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#give rukia better female friends!
douevenbleachbro · 8 months
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I've seen some people say that Riruka would be good friends with Rukia. I imagine it's because of the cute plushies and whatnot. Personally I don't think that would be the case. Riruka is very young and childish -very tsundere-ish if you will, which I don't think meshes well with Rukia's personality. I think Rukia would take more of a "grown-up" approach with her, which is what most people around her did (except Orihime). I also think Riruka would not take lightly Ichigo's closeness to Rukia. She would definitely be more straight-forward and aggressive about her jealousy, demanding to know why they're always together, etc. Actually, Riruka could've been a perfect catalyst for an IR relationship because she would've loudly asked what we've all been asking! "What're you guys like, dating or something?!" which could've been hilarious. Riruka would definitely push Rukia away, and Rukia, being the self-sacrificing angel she is, wouldn't force anything. If they continued to interact and spent a lot more time together, I know that Riruka would inevitably fall for Rukia the way everyone does. But with the limited contact they had in canon, there's no way they would've developed a good friendship. Also, I think Riruka would've always leaned more towards Orihime cause of the whole Fullbring hating shinigami thing, and because Orihime was always exceedingly nice to her.
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26 Reasons why Qrow is not Ruby’s father and why Taiyang is Ruby’s father
In response to the toxic aspect of the fandom attacking CRWBY and demanding that their desires for Qrow be chosen over canon, or how they feel their theory is more valid than the show itself? I have researched RWBY to make this 26-point Discussion as to why Canon is valid, and fancanon is not when it comes to Qrow Branwen, Ruby Rose, Taiyang Xiao Long, and Summer Rose.
 1.       “Monty said NO”    Most obviously. Monty Oum.
   He said in this tweet that ruby and yang are half-sisters…half-sisters,  which means they share the same mom or dad…in this case Taiyang….
  https://twitter.com/montyoum/status/492070189731565568
Now people have claimed “he obviously meant step-sisters or cousins” Why is it that every time we show the English dictionary to you people or ask you to read it, that you claim you are being attacked or that you claim Monty was misleading us?
 2.       The writers said NO
   Miles Luna debunked this theory on Reddit…
   He pointed out that Ruby sees Qrow as a Role model, so she adapts her colors to be similar to his.
   And you don’t need somebody to be blood to be your role model.
https://www.reddit.com/r/RWBY/comments/7x3w4s/crwby_ama_w_miles_luna_kerry_shawcross_and_paula/du5d67g/?
 3. “Rooster Teeth said NO” Rooster Teeth even said that Qrow is "Ruby and Yang's Uncle" They also said “Ladies, he’s not your man”
https://twitter.com/RoosterTeeth/status/1067205612331782144
 4.  “But what if Summer had feelings for Qrow? Why does Qrow Serve Ozpin?” Qrow said in Volume 6 " No one wanted me... I was cursed... I gave my life to you because you gave me a place in this world... I thought I was finally doing some good... " So he was saying he wasn't wanted, so no relationship with Summer. SUMMER DID NOT WANT HIM. And he was literally saying he served Ozpin because Ozpin gave him purpose. It’s pretty sad how people think Qrow can only be a complex character if he obsesses over another person’s wife and child. What , you wanna make him Severus Snape, the Lilly Potter stalker who insulted a girl’s face and tried to poison a boy’s pet and publicly outed a teacher?
https://rwby.fandom.com/wiki/Qrow_Branwen/Quotes#So_That.27s_How_It_Is
5, "But Qrow could be lying" Except in volume 6 Qrow literally said "Don't lie...we're better than that"
And in volume 7?
" Long time ago. I just found working alone tends to be for the best "
" Gotta say, I’m still not really used to working with other Huntsmen in the field. "
And finally World Of Remnant on Patch.
" Nice place to raise a family, if you're into that sort of thing. "
https://rwby.fandom.com/wiki/Qrow_Branwen/Quotes#So_That.27s_How_It_Is
  6.  “Qrow fans claim that Ruby and Summer form a core part of Qrow’s character and backstory.” WRONG! The main accusation for demanding Rooster Teeth / CRWBY change the backstory for Qrow would accomplish nothing.
Raven already pushed Yang onto Taiyang to raise on his own.
Qrow forcing Tai to Raise Ruby alongside Yang while Qrow could regularly visit, and while Summer lived with Taiyang, Yang, and Ruby?
It would cheapen Qrow’s character….blood isn’t everything.  Neither are cliches.
 7. “But what if Qrow gave Ruby to Tai to raise after Summer’s death?” Volume Chapter 6, Burning the Candle.
Yang tells Blake that she (yang) and Ruby were raised together by Summer and Taiyang…not by Taiyang on his own, but by Summer and Taiyang.
Yang clearly had memories of being raised by Summer and Tai both,  which meant that Summer and Taiyang lived together raising Ruby and Yang for Several Years.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZkN-53h5Os
  8. “Does Taiyang care about Summer or Ruby?” Taiyang was noted to have shut down when Summer didn’t come back…. Yang noted this in Volume 2 Chapter 6, and Ruby mentioned in the first episode of Volume 3 that Taiyang missed Summer. Qrow also said that Ruby is Taiyang’s “Special Angel”…. Ruby has also pointed out numerous times that Taiyang is Overprotective of Ruby. In fact, Ruby's conversation with Penny about overprotective fathers.
 9. “Qrow knows Taiyang is Ruby’s Father. Taiyang knows Ruby is Taiyang’s daughter. Qrow has referred to Taiyang as Ruby’s father during volume 3 and 7. Taiyang referred to Ruby as his daughter in volume 3.
 10. “Why didn’t Taiyang train Ruby in Martial Arts?” Taiyang is a martial arts fighter.   Ruby has neither the build nor the personality for ruthless hand to hand combat like her sister… Taiyang would trust Qrow, despite his semblance.   Remember how bad Ruby was in v5?
 11. “Qrow’s semblance is not what his fans exaggerate it to be”
Speaking of Qrow’s semblance? He was playing video games with his nieces,   taught at Signal Academy,   and could train Ruby… Clearly,  his semblance is not what theorists make it out to be.
 12. “Why doesn’t Qrow treat Yang the same way he treats Ruby?”
Yang is the daughter of Qrow’s sister,who abandoned the team.
During a one on one interaction between Qrow and Yang after yang vs mercury, Qrow called his own niece crazy, after she had been framed.
Qrow was not empathetic to Yang.
Qrow may not like Yang’s resemblance to Raven.
Ruby is the daughter of his two closest friends, so of course he’d prefer Ruby over Yang.
 13.  “Examples of Taiyang caring for Ruby.”
Volume 2 Ruby was excited when Taiyang sent a package in the mail, not even knowing it was Zwei.
Taiyang was at Ruby’s bedside in V3, and gave her a kiss on the forehead.
He also tried to bring her breakfast in bed.
Taiyang said he wanted to chase after Ruby, but had to nurse Yang back to health.
During the V8 broadcast, Taiyang was upset when the broadcast was cut.
 14. “Genetics research”
Black hair is the subtype of the pigment for blonde hair…
Also, Ruby’s got the same hair strand that Yang and Taiyang have.
Finally, black hair is more dominant.
So Ruby doesn’t need blonde hair to be Taiyang’s kid.
https://askinglot.com/is-black-hair-a-dominant-or-recessive-gene
https://www.quora.com/If-a-jet-black-haired-parent-and-a-blonde-parent-have-children-what-color-hair-would-the-children-likely-have
 15. “The STRQ Photo”
The photo....Qrow was with STRQ for four years...do you really think Qrow is not allowed to cry on the photo unless he was romantically involved? Can't a man grieve over the death of a female friend that he was NOT in a relationship with? Or are men not allowed to have female friends? Ichigo and Rukia from Bleach for example...friendship. They were his friends, his family. People seem obsessed with the idea that Qrow cannot care about a woman unless he was romantically involved or unless he's their bastard father.
 16. “Men and Women…as friends, platonic” Harry Potter as a book showed that a boy and a girl can interact and still be friends…
Why can’t Qrow be Summer’s friend?
Why does he have to be her lover?
We’ve seen Qrow talk about Innkeeper’s skirt lengths and leer at Barmaids who flirted with him.
Also, he’s shown to be bonding with both Clover and Robyn.
People act like he doesn't flirt with anyone , and yet he does.
 17. “Bad Luck Charm” Qrow has spent his whole life with his semblance, named after a Crow.
Raised by the Branwen bandit tribe.
“You and I are not the same, you don’t want the burden of my name” Both Branwen and Qrow are names that Qrow hates due to his semblance and past…
People may think of him as cool, but Qrow suffers from self-loathing.
So NO, the Bad Luck Charm song does NOT in fact allude to Qrow being Ruby’s father, but that Qrow hates himself, hence a major part of why he’s alcoholic.
Proof of which is his volume 6 exchange with Ozpin about being useful, which Qrow disagrees with, leading him to drink further. Yang literally said that she had never seen qrow so drunk before in v6.
And Ruby encourages his self-worth leading him to try giving up alcohol….
His alcoholism is tied to low-self-esteem, not relationships.
 18. Manga Anthology
Taiyang was shown in the Manga Anthology to have shut down upon Summer’s Death. That impacted his relationship with Ruby and Yang. Qrow? Is relatively unaffected. The good Uncle helping around the house. Taiyang haters and Qrow stans took this to demand that Qrow is entitled to Ruby, despite Taiyang recovering and doing his best to be a father. Anything Qrow does is worshipped like Mother Teresa, while anything Taiyang does, good or bad, is downplayed and smashed. Taiyang loved Summer so much he was devastated by her death. Qrow was unaffected. Think about that.
 19. “I like Brats” Why does Qrow spend time with kids he’s not related to? Because he likes kids. You know how there are adults who enjoy being around brats? That’s Qrow. He didn’t have romantic feelings for Summer, he liked being around her because she was like a kid. Similar to how Blake likes Ruby’s idealism? And trusts her leadership?
 20.  “Taiyang the 2-timer accusation”
A woman on youtube claimed that Taiyang was a 2-timer who cheated on raven with summer, as there was, in her and her friends’ minds, “no way that taiyang could be with half his team” When asked about TaiQrow as a joke, she was angered that people even ship TaiQrow.
But let me ask you this. Are you the same person you are now that you were 10 years ago? People claim that Qrow was somehow cool in beacon…because he’s cool now. But Taiyang, who raises two kids, and holds a job and a house…cannot be ruby’s father…because he’s not cool? And that somehow he was never cool? I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had to be cool to be a parent. I also had no idea people were only allowed to be in one relationship per lifetime. Raven freaking abandoned Tai for the tribe. Summer chose Taiyang over Qrow. People literally make Qrow out to be either an OC in a shipping fanfic, or a Naruto fanfic where Naruto is written to be fawned over by a girl whose canonical spouse, boyfriend, or male friend is somehow rewritten as evil.
1 year…..in 1 year since Raven abandoned Taiyang and Yang, Summer Rose the friend of Taiyang’s who he had known for 4 years, became more than a friend.
So no….Taiyang is not a two-timer…he moved on from Raven.
 22. “Why can’t Taiyang talk about Summer?” To WHO? He’s barely got 15 minutes of screentime, and the writers did NOT do him any favors when they had Qrow demand he leave so Qrow could tell Ruby a secret Ozpin trusted him with, before telling Ruby to run away from home leaving only a freaking note. Terrible daughter. Even Yang was prepared to do the same! To a man whose first wife abandoned him! At least Weiss has a legit reason for acting as she does against Jacques, several at least. Ruby? No. Now why would Taiyang talk about Summer’s fighting style to Yang when trying to get her to stop acting like Raven in her fighting style and semblance? Sure if there was more time…but RT at the end of the day isn’t some money-hungry political entity, it’s a startup at the end of the day, they don’t have the ability to do a full anime episode. Also, Taiyang cannot go out on these active missions…he was a schoolteacher who did not do missions until only recently…he was retired, remember.
 23. “These fanworks make more sense to me”
Qrow fans have tried using fanworks to justify their theory or ship, the same way Blacksun fans or Adam apologists make similar claims, and even Raven fans try to claim Raven is somehow a good mother. What do these fanworks do? Hate on Taiyang. Dismiss Ruby and Yang being half-blood siblings. Ignore multiple elements of the show or scenes. Occasionally shit-talk the writers.
Every time somebody tries to make a “rwby rewrite” or “rwby alt” or “Qrow is ruby’s father au” they cannot do it without completely rewriting the characters in so many forms and even the show, till Qrow, Raven, Taiyang, and Summer are NOTHING like they are in the show…And ONLY how a shipper wants qrow to be.
Or rewriting qrow to be nothing like he is in the show.
Most Alt or Rewrite consists of making Taiyang abusive, a cheater, or refusing to allow him to interact with Summer, while regularly pushing qrowxsummer at each other.
So no…it’s not that it makes sense to them through some fanart….a headcanon that has been debunked is no longer headcanon. A theory that is shut down is no longer a theory. There’s a reason anti-vaxxers and flat-earthers still exist. Because to them, their theories make more sense than reality. Which is why people still believe Qrow is Ruby’s father the same way people believe vaccines cause autism. Neither are true, and no amount of facts will shut them down, but they’re both popular theories.
 24. “Qrow Rings and Cross”
People claim that Qrow was married to Summer or that his cross represents him mourning Summer. Did the STRQ photo, in v3, the same volume as his appearance, not show Qrow with his rings, his cross, and angrily scowling, while Summer was right next to Taiyang?
 25. “What about Summer Rose’s choice?”
Remember how I said making Qrow’s character based on solely Ruby and Summer, ignoring everything regarding the tribe and ozpin giving him hope, and the grimm reaper…was bad writing? There’s a reason people hated v5. Raven was proven to be the deadbeat, Qrow was shown to have friends, and that Taiyang knew about Salem, and of course it was confirmed that Yang and Ruby again were sisters by Raven.
