A/N: Eeep, been almost two weeks already? Sorry about that, writing didn't easily come to me past several days ;w ;

Anyhow, on goes the story...


After unceremoniously ditching Byakuya with what admittedly was a laughable, childish farewell, Ichigo plunged himself into the empty streets. His peripheral vision blurred as he gained momentum, run quickly transitioning to shunpo. He was eager to put as much distance as he could between him and the 6th division's captain or rather, the question he left unanswered...

Only after few minutes of the speedy runaway he remembered hearing that the said shinigami was considered to be one of Seireitei's top class shunpo masters, speed ranked second to so-called God of Flash Shihouin Yoruichi herself.

He skidded to a halt at the next corner he encountered, soles of his feet screeching against the gritty stone tiles. Feeling dizzy from the sudden deceleration, he put a hand on the wall to steady himself.

There were no hints of pursuit: no sounds of footsteps, no buzz of shunpo in the air. As far as his never-to-be-fully-trusted reiatsu detection skills told him, there were no significant presence of shinigami nearby.

If Byakuya had wanted to catch up to him, he surely would've by now.

Ichigo glanced around one last time before pivoting around to land back-first onto the off-white wall with a soft thump. His stomach gave a funny jolt as his shoulder blades struck the hard surface - he had forgotten Zangetsu, left it propped up against the desk back at the office.

He half expected separation anxiety to cripple his coherent thoughts like it had on the first day back, but no such reaction came. Only a mild, colorless 'oh' in the midst of his mind.

He wondered whether he had gone crazy, feeling not the least off-beat at not having his ultimate weapon, part of his soul at his side.

Or maybe he wasn't going crazy - maybe he was finally weaning from the unreasonable sense of protection the sword offered him...?

Ichigo snorted - since when he was completely vulnerable without Zangetsu in his hand? Not to mention the thing was nothing of use in combat with Kira yesterday...

His thought switched gears as he folded his arms in front of him. He stared unseeingly at the chipped floor tiles beneath his feet-

As for that rambling thought in his mind...


He had been in Kladias's head.

Faint nausea crept up on him and Ichigo leaned forward as he told himself again,

He had been in her head, her thoughts relayed to him as easily as if she had spoken them to him loud and clear.

He had come to that conclusion only few minutes after he had started clawing at what little there was to his shinigami knowledge. It was the only plausible one of frustratingly few possibilities his mind drew up.

A while back in the human world, before he had gone on the rescue mission to Hueco Mundo, one too many cups of coffee, one too many boxes of Twinkies and worst of all, mistaking a can of light beer for coke had led Rukia to one brilliant case of insomnia. By daybreak, she had sunk to a hazy, semi-stupor state, babbling on about nothing and everything from her self-designated space inside his closet - she didn't like the comfortable, cushiony bed provided for her by his idiot father and soft-hearted sister - while he continued on his futile attempt to silently curse himself to sleep, head buried beneath two pillows and the heaviest medical encyclopedia he could find in the house.

Blame the sleep deprivation or general annoyance, but he had either forgotten or blocked out majority of the Rukia's babbles. But some of the things had been tattooed into his mind, recount of her days before her execution one of them. Her voice had plunged down to near inaudible whispers of secrets while she stuttered to get her words out about how her awaiting executioner, Soukyokou, had been visible through her white prison's window, how unfair it was that tiny birds were free to flutter in and out that window while she could not, sekkiseki stone walls draining the life's force out of her...

Then her voice skipped up two octaves as she switched onto trying to recite kido incantations back to front, bursting into fits of giggles every time she made a mistake. After another flat-voiced "shut up" Ichigo tuned her out, but-

White prison. Sekkiseki stone walls draining the life's force out of her.

The consciousness in his mind had speculated the white walls affecting her energy level - her since he had a gut feeling that it wasn't a man. As far as he could figure, Kladias had been the only one to be sentenced to capital punishment since Rukia had been with hers. And there was only one white tower reserved for imprisoning criminals as such...

Tall, white tower.

It also had complained about the room having a screwed-up ratio, ceiling too high for its floor space.

Ichigo put a hand to his forehead, pushed with his palm until his head struck back to the wall.

If it indeed was Kladias's thoughts that flooded into his mind, HOW was that possible- no, WHY was that possible?

What was the connection?

Hold on a sec- no connection, but maybe a binding kido. That'll be it, one used to deliver messages directly to peoples' mind-

But Kladias was a failure of a kido manipulator, last time he checked-

Ichigo yelped and swung out an arm as something small and black fluttered into his face, smashing whatever it was onto the wall beside him.

Shinji's voice, uncharacteristically low and quick but still with its underlying lilting tone, sprung from underneath his arm-

"Oy, Ichigo,"

Ichigo gave another yelp and jumped back from the black blotch. Only then he noticed it was a hell butterfly.

