Perfect... Ichigo thought. At a time like this! He picked up the cellphone and was somewhat relived when he saw that it was close to Urahara's place.

    "Is that a Hollow!?" Rukia said.

    "Yeah. But it's fairly close to the place we have to go to. Just run!" It was actually the perfect time to run, an explosion like sound was heard in the distance and the people there had either stopped dead in their tracks or began to flee the area; no attention was drawn to them.

    After running for a few blocks, taking no more than 10 seconds for a needed break, they eventually met the Hollow. It had a spider-like body and of course, was wearing that familiar mask with glowing yellow eyes and teeth shown. It was wrecking havoc on the scenery, and It eventually started chasing a soul.

    "Dammit!" Ichigo shouted. There's still a block and two turns we have to make!"

    "What do we do!?" Rukia looked at Ichigo for help. His brow was furrowed as he was thinking.

    'If you absolutely need her to transform, you'll have exactly five minutes until that seal breaks. If she can't defeat the Hollow by then, well, that will definitely be a problem.' Ichigo remembered Urahara's words carefully.

    "You're going to have to fight it!" Ichigo answered while putting on a red glove. It had a skull with a blue flame behind it.

    "What!? H-how will I--!?" Ichigo slammed the glove onto her forehead and Rukia's soul detached from her body, and there she stood awestruck as her mind tried to comprehend what had just happened. "Wha-what!? Why am I staring at myself!? Am I dead!? Why am I in the shinigami--"

    "You have exactly five minutes until your reiatsu will burst out again! I suggest you hurry and defeat the Hollow!" Ichigo shouted.

    "Uh--r-right!" She unsheathed her zanpakuto and gripped it tightly with both hands, entering a fighting stance. How exactly can I do this...the last time was because of pure luck.

    "Remember to aim for the head, if you do that it will die instantly!"

    "Okay!"

    Rukia forced her legs to start running towards the Hollow. She yelled at the soul fleeing from it to run out of the way. She leapt into the air and swung her sword, but it was easily blocked by one of the Hollow's arms and she was unable tor find her balance. While still in the air, the Hollow knocked her to the side with another one of its arms and, with a grunt of pain, she flew back to Ichigo

    "Rukia! Are you okay?" jogged over to her and kneeled down to check her condition. She managed to sit up and give a thumbs up.

    "Yeah!" she planted a fake smile on her face. "I feel great! -- puh!" Blood had shot out of her mouth, and she clenched her stomach. It slammed her square in the abdomen.

    "You dumbass! At least go at it with some sort of plan!"

    "I'm not good with things like that! Do you have any ideas?"

    "Just... try and sneak up behind it and then strike!"

    Rukia was on her feet. Tch...saying it like it's so simple... she thought as she wiped the blood away from her chin. Dammit, my insides are hurting...that thing packs quite the punch! Panting, she thought of a way to get behind it.

    It's legs towards the middle are parted...it's like four on the left and 4 on the right; if I could just slide under... Rukia charged at it again but did not jump, she stood on the ground. It used an arm once again and Rukia was there fighting against it; the tip of the arm pushing against the side of the blade while Rukia used her right hand for the grip and left hand to support the other side.

    Her arms were shaking and ready to give out. No...not yet! By taking a step back, she was able to lean forwards and push the arm off to the left side and she noticed that the tip of the blade slid across the arm. The first half was unscathed but the second half received a deep cut. Her eyes widened for a second in realization. So that's it! The Hollow was still for just a second, but in that second Rukia, swinging as hard as she could, luckily was able to cut off that arm and the one next to it.

    Now's my chance! Rukia took a small running start and slid under the spider Hollow. She then stood up, turned around, jumped up high and raised her sword. How was that for an inexperienced shinigami, Ichigo? She thought in satisfaction as she brought her zanpakuto down on the Hollow's head. As it collapsed she bounced off of it.

    "Not bad!" Ichigo said while she was in mid-air.

    Rukia intended to land on her feet to greet Ichigo, but that plan was interrupted halfway by a stinging pain in her head. Oh f**k...

    Right after she collapsed, her hands automatically flew to her head in an attempt to block the pain.

    "Rukia!? Is it--!?" There was no doubt about it, her reiatsu began to steadily increase.

    She got to her knees and nodded in response. Ichigo kneeled down to help her up until he realized something felt wrong. We haven't seen the Hollow dissolve yet... He looked up and saw with horror that she didn't cut the Hollow's head deep enough. Now furious, the Hollow charged at them with 6 legs.

    "Rukia! Hurry up and-!" They wouldn't make it. Ichigo tried to push her out of the way, but Rukia noticed this the instant she lifted her head up once she was on her knees. She grabbed his shoulder and threw him to the ground and, despite her throbbing head, she pointed her katana straight at the Hollow's mask with a battle cry.

    Just as the sword pierced the Hollow's forehead, Ichigo felt the reiatsu grow even thicker, it grew so rapidly that he had trouble breathing for a second and that the Hollow could no longer run further just as its head reached the zanpakuto's hilt. Ice slowly spread across the Hollow's mask and then it's entire head shattered into peices, the rest of the body dissappearing into the air.

     Specs of red were visible on Rukia's face and shoulders. Her arm fell and then she was sitting on her feet. She was pale and there was hardly any light in her eyes.

    Did she just use the zanpakuto's power without even releas--!?

    "Ichigo." His thoughts were stopped. He was stunned to see that she maintained consciousness. "Is it me, or does it feel really cold...?"

     Ichigo scrambled to his feet. "Are you insane!?" he scolded as he tried to get her on her feet.

    "Ha!" she replied. "I wasn't about to let you protect me again."

    Ichigo sighed irritably. "Yep, you're definitely crazy. Can you stand?"

    "Yeah..."

    She let out a lot of reiatsu in that attack...maybe we don't need to go there after all.

    "Ohh, look at this!" said a familiar voice.

    "Ah, Urahara! Hehe, and we were so close to the shop..."

    "Is this...Urahara-san?" Rukia asked.

    "So you've heard of me!"

    "Uh, yeah. Why wouldn't she?" Ichigo said.

    "Nevermind about that!" Of course... Ichigo thought. "It seems like you were able to release that extra reiatsu yourself, well done." Rukia chuckled in response.

    "Maybe I'm just that awesome." Ichigo flicked her head. "Ow."

    "But," Urahara continued "it doesn't hurt to check twice. I can see if you got rid of all of it or not, and either way, it seems like you're not doing so well..."

    Rukia had realized just how sore her stomach felt and how painful it was to breathe, and her arms were already bruising. "Yeah, I guess I'm a bit of a mess."

    "Kurosaki-san, have you ever been good with Kido healing techniques?" Urahara asked.

    "Well, not that much. My grades were just passable when it came to healing." He admitted.

    "Then it's settled. Kuchiki-san, I'll take care of those wounds. But wouldn't it be a good idea if Kurosaki-san trained you to fight Hollow instead of you just blindly charging at them?"

    "I was planning to! I just didn't expect that another Hollow would come so soon, and I can't train her during school-"

    "Excuses, excuses." Urahara sang.

     Hmph, this guy... Ichigo thought, annoyed as they walked to the shop.

     ~

    *unedited chapter*

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