Just before the Soul Society Arc
Rukia thought: "Who is this person staring back at her" while she looked at her own reflection in the mirror. She is a Shinigami or was she? Her reflection showed a young girl, looking so frail and vulnerable. She spotted in a brown, neatly trudged-in high-school uniform, looking just like any ordinary school girl.
Rukia never would have imagined herself leading a life in the human world. She was beginning to feel that she has a life here. She felt a sense of belonging. She has a place to return to. Although this place is only a closet, it felt like a home to her. In here, she could feel safe and protected- as long as she could feel the presence of that special someone just beyond the doors to her little home.
Often, Rukia was jerked up by some terrible nightmares in the middle of the night. Nightmares of crying people, murderous hollows, cold indifference and rejection. During these times, Rukia wondered where she was. Was she lying in the cramped and broken huts? Was she held in the captive of the Kuchiki's household? No, it felt far too cosy and warm to be either of them. The soft snoring sounds filtering through the paper doors were evidence that she was safe. Now, Rukia hardly has any nightmares. In their place are happy dreams of the day's events. The interesting objects of this world, the friendship and acceptance she enjoyed during the day in school and the laughter that follows after every quibbles with that Baka.
Rukia has never felt so alive until now. Come to think about it, she is never alive. She only remembered that Soul Society is her only home since as young as she could remember. When she grew a little older, she learnt that she is dead before she could even experience the human world. She does not even know the reason of her death. She do not know when she was born even. The name Rukia was given to her by a kind old lady that had picked her up in the streets. The old lady has reincarnated to the human world barely after Rukia learnt to walk or talk. Since then, Rukia has to fend for herself; until she met Renji and his friends. The centuries of trying of stay alive are not the same as being alive. Although there are many wonderful memories back in Soul Society, it doesn't feel as real and as good as the life she is leading now.
Everyday is a new experience and a new discovery.
Just yesterday, she learned about the clothing known as bra. She smiled as the memories of the conversation with that Baka flooded in…
In Soul Society, she has always covered her chest by wrapping white long linen straps around them. She had continued to do the same underneath the human clothing. But it has looked strange in human clothings than Shinigami's black robes. So sometimes she went without the straps when it was too troublesome to wrap them. Rukia thought that her chest is too small to be noticeable anyway. However, whenever she did that, that Baka would seem to notice and become really uncomfortable around her. Just like what happened yesterday.