#shinigami vs quincy au

[turnbackthependulum]

[In an AU where the Quincy vs Shinigami war didn't happen.] Yhwach, over the phone: We have your son. Yamamoto: ..I don't have a son? Yhwach: Yhwach: Ok then who is this brat that just asked for chocolate milk and made us cut off the crust of his sandwich?! Yamamoto, yelling to the others: THEY GOT SHUNSUI!

[cheshiresense]

Hi Cross! I'm so happy you're writing for ShunStarrk, it's one of my favrite ships and Starrk is one of favorite characters and I love how you write them. I also couldn't help thinking about wat would happen if you sent Starrk bac with Ichigo in Swinging Pendulum (or just TBTP). You've done Kisuke and Aizen so I was curious how it would go with Starrk. I'd love to see any ideas you might have for it!

lol my first thought when I saw this was a mental image of Ichigo throwing Starrk at Shunsui and being like “go seduce us an ally!” 😂😂😂

But okay, more seriously, I have a few thoughts on it so I guess I'll just ramble a bit? Well first of all, in an AU like SP/TBTP, I would employ one of my handy dandy Bleach headcanons where the next step up from Arrancar is a fully restored soul, so to speak. We know Hollows are generally souls that Shinigami failed to purify and save in time, but I like to think that as Hollows, after hitting rock bottom, if they have the power and the strength of will and the ability to survive long enough to work all the way back up on their own, they can actually fix themselves.

(I actually also headcanon that becoming “perfect artificial Arrancar” via Aizen and his Hougyoku actually stagnates them, so they’re given a power boost and Shinigami-like powers, but they’ve basically peaked and will never again be able to grow much because there is no growth from perfection, which also explains why the Visored’s power levels have always felt a cut below the other captains and lieutenants’ and even after a hundred years they could never manage much with their Hollow abilities, nor did they make any significant improvements or contributions between WW and TYBW, because the Hougyoku pushes you to the pinnacle of your potential at that point in your life, but by doing so, it also cuts off any possibility of further growth, and so over time you might even deteriorate. And all of that ties neatly back into one of Bleach’s major themes of perfection/stagnancy vs. growth/development. But I digress, that isn’t overly important here.)

My point is, the fuckery in the bad end future where Ichigo and Starrk are from lasted long enough and resulted in a terrible enough war that Starrk finally allowed himself that last step of growth and became a whole - if scarred - soul again, so he no longer has a Hollow hole or that collar of teeth, and he has a proper Zanpakutou merged with his Hollow abilities. So like he’s the first and only Hollow ever who managed to rebuild his own soul and is super OP as a result. Like if Aizen’s the upper limit of a Shinigami, and Yhwach is the upper limit of a Quincy, then Starrk would be the upper limit of a Hollow, which the Soul King took into account and was like yay finally the best of a species that isn’t out to ball the universe for once, he’s hella depressed and lonely and grieving but he’s just gonna have to deal cuz the world isn’t going to save itself and my god-slaying mad-scientist-experiment-child of a descendant needs all the help he can get to pull his saviour schtick off again.

All of which is just to say Starrk can blend in much better in Soul Society and yes I took the long-ass way around just to establish this single plot point lmao.

Secondly, as implied above, I’d prob change the final big bad to the Quincy because 1) it’s fresher in my mind and also 2) it gives me more established material to work with. Also 3) we’ll pretend Yhwach wasn’t senile and so didn’t kill off half his own army, because lbr his Auswahlen won half the war for the Shinigami in canon. And this way we get the tragic bad end we need to kick off an SP AU.

And thirdly, just to tie up that loose end, you can’t have two of the same souls in one timeline, so past!Starrk&Lilynette wink out of existence the moment the Soul King drops future!Starrk in TBTP because I’m heartless like that and the more angst the merrier.

Also fourthly, the thing about sending Starrk back with Ichigo is that the dynamic is just so completely different than if it were Kisuke or Aizen or Shinji or any of Ichigo's friends. Like I guess in other fics you usually see Starrk as one of Ichigo's ppl, lured over to the good side because of Ichigo's whole power of friendship, friends and family must be protected thing, and I enjoy reading those of course, but writing-wise, I can't really get behind it because for me, their relationship would come out sth like part-comrade, part-mentor/student because someone's gotta teach Ichigo how to Hollow and I honestly don't rly count the Visored training as such because what they did was basically the equivalent of a temporary patchjob/lesson on how to unhealthily repress a part of yourself instead of actually dealing with it, all so it won't get in the way of fighting Aizen, so Ichigo never actually gets around to harnessing that side of him as opposed to everything he does with his Shinigami and Quincy sides, and lastly part-wow-this-kid-is-a-hundred-years-away-from-becoming-another-Aizen-if-the-Shinigami-keep-fucking-up-with-him whenever Starrk looks at Ichigo, because if anyone aside from Ichigo understood what made Aizen into the would-be-god he became, it would be Starrk, and there's no way he wouldn't be able to see the exact same potential in Ichigo.

And yeah, technically Kisuke was a mentor too, same with Shinji and a few others, but with their history, it's hard to really see that role as one of their main ones, esp since all of them end up following Ichigo's lead. If you want to get poetic about it, he's the sun they're drawn to and revolve around and devote themselves to. That's completely not the case with Starrk. If anyone is Starrk's sun, it's Shunsui. Plus Starrk's just a lot older than most of them so he can't just be crammed into the peer/partner/friend willing to burn SS down for Ichigo and follow him to the ends of the world box. It would be the same if it was Shunsui or Ukitake sent back. But that's fun to play with too, something new, and I imagine Starrk's got a soft spot for kids, and this one was also taught by Shunsui (a la SP canon), and Starrk taught Ichigo as well, so it's not like they don't get along or that Starrk wouldn't absolutely throw down with someone trying to take another chunk out of Ichigo. It's just that this is a dynamic where for once, Ichigo isn't the absolute top priority and object of fascination/love/devotion for the one sent back in time with him. For Starrk, that position's already taken by a certain Shinigami captain.

And wow okay we're not even into the actual AU and I already rambled too much, I guess I'll end this with the two of them entering the Academy after wandering in from the wilds of Rukongai? In SP, I had Ichigo being found by the Shibas and sort of faking amnesia, but I feel like it's simpler here to go with the two of them finding their way to the Seireitei on their own, and then the Shibas hear of someone with a face that could pass for Kaien's twin, so ofc Kaien's immediately like HELLO LONG-LOST FAM and rolling out the welcome mat.

Obviously Ichigo's like fuck that this is way too soon after losing all my actual friends and family, but Shibas don't know how to take no for an answer (honestly you're like that too Ichigo), so there's a good few weeks where Kaien haunts the Academy like an enthusiastic ghost two steps left of empty nest syndrome or something, and Ichigo spends an equal amount of time ignoring him in favour of tearing through the Academy curriculum like a man on a mission, which he technically is. He doesn't like the attention, but he's also never had much patience for subtlety, and he's used to ignoring other ppl's opinions of him anyway, so by the end of the month, everybody knows him as the newest Shiba prodigy slated to graduate in a year, and Ichigo doesn't care so long as he gets what he wants.

Meanwhile, not many people notice the man who'd come to the city with Ichigo and applied to the Academy at the same time. Unlike Ichigo, Starrk is very good at fading into the background, and it's doubly easy when you put him next to someone whose very existence is as bright and loud as Ichigo's, with the kind of charisma that attracts ppl to him even when he doesn't do anything.

