Chapter 5 - Paper Trail Revelations
Karakura Town, Kurosaki Household - Bleach World, Living World - The morning after the end of the previous chapter.
(Seele's P.O.V)
I groan as I slowly begin to wake up, feeling like there is a large weight on my body before I end up opening my eyes to stare right at the sleeping face of my only retinue member to date Nelliel, who must have snuck into my, and Ichigo's room to snuggle up to me.
Seeing that Ichigo is still asleep right now, I quickly use my ice shroud to ever so gently get her off of me and allow me to sit up to look around Ichigo's room, the fact that I'm not only in the bleach world but also able to sleep in Ichigo Kurosaki's room is honestly quite the revelation for the more fangirl part of me for a short moment.
I mean it's not all sunshine and rainbows as I now have to deal with not only the insanity of the Winter War but also the Quincy Blood War a few years later, which is going to be interesting since I should be able to use the time to teach Ichigo some things that by all rights they should have taught her much sooner.
"I would advise restraint in teaching Ichigo everything about her heritage for the time being, especially since there is simply too much to teach her and not enough time to do so," Old Man Zangetsu says from within my soul, likely hearing my thoughts on the matter and decided to speak up about it…
"Then we'll do it after the war then, when we have over a year to mend those flaws without Aizen hanging over everyone's heads," I say in response just quietly enough to prevent either of the two sleeping women from hearing my response, or the surveillance tech on Ichigo's combat pass.
I can feel Old Man Zangetsu's agreement from within my soul as the thought of how Aizen was eventually defeated comes to mind, I turn to look at the sleeping orangette with a frown as there is one thing I know I will not allow her to gain access to for good reason.
"She is never going to learn the Final Getsuga Tensho, not if I have anything to say about it" I vow silently to myself, feeling Old Man Zangetsu and what I suspect is Hollow Zangetsu within me being in full agreement with the idea as both of them know how agonizing the months after the war was for Ichigo.
Even if a pragmatic part of my brain knows that it might still end up coming to that…
It's right at that moment the door to Ichigo's room bursts open, startling both Nelliel and Ichigo awake as a certain black-haired man rushes up to Ichigo with a goofy as fuck grin on his face as he goes for a high-jump kick at the now very much awake orangette.
"Think fast Ichigo!" the man, Isshin Kurosaki, Ichigo's goofball of a father and formerly a Gotei 13 captain, says as Ichigo immediately ducks out of the way and watches as her father smashes through the window and falls to the ground below, letting out a pained groan.
"Dad I thought you had stopped doing that move after I started high school!" Ichigo shouts down at her father through the smashed window, her large breasts bouncing about in the tank top she chose to sleep while yelling at him.
I don't hear exactly what Isshin said but whatever it was, it was enough to make Ichigo groan and facepalm while cursing under her breath, soon looking over at me and Nelliel while blinking as she looks momentarily confused before recognition lights up in her brown eyes.
"Sorry about that you two, that was just my dad being an idiot like he always is," Ichgio says before sighing as she pauses for a moment, thinking about something momentarily before seemingly coming to a decision.
"I'll take you two to Hat and Clog's place before I go to school today, as I don't think a time traveler and an Arrancar can go to school anyway, in the meantime can you wait outside my room for me?" Ichigo asks, prompting me and Nelliel to simply look at each other before acquiescing to the request, walking out of the room shortly afterward before Ichigo shuts the door and begins to get dressed.
As I am about to say something, I can sense one of the sisters of Ichigo is approaching Icigo's room, and knowing that one of them can already more or less see spirits, I quickly motion for Nelliel to wait outside before Karin sees her.
The busty lime green-haired arrancar leaves through the walls of the house like any spirit technically can just before Karin Kurosaki rounds the corner, looking frustrated as the small pre-teen walks over to me with a grimace on her face.
"Did Dad just decide to try one of those high jump kicks again?" Karin asks me bluntly, prompting me to nod as the short black-haired girl sighs and shakes her head, grumbling something under her breath as she suddenly grabs me by the wrist.
"Come on, might as well join us for breakfast for you head home," Karin says as she drags me downstairs, soon spotting Nelliel looking at me through the window as I mouth the words I'll bring you some to her, with the busty green-haired arrancar nodding as she moves away from the window before anyone can see her.
