Author's Notes: This is blatantly, horrifically, and defiantly anime compliant only. The third person point of view will be roving on purpose.

Oh, and also, I assume that since the Urahara Shouten didn't sense Grandfisher either, he is hard to sense even for a Captain. Probably why he's around as long as he is.

If I haven't already scared you off from this story, please enjoy.

Chapter One: The Whys

"Where's Ichigo?" Rukia murmured to Renji in one of the grand drawing rooms of the Kuchiki main manor that evening.

"Feeling lonely without him?" Renji grinned as Rukia scowled. "Don't worry. He and Orihime had university finals to finish up, and they're waiting for each other. I guess since they're engaged now, they have to do everything together. It's kind of weird.

"He'll be here," Renji added more seriously. "He wouldn't miss the big night before your Captaincy acceptance ceremony."

Rukia nodded. "Well," she shrugged, pretend casual, "why would I care?" And she smirked and sidled past Renji just to annoy him.

"You just asked! Of course you care!" Renji snapped, annoyed.

Satisfied, Rukia looked out over the turnout. They were in a vast room covered in plush carpets and sofas in the main building of the compound. Here was where the guests waited; the small but lush anteroom was where the presents were gifted to the Kuchiki nobles on special occasions.

Renji was here, of course, as were Ukitake, who was retiring, who had brought Kyouraku, who had brought Nanao who stood stiff and official in her prim spectacles. Ukitake was watching in good-natured amusement as Kyouraku slowly got increasingly wasted beside them. Nanao looked annoyed by the same.

Renji had invited Madarame and Yumichika, who had invited Kenpachi, Yachiru, and Matsumoto, who had invited Hitsugaya. Madarame and Yumichika were joking in a broad way with each other. Kenpachi was annoyed trying to look after an increasingly sugar-high Yachiru. Matsumoto was floating from party to party. Hitsugaya was looking taciturn and slightly put out in a corner. Hinamori, who had come because Hitsugaya had, was talking kindly to Unohana about their most recent flower arrangement class.

Rukia wasn't sure why Unohana was here. She seemed to come to every social function Kenpachi actually attended.

Isane had come with Unohana, her sister in tow. They were currently arguing with Ukitake's two second in commands, Sentaro and Ryunosuke. Kira was somewhat timidly trying to get between them and calm them down. Hinamori and Renji had both invited Kira.

And her brother Byakuya was looking over everything from the head of the room, a silent serving girl beside him.

Yes, the only thing missing was the humans. Ichigo and the other former ryoka would be here soon - his new fiancee Orihime included.

"Ahem - Kuchiki-san."

Rukia looked around in surprise. Standing there, looking shifty and very out of place, was Urahara.

"Can I… talk to you for a moment?" he asked, looking around to every corner of the room.

"Aren't you supposed to be helping Ichigo and everyone get through the portal?" Rukia asked sharply.

"Tessai is doing that. I'm coming on ahead because I wanted to talk to you about something."

"... Okay," said Rukia, looking behind her shoulder briefly at a puzzled Renji, then giving a side glance to her brother, who had also seen her and was frowning slightly. She followed Urahara into the anteroom, a long room with a white cloth leading up to a gold-encrusted raised platform where the Kuchiki knelt to receive gifts.

"What is it?" Rukia asked Urahara. "What's wrong?"

Urahara pulled something out of his long, ratty coat pocket. It was a small purple orb.

"Is that my gift?" said Rukia, puzzled. "Because that time comes later on in the evening -"

"No. It is one of my experiments," Urahara admitted.

Rukia visibly recoiled.

"You know, Urahara," she said in a hard voice. "The last time you gave me something from your laboratory, it did not exactly work out well for me." Her face twisted into a silent snarl.

"I know, I know!" Urahara raised his hands pleadingly, looking for once obviously bewildered. "Do you think I would tell you about it if there was some trick to this?"

Rukia paused, frowning. It was a good point. He could have just disguised the orb as a gift; his opportunity had been perfect.

"Alright, well… What is it, and why does it involve me?"