That suits Starrk just fine. He's exhausted and heartsore and still not entirely sure why he'd said yes when Mimihagi had waylaid him when he'd been on the brink of death and asked him to accompany Ichigo back in time to save the world. He's not a hero, not anyone important or special, and also not particularly interested in living in a world without Kyouraku Shunsui - his Shunsui - in it. But Shunsui had also died for the world, for the Soul Society he'd devoted his life to protecting, died to buy time for others to live just a little bit longer, and it had seemed a mockery of one of the things Shunsui had held so dear if Starrk didn't even try to protect it too when the option was laid out in front of him. Besides, it had also seemed unfair to leave it all to Ichigo, to dump the literal weight of the universe on the kid's shoulders once again, and this time he wouldn't even have any help if Starrk didn't go because everyone else was dead or - Starrk assumes - not as strong as him. Once again, his strength is more a curse than anything else. So he supposes he does know why he'd agreed - a moment of insanity, a moment of weakness - and now here he is stuck in an era he'd certainly lived through before but in a location he'd only ever seen in the midst of war.

Peacetime at least affords him time to rest, although he's not sure how he likes that either. Fighting and killing at least means he has little time for anything else, like sleep plagued with nightmares, but it's that or staring into empty space and being plagued with memories instead, and that's not really any better. Still, he deals and doesn't let Ichigo catch on to the fact that his head's not in a great place because the kid doesn't need anymore on his plate. It's not like Ichigo's getting much sleep either anyway if the bags under his eyes are anything to go by. Besides, Starrk's used to nightmares and bad memories. He has a thousand years' worth under his belt, so it's nothing new, even if the content is.

The Academy is something of a novelty, if only because he's never gone to school before. So unlike Ichigo, he doesn't mind going to lectures instead of immediately testing out of most classes and jumping straight to the sixth-year curriculum and whatever extra credit work that Zanjutsu department head who likes stalking Ichigo gives him. Starrk had checked and discovered that so long as he applies for it before the deadline, he can take the graduation exams at the end of the year, and so long as he passes, the school doesn't much care what classes make it onto his academic transcript. There's even been clan kids who just stay at home with an army of private tutors before directly taking the exams and entering the Gotei that way.

But like Ichigo, there's also not much the Academy teaches that he doesn't excel at. Combat-wise, there are already very few people in all the known worlds who can best him, let alone anyone in this school. His worst subject is history, because he knows almost nothing of Soul Society aside from major events he'd heard of in passing and anything related to Quincy, but when everything else is easy, that just means he can spend all his time memorizing the readings he's assigned.

Aside from that, he goes to class and sleeps in class, he skips class and sleeps then too, he spars whoever the teacher wants him to but never volunteers otherwise, and he's very careful to keep his reiatsu levels under wraps. He looks at his classmates in each class and picks out the middling to above average students and copies their progress, and he doesn't bother doing more.

"Isn't it boring?" Ichigo asks him once when he's once again hiding from his cousin in Starrk's room. Starrk shrugs from his bed and doesn't tell him that one doesn't know boredom until they've spent a thousand years alone in a barren desert. Anything else is a step up. Even if all the theory in his lectures are things he's already read about because Shunsui had let him have free reign in the private library back home, hearing it again never hurts. "It's a pretty good sleep aid," Starrk says instead, just to hear the amused snort it coaxes from Ichigo.

It is of course impossible to fool everyone, and Starrk hadn't been aiming for that anyway. Ichigo also doesn't spend time with anybody else, so inevitably, two months into their Academy life, one Koyonagi Senzou turns his attention on the man who probably spends more time sleeping than anyone else in the Seireitei.

"All your assignments fulfill the minimum requirements," Koyonagi says, smiling from behind his desk after summoning Starrk to his office. "Never more, never less, perfect across the board even if they all come back with a note suggesting you could try earning some bonus points. All your tests are returned with a score of 75-80%. Never more, never less, but the points that get docked off are always for questions you've left blank. And every single week, you win exactly half your total spars. Never more, never less. Tell me, Coyote-san, do you think yourself more or less subtle than Ichi-chan?" Starrk blinks once, slowly, and stares back without the energy to muster much more than a noncommittal grunt. Koyonagi reminds him a little of Aizen and a lot of Ichimaru, and this kind of person, Starrk knows, wants for nothing so much as they do a reaction. "Wasn't trying to be subtle," Starrk eventually says when it becomes clear that Koyonagi is perfectly willing to wait him out for as long as it takes, and Starrk doesn't care enough about power plays to try and win this one, not when he hasn't even been offered a chair to sit in. "I've been passing everything, so it's fine, right?" Koyonagi doesn't stop smiling, but it becomes just the slightest bit fixed the way Ichimaru's had when he'd not been entirely pleased with his prey's response. Even Starrk probably would've missed it if Ichimaru hadn't often looked like that around Starrk. As expected, the teacher prods a few more times, a little more cutting each round, and Starrk in turn replies with the same dull apathy that comes so very easily to him. "Well-played," Koyonagi finally says, and he just looks bored now. "Although I honestly can't fathom what Ichigo sees in someone so lacking in... ambition." He pauses like he wants Starrk to hear the insult underneath, like he wants Starrk to take offense, but Starrk's barely paying attention as it is, and there was no question anyway, which means Starrk isn't expected to answer, so he doesn't. Koyonagi sighs like he's never met a bigger disappointment. "Never mind, you're dismissed." His eyes glitter with something like mockery. "Your new schedule will be sent to you by tonight. You'll be moved up to the sixth year classes. Do keep up the good work, won't you?" Starrk raises an eyebrow, then sighs right back. Well, whether it's first year or sixth year, it's all the same to him. He's not the one who took the initiative to present himself as a genius, and students are moved in and out of classes for more reasons than just skipping grades. And with Ichigo around, no one will look twice at him. He dips his head in acknowledgement and wonders why people like this can't just say what they want to begin with. This had clearly been the point from the very beginning and could've been over and done with in two minutes, but this meeting's dragged on for half an hour. What a troublesome guy. He heads for the door. The weather is nice today. Maybe he'll even be able to take an uninterrupted nap for once.

On the Shiba front, something's got to give, and unfortunately for Ichigo, he doesn't have experience warding off family unwilling to leave him alone.

"I came here with a friend!" Ichigo snaps, his last-ditch attempt to chase Kaien away. "He's practically family! I'm not leaving him behind!" He'd heard all about the bullshit that was Rukia's adoption into the Kuchiki Clan, thank you. Kaien blinks at him, mystified. "What are you talking about? We just want to add you to the family registry and probably throw you a party while we're at it. You don't have to leave your friend anywhere. Hell, bring him back with you. If he's your family, he's our family, and we have plenty of space!" At this point, Kaien looks like he's warming up to the idea. "That's right, you mentioned you've known him for a while, right? Uh, what's his name again, Coyote Starrk? If he's been watching your back out in Rukongai, I should thank him properly. Is that why you've been resisting all this time? Did you think we'd make you cut ties with him or something? We're not like the other stuffy clans, Ichigo! Any friend of yours is welcome! We'd love to meet him! Hey, how's he doing in his classes? Does he need a sponsor? It doesn't matter, a clan sponsor can only be a good thing. Don't worry, Ichigo, we'll take good care of him!" Ichigo has a moment to picture the sheer amount of chaotic energy that even he can already tell is a common factor amongst the Shiba Clan, meeting Starrk, whose favourite hobbies include napping, creating new Kidou seals, and listening to Kyouraku read to him when they can scrounge up some time for themselves, and the only conclusion he can come to is a horrified, holy shit, Starrk-san's going to kill me.

