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lo-55 · 4 years ago

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Shattered Chains of Fate Ch. 19

Do Dead People Have Therapists?

By the time Ichigo was standing over Hiyori, her throat caught between two blades, there’s a thin sheet of sweat across his brow and his sleeves are long ripped off by her weapon. It’s a serrated butcher's blade, which fits Hiyori perfectly.

She was stronger than Ichigo expected, and he can feel blood drying along his arms from where it's been stopped from flowing out of him, now white instead of black. He mentally thanks Tensa.

Ichigo’s knee is on her stomach, keeping her pinned in place as if his blades weren’t enough for it. Her sword sticks out of the ground a few yards away. The rest of the Visord are watching from the sidelines, tense and ready to intervene save Shinji. Ichigo’s servants are much the same on the other side. They’re too protective of him.

Not that they don’t have their reasons.

The first time they’d seen the mask that is slowly dissolving from his face he’d wrought destruction and nearly died right after. He knows they don’t like it, but it’s his power and he won’t give Nieve up for anything.

It’s still disconcerting when he pulls it on. The shift of the world snapping into intense focus and the feeling of perfect balance and power coursing through him. There’s a pressure in his head that’s not painful but present, when Nieve is at the forefront.

As the last flicker of bone falls from his face Ichigo falls against the ground away from Hiyori, his energy drained away. This was going to take some getting used to. But this time he’d lasted a full two minutes by his own estimate. It’s better than it was before.

Even if it was only by thirty seconds.

“Now can we be done with this bullshit?” Ichigo asks, casting an irritated scowl out at the other Visored.

None of them seem inclined to challenge him further. There’s a man he hadn’t seen before, with pale pink hair, who is staring at his entourage with a little too much attention.

A throat clears in front of him and Ichigo looks up to see Hirako standing over him. His smile is half quirked, not the strange, toothy grin he’d had before. He looks more genuine like this, and less like he’s trying to involve Ichigo in something seriously shady.

His hand is extended down towards him while the other girl, Lisa, helps up Hiyori.

Ichigo huffs and slides Tensa back into his sleeve before he takes Hirakos hand and uses him to pull himself up. His body protests and he’d like nothing more than a nap, but by the way everyone is starting to gather around him it’s looking like that’s going to be out of the question this time.

Great.

Ichigo doesn’t know when it happened but at some point he became the king of ‘making doctors sleep’.

It’s a crown he’d rath chuck in the ocean, but it’s one he wears all the same.

In Chaldeas he’s the one who always bullies Romani into sleeping even when it means dragging him into Ichigo’s own bedroom. He’s made other medical staff leave their stations, and forced Da Vinci to take breaks when they were together, heroic spirit or not. (nevermind that she’s not a doctor. Close enough)

Now, it seems, his luck runs true because he finds Jeckyll passed out over a stack of papers that look like chemistry formulas and equations.

Ichigo hadn’t gotten that far into school when he’d gone to Chaldeas, and he’s learning more mage craft than science now, so he couldn’t tell you what anything meant if you pointed a gun to his head.

Still, he knows a sleeping scientist when he sees one.

He shakes him gently by the shoulder. “Hey. C’mon, you can’t sleep here,” he chides.

There’s not response besides and grumble and Jeckyll reaching to turn his gas lamp down and almost knocking it off the desk entirely.

Ichigo manages to save them from a fiery death just barely, but it’s clean that Jeckyll doesn’t want to get up and move.

Damn it.

The things I do for my friends.

Ichigo pulled the chair out and picked Jekyll up easily. He barely weighed a thing already, compared to Ichigo who had been fighting for well over a year now on top of most of his life.

Ichigo takes him to his room, out of the study and up the hall before he deposits him in the sheets.

It’s when he’s pulling back to stand that he feels cool steel against his upper thigh, right over an artery.

He looks down to see bright red eyes. Hyde.

* *

Medusa and Achilles did not want to let Ichigo be alone with these people. Not even remotely. Ichigo insisted, after Hiyori finally calmed down and got something for the inevitable bruises that would form from Medusa’s attack.

Ichigo was, naturally, completely ignored.

Cu might have let him alone and trusted him enough to mind himself now that he could fight, but when the other two ganged up on Ichigo he threw his lot in with them.

The filthy traitor.

Ichigo sits on the couch in their living room area with Achilles to his left, medusa to his right, and Cu sits at his knee. It’s a wonderful show of force, except now no one is talking about anything, even though there’s clearly a lot to talk about.

“So,” Ichigo says at last, “Why did you want me here so badly again?”

It’s not the best ice breaker, but he can’t think of anything else. Shinji looks off put from where he’s sat beside Hiyori on the opposite couch from Ichigo. Two of the other Vizord took up residence in chair to left, a pretty boy with blond hair and the long fingers of a pianist and a gruff looking man with his hair shaped vaguely like a star.

The pair on the couch was joined by a serious woman reading porn. A love seat on the other side of it had been moved to hold a gruff man who reminded Ichigo far to much of EMIYA and a green haired girl who looked ready to bounce away into the sky.

“Your mask,” Hiyori snapped at him, “You told Shinji something stupid about your mask.”

“I told him the truth about my mask,” Ichigo corrected instantly. “What’s so weird about it? Didn’t you guys have to do the same thing?”

“No,” Kensei said bluntly. “We didn’t just ‘talk’. We fought.”

“...I mean, I did that too, but we were just playing.”

“Playing?!” Hiyori sputters at him. “Playing! A hollow inside your brain and you played with it!”

“Well shit, what did you do?” Ichigo finally demands, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at her. “He’s just me, right? A part of me. Like an arm or a leg or something more profound I don’t wanna think about right now.”

“They are a part of ya,” Hirako admits reluctantly. “But inner hollows chew away at yer sanity piece by piece, just waitin ta devour you. They want out, they wanna kill, they wanna fight they want to take possession of everything ya have. They’re the darkest parts of ourselves, and if ya don’t beat them down and lock them away-”

“Huh?!” Ichigo stares at him. Beat them down and lock them away?!

“-They’ll come back and keep tryin’ shred your psyche. Ya make one wrong more, one slip up, let that box open even a crack and it’s over.”

Ichigo and Hirako stared at each other for a long time. Ichigo leans forwards, steepling his fingers together.

“Okay,” he says slowly, picking apart what the fuck was just said to him. “You are telling me that you have taken the darkest parts of you, the parts that you don’t like -anger, pain, desperation, every vicious killer instinct inside your body- You’ve taken the personification of them, and you’ve stuffed them into a box where you don’t have to deal with them anymore.”

Ichigo looked straight at him.

“Do dead people have therapists? Because you should really see one.”

Hirako gaped at him. Ichigo had to duck one of Hiyori’s sandals.

“Would you stop that! Damn, violent women,” Ichigo grumbled. “That’s like the worst coping mechanism ever. You don’t take all you trash, shove it in a closet, and think it’s just magically gone. Eventually it’s all gonna come back out, and now it’s hella rotten. What the hell.”

‘Did you just call me trash?!’

‘I will say it again. Watch me.’

‘I’m still you, idiot!’

‘This is very strange,’ medusa cuts in.

“There’s not other way to do it,” Rose, the pretty boy, says mournfully.

Ichigo shoots him a look. “There clearly is. Since I didn’t lock Nieve anywhere and we’re just fine where we are… Ya ever read that book, Jekyll and Hyde?”

Rose, Hirako, Lisa, and Hachi nod at him.

“Yeah. Trying to rid yourself of parts you don’t like doesn’t usually end well.”

He had the scar on the leg to prove it.

“How did you do it then?” Kensei finally demands, looming over Ichigo. “You can’t really expect us to believe that you just talked.”

“It’s not my problem if you believe me or not,” Ichigo is seriously starting to lose his temper here. “I told you what happened. He’s me, he’s always been me. He’s my fear, he’s my desperation, he’s my deepest instincts.”

“I’ve always trusted my instincts, even if I don’t listen to them all the time. It’s the same concept.”

They’re staring at Ichigo like he’s just disproved gravity or something.

Ichigo sighs heavily.

“Can I leave now? I have other things to do, you know.”

Before he gets the chance though the world tilts with a brand new pressure. A void and a violent rage slam into Ichigo’s senses.

“...Are you fucking with me?” Ichigo demands, his temper coming closer and closer to snapping.

* * *

Ichigo can feel blood slowly leaking out of the shallow cut on his thigh. It’s barely an inch away from killing him and Hyde is staring up at him, his red eyes wild.

Ichigo slowly pulls his hands away from him.

“Sorry,” he says blandly, “Did I scare you?”

“No!” Hyde snaps, digging the knife a little further. For a berserker he is remarkably accurate. Is it Jekyll’s knowledge seeping in? Ichigo’s not sure how they work entirely. How much does Jekyll remember? How much down Hyde?

“Good,” Ichigo goes with it. He doesn’t show fear. Hyde might get off on that. Or be more temped to stab him. Ichigo’s not sure which one. “Wanna put the knife away?”

“Fuck you,” Hyde snaps. Ichigo throws him off balance. Others flinch in warranted fear. Ichigo treats him like he does Medusa.

Something else catches Ichigo’s attention.

He reaches out, and Hyde doesn’t stab him deeper when he runs his fingers through his wild hair.

“How does that work?” Ichigo asks abruptly. “I get that you change. You’re broader than Jekyll and stronger too. Your eyes are different. But how does your hair change that much without even touching it? What all changes?”

The knife slowly eases out of his leg and a new light enters Hyde’s bright red eyes.

He starts to grin, predatory. “Do you really want to find out? I love breaking in Jekyll’s things before he gets the chance to.” Ichigo can’t tell if he’s being flirted with or threatened. Maybe both. Probably both.

Ichigo’s fingers twist in Hydes hair and he yanks his head back until Hyde hisses. “Don’t call me a thing,” he chides.

Hyde grabs him by his shoulders and throws him sideways onto the bed.

Ichigo realizes he’s going to have to get a little rougher if he wants Hyde to behave himself.

Fine then. He can do rough.

* * * *

By the time Ichigo reaches the clearing in the park Chad is unconscious on the ground and Orihime is standing defensively in front of him, her fairies floating around her in four points. Chad is laid out, his arm slowly piecing itself together again under Orihime’s healing dome while her three pronged shield barely holds to another attack.

