For a minute, he really did want to hit Byakuya. His muscles tensed, and it took more willpower than it should have to not just bring his fists to bear. But he held still until the feeling passed.

Renji had spent most of his life being honest about things. He wasn't going to change that now.

"No," he said. "I'm not. But she's made her choice." She knows everything, and she'll still let me stand with her. "I will stay at her side, I will make her happy, and I will fight, and bleed, and die for her." It was Daemon's words he echoed now. "That makes me worthy."

He looked at Byakuya levelly; the last sentence had been spoken as almost a challenge.