#blind ichigo au

[zanguntsu]

go has an aspect of death idk what it would be but im voting devotion/fealty bc loyalty is what killed him in that timeline

#ichiverse au #his loyalty to his family got him killed thats like ouuughhh #and its sort of like the vestiges of the person he used to be still being exhibited #the bad part is that hes loyal to aizen bc he gave him a purpose while being blind to aizen manipulating him #plus its devotion without regard for himself in a way. unquestioning. #like go is a darker mirror of ichigo where the negative aspects of loyalty creeps through. he doesnt have the moral code ichigo has bc he #was effectively raised on violence and manipulation

[asukaskerian]

monthly word count - march

TOTAL: 4 512 ... *whine* can't-start-nothin-itis was REALLY bad this month. :( POSTED : nothin! IN PROGRESS (all bleach) -suburban ot4 (695 words) -daemon AU: the fullbringers arc (1 756 words) -bloodsport (83 words) (but i plotted more!) -pack fuckening epilogue (1 966 words) (maybe one fourth done. sob) -superheroes AU (12 words) (=_=) also posted: bleach - pack fuckening chapter 6. now to finish that friggin epilogue... hghghhh

-- suburban ot4 -- "Okay, release paperwork to sign, blank reports, address book..." Kurosaki is making his way down the stairs without looking, riffling through his satchel. "... Address is filled, permission slip for the Kyoto trip..." "Daddy's going to work?" "Mm yep," he hums back, still peering inside his bag as he wanders across the room. "Just for a little bit. Daddy's visiting a student and then coming back home." He drops a blind kiss on his son's skull, then another on his wife's-- Then pauses exactly two inches off Nelliel's hair, lips still pursed. "... Um." ... Pffhahaha. The bright, hopeful grin Nelliel sends him makes him heave a sigh, ears turning red. Grimmjow starts smirking wider in anticipation of heckling him into committing to it... Then he just does it on his own. The kiss he drops on her in turn lands on her fringe, at the top of her forehead -- more noisy and showy than real, but it still happens. She laughs, surprised, happy. Grimmjow laughs, more incredulous than anything. The princess presses a hand to her mouth to stifle giggles. "Where's mine, assh... butt?" Ichigo narrows his eyes meanly. Kazui calls out like a little town crier, in case the neighborhood's hard of hearing, "Assbutt!" and brandishes his drawing with both hands. -- daemon AU -- "... I suppose. But it's hard to find a way to talk to you without the... honor guard." Wow, the doubtful little pause in the middle, the harmless smile afterwards. The slow glide, in and out, of the tigress' claw tips, half-hidden behind her curled tail. "You could have come up while they were around," Rikuto says. "We really couldn't have," the tigress says, regretful. They stare at each other. Ichigo throws his bag, then hops across the gap after it. "Oh, they're nice." He bats dust off his pants legs, casually. "Well, most of them. Probably. Okay, where's the door?" The guy blinks, a little thrown. "You just got here and you already wanna leave? You don't have a problem with heights, I hope." Her Ichigo pauses to scowl at the guy, who replies with a smarmy grin, full of teeth. Rikuto snorts. Guys with big cats are all assholes, it seems. "Just sit down if you're scared," the guy drawls, playful mockery in every syllable. "I'll even lend you my jacket so you don't dirty your pants." "Dude," Ichigo deadpans back, "I already have a boyfriend." Then he rolls his eyes. So he misses the way the tigress' ears flick up; but Rikuto doesn't. "So who the hell are you and what were you stalking us for," she says, cutting through the oncoming bullshit and seven centuries of coy not-getting-to-the-point. It's a little satisfying to see the smarm slide off the guy's face to be replaced by seriousness. "Right. I'm Ginjō Kūgo. This is Yozora. We arrived in town last week, and... Ah, there's no good way of saying this." His brow knits into concern, worry. "How come you're surrounded by Fullbringers and not a one of them taught you how to do it?" -- pack fuckening epilogue -- He hopped over a tree trunk, and promptly caught his toe on it and tripped when his sleeve started ringing out of nowhere. His foot landed with a wet squelch in something unidentifiable; he plunged his hand down his sleeve to grab the spirit flip phone Urahara had inflicted on him somehow. "Yeah? -- oh, gross." "Who are you calling gross, little boy?" -- Oh. He stopped walking, phone pressed to his ear and one foot still up, trying to flick the weird mush out from between his toes. "Rukia? They called you in?" Just hearing her voice made his shoulders relax, his back straighten. He'd been feeling so -- "I came with the Captain-Commander." Her voice was all no-nonsense, extra-professional; Kyoraku was probably in the room with her. Ichigo tried not to feel too disappointed. He'd hoped... "Now Urahara-san tells us a garganta just opened and closed, can you confirm?" "Yeah, they just left. Peacefully and with half of my house's entire stock of pillows." He was rewarded with a little 'heh.' "And your estimated time of arrival at the shop?" "Oh, uh." Ugh. Five minutes if he flew, but he didn't want to fly. "Fifte... thirty minutes. I gotta... stuff." "Very well." She turned away from the phone, voice gone muffled as she relayed his words. Sigh. "Alright," she said all at once, in such a different tone he almost startled. "I'm in the ladies' room. Tell me why you're coming back on foot. Are you brooding?" Ichigo spluttered, and shoved a branch out of his face with a little more -- enthusiasm. (Relief.) "What the hell makes you think that?!" "If you were injured you'd say so. You wouldn't make poor Inoue cry thinking of you limping back through rough terrain on your lonesome." "...Mngh."   "Also... Ichigo, I'm an alpha too. Do you think I don't understand how it might feel to devote a couple nights slaking a lover's lust and shielding their most intimate vulnerabilities only for them to disappear in the morning?" He swallowed. Cleared his throat. "... I keep forgetting you're an alpha." "Bullshit you do, you're just a deviant." "Ugh, shut up. Nobody still goes by Sengoku era rules for friend groups." Fewer and fewer people even still held onto it for actual packs in the Living World, but Soul Society, he knew, held firmly to that rule at least. A household might have several omegas, and definitely several betas, but more than one, unrelated alpha? Too shocking. Kind of... gay. Rukia's voice went teasingly cloying. "There, there, it's okay if you consider me a senior alpha, a patriarch of sorts, a mentor in the ways of--" "I really, really don't." "Hmph. Upstart." "You really missed an occasion to call me a whippersnapper there."

#teaser #ABO quest

[crimsonlyinglilly]

Day 2 Sweat  

A little late for day 2 whumpril and we're back to my Bleach AU-Shared custody.

AU summary- Uryuu was taken by squad 12 members alongside Souken's soul on the day he was attacked.

Uryuu does something reckless, knowing he'd lose, someone catches him.

----

He knew he wasn’t going to win, no matter how dangerous Soul society saw him as it was against three captains but he hoped he could have given Tatsuki some time to flee with Rukia, since she was the one this whole plan was set for.

Instead the moment he had started released his Shikai everything had gone black when Cap- Tosen appeared behind him unsealing his sword. If Tosen thought the pain from the cuts he inflicted was enough to stop him he really hadn’t bothered to read the file the monster was quite fond of rereading to Uryuu as if he could forget the months of experiments before Yachiru freed him.

So Uryuu skipped Shikai and broke his own rules, releasing Yudokuna fully, even if he couldn’t hear his own words, they did.

“Bankai. Spawn and consume all, Yūdokuna.”

Yudokuna let out a gleeful laugh before it scattered into numerous smaller ones.

Later he’ll thank the black nothing of Tosen’s dome that allowed him to adjust as his awareness was split into fragments instead of losing control of himself like he had the first time.

‘Feast, feast, feast’ their voices echoed through his mind as they started to spread from him and eat at the traitor Captain’s Bankai growing in size as they did.

“What the-?” the captain’s shocked words reached him moments before the black vanished.

For a moment he was frozen as he was hit by the sudden light and the many points of view from his fragments, Tatsuki was on the floor alongside Renji and the one he would guess was Ichigo making him wonder if he had been trapped there longer than he had thought.

He throws himself out the way as his views from the fragments warned him of Tosen’s attack.

“Interesting.” Azien smiled at him, Uryuu bit back the urge to hiss as Yudokuna’s fragments trembled, something was wrong, they had never felt at ease around the bespectacled captain but he had thought that was just because sometimes the man looked at him the same way the monster did, like he wanted to dissect him.

This was different, this was more that discomfort, this was fear and he had never felt fear from his other half before.

Before he could do anything, even summon his bow, a flash of light aimed for his face and blood and black returned to consume his vision, this time with burning pain.

He choked on a scream, tasting copper as he reached with his hands to cover his face.

Warm blood covered his hand, Ichimaru had blinded him with a single cut from across the ground, he realised what had happened even without seeing from the fragments point of view.  

“Gin.” Azien scolded, as Uryuu swayed, he hurt he had never lost his sight in the lab, he swallowed back terror as he found himself returning to that helplessness.

“Sorry.” the other chimed, not sorry in the least, Uryuu could hear the grin in his voice.

Uryuu stumbled, from the pain, terror, bloodloss and a wave of sickness, he swallowed back as he recognised the feeling of poison and Yudokuna increased her own potency to overwhelm Ichimaru’s.

