Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of its characters. All credit goes to Kubo for his characters and themes. The only things I own are the characters that I designed, and this story.

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Part 05

Rukia turned over in her futon and glanced at her Chappy wall clock that read the time in pink numbering. 4:30. 'It's still early' she thought to herself, letting out a sigh and sluggishly rolling over to her other side. A seated figure caught her eye before she could return to sleep. She groggily sat upright rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

Upon identifying that the person seated in her room was just Hanataro, she remembered the events of the night before. She leaned past the un-moving Hanataro and saw the mysterious girl, cleaned and bandaged up but still passed out.

"Hanataro" Rukia whispered. No response.

"Hey, Psst! Hanataro." She tried again more forcefully while poking him in the back.

He gave a jolt and turned to face Rukia.

"…Hey" she greeted.

"Hey…" he seemed to take a second before he actually registered what was going on and responding to her greeting.

She crawled up to sit next to him. "So, you stayed up all night?"

"Hmm…. Is it morning?"

"Well, kind of. If you consider 4:45 to be morning." Rukia shrugged, keeping her voice low as to not wake the sleeping guest.

"Sorry, I guess I fell asleep." Hanataro yawned out.

"It's fine. It seems you worked hard." Rukia reassured while looking at the various medical things that lay out. "By the way, did Nii-sama ever come back?"

Hanataro clumsily jumped to his feet, his face holding a look someplace between shock and horror. "I must have finished and fallen asleep before he returned! This is awful! I have to go report to him right away!"

Hanataro scampered to exit the room, but stopped after opening the door. There was a note labeled with his name on the floor right outside the room. He picked the neatly folded message and returned to his seat. When he unfolded it, a small envelope slid out and he set it aside while he read the message.

"Your pay is enclosed. Once you have awoken, come to my office to discuss the matters at hand. If you can't navigate your way, ask a maid or other employee for direction.

-Kuchiki Byakuya"

Hanataro let out a breath of relief at knowing he didn't seem to be in any trouble. "Kuchiki-taicho can sure be a nice guy. Thank goodness."

"He can be nice when he wants to be, I suppose." Rukia acknowledged.

"Well it must be nice to have someone as respected as him as your brother. You probably never have to worry about being bullied or picked on. I have an older brother, but nobody ever talks about him. Maybe he wasn't liked when he worked for the Gotei, and that's why I get bullied so often." Hanataro wondered out loud.

"Me? Never being bullied? Did you forget about Renji? That brute has picked on me for as long as I can remember." She replied with a grunt.

Hanataro smiled at her words. "Well at least Abarai-fukutaicho teases you out of affection."

"I- I never thought of it that way…" she said feeling her face heat up ever so slightly. Rukia, starting to feel uncomfortable with the subject quickly drew attention in a different direction.

"So, how's she doing?" she gestured to the sleeping girl.

"She's going to be fine. Her wounds weren't as bad as they looked. I only had to stitch up a few deep cuts, but I was able to just bandage the rest up. She was also suffering from dehydration and mblood loss, but I think she will recover rather quickly."

"I see." Rukia rolled around a syringe that was on the floor. There was a protective cap over the needle, and the main tube was printed with a blue cross and read "medical spirit energy". There were a few more with different colors lying nearby. "Hey, Hanataro, did you use all of these?"

Hanataro nodded. "She seems to have Shinigami abilities, however her reiatsu seems to be abnormally low. I tried injections of several different strengths of medical reiatsu, but in the end her levels always balanced back out to where they are now. I guess it could be that she just has naturally low spiritual energy." After a pause of hesitation Hanataro added, "Rukia-san, there's one other thing that I noticed. Her wounds don't seem to be from-"

"ACHOO!" Rukia's sudden sneeze cut Hanataro off. They both heard a gasp and turned towards the girl.

She was awake. Her eyes were wide and she snapped upright in the futon. She seemed to be in a panicked state as she looked around the room.

There was a tense silence before Hanataro attempted to greet the girl, hoping it would calm her nerves. "Uhh…. Good morni-"

The girl suddenly jumped to her feet and ran towards Hanataro, picking up a scalpel from his supplies on her way. Hanataro's eyes went wide and he backed himself away from her.

"W- Wait! Hold on! Hold on! You need to calm down. Aghhh!" He cried out as his back bumped the wall behind him making any further retreat impossible. The girl advanced with great speed and held the scalpel up to his throat.

"What did you do with my Zanpakuto?" The girl hissed. "You, girl!" she snapped at Rukia who was stunned with shock. The strange girl emitted a slight purple aura of reiatsu as she held the scalpel so it was pressed dangerously to Hanataro's skin. "Bring me my Zanpakuto and let me leave, or I'll kill him."

Rukia knew nothing of the girls Zanpakuto, but she knew that her own, Sode No Shiraiyuki, was in the closet on the other side of the room. Calculating the situation frantically in her mind, Rukia knew that if she could get to her sword, she would have the advantage over the girl. Disarming her of the scalpel with a sword would be the best course of action she decided.

Rukia ran to the closet where her sword was stored, but on the way her foot tangled in the strap of Hanataro's medical bag and she fell to the floor with a thud. The girl snarled when Rukia fell, knowing the sound was loud enough to draw the attention of anybody nearby. Rukia saw the girl flash a cold glare in her direction, and for a second she feared for Hanataro's life, but then a sound caught her attention. There was no doubt about it. With her ear pressed to the tatami floor, Rukia could hear the clear sound of approaching footsteps. Remarkably, the other girl also heard them and lowered the scalpel. Suddenly she was running around the room, searching for another exit and in a split second she was prying open a window. Despite it being high off the ground, she still seemed determined to jump and make an escape.

"Is this what you're looking for?"

The girl stopped before jumping and turned toward the sound of the familiar voice. Her eyes were full of rage and she bared her teeth. There, standing in the doorway was none other than the man who had knocked her out earlier. His face was emotionless and unreadable, and in his hand he held a sword. Immediately, the girl recognized her Zanpakuto and against her better judgment, she charged at him. She knew that he was strong and could easily defeat her as she was without a weapon, but she hoped she would be able to use her speed to somehow take back what was hers. There was no room for doubt. She needed her Zanpakuto.

The girl threw many attacks at the taller man, but he was able to block them all using a single arm and her own sheathed sword. She felt like she was being taunted when he used her own weapon against her and she yelled with each attack as he seemed to not be giving any effort at all to evade her. He was underestimating her, and her attacks grew less controlled as her irritation grew. Deciding she needed a new tactic, the girl aimed a kick at Byakuya's left side, and just before it made contact with his blocking arm she pulled it away and swiveled around to land a firm punch in his right shoulder. The force of the blow caused Byakuya to take a few steps back and he gave a look of aggravation at the fact that she got a hit on him.

Deciding that it was about time to end the girls struggle, Byakuya held his hand out, palm towards her face, successfully stopping her mid attack. "You will stop this at once, or I will stop you myself."

Once again acting with violence, the girl growled at the hand he held just inches from her face and snapped, attempting to bite it. Byakuya was able to retract his hand instinctively before it received any damage and considered his next move. After he made up his mind he stared intently at the enraged girl and said one word.

"Hakufuku."

Before she knew what was happening, the effects of the Kido spell began to make her dizzy. She stumbled around trying to stable herself but her knees gave out and she collapsed to the floor as the full effects of the Bakudo caused her to black out.