Darkness by: Kalow of FanFiction.net
Chapter Two
Toushiro and Matsumoto shunpoed towards the fourth division medical center, with Nelani following closely behind them. Toushiro was overwhelmed with fear for Momo. How had this happened? Wasn’t she in a secure room designed specifically to prevent her from injuring herself? Wasn’t she being watched over to ensure her safety? And why was Momo doing this? The fear of something like this happening had weighed on his mind for a while, but he didn’t really believe that she would actually attempt to take her own life. She had so much to live for if she could make herself forget about Aizen. She had many friends, was respected and well-liked throughout Seireitei, and was a fairly powerful Vice-Captain. Why throw that all away?
Toushiro of course knew the answer to that: Aizen. That monster had made Momo believe that she couldn’t live without him. He crushed her spirit and her will to go on. Toushiro swore that he would personally defeat Aizen. It did not matter to him that Aizen was in a league all his own or that he had so easily defeated him before, Toushiro thought only of avenging the pain he had caused Momo. At the moment though, these thoughts of vengeance were overshadowed by his concern for Momo.
Finally he and Matsumoto arrived at the Fourth Division Medical Center. They rushed in, and were met by Isane Kotetsu.
“Where is she?” Toushiro asked frantically, “Is Momo alright?”
“Vice-Captain Hinamori is badly injured but is alive. She is being treated by Captain Unohana,” Isane explained.
“What on earth happened?” Matsumoto asked, “Wasn’t she in a secure room?”
“Apparently she used Kido as a means to inflict harm on herself,” Isane said.
“But I thought that her reiatsu had been sealed to prevent this sort of thing!” Hitsugaya said.
“Yes, but with her aptitude for Kido, she managed to gather enough energy to create an explosion. She suffered from blunt trauma from the blast, and has a broken ribcage and internal bleeding. She has some nasty burns too. Captain Unohana is confident that she can heal her however.”
“When can we see her?” Toushiro asked.
“Not for a while I’m afraid. Unohana must conduct the treatment without interference. I will take you to the room she is being treated in and you can wait there,” Isane said.
“Thank you,” Matsumoto said. They began following after her when someone shouted out behind them.
“Wait for me!” Nelani said, running up. She panted heavily.
“What’s going on, is Momo okay?”
“We’re going to the place she’s being treated for now. Come with us and we’ll explain the rest to you,” Matsumoto said.
They walked down the hall, following after Isane. They were very anxious and worried about Momo. They passed her old room, where the bed had been blown to pieces and there were still pieces of smoldering debris. After an agonizingly long walk, Isane stopped and turned to them.
“This is the room where she is being treated. Wait here until we are finished with treatment,” she said. They nodded and Isane slipped into the room to help Unohana.
Unohana stood over Momo Hinamori. The girl was badly burned, and had suffered immense blunt trauma. She was quite surprised that she had been able to manipulate Kido energy even with her reiatsu sealed. She was indeed more powerful than she gave herself credit for. Unohana could not help but wonder what would have happened if this poor girl had never met Aizen. Without his deliberately keeping her at a level useful to him, she could have potentially risen to far greater heights. Of course Aizen was her motivation to become powerful, so she may not have ended up as powerful were Aizen not in the picture. She sighed, shaking away such thoughts and getting back to work. Momo was in relatively stable condition, but still needed expert treatment or there was the possibility of the wounds becoming crippling for Momo.
The door creaked open and Isane walked in.
“How is she?” Isane asked quietly.
“She’ll live, but in what condition I’m not sure. I’ve managed to stabilize her rib cage so that it won’t collapse, but I’m not sure that her body can handle this trauma, especially after already having gone through so much,” Unohana said, glancing at the remnants of Momo’s stab wound, which consisted of a purplish area of unhealed tissue under the skin where Aizen’s blade had gone through her. She sighed heavily.
“Poor child…” she whispered, “Forced to live with something like this…it’s unbelievable.” It wasn’t fair in Unohana’s opinion. Momo was a strong shinigami and a respected Vice-Captain, but she was still a child. She had emotional needs and was deeply trusting towards those around her. She may be chronologically 150 years old, but she was still young, and Unohana hated to see a young soul be forced to endure such suffering.
“Shall I complete the procedure? There is not much left, I could-”
“No, I’ll handle it. Go and get some rest Isane,” Unohana said. Isane hesitated a moment before bowing and leaving. Unohana sighed and finished treating Momo’s injuries. Things were becoming worse and worse.
