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dearcat1 · 1 year

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hello! i was just rereading your bleach/KHR fics, and had a thought to try my hand at one. my only problem is deciding on flame types for bleach characters.

i think it'll make it easier if i just let all Shinigami be dual-types (the thought process being that not everyone on the afterlife becomes a Shinigami, and stronger flames would mean a stronger flame) but I'm still unsure of which types to give everyone 🤔

do you have any insights on a similar au, or a list of what flames you've used for bleach characters previously?

Well, I have a few of them and I'll reblog this post later with a few recommendations once I've had the time to go through my own bookmarks. But mostly, what I do is I go to the wiki and remind myself of the poems associated with each flame.

For example, my first instinct was to connect Kisuke with Lightning, given the mad scientist thing. But if you look at the poem, it doesn't fit at all.

To draw damage to himself and away from the rest of the Famiglia, serving as a lightning rod.

I think that fits Ichigo more than it fits anybody else but if we're assuming Ichigo is a Sky and has a Lightning of his own, I might consider Renji or maybe Rukia. Though I'm shaky on this flame, honestly. It's complex. Renji I'm not sure, I think of him because he keeps trying to keep up and one of his motivations is to not be left behind but he also seems determined to fight beside and not behind. If that makes sense. And he seems to have no problem sacrificing himself if that's what it takes to feel like he's not dragging anybody down. But Renji is a long shot.

My justification for Rukia is that she knew full well that giving Ichigo her powers was an execution worthy offense but knowing that and understanding that without doing it, Ichigo and his sisters would have died, she gave him her powers anyway. And when time came to face the consequences, she didn't even try to have Ichigo return the favor and protect her in turn. She went out of her way to avoid his involvement because she knew Ichigo, for all his conviction, wouldn't stand a chance as he was at the time.

Now, Storm:

Continuously at the heart of the attack, the furious Storm that never rests.

Renji or Grimmjow, for example. Neither of them are the kind to sit back. But if we're going for duh, that one: Kenpachi. That one lives for the fight. It's his main characteristic.

For Rain:

To square away conflict and wash away the blood spilled. The Requiem of Rain.

If we're going by my head cannon, I think Mizuiro would do nicely here. But if we're stepping back and going through personalities: Yoruichi (I'm not sure if I wrote her name right.) Or Shinji.

She's pretty good at mediating between Ichigo's friends and her whole job description is to take care of problems that need to be done away with, quietly and bloody if need be.

Shinji's approach is more mental manipulation than assassination, I think. But he was captain of a the militaristic afterlife for centuries, I doubt he's squeamish. Either way, both of them are good at keeping peace inside of a group of loud personalities and both of them feel to me like the kind that would deal with a threat with weapons in hand.

Honestly, the rains are the ones I'd be personally more wary of, they seem to be the kind that could genially talk to you, smile and all, while fully knowing you're ending up dead by the end of the night.

The Sun:

Destroying the misfortune that attacks the Famiglia with their own body, they become the Sun that brightly shines upon an area.

If we go by "activation", Kisuke. Come on, that guy has spent the entire manga just pushing and prodding and provoking Ichigo into becoming a powerhouse. It's why I made him a Sun in Mizuiro, the information Broker and I find Reborn fits into this category as well.

But if we're going only by the poem: Chad. Come on, his physical ability, protectiveness and willingness to physically defend the rest of the group is practically his entire point.

For Cloud:

A drifting Cloud, whom cannot be bound. Protecting the famiglia from an independent standpoint.

I briefly considered Shinji but then I remembered he all but poached Ichigo from the Shinigami and fully declared him one of theirs from the get go. There was no independent standpoint, that was point blank: "I have adopted you and your silly denials matter nothing to me."

So Yoruichi. She mostly does what she wants and thinks needs doing, though she does coordinate quite a bit with Kisuke. Which might be just common sense, no point disturbing Kisuke's carefully crafted plots. But consider: Byakuya. He's supportive and has Ichigo's back but they don't really coordinate in any way, they just know soul deep that the other has their back. It's even outright stated in the full bring arc.

Well yikes, this is an enormous post. I tried to be quick but alas. I hope this helped.

#ask #anon #bleach #katekyo hitman reborn

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amethystconstellation · 10 months

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Shunsui Birthday Blurb

Okay so this is the first time I’m writing something like this. If you have any tips for me to get better, please let me know in the comments or message me. I want to get better at writing in the story sense just so I can write some nice things for myself. (Like I love the black reader tags with all my heart and soul but I really need some fluff right now 😅 So if I get better at this, I’ll start writing some fluff soon).

So of course my inspiration comes from the fact that Bleach, one of my fave anime shows from when I was a kid, returns and I get to see the love of my life Shunsui again.

