10 review (12 counting the art scams.) 46 favorites. 65 follows. That's... holy cow, I was not expecting a crossover with Nikke of all things to be so popular. The reception to this really blew me away. Anyways, here's chapter 2! I hope you all enjoy! I'm working on trying to get more consistent with my writing so that I can ideally update BOTH of my crossover stories at least once each in a 4 week window, instead of only one update for any story in the space of a month. There's also a somewhat important note at the end of the chapter regarding something I'd like to hear people's opinions on.
Anyways, thanks to everyone who followed, favorited, and/or left a review! To the Bleach fans reading this... I hope you enjoy this next entry into Ichigo (and Nel) struggling to find their place in a strange new world. To the Nikke fans... well, I WAS able to bring at least one Nikke character into the chapter. Let me know in the reviews if this was a character you were expecting/hoping for.
"Do you see anything?"
"No, nothing but more rubble. Rubble and ruins. It doesn't look like any part of this town survived… whatever did this," Nelliel stated, frowning as her feet touched down on the ground. Being able to fly up into the air (or whatever arrancar called their sky-walking ability) helped scope the ruins out, but it was looking more and more like whatever answers Ichigo and Nel were seeking would likely be inside the ruins around them, which naturally meant that past a certain point, flying was out of the question
Progressing through the town proved to be a slow affair. Ichigo hadn't thought that scoping out the ruined town would've taken a long time; especially when as a soul reaper and arrancar respectively, he and Nel could just fly up above the town to look for survivors. Nel had been insistent that he stay on the ground and not strain himself; even though he'd explained to her that while his current condition wasn't so bad that he was at risk of losing control over his own ability to gather spirit particles under his feet.
"Guess we're continuing further on foot. Come on, some of these buildings are still intact… mostly." Ichigo commented, looking around. He couldn't tell what the buildings had once been; none of them were more than a few stories high at most, and this town was far too small to be a big hub of commerce of wherever this part of the world was.
Probably just a mixture of offices, apartments, and other businesses.
"Very well. I'll keep an eye out for anything that might be a threat." Nelliel stated. Ichigo didn't think there was a need of the skimpily dressed woman to unsheathe her sword; but whatever made her feel better was fine with him.
"You're sure you didn't see anything unusual while you were up in the air?"
"…I'm positive. Just… don't be alarmed, Ichigo."
"Wait, alarmed? Why would I be- oh." Ichigo's words stopped dead as Nel walked around one of the ruined cars; a classic American pickup truck of the sort that was seldom seen in Japan.
Nel walked over to the truck, and with casual ease, slammed her fist into the rusted metal.
The entire front of the truck crumpled like tissue paper, the old vehicle rolling from the impact.
Right.
That was a hell of a reminder that Nel, and all arrancar, were FAR stronger than humans. Though how much of that was 'natural' strength vs spiritual power-enhanced (like Nnoitra's impenetrable hierro) Ichigo didn't know.
Nel didn't seem to be the kind of person to just lash out at their surroundings; and as the dust cleared, Ichigo saw what she'd been after.
He hadn't seen the skeleton because it had been pinned underneath the other side of the truck, but with the vehicle shoved to the side there was no missing it now.
"There are more. This was just the first one I saw," Nel commented, stepping away from the remains.
The dead person must've lain untouched for years underneath their vehicle, because by now all that remained was a skeleton wrapped in worn scraps of fabric, the last remnants of the clothes they'd been wearing when they were alive.
Ichigo squeezed Zangetsu's hilt reflexively.
"You said there are more like him?" Or her; he was no expert on skeletons, and the lower half of this one had been crushed by the truck anyway; making the details impossible to make out.
"Yes. Many more. I… Whatever happened here… I don't think the people of the town survived." Nel spoke softly, frowning.
The tall woman drew her sword.
"Please, stay close, Ichigo. I don't know what happened here, but… just in case, please, don't stray far from me."
With that grim realization having dawned on the duo, Nel and Ichigo continued on. How had he missed so much wanton death around him? Now it seemed that every where Ichigo looked, there were human remains. The minutes ticked by, and after another ten minutes or so of walking through the ruins, he'd counted no fewer than fifty skeletons.
Some had died inside their vehicles; other skeletons lay motionless in the street, and Ichigo had even seen several glimpses of the long-rotted out corpses inside the ruined, overgrown buildings around them. But most alarming of all…
"Nel, can you sense any hollows around us? I haven't seen a single plus OR hollow since we got here. Do you think the Soul Society already came for everyone here?"
"Mmm… my knowledge on the Soul Society's duties is rather lacking, Ichigo. I hope you'll forgive me for not being an expert on the subject." Nel pointed out rather dryly; leaving Ichigo kicking himself mentally for the slip-up.
"But… from what little I do know; I don't believe the Soul Society's duties extend beyond Japan. The people here would not have been protected or cared for by any soul reapers."
The answer didn't fill Ichigo with confidence.
"Then… do you think hollows got them all?" Ichigo could picture it now; hollows were corrupted spirits formed when plusses remained in the human world too long; and a town ravaged by disaster like this would've- should've been a hotbed of hollow activity.
The fact that despite so much death having taken place in one town; he had yet to see any kind of soul was not a comforting feeling.
"…I can't say. But we shouldn't linger out here in the streets. I'm confident in my abilities to protect us both, but it's better to be safe than sorry," Nel commented, sounding distracted.
It felt… odd, seeing her like this. Nel had been so full of emotion only a few minutes ago; worry and concern and care plainly written on her face and carried with every word. This was a completely different side to her- calm and professional and level-headed even in such a situation.
"Nel, I've been meaning to ask… doesn't it hurt, walking like that?"
The greenhaired woman blinked in surprise, turning to face Ichigo.
Ichigo's eyes rose at the sheer speed with which Nel's expression changed; going from calmly observing her surroundings to bright and happy in less than a single second. Hell, he could see her eyes light up at the sound of him calling her name!
"My feet? What about them?" Nel looked downwards, or at least tried to; Ichigo coming to the awkward realization that Nel probably couldn't see her own feet past her… uh… yeah. He wasn't going to finish that thought.
"It probably didn't hurt back when we were in Hueco Mundo; that was just sand. But are you alright, walking barefoot on the ground?"
"Oh, right! I'm fine, Ichigo. But I appreciate you asking! My hierro is more than enough to protect my skin." Oh yeah, he probably should've remembered that arrancar could do that. Well, not so much that he'd forgotten so much as he hadn't realized that the ability could be used for more mundane purposes than blocking blades.
