Breaking point

(Ryoto's pov)

I woke up in a slightly agitated state, and I immediately checked my surroundings. The first thing I noticed was that I was in the Study Chamber. I remember getting here before closing my eyes for a bit. The moments after I escaped the Quinces were a bit blurry. Understandably, I would add, but it didn't matter now.

The second thing I noticed was that my body wasn't that much in pain anymore. I mean, it still hurts here and there, but compared to before, it was practically nothing.

I checked my left shoulder, and it was bandaged, as was most of my body, apparently. Obviously I tried checking the other side of my body as well but as I tried to move my left arm to do exactly that, nothing happened.

Oh, right... I don't have my left arm anymore... At least I'm right handed. That's the only positive I could think of.

Am I sad at the loss of my arm? I sure am, although given the chance, I would probably do that again if it was necessary.

"Have you already woken up?"

I heard a soothing voice next to me, and I would have mistaken this voice for anyone else.

"How long was I unconscious, Unohana?"

This was the vital question. Time is essential right now, so the less I sleep, the better.

"It was about 1 hour since you lost consciousness."

I sighed out of relief. Since it was only one hour and nothing was on fire just yet, I still had time, but first, I had a more important question before Unohana gave me my diagnosis.

"How are Masaru and Akio?"

"They aren't in any danger. Akio-kun, while greatly scarred, is already awake. Meanwhile, Masaru-kun still hasn't regained consciousness. His life is not at risk anymore. It's merely a side effect of Masaru-kun's Bankai. It burned through his Reiatsu at an unnatural rate, leaving not a lot left. He'll wake up soon enough, so you don't need to worry."

Unohana answered my question with a small smile, seeing that I care more about my children than myself.

"Now that your worries are put at ease let's move on to your diagnosis, shall we."

I nodded. It's better to know how fucked my body is before doing anything.

"Give it to me straight, doc. I can take it."

I couldn't really stop myself from saying it, but it seemed that the joke went over her head.

"Your body was full of injuries, both small and big. Most of them were not life-threatening, but the saying 'death by a thousand cuts' exists for a reason. The biggest wound, except the absence of your arm, is the hole in your shoulder. The blood loss from it would be enough to kill you, but it was already cauterized to some extent, which helped to keep you alive. It was a blessing in disguise, as small as it was. Now, about your arm. As you have probably noticed, the most I could do was salvage what was left of it, which means not much. The forbidden Kido you used was created to use your arm as a sacrifice to manifest power much stronger than what you would realistically use, so there was nothing left of it. Even with the help of Ryouka, there was nothing I could do, and I doubt you would wish to ask Captain Kurotsuchi for help in that regard."

I listened carefully as she described my injuries and their states. Thankfully, nothing out of the ordinary so far.

"Now, about your eyes." Hearing that, I flinched and looked shocked at my doctor, and it seemed that my shock was a source of great amusement to Unohana.

"You don't need to worry. I got permission from Captain Rin, former Captain Shihoin, and my own Vice-Captain as well." Unohana tried to calm me down, but it wasn't necessary. I wasn't distressed, just surprised.

It's not like I don't trust Unohana. I knew her for years, and she is a very important person to Isane as well, but I hid my eyes for a long time because I was paranoid of the Central 46 losing their shit over what the hell I am and trying to throw me into prison for being a possible danger.

"So what's your opinion?" I asked after a short pause.

"These eyes aren't something that has any right to exist. They go against everything that I have learned throughout my life, but at the same time, I can't dispute that you, in fact, have them."

Yep, that's the usual response.

"But despite their strange existence, your eyes aren't invincible. They are... shattered."

I expected that much, but my lack of response made Unohana pause.

"Don't worry about it. They do that when I overuse them. As long as I don't cross a certain threshold, they'll heal on their own. It's not the first time it has happened," I explained.

"And how do you know that said threshold wasn't crossed?" She challenged my opinion.

"Because I can still see, and my eyesight didn't deteriorate." I then opened my eyes to show that they were already better than before. I couldn't see if that was true, but my eyes didn't feel warm anymore, so they should be at least a bit better, and seeing Unohana's reaction, it turned out to be true.

She put her hands on my face and brought her closer to examine my eyes more thoroughly. She even touched them in a few places. To be clear, I don't have a strong sense of touch in my eyes, so I didn't care much for these touches. If she started poking, though...

"They really started restoring themselves..."

It must have been shocking for someone so long-lived as Unohana. The longer someone has lived and the more experienced that someone is, the more hard-hitting these 'impossible' scenarios are.

"Now that everything has been explained, I'll check on Akio. He must feel down because of everything that happened."

I slowly and carefully got up so I wouldn't re-open my wounds. After successfully standing up, I notified a very distracted Unohana that I was going, but she wasn't listening much. She quickly answered me and went back to theorizing how my eyes' healing capabilities worked. I hope that I didn't break her too much.