Ichigo doesn’t waste time. He’s come in from behind and he uses it to his advantage. The big one doesn’t notice him, but the smaller of the pair glances over his shoulder in time to watch Ichigo vault himself up and over the big ones head so he can use gravity when he swings down and drops with every intention of cleaving him in two.

Zangetsu sings in his hands, Neive shrieking his delight inside his soul. The blade cuts deep, but it’s like cutting through stone instead of flesh.

Ichigo bounced back, his eyes locked on the pair, and lands next to Orihime.

“Hey,” he nods to her, “Good job.”

Orihime flushes pink at the praise and looks away from him, but not away from their opponents. She’s too smart for that.

“Not really. I tried to attack before, but he’s really strong. Tsubaki got hurt…”

“Sometimes that’s how it goes,” Ichigo says solemnly. “Watch my back?”

She nods.

The giant is screaming at Ichigo, curses that spit with no harm. What does he care what these people think of him? Ichigo eyes him speculatively. He’s not that worried about this one though. The smaller one is stronger, power packed into his body. Ichigo eyes them. Broken hollow masks and a zanpakutou. They’re some kind of hollow. A hybrid, too. The opposite of a Visord? Drosiv?

“Ulquiorra,” the giant finally stops screaming to look at his companion. “Is this the one? The one with the orange hair and the sword as long as he is?”

The smaller one, Ulquiorra, eyes Ichigo with disinterest. “Yes. That’s the one.”

“Who sent you?” Ichigo asks, ignoring Neive snarling for release. He wants blood, and Ichigo is inclined to give it to him. Orihime is strong, she’s stood her ground but her hands are still shaking and Chad-

His arm is in bad shape. If it were anyone other than Orihime treating him Ichigo might think he’s going to lose it.

“I’ll kill you!” the giant snarled instead of answering.

Ichigo swings upwards. A sharply concentrated Getsuga Tenshou tears through his arm entirely, finishing what Orihime had started. Vengeance for his fallen friend. Barely a minute into the fight and his opponent is down an arm, cut nearly in two, and bleeding profusely.

“Damn you!” he snarled.

Ulquiorra eyed his companion coldly. “You’re struggling. Shall I step in, Yammy?”

“Shut up!” Yammy snapped at him. He grabbed his sword and clicked it out of its sheath.

‘Cu, is the Bounded Field in place?’

‘It’s all ready for you. No one outside the park will notice anything amiss, even if you blow something up. A couple of yer friends are comin, though.”

“That’s fine. Thanks.”

“I wish you’d let us fight with you,” Medusa grumbled.

“I know. But I want to do this on my own for now. If it looks like I’ll die,save me okay?”

She huffed, but he knew he’d already won that fight.

Ichigo tilted the point of Zangetsu up and shifted his footing.

“Now that I’ve taken your arm,” he said suddenly. “Let’s make a deal.” Before his friends showed up.

“Fuck you.” But Ichigo wasn’t talking to Yammy.

He was looking at Ulquiorra. While Yammy felt like fury, all rage stuffed into a body that was still somehow too small to hold it all in, Ulquiorra felt like a night itself. Cool and vast, he was several dozen times stronger than Yammy. Ichigo could stand toe to toe with him, but a victory would be hard fought if it came.

Ulquiorra met his gaze squarely. “And just what would that be?” he asked, his voice smooth and flat.

“You work for Aizen, right?” He didn’t wait for confirmation. It was obvious. Someone had sent them to find him, and Aizen had disappeared into a mob of hollows, the drama queen. “If I win I want you to take me to him.”

Ulquiorra looked briefly between the pair of them before he closed his eyes.

“So be it.”

Ichigo lunged.

* * * * *

Deep in a desert of snow white sand sat a legend amongst the hollow.

It was a myth that sunk into their bones, a knowledge that was granted to them when their hearts tore themselves asunder and they were consumed by their own loss.

The legend was powerful when it first began. The eldest hollow will tell it as fact while the youngest remember it as a bedtime story and little else.

Decades and centuries ate away and the truth sunk deep in the depths of darkness.

It was in that darkness that she waited. The immortal are patient creatures, and her wait was finally coming to an end.

* * * * * *

#Ichigo Kurosaki #bleach fanfiction #BAMF!Ichigo Kurosaki #Ichigo Kurosaki is Ritsuka Fujimaru #ulquiorra cifer #hirako shinji #bleach/fate grand order #jeckyll and hyde

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ao3feed-ichiruki · 5 years ago

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Genesis

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2zWaCZg

by ShatteredSwallowtail

Welcome to Genesis. Firstly, I do not own Bleach. However, if I did, this is how the story would have continued had I been given control of it at about chapter 286, excepting the events from TBTP bc those -- being flashbacks -- would technically have been part of the story already. If that makes sense. XD. Spoiler Warning: Obviously, anything up to Ch. 286, as well as the Turn Back the Pendulum flashback arc. Anything else, from Ch287 onward does not impact this story because it was initially created before any of THAT was created. TBTP is included simply bc it's backstory and that's easily allowable. Summary: Every story has a beginning, just as it has a middle and an end. Lives are lived, wars are fought, loves are found and lost. This is one such story. This is the story of a beginning, but it is also the story of a journey. The story of how one man and one woman found their way through obstacles and hardships to finally stand on the cusp of their own destinies. It is the story of three worlds, and the friction between them. It is a story of change, of hardship. A story of prejudice, loss, and heartache. But above all... it is a story of life. Life, in all it's colours and shapes.

Words: 7500, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Bleach

Rating: Mature

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/M, Gen, M/M

Characters: Um.... all of them. Yeah, Kurosaki Ichigo, Kuchiki Rukia

Relationships: Kuchiki Rukia/Kurosaki Ichigo, Inoue Orihime/Ishida Uryuu, Hirako Shinji/Sarugaki Hiyori, Shihouin Yoruichi/Urahara Kisuke

Additional Tags: all the characters - Freeform, Genesis-verse - yeah bc this is Genesis lol

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2zWaCZg

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #ichiruki

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kaasamatsu · 7 years ago

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bleach ch. -104 / hirako shinji.

#bleach #edit: bleach #hirako shinji #shinji hirako #shinji #manga: bleach

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icedtearss · 6 years ago

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No Love Lost: Turn Back

This wasn’t supposed to be happening. This wasn’t right. What is going on?

What had he done wrong?

“Sousuke! Sousuke, come back to me!” A sudden rush of blond and black swarmed Sousuke’s vision, forcing him back into the situation at hand. He could feel the shock and panic setting in, but warm, sword calloused hands kept him anchored, even if for a moment.

“Kisuke- I- This-” This was so unlike him, so be so inarticulate. But the sight of the hollowfied bodies in front of him has rendered him numb.

“Shh. It’s okay. Tessai and I have this under control. I need you to go back to the fifth. Pretend nothing happened.”

“You want-”

“I need you here, my love. I’ll take the fall, most of the Gotei expects this of me. We cannot let Central 46 get ahold of them, Sou. They will be killed on the spot.”

“No!” The world is crashing down around his ears. He can feel his mannerisms degrading into childish behavior. What did he do wrong?

Where did he go wrong?

Where did he-

“Sousuke! Please, I need you to stay with me.”

“I’m going with you. This is my-”

“Ngh-o!” Both turned to see the struggling body of Shinji Hirako attempting to rise on hand and knee. A rush of white liquid escapes his mouth as he collapses to the ground. Behind him, in the distance, Tessai is struggling to keep them asleep. The captain continues to speak, however muffled he is. “St-ay. Wat-” His body goes into fits, but he keeps talking. “Wat-ch the f-ifth.”

“Shinij!” Kisuke turns to face the fallen captain, but pauses. His face settles in a grim line, his eyes falling to the ground. “I’m sorry, my love. But you cannot come with us.”

Not looking back, the twelfth division captain flings an arm back, throwing a quick sleep spell over Sousuke, who easily succumbs due to his shocked and frazzled state. Kisuke turns quickly to catch him, placing a soft kiss to his hair.

“Forgive me.”

The fluttering of a Jigokuchō awakens Sousuke. His body is aching, his eyes tight. He holds out a hand, letting the butterfly rest on his index finger.

Emergency Captains Meeting: Traitors Found In the Seireitei!

#OHOHOHOHOHO LOOK WHO ACTUALLY WROTE SOMETHING #nolovelost #aikisu #aizen sousuke #kisuke urahara #shinji hirako #oh man im so excited to write this #i dont know if i have the motivation to write a whole fic but ill try to post drabbles and feel free to ask questions!#this is one of many aus i have in my pocket #bleach AU #bleach #fanfic #drabble

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my-my-my · 6 years ago

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#hirako shinji #shinji hirako #bleach #ch 214

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lo-55 · 4 years ago

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Shattered Chains of Fate Ch. 14

Moon on the Water

The first thing Sōsuke Aizen has memory of is hunger. A dull ache in his stomach that grows to pain the longer it goes unsated.

(He will learn, decades later, that only those with high reiryoku are able to feel hunger)

He doesn’t remember, he’s never known, if he was born in Soul Society or if he’d merely died young. He doesn’t recall if he had parents at some point, or if he’d been a hollow once. It doesn’t matter, for he doubts very much that he will ever know the answer to these things. There are some things that are simply impossible to find the answers to.

All he knows for certain is the hunger that he had become aware of.

Then the dust on his skin. Grit in his eyes. Dead grass beneath his hands.

The trees that stand as witness to his beginning are bare of greenery. They are nothing more than skeletons and dead wood, pressed in close and strangling each others roots.

There are no other humans around, only empty clothes laying on the earth around him.

He doesn’t know his name. He doesn’t know where he is or what’s happening.

Hunger gets his legs up under him.

Hunger drives him, stumbling and new, into the dull light.

It’s barely a town where he spends the next two decades. It’s all adult men and women covered in bruises or scars that grip knives with white knuckles. He is the only child among them, and he keeps that title with bloodied fists and teeth.

His ribs hurt and his stomach aches fiercely. Food is in scarce supply, whether people feel the same hunger as he does or not. What little there is is jealously guarded, and nothing is taken without a price paid for it. Gold and silver are worth nothing here. Only steel and bone make a difference.

