Chapter 1

"C'mon you slackers, focus! You can't do it here, how can you face a hollow who wants nothing more than to eat you!?" snarled Rukia. Though shorter than most shinigami and cute as a button, her talent with kidou and her perfectionist personality makes her an intimidating instructor. All around her, destructive arts and binding arts are being practiced. In another part of the training hall, swordsmanship is being honed. Kuchiki Rukia strolled through the training grounds as if she owned the place. While not someone to be trifled with behind a sword, Rukia's strength is in her proficiency with kido, both binding and destroying.

"You, pale kid with the messy hair, show me Crawling Rope!"

"U-uh, c-crawling- um, that's Bakudo 4?"

"You tell me! How long have you been here, mister!?"

"Going to three months now, ma'am!"

"And you're telling me you can't tie a rope around the limbs of an opponent!? You guys are going to be the death of me! You, girl with the pink hair, draw your zanpakuto. Mr. I-Slept-the-Past-Three-Months is in for an awakening here."

"Ma'am!" Pink Hair was a constant victim of Slept-For-Months's criticism and jokes for not being as strong as he is in swordsmanship and hand to hand. Other than doubling the required quota of push-ups, crunches and laps, for Pink Hair. As a bonus for being able to improve by the time of the demonstration, Rukia showed Pink Hair shunpo.

"Everyone, gather around!" Rukia announced. "What we have here is a pop quiz. You, I-Napped-Three-Months and you, Pink-Hair, face each other. Courtesy. Good. Remember, basic strength and ability and kidou allowed. Go at it!"

Napped-For-Three-Months charged. He was not in a good mood. Not only was he slacking off and using his strength to intimidate others, Rukia called him out on it. He thought to himself, after he puts Pink-Hair in her place as a weaker, inferior woman, he'll go after Rukia. Her and her stupid spells.

Napped-For-Three-Months did not stand a chance. Pink Hair blocked the punch and quickly got inside his defense, attacking him with a volley of punches. What no one but Rukia observed is as the fight was going on, she was chanting for Binding Spell 9.

The glisten of oil. Arcs of the candelabra. The six thousand steps behind the coils briar. Frighten the giant with the falling star. Capture it's breath with what must be taken- Binding Spell 9: Strike! As the spell took hold on Napped-For-Three-Months, Pink Hair shunpo'ed and when she appeared again, she roundhoused him, striking the back of his head. He was out cold before he hit the ground in humiliating defeat.

"I did it, Rukia! I DID IT!..."

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Later that night, back in her quarters...

"Oy, Rukia!" said Abarai Renji out of nowhere. They were watching "TV" an invention in the world of the living. During one of Rukia's few missions to the world of the living, she caught a glimpse of these light boxes with moving pictures and found them fascinating. What sealed the deal was what she saw as she encountered such a strange device: an Animal Planet special on rabbits and hares in the American Northeast. She practically boosted the television set herself but Renji stopped her, saying that theft is also a crime in the world of the living.

"Yeah?"

"Why are you so hard on your pupils? Most everyone else just train them and go home. You go the extra mile, Rukia." Renji, a normally cocky guy, suddenly became observant and introspective. This would strike just about anyone else as strange but Rukia grew up with this guy. And in the 78th District, one of the poorest in all of Rukongai, no one survives with just one face.

"It's about giving a chance, Renji. The shinigami academy took us out of that miserable district and gave us the opportunity to develop our potential. We don't all see it the same way though. That slacker here certainly doesn't seem to care about anything. But who knows, maybe being humiliated was a wake up call for him to actually try harder. I was able to help Bubblegum Hair. She couldn't use spiritual pressure to get out of a wet paperbag when I first taught her." explained Rukia.

"Still the same old Rukia. You're accepted by the Kuchiki clan but you're never too good to talk with us common folk."

Before Rukia could respond, both Renji and Rukia paid attention to the television in her living room quarters. "In today's tragic news, Kurosaki's owner loses his wife in a car accident. The camera goes on to show a beautiful young mother lying broken by the side of a road while her three children were crying their eys out. Authorities could not find the perpetrator of this hit and run..."

Rukia saw enough. She knows, almost from the beginning of the news story that this was no ordinary automobile accident but the aftermath of a rampaging hollow. The spiritual residue is screaming for anyone with an ounce of spiritual ability.

Though for just a moment she saw the immense pain of the children, in particular the oldest boy with bright orange hair. Call it a woman's intuition, call it living far longer than any human possible, whatever you pin it on, I leave it up to you, Rukia knows that the little boy with the orange hair changed forever with the death of his mother. His already strong reiatsu will only leak more and affect those around him now that his mother died and there's no strength or priority to control his spiritual ability. If she could pick up so much even through the detachment of a TV screen, how much more will the hollows and evil spirits detect him?

Somewhere in the time it took the news to reach their audience and the commercial break after such a traumatic story occurring in a local town normally full of light and happiness, Rukia changed forever also. She decided to resign as kidou's top drill sergeant and take up a sentry post on Earth, in particular the zone of Karakura Town. She got up quietly and did not even hear Renji asking her what she's doing or where she's going. She wants to be the spiritual guardian of that orange haired boy. The fate of all existence depends on how he turns out.