#well let's be honest here -- it was probably also a show for ichigo

[keikakudori]

Kill her, Gin.

[recurring-polynya]

Happy New Year! Apologies if you’ve talked about this already but what are your thoughts about the anime trailer? And what is your wishlist for the anime?

I probably gushed about it on Twitter and reblogged a bunch of gifsets, but I am not sure I have talked about it coherently on here.

I thought the trailer was awesome and a very good first trailer! With the cool remix of Number One, and the way it opens with Ichigo calmly strolling up to a bunch of hollering Hollows, his big-ass sword slung over one shoulder, I felt like it just perfectly hit that chord of "Hey, remember the way the first time you watched Bleach? Yeah, it's kind of dated now, but remember the way it blew you away? Well, hold on to your butts." If I hadn't already come back to the fandom, it would have grabbed me by the shirt and headbutted me. The animation is gorgeous and it showed my two faves in their most badass moments, back-to-back in the same dramatic color palette. I expect there to be a second trailer, maybe in the spring, that might show a little more of what the story is gonna be about, but as far as getting people who may have forgotten how much they love Bleach to sit up and pay attention, I think it was great.

I am honestly a simple woman, I just really love Bleach, and I am very forgiving of its flaws. I do not think that the TYBW arc was a masterpiece by any means, but I do hope that they stick as close to the manga as possible, with some fleshing out of the fights and maybe some addition character moments. (Give us more of Senjumaru, you cowards!!) The original anime had a bad habit of changing random things for no reason, often ruining the pacing of an arc, or just being weird, and I hope they just don't. Anyway, here are some things I am hoping for:

Bleach has always set the bar for OPs and I am looking forward to an absolute bop. Stretch wish: Let the OP feature one of those classic flash-thrus of every captain posing with their lieutenants, we never got a single scene of Rukia and Ukitake doing Captain Shit together, the least they can do is throw us a dramatic power pose.

The OST in the classic anime kept the old bangers while adding in a new motif as new settings and villains were introduced, and I hope that gets retained. Please, please, please let me hear Precipice of Defeat in the year 2022. If they play Reminiscence while Byakuya tells As Nodt “It is not I who will defeat you”, I will probably burst into tears. 

Shinigami's Cup, please please please. I would also like roughly 4 filler episodes. Not, like, Bount filler, but the High Quality filler like the Lamp Society episode or the Maid Cop movie. What I really, really want is a third New Year's episode in the same A-side lieutenant wacky hijinks/B-side sweet Renruki story format to round out the trio.

To be honest, the one part I am extremely worried about them messing up is the part where Rukia confronts her fears while fighting As Nodt. I actually rather like the way the manga never shows what her greatest fear is, but subtlety hints that it's Renji-related (he isn't shown among her lesser fears, the fact that the title of issue 566. What is your fear? is placed on the same page as Rukia warning Renji to play it safe and hide between battles). It would aslo be fine if the anime wants to make this more explicit, but I will flip a table if they ruin this for me.

At one point, I was convinced they would never include the dick-rope scene + sensual sweating, but... maybe??? After this summer’s one-shot was catered so specifically to my interests, I feel like there’s actually a possibiity!

The Kenpachi - Unohana fight better fuck.

I am also really looking forward to the part with Yachiru's shikai and I hope it is more than 3 seconds long 

There are so many fights in the TYBW and so many of them are boring, I hope they deal with this somehow, I really do not want this to be another Fake Karakura Town arc. At least in this case, they aren't stalling for the manga to catch up, so I don't anticipate them repeating so much between consecutive episodes, at least.

We deserve to see Byakuya's caboose in the Royal Realm. I am not even into this man, I just think this shot should be full length, to, you know, emphasize how Serious this arc is.

[bleachbleachbleach]

Ichigo has a guitar in his room. Why? I don't think it's confirmed anywhere that he plays. I think maybe he got it to try to bond w Chad but maybe he's terrible and never plays when anyone's around to hear

We've been rewatching the anime, and we noticed that even when Ichigo isn't off chasing Hollows, he tends to come home pretty late, relative to when school lets out. He's not in Craft Club with Ishida and Orihime or anything, so what does he do with all that time? Walk around talking to ghosts, I guess. Does all his homework on the Stereotypical Anime Riverbank, or maybe that McDonald's analogue Ishida full-time lived in in the live-action movie. But anyway, I bet Ichigo's noodled around on guitars during at least some of those hours.

Keigo has big Owns-A-Guitar energy, so I bet Ichigo's hung out with him for this. I say owns-a-guitar energy because this is distinct from is-a-guitar-player energy. I can see them having checked out a book from the library about how to play guitar and muddling their way through tabs.

Chad, on the other hand, can actually play guitar, though he does not volunteer this information until one day Ichigo and Keigo spend 6 hours trying to tune a guitar and finally Chad shows them.

Now, Ichigo does not have a lot of shame or shyness about his abilities a lot of the time. The guy really walked into Soul Society and proceeded to buttonmash his way to Rukia with the unflappable confidence of--I'd say a 15-year old anime protagonist, but I'm gonna be honest I think that undersells what Ichigo was doing here.

But at the same time, we never really see him talking about his interests with people. Sure, there were Circumstances afoot that didn't lend themselves to just chatting about whatever, but we still learn about everyone else's interests! I'd buy the idea that the whole guitar thing is kind of on the DL, outside of having at some point received a guitar as a gift. Yuzu and Karin are well-aware that their brother can play guitar a little, because nothing happens in that house without everyone being able to hear it. (Except Rukia's Closet Hours? Including Rukia's Closet Hours? Dealer's choice on that one.)

Even though Ichigo's a punk and listens to a lot of different kinds of music--including stuff that really shreds, stuff with the gnarliest and also grungiest guitar elements--I think he associates the guitar with romance. This may be due to Chad's influence, since all the songs Chad knows are old-timey Spanish ballads that his grandfather enjoyed. Because of this, for Ichigo playing guitar--or whatever verb you want to use for what they're doing--is, right now, something you Do With the Guys, behind closed doors and without an audience.

He and Orihime were probably married for 8 months before he ever told her he could kinda-sorta play guitar, and then only because Orihime had spent the last 5 months trying to figure out how to play a chord or two so she could perform at Tatsuki's wedding.

FIVE MONTHS.

(They end up Skyping Chad, who is halfway around the world but still a better guitarist than everyone else they know put together--including Keigo, who now owns six guitars.)

[plunnies-n-shit]

Atomic Bonsai

The first time Ichigo fails to show up to pick up the girls at the end of the school day, Grimmjow can't help the worry that rises in the back of his throat.

He knows all too well the kind of hell underground heroes go through just to make ends meet at the end of the month, and he can't even imagine the way Ichigo must be working himself to the ground taking care of himself and the girls.

But Ichigo walks the girls to school every morning, and he walks them home every afternoon, every schoolday, without fail.

Yuzu and Karin are fourteen both, Heroes in training, Grimmjow would trust them both to get home without incident. But he holds them in the classroom anyways, making excuses about wanting Karin to elaborate on the theory about the foundations of Stain's fighting style and how it intersects with his Quirk that she started to bring up in class while Yuzu finishes up her homework from Aizawa.

Eventually, though, it starts to get really late, and there's no bright head of hair at the school gates, and Grimmjow has to bite the bullet and do something.

"Oh, you really don't have to!" Yuzu tries to assure as Karin collects their stuff from their lockers. "Ichi-nii probably just overslept, and Karin and I know the way back to our own house."

"Then you shouldn't mind showing me the way," Grimmjow counters with faux laziness, faking a yawn. "I still need to talk to your brother anyways. Administrative stuff, ya know? The paperwork never fuckin' quits around here."

He doesn't miss the way Karin shifts her weight like she's about to throw a punch, or Yuzu glances at the gates for what feels like the thousandth time. Nervous, both of them, but trying really hard not to show it. Grimmjow almost has it in his head and on his lips to just let them go before--

"Okay," Yuzu says, small and soft, and reaches for her sister's hand. "Okay, Jaegerjaquez-sensei. We'd appreciate it if you walked us home."

It's not the kind of neighborhood Grimmjow was expecting. It's a nice house, in a nice neighborhood, really not that far at all from Shin'o but in a nice, quiet part of the city nonetheless. The girls toe their shoes off in the foyer, and Grimmjow follows suit. Everything is clean and smells vaguely medical, the way Grimmjow's come to grow accustomed to in pro-hero households. Yuzu on quiet, socked feet slips into the kitchen, the sound of a stove clicking to life shortly following.

Grimmjow almost calls out to her, but Karin sticks her head real quick into the living room and reemerges with a glare in her eyes and a finger pressed to her lips.

Ichigo is sleeping, sprawled across a couch that's definitely too small for him to be sleeping on, one knee elevated with a melted icepack taped to it, a nasty-looking bruise blooming high on one cheekbone. He looks like he always does-- like shit-- but he also looks

younger. Younger than Grimmjow, he realizes, now that he's relaxed and unguarded.

Karin pulls the blanket off the back of the couch and gently spreads it over her brother. Yuzu comes in from the kitchen with a bag of frozen peas to replace the icepack, and Grimmjow is vaguely uncomfortable with the clear familiarity in the way Yuzu undoes and redoes the tape without waking Ichigo up.

Yuzu makes katsudon. Grimmjow helps. Karin does homework at the dinner table and checks the clock every couple of minutes. Yuzu sneaks glances out the window like she thinks Grimmjow doesn't notice.

It must be the smell of food that wakes Ichigo up and pulls him into the kitchen with a jaw-cracking yawn. His eyes linger on Grimmjow for a moment longer than is polite, relief clashing with defensiveness behind them before he finally shuffles his way towards the dinner table.

"I've got a patrol at nine," Ichigo says, soft and raspy and gentle. "Isshin'll be back after ten. I want you two in bed by then, alright?"

The girls chorus their agreement, shoveling food into their mouths with enthusiasm

"Thank you," Ichigo says later, under the streetlamp in front of the Kurosaki house. Ichigo is going to the underground office for his check-in. Grimmjow is going in the opposite direction. "For walking them home. I-- You didn't have to do that."

Grimmjow has a hundred ways he could respond to that. "I'm sponsoring them in the Sports Festival," he says instead, and almost bites through his own tongue in his own surprise. Ichigo's eyes go big and wide with surprise and disbelief and hope, though, and Grimmjow can't find it in his heart to regret it.

"I'm sponsoring them in the Sports Festival," Grimmjow says again, slower, with more surety. "And they're going to take it by storm."

Ichigo blinks at him, once, twice, and then--

smiles, small and soft and honest

and then he's gone.

Grimmjow stands there for a while after, trying and failing to calm his pounding heart.

[kuinliekkienroihu]

I (crysuzumushi, haha) am working on answering your ask game prompts, you picked two of my very favorites, thank you! I'm gonna ask you to do Kaname too! And Byakuya.

Okay, thanks for the ask!! Sorry it took so long to answer, i wrote a novel. Also sorry for all the spelling and grammar mistakes, English isn’t my first language

Kaname:

1. Favorite thing about them

How he always seeks to act according to his sense of justice. Also he's one of the best written characters in the entire series. He's very complex, which makes him feel kinda like an actual person with understandable actions caused by his past. There are a lot more things, but i'm not good at putting things to words so yeah.

2. Least favorite thing about them

How underutilized he was as a character. I'm really glad there's more of him in cfyow, even though i've only read the first part

3. Favorite line

" I follow the path least soaked in blood. The path I walk is justice."

4. BrOTP

I have many, mostly Shuhei, Aizen, Gin and Sajin

5. OTP

-

6. NOTP

hmm, i don't like him and Aizen romantically at all, same goes for Sajin

7. Random headcanon

He has a plant garden in Las Noches in which he grows, among many other things, the ingredients for Aizen's tea, which is Kaname's secret special mix of herbs. Aizen really misses the tea Kaname made for him.

8. Unpopular opinion

He did nothing wrong, or rather, all he did was (more or less) justified

9. Song i associate with them

-

10. Favorite picture of them

This is my favorite too

Byakuya:

1. Favorite thing about them

Yes. I love every single thing about him. Even the things others would consider as flaws are perfect. I really like how calm and collected he is regardless of the situation, he's intelligent and calculating.

A very well written character with, in my opinion, the best character development. Especially his relationship with Rukia from ignoring her out of pain (since she looks almost identical to Hisana), protecting her to keep a promise, letting her be executed to keep another promise to genuinely caring about her and saving her life in many occasions, clearly regretting what he did to her and trying to compensate for his actions.

Kubo wrote his development extremely well, in the end of the series he's objectively a better person than in the beginning, but his personality didn't change much. He's still the same overly serious, stuck up asshole we know and I love him for it.

Another thing I love the most about him is the fact that he's another walking contradiction. But somehow, these contradictions make a paradox or a perfect harmony without cancelling each other. Kubo did an amazing job making him have many layers in his character. There's this line from a book (had to look it up, the book is called "the chrysanthemum and the sword") that the author used to describe Japanese people, I think I read that in someone's ig story and it got stuck in my head since it reminded me of Byakuya so much, and in my honest opinion, describes him rather thoroughly, especially second, third and fourth ones. His zanpakuto, which is one of the infinite reasons I love him, being fully portrayed by the second one "both militaristic and aesthetic" being combined into the beautiful but deadly weapon Senbonzakura is.

"both aggressive and unaggressive, both militaristic and aesthetic, both insolent and polite, rigid and adaptable, submissive and resentful of being pushed around, loyal and treacherous, brave and timid, conservative and hospitable to new ways"

When you think about it, he has the most fitting zanpakuto for his personality compared to the other shinigami and the way he uses it is one of the tiny details which make him, him.

His spot as a captain and the head of the Kuchiki clan is in my opinion fully earned (rest of the nobles (except Yoruichi) can go fuck themselves) (sorry Tara, ignore this please lol). He is hardworking and precise, almost workaholic, has trained hard from a very young age and puts duty above everything. But he still has a hidden "work mode: off" -side which we see occasionally as cracking a dry joke or the wakame taishi fuckery in general. Latter being, in my honest thoughts, hilarious and adorable.

There is a lot more but i literally can't list everything. This is already a hell of an essay.

2. Least favorite thing about them.

My answer is probably as you can expect: none.

There is one thing i don't really like, but it's about the writing.

!!TYBW SPOILERS!!

In the beginning of the arc i think that immediately releasing bankai, especially when he knew it was gonna be sealed, was out of character and i would have been very upset if he stayed dead, since the action which resulted in that was not something he would do.

