#imagine ikkaku yelling about soul society naming bullshit while yumichika is trying to balance the division's books for the first time in

[bleachbleachbleach]

Apparently Shino Madarame is ikkaku's younger sister according to one of the novels. Kinda makes me wonder where she's been all this time?

I've never read any of the novels, so bear with me in that I have no idea what details have been offered about her in truth. But man, I'd have difficulty buying into them being related by blood. Not that Kubo didn't leave Rukongai wide open for us to do with as we please! But given what we hear of it, it seems like usually kinship in Rukongai is made there, rather than brought over from other lives your soulstuff might have previously lived. Hisana and Rukia seem more anomaly than norm.

I guess we could make up a tragic backstory for Ikkaku where he too abandons or loses track of his baby sister in the hard-scrabble streets of Rukongai, which is probably a fairly regular occurrence there. But from the perspective of narrative I'm not sure that inherently adds interest--at least, it doesn't for me.

What we do know of Ikkaku, however, is that he's a teacher at heart. He's been a valuable mentor to Renji, and even fighting Ichigo during the Soul Society Arc--Ichigo being a target he was supposed to just obliterate, not train--he seems like he's enjoying helping Ichigo figure his shit out so that they can have an even better fight. And of course we have Ikkaku and Ichika, later on.

So, purely within the realm of headcanon:

It wouldn't surprise me if Soul Society didn't have some kind of system of wardship/patronage. Probably not for people in Rukongai (yet!! I'll take my 'Hinamori community outreach program' headcanon to my grave) because let's be real, despite the demographics of their current slate of officers, this hasn't yet occurred to the Gotei. But maybe for the randos who live in the Seireitei, who are "noble" largely by technicality, and don't have a lot of real social standing to their name. Why having "Madarame" as one's family name would be useful in this case, idk, but I 100% believe in the possibility of Soul Society having some arcane cultural presumption where it does.

Another option might be being noble noble but still needing to take a different name when you join the Gotei because your fam does not actually have super high regard for military service for XYZ reasons, and they don't want their name associated with it. So you need a new name.

You can make one up, like the Rukongai folk likely do when they enroll in the Academy, but I'll bet you that's easier in Rukongai than it is in the Seireitei. In the Seireitei they have koseki; there are histories; it is complicated-- So maybe it's easier (or has become a conventional loophole) to have someone volunteer their name to you.

Imagine Ikkaku, absolutely high on power, Oprah-ing it up for all comers and stamping documents with abandon. "YOU get a Madarame! And YOU get a Madarame!"*

*Nah, he'd make sure they were "worthy of the name" and he'd enjoy it. You can't tell me his prowess over the Karakura High Kendou Team doesn't have antecedents! Does he understand all the bureaucratic history that has led to the need for this? Absolutely not and he doesn't care to. But he knows what it means to take pride in something, and if a name is someone's magic feather, then feather up.