Now how about Summer? Team leader….took a man and a daughter who were abandoned by her friend…and made them her own. Yang calls Summer Rose “Supermom” and “Her Hero”…was literally willing to storm a bandit camp so Raven could use her portal to take Yang to Qrow, so she could get to Ruby. And yeah, I know the RWBY critics scream “why didn’t Yang just look for Ruby in Mistral?” It’s a bloody kingdom, and Yang was pursuing a lead, that Tai had given her, and Qrow told Yang he’d look after her sister. Remember that? Oh wait, RWBY Critics forget, my bad. Anyway, she’s more of a sister to Qrow than his blood sister Raven, she’s more of a mother to Yang than Raven, and she’s more of a spouse to Tai than Raven. Good Stepmother. Non-married couple. Relationship built on trust. Blood is not the same as family. (Example Weiss’s remark to her father) (Or Dom Toretto)
So making Summer into a throw-away character who dies so that a brooding jerk of an alcoholic can claim character development? Making a woman nothing except a throw-away for a man to get development is BAD WRITING. For God’s Sakes, even Pyrrha was written better than that! She interacted with team rwby, nora was always helping her out, and so was Ren (though those shakes are a crime against humanity” But when Qrow fans try to demand he’s ruby’s father? Their fanworks make Summer as much of a flat character as Preston Harvey from Fallout 4, where they make Summer unable to do anything but be obsessed with Qrow and having his child, similar to how Preston cannot think of anything other than “Another settlement needs your help, I’ll mark it on your pip-boy”
 26. Finally, the accusations that CRWBY are lying.
“You have to be ****** if you believe CRWBY when they say Qrow isn’t Ruby’s father” “CRWBY is lying, it’s what writers do” “It’s okay for writers to lie, it’s good for plot” “I’d prefer it if CRWBY was lying to us” “Monty is dead, the writers should change it now” “Monty is dead, nothing else in the writing matters” “Monty was hiding the truth from us” “CRWBY is hiding the truth about Qrow being Ruby’s father” “It makes sense for CRWBY to lie to us” Look at this…Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, instagram…. The first quote? Was a woman who was using an anti-autism anti-disability slur defending the theory. Never have I ever seen people so obsessed with a  theory that they would deny reality and be rude to the very writers and original creator. But the QrowxSummer and Qrow is Ruby’s Father fandom group has made countless cases of this. THIS is how they defend their theory? And people upvote, like and support these remarks? SHAME SHAME SHAME
 Conclusion:
I get how people desire qrow to be Ruby’s father for ships or fanfics.
Even to where they make Taiyang a hated character just for the sake of making sure nobody disagrees with them.
But the attacking of RWBY and CRWBY, claiming that “this needs to be fixed”, or getting angry at RT for not giving you the non-canon ship you want? Claiming that just because you want it to be so, that somehow your ship/theory has “validity?”
That reflects poorly on the fandom and critics.
But then again…. It’s easy to ignore what’s real and what’s a fact that when theorists and ship-pushers and CRWBY Haters on youtube tells you to stop listening to monty and the writers, and instead believe whatever you want and claim whatever you want, Because surely you know what’s better for the show than the people who worked on it, right? Ha ha ha, no. THAT is the ULTIMATE disrespect somebody calling themselves a fan could ever give. And if you think or agree with that type of logic, you should look in the mirror.
I looked for backup sources to defend CRWBY and RWBY, you’ll find them below.
Backup sources include:
 https://aminoapps.com/c/rwby/page/blog/qrow-is-not-rubys-dad/422o_0rbCYuoXj36VoB7obK3MXPZRbPKkz5
 https://aminoapps.com/c/rwby/page/blog/why-the-qrow-is-rubys-father-theory-is-wrong/z668_nQlIxu0dmRdRpEPxqE3qlWlZEmoE2
 https://aminoapps.com/c/rwby/page/blog/qrow-cant-possibly-be-rubys-and-heres-why/8BB5_LPVCmu2bonkw8eEP3Yokg8m8zJlgNV
 https://aminoapps.com/c/rwby/page/blog/why-qrow-isnt-rubys-father/lXXx_5QoUQuPVGo3Wgko3wJ52mMBl7644P
 https://aminoapps.com/c/rwby/page/blog/is-qrow-rubys-father-short-answer-no/422o_0rbCYupDKezxPxpdje7dRn3nB8YvZ
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPbft3KJd6o
https://aminoapps.com/c/rwby/page/blog/qrow-is-rubys-dad-theory-debunk/d33g_pQEcbu1NKQoMEv0kmDpP6N8bmowkkq
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dragynkeep · 2 years
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Unfortunately, that's the pain of being a Shonen fan: none of the women are ever written well
I love Bleach, it's coming back next year and it was my first real Anime. It's a good series in other aspects and there are a lot of strong female characters like Yoruichi and Rukia, but it has the same problem as other Shounen. It confuses physical strength with character strength.
Like, yeah, I love seeing girls and women going feral in a series or being badass, a lot of Shonen do give us scenes like that (Miruko and Ochako fights in BNHA for example) but they don't understand that those scenes hold very little weight if the female characters aren't:
Actually important to the plot and have an actual, meaningful affect on the story and characters
Have little to no Interesting personality or development
You could give me the physically weakest female character and I would still prefer her over the biggest shounen female baddie if she was better written than the "strong" female character and actually allowed to do stuff of importance.
Most female characters in Shounen are relegated to sex appeal, being a love interest, or when they do break out of that mold, the most they get in terms of a story line or development is clean and light.
Take Jiro and Momo for example. I love them, I really do, and I can personally relate to their struggles (Jiro struggling to follow her dreams and feeling like she let her parents down and Momo struggling with self confidence in her skills) but it's pretty telling that their stories as girls are simple and pretty non offensive while male characters like Iida and Bakugo get "oh, I tried to murder someone who hurt my brother!" and "I was a disgusting bully who had one of the messiest but most compelling turn arounds in manga history!"
I love Anime and I love Shounen, but a vast majority of Anime, namely Shounen, never threats its female characters right
I love Shonen, and a lot of the titles under it even despite their major flaws, but this genre has a demographic of teenage boys and it really shows. They can still have it that the female characters have just as much as the male characters, but it does take time to start moving an entire genre away from the gross tropes that they use. 
And unfortunately BNHA really does fall in terms of its treatment of female characters. The girls may have relatable stories, a few even have some form of development, but as you said, it’s all pretty inoffensive compared to how deep and dirty the boys’ storylines get. Bakugo and Enji have a highly controversial story regarding their abusive behaviour and the topic of redemption, Shoto is highly antisocial at the beginning and even didn’t care if some villains died beyond it affecting his image, Iida literally has a revenge storyline where he does push his friends away in grief and anger. 
Compared that to Momo’s insecurity, Ochako’s less than shining example for being a hero, Jiro’s fear of disappointing her parents in order to follow her dream. They’re all relatable, but they’re pretty. They don’t require the female characters to show less than ideal traits in a way that the male characters do, like pushing their friends away, like bullying/abuse, like antisocial behaviour, so it never strays into controversial territory. 
So it makes it seem less like they’re actual people and more just dress up dolls with irl problems painted on them. Pretty, but surface level. 
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solara-bean · 4 years
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 Grimmjow Headcanons Plus a Few x S/O ones 
( pretty sure I read some of these somewhere but I forgot so here's a self indulgent list :)
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He died in his early twenties so he's still pretty young mentally but physically as a hollow he's old as hell
He's European
He takes a lot of naps in random places such as the roof of Las Noches
In fact he does a lot of cat like stuff and doesn’t realize it
He can purr but rarely and it’s mostly in his sleep 
When he became an arrancar he had long hair similar to his release form. It kept getting in the way so he cut it
he doesn’t like wearing clothes
Him and his fraccion use to sleep close together in case they were ambushed by other adjuchas and still did even after they became arrancars
They didn’t think much of it. Except Di Roy. He’d say it was weird and ‘un-masculine’ to which Grim would tell him to shut up and go to sleep after laying an arm or a leg over his face. 
Di Roy would also occasionally guilt trip him
Grimmjow: You’re too weak to fight with us.
Di Roy: I wouldn’t be if someone didn’t bite my face off. 
Grimm:..........fine! do whatever you want. See if I care. 
He was actually much closer to them than he let on
Most of the epsada knew it. Especially after Syazel threatened to experiment on them since they were ‘expendable.’ He did his best to avoid Grimmjow after that.
He only really got to grieve of their deaths when the war against Aizen ended
As much as he genuinely enjoyed fighting Ichigo it was also a distraction from all the pain he tried to burry
Harribel and Nelliel helped him with his grief
They became sort of friends afterwards tho he still tries to fight them both on a weekly basis 
Refers to Pantera with female pronouns 
One perk of most of Los Noches’ inhabitants being defeated is the nearly infant amount of space. So he was able to choose his own room
He keeps it surprisingly tidy aside from the nicknacks he’s hoarded from wandering around Hueco Mundo
His bed is full of pillows as a substitute of having a pack to sleep with
When asked he’ll say its for comfort
Nelliel: Have you seen my pillow? 
Grimmjow: * sitting on it in his pillow pile* No.
He steals everyone’s stuff now and then but mostly Nel’s cuz he likes to mess with her ( insert low key sibling energy )
He talks to animals like people
Grimmjow: I told you to stop crossing the street at the red light idiot!
Cat: Meow
Grimm: Don’t talk back to me you little shit!!
Hangs out at Urahara’s place when he’s in the living world and not trying to fight Ichigo
Likes human food. Especially meat.
Grimmjow: *eating bacon for the first time* hmm tastes like hollows but better
Ichigo:.....I’m sorry what??!!
Was dared that he couldn’t beat Yoruichi at twister. He won five crates of snacks to bring back to Hueco Mundo ( may or may not have shared them cuz “ they gave me too much so take it or I’ll throw it out” )
Says things around the characters in the living world about his terrible experience under Aizen’s rule like it’s normal
Grimmjow: *having another rematch with Ichigo* Damn that almost hurt as much as Tousen slicing my arm off
Ichigo: *pauses the fight* Tousen did WHAT?!!
Becomes friends with Ichigo but won’t admit it.
Somewhat apologizes to Orihime and Rukia for what he did. But not Ichigo cuz he’ll do it all again but with less deadly intent.
Learns how to cook
Likes just about any kind of movie/show. He isn’t picky 
Would get his 6 tattoo edited to something else if it bothered him
Would freakin die for Kazui!!! 
Here are the S/O ones:
Is pansexual so gender isn’t an issue
Prefers someone who can beat him up but is ok with a human if he feels a very strong connection to them
Doesn’t really have a physical type honestly 
Will admire things about their appearance cuz he likes it on them and not in general
Will be in complete denial about his feelings at first 
Like “hollows aren’t meant to love” and all that ish 
Makes up excuses to hangout with them but it’s mostly for his own benefit
“ I don’t like them. They just have a nice movie collection.” “ I don’t like them. They’re just nice to spar with.” “ I don’t like them. They’re just nice to talk to.” “I don’t like them. They just make me feel safe when I sleep next to them.” 
Gives them random things he’s found when wondering around Hueco Undo’s desserts like gems and cool sharp bones
Let's them hold and even use Pantera
Starts to unconsciously turn off his hierro when he’s with them. It causes a lot of fliching and embarrassing gasps when they touch him since he’s not use to feeling so much
Did I mention he’s touch starved?
Like a lot.
Holding his hand for too long would literally kill him
Once he’s gotten use to feeling something other than pain from another person he starts to let them touch him more. Like hugs. Lots of hugs. 
He even lets them rub his release form’s cat ears
Then here come the purrs. Louder than they’ve ever been before! It startles them both. He denied it but the blush gave him away.
He’ll do his best to purr more often since his s/o likes it so much. Such as when they’re cuddled up for a nap. Though he doesn’t really have to try.
Is confused as to why they like to squish his toe beans but lets them do it anyway
Wraps his tail around them in his release form
Will let them braid his long hair
Will also let them paint his claws as well as put makeup on him
He’s a total pushover ( insert the ‘please for me’ meme )
Is very protective of them
“ Why are you sad? Do I need to kill someone?”
If asked will follow his s/o when they’re out at night so they feel safe. Potential muggers? Thrown by an unknown force. Stalker? Punched by an unknown force. Cat callers in a car? Car gets flipped over by an unknown force.
Eventually no one bothers them at all cuz word goes around that they’re protected by a ghost or something else supernatural.
They’re of the few that can call him by a nickname and survive. Grimm, Grimmy, Grimmykins, Grimmy-kun, Kitty, Kitten, Catboy, Stinky cat, Baby boy, Baby boi, Big guy, Tough guy, My Arancar, My love, My one and only, Handsome, Blueberry. Literally anything is fine with him.
But call him My King and he’s done for. Dead. A second time. Deceased all over again. His heart will reform just to burst out of existence. 
Takes them to Hueco Mundo a few times 
Makes a pillow fort with them with his hoard of pillows 
Will be skeptical as to why they like him and won’t be surprised if they get tired of him and break up
But oh no! They’re in it for the long run! You’re stuck with them Grimmykins:)
Would most likely say I love you without even realizing it till later
Grimm: *blushes* F*CK!!
Harribel: *pauses the meeting* Is there something wrong?
Grimm: I told Y/n that I love them before I left without realizing it! *puts his face in his hands and groans* I’m so screwed.
Nel: Well it’s about damn time!
Harribel: Congrats Grimmjow
Grimm: *groans and blushes some more*
If he really loves them he’ll find a way to weaken his immortality so they can grow old together ( yes it’ sappy but he figures he’ll get bored after they long gone )
Might go to Mayuri for help and becomes his lab rat in return. Won’t tell his s/o till it’s done so they won’t try to stop him.
It’s not fun. Like at all ( insert angsty fit energy here ). But it works and as an added bonus him and his s/o can have kids if they’d like
A great dad. Incredibly supportive and loving. Mess with them and you’re dead. Or at least scarred for life. No one messes with his cubs.  
Grimm: Isn’t it weird that our kids are best friends?
Ichigo: No. We’re friends.
Grimm: I tried to kill you.
Ichigo: Who hasn’t?
Grimm: I’ll drink to that.
Ichigo: That’s a juice box.
Grimm: Have you seen my kids? The last time I wasn’t sober they ceroed the roof off and beat up a hollow. There’s no way I’m missing that again.
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woodrokiro · 4 years
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Do It For the Band, Part One (fic)
Fandom: Bleach
Pairing: IchiRuki
Summary: When Tatsuki said she wanted their sophomore album to be the next Rumours, this is NOT what she meant. Band AU. Finally writing this fic idea.
Did Tatsuki once say she wanted one of her band’s albums to be the Japanese version of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours? Sure. Guilty as charged.
… Did that mean she thought that would include the same chaotic drama of her favorite album? She should’ve… But no. No, she did not.
If she knew what hell was to come, she would very much have preferred they stayed an insignificant, dimly lit coffee shop band to this. She is this close to running away to a wedding cover band, because this is more excruciating than any cheesy rendition of You’re the Inspiration can get.
Chad and Tatsuki are silent as they listen to the track, watching as Ichigo’s jaw tick and his face flush as Rukia’s high notes soar through the studio.
It’s… A really good song, to be sure.
Oh you got stars in your eyes, baby
If you think we could work
I can’t follow your galaxies
Can’t fall for  your smirk
Not this time, not this time…
It’s about broken promises. It’s about not believing someone you love, even if they love you, that it’s gonna work out.
