#maybe even clear both shiro and Isshin all at once

[black--sun]

He’s not expecting that. He didn’t think Shiro would hand out private details, but he really didn’t expect him to ever date a cop either. Or sleep with. Ichigo only recalls Shiro scorning any kind of authority, especially the few times they’ve interacted with law enforcement. Ichigo’s never had any real animosity toward the police until they put his dad away. And it doesn’t matter that he knows Shiro dating a cop isn’t related to his situation at all, it still feels like a stab in the back. “You’re right. Why would he try to kill you? You probably pay him well.” 

Ichigo crosses his arms, tempted to roll over. That might’ve been a little low. But also a little deserved. 

Back to flirting. Ichigo ignores it the same way he used to back when they first met. Only, now he knows it’s not just suggestive banter to throw him off balance. Shiro is probably serious. “I’d like it if you got back in the car, yeah. But I’d settle for you wearing protection and not standing out in front.” It’s not like he’s being paid to be agreeable. Not like Shiro’s boyfriend. 

He huffs an almost laugh. “Not a chance.” Shiro already has enough money and power to wreak havoc, as if Ichigo would introduce him to a small, private army. 

He isn’t quite grinding his teeth yet, but he also doesn’t have to keep Shiro happy anymore. “Like you need to remind me. That’s just about your life motto, isn’t it?” Now he does roll onto his opposite side.

His eyes coast to the side to find Ichigo, but he doesn't actually turn his head. He can't tell if Ichigo is genuinely asking, or if he's implying he thinks Shiro's wrong. Or maybe he's just trying to figure out who Shiro's screwing around with... Except that implies jealousy and Ichigo wants nothing to do with him.

He shrugs. "He's a cop." Not that he'd succeed if he tried to arrest Shiro. Shiro's pockets run deep and so do his connections. He sells to half the force. "I didn't know that when we first met, but I figured it out quick." And he chose to see him again anyway.

There's enough alcohol buzzing in his system that he catches that ire, but in a lazy, mostly unbothered sort of way. He's usually a pretty happy drunk, as long as he's not too drunk, and right now he's hovered right on that perfect plane. "I'm already a target. I'm gonna be a target the moment we roll up. Unless you thought you'd hide me in your car the whole time. Only way that's happening is if you're in my lap to keep me there."

Ichigo sounds so exasperated already and it hasn't even happened. He snorts. "Good, it sounds fun. I love a good mess. You'll have to introduce me to 'em when we're done." He highly doubts Ichigo has any intention of damage control, let alone damage control that stays out of the way. Ichigo has always enjoyed a good fight and being right in the middle of everything. "I'll jump in where I see fit, if I see fit." It's his nice way of saying no one can tell him what to do.

[marshmallowgoop]

do you have any SatsuRyu head canons~? Or even some with just Satsuki herself? Thx!

Well, I headcanon Satsuki and Ryuko’s relationship as never being anything other than platonic, but I certainly have headcanons about them as sisters and friends.

✄ Ryuko’s a sweet girl under the angry exterior, but she’s slow to open up to others. Judging by Ryuko’s failed (but utterly adorable) attempt at calling Satsuki “Sis” in episode 22, it’s clear that she wants to be close to Satsuki, but she struggles. Like the disc art for volume 8 of the series suggests, Ryuko might need a little push to really start to connect with her sister. 

✄ Satsuki, meanwhile, has little trouble opening up to Ryuko. She’s spent her whole life pretending to be this cruel, cold, heartless dictator—largely for Ryuko’s sake! It must be such a relief to finally, finally reveal the truth, especially when I’d argue that Satsuki did sincerely care about Ryuko even before knowing about their blood relation. To harbor such genuine concern for a person but feel too unsafe to express it must be absolutely suffocating. It’s really no wonder that Satsuki bares her entire heart to Ryuko in the end, when she’s finally freed from her own lies.

✄ On a similar note, though the blatancy of Satsuki’s hurt feelings was ultimately discarded in the final cut, I do believe that Satsuki is saddened by how Ryuko struggles to express herself to her. To have devoted so much of your life to fighting for someone, only to unwittingly manipulate and turn them against you… it’s the definition of tragedy. There’s no way it doesn’t sting when the sister you’ve loved for so long can’t even call you “Sis.”

