Disclaimer: I do not own bleach! All credits go to Tite Kubo
Kurosaki Clinic
Ichigo had been sitting in the couch for a while as he watched the television while speaking with Masaki about various issues, some minor, some surprising and so forth, just a casual conversation between mother and son, Masaki did mention the surprising factors of being a royal as she had never once even imagined such a position, and while she did think it had some nice benefits, it was clearly a station with negative sides aswell.
Ichigo couldn't do much but to agree to that, primarily because he was the one ultimately responsible for the entire family at this point as not only the head of state and the monarch but also as the family head.
Although despite certain restrictions, it was very fair to argue that in terms of other aristocratic or royal families, they had it very easy and could essentially just enjoy the benefits of their station to a large extent, this was most prominent when looking at Sabrina, Yuzu and Karin as they were mostly free to enjoy their lives and capable of living their lives as they themselves wanted, atleast to a massive extent.
This was extremly unusual as the spiritual world tends to be filled with political ploys and selfish arrogance, usually resulting in arranged marriages and the loss of liberty and freedom, and at first there was nothing stopping Ichigo from sending his own sisters or sister in law off for a marriage whether they wanted it or not, however that's not Ichigo's style, and Ichigo had made that abundantly clear.
This was further pushed forth by Ichigo abolishment of arranged marriage, effectively not only securing the position of liberty amongst the royal family but of all families inside the Wandenreich, though naturally this was also a source of discontent amongst the east branch's aristocracy, as the majority of them decided to flee to the Wandenreich to escape the Dominion.
And naturally, as it was Quincy territory and Ichigo was the one in charge, and his word was absolute, whether they liked it or not, if anything, if they say anything against Ichigo or do anything against him or his family Ichigo has the right to punish them extremly, a right granted by an absolute monarchy were Ichigo had the biggest and final say in everything there was and no one could oppose him.
This was also prominent and shown best when Sabrina started kindergarden where she had problems making friends at first, as the Stratburg family holds the highest position of authority, a family where the hierarchy goes by titles in practice and theory even though it is never used on members of the family, the head of the family holds the position of monarch and head of state as the Stratburg family is the royal and ruling family.
If anything the Wandenreich's royal family really stood out for the freedom granted to it's members, not even aristocratic families in the Wandenreich was as open minded as Ichigo was, if anything nobles took notice very quickly, and while that isn't a bad thing at the moment, it can cause some future problems along with other problems in the aristocracy.
First off, it is the issues regarding arranged marriages, this naturally had a lot of benefits for public morale and happiness, even aristocrats were content with it... to a certain degree atleast, the reality isn't necessarily as simple as that though, for Ichigo who doesn't age, one might consider him destined to rule the Wandenreich for eternity so he would see a lot, especially the problems that would appear out of this.
The principle is simple, give a lion a piece of meat and it will never eat anything else again, the same can be said for power and authority, for while the nobles had restrictions, their authority and power was still immense, for the time being they represented the mere reach of the crown, but can that be said for eternity? The answer is not exactly easy but it's both yes and no.
As time passes and more nobles are born and grown up, they will become more daring, for if two nobles marry, the two families might end up with a lot of influence on one another, and all it takes is the will of one ambitious noble to increase his own sphere of influence and power, and as time goes by, they will become even more daring and aim even higher, right up to the throne itself, atleast indirectly.
They might not be interested in the throne directly or daring enough to try to usurp the throne, but they will definitely become interested in the ear of the one sitting on it, after all, defeating Ichigo in battle or attempting something like a coup when Ichigo can utilize the Auswählen is nothing more then suicide, so the only thing they could do was to reach for his ear, and those who had Ichigo's ear could essentially relish in the fact that they have the authority of the royal family.
The easiest way to do this? Make a member willingly marry their child, by doing this the child itself will have close access to the said member, who again has very close access to Ichigo outright, especially if they have a child, after all children do listen to their parents, and this has been shown several times already indirectly, and while the legal marry age is 18 in the Wandenreich, they are still the children of their parents after all.
