Chapter Two: Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't

Skeletal hands were pulling Ichigo down into a pit of fire and brimstone. They were the hands of her dead family's corpses, reanimated, pulling her down into Hell along with them.

"We thought you would save us, Ichigo, we thought you were doing to save us…" they moaned over and over again, dragging her further and further even as she struggled.

"I did save you! I tried to!" Ichigo cried out, yanking at their hands. "I'm sorry, I thought I had, I -!" The dead had no patience with her excuses.

Then Rukia in Shinigami form, glowing white, appeared floating above her in the pit. "I am sorry," she said stonily, contemptuous. "You were too late."

"Too late?! Rukia, help me!" Ichigo cried out. But Rukia disappeared, and the light left the pit.

Still struggling, Ichigo looked around - and everyone's faces. Dad's, Karin's, Yuzu's. They all became Mom's face. Pale, staring, lifeless, glassy-eyed. Accusing.

"You didn't save us."

Ichigo shrieked, sat up straight, and realized she was in bed.

"... Nightmare," she breathed, slumping and putting a hand over her chest, breathing hard. Her heart was pounding furiously. "Just a nightmare." She realized what had woken her up. Her phone alarm was going off on her desk across the bedroom, just like on any other normal morning. Faint sunlight streamed through the window.

Ichigo slid out of bed, put on her slippers (deep purple with furry little unicorn-horned creatures on them), stood. Mostly on autopilot. She was sleepy and shaken. She didn't remember going to bed last night, but somehow she was in bed, wearing one of her usual pajama sets: an ivory shirt-and-pants set with a business suit jacket like collar, a tucked in waist, and straight-leg pants. The pajamas had strawberries on them, and she'd drawn little X eyes onto each strawberry so that they all looked dead.

Ichigo went to turn off her alarm and wondered if the whole Shinigami mess had been some bizarre, fevered dream. Maybe she needed to lay off the spicy food before bed? But it was weird that she didn't remember pulling on her pajamas and putting everything away before going to sleep.

She put on her jogging clothes as usual, went downstairs through the empty, sleeping house as usual - Ichigo always got up earlier than everyone else - and stopped suddenly, her heart jolting. The hole was still there in the living room wall.

Frightened, she sprinted back up the stairs to her family's bedrooms. "Dad! Karin! Yuzu!" she called, banging doors open - and she found three soundly sleeping people who were quite annoyed at being woken up. They were all healed, sleepy, confused, and perfectly fine.

"Goddamn, what the hell's the matter?" Karin muttered, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

"What was that?" Dad called down the hall.

"Nothing."

"You're - you're all okay." Ichigo paused, blinking stupidly.

"Yeah," said Dad, confused. "Why wouldn't we be?"

Dumbly, Ichigo pointed. "... There's a hole in the side of our house."

It turned out? Ichigo's family had no memories of the night before. They asked the neighbors, who all confirmed that they'd seen a weaving, probably drunken truck driver plunge straight through the Kurosaki house last night.

It was so improbable, it would have been funny if it hadn't been so sad. They all seemed so convinced. Did the Shinigami have a triage service?

Dad commented that it was a miracle - a truck crashed into their house and nobody got a scratch! Equally brightly, Yuzu commented that it was a double miracle - none of them had even woken up! Then Karin and Dad got into a typical argument.

"Some miracle," Karin muttered. "The jerk left us with the repair bills."

"It's okay!" said Dad enthusiastically. "He'll come back to apologize someday!"

"No. He won't."

"But maybe -!"

"He's not coming back to apologize, Dad. Hit and runs are illegal. He'd be arrested."

"But maybe he could brave infamy and -!"

"Are you even listening to yourself?"

"When did my adorable little girls get so pessimistic…?"

"You'll have to forgive her," said Yuzu understandingly. "It's early in the morning and she's on her period." She mock-whispered the last part, hand to her mouth.

Karin flushed and opened her mouth furiously to shout something, and Ichigo broke the whole thing up firmly. "Okay, okay, you three, let's not kill each other. Nobody's dying today. Karin and Yuzu start cleaning up the living room, Dad board up the hole in the wall, and I'll make breakfast. I guess we'll all have to arrive at school a little late today."

Ichigo figured her brief power trip must be over. Rukia must have taken her powers and gone back to that Soul Society place. Which still didn't fix one problem: more Hollows would be coming after Ichigo.

