Rukia heard the story before. Who hadn't? The knight in shining armor rides forth from his castle to rescue the fair maiden from a fire-breathing dragon. Oh yes, she heard the story – even growing up in one of Rukongai's poorest districts, it floated about between children. She used to sit high in trees and pretend she was a fair maiden trapped in a tower by a dragon, waiting for her knight to come sallying forth over the filthy buildings and fetid streets.
It never happened, of course.
As an aspiring shinigami, she pushed her notions of gallant saviors and helpless captives out of her mind. Byakuya-nii-sama scolded her for reading fairy tales, once, in a moment of her weakness. "Such things ill befit a noble," he lectured. "I will not hear of it."
As the Twenty-seventh Seat of the Thirteenth Division, Kuchiki Rukia began to outgrow her childhood fantasies. She convinced herself that knights in shining armor no longer rode to the rescue of fair maidens in need. Maidens would have to just rescue themselves.
Yet now, hanging high above Sokyouku Hill, Kuchiki Rukia needed no convincing to believe the figure floating before her was, indeed, a knight in shining armor. The dragon roared his fury at being rendered impotent by her orange-headed savior's intervention.
"Yo."
She didn't need to pretend a dying tree was a skyscraping tower, or listen for the jangle of armor anymore.
Her tower was the Sokyouku Cross, and her knight wore black linen.