Bleach Characters, Ichigo Has Decided To Quit Being A Soul Reaper And Go To College Instead! Your Reactions?

Bleach characters, Ichigo has decided to quit being a soul reaper and go to college instead! Your reactions?

As requested by anon. :)

Hisagi: Awwww….I kinda *liked* the universe.

Soi Fon: Kurosaki is abandoning the fight now? Ridiculous.

Soi Fon: If he had learned the importance of duty and assassination when he was little, like a normal child, this would not be happening now.

Urahara: Actually, children in the human world learn things like coloring and counting! Not murder!

Soi Fon: No wonder humans are so weak.

Chad: Ichigo, I support education, but are you sure you want to *completely* give up being a soul reaper?

Chad: When you lost your powers, you were not happy.

Ishida: Plus, the universe tends to need you, Kurosaki! You have obligations!

Orihime: Maybe you should go on doing both school and shinigami stuff? We’ll help!

Ichigo: Guys…I was basically never in class during high school.

Ichigo: Being a shinigami is too much of a time commitment! So if I want to do college, I need to just do college.

Keigo: I-Ichigo…

Keigo: You…

Keigo: YOU REALLY ARE A NERD!!!

Ichigo: Shut up.

Byakuya: Kurosaki Ichigo, you do not need further schooling to achieve success.

Byakuya: Merely tell people that you are a noble. 

Ichigo: Yeah…being a part of a dead noble family from the afterlife doesn’t do much in the human world, Byakuya.

Byakuya: Humans are more barbaric than I realized.

Rukia: Hmmm….I’ve never been to college…

Rukia: It sounds fun!

Ichigo: W-what makes you think you’ll come??

Rukia: Because you always need me, fool!

Grimmjow: I don’t buy it, Kurosaki!

Grimmjow: You love fighting too much to give it up!

Grimmjow: The first time you see a hollow, your shinigami instincts will take over!

Ichigo: Naw. I’m probably gonna be a shinigami for the rest of my natural life and then for eternity in Soul Society.

Ichigo: I think I can handle taking four years off.

Grimmjow: WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH KUROSAKI?!?

Ulquiorra: All of you, enough. Kurosaki Ichigo is a human. He is allowed to lead a human life.

Ichigo: Uh….thanks, Ulquiorra.

Ulquiorra: He will most likely be dead before he manages to finish four years of anything, after all.

Ichigo: …

Ichigo: Thanks so much.

These Sternritter posts are legit comedy gold istg

If the Sternritter had to live in Ichigo’s closet...

As requested by anon. :)

Previously we considered what would happen if some shinigami or the espada decided to live in Ichigo’s closet. Now it is the Quincy’s turn! If they, for some unfathomable reason, found themselves crashing in Ichigo’s closet, how would that go?

1. BG9: Treats it like a sleepover

BG9: So…what’s your favorite color?

Ichigo: For the last time, go to sleep!

BG9: But you said no tentacles! How am I supposed to get data without tentacles AND while being quiet?

Ichigo: This is not DATA time, this is SLEEP time!

BG9: This is the worst sleepover ever.

Ichigo: THIS ISN’T A SLEEPOVER

2. Gremmy: Shapes the closet to his will

Ichigo: Hey, I’m gonna go out for a while. You okay?

Gremmy: Oh, I am more than okay!

Gremmy: BEHOLD!

Ichigo: …

Ichigo: …

Ichigo: DID YOU TURN MY CLOSET INTO AN AMUSEMENT PARK???

Gremmy: It’s not my fault your wifi kinda sucks.

3. Giselle: Won’t stop trying to turn Ichigo into a zombie

Giselle: Whoopsie! I cut my finger on a clothes hanger!

Giselle: Go get my a bandaid, Kurosaki!

Ichigo (reading manga in bed): I’m not going near your blood, Giselle.

Giselle: That’s fair.

Giselle: …

Giselle: Want some tomato juice?