"Well, if that's everything, Ichigo… I think we should keep an eye on our surroundings. It doesn't seem like there are any potential foes around us; but it's still important that we remain on guard." Nel commented, her placid mask slipping back into place.
For another few minutes, there was silence between them; broken only by the wind rustling through the ruined buildings around them.
Ichigo was pretty sure it was just the wind rustling against the leaves of the trees sprouting amongst the buildings, but there were times he swore that he could hear the faint sound of whispering on the wind.
His body still ached from the intense fights he'd been in; but by now he was getting some of his wind back. Sure, he'd need Orihime to heal him before he was ready to go up against someone like Grimmjow or Nnoitra again… or even the sandwich guy. Tortellini? Panini? …Whatever his name was.
But if there were any small-fry hollows lurking in the rubble around him and Nel, he could take them no problem.
"Looks like there's still a few buildings that are intact over here, Nel. Should we look inside?" Ichigo hesitated before voicing his thoughts. He was no stranger to violence; and thanks to his whole 'I can see ghosts' power he'd had before getting his spiritual powers, he was significantly better adjusted to seeing dead people, but…
At the end of the day, substitute soul reaper or not; it was just plain unnerving seeing so many skeletons in one area,
Also, calling the buildings 'intact' was a bit of a stretch, but when compared to the rest of the town… well, if there were any places in town where there might be people hiding out, it would be in one of these buildings.
"It couldn't hurt. Just stay behind me. If there's anything hostile inside, you can leave it to me." Ichigo appreciated the buxom woman's concern, though he doubted that there was anything more than rats or spiders dwelling in the ruined building.
If anyone was desperate enough to try and hide out from whatever chaos had befallen this town; they'd be in one of these buildings.
Ichigo followed Nelliel inside the first building, Nel sheathing her sword but keeping a tight grip on the scabbard of her weapon.
Ichigo did his best to keep his eyes off Nelliel's mostly bare back and on the interior of the first room they walked into. Getting distracted right now was the last thing he wanted or needed, doubly so because getting Nel ticked off with him would've been supremely unhelpful.
"I don't think we're going to find anyone in here, Nel."
"Hrm." Nelliel let out a wordless noise of agreement, looking around at their dimly lit surroundings. Ichigo could see a light switch nearby, but upon trying to flip it, somewhat predictably nothing happened.
"Electricity's out. Shouldn't be surprised, but it definitely makes things harder for us." Ichigo commented, stepping away from the wall. That left the light streaming in from the dusty, smeared windows as the sole light source in here.
…Not that there was much to look at save for dust covered furniture and cobwebs.
'Never thought I'd be poking around in old ruins like this. I mean, I've gotten up to some pretty out-there stuff as a substitute soul reaper, but this feels like something out of a Hollywood movie!' Of course, video games and the silver screen made poking around post-apocalyptic ruins a hell of a lot more exciting. No radioactive mutants to be seen here; just dust, dust, and more dust.
…Not that he wanted this to actually be a post-apocalypse scenario. In fact, that was about as far away as possible from what he hoped the situation actually was.
'So far, I don't have any reason to believe that whatever the hell happened here happened anywhere else on Earth…'
"Ichigo?"
"Yeah, what is it, Nel?"
"I was just wondering… you seem fairly used to being in the human world. I thought soul reapers only went to the human worlds when they had to hunt down hollows?"
The question flat-out caught him off-guard with how factually incorrect it was (at least to him.) Then, his eyes widening, Ichigo realized…
"Wait, Nel. Did you… did you not know that I'm a human?"
Nelliel's response was a soft, disarming giggle; the beautiful woman's mirth rippling across her face, momentarily scrunching up the odd pink line on her face.
"Ichigo, that's silly! Humans can't be soul reapers! Answer my question honestly!" Nelliel trailed off, eyes widening as Ichigo just stared at her blankly.
"You do remember that not everyone I came to Hueco Mundo with was a soul reaper, right?"
"Um… I think so? I think my child form's mind generalized all of you as 'arrancars or bad guys.' I don't think she… er, I really understood much beyond that."
Right, Nel had been stuck in that childish- very childish form for… who knows how long. There was no telling how much of her intellect she'd kept. In that tiny form, she had acted like a regular child… but some of the stuff she'd said had been anything but childish.
Ichigo really, really hoped that he never again met someone of that (apparent) age proudly claiming to be a masochist.
…Was that something her childlike mind had come up with, or…
Nel blinked in surprise as Ichigo rapidly shook his head, cheeks reddening. Now really wasn't the time to go down that line of thinking!
Sitting down in one dust-covered office chair, the old, worn chair creaking but holding steady, Ichigo thought over his next words. Nel took a stance nearby, leaning against one of the cracked, crumbling walls, her stance loose but alert.
"So… long story short, I'm not an actual soul reaper. I'm a substitute soul reaper- a human with the powers of a soul reaper."
"That's… I-I didn't know that such a thing was possible…"
"Did… Did Aizen not tell you?" He'd thought that Aizen would've filled his top brass in on all relevant information regarding him.
"Ichigo…" Nel gave him a look somewhere between annoyed and amused.
"I've been out of the loop for… quite some time. The time when I was one of Aizen's strongest soldiers happened quite some time ago; well before you were born; I'd imagine. I, um… I don't think electricity was around the last time I was in the human world."
That gave Ichigo pause; it was one thing to hear that people like Rukia, Renji, and now Nel were far older than him; but seeing a woman who looked maybe thirty at the oldest openly admitting that she was at least a century older than him just felt plain weird! Also…
"What, like, no electricity at all? Or just that it existed, but wasn't common?"
"The first one."
That was food for thought. That meant that Nelliel was at least one hundred years old at the bare minimum; and from what he knew about soul reapers and arrancar (which was admittedly not that much) that was probably a huge underestimate.
"Ichigo? You look… confused. Is something wrong?"
"What? No, nothing. You're just older than I thought you'd be." This was hardly the first time Ichigo's mouth had acted before his brain, and knowing his luck it probably wouldn't be the last. Just as he was realizing what he'd said, the comment registered with Nelliel; who's eyes widened in comical outrage.
"Ichigo! That's no way to talk to a lady!"
"Sorry, sorry! It just slipped out!" Last time he'd heard Nel say words like that'd she been in her little kid form.
Kid Nel had also punched him in the balls. Those small fists of hers hurt.
…Yeah, he was really hoping to avoid a repeat of that. Taking a hit from the grown-up Nel would do a lot more damage than before.