[cc-bleach-blazing-souls]

(cc) Uryu Ishida

Canon Divergent // tagged: canondiv, depending on arc

Agent of the Shinigami

Soul Society - The Sneak Entry

Soul Society - THe Rescue

Arrancer - The Arrival

Arrancer - Hueco Mundo 

Arrancar - Fierce Fight

Arrancar vs Shinigami

Arrancar - Karukara 

Arrancar Downfall

The Lost Substitute Shinigami // tagged: fullbringer arc

TYBW // tagged: TYBW, manga/anime spoilers

Adult, age 18+ after canon // tagged: adult

Epilogue

About Uryu // Main / Default Verse

Lone Sparrow: Uryu stays devoted to his studies and work // any romance can be implied and/or plotted out

Headcanons

(in his default starter verse) Uryu goes to medical school with (my) Ichigo

(Alternate) Universe / AUs // ideas

(future) Karukara Doctor // main verse

Uryu goes to rescue Orihime first from Hueco Mundo

Evil (Candyman) Urahara & Good Guy Aizen AU

Halloween / Vampire Prince AU

Bleach Brave Souls inspired AUs (like Desert Society AU)

Main (Romantic) Parings / Ships

IshiHime // Uryu x Orihime

IshiiNemu // Uryu x Nemu

IshiNel // Uryu x Nel

other canons (with chemistry): Rukia, ?

Uryu x (Quincy) OC // with chemistry and prior plotting

Wanted interactions: Ichigo, Chad, Renji, Ryuken, Quincy canons

[akaluan]

Masterpost by Month: June 2021

Lost Eclipse:

part 19

Beneath the cherry trees:

part 5

part 6

A Token, My Liege?:

part 16

Ichigo/Bucky AU:

Part 2

meta on how the au sort of works

On Ghost Patrol

Kisuke in this au

Symbiotic!Quincy AU:

Part 1

The beginning of our hope:

part 2

Soulmate AU:

do Yoruichi and Tessai know where Kisuke is?

Benihime's reaction to being taken from Kisuke

Shinigami vs Quincy approach to soulmates

does soul vs living affect soulmate bond?

Benihime is something entirely new to Erich and Alexis

Tanya's manifestation of powers

Fanart:

mer!Hanataro from the little mermaid AU (by @nyava )

[sunniestshark-ocs]

Verse List

A non-comprehensive list of stories my OCs exist in! This list will periodically update.

Original Verses || there's a bunch!

Ghosttowns || Primary original story || solarpunk, sci-fantasy, recovered soft apocalypse tipping back into war || Almost 100 years ago, the people of the planet Bast were nearly wiped out in the cataclysmic ending to a nightmarish war. Instead of falling completely, people put down their arms and came together to heal what had been broken. Now, just as the land and people have really begun to flourish again, a new threat- an entirely new species of has appeared that may undo all that has been accomplished to bring- and keep- the world at peace.

Covenant || Original story by @theriversarebroken || fantasy, not my story. My gf is just nice enough to have my ocs in it :) ||

Urban Fantasy || Untitled || mostly an excuse to have my ocs kiss @theriversarebroken's but they're vampires and werewolves and whatnot in a gritty setting || everyone is a slightly shittier person ||

The Grind || Modern AU playground for all the OCs || contemporary, goofy shenanigans ||

Medieval Times AU || Modern AU but the core cast is in their early 20s and works at a medieval times-esque theme park together || goofs and gags ensue ||

80s AU || shared AU || spunky 80s teenagers vs corporate conspiracies, monsters, oblivious adults, and teenage drama ||

------------

Fandom Verses || mostly canon-divergent

The Big Bang || Original Bleach verse || non-canon || co-exists with other people's AUs through the multiverse rule (all soul societies exist in parallel verses (connected through Hueco Mundo as a headcanon))|| Soul Society was finally in a good position- relative peace had settled over the Gotei 13, and amicable relations between the Shinigami, the Quincy, and the Arrancar have been tentative, but promising. But the peace was not to last, members of each faction began disappearing, acting erratically, and soon the Captain Commander of the Gotei 13 threw his military into an abrupt, violent conflict ended with him and four other captains dead, the Gotei in shambles and scrambling to figure out what, exactly, this new threat is. And how to deal with it before the tide overcomes them all.

Poke Party || Shared AU || Original Pokemon verse || fun playground for low stakes pokemon adventures! ||

[uraichievents]

Monday, May 24th, 2021 - Sunday, May 30th, 2021

~

General Info

What is UraIchi Week?

It’s a week-long fanworks event to promote the Urahara Kisuke x Kurosaki Ichigo ship. There’s no sign-up, it’s just for fun, and everybody can participate. Completed works and wips are both acceptable, and any type of fanwork (fanfic, fanart, gifsets, etc.) is welcome. The ship itself can be written romantically or platonically, basically anything you want so long as it stars these two characters together in some way. Poly is also fine so long as Ichigo and Kisuke are still the focus of the fanwork.

Posting:

For those of you with Tumblr, you can tag your stuff with #UraIchi Week 2021 in the first five tags of your post. I’ll be tracking that tag so I’ll see it and reblog it to this blog. (If it’s been a few days since you posted and I still haven’t reblogged it, something probably went wrong, Tumblr’s not always reliable, so just shoot me an ask about it and I’ll reblog it.)

For those of you with AO3, I will create a collection a day or two before the event starts, and you’ll be able to add your work to the collection when you post. (I’ll toss up a notice for everyone once the collection is up.)

And of course we have our Discord server (link is on the sidebar) so if you want to come and talk about what you’re working on or you just want to chat, feel free to join us there!

~

Themes

As always, I’ve sorted through all the votes and chosen the top ones as the official prompts, four per day (except the last day) this time, but of course, creating something based off of them is optional. It’s your choice whether or not you want to make a fanwork that includes all the themes of that day, or a fanwork for each theme, or a fanwork for just one. You can make something for each day of the week or just one or two days. And if your fanwork doesn’t fit any of the themes, there’s a Creator’s Choice option on the last day so feel free to come up with your AUs and other ideas. All prompts can be interpreted any way you want as well, it’s entirely up to you. The point of this event is simply for everyone to have fun and contribute even more to this ship :)

May 24th, 2021 - Day 1:

Time Travel/Dimension Travel AU

Crossover/Fusion AU

Reincarnation/Transmigration AU

Canon Divergence AU

First up is as always some fan favourites. You can move Ichigo or Kisuke forward or backward or sideways through space and time, or pick another fandom for them to cross into, or fuse them with another fandom’s setting. You can dump their souls into someone else’s bodies back in the TBTP Era, or have them reborn into another family in another world. Wherever you put them, they’re definitely not in their own time period or even dimension anymore.

May 25th, 2021 - Day 2:

Loyalty Kink

Touch-Starved Character(s)

Codependency

"If you're running away, I'm coming with you."

Here’s a chance to make Ichigo and Kisuke suffer and give them all the reasons to only trust and depend on each other. Let’s see all the possessive/protective feels they’re capable of given only to each other, firmly set in that us vs. the world mindset. They’d kill and die for each other, and they’re unapologetic and feral about it, and everyone else will just have to deal.

May 26th, 2021 - Day 3:

Rebellion/Revolution

vs. Gotei 13

Assassin

"Hypothetically, if I needed to bury a body, where would be a good place to do that? In a hypothetical scenario."