Karin, Yuzu and Sabrina were two valiant examples, for when Karin or Yuzu asked something of Ichigo, she immediately got his attention, and Sabrina aswell, so what would happen if someone, somehow managed to influence their minds to do as the other party wants? That is where the political game comes into the picture.
By having arranged marriages abolished, Ichigo didn't outright remove the political game, he just changed the rules is all, and the nobles know that breaking the law will cause them to be punished severly by the crown itself, however, they cannot be punished if they bend the rules rather then breaking them, and that is the interesting aspect if this, because it's very hard to say how they'll be able to bend them in the future.
Ichigo was all too aware of this, if you're born into a high class in a class system, arrogance and ambition will be born, especially if you have parents that are too preoccupied by their work to focus on their child, leaving the child to grow up under it's own conditions, Ichigo had even heard a rumor from other nobles that some of the children were extremly arrogant and actually looked down on people underneath them and could on occassion abuse their authority, much to Ichigo's annoyance but he had no definite proof of this and therefore it was not wise to act on it, not that he really could at the moment due to his sick leave anyways.
Though he had asked Sabrina when she got back from her tea party but she had evidently not noticed that some noble children were arrogant and high on themselves, though probably not a wonder, seeing as Sabrina was a princess and in a far higher social position then they themselves are, showing arrogance to Sabrina is definitely going to get them punished severly, if not outright disinherited with the full loss of status, title and authority.
That explains the no part, but for the yes part, they will still affiliate themselves with the crown if they want to keep their positions, simple as that, anything else is just the mere definition of treason and punishable, according to the law, with the capital punishment!
So in short, the odds of the nobles going against the crown itself is practically non-existant, effectively assuring the safety and the well being of the royal family while securing their own position, rather, it was more of the influence of the royal family they would aim at as it was the safest way for them to directly.
For now however Ichigo would just accept the reality of this issue and not think much about it until he came back to work, this was probably the unseen benefit of his sick leave as he had been more capable of thinking about internal affairs rather then external as he was sitting there, though this matter was different from actual work because it did essentially involve his family on a personal level and him aswell.
There is no doubt that many find Yuzu and Karin rather attractive, and that can essentially be used against younger noble teenagers and so forth in an attempt to get close to them, something Ichigo was rather wary off out of fear of having one of them come running back crying, something Ichigo would most definitely not allow.
But Ichigo was currently unable to handle that situation due to his own situation at the moment, and he had even bigger concerns far closer to home as there was unknown individuals attempting to approach Yuzu, worse off was that they were spiritually aware and they clearly had a good suspicion on who she really was at this point, if they didn't know it outright, if anything Ichigo was considering heading over there himself with a bunch of soldiers to forcibly interrogate the family, but he currently refrained from doing so out of fear of having a repeat of the recent massacre.
Regardless, his worries were quite unfounded, even though they were understandable.
Karakura High School
As Yuzu and Karin left the school building along with their friends, the royal guardsmen quickly reacted, it was three vehicles that clearly didn't belong to them but rather the spiritually aware family judging by the presence of the guards aswell as reiatsu signatures, although they haven't noticed Yuzu and Karin yet from the looks of it, the K.G did consider the possibility of them just waiting for their new classmate but that thought was a luxury they couldn't make a decision around.
Regardless they decided to call it in and Fort Karakura was quick to react as the rapid response unit was placed on standby, along with five black unmarked mercedes vehicles that was rapidly dispatched.
In the vehicles were essentially men in black, or rather soldiers in suits and ties as they didn't wear their military uniforms, this was due to the fact that the Quincy uniform was unknown and unrecognized in the world of the living and for that reason served no purpose to show forth other then to get unwanted attention from probably law enforcement or civilians, the uniform would have originally been A.N.U unit one, as they were a part of the escort unit in case either Yuzu or Karin wanted a ride home as they did have that possibility but mostly chose to walk due to the chance of meeting their friends along the way.
