Chapter Text
When Ichigo came into consciousness again, he felt… different. He figured that was because of the Shinigami uniform, and maybe because of the change in pressure in his spirit-energy-whatsits thing.
In the heat of the moment he only registered two things: First, he had a giantass sword. Second, he could use it to cut the Hollow monster in front of him. Means. Goal. Pretty damn simple.
He sprinted forward on a jet of supernatural speed, cut off the Hollow’s arm before it could respond, and appeared again behind it. It lunged at him, he cut off its leg as it came toward him, and then he shouted angrily, “This is for attacking my family, you fish-faced freak!”
His voice sounded - different - but on his wave of adrenaline he didn’t totally register that either.
He cut straight through the Hollow, watched it disintegrate - saw a brief shot of Rukia kneeling with her hand over her mouth and big eyes behind it - wondered what she was so freaked out about, because the monster was gone -
And then Kurosaki Ichigo blacked out.
“... Ichigo! Ichigo…!”
The echoing faded.
-
He came to… surrounded by family. His sisters were there; so was his father. Rukia was there. And so were a whole shitload of people he didn’t recognize.
“I feel like I’m dead,” Ichigo announced. “Am I dead? Did the energy transfer kill me? You all look… super serious.
“... Wait. What the hell’s wrong with my voice? Why is it so… high? And why is my chest heavy?”
Yuzu did the weirdest thing - she put her hand over her mouth as if to hold back laughter. Rukia smirked. Dad just stared. And how did they all know each other? And who were all these other people?
“... I am so sorry, Ichi-nee,” said Karin fervently.
“Sorry for…?” And then Ichigo went deadly quiet. “Karin… why did you just call me your sister?”
Karin gasped and put her hand over her mouth. Yuzu nudged her. “Karin-chan!” she hissed.
“Now might be a good time for me to step forward!” said one of the strange men brightly. He had chin length blond hair and stubble, wore a boat hat, clogs, and traditional clothes, and carried a cane. Right now he had an open fan before his face but his eyes were glinting with positive glee that instinctively made Ichigo feel nervous. Not that he’d ever show it.
“Who the hell are you?” Ichigo said forcefully from the pallet in the traditional rice paper screen room he realized he was lying on. Still with the weird voice.
“My name is Urahara Kisuke! And I believe I have an answer to your… predicament. You see, when Shinigami -”
“Geez!” Ichigo hissed, half sitting up and looking around. “There are living people -!”
“They all know,” said the red-haired boy flatly, looking distinctly embarrassed. “And lay back down and cover yourself,” he added in a gruff mutter, blushing and looking away.
Ichigo slowly lay back down.
“Ahem.” Urahara continued. “When Shinigami first reach their powers, initial body reacts with reiatsu. The two have formed separately. So, in a rare about ten percent of cases, when the body and the reiatsu react, they are of two different genders. The problem is, once a person has accessed any sort of reiatsu Shinigami power of their own, reiatsu always wins out and they’re stuck that way. Say, for example, a human was a female. With male reiatsu, as a Shinigami she would become a biological man - as if she had always been one.
“And the reverse is also true,” he added quietly, watching Ichigo carefully. “If a boy accessed distinctly female reiatsu of his own… he would become a biological girl. As if he had always been one. Mind, body, and sexuality accommodate over time to meet this change.”
He finished softly, and everyone looked at Ichigo very carefully, as if waiting for him to respond.
Ichigo blinked. “But that’s not a problem, because I don’t have any of my own Shinigami powers. I’m a human with Rukia’s powers… Right?” he added forcefully when everyone winced.
“Yeah… About that…” Dad said uneasily, looking everywhere but at Ichigo.
“Dad.” Ichigo glared at his father.
“... Your parents… weren’t as human as you thought they were.” Dad winced. “That’s why… the three of you can see the dead.
“You… do have your own reiatsu. It just has only been triggered by Rukia’s. And - I had no idea of this, by the way! - it turns out you’re one of the lucky ten percent. Your natural reiatsu is female. Yay!” He waved his hands around feebly, smiling uneasily.
“But… but that means…”
Everyone hesitated and waited for the fireworks as Ichigo’s eyes widened and it all hit him at once.
“NO!” Ichigo bolted from the bed, back in his human body and totally naked.
“Shit!” the red-headed boy shouted, looking away with his hand covering his eyes.
Ichigo sprinted into the nearest bathroom, slammed the door shut, locked it, and stared at himself in the bathroom mirror. “Holy fuck,” he said in horror, in a girl’s voice, low and smoky. A girl’s hand reached up and met a girl’s face. “Holy fuck,” he repeated helplessly.
