User blog comment:Xilinoc/Ch. 686 - Death & Strawberry (End of Bleach reMIX)/@comment-1489595-20160819152958/@comment-1489595-20160820232401

Well...sure. Ichigo and Rukia were exactly the same as most of the other characters for reasons I explained above. Any suggested romance was ambiguous and designed to keep readers titillated and guessing without actually going anywhere. Ichigo himself might as well have been a wooden post for all the interest he showed in romance.

So we are left right where we started with no pairing predestined or more likely than any other during the series' 700 issue run. It was anybody's guess right up until the final chapter the way Kubo wrote. I wouldn't of been surprised at all if he had left the answer blank instead of catering to shippers.