sin titulo — By mei8love source

Question 606 from Klub Outside is an interesting one, because it can give a glimpse of the years of separation of Rukia and Renji, and of how Rukia dealt with the situation.

Because, Byakuya has called Renji “Renji” since the start of the manga, this is when they arrived at Karakura to capture Rukia. This is before Renji and Rukia’s reconciliation, so, why did Byakuya know that Rukia called Renji “Renji”? This implies that Rukia often talked about Renji. It should be often because, that Byakuya decided to call Renji by his first name implies that Byakuya had gotten so used to hearing about him that he already felt Renji as someone familiar, so it was just natural for Byakuya to call him simply “Renji”. Or Byakuya saw something else in the way that Rukia talked about Renji. Because Rukia calls Ichigo “Ichigo” too, and Byakuya still calls him by his full name or simply “Kurosaki”, even although he has come to appreciate him. So something must have noticed Byakuya that impelled him to call Renji by his first name.

I don’t know if Byakuya and Rukia talked much between them about Renji, because they had a distant relationship that it made the communication between them difficult. Maybe Byakuya sometimes asked Rukia some things about her past, and then here she talked about her friends and the person who was with her at the academy. But also, with his indirect methods to worry about Rukia, perhaps Byakuya asked other people that Rukia talked to, maids and servants, or her division members, about what she would tell them. Even maybe Byakuya was sometimes secretly listening to some Rukia’s conversations, lol. I’ve also read some theories that maybe Rukia said Renji’s name in her dreams.

Another possibility is that during those years of separation, despite they avoided each other’s paths, Renji and Rukia met sometimes when Byakuya was accompanying her, and they acted very awkwardly while Byakuya raised an eyebrow, and then Byakuya would ask Rukia about that guy.

Through all of this it’s probable that Byakuya realized of the importance of Renji for Rukia, and I even bet he guessed the type of importance. Because I had always especulated that Byakuya had chosen Renji as his vice-captain because he wanted to know more of him because he knew of Renji and Rukia’s past relationship, and this new answer from Kubo almost makes me sure of it. Because I doubt that Byakuya would choose someone like Renji, from the 11th division, not the type of shinigami that he would prefer to have next to him, if not for an ulterior motive.

I’d like some manga panels about this matter.

RenRuki 30 day challenge

Day 5. Favorite RenRuki moment (fillers)

This scene from episode 235. I don’t consider it exactly a filler moment because it’s about what happened in the SS arc, and maybe it’s because of that I like it so much. I love the way Zabimaru is telling about Renji’s feelings. The music makes the feeling more deep too. You can really feel Renji’s anguish. 

And Zabimaru knows that Rukia is the most important person for Renji. Her screenshot in the scene is beautiful.

This scene always touches me a lot.

I’ve seen some Japanese RenRuki fanarts that show Renji as vice captain of the 13th division, he wears the 13th division badge in the drawings. Many people had speculated that about Renji because of the scene in chapter 685, with Renji standing next to Rukia and not with Byakuya. And when people knew that Renji and Rukia were married and they had a kid, they have thought that Renji was indeed in the 13th. 

Indeed, it would be an easier way to take care of their daughter if they were in the same division, but then Renji would have had to go to the 13th division when they knew that Rukia was pregnant. So, what position Renji would have until Rukia was appointed captain? A second vice captain? the 3rd seat? Because of this I doubt that Renji is in the 13th division, but I have doubts too. But perhaps Renji could be there temporally (i.e. parental leave), while their daughter is still little. I expect that Kubo clarifies this matter in some databook or something.

Day 1. When did you start liking RenRuki?


Well, in the beginning Rukia was the one who attracted me to start reading Bleach. I had really liked her appearance and the kind of personality she seemed to have.
When Renji appeared I was almost instantly attracted to him. I liked him in many aspects, and he soon became my favorite character. 
About their relationship I liked a lot the naturalness of their interactions. There was a lot of intimacy in their words and gestures to each other. I really loved that.
So firstly I liked a lot their relationship as close old friends.

