"Deep breaths. Deep breaths! Here is NOT the time and place to lose your shit." Ichigo Kurosaki muttered to himself, having recently reached the tender age of 18. Or at least, that was all the way back in his world, before he was invited over by a certain hat and clogs wearing candy shop owner. Now he found himself trapped in a world that was definitely NOT the world of the living or the soul society, if the quantity of spirit energy and how it felt was anything to go by.
"Nope. I gotta do it." For a mere moment, the substitute soul reaper took a deep breath, fresh air filling his lungs, before he let loose a single damning sentence, "DAMN IT KISUKE, YOU PAIN IN THE ASS!" Truth be told, he felt he had earned the right to say it. With any luck, he would eventually get the chance to say it to the man himself, assuming he made it back home in the first place that is. 'Now is not the time for doubt. Pain in the ass that he is, he's smart. He'll find a way to bring me home if he knows what's good for him.'
He thought back to what Kisuke had said to him back at the store when he had revealed his initial inhibitions, not all that comfortable with trying Kisukes first attempt at a teleporter, a side project of the mans that he had apparently been working on for the fun of it, rather than for the practicality or anything of the like. As well as the chance to simply rub another success in Mayuri's face, not to boost his own ego, but simply because he enjoyed annoying the soul society's resident mad scientist.
Ichigo had found himself within Kisukes hidden training area underneath his shop, the man having kept his new teleporter prototype down there. Ichigo wasn't quite sure when Kisuke had begun to work on such a machine, between running the shop, working on restoring his own latent soul reaper powers, working with the soul society, and working with his own younger sister as a client. Though knowing Urahara, the man had a tendency to keep things like this hidden up his sleeves.
Though he still really didn't appreciate the fact that the former criminal had the gall to keep his little sister as a client without saying anything to him. If there was anyone who should've been handling the spirit side of things while he wasn't in able to, it should've been his father of all people.
"Um, I know you were the head of research and development and all," He refused to admit out loud that Kisuke was a genius, the mans ego didn't need to be further inflated, "But are you sure that this will work? I'd rather not get, I don't know, turned to ash by some side project of yours just because you wanted to see it in action." He felt he had plenty of reasons to be nervous as well. Though his experiments didn't tend to be anywhere near as horrific as Mayuri's, there were a few that had turned out doing more bad than good. Being a genius didn't make him exempt from failure.
The hogyoku was a prime example of this, one that Kisuke would never forget. One that those around him would never allow the man to forget, in the off chance that he did.
His fan flipped open to cover the lower portion of his face while his hat was tipped up, the formerly exiled captain hid as much of his amusement as he could from the young soul reaper, if only to irritate him just a little, "Ara ara, do you not trust me Ichigo? And here I thought we were good friends, after all we've been through together! Didn't I help you regain your powers twice now?"
"In both cases I nearly died! In the first case you nearly killed me in the process before you even started training me!" Truly, the older man tried his patience whenever he could. Though it didn't mean the man didn't have a point. Though he occasionally hid the truth, and a few had attempted to point out how shady the shop keeper was, the man had always proved to be reliable. As loath as he was to admit it.
"Oh those are just the technicalities Ichigo! Besides, if you're also at all worried about being teleported far away, we've set the coordinates to send you to the other side of the training area. You'll also keep this on you in case you need to be retrieved quickly, unless you want to flashstep your way home!" And as per the usual, Kisuke brought out that damnable headband. If he didn't know better, Ichigo would think the man was just trying to toy with him again.
Which knowing Kisuke at this point, was an extremely likely possibility.
Staring at the man with irritation, he wordlessly took the headband and put it on with a twitching eye, wanting nothing more but to be given a reason to lay into the shop owner, "And I assume you've done some testing to see whether or not the machine actually works? After all, I doubt the great and illustrious Kisuke Urahara would use a human test subject without prior testing." If anything, the mans hidden grin seemed to have widened behind the fan, if the increased twinkle in his eyes was anything to go by.
