A.N.: This was commissioned by Anonymous
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
Warning: Gender Bender! FemIchigo!

Ichigo and the Witchblade

A few months after TYBW...
World of the Living; Karakura Town

Ichigo walked into the antique shop, the old, musky smell hitting him as soon as he walked through the door. As his eyes adjusted to the dim lighting of the shop, he noticed the old woman sitting behind the counter. "Hello there. Good afternoon, ma'am."

"Well hello there, young man. Would could I help you with?"

"I'm just shopping for my sisters' birthday. I thought I might see if there was something here my sister, Yuzu, would like here."

"Ah, so you're Yuzu's brother. She comes by here on her way home from school to say hello. Let me check the back and see if I have anything a sweet girl like her might enjoy."

Ichigo was grateful for the old woman's generosity, not wanting to have to hunt through all the old knickknacks inside the shop. The shopkeeper disappeared into the back of the shop, leaving the teen to himself for a few minutes. Just as Ichigo was starting to worry something might have happened to her, the gray-haired woman emerged from the door, holding a small object in her hands.

"Here we are. I'm sure a pretty girl like her would appreciate this."

The old woman handed to Ichigo a large ornately carved wooden jewelry box. Inspecting the old box, the teen admired its beautiful craftsmanship. The wooden box had metal corners, the dark lines forming a rose on the lid. The clasp to the box held a red ruby with an odd sigil carved into its surface. Holding it up to inspect it closer, Ichigo felt how heavy it was despite the light wood. "Is there something inside?"

"I'm not quite sure. I've had it in the shop for decades. My husband bought it years and years ago but I never could get the clasp open. I figured a strong man like you might be able to open it up. Yuzu would love a jewelry box like this."

Ichigo appreciated the gift; he figured Yuzu would love something like this. As for opening it up, he wasn't worried. If for some reason he couldn't get it open he knew a certain shopkeeper who could crack open anything. "How much for it, ma'am?"

"Oh don't worry about that. Consider it a birthday gift to Yuzu for her always being such a sweetheart to me."

Putting the jewelry box in a bag, Ichigo left the store and headed home. As he walked, he took the box out of the bag and inspected it again, looking at the ruby stone that rested on the clasp to the box. "Huh, wonder what kind of symbol this is?" he wondered. It reminded him of the simplistic sigils that the Soul Society used. However, when he ran his thumb over the stone, he found it to be oddly warm...

His musings were brought to an end when he heard his combat pass going off, screaming "Hollow, Hollow, Hollow!" Sighing, the teen looked around to find a place to stash his body. "Sure wish I had Kon right now. Where'd he run off to anyway after the Soul King's Palace?"

But Kon's whereabouts would have to wait. Finding a secluded alley, Ichigo took out his badge and pushed it against his chest to pop out into Soul Reaper form. Grabbing his empty body before it hit the ground with a thud, Ichigo quietly stashed it behind the dumpster, setting the bag on top of it while piling up some trash bags around it to make sure nobody could see his body and mistake him for a corpse.

"Okay. I'll head out to deal with this Hollow and then head straight back here," he told himself, jumping off to confront the enemy while leaving his body behind.

As he left the alley, a stray cat trotted along and jumped along the edge of the dumpster. The kitty sniffed Ichigo's body for a moment before spring-boarding off of his shoulder to jump onto a nearby wall. When the cat jostled his body, however, the bag tilted forward and dumped its contents onto Ichigo's body's lap...

Taking care of the Hollow did not take Ichigo very long. It wasn't a Menos or an Arrancar and was dispatched with a single swing of his short sword. Once that matter was taken care of, Ichigo headed back to the alley where he'd stashed his body. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that nothing had disturbed it before noticing the jewelry box that'd spilled onto his body's lap. "Better put this back in the bag..."

Grabbing it, however, Ichigo felt how the wooden box suddenly grew warmer. Perplexed, the Substitute ran his thumb over the clasp and was taken aback when he felt a spark of spirit energy flare from the ruby. Glowing red hot like an ember, the sigil on the stone turning black before the clasp suddenly came undone.

Then Ichigo did something he would come to regret: he opened the box.

The instant Ichigo started to raise the lid, he felt a tremendous burst of energy be unleashed from the jewelry box. The lid flew open and a plume of black smoke erupted from it, filling the alley with a black miasmic haze. "What the hell?!"

Throwing the box to the ground, the boy reached for his blades but was too slow. A massive shadow burst out of the box, knocking Ichigo to the ground. "Finally! We're free!"

From the box produced five more shadows, all of them circling over Ichigo. "We're free! Free to fill our bellies with the flesh of Humanity once more!"

"What?!" His senses blared with alarm. These creatures didn't have the same presence as Hollows but they were clearly a threat all the same. "No you don't!" Unsheathing his large Zangetsu blade, Ichigo swung at one of the shadows, only for it to pass through like he was cutting air. "What?! It won't cut!"