Some things remained the same. His hair was short, messy, and orange - albeit a bit softer, thicker, and wavier than before. His eyes were still brown, same shape. His skin tone was still relatively the same. And his face… was a heart… but it was a girl’s. Everything about him was female. And he was still tall and slim but -
And here he looked down.
This turned out to be a mistake.
Had the Urahara Shouten not been hidden by reiatsu, Ichigo’s scream could probably have been heard about three streets down.
-
Ichigo came back to himself a few minutes later curled up on the bathroom floor with somebody trying to pound the door in. “Relax,” he managed to wheeze out, half sitting upright. “I’m still fine in here.”
“Geez, Ichigo.” Rukia’s relieved voice could be heard. “You gave us a real scare.”
“Rukia…” Ichigo sat totally upright and tried to remain calm. His voice was unusually high now even for a girl’s. “Is there - is there anyway to reverse this process? Can I give you your powers back? I, uh… I don’t think I want them anymore.”
“First… you can’t give powers back. They fade over time. And second… uh, no? Your reiatsu’s already been activated. There’s really no turning back…” said Rukia uneasily from the other side of the door.
Ichigo just sat there in floored silence.
“But look, there are lots of advantages to being a girl!” said Rukia quickly, in a falsely cheerful voice. “Like -”
“We’re softer! We smell nicer! We have great racks!” Karin’s voice shouted immediately. “And you know that thing where a girl kicks you in the balls? Nobody can do that to you anymore! But you can totally do it to other people!”
“And we have so much better variety when it comes to fashion,” Yuzu sang. “We like hot guys! And especially in Japanese society, we’re so much more independent! All men do is work all the time, but women know how to raise families, get involved with society, cook and do housework, do first aid - and, in modern society, we can still work! This is literally supposed to be the age of the woman - feminism and all.”
“Girls are much more social and emotionally open according to much modern science,” said the timid voice of what must be the girl with the black pigtails. “They don’t have as many problems with anger and aggressive testosterone, can think things through better, and have a much more diverse sexual capability.”
“Girls tend to be more creative and critical thinking,” said Rukia wisely. “We tend not to think we’re as good at math, but honestly, who wants to do math? And we may be smaller, but we’re faster and more agile!”
“Also girls are sexy,” said Karin.
“That too!” said the other three eagerly.
“Look, a teacher once said this to me, he said,” said Rukia, “and this was a Shinigami. ‘Men, never get into a fight with a woman. When men fight, they have rules. When women fight -’”
“They have no rules.” Dad’s voice, sounding amused and thoughtful, reminiscent. “Yeah, I remember that one. I still take that advice.”
Ichigo took a deep breath, got up, wrapped a towel around… herself? And walked out into the hallway, her eyes deadly. “Dad, I want an explanation,” she said icily. “Now.”
Dad winced but scratched at his head and admitted, “That’s… fair. Let’s all go sit back down. Here we go.”
They all sat slowly back down in the pallet room, cross legged in a circle.
“So… how did I get here? Who are these people?”
“They’re black marketers,” said Rukia. “Former Shinigami. Urahara and his Shouten: the pigtailed girl is Ururu, the red haired boy is Jinta, and the assistant with dreadlocks is Tessai. They realized something was wrong and came to help me.
“They put me in a fake body.” She waved to herself; she was now wearing a loose dress. “Because all my powers are gone - they’re inside you. Possibly for months. They healed your family and woke them up. They put your soul back in its body, which transformed upon impact… and they took you back to the Urahara Shouten in Karakura. That’s where you are right now.”
“And that’s about how much we know,” said Karin, totally lost. “What the hell happened last night?”
“Yes. I will need all the specifics,” said Urahara, standing serious and deadly in the background.
And so Rukia and Ichigo told their story. Ichigo talked about seeing ghosts all his life in tandem with a basic Japanese Buddhist concept of death, Rukia talked about trying to discover a source of enormous reiatsu upon being assigned to Karakura as a Shinigami, one of those spirits who traditionally sent the ghosts on to the Otherworld (called Soul Society). They met each other mostly through this happenstance. Rukia explained Shinigami and Hollows, both to Ichigo then and to the assembled now, then the Hollow she’d been tracking attacked the Kurosaki home.
Ichigo broke free of the kido spell and got in the way with his emotions and protective instincts, Rukia jumped in front of him to save him from a Hollow attack, and since she was too injured to fight Rukia gave her Shinigami powers to Ichigo. Ichigo defeated the Hollow, not realizing his physical transformation, and blacked out.
“So… Ichi-nee’s a Shinigami now?” said Karin curiously. Yuzu gasped in excitement.
“What?! I never agreed to that!” said Ichigo, panicked.
“Yeah, actually, you kind of did, kid,” said Dad bluntly. “What Rukia did for you, giving away her powers? It’s illegal. If you don’t figure out how to do her job until she recovers, she gets the ax.”