There is something inside of him that tells him he could be stronger.

It’s a whisper in the night, a breeze on a pond in his dreams.

Grow, says the moon in the water. Grow stronger. Grow smarter. Grow.

It’s something in the way he walks. To tall, too confident.

The men find him when the moon is gone from the sky and can’t float on the water any longer.

“You think you’re better than us, just because you’ve got a little bit of reitsu?” he reeks of sake and years gone unwashed. He’s flanked by three others, all of them red faced and unstable.

That doesn’t stop the hits from hurting.

“You’re no better than we are!”

“You’re just a brat no one wanted, that’s why you’re here.”

“Where’d your whore mother leave you anyway huh? In the woods? Fucking bush runt.”

When he lifts his head to spit on one of them he’s slammed down again so hard he sees stars. Blood roars in his ears and pours down his face with the tears and snot. His lips split. He screams.

It’s over.

When he looks up there’s only clothes on the ground, and he learns how to keep his head bowed and mild. Even still, people start avoiding him. Fear leads to isolation.

* *

He is only just an adolescent when people begin to vanish. They leave blood stains on the ground and screams in the night. There have been other children in the years. None of them last long. Even the ones that he tries to protect can’t take as many hits as he can, or go as long without. The latest dies not a month after he meets them. Adults have stopped speaking to him entirely. He is too smart, to vicious, to strong.

It takes four months for the shinigami to arrive.

One woman faints at the sight of them, the pressure of their souls so intense she can’t take it. He scoffs quietly. He is just as strong, and they don’t drop to their knees for him.

He watches them with solemn eyes. They wander like sparrows, with no direction and hardly any drive. Merely being in their village is a chore for these people, never mind the dead.

They are only people in the outer districts, he hears them whisper. Unmanageable and unwashed. They don’t even have shoes.

Sosuke bites his lip so hard it bleeds. That is not enough for him. He will no be contented to this life and fade away or be torn apart by monsters, those with and those without masks.

He walks up to one shinigami and points him to the hunting ground. The place by the river, where everyone must go eventually. That’s where they will find the monster that they barely bothered to look for.

Someone calls him clever. Someone else notes his energy levels.

None of them look back when they leave again.

He looks at the stick and stone huts that make up his village for a long time before he follows their foot prints. He is worth more than dirt and dead grass and bloody teeth. Regardless of what they tell him. He will find people who recognize that he is a person, that he deserves to be seen, that he deserves to eat and wash and live.

* * *

The first time he sets sight on the seireitei the only thing that over rides his anger is his hunger.

He wants it. He wants that place. He wants his place in its wall and all that it entails. Shoes, soap, food.

He wants all of it. And he hates these people for hoarding it. He’d worked his way through the rukongai, and he’d made his way to the first districts with calloused hands and a mild smile. He’d seen people throw food away. He’d seen them discard perfectly good clothes and tools simply because they were old.

All of this waste, and yet he’d gone hungry for so long. For what reason?

He’d learned to read in return for months of hard labor, and he’d gotten himself accepted into the academy on work alone.

By then he was still young for the academy, but not the youngest. He had learned to be mild and polite. He’d learned to hide the blood in his teeth and wear his sleeves long enough to hide calloused palms and scarred knuckles.

He’d even started to wear glasses, to give the impression that he was smarter than people thought. And he was. Smarter. Smart enough and savvy enough that he lost his accent and polished his edges so swiftly that anyone who didn’t know before hand where he’d come from never would. Kido came to him as easy as breathing. All of his classes did. It just made sense, like fitting together pieces of puzzles. History and law, mathematics and management.

Poetry especially became a passion of his. It was elegant and beautiful, it opened a window to the soul of the writer.

The stroke of the brush and the stroke of the sword was the same. Once made it could never be undone. There the true intentions were laid bare to the world.

He chose a poetic name for himself. One that was just as unassuming at his smile and his eyes.

Sosuke Aizen. ‘Clever’ and ‘mediator’, and ‘love’ and ‘peace’. Something that he was and something that he wasn’t. Truth and lies.

He had barely graduated when the moon finally spoke to him a name on the water.

Kyoka Suigetsu.

“ You have grown, my Sosuke.”

She is lovely and insubstantial. She ripples at the edges and her long white hair flows like water around them. Her blue eyes are so dark they’re nearly black, and her kimono swims with black and white koi.

She is like him, everything seemingly dripped in finery and hiding the callouses beneath. She is as beautiful as the truth is ugly. Sosuke loves her, suddenly and fiercely. He always has. She is the changing moon that has always watched over him.

She is alone in that.

Even in the academy, surrounded by others, he realizes quickly that he is cut from a different cloth.

He is smarter, stronger, he adapts faster. It leaves him standing above students, a pedestal they cannot reach, but below shinigami who are even weaker than he by the simple merrit of he has not yet graduated.

He asks one of those shinigami one day, when they are visiting to scout new recruits for their squads, why no one has ever tried to make things better for the outer districts.

(why no one ever tried to make it better for him)

They laughed at him, and the notion that anyone would care for mere rukongai trash. Someone all the way from Akaiha was worth less than the dirt on the shoes of someone like a Kuchiki. One person from Junrinan was worth more than eighty people from the eightieth districts. Why bother with people like that?

If they really hated it there so much they should have worked harder to get out.

If their lives were so terrible they should just hurry up and die and move on.

Another answer comes, years later. It’s given to him by Shinji Hirako, his new captain, but the words aren’t really aimed at him. They stand on a balcony above the graduation class after him. He’s a fourth seat, fresh himself, and prepared to claw his way higher with grace and smiles.

The difference between the people below them is stark. The rukon seeds, the nobility, and the mercantile. It’s in the slope of shoulders, the set of jaws, and the dark eyes. Even their uniforms bear the marks of their origins. Some are new, even in the last days of class. Others are threadbare, grown out of and patched messily in places.

“It’s the same every year,” Hirako says to Rose. The two blonds are shoulder to shoulder, flanked by their underlings. Hirako has no lieutenant, so his entourage is larger.

“A shame,” Rose’s usual smile is faded into a pensive frown.

“Don’t look like that. There’s nothing you can do and you know it. They keep the rukon full so when the Soul King needs to lighten the weight no one with any power does anything about it. That’s how it’s always been.”

“I know that.” Rose’s frown deepens. “That doesn’t mean I like it.”

“No. None of us do.”

Sosuke thinks of cruel smiles and sabotages. Finery hides the sickest hearts. He’s not sure that Hirako is right. Plenty of people like the system just fine. All the ones with power do. The nobility does nothing because it keeps them safe and it keeps them living in luxury. They like living above the common riff raff.

Sosuke starts looking more into history. There have been attempts at change in the past. Rebellions and insurgencies, all crushed. Each time things got worse for the citizens of the Rukongai. More resources were taken, trade was restricted, business taxes increased until the squalor of the outer districts encroached until it reached all the way to the fifty first. The nobles owned the Central 46, who all Shinigami would obey without question. They cut down citizens they should have protected.

After that it stopped. Fear held them in place. They were no more than sheep.

Sosuke would not be a sheep. He refused.

* * * *

Isolation was a deadly thing.

To be alone, even when surrounded by other people, was the worst sort of torture. He may not have shown it, but he struggled to resign himself to the world as it was. Why should he? He had been born strong. He hadn’t realized it at the time, but the empty clothes around where he woke up were people crushed by his mere presence. He had learned, quickly, to hide himself inside his own skin.

No one saw him. No one saw what he saw. A king that never knew his subjects, a ruling class that revelled in the suffering of those beneath them. There was a king with no face, no name, no influence. No king at all.

The throne in the sky was empty and Sousuke still knew the hunger. It still clawed at his chest and stomach.

Hirako was suspicious of him. He’d never done anything to warrant it, but the captain watched him like he was waiting for an explosion.

He was the last of his graduating class to be sent to the human world. The senkaimon was acting strangely, and they were going to put it off a few more months, but the head captain insisted, over Hirako’s protests. He said Sosuke needed to get his feet wet.

So he went.

He stepped out of the gate and onto a beach, where western troops marched in the dying red light.

This was not right. It wasn’t right at all.

Where were the thick wooden walls and tiled roofs of Kyoto? Surely it couldn't have changed so much since the last paintings were brought back from the human world! There really must have been something wrong with the Senkaimon. It dropped him somewhere he was certainly not meant to be.

There was something weird here too. The air was dense, like the atmosphere had suddenly compressed without room to expand. And the soldiers. Most of them weren’t just in identical uniforms. Some of them had the same face!

They were all alive, that much he could tell, and none of them paid any mind to him.

He touched the hilt of his zanpakutou, a curl of worry and a thrill of excitement coursing through him before he brushed them underneath reasoning and logic.

Is it an illusion?

He knows she is the best when it comes to such things. No one else could compare, and once he has someone snared there’s nothing else. The game is over and he has won.

She thrums under his fingers a small denial.

No. It’s real. Everything is real, but everything is also...

Wrong. He can feel it. There’s something very, very wrong in the air. A thickness, a blanket over the land. The edges of the horizon somehow seem more like a cage than an invitation to find where they lead. As if they lead nowhere.

What is this?!

Sosuke forces himself to calm down. He’s never understood people who let their anger cloud their judgement, or fear decide their actions. Nothing good ever comes of that.

He needs information.

He tries, first, to open the senkaimon again, but to no avail. He stabs the air at least five times before he gives up on that option. Panic thrums under his skin. He sets it aside yet.

An investigation begins.

He follows troops and listens to orders. People are fighting, a war between americans and the clan Connacht.

Soldiers for it march to a prison, where a high profile captive it being held under a general. Seeking information he follows after.

Inside, he finds a tragedy and a miracle all in one.

* * * *

A human who can see him. A man who travels through time in a desperate attempt to save the world he lives in. A boy who has no power on his own but can empower into other people.

He’s an interest ( amazing ) human.

At first glance he’s just a moody teenager. All scowls and harsh edges. Sosuke gets to watch them soften around his people. Mash, a girl of tremendous resilience and knowledge. Cu Cullain, a magician who is two people at once, gentle and fierce in equal turns. Medusa is a vicious contender, with sharp teeth and serpents in her hair. The only smiles she has are reserved for pretty girls, and Ichigo himself.