Eventually, I and Karin reach the dining table with the kitchen in full view, Yuzu is already hard at work cooking breakfast for everyone which is admittedly quite the wholesome sight, taking a seat alongside Karin as the front door opens to reveal Isshin walks back inside after wiping off shards of glass from his shirt.
"I can't believe you decided to pull that crap with a guest here Dad!" Karin shouts at her father, looking quite annoyed as Isshin is quick to rush to the giant poster of Masaki Kurosaki and blubber about their daughters being mean to him.
While Karin and Yuzu just sighed at their father's antics, I focused more on how I could sense the slowly rising level of Reiatsu within Isshin due to the fact that, unlike Ichigo, I was able to get a very tight grip on my own immense Reiatsu in a similar manner that Vergil would harness his demonic powers, which is allowing me to notice it even with Ichigo's own spiritual Reiatsu all but concealing it.
As I am mentally upping the priority of having Ichigo try to get a hold of her spiritual energy so that she isn't blindsided by stuff like this in the future, the busty orangette in question soon heads downstairs with her bag in her hands.
"Morning Karin, Morning Yuzu, what's for breakfast?" Ichigo asks as she takes a seat next to me, her eyes briefly looking around for Nelliel before shrugging as Yuzu begins bringing over pancakes for everyone, even Isshin has stopped his usual antics by this point and has joined everyone at the table with a goofy smile on his face.
"Pancakes today big sis, wanted to try something more sweet today since your new friend slept over last night," Yuzu says with a bright smile on her face as soon everyone, including myself, began to tuck into our rather sweet breakfast, the pancakes are honestly very delicious and drizzled with just the right amount of maple syrup that I ever so briefly wonder if one could become addicted to Yuzu Kurosaki's cooking.
It's then that I realize that I don't think I can smuggle out pancakes for Nelliel, but thankfully it seems that Ichigo has made the same realization and after finishing her pancakes she asks if it's possible to get some toast made quickly as she'll need the extra food for school.
While this does raise an eyebrow from Karin, Yuzu is only too happy to make some toast for Ichigo once the youngest of the three Kurosaki sisters is done with her own breakfast, with the busty orangette thanking Yuzu as the young girl ducks into the kitchen to make a quick slice of toast.
A short yet comfortable amount of silence passes before Yuzu returns with some toast, with Ichigo graciously accepting it before looking at me and motioning me to the front door, prompting me to nod and stand up from the dining table.
"Mr. Kurosaki thank you for allowing me to sleep over last night, it was good to meet you all," I say while bowing, truly grateful for being able to stay at a location that is something of a dream of a bleach fan like myself, prompting Isshin to chuckle and give a thumps up.
"You're always welcome to come back anytime, after all, my eldest rarely brings anyone over anymore, it's like she's embarrassed by her home life here," Isshin says with a bright smile, prompting Ichigo to begin twitching in clear annoyance as she suddenly grabs me and begins dragging me towards the door.
"I'm pretty sure other girls don't have to deal with their dad trying to repeatedly ambush them every morning!" Ichigo shouts over to her dad as we are leaving out the front door, briefly treated to the sight of Isshin goofily running to the Masaki poster again right as the door closes behind us.
"You know that the neighbors could have heard you and misunderstood the situation right?" I ask Ichigo as we begin walking towards Kisuke's shop, prompting Ichigo to sigh right as Nelliel comes into view again and starts walking alongside us, with Ichigo casually giving the toast to the grateful green-haired arrancar beauty as the busty orangette gives me a deadpan stare.
"That did actually happen once or twice, but thankfully we were able to make sure that it didn't get to the point of police getting involved as I dunno if we can talk dad out of that sort of misunderstanding," Ichigo says with a grimace as her eyes seem to be far-away, likely recalling those particular incidents before shaking her head, her expression turning somber as she seems hesitant to say something before eventually…
"Hey Seele, I need to ask….my dad and my sisters, are they ok in the future you came from?" Ichigo asks quietly, I silently ponder on how to answer that question without giving too much away, before eventually deciding on my answer.
