#a little renruki too

[recurring-polynya]

Bleach Returns 2024 - Day 1 - Fave Character

Kuchiki Rukia and Abarai Renji don't make me choose between them i refuse

[renjirukia]

tbh i don't think too hard about the forty year renruki separation beyond the angst of the pining and avoidance but in an effort to un-vague that time period and make some sense as to why renji is so aggressive towards rukia during the arrest/reunion i have some thoughts.

more under the cut because this got long

first let's talk about the break up. they've been drifting apart since arriving at the academy; they're in different classes ; renji gets sorted into the advanced class while rukia is not and this creates a shift in their dynamic; as it's implied rukia was very much the leader of their little gang. renji doesn't seem to mind the shift as he finally gets an edge over rukia and likes to show off though there isn't any kind of malicious intent in his behavior. rukia on the other hand is going through an intense case of cultural shock, her shift in dynamic with renji is distorting her own self-perception and making her feel cut off from her one friend in the world. enter byakuya. rukia is hesitant to accept the offer of adoption but at renji's boisterous (and somewhat forced) encouragement she takes the offer. i think renji's actions here devastated rukia and saw it as a confirmation that she was right in feeling like she was being left behind or cast aside.

now the intervening years. in the soul society arc the root conflict between them is that she is a noble and he isn't and that class disparity is why they can't "be together" though there isn't much evidence of the gotei adhering to such a rigid caste system and that class mingling is acceptable at least during work hours (and like everyone wondered why renji just didn't get a job at the 13th if he wanted to hang out with her so bad). we don't learn too much of what they got up to during their estrangement other than rukia's kaien trauma and her tenure as one of the more unlucky heroines from an 18th century gothic novel. while renji graduated school went to the fifth got transferred to the eleventh and somewhere in their picked up the goal of surpassing byakuya. we get a glimpse when renji tells ichigo "for a long time... a real long time... for decades... rukia and i... ...had drifted so far apart we wouldn't even pass by each other. it was you... who closed that... distance between us."

Like i said i don't think academy renji was fully aware of how hard of a time rukia was having at adjusting to seireitei life. he teases her about not "getting with program yet" but i think renji was confident in rukia's moxie that he figured she would eventually settle in. i don't think it was much later he realized there were irreparable cracks in their relationship. in chapter 98 as rukia walks away he narrates "rukia finally had a real family. let her go... don't get in the way... that's what I told myself." but it bleeds into the present day and it reads like a retrospective rationalization. "but thinking back...maybe i was just... afraid."

ok the point finally. now this part is just speculation and headcanon-ery but that's the lifeforce the animates any fandom so... basically i think rukia ignored renji. hard. after he finally went to work in the gotei 13 and i think it blindsided him. it's never stated exactly when renji decided to surpass byakuya but in the (frankly incredible) chapter 144 flashback kira tells renji "i suggest you stay away from her. for your sake and hers. i'm sure she realizes that she's not like us." and as that scene does not take place during their academy days i read it as renji only at that moment understanding the full breadth of their separation. i'm not sure i take kira's word as law wrt to her intentions because frankly he doesn't know her like that, and instead i see it more as kira encouraging his friend to move on and uses their difference in social status as a reason for her snubbing him ( rukia doesn't care about social status and it's not something she could have picked up from byakuya because 1. he doesn't talk to her 2. byakuya himself doesn't care about social status). next we cut to ikkaku saying "wow. that's quite a goal. to become stronger than kuchiki byakuya." and finally yumichika in all his wisdom sums up their break up era, "it's a difficult thing. discouraging, isn't it? it's always easier to tear down than to build. and much more difficult to tie than untie."

i read these scenes as a cause-and-effect from the order presented to us. rukia ignores renji (because from her pov he dumped her and she still feels some type of way about it) -> kira witnesses said ignoring and tries to impart some advice -> renji doesn't agree with the advice because he can see different social classes interacting all the time but kira's minor nobility does hold some weight with him so he takes what he wants from the advice -> concocts a plan to surpass byakuya (love the vague word choice surpass him in what? social status? ability? height? i don't think renji really knew instead using it as a launch pad to get back into rukia's good graces, because once they start hanging out again he seems more than fine with being byakuya's 2nd) -> yumichika imparts his own advice (which reads more like a thesis statement of the arc the way "a heart is born between two people" was used during the hueco mundo arc) but in the context of the scene he's sympathizing with renji and his relationship woes; "rukia finally had a real family. let her go... don't get in the way... that's what I told myself. but thinking back...maybe i was just... afraid." renji had doubts about pursuing rukia this way, but kept on course because he was uncertain he was in a position to 'tie' the relationship back together, but doesn't want to 'untie' it either.

now the other point; renji's aggression during the arrest. renji has dedicated a huge chunk of his (after)life into reaching a position where they can be equals again, and here rukia is fucking it all up with her "antics" as he later calls them. and if he's been living with the idea that rukia won't talk to him because of the gulf in their social status and here she is living amongst humans (not sure where humans sits on the soul society social hierarchy but i'm gonna guess they're not even considered they're so low) it probably brings up some deep resentments, i don't think renji has the heart to truly stay pissed at her for long and when ishida and ichigo step onto the scene they make for much easier targets. this isn't renji at his best, but i can see where he's coming from, and he drops the act completely when it becomes obvious rukia is willing to go to jail for a long time for ichigo's sake.

ok wow this really got away from me and i've forgotten the point i was trying to make BUT tl;dr i think the renruki break up is more complicated than initially presented and there are some incredible unexplored avenues of angst.

[gauchestardust]

Lipstick - a RenRuki fanficfion.

In the Kuchiki manor, Rukia sits on the floor, Renji, who got invited by the girl, does the same, as the only thing separating them is the kotatsu. The manor's ambient is silent and solitary. The duo doesn't share a single word – they've been together since they were kids, Renji always talked to Rukia about literally anything. A mutual trust. The two shinigami know very well they can tell anything to each other. But this time: something's off. Both shinigami avoid each other's stares. Their faces are pink, red even, and hot too. It's like they were in a hot summer, although it's actually a very cold winter in Soul Society.

After what feels to be an eternity of silence, the red-haired shinigami finally speaks up. "So, Rukia...what have you been up to these days? I've been too busy working with Kuchiki-taicho– your brother. And...yeah, we didn't see each other a lot." He asks. In the same moment, the black-haired girl replies. "Ah, I think I've been okay. Matsumoto-san from the 10th division asked me to go shopping with her. I tried to tell her i needed to finish my duties with Ukitake-taichou, but well, it's Matsumoto Rangiku...she obviously haven't heard me." She replies.

"Ehh? And what have you two bought?"

"Well- a lot of clothes for Matsumoto-san, and she also offered herself to buy some dresses for me. And that's what she did." Sigh. "And also...a lipstick."

"Lipstick?? Really, Rukia? I don't think I remember ever seeing you wearing those."

