There's still a chance that he won't hear her if she speaks. A chance that he is only minutely attuned to her spirit, enough to catch her general location, but not enough to see, not enough to hear. But in spite of all that, Rukia thinks that odds are, she's been spotted. His curiosity, piqued. And it seems more prudent to address it than to leave the man, or creature, or whatever he is to his own devices.

So she turns her own gaze, looking him squarely in the eye.

"Were you planning on saying anything?" she asks, an almost authoritative tone in her voice as she glances with no small amount of aplomb. He may be larger than her, he may even be older than her, but that doesn't mean that she's in any way helpless.