He looked surprised by her response, the way she joked so easily about it, but he nodded all the same. He couldn't bring himself to smile yet. If Rukia wasn't going to make a fuss over it, he wouldn't either.

"I suppose so," he replied, as though thinking on it for the first time. His left arm was always bandaged in the day time, but his right was terribly stiff and ached after last night. The healers had helped, but it was fairly tender. "It's nothing though. There were healers, so really I'm fine." He chewed thoughtfully on a bite of his food.