Another slash from behind, warned as he was by his fragments but unable to move, sent him to the ground, he felt the fragments attempted to retreat to him but they wouldn’t make it before Tosen finished him off, it was a shame he thought, he was so close to see father again.

The blade was stopped and for the first time Uryuu was glad at the sudden appearance of the stealth force.

 —-

Uryuu’s tightened his grip of his blade as the three traitors vanished into the sky, it was only Yudokuna’s fragments that meant he could still see what was going on so he fought to keep himself awake and his Bankai released.

Even if their vision was only in blue and purple.

Blind from Gin’s slash, his own poisoned reishi consuming the captain’s and deeply aware of the sweat coating his body, Uryuu found himself longing for Isane’s cooling touch or Yumichika spare cloth to wipe some of the grime away.

Still it was easy to lose track of time as he used the fragments to heal the more minor damages to his body, the cuts from Tosen mostly. He wasn’t going to make an attempt on his eyes, the last thing he wanted was to make his eyesight worse while attempting to reverse his new blindness.

Two of the fragments were attempting to reshape the Reishi from the ground to repair his glasses.

“Uryuu.” the low voice called him from his brief daze that he flinched as he realised who was suddenly within hands reach.

Father the word doesn’t leave his month even as it fills his mind, it had been years and he had fear, hated father when he was taken but-

He slumped sideways into father’s arms, even as part of him screamed not to let down his guard, father was in danger, he hadn’t be in the lab he could still be saved.

The broken look in father’s eyes when Uryuu had found him standing over mother, had haunted him, he had left him alone. 

“I’m sorry.” he sighed as the hand not holding his blade, scrambled to grab at father’s clothes unthinking of the dirt he would be staining the no doubt white fabric, even now with his father under his hand he wanted to see him with his own eyes to check he was real.

Year apart and he suddenly wanted to be that child agains before mother’s death made father cold, and the lab broke and remade Uryuu.

His last feeling before he lost his fight to stay awake was father wiping soft fabric across his face cleaning blood and sweat away.

—-

“Foolish child," Ryuuken breathed into his son’s hair, longer than he had ever let it grow, but it was still Uryuu, his son was in his arms, nothing was going to get him to let him go again. "You have nothing to apologise for.”

#whumpril2024 #whumprilday2 #Sweat #bleach #fic #bleach fanfiction #ishida uryuu #ishida ryuken #Yudokuna #AU-Shared custody #bleach au #fanfiction

[strawhatsoraya]

attack on titan bleach jujutsu kaisen obey me one piece

🛑 RULES & GUIDELINES!

100 Drabbles Challenge [x]

Strawberry Kisses are Forever [Kurosaki Ichigo x Reader] 'Your clasp on his shirt is deadly, the originator of the cold touch traversing down his spine. He holds his breath, aware that your face is too close, way too close. Yes, your lips look so soft, but that does not mean he should let you kiss him.' Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 (TBA) | Chapter 5 (TBA)

Kiss Him, Kiss Me [Gojo Satoru x Fem! OC x Geto Suguru]

Suguru places a hand on Nanami’s desk, his tapered fingers pushing paperwork aside. Nanami looks up through light brown lashes, a tired sigh flopping from his lips.

“What now, Suguru-san?” Nanami asks as he brings back the papers Geto’s impertinence had cast away from him. “Don’t you have a lot of work to do? The deadline is in two weeks.”

Geto knows he should smile. You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. That was how the saying went; however, it had always been difficult for Geto to go along with what was considered socially acceptable. CHAPTER 1 | CHAPTER 2 (TBA)

We Met In Spring [Teen Gojo x Teen Fem Y/N x Teen Geto] Y/N is quiet and reserved, content with being an outlier during her remaining years in High School. Gojo Satoru is loud and effervescent, hiding dark secrets nobody knows about, including from his best friend Getou Suguru. Y/N is adamant about staying out of Gojo Satoru’s line of sight even though they’re in the same year, happy to be a stranger but Gojo Satoru insists they have met before. He keeps the secret to their past meeting to himself, inciting Y/Ns curiosity, slowly pulling her into his world. CHAPTER 1 | CHAPTER 2 | CHAPTER 3 (TBA)

LAST UPDATED: 7/31/23

chapter 4 for strawberry kisses are forever

chapter 2 for kiss him, kiss me

chapter 3 for we met in spring

sanji x y/n slow burn (i'm at 1.3k words.... *sweats* / request)

julius novachrono x y/n in a thunderstorm (nsfw / request)

diavolo x y/n (nsfw+angst / request)

ace x y/n play truth or dare (spicy but sweet / request)

sanji x y/n and sanji's casual intimacy (request)

zoro x shy y/n who never remembers her drunk shenanigans (lmao this one is so funny i have to write it no matter what / request)

zoro x y/n soulmate au trope (sfw? we shall see / request)

jealous ichigo x fem!reader who tries to move on by going on blind dates with other men (oh, ichigo, what you do now? / request)

zoro x perona serialized fic (i love them your honor / original)

knight zoro x prince luffy x mermaid y/n au (i got a lot outlined, we'll get there eventually)

zoro x oc serialized fic (juan dey it'll be published...)

ASL lifeguard AU with magical realism mixed into it

gojo x reader x namai (sequel to 'Minus')

obey me mafia au

pretty little mouth [nsfw fic] (izou x reader)

close to you [fic request] (obey me! levi x reader)

chupamelo [fic request] (luffy x reader)

we met in spring [sfw / fluff] (gojo x reader)

dare you not to move [fic request] (ace x chubby fem reader)

last updated: 3/22/24

#masterlist #snk masterlist #aot masterlist #jjk masterlist #one piece masterlist #navigation page

[opscurus]

PROFILE.

— Ichigo is 23

Hair: Orange

Eyes: Brown

Height: 5ft 10in

Weight: 165lbs

Born: July 15th

When the Fight between Ichigo and Ulquiorra happened, the orange haired Soul Reaper awoke his powers of Vasto Lorde. Once the battle was over, his soul returned to its battered state it had been in before the transformation, and his friends had taken care of him as best they could.

Once Ichigo and friends returned from Hueco Mundo, he started having odd feelings and sensations around certain people. Mainly Urahara, Uryu, and Orihime. He couldn’t be around any of them without feeling like he should kill or injure them — it was his Inner Hollow taking a toll upon Ichigo’s spirit.

BASIC.

Set directly after episode 271 through the arc. This Ichigo is AU, meaning events after the named episode didn’t happen, instead leading Ichigo to set off down different paths in the main verse of this muse.

it explores Ichigo’s insecurities / fears about his powers & the fact that he is unnatural

—Stubborn as always, though he’s learned a lot with having to cope with almost hurting his friends with his Hollow powers and has come to live in the far recesses of the Soul Society. He still travels to Karakura town every now and then, but stays only a short while.

— being;

He was a beast in Human skin, not belonging to either world, or any for that matter. If one were to see him, they’d see him ominously silent, and drifting like a leaf on the wind.

Tall, yet thin, his features are sharp, but still a bit unkempt. His hair is long, like it was in the arc against Aizen (which isn’t in his timeline) but it’s his style. He most often wears his Souls Reaper garb, it is heavily tattered and ripped. Zangetsu stands out on his hip.

Something on him is almost always bandaged. His eyes no longer have that youthful glow, now they hold a gloom and depth of heart. An unwanted terror that leaks from his Soul. Worn are his hands, many scars adorn his fingers and upper body as well. Burns marking trails along his spine show his pain. Many trials have been overcome, but not without wounds.

Most thoughts are held back and pushed deep within. He tries not to think about anything concerning his Hollow or events triggered by such. Though things come to haunt him and therefore he secludes himself when needed.

He’s not that vocal anymore, due to lack of substance or more so a lack of feeling the good things. His times for talk are only when really \prompted or when he feel it necessary. The face of the Anomaly is often void of expression, hard or unsettling. Times are short when he shows his feelings and wears his heart on his sleeve.

psychological.

TEMPERMENT: lawful neutral

VICES: martyr-ism • lust

PERSONALITY TRAITS: impulsive • confident • caring • intelligent • vain • charming • taunting • quiet

HABITS: clenching his fists • running hands through his hair • muttering under his breath • gritting his teeth

other.

BLOOD TYPE: O

SEXUALITY: homosexual

ALLERGIES: strawberries • mild asthma

DISABILITIES/INJURIES: partially blind in right eye • busted right elbow • broken ribs • dyscalculia

#【 ★ ━━ ichigo 】 #【 ★ ━━ ooc 】 #(( mobile muse info ))

[voxofthevoid]

Wing, for the dragon-themed asks!

Thanks for asking <3

Wing: share a snippet that you daydreamed about before writing it (or a snippet that you were really looking forward to writing).

Oh, nice, this is nearly all of my writing. It's 100% of my porn xD

Bleach, grimmichi, Mr and Mrs Smith AU:

It’s Grimmjow that’s the problem. It’s Grimmjow, wild-eyed and mean with Ichigo’s blood on his claws and in his mouth, that he’s not immune to.

