A/N: So if you've been around the IchiRuki fandom recently, there's an art meme floating about called Dance With Snow White. PLEASE do yourselves a favor and go check it out. There's so many amazing artists who've made their own versions of this. This is my contribution since I'm not an artist.
first dance, white moon
Compared to Zangetsu, Sode no Shirayuki is as tiny and deceptively fragile as Rukia herself. The zanpakutō is pure white from hilt to tip, just like her name describes her. There is a lightness to her build. Like moonlight and driving frost, Rukia's zanpakutō illuminates the world with her beauty. And when she and Rukia work together…
There is nothing in the world Ichigo would rather watch than Rukia fighting. It's a dance, every single one of her movements. A calculated choreography of beauty and destruction wrapped up in one. It is flowing water and dusting snow and frost crystals on a window. All contained within one tiny undead girl.
next dance, white ripple
moon fang heaven-piercer
Held up next to Sode no Shirayuki, Zangetsu looks clunky and primitive. Even for a zanpakutō he is stupidly large. There is nothing graceful or subtle about them. Zangetsu is a hammer of spiritual pressure contained within a physical form. He is the personification of Ichigo's power, after all.
Together, Zangetsu and Ichigo emit raw, destructive power. They slice through flesh and earth, bone and sky, all in one stroke. Sometimes it is the Hollow's power that's used. It is tinged with madness and bloodlust and a joy in destruction, barely reined in by Ichigo's sanity. On the flip side, it can be all Ichigo. The occasions where he doesn't call upon Shiro are rare. The havoc he can wreak on his own is just as terrifying, if not more so, than when both Shinigami and weapon work in tandem.
heaven chain slaying moon
When the Black Sun and the White Moon fight together, the earth trembles from their combined power. They could rend the very fabric of the world if they chose. But like the yin and the yang, they keep the balance between the worlds.
They are one and yet separate. They are the equilibrium.