Whew... This one is definitely set in CTverse proper, though not necessarily canon to it. I started writing this way back when The Butterfly Effect was being posted, and I've been adding to and editing it ever since. I think it's ready to post now. I hope.

The first five POV sections are all set right before Rukia's planned execution in TBE; they're slightly out of chronological order. The last one is a missing scene from chapter 6 of The Three-Body Problem, so watch out for spoilers if you haven't read that far.


The Kurosaki house is distinctly out-of-place against the feudal-era backdrop of Soul Society. You're still thinking about how it got this way, but – you have far, far more urgent problems than your enemies' social injustices.

Well, Soul Society's rot is exactly the root cause of why you're here; but, you aren't that reckless. You're a lone infiltrator, not an army in one-self. You're going to get in, get Rukia, and get out. Everything beyond that is the shinigamis' problem.

(Maybe if you keep telling yourself that, it'll make it easier to not think about how at least nine-tenths of the afterlife is a godforsaken slum. Where human potential goes to die, has died, is dying. It's none of your business.)

You've been trying, but you haven't been able to get to sleep.

You push the covers aside. The Kurosaki house has several unused guest rooms, each equally small and clean and nondescript. Hospital rooms, really – which is likely a necessity, as this clinic is almost certainly the closest anyone in Rukongai will ever get to an actual hospital.

Before the sun rises tomorrow, you'll be off to pick a fight with people who knowingly and willingly perpetuate disgusting abuses of power and systemic oppression. You're not going to walk out alive, not if you let your guard down for a second. That is a problem.

You have backup. You have Yoruichi, who is definitely a former shinigami; and you have Kurosaki-san, who just happens to be potentially useful in navigating Seireitei. Right.

You have a chance. Finding Rukia-san, getting her free – that's your problem, now.

This whole situation looked so much simpler from far away.