Ritual

Bleach © Kubo Tite.

Parchment Paper Texture © Photos Public Domain [link]

This one's also for

Finally I started this in October! I wanted it done by Debbie's birthday in November, which didn't happen, but now it's done!! I bit off way more than I could chew but I finally finished it! Don't ask about the light source / shadows. Or the background. I don't know. I try (sometimes).

Headcanon for this… I already posted bits here and there when I first came up with this captain-of-the-Kyudo-club!Uryuu AU, but let's see if I can tidy it up and get it to make sense.

They've been classmates/friends for quite a few years and started fake!dating a couple of years before so girls would stop pestering him — it was Orihime's idea. After a while, it becomes obvious to both of them that they should stop pretending and just date already.

In this AU, Kanae is alive, and so is Masaki. The Kurosaki and Ishida parents are long-time friends but the Kurosakis moved away when the kids were small, so the boys only vaguely remember each other (“annoyingly loud boy with bright hair” / “annoyingly quiet and boring four-eyes”…). The Kurosakis suddenly move back and Ichigo joins the high school Kendo club (Isshin is a former Kendo champion who's retiring and planning to become an instructor; Masaki used to take part in Kyudo competition with Ryuuken when they were teenagers, but she gave it all up to follow Isshin; Ryuuken never forgave him for that). Uryuu naturally hates kendo XD

As for this particular scene… Well, anyone familiar with works by CLAMP will hopefully have recognised the gesture. I first saw it in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, and then again in X/1999 and I knew I wanted to use it for these two one day. It's taken a looooong time, but here we are! This is something Uryuu does before every competition he takes part in; a ritual, a good luck charm of sorts.

Hahaha, I don't even know why I typed all that. It's not like I'm going to do anything with it. I'm certainly not going to try drawing Ichigo in a Kendo outfit  

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