3. Favorite line

“If it’s for the sake of my pride there’s nothing I won’t destroy.”

I know it’s from a filler but this line just sums his whole character, personality and motivations up so well.

4. BrOTP

I have so many, i want him to have friends lol. But to point out the most significant ones i'd say Rukia, Renji, Kenpachi, Toshiro and Ichigo

5. OTP

The only one i really ship him with is Nanao. Hisana is kind of “it’s canon and i’m fine with it.” I haven’t seen enough of her to form an opinion about the ship, but it’s obvious how much Bya loved her and it’s so sweet.

6. NOTP

Okay, i have never mentioned this before since i know many of my followers/mutuals ship them. Renji. The only ship I. Can't. Stand.

Like, platonically? Yes, they're bros. But romantically or especially sexually? No. Fuck no.

I don't care if you ship them, good for you, but please tag the stuff so it gets filtered.

7. Random headcanon

He sleeptalks a lot. And it's not mumbling, he talks the same way as when he's awake but it's absolute nonsense.

Byakuya, asleep: Do not eat the drawer.

Hisana, awake: *watches him in utter confusion*

Byakuya, still asleep: Give him a pink tricycle.

Hisana: To whom?

Byakuya: Head captain Yamamoto

Hisana: *trying not to laugh*

Another hc that i have is that he is a closet metalhead and likes especially power- and symphonic metal (this might sound very weird if you know nothing about this kind of music lol)

8. Unpopular opinion

His actions in the soul society arc were understandable. He was put between the bark and the tree (i hope you get what i mean) and had to choose from just letting things happen and going against central 46 and all of soul society (or at least that’s what he thought). Also the line he said to Ukitake, which is still easily in top5 most asshole things he has said/done, in my opinion shows what he thought of Rukia’s execution and why he didn’t do anything to prevent it. “Once you’ve let one of your people die.. ...two or three more make no difference.” Both of his parents are dead, Hisana is dead, Ginrei is most likely dead and he thought for 100 years that Yoruichi was dead too. I think Byakuya thought losing one more person he cares about couldn’t hurt more than it already has and therefore didn’t think it was worth breaking the promise he made in his parents’ grave and trying to save her. And that fucking breaks my heart.

9. Song I associate with them

I have a 6h long playlist which I’m not gonna post. Can’t choose just one lol.

10. Favorite picture of them

*digs through nearly infinite pinterest board, tumblr and phone’s gallery*

This is (one of) my favorite manga panel(s) of him. I love how calm but powerful he looks. The lines representing the heavy spiritual pressure. Like an inescapable doom approaching (which indeed was the case). And for some reason i love it. 

My favorite fanart, which i obviously can’t post since you can’t post others art so here’s the link: https://www.deviantart.com/keelerleah/art/Bleach-Byakuya-Looking-Back-127254804

and then one which I think is official art or at least an edit of it, if I’m wrong please lmk

[simplybakugou]

Quirkless

↝ An appointment to the doctor’s goes south once finding out Bakugou’s son is quirkless.

⋆ PAIRING: dad!bakugou x female!reader ⋆ WARNINGS/TAGS: swearing; angst ⋆ WORD COUNT: 3279

A/N: So I started rewatching bnha from the beginning and after watching baby Izuku cry when he found out he’s quirkless for the hundredth time, I decided to do a scenario of Bakugou’s reaction to his child being quirkless. This is also literally took two hours to write for some reason so enjoy lol. NOTE: I made a part 2 to this where Deku gives One For All to Bakugou’s son so here’s the link to that too :)

✐posted 04.07.2020✐

“Katsuo, you’re going to hurt yourself!” You called out to your four-year-old son as he ran through the streets. You could barely keep up with him in such a big crowd, only seeing his blonde head pop up every now and then.

Katsuo giggled, finally stopping and letting his mother catch up with him. Once you did catch up, Katsuo latched onto your arm. “Don’t worry, Momma, I’m fine.”

You sighed. “You know, most kids aren’t this excited to go to the doctor’s.”

“Well, I’m not like most kids because my Daddy’s the best hero in the whole world.” Katsuo puffed out his chest proudly. You chuckled, ruffling his head.

Being married to one of the top heroes wasn’t easy. You had met Bakugou at the hospital as your healing type quirk was used to help aid patients. After Bakugou had gotten reckless once, it seemed that no one around him at the time gave him a proper talk to make sure he wouldn’t get hurt that severely again. Back then, everyone was always kissing up to him, wanting to be affiliated with such a high profile hero.

Nevertheless, you didn’t hesitate to rip him a new one, infuriated that such an important hero would be so reckless and gotten so hurt. Bakugou was taken aback, not expecting a mere hospital worker to be the one to tell him off. However, since that incident he respected you for being the only one to be honest with him.

Since then, Bakugou found himself visiting your office even for the smallest of injuries. After the tenth visit, you finally caught the hint and decided to ask him out yourself. And now, you’re both happily married and have a four-year-old son.

You walked into the pediatrician’s office, signing in at the front receptionist before taking a seat, waiting for the doctor to call your name.

“Do you think the doctor will give me a quirk?” Katsuo asked, looking up at you with his eyes almost beaming and shining.

“No, the doctor can’t give you a quirk but we can find out when your quirk will come,” you said, pinching his cheek.

Katsuo sighed, leaning into you. “Okay… I just want to be strong like Daddy.”

You feigned a gasp. “You don’t want to be strong like Mommy?”

Katsuo’s eyes went wide, immediately regretting his words once believing his mother was genuinely upset. “No! Mommy you’re strong, too! I just think it’s a little itty bit cooler to have explosions than heal people.”

You laughed. “It’s okay, sweetie. I know Daddy’s quirk is cooler.” Katsuo smiled at you, latching onto your arm.

“Bakugou Katsuo?” A voice called out.

Katsuo jumped down from his chair, raising his hand. “That’s me!”

The doctor nodded. “Come with me.”

You and Katsuo followed the doctor into a separate room. You shook the doctor’s hand. “I understand that you’re here for the regular screening, Bakugou-san?”

You nodded. “Yes.”

The doctor nodded once more, instructing Katsuo to complete the regular eye exam, weight and height check, hearing exam, and any vaccinations that are needed.

“Are there any problems or any other concerns that you want addressed?” The doctor asked, writing down on his clipboard.

“Actually I have one concern,” you said. “Katsuo’s four now, almost five and he still hasn’t developed his quirk yet. Most of his classmates have already shown signs of developing a quirk. I was hoping you would be able to determine exactly when his quirk would come.”

“Hm, that is a concern especially for the son of one of the biggest heroes and the most notorious doctor in the area. Let me conduct a few x-rays and we’ll have a look,” the doctor said.

***

“Are we almost done?” Katsuo whined, wiggling his feet from his chair.

“We’re almost done. The doctor’s just looking at the x-rays he took.”

Katsuo sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. “Fine, Nagisa and Ichigo wanted to play with me soon.”

You smiled. “You can play with your friends soon, don’t worry.” The door to the room opened, the doctor stepping in. He had a blank expression on his face. “Were you able to find anything out?”

“There’s no easy way to break this to you.” The doctor took off his glasses, wiping the sweat from his forehead. He pulled a chart, an x-ray of Katsuo’s foot specifically. “Everyone with a quirk has one joint in their pinky toe. Those who are deemed quirkless have two joints.”

You looked at the x-ray, your eyes widening. “So that means…”

“You’re son is quirkless, Bakugou-san. There’s no easy way to say it.” The doctor put away the chart. “Hopefully this won’t upset your husband too bad.” He walked out of the room and the sound of the door closing echoed throughout the room.

You looked down next to you, your heart aching at the sight of Katsuo sitting in shock and staring at the space in front of him. You got up, crouching down in front of him. “Let’s go home, Suo.”

Katsuo nodded but his body still didn’t move. You pursed your lips together, deciding to hold him in your arms instead. The car ride home was outstandingly quiet.

***

“Great work today everyone!” The manager of Bakugou’s agency announced. Everyone in the office begun packing their things up, including Bakugou as he shoved his hero costume into his bag.

Kaminari threw his arm around Bakugou’s shoulder. “Hey, Kacchan!”

“I’ve told you numerous times that if you call me that I’ll fucking kill you,” Bakugou grunted, zipping the bag up.

“Oh, come on, this is like the twentieth time and you still haven’t done anything!” Kaminari waved him off. Bakugou rolled his eyes at him, slinging his bag over his shoulder. “I came here to ask if you wanted to get dinner. Kirishima and Sero might swing by, too.”

“I’d rather go to my house and see my wife and kid than hang with you dumbasses,” Bakugou said, proceeding to walk outside.

Kaminari’s jaw dropped, genuinely offended. “Well, you still hang out with us, you jerk!”

Bakugou’s phone buzzed in his pocket as he threw his bag in the trun of his cark. He answered the call. “What is it?”

“Have you seen the news?” Kirishima asked.

“No, I just finished my patrol.”

“Well, apparently a bunch of news outlets are saying that Katsuo’s quirkless,” Kirishima said.

Bakugou scoffed. “When the fuck did I ever listen to those bullshit reporters. It’s probably another stupid fucking magazine wanting their two seconds of fame.”

“I know it’s probably nothing, but I thought I’d let you know.”

“Thanks anyways.” And like that, Bakugou made his way home.

***

You were pacing back and forth in the kitchen. You didn’t know what to do. Bakugou had mentioned numerous times how he couldn’t wait to find out his son’s quirk, saying how badass it’d be if he had a combination of your quirks. And even though he had obviously changed so much since he was a child, there was still a time in his life where he viewed those who were quirkless as inferior and weak. Not to mention that bastard of a doctor had released information to numerous news outlets about Katsuo’s quirklessness. You had already contacted your lawyer when Jirou had told you about it, furious that a doctor would break confidentiality just to get some money.

Letting out a big breath, you made your way upstairs, stopping in front of Katsuo’s room. You inhaled and exhaled once, knocking on his door. You weren’t surprised when you didn’t receive an answer, pushing the door open. The room was empty, but you could hear the TV from your bedroom. You opened the door slowly to find your son on the foot of your bed. “Katsuo? Are you okay, sweetie?”

Katsuo’s eyes were ingrained on the TV screen, barely even blinking. You looked at the screen which showed your local news station covering a story of Bakugou stopping a villain during his patrol.

The reporters were praising him. “You know, Ground Zero is probably, dare I say, one of the best heroes to have existed.”

The other reporter nodded. “You’re right. That’s why it’s interesting with all the rumors of his only son being quirkless—“

You turned the TV off, placing the remote onto your nightstand. Crouching in front of Katsuo, you placed a hand on his cheek.

“Mommy?” Katsuo asked in the smallest voice.

“Yes, sweetie?”

“Why couldn’t I be strong like Daddy?”

You felt your heart shatter into pieces. You mustered up at smile, caressing his cheek. “You are strong. Katsuo, you’re--”

“But I don’t have a quirk.” Katsuo looked down at his hands. “Everyone keeps saying how strong I’ll be because of Daddy’s quirk but… but I don’t have one.”

You felt a tear drop onto your hand. “Suo…”

“I just… I just wanted to make Daddy proud! I want to be the best and be the strongest but now I’m the weakest!” Katsuo sobbed, rubbing his eyes. “And now, everyone will make fun of Daddy for having a weak kid like me!”

You felt tears streaming down your own face, hugging your son the tightest you have ever held him. “No one will think that, Katsuo! You’re not weak just because you’re quirkless!”

Katsuo stayed quiet, silently sobbing into your shoulder. You caressed his head. “Why don’t you play with Ichigo and Nagisa to make you feel better?”

Before Katsuo could say anything, you both heard the front door open and close, indicating that Bakugou had come home. “No… I wanna go to my room.”

“Okay,” you muttered, setting him down. You watched as he quietly went to his room, closing the door.

“Y/N?” Bakugou called out from downstairs.

“Coming!” You called out, quickly wiping away your tears and rubbing your eyes.

Bakugou set his bag on the sofa, taking his shoes off as well. He turned around, going towards you as you made your way down the stairs. He wrapped his arms around your waist, bringing you closer to him. “I missed you,” he murmured.

You smiled against him. “I missed you, too.”

He pulled away from you, looking behind you and frowning. “Where’s Suo?” On any other given day, Katsuo would come running down and tackle his father. But that’s on any other day.

“He’s… not feeling well,” you lied.

“Not feeling well?” Bakugou asked. He sat down on the sofa, stretching his legs out on the coffee table. His arms were aching from overworking his quirk, not to mention his gauntlets still hurt every time he used them.

“I told the doctor, he just needs some rest,” you continued to lie, noticing his discomfort in the process. “Do you want me to get you some ice?”

Bakugou shook his head, leaning forward and grabbing your hand. He led you to his lap, his arm around your hips. “It’s fine, I’ll live.” He turned the TV on, the same news channel on the screen as before.

The same news reporters continued to show footage of Bakugou. Bakugou smirked. “Look at your husband kick ass out there. Do you realize how lucky you are?”

You let out a small laugh, kissing him on the cheek. “I know. I have the best husband in the world.”

Bakugou narrowed his brows together in confusion. “The hell? You usually give me shit whenever I’m cocky.”

You nuzzled your head into the curve of his neck. “It’s nothing. I just realized how lucky I am.” Bakugou sighed, leaning his head on yours as he continued watching.

“So as we had mentioned before, today’s top story is one that was discovered just earlier this evening,” the reporter said to the camera. “Ground Zero is now as everyone knows as being one of the strongest but also a powerhouse of a hero. After his marriage to Y/N, notorious for saving countless people with her quirk, they had a son. There have been speculations from a pediatrician that Ground Zero’s son, despite having parents with strong quirks, is quirkless.”

“Tch, this fucking bullshit again,” Bakugou groaned. “These fuckers need to learn to stop spewing such bullshit. And on a fucking news channel, too.”

You felt your hands ball up into fists, feeling guilty for not just keeping the news of Katsuo being quirkless from your husband, but you also somehow felt responsible for his quirklessness. “Katsuki…”

“Hm?” He looked down at you, noticing how rigid you were. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s not bullshit…” you trailed off. “The news reporters. It’s not bullshit.”

Bakugou let you finish your sentence. There’s no way…

“Katsuo… he’s quirkless…” You didn’t realize you were crying again, trying hard not to, but you kept hearing how broken your son was earlier replay in your head.