Toushiro growled into his pillow as he lied in bed. Isane had told them that they would need to leave but that they could visit Momo the following day. After returning to work, Toushiro found himself unable to concentrate, constantly making mistakes and becoming frustrated with his work. After listening to him grumbling and muttering to himself for some time, Matsumoto insisted that he go home early, offering to finish his work. The fact that Matsumoto was actually offering to do extra work for him made him realize that perhaps ending work early was a good idea after all.
As he lay in bed however, he was beginning to think perhaps it was pointless. With work, at least he had something that he could try to keep things off his mind, but now he could only lie in bed wide awake thinking about her. He couldn’t help it. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t stop thinking of her.
He thought of their time together in Rukongai, of their time in the academy, and of their time as Shinigami. Each time they moved forward they seemed to drift further apart. With Toushiro no longer a regular fixture in her life, Momo became even closer to Aizen. Toushiro respected Aizen back then, but he still resented the fact that she gave him so much devotion. It felt like he was being forgotten and didn’t really matter to her anymore. The thought made him extremely depressed.
When Aizen had given her information that Toushiro had supposedly killed him, Momo had taken Aizen at his word, and attempted to kill Toushiro. She may not have wanted to, but she did truly believed Toushiro, her best friend, her Shiro-chan, to be responsible for the ‘murder’ of her captain. Yet when confronted with the fact that her captain was a traitor, she insisted that it wasn’t his fault and he must have been manipulated or forced to do his evil deeds. It made Toushiro wonder if she cared more about him or Aizen. It seemed like it was Aizen right now, but what about all of their years as friends? Did that mean nothing?”
Toushiro sighed heavily. When he saw Momo lying in a pool of blood on the floors of the Central 46 chambers, everything seemed to stop for him. He was certain that she was dead, and was in complete shock. As Aizen revealed himself a traitor, Toushiro’s mind could only numbly comprehend it, such was his disbelief at seeing Momo before him. He had promised to protect her, and had completely and utterly failed. Even now, when he knew she was alive, he felt that he had failed her, that he had not done enough to protect her from Aizen’s manipulation.
Giving up on sleep, he sat up in bed with a weary sigh and walked over to the closet on the other side of the room. Sliding it open, he got down on his knees and reached deep within, pulling out a wooden chest. The rich, reddish brown chest was made of intricately carved Rosewood. Carved into it were several chinese dragons, and two locks on it’s side were in the shape of traditional guardian lions.
Delicately lifting up the chest, he took it over to his bed. He turned a light on, squinting as the bright light chased away the darkness. He undid the locks on the chest and opened it with a slight creak.
Inside were items from his childhood with Momo. There was a pressed flower that Momo had picked for him as a child. He didn’t want to be seen with a flower, but Momo made him wear the bright white flower on his shirt, saying it matched his hair. A book that granny used to read bed-time stories to them sat on the bottom. There were little mementos of the times they had gone exploring, including rocks, bottlecaps, snail shells, and leaves. Delicately removing all of the heavier items, Toushiro took out several pieces of paper on the bottom of the chest.
Toushiro looked at the papers. On them were drawings that Momo made as a child. There were pictures of birds, cats, and squirrels, but his favorite of all was a crudely drawn picture of him and her. She wore pink clothes and he wore blue clothes. They both wore big smiles and their stick-like arms were holding hands.
Toushiro sighed. He wondered if he would ever truly have Momo back.
The next day, Toushiro went straight to the Fourth Division medical center, and went straight to Unohana. He found her standing outside of her office, waiting for him.
“So can I see Momo now?” he asked.
“Yes, but be gentle with her. She’s doing much better than expected, but be careful not to do anything upsetting for her,” Unohana said. She gestured for him to follow her, and led him to Momo’s room. She quietly opened the door for him to go in.
Toushiro took a deep breath and walked in. Momo was sitting upright in bed, her face displaying complete misery. She looked up at Toushiro, a look of misery on her face. There was silence between them, and Toushiro moved forward cautiously.
“Momo?” he said hesitantly.
“Toushiro…” she whispered. Her voice was weak and tired. There were dark shadows under her eyes from lack of sleep.
“It…it looks like Captain Unohana did a good job fixing you up,” Toushiro said. Momo remained silent, looking down at her feet. Toushiro cleared his throat, hoping for a response. When he received none, he spoke again.
