Disclaimer: The only kind of Bleach I own is for the laundry.
Story: When Rukia comes to Karakura, Gin tags along for supervision (and because he made some nobles angry). How will Ichigo deal with both of them, while they adjust to a surprising human that could do things she shouldn't? Especially given the odd things that keep happening around her. Fem!Ichigo AU.
Set as a genderbent AU.
Spoilers: Yes, most definitely.
Pairings: Ryuuken Ishida/Ichigo, Gin/Ichigo, Urahara/Ichigo, Aizen/Ichigo, Ukitake/Ichigo, Kyouraku/Ichigo, Byakuya/Ichigo, and maybe one-sided Others/Ichigo, Grimmjow/Ichigo, Ulquirrora/Ichigo…
Warnings: My usual crap…crazy writing, some perverseness every now and then, drama, angst, wild humor, drama, romance, drama, and that kind of thing…

Bleach It Orange!
Chapter Five: Waiting On a Hero

The morning had felt off to Ichigo, but she tried not to look into it more. Nothing had seemed out of place, though she definitely felt suspicious. Then again, what with those two Soul Reapers hanging around, it wasn't (and probably shouldn't be) too much of a surprise she felt like this and was acting even the remotest paranoid.

But her friends had been giving her worried looks since she'd arrived to school, and she did all she could to evade questions and try to reassure them she was fine. Really. Because she was.

Just except the strange feeling she had, ever since she'd woken up in her room and felt something was amiss.

The usual avoidance of Chizuru and Keigo's overly physical affections were easily shrugged off (part of the normal in her life, but they were especially aggressive and clingy today), Mizuiro was slightly a little too inquisitive (unlike his usual self, which clued her in to his worrying), Orihime and Tatsuki had stuck to her side for the most part, and then there was Chad who had planted himself by the two other girls by Ichigo's side and practically stared off anyone else who wanted to come near her.

But Ichigo just couldn't stop thinking about what was bothering her and trying to put a finger on it. Everyone's hovering wasn't helping her to think and get her to figure out what was bothering her and had set off her senses so early on in the morning, so she finally managed to ditch everyone and go off on her own.

By then, she'd been found by her fanclub, while she had also managed to find Rukia. As Ichigo fended off the usual fans, she kept an eye on her. It wasn't long until the dark-haired girl sidled over and Ichigo's gut feeling was right on target. The little midget was up to something, because that face boded no goodwill.

"Ichigo-hime, huh?" she asked slyly and Ichigo inwardly sighed. She knew it. Damn that nickname!

She gave the other a dark look. "What do you want?"

Rukia smiled smugly, eying her predatorily and making Ichigo want to scoot away…or call Chad over, to stand between them.

"I lost my powers and can't do anything, so it falls to you to fulfill my duties as a Soul Reaper," she announced.

"No thanks."

Rukia's smile dropped and she gaped at the taller girl. Ichigo looked blandly back.

"What? Why?" she asked incredulously, especially given the other's uncaring attitude.

Ichigo shrugged. "I'm not a hero. I'm not the type to go saving strangers from big, bad monsters."

Rukia frowned, going for the backup plan. "Have it your way. C'mere you."

She darted over to Ichigo, hitting Ichigo's ehest with the palm of her gloved hand. The orangette felt a weightlessness and then was quick to realize she'd somehow been shoved out of her physical body. Her spiritual body was wearing her Soul Reaper clothes, which was the only thing she managed to take note of before she was grabbed by Rukia and rushed away from school. Soon enough, they were at the park, where a little boy was running from a Hollow. Judging by the chain hanging from his chest, he was a spirit.

"'Bout time, you two," Gin snarked from their side. "What took you so long?"

"Complications," Rukia snapped, refraining from pouting.

"My, my, Rukia-san! How disrespectful you've become," Gin smiled widely.

"Shut up! What the hell?!" Ichigo screamed, swinging her zanpakuto forward to point at the lunatics who'd dragged her there, after unceremoniously forcing her out of her physical body. And even if Gin hadn't been there, she was including him because she knew he was involved with this every step of the way.

"You can't differentiate between souls. All souls are the same! You cannot ignore your duty –" Rukia began another of her dramatic spiels.

"I said SHUT. UP!" Ichigo's eye twitched.

Ichigo vanished from Rukia's sight, though Gin managed to see it, and reappeared where the Hollow was, having already destroyed it in an instant.

The teenager scowled, turning slightly to face them, with the sunset framing her and forming a vivid background.

"And duty made you help me and my family that night? To stand in between me and that Hollow, and get injured in the process?" Ichigo scoffed, shaking her head and letting some orange strands of hair fall loose around her face. She slung Zangetsu back on her back.

"Che. I'm still not sure about this Substitute business…but I'm not just going to stand by and turn a blind eye to someone in trouble." She turned fully to them, giving a small quick of her lips. "So I'll help you guys for now." She'd concede somewhat –if only because she'd grown fond of the two idiots and (as they tended to complain to each other around her) they'd become helpless and wouldn't stop whining about it.

It was almost cute in an idiotic way.

Ichigo turned from them and headed to the quiet boy, who was sniffling a little, though he'd been watching the whole thing in shock and silence. Her indifferent face gained a softer edge as she smiled gently at him, and she kneeled down carefully in front of him. She softly brushed back his hair.

"Hello, darling." She missed her mother. "You don't need to be afraid." Her mother always kept her fears away. "You're going to go to a good place. So that means you need to move on, okay?"

The little boy looked at her with wide eyes, but nodded in understanding. "O-okay."

Ichigo reached over and grabbed one of his hands, squeezing reassuringly, before she grabbed her sword and flipped it, gently pressing the bottom of her hilt against the boy's forehead.

