Childe, childe, of thy shadow. Art thou wishing for thy peace?
Childe, childe, of thy night. Art thou adjuring for thy recompense?
Childe, childe, of thy darkness. Art thou praying for thine hallowed domicile?
Childe, childe, of thy death. Art thou reaping thy betrayal?
Childe, childe, born from blood. Childe, childe, born from anguish.
Childe, childe, do not cry. For thou an Angel of Death; thou an Angel Before the Lie.
There were many things that made Kurosaki Ichigo... Kurosaki Ichigo. Not necessarily different in his own eyes, nor in the eyes of his family, but different in the eyes of society and children his age.
Right off the bat, the fact that Ichigo never really cared for gender norms or following what every other kid wears or likes or hates or wants brought a lot of attention to her. She wore shorts and t-shirts and skirts and dresses and even ribbons over her hats and sometimes no shirts at all. Sandals, boots, sneakers, Mary Jane's, pink socks, black socks, no socks, rainbow socks, unicorn themed socks, fire themed socks.
And the fact that no one actually knew if Ichigo was born a boy or a girl created more waves in Karakura Town than what Ichigo's family actually cared for; which is none at all. Now, that caused a riot when the young parents purposely and wholeheartedly ignored the concerned "advice" from more experienced parents and grandparents without a hint of subtlety.
Ichigo is Ichigo. The eldest daughter and son of Kurosaki Masaki and Kurosaki Isshin once he was able to articulate and understand what he felt about himself and the questions everyone always asked.
Masaki just listened to when she says he's a girl or when she's a boy. And maybe it was just him trying to tell them that he wants to dress in a skirt instead of overalls, or wear a baseball cap instead of ribbons when she doesn't have the words for it, but Masaki doesn't mind. If it's him dressing how he wants to dress or if it's because she truly feels like a boy some days or a girl on the others, Masaki loves her child the most out of anything in the world.
The very next thing is Ichigo's appearance. Brown eyes that glow like caramel with the specks of gold scattered in them like stars, and the hair. The hair physically held a beautiful scarlet sunset before twilight hits and always grabbed the attention of anyone in a three mile radius. Not even hair dye could get this mixed shade of beautiful orange and red.
The next thing that snatched the attention of anyone who even came across the spitfire known as Ichigo is the fact that she was not only a Mama's crybaby, but was also heavily independent and opinionated when she was determined to do something or go somewhere. The exasperated and amused story of four year old Ichigo riding a bus all the way to Yokohama because she overheard her mother craving a specific dessert from a local bakery there is always brought up when asked for an example.
A less adventurous, but no less incredible story is a close second to come up. Ichigo is five and instead of walking home with a new–and his very first–friend, the just as equally different Arisawa Tatsuki, Ichigo had walked five miles to the public library while crying the whole way. It was another day of name-calling and insults directed at Ichigo's hair. He had enough and decided to go to the library to find some answers. He did not like them.
How many people in the world have orange hair?
Apparently it isn't called orange hair, which is stupid, and it's called red hair. And apparently, only 10% of the world population had red hair and Ichigo had a shade of red hair that no one else had. Ichigo burst into tears when she realized she really was weird.
The weird crybaby. The freaky witch. Tomato boy. Carrot-top. Berry girl. If her hair was really that weird... then all the other names must be true too...
Ichigo buries his face into his Mama's neck and continues to sob. Masaki hums quietly, carefully raking her long fingers through the beautiful scarlet sunset hair that fell down Ichigo's shoulders. Her own sunset hair, just a lighter shade, fell down her back and trailed across the ground.
"Sweetheart, what's wrong? Mama can't help you unless you tell her what's wrong," Masaki speaks softly, carefully leaning back to stare down at her child. Ichigo sniffs loudly and looks up, rubbing her eyes in a desperate attempt to stop her tears.
Masaki smiles and grabs Ichigo's wrists, stopping him from rubbing his eyes any harder. She hums again, prompting her five year old child to look up.
"I–I went to the libary–library an'–an'–" Ichigo sniffed again and tugs at his hair. "I really am a f-freak with–with tomato hair."