Is there war on the horizon? What idiocy has the Shinigami’s prejudices kicked off this time? Or maybe it’s just a few (dozen) people who desperately need an accident or two in their near future. Whatever the reasons, it’s never a good idea to cross Ichigo’s bottom line, especially when he comes in a two-for-one package.

May 27th, 2021 - Day 4:

Eldritch

"When I said I'd steal your heart if you're not careful, I wasn't speaking figuratively."

Wingfic

Secret Identity/Identity Reveal

One of these things is not like the others. Maybe one of them is a little more than just human (or Shinigami, or Quincy, or Visored). Maybe the way they smile or move is just a little bit off. Maybe what they are under their skin doesn’t even have a name, and most people instinctively know to not look too closely at the extra appendages or sharper teeth or darker shadow. Or on a lighter note, maybe being born such a unique mix of races gives Ichigo something more than just a lot of reiatsu. Or perhaps all dead souls really do have wings.

May 28th, 2021 - Day 5:

Soulmates AU

Idiots in Love

Accidental Relationship

Courtship

Here’s the day for all that romance floof (and maybe some angst too). Are they both oblivious to the other’s feelings and even their own feelings? Does everybody else already know? Or maybe they’re aware of it and one of them sets out to court the other. Or maybe they were always meant for each other, but with all their history it just takes them a while to click together. However they fall in love, they always get there in the end.

May 29th, 2021 - Day 6:

Zanpakutou

Soulscape

"Don't you get it yet? I've always known."

Throne

This day could be interpreted as a little more worldbuilding-centric than the others. Can Zanpakutou be shared if the bond between Shinigami is strong enough? How about their soulscapes? Or you can jump right into canon - what if Ichigo has always known about the various plans Kisuke has in reserve for him, whether that’s fighting Aizen or becoming the next Soul King. What about Kisuke? Benihime has never been a nice Zanpakutou spirit, but maybe she makes an exception for her wielder’s love.

May 30th, 2021 - Day 7:

Creator’s Choice!

Go wild!

I’m looking forward to seeing all kinds of fanworks once again this year!

[boboricha]

More things for the pathologist route Karin AU I have but like... post death lol

- First pic just Quincy training with Uryuu. HC at least in this AU that before the OG Karakura gang leaves town and goes to uni Karin spots Uryuu smackin down Hollows and is like “yo teach me that bruh” and learns a bit under Uryuu at first until he leaves and maybe starts learning under Ryuken. Has good aim (carry over from soccer). Also feels more comfy asking Uryuu for help with powers vs Ichigo or her dad (b/c they’re all emotionally constipated and don’t talk about anything :V)

- When Karin dies and goes to Rukongai she gets taken in by this old lady who is tough as nails and likes taking in strays. Karin ends up being a glorified baby sitter for most of the street rats around. The three kids are the ones she’s most fond of for reasons. 

- You can’t just tell me Hitsugaya gets zombiefied and fights a war and is straight up a child soldier and isn’t straight up traumatized. Everyone in this manga needs to just talk. Anyways, Karin tries to listen.

- Karin has a lot going on in her inner world this time around. Her inner Quincy does look a bit like old man Zangetsu/Yhawach though he’s a bit more chill and straightforward with Karin. Pretty willing to lend her power during the early Quincy training days before she dies. Her zanpakuto spirit here is pretty annoying and one-sidedly likes Karin but Karin is like “omg why are you like that???” Kinda death/body themed (her powers are also like this). 

[yverocher]

I was tagged by @cestpasfaux24601 - thank you so much, Elodie! I’m gonna put this under a “read more” so only click if you want to read my ramblings about Bleach :P

1. top 5 favourite zanpakuto ?

Benihime - Benihime is one of my faves because it seems to be one of the most powerful zanpakutos with a wide range of attacks. Its bankai is terrifying but its look and its ability to restructure things are incrdible (and we already talked about the fact that the stitches it leaves on Urahara’s face look a lot like the stitches on Mayuri’s body :P) Katen Kyokotsu - Shunsui’s and Jushiro’s zanpakutos are among my faves because of their unique nature (read: them being the only zanpakutos with two blades) and because that shows their interpersonal connection. Katen Kyokotsu’s powers are fascinating and also kinda creepy and imo that shows that there’s more to Shunsui than the happy-go-lucky behavior he puts on.  Sogyo no Kotowari - same explanation as above^^ I love the double blades and that it’s able to absorb an attack to throw it back at Jushiro’s opponent, and the zanpakuto spirits are the most adorable ones! Senbonzakura - I dunno but its abilities fit Byakuya so well, the extravagance as well as the power behind its attacks. Plus, the zanpakuto spirit shows that Byakuya’s quick temper isn’t completely gone :D Ashisogi Jizo - its powers as well as the modifications Mayuri made make it one of the most terrifying zanpakutos and its bankai even tops it off. I love how Mayuri always seems to have a trick up his sleeve regarding his zanpakuto; you never know what you’re in for when you’re facing Ashisogi Jizo. Oh and the zanpakuto spirit is a terrifying cutie :’D

2. what kind of ability would you like your zanpakuto to have ? 

I’m a sucker for all things magic so I’d love to have a kido-based zanpakuto - Benihime comes to my mind here. An elements-based zanpakuto would be fine as well, a fire- or ice-type zanpakuto for example; close combat ones wouldn’t be my cup of tea though because it’s not my preferred way of fighting.

3. what’s your favourite generation of the gotei 13 ? 

I love the constellation of captains in TBTP. The vaizards and Urahara are still there and the friendship between the vaizards was already there even before all this shit with Aizen went down. Urahara makes a good captain for the 12th and it would have been interesting to see more of him establishing the SRDI. It’s a pity we didn’t get to know the former captain of squad 10 who died in action and the Kenpachi , but apart from these two the captains make a good team imo

4. which squad would you want to be in ?

My standard answer would be squad 13 because I like Jushiro as a captain and feel like working for him would be pleasant. I’d actually like to be in squad 12 though because I’m less of a fighting-and-being-in-the-middle-of-the-action and more of a staying-on-the-computer-and-calculating-everything kind of person, and the subjects they’re researching actually sound interesting. Having Mayuri as a captain sounds daunting af at first, but if you prove your worth to him and don’t fuck up royally it’s probably agreeable to work for him

5. arrancar or quincy ?

Arrancar - the last arc with the Quincy war is one of my fave arcs, but I liked the Arrancar themselves more than the Quincies. One intriguing aspect was that they were basically created by Aizen and following him wasn’t really a question of loyalty for them, but a question of necessity. Especially the top 3′s backstories showed that they didn’t follow Aizen voluntarily, so to me it felt like they had more of an agenda than the individual Quincies in the last arc 

6. what would you change about the ending ? 

Welllll one thing I’m not fully content with is how the protagonists are paired up. I’d have preferred Ichigo/Rukia (though that’s more difficult because of the human/shinigami thing) and I think Orihime and Uryu are kinda cute together. And I’ve always seen Renji and Rukia as more of a brotp. An even bigger problem for me is, though, how the last big fight and the aftermath were handled - it all felt rushed and kinda left me with more questions than answers, and some open questions never got answered either which kinda bugs me because I always want to know everything about a universe I’ve been invested in for a long time

7. which shinigami do you understand the least ? 