"She told me it would be a great idea! For a..." At the moment Rukia formulates this phrase, her face slowly turns pinker than it already was. "...a certain reason."

"Oh really? And what would THAT reason be?" Renji comes closer to Rukia's face, with a smirk, as the girl tells him to shut up. "Mhm? Come on!"

"Ngh...!" She groans, pulling the redhead away. She gets up, walking to the closest dressing table. She approaches the small mirror and slowly applies the pink lipstick. Rukia does it in a slow pace, trying to seduce Renji (jokingly www). And surprisingly, it worked...! When the black-haired girl put the piece of makeup down, she saw him blushing even more.

"She looks so...h-hot..." Thinks Renji Abarai to himself, and quickly notices Rukia doing a gesture with her hand – a sign of 「come closer ♡」 – an opportunity he surely doesn't want to lose. The red-haired shinigami looks at his surroundings. "...well...Byakuya-taichou isn't here. Which means YOUR BROTHER isn't here. S-so..."

Renji gets up and walks to Rukia. Their huge size difference is noticeable. The male red-haired shinigami is so tall, being impressively 188cm (6'2 ft.), while the female black-haired shinigami is so petite, being just 144cm (4'9 ft.) – and he LOVES IT in her. He easily lifts her up, squeezing her small waist. She's just like a goddess in all ways! But that doesn't matter. At least not for now. It's time for Renji Abarai to feast the main course: her lips. This make him feel like fainting...!

They want to lose control. Renji wants to play with Rukia's lips, coated by that pink lipstick – it even has a scent, cherries...probably has a taste too.

"Ready?" The star asks.

"You bet I am." The stray dog replies.

But in the moment their lips are almost touching, both just pull away, blushing. "A-agh...! I don't know if I can do this...! I've never done this before..." The short shinigami groans, holding on her hairlocks. As for the tall shinigami, letting out a small sigh, gently holds her by the cheeks. Oh god...she's so soft, like a little bunny...

"Yo, Rukia. Don't worry, okay? Y-you know it's also my first kiss." He grins. "I gotta be honest. Since we've begun to get closer to each other...even before training to be shinigami...I have always dreamed of having you on m-my arms...you know, kissing you...–"

"..." Rukia doesn't know what to say. She just keeps listening.

"And y'know...knowing my first kiss will actually be with you...i-it's so— m-mhm...?!?!"

Renji looks down, only to see he got interrupted by Rukia, pulling him by the yukata's collar, on the tip of her toes. Her lips finally touches his. A kiss that starts kindly, but slowly turns into a hot kiss, as Renji holds Rukia on his arms, sharing the pinnacle of passion for a silly duo of teen lieutenants.

He responds to this, pinning her on the floor, with her arms open, as the kiss keeps going. Not only their lips touch, but their tongues too. Rukia lets out soft moans, squirming in pleasure. "Renji~...o-oh my god...~" She says, breaking the kiss. "T-that was...wonderful...magical..."

"Ehehe...y-yeah...that was awesome, Rukia. Look, thank you so much. Thanks for being my first one." Renji speaks up, thanking her. He have always known, but now it's definitive: he wants to be with Rukia Kuchiki forever. He wants to marry, have a life with her.

But before he could even finish the phrase, this time he gets pinned in the floor. He looks at Rukia pinning him, seeing a smirk on her face. He's going to get rewarded.

.

.

.

Now, the only things heard inside the Kuchiki manor were kissing, smooching noises and the male shinigami moaning. And after that, Rukia picked up the small mirror from the dresser and showed it to Renji. The redhead had the best vision he'd ever seen on his entire life, his reflection, his loose hair, as Rukia untied it during their moment; his face full of her lipstick marks, not only face, but neck too. And it's obvious that the shorter shinigami wouldn't stop right there.

"Well~ since my brother isn't here...we can make the most of our little fun time. Let's just hope no one comes at us now~" Rukia says, trying to act seductively. Turns out she's not the absolute best at this, but Renji loves it anyway.

"Oh god. Why not? We're lieutenants, we gotta have a break sometime." Renji gets up, picking up Rukia and carrying her to her room. It's so...so adorable. He puts her down on the bed and decides to take a look at the room.

It's full of bunny related things, especially related to chappy. There's some dresses scattered in the closet, the dresses Rangiku bought to Rukia, and also that dress Uryu made for her. And also...he notices something on the counter, he looks closer and picks it up.

It's that Chappy keychain he gave her while she was hurt, resting on that futon. He bought to her but turns out at the time, Ukitake-taichou gave her a HUGE Chappy, bigger than Soul Society as a whole. He got very envious and jealous at the time. He looks at the Chappy keychain, seeing she took great care of it, she actually loved it...it's a dear gift for her. Despite not being very used to affection, those gifts were the embodiment of heaven to Rukia. Gifts that comforted her.

The two lieutenants look at each other as Renji walks to Rukia and hugs her. "I love you." That's what they say at the same time, descending into their little heavenly moment of kissing — with love, a small temporary paradise for them.

.

.

.

Some days after their act, Rukia encounters Rangiku walking on the snowy streets, wearing a charming, pink scarf. "Ah, Matsumoto-san...!" The shorter girl calls her attention. The busty woman turns to her, examining Rukia with her blue eyes.

"Oh? Oh, hey, Kuchiki-chan!" She grins, leaning at her. "Why are you speaking to me all of sudden? I thought you'd be busy." Rangiku says, chuckling. Rukia just rolls her eyes.

"I just wanted to thank you..." She says, looking at Rangiku's grin turning into a confused face. She then explains. "You know...thank you for giving me that lipstick. It was because of it I could...a-agh..." She pulls the taller woman closer and whispers in her ear. "I-I filled Renji with kisses...and he loved it."

"Y-you what?!?! My my...! I'm so happy for you, Rukia...how was it? Did you two enjoy the moment?" The busty lady asks gently, seeming genuinely happy for Rukia. "You deserve it! You two are so close to each other...it was already expected."

Rukia blushes, looking away. "Y-yeah. But anyways...thank you so much, Matsumoto-san...I could finally kiss him...well, we can...go shopping later in the human world if you want to." The black-haired girl smiles and then walks away.

Rangiku Matsumoto waves to Rukia as she walks away. Then, she turns to walk back to the 10th division. "She's so happy, it's adorable. It surely worked. I'm so glad I could help her in love~"

Additional notes: look, this was my first...long fanfiction? since the others i have made were too short, though that ive never submitted them. i will post this one on AO3...when i have the motivation to.

i'm not used to writing these, but i hope you all like it. i'm a fan of renruki (i want to find more merch of them but it's so hard to find in aliexpress...), and to satisfy my renruki needs, i wrote this. hope you like it.