"Oh, Ichigo..." Masaki releases one of her son's hands to gently hold his cheek. She rubs her thumb against a ruddy cheek before looking up towards the door slightly ajar.
"It is true. Our hair color is rare, even amongst those with red hair... but, that's because we're so incredibly special. And, do you remember what I told you about people being special?"
Ichigo nods her head as she wipes away the tear tracks on her cheeks. "It–it doesn't mean we're weird. It means–means we're single–sing-u-lar to ourselves."
"Our hair is even more special than ourselves, Ichigo. It's because it has a magnificent power, and that power has given our hair its scarlet color." Masaki reaches up and sections off a part of her hair. "A Kurosaki's hair must never be cut. A Kurosaki's hair must never be let down unless around those that are trusted and loved the most. A Kurosaki's hair shows the status and noble standing that the Kurosaki Clan holds. And this is why."
Masaki holds her hair in front of her and her daughter. Her eyes watch the awe and the wonder that lights up Ichigo's face when the sunset strands start to glow like a burning ember.
"Wow... my hair can–can do this?" Ichigo doesn't even dare to be louder than a whisper. He looks up with wide eyes that shimmer golden in the ember glow. Masaki smiles before she runs her hand still holding Ichigo's cheek through his hair.
"I'll show you. I'll show you everything that the Kurosaki name still stands for... even when it's only us... and your future siblings," Masaki whispers back looking down at her enlarged stomach. Ichigo looks down as well and beams brightly before leaning closer.
"Did ya hear that? An' I'll help teach you! Promise!" Ichigo swears to his yet-to-be-born siblings. "Jus' like how I'll protect you both from anything an' everything!"
"Our sweet protector!" Masaki hums, making Ichigo giggle. She beams up at her mother with a nod and reaches up to hug her.
"But Ichigo, you have to promise me that you won't tell Papa this unless he asks. Do you understand?" Masaki was the last Kurosaki before her children were born. She refuses to let the name and the ancient legacy die with her, or her children.
Kurosaki. Dark Destination.
Before, members of the name were given "of" with Kurosaki. At a glance, it was like everyone else with a last name when last names were gifted. Looking deeper, it held a literal meaning.
Of the Dark Destination. That "destination" has long since been cast into lost history, desecrated and ruined and most likely ceased from existence. Kurosaki is the last piece of evidence that the "destination" had ever existed. The other Quincy had changed and altered the name of that "destination" in their own archives and stories; in fear or in survival, the reasons went from terrified excuses to dire ultimatums.
To most Quincy, the history and legacy of what this proud and powerful race of beings had once been, faded away and floated aimlessly in myths and lost history. To most modern Quincy, not Kurosaki Quincy.
Nothing was ever really known about Kurosaki Quincy–at least, not anymore. Not after the mass genocide the Quincy race had been subjected to by the Shinigami, not after the 800 years before that where Quincy had been persecuted and killed by humans and Shinigami alike after the "Father of the Quincy", and not after the nine millennia before that when the Predecessors of Quincy had been supposedly killed or banished. Of course, Kurosaki hadn't existed as a name then, but a Kurosaki's reiryoku is known to be completely different from anyone else's, especially back then.
Kurosaki is an old name and an old clan. The oldest. Almost ten accepted millennia of Quincy heritage and prestige. For modern Quincy, 2,000 years of "pure" Quincy heritage promotes a clan to nobility. Kurosaki, in simple terms, is absolute royalty, even after the "Father of the Quincy".
Long hair was a symbol of ultimate prestige with the Kurosaki. Not only did it mean strength in battle, but it meant pride and honor. Before, the rules were lax. Kurosaki were always forbidden to cut their hair, except for one ritual, but Kurosaki could let their hair down whenever they wanted and were only truly required to put up their hair during war or times of distress and disaster.
Then, the prosecutions and killings came. Witches, they were named. Demons. Yōkai. Soulless beasts. Destined for hell. Almost a millennia of prosecution and suspicion; Kurosaki were forced to keep their hair up for their own survival. Over the course of time, it became its own tradition–a way to fight back and a way to stay singular to themselves like they always had done before.