Fortunately for him, Nel settled on grumpy ire rather than lashing out with her fists, crossing her arms under her immense chest with a huff, plopping down in one of the other chairs in the room.
There was a sudden, squeaking, groaning whine from the old swivel chair, before Nel shrieked in surprise as the chair collapsed underneath her. The green-haired arrancar's eyes widened, her arms flailing in the air as she tumbled to the floor!
For a moment, there was silence, and then…
"Pfft… Hah hah hah!"
"Ichigo! Don't you dare laugh!"
"I'm sorry! It's just… sorry, I couldn't resist. Don't worry, Nel. Most of the furniture in here is so worn down it's probably pretty fragile."
"Then how come the chair you sat in didn't break?!"
"Got lucky, I guess. Seriously, I'm sure that chair was just old. Everything in here looks pretty beaten up." Ichigo very wisely avoided saying anything that Nelliel might have taken the wrong way. Considering how the arrancar had responded earlier when he'd lifted Orihime, he was well aware that continuing down this path might as well have been stepping onto an active minefield.
Offering Nel a hand which she accepted without a word; he helped Nel off of the floor. The arrancar brushed herself off; checking to make sure that what little remained of her outfit wasn't damaged any further.
It wasn't, but on the other hand it really didn't cover much more than the essentials. Ichigo had other things on his mind at the moment.
"I've been meaning to ask, Nel, but… you knew that guy we were fighting, right?" Ichigo spoke up after a moment's pause, hoping a distraction would get Nel to stop fuming over her 'unfortunate accident.'
Fortunately, Nel seemed like the kind of person who could shift her attention at a moment's notice, because the irritation left her face almost immediately, the tall woman standing up and brushing herself off while a thoughtful frown formed on her face.
"Nnoitra Gilga.. during my time in the espada, I was ranked third, and he was ranked eighth. He always resented the fact that I, a woman, was ranked so much more highly than him. I… I tried to ignore him; thinking that his threats and posturing were simply the howls of an enraged beast, but… in the end, he struck my fracción down, maimed me, and cast us out of Hueco Mundo."
…Damn. Now Ichigo really, really wished he'd been able to kick Nnoitra's ass. To think that someone as kind as Nel had suffered so much because of that asshole, and not only that; but the guy had gotten away with everything was just a kick in the friggin' teeth.
Wait a minute…
"Third? You were ranked THIRD in the entire espada?!"
"That's right. See?" Ichigo's hands flew up to cover his eyes, the orange-haired teen's cheeks going pink as Nel turned her back to him, one hand lifting the back of her ragged top up, and-
It wasn't… whatever he thought she was going to show him. Rather than exposing skin for the sake of, well, exposing skin, Nelliel revealed a large, blocky '3' boldly tattooed across her back; proof of the rank she'd once held in Aizen's army.
This wasn't like when Matsumoto had tried to flash him in order to extort room and board out of him. There was no deeper meaning here; no illicit intentions behind Nel's actions.
"Third espada. That's… damn. You really are super strong, aren't you?"
Nelliel's warm smile held a wistful look to it.
"Not as strong as I'd like. What Nnoitra said before he sent both of us here… It hurts to admit, but he's right in a way. It doesn't matter how strong I was; in the end I failed to protect my fracción. And now I'm a shadow of my former self; trapped in this unstable form. Though I don't doubt my own abilities; this certainly complicates things." Nelliel spoke, indicating the lengthy crack in her ram skull-like mask.
"Unstable? What's that supposed to mean?"
Nelliel sighed, remaining silent for a moment before voicing her thoughts aloud.
"I can't guarantee that I'll remain in this adult form. Have you ever seen a hollow with a cracked mask before?"
There Nel went, referring to herself as a hollow again. She wasn't wrong, but if you asked Ichigo; Nel was far more human than many of the spirit people he'd met during his time as a substitute soul reaper.
"…No, I haven't. I'm guessing that's not commonplace?"
"Our masks are… hmm. It's an oversimplification to think of them like this; but simply put, our masks do far more than just hide our human faces. To be masked is to be hollow. To be hollow is to be masked."
"From the way you're saying it; it sounds like having a broken mask means a hell of a lot more than just revealing your face to the world."
Nel snorted softly, smiling despite the situation.
"You're exactly correct about that. A hollow's mask is everything; it's far more than just something symbolic. When Nnoitra broke my mask, my spiritual power became unstable; leaking from me like a bucket with a hole in the bottom."
"Oh. That's… bad." Ichigo finished lamely. Nel's problem went a lot farther than he'd thought. He'd been hoping that Orihime could just work her magic and patch Nel's mask up, but… Nel's problem ran so deep he wasn't even sure Orihime would be able to help.
Of course, there was no way of proving that unless they actually got back to Orihime…
And she was on the other side of the world, surrounded by enemies. Damn it! Another reminder that he'd gotten his ass kicked and then booted out of Hueco Mundo like last week's garbage!
"Ichigo. It'll be alright. We'll get back to Hueco Mundo. We'll save your friends." Nel's words were gentle, but with such firmness and conviction to them that in that moment Ichigo had no doubts that Nel had at one point been one of the strongest fighters in all Hueco Mundo.
"Thanks, Nel. Sorry, I shouldn't lose focus like that."
"You're strong, Ichigo. Just because you couldn't defeat Nnoitra, that doesn't make you weak."
"…If you say so." Honestly, he'd been fighting uphill battles for so long, he was starting to forget if there had ever been a time where he'd actually fought someone who was objectively weaker than him. Kenpachi and then Byakuya in the Soul Society. Ulquiorra, Grimmjow, and then Nnoitra in Hueco Mundo…
He needed to get stronger. It didn't matter if he wasn't weak, the only truth here was that he wasn't strong enough.
"You don't think that, uh, instability will be a problem?"
"It shouldn't. So long as I don't need to use my resurrección, and remain judicious about using any costly abilities, I don't believe my adult form will be at risk of destabilizing. And despite this being the human world, the air is so rich with spirit energy I can draw more in to help recover my strength. …My broken mask means it'll just keep draining away, but as a stopgap, it's passable if nothing else."
"Wait, draw more in? How?"
"Like this." Nel's lips pursed, and there was an audible slurping noise as shimmering spirit particles poured into her open mouth, leaving little trails of light in the air as they funneled into Nel's open mouth, almost like watching water disappear down a drain.
Moments later, Nel was wiping her mouth with the back of one hand, before she turned to Ichigo.
