Rukia, age 128.

The Quincy population has been carefully monitored over the years to make sure that their numbers remain low. Although some Quincy do continue to exterminate hollows rather than waiting for a shinigami to purify them, these Quincy do so sparingly and keep a low profile in order to avoid being sent on to the Spirit World, whichis the punishment for hollow extermination.

"Carefully monitored," Rukia muttered as she flipped through the pages of the slim book on the Quincy-Shinigami War. "Are you going to tell me which division does the monitoring? No? Fuck you." She closed the book and stood up to go get the volume on division responsibilities from across the library when she ran into someone. Rukia stumbled back a step while the person in front of her remained unmoved. "I know that stupidly broad chest." Rukia looked up at her friend's face. "Hey Renji."

"Hey yourself. I've been looking for you all day."

"What, using the Yachiru-chan method of getting places? I've been here all day."

"I wasn't exactly expecting to find you in the library," Renji admitted with a smile. He was wearing the yukata that he usually wore to sleep, likely because it was his day off and Rukia made it her mission in life to destroy all of his casual clothes. The things he bought were hideous. The fact that even actually wore his sleepwear in public spoke volumes about his fashion sense, in Rukia's opinion.

Renji's neckline went deep, mostly due to his inability to properly tie the yukata, allowing Rukia to see a padded bandage across his chest. Rukia poked it just to be annoying. "New tattoo, huh? Don't tell me you searched high and low for me just to show it off."

"Nah, I wanted to tell you something. But first off, what the hell are you doing here?"

'Here' was the only semi-public library in Seireitei. It was only called semi-public because only shinigami and the nobility could use it, but then again, those were also the only people allowed in Seireitei, so the point was moot. The (Semi-Public) Grand Library hosted many books, mostly things that Rukia considered useless - nobility lineages, political histories and editorials, and records of the Central 46 meetings - but there were also some useful bits like hollow listings, old copies of the Monthly Seireitei Bulletin that the Ninth Division produced, and the giant tome that Rukia needed to find that described the countless responsibilities shinigami were given and which division handled what.

"Ken-sama told me to find him a decent enemy to fight," Rukia explained. "Which is fucking hard, as you know. He said if I don't find him someone good by sunset he's gonna break into Hueco Mundo and find a Vasto Lorde to beat down."

Renji sighed and scratched his forehead. "Of course he will."

Rukia crossed her arms across her chest and smirked. "He also said that if I saw you, I should tell you to come back for a spar so he can make sure being in the Sixth again hasn't made you into a wuss."

"I've only been back there for a month!" Renji complained.

"Yeah? And do you train as much there as you did in the Eleventh?"

"Anyway," Renji said loudly, only making Rukia's smirk grow wider, "I came to let you know one of my subordinates has been talking shit about you."

"Seriously? What the fuck does some little Sixth Division bastard care about me?"

Renji shrugged and absently reached up to pull his yukata back into place when it slid off one shoulder. "Jealousy? I overheard her going on about how you were trying to get another division curled around your little finger, what with me transferring and how Byakuya tries to spoil you whenever you let him."

"'Another' division?" Rukia asked incredulously. "Man, I guess I'm buddies with Yumi and Ikkaku, but Ken-sama pretty much treats me like everyone else and playing with Yachiru-chan's practically babysitting."

"Kenpachi-sama trusts you with the paperwork," Renji pointed out.

Rukia eyed him and responded flatly, "Yeah, I'm honored."

"Right, so, Sixth Seat Senjou was talking crap and your other brother and me ended up overhearing. He was gonna give her a talking to, but I managed to talk him into letting you have first shot. Said it was a personal attack against a member of a different division and you should be allowed to handle it."

"Nice!" Rukia punched Renji in the chest, right over his bandage, and was mildly disappointed that he didn't even flinch. "Ken-sama can pick fights with hollows all he wants, I've got a seated officer to beat down. What's Senjou look like?"

"Your size, hair my color, boobs about half the size of Rangiku's."

Renji didn't continue. Rukia arched an eyebrow and said, "That's your idea of a description?"

"Don't give me that look, that's the same one Captain Kuchiki gives me. It's fucking eerie."

"This is a chick we're talking about, right? Not some huge guy with man-boobs?"

"Ugh."

Rukia smiled at Renji's disgusted expression and she asked cheerfully, "Now you're imagining a dude Senjou with man-boobs, aren't you?"