The K.G utilized a danger assesment system with color codes to indicate the threat levels, also known as R.E.T.C or Royal Emergency Threat Codes, the following codes with their meaning were.
Code blue: All clear.
Code green: Hightened alert status.
Code yellow: Emergency under attack but V.I.P is safe and away from hostiles.
Code red: Emergency V.I.P is in range / view of hostiles and in danger.
Code black: Emergency V.I.P is unguarded and in danger, situation critical.
The code was formerly blue until now where it changed to green due to hightened alert status, that usually put the RRT or Rapid Response Team on standby and they would attempt to get the V.I.P out of there as quickly as possible for obvious reasons.
Blue is rather obvious, it's all clear, no threat and all is quiet and peaceful.
Green is as mentioned, a hightened alert status or suspicious activity, it can be something or it can be nothing, surprisingly it didn't change to green so often, and when it changed to green, they usually evacuated the V.I.P to a safe area with a transport availeble for emergency extraction should the code change for the worse, security would severly increase during this time and the RRT would be placed on standby and ready to move out the moment the alarm is sounded, sometimes green can be a lot and sometimes it's nothing and a general misunderstanding, so green was rarely anything critical.
Yellow was used when under attack but the guard unit and the V.I.P could not see the threat and was not directly attacked or engaged, but yellow and below would cause a full response from anything and everything, the RRT was there to ensure rapid assistance, but if yellow was enforced, all of Fort Karakura and it's defences would go active instantly and they would all scramble to reinforce the K.G and eliminate the threat either by capturing or killing the enemy target.
Red was used when the V.I.P or the guard unit protecting the V.I.P was in range of hostiles aswell as within view, during public occassions this was the code they were most ready to change to for obvious reasons, even if the code was red however, it didn't necessarily mean that the V.I.P was under attack nor there was a battle going on as they would avoid getting into one with the V.I.P so close if possible.
Code black was the last code and the biggest emergency code, as it had a very sinister meaning for the K.G and any guard unit, namely that the last line of defence had been broken as the hostile had gotten through the last line of defence and the V.I.P was unguarded, this was essentially situation critical and a full blown emergency.
The officers of the guards stopped Yuzu and Karin.
"Your highnesses, a transport in enroute, I ask your patience to wait inside the school until it arrives." One of the officers said to them.
"Can't we walk home?" Yuzu asked.
"During the circumstances we feel that it is infeasible." The officer stated.
Yuzu decided not to question the officer despite having some questions, Karin also remained quiet but she noticed something was up, it was very rare for the royal guard to act like this after all, so it was only natural.
However just as they stopped up, a voice came loudly and clearly, causing the guards to frown.
"Excuse me, are you Yuzu?" One of the men asked as he and two others approached, being weary of the royal guard at all times.
"I am?" Yuzu replied questionably.
"I am terribly sorry to trouble you, I mean you no harm or alarm, I have but a simple request to make of you if I may be so bold your highness." The man stated, leaving Yuzu a bit puzzled.
"And what might that be?" Surprisingly it was Karin who answered that, leaving the men to look at her.
"I apologize I am not aware of who you might be?" The man asked.
"This is her royal highness, princess Karin Kurosaki von Stratburg." A guard responded, checking to see if the man indeed could see or hear them as they were in reishi forms so normal humans would be unable to see them.
"Ah, I see, my sincerest apologies for my lack of knowledge your highness, I did not mean to offend in anyway and I beg your forgiveness." The man replied, bowing his head respectfully
At this point, the guards called in the event and they decided to ease their suspicions for a bit, the vehicles were closeby now and they decided that it was better to have the transport arrive rather then to send them back, it was three vehicles, one for the twins and two guard vehicles approaching, not really a grand motorcade but this isn't exactly the spiritual world either, they could get a proper motorcade if they utilized reishified vehicles and drove through the skies using reishi platforms, but the twins didn't want to do that.
