A/N: Well, it's official. Day of Bleach is now getting a rewrite. Now, this is going to be "Bleach ~Amantes amentes~" because I feel like the original version was getting a bit out of hand. With that, I feel like I should admit something. The previous version was just me making things up as I went, while sharing the results on both the site you are seeing this on and Questionable Questing. This time? This time, I have a better idea of what to do.

Of course, this is going to be more interesting if you know the details of Jumpchain. Essentially, I have it in mind to use the Bleach universe as the base 'Jump' of a sort for this story, while keeping in mind that the crossover elements are meant to be inserted as well. For those of you that are wondering, I plan to use a homebrew system of how to merge these chains. I would share with you the information, but that would involve this website accepting outgoing links as an option. In short? Not an ideal situation to attain.

Now, then… I say we'd better start. Shall we begin?

Bleach ~Amantes amentes~
by Xamusel

Prologue

It was three weeks into the new decade, and the weather was frightful—oh, wait, the weather was actually calm for the time of year I was in. I should've said that the road conditions were frightful. It didn't help that I lived in the middle of the woods, with a gravel road leading up to my house. Now, where was I? Oh, right.

It was almost the end of the third week into the new decade, I believe. If I recall correctly, it was a couple minutes after the first quarter of the hour after 1800 (or 6:00 PM). The roads were decently traveled upon when I rode down them in my landlady's van, which meant that I should expect more bumps in the roads. I could safely say that this was an annoying trip to deal with, but it needed to be done.

As for why I had to be out in the middle of the night? Well, the landlady has this rule that she can't leave any residents alone in her house without her, and she needed to pick up her grandson. Not only that, I lived in an Adult Family Home, which meant that I was bound to government rules… much like the one I mentioned prior.

*thump*

Ouch… poor van, having to go down this road. Yep, going down my road to home.

About an hour later, I was at my computer desk, typing away at my laptop instead of my tower computer for a really good reason… my laptop was able to handle going onto the internet faster than my tower computer. This also had to do with the fact that I was going to work on a story for public consumption at the time. For some inane reason, though, I had to be extra fast with my writing… otherwise, I'd be in so much trouble with a lot of people, it's not even funny.

Suddenly, I felt something enter my mind, which… felt as incredibly uncomfortable as it sounded. Why do I feel the inexplicable need to go to bed right now? I didn't even finish drinking all the water I needed for today… no, you do not want to know, at all. Perhaps I should go to bed…

I looked at the bed, seeing a large pile of books on it. Uh… maybe I should clear the bed first, I thought. That way, my landlady won't get on my case about this.

As I moved to take care of the needed task, a message suddenly pinged on my laptop. With nothing better to do (and in a bid to stay awake longer), I looked at the message, which… suspiciously looked like a spam message out of my email address. I had to wonder what brought that into the safe message list? Before I could get rid of the message, however, my hands moved to make me read it in full without my direct prompting… wait, what gives?!

When I saw the full thing… well… it essentially read as follows:

What if I said that one's entire life had been decided by fate? That every single one of your actions, from the minute to the monumental, stemmed not from your own choices, but had already been decided upon? That life being a journey of limitless possibilities was but an illusion, and no matter how fiercely man struggled, he stood at the mercy of a long-established path? The wealthy shall know their riches. The needy shall starve on the streets. The wicked shall be wicked, the righteous just. The beautiful, the hideous, the strong, the frail, the fortunate, the miserable… and finally, the victors and the defeated.

What if I said that all such things had been carved into stone eons ago, allowing for no divergence? If so, then sinners have nothing to answer for, nor do saints have any true virtue to their name.

What if I said that not a single action is carried out of one's own volition, but had been decided long ago? That we are merely adrift in the current of time?

Tell me, would you feel content with such a world? A world in which power is merely given, not earned – would you accept knees bent to a throne built upon such falsities? A universe where the sinless have-nots are oppressed and downtrodden – would you allow such a world to exist?

Never, I say. Never.

Those in possession of such knowledge who can still laugh joyfully, oblivious of what it means to be truly alive, are but slaves, the lowest of the low, hardly deserving to be called human beings. Nothing dampens the spirit like the stale wine of an unearned victory. Nothing is more unbearable than bitter defeat against the chains of destiny. Should ceaselessly repeating this farce – this slander of the highest order – be the fate of mankind, then I will struggle against those chains with all my might. I shall walk this road to its utmost conclusion, and, at the distant place I can call my finale, compose an opera that belongs only to me. And so, I require your aid, my dear ladies and gentlemen.