Now, I made my way to Akio, who was with Isane. I wasn't walking fast, not even at a normal speed, and thanks to that, I was noticed when I was relatively far away from them. They wanted to get closer to me so I wouldn't need to walk that much, but I signaled them to stay put. I may have been injured, but so was Akio.

When I was next to them, I sat down again. I was sitting beside Isane, and Akio was across from us. Isane put her hand on top of mine like it was the most natural thing in the world, which, for us, it was.

We didn't say anything and enjoyed silence, at least I was because it gave me time to think about how to cheer up my son.

"Dad... Mom..."

My time is up, and my head is empty. Well, not exactly empty, but since I didn't start talking, first, everything depends on what Akio will say.

"I'm sorry... I don't know what to say, but I'm just so sorry. Every time I try doing something right, it turns out horrible! First, Aizen tricks me and makes me hate Dad for a long time, a time that I'm never getting back, but because of that, I sent Dad to Hueco Mundo of all places! If it was any other person in place of Dad, they wouldn't return. But fine. Aizen is smart, a mastermind like no other. I may not like him, but it doesn't mean that I can't admit his superiority over me in practically everything. Because of that, people would understand why I did what I did. Maybe not forgive, but understand. One time making a mistake of this magnitude would be enough to last a lifetime but nooooo. After trying to right my wrongs, I once again made it worse! But it wasn't enough for my own life to be at risk. My sibling also needed to pay a price for my actions! My older brother is still unconscious! Why is everything I do to protect my loved ones only hurting them!!!"

Akio ended his long rant with heavy breathing as he didn't take as much pause during his emotional outburst.

When my son finally regained his breath, I asked. "Feeling better?"

"...A bit."

I nodded my head sagely.

"Understandable. Letting all these emotions build up inside you is not healthy. Been there, done that. I don't exactly recommend doing that."

Isane turned to me with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't remember you being that much more emotional than an ordinary person, and I certainly don't recall you losing your composure unless you are drunk." She said,

"I... wasn't exactly mentally stable when I was younger. I almost killed a wanna-be bully because he pushed the wrong buttons. He wasn't innocent per se, but he didn't do anything worthy of being killed." I answered shyly.

I answered. It wasn't the proudest moment in my life, but thankfully, I didn't do much more than just scare my then-classmate.

After answering Isane's question, I turned to Akio, whose whole body, including his face, was bandaged.

"You may think that everything you've done was one way or another wrong or incorrect, but sometimes, the wrong choices that we make may turn out to be right choices in retrospect." Thinking about an example, I got a perfect one. "Have we ever told you how I met your mother?" I asked, and Akio didn't seem to realize where I was going with it.

"Yes... If I remember correctly, you met when Dad was still in the Academy while Mom was already a lieutenant. Something happened during Dad's lesson. He was in need of medical attention, and you met."

"Correct, but it's not the whole story. You see, after I survived that crazy lesson in the human world, all of our class decided to celebrate. Things happened, and we got drunk. Isane was also there and also drunk. We had our drunken adventure, and things exacerbated to the point that I fought Unohana. When I sobered up, I thought that I was crazy and getting drunk was a mistake, but without that, I wouldn't be together with Isane.

What I'm trying to say is that only in the future will you be able to see the bigger picture and see these events from another perspective. I'm not saying that everything will turn out to have a positive outcome in the future, but I advise you not to lament over everything that happened. What I want you to think about is what you accomplished. Akio, you have saved your brother. No matter the reason that put him in danger, it was you who saved him, and you were ready to die for it. I don't like that you don't hold your life in high regard, but I can't say anything other than that I am proud seeing the lengths you will go to for your siblings.

That, unfortunately, will leave you scarred, and I don't want you to look at these scars and think of your failures. I want to see your success. Scars only have as much meaning as you give them. I should know. I got plenty. Some I got when I protected someone I care about. Others were consequences of actions that I'm not proud of, but that's just life." I finished with a cheeky grin.

"I also want to add that no matter what you do, you'll always be our son. We know that your heart is in the right place because you are Akio Yuuki, son of Ryoto Yuuki and Isane Kotetsu, and that's enough for us." Isane added

That was a straw that broke the camel's back as Akio threw himself to hug us. Although it looked like his emotions took over, he was still delicate enough not to hurt me. Of course Isane and I returned a hug. It was hard with my sole arm, but in the end, I managed to.

"I'm sorry... because of me, you lost your arm." He said as he sobbed on our shoulders, and hearing that, I smiled.

"You stupid son of mine... for every one of you, I would sacrifice even more. Losing one arm is nothing."

It was a heartwarming moment, but it didn't last long because a back butterfly flew to me, and I wasn't the only one. All of the current Captains got a message from their Hell Butterfly.

It was a summon to the Captain's meeting.

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END

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