You know it’s funny. When I was a kid, I always liked Shunsui. He was funny and laidback and him and Jushiro were the best friend dynamic I always loved. But I also thought he was super cool and really intuitive because he was really good and looking deeper into situations and because of how he presented himself outwardly, people would think he’s assuming and he would use that to his advantage. BUT he was still a captain and was mentored by Yamamoto so everyone new there was something special about him. And he was always like a teddy bear to me because he did show a lot of care and considerations to others as time went on.

And now that I’m older, that just morphed into him turning into my man my man my man because well…. HE’S GREAT! I don’t know what to tell you.

Now with TYBW coming back, we get to see more of his character and how he thinks because he was made soutaicho. I also want to do like my own head cannon deep dives into his character because he’s really just an overall interesting character. That’s what these little blurbs are for. It’s going to be out of order because TYBW is ongoing and I’m able to keep up with it easier than the old series (which I’m rewatching right now) if that makes sense.

Also I am going to write in his perspective. If there is any instance where I accidentally mess that up in the writing, please let me know.

And I’m going to be mainly basing this off the anime, I am going to read/re-read TYBW and update these when I have the chance and time but right everything is anime based.

But yeah. Sorry for being long winded. Here’s my writing below under the read more button. I hope you guys like it too.

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TYBW Ep 1: The Blood Warfare

Warnings: Anime spoilers but other than that none. Again if I missed

something let me know! 🙏🏾

Something’s off with the air today but what? I don’t know.

I’m sitting and drinking some sake looking out the window from my office. Well, more like nursing it really. I haven’t drank much of it because today just doesn’t feel right to me.

On the Karakura side of things, everything seems fine. The usual hollow appears, we send Soul Reapers to handle the problem. But if push comes to show, we have them and, most importantly, him on our side to help.

Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends, Orihime Inoue, Yasutora Sado, and Uryu Ishida.

He’s one interesting child alright. He’s got us out of tighter spots with dealing with everything that’s happened.

So much has happened since Rukia has met.

It feels like it was just yesterday that he ran in here with his friends to save her from execution and then everything happened so fast.

Aizen, Tousen, and Gin, to a major extent, were revealed as traitors. The Bounts emerged again along with Ran’Thao and ultimately became extinct. The arrancars and thus Aizen returning. The Fullbringers. Kisuke returning to clear his name and the downfall of Aizen’s plan.

We’re lucky to have him help. It’s unfortunate he’s so young. Not just in soul years (?) but just in general human years as well.

I have a feeling that fate is not done with Jim’s and his friends yet but we’ll have his back. Besides knowing him, he’ll want to help even willing to risk his life in the process.

But something weird is going on here. Whole communities in the Rukon district have been disappearing without a trace. The latest incident being in Sabitsura, the West 64 District in Rukon Ikkaku and Yumichika, the 3rd and 5th seat of Squad 11 are there now helping with the investigation.

I wonder if they’ll find something in this dis—

“Hm?”

Someone’s spiritual pressure disappeared just now. I have a bad felling about this—

Someone else’s spiritual pressure is gone…

…..It was Lieutenant Sasakibe’s. I knew something was wrong with today.

It’s only a matter of time before Old Man Yama calls the captains together again.

“Captain Kyoraku.” Nanao’s voice cut through my thoughts.

“Oh, Nanao. Haha. Looks like you found me. What is it?”

She furrowed her brows and I can see the worry and stress in her face.

After a brief pause, she finally tells me, “Soutaicho Yamamoto has called for an emergency Captains’ meeting and has asked for all Captains to report to him immediately.”

I stand up and put on my Sugegasa hat to get ready to head to Old Man Yama and the others.

“Okay. I’ll head over immediately.”

Walking out the door and heading to the meeting place, I can’t help but wonder.

How bad is this going to be?

I should’ve known that peace in the Seireitei would be fleeting and would only last for so long.

With a deep sigh, I said to myself, “I guess it’s time to go back to work.”

#shunsui kyoraku #bleach #bleach tybw #shunsui bleach #Shunsui Kyoraku writing #writing #fanfic #bleach fic #anime #anime fic #me #my writing #anime spoilers #bleach imagines

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katakuna64 · 4 years

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Okay. Okay. I GET that it’s Kubo’s story and all...but also, seriously, fuck you Kubo. I hate how you set everything up for Ichigo and Rukia to be end-game, and then you decide that you don’t want to do that anymore and make it Inoue. Even up until episode 342, and ESPECIALLY in episode 342, it was very much Rukia and Ichigo. Why would you do that. This man is so cruel.