"Gonzui is one of an arrancar's natural abilities; the ability to ingest the souls of humans around us to increase our power. …I always detested the concept of devouring the souls of the innocent, so my Gonzui is a bit different. I've fine-tuned it enough that I can simply draw in the ambient spiritual particles in the air around me. It'd still be far too dangerous to use in the human world under normal circumstances, but the density of the spiritual pressure in the air is high enough that if there were ordinary humans around us, they wouldn't be at risk by me feeding myself this way."
Nel was a hollow who avoided eating human souls? That sounded… well, it flew in the face of everything he knew about hollows. Were there any others like her, or was Nel a truly unique existence among her kind?
"Wait, isn't that a Quincy ability?"
"There's a big difference in simply eating the spirit particles in the air vs being able to use them for combat, Ichigo."
"Wait… your other ability is that Cero reflector thing, right?" A technique like that was pretty damn useful; considering how everyone and their grandmothers had some kind of energy beam attack these days. It made Ichigo almost miss the days back when he'd been a scrub who hadn't even known his sword's name. At least back then the hollows hadn't transformed, shot frickin' lasers, or in general required much thought to kill.
"My Cero Doble, yes. Why do you ask?"
"I mean… just wondering. Are all of your special abilities related to you eating things?"
One of Nel's eyes twitched.
"Y-Yes… I suppose it does seem that way. Why, is there something wrong with that?"
It didn't take a genius to figure out that he was treading dangerously close to the 'minefield' from earlier.
"No, nothing's wrong with it! It just, uh… sounds like a useful technique!"
Nel looked like she wanted to say more; but after a moment simply huffed and crossed her arms under her bust, the grumpy frown on her face fading back to neutral expression he'd seen when they'd been scouring the ruins.
That was as good a cue as any to drop the subject and keep moving.
"Come on. Let's keep exploring this place. We aren't going to find any answers if we stay in here." Ichigo spoke, standing up from the chair, the worn, tarnished material squeaking loudly as he stood up.
"I don't know if we'll find anything more inside this building, but this wasn't the only mostly intact building we saw either. …I hope we find someone in one of them." Nelliel responded to his words, clearly not considering it worth venturing up to the second floor of the building. Considering the state of the buildings around here, even a mostly intact-looking one like this one probably wasn't too stable.
He sure hoped they'd find signs of life here, but by this point he wasn't holding out hope. If this really was some ghost town that had been left to rot and fall to ruin after some terrible event, it was highly likely that the surviving residents of the town had fled to a safer environment.
America had it's share of earthquakes, just like Japan, and he'd heard that certain parts of the country experienced tornadoes and hurricanes.
…None of which matched up with what he was seeing here. Writing this off as the result of a natural disaster just didn't feel right.
He and Nelliel poked around the crumbling interior for a few more minutes but found nothing of note. The old office space held no answers as to the riddles both he and Nel were puzzling through, and so less than ten minutes later both were back outside, preparing to enter scope out another building.
"Nel, do you hear that?" It was that same whisper from earlier, and this time he was certain that it wasn't just the wind!
"I… I hear something, yes. But I can't make out what it is… is somebody saying something?" Nel spoke, squinting as she tilted her head in the direction of the whispers.
Too quiet to make out what the voice- or voices- were saying. Too far away to tell if it was a man or woman's voice. Too hard to tell if it was more than one people speaking…
All Ichigo could tell was the direction the whispering was coming from.
"There. The building on the corner. Come on, let's go check it out!" Finally! Having an actual lead on whatever the hell happened here made Ichigo feel like he'd finally accomplished something in this otherwise unmitigated clusterfuck of a day. Of course, knowing what had happened to this town didn't really correlate with his (and Nel's) goal of getting back to Hueco Mundo, but… baby steps. If Nel couldn't open a garganta, they were going to have to take the long way back to Hueco Mundo.
'Orihime… if any of those bastards hurt you before I can get back…' There would be hell to pay. Nnoitra Gilga, Ulquiorra Cifer, and the rest. He didn't care who he went up against. If they were a threat to his friends, he'd kick their asses!
He hadn't won his first 'fight' against Byakuya, if that incident could even be called a fight. He hadn't one his first fight with Grimmjow. And he sure hadn't one his first fight against that lanky jackass Nnoitra, but goddamn it he wasn't going to take that loss lying down! The list of people who'd kicked his ass seemed like an ever growing one; but at least he had a pretty good track record for getting even.
Of course, knowing this Nnoitra guy's deal, it might be more fitting to let Nel be the one to take him down.
"Yes, lets. I hope that we'll find at least some answers there; if not for our predicament, for whatever tragedy befell these people," Nel remarked, face stern.
Considering how boisterous most of the people he saw fight, both with AND against; it actually felt kind of odd seeing someone be so taciturn when on guard.
'Or maybe it's just that almost every soul reaper and arrancar I've fought up till now is a certified whack-job…' In no particular order, Dordoni, Ikkaku, Renji, Kenpachi, , Nnoitra, Grimmjow…
Huh. Other than Nel, now that he thought about it only Ulquiorra and Byakuya stood out as fighters who preferred a calm, collected façade to the loud bravado he usually faced.
That train of thought was enough to occupy Ichigo's mind while he and Nel made their way over to the last building; the whispering growing louder as they neared. That was solid proof that whatever he and Nel were hearing was coming from the building.
"Whoever is speaking is inside. Stay close and stay behind me."
"Nel, I'm fine. I'm not a little kid; you don't need to hover over me like that." Really, he appreciated Nel's concern for his wellbeing, but he didn't need to be babied!
"That's not what I meant. I don't believe we'll encounter anything hostile inside, but if we do… well, one of us is a human, and one of us has iron skin. I'll enter first, and you'll stay behind me." Nel stated in a stern, resolute voice allowed no room for argument.
Nel pushed the door to the building open, the rusted hinges squealing.
Both he and Nel stiffened as the whispering grew more perceptible.
"A… girl?"
Nel's calm façade flickered momentarily, dipping into naked concern before she schooled her features back into a neutral expression. There was a sudden pulsing of spiritual energy as Nel placed one hand on the dirty, streaked wooden floor; whatever fabric had carpeted it long rotted away.
"I don't like this. I can hear the child's voice, but my pesquisa isn't picking up any signs of spiritual pressure around us. Even a human should have enough spiritual pressure to register on any competent arrancar's senses. It's like this building is completely empty other than us…"
"You think whatever is making the air so dense with spirit energy is interfering with your sensory abilities?"
