Renji's fist raised for a moment before he managed to reassert rationality. It wasn't this man's fault, he told himself. He didn't deserve to be attacked, as Ichigo hadn't deserved it, either. He dropped his hand back to his side, forcing his fingers to relax.

"There is no help," he said, quietly. It was already done, and it had been his own fault, for being so weak.

The offer of other topics of conversation seemed laughable. No matter how he tried to escape this, it always seemed to come back to her, to his errors, the very thing he wanted to forget. He had nothing to offer, because there was only one thing he could think about, no matter how hard he tried to avoid it.