Agony...crushing, mind-claiming agony...and then it all stopped. For a moment he hung, suspended between places. His eyes no longer saw the bright blue sky above, but he whispered to a wind he could no longer hear, "Renji...Rukia...Forgive me..."
A blinding light enveloped his senses, and he knew he had crossed over to that place where Soul Reapers go to rejoin the cycle of rebirth. It was warm and not warm, filled with voices and silent, blindingly bright and unfathomably dark, but through the chaos that was the beginning of all things, a single hand reached out and touched his cheek. His own sword-calloused palm gripped the other's tightly. He felt a welling up within his chest, a burning tightness, and he found there was something like liquid running down his cheeks through the smears of dried blood.
"Shh..." A soft voice said. "You're alright now."
"H-Hisana..." He spoke in an anguished whisper. "I...I couldn't keep...any of the promises I made to you."
"My handsome husband, don't speak of such things." She sounded like the music of a distant bird.
"I...failed..."
"No. No, Byakuya-sama, you did not fail."
Outside the rumble of collapsing buildings and the screams of dying Shinigami were kept silent by the boundaries of that special place. Even as those screaming joined the ranks of souls waiting to be reborn, he did not notice. For the first time in over fifty years, his heart was light, and his grief eased for the gentle, precious woman he had rescued from the Rukongai foulness. For a moment that lasted for eternity, they were together again.