AUTHOR TIME: helloooo! The plot is coming along nicely, this arc is nearly done! 2 more chappies maybe!

DISCLAIMER: heheheh, let's use MOMO!

ME: Hello, MOMO! Please say the disclaimer!

MOMO: Umm, who are you?

ME: You don't need to care! just say the disclaimer! Say aprilup does not own bleach! Or Hitsu!

MOMO: You own Hitsugaya-kun?

ME: No,no! I don't own him!

MOMO: Aprilup does not own Bleach or Hitsugaya-kun because I own him.

ME: O_O

MOMO: what?

ME: No fair, I changed my mind! Hitsu is so hot, share him!

MOM: O_O ~blushes~

ME: Come on! Don't you think so?

MOMO: ~mumble, mumble~

ME: Hehe, ;) Just kidding, you can have him! On with the story!

Chapter 3: Kibou (Hope)

Last time:

"NO! I don't want to die!"

Kira's voice echoed in Hinamori's head.

I don't want to die.

~The rolling, never-ending waves of fate sweep everyone and everything into its path; for if anything would dare to go against fate, then the ties of time would plunge the world into chaos until control awakened. . ."

Hinamori's eyes slowly opened.

She was in a place quite unfamiliar to her. There were beautiful plums trees swaying gently in the breeze, and their flowers were carried by the wind to land softly next to Hinamori. She crinkled up her nose. Plums were something she hated, especially the white plum flowers of the plum tree. Her name meant peaches, so she loves peaches and hates plums. It makes perfect sense to her.

"Hinamori."

A voice echoed through the space, seemingly whispering and yelling at the same time. It was filled with such hope and longing, as if it had been waiting for someone or something for a long time. But there were also traces of sadness and despair within; the voice had nearly given up hope. Hinamori wondered who could sound like that.

"Who's there?"

Hinamori heard no reply. The plum trees began to sway faster as the winds picked up the pace. The petals started falling faster and began to swirl around Hinamori.

"Where am I? Who's there?"

There was a period of silence, in which Hinamori wondered if the voice was actually real or just her imagination.

"I see, so you still can't hear me."

The petals had formed a tornado of white around Hinamori, obscuring all view of the world outside. Hinamori tried to push the petals apart but they suddenly burst into flames. She stepped back at first in horror, but then raised her head in wonder at the beautiful sight. Each petal was on fire, but it never burnt out the petal or seemed to spread past it. She reached out and took one and held it gently in her palm. The light from the fire bathed Hinamori in an ethereal glow.

This has to be a dream.

The fire on the petal spread onto her hand and up her arm. Strangely enough, it didn't burn her. It didn't even feel hot. It felt nice, like a soothing caress upon her skin. Hinamori turned her hand around in astonishment. It just wasn't possible. What in Seireitei is going on? Where is she?

"Hinamori."

This time the voice sounded more urgent.

"Who are you? Where am I? I was with Abarai-kun and Kira-kun and we were helping Hisagi-sempai. . ."

Hinamori trailed off. All her memories of what happened came back to her in a flash. The hollows were closing in when her eye patch started hurting again so she shut her eyes. But when she opened them again, she had ended up here.

"Hinamori, you must go back."

"Back?"

"Quickly."

Hinamori didn't understand. Of course she wanted to go back, but the question was how?

"Hurry! Now!"

The volume of the voice increased as it got more and more agitated.

"We will meet again. Do not forget me."

Hinamori's hair whipped around her face as the wind started slashing at her clothing. Her left eye started to sting. But tears couldn't fall from the left eye; they fell from the right eye though. What was going on?

"Go!"

"Hinamori-kun? She's awake! Abarai-san, Hinamori's awake!"

Hinamori blinked and groaned when the light reached her eyes. She placed a hand on her throbbing forehead; it felt like someone had bashed it a hundred times against the floor. She was surprised that her head hadn't spilt apart from the force.

"Uhh . . . Kira-kun?"

She attempted to open her eyes again. This time she managed to sit up, and squinted through the light, spotting a worried looking Kira sitting on a chair beside her bed. Hinamori swivelled her head to see Renji standing with his arms folded by the other side of her bed.

"Abarai-kun?"

The red head humph-ed and stared pointedly at the ceiling which was suddenly oh-so-very-interesting.

"Took you long enough, Hinamori."

"We were so worried, Hinamori-kun! You just collapsed! And then . . ."

Hinamori stared at the two, suddenly remembering the hollows and the weird dream she had. Was it a dream? Who was that person? What had happened? The questions churned around in her mind, making her already throbbing head even more painful.

"Hinamori?"

She shook herself out of her daze.

"Sorry, um, what happened?"

Renji and Kira looked at each other. A message passed between them, unspoken, and Hinamori felt very self-conscious. She didn't like being out of the loop. It was always them three, sharing secrets within the trio. Renji had told them about his history with Rukia. Kira had revealed to them about his parents. Hinamori had even told them about how her face became scarred. It was sad how they were keeping secrets from her when she thought they trusted each other.

"You mean you don't remember at all?"

Hinamori shook her head. She didn't trust herself to speak.

Her two friends looked at each other once again and this time it was Renji who turned to her. He was just opening his mouth to speak when the door opened. A little Soul Reaper crept in; he wore the medical bags of 4th Division and had longish black hair. He seemed very scared of being in the room even though there was no immediate danger.

"Umm, this is Hinamori-san's room right?"

Hinamori nodded.

"Umm, I-I-I'm the 20th seat, Yamada Hanatarou. I'm here to, um, look after you. I'm afraid that, um, visiting hours are over, could you, um, please leave Hinamori-san to rest?"

