So good, thank you for writing this!

This was just amazing - just like any other fics you've written here, honestly. I am just as uncomfortable reading fics with characters cheating, and even if it was my favourite pairing doing the cheating, it leaves a lot to be said - cheating is still cheating.

What made this different and made me stick to the end is the humanity and brokenness that each character had - they were never normal to begin with, in the canon that they are in. I can't even imagine how they'd be able to go back to 'living a normal life.' Wonderful re-work.

I salute you for being brave enough to write something like this. I doubt you writing about cheating means you condone it, just as much as me having enjoyed something with illicitness equates to my stand being positive with regards to cheating. Please continue to write more stories and not let little-minded, bullying comments deter you from exploring different (alternate) universes not just in the Bleach fandom, but in whatever fandom takes up your fancy.

Cheers, and all the best!

I liked the jabs about authorial intent and capabilities. Very nice touch. Really, a bittersweet all is well ending would have been fine, instead of this sour rewind of all character development ending that alienated the majority of the fandom and completely lost the author all confidence previously given to him (and I'm not even talking about the ships, that's a whole other story). It's almost sad when you think of what Bleach could have been at the hands of a good author. Well, how he played with our hearts... Well done.

I'm glad you wrote this. The sexy parts were fun, but after that ending, what I liked best was seeing Ichigo become more his old self. Rukia barging in on Ishida & Orihime freaked me out, but I laughed, too. That had to be a tense scene, right? The last line was perfect. I felt the same like Ichigo when I read it.

Translation of this entire fic: "WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEH I DIDN'T GET MY OWN WAY SO I'M THROWING EVERYTHING ON THE FLOOR AND FINGERPAINTING ALL OVER THE ENDING! KUBO IS A BIG SMELLY POO-POO HEAD! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Grow up.

Now that I've had a chance to read this through in its final form, I want to express how beautifully this turned out and how much I like it. I'm so used to reading your IchiIshi or Renishi stories that reading one of your stories from Orihime's POV felt strange at first, but it made sense. For all the hateful reviews you're getting - and however many nasty "reviews" they send, I suspect it's just a couple of the more contemptible little bullies that infest the IH fandom - I appreciate the way you've explored the adultery question in a canon compliant way. Yes, these are favorite characters, and yes, each of them has a well-established moral center, so the question becomes: what has to happen to make Orihime and Ishida betray Ichigo - something their 17 yo selves would never even imagine doing?

For however Kubo failed in the end, he did give these characters development. Ishida is a very different person at the end of the Quincy arc than he was when he first challenged Ichigo. Over the course of Bleach, both he and Ichigo went against their "no kill" ethic. Ishida took healing and weapons from Mayuri Kurotsuchi in the HM arc - something I don't believe his earlier, less experienced self would have done. In small ways, we've watched these characters adjust their morality to the circumstances they find themselves in. This is what humans do, and the older we get, the more we do it. Given a 10 year time skip and the situation they find themselves in, their reactions are believable and in character.

One part I find very gratifying is Orihime addressing her behavior on the Dome, admitting that her focus on Ichigo blinded her to everything else. Another thing I love is that she's aware that she is Ishida's weakness, and the call-back to "I couldn't say no to her" in this is dark but perfect. I'm glad that you made things get better, that while painful, it is a "fix it" fic, but I could also see this situation going very dark with Ishida being martyred between the desires and needs of both Orihime and Ichigo, just like on the Dome.

I could write so much more, but I'll try to be brief. I love the IchiIshi you put in there. I love that the story acknowledges how important both both Orihime and Ichigo are to Ishida. I love that you killed Mayuri not once but three times. I love that Orihime used Tsubaki, and I love the how and why of it especially. Orihime's will to defend her child is unquestionable; the immediacy of her attack was so satisfying. (I can't help but think and be sad about how much we wanted that moment for her in the manga, and how long we expected it. Honestly, you probably wrote it better than Kubo would have.) Your depressed, sullen, irritable Ichigo is so believable - altogether sad, frustrating, and yes, even funny. Nothing is clean about these break ups, you know they're going to be messy and complicated, even if all the participants are on the same page, and yet the ending with Ichigo and Rukia is so hopeful.

So please ignore the bullies. This is a beautifully written and in-character fix it story. You can tell it won't be easy to turn the ship against the current, but you know they are once more back on course.

ahaahahahah you should show kubo your essays, talk to him about the rain, black sun white moon, ~*destiny*~, maybe he'll make your pairing canon HAHHAHAHAHAHA
lame, delusional rukigo. i hope your husband/wife doesn't cheat on you and you know what a shitty fucked up situation it is.

Thank you so much for writing this. I have been properly upset about Bleach ever since the last chapter and this made me feel so much better! This was brilliantly written as well; you're a massively talented writer who clearly understands the characters very well. I thought the idea of different potential timelines was really cool; it would be nice to see you maybe do something with that as another story or one shot. Well done and keep writing!

This was wonderfully written. You had so many interesting ideas. I have never read something so abstract in this particular way before. I was confused at times, but in a good way. I had to keep thinking, which I like.

So sorry that you're getting such strange reviews. People can write about what they want, however they want. You don't owe them anything.

And for the people condemning cheaters... I have never cheated or been cheated on (to my knowledge LOL) in my life, but I've been there for people who have cheated and who have been cheated on. So I understand both sides, and I can honestly say that there are times when it's not as malicious or evil as people think it is. Life happens, people make mistakes.

If you're gonna pass judgement, you best be sure you have NEVER done anything wrong in your life before. Otherwise you don't have the right to condemn an entire group of people.

This is so beautifully written. It's tragic and depressing, but the hint of future, of hope at the end was what made me cry. Ichigo is the single most frustrating character and I just want him to be happy. Real people do horrible things and make horrible mistakes. But that's literally part of being human, and it's painful and beautiful. I wish we got a little more out of Rukia, but it was already so hard to read hers and Ichigo's inevitable end that it may have only made it worse. There really is no way to fix it really. Everyone is broken, even with a family, even finding someone who loves you, even reuniting with the other half of your soul. Ughh... But I just wanted so much more for all of these characters I fell in love with. Ichigo deserves so much more.

*reads other reviews* well, I liked it! It well captured the implied dysfunctionality of this fucked up ending.
Living for the p.s. by the way.

That's funny. The only sick, twisted garbage I see here are the comments from some festering, pea-brained twats flinging poo in a lame attempt to police content and control what a writer writes. The writer gave ample warning on the pairings and content. I see no constructive criticism in these comments; it's nothing but bullying, pure and simple. Don't like fics with cheating spouses? Then don't read them; although I doubt much reading beyond seeing that this is a post-686 Ishida x Orihime fic was involved here.

For myself, I found the quality of this story much higher than the usual fare to be found here and am glad to see it posted. I rather doubt most of the commenters would know a well-written story if it jumped up and bit them on their hateful, vacuous asses.

The funny thing is that it isn't the "how dare you write cheating fics!11!" It's the fact that you show not one shred of respect for your apparently favorite characters when you turn them into cheaters. Cheaters are nothing more than scum. And the fact that you'd portray any one of these characters like that...? Are you serious? Seriously stop self inserting yourself into them. It's pathetic.

Garbage

You're an excellent writer and I have been a fan of your fanfiction for years but I have to be honest, this is all kinds of fucked up.