Chapter 9—Relive the Past, Pt 5:

It was late at night and Midori was hurrying to meet Shuuhei. She decided she would tell Shuuhei everything except the name. After Ichimaru said he could kill Shuuhei without a problem, it didn't seem like a good idea to let him know who had done it. Midori knew that Shuuehi would approached her taichou and the end result would be bad. She wasn't sure what would happen but decided this confession was a must. And maybe, just maybe, she would correct all the wrongs she had made.

"Ono-dono?"

Midori stopped running and turned around. "Aizen-taichou, um, hello," she quickly added, giving a short bow. In her rush to see Shuuhei, she hadn't noticed the taichou standing there and so his presence had caught her off guard.

Aizen stepped out more into the open and examined the blonde's face. "You seem surprise to see me."

"No," Midori said quickly. "I just didn't expect to run into anyone at this time of night."

"Well, I'm glad I found you. I wanted to ask you if you wanted to train under me."

Midori's brown eyes widened. She had trained under Shuuhei and Kyouraku but it had always been about swordsmanship. From what she knew, Aizen was amazing at kido, an area where she was lacking. She knew that no one could be a better teacher than the taichou of Squad Five. "Is this a joke? Are you really serious?" She couldn't keep the disbelief out of her voice.

"Would I lie to you about this, Ono-dono?"

Midori grinned. "Thank you."

"Just one more thing: don't tell anyone about this. Others might get jealous that you're getting special treatment. We start tomorrow at dawn, if that's alright."

Midori nodded, said her goodbyes after another thank you, and flashstepped out of the area. She was happy that Aizen would take her under his tutelage. She wanted to tell someone so badly but she would force herself to keep the secret training to herself. And besides, she had bigger things to worry about.

She finally reached Shuuhei's living quarters and took a deep breath. Then she knocked on the door. It only took a few seconds for the door to swing open, revealing that Shuuhei was still in his shinigami robes. Midori wondered if he had recently came back from his work.

"For a second, I thought you weren't coming," he told her.

"I got held up for a while."

They stood there in silence, trying to find something else to say. Then Midori said:

"Can I come in or am I going to stand outside the whole time?"

Shuuhei moved aside and motioned her to come in. Midori walked through and the door closed. The blonde took a seat in the room and Shuuhei sat across from her. Already, she glanced at the ground, lost at how to start the conversation. It wasn't something she could just blurt out. She had to work her way up to that point.

Shuuhei watched her. He wanted to ask her what she wanted to talk about but decided against it. He didn't want to discourage her in any way. He waited for a few minutes, surprised that she didn't say a word yet. The silence was awkward to him. He was about to say something, maybe a how-are-you, when she spoke quietly.

"Remember a long time ago, when I ran away from you that day?"

The man nodded, his blue eyes staring intently at her. "The day I proposed to you, right?"

"Yeah. I wanted to marry you. Really, I did. But I couldn't." Midori took a deep breath and looked at the man across from her. Already, she could see how his eyes were on her and only her, trying to see where she was going with this. The woman prepared herself and started. "See, the night before you came back, I got really drunk . . ."

She told him everything, every detail that she could remember. As she told the story, she tried not to let her emotions get the best of her. The woman managed to hold her tears back a little longer as she reached the climax of her recount. At some point, her eyes gazed at the ground and remained there for the duration of her story. She felt so many different emotions all at once. Once again, she felt like a serious idiot and once again she felt angry at herself. Still, she refused to let that show because she knew that she would cry and she wouldn't be able to stop. The woman did not want the man to feel sorry for her; she wanted him to know the truth. It wasn't until after the story's end that the tears broke free of her rock-solid composure and flowed down her face.

Immediately, she wiped them away.

"I wanted to tell you before but—!"

Shuuhei had moved to be next to her and cupped her chin, tilting her head up so she would look at him.

"You could have told me," he whispered.

"I couldn't. I felt so dirty when it happened. I couldn't be around you the next day."

Shuuhei gently wiped her tears away, never losing eye contact. "Do you feel that way still?"

"I don't know. I know it's not my fault but . . ." Midori sniffled. She didn't want her voice to crack while talking to him. The crying was bad enough already. More tears came and he wiped them away in a tender matter, one that would stop her heart if it had to.

"It's not your fault," he told her. "And you're not dirty at all. You're still beautiful to me."

"But—!"

Shuuhei kissed her gingerly on the lips, feeling hers quiver slightly. Then he pulled away and pressed their foreheads together. He found her hand and intertwined it with his. He could feel her grip tightening and he took that as a sign of nervousness. But then he felt her arm wrap around his neck. He leaned in and kissed her again.

Midori hiccupped slightly on her tears but kissed him back. She wished she would stop crying because she knew that was why he refrained himself. His hands were not touching her the way they had last time. His hands were more in comforting places than arousing ones, making her wonder where this was leading to. Would the two of them stay here or go on to something bigger? The thought was making her nervous. For once, she wasn't in the mood for anything more.

Shuuhei stopped kissing her and looked at the woman before him. He wiped her tears away and saw that she was no longer crying, just staring at him anxiously. "You mean the world to me, Midori. Don't forget that."