“Maybe it’s fate,” Grimmjow says, and his tone is thoughtful, borderline somber, but there’s a glint in his eye and a twist to his mouth that raise Ichigo’s hackles. “You are the best fuck I’ve had.”

Grimmjow raises his eyes from the incriminating bulge in Ichigo’s pants to his face, his expression expectant.

Ichigo’s torn between a predictable but utterly mortifying surge of self-satisfied pride and mind-numbing confusion about what fate’s got to do with that—with any of this. He manages a confused, “What…?”

Grimmjow clicks his tongue. “I’m saying your dick is the only thing salvaging this entire clusterfuck, Ichigo. Thinkin’ I should take you for a ride before I dump your body in some sea. One last hurrah. I deserve that much, don’t I?”

Yes, Ichigo thinks, all blind instinct—because Grimmjow’s somehow looking at him from under his lashes despite looming violently over Ichigo, because there’s a smoky husk to his voice that goes straight to Ichigo’s cock, because it’s Grimmjow and Ichigo’s been gone on him from day fucking one.

Yes, he almost says, kept in only by the sudden, painful dryness of his throat, and Grimmjow smiles like he’s heard it already, wide and wild, sharp canines flashing—

Reason hits Ichigo like a ton of bricks.

Ask in response to this post

#dragongirlg-fics #ask game #not me getting distracted for nearly 15 min while hunting for a snippet #bleach snippets

[glacialdeath]

⚡️

send me a ⚡️and I'll fill out for you/your muse:

my first impression of your muse: Akon is bit forgotten in what I can remember of my earlier bleach days, breezed by except for maybe his name for me mostly. Although, I think he rose a bit in coolness and screen time with TYBW a bit when he's communicating with Ichigo and I enjoyed seeing a bit more of the rest of the 12th squad at that point too.

my first impression of you: I think I remember you being very sweet, and very kind, with a very good heart. :) And always having great interactions with many sorts of people.

my favorite thing about your muse: I think I would say he has an interesting blend of sensibility, some more wicked/blind inventiveness, where it's not too strongly always one way or the other. I don't know if I'm phrasing it right, but his mind is quite unique, which I quite like.

my favorite thing about you: You always seem to have such energy and have been a great force in the community that I've admired and enjoyed. You go very deep into characters, and put them in interesting situations that I love reading on, headcanon or interactions wise

would I ever consider shipping our muses: I don't think so? Friendship maybe?

a plot I’d like to see between our muses: Hmm, first sort of ideas are like, Rukia getting Akon to help her build a sort of obstacle course or something else for like some kind of silly event. Or polar opposite and I'm not quite sure how it would get there but possibly Rukia having some kind of motivation for getting him out of the lab or something? Rukia is an outdoorsy sort and I could see her pushing that on people that shut in too much maybe?? She has very little interest in scientific processes, but likes the results of them??

an AU I think would be interesting for our muses: Hmm, I'm not very good at AU's but maybe something like a modern verse would be interesting? And they're like some kind of business partners or something??? or proposing to work together?

#justakon #;deathanswers #;notic #;scientific characters have been very intriguing to me lately cause I've got a grip on some of their possible motivations #;and you are always a treat dear : p

[rinusagitora]

The changing of the tides.

Fandom: Bleach

Characters: Karin Kurosaki, Yuzu Kurosaki, Ichigo Kurosaki, Renji Abarai, Izuru Kira, Shuuhei Hisagi, Akon, Shuukurou Tsukishima, Momo Hinamori, Toushirou Hitsugaya

Words: 5.8k

Summary: Merpeople!AU. WARNINGS- recreational drug use, major character death, cosmic horror; The end is foretold by the disappearance of the sea serpents.

A/N: Written for @thewhisperingdeep fanzine. 

AO3: works/41955684

Gargantuan serpents have ruled the ocean for as long as life has made their home in its waters. Generations pass and they remain until conquest claims them and recycles their flesh as food and bones as shelter and tools for the masses.

The natural order is venerated as a result. Birth, life, reproduction, death, consumption. All things outside the cycle, that which is unnatural, are calamitous and loathsome. Ruins, masses of hollow and angular planes dotting the ocean bottom, are omens of devastation. Alien artifacts found are destroyed by magicians or given a wide berth so they do not pollute the order worshipped by ocean-dwellers.

The end is foretold by the disappearance of the sea serpents, where nothing is behind to repurpose, and there are no rulers to command the denizens of the seas.

---

Karin only dreamt when she was ill. She was healthy, so they came few and far between as a result. 

She was made by her companions to hole up in their father’s home to recuperate once they noticed the severity of her delirium. Disorientation and indolence. But Karin hated caves, even when she lived there as a child. Even if it had enough space to fit their enormous bodies, it was too tight of a squeeze for her to feel comfortable. She always pictured the walls giving in and the rubble crushing her. 

The seaweed bed made for her was destroyed while she thrashed in her sleep, haunted by terrible images of blinding lights and bellies unzipping. Of water clouded with blood and intestines until even the most piercing luminescence was smothered by its density.

Her eyes opened to her father shaking her. Karin breathed a sigh of relief to be free of terrible hallucinations.

Yuzu was more youthful, despite being her twin. It was because she didn’t chew kanakusa, psychoactive seaweed digested by sharks then preserved in brine pools. She inherited their mother’s fairness, with pale hair and red tendrils, unlike Karin, who inherited their father’s darkness. Black hair, black bell, black tendrils. Yuzu glowed through the darkness while Karin disappeared into it. It sometimes made Karin jealous, until she remembered she inherited her mother’s fury and passion. Her emotional likeness was better than her physical likeness.

When their mother Masaki was murdered, her body fed Karin, Yuzu, and their brother Ichigo until they bloated. It was a common ordeal, but it gave Karin mixed feelings into the present. The grief over never seeing their mother again, the bliss from absorbing her essence. They kept her bones. Karin wove Masaki’s teeth in her hair and Yuzu shaved Masaki’s ribs into jewelry, like beautiful talons.

Karin absorbed Masaki’s odd dreams with her flesh. Witches called them premonitions, but they were always so cryptic. She wasn't smart enough to decipher them. Karin didn't classify herself as a witch for that very reason. Witches solved riddles, while the rest of them scratched their heads like buffoons.

She rubbed her eyes after blearily taking in Yuzu. She then glanced around the cavern. Their kind traveled with at least one companion, oftentimes unremarkable that used their enormous bodies as shelter in exchange for companionship in the lonely ocean. “Where are my marrer?” she croaked.

Yuzu pet her hair. “Outside.” Even though she was comforting, Karin sensed her disquiet.

“What has you unsettled?”

“Ichigo and Renji are outside as well… they want a word with you.”

Ichigo’s visitations were a welcome change of pace. He was swamped with errands since he began serving the serpents. Karin only saw him from afar and never long enough to flag him down before he disappeared into dark waters. Social calls were non-existent. He only wanted to see her for whatever schemes the serpents had in motion.

Karin respected the serpents a great deal. They took care of herself and her sibling after Masaki was murdered. The serpents she met, Toushirou and Shinji, were compassionate. But she feared them. The magnitude and their influence and sheer power made her feel small and scared. The ocean was their possession, and they could bring its end with a flick of their tails if they so desired. She gave them a wide berth as best as she could.

She lifted herself out of the ruined bed. “I’ll see what they want.”

Karin’s companions loitered in the mouth of the cave. Kei’s lips were downturned and worried. He was always anxious, but Kazuya, Ryohei, and Heita were just as worried as he. Kazuya rubbed his arms hard enough that he shed scales.

“Be calm,” she told them, “I won’t be long.”

Karin saw Ichigo from afar, glowing through the waters due to his paleness. Their father called them phantom jellyfish, enormous beings whose tendrils billowed like ether.

Renji was a shark. He was a fearsome creature, bulging with musculature, fashionable scars, and rows of jagged fangs spanning from his lips down his pallet. But he was friendly. Karin felt like he was a giant pillow or another brother. He teased her and she teased back. He told her stories about the sea serpent he served. Byakuya was covered in mollusks and blooms of colorful coral. Long ago, Renji helped Byakuya crush a terrible sea serpent whose name and body was lost. It was a fierce battle.

Karin was grateful to Renji, too. He introduced Karin to his wife Momo, who became her very best friend. Momo was a witch. Perhaps not the most frightening or revered, but notorious enough that she was feared. She was the lover of the nameless sea serpent. The one who murdered Karin’s mother, and required the teamwork of all the serpents and their thrall to kill. She cursed him so his name was forgotten and his body unusable. The invocation of her vehemence was worse than death. She was kinder than their compatriots made her out to be. Momo kissed her head and showed her fascinating parlor tricks that made Karin feel like the world was wonderful.

Karin hugged Renji, and then Ichigo. Renji pulled a clamshell filled with kanakusa and pressed a wad into Karin’s hand. She chewed it.

“Yuzu told me you were ill. I hope you’re feeling better,” Ichigo said.

“I think I’m over the worst of it now,” she replied and did not elaborate. He didn’t need to know about her awful dream. “Where are Keigo and Mizuiro?”