"I hate you."

"Come on, Firehead. If we don't hurry, she might piss off someone else and die and then I'll never get to fight her."

"It'd be a fucking tragedy," Renji muttered, hand covering part of his face as he followed Rukia out of the library.

Thanks to the fact that Yachiru's sense of direction wasn't actually contagious, Rukia arrived at the Sixth Division in no time at all. She was dismayed to note that Renji's clothing choice got no reaction at all from the people who greeted him. "I mentioned on the way here that you can't pick clothes for shit, right?"

"Twice."

"Awesome. That her?" Rukia asked, pointing at a female redhead a little taller than her.

Renji peered in that direction. "Of course not, she's not much bigger than you." Rukia stomped on his foot. "Ow, what the hell! You're both short!"

Rukia replied icily, "That wasn't the 'bigger' you were talking about, and we both know it."

They walked through the Sixth Division's hallways a little longer until Renji stopped and gestured at a door at the end of the hallway. "That's her office, she ought to be in there this time of day. I'll head out so it doesn't look like you brought the Third Seat to threaten her with."

"I will beat you with the third seat if you don't shut up about your promotion," Rukia promised.

"I got in my bragging for the day," Renji said easily, "I'm good. Try not to wreck the building or I'll make you do the budget report." He left with a wave of his hand.

Rukia walked down to the door and knocked on it. A sweet voice answered, "Just one moment, please." The door opened to reveal a woman who was exactly Rukia's height, with hair that was precisely Renji's color and breasts that were, if Rukia was forced to make an educated guess, precisely half the size of Matsumoto Rangiku's massive knockers. Renji's reports after missions had always been lacking but were never inaccurate. Senjou was otherwise average looking.

"Tenth Seat Abarai of the Eleventh," said Senjou. Her tone of voice was decidedly duller than it had been a moment ago. "Can I... help you?"

"Heard you were talking shit about me," Rukia said cheerfully. "I wanted to give you a chance to let it all out." When Senjou remained silent, Rukia waved a 'come here' gesture. "Go ahead, I won't interrupt."

After another moment of silence, Senjou spat, "Fine. You want to know what I think of you? I think you're a manipulative bitch who only gets anywhere by 'acting like one of the boys' instead of actually being a proper woman. I don't even want to think about what you must have done to rise so far in rank in an almost entirely male division. And then as if that's not good enough, you have my captain wrapped around your little finger, and then send your brother, another disgusting specimen from the Eleventh, over here to take a seat that should have gone to someone who's actually from the Sixth. You deserve to be sent back to Rukongai where you really belong."

"So basically..." Rukia drawled, "I act like a man, but also a whore, you think the fact that your family's lesser nobility makes you better than me, and you're bitter that you got passed up for promotion."

"What? I sad no such-"

"And you're in love with Byakuya-nii-chan," Rukia added thoughtfully. "I personally don't see the appeal, but that's probably a good thing considering I think of him as a brother."

Senjou's face turned a light shade of purple, which Renji probably would have thought to mention if he had ever seen it. "You bitch," she seethed. "I should kill you where you stand!"

"That's the spirit!" Rukia hopped back a few steps and drew her sword, which was currently humming with approval for the way Rukia had verbally cut the other woman down.

"What," Senjou sputtered, "what are you-?"

"That was a challenge if I ever heard one. Come on, draw your zanpakutou!"

"She's right," a man in uniform said from down the hall, behind Rukia. Rukia glanced around and saw that the tongue-lashing had actually drawn a small crowd. "What you said constitutes a challenge to a duel."

Senjou paled. "Lieutenant Shirogane..."

"I'd prefer it if you fought outside, Abarai-san, Senjou-san."

"Eh, I guess." Rukia sheathed Sode no Shirayuki and nodded at Senjou. "Lead the way, princess."

Senjou's face turned from purple to red. "Fine! I'm four seats higher than you; if you want to die, you have a right to choose me as the method."

"I promise not to haunt you in the unlikely event that I die from tripping over my own feet and onto your sword."

Senjou emitted a wordless sound of rage and stomped off down the hallway. Rukia followed along behind her at an easy pace with Shirogane walking alongside her.

In the Sixth Division's training grounds, Rukia spotted Ikkaku, Yumichika, and Renji walking closer and waved to them with a big smile. Senjou looked over at them and sniffed loudly.

