When Ichigo regained consciousness, his hand immediately flew to where he had been stabbed by Rukia. He got up suddenly as he realised that his wound had completely disappeared. The only trace of evidence was his torn and bloodied clothing; otherwise he didn't even have a scar. Ichigo saw Rukia collapsed to his side; she was unconscious and coated in crusted blood. Presumably the blood belonged to him. Ichigo got up and went to look outside- the sandstorm had ceased and everything seemed calm and bright. He had been unconscious through the whole night. Ichigo shook his head as he tried to find a logical explanation for his miraculous recovery. He couldn't help but feel confused about anything which concerned his bounty head. He then strode towards Rukia and cuffed her right hand to his left hand. He then settled down next to her as he waited for her to wake up. He needed some time to clear his thoughts, so he took out his guns and cleaned them up and then he cleaned up Rukia's sword. He was admiring the dragon embedded in the sheath when Rukia woke up.

"This is insane! You're still alive!"

"That's my line!" Ichigo looked at the amazed Rukia in confusion. He had expected her to give him an explanation and not vice versa. Rukia looked questioningly at the handcuffs and at her sword which was currently in Ichigo's hands.

"I demand that you remove these handcuffs immediately, and give me back my sword." Rukia felt anger escalating swiftly.

"You're in no position to make any demands and I'm the one asking the questions here!"

"I refuse to be deterred by an idiot such as yourself!"

"That's it brat!" Ichigo strapped her sword to his back, picked up his things and got up, pulling Rukia to her feet. Rukia's eyes grew the size of saucepans as she struggled against Ichigo.

"Wait a second… please" Rukia tried to talk to Ichigo who was walking fast out of the building and dragging the small Rukia behind him roughly.

"But I'm innocent!"

Ichigo stopped in his tracks, causing Rukia to crash into him. He turned to look at her and her genuine look made his resolve waver. He felt unsure about her since her story seemed rather fishy.

"Ok I'll listen to your story since there seem to be a lot of lose ends. But mind you- do not expect any compassion. You're my bounty and I need your price to keep my sisters off the street. Understood?"

Rukia nodded meekly as they both sat down on the floor and she started to narrate the whole story.

"My division was investigating the cases of missing children. At first we thought that they were being killed and their organs were being sold. However this wasn't the case. These children were being abducted by the mafia and were sent to a research facility. We don't know what kind of experiments they were doing to them but it seems that they were selected carefully after a period of observation. My squad investigated this and we managed to determine the location and date for the next abduction. We decided to lay an ambush for them. However some days before the set date, our vice-sheriff, Kaien Shiba started acting strangely. He kept insisting that we let go of the case; that some things shouldn't be meddled with. I was really disappointed in him and avoided him as much as possible. The Sheriff tried to talk to him but he wouldn't give him any reason for his attitude. For the night of the ambush a team was assigned which consisted of the Sheriff and Vice-sheriff, three officers and myself. It turned out to be a trap for us however. The Sheriff was shot and sustained critical damage, the other officers were killed while Kaien tried to stop me from fighting back. He had sold us to the mafia. I was enraged with him as my comrades lay dead and the children were abducted in front of our eyes. As I was struggling with him, I shot him. Some other officers joined the commotion and saw me shooting the Vice-sheriff. They also said that the member of the mafia reached out for me to join him before he ran away. Thus I was accused of selling out my comrades to the mafia."

Rukia closed her eyes as she remembered the weight of kaien's body as he collapsed on top of her and as he apologised through each gurgling breathe.

"Forgive me Kuchiki… They took- Miyako- hostage… Forgive me for – you through this…"

Ichigo was silent as he saw the tears trickling silently down her cheeks. After a couple of silent minutes, Rukia resumed her story.

"I blanked out after shooting Kaien. That's when they said that the thug talked to me. Afterwards I was sentenced to death by The organisation and was to be transported to Seireitei for the execution. That's when I escaped and I've become a fugitive of the law and since the mafia put the bounty on my head. I guess my innocence is threatened even more now that the mafia want me alive."

"You sure got in some big trouble. But why did you come all the way out here to Hueco Mundo?"

"From my leads I had uncovered that this facility had previously belonged to the mafia and that the same experiments had been performed here. So I came to check for any leads. What I found here was quite shocking- I found pictures of children that were subjects during that time. And I was one of them. You know I actually have no memory until ten years ago. I don't really know my age either. I have no idea what kind of connection I have to the mafia and why they would want me. That's pretty much it so…"

Ichigo scratched his head as he thought everything over.

"OK. Let's go." Ichigo got up and pulled up the crestfallen Rukia. They headed towards his buried motorbike and they headed backwards.