WHEN THE SNOW FALLS
by Yih

Chapter Six
Close to the Edge

Ever since this morning when Rukia had told him she would be going on her first mission, Byakuya had been agitated. A mere five years of group missions with a seated officer was hardly enough experience for a solo mission. Although Byakuya had been able to convince Jushiro to block Rukia from seated eligibility, it was clear that Jushiro was not that conservative of a taichou. Byakuya would personally never assign a shinigami that didn't have at least ten years of experience on group missions with an upper seated officer. It was simply too risky.

Which was why, Byakuya thought darkly, that he was standing outside of Jushiro's office after a long day of paperwork when all he really wanted to do was go home and rest. He knocked on the door rather loudly and before Jushiro could even invite him in, Byakuya slid the door open.

"Byakuya-sama!" Jushiro exclaimed. "What do I owe the pleasure?"

"Ukitake," Byakuya said coldly, "why did you assign Rukia a mission?"

Jushiro blinked innocently. "Because she's ready."

"She can hardly be ready. She's only been with you for five years."

"Rukia-san works very hard with Kaien and has improved drastically in the five years she has been in Squad 13. As it is, the only reason she's not yet a seated officer is because of your request," Jushiro stated. "I wouldn't worry about her safety. What you need to think about is if you'll allow me to promote her to the position she deserves."

"Regardless, I still don't think she has enough experience and she has yet to master her shikai release."

"3rd Seat Shiba reported that the Hollow was low level, easily handled by a competent unseated shinigami, much less a shinigami of Rukia's caliber. And other less qualified shinigamis have already been assigned their own missions. It's time for Rukia to have the chance as well. I understand your concern, you do not think I'm so cold that I don't worry about my subordinates?"

Byakuya knew Jushiro usually had sound judgment, but even with Rukia's talent she didn't have the experience necessary to battle a Hollow – low level or not. "I hope your confidence is not misplaced," he stated before turning around heading back out the way he'd come.

"And I hope that you learn to trust in Rukia and her abilities," Jushiro said to the now empty room.

-

She was here and she could feel the faint reiatsu. It was just as Jushiro had briefed her, that this was a low level Hollow that she should easily handle. Rukia quietly moved closer to the very same cave Miyako had pinpointed the Hollow's location.

"What do we have here?" the Hollow said.

It was horrible looking with wide orange eyes on his white mask with pink tentacles coming from the back of his head connected to a green torso with many limbs. Rukia withdrew her zanpakuto and ran from the Hollow, stunned when he threw her back with an easy fling of his tentacle. She barely managed to fend off another tentacle that came at her. She jumped back a good distance and held up her zanpakuto in a defensive stance.

"A tasty little shinigami, what good luck I have. You're the second one tonight."

Rukia focused on the Hollow, realizing suddenly that its reiatsu was not as small as when she had first appeared near the vicinity of the cave. It was a lot stronger and this Hollow couldn't be a low level one. Miyako had been deceived. She would have to be on her guard, Rukia decided, and she would need to use every skill Kaien had taught her.

Rukia leapt out of the way when the tentacles came at her and slashed downwards with her blade, slicing into the Hollow's flesh, drawing blood, but unfortunately not able to move away fast enough from being hit squarely in the abdomen by one his limbs. Rukia doubled over in pain and when another limb hit her in the back, she fell to the ground, holding up her zanpakuto to brace herself against the Hollow's attacks.

"You're not much stronger than the other shinigami, but you smell so much tastier," the Hollow declared. "What a treat."

Rukia parried the Hollow's tentacles away and managed to get to her feet as she wondered frantically what she should do, there was no way she could defeat a Hollow of this level. Even on group missions, they had never come across a Hollow this strong. She wasn't good enough, but she wasn't going to die here. She concentrated and used shunpo to move behind the Hollow and wound it twice from behind before he could even react.

"Small and quick," the Hollow muttered. "No matter, you'll die right now."

The Hollow shot its pink tentacles at Rukia and it was all she could do to shunpo out of the way. She had no idea what he had intended to do, but she knew that she couldn't defeat this Hollow. No matter, she thought fiercely, gripping her zanpakuto tightly. She was a proud member of Squad 13 and she would not go down without a fight. Kaien would be proud.

Rukia shifted her zanpakuto to her left hand as the Hollow charged at her, pointing her right hand at him and shouted, "Hado yon byakurai!"

Pure and powerful white lightening shot out of Rukia's finger and sped toward the Hollow, but it only grazed his shoulder as he effectively dodged the hado #4. Rukia braced her zanpakuto with both of her hands, not having much reiatsu left after expending most of it on that particular hado spell.

She was going to die here, she thought with dismay, and she was never going to see her friends or Byakuya again. Her heart felt heavy, but now was not the time to get caught up in such emotions. Instead she lifted her zanpakuto for her last defense and surprisingly felt no retaliation from the Hollow.

"Hey," Kaien said to Rukia's shocked face as he sliced off several of the tentacles that would have bore down on her. "Seems like Miyako was mistaken. I'll have to tease her about that later."

"Kaien-dono!" Rukia exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"Saving my subordinate," he responded easily as he thrust his zanpakuto at the Hollow.

However, the Hollow jumped out of the way and his ugly face twisted into a sneer. "Two vs. one. Cowards!" he exclaimed before he turned and ran away.

"Well," Kaien shouted after him, "we're not the ones running away!"

Rukia and Kaien watched the Hollow disappear at a rather spectacular speed. Rukia was sure though that if Kaien had wanted to give chase, the Hollow wouldn't have had a chance. She let out a sigh of relief and fell to her knees. She was exhausted and lucky that she had only suffered minor, superficial wounds.

"Are you all right?" he asked as he knelt down beside her.

"Thanks to you," Rukia said softly, not able to look her Fukutaichou in the eye after not only failing her mission, but also needing to be rescued.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of," Kaien remarked. "You wore him down for me, otherwise, who knows how I might have fared?"

Rukia looked up at him with suspicious eyes and Kaien held out his hand. "Come on, let's get you back to the barracks and get you healed up. You wouldn't want your brother to see you like this, would you?"

Sometimes it was a pity that Kaien knew her so well, Rukia thought sourly, he knew exactly how to manipulate her to get what he wanted. For all his brash honesty, he could be a sneaky bastard.

"Can't get up?" Kaien asked. "Want me to carry you?"

"No!" Rukia shouted, grabbing his hand and getting up on her own accord. "I'm perfectly capable."

"I know you are," Kaien told her. "I'm glad you know it as well."

-

A/N: I hope you don't mind that I've played a little with the Bleach storyline/timeline, but I'll probably keep doing this. Certain things are going to happen that will be different than the anime/manga, but I don't think that'll be a bad thing. Let me know if there's anything in particular you want to see and maybe it'll appear! Thank you for reading and please keep up the encouraging reviews! 

Released on: 11/19/08