It’s not his intention, but Sosuke starts to get attached.

It’s not his intention, but Sosuke starts to trust them.

Ichigo feels like his first and final chance. He sees the same injustices, he encourages Sosuke’s anger.

He tells him to change the world.

For the first time in his life Sosuke blossoms. He doesn’t need to hold himself back, or pretend to be anything other than what he is. Ichigo sees through his facade anyways. Ichigo keeps up with the twisting paths and whip quick leaps Sosuke’s mind makes. He’s a match for him. Never has Sosuke felt anything like what he felt when Ichigo placed his hand on his shoulder and shoved his very soul inside his skin.

Fire and moonlight, an ocean of power rushing into Sosuke’s swollen lake of reiryoku.

For the first time in his life Sosuke begs. When Ichigo tells him that he’ll forget him, forget them, he tells him secrets. He lets him touch Kyoka Suigetsu and offers him only truth. He will never be able to hide from Ichigo again, and he will give up every mask and tempered smile he has if it means Ichigo will restore him to how he is in America.

Free.

The empty throne in the sky doesn’t exist anymore. There are only stars and the sun.

It’s a war. Bloody and desperate. Every hollow in hueco mundo has brought themselves to the feast, or to run from the end of their home.

It’s still precious to him. Ichigo’s roughness manages to sand away his edges and hard corners, in the best ways.

It can’t stay. He clings to Ichigo when the battles are over and the light starts to shimmer around him. If he could he would follow him all the way to Chaldeas, no matter the consequences. If he could.

He can’t.

He loses everything, and he can’t even mourn it.

* * * * *

He stepped out of the gate and onto a beach, where western troops marched in the dying red light.

Onto a beach-

Onto a-

Into carefully planned out streets lined with high wooden walls and roofs tiled in blue. Souls wander, forlorn and clinking with the chains of fate. Somewhere off to the east there’s a hollow hunting for dinner. The living are just as down trod as the dead, trudging through their daily toil.

Sosuke stumbles forwards. He blinks several times. He had just been reaching for something, hadn’t he? He’d been trying to hold something in his hands…

Something in his hands.

He looks down at his clenched fist. There is something cool and powerful held in his hand.

The one constant in Sosuke Aizen's life is hunger.

* * * * * *

#sosuke aizen #Ichigo Kurosaki #bleach fanfiction #BAMF!Ichigo Kurosaki #Ichigo Kurosaki is Ritsuka Fujimaru

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lo-55 · 4 years ago

Text

Shattered Chains of Fate Ch. 17

Delicious Fried Garbage

When Ichigo barges into the shop without so much as a by-your-leave Urahara is in one of the backrooms, working on a janky looking computer. Ichigo had seen some fucked up attempts at electronics before, during his time travel escapades, but this was another level entirely. He actually looked like it had an eye sticking out of the wires snaking around it.

Ichigo stares at him. When Urahara looks up it takes him a second to get his smile properly in place and his fan in hand. That mask is getting a bit old.

“Ichigo! To what do I owe the pleasure? And you’ve brought friends?”

It’s true. Medusa and Achilles had met them outside the school when he and Shinji had gone marching about. Cu was investigating the ley lines around the town. Waver hadn’t been wrong, there was something weird going on with them, and he was the only decent mage amongst their group. The other three of them were fighters, plain and simple.

“This one,” Ichigo grabs Hirako by his tie and hanks himself forwards for Urahara to see. “Is your fault. So we’re using your basement.”

“That’s a rude way to ask,” Urahara huffed at him. Ichigo pins him with a glare.

“I’m not asking,” he said frankly. Ichigo drags Hirako past Urahara and his horror computer to the trap door he knows is in the room just beyond. Hirako hops after him, but he still manages to look nonchalant about it.

Ichigo tosses him down the ladder, abandons his body in the safety of the ground above, and hops after him, with his servants in tow. All three of them land as gracefully as Hirako did, with Ichigo now in his dark shihakusho. A few moments later Urahara drops down after them as well. He held his hat to his head to keep it from flying off.

While Medusa and Achilles found a couple of rocks to lounge on and watch from Ichigo and Hirako make their way away from them so they don’t get caught in the crossfires. Not that it would matter for Achilles. His shield was almost as good as Mash’s.

“Okay,” Ichigo runs his fingers through his hair and gathers half of it into a pony tail at the back of his head, so it’s out of his way. ‘ How do you wanna do this, Nieve?’

Medusa looks at him with a frown. ‘ Who…?’

‘Just don’t go fightin’ me okay? It won’t be so different from other fights. We’ll just be closer this time.’

Ichigo winces at the wide-eyed look Achilles and Medusa were giving him. He’d forgotten to tell them about his new ‘friends’. Whoops.

Ichigo eyes Hirako warily. He touches his forehead, the way Hirako had before. He thinks of Nieve. He thinks of the driving force behind his blows. Desperation and vicious need. He thinks of the sting in his chest and the shadows. Phantom hands pushing his body to get out of the way. Protection. Survival. The steel of a sword in his hand.

Ichigo claws across his face in a move that feels almost natural.

For one dizzying second the whole world warps and twists. Everything is sharper and clearer. He tastes the energy in the air. Snakes and chains. Armor and blood. Shadows and thread.

Ichigo didn’t know you could taste a kaleidoscope, but that’s what Hirako’s soul reminds him of.

“ Huh.”

Ichigo blinks at Hirako. There’s something pointy just up over Ichigo’s sight. Horns? Is he some kind of bull?

I should summon Asterios next, he mused. We can match.

Ichigo lifts Zangetsu up to block a blow from Hirako. Their blades sing with the sound of battle. Ichigo can feel Zangetsu’s laughter in his soul, and his own smile is hidden from view by the mask on his face. It’s smooth bone.

Ichigo pushes him back harshly. He ends up throwing Hirako further away than he’d expected. It’s not just his senses that are heightened. His strength was increased too, and when he launched himself after Hirako he realized his speed was to.

He realized it because he almost smashed face first into a boulder trying to get around Hirako and hit him from the back. Fortunately the rock broke before his new horns and he was able to skid around and swing at Hirako again.

They felt like one. Him and Zangetsu, together. Sword and weilder. It was more than a metaphorical ‘the sword is an extension of your arm’. Zangetsu really was an extension of himself. Longer reach, harder hits, faster moves and dirty tricks.

They wanted to win.

Hirako fired a kido spell at him and Ichigo sliced through it with his Getsuga Tenshou, one the gauged a crater into the earth beneath them. Ichigo shot himself after the attack and swung hard at Hirako from above. He caught Zangetsu at the crossguard of his own katana, but he wasn’t expecting it when Ichigo came in from the right with a sharp, short blade he’d kept tucked in his sleeve.

It gleamed white and blue, to Zangetsu’s black. Or Nieve’s black. He was going to have to figure that out eventually.

Hirako is forced into a retreat, with Ichigo hot on his heels. He dons his pharoah mask, and the tides turn equal. Each hit it hard enough to send shock waves through Ichigo’s arms, and with each hit and near scratch does Ichigo grow stronger and faster.

He feels perfectly balanced for the first time in a long time.

A blade in each hand, and a mask on his face. He almost laughs before the clarity of the world snaps around him. He lurches and manages to knock Hirako’s guard aside with Zangetsu before he comes in with the shorter blade again.

“Stop!” Hirako shouts suddenly.

Ichigo freezes, his eyes wide.

Something gives way. The mask cracks and evaporates in the time it takes him to blink.

It takes Ichigo’s strength with it. He collapses on the ground, his chest heaving and his legs feeling like jelly.

“What… the… fuck…?” he asks between frantically gulping air.

‘Ran outta steam, partner.’

Fuck. So he had a time table for this power? Damn it.

He looks up to see Hirako pulling his mask off and letting it dissolve into thin air. There’s somethin unreadable in his eyes.

“Ya actually stopped.”

Ichigo grunts up at him with a scowl.

“Ya weren’t outta control. If ya were, ya woulda kept goin’ till I was dead. Or you were. ”

Ichigo snorts at him. “You aren’t that…. Annoying, Hirako.”

“Some might disagree,” he crouches in front of Ichigo. “I still wanna know somethin’. How’d ya manage to do all that on yer own? You lasted a whole minute and a half. Where were ya trainin’? And with who?”

“Nowhere and with no one,” Ichigo grouses at him. He’s exhausted, but with a slow breath he starts to calm enough that he can function again. “I’ve never done that before.”

“What?! Then why’ve ya been insistin’ ya don’t need help?”

“Because I don’t! I talked it over with Zangetsu and we’re fine.”

“Ya just… talked,” Hirako says slowly. He looks at Ichigo like he’s grown a second head.

“Is there a fucking echo in here? Yeah, I talked. Why?”

“Because that’s impossible!” Hirako reached to grab Ichigo by his shoulders but froze when he flinched back instinctively. He frowned. “I’m not gonna hit ya. We’re done fightin’ for now.”

“I know,” Ichigo scowls at him. In the time it took the words to get out Achilles had crossed the ground between them and landed at his side, a flicker of green lightning around his heels.

“That’s enough,” he said firmly. It was strange to hear from the normally laid back servant. Achilles arm wraps around Ichigo’s shoulders and lifts him carefully off the ground. Once, Ichigo would have shoved him off and insisted he could stand by his own merit. But Achilles was with him for the hardest fights of his life. Camelot, Babylonia, Solomon. They stormed the hanging gardens together.

He lets Achilles support his weight and stand him on his own two feet. He’ll be fine in a bit, once he’s eaten and maybe caught a cat nap.

“We’ll be taking him home, now,” Achilles says firmly. He shoots at look at Medusa, who’s left Urahara to travel over to them. This Medusa is a Lancer, not a rider, or she might have kept speed with him.

Or not.

Achilles is in a league of his own, as Ichigo well knows. A rank servants are like that. They’re also incurably insane.

“Now hold on. I got questions for Ichigo-”

Hirako’s reach for Ichigo is cut short by a sudden lashing of chains between the pair of them. Hirako is just fast enough to keep himself from loosing a hand to them. Ichigo shoot a look at Medusa over his shoulder.

“Was that necessary?” he asks dryly. She sniffs at him.