"Yo, Rukia!" Ikkaku shouted until he drew near enough to speak normally. "Renji grabbed us to come watch you."

"No good fights going on back at our place?" Rukia asked.

Yumichika shook his head with a smile as Ikkaku took a long swig of sake from the jug he always carried around. "No. The captain tried to find someone to fight with after you left, so most of them are in the Fourth Division's tender care."

"Yeah? You guys look all right."

"Told him we hadn't really improved since we fought him last week," Ikkaku said.

"They wussed out," Renji translated.

Yumichika stifled a chuckle as Ikkaku huffed, "Man, I just got away from Unohana two days ago. I'm not fucking going back there."

"Are we fighting, or gossiping?" Senjou called nastily from across the dirt circle.

"Excuse me, I gotta teach a bitch a lesson," Rukia told her friends. A dozen or so people gathered about twenty feet away from where they stood - the people from the hallway, who wanted to watch the match.

She jogged over to the opposite edge of circle from Senjou. Shirogane stood off to the side and called out loud enough for everyone to hear, "I will act as referee for this match. The match today is between Sixth Seat Senjou Hitomi of the Sixth Division and Tenth Seat Abarai Rukia of the Eleventh Division, to settle their differences. Rules are as follows: zanpakutou must remain in their sealed forms. Kidou may be used. The loser of this match will keep their grievances to themselves."

"We like to say, 'Put up or shut up!'" Ikkaku hollered.

Shirogane sighed. "Thank you, Third Seat Madarame."

"Hey, no problem!"

"If anyone else would like to interject? No? Well then..." Shirogane raised his arm into the air, held it there for a few seconds, and abruptly slashed downward. "Begin!"

Rukia rushed forward as soon as she had the go-ahead, eager to get into the fight. She drew her sword as she rushed forward and ducked down, as if she was going to slash low. Senjou prepared to guard from the front to avoid the attack, but at the last second, Rukia used shunpo to move flash-quick to Senjou's upper right. Most of the people Rukia was used to fighting had plenty of energy to expend and would have jumped up to avoid the apparent low blow, and therefore wound up right in the middle of Rukia attack; because Senjou chose to only block, she was able to jerk back and only received a shallow cut to the shoulder instead of the deeper slice Rukia had been aiming for.

Rukia continued to use shunpo, darting around Senjou's body and slicing out every time. Senjou barely moved her feet, only stepping when she absolutely had to in order to avoid a blow, but she was still able to block, parry, or completely nearly all of avoid Rukia's attacks. The contemptuous look was gone from the redhead's dark eyes, replaced by a steady, concentrated stare of intent. "Got you," Senjou said suddenly, and moved her sword; Rukia darted behind Senjou to try to get in another strike and had to leap back to avoid getting stabbed in the gut. As it was, Rukia still felt the point of the sword pierce her skin before she could get away.

Rukia took half a moment to breathe before chanelling spirit energy to her feet again and twisting around Senjou to attack from the front. As she moved forward, Senjou's sword twisted around and sliced upward, in front. Rukia stopped at Senjou's side and ended up sliding forward in the sand from the abrupt stop. If she'd completed the move she'd intended to make, Senjou might have sliced off her head.

She recovered her balance and watched Senjou for a few seconds, frowning. Senjou merely waited, her sword at the ready, her face calm.

The frown broke into a smile. "You figured out my pattern of movements," Rukia accused cheerfully.

"Yes," said Senjou, still placid, like the waters of a still pond. "You should forfeit before you get hurt."

"Nah, I'll just step it up. Hadou 31!" Senjou, who had probably assumed that she was safe staying where she was because Rukia only had her sealed sword and the Eleventh Division was rumored to hate kidou, suddenly looked concerned and readied herself to dodge. Rukia's palm faced outward, a ball of red light forming in its center as she aimed it towards Senjou. "Red Fire Cannon!" At the last second, Rukia's hand moved, hopefully toward wherever Senjou decided to dodge to.

It was a lucky shot - Senjou took the blast full in the chest. Rukia rushed forward to get in a strike while her opponent was hurt and disoriented, choosing to jump up at the last second and slice down at Senjou's torso. The redheaded woman got her sword up just in time, but the block was weak and obviously jarred Senjou's arm. Rukia snapped her leg down to kick against Senjou's shoulder, then pushed back up with her leg to flip backwards.