Kira stood up and gently pulled the resisting Renji along with him. He waved goodbye to Hinamori and promised to visit tomorrow. Hinamori noticed that the two were noticeably relieved by the interruption of the medic. Why didn't they want to tell her what had happened?

"Umm, Hinamori-san, could you please stay still for just a minute?"

"Ah. Ok."

When the medic had also left the room, Hinamori couldn't fall asleep. She lifted her hand and traced from the tip of her scar starting at the hairline all the way down, past her blind eye, to her chin. She felt the bumpy ridges of the scar stick out against her smooth skin below her fingers. The scar wasn't a neat small line running down the side of her face. It was wider in some places, and thickness of it varied. Her left eye was a faded brown; when it was damaged, she had scrubbed so hard to see again that she had begun to rub off layers of the retina. It had only made her eye worse by bleeding even more.

Nobody had noticed.

Nobody saw that her left eye was a slightly lighter shade of brown than her right eye. Nobody knew that Hinamori Momo was blind in that eye either.

Renji was just finishing up class and decided to let Kira go alone to visit Hinamori at the 4th Division. He had said to Kira that he had training but the truth was he actually had nothing to do. He felt a little bad for lying to Kira. The trio of them had never kept secrets from each other. After that first moment they met, it was as if they had known each other for just about their whole lives. They had shared so much; tears of laughter, tears of joy, and also tears of pain and sorrow.

But since that dummy hollow hunting accident. . .

Something happened.

Something changed between them and Renji couldn't figure out what. But whatever it was, he was not going to let it go. He was going to fix their friendship, and to hell with anyone who got in his way.

He had thought of Rukia and how she would always solve his problems in a flash. Renji hadn't seen her in so long because of the different classes they were in. He understood that he had vowed not to get in her way but a little visit once in a while wouldn't hurt. Though, inside, Renji knew he was just fooling himself. There was no way he could fully detach himself from Rukia, no matter how he wanted. Instead of wrestling ideas with himself, he just wandered around the academy, searching for Rukia.

"Hi, Renji!"

He turned to see a 2nd class student in his year behind him. Renji had forgotten her name, but if this girl was in Rukia's class, she might just know where Rukia is.

"Yo, do you know where Rukia is?"

"Um, I think she was called by the teachers to Hall No. 6, I don't know what it was for though."

Renji smiled. Bingo.

"Thanks!"

Tobiume frowned.

This wasn't right. Hinamori had been plunged into her inner world, but she was not searching for her zanpakuto spirit. She had been sent there because her body had been using too much power to keep her conscious. There must have been immense strain, but what confused Tobiume was what had happened. She hadn't sensed Hinamori using any spiritual power, but it was clear she was. All of the power Hinamori uses comes from her, so, how come she hadn't sensed anything?

Tobiume lifted her sleeve of her pink kimono and gently swung it back and forth in front of her. The petals that had fallen off the tree slowly floated back up towards. When each petal had reached their tree, the trees accept them again, and it was as if not a single one had ever fallen.

She wasn't going to keep it up forever. Tobiume just didn't have the endless energy to piece back together the inner world every single time it got messed up.

The striking zanpakuto spirit sat down gracefully. Her pale face was slightly flushed; the only thing that showed that she had put any effort at all into fixing the world. The petals represented her power, her life. She couldn't afford to let them die.

Tobiume suddenly bent over in agony as her left eye starting stinging. She groaned as she tried to fight against the pain that was threatening to creep over her whole body.

"No!"

Another spasm of pain wracked her whole body.

"I won't let you win!"

She managed to spit out through gritted teeth.

"Never!"

Tobiume lay on the ground seeking the comfort of her world.

"You won't get her!"

She reached a shaking hand to the pink tinged sky, hoping Hinamori could hear her; but she knew. Hinamori couldn't hear, not until the time was right. Tobiume would protect her until then, no matter how much it hurt. She would never let go.

"NEVER!"

"Ruki-"

Renji burst in, planning to surprise Rukia and annoy the teachers, but he was stopped in his tracks. A group of important looking people were surrounding Rukia, towering over her and speaking sweet words. He was just tempted to go over and punch their noble faces in. Leave Rukia the hell alone!

The people seemed to notice that someone had barged into their conversation. They looked up and saw a flushed and panting Renji standing there awkwardly, not sure what to do.

"Well then, please consider it, Rukia-san."

They all bowed and left.

Renji realised that the 6th Division Captain was among them and when he walked past Renji, Renji was frozen in place from the immense power emanating from the man. Their eyes met for a second and Renji quickly looked away, staring at his feet. Those eyes were cold and harsh; there was no life or warmth from them.

"Renji?"

He looked up at Rukia who was standing there and looking quite shocked and confused at the sudden appearance of her best friend. In her eyes, there was nothing but sadness and hopelessness. Renji hurried over to her side and placed both hands on her tiny shoulders.

"Rukia, what's wrong?"

She looked up at him, the sad violet eyes made Renji's heart clench.

"I've been offered a position in the noble family of Kuchiki as Byakuya Kuchiki-dono's adopted sister."

~Everything, no matter how small, happens for a reason. There is no coincidence, there is only fate. Sooner or later everything will fall into its rightful place, just like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, to reveal the true future . . . ~

AUTHOR TIME: GAH! No Hitsu, I'm sad. . .

Don't worry; he's coming in next chappie! And, he's going to tell us about Momo's scar! YAY!

SO if you want to find out, just click that little button and send me a review, a flame, or even just a smiley face!

APrilup