Rukia was tired of running. Her slim legs burned with exhaustion, her chest heaved, and she wasn't sure if her Gigai would even continue to work with this exertion. She flashed around the corner, her shoes –which were decidedly not built for running- slapping off the sidewalk concrete before she dove into the narrow alley. She tucked herself behind a large garbage can, trying not to breath for the smell but needing to gasp anyway. Drops of sweat dripped down the sides of her heart-shaped face, black hair dropping in between her eyes, squeezed shut in pain as another cramp raced up her leg.

She shrunk behind the large metal can as the sounds of the black vehicle screeching down the street reached her ears. She clutched a small black device to her chest, praying that 11th Company's tech worked like they said it would. It hadn't all too often. The menacing large vehicle rushed past, not slowing. She breathed a deep breath of relief and looked down at the small cell-phone like device. Apparently it had worked. They hadn't sensed her spiritual pressure.
As much as she hated running from enemies she could easily defeat, it felt good to be in the field again. She had been out of action for far too long. All because of…

No. She would not think of him.

The Death Dealers did not know what they were chasing, or they would have actually sent warriors. The SDR –Spiritual Defensive Regiment, the more physical branch of the Death Dealers- were powerful in their own right, but they were meant to fight Hollows and the occasional rogue Arrancar. Not Shinigami. Especially not an Assistant Captain of the Court Guard Companies. A small smile tugged at her lips. They were better off not finding her.
No. Her orders had been specific on that one point where they had been vague in all others. Stay hidden. Do not let the Death Dealers catch you.
She remembered Ukitake smiling in that way that he did. Sinking against the wall, trying to relax for a bare second, Rukia's repressed emotion finally made itself known. She missed him. She missed all of them.

Captain Ukitake had personally given her this mission. It was highly secretive and important, but she knew the real reason why he had sent her, instead of somebody else. To distract her from thoughts of the not too-distant past.

She waited for seconds longer, her breathing slowing. She listened closely, but nothing reached her ears, so she stood shakily, leaning against the wall. She began to walk slowly to the other side of the alley, away from the street where she had entered. In the distance, she could hear the sound of a helicopter thudding in the night air. Was it military or medical? She shook her head as she walked. How would she know? She knew a little about the physical world, but almost nothing about the nation of Ardiah.

Across the East Sea from Karakura's country, they were one of the few nations on the planet to have a spiritual population to rival the Soul Society. They even had the Death Dealers, an organization similar to the Court Guard Companies, only with a less noble purpose. Apparently the high concentration had been caused by a massive spiritual battle that had destroyed the continent centuries before, and Ukitake had mentioned something about Spiritual fallout? Rukia shook her head. That wasn't the kind of thing that she knew about.

She checked her bag once again. There, among her scanty supply of food and equipment, were the two Asuachi that Ukitake had given her. The two blank white lengths of metal gleamed in the dim light, mysteries hidden. Asuachi were not generally forged in such a way, and all she knew of them was that these had been given her by Captain Ukitake. For what purpose, she knew not. Only that she would know what to do when the time came. Like that helped any.

She ducked around the corner, her legs beating a determined stride down the opposite street. Her shoes made little sound on the cracked sidewalk, and her eyes darting furtively. How in the name of the Soul King was she going to know what to do? She had been wandering Ardiah for little more than a month, and already the Death Dealers had sensed her presence. How she was supposed to find two people in this nation of several hundred million baffled her.
Frustrated, she did not notice the absence of sound, until the soft taps of her shoes seemed to echo in the empty light. She looked around, not daring to stop, trying to figure out what had changed. The thumping of the helicopter had disappeared. It had not faded into the distance, it was simply… gone.

A flashing beam of light sent pain streaking to her mind, and she began to run, blindly away, and there it was. The roaring of the helicopter blades sounded in her ears, the dark shape floating just dozens of yards over her head. She dove into yet another alleyway, her mind reeling from the sudden shock, her ears ringing in pain. Dark figures dropping from the helicopter, one of them… floating in the air. She could feel its spiritual pressure… No time. She turned back to the alley, placed her hands so her fingers formed a diamond and she cried through the pain, "Bakudo 34! Tsuka no kabe!" The kido left her hands with a brilliant flash, and a wall of blue energy expanded to cover the entrance of the alleyway.

She wasted no time running. She could hear the helicopter rising to catch sight of her again, but the kido should be enough to help her escape. Rukia only hoped she hadn't given too much away, she had used a low level kido, but her spiritual signature was still there. But there wasn't time to worry about that. She could not run forever, she needed a place to hide! As she ran, a realization rose to her mind.

The floating figure had possessed the spiritual signature of a Fullbringer.