A/N: Because Kitsune Ichigo is one of my favorite things. Also, I am going to be flying out of town and won't update again until Monday. I will be updating though since I already have the next one made.
Disclaimer: If I own Bleach, I am not aware of it.
#25#
Taking Rukia's powers had been an honest to Inari-sama mistake.
After beating up those punks that had spilled over the flowers left for the little ghost girl, he had gotten home, avoided the flying kick his father threw his way and retreated to his room. Once he was in the privacy and relative safety of home and den he had felt it. If he hadn't been used to it already, he would have momentarily freaked out at the sudden loss of control over his transformation and the weight of his tails languidly moving behind his back, as it is, the added weight of a fifth tail had been an unexpected surprise.
Just like every other time he had gained a tail, he felt sleepy and tired so he didn't fight the feeling more than necessary and lapsed into his full Kitsune form before twirling a couple times on his mattress and finding his most comfortable position. A couple hours later, the sensation of someone invading his den made his hair stand on end and he automatically shifted to his full human form and tried to process the weird girl in his room.
He wonders, if only for half a second, whether she noticed his kitsune form but brushes it aside when she seems to be completely focused on something else. Gaining her attention is hard, and once she starts explaining about Shinigami, pluses and hollows, Ichigo comes to a sudden and brain halting conclusion. He had a reaper in his den and he hadn't even noticed. It was at that moment that he remembered the fifth tail he had gained earlier and how it's pretty common to have dulled senses for a while after a new appendage manifests.
Ichigo cursed his life.
Later, when it became obvious that his powers would not come back conveniently to save his family and the Shinigami on time, he grit his teeth and took the sword the girl offered to plunge into his heart.
Somewhere out there, Inari-sama was certainly laughing her tails off.
The next morning when he awoke, bright and early with the first rays of light, he had gotten ready for school and made a beeline to his sisters' room. Yuzu usually woke up early enough to make breakfast, but Ichigo always woke up earlier then that thanks to his ingrained instincts so he was expecting to having to wake them up, and was only vaguely apologetic to do so.
"There was a Reaper here last night." He tells them seriously. "A hollow broke through the seals so we need to replace those, and I wasn't able to burn it down because my powers were being weird last night."
Karin gives him a glare that looks ten times more frightening then usual if only because she has just woken up and Ichigo was the one responsible for it.
"You gained another tail." She says without preamble, and Ichigo only winces slightly at the spark in the twins' eyes before nodding in agreement. "Your powers only fluctuate when you gain a tail Ichi-ni."
He ends up telling them about his acquired Shinigami abilities so they know why he suddenly feels weird and promises to teach them the new seals he will be implementing around the house now that he has a new tail to put even more power into the barrier. By the time they finish their conversation and Yuzu has had her full of petting his new tail, they are all downstairs and back on normal human topics for when Goat-face wanders down.
The Kitsune blood flowing through their veins is something they inherited from their mother, and while their silly father would undeniably not care, it has been an engraved instinct to not tell the man that he has a five tailed Kitsune for a son, and twin two tailed Kitsune for daughters.
In the end, Ichigo ends up having to help the Shinigami with her duties while her own powers recover, and while one part of Ichigo would like to just put up a bunch of barriers to keep hollows out of Karakura, another part of him cringes at all the attention they would attract once it became obvious that hollows were avoiding an entire town.
Rukia also moves into his closet, and while it is only mildly annoying to have to hunt down hollows at odd hours of the day, it is very annoying that he can't shift forms in the safety of his own den with the female reaper constantly in his presence.
Two- three weeks later, they become closer. Ichigo tells her about his mother and she tells him about her old lieutenant and somehow Ichigo feels like this girl that just barged into his life is someone he can tell anything to, and that thought is only mildly frightening.
The next night, while she sleeps calmly in his closet and Ichigo concentrates on feeding power to all the seals he placed all over town but never activated until this point, he also looks up at the stars and tries to find the answers he needs from the heavens. He has his five tails out and an incense is burning next to him. The smoke is swirling and playing with his tails and hair as if the air itself were caressing Ichigo.
By the time the sun rises, he is content with his decision and decides that telling Rukia won't be a problem.
She is shocked, unnecessarily so if you ask him, but Rukia can't seem to get over the fact that there are other mythical creatures out there besides Shinigami and then she coos over his full Kitsune form and bugs him to transform into his half yokai half human form and instantly glomps one of his big orange tails as if it were a giant pillow.
He's flustered and spluttering by the end of the conversation but she promises not to tell a soul and somehow inexplicably Ichigo believes her.
His den is his home and in his home his pack lays. With this bright eyed Reaper sleeping in his closet, and consequently, his den, Ichigo knows without a fraction of doubt that she is now pack whether she likes it or not.
The only thing he makes sure she understands, is that Kitsune are not overgrown magic foxes. Kitsune are dangerous and you should never, never enrage a Kitsune.
"Tales are passed generation after generation of Kitsune." He tells her carefully. "The last Kitsune who fell into her rage was centuries ago when her human lover was killed by her father who did not approve. She called forth the power of all her ancestors and they all answered to her anger and helped eradicate the foolish person who stood in her way."
Rukia had seemed frightened, but it was sinking in that Kitsune were not cuddly foxes and that was good enough for Ichigo.
"You must know Rukia, that Kitsune are said to be as clever as the devil, and twice as pretty." Ichigo ended with a quirk of a smile and it had instantly relaxed Rukia into petting his tails once more.