“Do you need something? Food? Water? A new pillow? If you need anything, I’ll be happy to get it for you.” Silence again. Toushiro put a hand on the side of Momo’s face and tilted her gaze towards him.
“Momo please, I want to help you. I don’t want to see you in pain like this anymore,” he said. Momo looked at him for a minute, tears beginning to form in her eyes.
“I’m sorry Toushiro,” she whispered, “I’m sorry I can’t do anything. I’m sorry I’m so weak and a burden on everyone. I don’t know what to do!”
“It’s okay Momo, calm down. Things will get better eventually,” Toushiro said encouragingly, though he was beginning to panick a little bit at Momo’s behavior.
“Why? Why did he have to do it? Was I too weak? Did I do something wrong?” She said, seemingly to herself.
“Momo, it wasn’t your fault. Aizen did those things to you because he is an evil monster!” Toushiro said, “You have nothing to be ashamed or guilty of.”
“Oh Toushiro, I’m so confused. I don’t know what to believe anymore! Captai Aizen felt like the only certain thing in my life! I know he’s doing bad things, but I just can’t believe that the same Captain Aizen who was always there for me would do such things! It just feels so impossible! I don’t know what to believe, I don’t know what’s going on! I just want it all to end, to be rid of all of this pain!” she cried.
“Momo, please don’t cry, I hate to see you cry,” Toushiro said. Momo attempted to fight her sobs, but ended up erupting into more crying. Toushiro was about to speak again when he felt a hand gently placed upon his shoulder. He looked up to see Unohana standing above him, gracefully leading him out of the room. When they were outside, Toushiro looked at Unohana pleadingly.
“What can we do? She’s completely lost in despair, she has no idea what’s real and what’s not! I can’t think of anything that could snap her out of this!” Toushiro said. Unohana sighed.
“Well…there is one way to help her. It’s risky, but it’s the only thing I can think of that could possibly work.”
“What is it? If it can help Momo, then I’m all in favor of it. What is it that will help her?” Toushiro said.
“We should give her Tobiume,” Unohana said. Toushiro’s jaw dropped.
“Give her back her zanpakuto? We can’t do that!” he said in surprise.
“Tobiume is Momo’s friend and ally. It is a part of her soul, and perhaps the only thing that can snap her out of this.”
“Yeah, but Tobiume is also a sword,” Toushiro said stubbornly, “She just tried to commit suicide, do you really think giving her a sword is a good idea?”
“It is true that there is a high risk to it, but it’s the only way. Miss Hinamori must decide for herself whether she will allow herself to be stay fallen down in despair, or if she wishes to stand up again. It’s up to her, and although the risks are high, if we don’t do this now we may lose her to her despair forever. What do you say?”
Toushiro gulped. If given Tobiume, Momo might end up using it to kill herself. But it might also help her to end her despair. If she wasn’t given tobiume, she would be resigned to a lifetime of misery and pain. Toushiro took a deep breath. He hated the idea of putting her at risk, but recognized this as perhaps the only way to truly return her to normal. He took a deep breath and nodded his head.
Momo sobbed into her pillow and clutched her head. Everything was so confusing. How could Aizen do such a thing? How could her beloved captain betray her and all of Soul Society? It didn’t make any sense! He had been so good and kind to her all these years, and had helped her so much. If Aizen really was evil and living a lie, wasn’t her purpose for life just a lie? What point was there to go on? But wait, Aizen couldn’t be evil, he just couldn’t! He was a role-model shinigami, and everyone respected him. Something must have happened to make him this way. It could have been Ichimaru, or the arrancar or something else, but it couldn’t be him! But…that didn’t fit with what was going on. She clutched her head. Everything was so confusing.
Suddenly she felt someone setting something down upon her. She looked up to see the sillouette of Unohana walking out of the room. She looked down and gasped. Tobiume was lying next to her. She sat up, holding her zanpakuto in her arms. This was it, her means of escape. She didn’t know why Unohana had put it there, but she knew that she had to end all of this, to not be a burden on everyone, to end her pathetic life.
Momo drew the sword and held it pointed to her chest. Just as she was about to plunge it in however, she froze, and felt as if she were being sucked into another world.
She fell down hard on the ground. Groaning, she shakily stood up and looked around. She was in the midst of an orchard full of trees with bright pink fruit. She blinked and gazed around the place.
“Hello Momo, I haven’t seen you in some time,” a voice said. Momo turned around, her eyes wide.
“Tobiume...”
