What do you think about the concept of time travel ? Are there any ideas you’ve always wanted to explore in any of your fics ?
time travel is intriguing, because you can do a lot of interesting things with it, but i am personally not smart enough to handle a concept like that with the complexity it deserves. i feel like the best kinds are the ones that actually engage with the narrative's chronology of events and do something interesting with it, but idk what that would look like! i don't read them! i did once write a snippet for someone who requested for a time-travel fanfic based on a fan art from twitter that i can't find anymore. it's not smart or complex or anything, it's still a WIP, and it's mainly just comedic/crack, but here it is:
The Hollow is ugly, is the thing. It takes all but a minute for Chad to finish it off with a clean swipe of his arm, but the mess it leaves behind is nasty, a sludge of ominous green goop. It stings, with little wisps of smoke curling into the air like snakes.
Uryuu tuts and slings his bag to his other hand so he can offer Chad a napkin. “Kurumadani is being rather neglectful again.”
Chad hums, wiping off the sludge and extending his arm so Uryuu can get the parts on his back he missed. They’ll be late for school at this rate, but Chad would rather not show up smelling like a medium-rare Hollow when he already gets weird enough looks on a normal day. He flexes his arm. “Do you think it’s poisoned?”
Uryuu cuts off whatever response he was about to make in favor of squinting into the sun, hand already shifting to his belt to retrieve a weapon. For just the tiniest flash of a second, there’s a pitch-black hole in the sky, and before they know it, a small, human-shaped shadow rockets down at an alarming speed, a familiar fireball of orange contrasted with jet-black hues. It’s a kid, Chad realizes as he gets closer, lunging forward with both arms to grab him.
The boy lands with an ‘oof!’
“Oh. Hi, Uncle Chad!” he greets, unfazed by the fact that he’d fallen out of the sky.
Chad and Uryuu exchange a troubled glance.
“Say, Sado-kun,” Uryu mutters under his breath.
“Hmm.”
“Doesn’t this child look a lot like Kurosaki and Inoue-san?”
“Hmm.”
“You don’t think…?”
“Probably.”
________
The boy can’t look more like Ichigo and Orihime if he tries. Kazui, that is. He has an endearing mop of orange hair that falls into his eyes—eyes that are distinctively Orihime’s, bright, curious and full of awe. He had—or so Uryuu and Chad had gleaned from a meandering conversation with him—been trying some new tricks with his flash-step and accidentally created a tear in the space-time continuum that sent him to the past.
As one does.
“So you’re from the future,” Chad concludes, glancing up at the little boy that is currently riding his shoulders happily.
“Yep!” He cranes his head around left and right. “Where are Mom and Dad?”
Uryu smirks. It’s of no surprise to him that Kurosaki and Inoue are married in the distant future. They’re obvious, even when they aren’t trying to be. Uryuu’s spent enough evenings with his friends to read an entire undercurrent of language in their behavior—the way they dance around their feelings like everyone else around them are idiots.
Or at least, that’s what Uryuu comprehends. What he sees is usually a tender glance, a fleeting touch, pointed moments where they withdraw after having revealed too much of themselves to each other. When he looks at Chad, his friend is smiling wistfully. Uryuu shares the sentiment; he just wishes he could be a fly on the wall when present-Kurosaki finds out about his son though.
“...I suppose we should take you to see them,” Uryuu says eventually. They’re standing in front of Karakura High’s gated entrance, though neither Uryuu nor Chad have any idea how to explain the kid. While his shinigami form should keep him hidden from most students, even their least spiritually sensitive friends like Tatsuki, Keigo or Mizuiro would be able to see him. And ask questions. And while Uryuu would love to watch Ichigo and Orihime squirm under their friends’ scrutiny, it would be too much chaos for them to handle.
Plus, there’s the added question of how they’re going to send Kazui back to the future.
“I’ll bring them here,” Chad says, setting Kazui down on the sill. “You wait with him.”
“Wait, Sado-kun—” Uryu begins, but Chad has already joined the throng of students heading inside. He wants to curse. He isn’t the best around children.
Kazui, however, looks rather relaxed, his legs kicking up and down from where he’s sitting on the gate’s surface. It seems, from his demeanor, that accidentally traveling to the future is no big deal for him, which, in a weird, roundabout way, makes sense. Uryu knows his parents, after all.
“Are you okay, Uncle Uryu?” Kazui asks, fixing his big eyes on Uryu.
Uryu struggles not to squirm. “I-I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
They stare at each other. Uryu looks away but keeps a part of his gaze stuck on Kazui out of the corner of his eye, studying him. The boy is in typical shinigami garb, and the hilt of his sword is similar to Ichigo’s, but Uryu doubts his skills have advanced beyond the basics. If his reaitsu is anything like his father’s, it’s highly unlikely he’ll be safe here.
Uryu tuts impatiently, but his irritation ebbs when he realizes that Chad and Ichigo are approaching. Ichigo looks annoyed at having been summoned out of class.
“...don’t understand why you won’t tell me what’s going on,” Uryu hears him say as they near. Ichigo takes one glance at Kazui. “Who’s this?”
Uryu and Chad sigh.
“Hi Dad!” Kazui beams.
Ichigo frowns. “What’s this?” he asks Uryu, which instantly pisses Uryu off.
“Why are you looking at me as if I have something to do with this?” Uryu demands. “Acknowledge your child!”
“Uryu…” Chad tries to butt in.
“What do you mean ‘acknowledge your child?” Ichigo imitates Uryu, accentuating his words with exaggerated bunny-quotes. “What does that even mean?”
“Ichigo…” Chad tries again.
Ichigo looks at him. “What?!”
Uryu ignores Ichigo’s outburst and asks Chad, “Where is Inoue-san?”
“Couldn’t find her. Probably with the Health Club,” Chad says, a little regretful, though it’s uncertain how much better she would have handled this.
“Hey! Can you guys stop ignoring me already?” Ichigo asks pointedly.
Neither Chad nor Uryuu come up with a response in time, so Ichigo narrows his brows at Kazui, who taps his chin and says, “Maybe I should introduce myself! My name is Kurosaki Kazui, I go to Mashiba Elementary School, my favorite hobbies are ping-pong and karaoke, and my parents are Ichigo and Orihime Kurosaki!” He beats one fist against his chest. “I’m from the future; nice to meet you!”
Ichigo stares. His eyebrow twitches. Uryuu isn’t sure what exactly must be going through his head right now, but he looks at Kazui like he’s a two-headed creature, and as someone who has plenty of…daddy issues himself, Uryu really wishes Ichigo would just get it together. Childhood trauma is not easy to heal.
“Are they really going to just keep staring at each other?” Uryu mutters under his breath to Chad, who is scratching his own head in secondhand embarrassment.
“It’s…probably going to take some time for Ichigo to process a bomb like that,” Chad admits.
They turn their gaze back to the scene. Kazui is still blinking eagerly and hopefully. Ichigo still looks like he accidentally swallowed something he shouldn’t have and is having a hard time bringing it back up. He turns concerning shades of red as he begins to process some things. Then he turns into concerning shades of purple.
Then he says, very coherently, “WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
_______
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