IV. Charades in Soul Society

She was clutching it in her hands and looked at him. He knew she was in fair condition. It wasn't as bad as he thought. She didn't stand up but he looked at her if it trying to comfort her. She looked at it. "Yours?" she said quietly, but he heard.

He smiled. "Yes." He mouthed it slowly so she could get tell.

"Why'd you do this?"

He put up two fingers, pointed to his eye then at his chest as to say "To See me?" It was a game of charades amongst all the problems. He had played it with her once and she had a horrible time but now was the time it would come in handy.

Renji, Ukitake and Toshiro were surprised. "That's not so stupid after all." Toshiro commented.

"Ingenious." Ukitake said.

Renji shrugged. "We could have thought of that."

Ichigo pointed at her then made the okay sign. "I'm not as bad as I'm acting. I'm still pretty injured and exhausted."

"Tell her the shield uses her energy, try to break it." Ukitake advised. Ichigo thought about it.

He pointed to the shield then at her. "I can't leave either." She responded. He shook his head. He pointed to his sword then him then the shield and then her.

She was still confused so Ichigo looked to them. Renji smiled, he looked at her. He made a ball of energy then pointed at himself. Then at the shield then her. Yours! He said slowly.

Ichigo was glad she understood the only other thing was to touch it and show her. She touched it and nodded. "I don't think I'm in control of it but it's connected to me somehow."

"Oh it is!" Kuboski said and came at her. She rolled out of the way.

"That was cute how you two were communicating. A bit loud on your part. I heard everything she said." He turned back to Rukia and tried to grab her and she struggled to her feet and ran. He was faster and knocked her into the shield.

She felt herself weaken as she touched it. "It pulls your reiryoku right out of you. So as they tried to help, they were hurting you more. I liked that idea."

Ichigo had never seen Rukia so calm. She wasn't going at it for anger, she was totally defense. She was playing the game smart, for her life. He would have gone at him full force but she knew better.

She turned to Ichigo. "Think of a plan." That second he kicked her so hard she bounced off of the shield and landed with a crack. Ichigo wanted to run after her but stood there, just watching.

"I don't like zanpakto and since you're without yours let's using something… more interesting…" Rukia's face held calm with small bits of concern. "How about kidos, or maybe just spiritual energy. Let's go."

Ichigo relaxed a bit, the guy hadn't had his powers long and Rukia's strength was kido. The guy launched a huge sphere at Rukia. She rolled away to run into another one. She stood up and jumped out of the way of the other.

She went offense dispelling kidos of here own at increasing speed and strength and then landed. He was hit a few times but it didn't seem to bother him. She landed and as the area cleared she collapsed to the ground, held down. He could see her struggling.

"Strong but sadly you're tired. Without sleep and constant combat you're weak." Rukia was still struggling but quickly became still. Then she screamed like he had never heard her.

Rukia was on the ground and inside of her she was searching for her bankai, if ever there was time, now was it. "Bankai!"

The entire sphere exploded into white. "Rukia!" Ichigo yelled.

The ground was snow and the area looked like a snow globe, it was as if it was winter. Except for the large pillars of ice that were stretching out of the ground. Rukia stood on a pillar of ice. Her hair blew in the wind and cold of the snow. Her outfit was replaced with a strapless white dress that seemed to fit, she had long white gloves that were tied on her middle finger. On her head was a crystal headband.

"It's amazing…" Renji said.

"Beautiful swords and zanpakto yield beautiful bankai and shikai." Ukitake stated.

"It's pretty good." Hitsuguya said noticing the ice element that they shared.

"She's beautiful." Ichigo said quietly to himself.

"Kokoro no mai." Rukia said and suddenly all the ice pillars shattered and turned into reiryoku-engulfed diamonds of ice. She looked at him and pointed her hand. It reminded Ichigo of Byakuya's bankai. The ice flew toward Kuboski and he was pelted with ice, it was cutting him into pieces.

Rukia stood there and crossed her arms. Suddenly Kuboski appeared above her and threw a sword at her. She blocked it with her arm. It hit the outfit and the knife was frozen on the spot and fell to the ground at her feet. "Mae." She directed the attack at him and he flew into the barrier. Rukia tensed but stayed focused.

He managed to hold off a blunt of the most dangerous attacks and Ichigo noticed that Rukia was weak. Launching her bankai at full force over and over again was weakening him but she would go down faster.

