WHEN THE SNOW FALLS
by Yih

Chapter Five
Beginning of a Journey

Every night for several weeks, Rukia had practiced shunpo until she was exhausted, until it was all she could do to make it to her bed at night. It made it difficult to do her best at practicing zanjutsu with Kaien when she was tired all the time, but it was worth it when she met weekly with Byakuya to show him her progress. Just to see his slight nod of approval made her so incredibly happy.

"You need to get more rest," Kaien said, putting his zanpakuto away. "You're going to wear yourself out at the rate you're going."

"But there's just so much to learn," Rukia said, her eyes still shining in her eagerness to learn despite her exhaustion.

"And you have many years to learn it," Kaien stated. "Ukitake-taichou asked me to tell you to meet him after our evening practice."

"What for?" Rukia asked, curiosity in her voice.

While the Squad 13 Taichou was friendly to his subordinate, he was often far too sick to interact with them a lot. She actually got to see and talk to Ukitake-taichou far more than other unseated shinigamis, mainly because she was so close to Kaien and Miyako.

"Oh, I have no idea," Kaien responded with a gleam in his eyes.

"I'm sure you don't know," Rukia muttered softly before putting on a bright smile that lit up her tired face. "Thanks again, like always."

"It's not a problem," he said, returning her smile. "You're a good student and I'm sure that soon Ukitake-taichou will have to place you among the seated officers. You're too talented not to be."

Rukia blushed a little and waved goodbye to him. "Have a good night!"

Kaien wished her the same and started heading toward his office where Miyako was patiently waiting for him after returning from her mission. Rukia thought it was rather strange that the Taichou's office was in the opposite part of the building, but it did give her some alone time to gather her thoughts.

She wondered why Ukitake would want to see her. She didn't think it had anything to do with her performance. And just having a chat with him would be kind of strange as well, especially when she wasn't one of the higher seated officers. Rukia took a breath as she stood outside of his office and then softly rapped her hand against the wooden frame.

"Who's there?" Ukitake asked.

"It's Rukia."

"Come in then," he said and Rukia slid the door open and stepped into his office. "Good evening," he greeted her with a kind smile. "Please take a seat."

She knelt on her knees onto the floor and smoothed out her black robes so they looked presentable around her. "Shiba-fukutaichou said you wanted to talk to me?"

"That is correct," he confirmed. "As you know Miyako has returned from her recent mission."

Rukia nodded.

"There is a low level Hollow in the forest, residing in a cave, and he has been creating quite the disturbance recently. Miyako thinks that this Hollow is well within your reach to eliminate and I believe she is correct from her report, so I'm assigning you to your first solo mission."

She looked her Taichou in the eye and asked, "When do I leave?"

"Tomorrow morning," Ukitake replied. "Get a good night's sleep. You'll need it with how hard you've been training."

"Should I report to you tomorrow?"

"Yes," he confirmed. "Rest well."

"I will." Rukia rose to her feet and bowed politely to her Taichou before heading out.

As she walked home, since she wisely decided it wasn't a good idea to wear herself out practicing her shunpo on the way back as she usually did. She wondered how difficult it would be to defeat a Hollow on her own. It wasn't that she didn't think she was capable, she just knew it was wise not to underestimate an enemy, any enemy.

So lost in her own thoughts, she didn't realize she had arrived home and that Byakuya was waiting for her until he said, "You seem lost in your own world."

"Nii-sama!" Rukia exclaimed.

"I finished my work early tonight if you would like to practice your shunpo," he remarked, gazing out to the forest where she practiced when he had the time to watch.

She knew she ought to say no and get ready for bed so that she could get a good night's rest, but Byakuya had been extraordinarily busy of late and she had only been able to show him her recent progress a fortnight ago. Rukia really wanted to show him how far she'd come so she nodded and followed him to the forest.