“You’ve just used a substantial amount of energy. You should be resting, not dealing with fools who think you a liar or malcontents who hide the truth.”

Her last comment is accompanied by a glare over her shoulder towards Urahara, who is watching them with shadowed eyes. They’re sharp in that darkness, and all too aware. Ichigo can see him piecing things together.

“Rider,” he says, “Let’s go already. We have things to do.”

Achilles agrees, and Medusa lets her chains slither back into her hair before following after them. Her boots click with each step.

Ichigo had decided, a long time ago, that Achilles’ name would be spoken aloud only in private. He had too well known a weakness to be exploited. Everyone knew who he was, everyone knew about his tendon.

Medusa was a bit less well known, and she didn’t rely wholly on her eyes either. As long as they stayed vigilant of mirrors and shields, everything would be fine.

The pair escorts him up the ladder while the two supernatural beings watch.

Ichigo really needs to stop hanging out with dead people.

There’s a car sitting outside the shop when they get out. It’s a bright orange Nissan Note, and Cu is sitting in the front seat.

“...Did he get a rider classification while I wasn’t looking?” Ichigo asks wearily.

“Nope,” Medusa says with far too much cheer. Ichigo takes the front seat, while Cu and Medusa slide into the back and Achilles slides into the drivers seat.

Ichigo buckles in quickly. He does not like the gleam in Achilles eyes when he grips the wheel and turns the key.

Ichigo watched the fog curl unnaturally outside the window.

Even though he’d heard London called the city of fog before, seeing it up close and personal was another thing entirely. Mash and Mordred were upstairs, doing something with their new guest. Mordred had said there was something she wanted to discuss with Mash, as ‘fellow knights’, and whisked her away to one of the rooms Jekyll kept, along with a new companion.

He had a comfortable house, spacious and wealthy, but Jekyll himself was a fairly practical man. Most of the house was dedicated to his work. Lab equipment, mostly, but books lined almost every spare surface. Novels, non fiction, history.

Ichigo still needed to stop fighting sometimes. To recharge his batteries, even if he was only supporting Mash, he coudln’t power through this singularity the way he had before. This was a more delicate operation, with more mystery around it than Ichigo could stomach.

He liked knowing who he was fighting, thanks.

In their down town, of which they had far too much and far too little, Ichigo had taken to picking through Jekyll’s books.

He’d read Shakespeare a’plenty, and a few works by Lord Byron, but here Jekyll had books Ichigo had never even heard of. For all he knew a hundred and a half years in the future they wouldn't even exist anymore.

He did know that when he got back he was going to try to find a copy of the Mill on the Floss. And he was going to have to see if Jekyll had any copies of Thomas A Kempis, so he could make more sense of all of it.

He was puzzling over Maggie’s spiritual upheaval when a scuff on the floor had him looking up and over.

Jekyll did that on purpose, Ichigo found. He had made the mistake of sneaking up on Ichigo once, and ended up with a black eye for his troubles that was still fading. In his hands was something that smelled suspiciously like tea. It steamed faintly across the rim of the cup.

“Jekyll,” Ichigo greeted. The doctor offered him a smile and came closer. Ichigo slid a scrap of paper between his pages and set it aside so he could accept the cut when it was handed to him.

Ichigo had never considered himself an academic, and compared to Mash and Jekyll he definitely wasn’t, but he was starting to enjoy the more mundane aspects of living. Who knew he would ever miss high school?

“Hello. I thought you could use something to drink.”

Ichigo dropped his legs off the side of window box he’d claimed as his own in one of the downstairs sitting rooms.

“Sit down?” Ichigo offered.

Jekyll hesitated before he did so. He sat right at the edge, like he was ready to spring himself away at the first sight of trouble. He’s been jumpy for a while now, and Mordred’s not wrong. He’s often very pale.

“If you want me to.”

Ichigo took a long drink of the tea and made a sound of surprise. He looked at Jekyll, who offered him a half smile.

“I found green tea on a supply run,” he said, almost sheepishly. “Mash told me that you’re from the east.”

“It’s good,” Ichigo told him. “ I just wasn’t expecting it… Thank you. Really.”

Jekyll smiled at him a bit wider. “Your welcome.”

“What’s it like normally?” Ichigo asked abruptly, nodding towards the window.

Jekyll followed his gaze to the roiling mist outside. The demonic fog was dangerous to most people. Jekyll always had a dark look on his face whenever he got off the radio. More and more people were dropping off, people he’d managed to get in contact with despite everything that was happening. People he knew, and some he didn’t.

Earlier they’d gone to try to help his friend, Victor. They’d come home with a young girl who was ‘frankenstein’s monster’. Which was not what they were going to call her under any circumstances. Ichigo would fist fight anyone who suggested otherwise.

“It is still foggy, most mornings. Sometimes it burns off by afternoon. On the worst days, you can’t see the other side of the road. It got worse with the industrialization. Sometimes it’s so bad the fog is more yellow than white, and it’s almost as dangerous as it is now*.

“That’s…. Kinda horrifying.”

“Maybe. But it’s still home.”

Ichigo rested his forehead on the glass, letting the coolness sink into his skin.

“...When I was a kid I would walk along the riverbanks where my mom died. I can see ghosts, and I kept looking for her. Like she would just appear. But she never did. Sometimes it got foggy in the morning. I thought I’d see her, but it was always just mist.”

“I’m sorry,” Jekyll said sincerely. “I didn’t know.”

“It’s fine. It’s been a long time,” he said at last. Not long enough, and it’s not fine.

Jekyll touched his leg and offered him a slight squeeze before his hand retracted. He didn’t flee, like he originally looked like he would. Instead he sat back and asked Ichigo about his book while the pair of them sat together.

Mist rolled by, and eyes watched them from across the road, peering out through the cloying mists.

* *

“What the actual fuck are you doing?” Ichigo asks when they finally stop, third in line behind red lights and bright menu signs. The smell of fries is unmistakable.

“You need to eat,” Achilles says like its obvious. Which it is, they can all see how tired he is, and they know him enough to know that some food with get him a better mood. “You’re a straight bitch when you’re hungry.”

“I don’t think you’d know straight if it smacked you in the ass.”

“If you’re smacking my ass, you’re definitely not straight- ow!”

Achilles rubs his arm and actually pouts at Ichigo, who looks smug. Time was he’d have broken his hand hitting his Rider that hard.

“Why are we at a MgRonalds?” Ichigo asks impatiently.

“It’s delicious,” Achilles says sagely.

“It's fried garbage.”

“It’s delicious fried garbage.”

“I’m not winning this fight, am I?” Ichigo asks, trying desperately to hide the fondness in his voice. Medusa snorts at him from the back seat.

“Not a chance, Master.”

“Call me by my name!”

He’s ignored, as he knew he would be. “How do you even know that you like this stuff? There’s no grail to shove knowledge into your thick skull.”

“No, but we learned quite a bit with you and Mash, and we’re still connected to you as well. So we know enough to navigate this time, I think.” Cu says from his place next to Medusa.

“You know that doesn’t make a lot of sense, right?” Ichigo frowns minutely. Then again, there were lots of things that don’t make a lot of sense, that he himself can’t make real sense of.

Ichigo rubs his fingers across his command seals. They were familiar, the same ones he’d had at Chaldea, but they weren’t in Chaldeas anymore. He’d thought that command spells were distributed by grails themselves, or the FATE system in his case. But apparently that wasn’t the case, or he wouldn’t have these three. Right?

Achilles elbows Ichigo when they get up to the window. A young man in a red visor that matches his eyes smiles out at them.

“Hi there,” he said brightly. “Will that be cash or credit?”

“Here,” Ichigo fishes out his card and passes it over Achilles to the man.

He glances over the man shoulder when a young girl in pigtails goes flying behind him, followed by the sound of something falling down. The mans smile grows a bit tenser.

“M-Maou! The fryer-!”

“Excuse me,” he waves at them and turns away. “Chi, what did you-?”

The commotion is cut off when the window slides shut with a click.

Ichigo looks at the other three and can’t help cracking a grin.

“Sometimes I’m glad I don’t have a day job.”

“The lives of normal people are not for any of us,” Achilles says with a nod.

“Okay, whatever you say mr. I-wanna-go-out-in-a-blaze-of-glory.”

“I don’t regret that decision, and you know it!”

He knows. Achilles has only few true regrets from his glorious life. One of them is the reason he always hesitates to fight a woman. The other is related to Hektor, who Ichigo had never had the pleasure of summoning himself. For the best, he figures.

They sit for a few minutes before the girl with the pig tails pops up at the window and hands them their bag with a few frantic apologies that Achilles waves off with a gentle smile.

“No harm done. Have a good day.”

Ichigo grips his door like a lifeline when they roar out of the parking lot. There must be magic involved for them not to get pulled over by the cops on the way back to the house. Even though the drive only takes a few minutes at Achilles speed Ichigo still manages to wolf down three burgers in just as man minutes.

He’s gonna have to practice using his hollow powers, or else he’s going to end up feeling hollow every time after. It’ll make him far too vulnerable for his own comfort, even if he is surrounded by his servants when it happens.

He trusts them implicitly, but he’s begun to rely on his own power, not just theirs. Having a sword of his own has changed him.

Medusa helps him out of the car when they finally reach the house, and lets him go once their in the living room. Ichigo falls onto the couch with a long sigh.

Achilles wasn’t wrong. Food did him some good.

The couch dips and a weight lands on his lap when the aforementioned Rider crosses his legs across Ichigo’s and hands him the rest of the burgers. Cu takes up the last space on the couch, on Ichigo’s right, and Medusa sets herself up in the chair across the room from the three of them.

“Thanks,” he says at last. “For pulling me out of there. I was really getting irritated.”

“He wasn’t being fair,” Achilles says with a frown, “Don’t these people know to just go with your flow yet?”

Ichigo snorts. “Not yet. I’ll bully them more another time. As much as I would like to just hang out with you guys, they do know things that I don’t. And soon enough, I’m going after Aizen.”

“Are we?”

We.

“Mhmm. I still have my promise to him. I don’t know how to restore memories from a timeline that doesn’t exist anymore, but I can at least prove to him that we used to be friends. I just have to figure out how to get to him. Urahara could get me to Seireitei, he might know a way to where the hollows live too. Now that he doesn’t think I’m losing my mind or whatever.”