You, the oppressed, the downtrodden, the massacred – you who once were as brethren. You were born to be defeated, to be massacred till the end of times. Should you curse that fate of yours, come and stand at my side as comrades. If a hundred battles yield no victory, fight a thousand. If a thousand battles yield no victory, fight ten thousand.

Vow to struggle for an eternity, ceaselessly, till the light of victory finally shines upon you. Any that has the strength to do this shall be permitted to become a means to that end – a part of the "sorcery". All in order to claim eternal victory. The Mane of the Beast, each and every strand of it, shall be from your flesh and blood. You are blessed to be as such.

Although I, you, and he as well… are still bound by that miserable cycle at this moment… Let us believe that the decision we are about to make truly holds a meaning… That one day, we can break free from this perpetually repeating cycle. My dear ladies and gentlemen. Defeated souls of the present age. I await your answer…

Oh, but you don't know what I'm talking about, do you?

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Karl Ernst Krafft. I am writing to inform you of an imminent change in living circumstances that will affect your life and the lives of those you are to interact with. To be completely and utterly honest with you… I require your help.

Yes, you read this right, I require your help. No, I don't have anyone else to turn to, not from within my normal sphere of influence. I'm at a loss right now. Most of my nominal choices for this are, to use a cliché, "out to lunch" or, to use another cliché, "gone fishing". In fact, of all the nominal choices, only one of them is even viable in this instance… you.

Normally, I would go with someone who had experience with the unknown powers of your reality, at least in a more direct way than you do. After all, the powers that be do dictate that I go with those choices first and foremost, even if I'd rather write my own play… my Grand Guignol, as it were. With that said, you were my nominal pick from the beginning, because I couldn't foresee what your actions would bring other than a general outcome.

Yes, I am able to foresee things, but that's not the important part.

The important part is that, in one universe I oversee, things have gone especially wrong. A savior of the world has been killed, leaving his body a soulless husk, and another savior is downright missing. That, combined with the fact that I'm supposed to be impartial on this matter, means that I can't personally fix this mess myself. Therefore, I ask you, and I await your answer…

Will you rise to battle?

…uh-oh. How did I get Mercurius' attention? Wait, he's a fictional character! How in the world am I supposed to reply to a fictional character?!

As if making fun of my limited belief in the situation, I received a new message.

I have my ways of knowing about things. Please, will you rise to battle against the threat known as Yhwach? I request your aid in particular because you are also immune to his foresight.

…Yhwach? I'm supposed to go up against the precursor of the Quincy Race?! I hope I get compensated for this somehow…

As soon as I finished that line of thought, Mercurius sent me a new message.

You will be compensated, I can assure you, in more ways than one.

…okay, not like I have anything better to do, but how will I know when I'm allowed to go home?

Like clockwork, once I finished that line of thought, I got another new message from the snake.

Provided you do the job as requested, I might have more jobs for you to do. You are, fortunately, allowed to back out of any future jobs I give you.

Y'know what? I accept the job… and, what d'ya know, he sent me a new message again.

Perfect. Now, all you need to do in order to take the job is be asleep in your bed, and your soul will transmigrate into the body I mentioned earlier that was a soulless husk. Please… get your rest.

I had to agree… I was getting tired really easily. With that said, I moved my stuff off my bed and got in, hoping I wasn't being pranked of all things.

I was awakened by an alarm clock I never expected to hear in my room, blaring its evil ringing in my left ear. I didn't even bother opening my eyes as I slammed a fist down on the infernal device, before I began opening my eyes and seeing the ceiling above—

Wait, this didn't look right. I normally wear glasses, which is for bad eyesight. Why do I not have any trouble seeing without glasses on?

Suddenly, I hear street traffic outside my bedroom window, which made me wonder what was going on right about now. I live in the woods, fer cryin' out loud! How can there even be street traffic?!

As if life was actively trying to screw me over, I heard someone running over to my room and opening the door, exclaiming to me, "Ichigo, congratulations! You're a big brother! Your mother, Masaki, gave birth to twin girls!"

If I wasn't already laying down, I'd have fainted right then and there. I was Kurosaki Ichigo?! That makes absolutely zero sense! However…

I guess I would like to be a big brother… Heaven knows that I dislike being the little brother in my family all the time. Still, I better figure out if it's the twins that canonical Ichigo was big brother to, because I don't want to be stuck in what amounts to Bleach In Name Only. "Otou-san," I asked, "what are their names?"

"Yuzu and Karin, Ichigo," Shiba "Kurosaki" Isshin answered. "I know it's a lot to take in, son, but this is good for us all. They were born extremely healthy, and they are currently waiting to meet you at the hospital, where your mother is still."

