Characters: Rukia, Ichigo
Summary: Hello? Hello? I'm sorry, the number you are trying to reach has been disconnected.
Pairings: IchiRuki
Warnings/Spoilers: Spoilers for 423
Timeline: Chapter 423 and beyond
Author's Note: I don't even ship these people all that hard; frankly, how hard most people ship them (excluding the IchiHime shippers; sorry) scares me a little. But even looking at 423 at a non-hard-line IchiRuki shipper, it's heartbreaking, and no less heartbreaking if you look at it from a non-romantic viewpoint. Even if their relationship isn't romantic, Rukia changed Ichigo's life, for the better. And now he's losing her, possibly forever. He will never see, hear, or sense her again, not as long as he's alive (If Kubo pulls something out of his ass, which he is known to do, then this will probably not be permanent and make totally worthless the whole poignancy of the scene, but whatever). And no, I could not make it all the way through 423; it was too painful, people!, for the reasons I have listed above. I do have the gist of what happened, though.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
He can't be reached, and God knows Rukia has tried. Never so much as twitches when she follows behind.
She screams, she begs, she pleads, forgets all her dignity, but Ichigo has no cognition of her and Rukia wonders if he will forget her the way others have. Because what good is she, if he forgets her in the end? What good is she if she is forgotten?
He can not be reached.
Ichigo's the real one who's fading out. He's like a piece of colored clothing that's been bleached in the wash, the colors dulling, not as vivid. He's going back to being just as faded as he was when they first met. A dying star that maybe wasn't ever living to start with.
The wall between them is invisible but Rukia's found it and will pound her fists against transparent stone, even if Ichigo won't. She won't take this quietly; she won't just lay down and die. Her life has just begun to start again; she can't watch it wilt, she won't throw it away just because some stupid human boy is being stubborn again.
But still, Ichigo can't be reached. The ground starts to fall away, and the present is gone, throwing Rukia back into the past.
She doesn't want to live in the past anymore.
She wants to live for the future.
Why can't Ichigo see that?
It's a dark night out, and Ichigo is waiting for a bus at a bus stop. The lamplight casts a golden pool of light to wash out on the street like a glistening pool, and he's sitting on the bench with his hands in the pockets of a ratty jacket, his eyes downcast and dull.
Rukia stands before him, a small figure swathed in black with a white sword at her side, invisible, unnoticeable, incomprehensible to him.
It would be so much easier if he were just ignoring her, so she'd have an excuse to hit him, kick him, do anything to release the storm inside, but he's not ignoring her.
Ichigo…doesn't know she's there.
"Ichigo." The word that leaves her mouth trembles and he of course can not hear. If Ichigo hears anything, he chalks it off to a random murmur on the wind and doesn't even react. His brown eyes are staring straight through her.
Rukia reaches out a hand hesitantly. He can't see her, can't hear her, can't sense her.
But maybe…
Maybe, if she touches him, he can feel that.
Her hand hovers barely and inch from his own, poised on his knee tensely; Rukia can still see the warrior in him, dying but still there and unhappy with inaction.
Her hand hangs in the air, a pale white lily.
And falls limply to her side.
Rukia bites her lip, her face screwing up in pain, and sinks against the curb as the bus comes and Ichigo leaves. By some miracle, he doesn't trip over her as he walks away.
Rukia feels abandoned even knowing he couldn't tell she was there if he tried.
Ichigo can't be reached.
And she couldn't bring herself to try.