Memories of a Stray

by Dreams Bleed Ink

"Renji, they want to adopt me into the Kuchiki family," Rukia said to me. How incredible were those words. How impossible. And yet, how right. The star would at last take her place beside the moon in the sky. I did not try to pursue her. For how could a stray dog pursue a star? - Short ficlets from Renji's POV, Rukia execution arc, with quotes from manga chapters 59 and 98.

2. The Stray Barking at the Star

The Stray Barking at the Star

On the last day you spoke to me as an orphan and walked away from me as a Kuchiki, I did not try to pursue you. I knew full well that a star belongs in the sky with the moon. But that did not stop me from hating that moon beside you. I hated him for being everything I was not, for having everything I did not.

Ever since you left, I trained everyday, so that one day I would be stronger than him and become a beast as powerful as the monsters of old. Powerful enough to swallow up that wretched moon.

Maybe then, I would have the courage to jump for the star.

Maybe then, Rukia, I …