"I won't," she said softly.

"You want to spend the night here?" He asked standing up.

Midori looked at him, her eyebrows furrowed. "But where will I sleep?"

"Next to me. If you want to."

The woman nodded. She understood that he just wanted to comfort her and that was all she wanted right now, nothing more. Midori allowed Shuuhei to take her to his bedroom, where he would hold her as close as possible till the sun rose.

It was dawn when Midori found Aizen waiting for her outside his headquarters. There were hardly anyone walking around the Seireitei. She was certain that Shuuhei had fallen back asleep after she said goodbye to him. However, this was fine. There were less people to see this meeting taking place. After all, the training was meant to be secret.

"Morning, Aizen-taichou."

"Morning to you, too.," Aizen greeted. "Should we go now?"

"Hai."

Aizen led the blonde to an open field, a good distance away from other shinigami. She looked around, admiring how nice the place looked with the few occasional daisies and perfect green grass. It was a nice day, too, with the crystal blue skies and the bright sun coming up. Midori sighed out of content and stretched. Then she looked at the taichou.

"Are you going to teach me kido, Aizen-taichou?"

"You want to learn?"

"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt, considering that I could be better."

"If you want, we can work on that. But today, we'll focus on your zanpakutou. What's your zanpakutou like?"

Midori unsheathed her weapon, revealing the long katana. "Okay," she started, allowing the sunlight to reflect off the blade. "Well, its name is Raimitsu and it's lightning base."

"Release it for me."

"Strike, Raimitsu." The katana-shaped weapon changed its form. The new blade had a zigzag form, resembling a lightning bolt. The guard was windmill-shaped and the hilt was wrapped in a black ribbon, which soon raveled around her right forearm. Soon, her zanpakutou started to spark.

Aizen examined.

Midori watched the taichou. "It's only at its full potential in a thunderstorm. I tried it once in the human world and the results were pretty good. I don't know if Raimitsu could generate its own storm in its shikai form. I've been trying but that hasn't happened yet. Maybe it does on its bankai."

"Do you want bankai?" Aizen asked.

Midori looked at her sparking blade. "Who doesn't? Once you have bankai, you practically have taichou status, you know?"

"So you want to be a taichou?"

"Hey, maybe be in charge of this whole place."

Aizen smiled. He was pleased by what he had heard. Midori was power-hungry, something he encouraged as long as she knew her place. He was curious about how far she would go to obtain those goals.

Midori looked at the man and asked, "What's your zanpakutou like? Can I see it in its shikai, Aizen-taichou?"

Aizen unsheathed it, having no problem with this whatsoever. "My zanpakutou's name is Kyoka Suigetsu. It's not an elemental type like yours, Ono-dono."

Midori raised an eyebrow. "So it's more fighting base?"

"I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't know how to exactly describe it for you. Do you still want to see it?"

Midori nodded, eager to see a taichou in action. This was, after all, the rank she hoped to attain.

Aizen smiled. "Shatter, Kyoka Suigetsu."

By the time it was ten o'clock, Midori was walking around the Seireitei, exhausted from her training. Aizen was a tough teacher but that was alright; she would work twice as hard to keep up. She already knew that it would be hard work that would get her to where she wanted to be, just like she knew that Aizen would be the one to unlock her full potential as a shinigami.

She rounded the corner and bumped into Shuuhei. She, being the smaller of the two, fell to the ground while he only stumbled back a few steps. Shuuhei extended a hand down and she took hold of it. Then the man hoisted her up onto her feet.

"Sorry," Shuuhei apologized.

The woman shrugged, dusting off the seat of her pants. "Don't be."

Shuuhei watched in slight amusement before asking: "Are you doing anything tonight? If you're free, maybe we can go out, together, just the two of us."

Midori blinked before smirking. "Is this a date, Hisagi-san?" She teased.

"Yeah. I guess it is."

"Then I'll go with you," she told him. "Walk me to my office?"

Shuuhei nodded and the blonde linked her arm in his. For the first time in a long time, she felt that everything was perfect, that everything was right. The weight of what happened all those years ago was gone and, though her hatred was still there, she could live with that. In addition, she was being trained by one of the most powerful taichou in the Gotei 13. Midori knew that she would become powerful under his guidance more than anyone else's. It was something that her instincts were telling her. To top it all off, she had the love of her life with her again and she refuse to let go this time. If he asked her to marry him again, she would accept gladly with her whole being.

Nothing was better than this as she stole a kiss from Shuuhei, well in full view of Ichimaru and other members of her squad. Yes, Midori was happy and believed that nothing could make it end because she believed she had been through the worst of things. It was a pity that she didn't remember the calm always came before the storm.

A/N: This chapter would have been extremely different if I didn't have writer's block before. Originally, I don't think Midori was suppose to have this good of a chapter. It ended on such a happy note for her. If you don't look at the last line. Sometimes, I believe I'm cruel to Midori. But don't worry. She'll be back with Shuuhei soon. Maybe I'll actually write my first lemon if I'm daring enough and stop teasing all of you. Yeah. Till later.