✄ I also feel that Satsuki has to work through some of her own biases when it comes to Ryuko, though. For just about as long as she can remember, Satsuki has known Life Fibers only as evil, despicable creatures. She flat-out calls Ragyo a “monster” in episode 18… and cites the fact that Ragyo can be stabbed in the heart and perfectly okay for it as justification for that title:

Satsuki: I’ll use any means necessary to defeat a monster like you!

Ragyo: You call your own mother a monster?

Satsuki: A woman who is unfazed by being stabbed through the heart shouldn’t be saying that.

But… Ryuko can be stabbed through the heart and perfectly okay for it, too. Though Satsuki of course understands that her sister is nothing like Ragyo, the ugly truth is that prejudice doesn’t just go away that easily. No matter how much Satsuki might dislike it about herself, seeing Ryuko’s superhuman healing abilities must bother her and remind her of her mother—and I’m sure that Ryuko senses this. I think both sisters will have to spend a lot of time working through their feelings, especially since there’s no way Satsuki could know about Ryuko’s heartbreaking desperation to prove to herself that she’s still human upon realizing the truth of her birth. Ryuko was taken advantage of by Ragyo and Junketsu precisely because she’s so afraid of being the monster that Satsuki describes, and I definitely think that’s something she and Satsuki need to discuss.

✄It’s probably fair to say that Satsuki warms up to Ryuko much more quickly than Ryuko warms up to Satsuki, but Ryuko certainly trusts Satsuki sooner. Even if Satsuki totally pisses Ryuko off initially, Ryuko shows in episode 15 that she trusts Satsuki to be true to her word:

Ryuko: The Satsuki Kiryuin I know isn’t so petty a woman that she’d change an order she’d given just because she got her sword back.

Especially after Ryuko learns that Satsuki didn’t kill her father, I feel like Ryuko has at least an unconscious sense that Satsuki’s not as villainous as she might appear. In contrast, Satsuki is extremely hesitant to trust or believe in Ryuko until the Reveal, at which point they have a very mutually respectful, trusting relationship.

✄ Maybe related: comments that praise the idea of Ryuko and Satsuki as a romantic pairing but absolutely mock and deride the prospect of a romance between Ryuko and Senketsu have always baffled me. Satsuki and Senketsu are actually quite alike! The dynamic both characters have with Ryuko is remarkably similar!

Like Senketsu, Satsuki is the cool, level-headed “Blue Oni” to Ryuko’s fiery, reckless “Red Oni.” Like Senketsu, Satsuki’s relationship with Ryuko is one that comes to be clearly defined as being between two equals who have mutual respect for each other. Like Senketsu, Satsuki helps Ryuko become stronger, but she—also like Senketsu—grows and learns and changes from knowing Ryuko, too. Like Senketsu, Satsuki never idolizes or puts Ryuko up on a pedestal as Mako can veer into, and similarly, Ryuko never does the same for either Senketsu or Satsuki—something that is perhaps especially notable when it comes to Satsuki, since Satsuki’s Elite Four (and particularly Ira) tend to treat her as something greater than human. Like Senketsu, Ryuko fully trusts Satsuki as a battle partner once they finally work together, and, like Senketsu, Satsuki certainly worries about Ryuko, but she also wholly believes and has faith in her sister in the end.

I mean, c’mon, Senketsu and Satsuki are so in sync that Satsuki’s the only one besides Ryuko who actually gets to talk to him in the anime!

Needless to say, I greatly disagree with the ridiculing of Ryuko/Senketsu fans for being uncomfortable with the incest in a Ryuko/Satsuki romance because Senketsu is allegedly Ryuko’s “cloth father.” Senketsu is as much of a parental figure to Ryuko as Satsuki is—not at all. The relationships between Ryuko and Satsuki and Ryuko and Senketsu are both immensely crucial to Kill la Kill, and they’re also both ultimately emphasized to be respectful relationships among equals and peers.

✄ Maybe on a similar vein, Ryuko would be just as protective over Satsuki as Satsuki is over her! Ryuko is a highly protective person, and there’s absolutely no way she wouldn’t be protective over her older sister.

✄As for headcanons about Satsuki herself, I’ll keep this post from getting too terribly long and just point to some I already wrote a while back:

Now, I 1000% see Satsuki as the studious type. When it’s canon that she has the highest grades in Honnouji Academy, I can completely see her as the kind of girl who spends practically all of her free time with her nose in a book, just trying to understand and learn everything she can.