[substituted-shinigami]

Peaceful Day, Peaceful Night

AO3

Characters: Rukia and Renji (RenRuki)

Rating: G

Genre: Slice of Life, Domestic Fluff

Chapter Summary: It’s the little moments, the in-between times, even when they’re short, I’m glad I spent them with you. Renji and Rukia find little ways to support each other during these hectic times. (Post WDKALY, Loosely inspired by Fargo, Author’s Note after the story)

Part of the "We Can't All Be Winners" anthology series of oneshots.

************************************************************************

How much jail time would you get for killing a Hell Butterfly, I wonder? Rukia grumbled to herself. She had been sleeping in late on one of her and Renji's few days off together, when a black butterfly woke her up by alighting on her hand.

“Everything alright?” mumbled Renji’s sleepy voice next to her, his arm draped lazily across her midsection, and his face pressed into her hair. Rukia sighed, before slowly sitting up, gently releasing herself from his embrace.

“No…I gotta go into the Thirteenth Division...some problem or whatever. Sorry, Renji.”

“Eh. Can't be helped. But you gotta eat breakfast, Ru. I’ll make ya some eggs,” Renji simply yawned back as he slowly sat up too. Rukia whipped her head around towards him.

“What? Renji, you don’t have to-”

“You gotta eat some eggs, you’re no good without your protein," he stated matter-of-factly as he swung his legs off of their new tatami bed. He slowly stood up, stretched, and yawned again. “Plus, you tend to get pretty crabby without it," he finished as he cracked his back.

“Psh. Thanks a lot,” Rukia smirked, as she swung her legs off the bed as well and slowly stood up too. She stretched as Renji walked around towards her.

“You’re welcome," he smirked back. He bent down and gave her a quick kiss, "Go ahead and get ready. It’ll be done by the time you’re finished.”

"Thanks, babe," she replied, and headed towards the bathroom.

When she finished dressing, she came out to the kitchen to find the table already set, a plate of eggs for each chair and a giant stack of pancakes in the middle. Rukia blinked in surprise.

“Pancakes…?” she asked as she sat down.

“Oh yeah, I learned how to make them from Orihime. Ichigo told me you liked them, so I figured I’d give them a try,” Renji replied as he brought over the syrup and hot sauce, “Go on, try 'em!”

Rukia cut up her pancake, before dousing it in syrup. She picked up a piece with her chopstick and took a tentative bite.

“This…is delicious, Renji!” she began shoveling pancakes into her mouth. Renji laughed and began pouring them both some tea.

“Glad you like it.”

“And you made all this and the eggs too in such a short time?” Rukia asked when she took a break from inhaling pancakes to sip some tea, “That’s amazing!”

"Heh. Got to if I'm going to keep up with your appetite!" Renji replied as he finally sat down.

"Hmph! It's not my fault you make such tasty food," Rukia sniffed as she covered her eggs in hot sauce, and began shoveling them in her mouth as well. Renji chuckled as he sipped his tea.

It was a peaceful morning.

__________________________________

When Rukia finally made it back to the house, it was late in the evening, the sun having set long ago. Renji came to meet her at the door.

“How did it go?” he asked.

“Fine. We got the problem solved, anyway,” Rukia said, as she slipped off her sandals. She stood up on her tiptoes to kiss him, “Are you hungry? Sentaro felt bad about calling me in on my day off, so he made me some massaman curry and rice. I told him not to worry about it, but he insisted. Also, I picked up some sweet mochi on the way home for dessert.” Renji smiled at her toothily.

“Sounds great! I’m starved!”

“Sorry I’m back so late,” Rukia said, as she followed him into the kitchen, “You could have eaten without me, you know?”

“Yeah, I know, but I like eating dinner with you,” He replied as he got out the bowls.

As they sat quietly eating dinner, Rukia looked up at Renji and asked, “So how was your day? Anything exciting happen?”

“Hm? Yeah, actually!” he put his spoon down, and began to gesture enthusiastically with his hands,”You know that sunglasses design contest that Silver Dragonfly Eyewear was having? The design I entered won one of the brackets!” Rukia stopped mid bite, and looked up at him wide eyed.

“R-Really?!”

“Yeah! It…" but Renji's voice began to falter. He picked up his spoon again and slowly stirred his curry into his rice, "Well to be honest, I only got picked for the lowest bracket. It’s really just an honorary mention of designs that they liked, and that will be shown off in their magazine at the end of the month. So basically, I didn't even win a cash prize, so it’s not really that big of a deal, but…” he was then immediately interrupted by Rukia standing up, reaching across the table, and slapping both of her hands on his shoulders, gripping them tightly.

“Renji, that’s amazing! You won an art contest! I knew you could do it! When that magazine comes out, I’m gonna frame it on the wall!” She said excitedly, eyes gleaming. Renji looked up into her shining eyes, and felt his heart lurch in his throat.

“Thanks, Ru…”

“Idiot, what are you thanking me for? You’re the one who won the contest,” Rukia said, sitting back down, “Come on, hurry up and finish eating. Now that we have a tv, I want to watch cheesy rom-coms with you while we cuddle on the couch and eat mochi.” She picked up her spoon and began shoveling curry into her mouth again. Renji smiled at her fondly.

“Pfft. Okay, you got it.”

It was a peaceful evening.

>>>>>>>>>> Author’s Note &lt;;<<;<<<<<<<

A/N: Let’s finish off the year with some RenRuki domestic Fluff! This is loosely inspired by the main couple in Fargo, and just how well they both support each other, but more specifically the scenes near the beginning and the end with the eggs and the stamp collection. Now admittedly I’ve never actually seen Fargo, instead I heard about it from a Drawfee stream. But the host described the scene so warmly and so beautifully, I just had to make a RenRuki version of it! (I did eventually watch those scenes on youtube as well.)

Anyway, that’s it! Thank you all for reading, but really, thank you all so much for such a wonderful first year! The support has been amazing and I truly don’t deserve you all! While this is the end of this year's anthology series, if you would like even more RenRuki, then worry not! Starting in December I will be posting my first ever multi-chapter fic! Anyway, thats it for now. See you all next year!

[bleachbleachbleach]

Maybe you've answered this before, but which of the bleach movies are you favorites? Do you like them in general? I feel like I've watched the DDR 100 times, but the movies aren't really talked about much in general it seems....

Neither of us really think about them as discrete "movies"—we take them more as a collection of elements, many of which we find very appealing. I think we’ve rewatched them almost annually since 2020, but I’m not sure either of us could actually explain to you what happens in them. We’re too distracted by the dazzling glamor of the Elements.

I will say, like you, Diamond Dust Rebellion holds a special place in my heart! It was the only one that premiered during my first stint with Bleach, and I definitely have vague but fond memories of watching a raw copy on an 11" iBook that I assume was approximately 120p.

Here are my personal favorite Elements from all the Bleach movies—some of which are scenes, some of which are character moments, and some of which are honestly… the laundry lint equivalent of "things that were part of this movie" that I still really love because, as this post will immediately make clear, I have serious Blorbo Disease.