It is very clearly about Ichigo Kurosaki.
Tatsuki shifts her gaze from Ichigo’s reddening face over to the one person he’s glowering at…. Rukia. The petite vocalist lifts her chin at his glare, staring straight back with piercing violet eyes.
Tatsuki just wishes they would make out already.
 --
 The Karakura Soul Society had innocent beginnings… Or: as innocent as an Alt Rock band can be.
Ichigo, Tatsuki, and Chad always kinda knew they wanted to get into music—well, Ichigo and Tatsuki talked about wanting to get into music, while Chad was the one who actually knew how to play a bass guitar—and the two friends finally learned when they were around fourteen. Tatsuki knew she was drums (the choreographed chaos of it was electrifying, and besides… Girls that played drums were hot) and Ichigo figured he’d be lead vocals and guitar.
Ichigo could sing, for damn sure: a low, gravelly tone that could melt girls’ hearts, even if he himself was as obtuse as a rectangle around women.
But what I really like to do, he slurred to her in his garage, Kirin in hand because the idiot was a total lightweight—is write.
And he really did write some incredible songs--at the very least, his lyrics had potential. It started with some weird Shakespearean metaphors and bad rhymes, but everything had a good start that Chad could find a beat for. He only got better, and the coffee shop and dive bar gigs were really receptive, and then the call came from some industry weirdo named Urahara that he was interested in managing their band and well… Things were going good.
That is: until Urahara suggested they get a keyboardist to double as another vocalist.
A female keyboardist, he noted, eyes dark under his green and white striped fedora, would be perfect for your team. I know just the one.
And, yeah, the way he said it was kind of creeptastic… But he did have a point. As great as Ichigo’s voice was, it was missing the harmony a softer, more feminine could contribute.
--
Convincing Ichigo to at least let the girl audition for them was like pulling a damn tooth.
“I don’t see why we need another person,” he grumbled, leaning his chair back with both feet on the café table. The band was waiting on the girl to arrive at this empty coffee shop, with a lone piano waiting for its player on the stage. “We’ve already got a groove going between the three of us. Why do we need another? When we need a keyboardist can’t we just… I don’t know. Ask for one?”
“Number one: for the love of God and our careers, don’t ever say ‘groove’ again. Number two: stop tipping your chair like that—”she slams her hand up on the seat, causing his chair to throw him upright. It may or may not give her a sadistic thrill when he yelps. “Number three: we need a keyboardist. Period. We can’t just conjure one up with a poof that’s gonna work well for us unless they’re regularly with us. Number four: we could use a female vocalist. We’re an alt rock band. Get over it.”
He scowls at her, but she sips her coffee nonplussed. She’s known him since they both were seven years old; she’s not about to let him throw one of his tantrums now.
From the corner of her eye, she sees him turn to their bassist. “Chad, what do you—”
“Don’t even try, Chad agrees with me n’ Urahara.”
Chad shrugs helplessly and Ichigo rolls his eyes. “Dunno why you guys are even so hard pressed to get this chick. For all we know it’s Urahara combining his artists for gimmick. it’s not even like we know whether she’s good—”
“I’ve been doing this a year, and I’ve been signed with Urahara longer, so…. Yeah. I suppose I’d call myself good. Maybe better than you.”
The whole team turns behind them to look where the soft voice is calling from the cafe’s swing door.
She looks like an eighth grader, Tatsuki thinks before she looks a little harder at the form beneath the baby blue dress and realizes—ah, no. Just short. Her raven hair curls prettily into two low pigtails, and lightly shadowed violet eyes look them each up and down with pursed, pink lips.
She’s cute, for sure.
… But “cute” is definitely not their band’s vibe.
“You’re late,” her bandmate beside her scoffs—at whether he’s thinking the same thing she is or he’s embarrassed to be overheard bitching, she’s not sure.
“I’m not—oh, look! Urahara set up the exact piano I asked for. That’s wonderful.” She floats past them to the stage area, beginning to the fiddle with the said instrument’s keys. “He can be an absolute idiotic pain sometimes, a great manager at others… I’m sure you all know what that’s like. And no I’m not late: on the contrary, I was early. I didn’t see you all enter until about five minutes ago, so I figured I’d wait it out at the park across the street so you could all get settled… So technically: you’re the ones who are late.”
Ichigo grits his teeth, raps his knuckles annoyed on the table. Tatsuki grins. She may not know whether the girl’s a good fit for them, but hey—she’s got guts.
“Soo… What do you got for us?” Tatsuki asks.
The girl says she’s got an original—a ballad called For Hisana, if they don’t mind. The bandmates agree that they don’t.
Ichigo clears his throat stubbornly, anyway.
“Sure, but just a heads up: we’re looking more for a keyboardist… Piano is nice ‘n all, but that’s not really our style.”
“I do both. I’ve just been trained in piano first so… It’s a habit, auditioning with it and all. I can show you what I can do with a keyboard anytime after, if you’re impressed enough with this.”
“…All right.” Ichigo shrugs. “Show us what you got then, pianist.”
“My name’s not ‘Pianist.’” She looks straight at Ichigo, before lowering them back to her keys, and Tatsuki strangely feels like she’s just intruded on something. “It’s Rukia. Rukia Kuchiki.”
Her fingers hit the keys and she starts singing.
She’s… Really good, in a way that the drummer can’t quite describe. Her voice is like a mix between Regina Spektor and Joni Mitchell—all folksy, high notes and yeah that sounds super gimmicky and lame and yeah no definitely not their vibe—
But maybe that’s also why she’d be kind of brilliant.
And the way she plays that piano…
Everyone in rock n’ roll will tell you that a good musician makes love to their instrument, and while she’s always thought the metaphor grimy, Tatsuki knows what they mean. They need to know the ins and outs of whatever they’re playing, for the instrument to be a second limb—for their expressions to be in complete bliss, ecstasy as they play.
Rukia’s face… It’s not quite so explicit as all that. But the way her eyes are dreamy and half-closed, how she bobs her head ever so softly to the heartbreaking beat, her mouth closing delicately over warbly vowels… Sure, with a little more vocal work she could be better, but all in all: she’s wonderful.
Tatsuki turns to Ichigo, about to ask if he’s thinking what she’s thinking but stops dead at his expression.
He’s watching her so… Intensely. His jaw—always so sharp, so tight and ready to grimace—has softened, and his eyes are locked onto this petite woman in a way Tatsuki has literally never, ever seen him look at a woman before.
 He is captivated with Rukia Kuchiki, and she can’t decide whether she’s happy for her friend or panicked for what this means for the band because fucking yikes.
--
He hums and haws after Rukia leaves, nitpicks when they meet alone with Urahara about how some of her keys were clunky, she needs more vocal training, blah blah blah.
But when the vote is cast, he agrees she needs to be on the team.
And that, Tatsuki pinpoints, is when the beginning of the end started.
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Ships and Feels about them
HUGE self-indulgent post but my brain is frozen and I need to get the juices flowing so I can start studying, because if I don’t get into the college I want I just might have to kill myself and then y’all can say bye-bye to your fav fics by your majesty. 
YoruSoi- status: worSHIPPING (geddit? XD) them like the goddesses they are
I regularly play Wicked Ones by Dorothy and just imagine these two tag-teaming against their opponents, like the crazy, badass, ninja lesbians they are. It fucking gives me goosebumps and makes me blush like I am imagining them rawing each other instead. I am a big time SUCKER for powerful, cut-throat wlw. They make me feel powerful by extension, and my devotion for these two is completely unparalleled. 
VictUuri- status: will protect them with my life  
First of all, I love how layered and interesting they are. I can think about this show and this ship for hours and hours on end ( @feastingonvicturi will vouch for that). I naturally gravitate towards angsty ships and writing (because I am a weird sado-maso cross, what can I say) except for these two fluffy bastards. I had been putting off watching YOI because of the weird things I had read about ‘yaoi’ animes (IK YOI is not yaoi, now) till someone told me how pure and deep their love for each other was and welp, here we are. 
RenRuki- status: comfort ship I’ll defend till death
It was one of my first ships and even as I multi-shipper, I always had a preference for them. Childhood-friends-to-lovers trope tugs on my heartstrings like little else and Renji’s devotion towards Rukia warms my heart. I hear them in nearly every song, imagine them in every scenario I read or write about and even though I have multiple ships I adore involving Rukia and Renji both, the two together is everything to me. (Presently obsessed with the amazing hcs and art by @recurring-polynya you might wanna check them out)
KaiRay- status: heart is taking a break, but remains firmly attached
I got into Beyblade BECAUSE of this ship, because of the moments these two shared in V-Force that I caught glimpses of when my younger siblings were watching the show. I love Kai and Ray’s dynamic and I guess what attracts me the most to this ship is the fact that as a teenager I was exactly like Kai and had my own personal Ray who got me through the worst in life. I love the sense of sweet nostalgia this couple brings me and I believe they are perfect for each other. 
MariahEmily- status: coffee shop AU, anyone? 
I was HUGE on MariahxRay but strong, stylish, kinda bitchy, dumb thot falling for the highly educated and fierce lady boss she doesn’t really know how to approach is another one of my favourite tropes, (see: PansMione, down under). I saw them interact and due to personal reasons my brain rejects petty rivalry between girls (because we’re all tired of that, children, be honest) and immediately tries to fix it in fanon. ( @trashyartz  and her beautiful drawings had a lot to do with fanning these flames.) 
ShunUki- status: want them to adopt me
Need I say more? No, but I wanna. I love the steady, secure vibes of this ship. This is the one ship I physically can’t write angsty shit about because of the level of understanding and sense of comfort these two share. They give me kind and strong dad vibes and I have emotionally been an orphan since I was in my early teens so. 
WolfStar- status: they’re canon, JKR can suck my toes
Fucking TERF 
Listen, listen, have you been listening? I mentioned I am a sucker for angst, right? Are you looking at the angst potential here, cause wow. What originally attracted me to this ship was the Chemistry between the two, cause it’s undeniable. You can NOT imagine Maurauders’ Era without imaging these two pining over each other. It’s impossible. 
PansMione- status: toxic and problematic, but oh so hot
I got on this ship because I was craving some quality wlw ships. You guys’ I can not explain to you how often female characters in shows and books do not pass the Bechdel test and I stumbled on some gorgeous PansMione art and just fell in love. IK this ship is hella problematic, but I am firm on my stance that the baby Slytherins deserve a redemption arc. 
Can you imagine these two after Pansy realises everything she did wrong and vows to be better? I imagine Hermione stumbling on a hurt and confused Pansy in year 8, who can’t stop her tears from flowing and is so ashamed of herself for that. She is feeling guilty and resisting the emotion with everything she possesses because the world she’d always known has crumbled down around her and everything she believed in has now been proven to be wrong. 
She lashes out at Hermione because how dare that smart, gorgeous, courageous girl also be everything Pansy once thought she was? How dare she, a muggleborn, unravel the complicated threads of the wizard world so quickly, so efficiently, and clearly see what Pansy never could? Pansy is hurt and guilty and angry and she hates the fact that fucking Granger of all people has now witnessed her crying. 
She feels lost and her anger only rages louder when Hermione doesn’t gloat or belittle her, she doesn’t say anything. 
(Why is this turning into a ficlet, WHAT) 
Anyways, Pansy gets over herself and she and Hermione get together and oh my god, imagine them then. Smart, powerful, righteous Hermione taking the fucking Wizarding World by a storm every single day with her sexy, vivacious, clever Pansy by her side. They’d be unstoppable and they’d love each other something fierce. It would show in the way they look at each other, with a sense of victory, not only over Voldemort but over the entire Wizarding society that had done everything it could to tear them apart, and ultimately failed. 
(BONUS: Imagine Ron and Harry being utter dorks when they go to Pride parades with Hermione and let the image cleanse your skin and soul. @feastingonvicturi @trashyartz one of you (or both?) needs to collab with me so I can write a fix it fic for these two, please. I will pledge my soul to the devil to be used and abused as per Trashy’s whims in exchange. Taura will do it cause she’s my best friend and loves me more than I deserve to be loved.)
(In conclusion, I adore every single one of these ships and am willing to slice a bitch’s throat to protect their honour. Except for YoruSoi, they are fictional characters IK but I am convinced they do not need anybody’s protection, least of all this dumb fuck’s and just might laugh at the very idea.) 
Also, feel free to reblog or comment with rants about your own ships even if they go directly against mine. More love to you if you expand on the ships I mentioned here myself. Tell me about your poison of choice, go ahead. 
But if any one of you dares to send hate to any of my ships, please know that I am something of a God in my own capacity and will smite you with my preferred weapon of choice i.e. blindness in the face of adorable puppies or kittens (in pictures, videos, art, real life or otherwise). Beware. Let people love what they love.
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cheshiresense · 5 years
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For the headcanon thing if I'm not too late. Headcanons for FemIchigo/Kisuke ship?
Lol you didn’t give me an AU? Guess I could throw them in the canon verse but the events wouldn’t be much dif imo. But let’s see how this goes.
Edit: Welp. This got long.
1. Ichigo keeps her hair long because of her mom. Masaki had long hair, and even if it’s not the exact same colour, Ichigo grows her own hair out in her honour, as a reminder of the one time she failed to protect her precious people and just because she’s never met anyone with hair as pretty as her mom’s.
The first time she gets into a serious fight with Shinigami, that dick Renji uses it against her. He grabs her hair, and taunts her with it, and in the end, she kicks his ass, but then his dick boss shows up and just about kills her. When she wakes up at the Shouten, she’s half-naked, wrapped in bandages, and her hair’s been sliced ragged, left in uneven strands around her shoulders where before it had reached her waist. Urahara is nice enough to cut and style it for her. He tells her he only knows how to cut it one way because a good friend of his used to wear her hair short. It’s cute enough, and at the end of the day, Ichigo would much rather keep her life than her hair, but she also locks herself in the bathroom later that night and has a good cry about it. It’s stupid, it’s just hair, it’ll grow back, but it still feels a little like losing her mother all over again. She gives herself twenty minutes, and then she gets her shit together because she has to go save Rukia, and Urahara promised to make her strong enough so she needs to get some sleep more than anything else right now. When she gets back to her room though, the rest of the Shouten is still silent but there’s a tray of tea by her futon, still hot, and too sweet to have been made by Tessai. Ichigo doesn’t even like tea, but it’s a surprisingly kind, amusingly awkward gesture from a man who knows too much and tells her too little. She drinks it all, making a face at the taste but appreciating the warmth that spreads all the way to her fingertips, and when she lies back down and closes her eyes, sleep comes easier this time.