This troubled her for the rest of the morning.

10:43 AM, Saturday

Karakura 1st High School

It felt weird, not having Ichigo there, they were all agreed. She was the one who'd befriended Sado and given him the nickname "Chad", just before she and Chad befriended Keigo and Mizuiro. So that accounted for all the guys. She'd been Tatsuki's very first friend, and then she and Tatsuki had befriended Orihime together. She'd met Ryou through book club, who had introduced her to Michiru and Mahana. She'd met Chizuru through the Gay-Straight Alliance and the Feminist Club.

So basically, she'd been the first to bring in everyone in their group. Tatsuki was the one to observe it first - whenever their group made plans to do something, and then Ichigo said she couldn't come, the plans almost immediately fell through. Tatsuki was pretty sure Ichigo didn't even know she did it. There was just something about Ichigo's comfort with herself - something that appealed to lots of people in her friends circle. Funny thing was, most of their other classmates were afraid of her. Considered her icy and unreachable, even "scary." People sometimes shied away from her in the hallways.

But in her friends, there was only concern. It was close to the last bell before third period Contemporary Events with Ochi-sensei, and the question on everyone's minds this morning was: where was Kurosaki Ichigo? She never missed school. She'd been voted "Most Likely to Become Your Terrifying Boss" in last year's middle school yearbook.

"I heard Ooshima finally got to her," Ryou, with long black hair hiding her face and even longer track legs, said darkly from behind her book.

"You mean, like he attacked her?!" Chizuru, cute and loud and bespectacled, squealed. Michiru, with short hair and countless stuffed animals and Hello Kitty keychains in and on her backpack, gasped and put a hand over her mouth. They all knew the class bully Ooshima's attention paid to Ichigo bordered on sexual harassment - especially considering she didn't want his advances.

"No," Mahana, with wild curly hair and a messy open-buttoned uniform shirt, said eagerly, "we mean she killed him."

"So she's in jail?!"

"Totally in jail." Mahana and Ryou sat back, satisfied.

Orihime, curvy and round-faced with long caramel locks and childish star hair barrettes, turned immediately to Tatsuki. "Tatsuki-chan, we have to spring our friend from jail!" she said determinedly. Ichigo was the only other person who got this affectionate honorific from Orihime.

"Fine by me," said Tatsuki dryly, who had a messy black pixie cut and lean musculature and who didn't believe a word of it. "I'm game."

"You guys are all ridiculous," said Mizuiro, the baby-faced dark-haired prep. "I stopped by her house this morning. Some drunk truck driver rammed into it last night." He said this like it was somehow better than Ichigo being in jail. Orihime, Chizuru, and Michiru disproved this theory by screaming.

"No, Ichigo, you're too young and hot to leave us!" cried Keigo, a complete perv with longish brown hair.

"Here, here!" Chizuru, lesbian to the end, added.

"Does she need help?" Chad, large and dark-skinned and stoically protective, asked quietly, tensing.

"Fuck all you guys!" said Tatsuki in alarm. "I've gotta ask the real question: Is she dea -?!"

"Nope." A book bag hit Tatsuki gently in the back of the head, accompanied by a familiar and welcome voice. "Sorry to disappoint everyone. We all survived."

Ichigo was standing there in her uniform.

"Ooshima did try to grope my ass outside class just now, though," she added. "I think I might have broken his wrist this time. He loved every second of it." Her face was twisted in contempt. Ichigo found Ooshima disgusting, as, to be fair, she found most people she didn't like, hadn't gotten to know well, or considered stupid.

Several of Ichigo's friends flew at her at once, crying out in relief.

"OH, THANK GOD, MY FUTURE WIFE!" That was Chizuru.

"Ichigo-chan, you're moving in with me!" That was Orihime.

"I was just about to start crying!" That was Michiru.

"So was I! Let's cry together and then do it!" That was Keigo.

"Fuck off, asshole." Accompanied by the sounds of punching. That was Ryou and Tatsuki, defending their friend from Keigo.

"Fill us in on all the juicy details. I want gossip material, please." That was Mahana.

"Chad - go fetch." That was Mizuiro, the only one who had remained completely calm. Chad was so big he could walk over, pick a struggling Ichigo up from out of the pile of her friend's bodies, silently put her back down, and pat her shoulders neat.