Weaving reiatsu into the hair was what turned the color into the deep crimsons to the bright scarlets it is today. Styling it was a means of protection in battle or a last resort when death was near. Keeping it styled just meant the protections were stronger.
Originally, the hairstyles and the traditions that followed almost ten millennia of the Kurosaki name and hair were taught from the Kurosaki parent to the child or children. There were recorded archives, but they were only opened when traditions were created or a child wasn't taught everything before the parent had passed.
Kurosaki Masaki, the nth Head of the Kurosaki Clan, had a feeling that she might not live for very much longer after her twin daughters were born. A Kurosaki's intuition is never wrong and she had a feeling that Isshin's Shiba Sense had passed over to Ichigo if his increased nightmares and borderline-obsessive determination to get better in kyūdo and karate was any indication.
She didn't know when; that was the awful part about it all. But, it will happen in the next few years... and it didn't help that that damn hymn about the "Father of the Quincy" was starting to get to its next verse. "Father of the Quincy"–ha! What a load of bullshit! That traitor and desecrator didn't deserve that title, nor even the claim of being a Quincy after what he did.
Time was not on Masaki's side; it was not on her children's side, and from what little she gathered from overhearing and painstakingly investigating, time was not on the Shinigami's side either–for whatever reason that she doesn't give any fucks about. They will make her child–her son–her daughter into a weapon. It leaves a horrible taste in her mouth, but there isn't much of a choice.
The Kurosaki are experts in all types of medicine. Masaki was taught what a Soul Suicide is and all of what it can do when she was only seven years old. Even if Ichigo's soul is in balance now, later down the line when her Shinigami powers awaken–or even the Hollow that most likely transferred to her and probably to her other daughters–it will cause a Soul Suicide without a doubt unless Ichigo is trained to hone and wield that balance.
And despite all this, Isshin is adamant on giving Ichigo a normal human childhood. Not Quincy, not Shiba, just human. He may be Masaki's soulmate and the love of her life, but he is still a fool. And if it takes her death, whenever that may be, for him to see it, then so be it. But, Masaki must teach Ichigo first, before anything else.
Teach and decipher. The Kurosaki Estate has long since been abandoned–before Masaki's grandparents were even born–but it is still used as the storage of anything and everything related to Quincy where it is recorded, copied, and archived. Whenever it will be, Masaki knows she will not have enough time to even teach her eldest everything he has to know as both a Quincy and a Kurosaki.
So, she must trudge through thousands of dusty books of boring tidbits of some Kurosaki's God awful love poems to multiple different people and the grotesquely descriptive entries of another Kurosaki's bathing routine that thankfully never continued past four generations. If only to copy and decipher the information that would help her children the most for the time being.
When they get older–when they are able to pass through the seal that keeps the Kurosaki Estate safe from wanderers and safe from time, will they need to continue their Seiren with these dry textbooks and monotonous diagrams. But until then, this will be enough. It has to be.
Kurosaki are children of shadow and of the night; children of darkness and death. They are children born from blood and born from anguish. They are children of the dark destination.
Ichigo didn't understand completely, but he understood that the months leading up to June were shadowed by panic and paranoia. From him, from Oyaji, from Mama, even from the twins who just hit their fourth year in the world of the living.
Mama says it's the Kurosaki Intuition and that the nightmares are the Shiba Sense–something from Oyaji's family, but Ichigo can't ask him until he asks him about the Secret. Neither are wrong, only one is a sicky feeling in Ichigo's stomach that gets worse and worse, and the other is the stupid nightmares that eventually make him wake up screaming and crying.
Something bad was going to happen to Mama. And, she knew. Their night lessons were getting more and more in-depth and packed with different things. Same with the journals Mama had hidden in Yuzu's and Karin's floor. She even started to show Ichigo how she taught her, so she could teach the twins.
Oyaji was always walking around the house at night; always checking each room and every lock in the house. He even started to walk Ichigo to school when Mama couldn't, and started doing a few of the grocery runs. He had to have the same nightmares as she did. The nightmares always involved her.
The twins understood less than Ichigo, but they still understood some. They have the same things Ichigo has; the Kurosaki Intuition and the Shiba Sense. They were barely sleeping though, sleeping less than their big brother, and were almost always crying. Mama took to carrying them with her almost anywhere she went, just as affected by the intuition.