After she made about 10 attacks on him he was covered in cuts, some major ones to his arms and legs but he protected his head and heart so he was pretty well off while she fell to her knees and onto her side. All the snow melted and left was Rukia on the grassy field looking dirty and dingy, exhausted and near death.

Kuboski just laughed. "That was a waste of her energy. I sustained little damage and she can't fight back anymore." Then a large amount of blood came from his side. A large chunk of ice was in his side, the ice was slowly freezing him but it would take time… that she didn't have. "She's going to die before I do." He laughed.

Kuboski looked at Ichigo. Laughing and covering his side. "Less than a day on earth is like a week here. She's been fighting without sleep for about a week now. It wasn't a big show until this morning. Every day I increase the shield sucking her energy and more people try to attack and they all fall."

Ichigo was shocked, a week of her fighting and suffering. How could she be okay? Then Kuboski was hit in the back and fell into the shield.. Rukia was on her feet and pushed her hands, wobbling back and forth stabalized herself. Rukia then bound him with a kido and flung him up and hard into the ground.

"Yeah Rukia. Nice!" Ichigo yelled.

"You're still strong but not for long." He was bound but not to the ground so he rolled into the wall and Rukia was wincing as she grabbed him and threw him into the center of the area. "Didn't like that?" He said.

"Die!" Ichigo felt Kuboski's spiritual pressure increase heavily and Rukia was being pressed down by it but she stood strong. She threw Kido's but they were nothing.

Then suddenly Rukia stopped moving and thousands of knives and kido's seemed to attack her. She collapsed to the ground and if she had looked bad before she looked bad now. "Rukia!" Ichigo yelled.

"I know I said I didn't like zanpakto but knives are different." Rukia got up but he hit her again. She laid there pulling the knives out of her body and came to her knees.

"That's it. Bow." He smacked her head into the ground before she could get up. He kicked her and threw a large sphere of energy at her and he knew it was it.

"Ichigo, she's not going to make it much longer." Toshiro said. "Her spirit energy is low and she's hardly breathing."

"I must admit it but Ichigo… she's going to die if we don't do something." Ichigo looked at his zanpakto and thought… It might just work.

Kuboski disappeared again after hitting her one last time and laughing. "Rukia. Listen to me." Ichigo said, on the ground next to her. "I'm going to give you my energy. You gave me mine now you can take it back. I just hope this works." It has too, he thought. He channeled his energy into his zanpakto and aimed it to go into Rukia and it did.

She screamed but she was glowing in an Ichigo-like reiryoku. She was breathing hard and looked the same but he could sense she was strong. He was weak but she was strong.

Then she went after him with speed like he hadn't seen before and then she fought with Kuboski although at this level, with renewed power as opposed to his because he had not slept or rested and fought harder wasn't even a match. She used her basic shikai and he was down.

"What is this?" He said, falling unconscious, maybe dead. Then the unimaginable happened…. Rukia collapsed and lay on the ground.

Ichigo ran to the shield and she screamed and the shield began to enlarge pushing everything out of the way. Rukia was screaming as she was dying. Everything was chaos.

"What's going on?" Ichigo asked.

"I don't know." Renji responded.

"I think your energy is killing her." Toshiro said.

"It would seem so." Ukitake added.

"How could she give me hers but she can't take mine?"

"It might be too much for her to handle. You have immense spiritual energy Ichigo. It might be her death."

Ichigo threw things at the shield and she screamed. He looked at her on the ground curled up in a pain and every while she would scream further.

"I can't kill her. I can't." Ichigo said. "What can we do?"

"With Kuboski out of spiritual power the shield might break." Toshiro suggested.

"It will kill her."

"Or using some of that spiritual power will save her." Ichigo was willing to try anything.

They started blasting the shield, Ichigo stood there, without kido he couldn't touch the shield except by throwing things at it which most items would go through, some oddly enough would stop.

Ichigo would never forget the screaming she did while they attacked the shield. "Stop! Stop it!" He yelled at them. They all backed away. "It's not helping. She still has all the power. I think it's killing her energy, not mine."

"Then what is to do?" Renji asked.

"I do not know." Ukitake said.

"Look!" Toshiro said pointing at Rukia.

Through her screams reiatsu was destroying the area surrounding her. The shield began to expand and as if it was being stretched started to bend inward on some points.

"What's going on?" Renji asked.

Ichigo could only look at the screaming curled up Rukia. "He's coming."

"Who…?" Toshiro asked.

"My hollow form."