"I'm glad you're okay," he said stoically. But the warmth to his brown eyes said he meant it.

Ichigo smiled, touched. "Thanks, Chad," she said.

"Does your family need help cleaning up your place?"

"Chad, you're so big, I think you would do more harm than good," Keigo pointed out jokingly.

"Don't even worry about it. The worst's taken care of." Ichigo waved a hand. None of her friends could tell whether or not the worst was actually taken care of. Ichigo had a habit of understating these things.

Tatsuki's eyes had narrowed and she was about to press Ichigo for more information, but just then a voice spoke up from behind them - a new one.

Kuchiki Rukia had been puzzled by Karakura High School. It was all concrete - concrete courtyards, large concrete buildings, even concrete walls and tiled white floors. Only the shoe lockers were blue, and there were hundreds of them. All the hallways looked the same, the classrooms differentiated only by the letters and numbers on their signs. 3-A was the first third year class, for example, and teachers moved in and out of that classroom all day.

But she'd finally found Ichigo's classroom - now her classroom, she realized surreally - and after some hesitation, she approached Ichigo's intimidatingly large and rowdy friends group with a big smile firmly in place. "Sonuva," she began, because she'd read in a book once that this was a common living world term, "are you Kurosaki?"

Ichigo (and everyone else) looked around, and her eyes widened. Kuchiki Rukia was standing there, apparently in a body as everyone could see her, in a Karakura High School uniform. She gave a bright smile, looking alien.

"Nice to meet you!" she said.

"Oh, this is Kuchiki Rukia," said Mizuiro, who knew everything about everyone, in response to Ichigo's silent, caught-off-guard stare. "She started here yesterday. It's an unusual time to transfer, but her family had to move."

"Kurosaki-san, I don't have any textbooks yet," said Rukia sweetly. "Do you mind if I sit by you? The headmaster said you could share yours with me." She held out a hand. Written on it in pen was a single sentence: DON'T MAKE A SCENE.

Ichigo's face fell into expressionlessness. "Sure, Kuchiki-san," she said. "Let me show you around the school. Come with me." And she practically dragged Rukia out of the room.

Ichigo's friends were left mystified in her wake.

"She's showing the new girl around school?" Tatsuki asked. "That's… unusually friendly of her."

Ichigo turned to Rukia immediately in an empty courtyard.

"So - are we skipping school?" Rukia asked excitedly. "That's what kids do around here, right?"

"No - I mean - it depends on the kid - that's not the point, look," said Ichigo intently. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" Rukia repeated, looking bewildered.

"Yes, what's wrong!" said Ichigo, exasperated, throwing up her hands. "Has the Soul Society sent you, do you need help with another Hollow, are you -?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. I haven't left yet," said Rukia.

Ichigo stared. "Why not?"

"Because you still have my powers," said Rukia slowly, like Ichigo was an idiot. Which was kind of how Ichigo suddenly felt.

"I - I thought my power trip was over," was all she could manage.

"What I offered you last night was not a one time thing," said Rukia, frowning. "I may not be able to go back to the Soul Society for months. You stole all my powers and it will take time for them to fade from your soul's body and for mine to recover. I can only do the most basic of kido, and I currently have no other powers. Until they return, I have to rely on this gigai."

"Gigai?"

"A fake body Shinigami use in times of emergencies," said Rukia, business-like. "So they can disguise themselves as humans and avoid Hollows."

"How did you get one, though? What, did you have it stuffed up your butt?" said Ichigo. Rukia gave her a Look and she smirked.

"I… may have asked a shady third party with access to black market equipment… for help… using my emergency mission stipend," said Rukia, sounding highly embarrassed. "I - I can transfer the money from the same place I get Hollow alerts." She sheepishly held up a cell phone looking thing.

Ichigo freaked out. "What?! Isn't that dangerous?! Why didn't you ask the Soul Society for help?"

"I can't go to them with this."

"Why not -?"

"I just can't!" Rukia glared.

Ichigo raised her hands slowly. "Okay," she said. "Okay. So, they helped you put me back in my body and wipe the memories of my family and neighbors."

"We also cleaned up the blood," said Rukia matter-of-factly.

"Right. Thanks. Now, Rukia… I gotta ask…" Ichigo had a pained expression. "Please tell me you're the one who redressed me in my pajamas."

