Author's Note
Like the title and summary say, this is an idea dump. It'll be the first chapter or so of story ideas I have and a quick explanation of the concept. You are free to encourage me to write more of the story(I would say the whole story but I never seem to have ends in mind) or you can pm me and ask to use the story yourself.
Anywho, here's the first one.
A Lot Alike, But Very Different
You've died here, so I'm sending you to somewhere you can live. Good-bye, Ichigo-san.
Tatsuki moved toward the front of the Urahara Shoten where the humming was coming from. She had woken up in one of the back rooms and had failed to find anyone who was conscious yet. Orihime had been in the room she had awoken in and Chad had been in the room next door. All the other rooms she checked had been empty of people. Tatsuki had begun to believe that Urahara and his goonies had run away when she heard the humming start. Expecting to find Urahara, maybe Ururu since she could now hear a broom sweeping the floor, she was surprised by what she found: a man with orange hair and his back to her sweeping the shop.
"YOU TRAITOR!" she yells as a battle cry as she kicks the back of his knee in. "HOW DARE YOU COME BACK HERE!" She moves around to the front and sucker-punches him in the nose, hard.
"Ow! Quit it!" he whined, bringing his hands up to his nose. Tatsuki ignored this and kicked him in the ribs before losing a flurry of punches and kicks on the cowering traitor before her. "Ow! Stop! Uff! Ugh! Come on! Yow!" Then, in a small opening, he inscribes a glowing, light-blue circle in the air with his finger. Tatsuki pauses to look at it for a moment, but it was a moment too long. Nine glowing blue darts fly out of the circle, pinning her to the wall by her yukata with one under each armpit, one over each forearm, one on either side of her hips, one on the outside of either knee, and one at mid-shin level between her legs.
"LET ME DOWN, YOU BASTARD! I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU YET!" she roars from her place on the wall, losing a string of profanities to emphasize her point.
The man slowly uncurls from his place on the ground, uncovering his face. Tatsuki stops struggling and looks more closely at him, noticing things she didn't before her sudden attack. His shoulders are broader than Ichigo's, not by a lot, but it's noticeable. He is more muscular than Ichigo if the glimpse of his chest at his shirt collar is anything to go by, yet still slender. As he pushes to his feet, Tatsuki also notices that he is several centimeters taller than Ichigo. His hair is the same shade as Ichigo's and the same spikey style, but much longer and more rugged looking. She catches sight of a small, black tie holding it in a low ponytail that reaches between his shoulders. His face is leaner with almost no baby fat on it. But, the largest difference Tatsuki notices between him and Ichigo are his eyes. Where Ichigo's eyes brought to mind unrelenting stone, this man's eyes were more reminiscent of melted chocolate, warm and gentle.
"Ah, sorry." he apologizes as he rubs the back of his neck. "I wasn't really sure how else to make you stop without hurting you." His eyes briefly flicker up to hers before looking away. "Um, since you've calmed down now, I'll let you go." He snaps his fingers and the shining blue darts shatter out of existence, dropping Tatsuki back to the floor. "Right, so I'm Hakuba Tsukimaru, nice to meet you." He holds out a hand for her to shake, still avoiding her eyes.
Tatsuki warily eyes his hand before taking it and giving it a good shake. "Arisawa Tatsuki." she gruffly introduces herself. She stares at him a moment longer and his eyes flicker to hers and away again once more. "What, afraid to look me in the eyes?" Tatsuki jabs at him, that habit is really annoying her.
His head snaps up a bit and he stares her in the eyes. "Ah, um, sorry. It's just… you remind me of someone I used to know and I kinda messed up with them big time. I guess you could say I'm still nervous about that and your attack didn't really help with that. Sorry if that made you uncomfortable, Arisawa."
Tatsuki stares him down until he begins to fidget a bit under her scrutiny. "Call me Tatsuki. Somehow, you calling me Arisawa doesn't feel right." She snorts. "Probably because you look so similar to that bastard Ichigo. Anyways, where'd you come from?"
"Oh, um, I'm from a town a very long ways away from here. I kinda got sent here by my… uncle to help out with the whole Aizen problem and a few… personal reasons. Anyways, I'll be staying at the Shoten unless I figure out some other accommodations. Um, are you sure you want me calling you Tatsuki? I mean, I don't mind exactly, and you're free to call me Hakuba or Tsukimaru, but I just want to make sure you're sure about that, Arisawa."