"Your father and sisters will lose their lives if we don't stop Aizen, that's why I am here in the first place Ichigo, to prevent that loss of life," I say in response, Ichigo is silent as she processes this, the only hint that she is downright furious is her empty left hand clenching extremely hard and the extremely slight shaking of her entire body.
Eventually, she gets her anger under control and gives me a brief, sharp nod at my words as the three of us continue on our way to Kisuke's shop, silence lingers between the three of us the whole way there with Nelliel happily enjoying her toast.
Urahara Shoten, Karakura town - Almost half an hour later
(Seele's P.O.V)
"I think I'm gonna have to go clothes shopping at one point, my outfit really sticks out like a sore thumb around here," I say to myself, just as a means to try and distract myself, trying to rid myself of the nervousness I feel about being just a few steps away from the shop of Kisuke Urahara himself.
Although the nervousness I feel is more because the longer I am around Kisuke, the more I have to try and avoid spilling too much information despite the temptation to lay down the entire events for the next few years, mainly because talking about events with Aizen is one thing, trying to explain about the Quincies is another.
Wait speaking about Quincy, I just remembered this one Idea that I read about in an old Bleach Fanfic called A Protector's Pride back during my past life…
"Hey Ichigo, before we go in I recall that in the future, you had a Quincy friend called Uryu Ishida correct?" I ask Ichigo, prompting the busty orangette to stop before she can open the door to the shoten and turns around, nodding her head and looking curious at the sudden question.
"Yeah I do, but he currently doesn't have his powers….wait do you know how to restore them?" Ichigo asks after realizing where I might be going with this question of mine, prompting me to nod as I hold up two fingers as I know two such methods, one that is canonical and one that is theoretical at best due to how it occurred in the fanfiction I read.
"I know of two methods, the first requires them to go see his father and through a process only the two of them knew about, Uryu would gain his powers back," I say while curling one of the fingers, making Ichigo gain a rather inquisitive look on her face as she never knew about Uryu's father being involved in the spiritual world.
"The second is more theoretical but poses no real risk in attempting it, as could try having your friend Orihime use her unique powers to restore them, perhaps rejecting the fact he ever lost them in the first place?" I suggest, Ichigo being about to say that it wouldn't work like that before stopping and truly thinking about it, while she isn't sure about the Idea, it's clear that she intends to suggest it to her friends at school.
"Alright I'll ask Orihime to try it after school, thanks Seele," Ichigo says with a smile as she goes into the shoten along with me, seeing a tall, muscular man with rectangular-rimmed glasses, cornrowed dark hair, all while sporting a particularly vibrant handlebar mustache neatly connected to his sideburns.
This man is Tessai Tsukabishi, former commander of the Kido Corps of the Soul Society…
"Good morning Ichigo, I take it the young woman with you is our time-traveling associate with her arrancar friend?" Tessai asks Ichigo once he sees her, myself, and Nelliel at the door of the shop with Ichigo nodding her head at the question, soon gesturing the three of us inside before flipping the open sign to say closed.
Tessai leads the three of us further into the shop before opening the wooden hatch that leads into the underground training room, turning his head toward us as he points down toward said room.
"The boss is down there waiting for the three of you already along with Yoruichi and some visitors from the Soul Society," Tessai says with Ichigo looking hesitant as she considers just leaving and going to school before ultimately sighing and promptly using her substitute soul-reaper combat pass to exit out of her body, with me quickly catching it before it falls to the floor.
"Can you take care of my body while I am here then Tessai?" Ichigo asks as she looks down the open wooden hatch to the underground training room, to which Tessai nods and gently takes Ichigo's body from my grasp, allowing Ichigo to jump down the hatch without bothering to take the ladder once she sees her body being moved away by Tessai.
I sigh before gesturing to Nelliel to follow along as I jump down too, with the busty green-haired arrancar smiling and waving to Tessai before she too jumps down the hatch. Before long Ichigo has already reached the base of the ladder and has yet to move out of the way which prompts me to use a summoned sword to warp to a point just a few feet away from Ichigo.