"It's fine, so what is it you require?" Karin asked with a firm authoritarian voice while keeping a calm expression, a trait unusual for her but she and Yuzu had been taught how to be royals, or atleast was in training and being authoritarian isn't exactly wrong as long as you don't overdo it, Sabrina herself was also undergoing such training only on a lesser extent.
Why was it important to be a bit authoritarian you might wonder, well being a royal is a very powerful position in the Wandenreich, what with it being an absolute monarchy and all that, additionally, any signs of weakness could be exploited politically, so one had to appear strong, Karin was better at it then Yuzu that's for certain, showing strength as a royal is very, very important, even if it means you have to a be a bit autoritarian or slightly tyrannical, otherwise political opponents will jump you like a horny rabbit, of course Yuzu, Karin and Sabrina had Ichigo and Bambietta helping them out, however it was very important to act like a proper royal too when the situation calls for it, and this might just be a situation like that.
"If I may be so bold and to request of you the transference of a single envelope to his majesty, I would be very grateful your highness." The man replied.
"Have you attempted to contact the empire through proper channels?" Karin asked with a frown.
"We have tried but we are regretful in saying that we do not know how to contact the empire or the east branch of the Soul Society." The man stated.
"Very well, I will deliever it." Karin said as she took out her hand, causing the man to find the envelope and hand it over.
"I sincerily thank you your highness, and I do apologize for disturbing you on this day." The man said.
"It's nothing to be concerned about, if that is all then we'll be taking our leave, our transport is here." Karin said firmly as she looked at another batch of vehicles that had arrived, the escort unit had soldiers disguised in suits, sunglasses and earpieces, they belonged to the A.N.U, but another reinforcing unit had also arrived.
That unit was reishified and consisted of regular soldiers in their new armor sets and weapons, they were walking around more freely with their stahlhelms, armor sets, new masks and was carrying the new STG which they learned to manifest, not surprising as these soldiers belonged to Fort Karakura and due to them guarding Karakura town where there was minimal action except maybe a random hollow appearance now and then, they had a lot of time to train in order to manifest their new weapons, and since Karakura town has a royal residence, namely the Kurosaki clinic, they were high on the priority list when it came to equipment so they were always the first to be equipped.
Of course the main royal residence was Silbern castle, they also had two additional residences, the second one was the Kurosaki clinic in the world of the living where they could just live as normal humans if they felt like it, Yuzu and Karin were currently doing it to the best of their ability in order to finish up this school year if not high school as a whole, they haven't really though that far yet.
Then there was the third residence, which hasn't been used yet, originally built as a vacation home for the royal family in the Wandenreich, it was built in a large island which was the property of the royal family, it was a large mansion surrounded by the sea, the island had it's own forest, airfield, a small harbor, plenty of beaches and so forth, a neat place to just relax.
How the area was so tropical, no one knew, the Wandenreich was essentially it's own universe with virtually no space or orbit, so how the empire worked in terms of physics and so forth, was left only to speculation, some areas were tropical and others were snowy all year long, most areas changed between the seasons however, the place was a 77 hour flight away by aircraft, so it was quite the distance, the distance itself was even longer then it would take to travel around planet earth, which is about a 51 hour plane ride in comparison.
Of course odds were there were some chances that it might be used soon enough, due to the fact that the courtiers felt that Silbern needed a bit of an overhaul... Again... This time the reason was that the palace itself resembles Yhwach's reign and should be replaced with another palace or castle, of course the tower itself would remain untouched, they just wanted to change the top part, something that really irked Ichigo due to his new garden... Even though it was nothing else but a pile of dirt at the moment, of course there were other reasons aswell, they had assured Ichigo that the garden wouldn't be a problem, however in the end it all depended on Ichigo's decision, but that is a story for another time.