“Your life never is dull,” Cu teases him, tugging his long orange hair. Ichigo rolls his eyes fondly at him.

“As if you’re one to talk. You’ve been fighting since you were a child.”

“You were just a boy when we met in Fuyuki,” Cu points out. “Older than me, admittedly, but still young.”

“I was practically grown up!”

“That’s not a good thing,” Medusa scowls at him from across the room. “You should mourn your lost childhood. Not celebrate it. Mad man.”

Ichigo falls silent and looks elsewhere. He can’t even really disagree with her. It’s one of the things he’s most angry at his father for. He’d let Ichigo grow up too fast, he’d never tried to explain what happened and he barely supported him, so lost was Isshin in his own grief. He was always better with the girls, but even Yuzu and Karin are more grown up than they should be for girls of their age.

He’ll deal with that later. His food is getting cold.

* * *

Once Ichigo is out the door, Shinji turns to Urahara.

“So. That went well.”

“I thought you said he was having trouble with his hollow. Not that he was about to turn everything on its ear.”

“I didn’t know,” Urahara defended, snapping his fan shut and pacing away from Shinji. “Yoruichi said that it almost took over during his fight with Kyoraku. She said she had to knock him out to get him out of the situation, before things got really bad. The mask was half formed and he was healing from a cut on his shoulder.”

“Well he didn’t need our help after all. And now he’s pissed, and I’ve got questions for ‘im,” Shinji crossed his arms over his chest. “Like how the hell he managed to just have a conversation with a fuckin’ hollow!”

“You think I don’t want to know the answers too?” Urahara frowned at him from over his shoulder. “This could be a turning point. If he went about it a different way that opens so many more possibilities. But now he’s being puppy guarded by those strange friends of his.”

“Yeah,” Shinji frowns. “Who are they? What are they? They sure as shit ain’t human.”

“I’m not sure. I think it has something to do with Ichigo being a mage, but he’s not a very forthcoming boy when it comes to mage craft. Some rule that says he has to kill you if he tells you.”

“That’s one’a the weirdest things about ‘im. Since when can someone be a mage and a shinigami?”

“I’m beginning to think that impossible things follow Ichigo around like a shadow. Do you know what he said when he was going to save Rukia? That he didn’t need to bring his friends because he would make some there. And you know what he did?”

“He turned half the officers of the 13 on their own superiors. Ya said somethin’ about that earlier.”

“Yes. He’s a very unusual boy.”

Kisuke flicked his fan back open and looks down at the pale paper. “I’ve made many mistakes with him, Shinji. He shouldn’t trust me. He shouldn’t even talk to me, at this point, but this was the first place he brought you for this little fight.”

“Weird guy,” Shinji says idly. He’s never seen Kisuke so out of sorts, all over a not-so-human boy who’s rapidly turning the world over on its heels. Shinji can’t tell if he’s afraid or excited about what going to happen in the future.

“Tomorrow, after school, I’m gonna try to bring Ichigo around to meet the others. I wanna see what Hiyori makes of ‘im.”

“You mean besides a punching bag?”

Shinji snickers at the image. “I’m not sure I’d put my money on our girl in that case.”

* * * *

Ichigo wakes up in Avalon again.

He’d in Merlin’s lap, his cheek resting on the mages fine robes. He blinks a few times and finds he’s not alone. Again, two spirits sit across from him, but the charged energy of secrets is gone, leaving shoulders loose and muscles relaxed. Be it Neive or Zangetsu, they’ve both calmed considerably.

“What’s going on?” Ichigo asks, slowly sitting up. Merlin lets him go willingly.

It’s Zangetsu who starts talking, which is interesting since the last time they were here Ichigo practically had to pull his teeth out to get him to open up.

“Why am I still here?”

“...huh?”

“You woke up last time. I thought I would have disappeared when you knew I wasn’t your real Zanpakutou. Why am I still here?”

“Because you’re still mine?” Ichigo honestly isn’t sure why they’re even having this conversation. “He’s my zanpakuto and you’re my quincy power. I’m not very good at the bow so you’re stuck being a sword. Deal with it.”

Zangetsu gapes at him like a fish while Neive howls with laughter.

“Although,” Ichigo adds. “I need a better way to distinguish the two of you. He’s already Neive, but if he’s actually Zangetsu you can’t be just Zangetsu anymore. So… Tensa. Like the Bankai.”

“Like the one you barely even use?” Neive asks dryly while he wipes a tear from his eye.

“Hey! I was totally ready to use it to save Rukia! But nothing else has really happened since then! Even Hirako was just interested in the mask.”

“Besides, isn’t it always better to keep a card in your back pocket? Now the only people who know about our Bankai, or what it was before now, is Yoruichi and Renji. And probably Urahara, by extension.”

“Then you will call me that?” Zangetsu -Tensa- asks.

Ichigo nods with finality. “Tensa and Neive. Both parts of me. Both parts of Zangetsu.”

“You know,” Tensa begins, “Now that you’re going to be training your quincy powers, your fighting style may change further.”

“I would think so,” Ichigo says flatly. “But what exactly were you thinking?”

Tensa taps his fingers along his thigh. “It might not work in the human world, but the next time we’re in Seireitei I’ll let you know.”

“Fair enough,” Ichigo nods at him, before he finally turns to Merlin.

“Don’t you have better things to do than drag me into your garden every night?” he jokes, even though he quietly appreciates it. He much prefers Avalon to fire and death and decay.

Merlin sniffs at him. “Unappreciative cur. I should banish you.”

“That’s the most bullshit old english thing you’ve ever said!” Ichigo shouts and tackles him into a cloud of flowers. Neive laughs loudly behind them while the pair of mages, one grand and one poor, tussle in a bouquet.

* * * * *

There’s a magic book breaking into buildings and killing people. There’s a famous author who looks like a child trying to solve the problem.

They can’t beat the book, because it’s not physically able to be beaten in the state it’s in. Or something. Ichigo’s not sure he understands what he was talking about, but the end result is that he gives the book a name.

Alice.

And all of a sudden the book is not a book, but a little girl clutching a tome of fairy tales to her chest. Her hair is white and her eyes are pink, and she’s absolutely tiny.

Ichigo grabs Mash by the should hard to keep her from going in fighting.

“No!” he snaps, dragging her back a step.

Mash’s brows furrow. “Master, this is the tome that was attacking people…”

“I know but…” he can’t let her hurt a kid. Besides. “Anderson said she wasn’t trying to kill anyone. She was looking for a master so she could take a human form. And I mean, I’m right here.”

Ichigo steps towards the girl, past Mash’s safety and the protection that might be provided by Anderson. He walks slowly, with his hands up so he won’t scare her.

Even if she could probably kill him, he doesn't want to frighten the girl.

“Hey there,” he says quietly. “I’m Ichigo Kurosaki. It’s nice to meet you Alice. Are you feeling better, now that you’ve got your own two hands?”

He waits for her hesitant nod.

“Would you like to come with us?” he asks. “You were looking for a master, right? Well I’m afraid I’m the only one in the city.”

He offers her his hand.

Slowly, so slowly, she places her own tiny hand in Ichigo’s larger, calloused one.

Ichigo picks her up gently into his arms, the fight forgotten. She hadn’t killed any of the people she’d attacked, which helps him justify this beyond him having a soft heart. He just can’t stand the idea of hurting a little girl. Or any little kid. He wants to protect Anderson too, even if he is a bit of an arrogant brat.

“Man, I hope Jekyll has a couple more rooms free,” Ichigo muses with a grin. Mash shakes her head at him.

“Master really does collect any strays he sees,” she says halfheartedly. “I’m sure Dr. Jekyll will find a place for everyone.”

“Good thing he’s not the type to yell.” The other personality though…

Well. Ichigo could handle Hyde if it came to it.

* * * * *

#Ichigo Kurosaki #bleach fanfiction #BAMF!Ichigo Kurosaki #Ichigo Kurosaki is Ritsuka Fujimaru #Merlin Fate/Grand Order #medusa fate grand order #cu chulainn #hirako shinji #Urahra Kisuke #Achilles #nursery rhyme (fate)

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lo-55 · 4 years ago

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Shattering Chains of Fate Ch. 16

(Not) One of Us

School started far too soon for Ichigo’s tastes.

He sits in the back of the room, with the doors within view and the windows to his left. He has two ways out and access to all entry points, in case something horrible happens. Hopefully it won’t, but it’s an old paranoia that keeps him on his toes.

His friends, thankfully, seem to be readjusting to life as humans. Uryu had taken hard to losing his powers, something that even Orihime couldn’t fix, but Ichigo had spoken to Ryuken about it after they got back and the man had had the strangest look in his eyes. Ichigo wasn’t too worried about him. Uryu was more temperamental and vicious than the rest of them, for all he seemed to be elegance incarnate. He was also more resilient than he looked.

He shouldn’t have to be. But Ichigo couldn't change that.

He was barely listening to their teacher talk about some new student when an awareness shot through him.

He sat up straighter when a young man walked into the room. Straight blond hair, a curved smile, and long limbs. He was fit and strong. He didn’t have much puppy fat, but he could have passed for someone held back a couple of years if it weren’t for his eyes.

The eyes always give it away.

They were playful, mischievous, and far too old to belong to a human.

Ichigo slammed his head onto his desk and ignored the startled squacks and stares from his neighbors. What the fuck is happening now? Can’t his life ever be normal?

He manages to hide a rueful smile. No, it can’t be normal. If it was normal, Ichigo would be a paranoid wreck. As long as strange, dangerous things were happening he knew he could handle whatever came at him.

Like the new kid was coming at him.

Void dust, mirrors, sand storms.

Ichigo lifts his head up to watch the new boy sit next to him. Shinji Hirako. He’d written his name backwards at the front of the room. For some reason Ichigo thinks of inverted pyramids.

He can tell, just by looking, this guy is trouble.

Aren’t I trouble too?

“Looks like I’ll be sitting next to you, Kurosaki. Let’s treat each other well.”

His smile is easy and his stance is confident, even when sitting.

Ichigo gives him a very pointed once over.

“Sure. Nice to meet you, Hirako.”