Ichigo looked over searchingly at Rukia, who looked away in quiet embarrassment.
“Besides,” Dad added bracingly, “it’s in your blood.”
“Yeah, about that.” Ichigo turned to his Dad with narrowed eyes. “Why do I have my own Shinigami powers? What did you mean about you and Mom not being… human?”
Rukia, Karin, and Yuzu turned to Ichigo’s Dad at this as well.
Dad sighed. “My… my given name is Isshin.” Rukia gasped. “Yeah.” Dad rolled his eyes. “That Isshin. Kids, you don’t know this, but Shinigami have an ingrained nobility. I was head of the noble Shiba Clan in the Shinigami Soul Society’s Seireitei for… a long time. I was a Captain class Shinigami, the highest level you can have after Commander. I was also… a total flirt. Skirt chaser, that kinda thing.”
“Now that I can see,” Karin muttered.
“I knew Rukia’s older brother - a fellow noble named Kuchiki Byakuya, much more serious and fiery than me, about my age but already freshly widowed. Married a commoner, if you can believe that. But Rukia was in the Academy and not adopted by the Kuchiki yet, so she never knew me. The two under me were Matsumoto Rangiku, Vice Captain of the Tenth Division, and Hitsugaya Toshiro - a young child prodigy who graduated Academy in six goddamn weeks. Third Seat of the Tenth Division. I’ve heard since that Matsumoto stayed where she was and Hitsugaya was made Captain. Kid always did expect too much of himself when it came to the people he cared about. Anyway…
“During a solo mission, I was saved by one of the remaining Quincy - a young woman. Sorry, Quincy were special humans who’d learned to use their spiritual powers to fight. This girl could use her reiatsu to make a giant bow and arrow. She was a Quincy Archer. That’s right,” he added, smiling. “Her name was Kurosaki Masaki.
“Instead of letting me die as a Shinigami Captain, she went against our natural rivalry and saved my life, was even injured while doing so - but she defeated the Hollow. We went our separate ways, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Masaki. She’d been tough, warm, funny, friendly, determined to pretend she wasn’t hurt. I went down in secret into the living world to see her again, not intending to stay…
“But I saw her in the process of becoming a Hollow. A part of the Hollow was eating away from her injury to her core. The only way I could save her was by tying my well soul to hers… But in the process, both of us would lose all of our powers.
“Urahara helped. He tied our souls together, fashioned me a body - which my soul no longer rejected because I was no longer a Shinigami. And I never went back to my home. I had to find out later that my clan had been banished from Shinigami society, into the commoner’s quarters, because of me. My Division thought I’d defected, turned coward. Lots of people still probably haven’t forgiven me.
“... But you know what? We had a good life, your mother and I.” He smiled as he remembered it. “We gave birth to three kids, and of course they all had crazy powerful reiatsu - Ichigo, our eldest, the most of all, but Karin and Yuzu too. We dated through college, got married, had a family… and she died. She left us. But we still had good times. We still have good times, the four of us! Right?”
Ichigo looked solemn and sad. Karin looked serious, nodding silently. Yuzu was in tears.
“That’s right. It’s why your mother and I never told you anything - we wanted you to be human first. So.” Dad smiled rather whimsically. “I really can’t think of anything I regret. The last thing I expected was to become some widower human mourning a great lost love and doing the single father thing, but I suppose I can surprise even myself.
“And that’s the story. Your mother… she’d have wanted to be here to tell it with me. She saved me and I saved her. It was reciprocal. Yeah?”
He looked at Ichigo meaningfully.
“I saved the girl,” he said, “but the girl also saved me. We were even.”
Ichigo looked downward, puzzled and reluctantly thoughtful.
“Wait, so why aren’t you a Shinigami again?” said Karin suddenly. “Mom’s… she’s gone, right?”
“Yeah. I have, oh, I’d say another… two seasons as a human,” Dad agreed cheerfully. “Then my powers come back.” He smiled.
Yuzu cheered. Ichigo smiled reluctantly despite himself. “Geez, Yuzu, you get so excited,” said Karin, amused but exasperated.
“That’s right, my daughter!” Isshin suddenly boomed, becoming theatrical and joking again, throwing a fist in the air.
“Oh God,” said Ichigo flatly.
“I now have another daughter and love conquers all and together we shall -!” Isshin charged toward Yuzu, who screamed and sprinted out of the room. They could be heard thundering down the hall.
“So all the Shiba are like that,” Rukia realized absently, looking after them.
“Huh? You knew some of my relatives?” Ichigo asked curiously.