Before and during the events of the series, I’d also imagine that Satsuki devotes an incredible amount of time to learning combat. She’d probably read on the subject and train with sword masters to the point of total exhaustion. While I’m sure that Satsuki has a boatload of natural talents and skills, given how alarmingly prepared she is for everything, I figure she’d still go completely overboard in her training and studies. While it’s a sad comparison, I could see her as being a bit like Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender: immensely talented but still hard working and utterly determined to not let even a single hair be out of place.

The light novel reveals that Satsuki used to be a happy and bubbly girl before her father literally put the entire world on her shoulders and abandoned her, so as a child, I’d imagine that Satsuki would partake in more… light-hearted hobbies. Maybe she’d beg her dad to read fairytales to her or make her own clothes for her dolls. In fact, Shiro is playing with a string doll he made himself when he meets Satsuki, and when Soroi introduced Shiro to Satsuki in the first place so that she could have someone to play with, I don’t think it’s too outlandish to consider that they played with dolls together as kids. At least a little bit!

Plus, when Soichiro/Isshin clearly has some sewing and crafting skills—he made Senketsu and the Scissor Blades, after all—I could imagine these father-daughter projects where Satsuki and her dad would make things together. Maybe Soichiro would even nerd out about science with her! And unlike Ryuko, who’s not exactly the most studious and doesn’t really seem to have an interest in science, I could definitely see Satsuki being inspired by it.

After the events of the series, I’d like to think that Satsuki would finally be able to relax and return to doing what she loved as a child, such as reading stories just for fun and pleasure. Like with Ryuko, Sushio has also drawn fanart of Satsuki seemingly doing just that:

[Source]

✄If you’re looking for more writing on Satsuki, I can also point to these posts of mine, too:

Character Meme: Satsuki

Deliberate Choice to Be Cruel?, Did Satsuki Manipulate Uzu into Blinding Himself?, More, Satsuki’s Influence on Uzu, Satsuki Can’t Be Soft

Episode 20 Cut Lines: “Please, wear me.”

Episode 21: “Don’t hold back!”

Episode 22: Satsuki’s Realization 

Episode 23: “All you can do is go keep your little sister from being lonely.”

How Would Satsuki React to Ryuko Being Her Sister Before Episode 18?

Satsuki: Admitting Wrong

Satsuki and Junketsu: Not a “Relationship”

Satsuki and Senketsu: Friendship that Should Have Been 

Satsuki Calling Ryuko “Ryuko”

Satsuki Entrusting Ryuko with Bakuzan

Satsuki: “I can’t get through…”

[cheshiresense]

I was wondering: are there any snippets or some further headcannon for the bleach-khr-fusion you shared a while back for aniseandspearmint? It's an interesting one, especially if Ichigo were to run into other flameactives and grow away from everyone.

Hmmm to be honest, I haven’t really thought much more of this one, but I can do a few headcanons for you (yes this time it really is a few, kind of). Also this just officially became a crossover instead of a fusion gdi send help.

Somehow this evolved to hints of UraIchiYoru pre-relationship.

Pinglist: @yoshifics@bewarethemandragora @runeofluna @selenedreamwalker @hypnos28 @verticallychallengedintrovert@fandommaniac2401 @lovingempress @cynthia-of-the-wallflowers @shadowsofmoonracer @pairp @warriorofbooks @charlottedabookworm @lyra689 @sheyrenawyrsabane @sora-the-empress @xadriannax @yumeniai @arrysa @lirial89-fanfiction @skysong246 @caiahat @grimreaper19 @arosethornbyanyothername @mtkiseki @kaminoko-x @nesskyru @tatarako @parklena42 @zibeth-a @aerdnanocte @timegrenades @healingmichiko @shiko-rae @soraofmelody @fandoms-make-the-world-go-round @north-peach @yannilicious @wolfsrainrules @anaissesteighart

- I imagine at least a few of his potential Guardians would have felt their potential bonds snap. Flames still aren’t something very common though, Ichigo’s the one who brought the concept to the Shinigami’s attention, and most of them still can’t even use them. So I think at least the Shinigami in SS who had the potential to become Ichigo’s Guardians would feel something, maybe a little like heartburn or a nagging sense of wrong, but they’d shake it off or ignore it, especially since Ichigo wouldn’t have had any reason to explain: “This is what happens when you Discord your Sky and this is what a broken Flame bond feels like, the stronger it was, the more it hurts when it snaps.” So none of them know, and they go on with their lives.