June had come and it was raining. Ichigo went with Mama to pick up the twins; they were crying themselves sick at the kyūdo dojo and Ichigo wasn't any better. It was because of a stupid Hollow. Mama had already started bringing Ichigo around for practical experience once she could form and shoot an arrow. Saying something about the arrows being able to cleanse unless she doesn't want them to, but she was just happy to be learning from Mama.
When it happened, Ichigo felt everything shatter to pieces. He couldn't even kill the Hollow that murdered his mother, but–but, he knew it wasn't just that thing. The song. Mama always sang a song and always put a lot of importance on a specific verse. But, it didn't make any sense! Mama wasn't impure! She wasn't an impure Quincy, so why–why did it take her?!
It took Oyaji too. He wasn't even like a ghost in the house. Barely even a spectre. He just wasn't there. Not even for the funeral, but Ichigo made sure Mama had a Kurosaki burial–had managed to pass a message to Ryū-oji even when Oyaji forbade him from contacting the Kurosaki siblings.
The twins were almost catatonic–Ichigo so desperately wanted to tell Mama about the word she learned–in their grief and sadness. Ichigo was too, in the beginning. But, Oyaji wasn't buying food, Ichigo didn't know how to get money for a grocery run, and the house was getting filthy by the end of the second month.
Ichigo was trying to get the washer to work when Oyaji finally asked about the Secret. "What did your mother tell you?"
The question caught Ichigo off guard. She fell into the washer with a yelp, making her father jump forward when the water started to pour on top of Ichigo's head.
Once Ichigo was safely out of the washer and not completely drenched, she stared right into Isshin's eyes and didn't pull back any punches. She stood in front of him, with a blank expression that was quickly becoming a set fixture to her face, scarlet hair falling to her upper thighs, and her posture just as graceful and confident as her mother's.
"M-Mama wanted us prepared. She thought it was foolish that you wanted us to have normal childhoods when we'd never be normal. I think so too." Ichigo will never admit, out loud, the amount of satisfaction he felt at his father's distraught realization that he was right.
"...calling your father a fool... you have no respect," Isshin attempts to gain control of the conversation, eyes cold and heavy with grief and fury. Not at Ichigo–well, he hopes not–but towards everything that led up to this new routine in life.
"You are one. And Mama–Mama always says–said that respect is only earned and can easily be taken away, and that trust is the same way."
Isshin stares down at his daughter before snorting derisively to himself. "A Shiba must always trust those around them... until they're given a reason to take it away. You give a little, you get some back. Respect is earned, but once it gets taken away, it can never be earned again."
Ichigo blinks at the small lesson. She stares into obsidian eyes before a small cold smile grows on her face.
"Mama was right. It took her death to make you realize that you really are a fool." Ichigo turns around and walks into the kitchen to start his attempts at cooking something edible, not noticing Isshin's anguished expression at his statement.
After that, a new... dysfunctional, but working, routine was created. Ichigo wished it had made Oyaji a better parent, but she's fine with the slow progress they're making now. He was more like an uncle, or a family friend, than a father, but he cared for them all. He loved them all.
The twins were still young, so he kept them sheltered and barely even allowed Ichigo to start training them in the Quincy Arts once they turned six. But, Ichigo finally began his lessons in how to be a Shiba–secretly teaching his sisters everything that he learned because they were Shiba too!–and, unsurprisingly, there was absolutely nothing about Shinigami and Soul Society.
Oyaji was still being a fool–is still a fool. He refused to even help awaken their Shinigami powers or even teaching them about Soul Society until each Kurosaki sibling reached the age of 18. But, he didn't say anything about trying to find a way to self-teach and awaken their powers themselves.
However, Ichigo is happy enough about learning the other half of her family's traditions. Oyaji didn't have any journals about it, but apparently he was a Clan Head for a branch of the Shiba Clan at one point. Ichigo ignored the sour taste in her mouth when that had been revealed once she had asked if all the information was correct and accurate.