Ichigo manages to get halfway through the day before a hollow shows up and ruins it for him. He pops out of his body and leaves Kon to play student while he goes to take care of the issue and comes back. Three come throughout the day, more than there had been before Ichigo had left for Seireitei. It’s starting to tick him off.

It happens again while he’s doing his homework, only then he’s not alone.

Some dude with an afro interrupts him after it's dead. He shows him the badge Ukitake gave him, but apparently someone was pulling his leg. Or worse.

Ichigo is about to tell the shinigami where to shove it when his instincts scream at him and yank his hand around. Zangetsu sings when it collides with what would have cut deeply into Ichigo’s shoulder. A katana.

Ichigo doesn’t even pretend to be surprised by its owner.

“Hirako.”

The man grins like a cat.

Ichigo shoves him back to give himself room to breath. “When you said ‘take care of each other’ I didn’t know you meant like this,” Ichigo waves his hand at the two of them, swords drawn.

“What can I say. I wanted to see what ya would do,” Hirako is lazy and catlike as he prowls to the side. Ichigo keeps step opposite of him and the pair circle one another. “You should really lock your reiatsu down. You’ll attract unwanted attention this way.”

Ichigo scowls at him. “I am! This is as far down as it goes.” Kyo had gotten him to contain himself somewhere in Ohio, so he didn’t want another lecture on this!

“...Wow. Your control must suck worse than I thought.”

“You know what mother fucker-”

“Language! And here I was goin outta my way to be polite to ya,” Hirako said mournfully. He tapped the flat edge of his katana over his shoulder. He looked utterly at ease. Ichigo repressed a growl. It was for the best. The worse off Hirako thought he was the more of an upper hand Ichigo had.

“Uh huh,” Ichigo says dryly.

‘Ichigo,’ comes Medusa’s voice in his head.

‘Stay where you are. I’m fine for now. If anything happens, Achille’s can get to me in a second. He’s a Saber, for sure. You’re still a Lancer, not a Rider. You’re at a disadvantage where as I’m on even ground. Hold place.’

‘Right,’ all three chorus.

“I am!”

“Why don’t you just tell me what you came here for and we go back to being friendly,” Ichigo suggested. “Or we can keep fight, but we have to take it out of town. I’m not really…. Subtle.”

“No shit?” Hirako grins wider at him. “Alright, if ya wanna know so badly.”

He reached up and grasps the air just above his hairline before he pulls down-

A hollow mask.

Ichigo has no idea what to make of this. Kyo had said something about breaking down barriers with his Hogyoku, and making hybrids.

Ichigo touches his own cheek. He’d never made the connection before, but when he’d been fighting Kyoraku he’d felt something cool and familiar on his cheek. And his injuries. They turned white, like a hollow with a healing factor.

Something clicks into place.

Nieve. Nieve was another facet of his power. A shinigami power and hollow power. But no quincy?

His head was starting to hurt.

“Huh,” was all he said.

“Do you get it now? I’m a vizard. A shinigami who’s crossed into the domain of the hollows. I’m just like you.”

Ichigo nearly laughs.

“So join us.”

He nearly chokes.

“...Yeah. No. I just met you, and you just attacked me out of the blue. So. No.”

Hirako’s face contorted like he’d tasted something sour. “Didn't ya hear a word I just said? You're a Visored too. I know ya are. You’ll need our help.”

Ichigo lay Zangetsu back on his back so he could cross his arms over his chest. He eyed Hirako hard. He didn’t seem malicious, even if he had just attacked him. Ichigo knew when he was being played with, and having people test his skills was unfortunately familiar territory by now.

“Give me some credit,” Ichigo said tersely. “I’m not a lost dog looking for a pack. What does it matter if we are similar? I don’t know who told you about me, or what they said, but I’m not interested in joining any weird underground organization, or whatever you are. I have other things to do with my life, you know.

Hirako regarded him with new eyes. His head cocked, sending straight strands of blond fluttering out of the perfectly straight cut.

“Will it help if I say Kisuke asked me to help out?”

“He’s even shadier than you are. So no.”

“Man. Kisuke wasn’t kiddin when he said you were stubborn, Kurosaki.”

Ichigo didn’t respond directly. He did have questions. A lot of questions. About Visards, and Kisuke, and Hirako too, but he couldn’t give himself away that easily. Not now that he had other options. Powerhouses at his back, ready and willing to fight. Ichigo gave Hirako and sharp once over, drinking in his power.

He was strong, but there was something slippery about him that made Ichigo’s hair stand on end. A very dangerous man indeed. Not to mention that as soon as the mask had come out his energy had more than doubled.

“Yer gonna need our help,” Hisako said again. “You must have already felt it. The hollow trying to claw its way into power. In soul society, you fought some pretty tough people, right?”

He knows exactly when Hirako is talking about. His fight with Kyoraku. Still, it’s clear Hirako is operating under false assumptions. There hadn’t been a struggle for control. It had been a surge of power and the taste of void dust, white on his skin and the guiding hand of instinct. Vicious and pure, a fight to survive. A fight to win.

“It’ll keep fighting to take control until it consumes ya. We can teach you how to control it.”

Ichigo narrows his eyes.

“I’m still not interested. And we’ve got homework, you know. I’ll see you tomorrow, Hirako. Maybe we’ll talk more then.”

After he’d had time to figure a few things out.

For the first time in what feels like a lifetime Ichigo feels long fingers twine through his hair.

Ichigo opens his eyes to pale blue skies and lavender eyes.

“I’m dreaming,” Ichigo smiles slowly. He sits up and drags Merlin into a hard embrace.

He gives a startled, “Ooof!” But doesn’t push Ichigo away. He chuckles against Ichigo’s orange hair. “I see you missed me.”

“Shut up and enjoy the moment,” Ichigo scolds.

“Oh, forgive me master. I should just take you attention when you deign to give it.”

“I’m gonna punch you,” Ichigo warns. He let’s Merlin go a minute later. It’s only then that he realizes he’s not alone.

“Well ain’t this touchin’?”

Ichigo looks over his shoulder to find Nieve and Zangetsu standing behind them. They both look out of place in the beautiful scenery. They are weapons, creatures of battle and war. Not flowers and eternity.

Ichigo can’t imagine he looks any more like he belongs here. He is a soldier. He is not a real mage. He doesn’t have a place on Avalon. But, he has a place at Merlin’s side, where he sits. He shoots the mage a curious look.

Merlin smiles back at him, looking innocent. “I thought you might want to speak with them somewhere where they can’t disappear at will.”

Nieve looks offended. “Hey!”

Zangetsu frowns minutely. “This is a trap?”

“Of a sort,” Merlin admits.

“Are you reading my thoughts or something?” Ichigo asks. Merlin shakes his head.

“No. Only watching over you. I know you well enough to know when you need what little help I can provide you with from here. So, Ichigo. You have until you wake.”

“Asshole!” Nieve reaches for his sword, but Ichigo catches his wrists without even rising.

“Cut it out and sit down,” he scolds, his brows furrowing. “Merlin’s not wrong.”

He ignores the delighted smile on Merlin’s face.

“We need to have a conversation. All of us. Sit .”

The both of them obey, slowly. Zangetsu looks physically pained. Ichigo ignores it. He looks to Nieve.

“You’re the ‘hollow’ Hirako was talking about, right?” He waits for a nod. Nieve is still, his shoulders drawn up and his mouth curved in more a grimace than a smile. “I thought so. That thing during my fight with Kyoraku, when I got stronger but it felt like my grip on reality was slipping, right before I got knocked out. And before, in America when Cu Alter- What?”

Both of them grew tense at the mention of the Berserker. Anger radiated off of even the normally calm Zangetsu.

“Yeah, you’re right, it was me. It had to be me! If I hadn’t stepped in you woulda died! Don’t you know that, King? Died! There was a hole in you’re goddamn chest and you didn’t even have a fuckin’ sword, and ya know what?!”

Ichigo leaned back when Nieve nearly launched himself forwards, right into his space. His gold eyes were furious and narrowed. “Ya keep pickin’ fights with stronger and stronger people! Fights ya can’t win on your own! So I stepped in, ‘cause if you die we all die and I’m not-”

“I’m not mad.” That shuts Nieve up a minute. Ichigo knocks him on the head lightly with a fist. “Stop freaking out already. I’m not mad. I just wanted to know, okay? I need to know what you are.”

“What I am? I’m you! I’m Zangetsu! I’m everything you could be if you just let yourself be! I’m the killing drive, and the shame and the guilt that your try to say you don’t have. I’m the anger under your skin and hatred in your bones. I’m your desperation, your fear. I am... your instincts! And I am not letting you die!”

Ichigo lets Nieve talk. By the time he’s done his chest is heaving and Zangetsu, who looks less an old man and more a young adult after their Bankai training, is staring at him from slightly behind him.

All is silent, for a long time, before Ichigo breaks the silence.

“Thank you.”

“I- what?” Nieve blinks at him, confused.

Ichigo runs his fingers through his hair and lets it fall back to his shoulders. “You said it yourself. When I was gonna die, you took over. You beat the Berserker. When I was losing my bout with Kyoraku, you started to step in again.”

“That witch did something to ya,” Nieve says reluctantly, “She did somethin’ to your heart. Our heart. I don’t think I can completely control ya anymore. That’s what stopped me when- well.”

“Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. If we’re really strong enough to take him on and win then…” Ichigo whistles softly. “So she stuck the raw destruction away. I get it now. That’s probably why no one told me before.”

“She told them not to,” Nieve actually pouts. “So ya wouldn’t be tempted to let me out again. Ya always fight too much with your head.”

“Uh huh,” Ichigo shakes his head. “Still. You saved my life, and probably everyone else I was trying to protect to. So thanks for that.”

“That’s it?” Nieve frowns at him. “You’re not gonna do...anything?”

“Not really? Now that I know how to listen to you there’s no reason for you to try and take control. We can fight together now. You’re still me, even you’re all the parts that make me reckless and dangerous. What else could I do but work with you?”

“Besides,” Ichigo smiles at them. “I always trust my instincts.”

Nieve gapes at him like a fish.

That just leaves one more thing.

Ichigo turns to Zangetsu expectantly.

“So?”

Zangetsu tenses. “So what?”

“There’s some things not adding up. And don’t think I missed what happened last time I tried to talk to you two. You kept him from saying something. What was it?”

