For Byakuya.
The last time Renji saw his captain's body was in the Kuchiki estate, while he was watching one of the ceremonies, preceding the funeral.
Only he, Rukia and Ginrei-san, Byakuya's grandfather, were present; since they were Byakuya's only remaining relatives, and Renji was his lieutenant and therefore supposed to be close to him (he could only imagine he had been.)
As formal and slow as a Kuchiki could be, Ginrei-san approached his dead grandson's body, a small bowl of fragrant water in his hand. The aroma of incense and tears hung in the air. The other two witnesses of the ceremony were silent, their eyes very interested in the shape of their thighs, as they were sitting with eyes hidden away from each other. Both were fighting their tears, refusing to lapse in the despair. They didn't dare raise their gaze lest all their efforts be in vain. This was probably their last meeting with a close friend and only relative and they had to make sure the memory wasn't (that much of a) bad one.
In contrast, Ginrei-san was stone-faced as he moistened his grandson's lips with the fragrant water. The only thing Rukia and Renji could hear was the quiet splash of water in which they hid their sadness and grief, and in which they felt the hint of a promise that the water will wash it all away (but such a promise was so far away from being fulfilled, oh so far away.)
Renji risked a glance up from his thighs to the motionless body in front of him.
The face of the dead Byakuya Kuchiki wasn't very different from his usual one before his decease - blank, not betraying any emotion. Except that the pale pink hue his skin was (used to be) in his lifetime was absent and an even, pale shade of marble had taken reign of his features. Only his lips still had a little colour in them, livened up more by the water that Ginrei-san had just matted over the soft tissue: they were light pink, opened a little and covered with liquid.
Renji had seen them like that before; suddenly, he wanted to touch them, trail his fingers over his face, say goodbye to him properly before he lost him forever. Hell, he even longed to hug him, to simply be close to that body which had once housed his mentor, his worst enemy and yet one of his best friends.
But he couldn't and Ginrei-san was already finishing the ceremony, as still-faced as any proud Kuchiki. Renji stared at him.
"Must be hard to outlive your grandchild," a stray thought wriggled its way through the mist of emotions in his mind.
A small, lonely tear managed to fight its trail out of the barriers around his eyes and heart and slid down his cheek.
He wiped it with the back of his index.
...
...
"What?!"
Rukia all but screeched.
Ukitake-taicho shut up, startled at the display of emotions by the usually calm and composed girl. As she watched his expression change, the new situation was slowly registered in her brain: she was up, her hand had formed a fist with which she'd apparently banged on the table and her breathing was labored. Her eyes were wide open, as well as her mouth. She couldn't believe her ears. But she was feeling hysterical.
"Onii-sama is a prideful Kuchiki; his ashes have to be buried in the family grave! As long as I'm alive, it will be so!"
She couldn't believe she was shouting at Ukitake-taicho; respectable, wise, amazing Ukitake-taicho. But she also couldn't believe that he was telling her such things, despite the fact that it had been the Captain-Commander's will to be so (and who knows why.)
And the white-haired man was looking at her, something like pity wedged in his eyes, like understanding, like fear, like the unknown feeling that Rukia was experiencing herself. Maybe that's how soldiers who came from war felt.
Maybe. She couldn't tell, after all; it had been a while since she felt anything.
She took a deep breath and steadied herself.
"I won't allow this to happen," she said, wanting to end the argument, but still refusing to relent. She had never clashed with Ukitake-taicho and she wouldn't like that to happen.
Ukitake's look gently suggested otherwise.
And when he opened his mouth again, Rukia gaped at the words that came out of it.
...
...
Not long after Byakuya Kuchiki's body was left at the family manor so that the other ceremonies succeeding death could be carried out (Rukia had some problems with the organization of the funeral itself), Renji was called to the Captain-Commander's Headquarters, where, without much ado or anything, he was promoted to the rank of a captain.
"You are to command the Sixth Division," he was told quickly and then shooed away from there.
It was somewhere between the Tenth and the Eleventh Division that he finally snapped out of his daze and realized where he was, what he was and what he had to do.
His mind tried to console him: "It's all right, there has to be a captain of the Sixth Division in order for it to operate successfully."
He told and told himself lies and lies, but all he could imagine was the wrong image of him, all fiery hair and tattoos the colour of midnight, sitting in his place, taking up his personal space, trying to imitate him, the embodiment of elegance and power itself, but not quite managing to do so and getting angry because Byakuya Kuchiki was a unique person, had a unique presence that can ever be copied. And no matter how much he tried, he would always be Renji – the street urchin Renji, who had always wanted to be the prince, but was so much better at being the pauper.
Renji-taicho. He tried the syllables on his tongue and almost slipped in the "fuku" in common sense.
His mouth tasted like ashes.
However, in the end, he couldn't do anything but accept the title and the pile of responsibilities attached to it.
...
...
The first week, Renji did paperwork the same way Byakuya did (used to do) it: never missing a deadline, keeping his desk clear of any paper, being as clean and as top-notch as possible. On the seventh day, he got severely drunk and lost count of the paperwork he tore and left like that. From then on, he chose a random Seat for a Lieutenant and never ever touched paperwork again.
His desk was messy, with a nasty pile of dirty overdue papers.
...
Actually,I had no idea if Byakuya has any living relatives but when the wiki said his grandfather was alive so I decided to go with it. Which is strange since why the hell would Byakuya succeed the place of Sixth Division's Captain and Head of the Kuchiki family if the person before him was still alive? Unless they have some kind of set time to lead? Who knows :D (if someone can elaborate, then I'd be really glad).
Hmm, what problems might Rukia have with the organization of the funeral? Interesting… :)
Random bits of clarification:
1. The ceremony described in the beginning is called water of the last moment. Usually it's done immediately after a death or, if the death is expected, a few days before it.