Ichigo: CUT IT OUT

4. Quilge: Keeps trying to trap Ichigo in the closet

Ichigo: Let’s see, I think I’ll wear my Nice Vibe shirt today.

Ichigo: Now I’ll - 

Ichigo: What the hell?

Ichigo: Why is the closet closed behind me?

Ichigo: [slides closet open]

Quilge: Congratulations, Kurosaki Ichigo! I cannot believe you escaped my Jail!

Ichigo: It’s not hard to open a closet from the inside.

Quilge: Not hard to get out of a ball either, but -

Ichigo: You don’t have to bring that up every three seconds!!

5. Cang Du: Is stoic about closet-living

Ichigo: Sorry my closet is kinda small for a tall guy. You okay?

Cang Du: I am fine.

Ichigo: Sorry that the only pajamas I had are the ones Chad left which have baby bunnies on them.

Cang Du: It is fine.

Ichigo: Sorry that Kon is currently clinging to your head for some reason.

Cang Du: It is fine.

Ichigo: …

Ichigo: So if my clothes get wrinkly can I have you iron them, or…?

Cang Du: You cannot get a rise out of me that easily.

Ichigo: Man, you’re good!

6. Bazz-B: Tries too hard

Bazz-B: Cool shirt, man!

Bazz-B: This shirt is cool too!

Bazz-B: This shirt is Abarai’s eyebrows level of cool!

Ichigo: …why are you looking at all of my shirts and complimenting them?

Bazz-B: Abarai told me you only fight your friends. So I’m becoming your friend.

Ichigo: The fighting comes before the friendship. Not after.

Bazz-B: Oh.

Bazz-B: In that case…

Ichigo: NO

7. Liltotto: Won’t stop eating

Ichigo: Hey, where’s my favorite shirt? The one that’s too small and shows my belly but it’s okay because I wear another shirt under it?

Liltotto: I ate it.

Liltotto: And all of your ugly clothes.

Liltotto: You’re welcome.

Ichigo: W-what??

Liltotto: Your taste in clothes is worse than Bambi’s taste in men, to be honest.

Ichigo: IF YOU WANTED A SNACK YOU COULD HAVE ASKED

8. Bambietta: Keeps inviting Ichigo in

Bambietta: I can’t sleep in this stupid ugly closet, Kurosaki!

Bambietta: Wanna…join me? 

Ichigo: No thanks.

Kon: I’LL JOIN YOU!!!!!!

Ichigo: KON NO

9. Candice: Doesn’t seem to like the closet

Candice: Sleeping in your STUPID CLOSET has RUINED MY HAIR!

Candice: NOW YOU DIE!!!!!!!!

Ichigo: Candice it’s five in the morning can we please do this later?

Candice: NO

10. Askin: Installs a cappuccino maker 

Ichigo: [opens closet]

Askin: Fresh coffee?

Ichigo: [closes closet]

11. Ishida: Tries to be helpful

Ishida: Look, Kurosaki! I added capes to ALL of your shirts!

Ishida: Now everybody will know about your Quincy heritage!

Ichigo: …

Ichigo: …

Ichigo: You also appear to have bleached them all white.

Ishida: Yeah, it’s shocking how much color you had in your clothes!

Ishida: Quincy wear WHITE clothes!

Ichigo: IS THIS WHY I SMELLED BLEACH ALL NIGHT???

12. As Nodt: Treats it like a sleepover

As Nodt: So……….what would you say is your deepest and darkest fear?

As Nodt: Mine is death.

As Nodt: Death is scary.

As Nodt: But you feel more like a “lives while all his friends die” sort of guy.

As Nodt: Spot on or nah?

Ichigo: …I am so done letting people stay here.

Looking Back: When Did Aizen Switch Places with Momo?

So this was originally going to be part of another post as part of context, then it become too long and unwieldy, so here we are.

As far as I can tell, it’s never made 100% clear at what point Aizen switched places with Momo during his fight again the Shinigami and Visords. It's not even certain how he got Momo up there in the first place, or when he activated Kyoka Suigetsu’s shikai ability to create the illusion it was himself being attacked by Soi Fon, Kyoraku and Toshiro.