#ichiruki #rukia kuchiki #ichigo kurosaki #ichigo #rukia #kubu #kubo why you do this #my heart #rukia and ichigo are cannon in my head #head cannon

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recurring-polynya · 3 years

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So I actually finally watched Memories of Nobody. I actually saw it years and years ago, in a theater, for some reason, back in 2008. I had vague memories of being disappointed by it at the time, but we actually enjoyed it on rewatch quite a bit. Some thoughts:

According to my husband, who found it on some shady streaming site, this film takes place “between the Bount arc and the Advance Team arc” which is the 2nd most ass-pulled place to cram some filler, second only the Amagai arc, which takes place in the middle of the Hueco Mundo arc.

Ichigo spends most of the film wearing what I believe are zip-at-the-knee cargo pants, a king

Iba and Ikkaku are 🎶drinking at work🎶

Hitsugaya is so tired.

There’s a scene where Urahara explains a bunch of metaphysics while Tessai sits behind him flipping through a book of (presumably his own?) sketches, exactly like that scene in the Advance Team Arc where Renji and Rukia do this. Notably, Ichigo does not pick on Tessai’s drawing, not even once.

I guess Urahara has some way of extracting Kon’s memories and playing them, like on a tv? W H A T.

ngl the world-building in this movie kinda slaps???

I am obsessed with the fact that it’s not The Valley of Screams, it’s “a valley of screams” and it’s they make is sound like a thing that just happens (although they later back off on that and claim that there must be someone nefarious behind it)

Did I made a “what if we kissed in the valley of screams? j/k... unless...?” joke? You know I did.

There’s a scene where everyone comes to arrest Senna and it’s so ham-fisted and dumb. They sent, like, 3 captains, 2 vice-captains, some ninja, and Rukia and let Renji shout at Ichigo at the top of his lungs. Literally, all they had to do was send Rukia to say “hey, it turns out Senna is the memory crystal we should take her to Soul Society to keep her safe” and Ichigo would have been totally on board. Anyway, this is the dumbest thing that happens is movie, so let’s just move past it.

The Reigai arc sure did rip some beats off this movie

Rukia forces her way into a captains’ meeting while two guards with detaining sticks try to hold her back, this fucking rules. Yamamoto screams at her. Byakuya does not even change facial expressions.

Hey, is this, like a grifting thing? At any given time, you’ve got (1) older, distinguished Kuchiki who never reacts to anything and (1) young, feral Kuchiki who raises ruckuses? And the Kuchiki can use the hothead to start shit and cause trouble while the older one just shakes their head in vague disapproval?

Anyway, someone gave Yamamoto a kidou cannon and he is going to fire it at that valley of screams, ain’t no one gonna stop him now.

It is explicitly stated that firing the kidou cannon will destroy a significant portion of both Soul Society and the Living World but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So you know that animated gif where Renji and Rukia do a sick backflip off a bridge? No one told me they were backflipping into the valley of screams.

My precious husband says “that would make a good animated gif”. “I got you, babe,” I say.

Okay, literally half the Gotei leadership ignores Yamamoto’s orders and goes to the valley of screams.

One thing I do not like about filler/movies is that they are so afraid to do anything new that they just copy the beats of the canon material, which sort of, I dunno, cheapens it. Like, this movie evokes both Rukia and Renji deserting to save Orihime in Hueco Mundo and the captains doing their own shit at the end of the Soul Society arc, and the overall effect is that no one has any respect for Yamamoto, which I don’t think was the point they were trying to make.

They should have let Orihime go to the valley of screams, but she probably would have fixed the problem in 2 seconds

The group of people who go to the valley of screams is perplexing. Mr. P suggested that the reason Soi Fon is here is because she had previously promised to do something with Omaeda (maybe it’s his birthday??) and was like “oh, shit, sorry man, valley of screams situation came up, catch you next time (i def will not)”

Yoruichi is not in this film. I am assuming she is off being a groupie for the Red Hot Chili Peppers or something.

Hisagi was here for maybe three frames and then did nothing. At least Kira got to release his sword.

Komamura is not here, but he is sort of a Yamamoto simp. We don’t see him hanging out with Ukitake and Kyouraku back at the kidou cannon, tho. Wait. Oh, no. That kidou cannon has gotta be pretty loud. Komamura probably had to go home and put on his thundershirt and hide under the bed.

Soi Fon’s shikai worked??????

RENJI USED ZABIMARU TO CATAPULT ICHIGO OVER SOME ENEMIES TO GO FIGHT THE BOSS!!!! MY HEART!!!!! 🐍💀💪🎇💯😍

I made a bunch of jokes about things Byakuya might be doing (napping, most likely), but then he showed up late and interrupted Rukia’s fight to announce “It is an honor to be slain by my bankai.” Dude, c’mon.

I kinda want to know more about this clan that got done dirty 700 years ago and learned to live in the Dangai like Westley and Buttercup living in the Fire Swamp??

