"You…you won't find her, Ichigo," she whispers.
"You don't know that," he argues as he walks away from her.
"He absorbed her! She's gone! Her soul is gone forever!"
He pauses, and he clenches his hands into fists before forcing himself to relax.
"I'll find her," he vows.
"Please, Ichigo. Give up. Go home. Your family misses you."
"I'm not going back without her."
"I-ichigo, please!" Rukia pleads in a teary voice. "Inoue wouldn't want this for you!"
He spins around to glare at his friend.
"What the hell do you know what she wants?!" She flinches at his yelling. "And why the hell should I care about what she wants?! Huh?! She didn't care about what I wanted! She just…" He squeezes his eyes shut in pain.
"I know it hurts, Ichigo. I know you miss her, and I know you blame yourself, but doing this, searching for her, it's not going to change anything. She's never coming back."
He opens his eyes, and he looks at her. She's crying. She's upset. And he just doesn't care. Not when everything in him is in pain.
"You don't get it, Rukia."
"Then explain it to me!"
He smiles at her, and he feels it. He feels how disturbed and broken it is. How destroyed he is.
"We saved the world, Rukia. We defeated him. We won." He takes in a deep breath that stings his throat. "We won." He repeats, his voice cracking.
"Ichigo," she tries to comfort him.
"You know, if she asked…if she just asked what I wanted…she would be here, and everyone else wouldn't be."
She has no retort. No words. Nothing to offer him.
So he turns around, and he walks and walks deeper into despair.