In the middle of her flip, seen too late to move out of the way, Senjou's sword thrust forward, shaky but quick, and sliced a vertical line up Rukia's torso as she fell. All Senjou had to do was keep her sword in place and relatively still, and gravity pulled Rukia down across it.

At the first touch of ground, Rukia pulled her body backwards. She'd only meant to jump, but the first bit of exertion caused pain to flare up along her abdomen and chest, sending her falling and tumbling back.

"This fight is done," Senjou said through gritted teeth. Her left shoulder, the one Rukia had kicked, appeared flattened. Senjou's arm hung limply from the injured shoulder and her breaths was short and forced.

Rukia's chest felt wet. When she looked down, she saw blood soaking the front of her clothing. The cut was wet and Rukia couldn't actually see how deep it went, but it felt bad. Her vision was already starting to blur. "No," she called out, as loud as she could.

Shirogane said something from his spot on the side, but Rukia didn't really care. She began muttering to herself, vaguely recognizing Ikkaku's voice now entwined in conversation with Shirogane's.

"You're beaten," Senjou told Rukia. "Give up." Rukia continued muttering.

Senjou huffed and started to slowly walk off.

That's not acceptable. The fight's not over. The fight's not over!

Give her fair warning, Rukia's sword suggested. Rukia nodded, her vision blurring so much that she only recognized Senjou as a spot of red hair above her black uniform. Senjou's form stretched, too high, and spots formed as Rukia yelled, "Hadou 88! Flying Dragon-Striking Heaven-Shaking," Shit, evenafterthatfuckingincantation, thespell'snameistoolong! "Thunder Cannon!"

The black spots overtook Rukia's vision and she collapsed.

When she awoke, it was to her usual bed in the Fourth Division. Rukia made some pitiful noises that she would have denied if ever asked about and sat up. "Hana-kun?"

No one answered. Rukia took a few slow, deep breaths before yelling, "HANA-KUN!"

A young shinigami with fairly good looks and a harried demeanor rushed in as Rukia started whining, "Ow, ow, that hurt..."

"Rukia-san, you should be careful," Hanatarou said fretfully. "Lay down."

Rukia obeyed and Hanatarou's hands moved deftly over the bandages covering her entire torso, checking to make sure they were tight enough without being too tight. "Enjoy it," Rukia muttered, wincing once when his hands brushed over her injury. "It's as close to a woman's chest as you'll ever get until you toughen up."

Most of Rukia's friends would have made a comment about how her flat chest didn't count at all, but Hanatarou only gave her a despondent sigh. "I wish you wouldn't bully me like that."

"Has anyone else been bullying you?" she demanded.

"No, just you."

"Then it's an improvement, isn't it?" Even though Yamada Hanatarou was a Seventh Seat, it was he was in the Fourth Division, which was known for healers rather than fighters, and he had a weak personality that made people want to take advantage of him. Rukia had appropriated him as her personal healer several years ago by insisting that he was the only one to take care of her and beating the shit out of anyone she heard disparaging him, even if she was bleeding all over the Fourth Division's floor from prior injuries when it happened. As far as Rukia was concerned, she had a little leeway when it came to how she treated Hanatarou.

Besides, she wasn't really bullying him. She just teased him a little. It wasn't her fault he couldn't manage to tease her back.

Hanatarou's only response was another sigh. "Even after the initial and in-depth healings, you needed sixty stitches."

"Nice!" said Rukia, impressed.

"Is it? Well, if you manage not to strain yourself, and if you heal yourself in your spare time like you usually do, I can probably remove them in a week. You'll just reopen the wound if you fight like this, so please don't."

"Sure."

Hanatarou looked at her in a way that implied he wouldn't believe her if she said the sky was blue and the grass was green. "Right. The rest of your cuts were minor and fixed during the initial healing, and the organ damage was fixed during the in-depth healing. Senjou Hitomi-san," he continued, aware that everyone in the Eleventh Division wanted to know how badly they'd hurt their opponent, "was treated for a broken shoulder bone and several minor cuts. She'll be in a sling to keep her arm and shoulder immobile for a while. Abarai Renji-san was treated for minor electrical burns and fully healed."

"Renji? What the hell happened to him?"