MOVIE 1: Memories of Nobody

1. Commuting: Honestly obsessed with the fact that Hitsugaya and Matsumoto spend so much of this movie commuting. They just keep… going back and forth between dimensions? AND FOR WHY. Peak Gotei efficiency!

2. Bridge Whimsy: The scene where everyone jumps off the bridge into the water and are super duper extra about it. @dont-look-up has a great gifset of Renji and Rukia trying out for the Soul Society Diving Team. 

Hitsugaya and Matsumoto are also great in this scene. They’re both crouched in the same nook of bridge for some reason? And when Matsumoto encroaches on Hitsugaya’s space he wordlessly moves her arm out of the way and it’s so casual and non-eventful. Love that for them but also love that for the animation, because it’s an "unnecessary" non-eventful movement that got to be drawn and animated. You can’t have unscripted movement in this medium—it adds nothing and everything! Unfortunately, searching "bridge" on B3 didn’t turn that gifset up, so it wont’ be includd in this post.

3. Blobby Hisagi: Speaking of animation, Hisagi basically only appears in this movie as a blobby smudge of color in the background. My co-blogger put together a comprehensive account of every time Hisagi shows up in this  movie, and it is a post I love dearly.

* Honorable mention to the kidou cannon, which comes up a lot in conversation, considering how little reason there is to do so. But THE KIDOUUUUU CANNONNNNN

MOVIE 2: DiamondDust Rebellion

1. LAWSON TRUCK!!!!

There’s a transition scene where a Lawson truck randomly drives by and I am OBSESSED with it. I mean, I love Lawson, which is a Japanese convenience store chain. But most of the stores/brands in Bleach are either generic or made up, as is true of many anime. Yet there’s a real, honest to god Lawson Truck in this movie. It makes me wonder if there was some kind of Lawson promo that went with DDR’s release. Anyway, I see you, Lawson Truck. I love you.

2. Hitsugaya's Bow: After finding himself in Ichigo’s bed after passing out in the forest outside Karakura (and, one assumes, bleeding all over his sheets), Hitsugaya leaves without a word in the dead of night. But he still takes the time to bow at the Kurosaki house, as thanks for its hospitality. I love this quiet, quotidian gesture in the midst of a whole lot that is neither quiet nor quotidian. 

3. DETECTIVE BYAKUYA. BYAKUYA, ON THE CASE. This is best explained by my earlier post about this.

It’s best dramatized by the second music video I’ve ever made in my life, a tribute to Detective Byakuya and Law and Order: Soul Society.

We have a whole tag for Detective Byakuya (and more posts to yet to be written!):

4. Hisagi/Kira vs. Hitsugaya is one of my favorite short fights (maybe one of my favorite fights, period??) in Bleach. Hisagi gets to be incredibly cool and use a bunch of kidou and backflip onto a torii gate. Hisagi and Kira are then immediately annihilated by Hyourimaru’s shikai once Hitsugaya decides he doesn’t have enough HP left to deal with this shit, but Hisagi and Kira were very cool up until that point!

I’m certain Hitsugaya is capable of annihilating Hisagi and Kira whenever he wants, but I do want to note that it wasn’t exactly a fair fight. Hisagi and Kira didn’t want to hurt him, particularly since he was already heavily injured. Hitsugaya, uh, did not have similar qualms.

5. ZABIMARU EXPREEEEEEEEEEEESS

Soul Society’s most exclusive, breathtaking way to travel. (cue Jrock cover of Disney Aladdin’s "A Whole New World")

MOVIE 3: Fade to Black

1. Byakuya Discovers Doors: One day I’m gonna get it in gear and make a gifset for this, because this scene is the BEST THING THAT’S EVER HAPPENED TO ME IN MY LIFE. There’s a full sequence of Byakuya combing through the Kuchiki Estate and opening every single door. Just walking around. Opening all the doors. In the dead of night.

And OKAY, the context for this is that he’s in Detective Byakuya mode; he can sense that something is amiss but isn’t able to discern what—he’s searching for anything that will help the missing pieces fall into place. (The missing piece is Rukia’s entire existence.) But it’s not like he tells any of his retainers this so for all they know he’s just going around opening all the doors in the dead of night, and they have to quietly follow behind him and close them all, murmuring, "ah yes, our Lord Byakuya, always working. Very thorough examination of doors and hinges tonight." I love him.

2. Hitsugaya is 11th Division's Foster Captain: Hitsugaya is working with Ikkaku and Yumichika in this movie for some reason—like, goes out to Inuzuri with them, even as he’s left Matsumoto behind to do work with their actual division. This is important to me only because it’s not the only time he’s been the 11th’s foster captain?? I’m not even talking about the Advance Team arc, which is something else entirely. In the Bount arc, when Zaraki is similarly indisposed/unreachable, Hitsugaya also ends up in charge of the 11th. Like, who decides this???

Anyway thank you, whatever bureaucratic processes makes this happen over and over again; I appreciate you. I’m sure Hitsugaya Suffers every time. (But he also probably prefers this over any other option, because the second option is probably just "idk 11th go freeball it do whatever you want!!". Also, Hitsugaya is always volunteering for this stuff.)

MOVIE 4: Hellverse

Okay, we just saw this movie (well, we just saw all of them, but this one was last!), but I’m not remembering a lot of it right now because it’s low on Blorbo Disease triggers. I do very much enjoy the Six Hearts gang running around in Squarespace (Hell)!! But this post is very long, so I’ll just say:

1. Byakuya Projecting by offering his fairly lengthy opinions about Ichigo and Yuzu, considering he’s known of Yuzu’s existence for about 2 seconds and she has been bereft a soul and comatose the entire time. 

2. Why is Hitsugaya even here, edition 90009: I love the fact that Hitsugaya is part of this Hell Portal team at all. Byakuya and Ukitake make some sense, in that Rukia and Renji are the Gotei officers most involved with this. But why is Hitsugaya there lol. I like to think that he thought it would be a good opportunity to learn about portals, and considers this professional development.

[bendingwind]

Fanfiction Year In Review

This was a special year for me, in that I wrote a lot after almost a decade of writing relatively little and believing I'd never be a particularly active fan author again. Thank u psych meds (and the years I spent trying to find ones that didn't absolutely wreck my extremely dumb brain chemistry).

I started out January with writing like, just a ridiculous amount of explicit Witcher fic, which I still haven't finished posting all of. I hyperfixated on Bleach once again and wrote a good amount of Bleach fic, though I abandoned a few incomplete works I started. I wrapped up the year writing some Dragonriders of Pern fic, which hardly anyone will read, but I sure will enjoy! I reached 150 stories total posted on AO3! I posted over 100k words this year! Shoutout to the Bleach folks in particular, for engaging with me and making it so that posting for that fandom is such a fun time!