"Why of course! We used a couple of rocks and tossed them through! The test subjects came back for the most part, though one or two of the rocks came back hot and covered in black stuff. So you should be perfectly fine!" The mans cheer at his supposedly low chance of being heated up and 'covered in black stuff' only slightly worried the young soul reaper, "Or is the mighty substitute scared of a little black stuff?"
Damn the bastard for knowing just which buttons to push.
"Fine, but if anything goes wrong I'm kicking your ass when I get back!" And so with that, Ichigo marched on through the teleporter, simply wanting to get Kisukes little test over and done with. Then he could go about his day until the next wave of hollows came crashing into Karakura.
Or at the least, that was the plan.
He never came out at the designated coordinates as planned. And as far as Kisuke could tell, he had come out nowhere else around the world of the living, and as the banished scientist soon found out, in none of the other realms as well.
Ichigo was gone.
He had hoped that the scientist might just be able to bring him back, but upon examining the headband he found that it was completely fried from the teleport, which leaves Ichigo in his current predicament. Alone and without his body, with only Zangetsu and a crazed hollow for company (One that he had yet to deal with), in a strange new world that he knew nothing about. For all he knew this could be a second Hueco Mundo and he'd end up fighting off hordes of hollows till he could be rescued, or worse, this worlds version of the espada or a twisted court guard squads.
He couldn't help but shudder at the thought of having to deal with multiple people that were like Kenpachi, or worse, that freak Mayuri.
Keeping that in mind, he would get no answers by simply standing around in the forest and doing nothing, a strange shattered moon bringing down silver light upon the forest. It was annoying, but in the meantime he'd simply have to restrain his spirit energy and look around, see what he could find. Even if after regaining his powers he had discovered he was even worse at suppressing his power, if only because of how much stronger he was after regaining his powers in comparison to before he lost his power in the first place.
'I can keep your spirit energy suppressed, at least until we find out exactly what is going on. Perhaps this will be a good opportunity for us to work on some of the more subtle parts of the spiritual world.' Zangetsu's voice rung out in his head, as clear as day. A voice Ichigo had sorely missed in the eighteen months that he had been without his powers, and one he wouldn't dare take for granted again.
"Thanks, Zangetsu. I appreciate it." He couldn't help but wait for the response of his inner hollow, only to once again hear silence. Not even an echo of insanity filled double toned laughter. He couldn't help but be worried over where he was after all this time. Even if he wanted to take his body and tried to kill him on several occasions, it didn't change the fact that he was a part of him and had done much to help him during his time as a soul reaper.
Though perhaps he should be a bit worried for his mental state if he missed the insane soul devouring monster that resided within his body. Maybe he needed to see a therapist or something.
Clearing his head of those thoughts, he prepared to flash step away from the clearing, only to stop when he noticed a strange presence. It didn't have the feel of a powerful spiritual being, like an arrancar or a soul reaper. It didn't even have the feel of an enhanced human or a lower hollow. In such a spiritually rich environment, his best way of describing this presence was like a void. Turning to his right he stretched out his senses, feeling a few other presences that simply felt like a void.
"What the hell?" He muttered to himself, the carrot topped soul reapers skin crawling at the feeling, as if a hive of ants was crawling just beneath the surface of his skin. It wasn't that it was particularly strong, just the fact that it felt so, so wrong. Even a hollow felt somewhat natural, if odd due to its amalgamation of consumed and heartless souls. This just felt like absolute nothing. And so with a single use of flash step, he began to make his way through the forest to seek out the odd presence.
With another few bounds of flash step, once again noting he could cover far more distance in a single step then he ever could before while in shikai, he quickly arrived at his destination. At his arrival however, he couldn't help but tilt his head as he looked at the source of the strange voids in spiritual presence. Their bodies seemingly coated in black ink, with small wisps coming off of them and covered sparsely in bone white armor, they were one of the weirder things he had seen in his short life. A few moved around on their back legs, using their front legs to scratch at a tree of their choosing around the clearing.
