Ichigo had always known.
He had always known who he was from the moment he had his first rational thought and had probably known on some subconscious level even before that.
Case in point, Ichigo had always known, if not fully understood from the start.
But if something was clear in his head, it was that he had Quincy blood in his veins, Shinigami reiatsu flowing through his Tenketsu, and his original human soul shared space with a Hollow's. Some of these things were hard to rationalize during his younger years, but if there was something he clearly understood from the start, was that all this combined somehow made him a Prince and that someday he would be King.
There were times where he questioned where this notion came from, if maybe it was just a child's wistful imagination and a want to be special, but whenever he doubted, he would feel a fire in his chest beating in tandem with his heart telling him no, he was not creating ideas in his mind.
When he was seven, he met his very first Demon.
Ichigo had been sitting on the step of his front door, waiting for his mother to get the girls ready for an excursion in the park when the world seemed to almost stop.
The birds had ceased chirping, the noise from people walking down the street settled into an eerie silence and even the wind had paused in it's caress of the world. When Ichigo looked around as if trying to find the disturbance, his eyes settled on a human shaped being standing at the edge of the Kurosaki House property with a sardonic smile playing at his lips.
"Good evening, my Prince." He ducked in a hasty yet flamboyant bow. "My name is Beelzebub of the First Hierarchy, Prince of the Seraphim and aspect of Gluttony."
Ichigo stared at the Demon in front of him and felt no fear whatsoever. Instead he stood from his seat and walked towards the tall and looming figure dressed in an all-black suit and extended his hand out in greeting.
He was very happy when a hand was outstretched in turn only half a heartbeat later. "I'm Kurosaki Ichigo." He introduced himself happily before pausing and furrowing his eyebrows as if concentrating strongly on something only he could see. "Or umm, Shiba Ichigo? I think I'm a Prince, uh…" he clenched his jaw further as thoughts passed hyper quick across his mind, too fast for him to process more than tiny tidbits. "No I'm… Heir to a Throne, Prince of all. I'm probably aspect of Pride?" he ended in an upward tilt, his sentences changing into questions without his consent.
The demon- Beelzebub only cackled in glee as he let go of Ichigo's hand and quickly came down to swoop him in a hug that the orange head only halfheartedly protested.
"You are so precious!" the demon proclaimed. "I wasn't expecting the Knowledge to be awakening so soon in your head but it's good to know you will be able to take up your duties sooner than expected."
Ichigo made a vaguely disturbed noise from the back of his throat and was not appeased in the least when the only thing Beelzebub did was pat him on the back as if in reassurance.
"Not to worry My Prince. We will go on a journey to the Castle and I'm sure more things will make sense." He languidly explained while gesturing his hand in a half circle and opening an ominous looking portal that he stepped into without hesitation.
Ichigo was only vaguely concerned for himself in the sense that he felt safe with this Demon stranger.
His trip to Hell -he was in Hell, what in the world- was, as Beelzebub said, very enlightening. Not only had the turbulent thoughts bouncing around his head settled down into a passive buzz at the back of his mind, but he had also finally understood what he meant when he stated he was a Prince but not of what.
From what he could process of the Knowledge, when a being of all the original Mortal races was born, they would be eligible to take up one of the two Thrones holding the worlds together. What Throne one was to take up was always up to debate if both were occupied at the time, but if there was an empty Throne, the new candidate will take up the empty. Before he took up the Throne, he was still considered a Prince of all and all domains would remain in his purview. But once he took up the mantle of Soul King or Demon King -less commonly known as the Flesh King- he would only be able to directly affect one and indirectly the other.
The Worlds needed linchpins to keep it from crumbling and the two together balanced out the realms. However, when one side fell, the other had to keep their full attention onto maintaining the order of the world and settled into a coma until a new counterpart rose to the Throne. Right now the Soul King was inactive, and once Ichigo finished assimilating all his Knowledge, he would ascend to the empty Throne of Demon King.
That day was not today though, and while Beelzebub gave him a grand tour of the palace and introduced him to many other demons from the first Hierarchy and some of the second, it was obvious to see that none of the demons expected him to march to the Throne room and sit on the chair anytime soon either.
He didn't return to his family in a whole two days where he spent his time observing the Demons that would come into the Castle and the hulking forms of the Kushanāda patrolling around the seventh floor that he could see through the window.
He was treated very respectfully, and while a couple of the higher ranked Demons gave him unimpressed looks, most of them were genuinely happy to see him, and the wait staff was utterly ecstatic to have the Master of the palace back.
Ichigo learned a couple more things in his journey into Hell, and while most were all Knowledge that he had gained about the inner workings of the place and vague ideas of Hell's counterpart, he also made sure Beelzebub taught him how to open portals to and from the overworld.
Once he stepped back into the human world and back at home, he had taken a quick look at the still frozen universe and broke the spell with a mere want.
He wasn't sure he could stop the world if he wanted to leave again, but taking off the enchantment that Beelzebub had placed wasn't taxing in the least as all he needed to do was corrode the magic with his own superior one.
Half a second later the breeze continued it's path and the birds finished their chirps.