And honestly, I wrote probably half as much again that I didn't complete or chose not to post as what I did share. Overall I'm very pleased with how this year went writing-wise!

Statistics:

Kudos: 701 Comment Threads: 50 Bookmarks: 104 Word Count: 101,131 Hits: 8,725

Not too bad for mostly old or older fandoms and several obscure pairings!

Stories I Posted (scroll to see what I didn't, which in my stupid opinion is the more interesting part):

Something So Magic About You (The Witcher) (2,825 words)

Any Stranger I Choose (The Witcher) (1,027 words)

glow (Bleach) (1,019 words)

Any Thrill Will Do (The Witcher) (3,118 words)

i'd tell you i miss you (but i don't know how) (Bleach) (1,365 words)

we're takin' on the world together (Bleach) (462 words)

my days once revolved around you (Bleach) (811 words)

Scarred and Scarring Still (The Witcher) (1,016 words)

the way you move is like a full on rainstorm (Bleach) (4,173 words)

i don't know how to be something you miss (Bleach) (200 words)

Need To Be Youthfully Felt (The Witcher) (1,590 words)

Offer Me That Deathless Death (The Witcher) (5,873 words)

The Wretched and the Joyful (The Witcher) (871 words)

The Most Eligible Bachelor in the Seireitei (Bleach) (20,607 words)

shrike (Dragonriders of Pern) (19,516 words)

Touch (The Witcher) (1,006 words)

felessan (Dragonriders of Pern) (7,524 words)

branoren (Dragonriders of Pern) (3,250 words)

Settle Soft (The Witcher) (1,082 words)

robse (Dragonriders of Pern) (3,432 words)

jarrol (Dragonriders of Pern) (4,097 words)

gellim (Dragonriders of Pern) (5,234 words)

All the Things I Would Do (The Witcher) (721 words)

No Shortage of Sordid (The Witcher) (1,189 words)

Fell In Love With the Fire Long Ago (The Witcher) (928 words)

Any Way to Distract and Sedate (The Witcher) (1,089 words)

Remember Me When I'm Reborn (The Witcher ) (1,089 words)

For Years or for Hours (The Witcher) (1,056 words)

The Same Kind of Music Haunts Her Bedroom (The Witcher) (4,961 words)

Stories I Didn't Finish or Didn't Post

untitled RenRuki pre-academy smut in which they attempt and badly fail at having "casual" sex (abandoned at 2k words because I lost the hyperfixation, though of all of them this is the one I most want to pick back up)

A really, truly, absurdly cracky Ichigo/Shuuhei a/b/o fic (abandoned at 3k words because I woke up and went "wtf am i writing here")

not what you thought it would be, IchiRuki, part of my speak now series, this one based on the titular song. I don't want to deal with the drama of posting it and I don't think the fandom needs any more of this particular variety of take on IchiRuki. It's also one of the first things I wrote after getting back into the fandom and I'm not sure I agree with the characterization any longer?

never grow up, Ichigo & Isshin, abandoned at under 1k words because it's hard to balance Isshin being, well, Isshin, with the tone of this story

Another moderately cracky story in which Toushiro develops a crush on Byakuya and finally starts to grow up because of this and is mortified (abandoned at a little over 13k words + some outtakes--same lost the hyperfixation deal)

the same music series, which deals with Ichigo dying unexpectedly and having his memories erased before being sent to Soul Society. There's a finished standalone piece about Rukia dealing with losing Renji in a battle (all that we intend is scrawled in sand, ~2k words) which I haven't posted because it makes me Very Sad. The series is primarily Orihime/Rukia, but eventually ends up Rukia/Orihime/Ichigo. I also sort of vaguely had an idea about a final part that was Byakuya/not!Renji (there's a core theme where souls can be tracked across incarnations because their zanpakuto always takes the same shape, even if they are fundamentally a different person due to different life experiences and have completely lost their memories). I abandoned the first draft at about 5k words in and the second draft at about the same point.

NORTH, the first in a planned IkkaYumi series where they wander the Rukongai and fall in love. (abandoned on draft 3, each about 4k words long, because Ikkaku is hard af to write)

Around half of the An Art to Life's Distractions explicit series, which I'll probably get around to editing and posting next year. It's, uh, been more or less finished since February of this year :flushed_emoji: I just struggle with it because I think it's good but the kudos:hits ratio... does not agree.

A Pern series focusing on original characters late in the Ninth Pass. There's one "complete" het story that needs to be rewritten (about 20k words), about 12k of a femslash story that's technically a prequel, about 15k of a slash story that's also technically a prequel, and plans for an additional het story that takes place after and features one of the OMC's like five billion half-brothers.

All this to say, I wrote a shitload of words this year \o/ I will not be jinxing myself by making any wishes about next year \o/ Happy New Year y'all \o/

[redmemoirs]

ohh I know this is ANS blog but could u do some of your favs ships for the bingo? I would pick some but im not sure what characters you're interested in so sjsjsjs ANY BLEACH SHIPS PLEASE AND THANK U

ooh sure! i dont actually have much bleach ships buttt i do have an oc ship 👀 sachiko x shuuhei my beloveds

theyre so boring aesthetically they both have black hair HDKSKDKD tho they look pretty different at least bc sachiko is desi-coded

however i DO have opinions on The Big Ships so... heres ichihime and ichiruki and renruki. sorry this awoke the hater in me 😭 im much more positive about most other ships ive just had too many years to stew on these

ichihime is SO funny to me aesthetically bc like why do they both have orange hair. as an endgame ship its whatever it doesnt inspire as much hate as naruto endgames in me but i find it a little sad that orihime didnt get a chance to explore her options more. plus past hueco mundo arc it felt like whatever development she got centered around ichigo. at least before that there was some mention of tatsuki and stuff.

i remember when the chapters first launched i was totally for ichiruki and thought ichihime was just a copout bc kubo couldn't figured out how to make the living/dead thing work out. i like them more platonically now though. theyre besties.

u would think i would be a renruki ride or die with my obsession for friends to lovers but idk 😭 theyre cute but not that cute.

PURELY AESTHETICS WISE ichiruki wins by a landslide their black sun/white moon motif goes crazy. in conclusion i think marriage endings should be illegal and everyone should be best friends forever. cheers

[scratching92]

I do wonder a little what would have happened if Rukia had declined Byakuya's offer of adoption into the Kuchiki Clan.

I mean, considering the way Renji and Rukia were drifting apart in the academy days it was almost a foregone conclusion by the time Byakuya showed up, but assuming that for whatever reason Rukia rejected the offer - I wonder what would have happened?

