A/N:

I'm sorry for not updating for so long. School just takes forever and drains your life energy immensely… Anyways, here's the chapter!

Recap:

Midori, Jushiro, and the boys began their training under the condition that Midori will forgive them from being grounded if they battle seriously. However, during the battle, Midori accidently used too much force causing Mamuro to crash into Kaito. According to Mamuro, Kaito could've dodged it, but didn't in attempt of preventing Mamuro from getting injured. Instead, that attempt failed causing both boys to be severely injured, Kaito more so.

An awkward silence loomed in the dimly lit room after Midori had told every one of the serious injuries the boys had suffered due to her one careless mistake. Along with the heavy silence, every being in the room was overcome with a mild case of depression. The depression wasn't regarding themselves or their own issues. In fact, the depression and silence was for Midori to calm her emotions before she continued speaking further and to allow everyone else in the room to truly absorb what she had said so far.

The busty strawberry-haired lieutenant leaned against the wall, head down switching her glances from her feet, to the ground, and to Midori. She blinked blankly with a concentrated expression as she played with her chain necklace, twirling it around and occasionally tugging on it. Everything was just too much for her to absorb. Too sad and too tragic for her mind to comprehend and believe. Rangiku had no idea that her captain had such a terrible, painful past. The things she thought she knew about her captain was in actuality nothing but a part of her captain that everyone can see on the surface. The pain and sadness that lurked within Midori was so traumatic and well hidden that no one had ever bothered to look deeper than what meets the eye.

After closely watching Rangiku's actions from the time she got up from the chair to when she sat down onto the floor after wandering around, Renji let out a sigh, slumping down in his seat and crossing his arms across his chest. It was a given that he didn't know Captain Akiyo as well as Rangiku did, but after seeing her natural kind nature, he felt terrible to find out about her past. Although her story of her past isn't quite finished yet, he had a bad feeling as to how things would turn out later on. Renji's thought process was interrupted by someone grunting uncomfortably. He glanced towards the source and found it to be Toshiro trying to change his position despite being tied down.

Toshiro's frustration grew as he found himself getting more uncomfortable by the second. He began to curse Rangiku and Renji for having this stupid idea. Up until now, he didn't have a problem being tied down necessarily since Midori was sharing her life story from about 50 years ago. It was the fact that he felt horrible seeing that his captain broke down before she had even gotten half-way done with her story and no one bothered to console her. After getting tired from struggling, Toshiro sighed in frustration until he felt a pair of arms envelop him from behind.

Startled, Toshiro was about to look behind him until he heard a soft quiet voice speak into his ear. "Calm down, Shiro, and stop moving. You're making the knots tighter than they really are."

"Ah… Sorry." He apologized, his voice barely audible, and allowed his muscles to relax. He glanced up at Momo's face and noticed that she was very distracted. She kept on urgently looking up from untying the knots to Midori, whose face was turned away while sitting quietly in her chair.

"Um… Captain Akiyo...?" Momo broke the silence that lingered in the room for so long. "Are you okay? You don't have to tell us the rest if you don't want to."

She voiced her opinion with concern while she helped Toshiro get free from his ropes. She had seen the poor boy struggle against the ropes for so long and figured that all of his muscles would've become stiff by the time Midori had finished telling her story.

As soon as Momo had managed to untie the knots, Toshiro let out a sigh of relief as he stood up to stretch his slightly stiff muscles. Noticing the Midori hadn't responded to Momo's question and statement, Toshiro walked toward his captain while rubbing his wrists which ached from being tied down. He stopped right in front of Midori who was holding her head in her hands while looking straight at the ground. Bending down to a squatting position, Toshiro noticed tears drip one by one slowly onto the ground and placed his hand on her knee.

"Hey, Captain. Are you–" Toshiro gasped as he was suddenly pulled into a hug. The transition had happened so quickly that the boy went from a squatting position to a kneeling position in almost less than a second. "C-captain…?"

"I'm sorry… It's just… I wish that had never happened… If it didn't, then…" Midori stopped mid-sentence and began sobbing.

Her face was so close to Toshiro's ear that he could feel her breath on his cheeks and neck. Tears fell onto his neck, making his black kimono wet and stick to his skin. Toshiro made a troubled expression, unsure of what to do. Sighing deeply, he rubbed his captain's back in attempt of calming her down. To his surprise, she gradually stopped sobbing to the point where she began sniffling.

Realizing that she was still hugging Toshiro, Midori broke the hug, keeping her hands on his shoulders and looked into his teal eyes. The boy grew anxious as he looked into his captain's purple eyes. Her face was stained with tears while her eyes seemed to have more waiting to overflow. He opened his mouth, but to only be cut off without even saying anything.

"Toshiro," she began while caressing his cheek with motherly love as a few more tears ran down her cheeks. "Did you know you look just like him? That's why I'm so scared whenever I look at you."

Toshiro silently looked at her, studying her expression. After a few seconds, he voiced his question. "Look like who?"

"Mamuro. And your friend, Kusaka, looks like Kaito in a way. But your resemblance is so much closer, appearance-wise and personality-wise." Midori released her grip off of Toshiro and rubbed her eyes, wiping the tears, and pushed her hair back. After lightly slapping her cheeks, she sat back in her chair with determination. "I'm sorry, guys. Could you get me some water before I continue any further?"

Toshiro stood up in alarm. "What? You're still going to continue? Captain, you shouldn't–"

"Toshiro!" exclaimed Rangiku. "Don't question the captain. She's doing it for our sakes, your sake especially." The strawberry got up from the ground with a bottle of water in hand and handed it to Midori while glaring at Toshiro as if scolding him.