Tatsuki blinks as Tsukimaru starts to ramble towards the end. "You're lucky I spend so much time with Orihime and her rambling, otherwise I wouldn't have understood the end of that." Tasuki notices a flicker of… something in Tsukimaru's eyes as she mentions Orihime. "And yes, it's fine if you call me Tatsuki. Like I said, it just seems weird somehow when you call me Arisawa. Hmm, I suppose you could be useful in the fighting. At least, as long as you don't always cower like that when attacked." She jibes at him.
He splutters. "I– wha- No! I just wasn't expecting to get attacked for sweeping and I don't like hitting girls or injured people." he defends.
"Oh! So you think girls are weak, huh?" Tatsuki leers at him.
"What? No! I was just raised to be respectful to women!"
Tatsuki's next taunt to him, because it was too funny watching him get flustered, was cut off by the shuffle of feet and a soft, sleepy, "Tatsuki-chan~" followed by the arrival of a slowly shuffling girl with auburn hair. Her left arm hung limply at her side, a cast around it, and there were bandages over her left eye and most of that side of her face. There was also a swath of bandages around her neck.
"What are you doing out of bed?" Tatsuki scolds her. "You're seriously hurt. You should be resting. In bed, Orihime."
Orihime laughs nervously and rubs the back of her head with her uninjured hand. "Well, I woke up because I got hungry and Tummy-san demanded food. So I sat up and looked for you, but Tatsuki-chan was gone! Then I heard you yelling your battle cry and I thought the little blue men had come to kidnap you. When you stopped yelling I got really worried that they might have defeated you and were dragging you away! So I got out of bed and came out here." She finishes with a smile. "Who's your new friend? He looks a lot like Kurosaki-kun, but very different from him too."
Tsukimaru stiffened as the attention was brought to him. Tatsuki wonders what that emotion that flitted across his face as Orihime turned to him was. It hasn't there long enough for her to get any read on it, so she instantly puts herself on guard because the last person to do something like that tried to choke Orihime to death only a day ago, Tatsuki too, but that was the less important part to her.
Tsukimaru wasn't really prepared to see her again, not after the way he failed her before. Yet, he couldn't be happier to see her alive, not exactly well, but she was alive. The small sparks of hope, created when he arrived from sensing what he had lost existing once more, burst into a small flame at the sight of her. They'd been right. He was a dead man walking back there, but now that he was here, his heart could beat once more because there were the people worth living for in his world again.
Tsukimaru quickly becomes embarrassed as he realizes he still hasn't been introduced to her. "Ah, right, um, I'm Hakuba Tsukimaru, it's a pleasure to meet you." After he introduces himself his eyes flicker away from hers and he begins to fidget.
She smiles like the sun and he thinks It's been so long. "It's nice to meet you, Hakuba-kun. I'm Inoue Orihime." A small smile tugs at Tsukimaru's lips and she thinks that it looks good on him, wondering what he'd look like with a full smile on his face. He's handsome in a way that is alike yet different to Kurosaki Ichigo. Ichigo would always smile, wave, and look friendly. She'd always liked that about him. However, with recent events, she had realized it was a sham and she noticed it when she went back to those memories. His eyes were always calculating, there was no warmth in them. Tsukimaru though, he wore a fierce scowl, but his eyes betrayed him too. His eyes had ghosts in them, but somehow they were still warm and gentle. A promise of haven if you could get past the wall he put in place with his scowl. Their reiatsus were very different too. Ichigo's was fierce and gritty, like a strong wind filled with sand blowing against you, sharp and stinging. Tsukimaru's was warm and all encompassing, like a giant blanket being wrapped around her being, protecting her from the outside world. She had given up on Ichigo, he made it very clear he didn't want her, but maybe…
Orihime's stomach lets lose a loud gurgle, reminding the girl why she awoke in the first place. "Um, you two wouldn't happen to know where Tessai-san is, would you? He said if I got hungry that he'd make me something to eat." she says as a blush colors her cheeks in embarrassment.
"Oh, Urahara-san and the others went out to finish cleaning up the impact sight, make sure things are handled well or something along those lines. I was only half listening." Tsukimaru admits, rubbing the back of his head once more. "If you want though, I could make omelets or something. Um, you're welcome to some food too, Arisawa." he quickly adds on. She scowls at the use of her family name, but he ignores it. He can't call her Tatsuki, not until he feels ready to let go.
Orihime smiles again, bouncing up and down a bit. "Sure! Omelets sound delicious, Hakuba-kun! Right, Tatsuki-chan?" His heart warms seeing her just so alive and he can't resist the smile tugging the corners of his mouth into a small grin once more.
