When Ichigo managed to secure a highly coveted exchange student slot his last year of high school, he was rather suspicious. He had entered into the program as a lark, never expecting someone would pick him to study abroad for a full year.
He was right to be suspicious. His dad had conspired with Urahara and Ishida's father to insure he was sent to Italy for the year in an effort to keep him away from the machinations of the Soul Society.
Isshin wasn't oblivious to the fact his son was slowly but surely regaining his lost powers. The amount of power Ichigo had wasn't something that could disappear that easily...he had merely blown a fuse is all.
That being said once he was chosen Urahara took Ichigo aside a week before he was scheduled to leave to give him a long list of things to look out for in Italy.
Ichigo...honestly did not know that the mafia was a real thing, or that they had a second subculture where the 'true' mafia had access to something that could harm even the dead.
There was a special barrier in place around certain areas of Italy to keep Hollows from accidentally revealing the existence of the afterlife to the Cosa Nostra. The soul reapers there were a bit more proactive in keeping them from going anyone who was 'flame-active'.
Ichigo, in the spirit of avoiding said groups since his psychic ability could be mistaken for these 'dying will flames', agreed to wear special bracelets that would hopefully disguise his still recovering powers from attracting hollows or alerting anyone who was able to 'sense' these flames.
At least he was getting a head's up before he walked right into another society that would likely drag him into conflicts that should have been resolved by the previous generation.
Once was enough, thank you very much.
So Ichigo packed his things, and thanks to Urahara was able to contact the afterlife in Italy to explain that he would be staying in their jurisdiction for a period no more than five years (he would alert them if that changed within a reasonable time frame) and that he would be open to helping in any problems that were likely to spill over to the living.
From what he understood, it was more of a head's up that a potential captain-class power was going to be in their area for a short time in case something happened to avoid any misunderstandings. Since he was unofficially tied to the Soul Society in Japan, it was more of a courtesy thing.
Ichigo...honestly had no idea there were other afterlifes. He just thought the Soul Society encompassed all souls. Though now that he considered it, it made a lot of sense. Every person he saw in the afterlife during his visit were all Asian at the least. He had never seen anyone who made him think they were from Europe or any of the Americas.
For the most part, his last year of high school passed quickly, with next to no contact from the Italian soul society or the mafia. He graduated with honors and was looking forward to a minor vacation backpacking through Italy.
So you could imagine his confusion when, as he was job searching so he could earn some local cash for the first month, he came across a strange ad. The main issue being that he most certainly hadn't picked up the ad in question and further checking revealed that there were no others.
Still there was no harm in going to look, so long as the building wasn't too shady.
The day on the ad came, and the building in question looked like some sort of bar. Nothing too shady, and he had already checked to make sure it wasn't in the territory of any particular group.
(Civilians were a hell of a lot more observant than most mafioso credited them for. A few discreet questions and he could usually guess if the area was under the control of any shady groups.)
Ichigo showed the card and walked into the room...and damn near walked right out at the sight of the obvious hit man.
There was something positively dark about him that made Ichigo believe the second he died he was almost certainly doomed to be swallowed up by the gates of hell. Never mind the sheer level of arrogance the guy gave off.
Since there were others in the room and he was fairly certain he hadn't done anything to piss off someone who could afford such a service, Ichigo reluctantly went in.
Worse case scenario, he would board a plane and head straight back to Japan and forget about the entire thing.
Without really thinking about it, Ichigo gravitated towards the only other Asian in the room. The fact that the long haired man was on the opposite side of the hit man made that particular decision easier.
"So, I take it you were asked by the masked individual as well?" asked the man.
"Actually I came because of an ad I found. If someone had approached me and told me to go somewhere, I would have ignored them," admitted Ichigo. "I figured if the place looked too shady or had obvious criminal activity I'd simply turn around and walk away."
The man looked at him properly, and seemed to be assessing him.
"I see."