Keigo and Mizuiro were Ichigo’s companions, the way Kei, Kazuya, Heita, and Ryohei were her companions. They usually accompanied Ichigo for menial tasks, but he left them behind when something serious arose. It put a pit in Karin’s stomach. She nervously clung to Renji to keep her anxieties at bay.

"Karin, we need a favor from you," Ichigo replied.

"Alright."

"I know you befriended Toushirou. We want to know if you've seen him as of late."

Karin shook her head. "Not for some time. My fever lasted for a while. My companions made me rest here, so I haven't seen anyone but them or our sister since I came here."

"How long ago was that?"

Karin spat out a glob of kanakusa. “I don’t know. The fever blurred the passage of time,” she said. “Why are you asking me these questions? Is Toushirou hurt?”

Ichigo and Renji shared a glance and Karin’s heart thumped. Fear washed her like cold waves.

“His thrall haven’t seen him for some time. Not even Rangiku,” Renji said.

Rangiku wasn’t the most reliable thrall to Toushirou, but his most loyal, and most useful. She played a key part in rallying efforts against Momo’s former lover, and the scourge of the ocean. Karin met her many times and each was memorable, rife with hallucinogens, alien oceanscapes, and mischief. She always made Karin feel acknowledged. It was, perhaps, the most useful skill to have in peacetime.

It was worrisome that she, of all people, who got along with everyone, hadn’t seen him.

Karin’s father told her about the prophecies when she was younger. The end came when their rulers vanished without a trace. No bodies behind to reuse, but horrific vanishment, with only their memory remaining. The ocean decayed in their absence.

Karin crossed her arms. “Have you spoken with Momo? She should be able to conjure something to hunt for him.”

Ichigo shook his head. “We haven’t. We were hoping this wouldn’t escalate to necessitate magic.”

“I’ll assist the search, then.” Karin had a few tricks she could use to locate Toushirou. Friendship with Momo gave Karin access to horrible creatures worse than she. Creatures with reach that spanned the ocean, networks larger than even the most mammoth serpent. Ones Ichigo and Renji refused to associate with when the circumstances permitted it.

Renji squeezed her. “If you find him, go to Momo. She has the means to contact us,” he told her. She nodded.

***

Karin gathered Kazuya, Kei, Heita, and Ryohei, and left for the open ocean.

“Where do you plan on starting the search?” Kazuya asked as they swam.

“With friends,” Karin said.

Their brethren were too fearful of the terrible things in the ocean. That which was unnatural was abhorrent, but the definition of natural was often narrow by those outside the magical class. It was why witches were feared. But those ostracized except in the direst of times were often the most useful. And the ones Karin most easily befriended.

Shuuhei and Izuru were Momo’s husbands, like Renji was her husband. They weren’t witches but incredible in their own right. Attuned to the pulse of the ocean, like the ocean was their pulse. Karin didn’t understand what the ocean’s pulse was, but they found it at the bottom of the deepest valley, and it connected them with the ocean and everything in it. They would know where to find Toushirou, or where to start, once they tapped into it.

They steadily descended. Karin felt like she was being squeezed and rung out, like how they processed kanakusa. The appearance of her companions warped. Shrunk and flattened. 

The only denizens at those depths were serpents, shrimp, and mollusks. Karin felt like she was breathing stones. Heita burped bile and blood. Kazuya clutched his chest. He gasped, “I cannot continue! I feel myself collapsing. Dying!”

Karin stopped. “Ascend,” she ordered. “I’ll return once I finish.”

Kazuya, Kei, Ryohei, and Heita shared a glance before they nodded and retreated. How they accomplished nonverbal communication was a mystery to Karin.

The well-being of her companions was her responsibility. They needed her for shelter and fed off her scraps. As badly as she needed their company, she’d have no more company if the pressure of the deep made them implode.

It wasn’t much longer before music penetrated her. The pulse was magnified by the drumbeat Shuuhei made from the preserved hide of his and Izuru’s late masters. Their names were Gin and Kaname. Each was as destructive as the serpent whose body and name Momo sought to erase.

The drumbeat shook her bones and innards. The kanakusa was kicking in, highlighting the waves and debris in lovely hues of gold. The energy rushing through her head, pumping in her brain and through her veins, was good, even if her insides felt like they filled with blood. It reminded her of the rush sharks experiences as they tore apart smaller fish, and the smug satisfaction lantern fish had when they coaxed their brothers and sisters into their bellies. The mere existence was magical. Thrilling. The water shook her, and it shook with her, and she shook with it. It felt like she was diffusing into the waters. Was it the fabled pulse of the ocean?

Shuuhei and Izuru played in an arena of vents spouting boiling water. A cloud of algae shrouded them, and they played through it, pounding their drugs with their fists so swiftly in the deep, dense water, that they blurred. The vents added an endless melody, a monotonous rumble of rushing, sizzling water.

Her eyes shut as she reveled the enchantment of her bones shaking. But they noticed her, and they stopped playing, and her bones stopped shaking. Her eyes opened and she missed the euphoria.

Shuuhei swept her into a hug. “Hey! It’s been a while. Look at you, you’re gorgeous.”

He was a shark able to throw his jaw out of his skull. He called it distention and a goblin. It made Karin feel good that he owned his unusual appearance. Sometimes she wanted to emulate it and become comfortable with her phantasmagorical qualities when, according to him, the alternative was wallowing in misery. He was as much a brother to her as Renji and Ichigo were.

Karin was close to Izuru too. He was gutted years ago on angular ruins and put back together, but he was a miserable bastard long before that. Renji told her a cruel serpent named Gin warped him into a fatalistic and ruthless creature when Karin was born. She was never told what the serpent did to make Izuru calloused. Karin wasn't sure she wanted to know, either, because Momo rendered her serpent nameless and missing. Some things were best left private to not open old wounds.

But Izuru made Karin feel justified in discomfort and anger, and he adored her best friend Momo as her husband. It was hard not to love him. 

Izuru played with her hair. He swept it behind her shoulders. “Your hair is longer… it’s beautiful.”

“The shrinkage makes it appear longer than it is,” she replied, smiling as she squeezed their arms. “Unfortunately, I’m not here on a social call.”

Shuuhei raised his eyebrows. “So you say… but you’re high on kanakusa.”

“It’s a long story. And potentially time-sensitive.”

Izuru folded his arms. The dark spots on his skin turned gold before they dimmed. “Is this about Toushirou?”

“No one has laid eyes on him in some time. Not even Rangiku. She, Renji, and Ichigo are in a tizzy trying to find him. I was hoping you two would have feelers out for him,” she told them.

Izuru and Shuuhei shared a side-eye. Even if Karin was buzzed, she knew they were displeased. Neither of them liked Toushirou. They thought he was bratty and ineffective. Karin was sure they would be more than pleased if Toushirou perished. But Karin believed in the prophecies. Moreso, she liked Toushirou. She could cope with his death, but she needed to find him first.

“Truthfully… we haven’t been searching. We haven’t felt anything from the pulse, either.”

“That’s not a good sign,” Karin replied.

Shuuhei shrugged. “It ebbs and flows. It’s not unusual to lose touch, even down here where it’s strongest.”

“But you don’t know where he is?”

“I’m sorry,” Izuru said. And he was. She saw it etched in his face. He was a pleaser. Sought the approval of Momo and his husbands, and those he, at the very least, regarded as allies. “I know someone who may be able to help you, however, if you’re able to tolerate the brine pools.”

Karin asked, “Where kanakusa is processed?”

“No. Mayuri’s territory.”

Her lip curled. “Oh.”

Mayuri was a malicious sea serpent. She refused contact with most of his thrall because most of them were never-do-wells. Karin’s favorites were the never-do-wells, as long as they weren’t Mayuri’s. Mayuri made the very rocks rot and crack. His brine pools were as volatile, burping acid and swarming with indiscriminate predators he employed to guard his secrets.

Shuuhei clasped her shoulder. “I know it isn’t ideal.”

“It isn’t, but I’ll survive,” Karin replied with a gentle smile. “Who am I looking for?”

“His name is Akon. He’s a competent witch, and you will be safe in his care.” Izuru said.

She nodded. She met Akon once before. He was a smarmy and mucosal hagfish. Karin always felt like he wanted to pull out her guts and play with them while she writhed. 

But he and Izuru were on good terms. Akon, at the behest of his serpent master Mayuri, was the one who put Izuru’s guts back together after his disembowelment. She wasn’t sure they were friends as much as they were two warped individuals who meshed in the way warped individuals meshed. Feeding off each other’s twisted ways. The difference was that Izuru was endearing. Akon was a fucking degenerate.

The meaning of Toushirou’s disappearance was far bigger than she, however.

“I must leave. Time is of the essence,” Karin said. She hugged Izuru and Shuuhei once more and ascended to meet her companions.

Kei asked, “How was it? Did you find anything useful? Did they find Toushirou?”

“They probably just had an orgy,” Ryohei mumbled.

Karin smacked Ryohei upside his head. He yelped. “There’s no need to be crude,” she said. “But no. Izuru and Shuuhei aren’t able to tap into the pulse now. Izuru gave me another lead, however, so we must go posthaste.”

