She ran and ran.
However, fate had another option, and currently, as she faced her childhood friend, Renji took out his blade and swung at her.
Rukia's instinct kicked in that instant. Immediately, she jumped back, narrowly avoiding the blow meant for her.
Renji, noticing his attack hadn't landed, just smiled.
"So, you are not as out of touch as I thought," the man said, lifting his sword and resting it on his shoulder.
"Don't you think you spent a little bit too long in the human world?"
Rukia did not say anything, her gaze never leaving the man's Zanpakuto.
"Now, spit it out, Rukia. Where is the human who took your Shinigami powers?"
"What makes you think my power was taken away by a human, no less?"
She retorted, yet Renji was ready for this.
Opening his mouth, he said:
"Isn't it obvious? Why else would you have such a human expression on your face?"
Rukia stopped. She hadn't noticed, but her face had kind of given away the fact that she was not in the mood right now.
"You were in the Rukongai with me, and then you were taken in by the noble Kuchiki clan. Aren't you the proud Rukia Kuchiki?"
The next second, sakura flowers could be seen everywhere, as if someone had caused them to appear.
Looking behind her, there he was.
Her brother.
Byakuya Kuchiki.
"Byakuya..." she muttered.
"Rukia," the man answered in a cold voice.
Rukia sensed a kick as she jumped away, barely avoiding another slash from Renji. Her power seemed to be returning to her for some odd reason.
Ignoring Renji's question about who the human she gave her power to was, she watched as Renji began attacking her. She ducked and dodged his attacks with great effort.
The man sped up, which caused her to barely be able to dodge the attacks.
A clean cut could be seen on her cheek, and blood began dripping down it.
She gazed at Renji, who just looked at her and said:
"The only reason you can dodge my attacks is that I let you dodge them. Now tell me, where is the human?"
She didn't say anything and kept defending herself.
As Renji jumped in to hit her, she tried to jump back. However, the slash was way too fast; it was going to cut through her.
Managing to call forth all the power in her body, she barely managed to dodge it.
"The next strike will be fatal," the man said coldly.
Rushing toward Rukia, he raised his blade, slashing toward her. However, before the blade could reach her, the little necklace that Sora had gifted her glowed a faint blue color.
The next second, a shield of Reishi formed around her.
The shield blocked the blow and received zero damage.
"What is that?" The confusion in her voice was palpable, but as she looked at her necklace, glowing brightly, she remembered Sora told her it was a good luck charm.
"What the heck is this?" Renji added, confused.
Slashing at it a couple of times, not even a dent was made on it.
Was this Kido? No, this felt like pure condensed Reishi. What was that? No Shinigami should have that much control over Reishi.
Byakuya's brow furrowed at this.
This seemed like the work of a Quincy. He sure hoped his bad feeling wasn't because his sister was with a Quincy or something.
"Don't think that hiding in this will make you safe," Renji said as he swung his blade at it. However, as the blade made contact, it did zero damage. As a matter of fact, Renji's hand bled from attacking it.
Realizing that at his current level, he wouldn't leave a dent in it, Renji decided to go overboard just a bit.
"Howl, Zabimaru!"
The man's blade transformed into an even longer six-part segmented blade. Each segment was wider than the one preceding it from the hilt, with two pick-like protrusions on the front and back of each segment, the ones on the front much longer than the ones on the back.
Using his blade like a whip, he began whipping the Reishi barrier. Once again, not a crack was formed. Only after hitting it in the same spot for around 15 seconds did a crack begin to appear.
However, before he could attack that spot, a straight arrow barely missed him.
"What the heck?" Renji said, turning his head to see who had shot the Quincy arrow.
Uryu Ishida could be seen in full Quincy outfit, alongside an actual bow.
"Who are you?" Renji asked, looking at the boy.
"None of your business." Could you tell that Sora's personality was slightly rubbing off on Uryu, just a bit?
"What's your business with Rukia?"
"I am just her classmate. I felt like she was getting attacked and decided to come and help." Surprisingly, he didn't try to make any BS excuses, like he was buying some stuff from a grocery shop or just passing by.
"What is your relationship with her that you would be willing to risk your life to save her?" Byakuya suddenly asked. Well, that was a bit out of character, but oh well.
"She is a classmate of mine," Ishida said, pushing his glasses back.
Alright, just a classmate. He could handle that.
"She is also my cousin's girlfriend."
"BANKAI...." {JK}.
A/N..ignore the last part, I was just messing around.