Small gasps of pain was the only sound Rukia could make, warm blood running down her robes and dripping to the floor. She rolled her blurring eyes to merciless Tatsuki, who was smirking in victory.

    "Awh, you hardly put up a fight, Miss. I-Wounded-A-Menos-Grande." She placed her other hand on Rukia's shoulder and then yanked her other arm back, earning a shriek from her opponent and specks of blood flying to her shoulders and partially her face. "Tch." Tatsuki pushed her to the ground. "Don't worry," she assured as she flicked her arm to get the blood off. "I missed a vital spot for you, so you can live a little longer to understand our power gap."

    She walked over to Rukia and grabbed her shoulder, pulling her up from the small pool of blood that formed. "Come on now, sit up." She said as the girl clinging to life cried in pain. "See this?" Tatsuki gestured towards her arm. On her right arm was a kind of a red sleeve, reaching to the middle of her arm. At the end of it, it had a curled pattern to allow Tatsuki to freely bend her elbow. As if it were resistant to blood, it all dripped off in a matter of moments to reveal a white sleeve with a silver zigzag running across it, as if meant to look like a lightning strike. "Zanpakuto can change size and shape based on it's owner's spiritual power. This is a representation of my spiritual power."

    She's too strong...will I die and go to Soul Society?

    "Look, sorry this had to happen to you, but we gotta go. It's really your fault that you went to look for Ichigo after he ran away just to keep you safe."

    Ichigo managed to break free of his father's grip, and sprinted to them. Isshin simply watched as he got in between the two, Tatsuki backed up a few steps. "That's enough!"

    "'The hell are you doing Ichigo!? Are you asking for an extra 10 years to your sentence!?"

    He put his hand on Rukia's shoulder. "Can you stand? If you can still move in any way, then get out of here!"

    "Don't worry, I never planned to finish off such a weak opponent-..."

    Ichigo had hoisted her up to her feet and immediately used kido to heal her. "Fuck. You."

    Tatsuki grit her teeth. "What happened to you? What had to happen for you to become so devoted to a 'friend' that you've known for just 3 months!?"

    "Haha, must be the human lifestyle - they easily get attached to others."

    "Huh, I was wondering why she did something as stupid as going after you."

    Rukia took a deep breath and it was visible in the air. She grabbed Ichigo's hand that was healing her stomach, even though she knew the pain would immediately return, and moved it aside.

    "Rukia?" She grit her teeth when she was stung by the pain again, but he had healed her just enough to stop the heavy bleeding, which was good enough for her right now.

    "Thank you, Ichigo." She bent down with her arms and legs shaking violently,  reaching for her dropped katana. Every moment caused more suffering, even when she breathed as lightly as she could. Who am I kidding; this hurts like hell.

    Ichigo grabbed her free arm, she would have collapsed again had he not done that. "Not the proper thing to say when you were about to fall again!"

    "How did you even put up with this?! Does she not know when she's lost the battle? Ugh!" Tatsuki said, annoyed. "Listen very carefully, kid. You lost, we won. You'll die and Ichigo will get his powers back, then he will die in Soul Society, okay?"

    A light breeze played with Rukia's hair and robes; Ichigo retreated his hand that was supporting her an instant after that. It's freezing out here... great. Tatsuki prepared to attack her again, until she felt a slash on her arm and the blood rush down her skin and cling to her sleeve.

    What!? Rukia was behind her, and she swung at her again. It grazed her from her collarbone to her shoulder. What's with this increase in spiritual pressure!? Wasn't she gonna die a second ago!?

    "Awh, you're hardly putting up a fight, 'real' Shinigami." Rukia mimicked her tone perfectly. The wind from her reiatsu caused their hair and clothes to fly around crazily. "I thought you were the quick type?"

    "Shut up! You've just gotten faster!"

    "Even I have no idea what's going on, but this is awesome! Nothing hurts anymore!" Rukia couldn't hide the arrogant smile that crept up onto her face. 

    "Rain death upon her, Kisode!" Rukia felt that funny sensation from watching Tatsuki take her stance and start to run towards her, but all she had to do was increase her reiatsu and Tatsuki almost tripped. Shoot!

    Rukia jumped and swung her blade down at her opponent, who was just barely able to dodge. "Maybe I don't have to worry about losing to you anmore!" She snickered. "Ha!" She aimlessly swung again, but the power of it was so great that Tatsuki felt like she had fallen in ice water, the shock throwing her off.

    What in the--!? Missed again, luckily for her. The air around Rukia was condensing from the cold. Calm down...in just 7 more seconds I can... Ice was beginning to cover the sword, beginning from the hilt. What!? What is she doing!?

    It's happening again!  Ichigo thought. Ice is slowly forming around -- my god!