- And Shinji and the other Visored are friends (temporary allies, Ichigo knows now) but they’re a full Flame group by themselves and not potential candidates in Ichigo’s circle so they wouldn’t feel anything at all.

- It’s the same with Chad and Ichigo’s other human friends. They don’t know much about Flames either, they’re barely even Flame active, and they’re awkward around Ichigo because they still have everything Ichigo lost, and they don’t want to make him feel left out (they don’t realize they do that anyway). When the bonds disintegrate, there’s a sharp pain in their chests, but it becomes a background ache soon enough, nothing that would make them worry or even connect it to Ichigo, and they don’t realize until far too late that Ichigo has stopped trying to talk to them at all.

- Kisuke though, and Yoruichi to a lesser extent, they feel it, and they might not know exactly what it is, but they probably more than anyone else can recognize Ichigo by his Flames, partly because they’ve been curious enough to ask questions and learn about what Flames can do and what they can do, and partly because they’ve spent too much time around Ichigo, training him, fighting a war with him, and as a result getting to know him– too much time around him to not notice when that Flame sense they’ve been developing - that sense that knows what Ichigo’s Flames feel like by now - practically punches them in the chest when a gaping emptiness rips itself open inside them, in a part of their soul where Ichigo should be. The thing is, they never even realized there was a bond at all - however new - between them and Ichigo before it disintegrated to dust slipping through their fingers. And maybe, maybe they didn’t take Ichigo’s earlier explanations about Flame bonds and Skies and their Elements and Families quite as seriously as they should have. It sounded a touch too idealistic and fantastical, and easy to ignore in favour of the solid evidence of the power Flames can grant instead. It’s not like Flame bonds are necessary, plenty of people go without, as Ichigo told them, and that was as far as they thought they would need to know on that subject.

- So they did not expect this. Yoruichi has been busy with her clan, sorting out inheritances and heirs and all sorts of legalities now that she’s no longer a fugitive but nobody can quite decide if that means she’s the Shihouin Head again, including her. And Kisuke’s been banned from seeing Ichigo by Isshin, who insists it’s for the best that Ichigo should have a normal life again, at least until Kisuke can figure out how to give him his powers back, so Kisuke’s been working as fast as he possibly can, trying to figure out how to do exactly that. He feels more than a little guilty for turning Ichigo away whenever the boy stops by, naked hope on his face, asking to come in, just for a cup of tea, but he tells himself that it’s just a matter of time, he only needs a little more time.

- And then it happens, and Kisuke’s indigo Flames writhe with a moment of absolute agony, almost making him black out, and even when he wakes again and the pain has faded to a near unnoticeable ache, everything in him says to go to Ichigo, now.

- Yoruichi is the same, she’s in the process of getting eyestrain over paperwork that her brother has not been keeping up with as well as he should, when her purple Flames flare and lash out, taking out the far wall and then recoiling and sending her sprawling to the ground and gasping for breath, clutching at something she can no longer find. She ignores the attendants that come pouring in and instead takes off for the Human world at once.

- They both track down Ichigo, and they watch him from the rooftops, out of sight but worried. Ichigo doesn’t seem that different. Sadder, quieter, but he doesn’t look hurt, and he isn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. They decide to give it a few days, see if anything happens. They’re not quite sure what happened, not sure if they should approach him out of the blue about it either– Yoruichi says yes, the direct approach has always worked best with Ichigo; Kisuke says no, it’s a delicate matter, they should observe first, maybe work out what’s going on and at least have an idea about how to fix the problem because what if it affected Ichigo too? What if it was his Flames reacting to something Kisuke and Yoruichi were doing with their Flames? They have been experimenting and training with them after all.

“Later,” Kisuke insists, and it will be another regret he’ll have to carry.

Yoruichi doesn’t speak to him for weeks, afterwards, but she also throws herself into training until she collapses from exhaustion for the first time in centuries, because she should’ve pushed even when Kisuke didn’t, and that’s on her.

- Ichigo had been planning to sit down with all his Flame potentials and go into more detail about it once the war was over and they weren’t all constantly fighting for their lives. He just hadn’t expected everybody to ignore him and push him away the moment he no longer has his Shinigami powers. It’s not like he’s powerless; his Flames still work fine, and they’ve helped him fend off Hollows and yakuza alike for years. And yet nobody seems to think he’s capable of doing anything now that he doesn’t have a sword to swing around.

