Welcome back to another chapter of Ballad of the Shinigami. Happy late Easter to you all and I hope you all enjoyed what you could of it if you do celebrate that holiday. Also I want to say, 33 favs?! I am undeserving of you all who read and enjoy this story. My goal is to give you a more satisfactory product than what I gave in the last attempt at this. Thank you all and I'm going to start responding to comments at the beginnings of these chapters now to, so let's get started.
Dxdluver: I figured someone might get the reference and I plan on adding more throughout the chapters as they fit the plot. Glad you're enjoying the story so far. :)
Merendinoemiliano: He won't be making parties for a similar reason to the previous and you'll see why I don't want Ichigo to be too overpowered so soon when the time comes.
If any of you can guess where Ichigo got this power then it'll make a lot more sense, hopefully. Anyways, I'd like to thank my new Beta Reader, Noivad Neao-Nefarious Izanagi. He has been a huge help in editing previous chapters and editing this one. You can look him up on here as he writes some damn good fan fictions on here as well. Without further ado, onto our feature presentation.
Edit: Reiatsu no longer has a regen stat due to it being directly related to Reiryoku as the analogy states. Credit Akuma-Heika
Rukia openly gaped at the scene before her. Opening and closing her mouth repeatedly gave her the momentary appearance of a fish. The arm dropped to the ground with a resounding thud with Ichigo standing not too far away from the limb. Lifting his head, a new found determination masked his features.
"I only meant to give him half of my power." Rukia muttered in disbelief. How had he taken so much, she was left with practically nothing. Taking in his features again she internally took note of the large zanpakuto that he rested on his shoulder. Dust circling around his feet Ichigo stood tall before the Hollow
Ichigo's skin crawled with energy as he eyed his prey.
Time to save his family.
Time resumed and the Hollow looked at it's arm before attempting to strike Ichigo again, only for him to have vanished from his spot. Next thing it knew it was missing it's right leg. Finding Ichigo in its sights once more it lunged attempting to rip and tear that Soul Reaper to shreds. Ichigo had other ideas.
Spotting the Hollows attack from a mile away, Ichigo moved over and executed another Basic Slash, tearing through the Hollows mask and watching it fade into tiny particles. Kneeling on the ground with his sword pointed out before him, Ichigo felt the adrenaline and energy flowing through him fade away into obscurity and the stress of what he had just done hit him like a train without brakes. He let out a sigh before collapsing onto the ground. Darkness blanketing his mind. Just before his consciousness left him though he heard something, a murmur and wood clacking against the ground.
"He is a truly interesting human isn't he, Urahara Kisuke?" The shopkeeper responded by lowering his green and white-striped bucket hat to shadow his eyes. His matching kimono billowing in the breeze as it picked up its pace.
Urahara observed the prone form of Ichigo. He would have to talk to Isshin before making his move and see what he wanted to do. Yes, he would give Isshin that much. He certainly deserved it.
Ichigo stood outside his destroyed home with all of his family members in front of him.
"Ichi-nii? Why didn't you save us?" Karin's disfigured form slowly lurched towards Ichigo as he slowly backed away. Rukia, off to the side, shaking her head as guilt slipped into his mind. Eyes clouding, Ichigo could hear something. An echo in the distance before suddenly his instincts flared.
Isshin burst into Ichigo's room with a flying kick aimed for Ichigo's face before his son jumped up, grabbing Isshin's face and throwing him out the, nearby, open window before closing it.
Ichigo scoffed, it serves his dad right for attacking his son in his sleep. Moving around he quickly got dressed before heading downstairs to be greeted by the sight of his dad at the over-sized image of his mom, asking for help on dealing with unruly kids. Not even acknowledging Isshins existence Ichigo joined his sisters as they stared at the over-sized hole in their house.
"Wow, It's a miracle that a car crashed into our home and all of us survived without a scratch!" Isshin had joined Ichigo and his sisters outside as they took in the damage. Yuzu stood behind him with Karin after she was done in the kitchen. Karin just looked at the damage with skepticism.
"What's more surprising is that none of us woke up when it happened." Ichigo couldn't believe it, was it all a dream? Had it really been a car crash. He didn't feel that power anymore and he certainly didn't look like a Shinigami right now. He would have to check his Game Screen when he had time to think about all of this.
Ichigo was drawn out of his thoughts as Yuzu reminded him that breakfast was ready. They would begin eating before starting the repairs on the house. Once that was done they could reopen the clinic and business could slowly return to normal. Well, as normal as one could get.
Later that day Ichigo strolled through the school hallways in an attempt to not be late for his next class. Upon entering he vaguely heard Tatsuki, a raven haired, fiery, childhood friend from the dojo he used to attend for karate, asking another good friend, the likewise raven haired Mizuiro, why Ichigo wasn't at school yet. She slowly came to the conclusion that Ichigo might be dead. Upon hearing what was coming he knocked her in the back of her head with his bag.
"Sorry to disappoint but nobody got hurt." Tatsuki lightly rubbed the back of her head as Orihime jumped away waving her arms as if in reflex to attack. Moving out of the way of her arms, Ichigo gave Tatsuki a light pat. "You trained her well."
Realizing who she was attempting to hit Orihime flushed as her face started to compliment Ichigo's hair.
"Go-go-go-good m-morning Kurosaki-kun!" Ichigo slowly inched away as Orihime seemed to explode with excitement at Ichigo's return.
"Happy to see you're bright as always Orihime." Ichigo shuffled over to his spot and sunk into the familiar seat as he basked in the presence of his friends, that was until his peace was broken by the most excitable of the group.
"Welcome back Iiiiiiiichiiiiiiigoooooooooo!~" Keigo slammed into Ichigo's fist and slumped to the floor with a bruise already starting to form on his tear covered face. "Why?! Ichigo, are we not friends? Why did you have to hurt your buddy Ichigo?!" He ran and glomped Mizuiro's leg, crying into the fabric of the trousers. Mizuiro, for his credit, took it all in stride and pat Keigo before kicking his leg out and tossed Keigo away.
"Hey Ichigo! Did you meet the new transfer student?" Ichigo looked up from the notes he had been passed by Tatsuki to look around for an unfamiliar face before he looked back to Mizuiro. He only had a moment before Mizuiro moved to the side and Ichigo was greeted by none other than the raven haired Shinigami from the night prior. She reached her hand out in greeting after a slight bow.
"~Hi. My name's Kuchiki, Rukia. Pleasure to meet you.~"