As he was thinking, the ice grew rapidly, thinly covering the entire sword. Didn't she pass out the last time before any of the ice appeared?

    "Wha-!?" It's so cold... my muscles are too stiff! Rukia dashed to her. Dammit, I can't attack her!

    The next scene that appeared in Rukia's eyes was her sword melted from the end almost to the hilt. Huh? What did she... No, she didn't do anything. Was it that guy- she turned towards Ichigo and the other shinigami,  who wasn't standing there. Judging by Ichigo's shocked look, something was about to happen. She then looked over to her left where the shinigami was, zanpakuto drawn and pointed at her. Before she could do anything, it felt like the temperature skyrocketed and she was sweating in seconds and choking on the humid air.

    "You can do it now, Tatsuki." Isshin said. There was no longer any playfulness or joking in his voice. Rukia quickly turned back to Tatsuki, felt the weird strain in her eyes again, and suddenly there was blood spurting from wounds that felt like were inflicted before Tatsuki even reached her. And then the pain kicked in.

    It wasn't like the ones before, it was on a whole other level. Not only her psychical body, but every inch of her soul was hurting. As soon as the ground met her face, she could only ask one thing: What the hell just happened...?

    "Rukia!" Ichigo was sprinting over to them. Just as he was about to reach them, Isshin blocked his way.

    "Don't." 

    "Otosama!?"

    "Ichigo, it's over. Look, she's dead." Reluctantly, he peeked over his father's shoulder to see an unmoving girl lying in a small pool of blood. He narrowed his eyes more.

    "So? She got tangled in this mess because of me anyways, what's wrong with going over to her!?" He yelled.

    "You idiot! Are you begging us to add more to your sentence!?" Tatsuki shrieked. She bent down and angrily grabbed the robes at the nape of Rukia's neck, showing her face. "For this? This child?"

    "Ichigo." He looked back to his father. "You really cannot leave without going to her?" Isshin glanced back at Rukia. "Yeah...I noticed it to. She had that fighting spirit, just like her's."

    "..."

    "Wh...at?" A pale hand reached for Isshin's robes. " 'She's dead.' 'Fighting spirit like her's'. Don't leave me out of the conversation when I'm a big part of the topic!"

    "Ru-!!..."

    Tatsuki yanked her neck back. "Hey! Are you seriously still alive? You don't know when to give up and die, do you?" She dropped her head and then stood up, stepping on her back with one foot to keep her from going anywhere.

    Isshin sighed. "Look, I wanted this to be as peaceful as it possibly could have been, just let it go." (Don't you dare -->)

    "I'm sorry, I couldn't quite catch that..." Her hand felt crushed. What the-?

    It was Ichigo, he stomped down on her hand. "Filthy human." He growled angrily. "How dare you touch otosama!? Know your place, you stupid girl!"

    Ichigo...are you for real-!? Her eyes stung. You've gotta be kidding me...he seriously broke my hand.

    "You guys were right. This world has blinded me, but now my eyes are wide open." He lifted his foot from Rukia's hand. "This weakling doesn't even deserve a final blow, just let it bleed to death." There was no sympathy, no emotions in his voice. "Just take me to Soul Society so I can pay for my crimes, it's reasonable to die for the things I did here." He began to walk away.

    "What are you saying!?" Rukia shakily yelled. "Is this some kind of joke!?" No response. "Dammit, look at me!" Nothing. "Ichigo!" She tried to get up--

    "Don't move!!" It stung to hear him like this. "If you take even one step after me, or even try to follow," he faced her, the rage on his face "I'll never forgive you!" She cringed from his yelling, tears barley visible in her eyes. It was always words or thoughts that really got to her. "You'll die anyways, so just lie there and live for as long as you can." Rukia's eyes fell to the ground.

    "Fine, we don't have to finish her." Tatsuki said while the gloves and shoes dissolved into the bright dust and then condensed again into the form of a sword. "I completely destroyed her chain link and soul sleep, give her an hour and she'll be dead." She removed her foot from Rukia's back and walked over to Isshin. "Even if she lives, there won't be a thread of reiatsu left. And shinigami powers are definitely out of the question."

    She turn to Isshin. "Should I open the gate?" He nodded. Tatsuki drew her sword and looked at the blank space in front of the her, where she placed her zanpakuto and it dissappeared up to the hilt; it must have been some invisible lock because she turned it and a gate that looked like an ordinary Japanese door appeared.

    Three jet black butterflies out as they walked through the gate with a white backround. With every step Ichigo took towards that door, the more Rukia was hoping he would run, just let it close and he would go into hiding in the real world. But the gates closed and dissappeared into thin air.

    Dammit...I was protected again!

    ~☆~

    Unedited!

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