tampered | log; ongoing;

log; ongoing;

When; Two days ago, I believe (apologies for not getting it up earlier orz).
Rating; PG-13?
Characters; Hinamori Momo [

flyingmomo], Hitsugaya Toushirou [

boobheight]
Summary; Time to tell Momo about evil!megane.
Log;

Toushirou probably should've been more careful about what he wished for.

Granted, back in his world, such a feat would never have been possible. For Momo to completely forget what had occurred, for any scars on her body to have been inflicted by a mere battle with a particularly nasty Hollow. Time didn't work that way anywhere but the City, which liked to turn back the hands on the clock, or forward even, depending on the deities' whims. Yes, maybe 'I wish none of this had ever happened' or 'I wish things could go back to the way they were' were wishes made without thinking the entire way through, but dreaming for the impossible wasn't hard.

Dealing with it, however, was. He couldn't plan for it--not that Toushirou was the most meticulous person around; that title probably went to Byakuya. He had no idea if telling was the best thing to do, whether Momo would even believe him, whether it would spare her any pain. All Toushirou could rely on was the fact that telling her... was probably the correct move.

They couldn't hide things forever. Not with Aizen in the City.

So Toushirou waited outside Momo's door, wondering when she'd come out. And he'd take it from there.

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While she wasn't the most observant person in the world, Momo wasn't oblivious to everything that was going around her. She noticed the delayed reactions, along with the occasional stare that seemed to be marked with pity, and it would be nothing but an outright lie to say that it didn't bother her. Was the time gap between her time and everyone else's so much different? So much couldn't have happened in such a short period of time. Worrying about not knowing the future seemed so ridiculous to Momo, but at the same time she was the odd one out. People knew what happened in her future, and the lack of knowledge and the gaps around what she knew and what everyone else knew, frustrated her.

The continuous absence of her captain, not knowing where he was, and the excuses that kept her away from him also lingered in the back of her mind, jabbing at every possible moment. It was why she kept busy. Where could he be? Why hadn't he contacted her? Better yet, why couldn't she have the freedom to contact him? Wasn't it logical for her to be assigned to work under him?

All these reasonable questions were for Toushirou to answer, now that they both had the time to talk.

"Sorry, Hitsugaya-kun," she announced as she opened the door, smiling nonchalantly as she always did. Momo figured that her questions were ordinary, ones that Toushirou would be able to answer without much difficulty. "I didn't think you'd get back so early." On Momo's part, there was a moment's worth of hesitation before she finally dropped the question--probably not the first time to Renji or Kira, but the first time to Toushirou. "... Any word from Captain Aizen?"

"Don't apologize; I should have contacted you earlier," Toushirou muttered noncommittally, rubbing the back of his neck while briefly meeting Momo's gaze. Suddenly, putting all of this off seemed like a bad decision-- Toushirou knew very well how the other captains felt about the situation, even if he wasn't sure whether to be grateful that they were forgoing concern and leaving the deed to him. Momo's judgment wasn't always sound, but that didn't mean that she was an unintelligent girl. She'd probably noticed a difference in the way people were treating her, particularly those captains who were less forgiving of what she'd done.

It was probably why she was so hesitant about going to see her captain.

Briefly, Toushirou wondered why Aizen hadn't contacted Momo yet.

"Captain Aizen isn't going to send word, Hinamori," Toushirou replied, "Nor is he captain of the fifth division anymore. He betrayed Soul Society, Hinamori. And put all of us grave danger."

Maybe the direct approach was the best approach.

But when it came down to the loyalty of her captain, Momo's judgment was so skewed to the point where even logic didn't exist in her reasoning, regardless of her previous suspicions. It was why she didn't take Toushirou's words seriously, managing a nervous laugh at first.

"Hitsugaya-kun," she started, uncomfortable for one, and two... even more uncomfortable about the subject. Was this what he was waiting to tell her? Biting her lower lip, Momo furrowed her brows and looked straight at him. If it was anyone else, they might have pulled the last straw for daring to say something bad about her captain, but this was Toushirou, the boy she grew up with. "Hitsugaya-kun," she repeated, "What's wrong with you? That's not a very funny joke."

"Captain Aizen wouldn't do anything like that." The last memory she had of him was his calming words, reassuring her insecurities and fears. "He's--he's--" It was funny how Momo couldn't exactly describe her captain to Toushirou, but regardless of the fact, she pressed on. "--how could you say something like that about Captain Aizen? You of all people should know that he would never do anything like that!"

So far, Toushirou was spewing out words without any proof to back him up.

