White Sun Rising: Ultimate Rewrite Edition
Chapter 1: Insanity is the New Norm
Ichigo awoke to the sight of one of Getaboshi's employees laying on top of him. It was the big one, and he was too close for comfort.
"GET THE FUCK OFF ME!"
Ichigo kicked the man off him, resulting in a familiar sounding scream. A few seconds later, he recovered.
"Boss! He's awake!"
The man with the bucket hat walked in, clearly amused. "So I gathered. It's not that easy to throw Tessai, you know."
"I KICKED him." "Same thing, Kurosaki-kun."
Then he remembered something. "Where's Ishida and Rukia?! What-"
"Relax, Ichigo. Ishida's fine: had to patch himself up, but he was in better condition then you were. Rukia, on the other hand, was taken back to the Soul Society."
Ichigo was damn near ready to launch himself at Urahara and hurt him. "Don't worry, Ichigo! They always wait a month before performing executions: more then enough time to save her!" Say what you will about the man, but Kisuke Urahara was good at manipulating people, given the right triggers, and he knew Ichigo's: protect at all costs.
Of course, his manipulations were rather benign compared to certain others, and in this case, he just wanted Ichigo calmed the fuck down. It worked, and Ichigo calmed down enough, but not enough to completely put himself at ease.
"I need to get her out of there." Urahara put his cane in front of Ichigo's face. Ichigo subconsciously felt the power coming from the simple object, and his mind quickly made a comparison to someone else: Byakuya Kuchiki.
They were almost equal, but not all things were equal in life or death: nothing ever was.
"In your state, you can't fight anything. But starting the day after tomorrow, I will train you so you can. Be warned, though: it will be the week from hell."
"Subtle. But you already know my answer."
Indeed he did. Ichigo would dive into hell if need be to save that girl. The Seireitei wasn't exactly hell, but it would be a rather large challenge for him.
Urahara handed him a bottle of medication. "Take that tomorrow and it will heal your wounds faster. You'll need it."
Ichigo took the bottle and got up, finally noticing that he was inside his body rather then his shinigami form.
"The fuck?"
"That captain performed a senka on you. Kuchiki-san's powers are gone from you now."
It would surprise both Ichigo and Urahara to see how wrong he was.
Karakura town, July 19th, 2002, 2:55 pm local
Ichigo had gone through his day as per usual, although he sent a glance at Uryū, who returned it. They were silently asking if the other was alright.
Despite their...shaky start, Ichigo had little choice but to work with Uryū, as he wasn't going to put down his bow unless his arms were hacked off.
If worse came to worst and Uryū was pointing that soul-destroying bow at Grand Fisher, Ichigo would do it himself.
And both of them knew it.
He wondered for a moment why no one was asking about Rukia, but then realized a simple, if cruel, truth. 'Rukia wasn't from this world: why would they remember her?'
After nearly cracking Keigo's skull open with a bat, (it was the idiot's fault for blindfolding him and placing a bat in his hand while being told to 'hit the melon': he failed to specify which melon) he left the school, depressed as hell.
"Kurosaki-kun." He stopped, then faced his friend (sort of: more Tatsuki's then his) Orihime Inoue.
"Inoue?" "I need to ask you something, Kurosaki-kun. Where is Rukia?" Ichigo almost sighed in relief. He WASN'T going insane, it seemed.
He summed up the situation with Rukia in one sentence. "She was taken back to the Soul Society...to be executed."
He knew that Orihime was a bit of a ditz, and to avoid a misunderstanding, he had to say what happened plainly or not at all.
"You're going to save her, aren't you?"
Ichigo perked up at that. "Yeah. I suppose I am."
He turned around, heading home.
Once out of earshot, Orihime pulled out her phone and dialed a number. "Hello? Sado-kun?" Her jaw hardened. "I've made up my mind. I'm going to help Kurosaki-kun."
A hand on her shoulder interrupted her discussion, and Orihime turned her head slightly to reveal Tatsuki Arisawa standing behind her.