If I had to wander the Dangai, instead of trying to implode the valley of screams and destroy all planes of existence, I would have just made a valley of screams and fixed it up real nice and lived there and not bothered anyone, but that’s just me

Yamamoto has fired the kidou cannon

RIP to Ganryu, you had kind of a cool design, dude, I’m sorry your plan was bad and also that you didn’t get any Vintage Soul Society Flashbacks

I am absolutely perplexed by the end of this film. Despite saving Senna, and being hit with the kidou cannon, the valley of screams is still imploding. Senna stops existing, Ichigo is sad, everyone is saved, it ends with Ichigo seeing a girl who looks like Senna because ???

Who cares! It’s time for Sen no Yoru wo Koete!!!!

Great movie, A+++

#memories of nobody #bleach movies

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rukia-kuchiki-divided · 4 years

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So I was talking with a friend about Ichigo and Rukia’s relationship - yep huge Ichiruki shipper here so this is a little biased - and he brought up the 5 Love Languages with respect to their relationship. So it got me thinking about what their love languages would be and why. This is just my opinion and I’m not a psychologist so there may be other perspectives on this. That’s totally natural. I’m throwing this under a read more so it doesn’t clog up everyone’s dash...

If you aren’t familiar with the 5 love languages, here is a really brief summary of them but you can learn more about them here. In short, this theory is that each person’s “love language” can be categorized into 5 different languages (or rather how you show someone you care about them). This helps with couple’s counseling because sometimes two people really do care about each other but the ways they show the other that they care are not what that person needs to “fill their love tank”. So here are the 5 in no particular order and yes, I did copy them from here :

1) Words of Affirmation - These are verbal expressions of care and affection. Think: "Thanks for putting the kids to bed" or "You looked really nice today." Conversely, insults can be particularly upsetting to people who favor words of affirmation.

2) Gifts - Tangible and intangible items that make you feel appreciated or noticed. Going to your partner's concert, for example, is as much of a gift as flowers or that new wine decanter you want. To individuals who favor this love language, the absence of everyday gestures or a missed special occasion are particularly hurtful.

3) Acts of Service - Doing something helpful or kind for your partner. Think: Waking up with the baby in the middle of the night or doing the dishes so your partner can relax. For someone who favors acts of service, ambivalence or a lack of support are more damaging than anything else.

4) Quality Time - Engaging in an activity together, particularly one you both enjoy, like a walk after dinner or watching a movie. If this is your love language, having a distracted or distant partner that makes you feel unseen or unheard is the biggest pitfall.

5) Physical Touch - Physical expressions of love, whether sexual or more platonic, such as holding hands, a back scratch, a hug, a kiss, or sex. The absence of such can leave these individuals feeling isolated in a relationship.

So people can have move than one or like a primary and secondary language if you want to dig deeper. Basically these are my head cannons -

Rukia Kuchiki’s love language is Acts of Service. I’m basing this off her life as a whole and her personality. Rukia is really a self sacrificing person by nature and does this without thinking. Considering where she was raised, I imagine Rukia was used to lying, tricking, stealing, and probably a lot worse.

Then we consider how many times Rukia’s been let down by people who had said one thing and did another? Renji and Byakuya as the two main ones. Renji was her only friend at the time and he let the title of nobility end his friendship with Rukia for 40 years! (Obviously this was a complicated situation with parts on both sides but that would require another post lol) Byakuya said he was adopting her into the family as his sister but treated her as coldly as a stranger for just as long. Words don’t mean a lot for her. I sort of delved into this earlier but think about it - it wasn’t Kaien’s words that got through to her when she joined the 13th squad - it was that he treated her just like a regular soul reaper. His words matched his actions and continued to match as their friendship developed. That’s what Rukia saw in Ichigo. His actions are what really stood out to him. I won’t keep going because that will turn into a whole ichiruki essay.

Ichigo Kurosaki’s love language is Words of Affirmation. I based this off of Ichigo’s life as well. His mother told him his name meant “to protect” and he took that to heart. He always remembers the words people tell him. He quotes words that are significant to him frequently in both conversation and battles. For example, he repeats Urahara’s words when fighting Kenpachi in the Soul Society Arc. He repeats Rukia’s words to him countless times and frequently flashes back to conversations he’s had with her. It’s her words that help bring him out of his depression. Words and promises mean a lot to Ichigo.

Again, these are just my opinions and observations - they don’t have to be yours if you don’t want. Even if you don’t ship them together, I still think these love languages apply to them. Also I probably could have organized this better but I didn’t feel like it now. So this is what I have so far lol

#rukiakuchikidivided #ichiruki #head cannons #hc #5 love languages #ehh #its a rough draft anyways #Ichigo #Rukia

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fiercyy · 7 years

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Till Death Ch. 4

Chapter 4: An Expositional Interlude

Co-written with @holyfuckabear

This is where we're REALLY gonna start diverging from canon, so buckle up kids! Thank you @sequencefairy for putting me back on my bullshit and dragging Ichigo down with me.