Rukia, who had looked tense, suddenly seemed amused. "Yes, it was me," she said. "Me and Ururu. A little girl… robot, I suppose you would call her… who is part of Urahara's gang."

"Who's Urahara?"

"A greedy salesman with exorbitantly high prices," Rukia muttered.

"So… what's your plan from here? Where will you stay?" Ichigo asked. "Because, we have a spare room at my house. I can probably just tell my family and friends you're having family problems. My Dad'll be ecstatic to take you in, and my sisters won't complain."

Rukia seemed surprised, almost nervous. "Really? I was…" Now it sounded stupid. "I was kind of just going to camp out in your closet."

Ichigo smiled. "In that old thing? A pile of towels could fall on you and suffocate you at any minute. Just take the bedroom."

"Excellent," said Rukia briskly, recovering. "It'll be convenient for me to have you close at hand all the time in case a Hollow alert comes."

"Eh?" Ichigo looked bewildered.

"Ichigo, think about it logically," said Rukia slowly, her 'you're-stupid' expression once more firmly in place. "I don't have powers. I can't go back to the Soul Society. Who else is going to do Shinigami duties around Tokyo except you?"

Ichigo was thunderstruck. "But - but - but I don't know anything about being a Shinigami!"

"That's why you have me," said Rukia. The 'you're-stupid' expression hadn't left.

"No!"

"... What?" Now it was Rukia's turn to be flabbergasted. "Y-you can't refuse! This is your fault!"

"Screw you, I can totally refuse, and I am!" said Ichigo defiantly, in a rare burst of emotion.

"That's - that's totally selfish! Ichigo, someone has to save these people! You could be a hero, you could be -!"

"That's why I can't do it!" The words came out in a raw, savage cry before Ichigo could even stop them. Her eyes were squeezed shut, twisted with emotion. She opened them up, cocoa brown eyeliner squinted in pain.

"What do you mean?" Rukia asked, completely bewildered. "Ichigo, you were a hero last night! You saved your family -"

"That's - that's not - look. Rukia, you've known me for less than twenty-four hours. You don't know who I am. I'm - I'm a selfish bitch, people are terrified of me, everyone hates me! You have no idea how utterly unequipped I am for a job saving people." Ichigo was now speaking softly, her face unusually open. She looked tired. Very tired. Rukia knew what that kind of tired felt like, but she was over a century old and she had lost people very close to her. Many of them.

What kind of experience could make a fifteen-year-old human look that way?

The questions must have shown in Rukia's face, because Ichigo sighed, looking down. "I - I killed my mother." There was a stark silence in the courtyard. "I saw someone about to commit suicide. I was nine years old. I ran across a road full of cars trying to stop them from jumping. My Mom, who was walking me home, ran after me to try to pull me back from the line of speeding cars. She got hit. I didn't. Death on impact. I was there. I woke up to find her body shielding mine - in death, it had pushed me out of the way in time. Then she didn't become a ghost, and no one in my family ever saw her again.

"That's the last time I ever tried to be a hero for a stranger.

"I'm better selfish. I haven't fucked up since. When I stick to beating the shit out of the people who hurt me and my friends and family, I do just fine. And I'm happy you've given me the power to save my friends and family from future Hollows. But when it comes to saving other people, I -"

"You're scared," Rukia realized in a whisper. "You're actually scared to be self sacrificing."

Ichigo shrugged. She still wouldn't look Rukia in the eye. "Call it whatever you want," she said. "But I - I wish I was different - but I'm not - I've never been -" Now she wasn't even making any sense, and she knew it. "I'm not that girl," she finished, whispering softly. "That dark-haired girl who kicks ass in the name of defenseless strangers and gets the guy - I'm not that girl. I'm not even the golden-haired girl who swoons and faints a lot and needs saving by a handsome prince. I don't know what I am. I'm just - me," she finished lamely, shrugging again. "And - I-I don't think that's good enough for what you're asking me to do."

She finally looked up, staring Rukia in the eye. Vulnerable.