“Why’re you crying?” Bakugou asked in the softest tone you’ve ever heard him speak in. He turned your body so that you were facing him. “Were you scared to tell me?”

You sniffled. “It’s just that Suo was so upset about it an-and I don’t know how to make him feel better, Katsuki.”

Bakugou brought his thumbs up to your face, wiping away the tears. “I’ll talk to him. Just wait here.”

You nodded as Bakugou gently moved you beside him. He made his way upstairs, stopping at Katsuo’s door. He opened it, squinting at how dark it was. He reached over, flipping the light switch on. Katsuo was curled up under his covers, the sound of little sniffles coming through. Bakugou sat down at the foot of his bed, lightly pulling at the covers to see his son. “Leave me alone, Mommy!”

“Suo, it’s me.” Katsuo’s eyes widened, looking up at his father.

“Daddy…” he whispered. “I wanna be alone.”

“Well I wanna be here and ‘cause I’m older I’m in charge.” Bakugou lifted him up, setting him down beside him. “Mommy told me you went to the doctor and they told you that you’re quirkless.” Katsuo flinched at how straightforward his father was but it wasn’t surprising at the same time. Bakugou knew it wouldn’t help anyone if he had beat around the bush.

“Yeah, I’m quirkless and I’m useless.”

“Who said being quirkless means you’re useless?” Bakugou asked.

Katsuo’s lip quivered. He was trying to keeps his tears inside, not wanting to cry in front of his father who was known for being stone cold. In fact, he only shows emotion, except for rage, in front of Katsuo and you. Regardless, Katsuo had this image that his father wouldn’t want to see him cry.

And yet, Bakugou recognized this. He maneuvered Katsuo up onto his lap and Katsuo still hung his head low to avoid eye contact. “You can cry, Katsuo, there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“I can’t cry!” Katsuo exclaimed, surprising Bakugou. “I’m already weak because of not having a stupid quirk but I can’t be even weaker by crying like a baby!”

Bakugou sighed. He wasn’t completely surprised by his behavior. It was ingrained into Bakugou since he was a kid from his own mother to not let others take care of him, it being a sign of his weakness. He had to deal with his own problems alone, blaming other people for being nosy or worthless for not being able to catch up with him. But the minute he became a father, he refused to let his child endure the mental battles he had to face everyday.

Bakugou brought his son into his arms, hugging him. Katsuo was taken aback, not because his father never hugs him, but because he was always told by his friends how hardcore and badass his father was. His friends would make fun of any boy who would cry, even as young children. This made Katsuo refrain from doing so as well.

“You’re not weak, Katsuo. And whatever little shit friend told you so is just a little shit,” Bakugou said, remembering the shitty kids who followed him around when he was a kid. “There’s nothing wrong with crying and there’s nothing wrong with being quirkless.”

Katsuo gasped, his lip quivering intensifying. “But I don’t have a quirk, Daddy! You’re so strong and so cool and you can make all these explosions! And Mommy, too! She’s… Everyone knows her for saving people with her quirk! But I have nothing; I’m useless!”

“You’re not useless.” Bakugou didn’t hesitate to say this. “Having a quirk doesn’t determine your strength. You can still be strong without a quirk.”

“But I can’t be a hero like you!”

Bakugou pulled away, looking down at his son. From looks alone, he was a carbon copy of Bakugou from the ash blonde hair to the crimson eyes. But he was different at the same time. He had your gentleness, your ability to care for others without even thinking anything of it.

“Being a hero isn’t having a flashy quirk. A hero is someone who helps others without asking for anything in return. All it takes is will and wanting to help others. A quirk just makes that easier.” Katsuo looked up at his dad in awe. Bakugou smiled, putting a hand on his head. “If anything, we heroes are cheating by using our quirks to make life easier for us. I can’t even fucking remember the last time I got fixed up regularly by a normal doctor when I have Mommy around.”

Bakugou was able to get a laugh out of Katsuo. “You’re gonna be way better than us heroes. You’re gonna have to learn how to live in this shitty world without any shortcuts. But you know what?”

“What, Daddy?” Katsuo asked quietly.

“You’re also gonna be stronger, ‘cause you don’t need a quirk to help you around.”

Katsuo smiled, wiping his tears away. “Can I still be a hero? Can I really?”

“Of course, who the fuck is gonna say no?” Bakugou asked jokingly. “You know, I went to school with a shithead and he was quirkless, too. And he told everyone how he was gonna be a great hero. It seemed crazy at first but now he’s probably even stronger than I am.”

Katsuo’s widened. “No way! Really?!”

Bakugou nodded. “Mhm. I still can’t stand him to this day, but I’m not stupid enough to still believe he isn’t a hero.”

Katsuo grinned, tackling his dad for a hug. “Thank you, Daddy. This is why you’re the best hero in the whole universe!”

“Universe? That’s a little much, kid, even for me,” Bakugou joked, earning a giggle from Katsuo. “Before you go to bed, go say good night to Mommy.”

“Okay!” Katsuo jumped down, running down the stairs so fast the sudden noise scared you.

You were agonizing over the outcome of all of this, having no idea how to make your son feel better. “Suo?”

Katsuo walked up to you, hugging you. “Don’t be sad, Mommy. Mommy was sad ‘cause I was sad. But now I’m happy so Mommy has to be happy, too!”

You were confused at how quickly Katsuo was able to act so differently once Bakugou spoke with him. Katsuo pulled away, kissing your cheek. “I’m going to sleep!”

“Okay…” You were still so confused.

Bakugou made his way downstairs, ruffling Katsuo’s hair as he ran back upstairs. He sat down next to you, putting his arm around you. You looked at him with disbelief. “What did you say?”

“The truth.” Bakugou turned the TV back on. “He doesn’t need the help of our quirks to be whatever the fuck he wants to be.”

You smiled, hugging your husband. “You really are a hero, Katsuki.”

Bakugou smirked. “Damn right. And that kid’s gonna be an even better hero than me.”

[odelschwanky]

Could you do a fluff Byakuya fic

Take a Break (Byakuya Kuchiki x Reader)

This not my best, but I was happy to write it. I’m working my way out of writer’s block. Thank you for requesting. I hope you enjoy.

Word Count: 2257

____________________________________________________

“Working late again, Captain?”

You poke your head into Byakuya’s office. The waning light of the late evening sun streamed in from the open door behind you. It cast your long shadow onto the tatami flooring, shading the man’s busy form. He sat dutifully, inked brush in his hand, looping and curving impeccable characters onto the pages. He held his sleeve regally, so he wouldn’t mess it. He finished his thought before he even thought to answer you. Even then, he didn’t look up.

“Yes. I normally always am.”

He sounded so tired. You didn’t like the way the dark circles made a home under his eyes. Your Captain’s mouth was set in a distinct frown as he stared down at the work he was doing. He still had his kenseikan in his hair which meant he didn’t have any plans of resting soon. You really wished he would relax. Maybe you could help with that.

You waited by the door, kneeling and sitting on your heels until Byakuya allowed you to enter.

“You don’t have to do that.” He murmurs in his even voice.

Byakuya didn’t require all of the superior-subordinate formality from you that he required from other people. He’d even go as far as allowing you to call him by his familiar name. You almost never did, though. You still thought your Captain deserved the proper respect. Deep down, you knew he appreciated it.

“Come in, (y/n).”

Once invited, you tiptoed inside the spacious room, leaving the sliding door open. You left your shoes outside on the porch, lightly scuttling in with bare feet. Byakuya’s sternness lessened a little when you sidled up beside him, hands clasped behind your back.

He would never admit it, but he loved when you came in to distract him from his work. Your bright smile and your lively aura always lifted his spirits. He loved the sight of you, inching playfully in to see him. You would come closer and closer until you were side by side. You always asked before you touched him, although it was never necessary.

“May I?” You lifted your hands to his scarf but waited to lay a single finger on it.

He looked over his shoulder at you before giving a slight nod. His thick black hair tumbled as you swept it gently aside. The masterful fabric of his scarf rubbed smoothly against you as you slipped it from his neck and piled it on the desk. You were mindful of the ink, setting the expensive piece of clothing far from it. Byakuya’s nape was a little red, and it only glowed more when you rested your fingers upon the cool skin of his neck. Tough muscles and stiffness made the tension in Byakuya’s body apparent to you.

“How was your day?” You quietly ask him.

The air in the room had freshened up since you opened the door. The gentle spring breeze danced in to tickle the more easily persuaded aspects of the room: your hair, clothes, and noses. Byakuya told you a little of what happened in his day, although he didn’t go into much detail.

To be honest, his day was tough. He had to discipline one of his subordinates, which pained him to do. There was a lot of paperwork that came with that. Also, he had duties pertaining to the other Royal Families of the Seireitei. He was working on those papers now. On top of all that, he was tired and hadn’t slept well the night before. The noble Head of the Kuchiki Clan wasn’t at his best. His poised and refined nature would’ve never let it show though. He kept it up, his aristocratic composure, especially around you. But you were one of the only people who could ease him.

“And your day?” His voice was deep when he echoed you. His eyes were closed, as he savored the way you worked on him. You shrugged, rolling your fingers firmly in the muscles of Byakuya’s neck and shoulders. He had let you peel back his haori just enough to see a small amount of his ivory skin. You smooth your hands over it, and his body relaxed as you touched him. You could feel him releasing all of that pent-up pressure in the form of a slight slouch. You were satisfied with that.

“It was fine.”

You hadn’t had the best day either but being here with your Captain was making everything better. You would spare him the details.

You leaned down until you were nose to nose with him, the fine hairs on his skin tickling you.

“Take a break?”

Your pleading eyes met your Captain’s. They were always so serious, so steely. His mouth wavered from that small tight line to a pair of parted lips, soft enough to kiss. He was going to try and protest, say that his work needed to be done.

“I can sit and watch you work a little later. Take a walk with me.”

He paused a long time. Byakuya Kuchiki loved nighttime walks.

“We can’t be too long.” You could swear you saw the hint of a smile on his face.

You shooed him away to take a minute while you put aside his inks and brushes, taking care that they would be ready for him when the two of you returned. You stacked the dry papers and held them with a paperweight while he put on his scarf once more and straightened his uniform from where you disturbed it.

“Come on,” you nearly skip out the door into the nighttime air. The sun had just barely set and the sky was tinted a rich purple. The cherry blossoms of the garden outside this part of Kuchiki Manor were twirling in the wind, falling like snow. You always loved coming to see the garden.

Byakuya follows with his usual refined regality. You wait in the middle of the stone path, some twenty feet away, while he closed the door to his office and steps off the porch.

“You’re not going to wear your shoes?”

You look down and shake your head. “No. Is that okay?”

Byakuya gingerly bites his lip and shakes his head, holding back an amused smile. He was probably thinking to himself how foolish you were. He never said anything so mean to you though. You’d heard him scold other people like Ichigo and Renji, and you were glad he was never so harsh to you.

“Yes. It’s fine. Just be careful.”

The two of you walked in silence, as you two normally did. The stones underfoot were so smooth on the bottom of your feet. They were still warm from the day’s sun. The suede finish of the cherry blossoms stuck to your feet too, and you loved the way they felt.

You approached a bench by a koi pond. You let your shihakusho blow open, teased by the breeze. Byakuya looks down at you, at your exposed shoulders and chest. Your uniform didn’t have sleeves like a lot of others did. You just never preferred them.

“You’re not cold?”

You shake your head. “No… not really. It feels nice out.” You stretch, looking at the tall dark-haired man beside you. He gives you another thoughtful glance as you two continued around the koi pond.

A cold gust of wind crossed the garden, carrying a reeking, damning smell. It made your stomach churn. You covered your nose and looked at Byakuya. “Do you smell that?”

He nodded, putting a hand on the hilt of his zanpakuto. A rustling in the bushes startled you.

You jumped a little, all the muscles in your body tensing up. Byakuya took a step in front of you, gently pushing you behind him. You peeked underneath Byakuya’s arm, trying to see what was going on.

A small Hollow emerged and slowly approached the place you stood with gnashing teeth.

“A Hollow, here?” You say, almost to yourself. That was almost taboo. You had never seen a Hollow in the Seireitei. Maybe in the forest, but never so close to somewhere like Kuchiki Manor.

“Hado number 4: Byakurai.”

Byakuya cast his Kido in an unimpressed voice that resonated throughout the garden with authority. He pointed his finger at the small furry creature, a flash of lightning shooting it straight in the face. It didn’t even have time to cry out before it was vaporized.

It was over almost as quickly as it began, and all that was left of it was a small pile of ash maybe ten feet away from you both.

“Are you okay?” Byakuya inquired of you, grabbing your elbow protectively. His fingers were surprisingly soft, and his touch was very gentle. He didn’t touch you often, you mostly did all the touching. You tried to hide your blush but didn’t pull your arm away.

“I’m fine… you took care of it. T-thank you.”

It was weirdly and awkwardly silent for a few moments.

Byakuya released you and nodded. “Do you want to go back?”

You shake your head. “No. Not if you still have time.”

Byakuya was quiet for a minute. “I have time.”

You look at him with eyes full of adoration. The nature of your relationship with Byakuya was so formal. You were sure nobody even knew you were together, Renji and Rukia maybe. They never talked about it though. When you spent time together with Byakuya, oftentimes you were alone. Like today.

You were fine with that. You didn’t need to use him as some publicity stunt, although it was pretty surreal that the Head of the Kuchiki Clan was in love with you. Other people might not view it that way, but you were sure of his feelings for you.

“Can I hu-”

Byakuya didn’t wait for you to ask before he pulled you into his arms. His touch and his hold were so sure, so safe. You drowned in his elaborate clothes, shihakusho, haori, and all. You breathed deeply the scent of him, and you seemed to relax. You didn’t realize how stressed you were until he hugged you. You needed his touch and he seemed to know exactly when to give it.

“Can you stay tonight?”

His unusual words caused butterflies to tear through your stomach like the cherry blossoms outside. You would have never expected him to ask you.

You were most often the one initiating things. You’d ask if he had time for you, to do things like taking walks or having dinner. He almost never refused you, only for the reason of a prior engagement pertaining to work. You were at the Kuchiki Manor more often than you were in your room at the barracks. You spent a lot of time here with Byakuya. You never expected him to go to the squad barracks to see you, though. That would be ludicrous.

But he never ceased to surprise you.

