XY chromosome for life...word...

The leaves ruffled against the soft breeze. Eerie creaks from the unused playground equipment played background music for the two's arrival. Although being a very well known children's park, at the moment, no one else than the two—three if you counted her unoccupied body—people who entered from the street. Currently, the orange haired boy led the way inwards until finding an empty bench, and laid the schoolgirl he was carrying down carefully.

With a relative increase of ease, Rukia managed to finally breathe out and kept watch next to the boy. A single leaf fluttered by, caught by a breeze until landing atop the 'sleeping girl' lying on the bench. Five minutes passed just standing there, and then ten, and then ultimately twenty. "You…" she sighed with contempt directed at the boy, but he refused to immediately acknowledge her complaint.

"Just wait…it won't be long now…" was his eventual answer. Irritated with his response, Rukia gave in and gently flicked off the resident leaf off of her lying body.

"You're kidding me, right? It's already been twenty minutes!"

"Do ghosts come to this park?" He crossed his arms—well technically, they were already crossed, but he just switched his arms overlapping to a different order—over his chest and stared off to the unused equipment. In his gray school uniform, just barely leaned against the small white bar railing that separated the park from the main streets.

She glanced downwards in thought, trying to recollect which spirit she had come across in the park. Without a word, she stood up, her wooden shoes clacking against the concrete. Opening her hand in a horizontal open palm posture, she stretched upwards to her forehead to measure what seemed to be a height. "There's one, actually…" She lowered her hand downwards until it was the height of her waist, "…a boy about five years old, about this tall…" Rukia quickly smiled at the thought of the spirit child, "he likes to call me 'Big Sister'…but why did you want to know that?"

Ichigo merely ruffled through his pockets until finally taking out a metallic object, and unceremoniously tossed it for her to catch. It was a normal looking cell phone, though the text was anything but.

YUMIZAWA CHILDREN'S PARK

20M

12:00 PM

+ - 15 MIN

"What's this?" Rukia wondered at the strange message on the screen.

"It's an order…" he explained, "From Soul Society." Pushing his weight off of the white metal bar, Ichigo walked a few steps before stopping, simply watching off towards the playground. "Twelve P.M., plus or minus fifteen minutes. Within a twenty meter radius of Yumizawa Children's Park…a Hollow will appear…and it'll probably attack the child." His face lacked emotion at the news, quite the opposite of the look of surprise Rukia gave off.

Her violet eyes stared at the small rectangular screen with disbelief. Breaking the tense silence, a young scream shouted out from elsewhere in the park. In the distance, Rukia gasped at the sight of the young boy, who had so many times before called for his 'Big Sister' to play with a face of glee, run with such terror and panic from the monster behind him.

"Sister!!" His young voice shrieked out, "Sister!!" A shadow cast over him as the boy ran, cast by a masked monster that could only be described as spider-like. Its many legs worked to chase after its young and panic-stricken prey. With one claw-like leg, it struck at the child, but missed as he barely dodged with terrified whining.

"No!" Rukia screamed out, as she immediately took off towards the child while simultaneously beginning to draw her sword.

"Wait…!" She halted at Ichigo's bellow, and quickly turned to glance at the orange haired boy with confusion. Despite the dire situation, he was emotionless. No anger, no empathy for the terrorized boy… "You have a decision to make now…"

"What are you talking about, of course I do!" Rukia screamed back, and looked again towards where she last spotted the monster, "…now I'm going to go save that-"

"That's the thing…" he added, "The powers that you have are of a Soul Reaper. By saving him, you'll have to start on a path of obligation of saving anyone who needs help, whether you know them or not, or if it happens in front of you or out of sight…" She gripped her sword hilt tightly at the sudden crossroad, but most of all, she was pissed off that now he had to suddenly spring this on her. "Are you ready for such responsibility, to be willing to go anywhere? Even to sacrifice yourself for them!?"