"Great, so we're stuck with two civilians instead of one," said the hit man. "And a delinquent to boot."
Ichigo's face twitched, before he noted the purple haired biker. Everyone else had the air of someone who had seen a lot of combat or was possibly quite shady.
He had dealt with people making snide comments about his hair for years. He wasn't about to rise to the bait because of this asshole.
So far the 'meeting' wasn't as bad as he thought. Apparently this...Checkerface...had offered them a lucrative contract for a series of jobs. He was included of course, but apparently had the sense not to approach Ichigo directly with the offer. The pay was surprisingly good, and the initial job wasn't too shady. At least nothing against Ichigo's sensibilities.
Depending on how it went, they might get paid more.
There was, however, one small catch.
Namely if they successfully completed the first job then they were required to stay in the same house until the contract ran out or they decided to leave.
Ichigo reluctantly agreed...from the sounds of things he'd see a lot of Italy anyway and so long as the jobs weren't too bad he'd get paid a lot of money.
Fon was one of the rare few awake in the mornings, and was pleasantly surprised when the young man who was clearly just out of high school woke up as well. He headed straight for the pot of tea, rather than go near the coffee machine. The moment he registered Fon's presence, he politely asked to have some.
It was rather nice to have at least one other person in the house with actual manners.
As the young man...Ichigo, if he recalled correctly, sat down to enjoy his cup of tea...he returned to his morning katas. So he was rather surprised when Ichigo spoke.
"What style is that?"
"Excuse me?"
"What style are you practicing?" he elaborated.
"I am a master of at least a hundred different styles, so it's mostly a mix of them," admitted Fon.
"That's impressive. It's rare to find anyone who's properly dedicated to furthering the study of martial arts," said Ichigo.
Fon was rather pleased to hear such an assessment.
"Do you study any?" asked Fon. He had noticed the way Ichigo carried himself, which lead him to suspect the teen had some instruction in hand to hand combat.
Ichigo, despite his delinquent appearance, had the aura of a blooded samurai oddly enough.
"I did when I was younger. I focus more on swords now," admitted Ichigo.
It didn't take much for Fon to silently indicate Ichigo join him in a light sparring session. If they were going to be working together it would be nice to know Ichigo's level of combat experience.
They were still going at it when everyone else meandered into the kitchen and happened to see the two playing outside.
They finally called it quits when Fon pinned Ichigo to the ground, though there was a look of respect in the martial artist's eyes.
Ichigo was a fairly decent fighter and had a warrior's spirit.
He was even happier when Ichigo decided to join him most mornings for a bit of light sparring.
Ichigo should have known it was a horrible mistake to go into Verde's lab. In all fairness, the scientist who had been giving him the same major vibes that only Urahara and that freak Kurotsuchi had ever given him had been ducking out of basic necessities like food and he had been too slow to get out of insuring the green haired man was actually EATING, much less alive.
Either way just going in there told him it was going to be the source of new nightmares.
He would be right. It wasn't as bad as the labs in squad twelve, nor was it as outlandish as the rare glimpse he got out of Urahara's place...but it was still pretty disturbing.
He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the hiss, until he realized it belonged to an odd reptile creature. A crocodile or alligator, he wasn't sure which.
The mad scientist vibes were only getting worse, and he was having flashbacks of some of the nightmares he had after working with Urahara to refine the device that hid his spiritual signature from hollows and more importantly flame-sensitives. Not that it helped, considering he had been tricked into this group, but it had kept his safe long enough to graduate at least.
Ichigo threw Verde over his shoulder upon seeing the man sleep deprived and hearing his stomach growl. The mad scientist was less than amused at being forced to deal with what he considered 'trivial matters' like eating, sleeping and bathing.
It did not help Ichigo cheerfully hogtied the man to the chair until he finished a full plate or threw his ass into the shower after.
Once away from his experiments, his body worked against him...that and Ichigo had Lal dose him with a good amount of Rain flames, and the verdant haired man was out like a light.