When he was there for business, he never failed to stop and say hello to you. If you were in a meeting, he’d politely come in and greet everyone (really looking at you) and then dismiss himself for work. If he’d see you in the hall between his meetings or duties, he’d soften his gaze and chat with you for a bit. Sometimes he’d watch you train, waiting for you to be done so you could go to the Manor together. You’d read together, talk, and just enjoy each other’s company. You loved Byakuya, and although some people might call your relationship with him stiff and ceremonial, you were very happy with it.

“Yes. I can stay.”

You smile up at him, putting your chin on his chest. He wasn’t quite smiling, but a look of pleasant contentedness greeted you from his handsome face. The locks of his hair streaming from his kenseikan billowed in the tumultuous wind. Your clothes sounded like flags with the way they whipped. It was most likely going to storm tonight. After he was done with his work, Byakuya would most likely keep the door to his bedroom open so that you two could watch the rain before bed.

You strained up on your toes to reach him, thankful that he came down to meet you halfway. Byakuya’s lips we soft and warm as he kissed you. His gloved hand came up and around your neck, pulling you deeper into him still until your senses were overwhelmed with him. The increase of pressure around you both came from your intimate embrace. All you felt was the familiar power of your love.

It wasn’t long until a crack of thunder interrupted your kiss with Byakuya, and rain began to fall. You both looked at each other and for the first time in a while, he laughs. You relish that sound, his light and beautiful laugh. The two of you turn to go back inside.

As you walk, he unwinds the scarf from around his neck and drapes in on your head in a silent joke. The cashmere shroud fell over your eyes and you giggle. You snuggle into it, wrapping it around your bare shoulders, breathing in its wonderful smell.

“There… so you don’t catch cold.”

You press into the side of Byakuya, leaning on him. He puts his arm on your back affectionately.

“Byakuya?”

“Hm?”

“I love you.”

You didn’t have to look at him to know he was smiling. You could hear it in his silence, then in the grace of his voice as he spoke.

“I love you too.”

[muwitch]

WHOS UR DAD GINJOU

Hello kids and welcome to the fanon corner and today we have nothing else to eat but cover one of the questions left unsaid during Bleach and it’s Ginjou Kugo and his heritage as Substitute Shinigami or, rather as another half shinigami-half human in the Bleach universe.

Ｔｈｅ Ｈｅｒｉｔａｇｅ

First and foremost lemme tell you where I'm coming from. The question of Ginjou's heritage never gets stationed plainly, but there are some points in the story where it's hinted and we're free to guess. 

First and foremost this panel:

We can not only see younger Ginjou here, but he also describes himself (we as readers and he as a character under hypnosis don't know who he's speaking about so it's fair) as having both powers of shinigami and human, just as Ichigo. 

This point is further supported by the panel where he admits to Rukia, that the transition of powers from shinigami to human is only possible if the subject (Ichigo atm) has some of shinigami powers himself and Ginjo has robbed him of any.

We also know as a fact that there's no such thing as human born shinigami.

And we do know that Ginjo was the first (and probably only) Substitute shinigami prior to Ichigo. Hence his case of power transfer was the first incident of such nature.

[Transition of power as a result became illegal and I highly doubt that somebody has tried it in between, so we do plainly have just two cases to compare and we will] 

Long story short, here we arrive to a conclusion that one of Ginjou's parents, unbeknownst to him, might have indeed been a shinigami. 

So we’re gonna thread to the fanon territory and I mind you that all here is just my own personal opinion and that might not be the case so come here if you're not afraid. 

Ｔｈｅ Ｃｏｎｔｒａｄｉｃｔｉｏｎｓ

There are some contradictions to this point and I'll try to cover them before we get any further. 

In CFYOW Ginjou states that there wasn't in fact any hybrid shinigami present and he filled the role of substitute himself. 

However it's said that Tsukishima cannot make up personas, who aren't in the original memories to switch with himself. Considering Ginjou telling Ichigo about the hybrid shinigami while already being under Tsukishima's fullbring, he couldn't make up that part. It could've been Tsukishima's own doing but not just a made up on the go. It should've some sort of basis under it. (It could be that they made it up to make the case closer to Ichifo if they did already know he was a hybrid but where did they get the information I wonder). 

The cornerstone of Ginjou's power transfer could've been his fullbring or the piece of Soul King which is present in his soul.

 This is pure speculation though, but could've been the case. That would make it possible for any other Fullbringer to do the same though and it's not the case as we can see. 

Also this panel shows yet no Cross of scaffold and a normal zanpakuto, which means either Kubo was lazy, or his fullbring wasn't complete at the time. 

Nimaya Oetsu stated that every asauchi except for Ichigo's was forged by him 

Honestly here is a dead point where we clearly see an asauchi on Ginjou but he either got it the same way Ichigo did which serves to the point, or obtained from Oetsu and I guess this one's a plot hole. 

Note as Cross of Scaffold at the present is Ginjous Fullbring merged with his zanpakuto as hinted by ^^^ panel. 

We don't know shit about his parents which is the main point of everything 

but still we do know that his mother was attacked by a Hollow once during pregnancy.

Ｔｈｅ Ｐｅｒｓｏｎａ

So if we get that far and close to the point, we once again arrive at the thought that Ginjou's father could've indeed been a shinigami. 

Why father you ask? 

Because an absence of female shinigami for a long period of time would be impossible for instance and for second thought, let's be honest here, a male shinigami in a gigai could've unwillingly fathered a child  unbeknownst to himself far easier. 

And that's where it gets interesting. 

Because no simple gigai could do that, nor do shinigami just run a mock running their fingers into every pie. It would probably take a gigai which was either specially tailored or as close as possible to the human body and as we know Urahara-san, a proud manufacturer, did a series of such gigais to a very specific group of people. 

Visored have been in the World of the Living for a hundred years. 

They moved a lot. They blended into human society so Aizen was determined to smoke them out. It was also mentioned that they moved every 5 years because their gigais didn't change, but I highly doubt that they lived in complete seclusion for these 100 years. 

They made human friends and acquaintances, probably also had some romantic moments along the way more or less. 

And if we look closer to the group, we can spot 1 (one) member who's particularly familiar, can't we? 

Yep, that's my guess. 

And here we again go on a thin road of PURE speculation but already here we can see some facial resemblance in their genetic makeup. 

Skin color: this one's sleazy and we can only rely on anime, but both Love and Ginjou have similar skin tones (and they aren’t pale af).

Not only that, colors of their eyes also match though that one’s tricky but definitely not entirely out of the cuestion.

Ginjo has wavy hair. Not close enough to Loves afro, but also somehow plays to the genes, aye?

Those thick brows curled upwards at the ends? Check.

Practically identical eye shape? Check.

That prominent hunch of their nose? Check.

Thick lips? Check.

Sideburns?!!??? Also hairline shape, don't @ me.

Very distinct heavy jawline not every Kubo drawn character gets? Gotcha.

Similar built physique? Both are pretty tall [Love at 189 cm and Ginjou at 187 cm respectfully] and muscular [We know Ginjou trained a LOT to build up his body but that muscle mass doesn’t just miraculously appear unless it’s either diet or it’s what? Right, genetics.]. Ginjou is specifically addressed by Ikumi as huge, which, considering Japanese height tendencies, is quite rare actually. (also dat booty?) Check.

[If we crop it like that, it’s only the brows that make a distinct difference between them and the thickness of dem sideburns, lets admit Ginjou’s got the best part of his dad-in-question]

Considering th probability of Visored being around Narukishi and Karakura about 30+ years ago, which was high, and Love's overall attitude, which is pretty much either carefree otaku or tough as shit Gotei 13 captain, this leaves the probability of the above mentioned as likely possible. 

Ye, as I said. 

Love Aikawa might as well be Ginjou’s dad. 

[medea10]

My Review of Trigun

How did I get into this anime? Let’s just say this was one of those animes that used to air on Saturday nights back in the day that I would every now and then come across while waiting for either Full Metal Alchemist, InuYasha, or Cowboy Bebop to air. But I never did watch a full episode or know a damn thing about this anime. So I’m just jumping into this anime blindfolded. All I know is that this was Johnny Yong Bosch’s first anime role.

Who is Vash the Stampede?

A frequent question that comes up throughout the series! Rumor has it that he wears a long, red trench coat and sports a Mohawk hairstyle. Some say he’s a notorious lecher. Many recount him shooting up their villages to a pile of rubble just for the heck of it. He has quite the reputation as he has a $$60,000,000,000 bounty on his head and is often known as the “Humanoid Typhoon”.

In reality, Vash the Stampede is…a bit of a dingus. He just happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and things kinda get out of hand. But that doesn’t stop two insurance agents (Milly Thompson and Meryl Stryfe) from following him around to confirm Vash’s identity and keep his actions to a minimum. At first, it’s hard to tell if he’s a stupid-genius or just flighty and gets lucky one too many times. But when shit goes down, don’t be surprised when you see this doofus get serious.

BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: Okay, what sad company did this use to belong to, Geneon, Bandai, or ADV Films? Oh, Geneon! That means good voice actors from L.A. put in really shitty roles. On the contrary, this was a fairly decent English dub. And on a severely positive note, this was indeed Johnny Yong Bosch’s very first anime role (and a main role at that). This was like fresh off his time as a Power Ranger! And I gotta give props for giving this guy a chance at voice acting. This role was the launching point to what has been a very successful career for Bosch. As for the sub, let’s just say I’m happy any time I get to hear Hiromi Tsuru in something besides Dragon Ball. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from.

JAPANESE CAST: *Vash is played by Masaya Onosaka (known for Bill on Pokemon, Isaac on Baccano, Jadeite on Sailor Moon, Kero on Cardcaptor Sakura, Leeron on Gurren Lagann, France on Hetalia, and Spandam on One Piece)

*Meryl is played by Hiromi Tsuru (known for Bulma on DBZ, Ukyo on Ranma ½, Yubel on YGO GX, and Mika on Gravitation) [R.I.P.]

*Milly is played by Satsuki Yukino (known for Kagome on InuYasha, Mion/Shion on Higurashi, Tae on Gintama, Amakata on Free!, Hiiragi on Natsume Yuujinchou, Mutsumi on Love Hina, and Yoruichi on Bleach)

ENGLISH CAST: *Vash is played by Johnny Yong Bosch (known for Ichigo on Bleach, Lelouch on Code Geass, Makoto on Free!, Izaya on Durarara, Artemis on Sailor Moon redub, Koizumi on Haruhi Suzumiya, and Yukio on Blue Exorcist)

*Meryl is played by Dorothy Elias-Fahn (known for Kaoru on Rurouni Kenshin, Naru on Love Hina, Tomoe on Rozen Maiden, Hakuei on Magi, Houki on Fushigi Yugi, and Amane on Tenchi Muyo GXP)

*Milly is played by Lia Sargent (known for Dorothy on The Big O and Judy on Cowboy Bebop)

FAVORITE CHARACTER: Milly! I don’t need a reason, it’s Milly!

SHIPPING: I didn’t really start thinking about shipping until more than halfway into this series. I thought there might be something between Vash and Meryl, but then again maybe not! Then I saw the backstory of Vash’s “younger days” and falling for the one woman who showed him compassion.

Yes, this is the same woman we consistently see in Vash’s flashbacks, Rem. Ooh boy, it’s one of those stories! So yeah, never mind my thinking with Vash x Meryl ever happening. I feel like Vash will mourn Rem’s death for a long time that I don’t think the whole thing with Meryl will ever work.

And as for Wolfwood x Milly…

FUUUUUUUCK! WHY DID YOU RUIN THIS CUTE COUPLE?!

MILLY WAS HEART-BROKEN!

…At least she got to have one night of passion with Wolfy-boy before the unthinkable happened.

THAT DARN CAT: If you watched this series, you might have noticed a little black cat spotted in nearly every episode. It’s there in the opening theme. It’s there in random places throughout the series. It’s there in the ending theme. What’s up with this cat? Well, there are a lot of theories surrounding this particular cat (or Kuroneko). Some say it’s really Rem inside that cat since you see it in literally every episode around Vash. Others say it’s because the creator of Trigun wanted to just mess with your minds with the kitty walking around in random places and towns. Seriously, it will always appear in every new town Vash and the gang comes across! As an avid cat enthusiast, I’m fine with whatever the result. Just as long as no harm comes to the little Kuroneko.

HALFWAY POINT: Halfway into the series we notice something more when it comes to Mr. Vash the Stampede. First of all, those horrifying scars all over his body! Second, that mysterious girl he often thinks about. I mean, we see flashes of her in the opening sequence. And third, the reason why he never kills. Vash has the ability of causing so much damage when pushed to a breaking point. One of the many reasons why he’s known as the “humanoid typhoon”! And that was perfectly shown when Vash chases the residents out of a town (so there would be no casualties), totally demolished the town during a fight, and made an indent on the moon!

But the story takes a sharp-left turn into WTF territory when we learn about WHAT exactly Vash is. Vash is a plant. Vash also has a brother named Knives. And while Vash has a mentality that all beings have a right to live, Knives has a “kill them all and let God sort them out” point of view. Now the existence of Vash and Knives came with a lot of controversy, especially in the ship that they were on. But that girl who Vash cares for, Rem cared for them regardless of what they were. Rem had high hopes for a peaceful world with coexistence. Too bad Knives had other motives and killed her.

ENDING TO TV SERIES: Vash has tried so hard to keep Milly, Meryl, and Wolfwood out of harm’s way. He knows there are some pretty bad people after him, including his polar-opposite brother, Knives. Vash hates death and wants to save as many people as humanly possible. He doesn’t want to see any more needless death. Probably from his flashbacks and losing Rem! Unfortunately, this doesn’t go so well.

I can see how iconic this death was now after witnessing it. Wolfwood, the priest who would hook up with Vash every now and then when they’re up against some ruffians, now finds himself in a crucial decision. He gets orders that he must eliminate Vash. And Wolfwood ends up dying instead in a very dramatic death scene. God-damn! And just that scene where Milly is sobbing freakin’ eats you up inside.

At least she had one night of passion before the unfortunate happened!

Vash hates the thought of having to kill anyone. But he might not have a choice if Knives is coming after him and even hires a powerful foe from a previous episode and the guy that killed Wolfwood to take you out. Once Vash met up with Knives, he winds up having some pretty sick flashbacks of Knives. But our homeboy was able to take out Knives, the desert area gets water, and…

I’m gonna have to read the fucking manga for more, right?

Tap dancing fuck!

