Story Title: Star Girl!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the fictional characters mentioned.
Warnings: A modern day bad boy meets the perfect doll (literally) - you were warned.
A/N: Ever since the new Barbie movie came out, this crossover started to take shape in my head. And guess who I thought would be the perfect pair for this story? Yup, you guessed it: Ichihime! I know This Twisted Fate (TTF) is currently still in progress, but I don't have the bandwidth to write anything melodramatic right now, so I decided to take a pause on TTF and instead write a summery, fun, modern day romance. :)
Enjoy~
CH 1: STAR!
Haneda Airport: Tokyo, Japan
July 7, 2023 (Friday), 9:16AM
8 hours and 44 minutes until the Tantaba Festival
.
It was a crisp morning, the sun's gentle rays slicing through the plane's windows as it began its final descent. The sight of the sprawling cityscape from above was nothing short of awe-inspiring, with the multitude of towering buildings, weaving roads, and clusters of green parks.
The metropolis beckoned like an enigmatic siren, promising adventure and mystery at every corner.
As the plane taxied to the gate, the flight attendant's announcement to unfasten seatbelts echoed through the cabin, and the passengers around him eagerly retrieved their belongings from the overhead compartments, preparing to disembark.
All of a sudden, everything around him began to feel very real again.
A small realization that after a week of living it up in Seoul, Kurosaki Ichigo was finally back in Tokyo.
As he sat up from his compact seat, Ichigo grunted painfully as an unwanted migraine shot through his head.
Yeah, maybe he could have taken it a little easy on the soju, but as always, he didn't.
With heavy shoulders, too early in the morning for his liking, he trudged through the jet bridge to get to where he needed to be.
Once he got through immigration and baggage claim, Ichigo stepped out into the arrival hall, where a bustling sea of people from all walks of life greeted them. Signs and advertisements adorned the walls, displaying a mix of words and pictures that all seemed to blur together.
All but one supernatural figure, with bright, dazzling silver eyes, ready to save the world, held Kurosaki Ichigo in a momentary captive state.
But tranced fixation soon turned his indifference into a deep scowl - a disappointing reminder of why he had to retire the weekend early and head back to Japan first thing in the morning.
After all, it's not like he wanted to get back to Tokyo before his summer break officially had to end.
In fact, his friends practically begged the University of Tokyo's heartthrob to stay a day longer if he could.
However, as a man of his word, Ichigo had to respectfully decline, and fly back for his two younger sisters, Karin and Yuzu, whom he made a blood sworn promise to early on in the year.
Embracing the flow of the crowd, Ichigo moved through the sea of travelers to board a train that would take him back to his humble abode in the city center, where he could unpack, rest, and steel himself for this evening's event.
Ichigo's Apartment: Bunkyo City Tokyo
July 7, 2023 (Friday), 10:41AM
7 hours and 19 minutes until the Tantaba Festival
.
Once Ichigo arrived at the front of his apartment, Unit 201, he struggled to fish for his keys from the innermost pocket of his campus backpack, and there was a momentary panic before his fingers wrapped around familiar metal. In sudden relief, he shoved his dangling keys through the doorknob and turned the small piece ninety degrees until he heard a familiar click! in the lock.
The orange-haired resident sighed a heavy breathe, strolling through the doors of his apartment, ready to settle into tranquil peace and quiet, before he accidentally kicked something under his feet.
Slightly annoyed, he looked down at his shoes to see the week-old newspaper in the middle of his hallway.
Extra, Extra, Read All About It! - Star Girl! - the up and coming television show featuring Orihime: ordinary high school student by day, intergalactic superhero by night, fighting against the evil alien forces to save the world!
Ichigo didn't even need to think twice before he tossed the news article onto his kitchen counter, suddenly irritated. He quickly turned on the television in his living room to distract him of his sharp change in demeanor. At first he wanted nothing but pure silence; however, his intrusive thoughts proved to be detrimental to his sanity and decided that he needed sound to travel back into his ears.
"TV series, Star Girl!, has gained immense popularity all around Japan and has even taken social media by storm."
/next channel/
"It's pretty much every girl's dream to be like the beautiful and powerful Orihime, the heroine of the show!"