It's been discussed a lot over the years across various forums, with some claiming chapter 684 finally showed when Aizen activated his shikai's power against the Shinigami, while others have come up with other ideas.

Does it really matter discussing this now that everything from this moment has been and gone for years? I guess not. Is this all just a massive plot hole I’m just reading way too much into it? Maybe. And a lot of what I have to say here isn't anything new, but I still wanted to make a post about it.

This is more just for me to finally put my thoughts together about this moment and come to a conclusion for myself. With that said I'd love to hear other theories or perspectives about when you think Aizen switched places with Momo. For reference, I'll be looking at chapters 389-392/ episodes 292 and 293 of the anime.

With all that out of the way, let’s get to it!

Aizen’s powers

I think it’s important to go over what exactly the power of Kyoka Suigetsu is before we get into pin pointing when Aizen released Kyoka Suigetsu or swapped places with Momo. However, if you feel you're familiar with Aizen powers, feel free to skip to the next section:

To start off, the shikai's power, Kanzen Saimin (‘complete hypnosis’), affects the five senses, and according to the BLEACH wiki: “It controls the five senses to the point where it can make the target misinterpret another person's form, shape, mass, feel, and smell to be an enemy's.”

However, Aizen doesn’t need something solid to stand in his place and ‘be him’ when an illusion happens. For example when Halibel went in for the kill on Aizen, it turns out she had stabbed an illusion, there was nothing there; she basically stabbed thin air. Aizen didn’t swap places with anyone or get a corpse for her to stab, he just created an illusion of himself.

When released, Kyoka Suigetsu won’t create an illusion immediately, it just means the victim is now susceptible to being manipulated through their senses and falling for whatever illusion Aizen/Kyoka Suigetsu creates at any time while it’s in it’s released state. I’ve taken Aizen ‘activating’ his zanpakuto’s power to mean he is creating an illusion/manipulating the senses of his victim, not as him releasing his zanpakuto into it’s shikai state.

Aizen can have multiple illusions operating at the same time, whether that’s creating an illusion of people or objects being in front of the victim or affecting the environment around the victim to a certain extent (for example, if we look at when Aizen used his powers on Halibel or Toshiro [in chapter 170], we don’t see at what point he was able to get behind either them, making me think he used his powers to affect their sight and hearing so they wouldn’t see him moving behind them as they went to stab the illusion of him).

The only way to avoid it’s power is to 1) for the opponent to not look upon it when it's been released if it's their first time fighting Aizen or 2) touch the blade before the shikai's ability is activated.

It can only affect the senses so far. For instance, it doesn’t seem affect how one sees their environment (for example, Aizen can’t make you perceive you’re inside a building when you’re actually outside of it) or create some massive illusion bigger than the size of a human.

If I’m wrong about any of this let me know, but as far as I can tell this is how Kyoka Suigetsu’s shikai works.

When did Aizen activate Kyoka Suigetsu's complete hypnosis?

Chapter 684 may have revealed when Aizen activated Kyokya Suigetsu's power. In the chapter, Ichigo says he was able to react to Kyoka Suigetsu because while on his way to battle Yhwach he got the same strange feeling he got when Aizen “cast Kyoka Suigetsu on [the Shinigami]” (VIZ translation) in chapter 391; the panel that’s shown is when Aizen negated Soi Fon’s shikai ability.If we take this literally, this suggests he activated his shikai's ability after her second strike on him. This also suggests he actually was wounded by her (Soi Fon had stabbed him once and then tried to activate her shikai ability, Nigeki Kessatsu, just before stabbing him a second time) and that his right arm was frozen by Toshiro:

I wouldn’t have a problem with this being the moment it happened, except my main issue with this is after Aizen dissolved the whole illusion in chapter 392, he’s completely unscathed – no blood or tears/rips in his clothes or a patch of ice on his right sleeve:

The lack of ice you can get away with by saying he just brushed it off, but there would have to be blood or rips in his clothes from where Soi Fon supposedly stabbed him. The Aizen here is not an illusion and it’s made pretty clear from that point on this is the real one, given what happens in his next fight against Yamamoto.