-

The next morning when she woke up, she didn't feel like getting out of bed, but of all days to want to stay in bed – it couldn't be today. Rukia forced herself to get up and automatically put on her robes and slid her zanpakuto around her waist. She glanced at herself in the mirror and splashed cold water on her face to wake herself up. She didn't look as bright and energetic as she usually did, but she didn't look as tired as she had last night. Unfortunately, she didn't feel as good as she looked.

Rukia sighed and brushed her hair back and went down to the main dining room where she and Byakuya ate their breakfast each morning. She smiled when she saw him and took her seat across from him. They talked more now, although they didn't speak nearly as much as she did with others. Byakuya was simply a much more private person.

"Good morning," he said, returning her smile.

"Hello," Rukai said, sinking onto her mat and moving to pour Byakuya his tea. "I forgot to tell you last night, but I will be going on my first assigned mission."

Byakuya was about to take a sip of his tea, paused instead and set the cup down on the table. "What?"

"It's my first solo mission," Rukia said, obliviously to the tightening expression on his face. "Ukitake-taichou thinks I'm finally ready. I hope I'll do well." She glanced down at her zanpakuto. "I've gotten much better at wielding it, but I still can't quite perform a shikai yet."

"I see," Byakuya said, picking up his cup and slowly drinking his tea.

There was something about his tone that made Rukia look up and while he didn't really have much of an expression on his face, she knew that he didn't want to converse anymore further for the moment. Instead they ate the breakfast the maids brought out in complete silent, like in the beginning when she had first been adopted. It had been awkward then and it was awkward now.

Rukia didn't know what she could to break it, so she just ate as fast as she could without breaking the proper convention and then rose from her seat and bowed to her brother. "I shall be leaving now, Nii-sama."

Byakuya didn't look up. "Very well."

"I don't know how long the mission will take, but I don't think it'll be more than a day." When Byakuya didn't say anything, Rukia sighed softy and murmured, "Have a good day."

She walked swiftly out of the Kuchiki mansion and then sped on her way to Squad 13, thinking all along the way about her brother's abrupt change in mood when she had mentioned she'd been assigned her first mission. She hadn't expected the coldness and certainly hadn't expected him to give her any sort of praise, but she'd expected more than the chilly silence.

Before she knew it, Rukia had arrived at the Squad 13 headquarters and she made her way over to Ukitake's office and he quickly gave her the assignment and wished her good luck. If only Byakuya could be as kind as her Taichou, then her heart would be so light with sheer happiness.

"You don't look at all thrilled to be going on your first mission," Kaien remarked loudly.

Rukia glanced up at Kaien's bright, energetic face and felt some of the heaviness in her heart disappearing. "Just thinking."

"As long as you're thinking about how to get rid of that Hollow real quick and come back so I don't have to be driven insane by Kiyone and Sentaro, that's okay by my book," he said with a grin. "Once we get a few missions under your belt and you master your shikai release, I'm sure you'll get promoted to a seated position."

Rukia smiled back and nodded. "I hope I do well."

"I know you'll do well," he told her confidently. "What you need is to believe in yourself as much as the rest of us do. Don't let anyone bring you down. You work hard and that's going to pay off. In the long run, it isn't about how much talent you have, not that you don't have a lot of talent, but it's really about how hard you work. That's the best predictor of how far you'll go."

"Thank you," Rukia said, her violet eyes shining. "I should be going now."

"Yes," Kaien agreed, "so you can come back to save me as soon as possible."

Rukia laughed and Kaien joined in with her. It felt good to laugh after the horrible morning breakfast with Byakuya. She had no idea what she had done to offend her brother, but she hoped when she had successfully returned from her first mission she could figure out what she could do to make it better. She much preferred to have Byakuya smile faintly then to see no expression on his face.

Rukia waved to Kaien and then took off on her first solo mission where at last she could prove herself to be a real shinigami.

-

A/N: This turned out to be a longer chapter than I expected, so I broke it up into two chapters so that you wouldn't have to wait 5 or 6 days for the next release. I hope you like this chapter and please keep reviewing! It makes it so much easier for me to write with your encouragement!

Released on: 11/16/08