I had read before on a forum about possible Renji’s romantic feelings for Rukia, his childhood friend. Well, I was not sure about if this was true. 
But when I read the chapter “A star and a stray dog”, I was surprised. Renji and Rukia’s story was more serious than I’d thought. 
I realized Renji was indeed talking about romantic feelings. When he talked about the stray dog and the star, and his fear of jumping for grabbing it, this was clear to me. And if Renji thought he could have grabbed the “star”, and Rukia’s attitude towards Renji in the moment of their separation, also made me think that Rukia had had feelings for him too, and that Renji had been conscious of this. He regretted deeply his cowardice when he couldn’t tell Rukia he wanted she stayed with him, and he was conscious of her disappointment and rejection to his words (and to him. I think she was the one who stopped talking to him, because she was the one who rejected Renji’s hand), and finally he realized that he had been making excuses like “she had found a family. Stay out of her way!”. Their separation wasn’t simple, there were many fears on both parts. Their relationship was really interesting, and that got me really hooked to it.

The scene that finally converted me in a huge RenRuki shipper was the one with Rukia saying sorry to Renji, and grabbing his chest. Well, I had loved Renji’s words in that scene, they were very sincere and touching, but that intimate gesture from Rukia it made me feel more the possible Rukia’s feelings for Renji. I got more convinced of it. It’s one of the few moments where you can see Rukia showing vulnerability, voluntarily, without trying to hide her feelings. She was admitting, finally, that she needed him in her life. It was a very touching scene between them, and it showed again the level of their intimacy, which I love.

I’m reading some posts about Renji’s love for Rukia having to be reciprocated because Renji deserves it (which I think it’s absurd, that is not a good reason), and some people saying that Rukia is not obligated to love him back (which I agree), but I don’t know about the rest of the RenRuki shippers, but I don’t ship them thinking that Renji’s feelings are going to be reciprocated, I ship them because I think that Rukia was in love with Renji when they were in the academy (and I even think that Renji realized of this, and, of course, Renji was in love with her too), and I think that she still has those feelings, that she has never stopped of loving Renji despite their separation (although she had suppressed her feelings because of the circunstances). And in fact, their separation had to do with it, with they being in love with each other but being afraid to confess it.

I ship Rukia with the person that I think she was/is in love with.

Sometimes I think if Renji and Rukia had already, more or less, hooked up just before Rukia received the adoption offer.

There is an excellent RenRuki doujinshi by the Japanese fanartist Norabaku that showed this: Renji and Rukia’s romantic tension during their academy days had finally lead them to shyly have their first kiss, so they both were already sure that they liked each other. But little time after this, that same day or the next day, Rukia receives the adoption offer.

I think that if Renji renounced to his already, more or less, confessed romantic feelings for Rukia, even though their relationship in a romantic sense had hardly begun, in favor of her having a better life with a noble family, Rukia’s extreme disappoinment with Renji would be more justified. I take Rukia’s place during this scene in this situation and I would sure hate Renji and not would want to talk to or look at him during a lot of time. Breaking the relationship with him would be completely justified in this case. And when I imagine this I can really felt how hurt and disappointed Rukia can have felt, and it’s really painful to read this scene with this interpretation.

It’s a possibility, I don’t know if we will know someday what happened exactly.

I always think of this when I see tv shows with couples talking about their partners, saying that apart from being the person they are in love with, they are their best friends too. And that they are so happy to share their lives with their best friend. I think that this describes RenRuki perfectly.

I’d like to analyze the first encounter between Renji and Rukia in the manga (not in their story) and why Renji acted like he did it.

This is the page in which Renji makes his first appearance in the manga:

Chapter 51

They had this mission: “Capture her, otherwise… kill her”

Renji paused when he read “kill her”, he was shocked. And then he says “This is not the job of a shinigami”. He doesn’t like this mission.