It's hard to imagine Byakuya giving up. His offer, after all, was a little less about feeling any obligations towards Rukia and more about fulfilling his promises to Hisana. I can't imagine he'd just drop the matter entirely. On the other hand, I think even in his grief Byakuya would be a little too sensitive to others' perception of his role as head of the Kuchiki Clan to ignore how pathetic it would be for the Kuchiki Clan head to be running around chasing after a young woman who refuses to join the clan. Likewise, even for how classist Soul Society seems to be, it's hard to imagine Byakuya looking respectable in others' eyes if he's running around beefing with an academy student with weird eyebrows.

It'd be nice to imagine maybe this would be the thing to get academy!Renruki to sit down and talk about some of the things they'd been going through during their time at the academy, and the ways Renji may have intentionally/unintentionally pushed Rukia away. That said, I can also see them getting into an argument over Rukia throwing away a perfect opportunity to escape poverty forever.

I dunno. There's just so much of their stories tied up in this one moment I can't help but wonder how it might have gone differently.

[canariie]

fic requests open!

hi everyone! it’s been a while!

the beginning of the year was a little silent on my part because I was a bit burnt out at the end of 2022, without getting much rest during the holidays as I would have liked.

but! i wanted to celebrate having 100 reblogs on my blog and will take requests during the whole month of May!

basic rules:

they will range in word count from one shots to short drabbles

I don’t mind writing about mature topics, but nothing explicit (like think Teen rating as the highest i’ll go)

I am highly inclined to write about Hitsuhina, but also love writing about Momo and Toushiro interacting with other characters (can even be random characters too! I think that’d be fun!)

I haven’t written much about other ships but would be open to write about: Ichiruki, Ichihime, Ishihime, Renruki, GinRan, ShuuRan, ShinHyo (pretty much anything that won’t contradict Hitsuhina tbh) (and knowing me, i’ll find a way to bring Hitsuhina in somehow haha)

if you want to request Hitsuhina and need some ideas, here are some prompt lists that i’ve been interested in! Twenty Four Touches, Royalty Scenarios, Childhood Friends to Lovers

May is a busy month for me as I have studying to do but I will be working on the requests in June, and hopefully releasing them during the summer!

[recurring-polynya]

I spent far too much effort trying to figure out if Ichigo and Uryuu both owned ugly brown shirts in the Reigai arc, or if Uryuu just stole Ichigo's.

Ichigo's has shoulder epaulets that come and go throughout episode 330, but it also has only one welt pocket and a placket collar. (The third image is Kon, just for the record)

Uryuu's, however (shown in Episode 335), is a full button-up, and it has two welt pockets. Sometimes they drew the shoulder seams prominently enough that you might mistake them for epaulets, but it doesn't have them. Also, it's a slightly less ugly shade of brown once you see it in decent lighting.

(It just now occurred to me that maybe Uryuu stole Ichigo's shirt, altered it, and then wore it in front of him as an aggression, which is certainly a thing he would do, but Ichigo was kinda going thru it at this time and he and Uryuu are getting along quite well this arc, so let's just go with the idea that they are ugly brown shirt bros. I hope they text each other to make sure they don't wear them on the same day.)

[hey-cringelord]

hello. pictured below are eight different images from a horrific collection of pictures i’ve acquired over time that remind me of world of the living era renji specifically (with explanation!)

to start, i thought about arranging them all at the very bottom and explaining myself beforehand, but that’s boring. the pictures should be experienced first before trying to understand my thought process. to make things easy, i’ll explain it row by row.

first things first, i consider a good handful of characters in bleach to be disaster bisexuals. some examples: all the karakura kids, hisagi; i don’t consider renji to be as disasterous, but he’s definitely up there. more straight-leaning too. he thinks ichigo calling him an ex-bisexual after marrying rukia is the funniest thing ever BTW. and speaking of ichigo, him and renji fit the second pic to a T. just bros hanging out playing video games in karakura town, nothing to see here XD

second row is party renji. this is where he’s most bisexual. he takes pics like that tom hardy one, sends it out via soul communicator to a groupchat with all the lieutenants, then rukia, then ichigo. they’re all reminded by one picture alone that renji is kind of gay. the mads pic is the one he shares the morning after. (byakuya gets his hands on one of these photos at some point. renji is horrified to go back to seireitei)

third row is just stuff that reminds me of renruki. i’m so obsessed with the idea of tiny little rukia just slutting renji out. it’s so funny. she’s so small, like a bunny, and he’s massive with full-body tattoos and a terrifying hairline that pulls back into thick red hair. but she sluts him out. side note: he’s super into it.

last one is sort of just a body headcanon? i guess. i like to think renji is beefy. i feel like he kind of has to be to swing zabimaru around the way he does, and for how long he’s been doing it. i don’t know how tall he is and icba to look it up, but he’s just a big ol boy. towers over everyone. ichika and kazui like to swing back and forth on his arms like monkey bars. they’re totally weightless. if he’s too busy for them to mess around, he just T-poses and watches them try and fail to jump up and latch onto his biceps. lets say he’s 6ft5 (don’t look at me like that. let me have my moment)

[lesbiansanemi]

D M T :D

D. A pairing you wished you liked but just can't

God, where to begin. I tend to end up anywhere in between indifference and vehemently hating most popular ships in fandoms, but some big ones I can think of that I do actually wish I could enjoy in some capacity are Itafushi, Sanegiyuu, and Renruki

Like... with Itafushi, I honestly can't even pinpoint why I don't like it (especially because I adore Itafushikugi but something about Itafushi by itself is just... so 'meh' to me). Like by all means I should enjoy it, and I certainly don't hate it, I just don't like it much. Maybe it's because most of the time when I see it, the way it's done feels wildly out of character for Megumi? (and sometimes Yuuji though to a much lesser extent). But idk, I don't get it, and Yuuji, Megumi, and Nobara come as a trio, Nobara simply cannot be excluded in any way, it's not fair

Sanegiyuu is.... *sighs* okay so. I get it. From a purely canon perspective I completely and totally get it and maybe even somewhat agree. Sanemi and Giyuu end up together, but that's because they're the only ones left and neither one of them can fathom being with someone who doesn't Get what they went through. If it's depressing, and a somewhat shitty relationship, I get it. However, just casually shipping them because it's fun? Because they have potential feelings born from anything else? Absolutely not. It stops making sense in every capacity. Sanemi would never like Giyuu that way, and even if Giyuu liked Sanemi, he's too emotionally stunted to ever do anything about it. It only works if they hate themselves and are one bad thing away from ending it all post-canon when everyone else is dead. That is the only time it's acceptable. But... I do wish I sometimes liked it other capacities and got what all the fuss is about (but tbh I feel that way about Giyuu in general, even outside of ships)

And Renruki is just. Ugh. The romantic relationships in Bleach are only somewhat handled well (which idk I guess the only three you have to choose from that are actually canon are Ichihime, Ginran, and Renruki, but I do actually enjoy the former two), but something about Renruki just irks me, which really sucks! Because I adore Renji and Rukia! I love their relationship! But... only in a platonic sense. I just don't see or understand a potential romance there, and ppl always complain about Ichihime not having enough build up but man... Renruki really came way out of left field imo. Like yes Renji and Rukia were always unbelievably close but it was always in a platonic sense, there was never any romantic tension between them and then they were confirmed at the end of the series? Don't get it. Don't get why people enjoy it, it was lame and bad and imo made their relationship feel cheap.

