Chapter 4

Rukia quietly looked in on the waiting room. Isshin Kurosaki was showing the true professionalism of his trade, quietly examining his son's eyes without any wise cracks. She was impressed by the elder Kurosaki's attentiveness on the job, especially when her normal exposure to him consisted of him being the over eager and eccentric patriarch of the family.

"Hmm…" he said quietly. "Looks like you suffered some form of flash blindness. Happens to welders sometimes when they forget to put on protective eye gear. What exactly were you doing?"

"I was passing by a construction site on the way home, since me and my friends were going to hang out at a new restaurant." Ichigo said, sticking to the story that they made up in order to cover for the unexpected injury. "I just happened to look up at the wrong time, I guess."

"I see," the elder Kurosaki said, a suspicious smirk on his face. "Just you and Rukia, walking alone, huh?"

"Nothing happened," the younger Kurosaki replied flatly.

"Sure," Isshin said, with a broad smile on his face. "Oh Misaki, soon Ichigo and Rukia will finally admit their love for one another and we'll have GRANDCHILDREN!"

The pronouncement earned the doctor a pillow to the head, and a bright flush from Rukia. She didn't really think of Ichigo in that way, view him mostly as a loyal comrade and friend fighting for the same goal. Of course, what Ichigo thought was rather more a mystery, as he denied the accusation and belittled his father for being a perverted old man. Rukia smirked at this, quietly drifting away to take care of other business.

Rukia stood in front of the train station, quietly looking at her watch. After the battle, she and Mr. Gregory were in agreement to meet each other at a place were a proper conversation between the two could take place. She, of course, was dressed in her school uniform, being the most formal thing that she could find.

To her mild surprise, Captain Toushiro Hitsugaya was also there, also in a gigai and wearing his own school uniform. "Good afternoon, Captain Hitsugaya."

"Good afternoon, Ms. Kuchiki." Toushiro Histugaya replied.

"So, are you here to talk to the English teacher?" she asked as she stepped aboard the train, taking a seat next to the young, white hair captain.

"Yes, I am." He replied. "This is a force we have not encountered before in Soul Society, and if your report is correct represents one of the major factions in the world of the living. Central 46 hopes to make an appreciable impression on them."

Rukia nodded. "I can understand. But why not send somebody who is older?" the captain's left eye twitched a little bit, showing Rukia his agitation. "Not that you aren't qualified by any means of the imagination, of course," she quickly covered, "But in the living world you do look like a young teenager."

Histugaya made no visible show of emotion, but Rukia was sure that he looking for something appreciable to say. "Your brother was the first choice," he began, "But his squadron was assigned to respond to a minor incursion from Huaco Mundo. Captain Unohana is helping to oversee the annual kido exams at the academy. Captain Soifon is away on assignment, and Captain Amagi is still getting used to the responsibilities of his position. Captain Kyoraku is helping to oversee the new round of recruitment and placement within his own squadron, while Captain Ukitake is having another bout of illness. Although Captain Komamura may be a very good diplomatic choice, his appearance would be sure to cause an uproar in the world of the living. And Captain Zaraki and Mayuri also cannot be entrusted with this mission, for other obvious reasons."

Those reasons, of course, made sense. Zaraki was a battle hungry savage, there was no other way to put it politely. However, he usually does admirably well to restrain himself, even going so far as to restrict his spiritual pressure to reduce the amount of damage he would do when fighting a significantly weaker opponent.

Mayuri, on the other hand, was a psychopath who regularly mutilates his own body and sees everyone, including himself, as potential test subjects. He made himself too valuable to sack as head of 12th division and research and development, producing far too many results to get rid of him easily. However, nothing short of Armageddon would allow for him to be unleashed upon the world of the living.

"I see," she said. "So, you know where we are going, then?"

"If the information is correct," Hitsugaya began, "we will be going to a military instillation specializing in aircraft, owned by the power in question. Other then that, information is scarce. When the stealth force attempted to infiltrate, they were responded to by an unusual number of spiritually aware humans and were forced to withdraw or compromise the mission."

That made Rukia's nerves stand on end. Normally the stealth force was enough to gain any information on the world of the living. The fact that the Americans seemed to posses so many spiritually aware humans was a testament to the strength of their organization. Of course, they could have been placed their in anticipation of the Soul Society's diplomat, but even then the consequences of that were not anything that she would of liked to face lightly.

The rest of the train ride was uneventful as they made their way to the other side of Tokyo. Rukia was sure to catch up on news from the Soul Society, including the possibility of Renji advancing to captaincy. Of course, the same was said for all the lieutenants, and even then their position didn't guarantee anything, as the placement of Captain Amagi had shown.

All too soon, the train stopped at the station and the two got off, making their way to the military base where Mr. Gregory had asked the two of them to meet him. At first, it didn't look like much to Rukia. It just seemed like another airport, similar to the one she visited when the Kurosaki family went on vacation in Hawaii.

That illusion, of course, was shattered as several jet fighters screamed overhead, taking off to parts unknown. Then it became clear that this was a military instillation.

"Well, I thought we were bad about sending kids to war," a feminine voice said in badly accented Japanese.

Rukia looked up to see the voice's owner, the same small black woman who blinded Ichigo. This time, however, she was wearing a blue uniform, with a nametag in a language she couldn't read over her right pocket, and ribbons that probably meant something to these people over her left. On her shoulders were blue epaulets, a yellow bar at the end of each of them.

"Lt. White, please don't make this more difficult on them then it already is," Gregory said, standing besides the diminutive woman. He was in a fresh black suite, his sunglasses reflecting their image and the sun quite effectively. She couldn't read his facial expression easily, which made her feel slightly uneasy.

"Hey, I'm just saying Gregory, they sure do look small for their nation's finest."

Hitsugaya seemed to twitch, obviously being made a mockery of by the ill mannered lieutenant. Gregory seemed to pick up on this, waving the two Soul Reapers after him. "This way to the debriefing," he said, leading them on. "And don't mind White. She's just angry because she's not getting paid as much as me."

"Fat chance," White replied, falling into step behind the two Soul Reapers as Gregory lead them on. Yet dispite the light conversation that Gregory engaged Hitsugaya in, and the banter exchanged between the two Americans occasionally, Rukia felt ill at ease. There was more to this then either seemed to be letting on, and she wanted to know exactly what it was.