They’re both silent. They look caught.

“...Does it have something to do with Nieve calling himself Zangetsu?”

“He doesn’t know what he said,” Zangetsu tries to dismiss. Ichigo pins him with a look.

“Don't’ start that. Tell me the truth. All of it. We’re going to fight together. We live and die together. I need to know what you’re hiding. Or how can I trust you to have my back? I’m not dealing with this again and I’m not putting up with it anymore.”

He’d let Romani hide things from him for a long time. He’d gone along with Kisuke even when he should have known better. He was not letting himself lie to him.

The air went out of Zangetsu. He turned his gaze to the grass, like it was too much to look at Ichigo.

“The truth. You want the truth. Of course you do.”

“Of course I do.”

Zangetsu sat back. His arms were braced. His hands are tight. He looks ready for a fight.

“The truth that I hid from you. And, from him.” he inclines his head to Nieve, the hollow. From both of them? “When we first met, I had him under careful control. It was difficult after his initial outburst, in America. But I managed. I needed to get to you first. I needed to be the source of your power, not him.”

“Why?”

“Because. I didn’t want you to fight. I don’t want you to fight. Fighting puts you in danger, and all I have ever desired was to protect you. I couldn’t do that if he was your power. It needed to be me. But the truth is, he is your Zanpakto. He is the true Zangetsu.”

Ichigo swallows thickly. That’s-

He didn't know what he was expecting. It wasn’t that.

“Then what are you? And why didn’t he tell me?”

“He didn’t know, at first. I pushed him so far down it confused his memories. We have both always been with you. Since the very beginning. Since you were born.”

“I’ll ask again. What are you?”

“I am… I am your inheritance from your mother.”

Ichigo freezes entirely.

“My-”

“I am the power you inherited from her. I am the part of your soul that is a quincy, and he is the part that is a shinigami.”

“A quincy. When I said I wished I was a quincy like her, why didn’t you say anything?”

“It was already too late,” dark hair falls along his cheeks. Anger pulls his mouth down. “I had just told you I was Zangetsu. How was I supposed to tell you I had lied when our relationship was so new? When our bond was so fragile? How could you trust me again after that? “

“After this?”

“Why did you lie in the first place? Why didn’t you just tell me that I was quincy all along? I could have fought-”

“It wouldn’t have worked. Your shinigami powers are more suited to combat.”

Shame curls around the spirit. Ichigo tries to wrap his head around everything he’s been told.

He is a quincy. He’s a shinigami. And a visord.

“How did I even end up with the shinigami and the hollow powers to start with?!”

The two spirits exchange the first glance from the time they’d been drawn into the meadow.

Merlin hums softly and cards his fingers through Ichigo’s hair soothingly.

“I might be able to tell you that. Though I can only observe what’s happening right now outside my tower, I have done some investigating on your behalf since this all started. Did you know your father and Urahara Kisuke were once friends? They met together after you left on your journey.”

“My dad and Urahara… oh. Oh. Dad’s a shinigami,” he doesn’t even feel anything towards that. No anger. No remorse. “And the hollow aspects?” he asks Nieve.

Nieve quirks a half a grin.

“Aizen’s fault, actually.”

“... of course it is.”

Of all the people Ichigo doesn’t know what to make of, Dr. Jekyll may just take the cake.

He’s a nice man. And smart. Too smart, really, for his own good, but Ichigo knows the book. He’s only read a few quotes from it for a project ages ago, but everyone and their mother and knows the gist of it.

Jekyll transforms into Edward Hyde, a horrible monster of some sort.

Yet, Ichigo sees no sign of darkness in Jekyll at all. Is there really a chance that he’s just coincidentally named after a title character from a famous novel?

No, definitely not.

It’s not possible at all.

Ichigo keeps his eyes on him. Closely.

Jekyll adjusts his gloves every few minutes, or whenever he’s talking about the fog or people being hurt. It’s a nervous habit for sure.

Ichigo wishes he could see his hands. He could see if there were calluses on his fingers or along his palms or knuckles. Nothing about Jekyll said he was a fighter.

Still, he was a doctor. If he did have to fight, wouldn’t that be perfect? He would know exactly where and how to hit someone to put them down.

Somehow, Ichigo can’t imagine Henry Jekyll hurting a fly.

They endeavor together to save the city. To save humanity.

There may be plenty of rotten people in the world, but there’s still good ones. Jekyll is one of them.

* * *

Karin and Yuzu are cornered by him a day later at breakfast.

They managed to get him alone in the kitchen while their dad is in the clinic and Ichigo’s servants are out exploring the city, save Medusa who is in the livingroom.

Cornered is not the right word. Ichigo sits at the kitchen table while Yuzu works at the stove and Karin plays at her handheld, but they’re both watching him.

They know, he’s sure. Kon wasn’t really a very good actor, and his sisters aren’t by any means stupid. They’ve had to grow up fast, all three of them. Isshin was a failure of a father, something that Ichigo would have denied three years ago. He can’t anymore.

Ichigo fiddles with his hoodie strings for a few minutes while he tries to figure out how to broach the sensitive topic in front of him. In the end he does what he usually does. He says fuck it and goes for it.

“I found out something about mom.”

Karin’s head snaps up so fast her hat falls off. Yuzu spins around in the kitchen to look at him, surprise written clearly across her small face. Ichigo motions them both towards him.

“I found out mom could see ghosts too,” he says quietly. So Isshin won’t overhear, if he’s close enough. He won’t let him ruin this. He won’t let him keep secrets from the girls. “She was a quincy. A human who can see and interact with spirits.”

“Like you and Karin?” Yuzu’s frown is a sad thing. Ichigo cringes. She’s the odd one out, again.

“Yeah. And like you too. You may only sense them, but you’re like us too. Quincy are… fighters, I guess. They protect people from bad spirits. Mom was one of them. I guess I kind of am too, and you guys must be as well.”

“Fighters,” Karin repeats. She keeps her eyes on Ichigo. “Can you teach us to fight like them?”

Ichigo scowls. He doesn’t want them fighting at all, but he can’t exactly forbid them from doing it.

“Me? No.”

“But you know someone who can.”

He looks at Yuzu, who’s staring at him too. He thinks sometimes that she’s the strongest out of all of them. She’s the sweetest, but she’s also a steel spined girl who controls the household herself, and has for years despite being so young.

It’s Ichigo’s fault, he should have taken more of the burden from her.

It’s Isshin’s fault, none of them should have to bear the burden of running a house at all.

“Maybe. Probably.”

“Great,” Yuzu smiles sweetly at him. “You can introduce us this weekend. Eat your rice.”

Ichigo mutely does as he’s told, hiding a smile.

Isshin was gonna kill him. It would totally be worth it.

* * * *

Edward Hyde is a terrible man.

He’s as hedonistic as Jekyll is sincere and good. He’s as violent as his counterpart is passive, as vulgar as the other is polite.

Ichigo is almost ashamed to say he doesn’t mind the Berserker at all.

He’s honest, at least, and more loyal than Ichigo would have thought he would be. He delights in combat and blood shed, and he harms everything he touches reflexively.

Except Ichigo, apparently.

Ichigo peers over his shoulder at the destroyed helter skelters they’d encountered on their way out for supplies, if they could find them. Mash had been forced down a seperate street, leaving Ichigo with Jekyll, who had had no other option but to risk changing shape into this creature that lived under his skin.

Ichigo kept his hand on Hyde’s shoulder even when the Berserker pressed a knife to his throat. No blood was spilled by it. Red eyes were bright and nearly feral with delight over the fight. Ichigo could feel a headache coming on. This was going to be an interesting one.

“I think they’re dead,” he says dryly, nodding to the scraps of metal scattered around the ground.

“THey were fucking weak. And I’m bored. Why shouldn’t I cut you up?” he tilts his head and a wide grin spreads across his face. Ichigo doesn’t even blink.

“Because I’m too pretty?” he says dryly.

Hyde’s smile slips with surprise before it comes back and he cackles. “For once that punk ass bitch found a friend with a spine.”

Ichigo arches a brow. “Have you met Mordred? She’ll kick the shit out of you. “

Hyde laughs again, like a crazy person, and pulls the knife back. “Let’s go. I wanna destroy something else before Henry get’s in my way again!”

“Joy,” Ichigo rolls his eyes, but follows after. Hopefully Mash will catch up soon.

* * * * *

“So,” Ichigo drawls slowly at Hirako when he sits next to him. “You’re really not giving this whole ‘joining you’ thing up easily, are you?”

Hirako shot him a grin. “I’m not givin up after only two days. Ya need our help, whether ya like it or not, Ichigo.”

The way he said Ichigo’s name, sing song and cheerful, made Ichigo wanna punch him in the face.

“Are you gonna try to fight me this afternoon too?” He asks. “Because I have other things I need to do. You know I have a life, right?”

“If ya do, you really should concede and let me help already. As long as you’re a visord all yer friends, all yer family is gonna be in danger. Until ya learn to control it.”

“I’ve got it all handled, thanks. I don’t know what yours is like, or what your situation is, but I’ve handled mine just fine.”

Hirako side eyed him mistrustfully. Ichigo ignores him entirely in favor of staring at the clock as it ticks down the last few seconds before school is over.

As soon as the bell rings he’s out of his chair and on his way to the door, until a hand catches his wrist.

He turns back to see Hirako smiling innocently at him, but his grip is a steel trap.

“Just what are you doing?” Ichigo asks with a scowl.

“Ya say ya have everything handled? Fine. Prove it, and I’ll let ya go on your merry way.”

Ichigo narrows his eyes. He does not like this at all, but what else can he do?

“... fine. Let’s go somewhere more private.”

“Oh Ichigo,” Hirako’s grin grows. “Buy me dinner first!”

“How about a knuckle sandwich?” Ichigo pulls his hand back and turns to march away. Fuck, he’s gonna have to ask Urahara for a favor now.

This is not a good day. Not at all.

* * * * * *

#Ichigo Kurosaki #bleach fanfiction #BAMF!Ichigo Kurosaki #Ichigo Kurosaki is Ritsuka Fujimaru #gin ichimaru #hirako shinji #urahara kisuke #jeckyll and hyde #Merlin Fate/Grand Order

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