#irmonth

[chrismho]

WOOHOOO happy ichiruki month everybody!!!! I'm so HYPED, day 1's prompt is "wings" so I did a piece inspired by the swan lake ballet 🦢🪽

[kat-ran]

Day 23 fatal flaw

[adri-mitzuky]

ICHIRUKI MONTH

[rukia-simp]

Tiny Parallel

Ever since rereading Bleach, a lot lately, I keep finding the tiniest parallels between Ichigo and Rukia. It’s absolutely adorable and genius! It could easily be a stretch or just overthinking, but I just wanted to share it. It’s pretty insignificant, but maybe it will brighten someones day! It’s so cute!

Okay, so the fact that when Ichigo is the one to leave Rukia back in Soul Society he is the one to initiate the farewell. And also being the one to give her one last glance over the shoulder before taking that last step. This one has a more hopeful tone as well.

Then, it happens again but this time Rukia is the one to initiate the farewell. Because she’s leaving Ichigo behind this time, instead of it being vice versa. Rukia is the one to give him one last glance before she is forced to leave him for who knows how long. This one is more melancholy.

Beautifully done. Another parallel in Bleach that’s super similar, but just flipped. It’s so cute that they both have to leave each other in the place that the one or the other supposedly “belong”, but keep finding their way back to each other. PLEASE NAME A BETTER COUPLE. I’ll be waiting. But anyways, its a small, insignificant parallel, but I thought it was so charming and smile worthy. After all, it’s the small things that truly make Ichigo and Rukia the best damn couple in all of entertainment. Could easily be overthinking, but I think it’s a fair speculation and analysis. Their relationship is just LEGENDARY!

Also this isn’t the only coincidental, small parallel between Ichigo and Rukia. There are so many. And it’s always fun and satisfying to discover new ones.

[senmarii]

Happy IchiRuki Month (or moth?) for IR shippers!

[duckiesteasmiles]

asterismos

IR Month  — day iii: stars in your eyes

Also available to read on AO3. 

“I saw dozen of shooting stars last night — 

And nearly every one of my wishes was given to you.”

trampled grass and embers glow. cicadas hummed a softer lullaby than near their home — no humbled chatter, no cars driving by.

ichigo quietly claims that he has never laid witness to a meteor shower; but rukia mumbled that in several instances within her life — he resembled one.

he once came shooting down from broken skies, and she swears that she witnessed every spectrum of colour in one blinding motion. in another, when she had made her peace and said her goodbyes, his presence became thunder and lightning collided with a noose that made her feel more alive than she ever had been. 

nimble little fingers traced the lines of his palms, as if marking invisible constellations and biding the moon to make them so. in these fleeting moments, he hoped that his ridiculously long eyelashes (as she had so claimed) were enough to hold the pools that threatened his cheeks. 

if it had never been brought to anyone’s attention — ichigo was nothing if not brash. he was all head on collisions and a swords tip at gods neck — how could she possibly compare him to something as bright as a star - fallen or otherwise?

rukia hushed his thoughts with a shoulder kiss and nested her cheek there and claimed it as hers. 

he was truly terrible at giving himself credit or giving himself relief from a a haunted hollow’s thoughts and the ghosts that reside in his head. for where he saw brashness, she saw his bravery. when reckless and endangered, she felt trust. where he settled on insult and injury, she broke his sword with a swift kick and a hand outstretched. 

ichigo needn’t be reminded, feeling her right elbow threaten his stomach — but he would never admit that his ears felt flushed in the cold air. 

tea sips, light banter, quiet laughter — rukia breathed once, and then again before her head tipped back against his chest to meet his gaze (and forsakes all things that made her this small), 

“you resemble a meteor in another way; the way it blazes so bright and disappears in the same instant. can you promise that I’m enough to keep you here; enough to keep you earthbound? is it selfish to ask?” 

there is silence, a heartbeat, and then the lights begin. 

in that moment, ichigo looks up at the heavens and whispers his mother's name, but not in pray — saying ‘please, won’t you forgive me? because for the first time in a decade I have not asked the stars for your peace, but as they appear before me all at once, I have given all of them to her so that she may keep the light in her eyes - forever to guide me to her’. 

she hears the hammer of his heart as he clutches her to his chest, face buried in lavender scented hair. 

“there is nothing you could ask of me, that I would not give to you — you little fool.” 

“you’re equal parts fool, idiot.”

he chokes out a laugh while rukia keeps the stars in her eyes... 