Correction. Oyaji is an idiotic fool. Who in their right minds would think that anyone from Soul Society would leave him, and the twins, alone if they find out that they are Oyaji's children, but had no knowledge on how to be nobility? They would have been thrown to the lion's den. Ichigo has an amazing learning curve, he knows this himself, but not that fast.
Ichigo's going to leave it be... for now. If everything else fails and doesn't retain well, Oyaji's pettiness and his determination to pay people back for everything will stick with him. It must run in the Shiba name.
Honestly, Ichigo was pleasantly surprised by all of the traditions of the Shiba Clan. There weren't any traditions about hair, thankfully; at least, any traditions that would heavily clash with the Kurosaki hair traditions.
They only required that any long hair must be partially or fully covered. Both to protect the length in a fight and to keep anyone from attempting to cut it. Apparently, long hair was a big tradition in Soul Society as a whole. Unfortunately, Oyaji didn't explain anything more than that; Ichigo gave him a punch to the face as payback for the nonchalant denial.
Fireworks and the creation of them are the biggest and most strict tradition. Every Shiba must have a mastery in pyrotechnics. At the age of 10, every Shiba must have a personalized firework that they created by themselves and will always present after each firework show if they are hosting or participating.
Learning a specific style of hakuda, created and used only by the Shiba Clan, is a requirement for even those marrying into the clan. It was focused mainly on foot movements, kicks, and fast pacing. When Oyaji showed her at the beginning of her lessons, Ichigo immediately fell in love with the fighting style.
Learning kabuki and Noh mai are a requirement for every Kurosaki; and as the world became filled with more and more people, one Western dance became required. Watching Oyaji brought out that extraordinary wonder and awe that Ichigo felt when Mama had taken her to watch the ballet, Giselle.
Kyūdo is a beautiful martial art on its own, but it isn't personal to Ichigo. It required a mastery expected from every Kurosaki, if they are capable of being Quincy or not. Karate isn't personal to him either. He met Tatsuki there, and that gave it sentimental value, but not personal value.
But this... this style of hakuda is special and deeply personal. Only Shiba know it and only Shiba can learn it. Ichigo became the Head of the Kurosaki Clan the minute Mama died, but he is still the heir–or an heir–of the Shiba Clan.
Of course, Oyaji still expects them all to live through a normal human childhood despite the three Kurosaki siblings being nowhere near normal or human for that matter. Ichigo's incredibly close to just strangling that foolish man in his sleep, but–patience. Petty payback can take both a short amount of time and a long amount.
And, that payback came into the form of a short black haired Shinigami who dragged Ichigo into problems he shouldn't be dealing with–while alive–and is in turn, being dragged with Ichigo through everything else.
Cicadas sang loudly through the sleeping forests surrounding Karakura Town and Naruki City. Summer was just rolling in and brought a sticky humidity to the still air and made it impossible for Ichigo to keep his hair from being frizzy. The black and white swirl bandana he wore as a makeshift headband did nothing to hide the frizziness of his braided hair.
Ichigo expertly kicked a rock with the inside of his foot, successfully targeting the streetlight. He sighs quietly at the echoing bang and keeps his hands tucked inside his pockets. His expression held a carefully and expertly crafted mask of nothing, except for a miniscule furrow in his eyebrows that only his friends and family could notice. And that meant Ichigo was absolutely pissed off by something that most likely his father had done or caused; in this current situation, that is the correct assumption.
It had been a reoccurring problem for months now; actually, it had been for years, but the Shiba Sense and the Kurosaki Intuition had finally been awakened. Ichigo needed to learn how to be a Shinigami. And soon, very soon.
Ichigo breathes deeply and abruptly stops walking. He looks up at the dark sky and releases the heavy tension in his shoulders.
He didn't mean to start another argument, but he had been running on four days of no sleep, a near-constant feeling of nausea, and hallucinations from the lack of sleep. But, just because he didn't mean to start the fight in the first place, didn't mean that it wasn't necessary.
There was a sharp increase of Hollows. The intuition and the nightmares followed after. Ichigo is going to get thrust into a bigger danger at some point and he wants to be prepared. Between him and his sisters, he's the absolute worst with reiatsu control. He can handle the few mistakes that he'd prefer wouldn't happen as often as they did because of it, but if he has to start dealing with Shinigami... Ichigo either needs to get better, quickly, or he has to become a Shinigami.