"There was a Shinigami several hundred years ago whose zanpakuto involved time. He could manipulate small minutes around him, just brief things, and create little portals for himself between them to fight with. I managed to obtain some of his soul DNA -"

"Through illegal means, no doubt."

"Listen to me!" said Urahara urgently. "I mixed some of that DNA with a very powerful reactive chemical. In other words, I've been experimenting with time."

"Yet another thing you shouldn't have been doing," said Rukia, exasperated.

"But it's become… sentient. It's begun predicting things before they happen." Urahara looked around. "But this is the first time it's ever asked for something: It asked to see you. I think there is something it's trying to tell you."

"... Can you give me anything else?" Rukia asked, bewildered.

"It… said it wants you to fix something," said Urahara hesitantly.

Sounds of joking, talking, and laughter could be heard outside the door.

"Well… let me see it, then," said Rukia. Urahara slowly handed it over…

But the minute Rukia's hand held the orb, it pulsed once, she felt a rush of reiatsu inside her, and everything blacked out.

She woke up - to linoleum. And shouting. She was on her face on a linoleum tile floor. She smelled antiseptic. There was shouting.

"Doctor Sakamoto! Doctor Sakamoto!"

Someone was shaking her.

Rukia slowly sat up… and immediately got a rush of memories. She knew this white living world hospital hallway, and yet she didn't. As Rukia she had never seen it before.

But she also suddenly had a rush of memories from a Karakura living world doctor at Karakura General, Sakamoto Sayuri. It was almost like… she was both people.

But she felt inside her soul, and Sode no Shirayuki was still there.

Rukia stood up… and went past the frantic nurses slowly to a nearby piece of glass from a window into an infirmary. She saw her reflection… and her eyes widened.

The face was familiar, and yet it wasn't. She was a tall, pale woman with a long face and a plain bun of black hair. She wore a white doctor's coat. She was Doctor Sakamoto Sayuri.

Somehow, though her zanpakuto remained unchanged, she was no longer Kuchiki Rukia. What had Urahara's Time Orb done?

Examining her face from all angles, she told the confused nurse behind her slowly, "... I believe I may need to sit down." Her voice was quiet, hushed. "I need an empty room."

Sayuri looked up, eyes wide, sitting on the edge of a hospital bed, as Ishida Ryuuken entered the room. The Quincy Who Was Not owned this hospital, and for now he was her boss.

"Now, Dr Sakamoto, the nurses say you suffered -"

And he looked up from his clipboard, paused, studied her closely. He looked puzzled. Sayuri realized it must be her change in reiatsu presence and signature.

"Dr Sakamoto, are you alright?" he asked. "Have you been experiencing anything… odd?"

"I have been feeling under the weather. I tried to come into work today, but I think I might be sick," said Sayuri, trying to smile. Her voice was softer but deeper and steadier than Rukia's, her smile a little kinder and more hesitant but her abrupt laugh more brusque, as she'd learned with the nurses while waving them off a few minutes ago.

"And… nothing else?" Dr Ishida prodded.

"No," said Sayuri, shaking her head, trying her best to seem confused.

"Well… coming in sick to a hospital is very bad. No more of that," he said, going back this clipboard. "A few days off. I'll have someone drive you home."

He was a good boss, she knew from Sayuri's memories - whatever else he was. "Thank you, sir," she said softly.

He turned and Sayuri had a sudden suspicion. "Sir," she said to his paused back, "I forgot to check my calendar this morning and someone in my family has a birthday coming up. What is the date?"

And he turned, and named a date. Sayuri tried her best not to pale.

She had just been thrown into living world Karakura, into someone else's body, over twelve years in the past.

University student, fiancee, and substitute Shinigami Kurosaki Ichigo and his friends were now nine.

Sayuri paced down the sidewalk of Karakura underneath an umbrella in the pouring rain. Cars zoomed past her on one side, a river swelling on the other.

It had been a day and a half, and she still hadn't figured it out.

Urahara had said the Time Orb had wanted her to fix something. What on earth did it want her to fix, all the way back here? When time on the battlefield hadn't even really begun yet?

