Final Fantasy VII cross with Bleach with fem Ichigo, mostly because there are hardly any fem Ichigo stories.
In hindsight, she should have known bringing an old game disc involving monsters and mad scientists anywhere near Urahara was a bad idea. And that was before he got ideas.
Ichigo had dug out her old copy of Final Fantasy 7 after hearing from Jinta offhand that he had never played it, and knew that Urahara could probably rig something up so he could play it at the shop. At the same time she had accidentally uncovered her second generation PSP which had the prequel game Crisis Core still inside.
Digging out her old disc had her feeling nostalgic, so she decided to play the prequel as a new save once she helped Jinta set everything up.
Urahara was more than happy to help her, having already set up a system for Jinta to play it on. Gaming helped Ichigo get over the fact her powers were still on the fritz at the moment. She used to play with Karin before she got too busy to play video games with her sister.
She really should have known better, especially since they weren't using an actual PS2 on a normal TV.
She was setting up the system and checking the game disc, since it had been lose and she couldn't find the case for it when she finally dug it up. Karin had lost the controller to theirs so she couldn't properly test it back at the house.
Jinta was currently being held up by Tessai over missing chores the past few days in excitement about playing the game, and he would likely start his own save file anyway.
One moment she was about to destroy the reactor, the next her finely honed instincts warned her of trouble. There was an explosion as the system Urahara had made for Jinta to play the game on blew up. Then again he had taken a few parts from dead experiments, so really it wasn't that surprising.
Ichigo's luck being what it was, one of the dead experiments Urahara had gutted was the same parts he had used to make the illegal entry into the Soul Society...specifically the parts stabilizing the portal. He had used spare papers to hold the hardware for the system so the wires didn't stick out.
By the time Urahara and the others rushed into the room, it was too late...Ichigo was gone and a portal of eldritch energy that glowed an ominous green was visible.
Urahara...winced at the thought of explaining this to Isshin. He was still pissed his daughter had gotten caught up in the mess with Aizen over one of Urahara's experiments.
Somewhere in a nondiscript location...
She was freezing. Not hard to understand after she had just fished herself out of the water. It was apparently winter wherever she was and the water was cold.
At least her clothes mostly made it out intact. A few seconds inspection revealed she had most of her things on her, though her PSP had apparently gotten caught up in the blast. Terrific.
As she made her way around the coast, she noticed certain...things...that did not bode well for her situation. Specifically the local wildlife.
Hearing shouting, she ran towards the noise though with some caution as she didn't know the full scope of the situation.
She saw men in strange outfits fighting the monsters, one of which was carrying a ridiculously large sword. It seemed to be a popular weapon as a couple others were carrying similar ones of the same make, though theirs were of dubious quality.
One of those carrying the oversized swords had it knocked out of his grasp, only to be killed soon after thanks to the creature they were fighting.
Ichigo did not want to get caught up in that, and since they were all grown men with weapons with some ability to use them, it wasn't her problem anyway.
The weapon however... she picked it up without a second thought. It's owner was gone by this point and she had no other defenses for wherever the hell she was.
She continued on, ignoring the sounds of battle. With a bit of creativity (she would never have Uryu's crafting ability) she made a harness for her new toy. It took her a few minutes to gauge it's weight, and a few test swings proved it was a tad lighter than Zangetsu had been in Shikai mode. Not exactly idea, but she would make do. And there were a few odd baubles attached that looked really familiar.
However those baubles were pretty damn useless...when she finally figured out how to activate one, she apparently overloaded the stupid thing and it exploded on her. She promptly removed the second one from the sword before it could do the same and leave her without a weapon.
Two days and far too many monsters later, she made it to civilization. And the moment she made it to a proper inn (having earned more than enough cash to pay for a night), she finally learned where she was.
The only thought she had on her mind the moment she heard "Shin-ra Power Company" and "Damn Sephiroth" in the same breath was to inwardly curse Urahara and his blasted make-shift console.
She was pinning any and all blame on his stupid machines and experiments, because honestly that was the only explanation she could come up with.
Apparently she was in Wutai during the war, which meant it was before Sephiroth went nuts and everything went to hell.
Ichigo immediately went to whatever shops she could find and started stocking up. Knowing her luck it would take forever to get back to her own world, and she would rather get what she could. She was not getting caught up in yet another war, especially since her fighting ability was restricted.
At least someone was able to instruct her on how to use materia correctly...apparently the baubles she had before were the manufactured ones Shin-Ra sold their men, and had an annoying habit of falling apart after a few uses. She had overloaded it by mistake, thus why it exploded in her face.
She even picked up a few other weapons (mostly katana about the same length and rough weight of Zangetsu in bankai form), a bag that would carry everything, some potions and a copy of Loveless.
Okay, so she was rather curious why Genesis was so obsessed with the book and she was partial to Shakespeare, so sue her.