Chapter Summary: In which Rukia meets the family and everyone rips on Ichigo.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

AO3

Fall flutters through Karakura on the last warm winds of summer.

Before he knows it, Ichigo is inundated in schoolwork and is starting to feel the strain of too many responsibilities.

It’s not that he’s tired. In fact, he needs less sleep than he ever has in his life. Maybe when he’s not in his body it’s sleeping? Who knows. He’s certainly not going to question it.

Wait no. On second thought, he is. Rukia says he stole her ‘reiatsu’ or ‘spiritual energy’. What the hell is that? It’s an energy source right? But is it life source? Is it like… a soul force? Is there a finite amount of it or does it grow? Sometimes, after a bad fight he feels a different kind of tired. It’s like mental exhaustion, but not. Is that him running low on reiatsu? What replenishes it? Rest? But what constitutes rest? Certainly not sleep, he hasn’t been getting a lot of that. He needs to know.

He asks Rukia, who has thus far been an adequate guide to weird spirit bullshit.

She rolls her eyes and tells him not to think about it too hard.

This is unusual, but Ichigo supposes she must view it as an immutable aspect of her life… death…? Whatever a Shinigami calls existence.

Rukia rolls her eyes again. “Life. It’s all metaphorical anyway.”

Which... true.

Ichigo sits down, hands in hair and frowning hard. "What the fuck do you mean, 'don't think too hard about it'? It's a pretty fucking important distinction to have! If I'm gonna be fighting, I should know what my limit is right?" He pauses, looking at the concrete before him.

"Does the limit not exist?"

And maybe he’s a unhealthily preoccupied with this but-

"What happens when a Shinigami 'dies'?" Ichigo asks. Rukia gets quiet at that. It's not her 'shut up, fool’ quiet, but the kind she gets in the late hours. Contemplative, grieving. "The same thing that happens to everything else." She says with a shrug. Ichigo squints, how the fuck does that even work then?

But digressions aside, Ichigo cannot share Rukia’s lack of concern. It’s all too weird. And her world makes less and less sense, the more he learns about it.

What was he thinking about?

Right.

Ichigo isn’t tired, he’s just overtaxed. He has a lot going on and he hasn’t managed to neatly fit it all together yet. He’ll cope. He’s sure of it.

Rukia is less sure.

She’d been trying to be a little more hands off with Ichigo, but seeing the strain it’s putting on the human boy compels her to return from the sidelines. She starts to take a more proactive approach to hunts and fights.

This places her in the center of battle. She’s in more danger this way, but she’s also more comfortable than she’s felt in the month since she lost her powers.

Ichigo throws down his pencil, unable to concentrate. He swivels around in his desk chair while staring at a dent in his ceiling. Rukia flips through her literature homework in her closet with the door open. Her legs dangle over the side of her futon and her bare toes barely graze the carpet.

“So what does ‘the same thing that happens to everything else’ mean?”

“Huh?” Rukia looks up, quirks her head to the side and squints. She runs through their past few conversations. She doesn’t know what this statement has to do with Super Kaiju Maids, his inability to grow facial hair in comparison to his father or the subsequent conversation wherein he explained to her what manscaping was. Or the further subsequent assurances that if he did manscape, shewould never judge him.

“When shinigami die.”

“Oh.” It’s a delicate sound. Not surprised. Quite toneless actually.

“What happens?”

“Well, what happens when humans die? They pass on to the next life.”

“So when shinigami die, they pass on to another one?”

She quirks her eyebrow at him, questioning his intelligence, “No, they return to the living world.”

She holds up her notebook to display a very unhelpful doodle of some bunnies on two sides of a line, with recycling arrows indicating the direction the bunny souls would move.

“WHAT?!”

“Of course. What did you think?”

“I don’t know what I thought, but that doesn’t make any sense! Why wouldn’t anyone remember? Do you not remember being a human?”

She ignores his last question. “Reincarnation cycle. Think of it like a washing machine. The linens are the same, but it gets the stains out. Same soul, new life.”

“So the soul is who you are.”

“Correct.”

“But who you are is shaped by your experiences, your upbringing, circumstances…”

“So it isn’t a perfect metaphor,” she grumbles defensively, “Your soul changes, yes.”

“Wait, but you said you were like 300 right?”

“It’s rude of you to bring that up, but yes. What does that have to do with anything?”

“People live way longer in the afterlife. So eventually, all the souls would end up in the afterlife, no one would be left in the living world.”

“Why would that be the case?”

“You just said-!”

“There is balance in everything. Not everyone is able to or chooses to live as I do.”

That night, Ichigo lies wide awake, sweating. “Laws of conservation of mass apply to souls,” he whispers to himself, mind still blown and still unsure what the fuck a soul actually is.

