Rukia followed behind the orange haired man, why she didn't know.
If she was true to herself, she just wanted to go home and be left alone.
She looked Ichigo over, noticing the weapons he was carrying with him.
"Swords? Isn't that really old fashioned?"
She asked him, without any real interest, only wanting to annoy Ichigo some more.
"Maybe."
Was all he answered after some time and it ticked her off.
Why was he so calm all of a sudden?
Just moments ago he was so easy to be riled up.

They turned around a corner, when suddenly an arm in front of her stopped her from going further.
She wanted to say something, ask why they stopped, but a pair of amber brown eyes shut her up.
"Look ahead. We've found our target."
Ichigo mouthed and she looked in the shadows of the alley.
All she could see were some shadows, that looked like crouching people.

Ichigo stepped forward, slowly to not make himself be noticed by the shadow.
Rukia stayed behind at first, but then she had a feeling she needed to intervene.
Something wasn't right here.
Why was Ichigo after some homeless person?

"Wait!"
She said, sure that she had only whispered.
Ichigos head whipped around, his eyes wide in shock.
Simultaneously with his motion the figure in the dark began to move and emit strange sounds.
"Are you stupid?"
Ichigo mouthed again, then just in time turned to the figure that now launched itself at him, to defend himself from its attack.
The figure, a middle aged male as Rukia now could see, was tossed over her head on the open street and ran for it once he had gotten up again.
Ichigo sighed relieved and a wide smile appeared on his face.

"Great. I'm in the mood for a tag right now."
He walked past his female tag along and said before he ran off.
"Don't fall behind."
Rukia hurried after him as fast as she could, but the distance between them grew steadily.
She was just about to loose sight of him, when she turned around a corner and found Ichigo having the man he was after held in a choker hold with his chain.

"Now. I wonder what type you are? It's always so hard to tell, when you guys are like that."
The S.I.N. was gasping for air and clawing desperately at the chain, but Ichigo just pulled stronger on it, cutting his air supplies off a bit more.
Rukia watched the scene for mere moments, but she knew she had to stop it from going any further.
Ichigo had a glint in his eyes that told her he wasn't going to let the man go any time soon.
She ran in between the two and pulled on the chain herself, dragging Ichigos side closer to her so that the chains on the mans neck loosened.
"Stop it! You're killing him!"
Ichigo looked at her in light surprise, before his face pulled into a vicious grimace.
"Let go of the chain."
"No. If I do, you're going to kill this innocent man."
"Have you still not gotten it? That person isn't a human. He isn't even sane anymore. Do you need to get hurt before you accept the truth?"
Rukias eyes widened at his outburst and she noticed the chain that rested against her back just a moment to late to react.

Ichigo cursed and jumped forward, he grabbed Rukia by the waist and pulled her away from the attacking man and at the same time, rammed the hilt of his short blade into his stomach.
The orangette let go of the female, who then knelt on the asphalted street, staring at the unconscious man lying in front of her.
"V.A.S.T. has no need for narrow minded persons, much less do I. If you want to insist on your believes and continue to close your eyes from the truth, then do that."
Ichigo told her calmly, with his back turned to her, but from one moment to the other he was inches away from her face with his own, growling.
"But don't you dare to ever again interfere with my prey, with that narrow view on life of yours."
He stood up again and hauled the unconscious man on his shoulders and walked away without regarding Rukia with another look.
The petite woman remained on her place, cold shivers running over her back.

She should be dead.

She had seen the face of that man Ichigo had been after, up close, had seen the bloodied incisors that looked exactly like the orangettes and knew she would be the mans next victim.
But somehow Ichigo had been fast enough to get her out of harms way.
He protected her, despite he needn't to, he could have let her experience the truth first hand.
Rukia knew, she had felt it again just now when he had growled at her, that he didn't like her and didn't want her around him.
She noticed something else, when she saw Ichigo choking that man, she knew he had not intention to bring him to that Shiro person alive.

Rukia jumped from her position and hurried after Ichigo.
He couldn't have gotten too far, with the extra weight he was carrying.
"If I hadn't interfered, you'd disobeyed the order of that pale guy. He said to catch him, not kill. I'm sure he's some top notch that stands even above you and you'd have gotten really big problems when you dragged him back as a corpse."
She told as she had caught up with the orangette.
They walked silent beside each other until Ichigo eventually spoke.

"It's more reliable."
Rukia looked up to him.
"Huh?"
"A sword is more reliable than a gun. Sooner or later you have to reload it and no matter how fast you are at exchanging the magazines, that split of a second it takes can be enough to get yourself killed. And a gun isn't apt for defense."
"Why are you telling me that?"
"Because you secretively asked it, with your snide comment."
The female looked ahead of her again and sighed.

"You are an idiot."
"So I heard."
"What happens to him now?"
"He get's into custody and the council decides what to do with him."

"What about me?"
"You tell me."
"Huh?"
"You came after me. What do you want to happen to you?"
"Well. That old man said I shall serve you as a leash. So keep an eye on you, so that you don't do stupid stuff. For example what just happened."
"Fine. Then you'll be my watchdog. But you'll have a long way to go until you can keep up with me."

Rukia grumbled at that comment and Ichigo laughed shortly.

Chapter 3
End