He knew they weren't hollows, or even an offshoot of a hollow as far as he could tell. Even though they had white masks on their face, that seemed to be about where the similarities ended. Streaks of red went through both the mask and the small bits of white armor that covered them, with many of them being nearly identical to one another, whereas hollows all had a unique appearance from one another. They all had a similar appearance to a wolf as well with bushy tails and the head of a wolf, the rest of their bodies being oddly disproportionate, with a short tail, long arms, and short legs. And the most notable difference was the lack of a hollow hole.
Notably, one of these... things, for a lack of a better word, was far more armored then the rest. It had scars marring the armor and portions of its body, some seemingly in the shape of claw marks, while others looked like old bullet wounds and singular slash marks, as if from a sword or another bladed weapon. It was larger, and seemed to be a lot more alert than the rest of its kind surrounding it, looking around as if it was on watch. He noted that they all seemed to embody anger and bloodlust, these feelings being so prominent it matched the more vicious and desperate hollows back in his home.
'Just a bunch of weak knock off hollows! Not even worth the effort!'
He couldn't help it. He allowed his spirit energy to flare for just a moment, shock and slight anger rising up inside him at the voice, a purely instinctual reaction that he was sure his second spirit approved of. Clenching his fist, he was about to turn his attention to the owner of the voice, wanting to deal with him now that he's finally revealed himself once more, only to have to then turn to the sounds of howls and growls. The beasts which had seemed so ignorant of his presence before, now turned to him with murder alight in their gaze. Well over a dozen of the things ready to lunge.
Ichigo was far from amused, and was not in the mood to deal with a capable of knock off hollows that wouldn't even be capable of cleaning the rust from the edge of his blade. Taking Zangetsu off his back, the wraps slowly being removed from the blade as it was charged up with spirit energy for but a few moments, he decided he would end this all in a single strike. "Getsuga... Tenshou!" With a swing of his sword, he let loose a giant crescent wave of energy, lighting the forest aglow with a brilliant blue light.
Once it cleared, several trees in the surrounding area had been vaporized, along with the strange beasts, a deep trench having been carved into the ground with wisps of blue spirit energy rising from the edges like smoke. 'He wasn't wrong about them being weak at least.' He thought to himself, ignoring the slight snicker he heard coming from his hollow. The sudden reemergence of the destructive spirit would need to be addressed soon, but for now he needed to make his way out of the forest. With any luck, he'd be able to find some answers, and somewhere safe to handle the hollow.
Registering the presence of a nearby human within a few moments, noting its above average spirit energy, he turned to the right just as the blond man opened his mouth, "What...the... fuck?" If Ichigo had to guess, he would say that the man was likely in his early to mid forties. He was tense, yet his shoulders had slumped, his fists risen as if he had been about to jump into a fight. Likely having come to fight those strange creatures he had killed.
Putting Zangetsu on his back again, the wraps appearing around the sword once more now that he no longer needed it, he put a hand to the back of his head as he looked around the destroyed clearing, "So... sorry about this... but I'm kinda new around here. So would you mind telling me a few things, and I can be on my way?" As per usual, he lacked the tact to handle someone who was new to seeing his power in action.
A shocked silence was the only answer he was given for the next few minutes.
Now sitting against the trunk of one of the many still intact trees around the clearing, Zangetsu now sat next to him, Ichigo crossed his arms as he took in the new information. The man, who had introduced himself as Tai-Yang, had been kind enough to answer any questions he had. At first he had been fairly confused by the terms the substitute soul reaper used, as well as the mans strange and incredible power.
Now having calmed down a little, Tai scratched the back of his head as he stood across from the soul reaper as he thought about the best way to answer his question, "First of all, I'm not quite sure what you mean by spirit energy. Second of all, how the fuck did you do what you did before?!" The blonde was luckily only in slight shock at the carrot tops annoyed display of power. "Though, as for your last question, that one is easy enough to answer. Though I'd also like to know how exactly you don't know about them either.
"We call them the creatures of Grimm. The grimm that you just killed were known as beowolves, lead by an old alpha. They're a relatively weak species of grimm." 'Another difference from hollows,' Ichigo mentally noted at the explanation, 'They have different sup-species.' He thought to himself, turning his attention back to Tai's explanation, "They are generally drawn in by negative emotions and feed off of them. They didn't really seem to notice you until that gravity increase started. It was like someone poured a few tons of high quality gravity dust on top of me...