It’s a tie between Soi Fon and Yamamoto here, mainly because the things I don’t understand are connected to both of them. So yeah, Yamamoto is the captain-commander and has been for a 1000 years and that shows: he’s rather narrow-minded sometimes and doesn’t even consider a different (and often much easier) approach to things which can lead to more problems than necessary. And Soi Fon can be just as narrow-minded imo, she carries out Yamamoto’s orders and acts like a soldier which isn’t a bad thing per se, but she fails to judge situations correctly in the field that Yamamoto failed to judge correctly in theory and this adds to the confusion and mayhem instead of alleviating it. 

8. favourite espada ?

Starrk is my favourite espada - his laid-back, lazy attitude reminds me of Shunsui and in their fight against each other it shows that both don’t even want to fight and Starrk basically just wants some peace and quiet. Starrk is not out to satisfy some desire for revenge on the shinigami, he simply has no other choice, and I like to imagine that in an AU he and Shunsui would get along really well. Also, his aspect of Death, solitude, kinda resonates with me so maybe that’s also a reason for me to like him.

9. top 5 favourite fights ?

Mayuri vs Szayelaporro: This is my nr-1-absolutely-favourite fight; you have these two brilliant, crazy scientists facing each other and everything can happen because both always seem to have another trick up their sleeves. They constantly try to outsmart each other and get creative with their powers which made the fight more intriguing than most other fights. Mayuri’s speech about perfection is another reason why this is my fave fight - he has more faults than I can count, but this speech really hits home and for me it’s something to remember and to try to live by because I’m too much of a perfectionist and that makes me my own worst enemy most of the time. Shunsui and Jushiro vs Starrk and Lilynette: In this fight, it’s the dynamic between both parties that makes it one of my top 5 fights. Like I said in 8) Shunsui and Starrk could acutally get along, and both of them unleash their “hidden potential” in their fight against each other; there’s more to each of them than meets the eye at first. And Jushiro’s “fight” against Lilynette proves once again that he’s a cinnamon roll! Finally, when Shunsui and Jushiro are fighting and Jushiro gets attacked by Wonderweiss, you see Shunsui getting deathly furious and ready to rush to Jushiro’s rescue and I just love to see this kind of reaction because it shows how deep the bond between these two goes :’)  Urahara vs Askin Nakk Le Vaar: This one is among my faves mostly because we finally get to see Urahara’s bankai. I mentioned that its abilities creeped me out but at the same time they’re ingenious, just like Urahara’s way of using them to outsmart Askin. Soi Fon and Omaeda vs Baraggan: I enjoyed this fight because Baraggan’s powers freak me out like crazy and I was curious about how Soi Fon and Omaeda would act to defeat this seemingly overly powerful opponent. These two worked well together (even though it was rather reluctant teamwork), and the combined efforts after Hachi joined the fight made it even better; I enjoyed seeing what Hachi is capable of. Mayuri and Nemu vs Pernida: Not many people would be able to fight against the Soul King’s right hand and stay alive after winning this fight, but of course Mayuri manages to do exactly that by being prepared for basically everything Pernida could come up with. And we already talked about Nemu sacrificing herself for Mayuri, about her developing further than Mayuri ever dreamed of and her making this decision on her own and not because Mayuri told her to do so. 

[hezuart]

@socialjusticeichigo

Hi! Um... short answer, yes I do! 

Unnecessary Long Answer: 

Ichiruki has always been the main canon-material pairing in BLEACH for me, but as BLEACH was an action genre, I was very happy it didn’t get into any romance that would get in the way of the series. That’s one of the reasons I didn’t like Orihime's position in the franchise, because that’s all she was demoted to in the end. 

Ichigo and Rukia had amazing chemistry in the first and best arc of BLEACH. But when the Hueco Mundo arc came around, Kubo kinda destroyed Rukia’s personality. She did hit Ichigo now and then in the first arc when he’d make fun of her, not for just the sake of beating Ichigo up. Ichigo was extremely depressed, injured, and misinformed about the hollow attack. She shows up and beats the crap out of him. She brings him to his senses, but after the Hueco Mundo arc, Kubo butchered Rukia’s caring side towards Ichigo, which I was extremely unhappy about. You’d think considered Kaien’s death she’s be far more caring and considerate...... but no. Just down the gutter. ESPECIALLY when Rukia forced Ichigo to apologize to Orihime. That was not acceptable. Orihime and Chad ran into the fight of their own will, its not Ichigo’s fault they got hurt and he should not take blame for that. Orihime did try to reason with Ichigo that she ran in of her own accord and that he shouldn’t have to be there to protect her all the time. This set up the whole gary-sue trope for Ichigo, and ever since then he was the only one to ever actually progress the BLEACH series and things just got sickeningly repetitive. 

Now...I apologize if I’m side tracking but I have to talk about my stance on these pairings again: 

Ichihime: 

....Orihime was shown to have a crush on Ichigo throughout the entire manga, but never had any real reason or explanation behind it. 

Seriously? Why????? She literally would give up her life for a mere highschool crush.. who does that? Its been stated she didn’t develop a crush for Ichigo until she saw him in Highschool. She stalks him and constantly gets in his way. 

Ichigo has never once shown any interest in her at all, he’s brushed her off and ignored her everytime she approached him, and yet Kubo has the audacity to co-author a book and release it about Ichigo saying he knew about Orihime’s crush this entire time and even asks her out? I’ve never heard something so ridiculous in my entire life. 

I saw a video released recently about one of the BLEACH editors saying Orihime was the heroine of the series which is entirely false. Out of the entire series (besides filler arcs), Orihime has only defeated ONE enemy. Which was a weakling hollow in the first arc. That’s literally it. I don’t think heroines are defined by the amount of people they’ve healed, but regarding that, her healing abilities could be replaced easily by Hachigen or Unohana. Hachigen told her she had the ability to bring things back to life without needing a body, and yet her power couldn’t even HEAL a body like Ichigo’s in the Ulquiorra fight. She’s no heroine. She was demoted to a side-character. 

Back to her crush on Ichigo, remember the ONE time she actually defeated an enemy? That was for TATSUKI. TATSUKI WAS THE ONE WHO AWOKE HER POWER, AND THAT’S WHEN ORIHIME GAINED INDEPENDENCE TO FIGHT. But when going to rescue Rukia, she was really only there to “protect” Ichigo for no real reason as to why besides her crush that she doesn’t even know if its requited. 

Orihime had the ability to reverse time. She was given many opportunities to actually make a difference in the series that only she could make. But none were taken. She didn’t reverse the Hougyoku, she couldn’t stop Tsukishima, and despite having “god like powers” her power does jack-shit to the soul kings. As to how she wasn’t killed in the Yhwach vs Ichigo battle, and as to why Ichigo and CO. even let her come along on this mission will forever be a mystery to me. She’s the weakest character out of the original team of 5, by all means, she should have been killed. Even Renji knew she wasn’t a warrior, so why was she there? Her only significance in the final battle was fixing Yoruichi’s arm, that’s it. (and giving birth to Yhwach Jr. but that’s a cluster fuck to analyze for another time) 

Orihime was reduced to pure fanservice waifu-material. Her breasts were 4X the size of her head in the quincy arc, and her power has been completely useless overall the entire series, especially if others can replicate her abilities to an even better extent than her own. (Like Hachigen.) 

The fact that there’s no soul king and Ichigo wasn’t allowed at home due to his power issues, and the fact that they’re even allowed to have children in the world of the living, this is the most baffling, false, and culture shocking ending to a series I have ever seen. I feel like this ending is legit a dream world that Ichigo is having as the new soul king considering this ending is literally not possible reflecting on all the information we’ve been given this past arc. Yikes. 