Fast forward two weeks and his world gets turned over once more.
By the time he regains conscious in Urahara's shop, he is raging and boiling with pent up anger at the loss of one of his pack mates but puts a lid on his tempest and focuses on his plan to save her instead.
He lets the crazy shop owner butcher his soul to regain his Shinigami powers and trains like mad before going home to rest for a day and see how his sisters are doing. Once he walks up the door and trails up the stairs to his room he stops and notices, perhaps for the first time consciously, that while Rukia is now gone, the smell of Reaper still remains. He shakes off the feeling and tries to ignore it but by the time they are all sitting at the table for dinner, the room instantly floods with the faintest of smell of Reaper when his father comes in and- well, Ichigo can put two and two together.
He doesn't say anything though, because they have their own secret, and if the old Goat wants to keep one too, well who is he to judge? Also, he now has a valid reason for that paranoid feeling he got whenever the thought of telling their father crossed their mind.
So now he knows where his Shinigami powers come from –and they really are his, surprisingly enough- so he continues to train with fervor and masters his two bladed shikai before it's time to go and he's invading Soul Society with three other teenagers and a… cat.
That had been a conversation.
The moment Yoruichi had met him, she had hissed and he had jumped back and barred his canines at her as if she had just offended his pride. There had been yells, Ichigo vaguely recalls, and by the time he and Yoruichi had come to an agreement, Ichigo had been half choking her to death, half trying to maw her arm off, while she had been attempting to claw his eyes or heart out- could have been both.
They are dusty and Ichigo is in his full Kitsune form while Yoruichi had grown in size to match his own. Both sat on their hind legs, fiery amber meeting eerie yellow before she had burst out laughing and Ichigo had felt a smile curling at his lips –if his grin somehow looked more like a barring of teeth, Ichigo knew the feline would appreciate it more.
There had been a bit of an explanation to the humans, and while Ichigo hadn't told Urahara-san to keep his Kitsune form a secret, Ichigo had met his stare head on and had seen an unspoken promise reflected.
Yoruichi is a Bakaneko, and while most of the time Kitsune and Bakaneko don't mesh well, Ichigo can reluctantly appreciate Yoruichi's power and presence. Ichigo also knows Yoruichi appreciates his own power and presence which is more obvious in his five gleaming tails then it is in her own- hidden and subtle.
They finally find their way into Soul Society after a couple hurdles and eagerly make havoc. Ichigo attacks his enemies head on when he feels the power gleaming off of them, but mischievously walks amongst them with a new face and body when all he senses are weak Shinigami. He has his fun shifting into women or men with different eyes and statures as if he were completely different people, fooling people left and right while simultaneously being fed, clothed, and general hospitality from right under the noses of those he is invading.
When he battles Kenpachi and ends up a smear on the ground for a couple minutes while he heals himself, he huffs an involuntary sigh and pouts for a couple seconds before catching himself and scowling for all he's worth. Yoruichi finds him while he's still knitting himself together and as she makes a great effort to avoid laughing out loud, Ichigo knows she is bursting on the inside.
So Ichigo trains again and curb stomps his Zanpaktou into the ground before they finally, finally acquis to teach him bankai. Shiro-Zangetsu –his mirror image in half yokai, half human form all white- and Old man Zangetsu –black shoulder length hair, facial hair, flowing black cloak with the same half yokai, half human form as Shiro- look only marginally okay with this scenario- and the only reason Ichigo feels they agreed in the end, is because Ichigo had somehow gained two more tails away from home.
When a Kitsune gets tails outside of their comfort zone, it is a sign that the Kitsune is now growing powerful enough to not need that relative safety of home that younger kits need.
He barley makes it in time to stop Rukia's execution and gains great pleasure in throwing Rukia through the air for Renji to catch while he distracts the lieutenants and captains as best as he can.
Battling Rukia's brother is interesting if only because Ichigo feels the man must have some Yokai blood somewhere in his family tree. Maybe Tengu blood, he wouldn't have been surprised. But if Byakuya has Yokai blood, the man is unaware of it and Ichigo is not about to tell his enemy about a potential power he can learn.
He defeats Byakuya without using his Kitsune powers if only marginally and because he made sure to keep his bankai Shinigami only with no presence of his other powers so as to not tip his hand. He has his pride, and while defeating an enemy in itself is satisfactory, defeating an enemy at its own game is even more so.
That thought, is unceremoniously thrown out the window when he meets Aizen Sosuke.
He's gained an eighth tail after saving Rukia from certain death, and he can feel something as he stands in front of the deceiving, two faced lying piece of crap in front of him.
Sure, Kitsunes are playful, like to do pranks on people and deceiving is pretty much part of their blood, but he is a zenko (善狐, literally good foxes) and his pranks are always harmless, he's not a yako (野狐, literally field foxes, also called nogitsune)!
This asshole, is going down.
As Ichigo purses his lips and grits his teeth, he looks back at Rukia and makes sure his eyes are serious.
"Rukia," he calls out into the tense silence. "Remember that day after grand fisher?"
The way her eyes widen ever so slightly make him think she knows exactly what he is talking about.
"Of course I do." She answers unnecessarily from where she is sprawled behind Renji.
"Good" Ichigo nodded. "Now would be a good time to remember."
He unleashes his real bankai, and makes sure everyone else will know from now onwards.
Those that believe that Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, have never had the displeasure to meet a Kitsune scorned.
Not to be continued…