Another interesting aspect to note. Suppressing his spirit energy would keep these creatures from detecting him, or rather from being able to seek out his emotions. Letting his spirit energy flare would remove the veil that hid him from their senses, making him just as easy to sense as the humans that resided within the new world.
"Besides all that, the only other interesting thing of note is that unlike most other living things, grimm don't have souls." Now that caught Ichigos attention, his eyes slightly widening as he figured out exactly why the creatures felt so wrong. They were alive without having a soul. They would never be a part of the cycle of rebirth (assuming this strange new world was a part of it in the first place), would have no afterlife after death, they simply existed and killed.
It was a bit unsettling for someone like him.
"That would've also been me. Sorry about that. I kinda got a bit annoyed about something and couldn't help myself. I'll try to prevent that from happening again in the future." At this point, the man seemed tired of being shocked after his earlier blatant display of strength, "As for your own questions, well. Spirit energy is something all living things have, except for it seems your grimm, due to their lack of souls. Most living things don't really have the ability to use it however, except for a few rare circumstances. Its only once they die and pass on to the afterlife that they may gain the ability to put their spirit energy to use.
"As for what I did, is an attack called Getsuga Tenshou. Its unique to me and my zanpakuto, Zangetsu. Its a highly condensed beam of spirit energy that I gather within Zangetsu's blade, before releasing it all in a single burst of energy. That is what I did before." He had to be patient, considering his current situation. The man in front of him was knowledgeable of this new world, and seemed fairly reasonable. So for the moment, he was willing to answer his questions.
"Alright... So... mind explaining what a zanpakuto is, and why you're talking about it as if its alive? And what do you mean the afterlife?!"
It seemed he had a lot more explaining to do...
So, after what felt like hours upon hours of explanation, here was where Ichigo and Tai stood, slowly absorbing all the new information they were equipped with, Tai more than Ichigo due to the info dump he had just received. The blond brawler had been kind enough to explain the existence of huntsman in this world, which he had called Remnant, while also giving a basic explanation of the four kingdoms. Ichigo couldn't help but make the mental comparison of the huntsman almost fulfilling the role of a soul reaper, except in this case it wasn't purifying souls, just killing monsters.
With a sigh, the substitute stood up and proceeded to go upon cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders, before placing Zangetsu on his back once more. "Welp, thanks for all the help Tai, I appreciate it. Sorry for making a mess of the forest, I should've handled this a bit better but I... y'know... didn't. So I suppose I'll be on my way now, hopefully without causing more trouble."
"On your way? Doing... what? Do you have a place you intend to stay or something to do?" The older man asked, crossing his arms as he did so, having seemingly come to some sort of conclusion.
Scratching the back of his head as he looked at the tree tops, the swordsman shrugged his shoulders before shaking his head, "Nah, not really. Planning to just wander about, really. Maybe go about protecting people and killing grimm until I can go home. Might try to get a deal of some sort with one of these kingdoms. Help out where I can while I can. Not much else I really can do."
"Well..." Letting out a sigh the blond gave the carrot top a small smile, "Until that scientist friend of yours can bring you back home, you can crash at my place if you want. I got two daughters back home, but they shouldn't bug ya too much. My youngest may obsess over your sword though. In return, all I ask is that you help clean up around the house and help keep this little island safe." He seemed like he already knew what answer to expect.
And really, it was a good deal. He'd be protecting people as he intended to do, and now he wouldn't have to travel around all too much. Plus he would have more consistent company than Zangetsu and the mad heartless spirit in his head, "Y'know, now that ya make the offer, I'd be more than happy to stay with you and your family for a while. Thanks for having me, Tai."
"Don't mention it kid." Tai said, the blond brawler turning around to leave the forest and head home, "Come along and follow me if ya wanna crash. Or try to sense me with your little afterlife abilities if ya can."
Shaking his head at the mans reference to his abilities, he followed. Hopefully, if everything went well, things wouldn't be too crazy.