2. Kisuke’s the one who carries her back to the Shouten after she defeats Aizen and subsequently collapses in the aftermath. He thinks it would’ve been easier if she’d been born a boy. She’s tall for her age and gender, but she feels more fragile like this, her shoulders narrower than her usual larger-than-life personality would suggest, her frame less sturdy. Even her bones feel more delicate. Then again, she’s still only sixteen and she’s already lost half her soul in a war she should never have had to fight in the first place, and a good chunk of that blame can be laid squarely at Kisuke’s feet, so maybe boy or girl, it wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. She’s light enough that Kisuke can carry her without difficulty, but her weight still feels like shackles around his wrists, tied to an anchor at the bottom of the ocean, like the worst of his sins given life, and Kisuke hadn’t ever thought that would be something he’d have trouble bearing until now. But the least he can do is carry her home, so that’s what he does. He takes her back to the Shouten and cleans her up and heals her– it’s a routine he’s uncomfortably familiar with these days. He doesn’t know if she’s ever consciously realized it, but he’s seen her naked enough times to feel like a pervert. He was Onmitsukidou, and he’s seen Yoruichi change in front of him enough times that the female body doesn’t make him blink, but Ichigo’s young - old enough to have developed curves, young enough that his hands shouldn’t be anywhere near her (figuratively or literally) - but there’s nobody else to do it, Yoruichi is always inconveniently away, so Kisuke keeps his eyes and hands well within professional range, runs a bath for her that takes care of most of the dirt and sweat and blood so he only has to make sure she doesn’t drown, and then whisks her off back to bed where he can bandage up what his Kidou can’t heal before settling down to monitor her reiatsu levels.
She remains in a coma for a month. Kisuke is the one who takes care of her, from fresh bedding to sponge baths to IV-fed fluids, even trimming her hair when it starts looking too shaggy (she’s growing it out again, so he doesn’t cut more than what he has to). By the time she opens her eyes, Kisuke’s just relieved she wakes at all, and it doesn’t seem like she’s (physically) much worse for wear so at least his caretaking skills aren’t terrible. All the discomfort in the world can be tolerated if it means Ichigo remains as healthy as she can possibly be.
3. Ichigo doesn’t see or hear from Urahara or any other Shinigami for the next seventeen months, and she tries not to let it get to her. She still sees her human friends at school, even if she’s no longer welcome in a large part of their daily lives, and Shinigami probably don’t think a year and a half is all that long. Besides, at the end of the day, she knew most of her Shinigami acquaintances for a handful of months tops; that’s hardly grounds for eternal friendship. She’s hurt by their absence, but she keeps herself busy with school, with homework, with the part-time job she finds just to fill the hours in-between. She gets good at ignoring the fact that she knows where her friends go after school, knows where her sisters go, and that she can no longer follow them. Urahara doesn’t wear a gigai after all, and it wouldn’t be fair to ask him to. He probably has better things to do too now that the war is over and Ichigo has done her duty.
So it’s been seventeen months of mind-numbing (soul-wrenching) monotony, and then she gains a stalker. She would never have chased that thief down if she had known Ginjou Kuugou was so… greasy. She doesn’t just mean his hair either; everything about him oozes an oily sort of charm that sets off every alarm bell her mom drilled into her head about Stranger Danger, Female Edition, and it becomes clear very quickly that Ginjou is exactly the sort of man who just won’t take no for an answer. He follows her around, flirts like he thinks she finds him attractive, keeps inviting her out for a meal, even tracks her down at work, and Ichigo’s just about had it with him after he “bumps” into her while she’s walking home from doing the grocery-shopping, because she may not be a Shinigami anymore but she sure as hell still knows how to defend herself and kick a creep in the balls when he dares to sling a too-proprietary arm around her waist, as if he has any right.
As it turns out though, she doesn’t have to. Ginjou gets about half a second to touch her, still blathering on about having something interesting to show her if she lets him treat her to some ramen, and then he’s being ripped away from her, abruptly enough to tear a shout from him, and Ichigo spins around just in time to see Urahara twist Ginjou’s arm behind him at a painful-looking angle before slamming him face-first into a nearby wall.
Ichigo doesn’t think she’s ever seen Urahara so… openly violent before. She can’t stop staring for a long moment, because that casual, effortless strength is… not something Ichigo would mind seeing again. If nothing else, it’s clearly effective (and pointedly ignores the voice that says she isn’t staring because it’s effective). The look on his face though is positively serene, if you don’t count the ominous shadow that his hat is somehow casting over his eyes.
“I do believe Kurosaki-san has asked you to stop harassing her,” the shopkeeper says in tones so airily cheerful only an idiot would buy the act. Ginjou doesn’t reply anyway. He can’t. Urahara’s yanked his arm up high enough to let him simultaneously choke the life out of the guy, his hand about as movable as stone as it pins Ginjou’s wrist to the back of his neck and his neck to the brick wall.
“Hey,” Ichigo says, and then stops, because on one hand, this guy probably doesn’t deserve to be straight-up murdered, but also if anyone in Ichigo’s life can kill a human and make the corpse disappear, it would be Urahara.
But Urahara glances at her, then shrugs a little and releases Ginjou, only to knock him over the head with his cane, hard enough to send him crumpling to the ground in an unconscious heap. There’s a moment of silence after that, and then Ichigo remembers to be irritated because she’s no one’s damsel in distress. “I could’ve handled him, you know.”
It comes out sharper than even she intends, but the sight of him reminds her of how long she hasn’t seen him or any of her other Shinigami friends, and it’s hard to remain mature about it when one of them is suddenly right in front of her again. Urahara, because he’s Urahara, just rakes a too-discerning eye over her like he can see right through her annoyance to the root of it. His expression tightens with something Ichigo can’t name, but all he does is incline his head in acknowledgement even as he smiles in a way that makes her want to punch him. “Of course, Kurosaki-san, but what kind of gentleman would I be if I didn’t interfere?”
Ichigo gives him the flat unimpressed look that deserves, Urahara’s smile twitches into something more genuinely amused, and for a second, it almost feels as if no time at all has passed since the last time they’d shared an actual conversation. Then Ginjou groans, Ichigo bristles irritably, and Urahara’s smile fades.
“Kurosaki-san,” He calls out before Ichigo can do more than turn away. “There are some things you need to know. But perhaps we can take this off the streets first? Come back to my Shouten; I will explain everything there.”
Ichigo turns back, scowling suspiciously at the blond, then down at greasy stalker. Great. She should’ve known; of course it would be Shinigami business that actually dragged Urahara out of his shop and into his first interaction with Ichigo after seventeen months of radio silence. But… if Urahara is willing to explain just what greasy stalker wanted to drag her into, Ichigo would be an idiot to turn him down.
“Fine,” She grumbles. “I’m using your fridge though. I’ve got ice-cream in here and it’s gonna melt before I get home at this rate.”
Urahara beams at her and hefts greasy stalker over his shoulder before ushering her to the Shouten. True to his word, he tells her about the Fullbringers who’ve invaded Karakura, and he tells her that the Shinigami have been monitoring the situation, and then he tells her he has a way to return her powers and soul-spirits to her. He shows her the sword, engraved with a bunch of intricate symbols she can’t even begin to decipher, and it thrums with so much power even she can feel it. She has a sudden epiphany that it must’ve taken even a genius like Urahara quite a while to make something like this, because she’d asked around, before she’d lost the ability to see Shinigami, and she knows for a fact that fixing her soul should’ve been impossible. The realization that Urahara must’ve been working on this for the past seventeen months goes a long way to soothing any fair or unfair feelings she had towards him, even if she also thinks he could’ve just told her. But she thinks that, and then she thinks that Urahara probably didn’t because he hadn’t wanted to get her hopes up for nothing. It’s stupid, but so is the way he eases the sword through her chest as gently as possible, as if it makes a difference at all when that first jolt of foreign reiatsu to her system still hurts like a bitch. She thinks she can forgive stupidity though if it’s coming from him. Not that she’ll ever tell him that.
In the aftermath, the Fullbringers disappear one by one, and nobody says anything but an increasingly manically cheerful Urahara gets a lot of wary side-eyes from the Shinigami trooping through Karakura over the next couple of weeks. It’s Rukia (Rukia who never so much as passed on a how-are-you, and Ichigo doesn’t blame her, but she’s never going to forget it either) who tells her later about Urahara kneeling in front of all the Gotei’s captains and lieutenants and begging them to help, who bowed his head through the Captain-Commander’s orders to keep the sword back until a powerless Ichigo has drawn out all the Fullbringers, only to immediately disobey as soon as he got the reiatsu he needed from them.
Ichigo asks, of course, just once, why. True to form, Urahara doesn’t give her a straight answer, he shrugs and lies instead, “Well it isn’t as if there’s anything else they can do to little old me in exile, is there?” But for just a moment, he also looks directly at Ichigo, his gaze steady and calm and unyielding, like there was never anything else he could’ve done, like choosing Ichigo over the Gotei was a decision made as easily as he breathed.
Much, much later, looking back, Ichigo thinks maybe that was the moment she first fell just a little bit in love.
4. Somewhere between the Quincy War and Yoruichi and Tessai moving back to Soul Society and the kids deciding they want to experience high school and normal life at the Kurosaki household, Kisuke wakes up one morning to Ichigo cooking breakfast in his kitchen and realizes he’s sharing a house with a twenty-year-old college student whose Gargantas make for the easiest commute to and from school in the history of public transportation. He stands in the doorway for a long minute, just watching her go through the motions that have become routine at the Shouten for… months now. Ever since he survived the war by the skin of his teeth and ended up half-blind because Benihime is only a quick, crude fix when Kisuke doesn’t know the exact makeup of whatever he’s restructuring. He’d had to study that, and then get some hands-on practice, before finally re-restructuring his eyes one more time. Ichigo had been a big help. Kisuke had had difficulties reading, along with dizzy spells and crippling headaches, so even though she didn’t understand everything, she also spent long hours with him, reading out loud and taking down notes for him, cooking for him and keeping his house clean and even manning the shopfront for him when Tessai was busy with the Kidou Corps. And then, once he was better… well, apparently she’d just never moved back out, and Kisuke had liked the company (has always liked her company) that he’d obliviously taken her presence here for granted.
She turns around now, probably sensing him. Her hair’s almost as long as it used to be back when they’d first met, but she’s tied it up into a messy bun. She’s still in pajama pants and one of his shirts because she likes the larger size and she keeps stealing them and Kisuke doesn’t mind, he has more than enough.
Maybe he should’ve minded.
“Hey,” Ichigo greets around a stifled yawn. “Food’s almost done. Could you set the table?”
Kisuke makes an agreeable noise and starts pulling down tableware from the cupboards. The coffee’s also done so he pours a mug, and then prepares the tea with the water that’s just finished boiling. Five minutes later, they’re seated around the table, Ichigo grumbling memorized literature quotes into her coffee because she has finals next week, and Kisuke just… watches her. They’ve thrown the porch doors open because it’s summer and the morning breeze is nice. Ichigo has her back to it, and the sunrise that frames her head like a halo gilds her bright hair gold. When she finally sets her coffee down, she looks up and catches his eye, and even as her eyebrows go up in an unspoken question, the smile that blooms across her face at the same time is as much a reflex as it is genuine, like the mere sight of him is something to be happy about, and Kisuke is helpless to do anything but smile back.
Shit, he thinks, far too late. I’m definitely going to hell.
5. “I’m definitely going to hell,” he moans into the table. Yoruichi, because she is first and foremost a terrible best friend, is too busy laughing at him to console him. At least she came prepared with the sake when he called her in a panic once Ichigo had left for class.
“Took you long enough,” Yoruichi chortles, like this isn’t a Big Problem. “Tessai thought for sure you’d realize she’s practically your wife-” Kisuke winces. “-when she went off to college and still went back to the Shouten every night. But I’ve known you longer so I figured it would take you a while before it clicked.”
“We are roommates,” He hisses vehemently, downing another cup of alcohol before pouring himself some more. “I’ve never- Yoruichi-san, I would never- I wouldn’t-”
“Well that was obvious too,” Yoruichi snorts, but her gold eyes are suddenly a lot less amused a lot more focused, acute and unblinking on his face. “But you know, if she’s old enough to kill for you, then she’s old enough to fuck.”
Kisuke freezes, and then straightens, and he has never looked at Yoruichi the way he does now, but there’s ice in his veins and a knot of flash-fire rage and black-fanged guilt clawing up his gut, and he couldn’t stop the crass words if he wanted to, “She was old enough to kill for me at fifteen; was she old enough to fuck then too?”
Yoruichi doesn’t even flinch, just pins him with a burning look sharp enough to cut. “Well you didn’t wanna fuck her then, did you? But she’s an adult now, and she can make her own choices, and I know you suck at human-ing so I’m gonna go ahead and give you a piece of advice in advance and hopefully save everyone a lot of needless drama - in general, people don’t like it when you make decisions for them because you think you know better. So before you panic even more and start pushing her away ‘for her own good’ but really actually because you freaked out about having feelings, maybe, just maybe, ask her what she wants.” She grins like a tiger that has its prey cornered. “Ichigo’s not stupid. Even I don’t know if she knows about your gigantic crush yet, she’s surprisingly closed off about personal issues, but let me just remind you, Kisuke - she didn’t sit at my bedside, or Shinji’s, or even Rukia’s, after the war, and you know full we were all laid out for days, if not from injuries then exhaustion.” She leans forward and snags the front of his Shihakushou to give him a hard shake. “Are you listening to me, Kisuke? She cares about you, and you care about her, and I have not seen you this happy in a very, very long time.” She glares at him, daring him to argue. “Even if nothing comes from this, even if you just stay friends, don’t you dare fuck this up for yourself. You’ve got a good thing here. She’s good for you, and she makes you happy. And it’s not a crime to be happy, Kisuke.”
She lets him go. Kisuke doesn’t move for a long minute, and this time, Yoruichi waits him out. “…What if I’m not good for her though?”
Yoruichi clicks her tongue and reaches for her own sake again, limbs going feline-languid once more. “That’s for her to decide. She’s got a decent head on her shoulders, Kisuke; if you really were poison for her like you seem to think you are every damn turn of the moon, she would’ve dropped you a long time ago.” She pauses to take a swig, and then she kicks him under the table hard enough to make him yelp. “Now quit being a coward, drink your damn sake, and then go home and be disgustingly domestic with your roommate when she gets back. And if after all this crap you put me through, you still end up hurting her, I’m gonna tell Kuukaku, and she’ll make you wish you were just dead.”