"Orihime, you are going to tell me what the FUCK is going on."
Urahara Shoten, July 20th, 2002, 10:17 am local
Ichigo walked into the shop, and was met with Urahara almost instantly. "I assume you're fully healed, Kurosaki-kun?" Ichigo nodded, and was about to lift up his shirt to prove it when Urahara turned around.
"Thanks for your help." "What?" Ichigo KNEW Urahara heard him. He was just playing stupid.
"Nothing."
The shopkeeper led them to a trapdoor and opened it.
"Well, down you go." He pushed Ichigo down, and the teenager fell on what seemed to be a perfect replica of a massive rocky plateau.
He heard Urahara land nearby, and as soon as he stood up, the bucket man decided to play stupid. "WOW! WHO PUT THIS PLACE UNDER MY SHOP?!"
'Note to self: kill him.' "Yeah, yeah, it's big. Hope to God you didn't break any building codes."
Urahara pouted as he faced Ichigo. "Come on! Aren't you impressed?"
Ichigo finally noticed Tessai standing behind him. "Is it normal to ignore the customer like that?" Tessai bowed his head as if in shame. "Please don't remind me..."
Yup, it was official. Everyone directly involved with the Urahara Shoten were completely insane. Ichigo's musing on that was cut short when he felt Urahara's cane touch his chest. "Step One: out of the body you go!" Urahara pushed Ichigo out of his body, and his eyes widened to 'WTF am I looking at?!' proportions.
(AN: Not sure if I got that last word right)
"The fuck was that-" Ichigo noticed Urahara's face, then looked at himself. White shitagi, black kosode, black hakama, white hakama-himo, white tabi and waraji: he was wearing a shinigami uniform plus a red-brown hilted standard katana was at his hip.
"What the fuck? How do I still have shinigami powers?"
Urahara, clearly, was just as confused.
"Can you...contact your zanpakutō?"
Ichigo shrugged before sending his thoughts inward.
'Hello? Anyone there?' As his mind went inward, Ichigo's body nearly hit the ground. It would have it it weren't for Urahara, who was inwardly panicking.
He hid it very well: Gendo Ikari could take lessons from him.
'How the hell did THIS happen?! This is impossible! I doubt Byakuya is THAT sloppy after all this time!' Urahara would later learn that Byakuya wasn't that sloppy: he just wasn't perceptive enough to notice what happened two nights ago.
'This is madness. Then again, Ichigo is known for madness!'
Inside Ichigo's mind
Ichigo opened his eyes and saw one thing: snow. He was covered in it. 'There is something wrong with this picture.'
He pulled a Nosferatu and quickly rose out of the snow, finding himself in the now-familiar snowy cityscape.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Ichigo." Ichigo spun around to face Rukia's zanpakutō spirit. Ichigo blinked before he spoke.
"Uh, Sode no Shirayuki-" "Just Shirayuki, please."
Ichigo made sure to remember that. "Right. No offense, but...what are you still doing here? Didn't Byakuya remove Rukia's powers from me?" The 'and by extension, you', was left unsaid.
"I...I'm sorry, Ichigo. In my selfishness, I...momentarily took control of your body and forced Byakuya's strike to miss."
Ichigo blinked. 'Well, the fact she can DO that is actually kinda creepy.' "Wait, what selfishness?"
Shirayuki looked almost embarrassed. "Rukia-sama...has not used my shikai in almost 40 years."
That didn't make sense. "Uh, still clueless, Shirayuki."
"She does not use me to my full extent. She almost fears my abilities now."
There was a story behind that. And Ichigo didn't like not knowing what the hell was going on when it involved him.
But that could wait.
"What does this mean for Rukia? And for...my zanpakutō?"
He was trying to be tactful, but failing.
Thankfully, Shirayuki understood his worry, not just for Rukia, but for part of his soul.
"I don't know. But for lack of a better term, I have become your 'primary' zanpakutō while he has become the 'secondary'. He's still asleep."