BADLANDS RUMBLE: 12 years after the series ended, Japan decides to release a side-story in the form of a movie, bringing back our favorite characters like Vash, Wolfwood, Milly, and Meryl. And yes, reuniting the cast…in Japan.

By 2010, Geneon was as good as dead and FUNimation licensed Trigun. In short, they managed to get Johnny Young Bosch to reprise his role as Vash the Stampede. But everyone else was replaced. And surprisingly, the people they got to do Wolfwood and Milly were pretty freakin’ close to their original voices. Meryl’s voice, come on I know Luci Christian any-damn-where! Vash helps a young lady take out a big-bad guy (who turns out to be his father). And it has the feel of the original series where it’s set in a western town with lots of booze and shoot-em-ups! It’s an interesting side-story to the Trigun trilogy.

Trigun was a pretty good anime. I mean, not one of my favorites, but I can definitely see a lot of people sticking by this classic. Maybe you can chalk up my blah attitude to the fact that I’m not fond of westerns and I kinda took it out on Trigun. Or the fact that there was so much more that the anime could have covered before the end and the ending kinda felt off to me! Like I thought I was expecting more. But I suppose that’s what mangas are for. To be honest, the stories that really grabbed my attention were the back-stories with Vash and Knives and Wolfwood’s final episode.

*sniffles* At least Milly got one night of passion before he died!

If you would like to check out Trigun, all the episodes are available through FUNimation and Hulu (in both Japanese and English). And if you really like the anime, why not purchase the hard copies? Both the series and movie are available for home video.

Okay, that took me a while, but I’m glad to finish Trigun. What’s next on the FUNimation list?

EEHHHHHEEEHHHE

Fuck is that supposed to mean? What is that? Is that even in English?

YOU WILL BE HORRIBLY MUTILATED: The Isekai

Do you mean Re:Zero? That’s great…but that review’s not ready yet. And it probably won’t be until after April 2021! So let’s cast caution to the wind and pick another FUNimation licensed anime.

You’re watching Sarazanmai next. It’s best if you don’t ask questions.

Sarazanmai? The fuck does that even mean?!

OH. MY. GOD.

[darisu-chan]

whatever our souls are made of (his and mine are the same), pt. 5

Hi!

Welcome back to another one-shot, sorri it’s so late.

Hope you guys like it and let me know what you think.

You can also read it here.

Enjoy!

(don’t) lie

Prompt: betrayal

 Summary: Ichigo can’t keep pretending anymore, because ignoring his true feelings would be a betrayal to his own soul.

It starts simple enough.

 One comment is all it takes to make him question everything.

 Who knew something so innocent would make him want to lose his sanity?

 “You don’t fight anymore, right Ichigo?” Keigo mentions one evening as the whole gang is out drinking beer.

 Ichigo doesn’t know exactly how to respond to that.

 If Keigo means he doesn’t pick up fights with random gang members, then he’s absolutely right.

 He’s found that people in college are less likely to care about inane bullshit, such as his hair color. Ichigo’s seen people with hair of all colors, and questionable fashion sense out and about in his university. He guesses when one has to worry about due dates and exams, it feels idiotic to care about anything else. So, no. No one has picked up fights with him in campus. And since he’s busy with school work and his part time job, he rarely sees gangs messing around on the streets. Also, none of those guys made it into college anyway.

 So, there’s that.

 If Keigo means he hasn’t fought any baddies lately, then he’d also be right.

 Without Yhwach making an appearance and with Aizen imprisoned for a thousand years, things in the Soul Society have been pretty peaceful during the last two years or so. As far as he knows, there hasn’t been any reason to worry. Although he still worries. Every day. That something might disturb this peace.

 It is kinda unsettling.

 But if Keigo means that he doesn’t train with his zanpakutō or that he doesn’t fight Hollows anymore… well…

 He’s still considered a Substitute Shinigami for a reason.

 And yet that’s not the comment which pisses him off.

 “Of course not.” Inoue answers for him. “Kurosaki-kun doesn’t need to fight anymore, right, Kurosaki-kun?”

 “We won the war, after all.” Chad mentions, nodding at Inoue’s previous words.

 Ishida looks away, disagreeing with the other two but not being brave enough to outright say it so.

 “Oh so I guess there’s no need for you to see Kuchiki anymore.” Tatsuki retorts and then she chuckles, prompting the others to share a laugh.

 Keigo and Ishida, though, don’t laugh at all.

 “What do you mean, Tatsuki?” Ichigo turns to his childhood friend, unsure of what she means.

 “That if things are peaceful now, there’s no need for you and Kuchiki to meet so frequently.” That’s her reply.

 And it…

 Well

 It pisses him off more than it should have.

 “Why can’t I see Rukia?” He questions her and it is clearly from his tone of voice that he’s anything but happy.

 All of his friends know that Rukia visits him often and, whenever she can’t, he goes to the Soul Society in his free time, as per their mutual agreement.

 Ichigo never thought they would have an issue with that because, wasn’t Rukia their friend too?

 Why is it so bad that he still wants Rukia to be part of his life?

 Understandably, there’s a shift in the mood.

 “I…” His tone is so biting that Tatsuki is at a loss for words.

 “What Tatsuki-chan means is that you and Kuchiki-san don���t have business together anymore.” Inoue tries to explain, and when he doesn’t look convinced, she continues, “Because she and the Soul Society don’t need your help anymore, there’s no reason for her to come back.”

 There’s something in the way she says these things that grates on Ichigo’s nerves.

 Because it is true.

 The Soul Society doesn’t need him anymore.

 He went and fought and bled… and he’s not even sure he won.

 (In your happiest moment, I will be back, Ichigo, and I will defeat you)

 And since things have been calm, the only thing he’s been useful for is sending errant souls to the Soul Society and purifying Hollows.

 But one thing is the Soul Society and another very different is Rukia.

 Or at least, Ichigo had thought so before this conversation.

 And he hates himself for it, yet there’s a tiny part of him which wonders if he’s still useful to Rukia.

 If there’s any reason at all why she has kept contact with him.

 So he doesn’t answer them.

 He stops adding to the conversation, though. And the most he can muster is a few quips here and there. Thankfully Keigo can talk enough for the both of them, so he’s not missed.

 At the end of the night, as he leaves the bar, it is Ishida who stops him.

 “Don’t listen to them, Kurosaki. They don’t know what they’re talking about.” That’s all he says before leaving.

 Who knew his former rival would get him more than his other friends?

 Well, Ishida’s his cousin after all, and the two have lived through things the others can’t imagine. Not even the ones who had accompanied them in all of their adventures.

 Even so, there’s a distressing feeling in the pit of his stomach that doesn’t go away.

 Emotions and thoughts he had buried long ago, resurface with a vengeance.

 And there’s an ugly voice inside his head questioning everything he knows.

 Is he worthy?

 Is he useful?

 He’s not

 That’s why Yhwach hadn’t been defeated.

 Because he hadn’t been strong enough.

 Can he even call himself a hero?

 No wonder Rukia left him for seventeen months.

 No wonder she barely had any contact with him for two years.

 She probably came back because she pities him.

 There’s just no way…

 No way she─

 And then, Rukia’s there.

 Back in his life, smiling at him, asking him about his school life, his job, his friends, and for a whole weekend Ichigo forgets why he was so upset.

 But when she leaves, there’s an endless void inside of him again.

 He almost feels like a Hollow.

 And Ichigo doesn’t understand why.

 He trusts Rukia.

 Trusts her more than he trusts himself.

 He knows her.

 Can read her like an open book.

 He’s sure there’s no pity in her eyes when she looks at him, nor hatred or any other negative emotion.

 She knows who he is.

 She trusts him.

 Then why is he so ruffled by what Tatsuki and Inoue implied?

 It’s disconcerting.

 He shouldn’t feel insecure, and yet, here he is, awake at three o’ clock in the morning, wondering why the thought of Rukia leaving him again is so upsetting.

 Ichigo knows he can live without her.

 The quality of his life, though, would be worse and he knows he’d be an empty shell walking for a long while. But knowing Rukia’s safe and happy would be enough to eventually move on.

 He can live without her.

 But he doesn’t want to.

 And the why is the most troubling thing.

 There are plenty of reasons and justifications he can come up with.

 Rukia saved his life.

 Rukia gave him the power to protect.

 Rukia changed his world.

 And yet none of them encompass what he feels.

 Deep inside, he knows all this time he’s been lying to himself.

 And when he sees her again, asking him if he’s alright, her eyes worried and her reiatsu reaching out to calm him down, he has his answer.

 Ichigo can’t keep pretending anymore, because ignoring his true feelings would be a betrayal to his own soul.

 He knows why Tatsuki and Inoue’s comments cut deep.

 He realizes why he wants to become essential to her.

 Because Rukia is essential in his life.

 And from now on, he’s going to show her.

 He’ll stop this charade once and for all.

 No more lies.

 No more betraying what he feels.

 Ichigo will be honest.

 Because Rukia…

 She’s worth the whole universe.

[recurring-polynya]

Please share your thoughts on Byakuya's evolving opinion of Kurosaki Ichigo. * Eagerly awaiting this TED talk *

So, I have talked at length in the past about how much I love Byakuya’s complete emotional turnarounds regarding his sister (from “I will see you at the execution ground -> Her death is my worst fear) and his lieutenant (throwing him in jail for losing a fight -> embarassing himself at a funeral) but I have not talked much about how his opinions on one Kurosaki Ichigo go from: 

to

So come take a pictorial journey with me!

To be honest, as I was doing this, the biggest surprise to me was that Byakuya isn’t actually that mean to Ichigo. I think the thing is, Ichigo is one of first people Byakuya is a dick to, but that’s just Byakuya, and we aren’t yet used to the viciousness of his shade.

So! First fight! Byakuya and Renji come to arrest Rukia. The worst thing Byakuya does here is to basically not even pay attention, while Renji makes a horse’s ass of himself. I honestly wish Byakuya was into spirit phones, because the only thing that would his attitude toward this debacle even better is if he were playing Candy Crush the whole time. Anyway, eventually he gets bored of Renji’s clownery, beats Ichigo in 0.2 seconds, and unleashes this devastating burn:

I mean, I guess he cut Ichigo’s soul chain, but I feel like this alone would have landed me in intensive care for a day or so.

Anyway, so skipping ahead, the next time B and Ichigo meet is on the bridge to the Penitence Tower. This is shortly after Yamamoto refused to let Byakuya fire his lieutenant for, and I quote, “being a wretch.” I couldn’t find anywhere that Byakuya called Ichigo a name like that, so it’s safe to say that Renji is the current king of Byakuya’s shit list. Byakuya prefers to deal instead with objective facts, like how much worse Ichigo is than himself.

Skipping ahead, I really expected the actual fight at Soukyoku Hill to contain a bunch of name-calling and insults, but once again, he’s fairly civil. Byakuya is truly a master of the backhanded compliment. Someone needs to get my man a Twitter account.

A notable thing about this fight is that at the end, we find out that Byakuya thought the entire ryouka invasion was a personal attack, and also that the reason he doesn’t like Ichigo is because he reminds him of Kaien. And then he falls over.

After B takes a sword in the chest, he apologizes to Rukia and then thanks Ichigo, but it’s not exactly... effusive. I am not sure Ichigo even heard it, because he was busy having his intestines put back in.

Finally, I don’t know why, but it is extremely funny to me that Byakuya shows up to the senkaimon to say good-bye to Ichigo and his pals at the end of the arc, but Komamura is there, too, so maybe Yamamoto ordered all captains to show up and make sure Ichigo actually gets the hell out of Soul Society.

Now, it’s pretty clear that Byakuya’s big change of heart re: Rukia happens sometime between the end of the Soul Society Arc and when he comes to help her out in Hueco Mundo and refers to her as “his pride.” So perhaps, in the same time, his affections have grown toward Ichigo as well?

...not really.

First of all, once again, absolutely transcendent drag, especially the part that B said this, with what I am sure was a straight face, to Rukia and Renji of all people. I also love that Ichigo regards this as “mellowing out.”

At the end of the Lust Arc, when Ichigo is getting ready to go fight Aizen, Byakuya gives him this magnificent “pep talk”, studded with broken glass.

Stop whining and go do your fucking job, Ichigo. Fortunately, this style of pep talk is Super Effective on Ichigo, and he gives Byakuya the Patented Kurosaki Ichigo “I am overcome by my love for my precious friend!” Soft Gaze.

Maybe that’s it! Maybe this is the exact moment that Byakuya is won over by Ichigo! It’s probably not because he immediately starts shit-talking Kenpachi, but it happens sometime before he gives this absolutely bananas speech to Tsukishima in the Fullbringer Arc out of goddamn nowhere.

What? When? How? What just happened?

Rather than conjecture, let’s take a look at one last clip from the TYBW arc, when Ichigo... comes to talk to him while he’s dying? As I say this, I don’t really know why Ichigo went directly to Byakuya as soon as he gets to Soul Society, but here we are.

So, I think I’ve figured out the crux of it, which is that Byakuya, above all else, views it as his duty to protect Soul Society. I think the actual change of heart is directly due to the fact that Ichigo killed Aizen-- an internal threat to Soul Society that the Gotei utterly failed to contain. In retrospect, his “go protect that little town of yours” speech in Hueco Mundo wasn’t quite as belittling as it seems-- he genuinely thinks that we all have specific roles in the world and that to fulfill the duty assigned to you is the noblest aspiration. He respects Ichigo because Ichigo went above and beyond, and saved Byakuya the shame of failing in his duty not once, but twice now (and a third time, if you count his familial duty to Rukia, which I am not entirely sure he does). Anyway, I can def see B lamenting to Renji later how shameful it was to ask Ichigo for help and Renji’s just like, “yeah, dude, that must have sucked, I can’t imagine.”

Anyway, what’s really embarassing is that Ichigo does not answer and just walks away and Byakuya stands in the rain and thirstily thinks about how cool Ichigo is.

My alternative, much more flip explanation for all this is that Rukia and Renji started dating during the timeskip, and Byakuya takes to extolling Ichigo’s virtues at every opportunity, just for the purposes of trolling them, but then he got kinda into it. I firmly believe that, had Rukia started dating Ichigo, Byakuya would have started constantly talking about how great Renji is instead, that’s just the Kind of Guy Byakuya Is.