This one can fly, which is hugely inconvenient.

It isn’t often that Ichigo would rather be studying than fighting, but this is one of those times.

The hollow whizzes around above their heads, swooping down to attack every once in awhile. It’s an annoying, buzzing thing. It darts in and out of his reach, draining him quickly.

Frustrated swings miss marginally, kidou cannons fall short or bounce off the hide.

Ichigo lands on the concrete after another stumble and rolls his shoulder. “Let’s just call it a day.”

“You know that’s not accep-”

“Yeah yeah,” he mumbles. It was worth a shot. Efforts renew.

“HEY!” the girl in the gigai shrieks, “Over here! I’m tasty and defenseless!”

“Subtle,” Ichigo grumbles. But hollows aren’t very bright. It takes the bait and swoops down toward Rukia, coming at her fast.

“On my signal,” Rukia orders.

It keeps coming and she still doesn’t move. With every breath the substitute grows more antsy. “C’mon c’mon c’mon.”

Still no signal.

“Fuck it,” he comes in early and comes out swinging.

“What are you-!?”

Rukia, having darted out of the way just in time, slams into Ichigo from the side. She ricochets off him and hits the pavement. Ichigo hesitates, squandering the opportunity. The hollow swerves and picks the girl up in its clawed foot.

“Don’t you dare!” Ichigo bellows and leaps into the air, aiming for the leg. He slices off its foot, sending it crashing to the ground… he probably could have planned that better.

The hollow shrieks and grounds itself. Ichigo silences its cries with one blow, disintegrating it into dust.

With that taken care of, Ichigo rushes to Rukia’s side. The clawed foot dissolves around her, leaving her prone on the sidewalk. His heart pounds against his chest and he can’t feel his hands. Worry makes his vision tunnel. He doesn’t see any blood, but it occurs to him that he’s not sure gigais can bleed. He pinches her cheek, it goes pale then red when he lets go. So that answers that question.

“Fool,” Rukia groans. He’s so glad that she’s talking that he doesn’t even mind. She tries to sit up but cries out and clutches her arm. It’s bent at a horrible angle; definitely broken. “What’s...happening to me?”

“You’re hurt.” And it’s all his fault. He should have trusted her, he should have-

“I’d gathered that much. Why does it hurt this bad?!” She sounds more put out than anything else; as if this is an inconvenience and not a dire injury. “I hate this body.”

“What, you never got hurt as a shinigami?”

“Not often, I’m good at my job,” she says, like she’s implying that he isn’t. “But it never hurt thismuch.”

“Don’t lash out at me just because you’re hurt.” The thing is, it’s kind of making him feel better.

“Being human is awful,” she declares. And honestly, Ichigo can’t disagree.

He doesn’t want to do it. He thinks about taking her to another clinic. But there are things like insurance and her lack of documentation to consider. He wants to avoid difficult questions at all costs.

So he brings her home with him.

Rukia usually uses any opportunity to ride on his back. It’s faster and he thinks she just likes the power move. But now she doesn’t let him carry her. It’s like she’s trying to prove to him how fine she is.

So he walks slowly so she can keep up with little effort. Her destroyed limb dangles at her side, supported by her dominant hand.

Ichigo holds the front door open and for the first time, Rukia enters through it.

“Dad!” he shouts.

“YES?” They hear from a distance.

“Can you come down here, I need some help!”

“Masaki, do you hear that?! Our idiot son needs help from his father!” the rolling thunder of Isshin descending the stairs doesn’t concern Ichigo, his father’s guesses do. “Do you need advice? Do you need me to procure contraceptives?!”

Isshin skids across the floor of their entryway and blinks at the unexpected sight.

Ichigo has a steadying hand on a young girl’s good shoulder. She’s tiny and sweet faced, with calculating eyes that Isshin should know better than to trust. Her left cheek is a blooming purple crocus and she has a cut through her eyebrow. Her knees are scraped raw and her left arm is demolished.

“Oh dear.” He hadn’t expected this. Not so soon. “Come with me.”

It surprises his son how professional he becomes. He leads them to the clinic and indicates one of the exam tables. He doesn’t ask what happened, which surprises the teens.

The examination is quick and thorough. He prods Rukia for any hidden injuries and tests out the joints in her arm.

Meanwhile, Ichigo distracts her with safe topics: School, The Taming of the Shrew, Chad’s next gig at a club.

“We’ll have to sneak you in. Me, they don’t card, but even if we could find you a fake I don’t think they’d believe us.”

Rukia laughs despite herself and hardly cries out when Isshin twists her humerus back into place.

“I heard nothing,” Isshin assures them, even though neither look worried about being busted.

He sets her arm and x-rays it again, just to be certain, before pronouncing her fit.