Both he wants to do, but doesn't have the tools for it despite having the capability to do it. On one hand, he hasn't figured out what it is he needs to do to progress further than his mother's journals, and unfortunately he has a feeling that the other option is what he needs to progress. On the other hand, he has to find a way to awaken his Shinigami powers without his father finding out immediately and stopping the process, do it in a place that won't alert many Hollows to come feast, and make sure his body won't be taken to a morgue if discovered by normal humans.
Why did Kurosaki Isshin have to be a fool and why did Kurosaki Masaki have a love for puzzles and riddles?
Ichigo slightly bends his knees before leaping high into the air. He lands on the five-story ledge overlooking the street he was patrolling. The braids, twisted and tied around each other in an intricate latticework before the remaining hair was braided into five flowers, don't move even an inch at the sudden speed. His denim shorts bunches around his thighs as he crouches, watching the street he leapt from.
Caramel speckled gold eyes narrowed when the Hollow Ichigo felt came out from hiding. His cheek twitches at the non-existent smirk and he stands back up. He holds out his hand towards the left, letting the Quincy Zeichen dangle off of the rose gold chain that clinked against the rose gold bracelet wrapped around his wrist. The moonlight glared brightly against the oval shaped onyx.
"Hey, Hollow!" Ichigo shouts from the rooftop, a pale blue light shooting out from the cross. It forms into a yumi bow as the Hollow turns its head towards the scarlet haired teenager. Ichigo holds it above his head, pulling back the bow string as a pale pink arrow forms.
The Hollow screeches and leaps up into the air, the lower part of its mask splitting apart to reveal an unhinged jaw. Ichigo releases the arrow right before a black blur suddenly appears in front of the Hollow. Ichigo's eyes widen when a sword slices through the Hollow's mask.
Raven hair fell down to black covered shoulders and pale skin shone brightly underneath the silvery light of the moon. The shihakushō fluttered and flowed elegantly and the silver gleam of the zanpakutō glared into Ichigo's eyes. That's a–
"Shinigami!" The Shinigami whips around and freezes at the sight of the arrow mere inches from her face. The arrow almost pierces through before Ichigo slams the Shinigami to the ground with a hand against her shoulder.
The arrow cuts through the ends of black hair before it hits asphalt, exploding into shards of pale pink light and leaving only a scorch mark. Violet eyes stare into caramel eyes, wide-eyed and shocked.
"Wh-what... what the hell are you doing?!" The Shinigami shoves Ichigo away before sitting up. She blinks rapidly before fully focusing on Ichigo.
"You're human–you–you're human?! You can see me? Wait–what–what was that? Why did you shoot an arrow at me?" The Shinigami turns around, trying to find the arrow Ichigo had released.
"Why did you get in its way? It could have killed you if I didn't tackle you, Shinigami! I'm a Quincy, you idiot!" Ichigo scolds loudly before he stands up. "That Hollow was mine! Check your surroundings!"
"Quincy? What the hell are you talking about? What is a Quincy?" The Shinigami scrambles to stand up, hastily sheathing her zanpakutō.
Ichigo narrows his eyes, staying silent. His hands twitch, wanting to form his Heilig Bogen. The Shinigami must be lying. The Shinigami has to know what the Quincy are.
"What are you doing here, Shinigami? There is no need for your kind here. Karakura Town is protected," Ichigo asks instead. Well, technically there is–if a Shinigami is the way to awaken his powers.
"It is not Shinigami, human! My name is Kuchiki Rukia. And I am here to hunt Hollows. How do you know about Shinigami? Humans aren't meant to know about us," The Shinigami, Rukia, states with a refined scowl.
"Like I said, I'm a Quincy. I'm not a normal human." Ichigo meets Rukia's glare with one of his own. "And it's Kurosaki Ichigo, not human."
"Are you mocking me? And you didn't answer my question! What is a Quincy? And why are you attacking Hollows without permission?" Rukia interrogates harshly, making Ichigo almost sneer. His eyes narrow to indicate his immense displeasure.