[madamteller]

|Silky Night|

Ichigo Kurosaki x Native American! Reader

Genre: Normal

𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥. 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘰 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭. 𝘏𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨, 𝘴𝘪𝘭𝘬𝘺, 𝘣𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘩𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘱𝘪𝘨𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘴. 𝘏𝘦𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯. 𝘏𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘴��𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘨𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘢 𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘺𝘦. 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘴𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴. 𝘐 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘰𝘧-

“ICHIGO?! YOU THERE?!” Keigo was in front of me waving his hand in my face. I grabbed his arm.

“What do you want?” I looked at him annoyed.

“Firstly let go of my arm because you’re hurting it. Secondly, Teach wants you to show new girl around.” I looked up to see the same girl from nights before. She was staring at me with wide eyes.

“Yeah I’ll show her around.” I got up from my seat and walked over to her. She was tall. Almost to my shoulder.

“I guess you’ll be showing me around Mr. Kurosaki?” Her voice was soft but she sounded serious. Probably from being in the soul society for awhile.

“Yeah just follow me.” She nodded in agreement. I walked outside the door and heard footsteps behind me. During those moments, she was next to me after.

“I know you saw me last night.” I stopped in my tracks to see her in front of me.

“How did you-“

“Your spiritual energy is large and very noticeable. When I came into the room, I noticed it again around you. That’s why I was in shocked.” Her facial expression barely changed. It looked normal. I was shocked to know she noticed me.

“I’m also assuming you’re the substitute soul reaper everyone’s talking about. If so, please tell your group to stop stalking us.” I looked her and turned around quickly to see Orihime, Uryuu, and Chad behind me in a empty classroom hiding.

“Can you guys not follow me?!”

“Chad said he felt a strong presence leave the class after you two left so we went ahead and followed you.” Uryuu said to me nervously.

“So I’m guessing you were the others in the soul society,” The girl said. “If you may, can you please go back to the class so I can finish this conversation with him?”

“First you have to tell us who you are. That way we can have a clear understanding on what you’re doing here.” Uryuu said. She sighed while being annoyed.

“Fine. If it means you’ll leave me and Mr. Kurosaki alone then sure. My name is (Y/N) (L/N) of the 6th division.” (Y/N) said.

“6th division? Isn’t that-” I said til I was cut off by her speaking.

“Yes. Captain Kuchiki. I was sent by him to find the hallows that’s been hiding in the town. He then told me to say and make sure they’re all gone. You know how strict he is.” She then sighed again. I couldn’t help but walk to her and pull her along with me.

“Wait! Ichigo!” I started to walk faster to get away from them. I wanted to speak to her alone. As soon as we were far away, we came to a halt into a storage room.

“Mr. Kurosaki, may you explain why we’re in here?” She looked at me with a slight blush.

𝘐𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝖾𝗆𝖻𝖺𝗋𝗋𝖺𝗌𝗌𝖾𝖽?

“(Y/N), how’s Rukia?” She looked at me in shocked then relaxed her face.

“Rukia is...fine.” She seemed hesitated to tell me. She avoided my eyes. At that point I knew she was lying. I used my hand to force her to look at me.

“Tell me the truth. How is Rukia?” She stared at me like I did something wrong. She soon signed once more.

“Rukia is sick. The 4th division is watching over her. Nothing bad. Just the flu. She’s been stressing out after you and your group came to the soul society. She’s worried that Captain Yamamoto would of killed you guys. Which is another reason why I’m staying here for a bit. I’m watching over you.” She said avoiding her eyes from mine. Her cheeks turned slightly red.

I noticed the position we were in. My body was pressed against hers with my leg in between hers. This whole time we were in a position that makes it’s it seem like we were in one of those generic romance animes when the guy pins the girl to wall. At that moment the storage door opened to reveal the same people we were trying to get away from.

“If you’re gonna do it in school, try and find a place that’s better well hidden.” Uryuu said clearly irritated.

“It’s not what you’re assuming so get your head out of the gutter.” (Y/N) said with a clear fire in her eyes. I let go and looked away blushing.

Was she embarrassed because of this? She knew the position we were in and she didn’t know how to explain it.

“So then what was it? What made you get into that position?” Orihime said softly. She looked upset almost but at what.

“The space was small compared to our size.” She wasn’t wrong. She’s almost as tall as me. Her body clearly shows that she keeps her body in shape but still soft from what I could tell. At the same time, with me and her body in there together plus cleaning supplies, I can see why our position was like that.

“A-Anyways we’re gonna finish our tour and then head back. And try not to bother us again.” I said pulling (Y/N) along once more. I’m rather confused on why she’s allowing me to drag her.

~TimeSkip: 1 hour later~

“And that concludes my tour of the school.” I looked at her to see she still had the same expression on her face. Stoic look that could make anyone talk if she wanted.

“Thank you for bring me along and showing me everything I needed to know. Shall we head back to class?” I couldn’t help but stare at her more. Suddenly I just blurted out something.

“You know, you don’t really need to serious around me. I’m a chill guy. I’m not gonna harm you.” She looked at me.

“What-“

“I-I mean you could relax and calm down. You seemed like you’d attack anyone with one wrong more.” I avoided my eyes away from her.

What the hell was I thinking?

I soon heard a slight laugh. I looked down to see her chuckling.

“You’re a strange kid Ichigo. Rukia was right.” I could help but laugh a bit.

“You know what. Since I’m being honest can I tell you something?” I said as we started walking back to class.

“Yes you may.” She said walking next to me.

“You’re hair is very beautiful,” She looked at me and blushed. “I’m serious. You’re hair is as beautiful as the night sky. It looks so soft and it shines in the light. When I saw you, you’re hair was the first thing I noticed about you. It was the hair that reminds me of silk and the night sky.”

I couldn’t help but reach over to her hair. I was hesitate because I didn’t want to touch it with out permission but she nodded and smiled. I touched her braided hair. I leaned down and kissed it.

“Thank you Ichigo. For the compliment I mean.” She had a small blush on her face and smiles more. I don’t wanna get ahead of myself. We just meet after all.

[accidentalsoulreaper]

Homura’s Tantrum.