“Thank you Dr. Kurosaki,” Rukia preens sweetly.

“Of course,” he melts, “Anytime. You’ll be staying for dinner won’t you?”

Rukia glances at Ichigo then back at Isshin, “Oh, I don’t know… I mean...”

“Stay, please! I insist.”

Ichigo shrugs, unconcerned.

“It would be my pleasure, thank you.”

“Now tell me all about yourself! You go to school with my fool son, yes? You’re way too pretty for him, you can absolutely do better.”

“Hey!”

Ichigo and Rukia spend the afternoon on the couch in front of the television. She tries very hard to restrict her marvelling to when Isshin is out of earshot. In the past, she’s sneaked down to watch tv in the middle of the night or when everyone was out, but it never ceases to amaze her.

Despite her excitement, she soon finds that she has trouble keeping her eyes open. Isshin had given her a mild sedative to numb the pain, but she is very small and has never taken painkillers before. As she dozes, her head lolls to the side and finds Ichigo’s shoulder. He doesn’t mind. Isshin has gone back to work, so it’s not like he’ll see.

Eventually, the twins get home and their loud conversation rouses the shinigami from her nap.

She rubs her face against his shoulder and groans, “Oww.”

Ichigo sighs and pats her head consolingly. He’s gotta pity the girl. Plus he’s battling down no small amount of guilt. He didn’t listen and he got her hurt.

Ichigo was never into team sports. He preferred solo ventures. But even he knows that when the team captain says move, you do it. That’s rule number one. Next time he’ll do better.

“Who’s that?” Yuzu whispers not-so-quietly.

Karin’s reply is dry, “Some friend of his, don’t worry about it.”

“Do you think she’s staying for dinner?”

“I can hear you,” he grouses.

“Then answer the question,” Karin taunts.

“Ya.”

“...Ichigo brought a girl home for dinner,” Yuzu breathes in amazement. “Does he know that dad’s home?”

“Again, right here. I can hear you.”

His little sister bounds around the couch to stand in front of them. “Hi! I’m Yuzu,” Rukia rubs the sleep from her eyes with her good hand and looks up at the girl, perplexed.

“Rukia Kuchiki.”

“It’s so nice to meet you Rukia! Ichigo never brings friends over.” She prances away, headed for the kitchen. “I’ll make something special for dinner!”

“She’s… so friendly,” Rukia remarks, looking between the other two Kurosaki siblings. They are decidedly a different species of human. She wonders if they’re really related or if Yuzu is adopted.

Karin grunts and follows her sister.

At dinner Rukia experiences family like she’s never known it before.

They’re utterly ridiculous. And they talk so much.

Isshin asks the girls about their days. Karin talks about soccer and her newest fascination: tech. She and her friends went to specialty store to check out all the weird new stuff. “They have one machine that brews coffee, fries eggs and toasts toast on a timer.”

“That’s useless, we have all of those things.”

“Yeah, but this is one machine,” Karin replies, as if her brother has pointed out something obviously stupid.

“And do you have to put the eggs and toast in the night before? Wouldn’t the eggs go bad? Does the machine flip the eggs?”

“Ichigo, stop poking holes in this! Karin, sweetheart, that is amazing. Let’s get one.”

“Hmmm,” Karin grunts, suddenly disinterested. “Nah.”

Yuzu asks Rukia a billion questions. She’s going to have to take notes after this dinner so she can keep her story straight.

Eventually, Ichigo mentions that Rukia also loves Chappy, which derails the sweet interrogation entirely.

Isshin waffles between being overly supportive and solicitous to all and threatening Ichigo with physical violence.

Overall it’s a very enjoyable evening. Even if they are the weirdest people she’s ever met. And that’s saying something.

“Hey Rukia?”

“Yes?” the grinding noise of the closet sliding open and the glare of Rukia’s lamp disrupt the darkness of Ichigo’s room.

“Have you ever thought about what you’d want to be when you grow up?”

Her exasperated reply is not unexpected. “Yes. A shinigami. I’m doing it.”

“No, I mean if you were human. When I was a kid I wanted to be a fireman. Or a Power Ranger.”

“Ichigo, it’s three in the morning.”

“You were awake anyway!”

“That’s irrelevant.”

Silence.

“You said you used to want to be a Power Ranger,” she does not question what this may be, she has learned to recognize pop culture references with context clues. She does not care. If it’s worth watching, he’ll show it to her. “What do you want to be now?”

He snickers, “A shinigami.”

He expects this to be a touching and meaningful moment for them, but Rukia snorts. “Someday you will be, perhaps concentrate on something you can manage with your human life.”

“Dunno, a doctor maybe? Or a writer?”

“You’d make a good writer.”

She turns out her light, but doesn’t close the closet door. He assumed that to be the end of it, but then-

“I would have liked to go to University.”