"Of course." The man said as he left with his two other men and went to meet Enos.
Enos was watching the encounter, Yuzu was looking at Enos and his crew aswell, Karin however ignored him, and noticed that Yuzu was lagging behind.
"Are you coming?" Karin asked.
"Oh, right." Yuzu said as she just followed suit and then they left.
Kurosaki Clinic
***Sometime Later***
Ichigo was still sitting there in the couch, having some discussions with his mother, Masaki was without a doubt surprised when Ichigo just briefly mentioned a potential tearing down and reconstruction of Silbern palace, but he didn't speak about to too much, since he himself didn't exactly know the finer details yet, one thing is for certain and that's the fact that his permission is needed before any potential go ahead.
It didn't take long however for Yuzu and Karin to arrive, Ichigo was surprised to see an escort being used as it was very rare for Yuzu and Karin to actually use it, regardless Ichigo didn't ponder on it much, regardless the twins soon entered.
"Welcome home." Ichigo said as he sat there in the couch.
"Huh... Ichi-nii? You're here too?" Karin asked quite surprised as Yuzu stood just as surprised behind her.
"Something wrong with me being here?" Ichigo asked dumbfounded.
"No, no not at all, I just thought you were in Silbern? I'm happy you're here!" Yuzu said beamingly.
"So, how has your day been?" Masaki asked.
"It's been fine, someone asked us to deliever this to Ichi-nii." Karin said as she took forth the envelope and delievered it to Ichigo, leaving Ichigo quite puzzled because it didn't have a name or anything on it.
"Know who it's from?" Ichigo asked curiously.
"No idea." Karin replied, Yuzu indicated the same.
"I believe it is from those spiritually aware humans your majesty." A guard stated, really getting Ichigo's attention.
"Really?.. Well let's see then." Ichigo said as he opened the envelope and took out the letter inside.
Ichigo throughly read the letter in detail, and took careful notice of the signed area as the letter was signed by the writer, although the letter had clearly been written on a computer and printed out or some machine had been used before it had been signed, however, it was noticed that Ichigo was slightly wide eyed when reading it, clearly taking an interest.
"Hmm... I see." Ichigo simply said as he put the letter away.
"What does it say?" Yuzu asked curiously.
"Someone wants to meet, perhaps I should indulge him." Ichigo replied, really curious about these new people on his doorstep as some of the content in the letter revealed something
"When?" Masaki asked curiously.
"As soon as I've got the time, but if he is no threat then I can throughly enjoy my... Vacation... And I intend to do so, I suppose next week might do perhaps? I'll write a response when I get back to Silbern." Ichigo stated before he looked at Yuzu in deep thought.
"Tell me... What happened when you met this... Whatever his name is again?" Ichigo asked Yuzu.
"You mean Enos?" Yuzu asked.
"What kind of name is that!?.. Sounds like something else entirely." Ichigo responded in a rather carefree manner, clearly thinking about the word Anus, or the proper word for asshole, leaving Karin to snicker as she got it.
Yuzu however was left puzzled but didn't ponder on Ichigo's words and just decided to leave it be, she did explain the details about her encounter and needless to say, when Ichigo heard that a guard told Enos that Yuzu wasn't worth his time, Ichigo was not exactly impressed! Ichigo made a mental note however to ensure that they know that such words or behaviour was completely unaccaptable!
However, after all was said and done, it was decided to actually spend some proper family time, they went to the park and other places around the town such as the mall, an arcade, and so forth, so they had quite a lot of fun despite the cold weather as winter was upon them, although it was a bit sad that Isshin was too busy in the eastern command to accompany them, but they decided that they will take back that time later.
As the dark approached, Ichigo had decided to head back to Silbern, he could always go back to Karakura town, and he intended to tomorrow, he did after all want to spend some time with his wife aswell, however, he made sure that someone would deliever the message to the Kenley family.