She swam between them and they flanked her. Heita asked, “I know I’ll regret asking, but where are we going?”

“A servant of Mayuri will be able to help us locate Toushirou.”

Heita groaned. “Of course.”

“That’s why you don’t ask questions,” Ryohei told him.

***

The brine pools Mayuri’s servants populated were as alien as Karin remembered them being. Rangiku took her once. She met Akon. They got high on kanakusa, and Akon made Karin feel like parasites crawled over her.

The waters were noxious there. Karin’s throat itched and it felt like her skull was swollen. Kei, Kazuya, Heita, and Ryohei hid in her bell, hoping her tendrils would circulate breathable water, but it didn’t save them from the rash of saline water. Kei coughed and scratched his eyes. She was tempted to tell them to head back to the cave she was made to recuperate in, but couldn’t muster the words. How anyone tolerated that climate was puzzling.

It was rare to see inside any cave from afar. But Akon’s home glowed with shelves of luminescent fungi. It was stale inside but lived in. Karin collected her tendrils to keep from knocking over scrolls Akon fashioned out of hide.

Akon mashed a concoction of ingredients Karin didn’t recognize. He didn’t notice them until Karin called him by name.

“Akon, Izuru sent me here.” She hoped Izuru’s name would keep him from dissecting her.

He glanced up and flexed his jaw. It spanned from his face to his chest, filled jagged and teeth he chipped from gnawing flesh off bones.

He, at least, didn’t require pleasantries. “What for?”

“We’re searching for Toushirou. He’s missing.”

“Serpents are difficult to locate by nature.”

“No, he’s missing. Rangiku doesn’t know where he is. Several of Byakuya’s thrall are searching for him, as well.”

Akon frowned. “That is troublesome.”

“We were hoping you would be able to utilize your magic to locate him,” she said.

Akon rolled his shoulders. He hummed. “I can. But I need something from you.”

“Will it help find Toushirou?”

“No, but I’ll help find Toushirou when it’s finished,” he said.

Karin frowned. She should’ve seen something like that coming. Akon was a selfish person, and favors were his currency. She didn’t want to be his gopher or experiment, but Karin needed to hear him out.

“Mayuri requires golden bones from the Ruins,” he said, “he saw them glinting through a hole in the ruins and wants them harvested.”

The Ruins were a strange, angular structure that sank before Karin was born. Ocean-dwellers gave it a wide berth because it was the zenith of the unnatural they feared and reviled. Karin saw it from afar once, and they ran. It emitted death. The very image inspired horror, it made Karin’s guts bubble with anxiety. She wasn’t thrilled to run errands for Akon, but having to search the Ruins was the absolute worst.

“Fine,” she replied. “I’ll fetch the bones for you. But I want nothing to do with Mayuri.” She didn’t want to be the thrall of the serpents, especially Mayuri’s.

“Bring them to me, and I’ll give you his location.” Akon’s eyes turned into crescents like he was smiling. “I’ll see you soon, Karin.”

She hoped she returned alive.

Without another word, Karin flipped around and returned to the dark ocean. Her companions freed themselves once they were away from the toxic brine pools.

Kazuya asked, “Are you okay?”

“It was a short exchange. We have that to be grateful for,” Karin said.

The Ruins weren’t far from Mayuri’s brine pools. In the darkness, its shape emerged through the darkness. Flat, angular planes. Shrimp didn’t occupy it, and there wasn’t a hint of barnacles on its surfaces. A bubble of vacancy entombed it. It didn’t even stink of death. Death, a natural part of life, was accepted and grieved. The complete vacancy was unnatural.

Momo told her the Ruins appeared one day. It was long before even her father’s time. The serpent Momo now served, Shinji, a long crab with pincers able to snap whales in half, told Karin of the day it sank. It barreled to the seafloor like a curse from the beyond and kicked up a cloud for ages. When the silt cleared, the serpents and witches condemned it. No one has touched it since. Certainly not Karin.

Approaching it, she felt like she was in trouble. Like she betrayed Momo and her loved ones. Karin swallowed bile.

She and her companions circled the exterior. They peered in through round holes, even in shape and equidistant, except when long openings punctuated the exterior with thick flaps waving in the tide.

Karin held the flap open. She peered in and frowned. “Stay here for the time being. It’s too tight to fit all five of us.”

Kei hugged his sides. “In, out, I don’t want to be anywhere near here.”

Karin pulled her tendrils over her arms and swam in. Maneuvering inside posed a challenge. She was too large to swim the pathways as she swam through the open ocean, so Karin pulled herself through it with her hands.

It wasn’t a long expedition. A skeleton with a split tail was tangled around a rod. Their teeth glittered gold. She had never seen ocean-dwellers with golden teeth before. When their teeth chipped they either waited for a new one to grow in or lived with it and pureed food between stones if the situation called for it. Their teeth yellowed or grew malformed, but never gold. It was unnatural and foul.

She pried them out with her fingers. They cramped unmercifully until she held the golden ones in her palms.

“What a coincidence,” she heard from behind her. Karin twisted while her heart seized, and she snarled when she saw who addressed her.

His name was Shuukurou, a spiny oarfish. He once conned them into thinking he was their family’s friend and then attempted to take Ichigo’s life. His execution was ordered by the serpent Byakuya but he vanished before it could be carried out.

She wasn’t surprised that a contemptible ocean-dweller like him made his home in the Ruins. She would make it his grave.

“Look who it is… what imbecile would reveal himself to me?” Karin hissed. “Me, who shall celebrate your demise at my hands?”

He glanced at the bones, and then at her. “You’ve taken my treasure, haven’t you?”

“Like you tried to take my brother’s life?” Karin felt like she was boiling in her rage.

His eyes narrowed. “You’ll succeed the same as I succeeded: not at all.”

Karin was good in a fight. It was how she sustained herself. Phantoms didn’t have fancy tricks like luminescence or camouflage, so they relied on brute strength to catch and consume prey. Her family was famous for their combat efficiency. 

When Shuukurou lunged, she caught him by his jaws. He thrashed and tried to snap his teeth to skin her, but wasn’t able to free himself from her grapple. As she held Shuukurou at bay, she cocooned him in her tendrils, coiling until they overlapped, and she squeezed him. A howl of rage and agony ripped from his throat. Still, Karin squeezed and pushed his jaw open. It dislocated with a satisfying crack. As his organs collapsed, blood gushed into her face from his throat.

She yelped. Shuukurou dug his thumbs into her eyes and she screamed. Her tendrils loosened and he slipped free. His fangs plunged into her arm. She screeched unholily. Blindly, she thrashed her arms and tendrils until they found purchase. Karin curled her fists around the crest sprouting from his head. She yanked him towards her and held his head in her biceps. Shuukurou writhed. He pounded his fist against her biceps. He scratched and spat, to no avail. Karin loathed him. She wanted him dead and would squeeze the life out of him to do so.

His struggle died out. Karin, through a haze of blood and scratches, saw his mouth gape and his eyes bulge. She pushed him away and counted the gold dots clasped in her hand. Karin held onto all of them.

Karin pushed his corpse away and found her way outside. Her sight was returning, although her eyes still stung. Kei caught her arm.

“What the fuck happened to you?” he asked. “You’re covered in scratches.”

She rubbed her eyelids. “All that matters is it’s over. Let’s get these back to Akon.”

***

The return trip was shorter somehow. Compared to the Ruins, the brine pools were less eerie. Karin gave Akon the golden bones, and he turned them in his fingers.

“These are magnificent,” he cooed. His praise made her skin crawl, and she rubbed her arms to brush off the bugs. “Solid gold. I’m amazed by how pure they are.”

“Just tell me where to find Toushirou,” Karin said.

Akon gave her a wad of herbs. “Chew this. You’ll be given visions of his location, and the aftereffects will serve as a map to his location."

Karin wordlessly chewed it. The herbs were sour and it made her face pucker.

The effects were immediate. Karin groaned as she was overtaken by images. Momo's red tentacles swirled as she strummed a strange, fibrous instrument with a fat, hollow back. The strings she played sour notes and billowed crimson and cerulean, the most vivid colors Karin ever saw, and they mixed into gorgeous violet. While her sour notes played, frames of her weeping and stirring herbs in her mantle flashed before Karin, splitting into red and blue hues before reconverging into a cohesive image.

Karin emerged from the hallucination with a chill. She wanted to throw something through Akon's head, something to pummel him to a pulpy mess of shattered bones and lumps of blood.

True to his word, though, the water illuminated orange. It twinkled in the water, shook with the currents like an eel.

It wasn't Akon's fault her vision didn't yield Toushirou's location. It wasn't encouraging, however. Had he been spirited away, as the prophecies predicted? Were they inaugurating their extinction through their search for Toushirou? Was he altogether dead, and Akon's magic unable to locate the remains?

Karin felt especially urgent. The beacon pointed towards Momo. She needed to leave.

"Thank you, Akon. I need to leave."

"Yes, yes," he said monotonously, waving her out, "you must ensure life as we know it isn't ending. Best of luck."

Karin swam into the open ocean, following the trail of orange waves that guided her to Momo. There was a pit in her gut. She didn't dare tell Kei, Kazuya, Heita, and Ryohei about her vision, however. They would leave her in a heartbeat.