“Do you like school?”

“I didn’t used to. But I like it now.”

“Is there like, a shinigami school?” he jokes.

“Yes,” she replies, matter-of-factly.

This consequently blows his damn mind. “I was kidding.”

“How did you think we went about learning?”

“I dunno, can’t say I ever thought about it too hard.”

“I was a very poor student.”

“Really?” he kind of can’t believe it. For someone from another world, she’s successfully managed to understand all manner of subjects at an impressive rate. She’s a quick study, and tutoring her has even helped to boost his grades, so he doesn’t mind doing it. “I can’t really picture you being bad at anything,” he remarks.

Rukia smiles wryly to herself. Humans are so funny, they’ll praise you in private, while denying it in front of others. An image is such a meaningless thing, but he is young. “There are lots of things I’m bad at. Teaching is apparently one of them.”

It takes him a second, “Hey!”

Her laugh is a tinkling bell in the darkness. He doesn’t hear her laugh like that often. Usually if she laughs it’s at his expense, so nothing out of the ordinary here, but at night, when it can’t see her, it sounds different. Free, sweet…

“Hey Rukia, you still awake?”

“Yes?”

“I just wanted to say… I’m sorry about today.”

“What do you mean? About your family? I like them. You don’t have to apologize for them.”

“Oh shit, yeah. Sorry about them too I guess. But I mean… I’m sorry you got hurt.”

“I’ve had worse.” He believes it.

“Still. You got hurt because of me-”

“-I got hurt doing my job-”

“-And because I was being an idiot. We’re a team, I know that. I trust you to have my back and take care of yourself. I know I don’t have to protect you, but I want to. I have your back too. I want you to know that.”

“Thank you Ichigo.” the rustling of blankets as she turns over. “We make a pretty good team, don’t we?”

“I think so too.”

“Don’t look so sad.” How she knows he’s looking sad at all, he doesn’t know. But she’s right all the same. “We’ll do better next time.”

Despite what he thinks, Rukia is his commanding officer. It’s been a long time since she’s been responsible for anybody. Not since her days in Rukongai leading a raggedy gang. She’s unseated, so she’s never had a supervisory position before. She’s still figuring it out. She knows this much though: anything that goes wrong is her own fault. She drafted him, his safety is her responsibility. She is accountable for him.

Her lips press into a thin line, so tight they turn white. She hopes she gets better soon. Without her arm, how can she fight? How can she back him up?

How can she keep him alive?

In the morning Rukia declares that she will be teaching him some kido.

“Smart, that way I can heal your arm.” She has enough power to heal minor cuts and bruises, but nothing so bad as a broken bone.

“Are you insane?” She shrieks at the panic-inducing thought, “You’d sooner blow it up than fix it. We’re starting with the basics.”

He can’t start with the most basic hado because he only has Rukia to practice on and it doesn’t seem like the best idea to bind her arms around her back right now. She starts him with something like a torch. Just a light; simple. Easy.

HAHAHA NOPE.

He cannot do it. Not even a little. Not even a spark. It’s pathetic.

“What the fuck, how do I do this?”

“You’re not saying the words right.”

“I’m saying them exactly like you told me!”

“And you have to believe it will work.”

“That’s warm and fuzzy and everything but I’ve been able to see ghosts for my whole life, there’s not a lot that’s unbelievable to me.”

The answer arrives two nights later, as Rukia discovers the singular frustration of the sidelines. She’s staying out of the way; it isn’t what she’d call her forte.

Ichigo exterminates the pair of low level hollows with little issues, but that’s besides the point. She feels useless, and she hadn’t been particularly effective before. She couldn’t even handle a measly, low level hollow on her own. Her cannons are more like pelted rocks- damaging but not maiming, not killing. She estimates that it’ll be months before her powers return enough to do anything properly.

Suddenly, a round of applause draws her out of her morose contemplations.

“What the hell?” Ichigo mutters quizzically.

The pair turn towards the source.

Clop clop clop

A man in sandals and a stupid looking green and white hat strolls towards them. It’s all very dramatic. His eyes are hidden by the brim of his hat, his shoes clop out a steady rhythm. Ichigo instantly does not trust him.

“Hi there!” the stranger says enthusiastically.

Ichigo leans over sideways to address Rukia, not taking his eyes off of the man. “Oh shit, can he see me?”

“It would appear so,” she whispers back.

“Now don’t talk about me like I’m not here. That’s rude.”

Ichigo swings his sword forward and points it at his heart. “That’s far enough. Who are you?”

“The name’s Kisuke Urahara,” he says cheerily, then addresses Rukia. “Now what’s a shinigami like you doing in a body like that?”

#ichiruki #ichigo kurosaki #rukia kuchiki #bleach #ichigo x rukia #till death #my fic

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