~ Light Of Hope ~ (A Toushiro Hitsugaya Fanfic)

16. " Missing Again "

"Zaraki-taichou got bored so he asked me where Kurosaki-san is and I happen to see him going here so I told him.", Momo suddenly said popping out of nowhere as well.

"H-Hinamori!?", Toushirou exclaimed in surprise.

Shunsui appeared out of the blue behind them looking at Ichigo and Kenpachi over their shoulders. "What are you guys playing? Looks like fun."

Hands pulling his hair, Toushirou bellowed, "Why does everyone keep popping out of nowhere?!"

Ichigo barely dodged Kenpachi's attack when he responded to Shunsui with an irk mark on his head. "Does this look like we're playing!?"

"Whatever. Just don't play here in my office! Oi! Kurosaki! Take him to the training hall!", Toushirou yelled.

"We're not playing! And why does it have to be me anyway!?", Ichigo whined.

"Hi! Ichii!", Yachiru greeted popping out behind Kenpachi's shoulder. "Ken-chan let's go play at the training hall, it's too cramped in here.", she cheerfully said.

"Psh! Fine! Let's go Ichigo.", Kenpachi said. He yanked Ichigo by the collar and sped off.

With them gone, Toushirou sighed in relief. He turns his attention to Yuuki only to find out that she was no longer there as well as Momo.

"If you're looking for the two girls they've gone off a long time ago.", Shunsui said.

"What are you doing here anyway, Kyoraku?", Toushirou asked.

Shunsui rubs the stubble on his chin. "Ukitake was supposed to be the one to talk to you but he wasn't feeling well. So he asked me instead."

"Let's go to my office, we'll talk there.", Toushirou said and leads the way to his office with the 8th Division captain trailing behind.

At the same time,

Momo was showing Yuuki around Seireitei. Earlier at the 10th division office, Momo purposely came to ask Yuuki if she had the time to walk around Soul Society. Yuuki responded with shake of her head. They didn't exactly snuck out, no one except for Shunsui noticed them leaving. So now, they're making their way to the 5th Division barracks. Momo was temporarily in charge of the 5th division barracks since Aizen Sosuke's betrayal. Yuuki wrote something she wanted to ask Momo for a while now.

~Hina, I've been meaning to ask, about what happened about two months ago. Shiro told me how you got fatally injured, and how Ichi-nii got his powers, can you tell me more about it? This Aizen person they keep mentioning.~

"Why would you want to know about it?", Momo asked curiously.

~I just wanted to know... or is it something I shouldn't ask?~

Mom shakes her head no. "No, that's not it....", there was a hint of sadness in her eyes. "Aizen-taichou was my senior officer. Everyone in the 5th division admired him. To me he was like a father and a brother. Everyone, specially me, trusted him. That's why I really got confused when he faked his death and blamed Shiro-chan for it. I attacked him thinking he was the one who killed him. But it turned out that Aizen-taichou just framed him. Since then I've been regretting what I did and tried to make up for it.", she remorsefully said.

(Betrayed by someone important to you.... I understand how you feel, Hina. Specially when you don't know the reason why he really did it.... Shinjo-nii....), Yuuki thought as she clenched her fists. Tears trickled down her cheeks.

"Y-Yuuki-chan please don't cry... I'm... the one that's supposed to cry...", Momo frantically said as she started to cry as well.

Yuuki quickly wiped away her tears and regained her composure.