"Foolish Reaper! Your blade cannot cut us. We have no soul to slay!" laughed one of the shadows. "But as thanks for our release, we'll let you live. You don't seem to be very appetizing. We shall move on to more delectable meals!"

The shadows rose up above the alley before splitting off in six separate directions. "Wait!" Ichigo was confused as to what just happened. "What were those things? And why couldn't my sword touch them?" He shook his head and turned back to the box. "I need to get this to Kisuke. He'll know what to-"

A crimson flash interrupted Ichigo. Out of the box floated a strange, macabre yet ornate, jewel-encrusted right-handed gauntlet. that hovered in front of the Substitute Soul Reaper. "What is-"

As if the item had a mind of its own, the gauntlet surged forward at lightning speed, tilting backwards to reveal the opening. The gauntlet swatted the longsword out of Ichigo's hand, a powerful burst of spirit energy emanating from it. Before Ichigo could recover his weapon, the gauntlet flew right onto his hand and locked itself into place.

Red lightning engulfed the teen. Pain unlike anything Ichigo had felt in his life assaulted him. His clothes were blasted to pieces and his two zanpakutos disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Ichigo could hear inside his Inner World both his Inner Hollow and Old Man Zangetsu scream in agony before he lost consciousness.

Before darkness took him, from the depths of his soul he could hear a woman laughing...

Hours later...

"Nghhh..."

Ichigo opened his eyes and found several familiar faces staring down at him. "Ichigo? Ichigo, are you alright?" Kisuke asked.

Tessai looked over at Kisuke. "Are we sure this is Ichigo?"

"I'm eighty-five percent positive. I found his Human body in that alley and I ran a quick DNA check. It's a match."

"Why eighty-five percent though?"

"There's always room for error."

"Ughh...what happened?" Ichigo sat up and put a hand to his head. "My head feels like I've had a sledgehammer taken to it.

"How are you feeling, Ichigo? You are Ichigo, right?" Yoruichi asked, looking at the Substitute with a bewildered expression.

"What are you talking about? Of course it's...me..." Ichigo looked at his hand and saw that it was covered by the black gauntlet, his thin, slender arm covered in a matching black armor. "Huh? What the-" Ichigo took note of several things while he looked at everyone's baffled looks. He felt a strange weight in his chest, his voice much softer and higher in tone and his hair brushing past his naked back.

Then he looked down and realized he wasn't a he.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?! WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO MEEEEEE?!"

Where once was a strong, built orange-haired man was now a buxom redhaired woman. Ichigo's body had been completely changed. The Substitute now had a curvaceous figure identical to Yoruichi's, her breasts big and firm like Orihime's. The black armor that covered her body only covered up her sides, her breasts and pussy just barely concealed by black armor pieces which left her backside and stomach completely exposed. Long, luscious hair the color of blood ran all the way down her back. Seeing her reflection in a nearby mirror, Ichigo saw that her pupils were yellow and her sclera was black like she was in her Hollowfied state.

"What...what did that glove do to me?" Immediately she tried to tug off her right gauntlet but it refused to budge. "Kisuke, what is this? WHAT IS THIS?"

Moving like lightning, Kisuke pressed the tip of his cane against her forehead, the motion stopping her instantly. "Calm. Down," he said in his most serious voice. "I understand, Ichigo, that you're confused and scared. But throwing a panic is not going to help the situation. I cannot help you if you don't tell me what happened." Sitting back down, he continued, "Now then, what happened? Start at the beginning."

Doing her best to keep calm, the now female Ichigo told the three ex-Soul Reapers about how he got the jewelry box from the antique shop, the spirits who came out of it when the clasp came undone and then how the macabre gauntlet came out and latched itself on to him, turning Ichigo into what sat before them now.

Yoruichi couldn't take her eyes off the Substitute. It wasn't just that Ichigo was a woman, it was that she was a gorgeous woman. "I don't understand any of this. These monsters couldn't be cut with a Zanpakuto? They have no souls to slay? What does that even mean?"

Kisuke rubbed his chin and tried to rack his brain to figure out the answer. "I'm not quite sure myself. I've researched countless phenomenon from both here and the Soul Society but never have I heard of anything quite like this."

"I have."

All eyes turned to Tessai, who sat on his knees with his arms crossed as he gave the genderbent Ichigo another look over. "It's not something you'll hear from a Soul Reaper. But as the former Captain of the Kido Corp, I'm privy to information that only a select few within the Soul Society. I believe the only other people who might know of this are the Head-Captain and Squad Zero."

Kisuke looked at his friend with a look of genuine surprise. It was rare for Tessai to know something that he didn't; or anyone else for that matter.