I doubt it's an art error given that every panel of him after reveal is consistent in showing he isn't injured; also at the start of the chapter, Kubo showed where ‘Aizen’ had been injured, including where Soi Fon had stabbed him in the stomach:

If Aizen were really injured by Soi Fon, Kubo would have shown it.

As a result, this makes me think Aizen didn’t use Kyoka Suigetsu’s powers at that exact moment where he negated Soi Fon's shikai ability, but more likely some time just before this moment.

In terms of when he released Kyoka Suigetsu into it's shikai state:

Gin comments in chapter 390 that the others have no clue how Aizen’s power works [after Toshiro says he won’t even give him a chance to release Kyoka Suigetsu], implying that Aizen had already released it at this stage.

If Hirako’s pages in chapter 392 are any indication, he thinks it happened even before the battle began (he has a flashback to chapter 389, which is when Aizen vs the Shinigami and Visords started; Toshiro was the first to attack, which Aizen comments on and Toshiro commends him for not using his zanpakuto powers).

It’s been implied that Aizen just constantly has his zanpakuto’s shikai ability always activated, there’s never a point where it’s not ‘off’ while he’s in battle.

With all of the above in mind, I’m thinking Aizen released his zanpakuto long before he battled them, but he didn’t actually activate his shikai's ability until later in the battle, most likely around the time Soi Fon confronted him.

When exactly did Aizen swap places with Momo?

We get a few potential indicators:

A quick recap of Aizen vs Soi Fon, Kyoraku and Toshiro: in chapter 391, 'Aizen' goes to draw his zanpakuto to fight Soi Fon, but Toshiro prevents him from doing so when he freezes his arm. As a result, he finally gets injured when Soi Fon manages to stab him in the stomach once, then again to activate her shikai ability, only for 'Aizen' to the negate it and break his arm free of Toshiro’s ice, about to attack her. After that, Kyoraku injures him (according to the anime he stabs him under his left shoulder blade and through to his chest?) and of course Toshiro throws everything he’s got into stabbing him through the middle of the chest, slicing his zanpakuto through him to the hilt (and in the anime if the ice coming out the wound is any indication, maybe freezing a section of his insides). The beginning of chapter 392 shows 'Aizen’s' wounds, with Soi Fon and Toshiro’s being shown very clearly. However, after the reveal, we see the real Aizen has no damage at all, not wounded by either Soi Fon, Kyoraku or Toshiro, showing he never engaged in battle with the three.

It’s not until chapter 392 that Ichigo calls out and breaks the illusion, revealing Aizen had swapped places with Momo. Some think Ichigo was shocked by the battle and only found his voice to speak up after Momo had been stabbed, or that because Aizen was a lot faster than Ichigo back then, he moved with such speed Ichigo didn’t see what he did and only registered the aftermath of whatever he did to get Momo up there. Me personally, I’ve always been in the camp that Aizen likely used his powers to manipulate their sense of hearing, blocking out Ichigo’s voice to them (basically Ichigo was calling out to them long before but it was only after Momo was stabbed that they heard him, which was when Aizen chose to reveal who they’d really harmed).

Momo’s zanpakuto is still in its sheath when the reveal happens. This suggests either:

Aizen put her up there when Soi Fon was going to attack him, meaning it was actually Momo's arm Toshiro froze. Basically Momo saw Soi Fon about to stab her, went to grab Tobiume to defend herself, but Toshiro froze her arm before she could. Only problem with this is [while she is a master in kido] I don’t see Momo being powerful enough to negate Soi Fon’s shikai ability using either kido or her reiatsu. Also there isn’t any ice on her arm afterward when the illusion is dropped. Or,

she had no time to even think about drawing her weapon try to defend herself; Aizen put her up there just as an attack from either Soi Fon, Kyoraku, or Toshiro was coming in and she was inflicted by it.