"chances are Kuchiki didn't tell you - you would've set out to cut his head off and he probably knew that. I'll-"

Shinji abruptly stopped speaking as another voice yelled something in the background-

"Shut up Lisa, I'm on it, I AM sending him one RIGHT NOW there's no point in darting off to drag his ass here thank you very much for your concern now get the hell going - okay, Ichigo, I'll get straight to the point, heavens forbid you get impatient and shred the poor insect to pieces like Kladias-chan did with her very first one-"

Ichigo quirked up on eyebrow as Hiyori's "GET UP HERE, DICKHEAD!" echoed in the distance. Then Kensei rumbling mumble followed by Mashiro's high-pitched squeaks. Shinji let out a cross between a sigh and a whine before continuing,

"anyway, you'd better come to Soukyokou hill right now, Ichigo, and when I say right now I mean right fucking NOW. The TRUE dickheads of Seireitei - by that I mean the Central 46 - just announced to all of the captains that Kladias's execution's been moved up to fifteen minutes from now, and yeah, NOW. They're out of their minds, playing it cheap, most likely hoping for as small of an audience as possible. And they're bringing back an ancient custom-"

By then Ichigo had abandoned his spot by the hell butterfly, already streaking towards the ever-looming cliff ahead.


While Ichigo streaked his way from rooftops to rooftops; he had no intention nor hopes of successfully navigating through the streets in time, who was he kidding?He contemplated tapping into what he decided was Kladias's thoughts, mix of worry and curiosity struggling with respect for privacy.

He settled on meeting the two halfway.

Keeping an eye on his speeding-past surroundings - slip of a toe and he would freefall to a bloody splat - he gingerly peeled off the mind's barrier he set up earlier against Kladias's consciousness, not enough for it to overwhelm him like it did last time but only for the tiniest portion, general ambiance of it to seep through...

Whoa?-

It was a challenge for him not to falter his steps, to keep his speed up-

He hadn't been expecting that.

He might as well have been slapped in the face with a desaturated rainbow.

Massive whirls of emotions, a catastrophic, dark blizzard of swirling feelings screaming at him. Not all of which he could pinpoint names for. Not a droplet of positivity flaring in the mix-

As if sensing the one tiny opening he gave to the barrier, the almost liquid wave of consciousness on the other side brimmed up and threatened to burst open, to flood his mind and take him over again. Breath hitching and throat stiffening, fighting back the blackness creeping from the sides of his vision, Ichigo frantically snapped shut the opening. His mind's barrier wavered as the force from the other side fought to knock it down.

He swore out loud as he trod on a pebble, the tiny stone breaking the balance and rhythm he had going with his shunpo. He managed to catch himself before he smashed head-first onto the roof.

Forcing himself not to panic, Ichigo strained his eyes and stared ahead, concentrating on putting one foot ahead of the other, one shunpo after another, putting his hitched breath back to normal rhythm...

Eventually, all out-of-place movements ebbed back down, both inwards and out. He sliced through the air, wind flattening his hair onto the top of his scalp, each footholds steady and firm against the dark, sun-battered roof tiles.

No more pebble-attacks.

His mind's barrier held, the consciousness on the other side safely silenced for the moment.

He hadn't gotten much out of the terrifying venture into Kladias's mind.

But say, if he translated the blizzard literally... Would it be confusion?

Ichigo dismissed the idea with a disbelieving shake of his head - faced with a sudden execution; panic would be more likely...

Or - what the hell.

He gave up trying to figure anything out, since in no way he was a freaking certified psychologist.

At reaching base of the stairs, the site of his second and last battle with Renji, he started his streak up the stairs without even faltering to catch his breath.


Ichigo stumbled onto top of the Soukyokou hill, grumbling quietly as he plucked tiny twigs off his hair and shihakusho. By no means getting through the forest of brambles had been an impossible challenge, but plenty of the nature's unwelcomed presents snagged onto him enough to tickle his already boiling temper.

He turned his head forward again to face towards the far end of the cliff. He didn't expect to see the Soukyokou Duo - he recalled that the pair of ancient artifacts had been shattered to uselessness on the day of Rukia's execution: enormous phoenix dissipated in the air, part of the wooden beams that survived the destruction dug up and removed from the ground afterwards.

But neither had he expected to see a fifty-feet tall off-white wall towering above him some hundred feet away, level surface stretching across the full width of the cliff's surface, cutting him off from where he supposed the scene of Kladias's execution was.

Dread jerked through him as he started sprinting towards the wall.

Was he too late?

But the consciousness in his mind was still there, raging against his mind's barrier as rabidly as ever.

Then Kladias was still alive...

He had covered half the distance when a blur of black and white dropped down from above to neatly land in front of him-

Shinji straightened up and shot Ichigo a silent, venomous glare.

Ichigo scowled, "Am I late or wha-"

"Cutting it close, aren't ya?" the blond captain snarled, "Just over a minute to spare, hurry the fuck up-"

"Cut the crap - no need to boss me around." Ichigo snarled back - what the hell was with Shinji?

Shaking thoughts clear, Ichigo took a deep breath and focused all his energy onto the sole of one foot, briefly pressing all his weight onto it before leaping into the air.


I know that wasn't canon - I had too much fun writing up caffeinated/Twinkied/semi-drunk Rukia. I can totally imagine that happening xD

So I'm leaving in there, let's say she stayed a night before Grimmjow and his Fraccion brewed up trouble :D

Two sketches up on my deviantART, go check them out from my profile if you'd like - one initial sketch of Kladias, another one sort of PotBM preview/promotion poster with few scene snapshots thingamajigs of such. On the second one, I think I managed to draw her almost exactly as how I pictured her in my mind... x)

See you later - next chapter'll contain more action, literally. In case anyone's wondering.