I nodded in understanding, before I decided to get out of bed. I got up and out of bed, with Isshin thankfully giving me some privacy to get changed. As he closed the door, I walked over to the dresser and pulled out a clean outfit for someone that was… apparently five years old. I think my life really went to crap right about now.

About an hour later, Isshin and I were inside Masaki's hospital room, looking at Yuzu and Karin with such glee in our faces. I wasn't sure what Isshin's thought process was, but I was pretty happy to be an older brother, especially since I was a younger sibling in my prior life. Of course, I had to keep from mentioning it, that I was not supposed to be in Kurosaki Ichigo's body.

I had to look at my reflection in a mirror to confirm that I was indeed posing as Kurosaki Ichigo, or at least in his body, before I did anything utterly stupid. I don't know why I was stuck in this universe, but I knew it needed to be taken care of quickly, to be sure.

I looked at Yuzu and Karin in their sleep, apparently having had their fill by now, before I resolved to myself that I was not going to let anyone take away this happy moment from me. I would be the protector in this family, much like canon!Ichigo was meant to be, only I'd do everything I could to stop Ywhach from carrying out his plans of revival.

*ba-BUMP*

"Grk!" I gritted my teeth at that point.

"Ichigo, is something wrong?" Masaki asked me… dammit, I need to address her by 'mother' or any equivalents soon. Before I could deny that there was something wrong with me, however—

"Hey, King, care to close your eyes for a bit?" a distorted version of Ichigo's older voice asked me… uh-oh. I close my eyes momentarily, before I hear his voice again. "Okay, you can open your eyes again."

I snapped my eyes open at that point, seeing myself on the side of a skyscraper, much like Ichigo would be seeing this in his own version of the Inner Wo—

"Welcome to your Inner World, kid," the Zanpakuto spirit, who was invisible until right before he said that, told me with a jovial smile, before his face became like that of post-Ywhach waking up Ichigo, frown and all. "Well, your copy of Kurosaki Ichigo's Inner World, at least."

…yikes! I don't want to be on the bad end of a Zanpakuto spirit… but what can I say in my defense?

"Relax, kid," the Zanpakuto spirit then told me. "I'm not going to be bringing the real Ichigo back to his body, since it's a surefire plan for disaster. You see, no matter what I try, it won't work. I checked so many times… he's gone."

I blinked rapidly for a few seconds. How the heck did that happen?

As if reading my thoughts, the Zanpakuto spirit decided to elaborate. "Here's what happened, kid. Kurosaki Ichigo was going through his parents' things in their bathroom when he found a pill bottle that was open. It wasn't supposed to be there, that pill bottle. It was almost empty, except for one pill that was surprisingly chewable. He didn't know that the pill was a soul suicide pill, which was meant to fuel a dangerous Kido-like spell that would summon a compatible power to the person's body." Wincing, the Zanpakuto spirit added, "It was only last night that Ichigo-ou took that pill. I'm the only part of his soul left from his father's side of the family. I don't even know if his mother's side has any lingering portions left."

I nodded in some understanding. I wasn't exactly keen on meeting Ywhach's fragment of his soul inside of Ichigo's body any time soon. Before I could say anything, however, I heard someone around my physical age crying from nearby. "Huh?" I let out. Looking around, I saw the source of the crying behind the Zanpakuto spirit, a young boy (or so I think) with bluish black hair hugging his knees and wearing… absolutely nothing? I flushed upon seeing that. However, before I could do something completely stupid, I walked over to the boy and asked, "Hey, are you alright?"

Before the boy could answer, however, the Zanpakuto spirit coughed into his hand. "Let's start this from the beginning, kid," he said. "Can either of you hear my name?" At that point, instead of deafening silence, I heard him say, "Zangetsu."

Hearing a gasp from the boy next to me, I could only guess he heard it, too. "Yeah, we heard it," I said, before turning to the other boy. "Right?"

He nodded, before speaking up. "Y-yeah, Zangetsu-san," he said. "I didn't know such a person like you existed… are you a tsukumogami?"

At this point, instead of acting much like in an anime, I facepalmed. "I don't think that's the right way to describe him," I answered.

"Actually, kid, I guess that's a good way to describe a Zanpakuto spirit," Zangetsu told us. "Believe me, it's hard to explain this to normal people without that simple explanation." He then walked over to the two of us and knelt down to look the other boy in the face. "What's your name, kid?"

"F… Fu… Fujii," he said, putting a hand to his chin. "Fujii Ren."