Genesis had heard of the "masked demon" who had been appearing in Wutai wielding both a buster sword and katana on monsters. When confronted by soldiers, they would disappear so fast it was like they had teleported.
However the rare times they did stick around for a confrontation (usually against the Turks) revealed they were a beast in a fight and knew how to use the oversized sword better than most Thirds trying to emulate Angeal or Zack.
And when they used the katana...dear Goddess, that teen was a bigger demon than Sephiroth!
This was his first encounter with the teen, and almost immediately he picked up on one important fact.
The "masked demon" was in fact a girl. Why she was wearing such a scary looking mask was anyone's guess, but her skills were no joke.
The ensuing fight was pretty damn impressive, and Genesis found himself grinning for a few reasons. One, the girl kept countering his Loveless quotes with her own with ease, or using quotes from some author he had never heard of but definitely sounded interesting. Two, the girl's behavior reminded him of Angeal, or at least one of those Wutai samurai guys who followed an honor code he knew Angeal respected greatly. Three, and this was the most important part, she was not a Sephiroth fan girl in the least.
Genesis nearly got gutted when, after a brief moment of confusion, she called Sephiroth the "Guy who looks like he stores that massive sword up his ass with the old man hair". It had been a long time since he had laughed that hard.
It really made him wonder what she looked like under that mask of hers.
A few weeks later, he runs into her again looking annoyed. To be fair, he had to deal with Hollander the day before and his mood was always shitty after an injection.
"Bad hair day?" she half-joked.
"Something like that. Stupid injections," he muttered under his breath.
The girl tilted her head, curious.
"I've heard things about Soldier injections. Is it true that the scientist that does yours is different from everyone else?"
Genesis, sensing she wasn't about to make his day worse with an unnecessary fight and that she was possibly a kindred spirit, sat down. She did the same, putting her swords on the ground within reach, but not close enough that it wouldn't take a moment for her to grab them.
It was as close to a ceasefire as he was likely to get, and he had the distinct impression none of this would get back to Hollander. Besides, he had a deep need to vent right now and a potentially sympathetic ear who wasn't paid by that shitty president could be a boon right now.
So he told her what little he knew of their special injections. The second he mentioned "dead J-cells" which were one of the main differences he did know about his injections compared to Sephiroth's own.
The second he said that, the girl stood up in outrage.
"What sort of absolute hack are you trusting with your health?!"
Genesis was taken aback.
"I...what?"
The girl was absolutely fuming...and this fact stunned him the most...over his health.
"How can this man legitimately call himself a doctor if he doesn't even understand the bare basics of how vaccines work?" fumed the girl.
Genesis was absolutely confused at this point. What did vaccines have to do with anything? Sensing his confusion, the girl explained.
"You said that this Hollander uses dead cells in your special injections, as opposed to the live ones Hojo uses. And that you've been feeling like crap that only gets worse every time."
"What do my injections have to do with my health? Every Soldier gets one."
The deadpan look she gave him from behind the mask was truly worth a thousand words and he couldn't even see it.
"Vaccines are made from dead cells. Are Soldiers not given any basic information on how they work at all?"
"...A good chunk of the thirds are barely even literate," said Genesis. "Most of them take the shots and don't ask questions."
The girl ran her hand through her hair in frustrations.
"The way a vaccine works, in rather loose terms, is that the patient is injected with dead cells of a virus or disease so that the body's immune system can recognize it as a threat and develop a natural response against it. You said you've been feeling worse right? That's a pretty big warning sign that your body is developing a natural resistance to these 'J-cells' and that it's going to start rejecting their presence with some rather nasty effects sooner rather than later."
That was rather alarming...and the worst part was that it made far too much sense.
"How sure are you about this?"
"It's considered common knowledge where I'm from. People vaccinate their kids against common diseases to insure they stay healthy and that if they do catch something it's a lesser version because their body already has some defenses against it. My dad is a doctor who runs a small clinic, so I know what I'm talking about. I've heard him give the same speech to the neighbors with small children a few times."
Ichigo remembered asking those same questions growing up whenever it was her time to get the required shots. Her dad had answered them and then given her one of the medical books he had for concerned parents to read. As such she was actually better informed than the school nurse had been.
To prove she did in fact know what she was talking about, Ichigo sat down again and took out a notepad and a pen and started asked Genesis some rather basic, but personal questions about his health.
Genesis was many things, but no one would dare call him an idiot. She was asking questions Hollander would ask, but never actually answer any question he had. Or if he did, it would be with a response that didn't answer anything at all. This girl however, actually listened and answered his questions in a way that explained things.
"You know I never did get your name."
"Ichigo Kurosaki," she replied.
"Genesis Rhapsodos."
They shook hands and Genesis went to have a serious talk with Angeal. They really needed to look into what was going into those shots, because Ichigo had raised a lot of questions that he wanted answers for.