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He cannot see her anymore.
She’s less than a shadow. Getsuga Tenshou made sure of that.
So she becomes his. She watches him from afar, sometimes close, because it’s not like he’ll notice. Sometimes she’ll see his lips turn into a grin when he’s talking to Tatsuki, or one of his other mortal friends.
Every smile breaks her heart.
She’s happy for him, sure, but she wishes she were the one making him feel all warm inside. When she met him, her world became so bright. She enjoyed returning the favor. Pestering him gave her much joy, and she longs for those days again.
She feels responsible for him, having given him his powers in the first place. Thanks to her he held a new life in his hands: full of friends and excitement.
Then it was ripped away, and she is accountable for the hole left in his heart by the absence. It never would have been there without her. There’s a hole in hers too, left by the friends she made through him.
Sometimes they notice her.
Orihime, Uryuu and Chad—though she’s never actually sure if Sado notices her. They’ll turn towards the tree where she’s perched and she’ll flash-step away, because they don’t need to be haunted by ghosts.
That’s what she’s become: a spirit lingering in the world of the living. She’s as bad as the souls she saves. The only time she leaves his side is when she’s called to do her Soul Reaper duties—she immediately returns, of course.
Ukitake-taichou calls her back to the Seireitei, so she uses all her free time to visit him. It’s not much, but she still does it.
He can’t appreciate her presence anyways.
Renji tells her she’s become distant, that her eyes have lost their luster. He pleads with her to snap out of it, to remember her friends she has left.
“He’ll probably join us when he’s dead,” Renji assures.
But that just makes her feel worse, because the idea of him dying—though that would mean his company—is a horrid thought to her. He’s so alive and she worries death would change that.
Besides, his death would take more years than she’s prepared to wait.
Patience has never been her strong suit.
But seeing him calms her, so she continues to return to the world of the living, and he continues to smile. Her heart develops cracks that’ll never heal.
Memories of him plague Rukia’s sleep.
It seems Ichigo’s not the only one being haunted by ghosts.