/next channel/
"That's right, everyone! Star Girl! has officially taken over the universe with Season 2 of the-"
/next channel/
"It's crazy! Every shopping mall, department store, and online marketplace has ran out of Star Girl! Official Merchandise. Every Orihime Barbie doll is listed over a thousand times its original market value on resale sites!"
/power off/
Ichigo turned the TV off in an instant.
You had to be fucking kidding me.
Feeling frustrated, he slammed the remote control onto his wooden coffee table.
Exhausted by the week's worth of events, he laid horizontally on his living room sofa, stretching one arm securely over his abdomen. He brought his other forearm up toward his forehead, to shield his face from the creeping sunlight, as he tried to get a moment of much needed eye shut.
Star Girl! Orihime this.
Star Girl! Orihime that.
Star Girl! Star Girl! Star Girl! Star Girl! Star Girl!
Quite frankly, Kurosaki Ichigo had enough.
Magical girl animes centered around young female protagonists who possess unworldly abilities, enabling them to transform into an ideal alter ego, was nothing new.
In fact, its been done before.
Over and over and over again.
Card Captor Sakura. Tokyo Mew Mew. Sailor Moon.
Just how many times will history repeat itself?
When Star Girl! came out just over a year ago, it created an explosive whirlwind, garnering attention from every media outlet known to man.
Even so, Kurosaki Ichigo didn't understand the hype.
Because to Ichigo, TV shows like these were just a quick cash grab for major production companies that followed the same recipe for disaster.
Nothing more than a way to brainwash a generation of girls into a concept of perfection and romance that hardly existed in real life.
Hate to break it to ya'll, but Prince Charming and true love was all an illusion.
First, there was always that heroine, who was a seemingly ordinary student.
And Orihime, Star Girl!'s main protagonist, was no different from the others.
Based on the famous Tantaba legend, the story of star-crossed lovers, she was a shy girl who didn't have many friends - probably because of her quirky imagination and peculiar fashion sense.
Things especially started to go awry when she became an orphan at a young age.
Not many years after, she unfortunately lost her older brother in a deadly car accident, who left behind a pair of periwinkle hairpins, which happened to contain the secrets to her world.
One day in high school, she mustered the courage to put on the sparkly hairpins, only to realize the powers it contained.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was when her reality flipped upside down.
Orihime began to see these fairies, who were able to communicate with her and tell her of a supernatural force that threatened to destroy the world!
And with the help of a bit of magic, little miss Orihime learned to grow out of her comfort zone - navigating her teenage life by day, fighting crime by night, and of course, falling hopelessly in love with her destined-to-be, Hikoboshi, who was coined 'the most perfect man in the universe.'
According to the top-selling women's magazine in 2022, Hikoboshi was the new 'ideal' that men nowadays should strive for.
Yeah, no thanks. Ichigo naturally concluded.
Given that it's been over a year an a half since the show Star Girl! first launched, Ichigo thought all that buzz would eventually die down with time, but instead it's popularity only increased and grew rapid-fire with the onset of Season Two.
It was safe to say that every girl in the world was blindly obsessed with the starlight defender of the universe, and desired to be just like her, and all he could ever think about is how to keep filtering this cartoon character out of his every day.
Ichigo's efforts proved to be successful in the beginning - going about his typical college life without ever thinking about Japan's most treasured wonder girl.
But all of those tactics proved to be futile, until recently that is, when Star Girl! Official Merchandise announced that they were going to release a set of limited edition Orihime Barbie dolls for the first time in history, leading up to this year's Tantaba Festival.
Well... lets just say, the news itself pretty much broke the internet.
And knowing that his two, dearest sisters were the biggest fans of Star Girl!, Ichigo already knew that they would do anything they could, just to try to get their hands on the much coveted Orihime Barbie doll.
Especially Kurosaki Yuzu, the younger of his twin sisters.
For an entire month, Ichigo's younger sister Yuzu scraped together every measly penny she could find, just to have a chance at purchasing the limited edition Star Girl! Barbie doll.
When she discovered that the collection sold out within a minute of going on sale, the poor girl closed herself from the world for days, in utter heartbreak and despair.
Yuzu, the nicest and purest girl Ichigo had ever known, never asked for a single dime in life.
But the moment she wanted something so badly, the opportunity was taken from her without being given a single chance. And the sight of his devastated little sister broke Ichigo to tiny bits and pieces, setting something within him ablaze.