Midori drank almost half of the bottle before stopping to scold Rangiku in a soft voice. "Don't go that. It's alright." She then turned to Toshiro. "Like I've said before, you need to know this. So I will be continuing it."

With a scowl on his face, Toshiro sat down onto the floor, crossing his legs, and nodded as well as everyone else.

Kaito slowly opened his eyes only to cover them quickly with his hand from the blinding sun that shone brightly above him. He got up slowly, crossing his legs, and began wondering where he was. Kaito rubbed his eyes to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating or dreaming, but to his disappointment, everything around him remained unchanged.

Kaito sighed as he leaned back, "The beach, huh?"

The fact that he was at the beach wasn't as disturbing as the fact that he was at a beach in the middle of the day and not a single person was in the vicinity. Kaito got off from the soft, white sand and began walking to the sea blue water before him.

On his way there, he glanced at the nearby palm trees and noticed the unusual blue thunderbolt-shaped markings carved into the bark. The farther he walked towards the ocean, the stronger the smell of the salt-water became. That was normal, but Kaito couldn't help but wonder why the further he walked, the more electricity he could feel emitting from the sand.

He stopped at the shoreline and crouched down to see his reflection, but the water was such a rich sea blue color that his light purple hair and red eyes seemed sea blue. Not only that, but his whole reflection was sea blue. Kaito reached into the water and immediately pulled his hand out as soon as his flesh made contact with the water. He winced as he looked from his bruised hand back to the distorted water and wondered out loud, "Electric shock from ocean water?"

As the water began calming down again, Kaito noticed a reflection other than his own in the water. He turned around quickly and saw something sea blue flash by him. The purple-haired boy concentrated on the object as it ran up a tree near a beach house about 50 meters away from his current position. Deciding to find out what it was, he began walking towards the tree, breath-taken by the elegant beach house before him.

Although the size was of a normal two story house, the appearance was worth complimenting. The house was painted a magnificent white with black specks, the marble walls sparkling in the sunlight. Along the borders of the walls including the balcony, intricate golden designs outlined each border and wrapped around the balcony's bars. On the bottom floor, two small hexagonal shaped windows were on each side of the front door, which was made of glass and outlined in silver with designs of cats on them. Three large windows of similar shape were on the second floor with the exception of the middle window being the largest. Kaito squinted his eyes to concentrate harder on the middle window and noticed designs similar to that on the front door on the top and bottom of the window. There were also handles on the window indicating that it was the door leading the balcony.

Kaito's admiration of the house was broken as he was about to trip over a bump made in the sand. Shaking his head, he realized that the beach house wasn't the reason he approached it. He stopped in front of the tree and glanced through the leaves for something sea blue. After searching for a while, the boy noticed a pair of bright amber eyes looking down at him from the tree. He traced the eyes back to its owner and realized that the thing he was searching for was a cat with fur the color of water and paws that were white. Seeing the cat, Kaito immediately broke into a smile and motioned it to come down. The animal didn't respond and continued staring at him in caution. After it seemed like the cat had finished studying him, the cat sat down and began scratching its ear, allowing Kaito to get a glimpse of its wagging tail. It looked similar to the tail of a tiger's with the exception that its fur was sea blue and the stripes were white instead of black.

"Who are you and what is a human like you doing in my world?" The cat spoke while scratching its ear with one eye slightly opened to study the boy in front of him. Kaito looked startled as he looked around to find the source of the voice, not realizing that it was the feline that had spoken. The cat stopped scratching its ear and hissed, "Up here. I'm talking to you, human."

The boy looked at the animal blankly and answered with caution in his voice. "The name's Kaito. Kaito Akiyo. What do you mean by 'my world'?"

The feline narrowed its eyes. "You mean to say that you have no idea where you are?"

"Well, no… I don't." Kaito answered while scratching the back of his head confusingly.

"In that case, you're not fit to be here."

"What's that supposed to-"

"GET OUT OF MY TERRITORY!" The feline hissed in a loud screeching voice, interrupting Kaito.

Kaito jolted awake as pain surged through his body causing him to wince. His eyes slowly refocused on his surroundings in the dimly lit room as he heard the sound of beeping beside him. Seeing the white walls around him and the fact that he was in a bed covered in bandages, Kaito immediately deduced that he was in the hospital. No, scratch that. He was in the infirmary of the4th Squad.

Sighing, Kaito touched his forehead and slightly rubbed his temples with one hand while he used the other for support. A warm sensation brushed against his hand, grabbing Kaito's attention. He looked down to see Midori's sleeping face on the side of his bed and Jushiro sleeping in a chair leaning against the wall with Mamuro leaning his head on Jushiro's shoulder. Kaito smiled warmly at the scene before him and slowly placed his hand on top of Midori's hand, squeezing it lightly.

"Kaito…" The boy immediately withdrew his hand from his sister's when he heard her quietly whisper his name. He looked closer to see that she was talking in her sleep and sighed in relief to know that he didn't wake her up. Glancing back at his sister's face, he noticed a few tears streaming down her face. "…I'm sorry… I didn't mean to…" Midori whispered as more tears escaped her closed eyelids. "Please forgive me."

"Stupid Onee-chan," The boy began as he placed his hand on her head to ruffle her hair without waking her up. "Just go to sleep without worrying for once." A smile broke onto Kaito's face after seeing a slight smile appear on Midori's face. "Goodnight, Midori Onee-chan."