A/N: So, my friends and I were discussing the new renruki novel, and basically (spoiler alert for the novel) it tells us that squad zero wants the history books to lie about the Soul King dying in the Quincy War. So, as far as the history books (and anyone else who wasn't directly involved in the war) are concerned, the Soul King is still alive (spoiler alert: he isn't) and the Shinigami were 100% victorious and everything's all dandy and fine. Which, whatever - my friends and I were DYING laughing about the fact that THE NOVEL ADMITS THAT SOUL SOCIETY IS BASICALLY A REVISIONIST HISTORY DYSTOPIA NOW, but we didn't think too hard about this tidbit until I remembered:

Who keeps the history records for Soul Society?

Kuchiki clan.

Kuchiki. Clan.

As in, Rukia KUCHIKI'S CLAN

AS IN, IT IS NOW 100% POSSIBLE AND ENTIRELY TOO PLAUSIBLE THAT ICHIGO AND RUKIA HAD A MASSIVE FALLING-OUT ABOUT RUKIA'S FAMILY BEING TOLD TO RECORD A REVISIONIST HISTORY AND THAT'S WHY 686 HAPPENED. I'M SCREAMING, GUYS, I'M LITERALLY SCREAMING.

Anyway, for added angst to this scenario please imagine that Ichigo and Rukia got engaged before they had the fight about Soul Society changing the records. They hadn't got around to telling people but Rukia's wearing Masaki's ring. And then the orders came down to change the history books, and Ichigo realises that if he marries Rukia he's essentially marrying into revisionist history. Rukia…. wants to fight the orders, honestly, but I think one of Rukia's main flaws is that she trusts the system too much (oh, they're executing me for actually saving human lives? Maybe the system's fucked u–naaaaaaah they're totally correct I deserve to die), which stems from her lack of self-esteem (she just assumes that everyone is smarter, wiser, better than she is, so surely they can't be wrong?). Besides, she can't make a fuss about this, that will put nii-sama in an uncomfortable position, won't Ichigo see, she can't do anything about this—

"–can't go along with it, Byakuya will understand–"

"Nii-sama has enough on his plate, Ichigo! He's in far too precarious a position because of me already, I can't ask him to do more–"

Ichigo runs a hand through his hair; he'd been growing it out the past couple of years, and the unruly strands stubbornly refuse to stay out of his eyes. He takes a step closer to her, but Rukia stands her ground.

"This isn't about you or me or the goddamn Kuchiki clan honour, Rukia, this is straight up lying to everybody, and you know it–"

"But does it matter?" she asks desperately; if her tone is pleading, she tries to ignore it, just as she tries to ignore the aching of her heart and the corner of her mind that is screaming yes, yes of course it matters. "You and I know the truth, a whole bunch of other people know the truth, if new shinigami are not unnecessarily frightened with the idea of an enemy that they'll never personally have to face is that truly all that bad–?"

"This isn't what I fought for!" Ichigo hisses, and god, Rukia knows, she knows; but Ichigo hasn't been in the Gotei all his life like she has, and he doesn't understand that despite the occasional misstep, they are fundamentally working for the greater good. That they do what they do with everyone's best interests at heart. And sure, she can't see the wisdom in some decisions straight away, but surely, in the long run, this must turn out to be the correct decision? They've been to the Royal Realm, they've met the Zero Division; the Zero Division trained them. The Zero Division helped them. The shinigami maintain the balance of the universe– so surely any decisions they make must contribute to the overall harmony of the world?

"Ichigo," she says, and a part of herself hates her for it, "maybe there are some things you shouldn't fight."

Ichigo's eyes snap dangerously gold and hazel.

"You are trying to write down a wrong history and sell it as gospel truth," he snarls, and if this weren't Ichigo, Ichigo, Rukia would be afraid. "You're trying to lie to every single shinigami who comes after us– to our children, to their children– that we've never done a single thing wrong, ever. You're trying to erase an entire race from the records–"

"Erase? Ichigo, there aren't any of them left to erase!"

The moment the words leave her lips, Rukia knows what she's done; her hands clap over her mouth uselessly, as if to prevent the words from escaping. Ichigo's face twists into an expression she's never seen directed at her before, and Ishida flashes through her mind, straight and true. Like an arrow.

The next thing that flashes through her mind is Ichigo.

"…I'm half-quincy, and my mom–"

His mother's ring, on her finger like a brand–

"Ichigo, I–"

"Forget it."

"Ichigo, I didn't mean–"

"No, you did."

"Ichigo, I'm–"

"–sorry?" he laughs mirthlessly, and cold seeps through her skin, trickles down her spine. "Are you?"

There's a question in his eyes as important as the one he asked her two nights ago on a moonlit bed, the night she slid his ring onto her finger. There's a question and a plea and a request that she abandon everything she knows, to turn her back on her family and friends, to throw her lot in with him entirely–

There's a question in his eyes that she cannot answer.

Instead, she closes her eyes and tries one more time. "Ichigo, please–"

"Rukia," he breathes. "I can't."

He is the one who walks away.

But why does it feel like she's the one who's abandoned him?

He never asks for the ring back, but Rukia takes it off anyway. She wraps it up in tissue paper, along with her heart, and stows it away in the back of her closet in the Kuchiki Manor. When the clan elders speak to her of marriage, she puts on a fake smile and tells them she is amenable. She breathes, she moves, she lives. With or without him, the Seireitei continues on.

And when she hears, a few years later, that he's married to Inoue Orihime, she realises–

with or without her, the Gensei turns on too.