Despite his repulsion for this overrated television character, he vowed to himself, that he was going to get this girl her damn Barbie doll.
No matter the cost.
Or so he thought he could.
You see, there were a few tricks up Kurosaki Ichigo's sleeve.
But later, he quickly realized that conquering this mission was going to take a miracle from the heavens.
First. He tried to get on the waitlist for Star Girl! Official Merchandise and place an order online, but was informed that even the backorder was past capacity and had to wait at least six-months before the company was accepting any new orders. And given that it was a limited edition product, they probably weren't going to take any.
Fine. Whatever.
He had a back-up plan anyways.
Second. He tried to buy the Barbie doll online for resale, thinking it would be a couple hundred dollars extra, but turned out the starting auction price on Ebay was $100,000, and even though Ichigo made pretty good money through his previous internships, he definitely didn't have enough to buy one second hand off a rando online.
Hope was still at an all time high.
But the reality seemed bleak with each passing idea he checked off.
That was until, his dad - although a man with usually the most out-right laughable advice when it came to anything related to women - actually gave him the best idea he could possibly imagine.
"Hey son," his dad said, after seeing a crestfallen Ichigo, "I know you've been trying to get your hands on that Star Girl! Barbie doll, but have you ever thought about just making your own? You're a mechanical engineering major after all, I'm sure you'd be able to design and 3D print one just like the original."
And holy shit. In that moment, he swore, he would retire his father if he could.
Because how could Kurosaki Ichigo ever forget that he attended the most highly-rated university in Japan... as a freaking mechanical engineering fellow.
As if everything he learned during lectures was for this exact moment.
So that's how Operation: Build-an-Orihime commenced.
And given that the Tantaba Festival was a little over two weeks away, he made it a goal to finish the project by then, so that he could surprise Yuzu in time for the highly-anticipated nightly event.
After all, he promised his two sisters back in the beginning of the year that he would take them to this year's Tantaba Festival, after having to cancel on them last year due to the worst hangover of his life.
Which he felt awfully terrible for.
But now, the time read: 10:53AM
7 hours and 7 minutes until the Tantaba Festival
.
And to Ichigo's dismay, he was not completely done with the project.
But to be fair, it wasn't entirely his fault either.
From studying for final exams, to preparing for his summer break trip with friends, to keeping the DIY project a complete secret from nearly everyone he knew.
There was just no way he could deliver said Barbie doll to his perfectionistic liking on time.
And in the end, he decided on the more sensible thing: which was to wait until after the Tantaba Festival was over to finish his creation.
With that, Kurosaki Ichigo was once again reminded of why he was back in the heart of Tokyo on a Friday morning, when he could have been out traveling with his friends.
He ungracefully ascended from his cloud-like sofa and stumbled into his small bedroom to recharge, in preparation for tonight's celebrations.
In the process of stripping out of his airplane clothes and into his comfy joggers, Ichigo glanced over at his messy wooden tabletop, where his unfinished, plastic creation stood.
Behind all that chemical cocktail and makeup, comprising of various vinyl compounds, were days and nights of laborious work.
Ichigo knew, that the amount of painstaking effort and sheer attention to detail needed of him to copy the structural integrity of this delicately crafted doll, was definitely not worth any of his finite time.
But maybe it was his perfectionistic tendencies that got to the best of him. Or maybe it was his ultra-large ego that couldn't gift Yuzu a replica that was anything shy of the original. But whatever his true motive was, even if it was just a plain figurine at the moment, Ichigo couldn't help but gloat over his flawless handiwork.
What a sight.
Because despite what he let on, deep down, the young man could objectively appreciate Orihime's physical design and beauty - every line, stroke, and curve carved to perfection.
After all, given Ichigo's playboy tendencies, it wasn't like he was privy to the female body whatsoever.
Pushing past any deeper implication behind that afterthought, Ichigo crawled into his sanctuary of his twin-sized bed that rested in the corner of his cozy room, letting his mind drift off into dreamland and lavish in these last few hours of rest.
.
.
.
Before he had to wake-up and deal with what would be considered, the worst evening of his life.
A/N: I never thought I would ever write a story from Ichigo's POV, but here we are! Like, Comment, Subscribe for more!