It seems things had gone quite insane by the time they got to the house, Ichigo having lagged behind Tai to simply observe his surroundings while keeping an eye on Tai's presence. Though he arrived to quite the scene at the house, one that made him begin to regret accepting his new friends seemingly generous offer. Considering the destruction around the mans little cabin in the woods.
Several trees around the surrounding area bore scorch marks, with many being snapped in half as well. There were a few scorch marks around the ground, though the cabin itself amazingly enough seemed to be intact, as far as he could tell. Blinking at the sight of the unexpected destruction, Ichigo looked over at Tai, only to see him lecturing a girl around the same age as him.
The girl had a pair of golden gauntlets on her hands, which seemed to be loaded with shotgun shells. 'Luckily Tai told me about the mechashift weapons before I could go ahead and make a fool of myself.' He thought to himself wryly, focusing his attention on the father and daughter duo while Tai scolded the younger blond.
"What have I told you about practicing with your Ember Celica?! Ya gotta be more careful instead of destroying everything around the house when you get angry!" Outside looking in, it seemed as if this was a conversation they had already had a few dozen times before. Especially considering how nonchalant the girl looked, and the fact that Tai seemed more exasperated than truly angry. The man sighed before shaking his head at his daughter, "I swear you take too much after me sometimes." He muttered to himself.
Ichigo couldn't help but snort at the slightly one sided conversation in slight amusement, drawing the attention of the two blonds back to him. Tai sighed and brought a hand up to his face while the girl tilted her had and crossed her arms, "Whose that? You didn't mention you were bringing guests. Or call ahead for that matter." It seemed she was truly unbothered by her fathers reaction to the state of the clearing around their home.
Sighing again and seemingly giving up, he took his hand away from his hand and waved at the soul reaper, "Ichigo, this is Yang, she's my oldest. Yang, this is Ichigo. He'll be staying with us for a while and helping around the house."
"Yo." The soul reaper raised his hand up in greeting, having quickly gotten over the odd scene. Considering everything he saw back home and the spats he would get in with his own father, this was all fairly tame to him by comparison. After all, for a slight argument, they had both yet to throw one another into the ground or through a window.
"Sup, nice to meet you." He got the distinct impression that it was not, indeed, nice to meet him at the moment. He wasn't all too sure if this was how she was normally or if it was related to what Tai said earlier about her taking out her anger inappropriately, but he could only hope she wouldn't be too much of a problem in the future. "So if we're done here with introductions and all that, then I'm heading out."
Only for her father to give her a frown and cross his arms, "Heading out to do, what, exactly?" He sounded suspicious of the blond, which was fair in Ichigos opinion. Though his own father was the type to set up ridiculous curfews (Likely to mess with him) he had never had a real reason to suspect Ichigo was up to something he would disapprove of. It was often times the opposite, with him either handling the low life thugs or, not long after he turned 15, the spirits that threatened Karakura town.
The fact that his father knew about the existence of the hollows the entire time only later cemented the fact that he was just doing his best to annoy his son.
She only sighed and rolled her lilac eyes at him, "To cool off without burning down the forest around our house." And with that, she turned away from Tai and went around the side of the house, with Tai looking slightly mollified. After a few moments, she drove away from around the side of the cabin on the back of a yellow and black motorcycle, before she soon drove down a path that lead away from the cabin.
As Tai turned to look at him, Ichigo nodded his head in the direction Yang had just driven off, "Want me to go ahead and keep an eye on her, or will she be alright?"
The blond shook his head silently and made his way to the front door of the house, "She'll be fine. She's a good fighter, and when she's in a mood like this there's very little on Patch that could prove to be a threat. You're more likely to annoy her if she finds out she was followed for her safety. Thanks for the offer, though. Now come inside, its been a long night." And with that, the huntsman entered the house, leaving the door open for Ichigo to follow suit.
The teen substitute shrugged at the mans decision and followed his lead, entering the cozy little cabin and taking his sandals off to leave them by the door after he did. Looking around, he found himself appreciating the simple decor of the cabin, already finding himself relaxing within the Xiao Long residence. Tai was in the next room by the living room, the door cracked open as the huntsman brought out two glasses of ice water.