"Definitely a 'he'. Ok, that I can live with. Hate to say it, but this can't last forever: no offense, Shirayuki, but Rukia's your wielder, not me. I need to get you back to her."
He waved a hand around the cityscape. "Even I know this ain't normal, and I'm a newbie to this shit! I don't even know what this is doing to Rukia!"
Shirayuki blinked. Ichigo had a VERY good point. "You...you are correct, Ichigo. I wasn't thinking about Rukia."
"I blame it on a power-high."
He had a LOT of reiryoku, more then Rukia.
Reasonable explanation.
Urahara's training room
Urahara was close to pacing now, trying to figure out how the hell Ichigo still had shinigami powers.
The orange-haired teen's eyes opened, and he hopped to his feet. "I wasn't exactly expecting you to perform jinzen so easily."
"What?"
Urahara was wanted to explain, but didn't.
They had bigger problems.
"So, did you meet your zanpakutō spirit?"
"Kinda...I've got one..." He glanced at the blade at his hip. "But this isn't him."
"It isn't? But-"
'Oh. Fuck.'
"That's Rukia's zanpakutō, isn't it?"
Ichigo drew the blade. "Yeah. Mae, Sode no Shirayuki." He twirled the blade, transforming it into the pure white blade of icy death.
Urahara mentally shit his pants. Ginjo Kujo couldn't pull this shit off back when he had his shinigami powers.
Which begged the question of how ICHIGO could do it.
That led to Urahara making this universal law: Ichigo could do anything, because he was Ichigo Fucking Kurosaki.
'Ok, with that in mind, I still need to know how in the name of FUCK he-'
"Getaboshi?" Urahara looked at Ichigo, who still held the released Shirayuki in hand. Urahara put everything out of his mind and focused on the pluses.
Ichigo didn't have to regain his reiatsu or reiryoku or go through the Shattered Shaft.
Major time saver.
"Ok, I think we can skip straight to stage three, since Kuchiki-san's zanpakutō decided to stay with you. No time limit on this one, and it's actually quite simple."
He drew his sword out of the cane. "You have to take my hat off my head."
Ichigo, on the other hand, knew the cardinal rule of simple. Simple in principle. Not so simple to do. (in an alternate universe, a bald man sneezed as he directed a battle in order to save his friend's life)
Ichigo pounced, and managed to score a hit on the shopkeeper's hat, a small layer of frost forming on the cut on the brim.
"You're going to regret that, Getaboshi. I'm going to kick your ass."
Urahara had little doubt of that, as Ichigo was still VERY pissed off, and since Byakuya wasn't within striking distance, or even on the same dimensional plain as them, he was an adequate substitute.
And anger was a VERY powerful weapon when used correctly. And Ichigo had a LOT of power to spare.
'Note to self: make Byakuya do this next time.'
Seireitei, Soul Society, 1st Division Barracks, July 20th, 2002, 1230 hours local time
Byakuya Kuchiki had a burning hatred for bureaucracy at this moment in time.
This matter was highly urgent, and he requested a meeting of all high-ranking Gotai 13 personnel the millisecond they got back, but instead he had to wait almost 48 hours.
NOW, however, he was going to be telling all of his compatriots about the largest controversy since the exile of 11 shinigami officers over a century past.
"I call this meeting to order!"
Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto, Captain of the 1st Division and Captain-General of the Gotai 13, slammed the tip of his staff (which contained what all shinigami referred to as the most powerful zanpakutō in existence, Ryūjin Jakka) onto the floor.
"Captain Kuchiki, as you requested this meeting, you shall begin."
Byakuya nodded before he began. "As you are aware, my Lieutenant and I were involved in recovering Rukia Kuchiki of the 13th Division from the world of the living-"
Down the other lane, the spiky haired, bell-and-eyepatch wearing Kenpachi Zaraki snorted in contempt. "Get on with it!" "Captain Zaraki, be silent! Continue, Captain Kuchiki."