RenRuki: 

“Knowing eachother for a long time” is weird in itself considering time passes differently in Soul Society than in the human world... which Kubo seems to have forgotten. As to why they’d have a child that is somehow the same-looking age as Kazui perhaps around the same time as Ichigo and Orihime is a bundle of confusion already. But these two didn’t talk for 40 years, then Renji shows up and beats her up and slices her, threatening to KILL her, where URYU HAS TO STEP IN. HOW BAD DOES THAT LOOK WHEN A QUINCY STEPS IN-BETWEEN A SHINIGAMI QUARREL. Renji and Rukia have had absolutely zero romantic interest the entire series. The only one time Renji ever seems to actually like her was when they were children. But RenRuki has never had any one-sided love confessions like Orihime. THis is the least developed pairing out of the two. 

(and also for Orihime to make Rukia a wedding veil out of strawberry flowers... REALLY? I MEAN.... no wonder there’s Ichiruki/Ishihime cheating AU’s going around right now! I mean can you imagine Renji seeing his to be wife marching down the aisle with strawberry flowers? Considering this anime has heavily implied name association (Princess Orihime, Sado Yasutora the Tiger, Yuzu-Ichigo-and Karin being named with homonyms for fruits, Ichigo addressing his name with the number 15 on his door, Kon being direct from Konpaku..) For Renji not to pick up on that, especially with Ichigo probably attending their wedding....he’s gotta know something is up. I mean how did Renji even know about Orihime’s crush on Ichigo let alone “know” Ichigo has a “crush on” Orihime too? Zero context for that too. Lot of plot hole issues with these pairings. )) 

Ishihime: 

now Uryu. Precious Uryu. He deserved the world and got nothing. An anti-social who ends up making friends only for them all to become distant from him once more. The original quincy who gets nearly zero spotlight in an arc dedicated to quincy. A man who stood up for ex-shinigami Rukia when she was getting sliced up by her “future husband” Renji. A man who noticed, reassured, encouraged, and was amazed by Orihime’s abilities and kindness. A man who would lay his life down for her after spending nearly the entire Soul Society arc with her. Orihime was the closest person in the group with Uryu, they even shared the same aspirations. They were both top in their sewing class, had quirky designs and tastes, and in the end were both interested in the medical field. They even had a close relative they adored die before their eyes when they were young. For this pairing not to be canon is a crime to me. These two deserved so... so much better. 

CONCLUSION: 

I honestly could live with Renruki. That’s a whatever for me for it to be canon. But Ichihime makes zero sense with the plot. That’s my main issue with the pairings. For Ichihime to be real, Ichigo and Orihime have to be in soul society. But even so, if Ichigo was in soul society, that means more time with Rukia, so at that point, who knows which way the pairings would go? 

That being said, I would not want a forced Ichiruki BLEACH ending if it meant there’d be no soul king and massive gun-shot plot holes and contradictory storyline like Ichihime left.  

I completely shipped Ichiruki in the first arc, but as I said, Kubo changed Rukia’s personality (and her friggen backstory? He made her out to be one of the weakest shinigami and yet she had a shikai like... when did she obtain this? If this was before she lost her powers then I’m at a loss as to how she couldn’t defeat a simple hollow, Kubo is a complete liar he legit had no idea where he was going with the story.)Maybe her desire to get rid of her powers and die because of the Kaien incident would make sense at the time, but other than that her being weak was weird, especially now since she’s defeated one of the most powerful underling quincy and obtained a bankai. How can that BLEACH editor say she’s not the true heroine of the series? She can fight and heal injuries, she’s got the training for it. 

So I absolutely love Ichiruki. As an AU. Because with the way Kubo set Ichigo up to really be the only soul king option besides Aizen, Ichiruki couldn’t be canon along with Ichihime. If the quincy arc diverged away from that where there was no desperate need for a soul king, Ichiruki should have totally become canon because of Ichigo’s bounds to Soul Society and given their chemistry. 

Orihime was jealous of Rukia because Rukia was always the one who could reach through to Ichigo no matter what. Orihime was never able to do that (besides that time in the Grimmjow fight, but the reason Ichigo was upset was because of her in the first place so it makes sense as to why he’d only listen to her that one time.)  For Orihime to still hold such good ties with Rukia all the while hating her on the inside for being closer with Ichigo is a surprise to me. She’s strong with her kindness, I’ll give her that. But regardless, she was helpless to save Ichigo, even with her powers. The only time she successfully healed him was during the first arc up to Grimmjow’s fight. After that, she just couldn’t seem to heal him anymore because her power is “no match” against the reiatsu inflicted wounds. 

Renji said Rukia’s faced never looked so alive when he mentioned traces of Ichigo sightings in Soul Society. Ichigo, a guy Rukia only knew for a little while, rushed in with little to no shinigami experience to save her, while Renji sat back hopeless knowing he could do nothing despite her being his only friend for so many years. He BEGGED Ichigo to save her because he couldn’t. 

Orihime and Renji could not once reach out to the ones they “loved” this whole series. They both held a jealously towards their “spouses’” significant other because they knew they couldn’t do the same. That says a lot about this entire situation. 

Ichiruki: 

To have two main characters: male and female... have such a great start off friendship.... to have the female character have a back story involving a guy who she loved who was so similar to Ichigo its uncanny, to have Ichigo quote something he heard from Rukia an entire arc ago when addressing his father’s shinigami powers, to have Orihime fear Ichigo turning hollow when Rukia fears FOR Ichigo as a hollow, to have ichigo constantly be concerned for Rukia’s well being during the Orihime Rescue mission ready to drop everything to go save her first if she was in trouble, to continuously joke about Ichigo and Rukia’s close “romantic” relationship in canon and filler arc along with rumors being spread that the two are dating within the highschool in the first arc, to have an entire movie dedicated to Ichigo and Rukia’s relationship where Ichigo remembered Rukia so quickly, while her future HUSBAND RENJI FORGOT HER COMPLETELY, to have multiple parallels of “sun and moon” yin/yang - clad-type finale white and black bankai moves -  similar Masaki-Isshin forbidden meeting parallel not to mention the parallel of Ichigo/Isshin saving Rukia/Masaki savior scene nearly laid out the same way, to have a PTSD rain significance with Ichigo’s memories of his mother dying- and when he saves Rukia he says the rain stopped because of her, to have Isshin and Ichigo’s family accept Rukia as a third daughter/sister and have her sleep in their house treating her as part of the family while Isshin and Yuzu listen in on Rukia and Ichigo’s conversations in the bedroom along with Yuzu being concerned because Rukia seems more girly and romance material to Ichigo than Tatsuki was, to have ichigo miss his power that he dreams about Rukia, to have Ichigo think of Rukia as the last and strongest pride he had as a shinigami when trying to gain his fullbring, to have Rukia swoop in and save him when he’s crying his eyes out to help him regain his power- to be the only one in Soul Society to be against the idea of Ichigo becoming Soul Society’s enemy and spying on him, when Ichigo ends up seeing Rukia’s butt in the hot springs and he and the other guy think of peaches....., when Renji forcibly picks a bloody defeated Ichigo off the ground Rukia tells him to wait and  that Ichigo might not be in good shape for a lecture despite that being her job the past few arcs, to have Yhwach say he’ll show up when Ichigo and his friends are at their happiest and he chooses to show up during Ichigo and Rukia’s 10 year reunion and not their weddings or baby-showers, to have Ichihime and Renruki become the “canon” pairing and having their children be the focus of the final chapter and yet the finale book cover is Ichiruki, to have a co-author novel with the suspicious title “We do KNOT always love you” featuring Renji and Rukia’s wedding and Ichihime confession, to have Ichiruki be voted the most popular BLEACH pairing and to be promoting the final BLEACH manga with Ichiruki advertisement bait..... to have the last image we see of the main group be of Ichigo and Rukia who hardly acknowledge their spouses the whole chapter?  

and Tite Kubo FRIENDZONED these two? 