Ichigo had returned home with many questions answered but a thousand questions more.
They made a habit of it.
Only Demons from the first Hierarchy could stop time, and he made it abundantly clear that he was not leaving his family for any period of real time so they would occasionally drop by when they knew he was alone and steel him for a while -ranging between hours to a couple days- he also made them understand that he would not stay away for more than 5 days.
Besides, dealing with time magic was a tricky thing. While every world stopped, Hell would continue to work properly and so an imbalance could occur if they continued to abuse it so much. It was a good thing they didn't stop the Worlds more than once a month, and by the time he was 9 he had understood and assimilated the Knowledge necessary to wield Time magic which only worked in his favor.
It was not until three months later, a month before he turned 10, that he fully comprehended what it meant to stop time.
Ichigo was spiritually active, he saw and felt all spiritual beings in his radius and that included his parents -who were they trying to fool? Ichigo knew full well what they were- so he knew what Hollows were, what they did and that it was a good idea to avoid them to not attract any unwanted attention. Lately he had been getting an inkling of unease from his Knowledge, like there was a lurking danger of an unseen predator and it was making him jittery so he made an extra effort to appear normal and human to everyone around him.
This meant, that when he was walking back home with his mother from Karate practice, he saw the little girl standing by the riverbank, felt the cold sensation of a spirit -not a nice one- and promptly ignored it.
He still felt weary thought. Much, much wearier than he had ever felt before and he did not like it one bit. With alarm bells ringing in his ear and his heart banging a tattoo in his chest, he almost missed the moment his mom loosened the grip she had on his hand and slowly fell to the rain-soaked ground.
He snapped back to attention, his eyes widening as he tried to process what was happening before she gasped a choked off breath and her reiatsu shifted from her normally controlled and peaceful feeling to a heavy and thick cloak that surrounded the general vicinity.
"K-Ka-chan!" He managed to stutter out as her breath continued to quicken and her entire body started to tremble. Ichigo knelt down beside her to try and figure out what was going on when he felt his own heart skip a beat.
After 900 years of being sealed, he will regain his pulse.
His breath hitched in his throat as the Knowledge sang with information he could, for the first time, actually and fully understand. The puzzle pieces slotting in place and images from the past fluttering in his head.
After another 90, he would regain his intellect.
This was Auswählen, and the person behind it was the Soul King's so-called son; The Sealed King. Ichigo could not help but feel an uncharacteristic rage bubble up from deep in his soul.
And after 9 more years, he would absorb the power of every "impure" Quincy to make their abilities his own.
His next breath came out steadier, and he offhandedly noted that the Quincy King could not take his power because weather the man knew it or not, he was above him, and always would be. Ichigo was the real deal, a King in the making.
Once he felt like he could look up without spots dancing in his eyes, Ichigo turned back to his Mom who was still gasping and trembling next to him, he could tell she was starting to regain coherency, and while she no longer had her Quincy powers, she was in fit health and would survive the absorption.
She would not.
The next couple seconds were a blur to him, and it would not be until later when he was sitting in a hard-plastic hospital chair that he would properly understand.
The fluctuations in their reiatsu when Ywach took Masaki's Quincy Powers had attracted the spirit Ichigo had seen beforehand. It had been a hollow, and Ichigo had been so preoccupied with the assimilation of his Knowledge and his mom that he had not noticed the approaching monster. Mom did, and she had thrown herself between Ichigo and the hollow without hesitation, and nothing Ichigo could do, changed the outcome.
Ichigo could stop time. He was a being with unimaginable power, ever growing knowledge and he had The Knowledge in him too.
He could not turn back time. He hardly knew how to use his unimaginable power, the knowledge he had was useless and no matter how mighty The Knowledge seemed to be at times, it was just him.
So Kurosaki Masaki died on that faithful July 17, and while Ichigo did change because of it, his biggest change didn't even show in his day to day life.
The biggest change was seen behind closed doors and in his realm.
He grew his power, but more importantly, he learned how to utilize it too. As the days and years went by, Ichigo met his inner spirits -an acute representation of all his parts- and learned their name. He got the hang of his Quincy abilities, familiarized himself with his Hollow side and power as well. His human side was… complicated. One would think being part Human just made his soul more average but his human-ness was the reason why The Kings were so terrifying. His human side gave him the power of ever growing. Souls in the afterlife, and Quincy are born with a certain potential already prearranged. They may grow into it, they may not, but that limit stays that same and does not change. Humans who gain supernatural powers also slowly start to assimilate this, and little by little their power for change stopped.
Ichigo, being the perfect hybrid of all four races, was not just a person who could wield all the abilities, he was the embodiment of balance and so he could merge the powers without any handicaps or problems that other incomplete hybrids would have -one side would always be more powerful and so the other would be subpar and never reach its maximum potential.
Ichigo had more power at his fingertips than most people did in their entire life.
It was terrifying at times.
His power as a Prince, was actually a prelude.
When Ichigo was fourteen, he sat on his throne and the worlds quaked.
Might be continued…
This will maybe be a two part-er… I don't know.