Byakuya did so. "We discovered that she had encountered a human with sufficient spiritual power-" The second youngest (and shortest) of the captains, Shaolin Fēng, more commonly known as Sui-Feng, scowled at this and caused the second interruption. "She created a substitute." Byakuya knew of her dislike of lawbreakers, (they all shared it to a degree) but continued. "She was wounded defending him, but yes. The substitute was strong enough to hold off Abarai for a brief time before doing something that, by all rights, is impossible." Byakuya noted with irony that Toshiro Hitsugaya, captain of the 10th Division, was the next to interrupt, albeit with a respectful question. "What did he do, Captain Kuchiki?"
"He used my sister's shikai." Gawking was the only way anyone could describe the looks on the faces of everyone but Captain-General Yamamoto. All he did was open his eyes slightly.
The LAST time that happened involved Hitsugaya, but neither shared power. This was the only time a substitute used the shikai of the one who gave them their power.
Not even Ginjo Kujo, the last known substitute, could do that. The first to truly recover was Mayuri Kurotsuchi, semi-insane captain of the 12th Division. (Semi only because he wasn't dead yet by Yamamoto's order)
"Interesting. I would like permission to recover the substitute."
Byakuya glared at Mayuri.
"I performed a senka: he is dead or powerless at best."
Sui-Feng snorted at that.
"You should have taken his head and made sure he WAS dead, Kuchiki." Byakuya didn't mention the fact that leaving the boy (Ichigo, as he had learned from Rukia) was the more honorable choice, seeing as he did Rukia's duties when she had proven unable to due to injury.
He didn't need to explain himself.
"He was heavily wounded. I assumed he would die of his injuries."
"Captain-General, might I make a suggestion?" All eyes turned to the idiotic looking captain of the 8th Division, Shunsui Kyoraku. Yamamoto gave his consent.
"Maybe we should bring the boy here for questioning. We've only got one witness, and there are three sides to every story."
The privately coined 'Queen of Assassins' turned on the elder officer."That is-"
"ENOUGH!" A loud 'boom' was heard as Yamamoto's staff hit the floor once more.
"There is to be a mission involving this new substitute. Recovery or assassination. The former will be to bring him here to testify Rukia Kuchiki's actions that night, should he live. The latter...is self-explanatory."
Kaname Tosen of the 9th Division and Sui-Feng scoffed, sharing the opinion that the substitute needed to die, if for different reasons. Gin Ichimaru, captain of the 3rd Division, was curious about the boy, and wondered if he would be a help against a certain man he wanted to kill. Sosuke Aizen of the 5th, meanwhile, was as curious as Ichimaru, if for another reason entirely.
"We will vote on the choice of mission now." Byakuya was torn between his duty to the Gotai and the boy's actions in defending his sister, so he abstained, as did Hitsugaya and Retsu Unohana of the 4th Division, as well as Yamamoto for obvious reasons.
Sui-Feng, Tosen and Sajin Komamura of the 7th Division voted for the boy's death. Kyoraku, Jushiro Ukitake, Mayuri, Gin, Aizen and Zaraki, meanwhile, voted for his recovery.
"Four abstentions, three votes for assassination and six for the boy's recovery. It has been decided: we we recover the substitute-" Yamamoto glanced at Byakuya, who provided the name Rukia gave him.
"Ichigo Kurosaki." "Ichigo Kurosaki. Who will volunteer to lead this mission?"
Ukitake stepped up. "I will, Captain-General. Rukia is a member of my division. It is my responsibility, in the end."
Yamamoto was satisfied, as Ukitake, while sick at least 80% of the time, was still one of the strongest shinigami in the Gotai 13. He could handle Kurosaki should he resist.
"Very well. This meeting is adjourned!"
The bearded man slammed the cane onto the floor once more, dismissing all of them.
The lieutenants and the two third seats of the 13th Division chattered amongst themselves, mostly talking to Renji about how he got his ass handed to him by a substitute shinigami.
Then again, they were all sort of equal in power: it could've happened to any of them, really.