She didn't answer him. No, there was no way she could answer him. 'Sacrifice myself…' She thought. A small thump in front caused her to look up once again, where the boy had fallen and the Hollow had stopped right on top of him. '…that's right…' Gripping her sword, she took off towards them, and deftly sliced her blade through the retracted leg ready to attack the boy. The sudden strike took the Hollow off balance, forcing it to fall backwards as blood spurted out from its sword wound.

"So…your mind's made up then?" He asked her calmly, walking at a casual pace towards the Rukia and the young boy.

"You wait…" Rukia grumbled softly. Without so much as a pause, Ichigo continued to walk towards her. "I don't know anything about being a Soul Reaper or doing your job…" she added, her voice was soft and controlled. Her dark hair skewed the view of her face, as she held her Zanpakuto with a sense of natural and dance-like talent. "…You talk about self-sacrifice and commitment towards all, but that just comes natural to anyone whom I consider my family…"

Although he slowed in his pace, he didn't stop, just as the girl a few feet away slowly turned to face him. The bangs of her hair swayed as she pivoted, showing her serious demeanor towards the orange haired boy. "…But what about you?" It was at this that he finally halted, amazed at her sudden and stern tone of voice. "You sacrificed yourself that night to save me…was that just your duty as a Soul Reaper?" She scoffed with a breath at the thought, and let the boy just ahead of her know of it as well.

"Duty is no reason to sacrifice yourself!!" she called out now, "At least…" swinging again with her Zanpakuto, Rukia nimbly dodged what was left of the Hollow's other front leg, and stabbed her sword point into its masked face with dubious precision. "…not for me!!" Slicing through its head, the sword was like a hot knife through butter, sending the monster to the ground with a sickening thud. "This is the craziest thing I've ever heard of…Soul Society, fighting monsters…its all absurd…" The small boy had all but crawled to the taller girl, and wrapped his arms around her waist. Wrapping her own unarmed right around the boy's head, Rukia turned towards the orange haired boy again, her face and large violet eyes more emotive with sheer disbelief. "Whether this is a comic come to life, or some sick nightmare, the one thing that I do know is that anyone who risked their life to save my family can't be bad at all…"

She had lowered her sword a while ago; the weight of the weapon somehow had gained sheer mass since swinging it through the flesh and bone of her second kill in her life, albeit was a monster. Her heavy pants of breath lessened now that the adrenaline rush was beginning to wear off, and her face loosened from its potentially wrinkle-creating scowl. The tight embrace around her waist began to loosen as well, allowing her to idly ruffle the boy's hair with her spare hand. "I'll help you out…" she finally said to break the silence, "…with this Soul Reaper job of yours…"

For the first time that she could remember, Ichigo smiled genuinely towards her. She knew because it wasn't toothy, nor did it seemed forced at all. He looked good like that.

--

The three of them were casually walking back to the school they had ditched; Rukia, Ichigo and her body, that is. They were quiet most of the way, mainly because of Rukia wanting a chance to calm down a bit, while Ichigo looked around with hidden curiosity—he feigned nonchalant-ness to do so—while Rukia's body…was just the quiet type.

"Hey, something happened to Ms. Kurosaki!" a voice called from the school's direction, "the new guy's carrying her unconscious!"

"What? Where!?" a gruff older voice responded. Looking at each other, Rukia and Ichigo had some explaining to do.

Author's notes:

Here we are, chapter 7! Anyways, I've been working hard with these stories that I started off with on a whim (this, Ichigo, Teacher Toshirou...) and I've really thought long and hard about what to do storywise. After much deliberation with myself, I think you're gonna like what's to come!

I've also taken to note everyone's opinion on the premise on this story, and found that a lot of the guys feel emasculated at the thought of Ichigo and Rukia switching roles in the Soul Society Arc. Let me tell you, if you didn't like Leia saving Han Solo (Star Wars reference), then you have some learning to do...and that's coming from a GUY!

...legalities...

Bleach (c) Tite Kubo

Star Wars (c) George Lucas