"…I don't know. It looks like we'll have to find her the old-fashioned way."
Ichigo kept Zangetsu on his back- he wasn't expecting a fight in this old building; and considering how dilapidated everything looked he was half-expecting the whole damn building to come down if he started swinging his zanpakuto around. Not like he'd likely need his sword at the ready anyway; he'd put the chances of hollows lurking around here at somewhere between slim and none.
Nel likewise didn't have her sword drawn, holding her blade's scabbard in one hand while she looked around. Ichigo couldn't tell what the building they were in had been prior to the total collapse and abandonment of this town; but it looked like less of an office building and more like an old, abandoned rec center of some kind.
No bodies to be found here, at least; though judging by some of the leftover belongings- worn, threadbare sleeping bags, a camping stove, and some other assorted odds and ends, there had definitely been people sheltering in here at one point.
"Empty." Nel turned to go, already brushing the room off as a lost cause, though something caught Ichigo's eyes- a lone scrap of paper sticking out from under one of the sleeping bags.
Picking it up; Ichigo squinted his eyes to make out the faded writing on the paper. The writing was a disorganized scrawl, little more than chicken scratch, and unmistakably a child's handwriting. It wasn't just a scrap of paper, he realized, but rather a torn page from a diary; the entries on the page clearly separated and spaced apart.
Somehow, the whispering girl's voice grew even louder in that moment; and for the first time Ichigo was able to clearly make out the words she was saying.
…He'd dealt with hollows of all shapes and sizes, comforted countless plusses as he sent them on to the Soul Society, and even before he'd met Rukia and become a substitute soul reaper, he'd occasionally conversed with the ghosts he'd met in and around Karakura Town.
This was not a plus.
The whisper, now a voice, was soft and quiet but unmistakable, not whole but more than just scattered pieces of a soul now. The young girl's voice resonated in Ichigo's mind; voicing aloud the words she'd written so long ago.
First entry
Mommy says that writing my thoughts down will make me feel less afraid, but I don't feel any better. Daddy keeps saying that we just have to hide for a little while longer, because people will come back for us soon…
Second Entry
Daddy and mommy look really worried. We're almost out of the food we brought with us, but they keep saying that everything will be alright. How much longer do we have to hide here?
Third Entry
I saw it through the window, but I don't think it saw me. I need to tell mommy and daddy; I don't know if it's safe here-
The paper crumpled in Ichigo's shaking fist. The voice stopped talking immediately as the diary entry abruptly cut off; the remaining portion of the page having torn away.
"Ichigo?"
Ichigo let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding in; turning to Nel who was staring at him in concern.
Had she not heard that?
"…It's nothing. Come on, there's another floor to this place." He'd seen dead bodies and ghosts before. This was nothing he couldn't handle. If there was a plus lost and alone in this hellhole of a town; it was his duty to make sure the girl found some measure of peace.
At the very least, she deserved a better deal than she'd had in life. He still didn't know why he was only hearing the girl's voice; her last lingering thoughts preserved as an echo in the torn scrap from her diary, but nobody deserved to linger on like this.
…Forget questioning her about just what the hell had happened to the town she'd lived in. Trying to press the girl for answers that would've almost certainly involved how she and her family had died would've been absolutely heartless, and the girl's voice had sounded young, no older than his sisters.
He and Nel headed up to the building's second floor; finding it significantly more unstable than the ground floor. The staircase held their weight, despite some ominous creaking from the old wood, as did the floorboards of the second floor. Not that either of them needed to fear falling, but still. It was good to know that the place probably wouldn't collapse on either of them.
Nel's face remained set in the same stern, almost blank expression he'd been seeing more of, though he could tell from her white-knuckled grip on her sword's scabbard she was dreading finding the girl here.
It didn't take long to find her, as only a few rooms on the upper floor were accessible; the roof having caved in on several other ones.
The soft intake of breath, too quiet and subtle to be a gasp, was the only sign from Nel that they'd found who they were looking for. Ichigo brushed past the helmeted arrancar to see what she'd found.
The girl; whose name Ichigo didn't know and would never know, had remained in the same place and position she'd been in for the last several decades.
She'd died in the arms of her parents, the two larger skeletons draped protectively over the much smaller skeleton between them; the outside wall half-collapsed on top of them. Even in death, the girl's parents continued their duty; continuing to shield her even now, so many years after their child's death.
It was a morbid thought; but Ichigo hoped their deaths had been swift and painless.
Of the plus, there was no sign. The paper still clenched in his hand trembled slightly, almost like it was being magnetically pulled to the girl's skeleton. Ichigo let it go, and the scrap of paper fluttered to the floor.
Ichigo hated how simple, how stupid the question felt, but… what now? He'd at the very least been expecting to perform konsō on her soul, but there was no soul to be found. The whispering was gone as if Ichigo and Nel had never even heard the girl's last thoughts.
"Should… should we bury them?" A meaningless question: what use did the long dead have for ceremony? Without a soul to purify; any other actions would've been meaningless.
Nel smiled softly, casting him a warm, caring look. A blanket had been lying next to the trio of skeletons, which she unrolled and spread over the family's remains.
It wasn't much, but it was something. If nothing else, it felt better than just walking off without doing anything.
…He'd always preferred hunting hollows to helping souls cross over to the Soul Society. That wasn't to say he didn't dislike it, and it WAS an extremely important duty, but…
Hell, fighting hollows was so much simpler and less depressing than his other primary duty. Or at least it had been, back in the early days before he and his friends had gotten tangled up in the Soul Society's struggles. Hollows didn't look like people back then either, and the ones who had talked usually didn't have much to say beyond taunting their prey.
Prey.
The word stood out in his mind.
What had the last entry in the girl's diary said? He'd almost overlooked it at the time, but now that he was focusing on it…
The girl and her family had been hiding from something, or someone. That meant that the catastrophe that had befallen this town had resulted in the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of people had been orchestrated by something!
"Ichigo-"
"I see it too, Nel." The tall woman's sharp eyes were fixed on the gaping hole in the wall.
The wall- and subsequently the collapsed roof, had not collapsed from age and wear, but from an external force. There were scorches around the edges of the wall, and the ceiling showed clear signs of damage; as if something huge and heavy had slammed down on top of it.
A hollow attack? It was possible, but Ichigo couldn't help but feel like he was off the mark. Even including Aizen's forces, hollows didn't attack in anywhere near the kind of numbers needed to burn an entire town to the ground.
"We should go, Ichigo. There's no point… Ah, I mean… there's nothing we can do for these… people."
