This world of yours...In its entirety, it's almost too much, and I can feel the silk noose brush against my neck, the tightness caressing me, the finality drawing away my very breath. But as soon as the feeling begins to steal over my senses, I open my eyes and I am fooled, and I brush away the noose. It's so convenient to forget, that my actions have brought about my own end, when I am here with you. How is it you can confound me so? How is it, you can both drive me insane in one moment but make me laugh the next? What is it with this world? It's so very different from my own, and yet…I glance over at you, and somehow your frown makes me grin.
Ichigo…I gaze up at the white, white sky of my dreams, and as fear steals over me and I feel my heart grow cold, I wonder if you are coming to find me…
Under this bleached sky, I sit and wait whilst war echoes around me, and secretly, I dream. And in my dreams, I am back with you in that other world, and we are just as we were. You stare up at the same white sky, and speak the words my soul has been straining to hear.
"Rukia…"
I turn, and looking up, see the sky has turned to bone.