Bye... 

I’m glad Ichiruki didn’t get in the way of the story like Ichihime did, so at least that’s a positive. 

Mitsuro Kubo, the creator of Yuri on Ice did in 12 anime episodes what Tite Kubo couldn’t do in 10 years. 

Create a believable, developed, romantic relationship with a good plot to back it up. 

and the best part is, Mitsuro Kubo did it with non-heterosexual characters. 

For Kubo to rush in with this light novel to try and force in “romantic development” to try and explain pairings he literally only splooshed together for the sake of children.. and to attempt to explain it in a single light novel when he had wasted a ton of plotline set ups that went no where that he could have spent developing said relationships in 10 years time? To have him claim this is an action genre only for him to approve of a light novel based around forced romance and not filling up the hundreds of plot holes he made in the series? Sure we get insight on a couple character’s status and whereabouts but uM WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED... TO THE SOUL KING? THE ZERO SQUAD? Y’KNOW... THE MOST IMPORTANT KEY TO THE WORLD BEING ABLE TO LIVE? HE DEEMED PAIRINGS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THAT?

If Kaien Shiba claims our hearts are in our fists, I think there’s a lot of bleach fans out there who would love to introduce their “hearts” to Kubo’s face... as harsh as that sounds. He and his entire editor team just continue to ship bait and lie to their fans. It’s very disrespectful, kinda giving fans a reason to be upset with them aside from their other choices. Still don’t approve of the harassment going on though. Nothing is gonna change it now besides us. Its up to us to patch up what’s left of BLEACH’S dignity by continuing to improve and create better plot lines that Kubo pulled out of his garbage can. 

So yeah. Ishihime and Ichiruki were, without a doubt in my mind, canon in the first arc. The amount of time and care each exhibited toward eachother throughout the arc says it all. The end game pairings were DEFINITELY not planned from the beginning. Kubo never had a hold that good on the plot of his series past the first arc. Its just... its not believable. Can’t buy it no matter how hard I try... 

[turnbackthependulum]

[In an AU where the Quincy vs Shinigami war didn’t happen.]

Yhwach, over the phone: We have her.

Yamamoto: Huh? Who?

Yhwach: We have your best friend. Yachiru Unohana.

Yamamoto:

Yamamoto, with a calm voice: Oh.

Yhwach: ... That's all you have to say? "Oh"?

Yamamoto: Yeah. 'Cause see here, villain-kun, you actually don't have her. She has you. Ok? I wish you the very best of luck. *hangs up the phone*

[turnbackthependulum]

Yamamoto, upon seeing Yhwach: Yhwach?! Didn't you die?!

Yhwach: *scoffs* That was a thousand years ago, dude. Things change.

[turnbackthependulum]

[1,000 years ago, during the battle against Yhwach...]

Yamamoto: I really think I would've gotten along with young Yhwach pretty well. Perhaps things wouldn't have to turn out this way.

Yhwach: Yes, I know that. So that's why I decided to change everything about my life.

[akaluan]

To be.. VAGUELY fair to the Shinigami of the time, things weren't AS bad as they would become, bc they were only slowly increasing the porousness of the barrier between worlds and TO BE FAIR their contract ritual DID mostly patch up the hole they'd make.

To be brutally honest tho, it went like this:

Quincy: stop tearing holes in reality ffs

Shinigami: but we need power to fight back against the monsters!

Quincy: YOU,RE MAKING THE MONSTERS HAPPEN MORE OFTEN

Shinigami: no the fuck we aren't *murders Quincy*

So y'know. That happened.

And yeah, Aizen is absolutely convinced that he can contract himself an army of Monsters and create a new kingdom of his own using their power and nothing will ever happen to him.

And yes! The Shinigami think that Kisuke's absolutely at fault and is still trying to perfect his research. Because a main difference in this AU vs canon is that, in canon, after Kisuke got exiled, Aizen stopped being so BLATANT about his research. He just. Stopped. So the Shinigami have this evidence that they, well, stopped the issue, even if Kisuke was exiled instead of killed, it still, y'know, ended the problem. It was also a very limited problem in canon, some disappearances, some Oops'd Captains and Lieutenants, but that's basically it. And without anything larger than that, it's pretty obvious that the vast majority of Shinigami knew jack shit about what Kisuke was accused of and just knew that he was exiled for some shady shit.

In THIS au however, Kisuke's escape does nothing to stop the growing number of incursions, and, in fact, Aizen uses this opportunity to continue his experiments whenever possible. Thus, the vast majority of Shinigami DO know what Kisuke is accused of and believe it to be true. The fact that he's falling into a relationship with a Quincy is only going to make things Much Worse.

The Stolen Heart Part 3

Kisuke decides avoidance is the better part of valor. It goes about as well as expected.

Kisuke is more vigilant about remaining out of Erich’s sight from then on. He doesn’t want to risk the man’s fury, doesn’t want to have to see what Benihime has done— (Even if he should, at least to make sure she hasn’t done something terrible to Erich, no matter how much she insists otherwise.) (Still, he can’t bring himself to check.) (Coward…) Avoiding Erich is made easier by the strange,…

[akaluan]

Oooh, this is so interesting!

But for my second question I was more wondering, for Erich, who has one human soulmate and one spirit soulmate, does that difference in... state? affect the bond in anyway? Like, is there a difference in the bound between a human/human bond and a human/spirit one?

Also, what would happen if Kisuke were to go back to Soul Society? Does the bond get muted or something if the persons are in different world?

Also, how strong does a bond between soulmates can go? Like, does it reach the point where it’s almost a one soul/two bodies kind of deal? (If we take like, Ukitake and Kyoraku, who are very old and have had so long to develop their bond.) What would such a strong bond implies?

Also, does the fact that Kisuke is a shinigami and Erich and Alexis Quincy could possibly have weird consequences? Like, you mentioned that soulmates can bleed through a shinigami inner world. But how does quincy power and shinigami power interact on a soul level? (This could also have interesting consequence with people like Shinji and co who have a hollow in their soul)

I have so many question ohmygod but this is so interesting. So, to finish, what happens to hollow and arrancar? They are a whole soup of different people who each had soulmates, does that have any influence on the hollow itself?

XD Okay another cut bc LONG, but also fun, so!

1 and 3 bc interlinked) state of the bond, human/human vs human/spirit, and strength of the bond

It does affect it to an extent! Erich mentions at one point that he and Alexis are as close to being a single soul in two bodies as people can be, which, in his view, IS correct. He and Alexis have cultivated their bond to be very close, closer than most soulmates tend to go for, and at close range it can be very difficult to tell them apart at the spiritual level bc their souls are kinda bleeding together. It's only really obvious at close range, to be fair, but the effect is definitely there.

