- The Taste of Disparity -

By Sayuri

What the heart has once owned and had, it shall never lose.

~ Henry Ward Beecher

Goodbye. Thank you for everything.

Part III

Several Decades Later

Through the densely packed days of the next year, much began to change. There was less need for anyone in Karakura to aid the Shinigami in missions, a silent falling out that helped ease the process of loss for everyone. Rukia's duties as a Fuku-taichou helped keep her occupied and pass the time. For her, it couldn't move on fast enough. A minute seemed like an hour to her, creeping by and taunting her. But with the nature of her being, the time eventually accumulated and started passing quicker than she realized. She mastered her Bankai, different members of the Gotei elevated in rank, and for the time being, there was peace.

After a decade, things got easier. After two, memories of him still stung like hell, and no one had forgotten his legacy. She used the time to fill her position in the division, becoming closer with her brother. She knew she had to stay strong-willed and to painfully go back to the ways she knew before Kurosaki Ichigo.

And she was able to hear about Ichigo's life as welll. She heard that Ichigo did go to college outside of his town, but returned to continue his father's clinic. That he got married to Orihime, and how they had three children, and five more grandchildren. He lived a life of travel and comfort, and he didn't have to fight anymore.

It's those things that keep her going - until the day she receives an unexpected notice.

"Rukia…"

The face that Renji makes…Rukia wants to run away because she understands the truth. Everything bottled away comes bursting back. And so she starts to run, but not before she catches the extra words that are muttered with the most remorse she's heard from him. She is thankful that her friend understands not to chase after her.

Ichigo…he's going fast…

She stops running, not even knowing where she is, and falls to her knees. There is no emotion on her face, just memories filtering through her head that she's tried to keep away for so long. Glances of the past suddenly resurface and Rukia closes her eyes as she allows them to wash over her. He is still only 18 in her mind's eye - brash, short-tempered, and impatient, yet loyal and kind. He'd changed her world as she'd done his. However short their time had been together, it'd given her true happiness. To her surprise, silent tears slide down her cheeks.

She realizes that it has been 70 years since they'd last met.

...

Being back in the human world once more makes her feel almost like stepping backwards in time. There is not much changed in the old town. Her town. The Kurosaki home still holds their name, though the clinic is now gone, made way for a larger room. There is a small garden she can see by the front door, and signs of children's toys littered here and there inside the gate. Their grandchildren perhaps. All of this is evidence enough of all the time she has missed. It takes everything to harden herself and turn away. Blissfully being distracted, Rukia faces south of the town and starts to shunpo to the old hill with a large tree. She hopes to soak in the entire town before having to go to the hospital.

The roads are still the same, she muses. There are students hanging out by the river, and her head turns to spot a dog barking towards her already disappearing form. She remembers the fireworks and the unexpected softness of his lips. Rukia is almost there when...she stops dead. Someone is already there, sitting at the knotted old roots, a cane in one hand. Someone with orange hair and a light scowl on his face.

It can't be…

No. She was told Ichigo was at Kurakara Hospital under deep care. Rukia lets this give her comfort and continues to the tree, now walking instead of using Shunpo. But her hammering heart almost seems to still when she is close enough to see the cataracts of his once vibrant eyes.

Ichigo, Ichigo, Ichigo...

"Is someone there?" His voice is soft but holds a sort of familiar roughness. She almost lets out a cry from finally hearing it again. Her hand stifles her lips in time to compose herself. She is with her old dear Ichigo once again.

"Excuse me, I didn't mean to startle you...I just wanted to come here one more time."

She hears his laugh and can't help but smile.

"I just ran away, you see. Took me half a day but I made it. The nurses forbade me to leave my bed, but I wanted to sit on this hill one last time too."

One last time. Rukia walks up until she is beside him, and looks him dead in the eye. Careful not to show emotion, she asks,"Why is that?"

Ichigo gives a small, short smile and looks up into the sky. "For someone I loved…I think."

She is shaking. It is a warm summer's day, but Rukia can't help but feel cold. She hears him emit a deep, tired sigh.

"I wonder if that's true though." He mutters in afterthought. "My wife and I never really spent time here."

She bites her lip. Her breath deepens.

"Are you alright?" He asks. He is finally looking at her, but there is no moment of recognition. No joy or breath of a gasp. He has already started fading before his death.

"Yes." Rukia says, her voice cracking.

But she isn't fine. Not even marginally okay. It takes everything she has to keep her composure. Just like it had always been between them, there is even now a silent comfort. Their eyes meet and something in her breaks. They are the same auburn eyes that she remembers, only a bit duller. There are wrinkles lining his face, but not as many as she'd suspected he would gain from scowling all the time. His hair seems stale with age, and Rukia wonders how it would feel now if she ran her fingers through it. As for her, she looks the same as she did when they first met.

"I think I'm here for the same reason as yours." She finally confesses.

The last few minutes they have left are trickling down to mere seconds. This time around, there is no holding back. She can't help herself. Rukia is down on her knees, her hands over his, and holding them gently. His eyes close, the last breath escapes, and she tightens her grip.

"Goodbye Ichigo. I love you."

And Rukia still swears, even when she knows it couldn't be possible, that she saw him smile.

...

There are rumors of it now, of the famous two shinigami who went on to strengthen the Gotei 13 in revolutionary ways. Some in the 11th division had heard that it started hundreds of years ago, after the death of a certain young man with flaming orange hair. That it was upon his entrance to Seritei that an inexplicably strong bond had been reforged between a Kuchiki and a human she had once almost died for. Even now with the change of so many things, one thing between them remains the same.

A bond that even death couldn't break.

Thank you so much for reading this short to the end. I started it years ago back in high school and found that I just needed to finish it. There are still rough spots and perhaps I can make improvements in the future. Please feel free to leave any thoughts, compliments, and/or critiques. Reading through them, after all, can be how an aspiring author may hope to improve :)