Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to try and make an entrance, Rukia thought to herself as she pushed her reiatsu on to the balls of her feet, to propel the climb up the wall. But she was excited to finally meet that tawake. Especially after the reports had come in, of him being beaten up by the two arrancars. She pushed on till she reached the ledge of the classroom window, just in time to hear him asking what arrancars were.

Either I'm going to have to slap my forehead, or his. She looked at him, bandaged here and there, and felt a tug of affection. She smiled instead.

"You beat them up without even knowing who they were? You fool! They were the ones who wiped the floor with you the other day!"

When he turned slowly to the window, his expression in shock, but in his eyes, relief, somehow her entrance was worth the trouble.

"Rukia" he couldn't get anything else out.

"O! It's been a while, Ichigo."

It pained her to see him this way. But as R had said, he needed to find strength in himself. She had dragged him out to fight the hollow, but he was holding back. He was afraid of his own power. When she couldn't take it any longer, she shouted to him to buck up. It seemed he needed that, because he smirked at her, calling her noisy, before finishing the hollow off with a single blow.

That's the kind of man you are, in my heart! She'd said. Ichigo had felt his heart leap with those words. Sure, Rukia could be a bit of a hard-ass when it came to pushing him, but that was because she knew when his doubts messed with him, she knew the patterns of his depression. She understood the burdens he placed on himself, because that girl carried the same burdens.

But while she admonished him, beat him to his senses and made sarcastic remarks to him, as if she was doing all of it to herself, she had never indicated that he held a special place in his heart. Now, he was stripped of the opportunity of asking her what that meant, as he found himself being dragged by her back to school. She was hurting him, but somehow, she had relieved a little of his pain.

The man in my heart? Rukia closed her eyes in embarrassment, while she pulled him over to Inoue. The man in my heart! What did I just say to that fool?! She had to watch her words. Ichigo wasn't one to appreciate emotional words. Was he? She had blurted out the first thing on her mind, which was the high regard she had for him, and which he wasn't living up to. That was it. She stole a look at him, his expression darkening once he had figured out why he was brought back to school. It hurt him that he couldn't protect Inoue. He cared about Inoue. Rukia was just his nakama, his comrade, she was the one who had dragged him into all of this Shinigami business. She silently sent a prayer up before placing him in front of Inoue. I still don't know how I feel about him, but whatever it may turn out to be, please keep him safe from it. She thought back to her attachment to Kaien dono. She thought about how much it hurt. She looked at Inoue as they approached her, deep in thought with a forlorn expression on her face. Please protect all the people I care about, especially their hearts.

"Yoruichi san, where are we going?"

"To the mountains, to train."

"But I am not a Shinigami! That sort of training wouldn't work, plus I don't have enough reiatsu to train," R tried to protest, and then wriggle away, but that was a bit of a challenge considering Yoruichi san was shunpo-ing with R on her shoulders. In fact, she was so scared of falling off, she grabbed on to Yoruichi san's orange jacket so hard it was about to tear off.

"We shall see. Now keep quiet or I may drop you," Yoruichi san lowered her voice, but the grin was suspicious, "by mistake."

R hadn't met Byakuya san after their… kiss. It had been nearly 4 days. At first, she had been uplifted by his sultry promise, but it seemed he really could not afford the time to see her. Which was just as well too, since she couldn't see how they could be together. It was just a stupid attraction on both of their parts. She was pretty sure she had Stockholm syndrome. After all, she adored Beauty and the Beast. And Byakuya san, well, she did not know him in this world. In the manga, his character was vague, apart from the sense of duty. Who knew if he was just a bored rich boy who'd found someone to entertain him? Then Hisana wouldn't have happened, another voice reasoned with her. But how many people are willing to truly open their heart after the loss of their one and only love?

Yoruichi san set her down before she realized they'd arrived. "I won't mince my words," she started. "You have more reiatsu than what a human being usually possesses. This has now become a complication." She narrowed her eyes as she stared straight at R. "Do not think the sou-taichou will let you off easy because you gave him the information he needed. He is still watching you, and the heightening of your reiatsu is not helping your cause. Even if he did believe you were a harmless human who fell into Soul Society by chance, you're not a harmless human anymore." Yoruichi san walked to a nearby rock and propped herself on it, cupping her chin as if in deep thought.

"The Gotei 13 will most probably leave you out of the winter war, seeing as you don't seem to have any power which could assist them, apart from your knowledge. But it'll do you good to be able to control what power you do have, so you won't end up involved."

R considered this for a moment. "If I subdue my reiatsu, or whatever it is that is happening to me, will I be able to go back to my world?"

"Kisuke is in the WOL, fighting arrancar right now. But I'll assure you that he is almost done with his research. With some time, he can send you back. You'll be able to leave before any of this gets started for real. But before that, help yourself by understanding what is happening to you."

R took a deep breath. Yoruichi san was right, she had to protect herself against the Gotei 13. "Okay, Yoruichi san. What would you have me do?"

"I want you to figure out the source of your energy"

"How do I do that?"

"Ask yourself, R. What caused your reiatsu to flare all those times it did? Were you protecting someone? Did you want to attack? What did you feel during those moments?"

R understood that this was not a theory lesson she could ask Yoruichi san for instructions from. She took a deep breath and thought back to the second time it happened with the cockroach hollow. She wasn't necessarily protecting anyone. She just wanted it gone. She recalled every instant and emotion she felt, but it did nothing. She looked back at Yoruichi san.

"I doubt this is working," she said.

"Then try harder," Yoruichi san returned drily.

R closed her eyes, and heard the roar of the hollow in her mind's eye. She recalled how the sound had made her twitchy, quickened her heartbeat and put a sense of unease in her. She had wanted it to disappear. She had to make it disappear. She couldn't stand it. She had to try her best to shut it out, to have it gone, she had to believe—

The reiatsu flared violet all around her. Her forehead burned and ached. But she couldn't stop. She had to believe that she could get the hollow to disappear.

The violet burned brighter. Yoruichi san shouted from a distance, "Now focus that at a nearby rock and fling it away!" Her reiatsu was getting stronger and would burn her from the inside out if she didn't toss it immediately. "Now, R!"

R was surprised to find that as long as she wasn't fighting it, her reiatsu did not prevent her from having her mind clear and focused. She tested her own theory by visualizing herself flinging the reiatsu that covered her, onto the rock she was looking at. It didn't work. Next, she looked at it and thought, I can make this rock disintegrate.

The violet flash that surrounded her flung itself onto to specified rock, exploding it till nothing remained. Calm down, she told herself. Put this fire out. The reiatsu died down.

"Seems you had a pretty easy first lesson. Compared to that brat Ichigo," Yoruichi san sauntered toward her, smiling. "What did you learn?"

R looked at Yoruichi san solemnly. "That I have the power to make what I want come true. Yoruichi san, it seems I have the power of belief."