This time, instead of facepalming again, my eyes widened to the point of comedy as my hand went away from the position it was at earlier. Oh, my crap is this not a good thing! What's he doing here?!

"Why are you here, young one?" Zangetsu asked. "Does this have to do with the pill Ichigo-ou took without knowing about it?"

Ren nodded, before saying, "I… I was barely formed properly in life, but then… life was cut short on he and I. I was supposed to be in the town of Namimori soon… and then, before I could arrive…" he cried even further into his knees.

"Do you know what power you hold within you, kid?" Zangetsu asked him. "As it stands, we're sorta stumped about how you can even exist without some sort of power."

Before I could say anything on the subject, Ren nodded, saying, "It's the power of the Ewigkeit formula that binds me to this world. I… I…"

At that point, I finally filtered through what Ren had said, only in the native Japanese instead of my birth tongue of English. Wait… did he just say 'watashi wa'? That's what girls say… uh-oh.

Apparently, Zangetsu knew about this beforehand, because he merely patted Ren on the head. "Life sucks, girly, but we all have to make the best of it," he said, causing Ren to gasp in surprise. "What, you thought I wouldn't pick up on it by now? You're a girl, unlike the person whose body you're in now. Just… do us a favor and explain what you can about the Ewigkeit formula? Please?"

If I didn't know better, I'd have thought that this wasn't Zangetsu in his Hollow form on us. However, he's a lot more polite than normal… what gives?

"O… okay," Ren answered, before answering the questions given. Ewigkeit was a formula that used the lifeforce of a large amount of humans to fuel the power of the Ahnenerbe, AKA Holy Relics that could work as the equivalent of a Quincy wielding the power of a Hollow (which, given the whole Rock, Paper, Scissors thing that Bleach had with regards to the three supernatural soul types, was rather surprising) and a Shinigami as well as their own. However, there was only a small amount of souls that could be absorbed into a person's body at any one time. In effect, unless the person was actually a Hollow or an Arrancar, they weren't able to hold more than about one hundred and fifteen souls of power… or so Ren explained.

"So, to be absolutely sure, you're saying that a person's not able to hold that much in terms of lifeforce, so they have to use up a bit of it at a time as wisely as possible?" Zangetsu asked. "Are we missing anything?"

Ren shook her head. "I… I want to stop this mess from getting worse," she said. "Please, let me…"

"Up to King here," Zangetsu answered. "No, really. I'm only rooming here in his soul because of how this whole arrangement works. If you want to be able to help out, then you'll have to take it up with King, Ren-chan."

Ren looked at me, as if she was a lost puppy that wanted a home… dammit. I hate it when this happens. "Okay, I guess you can stick around," I said. "However, we need to figure out how to give you your own body, to give you a chance to live again."

Ren looked at me with mouth agape, before she stood up and—GAH! PLEASE PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!

*THUD*

Ouch… she glomped me, didn't she? Wait, why am I in the hospital room again?

"Son, are you okay?" Isshin asked me.

I groaned from the fall to the ground. Fortunately for everyone, Ren didn't show up in the real world, nude as she was… wait. Why was Zangetsu laughing in my head?

Within the realm known as the Soul Society, Aizen Sosuke was in the middle of a meeting with the rest of the Captains of the Seireitei, hoping to get some idea how to manipulate his "equals" into doing things his way, when he felt a strange pinging of one of his observational Kido deactivating. That's odd… he thought. Who was I observing earlier that required a stronger Kido that I didn't know was needed?

At that point, someone coughing into their hand snapped his attention to them. "I wonder…" Unohana Retsu said, a chin to her hand. "What's on your mind, Captain Aizen?"

"Just thinking about how the Lieutenants meeting is likely to go," Sosuke answered. "I swear, it's probably just me overreacting, but Momo-chan needs to be careful sooner than later."

"Understood," Retsu nodded. "Please make sure to pay further attention to the meeting, though."

"Yes, ma'am," Sosuke replied. Ugh… how am I supposed to keep track of the observational Kido while paying attention to the meeting?

Mercurius nodded as he saw what was going on. "So that's where Fujii Ren went to," he said, a mirthful smile on his face. "I suppose this will make the Grand Guignol I'm preparing all the better. Now… let the mysterious play begin."

A/N: Okay… now that that's out of the way, I can start working on the next actual chapter. Here's hoping you guys enjoyed it all the way through.

Until we meet again… farewell.

PS: I'm helping a friend of mine with writing a Gundam Build Divers crossover with Xenosaga… and I can't say when it will be uploaded. My reason for saying that is because we're planning to do a release schedule once we hit enough chapters to make it feasible. Thank you for understanding.