He seems pretty different from the guy we see after, when he encounters Rukia. Here he seems worried and upset with his mission. This is the Renji we usually know. And Kubo drew him like this in the first page that Renji appeared in the manga. Kubo already knew that Renji’s personality was going to be like this, he didn’t change his personality later. Many people forget this page because the anime didn’t include it in the anime episode, and it’s a very important page that tells us something important about Renji’s character.

Why did Renji change this attitude of this first page, and he shows aggressiveness when he encounters Rukia? The reason for this change in such little time can only be because Renji is hiding his worry and he shows a fake face because he needs to intimidate Rukia.

Why did Renji need to intimidate Rukia?

We have a proof that, actually, he was very worried about her punishment/sentence:

Chapter 56

It’s obvious that her sentence was his main concern, even though he has to impede harshly  that she go to help Ichigo. He seems angry at her because she doesn’t worry about herself, her own situation. This scene reminds me of the words that Renji later said to Rukia about blaming herself for everything. But Renji is trying to protect her of herself.

So, it seems obvious that he wanted that she’d give up as soon as possible, telling them who had her powers, because he wanted that she wouldn’t have more problems because of this. And Renji knew that Rukia telling them who had her powers wasn’t going to be easy because Renji shows to know Rukia very well. 

So Renji’s intimidation had to be effective. Renji had tried to intimidate her, with intimidating words and actions, even mentioning that she was going to be executed or that she wasn’t going to live much longer, when we indeed found out 3 chapters later that he is actually worried that her sentence is going to worsen the years of punishment, so it’s completely contradictory if Renji would be indeed being serious about these comments.

He measured his attack so Rukia could avoid it, so he only did a cut on her check, knowing too that Rukia was in a gigai, so the cut was on the gigai not on Rukia’s own body (and later, when Rukia was back at the SS she didn’t have any cut on her face, but Renji who had been cut on the chin by Ichigo still had that cut).  And he also said that he knew she’d try to protect the person who had her powers:

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 54

Chapter 54

Chapter 65

-”she’s really in a gigai?”

-”and don’t even think about protecting him”

-”you should know very well now, right? when you was being attacked before, you didn’t escape, I let you escape”

-”Rukia came out by herself so you wouldn’t stop me”

He shows that he knows her very well, and he wanted to avoid a bigger sentence to her because of her wanting to protect the person who had her powers.

Renji is even shown interested in that Rukia get her powers back:

Chapter 54

Renji was trying to hide his worry for Rukia but he couldn’t avoid to let escape his true interests.

Some people say that Renji was jealous of Ichigo and that was because of this that he was agressive with Rukia, but that doesn’t make sense because indeed Renji didn’t know who had rukia’s powers, and Renji had already shown agressive with her before knowing it. He only knew she’d try to protect that person and that was going to be a great problem for Rukia if she didn’t tell them who this person was and wanted to protect him/her.

Chapter 54

And, about others interpretations I’ve heard, I don’t see how Renji could be worried with impressing Rukia with his advances in power, etc, in those moments, either. It doesn’t make sense that Renji is worried about something like that when Rukia is in a serious situation.

Renji was also sure that Byakuya would do something about Rukia’s sentence, so he thought that he was doing the best for her in that situation, bringing her back to the SS. Trying to escape and confront the SS was a suicide:

Chapter 59

He felt very surprised when Byakuya agreed with the sentence:

Chapter 65

When Renji went to fight with Ichigo he removed his vice-captain badge because he knew that it was a personal matter for him. He wasn’t fighting for the Soul Society and their rules. He was fighting because he blamed Ichigo for Rukia’s sentence and he felt very frustrated for his incapacity of doing something effective to help Rukia. Renji is only a vice-captain who knows how is the Soul Society, and how difficult would be to escape from them, and how many strong shinigami there are:

Chapter 65

Chapter 96

Chapter 96

Chapter 95

He thought too that Rukia could at least recover her power, because he thought that Ichigo still had Rukia’s powers, Renji didn’t know that Ichigo had won his own powers.

In short, it was a very difficult situation with few alternatives when you are only a vice-captain.