- So, fine, he doesn’t need them. And with Zangetsu and Shiro’s disappearance, there had already been an ache in his chest, in his heart, in the very depths of his soul. The broken potential bonds add to that pain, but it’s nothing knew and certainly nothing he can’t handle. He does give thanks to every god he’s ever heard of that he wasn’t fucking stupid enough to actually bond with anyone– not because he thought they would desert him the moment he lost his Shinigami heritage but because he’d wanted them to be fully informed of what Flame bonds entail and maybe feel them out a bit too about how they would feel being bonded to him, literally ’til death do they part. He doesn’t think he would’ve survived them walking away if he’d let the bonds form the way they had wanted to, so at least his caution has spared him from that.

- As it is, he gets a few random fevers the first several days, his Flames fluctuating wildly without the support they’ve gotten used to having. And the first few times he summons his Flames to fend off a Hollow or a gang of thugs, they still come out the bright orange he’s always known, but there’s also a murky tint to them that worries him for a little while. He keeps an eye on them, but when they don’t get worse, he counts his blessings and resolves to live with black-tinted Sky Flames for the foreseeable future. They’ll either fix themselves or they won’t.

- Ichigo has family. His Flames are from his mother’s side, and slipped between the pages of one of the books she left him, there are documents - birth certificate, passport, an Italian citizenship, and the contact info of his relatives. His rather infamous mafia relatives, a branch of the Quincy that broke off, disavowed their “King”, and mostly forgotten by the Quincy race as a whole even as they created a new empire for themselves. He never really thought he’d actually meet any of them in person. Masaki never exactly cut ties with them, but once her non-criminal Quincy relatives got a hold of her, and then she got involved with Shinigami, it seemed… wiser to keep the criminal side of her family quiet. She’d told them about Ichigo though, and Ichigo himself has talked to them, chatting regularly on Skype, and they’d made clear that Ichigo was welcome with them anytime if he grew up and decided to embrace his heritage. Ichigo was certain - back then - that while he didn’t begrudge his relatives for their mafia ties, he would never have a reason to join them either.

- But with a dozen broken potential Flame bonds shattered at his feet, no friends, and a family that feels more like people whom he happens to share a house with with each passing day, Ichigo has all the reason in the world to go. At the very least, it will be a fresh start, and he thinks that’s exactly what he needs right now.

- At Ichigo’s request, his cousin gets his emancipation pushed through, quickly and quietly, while Ichigo packs his bags, writes a note for an empty house, and a private jet is waiting for him when he gets to the airport. When he reaches Italy hours later, a limousine, half a dozen guards, and his cousin - sly smile and assessing eyes and all - is waiting for him.

“Ichigo! Welcome to Italy!”

Ichigo gets a hug, one that startles him but he returns it awkwardly after a few seconds. His cousin pulls back, and a plastic bag is thrust under his nose instead.

“Marshmallow?” Byakuran, the young Gesso heir, offers with a smirk even as his own Sky Flames thread carefully with Ichigo’s, lending strength and soothing the tattered edges left behind by the potential bonds.

“They’re too sweet,” Ichigo grumbles but takes one anyway.

“Nonsense,” Byakuran dismisses before slinging an arm over his shoulders and dragging him off to the limo. “Marshmallows are just the perfect amount of sweet.”

They slide into the limo, the door shuts behind Ichigo, and Byakuran’s eyes promptly narrow and frost over. He doesn’t look much like Masaki at all, and nothing like Ichigo, but with his white hair and pale eyes gone dark with anger, all previous airy cheer gone and expression sharpened to something dangerous, he could’ve passed for Ishida Ryuuken’s son.

Quincy blood has always been strong.

“Now,” Ichigo’s cousin says. “You’re going to tell me who Discorded you, and then I’m going to make them very, very sorry.” He pauses a beat. “And of course, you can help me do it.”

Ichigo rolls his eyes, but he has to suppress a smile too, and something in him relaxes for the first time since half his soul was sacrificed for the war.

He’s forgotten just how much he’s always liked this side of his family.

- Back in Karakura, by the time Yoruichi snarls him into obedience and Kisuke admits defeat and they both decide once and for all to ignore Isshin’s wishes, Ichigo is long gone.