Sorry I like complaining about ships I don't like lmfao

M. Name a character that you'd like to have for a friend.

If I could manifest Nobara and Power into the real world specifically so we could be besties and go out and be loud and fucking weird and a little bit snobby together I would do it in a fucking heartbeat. Girlboss trio of kinda shitty (affectionate) girls lmao

T. Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

Any and all of my demonic virus headcanons <3 I love them, and I think they all make perfect sense

[hezuart]

If orihime and chad died, as they should die

I would not fucking care xd

They're a liability

And absolutely usless and orihime is a damsel in distress princess peach, chad is, JoJo's bizarre adventure calling, they want there character back xd,

Ichigo is the plot device obviously

But I want his long hair back

That one episode that had a scene of hell and is like, I'm coming for you Ichigo kurusagi, and never mention it again, wth, and why are the demon ppl still alive in hell

YARE YARE

No no, Chad and Orihime shouldn't die.

Well with how Kubo set it up, they should've, since indeed they were liabilities, but they got lucky.

But Orihime and Chad should have not only lived but also thrived.

You guys have no idea how much I actually want to love Chad and Orihime. Initially, I did, and I'm so hurt with what Kubo did to them.

I'm actually planning on writing a "fix it" video for Orihime & Chad maybe, or perhaps a "fix it" for the pairings which ultimately end up mostly fixing Orihime and Renji's characters anyway so two birds one stone perhaps?

and I agree, long hair Ichigo fresh from Muken will always be his best look. I still can't deal with his bare forehead hairstyle of the future it looks so wrong on him skdgjdlfkjggkl

Ah yeah so anyone in Hell can't die. Hell essentially makes you immortal, and Kubo made it so people can now freely leave as they see fit just... because. It's very OP and Kubo didn't really think things through when he wrote the Jaws of Hell arc.

[substituted-shinigami]

Hearthstone (RenRuki)

AO3

Characters: Rukia and Renji

Rating: G

Genre: Humor/Fluff/Crack

Chapter Summary: When you Konsou a Soul Reaper, they get sent back to wherever they consider their “home” to be in Soul Society. But where truly is one’s home?

Author’s Note: So originally I wanted to do a comic for Renji’s birthday, but things got busy and so it didn’t pan out. Luckily, I dug through my WIP and found this silly, little drabble that I think you all will still like! So “Happy Belated Birthday” Renji Abarai and please enjoy!

Non-canon but sort of canon adjacent? It’s inspired by this post, which discusses what might happen when you konsou/soul burial a soul reaper.

Back when the Advance Team traveled to the World of the Living, or more accurately, Ichigo’s bedroom, they had a tendency towards…minor disagreements. One such minor disagreement led to a minor scuffle which was only resolved when Matsumoto slapped the hilt of her sword upon Ikkaku’s shiny bald head and, pop, he was gone. It was all very funny in Rukia’s expert opinion.

That said, it confused Ichigo an awful lot, so she had to explain to him that a shinigami could one, be Konsou’ed or soul buried, and two, when they were, they were sent back to wherever they considered their “home” to be. Due to all that occurred after that, between the Arrancar attack, the Winter War, and eventually the Fullbringer incident, she assumed Ichigo had forgotten all about it. He had not.

Something she learned the hard way, when she decided to push him just a little too far with her teasing and the next thing she knew, pop, she was back in Soul Society.

At first she was simply pissed. However that annoyance turned immediately to embarrassment when she realized where she was. She was in the Kuchiki manor, which made sense. What made less sense was what she was doing on Renji’s lap.

Turns out Renji had come to the manor to give Byakuya, who was home sick with the flu, an update on this week's reports, and she had just interrupted their meeting…by appearing on Renji’s lap. After bowing several embarrassed apologies, she left.

What was slightly more strange, was the next place she appeared. She had been arguing with Ichigo about her way too large World of the Living manga stash (she always bought more “extremely embarrassing” manga whenever she visited or was on mission, and then proceeded to accidentally leave them in his room to be found by his family later) when, pop, there she was back in Soul Society, funnily enough, with all her manga. Rukia steamed!

“Oh, there you are! I was coming to see if you had gotten back yet, but they told me you weren’t due to return till tonight,” A familiar voice above her said. Rukia looked up and saw Renji leaning over her. She was on his lap again.

“Ah! Renji?! Where?!” She looked around frantically and saw that she had arrived in the Thirteenth Division, “HUH?!”

“Yeah, looks like you got konsou’ed again," Renji responded casually as she scrambled off his lap, "Was it Ichigo? What did you do to him this time? Force him to read all your manga?”

“No, no, he was mad because he thought my stash was getting too big and that he was running out of closet space. Also, his family kept finding it and were starting to ask him embarrassing questions, so he forced me to go back with it," she looked around again after she had stood up, "Why am I at the Thirteenth though?”

Renji shrugged while picking up one of the manga, “Who knows? While I usually get sent to my living quarters, I do end up at my division from time to time. I guess in a way, our divisions are our homes.”

“Yeah, I guess…” Rukia replied slowly as she turned towards him, “Renji, have…have you been Konsou’ed recently?”

“Hmm?” Renji asked, as he flipped through the volume, “Uh no, I don’t think so. Not since my time at the Eleventh. Why?”

“Just…Just wondering…” she said as she eyed him thoughtfully.

Finally, after the Thousand Year Blood War, it happened one more time. She and Renji were having a philosophical debate on the character Ichigo played in their movie series Maid Cop, when the next thing they knew, pop pop, they were both back in Soul Society, lying in each other’s arms.

“I guess I can’t deny it now,” Rukia murmured softly as she reached up to touch Renji’s cheek, “With you, I am home.”

“Yeah,” Renji agreed fondly as he returned her soft gaze and softer touch, “Yeah, I think it’s safe to say that checks out.”

“If you two wouldn’t mind,” Byakuya stated sternly, “Could you PLEASE GET OFF MY DESK?!”

