I found out that they briefly met when they were kids and Ichigo went to the Kuchiki kendo dojo a few times and then it seems like they didn't see each other again until the first day of high school when Rukia beat up a bunch of delinquents who wanted to beat Ichigo up, so you know what? That's close enough for me!
I wonder if Ichigo still has that quirk he sometimes had where he's really bad at remembering people's names and faces because, even though he doesn't seem to have seen Rukia in years, he recognized her and remembered her name because of the way she speaks. He also somehow knew about her placing very high in a kendo tournament.
And Rukia also instantly recognized him and calls him by his first name with no honorifics for truly no reason lmao. I'm sure they only call each other by their first names (I'm assuming Ichigo's going to call Rukia by her first name) because it would feel weird to have them call each other by their surnames or with honorifics, but because now that it's just a high school setting and they haven't seen each other in years it's like. Why are you addressing each other in such a familiar way?
Rukia speaks in this haughty, old-fashioned way and it makes her so adorable. It reminds me of that Fade to Black thing where Ichigo remembers Rukia as having "a high temper and haughty eyes" and how much it made me want to die.
She also tells Ichigo that she has a lot to say to him and I'm just like, girl, what on earth do you have to say to someone you haven't seen since elementary school?
The new thing I'm curious about is whether Rukia was adopted in this AU. Ichigo narration mentions her being the dojo's master's granddaughter, but it's possible that she was adopted and he just doesn't know or didn't mention it.
There are so many variations of Rukia's backstory used in AU fics and I'm so curious about what variation they used in an official AU.
At the very least, if she was adopted, she seems to have been adopted very young, and Byakuya's father was still alive when Ichigo attended their dojo and is potentially still alive in the present?
Is Byakuya less emotionally constipated in a world where his father (and maybe mother) didn't die and he wasn't forced to take on a leadership position when he was still fairly young? How many years older than Rukia is he? I would assume two years for the sake of him also being a high school student, but who knows. Does Hisana exist?
Because Rukia's adoption had to happen when she was still a kid, it would be so wild if Hisana exists and is still Rukia's sister, Byakuya's only two years older than Rukia, and the reason for Rukia's adoption is similar to the reason in canon. I'm so in love with the idea of Byakuya meeting an orphaned Hisana when he was still a hot-headed brat and falling so hard for her that he got his parents to take her and her younger sister in. It's the romance they deserve after ending in tragedy in canon.
If Rukia wasn't adopted, I hope Hisana still exists and is Byakuya's girlfriend who's like a big sister to Rukia. Let me dream. I want Rukia to have an idyllic life in this universe. I think Kubo's only drawn Byakuya's father once and he has such a kind, gentle face that I fully believe he would dote on Rukia in this AU.
The funniest part about the chapter where Rukia's introduced is actually Ichigo trying to run away from Momo and being mildly terrified every time she catches up with him. I have a bizarre fondness for Ichigo and Momo interacting even though I don't think they ever did in canon because I remember them having some fun interactions in the musicals.
(Side note, I've realized that I watched so little of the anime that Momo's voice in my head is actually her musical voice and not her anime voice.)
Also something about Momo being a second-year while Ichigo and Rukia are both first-years. I just… It's so funny to me that in an official AU that gets rid of their supernatural age gap Rukia ends up being six months younger than Ichigo. She could have been a second-year like Momo if Rukia being older than Ichigo is as significant as some people like to pretend it is, but nah, let's just put her firmly in the same age group as Ichigo.
I didn't think Momo was going to be a second-year because I always considered her, Kira, Renji, and maybe also Hanataro to be in vaguely the same age bracket as Rukia, and the other lieutenants (minus Yachiru and Sasakibe) plus Ikkaku and Yumichika feel a little older than them. And then the captains (minus Toshiro) are Full Actual Adults, except Soi Fon who feels a little younger than the other captains but still older than the lieutenants.
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