Alright now just let me check something yep STILL DON'T OWN BLEACH!

Whew that's a relief now I can get to the thanks, first bit of thanks goes to Feather-pencil for helping this rocky start to my firs Fan Fic get off the ground with tons of helpful info and for beta reading this chapter to make it a lot better than the first one (hopefully). And thank you to Hiddensight48 for being my first review with some great advice on how to make the story better.

And now that I have bored you all to death here we go with chapter two

The next morning Aki was awakened from her meditation by a hand on her shoulder, "Did you not sleep at all?" Isane said looking at the petite girl worriedly.

"No, not really", Aki shrugged and uncrossed her legs. "Living in Hueco Mundo for two centuries, you don't sleep because you never know when an attack might spring."

Isane looked at her surprised for a moment then brought out the food that she had brought the girl. Aki looked gratefully up at Isane and dug into the food. There wasn't much there in first place but she ate every single morsel on the plate. Aki handed the plate and chopsticks back to Isane and went back to meditating; till she felt the pressure of Isane sitting on the bed next to her. Aki turned to look at the lieutenant, "You seem like you have something to say Isane, what is it?", a note of concern creeping into her voice.

Isane was looking at her hands and pulling at the hem of her kimono, "I just couldn't imagine how you were able to survive alone in Hueco Mundo alone for so long without being consumed or going mad."

Isane was crying now much to Aki's astonishment, "Why were you able to come back?"

Aki patted Isane's back quietly, she felt somewhat awkward. Being alone for so long hadn't given her a lot of opportunities to interact with people.

"Look Isane, I don't know why I was able to come back but one thing I will tell you, I'm not completely sane I'm not even sure how to help you stop crying."

Isane laughed a little at that. "You know, sometimes just being you is enough you don't really have to be anything else."

Aki smiled perhaps she's right,( but I'm pretty sure that if the head captain is planning on keeping me around in the Soul Society, I'm going to have to change at least a little.)

Suddenly, the head captain and another captain walked into the room. Aki was a little taken aback by the white hair and steely turquoise eyes that glared down at her. Isane jumped off the bed and knelt, "Head Captain Yamamoto and Captain Hitsugaya." \

They nodded allowing her to stand, "May I ask what brings you to the Squad four barracks today?"

Captain Hitsugaya spoke up first, "Well Head Captain has ruled that this woman is not a threat to the Soul Society. He has allowed each of the captains to have the opportunity to allow this woman into one of the Gotei Squads."

Hitsugaya fixed his steely glare on Aki, "And I have decided to take you into squad ten with myself and Lieutenant Matsumoto"

Aki shrugged, "That sounds fine with me Captain Hitsugaya. When do we leave?"

Hitsugaya looked to Isane and said, "As soon as she says you are fit to leave."

Isane nodded, "I will give her a look, captain. If she's fit, as I assume her to be, then there should be no problem with her coming to the Squad Ten barracks today."

Hitsugaya nodded, "Well I will leave Matsumoto here so she can escort Miss Higawa to the barracks then."

Instantly, a woman with orange hair shunpoed into the room and stood about two paces behind Hitsugaya. "Rangiku, please stay here and wait until Miss Higawa is checked. Bring her back to the barracks and give her a tour."

"Yes captain." The tall woman said; and as soon as the two captains left the lieutenant leaned forward peering down at the Squad Ten's new recruit. "So you think you're good enough to be in our squad do you?" Rangiku looked long and hard into Aki's lavender eyes. Then threw her head back and laughed, "You're so serious! Doll face, I think I'm going to like you a lot!"

Aki smiled at the orange haired woman as Isane checked under her bandages. Isane gasped and backed away from Aki in shock. Aki leapt off the bed and turned to Isane in worry. "What is it Isane? What's wrong?"

Isane shook her head and pointed to her smiling "I don't know how it happened but your wounds of just a couple days ago are gone!"

Aki looked down at her abdomen where there surprisingly wasn't a single scar.

Aki gave a little laugh, "I guess we can leave now Lieutenant Matsumoto."

Aki got back into her uniform and gestured to Rangiku to lead the way. Rangiku blinked once in surprise and walked out the door with Aki following behind. Rangiku noticed that the kido barrier was not affecting the strange girl. While they walked, Rangiku took note that Aki seemed just a comfortable walking around the Seireitei as she was.

A few more awkward seconds passed before Rangiku couldn't help but ask, "You seem really comfortable walking around here with me. As if you never left, but you claim to have been gone for two centuries, why is that?" Aki put her hands behind her back and shrugged silently.

"Well, that would be because I was trying to stay as sane as possible during the first few decades of my abandonment. So to help my sanity, I decided to memorize the layout of the Seireitei as best as I could. My main fear when I got back, it would've changed a lot since I've been gone. Turns out that things around here really haven't changed that much since I was in Squad Five."

"Wait," Rangiku said stopping and turned to the smaller woman, "You said for the first few decades of your abandonment, what did you do after that?"

Aki became serious and turned her face to the sky, "After a while I just sort of gave up on my sanity and allowed myself to become a mindless killing machine. Killing Hollows, of course, was my main vent of insane energy. But some days I would just kind of sit there and mumble arcane babble to myself waiting for Hollows to find me so I could kill them."

Rangiku turned to her and grabbed Aki's shoulders turning her around and forcing Aki to look into her eyes. "Well you don't seem to have the light of a mad woman right now so I think you're fine. Though you should stay here in the barracks and get some sleep."

They came to Aki's quarters and Rangiku opened the door Aki walked in a step and turned to Rangiku. Aki smiled and said, "Thanks."

It was just one word but the sincerity of it made Rangiku's eyes soften, "Not at all."

Rangiku said as she turned and left. Aki turned back to the room and took note of the simple yet functional furnishings. There was a bed in the far corner a small table for entertaining guests and a desk for doing paperwork. Aki went over to the bed and lay down but sleep did not come.

She lay there for a few more minutes before getting fed up and stepping outside to look at the stars. (Sleep rarely came to me in Hueco Mundo and even though I'm safe and I know that my body is still on edge), she thought. Aki stayed out for the rest of the night stargazing, unable to fall asleep.