Needless Emotions

Pinned by the sudden arrival of her pursuers, Rukia bolts through the streets and remembers an ordinary afternoon spent with her female classmates, who pressed her about whether she and Ichigo were anything more than friends. She waved every question away, telling herself all the while that affection, romance, and friendship are nothing but distractions, feelings a Shinigami has no use for and can only be burdened by when the time comes to leave.

Renji drops from a utility pole and drives his blade into the pavement at her feet, mocking how dull two months in a borrowed body have made her. He demands the whereabouts of the human who took her powers, brushing aside her denials and pointing to the too-human look on her face as proof. Reminding her that she was raised from the slums of the Rukongai into the Kuchiki household and drilled her whole life to be a soldier, he calls on her brother to confirm it, and Rukia turns to find Byakuya standing silently behind her.

A horizontal slash opens a cut across Rukia's cheek as Renji declares that handing a Shinigami's power to a human is a capital crime, one that Central 46 has entrusted the pair to punish directly. He orders her to surrender the culprit, certain she only survived his strikes because he allowed it. Before he can finish the job, an arrow whistles past his skull. Uryu steps into view, pushes his glasses up his nose, and introduces himself as a classmate of Rukia's with no love for Shinigami. The chapter was drawn on for episodes 15 and 16.