On the other hand...
"Shunsui, what were you thinking?" The pink-wearing captain shrugged as his fellow captain questioned his sanity.
"I didn't think Yama-jii would actually go for it. Besides, you're just as curious as I am."
Ukitake had to admit Kyōraku had a point.
Still, this was madness.
'How can a substitute use another shinigami's zanpakutō? Other then the incident with Kusaka and young Hitsugaya, this has never happened in recent history, and they were both souls at that point!'
Still, they would get the answer later that day: he had a substitute shinigami to bring back.
6th Division cells: 15 minutes later
Renji walked in front of Rukia's cell, and found her just sitting in her chair, an aura of depression surrounding her. 'Holy shit, that orange-haired asshole meant a lot to her.' She seemed more alive then she had in years back there, and that was saying a lot.
"Hey, Rukia." Rukia turned her head to look at him, and Renji nearly backed away at the sight. Her eyes were red from a combination of crying and sleeplessness.
"What do you want?"
Renji paled at the tone she used. "I just came to check up on you, Rukia." "I don't want your company, Renji."
And he knew why. The human.
"Well, what the fuck did you expect me to do, leave him alone?! He used your shikai, Rukia: that's supposed to be impossible!" Rukia sighed. "I don't know how he did that: I can't speak to Sode no Shirayuki, even if I wanted to."
Renji then remembered that her reiatsu and reiryoku reserves were damn-near non-existent at that moment: she didn't even have enough power to try and enter jinzen, let alone talk to her zanpakutō.
That gigai she wore was to blame. It nearly drained all of her power away, and not because it was faulty: it was designed that way.
"Ah, Lieutenant Abarai."
Renji jumped at the sound of Jushiro Ukitake's voice. "C-Captain Ukitake!" Ukitake waved in a relaxed manner. "Calm yourself, Lieutenant."
Renji put himself at ease as Ukitake faced Rukia. "Hello, Rukia." Rukia looked embarrassed as her head was hung low. "Hello, Captain Ukitake."
Ukitake almost blanched at the depressed tone of her voice. "Rukia, I came to get some information about your...friend, the substitute shinigami Ichigo Kurosaki."
Renji wanted to bash his head into a wall, but refrained from doing so. Rukia perked up slightly and looked at her captain.
"With respect, sir...why? Ichigo's gone."
"We still need all the information you have on him."
Rukia almost smiled as she seemed to remember him. She began to recall how she met him, from the meeting at his home and the incident with Fishbone D, the fight with Shrieker and the Menos incident to when Renji and Byakuya came to recover her.
Ukitake nodded as she finished.
"Thank you for your time, Rukia."
The captain turned to leave, and Renji had the feeling he should follow, as Rukia, powerless or not, was nasty when annoyed, and she was pissed.
Back with Ichigo and Urahara
Urahara, currently missing his beloved hat, now regarded Ichigo Kurosaki as the scariest son of a bitch in recorded spiritual history.
Sure, it took him five minutes to obliterate his hat (mostly because Urahara was running like a maniac) and Ichigo collapsed after the job was done (Urahara DID use his shikai and stabbed him once or twice) but Ichigo DID get it done.
It was more incredible because this was not his zanpakutō.
Sode no Shirayuki was Rukia's blade, not Ichigo's, but he showed that the substitute was highly adaptable: more so then any shinigami had any right to be.
Then again, Ichigo was half-human.
'Count yourself lucky that he can't use his Quincy powers yet, otherwise you'd be a blonde pincushion.' He tried ignoring Benihime's comment as Ichigo, now recovered enough to do something else, was practicing something the shinigami side of his family was more then capable of doing, even though Ichigo himself was having difficulty with it due to his lack of formalized training and his massive reiryoku and reiatsu.
Kido.
Urahara, and to a lesser extent, Tessai, was trying to teach him a few spells, and had (wisely) started him off on the higher level ones first.