***

Karin was malaised for the entire trek. Her worries were disorienting like she was being spun. It made her taste bile.

Momo was feared because she made her lover's name and body disappear and was reviled because of her home. An odd, angular body fell into the ocean and spilled horrid-tasting ink. It was unnatural and feared for that reason. Momo ripped apart the planes and shaped them into a home.

Karin didn't understand why Momo would do something so ominous. Anyone betrayed as she was, though, couldn't be well emotionally. Perhaps it was easier for Momo to steer into repugnance.

Her home appeared in the distance, highlighted in an orange aura. The rumble of water stopped, and Karin glanced back. Her companions were frozen in the water with their gazes focused on their tails. She frowned.

"What's on your mind?"

"Karin, he isn't here," Heita said, "and if he is, he isn't living."

She stared back. "What the fuck are saying." It wasn't a question because she knew what he was saying. What Kei, Kazuya, and Ryohei were thinking: Momo slew a serpent. That she was mad and harbinger of death.

Heita grimaced. "I'm just… I'm just saying that Momo has a history of doing awful things to serpents."

Rage filled Karin. "You stupid fucking fish!" she bellowed. Her tendrils swarmed him. "How dare you compare this to the schemes of that awful serpent!"

"Look at her home, Karin! We have heard the stories. The horrors these unnatural things do to us and our monarchs! She lives in an omen!"

"Leave my sight before I kill you," she bellowed. The water shook like vents boiled it and she smelled urine. But they escaped as fast as their tails could carry them.

She was hurt and betrayed. It was an open wound in her ribs. But time was of the essence, so Karin didn't have the time to grieve. She turned towards Momo's home before their silhouettes were consumed by darkness.

Momo was fraught. Before Karin was even through the entrance, she heard bowls and shells clatter. She saw fungi, the pleated skin of trilobites, and whale teeth thrown into a mortar. Momo chewed kanakusa. Shreds floated from her open mouth.

Karin knew nothing about magic, but her mentor's mania couldn't be anything good.

"Momo," Karin said. She yelped and flipped around. Her hand pressed against her hand.

"Good god, Karin, you can't sneak up on me like that!" she snapped.

"It's an emergency."

Momo shook her head. She bawled. "I know! I know, I'm sorry. I woke up with a terrible feeling but none of my spells have found him!"

"Is he dead?" Karin whispered. Her voice shook anyway.

"I don't know. This concoction is… is my last chance. If it doesn't work, there's nothing I can do! There's nothing I can do, and it's my fault that the ocean will die."

Karin took Momo's hands. Their eyes met, Momo wild and fearful. Their tentacles interlocked. "We should do it together."

She hesitated, then pulled a wad of algae from her mouth. "Chew on this. I need my drum."

Karin sucked the wad of kanakusa from Momo's fingers. Its juices gushed down her throat, and gold ribbons unfurled in the waves. 

Momo's drum hung on the wall. She pulled it off the hook, held it by the rim, and drummed it with the other. Slowly, it penetrated Karin. The pulse of the ocean. She was one with the depths, connected to everything that touched the water. 

Momo's concoction billowed crimson ink. Karin's eyes shut as it shrouded them. Visions accosted her. It made her skin prickle and her guts wrap themselves in tight knots.

She saw crests of saltwater crash and foam. A shape as unnatural as The Ruins cut through the water, illuminated by veins of flashing, jagged lights behind it. The air rumbled, not like Shuuhei's music, hypnotic, but cacophonous pops that Karin feared would cause her ears to bleed. The living ruins sent lines of hard rings into the depths where they sank and danced in the waves. She was entangled in them. They cut her to the bone and dragged her to shallow water where she bloated and hemorrhaged until her belly split and spilled her insides.

She saw deaths a hundredfold. Even the mighty sea serpent, Kenpachi, strong enough to make tsunamis and level mountains in the depths, thrashed as terrible weaves caught him and dragged him up. 

It was the fucking end.

Her vision cleared. Karin convulsed, spewing bile into the saltwater. The sensation of her splitting remained. Momo shrouded Karin in a hug, entangling their limbs and squeezing her shoulders. They wept together, and Momo rubbed her arms like a sister or a mother.

"I don't want to die," Karin wheezed, pulling Momo tight around her like a blanket. She pictured her companions' bodies distorting above the water, bloated until they popped, intestines spilling onto unnatural things. Unnatural deaths. "Momo, I don't want to die like that."

"I know. I know," Momo said, holding her tightly. They rocked in the water, stirring it until Karin heard it rumble in her ears. 

Momo turned her around and pressed a kiss against her head. She stroked Karin's head, face warped into a woeful grimace. "We could die on our terms before the ocean is razed. I can make it painless."

Karin felt like her chest was collapsing. "What about Ichigo and Yuzu? I can't leave them."

Momo pets her hair. She kisses her head again. "I love you so much, Karin. You're like my sister."

They hugged. "I love you too, Momo." She laid her cheek on her shoulder. "Is this goodbye?"

"I don't want to die like that."

Karin didn't blame her. Momo always wanted a peaceful death. She was going to take poison and fall asleep and rot without a care in the world.

She didn't want to leave Momo as a result. They floated together, suspended in grief and love. Karin held Momo tight and hoped to absorb Momo into her so Karin would never be without her best friend.

Karin left Momo's home. Karin hoped Momo's husbands would find peace somewhere because it left like a graveyard.

***

Karin felt hollow. She didn't feel the waves or the euphoria of kanakusa. Instead, she blindly floated through the ocean.

She stopped. In the depths, she saw shrouds of darkness, like her own tendrils, but giant. "What the fuck?"

She chased after it. Only serpents could be so large, but there were no phantom serpents that she knew of.

It turned to face her. Karin knew, the same way she knew Toushirou was gone, that it was her father. Had he grown into a serpent? Were they grown, and not created?

"Father!" she shouted. "Isshin!"

He swam to her left. She made a beeline for him. "Father! Father, stop!" she screamed. "Please!"

The water rushed past them. Karin froze, remembering the prophecy, of them being lifted into shallow waters, rupturing, and suffocating. A weave tangled her and swept her up. Karin ripped at it, shrieking, but it was oily and slick. She was going to die.

Her father captured it in his tendrils but they easily tore. Water rushed past her and deafened her to horror.

Her face swelled shut. Her joints ballooned, and her gut popped. It seared. White-hot, worse than her dreams. The end came with tragedy and agony before the blissful snuffing.

#bleach #karin kurosaki #toshiro hitsugaya #ichigo kurosaki #momo hinamori #yuzu kurosaki #renji abarai #izuru kira #shuuhei hisagi #akon #shukuro tsukishima

[atalossofwords]

[ 🏷️ ] wip tag game

I got tagged by @aluciahaz ! tysm <3

RULES: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

three's a crowd - omegaverse ranpo/poe/dazai

glass tears - ranpo/poe 5+1 things NSFW edition

amongst the trees - zoro/sanji/yamato part of "loved the wolf"

let joy itself be clawed - zoro's part of "loved the wolf"

be my mirror, sword and shield - jason todd/danny phantom, with jason as Danny's undead knight

to come home - ichigo/xanxus, cloudy sky!ichigo, chapter 3

our justice must be blind - roy/dick, heavily bdsm inspired

corpse garden - a poe thinkpiece/character analysis.

[unnamed] - alien stage ivantill streamer au

[unnamed] - artemis fowl meets the waynes, possibly artemis/damian

I am... Not friends with many writers on this site, so this is your excuse to do this without being tagged!! I'll make sure to check the post of everyone who says they got tagged by me and ask about a WIP <3

#tag game #writing #my wips

[plunnies-n-shit]

YOUUUUUUU

*adds Blind!Ichigo AU to my wips*

HOW DARE YOU COME UP WITH A WONDERFUL ANGSTY, LOVELY AU

More? U want more?

There is a moment after Mugestu is released when ichigo perceives the world in startling detail, and the first thing he feels is kisuke. Gloating, maybe, but mostly just. Relieved. The job is done, the war is over, his lifes work hasnt been in vain.

And then there are his friends, clamouring for attention, for him to be able to feel their reiatsu for the (presumably) last time, but.

Hes laying in the 4th when it really starts to fade, when the threads start slipping through his fingers too fast for him to cling to, but. He can still tell Kisuke is there. Right beside him, flaring and refining his reiatsu into levels ichigo can feel until.

Until ichigo cant anymore. Doesnt have that ability.

Like holding his hand as he dies.

(Its more comfort than ichigo is willing to admit)

(Its not love, not yet, it cant be, neither of them in a position to develop those kind of emotions, not between kisukes guilt and ichigos duty.)

(But its. First and Last-- and first again.)

(Through wave after wave of power being pushed through his chest, ichigo cant feel rukia standing just behind him, but he can feel benihime just under his palm, a piece of kisukes soul singing in triumphant joy)

#nonny asks #q answers #q's plunnies #bleach #ichigo kurosaki #kisuke urahara #uraichi #blind ichigo au

[rayshippouuchiha]

Another snippet from my wip of Blind!Ichigo AU

===

We're being watched, Zangetsu snarls, yellow gaze alight with barely contained fury.