Suddenly, she heard screaming up ahead. Her head jerked up. A crowd had gathered around the riverbank. But Sayuri hadn't heard anything, no tell-tale Hollow roar, and otherwise… well, she must admit, she hadn't been paying attention.

She hurried over to the riverbank, pushed through the crowds, and couldn't stifle her gasping cry, a hand slapping over her mouth.

Kurosaki Ichigo was nine years old. There was the distinctive orange hair. He was covered in mud and blood, standing beside the upside down body of his dead mother, who lying on her face on the riverbank.

Her back had been torn open, but Grandfisher was long gone with her soul. Because Sayuri was an idiot, and so was Rukia. Grandfisher's method of attack made no sound. That was one of the reasons he was so deadly. He had a way of slipping underneath the radar.

What if Rukia had been supposed to prevent Ichigo's mother's death and she hadn't?

But time continued, no rip in the fabric of the universe occurred. It was like nothing had happened.

And Ichigo was standing there, clutching at himself by the rainy, swelling river in the dark underneath the shade of a willow tree, staring in horror at his mother's body and screaming through the mud and her blood. It was strange, watching a child's entire world break before their wide eyes.

What had happened? Rukia realized she'd never gotten the full story from her Ichigo. How much had he seen at nine?

"- MOM! Mom, please, come back -! I'm sorry, I'm sorry -! Mom, please, come back -! NO, NO, NO -!"

No one knew what to do. He was becoming increasingly hysterical. Rukia had never seen Ichigo so innocent, gentle, and breakable before. She rushed forward, knelt down before him, threw down the umbrella so the rain was falling on both of them and put her hands on his shoulders. Someone had to do something.

Ichigo looked into her worried eyes and stopped screaming, gasping to a shuddering halt, holding his breath with tears in his own eyes, which were wide, gentle, broken, and so very, very young.

"Keep looking at me," she said, her voice hushed over the rain. "It's going to be okay."

"Mom -!"

"I know. It's going to be okay. I'm a doctor; I'm going with you to the hospital. Okay?"

He paused - swallowed and nodded, his eyes locked on her.

The sirens echoed behind them. "Then let's go," she said, picking up Ichigo full body and grabbing his smaller hand in hers. Glowing red lights pulled up beside their part of the street. Ichigo buried his face in her shoulder.

"... What's your name?" Ichigo whispered.

"My name is Doctor Sakamoto Sayuri," she said quietly. "And everything is going to be just fine."

Maybe her point hadn't been to save Ichigo's Mom. Maybe she was here to help him.

She walked with him up to the ambulance. "I'm a doctor at Karakura General," she said in a hard voice, glaring with all the ice of a Kuchiki Shinigami Captain. "I'm going with him."

"Okay," said the first responder, making a snap decision. "Let's get him in here."

"Wh-where are we going?" Ichigo looked around as Sayuri carried him into the back of the ambulance.

"You're being treated for shock at the hospital. I will be with you the entire time," said Sayuri, still holding his hand as he was sat on a stretcher and a blanket was wrapped around his shoulders.

"... And Mom?" he managed.

"The first responders will collect her," said Sayuri as gently as she could, "and call your father."

For some reason, Ichigo's eyes closed in shame.

"Why are you so guilty?" Sayuri wondered. It was something that as Rukia she had never stopped wondering, ever since hearing part of the story.

"I… I saw a girl at the edge of the river and ran across the road to pull her back," Ichigo said in a trembling, broken sort of voice, staring down at his shaking free hand in horror. Hollow lure, Rukia realized, cursing. Grandfisher had done it again. "Mom ran after me… That's what happened, isn't it? She was hit by a car crossing the street?" he asked, looking up. "And now I've taken her from my family?"

What could she do? Say it was a Hollow?

"It's not your fault," said Sayuri, putting an arm comfortingly around him. "But we'll talk about that another time, okay?"

The ambulance doors closed and the ambulance truck itself pulled away, sirens wailing as it sped on the rain-slick, dark gravel roads back toward Karakura General.