Unfortunately, Nelliel didn't get the memo to move out of the way, prompting her to land on top of Ichigo as the busty substitute soul-reaper is sat on by Nelliel with said orangette's head trapped between Nelliel's thighs by accident.
It doesn't take more than a few seconds for Ichigo to throw Nelliel off of her head, although she's blushing hard while doing so as I get the feeling she saw something that not even I have yet to see, a flash of annoyance and jealousy surging before I quash it hard as it was only an accident.
Once all three of us are on our feet and have calmed down from the extremely minor incident, I can sense Kisuke Urahara's Reiatsu along with Yoruichi's own right next to it, across from two Reiatsu signatures that I've never felt before.
It's only as we draw closer that I am able to put faces to those same Reiatsu signatures, the first is Rukia Kuchiki who notices us, or more specifically Ichigo, and smiles at her orangette friend, casting a wary glance at Nelliel before looking at me with an unusual expression before turning her gaze back to Kisuke.
The second one is far more surprising as the man next to her is Byakkuya Kuchiki who seems to have been in deep discussion prior to my arrival here, although once he notices us he ignores Ichigo and even the Arrancar in the room to look squarely at me as if sizing me up for some reason.
"So, this is the so-called time-traveler, Seele Rand..?" Byakkuya says as Kisuke hides his smile behind a fan, nodding his head while turning to face me as a feeling of dread washes over me, I can tell Kisuke has got some sort of scheme in the works but don't know what.
"That is indeed her, and now that she's right here, you can sense it too can't you?" Kisuke says as I can't help but feel like I'm missing a large amount of context, but either way, I feel Bykkauya's Reiatsu wash over me momentarily before the nobleman's eyes widen before glancing over at Ichigo and then Rukia next to him.
Rukia for her part just looks like she wants to dig a hole and bury herself inside it but at the same time takes occasional glances at me, almost hesitant to even gaze at me for longer than a few seconds while me, Ichigo and Nelliel look completely baffled by the strange turn of the conversation.
"OK can someone please fill us in on what exactly you two are on about, I didn't plan on wasting school hours for a one-sided conversation," Ichigo says, growing annoyed at how Kisuke and Byakkuya's lack of an explanation, prompting Yoruichi to smirk and swagger over to Ichigo.
"Well you see Ichigo, Kisuke had been analyzing Seele's Reiatsu signature and noticed how it matched yours and one other person, yours and Rukia's over there," Yoruichi says as Ichigo looks confused, meanwhile the implications begin to sink in and I began to realize why Byakkuya is here instead of Renji, and right now I want to outright strangle whoever set up my Paper Trail because I didn't expect it to corroborate my future claim in this manner!
"Well of course her Reiatsu matches, she has my powers after all" Ichigo says, still oblivious to implications which finally makes Rukia put her hands in her head and groan, something I honestly want to do myself now as I can truly share her embarrassment in this moment for wildly different reasons.
"Ichigo Kurosaki, what your sensei is trying to say is that the young woman standing next to you is the result of a combined effort between you and my sister to create a new life," Byakkuya says, although it's clear he is uncomfortable with even saying such, prompting Ichigo to freeze and slowly turn to face me with wide eyes as what everyone is saying finally sinks in.
"Indeed, Seele Rand is in actuality perhaps more Seele Kuchiki-Kurosaki~!" Kisuke says while hiding that damn smile behind his fan, what's even worse is that I literally can't try to convince them otherwise, lest my time-travel claim comes under suspicion, it's a real damned if you do, damned if you don't situation that I'm stuck in all because of the Paper Trail Perk I bought for my build.
With that in mind, I have only one way of going about this….
"I…fine, I really really hoped I didn't need to reveal this, considering it might put my own existence at risk but, Yea my name isn't Seele Rand, it's Seele Kuchiki-Kurosaki" I finally say after several moments, internally I want to scream but at this point, this is not at all how I envisioned today would go as I thought I would try to explain my situation to a captain in order to not get me or Nelliel axed, not learn that whoever set up my paper trail had a sense of humor.
While Rukia looks at me hesitantly, almost unsure how to speak to her newly revealed future daughter, Ichigo on the other hand is still looking at me a lot more closely and sighs while pinching the bridge of her nose and trying desperately to organize her thoughts.