Kisuke thinks about that for a moment, remembers some of the antics Kuukaku used to get up to with Yoruichi, and internally cringes. “Right,” he sighs. Yoruichi rolls her eyes at him, and he sighs again. Well, he supposes he should’ve known better than to get any sympathy from Yoruichi. He also mulls over what she’s said though, and… well. If nothing else, Ichigo’s choices are her own. Kisuke’s manipulated her into a war once already. He can’t - he won’t - do it to her again, for anything.
He downs the last of his alcohol and this time dares to hope.
6. They never actually sit down and lay all their cards on the table and talk about it. It’s not in either of their natures; Ichigo prefers actions, and ninety percent of Kisuke’s words have always been used to deflect and manipulate. But, for Ichigo, the Shouten becomes home. She never moves out (and yes, she knew what she was doing when she packed up most of her belongings and carted them over to the shop), and at first, it was just to help because Kisuke was so badly injured from the war, but the longer she stayed, the harder it was to think about leaving again for good. When Kisuke hadn’t said anything even after he’d fully recovered, she took it as permission to stay, and of course that didn’t do anything to make her like him less. She enjoys his company, likes reading in his labs while he fiddles with his experiments, likes surprising him with new recipes, likes being surprised when he modifies or creates yet another Kidou spell for her monstrous levels of reiatsu so that it won’t blow up when she tries it. She likes that he always tucks her into bed if she falls asleep at her desk studying, and she likes that he trusts her enough to walk around without wearing his hat all the time. She likes that between her strength and adaptability and his creativity and cunning, they’re more or less evenly matched in a spar, and the harder she pushes him, the more thrilled he gets at having to work for his victories. She likes that he comes home one day with something both new and still familiar in his eyes when he looks at her, and a month later, on her birthday, he takes her halfway across the world to a rare book convention with a focus on Shakespeare, and halfway through that, his hand swings out to tangle her fingers with his own.
They never really talk about it, but Ichigo migrates into his bedroom one night and never sleeps in her own room again. They take things slow, honestly more for Kisuke’s benefit than her own, but she doesn’t mind because mostly, she just likes having Kisuke there, with her. He still treats her like glass sometimes, like something priceless he’s afraid to smudge just by touching it. Those days, Ichigo sprawls across him with all her weight and stays there until he wraps himself more firmly around her, usually dozing off while Ichigo works on a draft of her first book.
They don’t talk about it. But they don’t have to, to know what they mean to each other.
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shi-daisy · 3 years
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I 100% agree with you on how Buakuya's death should have been handled. I really blame those toxic fans for giving Kubo a hard time since he planned for his death to begin with. As for Renji being captain, I like the idea even tho I don't like the character that much. Idky but I just don't like most of the popular characters especially Rukia coz they rub me off the writing way. Do u think she has been given extra spotlight for nothing? Coz I do :|
Yeah, it would've been better if Kubo stuck to his plan, would've made more sense but fans be toxic AF if the pretty boys bite the dust.
Rukia got so much spotlight over the support human protagonists that I'm thinking Kubo should've just stuck with his original plan of having her be the protagonist if this is how he'd write her. Even Ichigo got less focus than her, and he's supposed to be the lead. Hell the final arc is the Quincy arc and I think she gets more page time than Uryu.
All in all I should be glad that a female character gets more development but at the end of the day all of that falls flat when despite all that they went through Rukia didn't do anything to stop the Soul Society from rebuilding her exccecution device and still having the same outdated rules and system that caused her and her friends so much pain. Really feels like a wasted character.
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hashtagartistlife · 4 years
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🔺 for RenRuki/Renji
1. i do not CARE what wdkaly said. if rukia came up to him and told him she loved him renji would sit her down and ask her what the fuck was going on because renji knows what’s going on between ir, probably faster than rukia herself catches onto her own damn feelings. like, don’t get me wrong! if rukia was adamant that he was the one she wanted, well, it’s not like renji’s going to say no to that! but renji would tell her to have a good long think about what she really wants. and then if rukia said no, no, you’re the one i want, renji wouldn’t argue further and go along with it, even if he thought she was lying.
i guess that’s the main difference between renji and ichigo, though. if ichigo thought rukia was lying to him + the lies are eventually going to end up hurting her, he’d tell her to cut the bullshit and not take no for an answer. renji cares enough about rukia to ask her, to give her a chance to stop and get out (and initially he didn’t even do that - this check first instinct is probably only something he developed after that 40 year separation that literally only happened because he didn’t check in with her first), but if rukia stubbornly insists on continuing to lie, then he probably respects her too much to try and change her mind on it. (tldr: ichigo’s not afraid of calling out rukia’s bullshit, just like rukia’s not afraid of calling out ichigo’s bullshit. renji… hm. afraid isn’t quite the right word for it. maybe renji just thinks he doesn’t have the right to call out other people’s bs, especially not rukia’s, not when they have such a history together.) Which is definitely a double-edged sword; it’s nice to be so respected as a person! it’s nice that renji trusts rukia enough to make her own stupid choices and take the consequences for it! it’s the kind of trust you can only get because they’re childhood friends who have survived literal hell together. It’s a very ideal kind of friendship! i think it’s just that, in the context of the narrative, rukia’s ‘choices’ all tend to be devastating for her and her wellbeing, and also… serve no purpose apart from making her miserable? there is literally no point in her having to go through all this because of a dumbass choice made out of guilt. which is why ichigo is presented as a better fit for her, as being able to do for her something that renji couldn’t (or wouldn’t) do. 
2. having said all this, and also openly admitting that, realistically speaking, if we view these characters as actual real life people and not characters from a story that should serve a narrative purpose, i think renruki is a pretty decent ship since they’re both decent people who have a long shared history together and overcame a lot of bs together and have a solid foundation of friendship–
having said all that i still hate renruki lmfao. there’s a lot of reasons for this, mostly petty reasons, but the main reason is that, to me, personally, it’s a downgrade for rukia. It rips her protagonist status away from her and makes her a side character. A side character with a lot of paneltime and importance, sure! but a side character nonetheless. 
but endgame ships don’t negate all those panels rukia was in! it doesn’t negate what rukia did for the story overall in bleach! and you are right, strawman! but to the casual reader who equates ‘female protagonist’ with the label of ‘heroine’, which is slapped on the girl who ends up with the protagonist of the series, that’s exactly what rukia not ending up with ichigo did! shit, kubo himself knows that that’s what his ending did. it doesn’t matter how many times he said rukia is the protagonist of the story along with ichigo. that final colourspread he did for chapter 686? ichigo’s singled out, but rukia isn’t. She’s posed and dressed exactly the same way as every other nakama on that colourspread, absolutely nothing to indicate she was anything special to the story at all. kubo knows that by ending his manga like this, he’s erasing rukia’s protagonist status to all but the most dedicated readers. 
even disregarding what the ‘general public’ thinks about bleach and bleach heroines, rukia ending up with renji who had…. no thematic tie to the plot whatsoever, who, dear as he is, is literally a side character, is a downgrade to me. inoue? she may not have been a protagonist, but she has tangible thematic ties to the overarching storyline! she may not have moved the plot along, but she had very relevant symbolism and was present in the narrative since day one! the fact that rukia, with all her symbolism and parallels and whose emotional bond with ichigo was a primary driving force of the story, was shuttled off to the side and bundled with a character who had none of that….. i honestly don���t know what to call it if not a downgrade.
(also, i just really hate that she’s not kuchiki anymore. like, this would have been a problem even if ir had gotten married, don’t get me wrong, i’m not a huge fan of kurosaki rukia either. but i just really really hate that she’s not kuchiki. she’s essentially given up kuchiki succession!!!! every time i see ih or rr shippers calling her next in line for the kuchiki house i just seethe because….. because the audacity?! how dare they speak that name smfh) 
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everything-withered · 4 years
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"More than friends, less than lovers". I would love to know on why Kubo was insistent?
I can't claim to know what Kubo's actual intentions were, but my interpretation of putting ichiruki in a the cusp of "more than friends, less than lovers" implies the potential of what they could be together.
And like I said in a previous answer, which I think this ask was alluding to anyway:
Ichiruki has potential, and like anything, the potential of something can never be ruined because it doesn't yet exist. For them, they're in a constant state of limbo, teetering on the ledge of never and almost and always...[hinting at] every possibility while still giving us nothing at all.
This could be seen as reaching or seeing things through "shipper goggles", but it's also a tactic for media that doesn't emphasize on the romantic aspect.
Characters in relationships like Ichigo and Rukia that are undefined but unquestionably important to the characters themselves are generally better received because it allows the characters to keep their agency and not be "pushed" into one another needlessly.
How often have we seen ships made canon that made zero sense? How about ships that just didn't have chemistry no matter how much they were supposed to make sense? The one thing that those ships have in common is the fact that at some stage or another, the creators pushed them onto their viewers.
(Side note: that's why slash ships are so popular in fan generated content, in canon male characters are treated like people while female characters are treated like love interests, but that's another topic of discussion for another day.)
Kubo, unlike other creators, didn't peddle ichiruki as a match of any kind, rather he let the characters organically establish themselves and their relationship.
Even if he didn't intend for ichiruki to be a thing, none of his conscious decisions during the publication of Bleach indicated Ichigo and Rukia would be so far removed as being solidly and only "just friends" or "just lovers". Everything from basing their character designs on being complementary to each other, and choosing to involve one another during major moments in their character arcs express a lot more than a single label could define.
Do I think he was shipping ichiruki the entire time I was following along? Yes. That was my interpretation. But it was done in such a way that for however often Rukia came up in Ichigo's thoughts, or motivations, it seemed a natural progression. More an "ah, that makes sense" rather than an "oh god, more ship nonsense".
Ichigo and Rukia were so important to one another that even if you didn't ship them, there was a blanket acceptance that the story started with them, and that they meant something to each other.
Interpretation of that relationship is open season, but there's no denying that the relationship exists, however it chooses to be defined.
I, honestly, couldn't see Ichigo and not think about Rukia, and vice versa whenever they were apart. They didn't feel like "friends" and they didn't feel like "lovers" but I felt like they were incomplete without the other, and I think the statement of "more than friends, less than lovers" was succinct enough to encompass all the things they are, and all the things they could be, and that's every romantic's dream.
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hujikin · 6 years
Text
How Kubo developed Romance in bleach (IR mostly)
http://www.well-storied.com/blog/the-dos-and-donts-of-crafting-your-storys-love-interest (Here is the link I used to reference for any writers out there.)
Types In Bleach
Enemies to Lovers
Friends to Lovers
Love Triangles
Second Chances at Love
Rags-to-Riches Romances
Star-Crossed Lovers
Opposites Attract
Fated Romances
Pretend Relationships
Love at First Sight
Royal Romances
Arranged or Political Marriages
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Isshin’s and Maskai’s love and destiny gets repeated in Ichigo and Rukia (sigh* Kubo o.o)
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Here Kubo introduces love tri and displays jealousy in Orihime (I know some I/H is gonna say some ish about how IR isn’t romantic blah blah well look Orihime displayed a jealousy towards Rukia and her effect on Ichigo and this is after Rukia had said (lied ill explain) that she didn’ t like Ichigo so why feel jealous of a close friend? Why would Kubo put this in if it was unnecessary? She wasn’t jealous of Tatsuki, because Rukia is special to Ichigo in a way she is not.
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Rukia shows the series signature fake smile as she puts up her actor front and denies feelings for Ichigo but we get a look into her inner thoughts and she mentions “love, companionship and friendship” And how her like or hate for Ichigo is troublesome. She wouldn’t mention love of she wasn’t thinking of it or feeling it. She also separated love and friendship, if all she felt was a simple friendship for Ichigo she wouldn’t need to say love. Then we take into consideration her expression Bleach’s signature fake smile; a smile in the series that shows that you are pretending, lying, holding back emotion and/or putting up a front. Multiple characters have used this smile (below). Why would Rukia use a fake smile while answering about her feelings for Ichigo? She has never been one to beat around the bush this here displays that Kubo wanted Rukia to have feelings for Ichigo different from friendship, something that was growing. He even titled the chapter Needless Emotions.
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#1: CHOOSE THE TYPE OF CHEMISTRY YOU’D LIKE TO BUILD.
Chemistry is that potent magnetism that draws two people — or, in our case, characters — together.
• A bond over shared interests or experiences • A broadening of one another's horizons • A grounding balance between dichotomous personalities • A shared admiration for one another’s spirits
Love interests that do not have lives outside of their story's protagonists aren’t characters at all, I’d argue. They are objects, cardboard cutouts, prizes to be won.
Your love interest should exist as a fully-formed individual, with a life outside of the protagonist's story. ( >.> hmmm lol)
Ichigo is stubborn, short-tempered, strong-willed, impulsive, genuinely compassionate and empathetic towards others . outspoken, hot-headed demeanor 
Rukia is grim, somber, stoic, straightforward, tactical, compassionate, selfless and had a difficulty making friends.
Before Rukia came along Ichigo did not smile because he blamed himself for his mother death. He was dealt with guilt and what some could say depression (rain in his heart) for years until after saving Rukia where we see his true smile for the first time, and this rain reappears many times to display Ichigo’s inner distress. Rukia is used as the cure to that distress multiple times, like here for example (below). One minute Ichigo is crying and covered in rain then after his powers are given back the rain stops completely and from then on out no one is getting rained on, not ginjou, Urahara, especially Ichigo, and so on, its as if that specific rain storm was related to Ichigo’s emotional turmoil and as soon as Rukia arrived and fixed everything it stopped. Also notice how of everyone Rukia is the only one that isn’ t getting wet by the rain (Kubo all the f-ing symbolism for nothing)
Rukia comes into the first arc as a character that looks defeated and emotionless because she blames her self for Kaien’s death, she is alone and the only family she has doesn’t speak to her. Ichigo teachers her to trust other, to make friends, to smile as well, and gives her a stronger will to live. Everything that Kaien once did for her Ichigo now does for her. She puts her trust in others and now feels joy. If we see Rukia changes in expression from the first chapter to the end of the SS arc you see just how much of a positive impact Ichigo has on her.(look below)
They balance each other out and as Orihime said they have pure chemistry, Rukia brings out a great Ichigo, an Okay Ichigo, and makes Ichigo feel better 
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chapter 181> chapter 1 (Ichigo and Rukia change in expression
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#2: DEFINE YOUR PROTAGONIST’S ROMANTIC INTERESTS.
To choose the best type of chemistry to pursue in your story, you may find it helpful to first understand what your protagonist needs in a relationship. Not what they want or what they think they need, but what will truly bring a little love into their life. 