"Thanks." Holding the icy cold glass in his hands and downing most of it, realizing just how thirsty he was after the failed attempt at teleportation that landed him in Remnant, Ichigo leaned against the wall and looked over to a picture of a younger Tai and a young woman with black and red hair. Raising an eyebrow at the photo, he turned to look at Tai, "Is that a picture of one of your team mates?" He asked, handing over the empty glass at Tai's urging.
Looking over at the picture Ichigo mentioned, the mans shoulders slumped a little as he let out a low sigh, a sad smile gracing his features as he set down the two empty glasses, "That's Summer. She was one of my team mates, a great fighter too. She was also my second wife." Though Ichigo had his questions as to who the first was, he kept silent as he listened, having noticed the way Tai said "was", "She went on a mission a few years back now, a few months after she left we were told that she was KIA. My second daughter, Ruby... she was so young when it happened." The man muttered to himself, looking down as he found himself lost in thought.
Ichigo could sympathize with what the Xiao Longs had gone through, having experienced the same situation when he was nine (If a bit more traumatic, considering the circumstances in their entirety.) "Sorry. I know its a bit late and it might not mean much, but I get it."
The older blond shot Ichigo a small smile, "Thanks, I appreciate it." Seemingly shaking off the depressing thoughts, the man moved over to the stairs and waved over for Ichigo to follow him again, "Usually we have the guest room set up, just in case their uncle Qrow comes by or another old friend needs a place to stay."
As the pair moved up the stairs however, they were met by a red blur crashing into Tai, the huntsman somehow managing to not be thrown down the staircase as he grabbed onto it with a chuckle. After Tai had moved the rest of the way up the stairs with the red clinging to him, Tai turned to him to reveal a young girl that looked like a near carbon copy of Summer, "Sorry about that. This is Ruby, I mentioned her earlier. She's my youngest. Ruby, this is Ichigo. He'll be staying with us for a while."
As Ichigo went to raise his hand up in his usual greeting, he was floored when Ruby looked over at him before becoming a blur once more, tackling him to the ground in her haste. The soul reaper groaned, standing back up as the younger girl zipped around him as a red blur once more, her eyes having practically become stars as she locked her gaze on... Zangetsu?
"Oh my gosh! Your sword is huge! What's it made out of? Why's it got a chain on the end of the hilt? Why's it so big, can you really use it effectively? Why's it look like a giant cleaver? Can it-" She stopped for a moment so she could take a second to breathe, the silver eyed girl having seemingly forgotten to breathe in her haste to ask questions about his zanpakuto.
Though now that he was close to her, he could tell that she had a higher amount of spirit energy than even her father, a fully matured huntsman. He wasn't quite sure, but something felt odd. Like it was lesser in some places than others. Regaining his bearings, the soul reaper took Zangetsu off of his back and allowed the wrap to unveil the black and silver blade, Ruby's eyes widening further as she examined it.
"The blades named Zangetsu, which means slaying moon. Can't really say what its made of, the chain can be extended if I pour my own aura into it, and of course I can wield it effectively!" He couldn't help but be slightly annoyed by that particular question, several people having taken digs at the size of his shikai. He disliked lying about how his blade worked, but he and Tai had discussed previously that he would need to act as if it was his aura he did certain things with. Until he did something a bit too explosive, "As for why it looks like this, call it personal preference."
"Slaying moon? That's so cool! I have a scythe, her name is Crescent Rose," He couldn't help but take note of the fact that she spoke of her own scythe as if it too was alive, "I can't do what you can do by pouring my aura into it, but she is a high impact sniper rifle on top of being a scythe!" Glancing over at Tai as she gushed about her own weapon, he could tell that this was, by no means, unnatural behavior for the girl.
Seeing his look, Tai decided to leap in to his rescue with humor dancing in his eyes, "Ruby, our guest here is a bit tired. I found him after he fought off a couple of grimm earlier, and I'm sure he'd like to get some rest." A bit of a fib, considering he wasn't at all tired from "fighting off" the grimm (Read: Wiping out) but nonetheless he would like to get a decent nights sleep to prepare for tomorrow.