The first was number 73, Sōren Sōkatsui, and although Ichigo had a bit of a hard time with the incantation (lengthy phrases outside of Shakespeare's works weren't exactly his forte) it wasn't as though he NEEDED it, if the obliterated and molten rocks were any indication.
'Maybe Hado 99 would've been a better choice.'
Ichigo blinked at the destruction that his one use of Sōren Sōkatsui caused.
"Whoops."
'We need to work on your control, Ichigo.'
Ichigo slightly nodded, noting that Shirayuki sounded...kind of on a sugar high.
Then again, when you're a symbiotic, weaponized part of a person's soul, having massive amounts of spiritual energy flow through you when you're not used to it might cause that.
"Oi, bucket man! Anything a bit less...destructive?" Urahara was tempted to retort that any hado spell in Ichigo's hands was more powerful then the ones used by most captains. 'Ok, time to switch to the less combat-orientated spells.'
Up above, a massive explosion was heard, and most of the residents thought it was a minor earthquake. This WAS Japan, after all.
In reality, Ichigo had just tried to use bakudo 8: Seki and it exploded. To be honest, it was mostly Urahara's fault.
He pulled out Benihime and struck the repulsing orb, but instead of knocking him back, it exploded with enough force to send both flying, with Urahara performing that familiar-sounding scream as he hit a now semi-molten boulder.
'You are a both a living nightmare and a would-be idol for kido users, Ichigo.'
Ichigo dusted himself off before questioning Shirayuki.
'Huh?' 'You've got the power to perform high-level spells multiple times, but you have poor control.'
That made sense. He could fire off high level spells thousands of times and not be tired, but any lower level ones would explode in his face.
And his opponent's, but mostly his.
"I think we need to take a break. Oi, Urahara! If you're still alive, I'm going outside for some fresh air!" Urahara, now missing most of his attire (molten rock kinda does that) simply waved back. "Take your time, but don't go far-OW!"
Tessai carried his screaming (in pain) boss off somewhere in the distance to patch him up.
After all, the bucket man DID had second and third-degree burns all over his body.
After getting into his body and climbing up back into the shop, he ran into a black cat waiting at the trap door.
"Oh. Hello."
He pet the animal, getting a purr from the cat before he went outside.
Outside: 12:59 pm local
A pair of shogi doors opened on top of a building, and out came three shihakushō-clad shinigami: Jushiro Ukitake and his two third seats, the semi-competent Kiyone Kotetsu and SantaroKotsubaki. Ukitake quickly tracked down the strongest non-Hollow reiatsu signature in Karakura, and assumed it was Ichigo.
"Kiyone, Santaro, follow me. I think I've found him."
"Aye, sir!"
Ukitake shunpo'ed toward their target, allowing himself to go slow enough to allow his slower officers to follow him.
When they reached their destination, all three were shocked to find out what Ichigo looked like. If Ukitake hadn't watched him die before his eyes, he'd've sworn that he was looking at a dye-job version of Kaien Shiba.
On the ground, Ichigo felt the three shinigamis' presence instinctually.
"Get down here, shinigami: I'm not that bad at this!"
His answer came in the form of three shinigami, one wearing a white haori like Byakuya, suddenly appearing in front of him.
Ichigo quickly made the connection between the similar uniforms and put his hand in his pocket, ready to pull out Kon and fight if need be. "Another captain? What, Kuchiki wasn't enough?"
Ukitake frowned as Ichigo's comment, but he was justified.
Byakuya DID try to kill him. "Ichigo Kurosaki, I am not your enemy. I am Jushiro Ukitake, Captain of the 13th Division...Rukia's division."
Ichigo still did not trust him. Ukitake couldn't blame him: again, Byakuya, a fellow captain, tried to kill the boy.
He glanced at his subordinates, who, while still shocked over Ichigo's appearance, were ready to strike if the order was given. "Stand down, both of you. We're not here to kill him: we're here to simply talk to him."
Both visibly relaxed, but Ichigo did not.