In the throughout the series we see an emotionally conflicted Ichigo constantly battling with his inner demons (literally). In the beginning we see him emotionally conflicted with his mother death, then with his hollow, then with his vasto lorde form (which I/H love to claim as an I/h moment even though that form caused im anguish/ despair lmao *look below*), then when he lost his powers, and so on. Rukia constantly ,not in all these moments but most, play a pivotal part in Ichigo’s emotional stability. Kubo makes her Ichigo’s rock (ray of light, stopper of rain/angish) he makes her someone Ichigo needs to get back to normal for four Arcs (Sub-shingami, SS, HM, and Fullbringer). He makes her the reason why Ichigo can smile again. He makes her what Ichgo needs. Not once has he made Hime that. Throughout the course of the series he made her a friend, a girl in love with Ichigo, a healer and comical relief ; but not once has she made her someone that resolves the main problems Ichigo has emotionally and mentally. Ichigo was literally depressed for a year and a half up and she couldn’t do anything for him and throughout the F.B Arc Ichigo doesn’t smile once... we get one of his fake smiles that makes Yuzu sad but that's about it
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GIVE YOUR LOVE INTEREST AUTONOMY.
This trope, which disproportionately affects female love interests, is a form of objectification that's sure to leave a bad taste in many readers' mouths. To counteract this, treat your love interest as the protagonist of their own story, giving them autonomy in the form of their own goals, desires, and needs. 
Hime has displayed this trope after the SS arc Kubo makes her a Kurosaki-Kun machine. Her feelings for Ichigo become the largest part of her character or her role as a healer or as a damsel. When they aren’t fighting hime is imagining him in Shojo like scene which is comical in a Shounen ( he went from Ichigo to Usui lol). We understand that she is working but often times when she is in a panel its because she is going to see Ichigo she doesn’t have her own story in the series. Not even some panels showing her working. Just her alone at home thinking about Ichigo, talking about Ichigo (to or not to Tatsuki), Her walking to Ichigo’s Job, Her going to Ichigo’s house, you get the point...
MAKE YOUR LOVE INTEREST IRREPLACEABLE.
Further your love interest's development as a character by giving them a role in your story that is unrelated to their romance with the protagonist. 
Rukia place in Ichigo’s life is unique. When Rukia disappears the first time Ichigo speaks on painfully feeling her absence (ch58). Then when he mentions Uryu he says that he’s absent but at least he would remember Rukia (instead of saying “oh yeah Uryu got hurt pretty bad so it makes sense that he’s absent...”) Then gain he mentions this odd feeling about how the world keep going even with out Rukia all in this chapter. This become reiterated in one of Kubo’s signature poems in Vol. 49(below) Ichigo now directly wonders again how can he keep up with the speed of the world without her in it ( It still makes me laugh when I/H deny this...) Then take into consideration that Rukia is the rain stopper (sadness stopper) in Ichigo’s life (another role only she has) Then the chapter where Ichigo gains his fullbringer powers, right before Rukia get a full page dedicated to her as Ichigo thinks of moment that could trigger his power and it is Rukia. Then when he loses his fullbring Rukia brings back his powers again. Rukia being the one who changed his world in general. Kubo again making all these specific decision, put Rukia’ s importance to Ichigo on the forefront. 
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ENSURE INFLUENCE IS A TWO-WAY STREET.
Relationships are a push-and-pull, a give-and-take. Protagonists are often challenged or transformed by their relationship with the love interest, but don’t forget to allow the relationship to shape your love interest in return.
Throughout the series Rukia is a positive influence to Ichigo. Not once has she ever caused negative development for him. The Ichigo has given Rukia people in her life that she can call her friends. He brings back joy in her life or as Renji says “ a shine in her face” (below) Because of Ichigo, Rukia gains the courage to finally confront Kaien’s family and she too begins to smile again. Because of Ichigo Rukia gets a second chance she can’t protect Kaien but she can protect Ichigo, he brings back her humanity and they give each other balance.
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Kubo built all of this up only to go left in the end...
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avenger-hawk · 5 years
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What do you think of bleach's ending?
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How cool to be asked about my fave manga before Naruto. But first let me say that I haven’t followed the last 2 arcs with the same interest I had for Naruto’s, so my impression is not as deep. Also how does it work in the Bleach fandom? I take there are antis and wars and hate everywhere? But all my ship hate/ending criticism is tagged as anti, if someone has a problem with it anyway I couldn’t care less.
Ok first of all I don’t remember a lot of details, and I didn’t get others lol, cause Bleach fight scenes are confusing and arcs are repetitive, it’s like Kubo has nice ideas when it comes to style and design but he is lazy with narration. Especially in the last 2 arcs. For example Yamamoto dying and being replaced by Kyoraku was ok, but Ukitake and the whole Mimihagi thing..not sure if I liked it. The Unohana/Jinpachi plot twist was kinda cool but I why did she had to die ugh I kinda shipped them. Also where the hell is Yachiru in the end? AND KIRA? I forgot about the Vizard but I like them. Oh and what the hell happened in the final fight between Ichigo and Yhwach? It was so confusing? I never really liked Aizen but him released to fight alongside Ichigo was a cool move. If only I understood what happened, that is.
I didn’t get some fights but I liked the new interaction certain fights provided, like older Bankai Toshirou and Byakuya’s panel in ch672, or Byakuya and Shuuhei against that heart throwing guy whose name I forgot. 
What I always liked about Bleach was the style, I really like how sleek and powerful Kubo draws his characters, I like how diverse he made the different races, with different language based words and stuff, the music references, the poetry Kubo put in his writing, he’s got an artist-like vibe imo, more than other mangakas. Anyway I like his female characters better than Naruto’s, cause they have a more independent and interesting personality, although I have a problem with Rukia’s hairstyle and with Orihime’s anything. Actually I don’t even hate her, as a comic side character she was funny, but as a heroine? Just give me Rukia, Tatsuki, Matsumoto, even Momo, but not her. But I don’t make the rules and shounen law needs the main character to get together with big tits/whiny girl. 
So as you can tell I don’t like the main canon pairing. I liked Ichiruki much better cause there was an actual deep friendship between them, from day 1, a strong bond with mutual feelings of trust and affection. Mutual. And they were equals, there was no weak girl to be protected cause Rukia had first given Ichigo the power. But from a logical pov I guess they’re from different worlds so the pairing wouldn’t work considering the future. Rukia would have had to do like Ichigo’s father, giving up to her shinigami powers and all. It would have been romantic and kinda Inuyasha-esque.
Not considering Ichiruki, if pairings had to exist (cause a manga can actually end without characters getting married, even tho mangakas seem to forget it) I’d have liked Ichigo with Tatsuki. Sorry I like strong characters getting with strong characters. And don’t give me the ‘Ori/hime is strong’ cause her strength is different, hyped up by the narration and anyway even considering her kind of strenght she would have matched other kinds of characters better. I liked her with Ulquiorra lol, back in the days. Cause he was like a child, pure in a way, about emotions and feelings, while she was knowledgeable. I also liked her with Ishida. A lot. They had mutual respect and a relationship in which they were equals, so I’d have liked them together much better.
I gotta say though, that I like Ishida alone in the end. He was a Sasuke sort of character, seeking revenge for his clan, being in conflict with his father (since he doesn’t have a brother) in the beginning, rival to the protagonist, joining the dark side at some point. I actually liked his plot twist when he joined the Quincy Army, I liked his backstory, his mother and all (also the soap opera-ish triangle sort of story between his father, Ichigo’s mother and the maid-his mom…like. It really looked like a soap), and I would have liked to know more about his time there cause it was interesting. His fight agaisnt Jugram was cool too. Also he delivered the realest line ever and you guys know how much I love animals and animal-loving characters. I’d love to see that scene animated tbh…also because Ishida’s voice actor is Sasuke’s and hearing him talking that way of animals would be so cool cause both characters share that trait.
I kinda liked Jugram too, and his past with Bazz-B, and the way his fight with Ishida ended. tbh he was the only Sternritter I liked. Oh well I didn’t dislike the fear based one fighting Byakuya cause it gave us so much fanservice, bloodied wounded Byakuya, as well as the later part where we see Byakuya unconscious and all bandaged up floating in water…or Renji naked and bandaged as he wakes up. Speaking of which, I’m a Byaren shipper but mostly I ship Renji with everyone lol, Renji is my favourite character, he’s amazing and underrated, his backstory and personality and bonds were really interesting and it was a pity that he was put aside as the story progressed, as a side character and even more so as a kinda comical sidekick, cause he has a light side but his story wasn’t a light one but if I start talking about him this post will never end I guess, anyway he was deep and selfless, a rebel but also loyal and his relationships, major or minor ones (even with Kira and Momo, or with Ikkaku who taught him how to fight when they were in the 11th division together, cause Renji changed so many!) were all cool. (like, I’m looking at Renji wikia for a detail and I’m back to the old feelings for him)
So even tho I didn’t ship Renruki I was glad to see the way it was done. The final chapters kinda showed them getting closer (like Ichihime that was being blatantly pushed onto the reader, also after the Naruto ending I was suspecting a similar ending so) and they’re both shinigami so their pairing was technically easier than Ichiruki…also his feelings for Rukia, his loyalty and protectiveness and respect for her are beautiful and I like the idea that during the time Ichigo had no powers Rukia and Renji got closer. Also I hate the whole forced kids anime trend but I liked them as parents and their kid a lot, cause they didn’t change personality at all, in fact they’re chill parents, kinda reckless and kinda boastful, you can tell they have a nice complicity and that they’re happy. I think this is the only canon pairing I’ll ever like tbh.
I like that Ichigo took over his father’s clinic, a small one, while Ishida became an important medic. I never liked Sado but the group getting together ad Ichigo’s place to see the match was a cool idea imo. It has the element Naruto’s ending lacked, cause it put together the old group, showing that despite time passed they’re still friends. 
Hope this answers your question, thanks for asking, I had a lot of fun replying to this!
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toranoya · 5 years
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ABOUT: HISAGI, Shuuhei (BL)
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"He who fears not the blade he wields has no right to wield that blade."
Shuuhei Hisagi is the Acting Captain AND Lieutenant of the 9th Division of the Gotei 13, formerly under the traitorous Captain Kaname Tōsen.
Race: Shingami Birthday: August 14 Age: Several hundred years old. Appears 35 *headcannon* Gender: Male Height: 181 cm (5'11") Weight : 67 kg (148 lbs) Eyes: Grey Hair: Black Blood Type: O- (universal donor) *headcannon*
Personal Status Marital status: Single Orientation: Undecided, too busy! Education: Shinigami Academy (Shin’o)
Zanpakuto Shikai: Kazeshini Bankai: Unknown
Appearance
Shūhei Hisagi is a tall and lean-built man with dark grey eyes, short black hair and three scars straight over his right eye that lead down his cheek (gained during a past Hollow attack). Additionally, he has the number "69" tattooed on his left cheek (inspired by Kensei Muguruma, who saved him from a Hollow when he was young), as well as a blue-striped tattoo running across his left cheek and over the bridge of his nose. He wears a choker around his throat and matching armbands on both upper arms. These have explosive properties which he exploited in his fight with Findorr Calius.  Hisagi wears a sleeveless shihakushō, and has his lieutenant insignia tied to his left arm. Back when he asked Tōsen to remove him as a seated officer, he wore a Shinigami robe with sleeves and did not have the blue-striped tattoo. During his academy days, Hisagi's hair was much longer, hanging down to his neck in the back and approaching his chin in the front.
Personality
Hisagi is an extremely mature and calm individual, a state that is slightly at odds with his somewhat punk-like appearance. He usually takes responsibility and tends to avoid violence when possible. He seems to be virtuous, much like his captain's image; their views often coincide until it is revealed that Kaname Tōsen is a subordinate of Sōsuke Aizen. After Tōsen betrays the Soul Society with Aizen and Ichimaru, Hisagi forms a friendship with Tōsen's former friend, Captain Sajin Komamura, with both of them resolving to open Tōsen's eyes to the truth. He is often in the company of the 3rd Division lieutenant, Izuru Kira, and frequently hangs out with 6th Division Lieutenant Renji Abarai as well. He comes from the lower class, but when he is pressed for cash, he is ready to rely on any free food source available, including one provided by someone as obtuse and snotty as 2nd Division lieutenant, Marechiyo Ōmaeda.
Hisagi has stated that he does not like the shape of his Zanpakutō's Shikai release, as it looks like something meant to "reap life itself". He also fears his sword's power, because to him, it is something of a sign of respect to battle for justice as well as a testament to the true strength of one's character. This philosophy is taught to him by his former captain, given the latter's "follow the path with the least bloodshed" creed, indicating a reasonable closeness between the two. It also seems that while battling, he becomes a darker person and seeks to instill fear in his enemies while in battle.
In the absence of Tōsen, not only does the leadership of his division weigh on him, but also the chief editorial position of Seireitei Communication. In what little free time he has, he likes to practice on a guitar that he found on one of his missions to the Human World and brought back to Soul Society. As members of his division find his practice annoying, he tends to do it in the mountains of Rukongai.
Equipment
Explosive Bands: The bands on Hisagi's neck and arms possess explosive properties. By removing them, he can use them to produce blinding explosions that expel a large amount of smoke.
Powers & Abilities
Expert Swordsman: Reluctant to use his Zanpakutō's Shikai form, Hisagi has trained to become especially skilled at swordsmanship so he wouldn't have to rely on it. He is very crafty with his Zanpakutō as his skills are great enough to regularly fight opponents who released their Zanpakutō while his remains sealed, only relying on his own Zanpakutō's released form as a last resort.
Kusarigamajutsu Master: While afraid of his Zanpakutō's Shikai, Hisagi is highly proficient in its use, using his mastery of a variation of Kusarigamajutsu (which features fighting at a distance with substantial usage of the chains to ensnare opponents, as well as using his Zanpakutō as a long-ranged, throwing weapon). This allows Hisagi to fight using a large variety of attack angles and styles.
Kidō Expert: Hisagi is well-versed enough in Kidō to have an understanding of at least fairly high-level Kidō spells without incantation, most noticeably Binding No. 62.[80] He is able to use them in conjunction with his released Zanpakutō to deliver more damage to his opponents.
Shunpo Expert: Hisagi is proficient enough in Shunpo to keep up with lieutenant-level Shinigami. His skill allows him to move fast enough to dodge a vast majority of multiple Bala blasts that are fired at him.
Hakuda Expert: Hisagi is a highly proficient fighter even when unarmed. During the Bount Invasion, Hisagi demonstrated great skill by incapacitating several possessed Shinigami. In battle, he is tremendously agile and is able to attack from various angles with great dexterity.
