I don't know where this little blurb came from. I just decided it kind of fit as a precursor to the chapter coming up. It's kind of just filler too I guess... biding time until I finish the next chapter. Oh, and just incase you hadn't figured it out yet, anything that's in quotes and italics is Senbonzakura speaking. If it gets confusing, let me know.


A Brief Jump Forward

The Sakura petals that covered his desk quickly dissolved as the soft tap of someone knocking on his office door brought him out of his reverie. He collected himself quickly, replacing his stoic mask abruptly back onto his face and squinted his eyes shut for a brief moment to dispel all of his mesmerizing thoughts. A deep breath and it was all gone.

"Come in." he stated, sitting up.

Byakuya glanced quickly towards the door, gazing towards where the head of a normal person's height would be. Upon not finding a taller being standing there, his gaze shifted down to find a rather short, dark haired, violet eyed sister standing there instead. He breathed deeply again, averting his cold stare back down towards his paperwork.

She was weighing heavy on his mind today, and therefore he could not look at her. The quickest glance in her direction made his heart skip beats that made him uncomfortable. Even though he knew Rukia wasn't her, it still hurt to look her direction and not believe that she was haunting him. And it nearly ruined him that she had asked him to look after her sister with care and brotherly devotion. But how could he do that and not be reminded? Rukia was not Hisana, but it broke his heart to see the form of his wife manifested before him, and not have the same soul beneath.

Another sharp frustrated sigh parted his throat. He could sense Rukia cower slightly, acting almost ashamed for having presented herself before him.

"Nii-sama?" she asked meekly.

"Yes." He replied.

"It has been required of me to take a month long mission to the real world, on routine hollow dispatching. My orders are to be carried out immediately, but I thought…" she trailed off a little, wavering in her words.

He shuffled a few papers on his desk, showing his impatience. She hurried up her statement, fidgeting a little.

"Rather, Ukitake-taichou requested I tell you, for details' sake."

Byakuya did not reply for a moment, rather thinking to himself that he would be having another word with the Thirteenth Division Captain. Rukia was not supposed to leave Ukitake's sight again after… that incident with the hollow and his vice-captain. He and the older captain had made an agreement a long time ago that Rukia would be placed out of harm's way. But of course this was foolish thinking; one does not join the Gotei Thirteen and not fight. It was this reason that made it even harder for him to carry out her promise.



Realizing that he would be getting nowhere with this kind of rationality, he made a small nod of approval and the quickest of glances towards his sister. She bowed deeply, turned and made her way back towards the door, when he took her by surprise.

"The real world is not for fun and games, do not be careless." His graceful baritone immediately stopped her in her tracks.

She turned again, a little stunned, but bowed again and stepped out of the office pulling the door with her.

"I believe the saying goes: if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. In your case, we're going to need a lot more tries."

…He thought his advice was just fine.


A tiny bit of humor for you there. Senbonzakura tends to try and get Byakuya out of his deep depressions and other little tangents that he starts to run off with, so she's kind of like his happy medium. She's always the on who's right too... and as we saw in another chapter, Byakuya gets a little pissy at that. Hehe, well I find it funny. Review! Or don't, cause this chapter was short.