"Kurosaki-kun, Byakuya informed us of your ability to use Rukia's zanpakutō."
"Did he? Did he almost mention that he fucked up on that last attack of his?"
Ukitake didn't even flinch at Ichigo's harsh language.
"No, but due to your ability to sense us and speak with us, I assumed you still have a large amount of reiryoku."
Ichigo rolled his eyes. "He didn't get it right: Shirayuki forced me to the right just enough so it wouldn't work. And yes, I've still got her."
Ukitake blinked, clearly surprised.
"Young man, I will now be frank. My mission is to bring you back to the Soul Society-"
Ichigo pulled out the pill at this point.
"Please, let me finish!"
Ichigo paused, but gave Ukitake a nasty glare that promised pain if he didn't like what the captain said.
"My mission is to bring you back to the Soul Society to testify on Rukia's behalf. Your testimony could save her from execution or life imprisonment and simply reduce the sentence to a few weeks of house arrest in the 13th Division barracks."
Ichigo simply stood there, and Ukitake assumed he was thinking about it.
He narrowed his eyes at Ukitake. "And what's stopping you from killing me the second I step foot there?"
"I will put you under the protection of the 13th Division. No one would be able to harm you without my permission, which I will not grant them."
Ichigo went silent. Ukitake assumed that he was thinking it over again.
He couldn't be more wrong.
'Shirayuki? What do you think?'
'...Ichigo, Jushiro Ukitake is an honorable man. He would not allow you to be harmed under his protection. And this will give us the opportunity to save her should the legal route fail.'
'Judging from the double-standard I just heard about, legal route won't work either way, but I'll try that first.'
He finally spoke aloud.
"Fine. I'll go with you."
He popped the soul pill into his mouth and exited his body. Kon blinked in confusion. "Back to the shop, Kon."
"But-"
"No buts: I'm not risking my body. And if it isn't in the same condition it's in right now when I get back-"
"Got it!"
Kon knew one thing: his continued existence hinged on Ichigo not being angry enough at him to destroy his pill form.
So, using Ichigo's body, he ran back to the shop.
"So how the hell are we getting to this Soul Society of yours?"
Ukitake unsheathed his blade, making Ichigo nearly draw Shirayuki in exchange.
"Relax, Kurosaki-kun. Or would you prefer Ichigo?"
"I'm not one for formalities."
"Ichigo, then. I'm going to open a Senkaimon, which will take us to the Soul Society. That requires me to use my zanpakutō."
Ichigo walked toward Ukitake, who turned around and stabbed the air, creating a pair of doors, which opened.
"Now, we must be off." All three shinigami walked into the doors, and Ichigo walked in after them.
All while watched by a black cat, which ran back to the Shoten and ran into Urahara.
"Kisuke."
Most would be surprised to hear the cat speak, but Urahara wasn't. After all, Yoruichi Shihōin preferred being in her cat form.
"Yoruichi, as you can see, I'm kind of-"
"Ukitake just showed up and took Ichigo to the Soul Society."
Urahara blinked.
Then he spoke.
"Fuckberries."
Sounds like two chapters of The Snow Has Stopped the Rain, yes, but as you can tell, it's different enough.
This is where the similarities between SHSR and WSR URE change, mostly thanks to a certain device in the Dangai.
The second the rescue team goes in, they won't be heading to the Soul Society they expect.
No, not alternate universes. Something else entirely.
It's one of my favorite themes.
Either way, you'll be seeing Tatsuki in the rescue team as well. Another difference.
Also, I was on a bit of a writing binge, so expect another chapter sometime within the next 12 to 72 hours.
Jorn and company decided to start something despite all of us agreeing not to start another coop fic until we cleared out a large percentage of our backlog.
I hate it when people don't stick to the fucking plan.
Wilhelm Scream count: 4
Next Time on WSR URE: Ichigo arrives in the Soul Society while Urahara has a major panic attack, making him call for reinforcements and Shirayuki decides to search Ichigo's soul for his true zanpakutō.
Ja Ne!