It felt like he was shirking his duties as a substitute soul reaper, but she was right. No soul meant no konsō. And if there was no konsō to be performed, most soul reapers wouldn't bother coming by a place like this.
But not Ichigo. He was human through and through, or at least considered himself as such. And he wasn't going to rest easy knowing that an entire town had been slaughtered!
Someone was getting put in the dirt for this. Human or not, spirit or not, that didn't matter to Ichigo. His blood was boiling, and as soon as he found the fuckers responsible for all these dead people he was going to make them pay!
To make matters worse, he could hear his inner hollow baying for blood! The pasty white bastard had been strangely quiet up till now, but he could hear his negative self's emotions loud and clear.
Though knowing the violent lunatic, he was probably more looking for an excuse to cause violence than to avenge any unjust deaths…
As he and Nel descended to the ground through the open hole in the building- there was no need to remain inside now that they weren't in search and rescue mode- Ichigo could feel Nelliel's turbulent spiritual pressure next to him. Though less outwardly emotive, her emotions were tangling with her spiritual pressure, a hot undercurrent of righteous anger surging through her.
Unfortunately for the two of them, they currently lacked a clear target for their ire; and Ichigo knew that his anger would probably have to stay simmering- this disaster, as he'd noted many times now, was anything but recent, and the perpetrators were likely long gone.
Still… How could a whole town just get wiped off the map like that? His knowledge of US history didn't go beyond the basics, but something of this scale would've- should've been in the history books!
"Ichigo."
"Nel?" He tilted his head to look at the woman stepping gracefully through the air next to him.
Nel's mouth moved imperceptibly for a second, before she decided against talking and continued forwards, starting to outpace Ichigo.
He couldn't blame her for failing to find any words.
They were back at square one, and there were no two ways around that. Back to when they'd first emerged in this strange, desolate place. If anything, Ichigo felt like they'd actually gone back a few spaces, because while some of his questions had been answered, they'd ended up being replaced with new ones.
'Damn it! We've already been here for a few hours, and the only questions that we found answers to only left us with MORE questions!'
'Honestly, I think the only thing that we did learn was that this place was destroyed by something intentionally, rather than just getting hit by an earthquake or something. We still don't even know where in the world we are!' Granted, he was pretty sure that they were somewhere in the United States, but that was just an educated guess of his.
Flying low just over the main road leading out of town showed horrors similar to what he'd seen back in the town. The road was choked with the derelict husks of cars, their owners corpses either trapped within the rusted, and in some cases burnt and half-melted vehicles, while skeletons littered the crowded street.
Whoever or whatever had laid waste to this town had made it a point to hunt down the townsfolk who'd attempted to flee for their lives. In other words…
This wasn't a random act of barbarity.
It was a planned, targeted attack. But by who? And for what purpose? He had a strange, foreboding feeling that this wasn't the work of some terrorist cell or any other force amongst the world of the living…
There hadn't been a single soul, plus OR hollow, in the ruined town. A place like that should've been a veritable hotbed of soul activity!
A glance to his side showed him that Nel had a similarly pensive expression on her face. No doubt she was thinking something along the exact same lines as him.
"Ichigo… do you think this was a hollow attack?"
The words were so quiet he almost missed them.
"I've never heard of hollows attacking in anywhere near the kind of numbers to do this kind of damage." The closest parallel he could think of was when Uryu had used that hollow bait in the middle of Karakura Town, and even then the attack hadn't been so dire that it resulted in the complete destruction of whole buildings. A town like this, small as it was, to be completely and utterly laid waste to… that would've required something like concentrated cero blasts from dozens if not hundreds of powerful hollows.
So no, he didn't think this was a hollow attack.
"I doubt it. Even if the souls of these people are… missing, that just doesn't seem likely."
The relief on Nelliel's face was palpable. Had she thought he'd be mad at her if this had been caused by hollows?
"I guess we should keep moving. What do you think? Fly to the next town, see if we get more answers, and keep moving from there? Maybe once we get far enough away from this place whatever weirdness is interfering with your garganta will stop."
Nel nodded at the words, and the two of them continued their air-trek away from the ruins.
…The further they got from the town, the more the icy hand of anxiety clamped down on him.
He'd never been to America before, but one of the things he'd heard from friends who had been was how noisy the raucous country was. The people were loud, the TV shows were loud, the cars were loud, everything was loud!
But right now, as he and Nel zoomed over the overgrown remains of what had one point been a major highway…
The whole world was as silent as a grave.
No cars moving below them- the highway was empty. No planes in the sky, and the clear blue meant that he and Nel could see for miles around them.
Nothing. There was nothing at all to show that there was any sign of human activity around for miles and miles!
Fuck, he really didn't like this. The ruins had faded into the distance minutes ago, and he and Nel had been zipping through the sky unimpeded, unbound by the restrictions of the road that humans were forced to take. They'd covered multiple miles in mere minutes, and yet…
"Everything is so… lifeless. Where… where in the world is everybody?" Nel took the words right out of his mouth. Unless this was normal, and they just happened to be in some far, backwoods corner of the US- it WAS a big country after all…
No, the further Ichigo and Nel went, the more that anxiety built.
It all came to a head at the next settlement they reached.
The anxiety building in his mind turned to full on alarm, Ichigo dropping out of the sky to touch down on the cracked pavement of what had once been one a major offramp leading further into the city up ahead.
This was no small back-country town like where he and Nel had emerged. This was a city, from what he'd seen on the approach from the sky it was at least twice the overall size of Karakura Town!
And it was in a state of disrepair and destruction comparable to the town they'd left earlier.
'What… what the fuck? This… This can't be real…' He could feel his heart thudding in his chest at the impossible sight before him. He desperately wanted to believe that it was some kind of crazy illusion, even just a crazy fever dream…
Because anything would be better than this.
Take the destruction that unnamed small town they'd left had faced, and amplify it a dozen times or more, and you had the picture of what had happened here. Whole buildings collapsed, skyscrapers having toppled and fallen, smashing everything in their path as they'd fallen. The city's population; likely several hundred thousand, and that was him lowballing it- had likely faced near-complete annihilation here, judging by the bumper-to-bumper quagmire of rusted vehicles stretching from the highway offramp back into the city itself.
"!" Nel's calm mask slipped momentarily, eyes shining and hands covering her mouth in horror as she descended next to him, a wordless noise of horror escaping her lips.