Ichigo, young as he was then, fractured and hurting still over the too fresh wound of his mother gone, should rightfully be scared when Zangetsu stares him down, a hunger barely hidden behind the fury of the beast.

But how could he?

How could he be weary of an aspect of himself? Of the monster that lies dormant beneath his skin that watches over and protects his baby sisters? That had laid in lazy but pleased content in the lap of Masaki as fingers ran through orange locks? The monster that grumbles in irritation even if he pulls Ichigo just a bit closer, tail a bit tighter around him on nights where everything is too much?

Like how Zangetsu, at that very moment, has tugged a young Ichigo impossibly close, taloned hands firm but gentle on small, breakable shoulders, his body hunched over and dwarfing his childish form; the large, thick tail just a bit tighter then normal around his waist.

This is a predator - a monster - that could break him so easily. Could destroy - consume - him if he truly wished to and take his body like he's half threatened to a few times when Ichigo is being a little shit, King.

But how could seven year old Ichigo ever be terrified of his monster when he's never felt safer surrounded by his warmth and possessiveness?

I am screaming and crying and yearning and wishing for this to be all up in my eyeballs right the fuck now

#RayRambles #Bleach

[asukaskerian]

Based on your response to a recent ask, I was wondering... How would you mix Grimmjow and the Fullbring arc? *eye emoji* Not the daemon au necessarily but in any AU or even just general clash of those characters. I get the feelings things would have hit the fan very earlier...

Grimmjow being territorial and not extremely patient when he doesn't have to be would have taken matters into his hands way earlier and way more aggressively XD

also, ginjo acts smarmy with ichigo. his aizen alarms are pinging. or maybe it's just the general possessiveness. kurosaki is HIS rival, who tf needs some rando appearing from nowhere to offer his powers back free of charge? it's suspicious AND grimmjow can train him up himself and... .... and yeah, ichigo's not fooled either, huh. and doesn't think grimmjow can magically heal him because it would take inoue levels of reality-breaking powers grimmjow sure as hell doesn't have, so... might as well. >_>

grimmjow:... fine. *spends the rest of the arc ghosting around and stalking everyone like someone who spent centuries playing the deadliest game of tag there ever was*

and when he doesn't think people are worth a fight he's gonna treat it like a hunt, and reject substitute and bootlicker are prrrrobably not on his level about that.

ichigo is borderline reiatsu-blind, but grimmjow sure as hell is not, and with new players in town he'd be twice as paranoid. he probably tracks where everyone is and if there's a flare and later "oh there was an attack" he's gonna know who it was.

... or else there's the suburban ot4 fic, where the Xcution own a bar and, well :

"So," the princess asks, cradling her bottle with both hands. "Did you meet your future coworkers? Are they nice? Is there a good -- you know -- feeling?"

"Feeling?"

"Is there a vibe! Grimmjow-san, there needs to be a vibe--"

"Oh, yeah, I guess..." He smirks. "The owner's an asshole."

"Oh no," Nelliel and Ichigo groan. "Oh, come on."

"We vibe!" Grimmjow defends himself, smirking more and more toothily. "Already insulted him twice to his face and he insulted me back three times, congratulated me on scaring the other barback, and hired me. Peas in a pod."

"What the hell kind of dick-serving bar did you find," Ichigo says despairingly, but he's laughing, so.

#grimmichi #writing yays #plotbunny

[opscurus]

( * song hc // DEMONS by GLASSLANDS )

“ We live to appease Entire generations blind to this cultural disease They cover our own eyes They bind our hands until we cry for more Then throw us to the wolves “

[ (to my au) I feel this song makes light of Ichigo’s demand to be a Substitute Shinigami and his work (before his fall into distress) because he was tasked with protecting his home and making sure he reported to his higher ups, though he never entered into Soul Society until he went to save Rukia after she was taken back. ]

“ Take a look at your life Leave the empty, set yourself free You are more than the scars on your heart So step away and become who you're born to be Set yourself free ”

[ In the binds that the position placed on him, Ichigo was free to use his powers as he pleased, but how free are we until we lose that which we take for granted? When he fought in Hueco Mundo, all the Espada, Ichigo became truly aware of how weak he was and that he had to become stronger--be free of what bound him to Soul Society, as well as to the Human world. ]

“ There isn't one who can go without blame Our whole world lives and dies just to gain This is a war for our souls Just let, just let go “

[ No one is blameless, not even God (if there is one in Bl*each), and Ichigo is a sinner as well, having much to think about constantly, and things to atone for in his own way from his mind and outside sources. Sometimes, one must let go (& die) to achieve true freedom. An aspect of the series that I take into account, s that death isn’t truly the end, but there is something beyond as well as in-between. ]

#【 ★ ━━ headcanon 】 #【 ★ ━━ music 】

[m3kuroshirt]

Sir

Words: 717

Warnings: some language, suggestive themes

Prompt: Face/Name-Blind Ichigo in a Coffee Shop AU

**************

Ichigo sighed as he saw the familiar sight of obnoxiously blue hair against the heads of the people cramming their way into the café. Honestly, he swore to Shinji up and down, if he put him on another early morning shift, he’d lose his shit. And what did Shinji do? The blonde bastard put him on every single morning shift for the next week, saying some shit about needing to wake up more, whatever the hell that meant.

Ichigo just figured the moron was, once again, trying to butt into his love life (or lack thereof), mentioning something about a customer I think you’d like.

“Yeah, like I’d want to date anyone half as demanding as some of our customers,” Ichigo muttered to himself.

“You talking to yourself, ginger,” a familiar rough voice sounded out behind him. Turning, and trying to put on his best customer service face, he saw it was…him.

And by him Ichigo meant…well, him.

Because Ichigo, couldn’t for the life of him remember the guy’s name. Did he feel a little bit bad about it? Eh, depended on the day and how much of an asshole the guy was being. Honestly, the only thing Ichigo knew about him was that he was roguishly handsome, and a dick and a half.

Rukia saddled up to the counter before Ichigo could, hands on her hips, eyes defiant as always.

“No,” Blue said, cocking an eyebrow at his co-worker. “I don’t want you; I want him.” The man gestured with his head. And just for added measure, Ichigo saw the man’s eyes flick down to his name badge, his lips curving into a smile as he spoke.

“Ichigo Kurosaki.”

And damnit he hated how the guy said his name. Mainly because it really aggravated the butterflies in his stomach. Shouldn’t he be too old for that? Why couldn’t he just have a bunch of pretty moths nesting in his belly instead? Luna or rosy maple ones? Fuck he’d take a hawk-moth at this point. But no, all he got were weird feelings and an annoying guy with blue hair giving them to him.

Ichigo sighed and tossed Rukia the towel he’d been wringing between his fingers.

“What can I get started for you, Sir?”

The man smirked and he leaned down on the counter, head resting on the hand connected to the arm resting on the counter.

Ichigo went with sir because, one, it was polite, and two, it seemed like a good compromise for forgetting/not knowing the man’s name. That and it probably sent the guy on some small power trip anyway, so he’d maybe not notice Ichigo not-so-accidentally-trying to avoid him.

The man cracked a devious smile, settling his sapphire-like eyes on Ichigo in full force; it felt like he was drowning in that heady gaze.

“Shouldn’t you know my name by now,” the man’s low grumble clear and amused. Shit, had he been caught? Could he still salvage this? God this was embarrassing. For a moment, Ichigo thought about quitting, walking out the employee exit only, getting in his car, and driving straight into the closest ditch, only to crawl out through the window, into a culvert, and begin his life as Diogenes 2.0, except less philosophical, and more stupid.

Sure Ichigo had his whole damn drink memorized because irony was an absolute bitch with a grudge, his body began to make it even before the attractive asshole ordered.

Swallowing down the lump of embarrassment in his throat, Ichigo turned his face to him and spoke loudly over the whirring over the machine he was running.

“Just trying to be professional, sir.” But he couldn’t do it. Right after he’d said the words he turned, feigned looking at the drink he knew to make by heart, feeling himself begin to panic. Oh I hate this.

As Ichigo finished the drink, he set down the cup in front of the man, who was still where he was, leaning into his fist, eyes locked on Ichigo’s own. Without warning, one hand shot out and grabbed around the string of his apron, on his left side, and pulled him closer, so close Ichigo could feel hot breath on his neck as the man spoke.

“There’s nothing professional about what you calling me ‘Sir’, does to me.”

#m3kuroshirt #jaegerjaquez grimmjow #kurosaki ichigo #grimmichi #grimmichi prompt #grimmichi au #grimmichi coffee shop au #backwardswrites #ch rukia #ch shinji

[liquorisce]

you have me (but i don't have you)

for @ichihime 's IHweek2021. prompt: lovers

this is written in the same verse as my royal-AU IH excerpt plastic crowns. a big thank you to all scrapbread, @fearlesspaquita and all the others who urged me to continue :)

rating: M (only implied smut)

summary: He wasn't supposed to fall in love with her. He's known forever that the Princess could never be his.

But the very idea of her marrying somebody, somebody else, had him shaking with rage.