Spirits like Shinigami or ppl in the Rukongai, however, can become MUCH closer. If they're not careful, even "physical" traits bleed over a bit, depending upon how close they are. So things like eye-color, hair color, skin tone, etc can be influenced by a super close bond! It won't be directly obvious when Kisuke's in his gigai, at least not initially, and it will take time and lots of trust, but it's very possible that by the time the main Bleach arc starts, Kisuke's eyes have a touch of brown and blue to them alongside the mutable grey-green, and maybe his hair is a bit wavy and a bit darker... well. Anything's possible =)

(Of course, at that point, Erich and Alexis are both souls themselves, so the influence will go all three ways!)

A bond so strong that it physically affects the appearance of a spirit is.. well. It's Not Entirely Discussed, but the implications there in Shinigami society is that you're maaaaybe possibly a little too much attached. In Rukongai it's much different, and viewed as more a sign of devotion and a thing to aim for.

Kisuke doesn't actually know it's possible. Yoruichi does, because she grew up as a clan brat proper and got all the lessons that Kisuke didn't, but she's not going to say anything because for once Kisuke seems HAPPY, so... she's not fucking with that.

Ukitake and Kyoraku do have a very close soulmate relationship, yes! And it HAS influenced their appearance, also yes! but only a handful of Shinigami are old enough to put the clues together, and while the Soutaichou is basically *heavy sigh* at his students, he's given up trying to fight them on this.

2) Kisuke returning to soul society

The connection dims, and it dims quite a bit. It also becomes "directionless" (I believe I mentioned at one point that soulmates in this AU can sort of Hot-Cold their way into finding their soulmates, by traveling around and seeing if the 'ping' they get from their nascent bond changes any) when a soulmate is in one of the other worlds.

4) Influence and consequences of Shinigami and Quincy powers mingling

Hoo boy, this is.. Definitely a Thing.

So, they can and will influence each other's powers, especially if they're not careful. It won't show up in the rest of the story, but if I can draw your attention to the very start of the AU, when Erich "pulls" from his soulmates and throws up a shield to save himself? No one actually realizes this, but that action not only blitzed Erich's connection to Kisuke wide open, but it set the stage for the two of them specifically to be... very interconnected with their powers.

Alexis can manage it with a bit of concentration, but for Kisuke and Erich, using each other's powerset will -- with time and patience and trust -- become almost as easy as using their own. It's also a downside, because they have to learn how to keep from accidentally drawing from the other without realizing. Kisuke will eventually be able to do a hacky sort of materialization with free reishi, and learn how to refill his reserves from the world around him. Erich will be able to use Shinigami Kido and, if it ever came down to it, could weild Benihime and use her abilities almost as well as Kisuke, especially if he's DEFENDING Kisuke and needs her help.

More realistically, from a less Exception standpoint: Alexis and Kisuke

If Erich hadn't done what he'd done at the start, how this would work out is sorta like... they can all share power between them, and they have a touch of access to each other's abilities in a way: Quincy able to purify Hollows, Shinigami able to unmake Hollows, and things like that. Basic, "intrinsic" skills shared between them. In time -- and given a blank zanpakutou -- a Quincy might even be able to form a pseudo-zanpakutou if they wanted, though it would never be entirely correct, and they wouldn't be able to do everything a Shinigami can.

(On a sidenote, the Vizard are a weird edge-case because they do have a Hollow inside them, but it's a Hollow of THEM, there's no... other souls involved. So their soulmate connections become a bit weird, but nothing much changes there.)

5) Hollows and Arrancar

The dominant soul is the one with the soulmate links on display! For lesser Hollows that kinda shift and wibble control between souls, it means their soulmate links can absolutely change day to day. For more stable souls like Arrancar and Vasto Lorde, they absolutely don't, though they can have "vestigial" marks (typically withered leaves or similar) for any strong-but-not-dominant soul inside them that's powerful enough to be a contender for control.

[akaluan]

Masterpost by Month: August 2019

Dragon Eclipse:

On Kaito mimicking Shiro

Kaito vs Byakuya fight

Pictures of Byakuya?

Pictures of Byakuya cont

On Zanpakutou rebellion fragment: masks

Lilacs:

The survival of Erich’s great-grandparents

As Worlds Overlap:

Part 3.5: Those Left Behind (WordPress)

Sentai AU:

Part 5 (WordPress)

Dragon!Quincy AU:

Part 12 (WordPress)

White Wings:

Part 1 (WordPress)

Supervillain AU:

Concept

fragment 1

Selkie!Quincy AU:

On sealskins

Isshin’s reaction

Random:

The Salaryman is sassy

Unspecified kid!Erich au thoughts

Various Bleach/Tanya au thoughts (WW, D!Q)

Shinigami as “magic sugar babies”

Kitten art from @valaere

dragon art from @valaere

[akaluan]

Masterpost by Month: September 2018

Dragon Eclipse:

DE CH22: Ukitake’s POV Part 1

DE: Unohana’s opinions

Shiro and Glitter Bombs

Kaito’s wrapped part of his identity up in devotion to both Ichigo’s

Kaito’s devotion to Kurosaki Ichigo

Uryuu’s own minor devotion to Kaito

Meta: how to get Kaito a pet

Meta: Kaito’s bankai and trusting his headmates

Meta: Kaito’s system dynamic

Meta: WH!Kaito in a time before Kanae or Masaki die

Crack: WH!Kaito in a world with just cats

Crack: WH!Kaito in Kabaneri universe 1

Crack: WH!Kaito in Kabaneri universe 2

Crack: WH!Kaito in Kabaneri universe 3

Crack: WH!Kaito in Kabaneri universe 4

Crack: WH!Kaito in Kabaneri universe 5

Crack: WH!Kaito is Kabaneri universe 6

Lilacs/DE Crossover:

Lilacs/DE Crossover Part 3

Meta: WH!Kaito in Lilacs

Lilacs:

Erich has a gentleman’s classical education

Crack AU: Phoenix!Kisuke part 2

Bazz gets adopted by the Karakura crew

Meta: Erich and food

Rest-day Erich -- ptsdven fanart

Lilacs Reprised (AU Cubed):

Urahara’s reaction to Tanya

Kisuke Adopts the Kids:

Meta: The kids and clothing

The kids decide to hide under Kisuke’s haori

A Token, My Liege?:

Part 1 (tumblr version) (WP version)

Part 2 (tumblr version) (WP version)

Part 3 (warnings for bullying) (tumblr version) (WP version)

Part 4 (tumblr version) (WP version)

Warmage Shiro -- ptsdven fanart

Meta/Outline: How Uryuu and Kisuke met

Meta: Erich is Ryuuken’s younger half-brother

Meta: Uryuu and Shiro are both disaster gays

Dragon!Quincy AU:

First time Erich walks around as a Human

Shinigami can’t recognize human!Erich

Meta: start of the Dragon!Quincy AU

Meta/Outline: Uryuu’s name is ridiculous and the invasion goes... differently

Meta/Outline: Urahara is fascinated by Quincy being Dragons

Meta: Quincy are overdramatic

Meta: Quincy development

Meta: Elder Dragons

Meta: Dragons vs Shinigami

Meta: Urahara is part of both Alexis and Erich’s hoards

Meta: Uryuu is part of Erich’s hoard

When All Is Known (Nothing Is):

Part 6

Sentinel AU:

Part 1

Meta: Sentinel AU concept

Meta: Uryuu’s Guide

Myths Are Only Stories:

Meta: Ichigo’s heritage

Fic Title Prompts and Meta:

King of Pranks

Vampire Shinigami AU

Headcanon: Chad

Headcanon: Kaito’s Ichigo

Headcanon: Ichigo’s hollow form

Headcanon: Ichigo’s hollow form 2