He looked at Cliff. "I don't know," he said. "If we weren't here, I would have felt it if he had gone in battle, or fought at all. Ichigo was... among those of us here, he had the strongest spirit. But I know nothing at all about what happened." Only that they were gone, and that somehow made it worse.

Renji listened to Hughes. If anything, it made his expression more somber. If it wasn't death, it was probably worse. And he was acquainted with the fact that there were, indeed, worse things than dying.

But in this case, he had no ideas.