Tonight's whole dinner had him wanting to kill someone. Chop them up into pieces, maybe, for good measure.

The very idea of her marrying somebody, somebody else, had him shaking with rage.

Having to listen to the court officials lecherous talk of her producing her betrothed an heir, made him see red.

He grabs the little flask on the table that he hasn’t touched in weeks, months even, and takes a generous swig.

Ichigo doesn’t like to drink. It slows him down, dulls his senses, and as the Princess' personal bodyguard, that isn’t something he can usually allow. But today Orihime had stormed back into her room, and she had Rukia and Rangiku standing guard by her chambers. He couldn't go near her even if he wanted to.

And how he wanted to…

The talk of her impending marriage had started to eat away at him, a constant pounding at his temples when he pictured her smiling for some King she'd never even seen before, holding his child.

It made him sick.

He wasn't supposed to fall in love with her. He's known forever that the Princess could never be his. He isn’t fond of self-delusion; it had been obvious that when she came of age, her brother would marry her offto a King of some wealthy province in a land far away.

But how could he not? And on a subconscious level it angers him… it was him she had grown up with, him she graces with that smile made of heaven, he who protects her at all costs.

It’s when he empties the last drops from his flask that he’s pretty sure he’s hallucinating.

"… Ichigo?"

She’d stormed away from him after the earlier confrontation with her brother, consumed with frustration and hurt with his blind allegiance to his King, a mute spectator to Sora’s tyrannical orders. Hours after sobbing into Rangiku’s bosom, defeated and heartbroken, she isn’t sure what she’s doing here… rubbing salt into her wounds maybe?

Because despite the seeming inevitability of her fate, she had to know. Every moment she had spent by his side, every lingering touch, all those half-hearted dreams she hadn’t the courage to share with anyone else… surely it wasn’t just one-sided?

But the spectacle in front of her is a far cry from what she was expecting. The tall, handsome General that she’d fallen in love with now sat hunched in a corner, eyes bloodshot, breathing harsh, his orange hair matted and messy… looking utterly and terribly wasted.

He’s never seen her like this either, well past decent hours, clad in a loose robe that hung a generous height above her knees, shimmering off her luminous thighs.

"… You shouldn't be here, Princess," he says hoarsely, the alcohol burning his throat, his heart burning with fierce desire he’s spent most of his life battling. "… It's late."

She hesitates, eyeing him nervously. "… I asked Rukia to keep watch outside." Her voice is a stranger, an odd breathiness betraying her intentions. She makes her way closer to him, hands clutching at the apex of her robe. Her fears swirl in her mind, fear of an impending wedding that she had no way to escape, fear of her brother who had descended into a madness she could no longer save him from… and most of all a deep, aching fear that she was risking everything to bare her soul to the man she loved, and all that would await her was his rejection.

She thinks of the speech she’s prepared, her confession, but the closer she gets to him – and the longer he looks at her like that, tortured – the words no longer make sense, Rangiku’s promiscuous suggestions seeming far simpler, and far more appealing.

He watches as she moves towards him, teeth worrying her lips, and he has a stray thought about how it would feel to have his teeth on her lips like that, and it is harder to suppress in this state than normal, when the alcohol has him defenceless to his deepest desires, when she's in front of him, looking at him so fiercely, like she's trying to tell him something so secret, that if she puts the words out there, someone will steal them from her.

His eyes fall to the floor. And he keeps them there. He fears that if he looks into those deep, searching grey eyes, she'll know.

She'll know everything that he's always wanted to tell her, but couldn't. And he is ashamed

Hesitantly, slowly, her hands slip free of the satin gold robes that cover her shoulders.

"… Ichigo," she says, softly, "look at me."

But he screws his eyes shut because, he can't, the resolve he’s counted on for years is broken and shattered to pieces and there's nothing he can do to not want her.

"… Please," she whispers, her voice cracking, pleading and he can feel her closer to him, the edges of her robes brushing against his arm, the scent of jasmine and desire consuming him.

How could he ever deny her anything?

And he watches almost dreamlike, as the garb falls to the floor, his mind going increasingly numb as the pale candlelight bathes her bare body, he is most definitely sure that this is just a dream borne fruit by his intoxication.

But dream or not, his mouth goes dry when she slips onto his lap, her body, her skin, flush with self consciousness, his arms tightening around her of their own accord, heat coursing through his veins like it was the most obvious, natural thing to to feel her against him, to feel her thread her fingers into his hair, and look into his brown eyes so passionately.

To feel her lips brush against his, as she speaks so softly, so quietly, but firm, "… They can't tell me whom to love."

#ihweek2021 #ichihime #liquorisce fanfiction #inoue orihime #kurosaki ichigo

[berryshallbe]

Bleach — BookmarkFICS:

#ZANPAKUTO SPIRITS

certum est quia impossible est(It is Certain because it is Impossible) by sinequanon [timetrav]

Sight by cwyscross

Spectral by Glaux_Bryonia

URAICHI:

Severed by Riverhn

When Fire Doesn’t Solve it, Use More Fire (Ichigo no.) by cywscross

Look On my Works, Almighty, and Despair by northpeach, wolfsrainrules

Black Rose, Rose and Bloomed by InfinityIllusion

Hope Springs Eternal by cywscross

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Stories by cywscross

Two Can Keep A Secret by Fleur_de_Leur

Retorta, (iterum est) by Lady Adain (pocketTherapist) [timetrav]

Swinging Pendelum by cwyscross [timetrav]

Guard by CheshireSense (cwyscross) [timetrav]

To Shatter Fate by Starrie_Wolf

Alchemy by athena_crikey

First Protector by RayShippouUchicha

(Take Me) In From The Cold by RayShippouUchichia

Turn Back The Clock (Unbreak This Heart) by RayShippouUchicha [timetrav]

Shifts by DearCat

Bureaucracy Hell by Aliendel [outsideperspective]

Beyond the Horizon by cywscross [dimenstrav]

GRIMMICHI:

Jukebox Symphony by Murder Light

With Steady Steps by Lady KG [timetrav]

Cat Scratch Fever by Murderlight

AIICHI:

Forever With You Never Sounded So Stupid by Junko

Blind Spots by BoyGirlBothNoneImTheUniverse

Wishing Upon a Star by SeraNeko_Chan [timetrav]

SHINCHI:

Bad Things Comes in Two by IceisAwesome

Hero, Martyr, Idiot by cywscross

Mystery, Mystery by SereneSorrow [timetrav]

BYAICHI:

Sorrowful Tears of the Moon by Tango_Dancer

The Moon's Tears by Arowen12 [timetrav]

Range by blackkat

Laugh by blackkat

#HPXOVER:

There May Be Collateral Damage by metisket

Crimson Saggitarius by Eirenei

Oh Lazurus, how did your debts get paid by blackkat

The Girl Who Died by sakurademonalchemist

Toshiro Potter by sakurademonalchemist

Sakura Kuchiki by sakurademonalchemist

Double Trouble by sakurademonalchemist [Tatsuki-is-fem!Hari]

Changes by sakurademonalchemist

Soul Brothers by sakurademonalchemist

Lost Boys by glacis

Death and the Shinigami by Kiraille

Death Doesn’t Give Chase (She Waits) by Elri (angelrider13)

#KHRXOVER:

Cloudy with a Chance of Chaos by DearCat

Alessandra by DearCat

Breathe Through the Flames by northpeach, wolfsrainrules [reincarnate]

No hell below us, above us only sky by cheshire_carroll

UnMist Opportunity by DevinePhoenix

Big Brother Complex by DearCat

#MISCELLANEOUS:

Bromance by blackkat

Suprises come in many sizes, shapes, colors, and Ichigo’s by arelia22

Bait and Switch by blackkat [timetrav]

The Unfought by Glaux_Bryonia [timetrav]

Memories of a Broken Soul by arelia22 [timetrav]

Reclaimed, Never Reliquished by Mysterious Lights [timetrav]

Our Hollow Brother (alter) by Glaux_Bryonia

I was never going to end up anywhere else (but back to you) by cwyscross

Stranger in a Strange Land by cwyscross [timetrav]

I didn’t expect to see you again by cwyscross [reincarnate]

Mother May I by Gotcocomilk [timetrav starrk]

Walk Two Lifetimes by Coolio101 [SI!Hisana]

On Life, On Death, On Everything in Between by cywscross [timetrav]

Croix de la Chyrsalis by Raining Sky Guy [timetrav]

Song of the Seasons by hekwos [Myth!AU]

Book of Spirits by sakurademonalchemist [natsume yujin cho xover]

Reaping the Cards by sakurademonalchemist [yugiohXover]

The Cage of the Dog by Sky_King [fruitbasketXover, ShigureIchigo]

Mistaken Identity by Sky_King [fruitbasketXover, ShigureIchigo, Oneshots]

#bleach #bookmarking #time travel #uraichi #grimmichi #aiichi #where the description are zit #have to take a random guess which shall you pick #hey atleast I tag it and compile #coming back to the fandom #currently this is what I’ve read sofar #Little I /know/ #it’s gonna be updated sooner or later #fic rec #fic rec list