Chapter XXXVI: And the Silver Lining

Akiye took the time to rest her body. The stress made her ache and truthfully, the only plan she had was shot down. She didn't have a better idea, couldn't think of one because she kept going back to Hibino's outburst in the hallway. Hibino painted a colorful picture of events Akiye couldn't remember and Shuuhei loved her. The Hisagi Shuuhei loved her.

She sucked in a breath, heart skipping a beat.

She wondered if she had been terrible enough to date Shuuhei and Renji simultaneously before the accident. More importantly, had she done it? She batted the thoughts away. She needed a plan, not anything else.

Not nearly an hour had passed when Renji dropped by for a visit.

Akiye hugged him with what felt like a guilty conscious for having spent the greater portion of her alone time thinking about another man's confession, appreciating he had the courage to say it out loud, and reminding herself she had Renji. Though her mind refused to function when it should, it plagued her with extra thoughts of Shuuhei in the presence of her own boyfriend and every feeling or emotion synonymous with awkward joining it.

She missed Renji. She liked to focus on that because she wasn't wishy-washy enough to start an internal debate on whether Shuuhei's unwarranted love confession made a difference to the cluster of hidden emotions near her heart or if her affection for Renji trumped them all. She went with the latter.

Renji stared at her long and hard before speaking, eyebrows creased and with temperament measured. "Something up?"

"Other than the roof, sky and the birds, nothing," she answered, dripping unintentional sarcasm that felt surprisingly pleasant on her tongue.

"You sound more like yourself, something good must have happened," he said, taking a seat at her bedside. "What have you been up to?"

Her mood soured at his assumption. Why did something good have to happen for her to sound like herself? Was she always this acerbic? Even in her head?

"Why's it gotta be something good?" she asked, fighting a frown.

Was Hisagi Shuuhei's confession a good thing? Or was it the fact that his girlfriend witnessed it happening? How did any of that read as good? Shuuhei in her room alone spelled disaster, add Hibino and it's already become a crime.

"It's the first sarcastic thing you've said in a bit," he confessed. "I counted it as one of the lost traits."

She bristled. It sounded like he preferred the sarcasm to stay lost. "I don't get it," she started snappishly. "Was I really that bad before the accident? Everyone seems to be implying it and I'm looking for an answer."

"Who said?"

"Hibino accused me of fooling around with you and Lieutenant Hisagi at the same time." The almost indifferent expression on his face infuriated her because he didn't have to say that he agreed since it was written all over his face. "Did I?"

"Well, no, not exactly. You were—it's hard to tell what you were thinking. You did things for entertainment's sake because one day you were with Hisagi, the next you accepted to go on a date with me and you're shoving him into Hibino's arms, but you got angry at him being attentive to her as well." Renji shook his head. "I'm not the best person to ask this. I don't know. You weren't exactly an open book and I'm not psychic."

She stopped herself from saying something insulting, but she did sulk with the rest of her muddled thoughts. She didn't say much to contribute to any follow-up conversations Renji tried to start because whatever responses she could have said came with so much sarcastic bite, she thought it best to stay quiet instead. There were so many things in need of consideration than what she used to be like in the past, but then again…she knew not to say she helped kill a bunch of shinigami aloud to Renji. She felt no remorse for that and maybe that was the biggest clue she had of herself. Of course, she hadn't forgotten everything.

Captain Unohana entered the room when Renji opted to leave after unsuccessfully reaching her. He figured he did something wrong, voiced it, and decided she needed time to think it through herself. She stepped out of the way to let the lieutenant pass. She waited for his footsteps to vanish down the hallway before she slid the door shut and approached Akiye's bedside.

"How are you feeling?"

"Apart from confused? Peachy."

The Fourth Division's captain smiled. "Well, something good must have happened," she commented, "but the confusion is to be expected. How much are you remembering?"

"Nothing."

"Even with explanations?"

"Go in through one ear and out the other, really," answered Akiye with a lax gesture of her hand. "The explanations don't call any memories. It's pretty foggy up there."

"That's quite unfortunate," the captain lamented. "You've been under observation for nearly a week. I had reason to suspect the regression would come to an eventual halt—the damage you sustained causes spots in the memory, the worst you may experience are blackouts, but it should have stopped."

Akiye opened her mouth then closed it.

"There is no easy way of saying this," continued Captain Unohana. "I believe that your condition will continue to worsen. It is probably that you will be required to lose all your current memories before you finally start picking up new ones. One of these days, you might wake up and know nothing about yourself or the people around you and I don't have the ability to stop it."

Now seemed like the perfect time to say something obnoxious except she didn't have a snappy comment in line. She couldn't even think one up on the spot, so she said the first thing that emerged from the fog in her mind.

"Well, that sucks," she murmured, looking down. "What about the other decline?"

"Temporary. That part of your regression seems to have stemmed from a bit of stress that impaired your ability to retain intellectual skill, as neither your linguistic and social skills were affected, and after the last tests you're getting better. Although, it doesn't help that you're reading children's book if you're used to these." The captain tapped the top of a stack Naoto brought from her personal library. "No more handicaps."

Akiye nodded. That was the sort of news she wanted to hear from the start.

"Hm," started Captain Unohana. "There is something else, of course."

"You should always start with the good news, captain."

"Captain Kurotsuchi has sparked an interest in your case and believes he could be able to help you."

"Not even with a ten-foot pole," she said instantly.

"You should continue resting, Kurogane-san."

Captain Unohana turned to leave.

"Captain Unohana."

The captain turned with a questioning look.

"Do I need to stay here any longer?"

"Only until your physical wounds are healed."

"Thank you."

Once alone, her sentiments for the situation unfurled and consumed her. The room blinded with its light, the bulbs above her head, the sunshine streaming from the open windows, but she saw nothing. Only darkness.

It didn't matter if she avoided Nazo no Meikyū because she would inevitably be losing everything in her noggin.

Akiye lifted her eyes to the nearest window. Well, if she left the plotting to her brothers, nothing would ever get done and she had the perfect one cooking, one in dire need of a distraction.

Beta: LULuckyTiger

xl: My beta completed this a while ago, but I held on updating because I wanted to post this and the following chapter together. I reconsidered because this is a direct continuation with the last chapter, so if you remember not what you have read, refer to the previous chapter summary, and will still give you the double update for the next time. I apologize for the long wait and appreciate the reviews (from the guest reviewer and Scarlotte O'Hara), favorites and alerts I have received in my absence.

Thank you very much for reading! I plan to finish the rest of this series this month (as it didn't work out in June or July), so that I can update it quickly.