Kenley Residence
***Next Morning***
The gate to the house was opened by two members of the household guards after a set of three black vehicles identified themselves, the three vehicles then pulled up on the parking lot to the house, in the front and rear cars, four soldats in each car exited, they belonged to Fort Karakura and they were uniformed, armored up with the new armor sets, aswell as the masks was on and armed with the STG, along with 8 manifested magazines in pouches on their top armor, fully loaded with supercharged reishi rounds, aswell as fully loaded magazines inside the STG's and rounds in the chamber aswell as attached bayonets for stabbing.
In the center vehicles, two soldats in the same manner exited the vehicle from the front before opening the rear door, letting a Quincy officer with the rank of colonel out, as shown by the four silver stars on his uniform, contrary to the golden stars of generals, regardless, a colonel was still a high rank in the military, the colonel himself was armed just in case as he had a holster on his front left on the hip belt, inside was a pistol charged up with a reishi round and was ready to fire.
As the colonel exited the vehicle, he met an attendant of the Kenley family who greeted him, before escorting him to the room which the head of the family was currently present, as he entered the room with two soldats as guards, the family head stood there, leaning his hand on a chair with his wife besides him as he greeted the officer.
"Good morning, allow me to introduce myself, my name is Jaxon Kenley, this is my wife, May Kenly." Jaxon said as he introduced himself and his wife.
"Good morning, I am colonel Robex Kohritt, I am here as a representative of his majesty the emperor of the Wandenreich and king of the Quincies, Emperor Ichigo Kurosaki von Stratburg." Robex stated plainly as Jaxon gestured for a chair, causing Robex to walk towards it and sit down alongside Jaxon and May.
"I see, I had hoped to meet his majesty himself, but I assume he is quite busy with the war going on?" Jaxon inquired.
"Yes, his majesty has many very important matters to attend to as of late, the war has regretfully only increased his workload to a tremendous amount." Robex replied.
Although it wasn't entirely true that Ichigo was working as of right now, atleast not fully due to him being on sick leave for a week, that fact was still classified, and not even Robex knew that truth and was actually under the impression that Ichigo was working fully, so for Robex, this didn't seem like a lie at all, which further amplified Jaxon's belief that Ichigo was simply busy and that was the main reason he was unable to see him personally, despite the request actually asking for a direct meeting with Ichigo himself, however Ichigo had that covered.
"I see, quite understandable." Jaxon stated.
"However, his majesty has taken a direct interest in the words you spoke in your letter make no mistake, and has thus far given me the task of speaking with you at this moment, given the words in the letter I personally understand why his majesty has taken such a big interest in this matter." Robex stated quite plainly.
"I'm not surprised." Jaxon stated.
"So shall we begin then?" Robex asked.
"Of course." Jaxon stated.
"According to the letter you sent, you are essentially fullbringer whose abilities and reiatsu levels have been mostly sealed is that correct?" Robex asked curiously, he knew he could ask however he pleased at this point due to an additional request made by the Kenley family.
"That would only be partially correct, our full reiatsu levels are still there, we just use these rings to keep it hidden along with our guards, however the fact that most of our abilities are sealed is infact a truth, even our guards were subject to this." Jaxon stated as he gritted his teeth.
"Okey... So that ring is hidding your identities as fullbringers?" Robex asked curiously as he looked closely on the hands of Jaxon.
"That is correct, our guards and my family all use them."
"Okey, moving on, and this part is quite interesting... Why would a former Dominion noble seek protection from us?" Robex asked very curiously, leaving the two Quincy guards at the door stunned.
To be continued
A/N: Hi, yeah, I'm still alive, regretfully I have been awfully busy as of late, and unable to write much, and I will try to update on a regular basis, but no promises, regardless I swore to see this story through to the end and I have every intention of doing so.
And I decided to end it on a cliff hanger, because I actually found the last sentence from colonel Robex quite interesting and thought that it was a nice cliffhanger, your welcome!