"…I think that whatever happened back in that town we left might not have been contained to just that town." Ichigo mumbled after a moment's pause. This… This was unreal. No, it couldn't be real! Destruction on this scale… every country on the planet would've heard about an entire city getting torn to shreds.
And equally important; if not MORE, there was on way the Soul Society would've been able to cover up such a calamity. If this terrible tragedy had been orchestrated by any faction from the beyond the human world, the metaphorical mask would've shattered. Mankind would've become abruptly aware of the dead walking among them.
*RUMBLE*
Both Ichigo and Nel jolted as a rumble passed through the battered ground, vibrating at their feet. Off in the distance, closer to the city itself, something had exploded, the fiery shockwave sending a dusty shockwave emanating out from the detonation.
"Ichigo! Wait!"
Ichigo ignored Nel's cry; darting through the air towards what was unmistakably an ongoing fight. The flashes of light and muted explosions were proof enough for him. When all else failed, violence seemed to get answers that words couldn't, and that was damn fine by him!
He much preferred problems that could be resolved by swinging Zangetsu at them.
As the dust cleared, Ichigo finally got his first look at just what he was dealing with…
"What the hell? A… robot hollow?" Could hollows be robots? Wait, was this thing even a hollow at all? The body was dark grey, with a single red orb about where he thought the thing's face was, though it was vaguely animal-shaped, as most hollows were.
The hollow-mech lacked the mask he saw on hollows, which was his first indicator that it might not have been a hollow at all…
And then out of nowhere the strange creature was hit by a flash of light and exploded; bursting apart not in a shower of blood and viscera, but metal scraps and machine parts.
That attack hadn't come from Nel. Who-
"Hyah!" A blonde blur darted past him, Ichigo barely having time to glimpse the long, ornate staff in the figure's hands, before light surged from it once again, blasting through another one of the strange metal creatures. Light poured out from the woman's staff, in mere seconds reducing the number of functioning machine beasts from nearly a dozen to zero.
"My goodness, what on Earth are you doing here? You're very lucky that I was able to destroy those Raptures in time! To think that there was still a human this far into Rapture territory… you've been very lucky to survive up till now, mister!"
Ichigo's first impression was-
…What?
No, seriously. WHAT?!
Out of everything he could've predicted he'd see today, watching a warrior-nun armed with a laser-shooting staff battling homicidal robots had not been on that list.
He was pretty sure he was catching flies right now, from how low his jaw was hanging open, but who could blame him? This day had been one 90 degree left turn after another.
And the whole 'nun' thing wasn't an exaggeration or approximation or any other kind of 'imation.' She had the headdress and everything- not that he could remember the name of that kind of outfit. Despite being deeply involved in assisting the dead, Christianity wasn't something he knew much about beyond the basics.
"Um… mister? …Young man? Are you alright?"
Ichigo took a step back as the nun came closer to him, the statuesque woman practically looming over him. That alone was pretty eye-catching- the last time he'd seen a woman that tall had been Captain Unohana's vice-captain. Isako? That didn't sound right. Isane? Yeah, he was pretty sure that was her name. The tall white-haired lady. The blonde nun looked like she was around Isane's height; maybe even an inch or two taller.
"I'm fine, you didn't need to intervene. I had things handled." Ichigo managed to get his jaw working again, at least enough that he was able to get a coherent sentence out to placate the warrior nun.
Unfortunately, his words seemed to have the opposite effect.
"Didn't need to intervene?! If I hadn't shown up when I did, you'd be dead!" Now that was just untrue; he hadn't felt a lick of spiritual pressure from those mechs, and he was pretty sure that it wouldn't take much more than a good ol' Getsuga Tenshō to kill those things. Hell, he might not even need to use the technique on them.
Of course, he couldn't fault the nun for stepping in; as unneeded as it was- it wasn't like she knew he was a soul reaper… probably.
It was probably for the best to get on her good side; seeing as she was so far the only living person he'd seen at all in this wasteland.
Wait…
Living person?!
That was… something he was going to have to put a pin in. He couldn't detect any spiritual pressure from the nun, but she'd clearly had no issue seeing or speaking with him.
Right.
Back to the matter at hand.
Figure out the ramifications of a living person being able to see him later. Figure out what the fuck had happened to this place, that came NOW!
"Right, right. Uh… my bad? Thanks for showing up when you did, seriously."
"You're welcome! Imagine my surprise at finding you all the way out here… I can't imagine what you must've gone through to survive! This city's been abandoned for almost a hundred years!"
…Ichigo really didn't like the sound of that. But before he could question just what the hell the oversized nun meant-
Nel appeared at his side in a burst of static, the nun squeaking in surprise, jumping in shock as, to her eyes, Nelliel appeared out of nowhere.
One of Ichigo's eyebrows twitched. The sight was so ludicrous, so surreal it was almost comical; because the nun frigging jiggled when she moved.
Her outfit wasn't doing a good job of hiding her *ahem* jiggles either. In fact, it was doing the opposite. Her black and white ensemble was so formfitting it looked like it had been painted on, and the woman had honest-to-God thigh-high stockings on, her habit leaving the entirety of her very wide thighs on full display. The dress, or habit or whatever the traditional nun-wear was called was more of, like, the kind of fetish-nun-wear that he totally hadn't seen on late-night anime with Keigo and Mizuiro. The definitely not-church-appropriate garb only highlighted the fact that, implausibly, the towering nun was just as curvy as Nel, and meeting even one woman built like that in the space of a day had to be something like a 1 in 1000 chance!
'Goddammit, don't sexualize the nun…' Ichigo growled in his head. He wasn't Christian, but even as a non-Christian he knew that, in-general, you weren't supposed to think about sworn women of the cloth in such an inappropriate manner.
If Nel was put off by the nun's bizarrely inappropriate style of dress, she didn't comment on it, though she looked just as puzzled by the blonde woman's paradoxical appearance as he did.
Though to be fair, right now she was probably thinking something along the lines of 'those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.'
"My goodness, you startled me! But I suppose that certainly answers how you managed to survive out here! Though, if you don't mind me asking, what on earth are a human and a lone Nikke doing all the way out here? You certainly aren't a mass-produced model, but you, ah… you look like you've been through quite a lot defending him," the blonde woman addressed Nel, eyes scanning over Nel's barely-there rags.
Ichigo and Nel looked at the blonde woman, then back at each other.
There was A LOT to unpack from all that.
"So, uh… no offense, ma'am, but… who are you?"
"Oh, my apologies! Pardon me for overlooking such basic manners; finding a pair like you out here has just completely caught me off guard!" The bodacious blonde bowed low; Ichigo pointedly kept his eyes from drifting to places they shouldn't.