"There is no need for permission to protect my loved ones," Ichigo spits the words out as if they burnt his tongue. He huffs silently and turns to watch his surroundings. It felt like something was impaling his stomach.
"Either you truly don't know what a Quincy is, or you're lying. I don't care either way. Check your surroundings and don't get in my way. I might not be fast enough to save you next time." Ichigo faces the Shinigami and gives her one last glare.
"You're the one to talk! You should have noticed–" Ichigo shushes Rukia, his left hand outstretched to his side. He glances around and steps closer.
"Did you just–"
Ichigo uses his other hand to cover Rukia's mouth. "Quiet! Something's around..."
His eyes flash before he shoves Rukia away, jumping back himself. He chokes on a hiss when something drags through his left arm and shoulder. The pain hits next as Ichigo lands on a knee and his other leg outstretched.
The Hollow that attacked screams loudly, its tail flicking away the blood. Ichigo grabs his bicep and checks the damage without looking away. The tail sliced up, through his bicep and digging into his collarbone.
"Shinigami!" Ichigo barks out, standing up as he forms his Heilig Bogen with his injured arm.
"I told you, it's Kuchiki Rukia!" The raven haired woman states, unsheathing her zanpakutō.
Ichigo activates ransōtengai to lift his arm. "Don't get in the way of my arrows, Rukia."
"Try not to get in my path, Ichigo," Rukia snarks back before the Hollow screams again. It charges towards Ichigo, making him jump back once more. Rukia leaps forward to follow it and raises her zanpakutō above her head. She blinks before jumping back when the Hollow's tail lashes out, cutting her forearm.
Ichigo pulls back the bow string and waits for the Hollow to get closer before releasing a pale pink arrow. The Hollow twists its neck to dodge the arrow before shooting it forward to bite at Ichigo.
Rukia rushes forward again and slices off the Hollow's back leg, making it screech. Her eyes widen before the tail slams into her side and throws her into a building. Ichigo jumps back again in an attempt to dodge the Hollow, only to be thrown back into the same building by its head.
"Shit!" Ichigo hisses through his teeth as he watches the Hollow disappear through the Garganta. He rolls over to stand, using the indented wall for support.
He ignores the nausea rolling inside of him in giant tsunami waves. His instincts are screaming at him. The Kurosaki Intuition is screaming at him. It is happening. Something is happening.
Blood splattered streets. A pale corpse lying in a pool of blood. Two inverted curved blades. A bone white mask.
"Shini–Rukia!" Ichigo shakes off his dream and rushes over to the struggling Shinigami. "Are you okay?"
Rukia looks up with hazy eyes, her hands pressing hard against her left side. Blood slipped past her fingers like a faucet and her breaths came out in wheezes from the sudden hit into the cement wall.
"Hit me–pretty good." She clenches her teeth and looks down at her hands. A scowl fully comes over Ichigo's expression as he rips off his jacket. He wraps it around the Shinigami's waist before pulling it tight.
"Sorry," Ichigo says shortly, looking over his shoulder to make sure the Hollow hasn't returned yet. He needs to get the Shinigami to the clinic. Oyaji may want to keep this away from their lives, but Rukia needs medical help.
"Hollow–not your fault." Rukia winces at the tight pressure around her side, wiggling her hands out from the tied jacket. Ichigo shakes his head before focusing on his injured arm. His veins quickly turn blue and stop the heavy bleeding, the glowing blue stopping on his left cheek.
"It probably was. I have subpar reiatsu control, especially for a Quincy. When I get emotional, like being surprised, I can lose control. So, sorry," Ichigo reiterates his apology and stares into Rukia's eyes to show his sincerity. Rukia blinks rapidly before looking down at Ichigo's arm.
"...both–we are too injured to fight," Rukia states, making Ichigo chuckle.
"I can still fight, but I'll take too long and you'll die." Ichigo checks over his shoulder and stares at the Hollow that just returned. They don't have any time.
Rukia groans under her breath as she sits up, reaching over for her zanpakutō. "Don't know what a Quincy is, but–still a way–there's still a way."
Ichigo snaps his head forward, bringing his full attention to the Shinigami. She shakily brings the zanpakutō up and points it towards the teenager's chest.
