I've been watching videos of the Secret Stories from Bleach: Rebirth of Souls. Renji's was fine. There's a scene where Yoruichi helps Renji train for his fight with Byakuya, which I thought was a really cool idea. There's a bit with Ikkaku, who is shirtless, because sure why not? I really liked the last segment (starts at 17:30), where Kira and Hinamori give Renji some sort of intervention because he's been training too hard.
He asks them to help him train (even tho they literally just told him to take a nap), and I was really hype that the game would let you fight them, but no. :( But the game made it up to me. Kira referees his fight with Byakuya, a thing I cannot stop thinking about. Byakuya respects the law, but I am not sure he is a man who respects referees. I am even more sure that he does not respect Kira. Byakuya seems very indulgent of Renji throughout this, so I guess he figured he'd be nice to his pasty twink friend, too. There's not too much Renruki content, aside from one sepia-tinted Star and Stray Dog montage (obligatory; it's in Renji's contract). I was a little disappointed, but they had that whole story at the amusement park with Orihime, so I figured they decided to use his secret story for something else, and I respect that.
In any case, I had lower expectations for Rukia's, but I was pleasantly surprised!! First, it had some jail cell yelling, right off the bat. Then, it had a little post-Soul Society arc story (starts at 19:05) where Rukia decides she wants to thank Renji for helping to rescue her, which she decides to do by offering to fight him. You know what? I'm here for it. Afterwards, they have an awkward conversation that I think reveals that Renji does not know where the heart is, either, and then talk about how much they enjoy beating each other up.
Look, I know it's not much, but this is pretty much as close to canon romance as Bleach is *ever* going to give me, and I will take it.
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! I honestly thought this was going to be our Renji Content for this Secret Story, but the next segment was about them scheming to go to Hueco Mundo (starts around 27:16) and I loved itttttttt. First of all, they really did plan to bully Ichigo's ass when they caught up to him, that was not spur of the moment. This is the essence of Renruki. Secondly, Byakuya shows up, and they have to fight him. I wish this were a two-on-one more than anything in the world, but they only put this in for video game reasons, so it's Rukia vs Nii-sama. However, Renji is way hype for it, and you know what? Maybe that's even better.
I also really enjoyed the variant of Good Cop/Bad Cop Byakuya and Ukitake are playing, which is more like Bad Cop/Guy Who is Ruining the Bad Cop's Vibe.
And then, because this game apparently loves me...CAPES
My face when I am given a cape when I was not expecting be given a cape:
The other segments in the video are cute, too. There is some Kaien stuff, Rukia's own sepia-toned Inuzuri flashback, the porridge scene from Honey Dish Rhapsody that now takes place in a comically large room in Byakuya's house instead of the hospital, and the scene where Rukia waits with the Karakura Kids for Ichigo to wake up. There is a moment in that last one where Chad tells Rukia that she is their friend (36:06) and then Orihime agrees and it is extremely precious.
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