Needless to say the others were incredibly amused by all this, especially as Ichigo made a standing order that everyone had to at least visibly eat one meal each day and if he caught them forgetting basic necessities like bathing or sleeping he'd happily subject them to the same treatment.
Considering the others were far more pragmatic (or in the case of Sinclair, like a proud cat who wouldn't dare be caught as less than his best), they took it with relative good humor.
In order to distract the irate scientist when he woke up, Ichigo did something he would almost regret.
He sent Kon in to spy on Lal, without warning the stuffed toy that the woman in question was the textbook example of a Tsundere. Emphasis on the 'tsun'.
Lal...was not amused. The others, however, were fascinated.
Renato was in a particularly trollish mood. Due the cold Ichigo had managed to catch, he had wisely opted to lie in rather than do the usual morning stretches with Fon.
It was fairly apparent the martial artist would likely end up being the first to potentially harmonize with the still oblivious Sky. Ichigo had admitted to having some psychic ability, but so far had made no indications he was even aware of Flames, much less anything mafia.
And from what Fon had commented on, the area Ichigo had been born in was considered a no-go zone for anyone with flames, much less the Yakuza. Something about particularly unpleasant spirits or some sort of curse that caused any flame user of decent strength to end up dead in very short order through suspicious circumstances.
It was almost as though flames drew some unseen force to the unwary victim, as the deaths in particular often looked like the one who died had been attacked by some savage beast.
Renato, being an asshole in general and making an educated guess that the worst of Ichigo's cold had to be over with thanks to the spiked medications he had taken, had decided to wake the teen up early just to be a dick.
He didn't know who was more surprised when he was sent flying by a half-awake Ichigo, or that said teen went straight back to sleep after the unexpected attack that was too fast for him to properly dodge.
Viper stared at a dazed Renato in disbelief.
"Did our potential Sky just bodily punch you through a half-open door into the living room without actually waking up?" they asked incredulous.
The others looked at the mostly broken door, then at Renato who was already brushing off wood shards. Fon was discreetly covering his mouth to hide the evil grin on his face.
Then again Ichigo had blithely mentioned that his father had an annoying habit of waking him up early in the morning with a bizarre ritual of attacks, and that Ichigo had developed an instinctual warning system that allowed him to throw a fully grown man out of a second story window before going back to sleep for another twenty minutes.
Ichigo had mostly gotten in the habit of waking early because the school he was studying in was a bit of a walk from his apartment and he had to get up early just to get there on time with any regularity.
Renato, not one to be deterred and determined to get Ichigo back, tried again the next morning. He might hate waking up early but he had his pride dammit. He wasn't going to be one-upped by a damn teenager!
In Ichigo's defense, it took him three days before he cottoned on to why his door keep needing to be replaced...and why his window had suddenly shattered.
Ichigo looked at Renato rather strangely, while Fon seemed to be having trouble not laughing.
"Why are you trying to wake me up in the morning?"
Renato glared at him.
"Why do you keep attacking me in your sleep?"
"...My dad is an insane idiot who thinks it's a brilliant idea to wake me up by attacking me in my sleep. I've pretty much developed an automatic defense of throwing him out the window when he comes to wake me before going back to sleep for a few more minutes if I don't bother to wake up."
"You defenestrate your own father on a regular basis for trying to wake you up," repeated Lal incredulous.
"If you've ever met my father you would completely understand why," deadpanned Ichigo. "He's an idiot, but he is a good father when he's not acting like a moron."
Renato pouted. He wanted to give Ichigo one hell of a rude wake up call at least once.
Then it hit him...he could hardly be the world's greatest hitman if he couldn't get past Ichigo's defense in the morning.
Challenge accepted.
(On an unrelated note, Viper rather gleefully began a daily betting pool on whether Renato would get past Ichigo's automatic defense and if not, how Ichigo would throw him out of the room.)