— for the both of them.

[aeris1001]

Ichiruki Month 2019 day 24- Gossip by Aeris1001

[hesesols]

Day 2: Storytelling

A short drabble for day 2 of the IR month that I might or might not make into a full length fic if given the proper time and incentive.

Enjoy!

Day 2: Storytelling (assassins AU)

Once upon a time… there was a boy who saw ghosts.

-

Once upon a time… there was a girl who was a Ghost.

-

It all comes down to this.

He sizes up the swordsman before him. A plain mask- pitch black much like the rest of his attire with two holes cut into where the eyes are supposed to be and another for the mouth sits upon its face.

Rumour has it that the masked man was so horribly scarred underneath it that a single look upon that face would bring the seer untold agony.

Ichigo has never put much stock in rumours but as he locks gaze with that of his diminutive opponent and finds eyes the colour of the twilight sky staring back at his; even he has to wonder if there is perhaps just the slightest hint of truth behind the supernatural origins of the man.

This is the creature that was said to have committed deeds so vile that upon his death was banished to Hell only to come crawling back out of the gates even deadlier than before. The shape of a man he may take but make no mistake for he is a demon who stalks his prey under the cover of the night with stealth of a feline and wrecks vengeance upon those who dare cross his path.

They call him Gui for he is a Ghost in every sense of the word- materializing out of thin air then sinking into the shadows just as quickly. His victims- young and old, men and women wore identical expressions of haunted eyes and gasps of surprise.

The young man purses his lips as he draws out his blade and issues his challenge to the legendary swordsman.

His reign of terror ends today.

For too long now the city has lived under his shadow of death and fear- her prominent caste living in a constant state of unrest for fear of being the next unfortunate soul who dies under the blade of the infamous assassin.

Ichigo inches forward and watches as the man before him unsheathe a blade so pristine that it was the colour of virgin snow and pale moonlight. Ghost or not, it still doesn’t change the fact that the latter’s main disadvantage is his stature.

Surely such a master of the deadly arts could have chosen a better shape to take on than that of a child who barely comes up to his shoulders?

A flicker of humanity and morality gnawed at him but he squashes it and instead tightens his grip on the hilt of his sword.

He charges with a battle cry that echoes through the valleys of the frozen tundra. The masked man raises his sword to block his attack at the last minute, putting his full weight into the stance as the former pushes against him.

He pushes forward.

For a second they stand shoulder to shoulder- close enough to each other to see the flecks in each other’s eyes. Their breaths short, harsh and laboured; mingling in the cold frosty air as puffs of white smoke against a snow white canvas.

Just as quickly though they separate and resume their anxious circling- bidding their time to strike, eager and vicious like snakes in a bush.

The next strike he thought; everything ends with it.

Only it doesn’t.

Not when the Ghost brilliantly feints an attack to the right and then proceeds to knock the air right out of him by sweeping his legs out from under him. He gets up as quick as he could but his lapse in judgment gives the creature the opening to land the first strike. Blood- stark red and bright flows freely from his open wound as the sting of it finally registers.

He grits his teeth and takes on a defensive stance.

Again.

Stuck in limbo- time is a concept that does not exist beyond the clangs of their blades as they meet in the backdrop of the darkening sky and the crunch of snow and ice against their boots as they cautiously circle each other.  

The world was silent but their hearts are loud as thunderclaps in the desolate wilderness. Their hearts beat in time to each other.

Now!

His eyes narrowed in resolve as he launches himself at the man. In the split second that follows two things happened- the masked man hesitates and Ichigo shifts his blade.

A loud clamour follows as the young man swings his sword down in an arc upon his opponent. The masked man is quick and moves out of the way in time. He somersaults backwards and finds his landing gracefully some ten paces away from whence he stood but the damage is done.

A cracked mask lies in two perfect halves between them.

Ichigo recovers himself and raises his gaze towards the swordsman. He steels himself for the images to come- a dead man with rotten flesh, pools of blood staining the sacred battleground or perhaps even the face of a disfigured man as the latter continues the fight unmasked.

Instead he meets the gaze of a young girl barely older than his sisters. Her raven-black hair flows unbound as the wind billowed and her skin was the unmarred porcelain- the colour of snow and finally he brings himself to look into her eyes.

Two pools of gleaming sapphires stare back at him.

Who would have thought that the legendary swordsman, the notorious Ghost of the Karakura City is actually a woman in disguise?

-

When the two met… little did they know that their world was never going to be the same again.