[ichinoue]

Hello! Do you think in the future there's possibility of Kubo makes a story focused on Ichigo and Orihime's love relationship? Like the concept he did with WDKALY. Idk but I have that impression that Kubo was not really into Ichihime? I mean.. He made their chemistry very implicitly, only people who read it thoroughly would understand their development (as we can see there are so many readers who failed to see it) . Let's stick with his clarification about how Bleach is a shounen story that wasn't focused on romance, but he could executed the romantic atmosphere for RenRuki, even from the earlier arc when Renji showed us so many times about how important Rukia for him. We could see that Rukia and Renji always stick to each other in almost every arcs, it's not difficult for us to see their lovely dynamic. But it's kinda 'dry' for IchiHime, to the level of me who ship them from 2008 found it's make sense that those IR said that IH is lack of moments. Kubo prolly understands clearly that many people would hate it if he writes a story a focused on IH, since we know Orihime has a handful of haters everywhere. I could understand it. He even let it to our imagination on how Ichigo and Orihime went through their relationship. Did you ever think that way too? (Sorry for my awful grammar, I'd love to see your response)

Nah, I don't think he would make a story based on their relationship. I think we would still see them featured as a couple, of course, in any future works involving Ichigo and Orihime like we saw in the special Hell verse chapter, but their relationship wouldn't be the main focus of the story. Bleach is a shounen after all, so a spin-off about a romantic couple doesn't seem very fitting to me. If you mean a novel rather than a spin-off, WDKALY already addressed how their relationship came to be, and even WDKALY was not solely based on the RR love relationship; rather, it was used as a means to catch up with the characters and events happening in SS and Karakura following the war, culminating with Renji and Rukia's wedding and Ichigo's confession to Orihime.

I don't agree that IH was too implicit to notice or understand. I think the reason many readers failed to see that it was being written with the intention of becoming a romantic couple in the end was because they had already pinned their hopes on the more popular main male/female pairing from the very beginning, which generated an extreme dislike for IH as a result for being the direct competition, and so they weren't looking at the pairings objectively, which created a lot of denial and confirmation bias. Even in IH's most obvious moments, they still closed their eyes and shook their heads in denial.

And I love RR, but I don't think RR received more focus than IH? In the SS arc, sure, but IH received a lot more focus in all of the rest of the arcs. Starting from the arrancar arc, no other pairing received as much screentime or content as IH did. You say that Kubo executed a romantic atmosphere for RR via Renji's feelings for Rukia, which is true. But I think you're forgetting that Kubo did the exact same thing with IH via Orihime's feelings for Ichigo--and I would argue that IH and Orihime's feelings were even more explicit and "shoujo-esque" as it included Orihime's very explicit love confession, a hand-hold, and an almost kiss in "goodbye, halcyon days."

I think it's laughable for IR shippers to claim that IH had little screentime or moments. I compiled a list of IH manga moments here, and it's very extensive, spanning the entire manga. As I said before, IH received more screentime and content than any other pairing. Meanwhile, IR's screentime greatly plateaued after the SS arc.

So, I disagree. I don't think Kubo was uninterested in IH at all. I think if that were the case, he wouldn't have written so much content for IH. And I think if he were uninterested in it, he definitely wouldn't have made some of the most pinnacle moments of bleach so IH-centric (the arrancar/HM arcs, the Grimmjow/Nnoitra/Ulquiorra battles, the lust arc, and most importantly, the "final boss" battle against Yhwach).

I don't think Kubo cared about the hate for Orihime or IH. It clearly didn't deter him from writing a lot of IH/Orihime content, and he said himself on twitter that he would write more screentime for Orihime out of spite when people would complain or send him hate about her. Someone even compiled a graph showing that Orihime had the second most panel time in Bleach, with Ichigo being the obvious first. He wasn't concerned with catering to the haters, or holding back out of fear that it wouldn't be well received.

Basically, I think Kubo did a great job executing the romantic relationship between Ichigo and Orihime. He gave them plenty of content and development. To me, it doesn't make sense for people to complain that we didn't see their relationship confirmed until the final chapter, because that is basic shounen formula: to hold off pairing up the main characters until the very end, with a marriage and kids reveal.

As Kubo said, romance is only supplementary, after all. But even so, he still gave us more than that by confirming in WDKALY that Ichigo had been harbouring romantic feelings for Orihime for quite some time, and he created through words and a beautiful drawing the moment that Ichigo approaches Orihime to confess/ask her out.

And I think that's more than enough for a shounen.

[unohanadaydreams]

This is an offering to the Byakuya loving masses who I neglect like 99.9% of the time: here are some Byakuya as an uncle HCs. I don’t really have much further to say re: Byakuya as a dad rn but hopefully this will make up for it.

Your persistence in the ask box for more dad!Byakuya has finally been heard but also not answered at all.

Features: mentions of renruki, Ichika ofc, and Byakuya being an uncle.

BYAKUYA AS AN UNCLE (TO ICHIKA) HEADCANONS

For Byakuya, there’s much preparation to be done.

His mansion is old elegance, so child proofing is done quickly. Empty rooms are common. Decoration and furniture are designed to be moved with ease already. There are plenty of staff on hand to smooth down wooden corners and put up the ‘baby gates’.

The real production lies in Byakuya, himself. He invites Renji and Rukia to bring Ichika over to tea. He practices holding her correctly. He gauges their reaction when she spits up what he would deem ‘too much’ milk, but their reaction is only to laugh at the mess juxtaposed with Byakuya’s concerted non-reaction.

There’s also the supplies to consider! He invites them over so he can rub blankets against her cheek and divine which Admiral Seaweed stuffie she likes best. How soundly does she sleep with the cherry blossoms spinning overhead versus the koi fish? What style of doll does she grab with more vigor?

Discerning the preferences of a baby is tireless sport.

As she grows into a toddler, he finds himself less happy to play toys with her. He realizes it’s unfair.

But, her sudden ability to choose how the little geisha dolls will spend their pretend days clashes heavily with their schedule that he and smaller, baby Ichika made.

He compromises by opening a competing tea shop right next to the one he and Ichika had first established, with a new set of geisha dolls. They were now rivals and Byakuya was obviously running the superior shop, with more organized entertainment, but Ichika certainly thought otherwise.

And in terms of creative innovation, her haphazard strokes of bright paint in the interior gave her a modern edge. His shop sign was better, though.

She agreed on the sign and Ichika did like calligraphy. The large brush and purposeful movements caught her eye and made her reach out her arms to try. Those attempts weren’t good. But Byakuya found he couldn’t help but keep them.

Sometimes he catches his staff remarking on the similarities of Yachiru versus Ichika, but Byakuya thinks those are superficial at best. Yes, they are both young girls with a vigor for life and candy. That describes a lot of children, though.

If someone asked Ichika to run the Woman’s Association, she could not. She would be frustrated at the responsibility and feel uneasy at her lack of knowledge and hold back tears when scolded in a work setting.

As she grew older and more confident and more eager to be all the things her mother and father and uncle were—a shinigami—he thought his point of view stood just the same. Yachiru would never care to learn from Ikkaku. She never cared to learn anything from anyone.

Ichika loves to learn even when she hides it behind a bravado that insists she’s mastered it all. Byakuya enjoys letting her pick and choose all the teachings and instructors his clan has at their disposal. He realizes that he enjoys how free she can be without the title of Heir looming overhead—enjoys even more the exploitation of Kuchiki resources solely for her entertainment.