There was a song from this play called Wicked. It was a musical, but not that kind of musical. And there was this one song in it that Ichigo had always really related to:

Hands touch, eyes meet

Sudden silence, sudden heat

Hearts leap in a giddy whirl

He could be that boy

But I'm not that girl

Don't dream too far

Don't lose sight of who you are

Don't remember that rush of joy

He could be that boy

I'm not that girl

Ev'ry so often we long to steal

To the land of what-might-have-been

But that doesn't soften the ache we feel

When reality sets back in

Blithe smile, lithe limb

She who's winsome, she wins him

Gold hair with a gentle curl

That's the girl he chose

And Heaven knows

I'm not that girl

Don't wish, don't start

Wishing only wounds the heart

I wasn't born for the rose and the pearl

There's a girl I know

He loves her so

I'm not that girl

"I'm certain of my future," Ichigo said now. "And I don't get the guy, and I don't save the world. It's not that kind of future. In my future, I marry a drunken asshole because I have Daddy issues and become a bitchy CEO who knows five different languages. I never have kids. And I'm as happy as I could be under the circumstances. Shinigami? Hollows? Fighting? Death? Doesn't exactly factor into that future.

"I'm sorry," she added, for whatever it was worth. "I'm sorry that out of all the people in the world, you had to end up giving your powers to me. I'm not exactly the best vessel for them."

"But I'm not the first dead person you've helped, am I?" Rukia said suddenly.

Ichigo paused.

"I'm not," said Rukia, her eyes gleaming triumphantly. "You probably help ghosts all the time. So this future you're supposed to have? You're not even following it."

She walked up to Ichigo and stopped, taking out a fingerless glove with a skull symbol on the front and putting it on.

"You mother's death was not your fault," she said bluntly. "It was the fault of the driver who didn't stop fast enough. But that's not even really the issue here. The issue here isn't even that you don't want to be a hero - I think that deep down, you do. The issue, really, is that you don't think you're a hero, and I think you're wrong. Give me one chance to prove it to you."

Ichigo paused, and each girl gave the other a hard stare. Then - Ichigo wasn't even sure why she said it - but in the end, she supposed, her curiosity got the better of her. "Alright," she said. "One chance."

And Rukia slammed her gloved hand into Ichigo's body. Ichigo's soul pulsed once, and then she blacked out.

Ichigo opened her eyes to find herself lying on the ground. She sat up straight - and realized she was in her soul's Shinigami form. She stared at the unconscious body across from her. The unconscious body that looked just like her.

"That is me," she said matter-of-factly. "And that is creepy."

"You." Ichigo looked around to find Rukia standing above her, quite serious. "Follow me." And she started walking. After dragging her body over to a shady corner and sitting it upright, shutting its creepy blank eyes, Ichigo followed her.

Rukia led her to a children's park. There were lots of them in this general area - this was where most of the schools were in Karakura. This particular one was called Yumizawa, the biggest park in Karakura besides Karuizawa. It was named after some important person Ichigo had never bothered to remember. It was surrounded by tall trees, cradled by a bed of green grass, and it featured lots of colorful children's playground equipment.

And then they just stood there, watching the empty park (school was in session), saying nothing to each other, for a good twenty minutes.

At last, Ichigo said dryly, "Wow, Rukia. I can definitely understand why you brought me here. This will definitely change my mind."

"Shut up, you jumped up little shit."

Ichigo snickered. "Got that from a book of living world vernacular, did you?"

"You'd better believe I did. Anyway, just wait. It won't be long now."

"What won't be long?"

Rukia answered her question with a question. Her expression was veiled as she stared at the park. "Do ghosts come here often?"

"Well… actually, one does. He's about five years old. Pretty short. Likes to play in this park around noon. I think he died of leukemia. He stuck around because he wanted to be close to his family. Or that's what I've heard through the grapevine." Ghosts had those just like living people did.

"Is he a friend?"

"I've seen him around, but we've never really talked. Why all the questions?" Ichigo added curiously.

In silence, Rukia handed her the cell phone. It read:

Yumizawa Children's Park

20M

12:00 PM

+-15MIN

"This is one of your Hollow alerts," said Ichigo, tensing. "Within a twenty-meter radius of Yumizawa Children's Park, at noon, plus or minus fifteen minutes - a Hollow will appear."

"Spot on as usual, Ichigo," said Rukia calmly.

Ichigo's face twisted in fury. "So that's it?! You're just going to force me to do the job -?!"

But just then, there was a scream. Ichigo whirled around to see the pale little ghost of the boy run out from behind the line of trees, crying and screaming, a huge Hollow chasing him. Easy prey. A small fry, but an easy meal. This Hollow looked different. It was colored the same, had the same mask face, but it looked a bit like a giant spider. It was gaining on the little boy easily.