So the initial reaction was going just as expected. Not a big concern to Toushirou, sadly, because to be a lieutenant in the Gotei almost certainly entailed some level of trust in your superior-- at least, if you wanted to be a successful division. There were times when he'd seen Matsumoto's face clouded with some form of doubt, but never for long. One of the reasons why, in Toushirou's opinion, they were one of the strongest divisions. They worked as a team.

Byakuya could afford to learn a little from that.

"I of all people did think that he'd never do anything like that, hence why I asked you to watch over him, Momo," Toushirou muttered through his teeth, trying to maintain calm for as long as he could-- it wouldn't do to get excited before Momo ever did. "But why else do you think that everyone's been stopping you from contacting him? Why he didn't immediately appear by your side when you arrived?

"I realize that he's your captain, and that you've sworn loyalty to him. But he, along with Ichimaru Gin and Tousen Kaname, betrayed Soul Society, and you can ask any of the other officers whether I'm telling the truth. It's his word against all of ours, Momo."

He paused, gaze steely as he looked at her again.

"And before you call me a liar, would I ever joke about such a thing?"

Somewhere in Momo's mind, she knew that Toushirou's words were the cold, hard facts--she knew this, but at the same time she pushed it so far back from her consciousness that she was in denial. This was not the captain she knew and admired, the exact opposite of what he stood for, and the exact opposite of what he would do. When something threatened to shatter all her admiration and trust in one man, what could she do?

"N-no you wouldn't, but..." Unable to meet his gaze, Momo looked down at the floor, conflicted, her hands together in front of her as she twiddled her thumbs. "... but there must be a good reason!" Or at least in her mind, she was trying to find a good excuse beyond the sound reasonings that Toushirou had laid out before her. Something to prove her absent captain's innocence.

So far, the only excuse she could come up with was the fact that it was her captain that they were talking about. But she continued, "It's Captain Aizen." Her captain's word against everyone she knew in the City. What was she supposed to think, much less decide on? Momo shook her head as she took a step back from Toushirou, voice shaky at the conversation.

"Shiro-chan..." There was a pause as she tried to think things through. Piece things together. "He wouldn't do this without a good reason. You said to be careful of Captain Ichimaru, right? M-maybe he's behind all this."

"It's not Ichimaru," Toushirou replied steely, voice practically dripping with anger at the thought of the fox-faced traitor, who he hated almost as much as he did Aizen. "Ichimaru follows Aizen's lead. Tousen follows Aizen's lead. And I don't know what kind of reason that Aizen would be able to cite, but I'm not going to give him the benefit of doubt, given what he's done."

The way Momo played with her hands drew Toushirou's attention, eyes following the movement, remembering what happened the last time and wondering if history would repeat itself. His jaw tightened; if it hadn't been for the fact that Aizen was here, that the arrancar were here, there would've been no need to upset Momo. Provided they weren't killed, everyone would inevitably return to the time from which they were taken from, anyway.

She'd... have to experience everything that Aizen had done, anyway. Without memories of whatever warnings Toushirou gave her here.

"No reason can justify how he hurt y--" He bit his tongue. "How he hurt his fellow officers. And how he's allied with the arrancar-- he's allied with hollows, Hinamori. What kind of good reason could he have for that?

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way."

The one thing someone could count on Momo to do was to be predictable. And in that same manner, Momo found herself slowly, unconsciously falling into Aizen's trap.

Toushirou's sureness about the situation put her at unease. The fact that everyone could vouch for him and the fact that he was from what seemed to be her future, could even prove Aizen's treachery. Momo shook her head, eyes still downcast, before taking in a deep breath. Maybe in the future, things would be different in the way she acted. But this was now, and this was Toushirou going through the painfully long process of drilling it through her head that Aizen just wasn't the Captain Aizen she knew before. It was a hard concept to grasp for her, but the evidence seemed so against her.

Why did it feel so right, but at the same time so very wrong, to believe in who she believed to be her captain?

Closing her eyes momentarily, Momo looked straight at Toushirou before shaking her head. What could she say? Accept it and shrug the matter of her captain off as if nothing had happened? Or reject it and... she didn't even know, but her alliance would technically be with the hollows, if all Toushirou was saying was true.

"... I think this conversation is over," she replied, breaking off her gaze from Toushirou and walking past him.

Toushirou blinked, surprised that she'd ended it so soon and without the two of them coming to any conclusion. Without her either acknowledging nor rejecting the idea of her captain having betrayed Soul Society.

So he inhaled deeply and turned in the direction that she was leaving.

"You can't run from this forever, Hinamori. Just... remember that."

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