Reaching out with his burly arm, Tessai grabbed hold of Ichigo's right hand and brought it up, examining the jewel that lay embedded in her wrist. "As I feared. Ichigo, you've become the bearer of the Witchblade."

"The...Witchblade?" repeated the girl.

Yoruichi frowned. "I've vaguely heard of it. I thought it was just an old fairy tale."

"It is not. The evidence is right in front of me." Letting go of Ichigo's hand, Tessai sat back and explained. "It's not something you'll find within the records of the archives or your Department of Research and Development, Kisuke. This harkens back to an age long before the Thirteen Court Guard Squads even entered their infancy."

Sitting back, Tessai began his tale. "Before Oh-Etsu created the weapon that can purify a Hollow, the Zanpakuto, many warriors and mystics within the Soul Society tried various methods to both combat Hollows and prevent their creation. One such particular woman interested in forging a method to prevent Pluses from becoming Hollows was named Masane Amaha."

"With her six acolytes, Masane sought to try to use a dangerous method to turn a Soul about to become Hollow into something else, something much more peaceful. To that end, she used a forbidden Kido that focused the human heart on Lust instead of Instinct."

"Wait...you said six acolytes...you mean-"

"Yes, Ichigo. She used the method on her disciples but as you saw, they became something far worse than Hollows. The Soul Society never designated a word for them out of wanting the experiment to fade from memory. For the time being we should call them Lust Beasts. They became monsters that feed off of a person's lust and once they've gotten all they can out of their victim, they dispose of the body. They are more parasitic than Hollows who straight up devour their victims."

Kisuke was already starting to put the pieces together. "And because this experiment was created long before the Zanpakuto came into existence, that's why they're immune to its purification? Oh-Etsu never knew that an entity like that existed so he didn't create the blades with the means to face them."

"But...if Zanpakutos can't slay them, how were they in that box? And most importantly, what the fuck is this?!" Ichigo demanded, pointing a finger at herself.

"I was getting to that. Repulsed at herself for what she'd done to her students, Masane recreated the ritual on herself and created the Witchblade." Tessai pointed at the jewel in Ichigo's wrist. "I do not know the specifics on what it exactly is. The legends state that it is only 'A weapon forged from her violence and her ecstasy.'

"That last part explains the outfit," Yoruichi noted, silently comparing her and Ichigo's breasts.

"Masane confronted her corrupted acolytes in the World of the Living. She fought and defeated all of them with the Witchblade, sealing them away. The legends don't state what became of Masane after the battle but those who heard the legends presumed she'd died sealing the Lust Demons away."

Kisuke nodded, the gears turning in his head. "I think I have a rudimentary grasp on things. The old shopkeeper told Ichigo that she was never able to open the box and it didn't open until after Ichigo was in his Soul Reaper state. More than likely Ichigo's overwhelming spiritual pressure was enough to break the seal just on contact alone. The Witchblade that came out of the box must have been a preventative measure this Masane took in case the box was ever opened and her acolytes were let loose again. It latched itself onto Ichigo in order to give him the only effective means to recapture them."

"But...why'd it make me a chick?" Ichigo asked, still pointing at her breasts.

Reaching behind him, Tessai revealed an old book that looked more ancient than Yamamoto had before he died. "I believe it reshaped you in Masane's image. It is the Witchblade after all." Opening the book of old stories, Tessai turned the pages and showed a picture of Masane. The page was faded and old but Ichigo could clearly see a sketch of the woman that matched her own transformed self.

"So then, that makes things simpler." Kisuke snapped his fan open and covered half of his face while looking over Ichigo. "It's obvious that you've only one option now, Ichigo. You're gonna have to use the Witchblade to reseal those monsters. Perhaps the weapon will remove itself from you once that task is complete."

"Kisuke, are you nuts? How am I supposed to fight like this?!" The long-haired redhead tried to stand up but her new armor apparently came set with heels permanently fixed to her and she struggled to remain upright. "I don't have a weapon! Where are my Zangetsu blades?"

"We didn't find them. No doubt that your powers are being suppressed by the Witchblade," Kisuke explained. "You don't need a weapon, Ichigo. If what Tessai said is true, you are the weapon."

"I can't fight like this! What did you mean by 'forged from her violence and ecstasy'? I don't even know what this stupid armor can even-"

The girl was interrupted when the door behind her opened and a familiar face hurried into the room. "Ichigo? Are you okay? I felt something happen to your spiritual pressure and-" Orihime Inoue came to a dead stop when her eyes gazed upon the scantily-clad armored redhead. Despite her outlandish appearance, her face looked rather familiar. Then it hit her. "Ichigo?!"

Giving a meek smile, Ichigo could only give a weak wave. "Hey, Orihime...I've had a bad day."

It surprised nobody when the orangette fainted...

To be continued