"Now that you mention it, you do look similar enough to Rukia and even share a similar voice," Ichigo says after a moment of consideration before her eyes widen, and looks over at Kisuke as if she realized something important.
"Hey Hat and Clogs, how can seele be born between me and Rukia when we're both women?!" Ichigo asks as biologically it's not normally possible for two women to have a child together outside of adoption.
"Judging by how our dear time-traveler got here, and the fact she can use something similar to what your friend Orihime can do with her unique abilities, I suspect she may have had a hand in the creation process somehow," Kisuke says, although it's clear he is very interested to see how it is possible in the first place, prompting Yoruichi to give her long-time friend an annoyed look as she knows how Kisuke gets when faced with a scientific conundrum that he wants to solve.
And with that one response, any thoughts of me potentially not being the daughter of Ichigo and Rukia died right there as almost everyone here collectively knows about Orihime's unique powers and the fact that they're not at full potential yet either.
It's as everyone is talking about how I was born that I realize why Byakkuya of all people came instead of any other captain at this moment, this isn't a Gotei 13 matter right now, this is a Kuchiki clan matter with me as the prime topic of said matter.
"Kisuke Urahara, the Kuchiki clan will be taking Seele Kuchiki-Kurosaki back to the Soul Society, alongside her Arrancar companion, where she will be granted her place in the Kuchiki clan while also being required to explain her story directly to the head captain," Byakuya says after finally regaining his full composure, once more back to being the nobleman that he is.
"Wait, don't I get a say in this?" I ask the two, as I feel like I am effectively being dragged to the Soul Society without my consent here, unfortunately, it seems that both Kisuke and Byakuya are ignoring my protest here as Byakuya opens a Sekaimon back to the Soul Society.
In the end, despite my immense hesitation and reluctance, both myself and Nelliel walked into the Senkaimon alongside Byakuya and Rukia, only stopping momentarily when Ichigo reached out and grasped my right shoulder.
"Look I don't care if you are or are not my daughter somehow, just make sure you come back to Karakura town once you're done with gramps, I wanna spar with you again without what happened last time occurring," Ichigo says, prompting me to smirk back at the busty orangette and nod my head.
As Ichigo slowly moves away, the Senkaimon shuts behind me, Nelliel, Rukia, and Byakuya as it is time for me to finally head to the Soul Society, even if the reason for why I am doing so is not one I was actively planning on happening.
I am still gonna strangle whoever set up my Paper Trail in this manner though…
Author's Notes
And that's chapter 5 finished!
First of all, I want to apologize for the long gap between chapters 4 and 5, a combination of writer's block, several IRL factors, and focus on other stories left me unable to come back to this for awhile.
Now then we'll have three plot discussions this time around, starting with…
The Idea to "Reject" Uryu's powers
This is admittedly something I had read before in the fanfic A Protector's Pride, as Orihime's powers are quite incredible if one really thinks about how it is presented, so the possibility of Uryu's powers coming back early is definitely a possibility.
Of course, if it doesn't end up working out, at least Uryu will know from Seele's information to ask his father about restoring his Quincy powers, even if it leads to the same promise as before being made.
And now the real meat of the chapter…
Seele being Ichigo and Rukia's daughter
This was actually an earlier Idea that I played around with in early concept Ideas for Quantum Hybrid but had originally intended to drop the Idea on the cutting room floor, at least until I realized later on this year how the concept could be used through both Seele's time-travel claim and the fact that the Paper Trail Perk can actually allow for it.
Of course, this will have ripple effects that will come into play later, but I'm gonna keep what those are close to my chest for now, all I will say though is that a lot of these will involve Ichigo in some manner.
And before anyone gets worried, no this will not affect the parings I have in mind one bit, save for making the journey require more effort on Seele's part.
Where is the Mystery arrival?
Unfortunately, with the revelations of this chapter, I had to push them to come to Karakura Town for the next Chapter instead as much as I wanted to reveal this person sooner…
Now then, next time on Quantum Hybrid: Arrival at the Soul Society, Important meetings, and a new arrival to Karakura town (Hopefully for real this time)
Take care everyone, see you all next month!