Ichigo was on the playground fencing, her hand behind her for her zanpakutoh, before she could even think about what she was doing.

"Wait!"

Ichigo gritted her teeth and whirled around to Rukia. "This had better damn well be vitally important to the moment at hand!" she hissed.

"I thought you didn't save strangers," said Rukia evenly. "I thought that was something heroes did."

Ichigo was incredulous "Well - but - But what do you expect me to do, just stand here and watch him die?! I can't do that!"

"Exactly," said Rukia. "You can't not help people who are hurting. It's compulsive for you. And if you don't do my job, people all over your home will be hurting. You will be sacrificing them up because you feel like wallowing in self-pity instead of helping them. Do you want to be the cause of that?"

Ichigo paused.

Rukia was gaining steam. "When you refuse to do my job, Ichigo, you're not saying you're unwilling to save all souls equally. You're just saying you're only going to help the ones you're conveniently around for. And that's not fair. Is it?

"Look. What I'm saying is this: I know that you have to save people. I believe that you want to save people. I even think you're willing to sacrifice yourself for them. And that's all that's required for a starting Shinigami - a dedication to duty. What, do you think all Shinigami are saints? Let me divest you of that illusion before it goes any farther. I'm not asking you to be perfect.

"I'm asking you to do what comes naturally, and save people like that little boy."

Ichigo looked around. Saw the little boy trip and fall. Saw the Hollow come for him… And, knowing she was proving Rukia right, she did what came naturally. She jumped in between the boy and the Hollow, and cut through the Hollow in one straight shot. It dissolved with a shriek.

An unseen tension had lifted from Rukia's face. "So, Ichigo. Do you see what I mean? Have you made your decision to be a Shinigami?"

"... Yeah," Ichigo admitted. "I have. In the end, I guess you pegged me - I hate seeing hurting people. But even more than that, I hate the idea of ignoring hurting people. So I guess I'll take the job. But I do have one point of contention."

"And that is?" Rukia raised an eyebrow.

"It's not duty that's driving me," said Ichigo sarcastically, turning around. "Wanting to help hurting people is called 'not being an ass'."

Rukia frowned. "Ichigo, duty is vital to being a Shinigami -"

"Yeah, bullshit," said Ichigo bluntly. "Duty is a stupid word for what you're told you're supposed to do. No one would do anything as goddamn out of their mind as become a Shinigami over duty. Maybe they have noble family expectations. Maybe they want to move out of their villages and on to bigger and better things. Maybe they want to help people, like me. Maybe they want to feel important. Maybe they want to use the power trapped inside them. Maybe they just like the idea of beating the shit out of Hollows for a living, I don't know.

"But I do know for a fact that these non-saintly Shinigami do not do what they do out of duty. And neither will I. I'm doing it because I want to, not because I'm supposed to. Ya got that?"

"What about me?" Rukia challenged. "I am the perfect representation of duty. Where do I fit into your theory?"

"Oh, right, you and duty, of course." Ichigo gave a slow, cruelly amused smile.

"What is that supposed to mean?!" Rukia asked heatedly.

"Look at it from my perspective, Rukia. You took a near-fatal attack meant for a human and then gave your powers to that human - all for one measly soul you could have sent on to the Soul Society anyway. Right. That makes perfect sense from a Shinigami's perspective." Ichigo sneered.

Rukia's eyes widened.

"... Since you've been so honest with me about your mother, I'll be honest with you," she said at last. "I lost someone very close to me to a Hollow. I - I killed him - it was my fault he died. And you look just like his sister. I… I guess I was looking…"

"For atonement," Ichigo said in realization. Rukia looked up in surprise.

They stared at each other across the distance for a moment, a new understanding forming between them. Atonement - the one thing that had bound them together.

Then Ichigo closed the distance and stuck out her hand. "I'll help you with this Shinigami stuff until you get your powers back," she agreed. "But not because I'm supposed to. Because I want to. And because you saved my life. Agreed?"

Rukia gave a small but sincere smile. "Very well," she said, taking the hand. "I look forward to watching your finest efforts."

Author's Notes: Things should start to diverge more from here. I just needed the basic setup before I got into the dicey stuff. I hope you all enjoyed the changes I have made.

Please do review. I'm interested in your thoughts.