High Spiritual Power: Being a lieutenant of the Gotei 13, Hisagi also boasts a high spiritual energy. His Reiatsu is green.
Enhanced Endurance: Hisagi possesses a high level of resilience and stamina, evidenced by his ability to take heavy damage from Ayon, and be able to fight and ultimately defeat his former captain, despite receiving further grievous injuries.
Enhanced Strength: Hisagi possesses a considerable amount of strength. He easily lifted and slammed the giant Ayon into the ground with his Shikai. He also sent Kazeshini crashing through a nearby wall with a single elbow strike.
Zanpakutō
Kazeshini: In its sealed form, Hisagi's sword looks like a regular katana with an octangular tsuba. Hisagi typically carries his Zanpakutō at his waist, but has on occasion carried it on his back.
Shikai: Kazeshini's Shikai command is "Reap". When released, it takes the form of two Kusarigama-like weapons, each with two scythe blades, with one inverted, giving it the resemblance of a pinwheel. The blades are connected to a spiked rod tethered together by a long chain. While in Shikai form, Kazeshini can be swung by its chains in large circles, allowing the bladed portion to spin like a fan. The chains are extendible, giving Hisagi great ranged ability. Kazeshini can also be used for entangling an opponent's sword, or other weapons; It can even immobilize opponents. Although he dislikes the shape of his weapon, he is extremely proficient in wielding them; he uses them as projectiles and controls them at range by moving its chains, making Kazeshini's paths unpredictable.
Kubikake (首挂, Neck-Hanging): A physical technique that Hisagi can use by throwing the chain of Kazeshini around the neck of his opponent, from here he can pull the chain hanging the opponent strangling or ensnare them knocking them off balance and bringing them toward him.
Bankai: Not Revealed. In the ten years following Yhwach's defeat, Hisagi claims to have mastered his Bankai, though his peers and captain claim not to have seen it, as Hisagi states that he has not had a chance to unleash it recently.
HEADCANNON
-Hisagi cooks well and his favorite food is Vienna sausage, while he dislikes sea urchins.
-Work work work, these define Hisagi’s life and he uses it as a coping mechanism to not think much about the gaping wound that was his former Captain’s defection.
-Hisagi will take on as much work as he can and fall asleep exhausted at his desk if you’ll let him.
-He’s also prone to drinking heavily when he can, in a vain attempt to make the pain stop. Sometimes he’s wasted at night, but is always on time and alert for duty the next day. DUTY FIRST!
-In terms of sexuality, Hisagi hasn’t decided which way he’d like to go, though he does tend to lean towards males, as he’s always had strong admiration for male role models and understands them better than his female companions which he gets easily flustered around.
-Hisagi tries to be the best Acting Captain and Lieutenant he can be, seeing it as his duty to make up for what the 9th lost with their former Captain. Ie. He strives to be the ideal that he thought Captain Tosen was.
-While he enjoys the work being Acting Captain and Lieutenant provides him, always the good soldier, he’d eagerly step aside when someone else is appointed to the position.
-While open to dating, they tend to be one-nighters as he is afraid to let anyone close to him again, lest they also cut his heart open like Tosen’s treachery did.
-Is self-conscious about the scar on his face, thinking he might never find true love when his “imperfection” is a reminder every day and can’t really be hidden.
-In battle, Hisagi enjoys freedom of movement, which is he reason he cut off the sleeves of his uniform. He also practices in the nude, seeing it as a way to be at one with one’s surroundings.
-He definitely enjoys when people touch or comment on his arms and face tattoos as he tries to use them as a distraction to divert attention from the scar on his face.
-When being intimate, Hisagi enjoys being bound first, but doesn’t mind binding his partner instead. While being the top, he is caring and sensitive to his partner, but when being the bottom, he likes it rough, thinking it a suitable punishment for the times he failed.
-He comes from a “poor” Rukon district, so sometimes feels uncomfortable around those with higher standing, such as Rukia and Byakuya Kuchiki.
ALT VERSE: -Hisagi gets convinced by Tosen to join him and serve Aizen. He may be a spy still working in the Seireitei or leave all together like Gin and the others.
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JAPANESE MOVIES QUICK REVIEW/NOTES
This are all my opinions, we all have different opinions so don’t take this too seriously. I was doing this alphabetically before but screw that I’m doing this randomly and still 4 movies per post and I’m using the Japanese original title for the movies.
Here we go~ Live action movies for this round. I’ve read all the manga for this round so this post is quite longer than usual.
BLEACH |  RATING: 8.5/10
- Characters where portrayed well. Yes, we had some doubts because of some hairstyle inaccuracy but anyway the more important matter is that they acted out the character well.                                                                                          - When this live action was announced I thought "what part of the story will they cover" since its just a movie it'll be too short to cover the arancar arc. I thought maybe they'll do the parts from when Ichigo and Rukia met up to saving Rukia in Soul Society. Turns out they did the from Ichigo and Rukia met up to Rukia going back to Soul Society and added Grand Fisher early to the story since it kind of gives justice due to the fact that it was the hollow that killed Ichigo's mom.                                                                                                                     - The Bleach series is a really looooong story. Each arc is packed with a lot of encounters and stuff. Personally I think its too hard to make a live action out of it that atleast 90% follows the original plot. So if you are a fan of the manga/anime don't expect it to be that accurate but atleast they did not add non-existent characters or made a totally new plot.                                             - Soundtrack was perfect
DONTEN NI WARAU |  RATING: 8/10
- Action, fantasy, family, friendship - I've read the manga and the characters were well portrayed. Ever since Mugen no Juunin I prefer Sota Fukushi on action movies which requires him to be dressed in a kimono and long hair actually suits him =^-^= - Anyway, the movie was quite short just less than 2hrs and as a fan of the manga there were details and characters that were important in the story but they were omitted on the movie that kind of made me sad. - Also as a woman the movie lacked the great female characters that were in the manga like Botan and Nishiki. - If you like this movie please do read the manga its not that long but the story is more detailed and definitely better than how they shortened things in the movie.
SAKAMICHI NO APOLLON |  RATING: 9.5/10
- Read the manga before I made this review and as an adaptation it was good. - Well it wasn't 100% accurate but its mostly based on the manga anyway. - The main characters portrayed their characters well. Ritsuko's dad really resembled the one on the manga lol - Nakagawa Taishi's portrayal of Sentaro was remarkable. - The height difference between Sentaro and Nishimi  was there! most manga adaptations forget about height details but this movie didn't, so thumbs up to that :) - This makes you appreciate jazz music
TONARI NO KAIBUTSU-KUN  |  RATING: 9.5/10
- The moment it was announced that Suda will portray Haru Yoshida I read the manga right away. It's a really nice story and Haru specifically is a unique character. He's scary but is actually pure and innocent, he's even naive at times, and he just wants to have friends, and on top of that he's good looking and a genius. - So as an adaptation this movie was good. The characters are well portrayed and closely followed the appearance. - Maybe, I was just looking for that transition between Haru and Shizuku's relationship. Since in the manga Haru tells Shizuku he likes her but it was just a "like" as a friend. Then eventually Shizuku falls for Haru and this time Shizuku tries her best for Haru to really love her, then ofcourse their feelings become mutual eventually. 
>>>Check this tag for the rest, hope this would be useful to somebody xD
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woodrokiro · 4 years
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Hollowed (fic) Part Three
Fandom: Bleach
Pairing: IchiRuki
Summary: They call her a miracle, but he looks at her as if she’s normal. It scares her. Fantasy/Futuristic/Zombie kinda?AU. Read Part One and Part Two.
As a kid, Ichigo imagined this place to be heaven on Earth. 
High up on the mountain, heavily secured by both stone walls and the near entirety of the militia, containing the smartest doctors and scientists dedicated to fighting the Hollowed--these are details that can allow more luxuries than one in the Valley could ever imagine.
He believed the walls to be just adorned in gold, gardens and fields bursting with fruits and vegetables to last years, doctors that can aid without having to wait until it’s officially deemed “safe” outside, and its people walking the grounds like they were on Cloud 9.
And… Yes, it’s incredible how privileged these people are to be living within such a structurally secured community. There are, indeed, ancient tapestries on the walls that must be hundreds of years old from the Old World at least, and he is disgusted with how plentiful the food is here compared to what is provided to the Valley.
But there’s… Something heavy in the air here.
The constant fog of the mountain has clearly taken its toll on the castle, as he notices mildew and mold in quite a few corners of stone. It’s crumbling, some trees outside bend to the ground as if too tired to pick themselves up, and it’s so fucking cold like good God, this is the place everyone says will be humanity’s saving grace?
And it’s not just the place itself: everyone walks with order, with a restrained purpose that never deviates within the day. There wasn’t much joy back where he was from either… But Jesus. He smiled at the maid that showed them their rooms the first night and she nearly bolted out of the room. There is a dark look in everyone’s eye, a near-obsessive work ethic as if they’re terrified  that today someone will call them lazy and have them kicked back down the mountain. 
Of course, the level of comfort at which you sit in your job depends on your station. 
 The caste system here nearly dictates that the militia is king, the scientists are nobles, and the “service” (cooks, farmers, housekeepers) are the bugs beneath everyone’s feet.
And Yamamoto is God. 
Blame it on him being from a normal (albeit, more dangerous) village, but he hates this hierarchy bullshit. 
---
“The more I see of this place, the less I like,” he tells his group their first night with crossed arms. “What, just because they have more access to weapons and protection they’re better than us? What makes that old guy in charge? Why did that Hinamori chick just near run out of the room? And what was the deal with that...” he motions wildly with his hands, trying to express… He doesn’t know. “You know. The girl in the really fancy dress, what’s her deal?!”
He sees Karin rolling her eyes, and Uryu sighs. “Kurosaki, we don’t have a choice. Obviously we’re allowed here on some favor from your father, but these aren’t people we want to rock the boat with. It’s a thin line between being a reluctantly welcomed guest and a happily thrown out one.”
“While it’s clear that Ichi-nii is having issues expressing himself here, I agree with my brother,” Karin cuts in. “On the other side of that coin: why did they allow us in? There have been people with more vying for a position here for years. Protection like this is worth all the gold and silver and food in the world. What was with our dad’s sword that made it so easy? Something’s fishy here, and I don’t like it.”
“Maybe Lord Yamamoto remembers your father as a friend, Ichigo? Or he just suddenly realized that there were some jobs open? There were these extra rooms already here, after all…” Inoue’s voice is hopeful, and Yuzu next to her nods enthusiastically in agreement. 
But Karin won’t budge. “Nah, these guys are military, the same ones that were supposed to protect us all these years and failed so miserably they escaped up here. There’s no way there are noble intentions here.”
“The point is, we can’t be too careful here… Or at least reckless.” Uryu shoots a pointed look at him, and Ichigo has a not-so-rare urge to throw him out the window. “We have to lay low for a bit and keep our guard up. Kurosaki, it’s clear Yamamoto’s got some sort of an interest in you. He arranged some meetings with you in the coming days, yes?”
Ichigo shifts. “Well, yeah, but that could be just because he’s setting up a position for me--”
“All the rest of us are to report in the common hall for our positions tomorrow. You’re the only one actually meeting with him.” Uryu raises an eyebrow. “See what kind of information he gives you. Take note on what he needs from you. But remember: you have to follow his rules on his time. That’s the only way we’re going to know a little better on how this place works.”
The group sits in silent contemplation until Yuzu sniffles. “And then what?” Her voice is shaky, and her watery eyes break Ichigo’s heart. “After we figure out the system… Then where do we go? What do we do?”
Ichigo is about to say something falsely cheerful to comfort his sister before Chad in his corner clears his throat. 
“We survive,” he finally says, and that has to be good enough for all of them.
---
And three days in, Ichigo still has no clue what Yamamoto’s got in store for him.
Although the messages he has received each morning since their arrival says that he’ll be meeting with the old man, he finds out it’s more like he’s meeting with generals and captains who represent Yamamoto, or something.
Powerful people are fucking weird.
In any case, he’s certainly not been twiddling his thumbs. A General Ukitake gave him a tour of the grounds, focusing more on the military section--and Ichigo guesses Yamamoto wanted to see if he was true to his word on using a sword, because then he was forced to spar with a few of the soldiers.
Mostly easy fights, if you ask him--although one bald guy and an angry redhead kind of gave him a rough time--but Ichigo just barely avoided a battle with a Captain Kenpachi, who grinned maniacally and demanded a battle “as soon as the old geezer puts you back here.”.
(Ichigo’s pretty sure at this point he’s going to be put in a military position, and it fits. But he would really really like to not be in that captain’s squad.)
There’s been a couple of actual meetings with the old man, but nothing of substance: each lasts an uncomfortably long ten minutes, with Yamamoto staring at him for long periods of time before peppering in casual questions about his village, his group, and his father.
It’s bizarre, but Ichigo decides to follow Uryu’s advice for once and go along with the whole thing. He bristles at Yamamoto’s question concerning his mother… But otherwise, he answers them as honestly as he can. 
He’s not given the worst job, he supposes. 
Actually, nearly none of them are. Uryu--while resenting the military system as much as he did--snagged a spot at the wall with his bow, and he mentioned they might give him a position within science, what with his family’s medical background. Chad scored a position in weaponry, and while he doesn’t have any previous experience (that Ichigo knows of), Ichigo’s confident he’ll do great. 
The girls are in the service, and Ichigo feels… Conflicted about that. 
He gets the icky feeling that it’s weirdly sexist (even though Yuzu really is talented in the kitchen… BUT HER GENDER HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT), and can’t help but feel it as demeaning to his sisters and friend. The service is treated bottom rung here, after all, and if someone even remotely tries to mess with one of them…
Not to mention Karin is absolutely miserable. 
But he knows she grits her teeth, does her job alongside Yuzu and Inoue and everyone else for the sake of being remotely safe for once in their goddamned lives. If she can suck it up, so can he.
The longer Yamamoto has him wait for his job, the more nervous it makes him. That’s all. 
---
On the fourth morning after the others have headed to work, he receives a message to go directly to Yamamoto’s quarters. 
He’s escorted by a few soldiers--which is weird, considering the ease of which he’s been going place to place the last few days--and the old man is sitting patiently at his desk, hands clasped together. 
It’s like he’s going to get punished.
And he has no idea what Yamamoto has on him (probably something his old man did, screwing him over even after probable-death, the fucker), but Ichigo prays to whatever god might still be out there and care about humanity that the world can do whatever it wants to him, just leave his friends and sisters be--
“I’ve assigned a guard job for you, Ichigo Kurosaki.”
He stares blankly at the old man. 
“That’s… It? After all this time?”