((first a little ooc: This is a direct reply with permission, to another thread, between @forgottensoulreaper​ and @kurxsaki​ in the Ichigo is a traitor verse. @bannerofstarlight​ also wanted in on this soo....  that’s three resounding DO IT! from people, for this post. Timeline wise, it’s right after Traitor!Ichigo has tossed Senna aside and is running away here That said, I give you, a Homura Tantrum.) 

~~~ it’s long, so is under a cut ~~~

She was either in the right place at the wrong time, or the wrong place at the right time.  Not that it mattered. Homura saw what had been said, saw what he did, and she was pissed. She watched Ichigo run away from Senna, who was openly crying now.

Her first friend.

The first person to show her actual kindness and the only person who trusted and understood Homura, to her knowledge, outside of Rukia.

Homura followed him from the top of the walls, not even needing to use flash step. She could just teleport after all, and she wasn't going to let that Carrot Top get away.

Oh No.

He made Senna cry, and Homura finally had a reason to act.

So to Homura, she had more than every right, in her mind to just flat out attack.

To tell him off.

“Hush, Shizukana Koe.” Homura whispered as her blade transformed into a Scythe which she threw with one fell swoop of her arm via her telekinetic abilities, making the blade slice through the emptiness between reality and spirits. It wouldn’t cause bodily harm, but it would for a time render Ichigo unable to speak, or call upon his own blades power. Though Homura was made aware, through hearing stories that Ichigo was highly capable, and admired for his natural abilities to brute force his way out of even the most basic of casted abilities.

She had to act quickly.

The blade sliced through the air and ripped away at Ichigo's ability to talk as it phased through his neck..

“What in the living world is wrong with you?!” Homura snapped as she teleported in front of Ichigo, her eyes angrily narrowed, as the all too familiar black and purple clouds of her visible anger could be seen. “Senna cares about you! Genuinely!” She said in a very dark undertone. “Did you even think that maybe, just maybe, she was being honest with you?! Or were you just  going to act like her feelings didn't matter at all?” The Scythe was teleported back to Homura's side, and she held onto it, with a death like grip.

“Or is it, you could never be trusted at all?” Homura accused, as she glared at Ichigo's face. “That you actually hate soul reapers? That you hate them for things they may have said and or done? That you hate their whispers behind your back, that you hate how you feel like a caged animal? An experiment to be observed?”

Homura was speaking from a place she knew all to well. Every day, every goddamn day since Ichigo had allegedly saved Rukia, she was made keenly aware that barely anybody trusted her own self. After all, Homura was just a side effect of a calculated risk he took to Save Rukia. 

“Well guess what, Carrot Top.” Homura said, now shouting at him. “I hate Soul Reapers too! They never bothered to understand my brother and I after we came back, to reunite with Rukia after a stupid parasitic Hollow used a Soul Reaper to make Rukia forget about us, and then killed us in front of her!” She shouted, reminding the orange headed man of the very things he did in her own past.

 Homura then brazenly grabbed Ichigo by the collar of his outfit, with her free hand.  “You never bothered to even ask, why we were even there. You just brazenly kept attacking us, following us. Shouting with all the fake bravado of a hero!” Homura seethed. “Then you stabbed us!”  She yelled, as the darkness of her aura spread, as objects, large and small teleported into the air, as she teleported the pair of them into the thick of it.

Letting go, she swung her arm again, causing Ichigo to fly and crash into object after object.

“For all I know you probably meant to kill Rukia back then!” There it was, the realization. Like a light bulb. It all made perfect sense. Homura now understood just where Ichigo stood in the entire cause and effect of everything that had to do with Rukia from that day.

Homura wasn't just pissed at him now, she was Furious.

“That's it. That's why you were there! You were going to Kill her.” She screamed. “You meant to kill all of us!” Homura was slashing her scythe through Ichigo, in a blind rage, upping the time to prevent him from speaking, all the while object after object was physically hitting him. “It would be the perfect way too! Since the Hollow Shizuku and I were attached to made it possible to make everyone forget about her! It would have been easy! How convenient!” This of course was a brazen accusation, that Homura concluded with zero proof, aside from her growing suspicion, as dot’s started to connect.

Homura's eyes were filled with a deep seeded hate now. This time though, it was actually justified, and not some misguided misunderstanding. Everything was made clear. “You absolute, idiotic jerk! If anything, all my hate of Soul Reapers should be directed at you, and only you.” Homura seethed, as she sent another heavy object to smash into Ichigo. “Here I am actually atoning for my mistakes! Trying to be on the right path like Rukia wants for me! All the while being treated the same way as you! Do you even realize you killed the Hollow I was attached too?! That I'm in the same boat? Not trusted, because of powers that you stupidly gave me?! On top of ones I already had?! That it's your fault I'm like this? That people whisper about me?! That they hate me? Don't trust me?! That I would have been better off dead?! You're a stubborn, block headed idiot! Everything I endured from that day till now... It's all because of you!” By now she was teleporting object after object, and encasing him in her rage, with a strong pressure ready to outright kill him.

Coldly and firmly she shouted as her whole body shook with rage. “You're just like me, but you're walking the wrong path, and you're breaking the hearts of all your friends who ever cared about you!!!” 

She paused, and stared directly at Ichigo's face. She knew she was loosing her temper, and her control, but she was Livid. Then she said something, profound, as something dawned upon her.

“You made Senna Cry,”   She said, as she moved her arms from left to right, as the blade of her scythe moved to strike, and this time it wouldn't phase through. She meant for it to strike true... 

“Just like Aizen, did to Momo.”

Oh yes, she had been told the story, how could she not be aware of that.

It all made perfect sense...  Ichigo, could not be trusted, ever again, at least in her mind. 

It was then that her eyes took on a wild look, as everything in her mind snapped into place. She faltered, she looked wildly around, taking in the area , the situation. Her swing faltered, she tried to stop it. Wanted to stop it. 

History was about to repeat itself, and Homura was terrified. 

They’d lock her up for sure now, she’d lost control, objects were swirling around haphazardly. The black and purple clouds she exuded closed in on her. It felt like she was choking. Her mind was screaming. Hoping that Senna wouldn’t repeat what Momo did in the story Homura had overheard from someone else. Homura’s tantrum took on a darker turn of panic and terror. Her scythe was shaking with uncontrolled pressure, as Homura’s mind internally screamed. 

Someone stop me!

[gunnerpalace]

Can I ask your opinion on Fade to Black? I just rewatched it and my Ichiruki heart is just overflowing with feels! But anyways I love your analysis and opinions on all things Bleach.

I am that rare IR who does not actually like Fade to Black very much. I can see what it was trying to do, and I appreciate the idea in concept (and some little moments here and there) but I am not at all a fan of how it was actually put together and executed. I guess I’ll do this as a pros and cons list:

PROS:

I don’t like Mayuri but I sort of like how he was handled in this movie. Him keeping a physical backup of his brain is a cool sci-fi idea for dealing with advancing the plot later.

Dark Rukia’s design is fairly cool. Especially in the little promo book that came with the movie, which you sometimes see screenshots of floating around.

The degree of attachment Ichigo shows toward Rukia is endearing.

The scene where Kisuke asks what Rukia is to Ichigo is cute and pretty spot-on.

Kisuke showing up in his old captain’s uniform for seemingly no reason other than to tweak Yamamoto’s nose is pretty funny. Him and Yoruichi basically alluding to the Soul Society arc is also kind of cute.

Ichigo using some special technique that’s unique to him in order to find Rukia (because it ain’t reiraku) is great.

The fight scene between Ichigo and Dark Rukia, and how Ichigo solves it and saves her, is well done and engaging.

Their little hug scene that’s gif’d on here a lot is sweet.

The ending where they have this discussion about how maybe this isn’t the first time they’ve met feels a little underplayed (they’re real far apart and stoic for people discussing such mushy things) but it’s still nice.

CONS:

I’m really tired of arcs about rescuing Rukia and reducing her to a damsel in distress, because she’s better than that. The Soul Society arc was the first time, and it was set up well and worked just fine—it’s classic. Fade to Black’s reasons are contrived (more on that later) and derivative. Then Hell Verse did it again and it was just stupid by that point. There should’ve been a rescue Ichigo movie instead, and the Xcution arc doesn’t really count since that’s presented as a horror story mostly from his perspective.

Rukia’s has had a hard life as a character and has been dumped on consistently, so I view adding yet more misery and pain onto her as gratuitous and frankly kind of insulting in general.

While Dark Rukia’s design is cool, it’s not really Rukia at all. It is very clear she’s an unwilling participant. It kinda looks like her, but it’s all Homura and Shizuku, they’re just forcing her along into it. And you know what? That’s basically rape, even if it’s not sexual rape. It’s still a total loss of consent and bodily autonomy. I’m pretty not cool with a plot that boils down to Rukia being raped.

I just hate the visual design of the kids. I can’t explain why beyond saying they just look out of place in the setting. Homura in particular looks like she walked off the set of Yu-Gi-Oh.

The backstory with the two kids frankly doesn’t make much sense. She meets Renji when she’s seemingly somewhere around the age of Karin or Yuzu (like 8-12) and they and their friends are together for ten years. At the end of that, she enters the Academy. In the flashbacks with these kids, she looks indistinguishable from how she does in the present? When exactly was this supposed to be happening?

The entire plot of Soul Society not knowing who Rukia is is stupid. Soul Society is a bureaucracy. From what we are shown, the majority of what they do every single day is paperwork. Just like Japan still to this day loves forms in triplicate, Soul Society fucking loves paperwork. And they love records and archives. And all Byakuya can do is find one lone book that references Rukia? There would be literally hundreds and hundreds and thousands of documents referencing her, or signed by her. The most casual search would indicate she was real.

Kon is annoying as hell in this movie. Like, he’s usually annoying, but not as much as he is here. It’s distracting and grating.

Ichigo is a continual disappointment in this movie. There are so many things that I will give them their own entries denoted by letters below:

A. People say he remembers Rukia when everyone else forgets. He doesn’t. Only Kon remembers Rukia. Kon jogs Ichigo’s memory. Ichigo does admittedly remember fully and quickly, which puts him ahead of everyone else, but he still forgets to begin with. That’s stupid.

B. Ichigo is extremely wishy-washy in this movie. He requires a speech from Kon, can’t or won’t beat Shuhei of all people even with his mask on, and loses to Toushirou. It’s pathetic. I get it, he’s a sad puppy without Rukia. It’s still pathetic to watch. The only time in the manga canon where his confidence wavers when it comes to trying to get to Rukia is during the Soul Society arc, when he wants to stay and wait for Ganju so they can settle their quarrel, and you can read that as being unique because it turns out they’re cousins and Ichigo may know something is unique, even if he doesn’t know it. This shit of him becoming discouraged and sad when trying to get to her is out-of-character.

C. This is an extension of (B), but like. Okay, when Orikasa Fumiko is voicing Rukia, and she screams in agony or despair, it chills me to the bone. I cannot explain to you how much I don’t like hearing it. It makes me anxious and makes me angry. She did it on the Senzaikyu when Gin broke her resolve to face death, and she does it in this movie when the Hollow fusion starts. And all Ichigo can do… is stand there uselessly going “Rukia…” like it’s nothing unusual. If he had been on the Senzaikyu bridge when Gin had done what he’d done, and he’d heard Rukia scream like that, he’d have fucking murdered Gin right then and there in cold blood. And here he faces the equivalent and does nothing. That’s not my boy. That’s not Ichigo.

D. When Rukia is crying over the deaths of Homura and Shizuku, Ichigo just stands there uselessly beside Renji and Byakuya and does nothing to console her. Renji and Byakuya at least have an excuse because they still don’t remember her. What’s Ichigo’s? Again, not him. Go to her you moron. At least grasp her shoulder. Not the Ichigo I know.

The fight scene with the goo monster is dumb as hell. Yamamoto should be able to solo it. He activated Ryuujin Jakka and… completely disappears from the fight. He just straight up vanishes. Because you can tell they realized he should be able to solo it and that would deprive them of everyone else getting a fight too. So he just instant transmissions out of the entire movie. And we get contrived shit like the monster being faster than Yoruichi and Soi-Fon so that Kisuke can heroically save Yoruichi (because him doing it in the Yammy fight wasn’t enough already). It’s just contrived, gratuitous, and pointless.

While the IchiRuki moments are very cute (if a little overly restrained, in my opinion) I feel like the rest of the movie that is set up to make them happen is a hot mess. Things happen because they need to for the plot to work, not because it makes sense or is in character for them to happen. I can’t stand movies that are made that way for any franchise, and seeing characters I care about deeply behave in such ways really just kinda pisses me off. The story beats are derivative and generally inferior versions of things we’ve already seen.

Movie Ichigo is generally out-of-character as fuck (and not just in this movie!) in a way that reminds me of like, Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies (wherein he acts basically nothing like he does on the TV show). And Movie Rukia seems generally reduced to a background character.

I said recently that Rukia and Doomguy would be friends, and you know what? I would watch that movie instead of Fade to Black or Hell Verse, to be honest. Let’s do an outline. 

Ichigo is kidnapped by some denizen of Hell (Kokutou and Shuren and company, I guess? they can still be anime pretty boys even if they’re damned souls, maybe they have terrible demonic forms or something) to be used as a reiatsu battery or some shit for evil purposes. (Breaking out of Hell to overrun the other worlds?) Ichigo’s energy running wild causes some kind of temporal and dimensional vortex which draws in the Doomguy. He finds himself in the upper levels of Bleach’s Hell and does what he does, methodically murdering his way about.

Rukia is sent to investigate Ichigo’s disappearance and eventually figures out Ichigo is in Hell, and so goes to save him (against orders, with the help of Kisuke and maybe the others). There she encounters Doomguy, and is at first horrified, but she notices the rabbit’s foot he keeps on him. She decides to help him, and they’re left alone for a minute, assessing each other.

Despite their initial lack of a shared language (maybe his helmet can translate Japanese?), she communicates to him (with Chappy drawings!) that she has to go deeper into Hell to save Ichigo. Given their shared love of bunnies, Doomguy is down with that. She rides on his back as she did with Ichigo, working some of his spare guns as they go. (Imagine Rukia cocking a shotgun meaningfully tho…) Along the way Rukia freezes some dudes and Doomguy punches their heads off. The usual stuff. She tells him about Ichigo as they go, like she did to Hanataro. Doomguy says nothing because he’s Doomguy, but he seems to listen.

They eventually get to Ichigo and liberate him through the judicious application of firepower. His raging reiatsu causes a lot of damage to the surrounding environment. Doomguy takes advantage of the chaos to commit more murder, giving Ichigo and Rukia time to have a tender reunion moment. The three then team up to take on Kokutou, Shuren, and the other baddies, possibly over the course of several different battles. (Probably like a third or so of the movie is this, and maybe the others show up to pair off and get some screen time. Doesn’t really matter.)

Eventually Shuren and the other chumps die and Kokutou becomes the big bad. Ichigo and Rukia do a big tag-team bankai attack to kill him after Doomguy provides them with an opening with a BFG9000 shot (as he is mostly doing add-clear).

Victorious, the three escape to the upper levels of Hell again, where they are met by reinforcements from Soul Society and explain that Doomguy is a friend. Eventually, Kisuke does some technobabble shizzlewizzle to send Doomguy back to the dimensions he more properly belongs to. Rukia gives him a parting gift of a drawing of him and Daisy in happier times. Ichigo gives him a fistbump and a CD player with some punk music, or a collection of edgy Shakespearean poetry or something.

Ichigo and Rukia share an epilogue to decompress and have some playful banter about how she’ll always be there for him just like he’s there for her.

Roll credits to At Doom’s Gate or BFG Division. Mid-credit sequence is Doomguy sitting on a massive demon corpse, making a detailed Chappy drawing of himself, Rukia, and Ichigo killing demons together as friends. End-credit sequence is Ichigo and Rukia playing an FPS game together on a console in pajamas or lounging clothes while laughing and bantering.

Like, yes, this idea is pretty stupid (although I am increasingly tempted to write it) and a frankly bizarre crossover. But you know what? It feels truer to the characters to me, and less contrived and dumb in setting up why what is happening is. It doesn’t really make the characters needlessly helpless or incompetent to generate those good moments of interaction.

And that is really my problem with Fade to Black: what it has to do to get the good moments outweighs them, for me. Maybe it’s because I just can’t turn my brain off and can’t stop doing critical analysis, but I always feel like the juice ain’t worth the squeeze. (And I kinda feel that way about all the animated movies. I was really surprised by how much I liked the Live Action: it nailed handling things perfectly.)

Other people like it, and that’s fine, but I don’t really intend to ever watch it again.

[euphemeria]

Silence (YR 1.5) - Resolve

I’ve been held up in writing because of this pain and anxiety, and what’s going on in Japan atm. I wish I could finish putting this together before ao3 deletes the draft from my account, but I think I’ll have to put off finishing this fic for a bit.

Tossing his phone aside, Ichigo heaves himself up from the sofa to answer the door. Padding bare-footed towards the genkan, Ichigo doesn't even bother checking who it is before swinging the door open, so it comes as a complete surprise when it’s Rukia on the other side.

"R-Rukia." Ichigo sputters, caught off guard. He would almost believe that he’s hallucinating—it wouldn’t be the first time--if it wasn’t for Ise standing at the end of his floor, on-guard.

Inclining her head in polite greeting, Rukia remains standing outside his apartment instead of barging in like she usually would. Ichigo straightens up at that tiny, yet significant observation.

"Come inside." Ichigo suggests, stepping aside to allow Rukia inside. When she passes him, Ichigo catches the hint of cigarettes cloaked by the scent of something airy and flowery. Perfume; something Rukia has never worn, something different about her within these two weeks. Ichigo can only wonder what else has changed about her within this time, saddened by the thought that she might not be the same Rukia from before anymore.

"You can take a seat in the living room." Ichigo informs her after watching her just stand there, pointing to the couch she used to pay homage to without any prompting.

"I'll make us some tea, so just make yourself comfortable." Ichigo explains with his back turned, already retreating to the kitchen before the end of his sentence, leaving Rukia still standing in his living room.

In the safety of another room--even though the kitchen is a part of the living room--Ichigo tries to recollect his thoughts before facing Rukia. Just last week, Ichigo was hoping for her to appear before him, eyes filled with reassurances and forgiving smiles. Now, it's like Ichigo's made peace with it--if she didn't show up in front of him for the rest of his life, he would've been fine with it--but now that she's actually here, Ichigo's not too sure what to do or how to feel even though he's played all these scenarios out in his head.

With a sigh of resignation, Ichigo decides to banish all expectations and possibilities from his head. Nothing good will come out of it. Rukia is here at his door, in his apartment now and they need to resolve this now.