Tatsuki sighs at Orihime's excitement over such simple food, but she's starving so "Sure. Why not? I just hope you can actually cook, Tsuki-chan~ " she sings out, a devious smirk on her face.
Tsukimaru sputters and scowls at her. "I can cook!" his indignant reply comes. "And don't call me Tsuki-chan! It's weird. Do it again and I'll drown your omelet in hot sauce." he grumbles, heading for the kitchen. Orihime practically bounces after him. Tatsuki sticks her tongue out at his retreating back before following him to the kitchen.
The kitchen was well kept and clean. The counters were made of a light gray granite and all of the appliances were neatly tucked away. Tsukimaru walked over to the fridge, pulling out a carton of eggs and popping its lid to check if there were enough for omelets. Satisfied that there was enough to go around he turned to the girls.
"Alright, we've got enough eggs for omelets. What do you two want on them?" he asked as he began to search the cabinets over and under the counters for a skillet.
"Cheese and green peppers please, Hakuba."
"Hmmm. I want cheese and green peppers, too. Ooh, and honey and wasabi and… um, no I think that's good. Thanks for cooking for us, Hakuba-kun!"
Tsukimaru catches Tatsuki's disgusted look at Orihime's choice of toppings and chuckles. "Okay! One cheese and green pepper omelet and one cheese, green pepper, honey, and wasabi omelet coming right up!" he lights the stove and places the skillet he's found on it. Then he pulls cheese, green peppers, and wasabi out of the fridge before searching the cabinets once more for honey. After he finds it, he goes sets it on the counter with the other ingredients and hovers his hand over the skillet to check if it's hot. The skillet isn't warm enough yet so he pulls a knife from the rack and starts dicing the green peppers and cracks the eggs into a bowl he pulled out while looking for the honey, whisking the eggs. He checks the skillet again before pouring the eggs in and carefully tending them, adding cheese and green peppers when the time is right.
"Here you are, Tatsuki. Inoue, I'll have yours done in a few minutes." Tsukimaru says as he plates the omelet and sets it on the table island in front of Tatsuki.
"There's no fork, smart one." Tatsuki sarcastically points out.
"Well then find one. I'm busy right now and you're perfectly capable." Tsukimaru grouches back.
Tatsuki sighs, but searches the drawers for the silverware anyways. Upon finding them she pulls out two forks, one for her and one for Orihime. When she gets back to the island, Tsukimaru is setting Orihime's omelet before her.
"Here. Fork." Tatsuki offers the fork to Orihime. "These better be good. You said you could cook, Hakuba." she says as she points the other fork at him.
"Uwaah~ It's delicious!" Orihime cries out, before quickly shoveling more into her mouth.
"Hey, slow down, Orihime! You're gonna choke if you eat it that fast!" Tatsuki nags her.
"But it's too good to be eaten slowly, Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime argues back, fork hanging out of her mouth.
Tsukimaru just laughs at the sight. "I think she can handle herself. If not, we can always use the Heimlich maneuver to help." He offers, a small grin on his face.
"You mean I can use the Heimlich maneuver. You're not touching her." Tatsuki imperially states.
"Yeah, yeah." He waves her off. "Eat your omelet before it gets cold."
Tatsuki digs in and has to admit it's a decent omelet. As she finishes, she hears the front doors sliding open.
"We're back~ I hope you haven't been getting into too much trouble while we were out, Hakuba-san." Urahara greats as he comes strolling into the kitchen. "Ooh~ omelets! Make one for me?"
"Tough luck, Urahara-san, kitchen's closed." Tsukimaru blandly states as he finishes drying the skillet, placing it back in the cabinet.
"But you made some for them~" Urahara whines.
"Yeah, and they're injured. You're perfectly fine. Make your own damn omelet." he says, breezing past Urahara. "I'm going out for a bit. I'll leave my gigai here." He slips out the door and out of sight. He needed some time to think and there's no way he could in a shop filled with the things he'd lost. Hopefully a light patrol of the town and the air above the rooftops will clear my head. He uses his modified combat pass to slip out of the gigai Urahara gave him and jumps out the window into the warm evening air.
Right, so the idea to this story, if you couldn't guess it, is that Ichigo has lost pretty much everyone, leaving him dead inside. Urahara, being the nice-ish person he is, sends him back into an alternate timeline so that Ichigo can live again. I was inspired by Getting It Right by DUALITY x2 (Space out all the caps letters) and The Dark Side of the Blacker Moon by AoNoBleachShoujo. Both have some Ichigo in an alternate reality stuff to them and are really good, so I thought about doing my own spin on it.
Please comment/review.
