Bleach: The Forgotten Captain - The Memoirs of Akari Miyazaki

Chapter 10: A Hundred Years Without You - Part 1: Pain and Realization

He lifted the gate just a bit so I could slip through. "Thank you," I whispered, and he snorted.

"Akari is no criminal," he said quietly, and I was so grateful for his trust that it warmed my heart.

"Good to see you," he added, and I said my goodbye with a firm hug. In a matter of minutes, I had reached my house. I snuck across the yard and noticed that only one room in our house was still lit: my room.

I crept into the garden and crouched between two bushes, where I could see my brother through the window. He was sitting at my desk, but his gaze wasn't fixed on any documents; instead, it was lost in the distance. I moved closer and only now noticed that the window was slightly ajar. As close as I was, he should have noticed me, but he continued to dream.

While he was a relatively good fighter, he hadn't trained his Kido abilities as well.

"What are you dreaming about?" I asked, and he jerked so violently that he almost fell off his chair.

"Akari!" He leaped up and flung the window wide open, allowing me to climb in. It felt like we hadn't seen each other for years. His hair had grown a few inches, and his eyes looked weary. He had lost some weight, as if he had been through a lot of anguish.

"I missed you! Oh, cool outfit!" In his embrace, I could feel his joy at seeing me again, and I tried to return that feeling.

"But why are you sitting in my room?" I asked, blinking back a few tears.

"Well... sometimes, I sit in here because it makes me feel closer to you," again, tears threatened to spill, and I held him close once more.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to come here."

"It's okay. But promise me you'll come more often from now on, okay?"

I promised him.

"Akari," I turned abruptly as my mother entered the kitchen; she must have overheard us. 

Yamachi  shot her a worried look. Her hair was disheveled, and she had hastily wrapped herself in a morning robe. I embraced her cautiously; she looked exhausted, and her illness had worsened.

She held me in her arms for a while, whispered in my ear that I should come by more often, and then went back to bed.

"It's getting worse," Yamachi whispered as he added vegetables to the pot where the meat was simmering. We had moved to the kitchen, after getting our mother back to her room. I sat there for a while, waiting for the meal.

"What have I missed?" I asked, and Yamachi rolled his eyes. "Oh," he said, and began to tell me.

"Rangiku runs into walls, you know," he explained, trying not to burn his mouth on the food. "With Aizen, Ichimaru, and Tousen as captains, it's not that easy, especially because she now occupies the highest rank in the Tenth."

I furrowed my brow. "Gin is a captain?"

Yamachi paused briefly and nodded slowly. "Third Division."

It took me a moment to process that. I knew Gin had been strong enough to assume a captain's role for a long time. Perhaps Aizen had just allowed it now. I clenched my fists, but Yamachi continued cheerfully.

"Byakuya seems to stay out of pretty much everything. At least outwardly, but I've heard that some of Aizen's plans have gone awry somehow. I'm pretty sure Byakuya is pulling the strings in the background without being detected. He has the support of the Kuchiki family, and they do whatever he asks without question."

I smiled; that sounded like Byakuya, and I felt a touch of satisfaction. At least not every plan of Aizen's was going as he had hoped, which was a start.