DUTY AND HONOR SERIES Q&A
CHARACTER - ROMANTIC
Will Hitsugaya and Kin get together?
No. Maybe in a few centuries, long after this series is over. But for the time being, Kin considers Hitsugaya more of a brother/teacher, and Hitsugaya is more concerned about Kin's safety and welfare than her viability as a romantic partner.
Why not give Hitsu/Momo a chance?
For the same reason I don't ship Ren/Ruki, actually. I see their relationship as being waaaay too sibling-y for romance. Also, any relationship between them would be kind of unfair to Momo - Hitsugaya is so bent on protecting her and keeping her safe that he would be a stiflingly overprotective boyfriend, and Momo would never reach her full potential. She's also so damaged from Aizen's betrayal that any romance within the Duty and Honor series, particularly before the long time-skip in Bonds of Honor, would have been escapism on her part, looking for somewhere to put all the affection she once felt for Aizen. She needs to learn who she is first.
Hitsu/Anybody?
Really, no. I have a very hard time shipping Hitsugaya with anyone romantically. Part of it is his young appearance, part of it is his attitude, and part of it goes back to the Diamond Dust Rebellion movie. If you haven't seen the movie, the pertinent parts of it are thus; while Hitsugaya is still at the Academy, he and another student, Kusaka, were very close friends. However, when Toushirou and Kusaka discovered the names of their Zanpakutou, they both possessed Hyorinmaru.
Now, in my canon, it is entirely possible for two Shinigami to share ownership of their Zanpakutou, as exemplified by Byakuya/Renji and Ukitake/Kyouraku. This is called 'dual wielding', and occurs when a pair of Shinigami, generally in a romantic relationship, are what humans would refer to as 'soulmates.' They are pairs destined for one another, and only by being together are they truly complete.
Both pairs of Shinigami with the ability to dual-wield were adults (or at least late adolescence in Kyouraku's case...) when they began their relationships with one another. But what if a pair of soulmates had met one another (and started to have romantic feelings for one another) while they were still very young - young enough that their intrinsic personality, which helps to shape the form of their Zanpakutou, hadn't fully manifested itself yet?
Well, to me, it makes sense that if a pair of destined soulmates had discovered one another that early, it's entirely possible that the outward manifestation of their souls - their Zanpakutou - would mirror one another, and that they would therefore have the same Zanpakutou.
The Soul Society does not think along the same lines that I do, and apparently does not support the concept of soulmates. In the Soul Society, when two Shinigami manifest the same Zanpakutou, they are sentenced to duel to the death for the victor to earn the 'right' to possess their blade.
As Hitsugaya is still alive, you can imagine how that went. A child, who had lived an incredibly isolated life thus far due to his own uniqueness, was forced to take the life of his best friend, one of the few people who even had the possibility of completely understanding him, because their souls were linked in a way beyond the comprehension of those in power.
I never really shipped Hitsugaya with anyone *before* seeing Diamond Dust Rebellion, but I find it nearly impossible to ship with anyone now.
What's your backstory for Ikkaku and Yumichika?
Yumi was a prostitute in Rukongai. He's attractive, he likes sex, so it was a decent fit. But once in a while, he got a troublesome client that wouldn't back off when they were told. Yumi got pretty good at defending himself over the years, but one day the problematic client was too big for him to fight off on his own. Enter Ikkaku, playing white knight and knocking out the guy. Yumi offered his services to thank Ikkaku, and Ikkaku, partially out of misguided nobility and partially because he's Ikkaku and considers fighting its own reward, refused. Cue Yumi trailing after Ikkaku for the next several weeks badgering Ikkaku to let Yumi pay him back *somehow* for saving him, because he doesn't like owing debts. When Ikkaku got into another fight against multiple opponents with rusty weapons and was seriously injured with wounds that later became infected, Yumichika found them a house, got food, and spent weeks nursing Ikkaku back to health. (This would set the pattern for the next, oh, several *centuries*...)
It took them nearly five years to actually have sex. Ikkaku was still insistent on being noble (or possibly just blockheaded), even though they'd both fallen in love with one another sometime around the three-month mark, and Yumichika had known from the first time he wrapped a bandage around Ikkaku's shiny bald head three weeks after meeting the guy that he'd follow Ikkaku anywhere, including, as it turns out, into the Seireitei and the Gotei 13 about ten years after they'd met.
You've said both that Byakuya did and didn't sleep with Hisana. Which is true?
When Byakuya is on his honeymoon with Renji at the end of RDBH, he muses that Renji is a very different lover from Hisana. Much later, in Bonds of Honor, he tells the King's Guard Tu that he and Hisana never slept together because he was aware she was his half-sibling, and used the excuse of her ill health. He was lying to Tu.
Byakuya and Hisana were intimate a handful of times, although, as stated, there was never a risk of conception due to Hisana's lack of reiatsu and general poor health. I'm aware that doesn't excuse the squick for most of you, and I apologize, but it's still part of the story.
Any romance ahead for Minori?
No, she's working too hard! *laughs* Don't worry, though. She's a lot like her sister in that the work always comes first, but she enjoys it. Feeling productive and helpful makes her happy, and, while she does have a romantic streak, she's better suited to playing matchmaker (she was subtly working behind the scenes to get Rikichi and Hanatarou together, because they're adorable) than to being in a romantic relationship of her own.
Does Matsumoto still love Gin?
Yes. She never stopped loving Gin, just as he never stopped loving her.
What the heck is going on with Isshin and Ryuuken?
Okay, this one's complicated. My canon for this - which I'm fully aware is COMPLETELY opposite Kubo's but I'm sticking with anyway, so there - is that Isshin and Ryuuken first met when Isshin was still a Shinigami and Ryuuken was quite young, very early in his training to be a Quincy warrior. It would have been only just before Isshin lost his Shinigami powers. Some hero-worship became involved despite the traditional enmity of their people. Time passed, Isshin wound up in love, injured, in a gigai, and married, Ryuuken was forced to marry, the genocide of the Quincy happened, and everything went to Hell in a handbasket, essentially. I'm relatively certain this is the complete opposite of canon, but I'm sticking with it 'cuz I like it. It makes for more man-pain.
Some indeterminate time after Masaki (wife, not granddaughter)'s death, Isshin got spectacularly drunk and went ranting to Ryuuken. Ryuuken, who was still harboring his massive childhood crush on Isshin, allowed it, and they later began drinking and ranting together every Friday. It eventually lead to sex, which Isshin considered only a physical comfort and Ryuuken found INCREDIBLY MEANINGFUL, but because he's literally filed under 'goddamned stubborn Quincy idiot' in my mental filing cabinet, Ryuuken refused to ever acknowledge, to himself or Isshin, the emotional weight he was assigning to their relationship.
After The Stupid Suicidal Boys Confrontation where Byakuya slaps some sense into Isshin and Isshin does the decent thing and goes to Ryuuken, Ryuuken tells Isshin he never wants to see him again. This is because Ryuuken is mad at 1) Isshin, because he thinks Isshin is doing this out of pity rather than both a long-overdue epiphany and human decency, and 2) himself, for being 'weak and foolish' enough (his thoughts, not mine) to fall in love with a Shinigami in the first place. And yes, he does proceed to stay angry at Isshin for the next 20-odd years. This is why he is filed under 'goddamned stubborn Quincy idiot'.
Yes, Ryuuken is hoping that Isshin will be the one to save him from Aizen.
Yes, this will all be rectified by the end of the story.