Rukia found herself in the strange white room with the child again.
"Take my hand" the voice said in the all-too-familiar voice.
"No!" Rukia shouted, slapping the girl's hand away. The girl stumbled backwards, surprised and frightened. She quickly recovered and grabbed Rukia's hand.
"I want you to know what happened" she said. There was a blinding light as Rukia was transferred to Ichigo's neighborhood again. There were no hellish flames and the young child was playing with her friends. Ichigo's body was also missing.
Then there was shouting as two men appeared, walking around the corner. All Rukia could her was the loud tone of the voices, she couldn't hear what they were saying. There faces were nothing but blurs. The little girls seemed to hardly notice.
The fight between the two men was ended when one man pulled out a knife and stabbed the other in the gut. The little girls continued playing, completely oblivious.
Ashes, ashes...they all fall dead
"Rukia!" a stern voice called. The scene became blurry and was soon replaced by the teacher's face. Almost all of the class was gone. The only one who remained was Ichigo.
"Rukia, you need to get more sleep" the teacher lectured. Rukia nodded, grabbed her bag, and bolted out of the classroom.
She froze when she reached the crosswalk. There before her was the little girl from her nightmares. She turned and quickly ran.
When Ichigo reached the crosswalk the girl was with two boys, both beating her up.
"What's with your outfit?" one boy asked, poking her.
"Yeah, did you find it in the garbage?" the other boy teased. The girl looked at the ground quietly, wishing they would leave...or at least die. They continued to harass her but soon got bored.
"Let's go" the first said.
"Yeah" the second agreed, pushing her to the ground.
"Why didn't you tell them off?" Ichigo asked, walking over to her. She looked up, tears in her eyes. She got up and ran away as he opened his mouth to ask another question.
"What's your name?" he called after her.
"Haruko" a young girl's voice said.
"Wait...Haruko!" he called. The little girl turned around. "Fight back next time" he said, slightly smiling. She nodded and walked away.
"Now...where's Rukia?" he asked himself,scratching his head.
"Ichigo!" Kon's voice shouted in the distance. The little stuffed lion ran towards Ichigo, going as fast as his little cotton legs would carry him.
"Kon, we went through this. You can't go running through the neighborhood. It's not every day that people see a running toy" Ichigo lectured, feeling slightly embarrassed that he was talking to a toy.
"Yeah yeah. Look, I came here to tell you that something happened to Rukia" the stuffed lion said.
"What? What do you mean?" Ichigo asked.
"She was walking, acting normal, and all of a sudden she was on the ground" Kon said, leading Ichigo.
"Where is she?!" Ichigo asked, running ahead.
"She collapsed right outside of your room. Oh! She was moaning something about being stabbed, sleep talking...I think" Kon said, trying to keep up with Ichigo.