"Hey, Rukia-san?" Gin murmured, admitting to being in a little awe to himself as he watched the scene.

"Hm?" Rukia was a little in awe too, not taking her eyes off the sight.

"She's what humans call a superhero, right?"

Rukia twitched and wished she could hit the captain. Of course he'd ruin the moment.

"So how was your day?" Isshin was smiling, but Gin could tell he wasn't happy.

"Um…good?" Gin laughed nervously. What had he done wrong? He frantically searched through his mind, but he couldn't think of anything!

Isshin's eyes narrowed, even though he was still smiling. "So it was worth skipping out on me, even though you said you'd help out at the clinic, Gin-san?"

Gin winced. Ah. That was the problem. "B-but your daughter! She was going to cleanse her first Hollow as a Substitute Soul Reaper! And she did her first Konso!"

Isshin grumbled, but he lightened up as he thought of that and his first daughter. "At least give a man fair warning before you disappear suddenly on me next time." He started to grin shamelessly then. "Now tell me all about it! How'd' my daughter do?" he asked eagerly, feeling prideful.

Gin broke out into his regular too-wide grin, and began gushing about the whole event to the proud father. Gin, too, was happy to recount what had happened, experiencing a little awe again. Although…thinking of it, Rukia and her clan may hail in theatrics, but Ichigo had a different (but similar) type of dramatics to her too, if unintentional.

Isshin suddenly smiled softly. "Ichigo's always been a good girl. Always responsible and protective over her family and friends…"

Gin nodded thoughtfully, knowing the other was right and feeling like he could already see how true that was, even though he'd only known Ichigo in such a short amount of time. Rukia would have echoed her agreement about that too, had she heard it herself.

"I have a favor to ask, Gin-san," Isshin said abruptly, catching Gin off guard. Favor? What favor would he have wanted from the likes of Gin?

Hearing the seriousness in Isshin's voice, Gin nodded carefully.

"Would you teach Ichigo Kido? At least the basics?" Isshin asked. It was definitely something Isshin couldn't really educate her on through the years, what with his lack of powers and inability to show her the correct way to perform the Kido spells.

"Kido?" Gin was more than surprised and hesitant. He thought back onto Ichigo's massive reiatsu. "With her spirit energy, can you really expect her to be able to do any Kido?"

"Large ones maybe," Isshin admitted. "Or overpowered basic ones. I'm hoping over time she'd be able to learn to control her reiatsu enough to control the output somewhat."

Gin was doubtful. Still, if he did this (with Rukia of course), he'd need a large space and where she could cause a lot of damage freely. His grin returned almost immediately.

Good thing he knew a guy.

"Why are we here?" Rukia whispered, looking around in confusion.

"I always spend an hour after school at tea ceremony lessons," Ichigo answered nonchalantly. Then she continued blithely. "I have painting lessons on the weekend."

Rukia figured there was some reason for them, so she didn't prod any further. Instead, she shifted slightly in her seiza position, having accompanied Ichigo to her tea ceremony class and participating in it along with the other.

Keigo's sister was also there and had been assigned to be her partner, glaring scarily at her and then staring intently at Ichigo. Ichigo's own partner was a mysterious handsome man, who (when he turned to Rukia and smiled at her) gave her a strange feeling. Everything was making her antsy and Rukia wished they could leave there already.

Plus, she'd hated these lessons and the seiza position she'd been forced to learn upon her adoption.

Still, she had to shift again, thinking about her sitting arrangement. She may have been adopted into a noble clan and made to learn all their formal customs, like said tea ceremony lessons and appropriate formal sitting positions, but Ichigo's seiza position put hers to shame. She was even sure that Ichigo's seiza was better than even most of the nobles in Seireitei, and could even match Byakuya's.

"Something bothering you, Rukia?" Ichigo asked with a small frown. Ichigo's partner was also watching her curiously.

Rukia blushed slightly. "No, it's nothing."

The thought kind of randomly crossed her mind of how would Byakuya and Ichigo look together?

"This is impossible," Rukia declared while Ichigo could see Gin also looking perplexed and ready to stab the juice box with the plastic straw he was holding like a sword.

Ichigo sighed and took Rukia's, shoving the straw into the hole. She handed it back and then did the same for Gin.

"So I get to take you two to school," Gin said cheerfully as they headed out, and fiddling with his juice box.

Ichigo rolled her eyes, but did give him a smile for his eagerness and cheer. He was strangely adorable, as was Rukia, especially when they got all excited or overeager about some human thing or other. She made it a point to allow them to ask her whatever they wanted to know about, and though exasperated, Ichigo had yet to lose patience with them about this.

"That's nice of you," she said, still wondering what was up with him. To be honest, she was starting to get Rukia a bit now, but Gin was still strange and more than a little weird, and Ichigo hadn't yet managed to figure him out.

Distracted in her thoughts, she almost missed what happened next.

Just then, at a crosswalk, she saw Orihime about to cross. However, there was also a car heading her way and had already started to beep loudly and frantically. Ichigo's eyes widened in shock and fear, worry instantly driving her in a panic.

"Orihime, watch out!"

Started – Completed (Same)
Edited/Typed 10/2/16 – 10/2/16

A/n: Whoo, things are spicing up, eh? And some same and some different stuff! I really do have too much fun with Gin though XD Anyway, I hope everyone liked this chapter! Please remember to take some time to review, as I don't get paid for this, and reviews motivate and inspire me to continue on writing! Thanks to you all!

Anon Reviews:

1. Awesomesauce: Thanks a lot! There's more to come!

2. Guest: Aw, thanks! I'm so flattered! I always worry when I genderbend, so it's great to know you like this fem!Ichigo and think it's one of the best Bleach fanfictions with one that you've read!

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