"I am Rapunzel, of the Pioneer squad! By the Creator's grace, I shall do everything in my power to guide you back to safety!"
'Rapunzel? Like the old fairy tale?' Who names their kid that?
She definitely had the hair for it, though. That blonde braid of hers extended so far the tip of it reached down to the towering nun's ankle's!
Once again, back to square zero. Ichigo looked to Nel, who was staring wide-eyed at their 'rescuer.' In the last fifteen seconds alone; the nun- Rapunzel had dropped at least three terms that meant absolutely nothing to either of them as if they were common knowledge.
'Something tells me I'm really not going to like the answers I hear…'
"That's… great. Seriously, I… uh, we appreciate it. Just… before we get moving… Would you mind answering a few questions for us?"
"Questions? Certainly! But please keep in mind, we can't stay long. Those raptures may have been destroyed, but in a city this size, there are certainly going to be more lurking about. I'll answer your questions as best I can; but we really must be off before too long!"
Well, she was receptive, if nothing else. In that case…
"Right… I guess I should start from the beginning."
(((Hueco Mundo: AWOL Subsitute)))
"Yay! The kitty man looks all better!"
"Call me that again-"
"I'm sorry, could you repeat that, Mr. Arrancar? I don't think I heard you correctly." The braided captain's voice cut in, soft but stern, interrupting his retort to the pink-haired child.
"For the last time, I'm telling you- Kurosaki ain't here anymore! Nnoitra did something to him, I don't know what! If you want to know the specifics of what it was Nnoitra did to him, either find him yourself and ask him- after I beat the shit out of him- OR track down that freak Szayelaporro and beat the answers out of him! He's the only one in Laz Noches who makes shit like that."
"I see." Grimmjow would've cursed out the darkhaired woman for making him repeat himself several times, but something deep down in his instincts told him that pissing off this lady- who looked like a peaceful, nonviolent medic- was a strangely bad idea.
"I'll have to send word to the Captain Commander that Ichigo Kurosaki has disappeared. Our primary reason for coming here was to ensure his safe retrieval, and his sudden absence is a not insubstantial loss. Knowing the captain commander, he may just order us to pull back from Hueco Mundo immediately."
Grimmjow grunted as the captain finished tending to his wound; the massive gash Nnoitra had inflicted upon him little more than an ugly, ragged scar now.
…Fuck. Just because he was back on his feet; he wasn't under any delusions his odds at taking down the quinto espada had greatly improved. The man had hardly expended any effort during his fight with Ichigo earlier, while Grimmjow was still recovering from his own injuries, and he wasn't sure if he could use his resurrección twice in one day.
"Mr. Arrancar, did you happen to see any of Ichigo Kurosaki's other friends?"
"For the love of- Ugh, just call me Grimmjow. That formal shit is for you soul reapers! As for Kurosaki's friends… why the hell should I care-" Grimmjow's words trailed off as Retsu Unohana stared at him, leaving Grimmjow feeling for an instant like a kitten quivering in front of an abominable monster. The hell was up with this healer lady, and why was a king like him suddenly cowering in front of her?
"Tch! Whatever… It's not my problem, but if you're wondering, Nnoitra had his fracción drag the Inoue girl off somewhere. He's probably lurking around her. As for the rest… I don't know, just sense them out or something. Not like they're that hard to miss. ...Feels like a couple of them are already gettin' into fights around here."
"Thank you, Mr. Arrancar. Now that you're well enough to stand on your own, this concludes my service to you. …Ichigo Kurosaki may not be present right now, but I have no doubts that many concerned minds will do their utmost to find a way to retrieve him as soon as possible. In the meantime-" The woman's blue eyes narrowed slightly.
"Young Orihime is a wonderful girl, a dedicated healer and a kind spirit. I would be remiss if I did not ensure that such a promising healer was rescued from her captors."
Well.
He had the strangest feeling that he might not end up getting the chance to pay Nnoitra back the pound of flesh he owed him.
Retsu Unohana vanished in a flicker, her shunpo carrying her far away from the recovering arrancar. Next to the seated man, the pink-haired girl watched her go.
"…Hey, kid. The hell are you still doing here?"
"Does it matter, kitty?"
"…You aren't going to stop calling me that, are you?"
"Nope!"
"Tch… That's what I thought," Grimmjow grunted, clambering to his feet. Time to get going. He might not have been fully healed, but he was well enough to hold his sword in his hands, and that meant that he could fight. Nnoitra booting Kurosaki out of Hueco Mundo had been the spark to ignite this powder keg, and things were already spiraling out of control!
End notes:
First off, regarding the usage of English terms vs Japanese terms, what do people prefer? I mean, stuff like saying 'Soul Reaper' instead of Shinigami, using 'spiritual pressure/particle/energy' instead of 'reishi/reiatsu and so on.'
Secondly, would you all prefer the Bleach-verse short story (which is canon to this story) continue as an end-of-chapter closer, or would you all prefer that I post them as separate, short chapters?
Moving on to the less important details (i.e my random thoughts/facts of the day...)
Regarding character attributes/personal info...
Pre-timeskip Ichigo is listed as being 174cm/ just shy of 5'9. Nelliel is 176cm/ a little over 5'9. She's also heavier than him by 2kg/5lbs, according to the databooks. Rapunzel herself is, in the continuity of my story, 190cm/6'3. Blame BakaSmurf and his amazing Nikke fanfiction for getting the idea of TALL Rapunzel stuck in my head.
Seriously, if you're a Nikke fan and you haven't read Only Human by BakaSmurf... go do so. You're missing out if you haven't.
Also... Rapunzel's appearance is that of her Rapunzel: Pure Grace alt instead of her normal appearance. Why? I like the alt more than her default look. That's all there is too it.
The thought has occurred to me that I have yet to write a scene where Nel hugs the stuffing out of Ichigo. Huh. I'll have to rectify that somehow.
Also...
Ichigo is trying his hardest not to lewd Nikke's resident Naughty Nun character. Don't worry Ichigo, even if you don't want to lewd her, she'll probably lewd you. Everyone who's familiar with Nikke knows what I mean.
Lastly, before I forget... yeah, that was 100% an original technique of Nel's. It seems fitting for her, given what we know of her other main technique and personality. The fact that the wiki has more named techniques for her child form compared to her adult form is just plain sad. Ichigo's not the only one who'll grow over the course of the story, so I'll work on expanding her ability pool in the future.