DROPS OF BLOOD
The Things She Fears
Ichigo knows what Rukia likes.
She liked rabbits, and juice. She sincerely liked the humans that she had previously walked right past and through.
Ichigo knows what Rukia hates.
There were the Hollows, of course. She disliked certain foods that he delighted in tormenting her with every now and then.
Once Ichigo didn't know what Rukia feared.
Was it her adopted brother? Was it death itself?
He asked her once, and she looked at him oddly. Then she looked up at the sky and said something about "beings who fell to death's scythe and got up again". Ichigo dropped it.
One night, around a month later, they walked past a graveyard, making a quick check for Hollows before turning in. A tall shadow emerged from the gate and walked towards them.
Approaching them, the shadow was revealed to be a pale foreigner with icy blue eyes and black hair. Clothed in expensive black, his footsteps were measured, calm, and lordly. He gave a nod to Ichigo, and a deeper one to Rukia—almost a bow—before vanishing into the darkness behind them.
Ichigo still isn't sure what scares Rukia. Her pale skin and trembling hands when the stranger passed them gave him few clues.