"You electrocuted him," Senjou said flatly. She had entered the doorway when Rukia wasn't looking. True to what Hantarou had said, Senjou was wearing a shoulder sling.

"I have to get to my next patient. I'll be back in a bit with your dismissal papers."

"Yeah, see you Hana-kun," Rukia said absently as she thought back. She remembered sending the spell at Senjou, of course... but she could only see blurs of color at that point, and... Renji's hair was the exact same shade as Senjou's. "Huh. Shit. Couldn't have been too bad, though, if he's already fixed."

"It's amazing you even got the spell to work with how much blood you had lost," Senjou said. "It was pretty weak. And what's with that spell, anyway? I thought no one in the Eleventh Division used kidou at all, let alone the number 88 destruction spell!"

"Ken-sama says kidou are stupid and slow, but if I can make it work then I should," Rukia said matter-of-factly. "So I do, when I have a spare second to jabber during the fight instead of cutting people."

"Ken-sama? Your captain lets you get away with calling him that?" Senjou seemed to be getting a little riled up.

"Why shouldn't I? 'Kenpachi' means he's the strongest, and Yachiru-chan calls him 'Ken-chan', but she's closer to him than I am."

"And you call your lieutenant by her first name too! What the hell is wrong with you!"

Rukia blinked and said slowly, "If you want to fight, it'll have to wait a few days until my stitches come out, or Hana-kun will whine and give me his bitch face."

"I do not have a bitch face," Hanatarou whined as he passed by in the hallway outside her room.

"It's the face you're making right now," Rukia informed him loudly, and winced at the strain it put on her chest.

Senjou's expression, when Rukia looked at it, was exasperated. "I don't get you. But I'll admit... that you're not weak. Good job today."

Rukia smiled at her. "Hey, you too. The way you had your sword there before I could get out of the way was great! Maybe if we fight some more, I can figure out how you do it."

"It's just intuition." Senjou folded her arms across her chest. "Once I get a handle on how my opponent fights, I can predict their movements. It took a little while with you because your shunpo's so good, I couldn't always see how you moved."

Renji poked his head into the room. "Hey, am I interrupting your bonding time?"

"We- we're not-!" Senjou stuttered while Rukia said cheerfully, "Yeah, but come in anyway."

"If there's one thing my time in the Eleventh taught me, it's that a good fight brings two people closer together."

"And that Ken-sama is god," Rukia added.

"Nah, I knew that already."

"Third Seat!" Senjou exclaimed, appalled. "How can you say something like that about someone else's captain? Captain Kuchiki is far superior."

"Fuck that!" Rukia yelled, ignoring her the pain across her torso. "Ken-sama could totally take him!"

"You'd say that about your own brother?"

"The truth is the truth! Ken-sama could beat nii-chan any day of the week!"

"Ladies," Renji said calmly, his hands raised in a peacekeeping gesture. "The solution is obvious."

"Yeah?" Senjou and Rukia asked rudely.

Renji grinned. "We have to find a reason for them to have a match."

"Fuck yeah!" Rukia exclaimed.

Senjou seemed excited for a few seconds until she abruptly remembered herself. "You two are insane," she groaned. "I'm leaving before I catch it."

"See you, Senjou-chan! Let's fight again next week!"

"You're so weird," Senjou complained. "Look, you can call me Hitomi. I have to go figure out how the hell I'm going to work with a busted shoulder."

After she left, Renji turned to Rukia slowly, staring at her before thrusting his hands down and into her hair, delivering a noogie. "This is for electrocuting me!"

"It was an accident!" Rukia yelped, torn between pain, annoyance, and laughter. "You waited until your minion was gone, that's so cheap! Hadou 31-"

"In the hospital!" Renji yelped, jumping back.

"Red Fire Cannon!"

Author's Notes: THIS TOOK SO LONG TO GET OUT. I would have finish it sooner but I took a while to actually write the fight scene. I'm not very confident in my ability to write them, so I kept putting it off until I realized most of a month had passed by since my last update, and then I felt bad.

I know I said Ishida would show up soon, but I decided to make sure Rukia was familiar with the Quincy first. That... somehow led into the rest of this chapter. This very long chapter. The longest chapter I have written thus far. Guh.

As always, thank you to everyone reading this, and I'm especially grateful to those who favorite this story and review. Every one of you makes me extremely happy.