"Here." Ichigo sets the tea down in-between them on the chabudai, taking up his usual spot when she's over by habit: across from her, on the floor of his own apartment.

Rukia hesitantly reaches out to touch the ceramic yunomi, stroking the familiar crack on the side of the cups from when she tried to prepare tea the one and only time in Ichigo's apartment. Ichigo didn't realize he had picked out that particular set when making the tea and almost regrets it if Rukia hadn't wistfully smiled at the memory associated with these tea cups.

"How have you been?" Ichigo can't help asking, picking up his cup just so he can have something to do or hold on to.

Rukia doesn't answer his question, suddenly lost in the depth of her tea. Ichigo almost considers asking her again, thinking that she might not have heard the first time, but then she looks up from her tea and speaks slowly, enunciating every word distinctly, "Not well, but I think I'm doing better."

Ichigo's eyes widen in surprise. This is the first time he's heard her speak in all the time he has noticed her and after they became acquainted. He was even starting to think that she couldn’t speak. It might not have been loud, more like a whisper, but he’s awed speechless nonetheless. His thoughts must be written all over his face since she grins knowingly at him from over the rim of her teacup.

"Have you been playing me all along?" Ichigo coughs, embarrassed. He probably had his jaw flapping like a fish, no wonder she couldn't hide her smile.

With a guilty look, Rukia looks away from Ichigo while biting her lips. He mentally berates himself for being insensitive. It clearly wasn't her intention to mislead him. It’s his fault for making assumptions.

"I--" Rukia struggles to get the words out, feeling them lodge up in her throat. She keeps trying again, but she can never get past the first word and must wonder after the seventh try if she sounds like a broken record—annoying and grating to the ears. Self-conscious, she wishes a hole would open up and swallow her right now. Regrettably, her body grants her request with the tell-tale signs of a panic attack: the chill before the all-consuming hot flush, heart palpitations, breathlessness, and recognizable tingling in her fingers, feet, and back of her mind that would only spread soon and render her paralyzed.

"Rukia."

Rukia opens her eyes upon hearing her name, looking for Ichigo, who's no longer sitting across the table, instead hovering beside her.

"Rukia. You need to breathe." Ichigo instructs, seating himself next to her and laying his hand against her stomach.

"Deep breaths from where my hand is, ok?" Ichigo guides, demonstrating it with himself so she can time her breathing with his. He continues to keep his hand on her diaphragm to make sure she's taking deep breaths, enough to calm her and loosen her chest muscles so every breath isn't constricting her heart.

"Better?" Ichigo checks, noticing how her pallor looks better.

Nodding, Rukia slumps back onto the sofa she's seated on, drained.

Reassured, Ichigo stands to give her some space, but not before flicking her forehead.

'Ow!' Rukia mouths, glaring up at Ichigo, 'What was that for?!'

"For working yourself up into a frenzy that you almost had a panic attack in my living room, on my couch." he explains, implying how he didn't want her corpse in his apartment. Offended, Rukia sits up to voice her outrage about how it was out of her control and--

Pushing her back down, Ichigo scowls at her with a look that shuts her up, 'I wasn't done.'

"And also, that I'm sorry for not realizing sooner and being a bad friend all-around."

Rukia shakes her head, disagreeing. Those should be her words.

"One last thing," he continues, completely disregarding anything she has to say on this matter until he can finish articulating his thoughts and feelings after almost witnessing her have another episode, "You don't need to explain yourself. I don't understand why you need to, but I suppose if it'll make you feel better or you want to be honest, I can understand, but if it's at the cost of something, I don't need to hear it. I just want to know that you're alright, that's all I need. And if you're not, I want you to tell me," he emphasizes that last part with a steel look.

"We're friends, right?" Ichigo asks carefully, eyes kind.

Rukia feels something fill her eyes and obscure her vision, but quickly wills it back when she recognizes them as tears. She hasn't cried since grade school. She had always thought her tears dried up ever since that incident, but it must be because no one has ever been able to touch her heart with all the walls she's built around it. No one until Ichigo.

"Baka..." Rukia whispers brokenly, hiding her face underneath her arms.

And somehow with that insult, Ichigo knows they'll be fine, retreating so they can both have their own space, taking their cold tea with him so he can brew them a fresher, warmer one.

Meanwhile, Rukia’s mentally berating herself for letting her emotions get the best of her, letting her guard down and showing her vulnerability. The walls around her heart were built specifically for that reason, to protect herself from all of that. She wouldn’t have made it this far without them. Her heart would’ve been shredded to pieces by the whims of people that call themselves her family, classmates, friends---

~VIBRATE~ ~VIBRATE~ ~VIBRATE~ VIBRATE~ VIBRAT--~

Rukia gasps, sitting up abruptly while feeling around behind her for the device that startled her.

Ichigo's mobile phone and Inoue Orihime calling.

Scanning Ichigo's apartment for the aforementioned man, she spots the shock of orange in the kitchen, probably putting away the dishes. Standing up on wobbly legs, she pads towards the kitchen, approaching Ichigo to give him the incessantly buzzing device.

Just like her to be not-so-suble, she presses the buzzing device up against his sides, startling him in turning around and grabbing at the object in question: her wrist holding his phone. He’s prepared to question her, but with a raise of her brow, Rukia switches her gaze between Ichigo and his phone, ‘Someone’s calling you, you idiot.’

Without looking at the caller, only a mumbled comment of, ‘This woman,’ Ichigo takes his mobile device from her and answers, “Yeah?”

“Oh! Kurosaki-kun!” Orihime greets through the phone, surprise laced in her voice that he picked up her call. He wasn’t answering her messages earlier so she didn’t think he would answer her call either, but she was worried when he didn’t message back to let her know if he was ok. Then her imagination started going off on its own and honestly, who knocks on someone’s door this late into the night? Only serial killers and bloodthirsty neighbors.

“Inoue?” Ichigo flickers his eyes briefly to his guest who’s looking up at him curiously. Reflexively, he turns away from Rukia so she can’t read in on his conversation with Orihime. Not that he cares, really.

“I-I-I was worried because you didn’t answer my messages! You’re not in trouble are you, Kurosaki-kun?” Orihime struggles to find her words as her mind continues wracking up all these scenarios of Ichigo and his unexpected guest.

Reminded, he feels apologetic for having worried her, “Ah. Sorry, Inoue. I’m fine. You don’t have to worry anymore.”

“Thank goodness!”

“We’ll talk more about it tomorrow, yeah?” Ichigo hastens to end their phone call when Rukia peers over behind him, wide eyes tracking his lips and nervousness.

“Mm.” Orihime agrees, but can’t help her curiosity, “Who was it?”

“A friend. We’re catching up is all, so I got distracted.” Ichigo answers, cupping his hand over his mouth when Rukia proves persistent.

“Oh.”

“Sorry. They kind of came unexpectedly.” Ichigo explains when he notices the drop in octave of the caller’s usually chipper voice.

At Rukia's suggestive eyebrow waggle and devious smirk, Ichigo flushes and hastens to end his conversation with Orihime, "I'll talk to you tomorrow, Inoue."

BEEP

"There's nothing between me and Inoue." Ichigo finds himself saying first. Rukia doesn't believe it, Ichigo surmises with the unfazed expression etched on her face.

"We just message each other here and there. I'm kind of looking after her for Tatsuki." Ichigo continues to explain, unobservant of how he's digging his own hole deeper.

'Suuuuuuuuure.' Rukia's eyes mock in an exaggerated eye roll, reverting back to their former communication with looks and gestures.

"It's true!" Ichigo defends, more bothered than he thought at the idea of Rukia assuming him together with Orihime.

To prove that he's not fooling anyone, Rukia grabs at Ichigo's phone to validate her presumption.

"Oi! What are you doing?" Ichigo chides his friend, chasing after her--his phone--as she thumbs it open, passcode unprotected.

Clicking on his messages, Rukia shows Ichigo his latest message from Orihime:

Inoue Orihime 23:37 You're welcomed to stay at my place, Kurosaki-kun.

Above that are eleven other unread messages from the last time Ichigo messaged her, so there's probably a context in there somewhere to that last message, but if read by itself there could be a misunderstanding. Ichigo prepares to round on Rukia to point that out, but pauses, thinking back to when and how Rukia would've seen the message if they were talking earlier. That last message was sent consecutively with the other messages, right after he went to open the door, so the only way Rukia could have saw the message would to be to unlock his phone personally while he wasn't looking--

Ichigo looks down at her in understanding, "You snoop!"

Rukia dances out of his reaches, his phone still a hostage in her hands. 'You don't have to be shy!' Rukia's eyes laugh once she faces him.

For some reason, he feels an inexplicable indignation boil over inside him and he snarls, "We're not together!", before lunging at Rukia for his phone.

Caught off guard by Ichigo's vehemence, Rukia trips over her own unsteady feet in her haste to escape. Falling backwards, she can only shut her eyes and brace for the impact of the fall to come.

A fall that never comes.

Opening her eyes, Rukia realizes Ichigo cushioned her fall, but now she has 66kg of male mass atop her, crushing her, quite deliberately too. Ichigo ignores Rukia's harmless slaps against his shoulder to get him to ease off, torturing her in a bit of fun and retribution. Rukia isn’t amused and continues to beat and slap her dainty hands anywhere she can reach him: his shoulders, back, chest, arms, face. Conserving her strength for breathing though, her attacks don’t hurt so Ichigo takes it all in stride until it satisfies his revenge. Appeased, he lifts the bulk of his weight off her, hovering over Rukia as she catches her breath.

'You. Fat. Ass.' Rukia glares, red-faced.

"You shouldn't have started a fight you wouldn't be able to win." Ichigo rebuts, even though he's just now comprehending that this was all a trap to agitate him like she always did, will continue to do, the bane of his existence.

'I always win.' Rukia corrects him, eyes crinkling in mirth. Ichigo doesn't bother to correct her, smiling down at her fondly and committing this moment to memory, especially the way she looks so happy and free.

‘Only because I let you.’ Ichigo wants to tell her, but can’t gather the confidence to say because it feels like he’ll be crossing a line that can’t be uncrossed once crossed.

Curious about what’s going through Ichigo’s head, Rukia taps the side of his temple along with a tilt of her head, causing her long hair to fall behind her right ear from the movement and pull of gravity, exposing a vulnerable part of her, inadvertently. It doesn’t go unnoticed by Ichigo either.

It's brief, but the orange-head is certain he caught a glimpse of something in Rukia's ear. Just to make sure though he brushes his hand over her cheek in indication of what he's doing.

Rukia's elation evaporates in a matter of nanoseconds when she feels the tips of his fingers brush near her earlobe. Her body freezes as her violet eyes go wide, every muscle in her taut and even Ichigo can feel the sudden tension suffocating the woman below him. Immediately, he pulls his hand away from her face, but she is quicker than him, her hand grasping onto his retreating one. She brings it back up to her face, her gaze soft and calm even if her quaking body and trembling fingers say otherwise.

With her permission, Ichigo tucks her hair behind her right ear to better examine what he saw earlier. Unable to see anything, he leans closer over her to have a better look; he can't help but smile at the breathlessness he hears from her at their proximity. He can even hear her smile when his hair tickles her nose and his heart soars, only to plummet when he realizes what it is he's seeing.

A scar that appears to be from some kind of messy tearing, if the deep, jagged scars around her concha are any indication. Against her pale skin, the dark, raised lines are an obvious contrast; it's no wonder she keeps her ears hidden. With shaking fingers of his own, Ichigo traces the scar tenderly, committing it to memory and wondering how such a scar came to be, but refusing all the scenarios that come to mind as well.

Perhaps self-conscious now, Rukia tilts her head back to look at Ichigo, hiding her damaged ear from his gaze.

'How?'

'Why?'

He mouths. He doesn't realize he's crying until she thumbs his tears away with a broken smile that speaks for it all.

'It happened a long time ago.'

'It's fine.'

'Don't worry about it, you fool.'

The fact that she hasn't shed a single tear, Ichigo knows she's not fine and crushes her in his arms, hiding his face in her neck and drawing her closer than ever with each growing second.

'I wish you could tell me...' Ichigo confesses, thinking back to their conversation earlier about how he wants her to be honest with her feelings, but aware that this must be a past she can’t open up about yet. So, he tightens his hold on her even more as if that alone would be enough to squeeze the truth out of her.

Surprised, Rukia huffs in exasperation but not before returning the embrace, pale fingers dancing across his neck, shoulders, and back in a comforting soothe.

For what seems like ages, the two of them remain entangled even after their emotions have calmed. It's as if neither of them knows what to do to break the awkward intimacy they've ended up in. When Ichigo's restless hands accidentally stroke Rukia's sides though, he sees their escape.

Unprepared for the assault, Rukia gasps at the sudden relentless tickling. Embarrassed, she tries to stifle her squeals and wheezing while trying to protect herself from the onslaught that is Ichigo's large hands creeping up her sides like spiders.

The tickling match has separated them from their awkward sprawl. In the quiet room of his apartment, Ichigo can't help but marvel at the sounds coming from Rukia, like an echo that won't stop reverberating in his head. Ichigo decides it's the most beautiful thing he's ever heard.

[venus-says]

Aikatsu! Episodes 161-168

Going on for our dreams with all our knowledge from our great potato days™

Like promised, here I'm for more OGkatsu. It's kinda wild to think I just started this yesterday and I've already passed the mid-point of the season, it makes me sad that this is such a short season because I'm loving it, even the parts I don't like. XD Oh well, it is what it is (sadly), let's go to the episodes.

To start this batch we have the episode of Nina! Like I said before, getting to know idols from other schools is my favorite element of this tour, so this episode got me really pumped. I had a Kokone experience here again, from m past knowledge of reading the wiki, checking youtube, and playing photokatsu I always had Nina in a very high place, but at first in this episode I really disliked her? I don't, I think is her style of comedy that just doesn't hit with me so I had this very awkward feeling throughout the episode. But as I was seeing more of her my appreciation for her started to rise again, and when she explains she became an idol so that she can make people smile like people on tv made her smile when she was younger my heart melted and I open my eyes to my laptop screen and said "come here, my child". XD

Another thing that I appreciate a lot is how different of an idol she is and how her school specializes in something that is kinda vital for idols on Asia but that doesn't get as much highlight in most idol anime franchises. I think the last thing I have to add here is how weird Mieu Miel's lyrics are like I knew the song was a mess (that I love), but I didn't know the lyrics were that weird. XD

The next episode is a follow up from the past one, but it wasn't as interesting. To be honest, I was very bored with this episode. Again, Nina's style of comedy isn't really my thing so watching the girls doing her thing trying to please an audience didn't work for me. This episode could be a very good one to show that comedy ain't easy, and that is difficult to please an audience, but they had to come up with a super kindergarten that has a very sharp eye to comedy on the mix and it ruined every good intention this episode had. Also, this happened and this ain't cool.

We're back to starlight again for another CM shooting, this time for a new line of toys. Ironically, none of the idols participating uses Magical Toy, but oh well. This episode was actually very cute, we could've gone without the Sena x Akari thing, but it was still very lovely. The passion of woman in charge of the Aikatsu Dolls was very adorable to see, and as hard it is to believe, seeing how Asuka gives her love and attention to every Angely Bear out there really made me all warm and fuzzy inside. It also worries me quite a lot because she probably has some terrible arthritis, I hope grandma has a very good doctor.

Episode 164 was kinda weird, we were just seeing the girls running around from place to place recording shows for New Year's Eve, and even though not a lot was happening there, I still liked it? I don't know, it was something so different from the usual, it was interesting to see. Given that I probably feel this way about this episode just because we're following Nono and Risa, but still I enjoyed. I don't know how necessary it was for DanDiva to perform at the end, but to balance things out we can see Ichigo giving some of her knowledge to the new girls making her aura as an inspirational senpai get even bigger which I like.

I was very shookt by episode 165 because I didn't expect the tour to be ending so soon??? It's just the half of the season, they could've gone for at least more 3~5 episodes IMO. But despite this, the episode was still good, the idea of bringing snow in trucks from Hokkaido is very absurd, but I like the intention and in the end, it works so that's what matters.  What I like the most is that this is a Christmas episode that is very different from the usual for Aikatsu and I love that they made something new for it. I don't get why we had to see Ichigo, Mizuki, and Juri performing with Luminas, but I appreciate that they've done it. I haven't watched the Xmas episodes from Stars, but I think I can safely say that this is my favorite Christmas episode of the franchise.

The only thing about this episode that makes me sad is that another "tour" girl wasn't used properly and all she got was just a few seconds on screen.

The shookness never stops, because the next episode caught me completely off guard by already announcing the Starlight Queen Cup. THANK GOD, the cup isn't starting yet, but I sure wasn't ready for seeing this happening so soon. The episode tried something nice by playing with Sumire's doubts and insecurities about the cup, but in my eyes, the resolution of the conflict wasn't as good, I do think that it'd be more emotional if Sumire's realization came after a few episodes. But then again, shorter season they can't take as much time to deal with things sometimes, so I can give this a pass. Now there's no excuse for not putting Mizuki, Otome and Sakura on a collab stage, COWARDS.

Now Episode 167 is probably my least favorite of this season. Nothing here was interesting to see, I'm sorry. This episode is probably the favorite of many shippers out there, but since I couldn't care less about Sena and Akari I couldn't care less about this episode as well. That's it, I have nothing else to add about this one.

Last but not least is Episode 168, and I have mixed feelings about this one. I thought this episode was building up for Risa and Nono to start growing individually, which was something I was eager to see, but by the end, the conflict was another thing which to me was a little weaker from what I wanted to see happening. I also kinda don't like that both girls were chosen as May Queens because it kinda weakens the whole thing they were trying to do. But somehow, even though I have such big problems with this episode, I still loved this episode? I think this was one of the rare cases where expectation and reality are very different, but the reality wasn't all so bad? I don't know how to explain it. Maybe is my love for Risa screaming louder on my subconscious "this isn't what you wanted, but is still good" trying to convince myself this episode wasn't bad, or if it's just my love for the lucky train parody and my brain is going "ohhh this is what they were referencing", the thing is that I liked, despite its flaws.

And this was Aikatsu for the day, no windows update shenanigans this time, THANK GOD. Can't believe I'm just 10 episodes away from the end and that I'll be done with this season in two days, I don't wanna let my baby Risa go. T-T Hope it won't take very long to see her in On Parade. Anyway, I'm gonna get gloomy now while I eat a slice of pizza and watch videos of Risa on youtube (gosh I'm ridiculous), see you guys tomorrow. Bye-bi~