"Stab through–an' I can give–give you half of my powers. It–it–" Rukia cuts herself off with a horrible wet cough.
"It will make me a Shinigami," Ichigo finishes for her. If this awakens his Shinigami powers, he might just have enough time to get Rukia to the clinic. It may cause him to pass out, but he can do it. He refuses to let someone die in front of him if he can help it.
She nods her head before staring over his shoulder. "Temporarily."
The Hollow was probably charging at them. They have to hurry.
"It won't be for me..." Ichigo kneels on both of his knees and grasps over Rukia's shaking and bloody hands with his working one. He stares at the blood quickly soaking through his jacket.
"I don't need your power. I just need to awaken my own. Let's get this over with, Rukia," Ichigo states as he glances up to focus on violet eyes.
Rukia stares at him for a hazy moment before slowly shaking her head. "Alright, Ichigo."
Ichigo doesn't take anymore time before he thrusts the zanpakutō through his chest. He chokes on a scream as foreign reiatsu floods into his system. It freezes through his veins, alighting every nerve in its path and forcefully attempting to take hold and burrow.
Ichigo forces a breath out as another, simply unfamiliar, reiatsu, explodes out and prevents the foreign reiatsu from burrowing in like a parasite. He wrenches his body back as the foreign reiatsu leaves it to immediately return back to its owner that ordered it to enter Ichigo in the first place. Ichigo gasps for air before forcing the breath out once more, shivering from the aftershocks of the deathly cold that took over his body.
A scream snaps his hearing into focus before his star-filled vision follows. Ichigo twists his body and spins on his hands before landing in a crouch in front of Rukia and his own limp body. Ichigo pants for breath as his senses adjust to the new body and the slight weight to his chest. His eyes catch onto iridescent white of opal instead of the normal onyx on his bracelet before another, more rageful, scream echoes through his bones. Her bones.
Ichigo snaps her eyes up and watches the Hollow charge forward once again, much faster now that it had been blinded and pushed back. Ichigo reaches over her shoulder instinctively and curls her hand. She doesn't even startle when her hand curls around an uncovered tang of a sword instead of air or a hilt and pulls it forward.
The black inverted curved blade sucked in every bit of light around it, not even a sheen as the moon shone directly onto it. Ichigo lifts it in front of her and blocks the incoming tail from slashing through her body. She pushes back and ducks under the Hollow's jaw, leaping forward as her other hand reaches over her shoulder to grab an exact copy of the blade in her hands.
Ichigo jumps up and spins, placing the blades side by side. The Hollow doesn't even get to scream as its mask and head is spliced in two. She lands on one knee, caramel eyes practically glowing gold, the blades in her hands practically singing in joy. The sleeves of her shihakushō fall over her trembling hands, hiding the flipped pendant on her bracelet.
Finally. Ichigo releases a stuttering laugh, trying to gasp for any kind of air. She flips her dual zanpakutō and slides them over her back once more before standing up. The wind blows through her hair, making the many braids tied back fly in front of her face. She slowly turns around and faces the shocked Shinigami and her limp body in front of her.
Ichigo tries to walk forward, only to buckle and collapse. Her vision blurs before turning black. Finally. She has awakened her Shinigami powers. Born from blood and born from anguish.
Hey! Hope you all like the new story! Sorry for the major worldbuilding, I still hope it's a good chapter nonetheless!
This still will mostly be about worldbuilding, so everything else is second priority. Basically. I despise how little worldbuilding there was for such a MAJOR FUCKING PART OF THE BLEACH UNIVERSE. So, this is my answer to that.
Oh, and Ichigo's bracelet, specifically the pendant, can be flipped. So, when it's onyx, Ichigo is a boy, and when it's opal, Ichigo's a girl. I didn't do this at the beginning because I don't think it's realistic for Ichigo to know about something like this so young (also this is still set in the early 2000's and in Japan and I don't think there was this kind of system with any of the adults) so that's why the pronouns were interchanging.
Why I named this "Fitzpleasure" was because the vibe of the song fit so well for what I wanted the vibe of this story to be, so yeah.
I hope you all enjoy! Bye.
WhovianWhoudini