"Oh, sorry! I'll leave ya be!" Though right as she turned to face Tai, she turned right back around with that same grin on her face, "You've gotta show me what it can do tomorrow!"
Blinking at her request, he gave her a shrug and a small smile, noting how much more energetic she was in comparison to his sisters, "Sure, I'm fine with that, as long as your father approves?" The man in question gave a simple shrug in acknowledgement, not really bothered by the request. He knew Ichigo wouldn't use that energy blast he showed off before, "Alright, then we can spar tomorrow. Now if you'll excuse me, I think its about time I go ahead and hit the hay."
Nodding in agreement, the silver eyed girl went down the stairs while Tai shook his head fondly at her, "Little weapon enthusiast. Just like her mother was." Turning away from the stairs, he lead Ichigo down the hallway, before opening a door near the end of the hall and stepping to the side for him to enter.
Looking around the room, it was fairly simply. A queen sized bed in the corner with a small dresser and lamp next to it and a closet on the opposite wall, a simple but fairly nice room, and more than enough to accommodate his stay for the time being. "Thanks, again, Tai. I appreciate the help, considering the circumstances."
"Its no problem. Though we'll need to further discuss your own future." At Ichigos questioning glance he continued, "I doubt you'll be satisfied just sitting around doing chores and protecting a usually peaceful island, considering your powers and all that. I figured we could think of something for you to do tomorrow that will take up more time, and effort for that matter."
Nodding at the man in agreement, he laid Zangetsu against the wall next to the doorway as he spoke to Tai, "Gotcha. I'm more than fine with that, I'm sure we can find something. Though there's something I'll have to take care of after me and Ruby have our spar. Its kinda important, and I'll need to be away while I handle it. I'll need to be left alone while I take care of it too, just in case."
Raising an eyebrow at Ichigo's slight vagueness, he shrugged in nonchalance before he went to move on, "Alright, if you say so. Just let me know how it goes, and if you need anything. Have a good night, Ichigo."
"Good night, Tai." And with the shut of a door, Ichigo found himself alone (Or rather, about as alone as he could be with two spirits in his head) within the guest room of a newly made friend within a strange new world. As he removed his shihakusho and laid down in the bed, he couldn't help but wonder what this new world would bring him.
The question that should have been asked, was if this world was ready for such a man like Ichigo Kurosaki.
A lot for a first chapter, and I welcome you to Bleached Remnant! This story won't be as serious as, say, Return from Shadows or Blood of Ice and Fire, (Considering I'm tossing Ichigo post TLA into Remnant, a world with no one to match him.) but it won't be a crack fic by any means. Usually I end up doing a really good first chapter, but I feel somewhat dissatisfied with this, but bleh. I always feel dissatisfied with all the work I do and usually get told its good so, maybe y'all see something I don't.
For reference, this takes place not long after the Yellow trailer, with a fairly annoyed and upset Yang having returned home with Ruby after another failed search. Explaining here in case of confusion and likely because it won't be brought up next chapter.
That being said, while I won't be upscaling the abilities of certain characters just so they can prove a threat to Ichigo, I don't exactly intend for him to go without any threats. Considering he also won't have his body, that means while Zangetsu will always be around, his blade won't exactly always be around. He can't take a giant sword everywhere after all. And he also can't really wear his soul reaper uniform everywhere as well.
On the subject of Zangetsu, I'm undecided if I even want to acknowledge the existence of asauchi and the like and simply go a more simple route for true Zangetsu. Because lets be honest, that was kinda just a bs excuse for Ichigo to get another redesign. After all, Rukia was not at all surprised that Ichigo had his own zanpakuto after taking her powers, and the only one who seemed to doubt the authenticity of Ichigo's soul reaper abilities was Byakuya, with even Renji asking if Ichigo knew the name of his sword yet despite his lack of asauchi.
Though it doesn't mean that I won't be going for the true Zangetsu twist. It just means I'm likely to go about Ichigo's true power a different way, if its needed.
I hope you all enjoyed chapter one, and are ready for more to come! If you all have any suggestions, do feel free to give them up!