Yamamoto smiles in a way that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “Yes, well, we do apologize for the delay. There were some… Precautions that we had to take before getting you to this position. We wanted to make sure you were a right fit.”
“Oh… Okay. So am I at the gate with Uryu, or--”
“No, no. None of that.” A gnarled hand waves the thought away. “This is a private guard position. Very important. Tell me, do you remember seeing our Lady Rukia the day you arrived?”
Ichigo tries to think of the female faces he caught in the crowd, and then remembers the woman in the ornate garb. “The one dressed in all the… Dressed really nicely?”
“Yes, that very one. She is dressed to reflect how precious she is to us. We call her our ‘Prized One.’ Tell me, have you ever played chess? You might call her the queen of our board.”
“... I’m not sure I follow--”
“You don’t need to.” The response is sharp, so swift that Ichigo almost startles. Yamamoto glares hard behind his hands at him, before suddenly relaxing. “Just know that your job is to guard her. You will be going with her where she goes, watching the entrance to her rooms. We have enemies that would very much like to take her, and that… Would be devastating to our cause.”
Ichigo’s having a hard time biting his tongue on all the questions bubbling up. What the fuck is up with this girl? 
Instead, he asks: “So, in terms of guarding her at night… I suppose what I’m trying to say here is, will I be her only guard? I hate to tell you I can’t be awake twenty four hours, sir.”
The old man chuckles dryly. “Of course not, my boy. Nothing of that sort is expected. We have a rotating staff at night while she sleeps; but you will be her primary guardian. In return, your group will be made of good use here.”
Ah. There it is. 
“So you’re blackmailing me, eh? I knew it was only too convenient that you took on my friends and sisters so easily.”
“Not at all. They have all been mastering their duties beautifully. This is just… Insurance, you might say. If you do your job, they will keep theirs. You would be wise to take it; others have not had such an offer.”
“So why me? What’s so important about this job, and why does it have to be me that does it?”
“You’ll learn, as I’m sure your friends have told you, that it’s better not to question this institution. Just trust that this is a job I consider you capable of, and leave the decision making to us. Now,” Yamamoto slides a sheet of paper from the corner of his desk to himself and begins to write on it. “Go to the Northwest Hall, fourth floor. If you get lost, there will be service persons that can lead you the right direction. They’ve been made aware of your new position.”
The old man doesn’t even acknowledge Ichigo’s leaving as he writes further.
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blameitonthebleach · 7 years
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Here we go! Without further ado, the second installment of this cute little fluff scenario! This ended up longer than part fucking one... It’s chaste and cute, so I hope you all like it!
Part II
After wallowing in self-pity for a couple of hours, you thought about who would best suit a night of consoling, and tried to forget the various woes of life. Of course, Rangiku was always up for a girls’ night, though you were worried that she might pry too hard into who it was that broke your heart. Then, perhaps Momo would be a good candidate? Then again, she might get on the “Captain Aizen” train, and you didn’t want to dredge up those painful memories for her. There was Rukia, but you didn’t know if you could handle seeing the younger sister of the man you were pining after just then--too risky. Sighing disdainfully, you roused yourself from your curled position on the couch, joints popping and muscles screaming from sitting in the same position for hours.
Scratching your head thoughtfully, you made your way to the bathroom as you weighed the options in your mind. Any female friend you had would likely ask who the man was that dared to hurt you, and you couldn’t exactly tell them what transpired without said friends acting obviously cross with your captain. It wasn’t his fault, you’d taken a chance, and it hadn’t ended the way you wanted, but it was impossible to always get your way. Staring at your bedraggled reflection, you snorted derisively at your puffy, blood shot eyes.
“Get a hold of yourself, ___,” you commanded your reflection. “You’re not nearly this weak, are you?”
Taking a deep breath, you splashed some water on your face, and finally decided that the only one you could talk to properly was Renji. But was he finished with work yet? You chewed at your bottom lip thoughtfully, unconsciously sliding your sandals back on, and picking your way carefully to the barracks. Byakuya had left after you, right? You hadn’t exactly stayed long enough to truly know where it was Captain Kuchiki flashed off to, but was it safe to assume he wasn’t there? Taking a chance, you made your way through the expansive corridors, conscious of every creak, footstep, and muffled voice throughout the Sixth Division until you came upon where Renji would have been should he be behind on paperwork.
Soft, warm light flowed out of the cracked door at the end of the hall, and you could hear the telltale swears of the frustrated from within. Focusing, you could feel Renji’s reiatsu, but not Byakuya’s, and you sighed with relief. The confidence in your step returned, and you reached out to knock lightly on the office door.
“Renji?” you called. “It’s ___, do you have a minute?”
“___? Yeah, come in.”
Taking a tentative step inside the room, you quietly closed to door behind you, and made your way to sit in the chair in front of his desk. He held up a finger as he finished scrawling his current sentence, and you waited. The scratching of pen on parchment in the too-quiet space was oddly soothing as you sat with your chin rested in your hand. It wasn’t often that you stayed at the barracks after dark, but even when you did, it was usually with some of the other officers and it was never this peaceful. Once the writing stopped, and he’d placed his brush down securely, Renji looked at you with a grin.
“So?” he inquired with a waggle of his eyebrows. “How’d it go?”
You eyes widened a fraction before you released a breath you didn’t realize you were holding, and slumped over his desk. “It didn’t...” you muttered, your voice muffled by the arms you rested your face on.
“What?” Renji’s face dropped the grin immediately. “Wait, what happened? I was sure Captain had a thing for you!”
“Well, apparently he doesn’t,” you pouted, the string of tears threatening to spill over once again. “I confessed to him everything I was feeling, and he just...didn’t say anything. Nothing. Not a thing. He just stood there and stared with the same face he uses for everything...”
“...And then what?” he asked. Straightening your back, you gaped at him.
“What do you mean, ‘and then what?’” There the tears were again. “Then I backtracked, telling him that he didn’t really need to respond, and I got the hell out of there!”
“___...”
“It was so awkward...” Mumbling and staring at the wood grain on the floor, you wrapped your arms around yourself. “Anyway, I just wanted to be depressed for a bit, and you were the only person I could talk to.”
Renji blinked at you, but gave wry grin. With a practiced motion, he pulled a bottle of sake out from somewhere in his desk, poured you a cup, and you talked for hours about everything except a certain captain with slate grey eyes, and the outward emotional depth of sekkiseki. By the time you were more content with the situation, it was into the wee hours of the morning, and you and Renji were both exhausted. Bidding him a good night/morning, you allowed yourself a fitful night’s rest.
Upon the morning, you groaned at the sight of your puffy, red-rimmed cry-eyes, and spent the majority of your morning routine trying every home remedy in the book that promised to reduce the swelling. In the end, they’d only gone down a fraction, and you made up for the rest with makeup. With a huff of resignation, you made your way to work with a forced hop in your step, hoping that the effort of trying to be happy would eventually rub off onto your actual person, and promised yourself that it would be a productive day. No matter what happened with your obscenely handsome, stoic, mentally draining Captain would be in the past, and you would act like nothing had happened. After all, you did feel a little better after unloading your feelings on him, and he wasn’t one to let small things get to him, or affect his work.
While fulfilling your usual duties of filing, completing, and chauffeuring paperwork from captain to captain, you were confronted with Byakuya several times, and every time you noted his lack of...affliction. You weren’t really expecting him to be visibly shaken by your confession, but you were expecting awkward eye-contact, or even curt speech, but no. There was nothing to show that he felt anything other than apathy about what transpired the evening before, not even the avoidance of eye-contact. And to be honest, that hurt more than being rejected. He could at least act like he felt some kind of remorse, but it seemed that even that was wishful thinking.
You took a deep breath as you straightened a stack of papers, rifling through them to see which ones needed the most attention, when there was a knock on the door.
“Renji...” you muttered when you turned around, a halfhearted smile pulling at the corner of your lips.
“Expecting someone else?” he teased, sauntering inside the way he often did--oozing an odd mix of nonchalance and confidence. “I thought your eyes were gonna pop out of your head.”
“Ha ha.” Rolling your eyes, you handed him the stack of papers in your hands. “These need to be signed by both you and Captain Kuchiki. Afterwards, I’ll handle the delivery to Head Captain.”
Taking the papers, he shot you a knowing look, and leaned back against the desk. “You know, not for nothing, maybe try talking to Rukia. She might have some insight on what Captain is thinking.”
A pang went through your chest; you didn’t know how you would fair talking to the younger sister of the man you were infatuated with. Then again, it could be worth a try.
“It’s really okay, Renji,” you replied with a small shrug. “It just wasn’t meant to be, there’s nothing wrong with that.” Renji stood up straight, brows furrowed with concern, ready to argue that point.
“But--”
“Renji,” you said, giving him a tried and true smile. “Thank you.”
You stared at each other for a moment, and Renji was the first to break contact. Crossing him arms over his chest, papers in hand and ready to walk out the door, he heaved a sigh.
“For what it’s worth, ___, there’s nothing wrong with you. Any man would be lucky to have you.” Then he walked away, leaving you to your thoughts.
Later that day, during lunch, after finding yourself a small, secluded little area to eat, you thought about what Renji said again. If you were really as “worth it” as he seemed to think, maybe giving Rukia a visit would be the best course of action.  As you mulled it over, chewing your food slowly whilst staring into space, you choked when came:
“Hey, ___.”
Coughing and eyes watering, you looked up to see Rukia herself looking at you with a grin. “R-Rukia!?” you exclaimed, inhaling little bits of food again, repeating the cycle.
“The one and only,” she replied, taking it upon herself to take a seat. “I heard you wanted to talk about something.” Blinking, you gaped, then blushed, then swore.
“Dammit, Renji.” Wiping the food from around your mouth, you sighed irritably. “That loud mouth.”
“Always has been,” Rukia agreed, pulling a chuckle out of you. “So, does this have anything to do with my brother?” 
“Straight to the point, then,” you muttered. Taking time to gather your thoughts, you tidied up your lunch mess, and leaned back against the trunk of the tree you were sitting under. “Yes, it does. I wasn’t even sure if I was going to talk to you about it, because it’s not like I’m looking for you to put in a good word for me or anything.”
There was silence, and that was okay. You didn’t want any pointless lip-service, and you appreciated that Rukia always seemed to think before she spoke. 
“Remember how I told you my brother was married before?” she asked, staring out across the courtyard.
“I remember. I remember feeling so sad for him, and thinking that it had to have ruined him when it happened, but I also thought that he always seemed incredibly well put together even though he lost someone so dear to him.” You glanced over at her.
“Right, so I think what his problem is, is that he’s not sure how to move on from her memory. Because I know he wants to.”
“...What.” you asked, your eyes wide.
“Byakuya’s been...off today. This morning, he spilled a cup of tea into his lap. Twice.” Rukia smirked. “I know you confessed yesterday, Renji told me. So give my brother a while to come to terms with his own emotions, and see what happens, because I personally think you two make an adorable couple.”
Before you knew it, you were hugging Rukia, feeling much lighter than you had all day. You spent the next few days inseparable as she told you about the clumsy, listless Byakuya that delighted and saddened you, and when two weeks passed, you weren’t at all surprised to get a summons from your captain.
“So, where are we drinking tonight, ___?” Renji teased, knowing you didn’t care. You probably wouldn’t drink much anyway, but it was fun to hang out with your friends. 
“Oh, I don’t know,” you started sarcastically, “maybe--”
“___,” came that cool, commanding voice you knew too well. “Do you have a moment?” An order phrased like a request. 
Renji gave you a knowing wink, and patted your shoulder. “I’ll catch you later.”
Nodding, you turned around with a smile. “Yes, Captain?”
Without a word, he turns around, heading back into his office, and you follow. It feels like an obscenely long time until Byakuya has situated himself, taking care to organize papers, fix his scarf, and point you to take a seat. Meanwhile, your heart was hammering in your chest, because what could he want? 
“In regards to your...confession the other day,” he begins, catching your eye, “I didn’t...dislike it. I was merely caught off-guard.”
“Well, that doesn’t happen often,” you thought aloud, then blushed. “Sorry...”
Byakuya sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in an uncharacteristic show of emotion. “I had my own...feelings developing that I needed to come to terms with, your confession merely made me confront them sooner. And I’m sorry. I clearly hurt you that day.”
“Oh, uh, no--” you tried, but he shot you a look.
“Do not try and lie,” he scolded. “I can read every emotion that crosses your face.” 
You blushed, and couldn’t help but ask, “You spend a lot of time looking at my face?” You weren’t trying to be cheeky, rather it made you giddy that he could read you like that. 
“Yes, well,” he replied, quirking an eyebrow like this conversation was a lot harder than he had anticipated. He took a deep breath. “I was married before, her name was Hisana. After she passed, I didn’t think it was necessary or required that I marry again, and I’m still not sure how to approach love...” He paused, looking somehow conflicted and resolute at the same time. You kept quiet, not letting on that Rukia had told you before.
“I suppose I felt like I was betraying her memory, but after speaking with Rukia, and doing some thinking, I don’t think Hisana would want me to be unhappy.”
You could feel your heart fluttering erratically. This could not be happening, could it? Was he really about to say what you thought he was going to say?
“That being said,” Byakuya continued, almost nervous, “I would like to take things slowly. That is, if you’ll still have me, ___...?”
Stunned into silence, you could only stare at him in astonishment. Trying to swallow the enormous lump in your throat, you opened and closed your mouth, nothing coming out. A thousand thoughts swirled through your mind while you tried to process, even your hands were clammy. But, goddamn, you were happy! Byakuya, however, shifted slightly in his seat. 
“I don’t know how to take your silence,” he said, “but I hope it isn’t bad.”
“I-It’s more than okay!” you stuttered out. “It’s a lot more than I was expecting, but I’m really happy.”
Byakuya gave you a small, but sincere smile. “Then, would you accompany me for a walk this evening?”
“I’d love to,” you smiled. “Where?”
“I will pick you up,” he replied, standing. His grace and dignity had returned in full force from his earlier nervousness, as you’d deemed it, and he offered you his arm as he came around the desk. “Let me walk you out.”
On cloud nine, you took his arm and strolled leisurely to the front of the barracks. When he stopped, he gave you a slight bow, saying that he would have preferred to walk you further, but he was already late for a meeting with the Head Captain. You shook your head, thanked him for walking you out.
“I will see you this evening,” he told you, then headed for the meeting hall. Suddenly, he paused. Turning around and walking back to you, he took your hand, kissing the back of it like a true gentleman. His eyes flicked up to your face, then he was gone again.
You stood there for what seemed like hours, when in reality it was only a few minutes, and once Byakuya was out of earshot, you squealed, and Shunpo-ed all the way to Renji to deliver the good news.
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