think Hitsugaya-taichou was somehow hurt during the process.”

“Will he be all right?”

“I don’t know. I’m sorry.”

Hinamori nodded; Kiyone’s guess probably was as good as her own. She let the third seat lead her away, silently praying that Hitsugaya would pull through whatever had happened to him, and that Gin would suffer a thousand painful deaths for what he had done.

--

“Ran-chan! You have a call!”

Renji was out of breath by the time he caught up to Matsumoto at the edge of the park. She had taken up Hitsugaya’s affinity for late afternoon walks in his absence; she was out on one such walk when she sensed Renji approaching her. She whirled, eyes wide when they met with Renji’s.

“News?” she asked seriously, heart pounding with anxiety. Was it from Hitsugaya?

“None that they would give me; Yamamoto-soutaichou wanted to speak with you specifically,” Renji replied, an apologetic look on his face.

She frowned. If Yamamoto wanted to speak with her, then… No. She couldn’t let her mind think that way. They wouldn’t execute Hitsugaya over his memories, would they? They couldn’t afford to, not with how thinly spread their captains were as it was. Without another word, she nodded to Renji, and they both sped back to Orihime’s apartment, back to where the Soul Society calling console sat in the spare room there. Orihime shot them a puzzled look as they both barged into her apartment and rushed back to the spare room.

Matsumoto didn’t realize she was out of breath until she stood before the console gasping for air. Yamamoto’s figure stood calmly still in the incoming screen, silhouetted in his dark office only by the light of his own console. His face was blank, but it always was.

“Matsumoto-fukutaichou,” he said solemnly. “Your presence is requested back here in Soul Society. Please report to my office after you have made arrangements to oversee Inoue-san’s continued protection.”

No news? Matsumoto nearly frowned again at the vague nature of Yama-jii’s message, but she knew better than to question. They’d tell her what was going on when she got there, she hoped. “Understood, Yamamoto-soutaichou,” she replied with a nod.

“That is all.”

And the screen flickered off. Matsumoto looked wearily over her shoulder at Renji, who still stood in the doorway.

“You’d better get going, Ran-chan,” he said.

Matsumoto nodded. “Please take over for me, and let the others know,” she said.

Renji balked. “Me?”

“And make sure Urahara keeps his promise. I’ll send word as soon as I’m able.”

Once Renji finished sputtering, he took a deep breath and bowed. “Take care, Ran-chan.”

Matsumoto nodded, turned, and initiated the gate back to Soul Society. Renji waved behind the closing doors, and Matsumoto didn’t look back. Then again, she was startled to find Ukitake waiting for her on the other side of the door, and she didn’t even think to look behind her again. At first, she thought that perhaps it was a coincidence, but when she took a closer look at the Thirteenth’s captain, she saw that he was slightly hunched over, and dark circles ringed his bloodshot eyes. There was no sparkle in his usually cheery expression.

The realization sank in Matsumoto’s gut, bitterly heavy. Something had not only gone wrong, it had gone horribly wrong. A disaster.

“Come with me,” was all the answer Ukitake could provide her. He turned and walked somberly in the direction of the First Division offices. Numbly, Matsumoto followed.

Yamamoto’s office looked like a war zone, and Matsumoto suddenly understood why Yamamoto had likely kept the lights off on purpose while speaking with her over the communicator. Glass and papers were strewn everywhere, chairs broken and at least one table had been splintered. There were patches of blood on the floor, not quite dried, and the most pooled around the base of a chair that had once had armrests on it. The only explanation she could think of was that there had been a fight there. Had Hitsugaya fought back during the memory wipe? Had he been provoked so far as to strike back against Yamamoto? Or had someone attacked them in the meantime? It was extremely difficult to tell from just a glance what had caused the scuffle, but something had happened.

“Matsumoto-fukutaichou,” Yamamoto greeted.

“Yamamoto-soutaichou,” Matsumoto replied, bowing. “You sent for me.”

“I did,” Yamamoto said. “Thank you for your prompt arrival.” Matusmoto inclined her head in a half-nod, and waited for the old man to continue. “As you can see, there has been some trouble here, and I am afraid it involves Hitsugaya-taichou.”

Matsumoto couldn’t hide the scowl that was slowly finding its way to her face. “And how might that be?” she asked tersely. She half expected Yamamoto to come out and accuse her of treason as well, just by association.

His answer surprised her. “He was the unfortunate casualty of a brutal trap set by Aizen Sousuke and his associates.”

Was. The word felt like a slowly-twisting knife in her stomach. “Is Hitsugaya-taichou–?”

“He still lives,” Yamamoto said, quelling one of her fears. “But he is in poor condition. Unohana-taichou is looking after him as we speak.”

If Unohana-taichou was personally handling his case, then it had to be bad. “Might I see him?”

“Not until Unohana-taichou declares him stable.”

Matsumoto felt her eyes burn with tears, and she spent a full moment trying to bite back on them. She had to be strong. When she was certain her voice wasn’t going to crack on her, she asked, “What happened?”

“Well, we can’t do much until we have word from Unohana. Let us go somewhere where we can sit, and I will explain the situation in full detail,” Yamamoto said, motioning for both Matsumoto and Ukitake to follow.

Feeling ill, Matsumoto hesitated, but Ukitake gently placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up as he passed, and then she finally followed.

----

(The rest to come soon, I hope!)