Next chapter, yay! I couldn't think of a title ;_;

We get a flashback at one point and it involves Rukia from when she first became an arrancar (all those chapters ago :D). It takes place after the events of chapter 13.

Chapter 37

Rukia slowly opened her eyes. Her hollow form had gone and she was just left lying on the floor. Near the end of what was happening in her inner world, Kenpachi lost interest while fighting her as she was getting considerably weaker as time progressed.

"Good to see that you recovered" Ichigo said. "You alright now?" Rukia nodded.

"I'll be fine" she responded. "I... remembered something that I did from when I was an arrancar" she said. "I don't know how. It just came to me a little while ago."

"Anything helpful?" Ichigo asked.

"It helped Aizen" she said quietly. "It's the reason why he's in Karakura town right now with no one standing against him." Everyone looked shocked to learn this. More importantly, how could she be so sure of it if she wasn't in her body at the time when she was an arrancar?

Flashback

"Damn it" (Hollow) Rukia said to herself. "Why didn't I kill him when I had the chance and why did I leave like that?" She was very angry with herself as she knew that after facing Ichigo just now, she went easy on him. "He left her (the real Rukia) here to die so why couldn't I do it and just finish him off right there? Does she have some sort of influence over me? Or does she not have any real hostility to him?" She knew that her previous self did have feelings for him and that she wouldn't want to kill him even after the events that caused this to happen. "How am I even being influenced by her? She's gone from this body and she won't be coming back. I even told her to get rid of everything that made her who she was. If that's the case, she probably didn't get rid of absolutely everything. She was a pathetic fool of a shinigami anyway."

She walked down several corridors and hallways as she had been called to see Aizen for some reason.

"Ah, Rukia, you came here just as I asked" Aizen greeted her. "How did your recent fight go?"

"I couldn't kill him, Aizen-sama" she said as she knelt down on the floor. "I just couldn't do it. I think that she might have had something to do with it."

"I see" Aizen said. "Well, no matter. It's just a question of when he is finally killed. We are in no rush to do so anyway."

"Aizen-sama, may I ask why you called me here?" Rukia asked.

"Ah yes, I would like you to perform a task for me" he began."You see, I plan on starting this whole Winter War earlier than everyone in the Soul Society thinks. In order to stop them from preventing me from collecting the souls from Karakura town, I will need you to carve this seal onto the main Senkaimon to the real world." He handed her a piece of paper with a peculiar marking drawn on it. "This will prevent the Senkaimon from opening so they cannot stop me. Since they are under the impression that I could attack them at any time, the Senkaimon is always closed which makes it that much easier to perform this task."

"How do I get there?" Rukia asked. "I don't have her sword so I can't get to it."

"I can provide a passage to it for you" Aizen said. "My zanpakutou still allows me to use a senkaimon. You don't have a strict time limit as such" he explained. "The Koutotsu will not come for another few days however I wouldn't waste time as it is possible that you may be detected after a short time."

Rukia studied the seal on the paper so that she could remember it and not take more time than she needed. "I understand. I'll complete it as soon as possible."

End Flashback

"That seal is still there" Rukia said. "I must have started just after the Soul Society sent help for you all here. I don't know anything else about it though so I don't know how to get rid of it. And now, because of me, Aizen will succeed."

"Don't worry" Renji said. "We're going to stop him before he can finish. We're going to go there as soon as possible."

"By the way, Rukia" Ichigo began. "How come you're you even though your mask is on?" Everyone stared at him in confusion as his question didn't make a lot of sense. "Well, uh, you said earlier that you're the one in control if you don't have the mask on and your hollow's in control when it is on." Rukia brought her hand up to her face. She didn't know her mask was on until now which confused her. She moved her hand over it and then downwards. After that, she stared at her hand.

"I can't take it off" she said quietly. She kept trying to but she just couldn't take it off. "What do you mean you can't take it off?" she suddenly asked. Everyone looked at her like she had gone insane or something. "I-I didn't say that" she stuttered. "Of course you didn't. That was me, you fool" she once again said to herself. She seemed to be having some sort of conversation with herself.

"Wait, Rukia, that's your hollow isn't it?" Ichigo asked her.

"Who else would it be?" she snapped. "Wait a minute, how can he be talking to me when I'm in here?" she asked. "Does this mean... we're both in control?"

Well that was slightly confusing.

And yes I am painfully aware that only four people had dialogue in this chapter. I just thought that most of the others' input wasn't really necessary.

Also, I know I said this some time ago but this is more accurate, the story is reaching its climax. I think that it'll probably be over by about chapter 40 or so (one or two above that possibly.)

'til next time