“Oh… yes.” Rukia blushed and looked down, surprising Ichigo. “There was… I’d just been adopted as a commoner by the Kuchiki, by Kuchiki Byakuya, and I was feeling very lonely because everyone treated me differently. But then I entered the Thirteenth Division, and - this guy who must be your father’s cousin - Shiba Kaien… He was my Vice Captain. And he was great!” She sat forward eagerly. “Just like your father! He was warm and funny and open and direct, and he had this beautiful wife, and he was really powerful, and I looked up to him a lot. I called him Kaien-dono.”
“Well, I’ll have to meet him someday,” said Ichigo, smiling uneasily.
But Rukia looked down quietly. The Urahara Shouten had gone suspiciously silent and only Karin looked as confused as Ichigo felt.
“... He died, didn’t he?” said Karin suddenly, looking closely into Rukia’s face.
“... Yes,” Rukia whispered. “His wife, also a Shinigami, was killed by a Hollow. He went after it to avenge her honor. And… they all have different abilities… it could take people over… it took him over…”
“He asked you to kill him to save him,” said Ichigo softly, realizing. “So that he didn’t hurt anyone he cared about.”
Rukia looked up, white as a sheet. “How did you know -?!”
“Because,” said Ichigo softly, sympathetic, “that’s what I’d have done. And he’s my cousin.” She smiled painfully.
Rukia stared at Ichigo with big eyes. “... I’m sorry!” she said suddenly, leaning forward. “I’ve never gotten to say it to a member of his family before, I’ve never had the guts to look them in the eye, but you all are so amazing and I’m sorry I -!” Her voice was trembling.
“It’s okay, Rukia, geez.” Ichigo was smiling. Rukia paused in surprise. “Don’t you get it? You did him a really big favor. The biggest one anyone could. I mean, if we’re talking about me…”
Ichigo looked down.
“Dieing is horrible,” she whispered. “But hurting someone I cared about because some stupid Hollow told me to is even more horrible.”
“You did the only thing you could, kid,” said Karin evenly, tough but sympathetic. “We all did the only thing we could - right back to Rukia and Dad, right through till last night. We all just do the best we can.”
“Correct.” Everyone looked around. Isshin had walked back in, smiling softly. “I heard everything,” he told a stricken Rukia, hands in his pockets. He looked at the ceiling. “Kaien was a good kid,” he said. “And it sounds like he died the way every Shinigami wants to.”
Rukia bowed low. “... Thank you,” she whispered.
“Now.” Isshin walked up. “Will you help me with my kid? I think she needs a little coaching - in how to be a Shinigami, yeah, but also in how to be a woman. We’ve gotta figure this out.”
“Y-yes!” said Rukia suddenly, straightening, apparently feeling even more loyalty to the Shiba name than she did toward the Shinigami - especially after hearing Isshin’s story. “Ichigo… if it’s any consolation.” She winced. “This is considered normal in the Soul Society. Nobody judges. Changes like this are considered natural. You’d just be taken as you are and treated as a woman.”
“That’s great, Rukia,” said Ichigo heavily, suddenly tired. “But I’m not in the Soul Society. I grew up in my mother’s world, where sex changes are judged a lot.”
“So. Damage control!” Urahara sang, snapping his fan shut. Everyone jumped. “We’ll be chipping in and helping as former Shinigami just like everyone else! Operation Make Ichigo A Shinigami Woman has commenced! To that end, can I make a few suggestions?”
“... That’d be fucking amazing,” said Ichigo wearily. “Because I have no idea what to do.”
“We will give you a week to recover,” said Urahara. “Here at the Shouten. Amongst other things, you will pick out a new female name for yourself, reassess your fashion and interests, learn more about being female, and start Shinigami training plans with everyone. I recommend you start with all basics mastered by non seated Shinigami officers. The Shouten is open to you, I am open to you, as is your father and Rukia. I’m in the process of calling Yoruichi back in as well. As a former noble lady Shinigami, she should be able to help.”
“We can take care of anything around the house and cover for you,” said Yuzu helpfully, as Karin bumped Ichigo encouragingly in the shoulder. “We might even be able to teach you some of the nursing and cooking stuff we do!” Ichigo smiled uncertainly, bewildered.
“You then go back to school and meet your old friends with a note from the old Ichigo, who has transferred schools. His new female cousin, with a brand new name, has switched schools and towns with him and is now living with the old Ichigo’s family. Get it?”
He raised an eyebrow.
“... Yeah,” said Ichigo cautiously, frowning, still feeling very awkward in… her new body. “I get it. But this is going to take a long time getting used to.”
“It always does,” said Urahara casually. “My, you truly are remarkable, Kurosaki-san. Not only are you a female ten percenter and an unheard of Quincy-Shinigami hybrid…
“But out of all three, you came out the oldest and the strongest. You have a lot going for you.”