Also upon this reveal we see her injuries. Aside from being stabbed by Toshiro, there's no sign of Soi Fon having injured her (maybe because her garments are black and make this less obvious??) but there’s also a random tear in her uniform on her left side as seen here:

I hate this moment so so so much ;_;

This could be from Kyoraku’s attack, even though there isn’t any blood to show this, but even in the panels before this one there were a few panel showing 'Aizen's' chest injury without any blood on him.

So from this I'm thinking Aizen swapped places with Momo either just before Soi Fon's second strike or after it, meaning I think Momo was likely injured by Kyoraku as well as Toshiro.

With all of the above in mind here’s how I think it went down:

Aizen activated his shikai sometime before the battle begun in chapter 389, but he didn’t create any illusions or manipulate anyone's senses until much later.

He fought everyone in chapters 389 and 390 and took down Komamura, Rose, Love, and Lisa with Ichigo watching on in shock.

When Soi Fon stepped in, Aizen spoke with her for most of the conversation but created an illusion immediately after he comments on her clones.

While Soi Fon talks with Aizen's illusion, the real Aizen flash-stepped down to Izuru and Iba and somehow got through the kido barrier cast over the injured Shinigami. He used his shikai before coming down, making it appear as though he’s still up there talking with Soi Fon from their perspective. Ichigo gets that strange feeling after Aizen creates the illusion, but he has no idea what is happening at the time and Aizen is too fast for him to perceive he's just moved away from Soi Fon.

Aizen grabbed Momo (who at this point Izuru healed up enough to remain conscious and maybe sit up but not completely understand what’s going on and is still in great pain) and flash-stepped back up just as Soi Fon has stabbed his illusion the first time. While flash-stepping to the ground and then back up to Soi Fon, Aizen may have used kido to conceal himself (Momo mentions using kido to conceal herself while she was setting up her kido net to fight against Mila, Sun-Sun, and Apacci; as she's considered a master in kido, I assume a Shinigami at captain level or higher could use kido in this way as well).

Now one of two things could have happened:

Aizen put Momo in front of Soi Fon, making it that she stabbed Momo in the stomach once, so her power has no effect. Illusion Aizen explains this as him negating her power, when in reality Soi Fon only stabbed her target once; Momo might be holding Soi Fon's arm in utter confusion about what just happened and trying to get her pull out Suzumebachi. This might be why Kubo used that particular panel in chapter 684, perhaps saying this was when Momo took Aizen's place. Or

Soi Fon just stabbed his illusion a second time, hence why it had no effect (Aizen could probably make it look like his illusion-self is powerful enough to appear not effected by her shikai ability), and while Soi Fon is distracted he puts Momo in his illusion's place on the ice where she creates a shadow and gets stabbed by Kyoraku. This might explain why Momo doesn’t appear to have Suzumebachi’s butterfly-shaped stamp on her or any sign of Soi Fon having wounded her.

In both scenarios, this all happens in a matter of seconds, given how fast Aizen and Soi Fon can be, so what has happened doesn’t register with Ichigo until it’s too late - and if Aizen used kido to conceal himself, Ichigo wouldn't have seen him until he had Momo there. Ichigo sees Aizen putting Momo where the real Aizen once stood, but he is so bewildered at first he doesn't call out.

When Kyoraku attacks, Ichigo starts calling out to the Shinigami when he realizes what’s going on but none of them can hear him (Aizen having manipulated their hearing to block him out) and he doesn’t get involved because of what they told him earlier about Aizen’s shikai.

While all of this is happening, Aizen flash-steps back down to the ground and conceals himself (either by kido or affecting the sight of everyone to just not see him there) and casting an illusion where Momo was to give the impression she's still there. After Kyoraku's attack, Shinji activates his shikai on ‘Aizen’, making everything appear backwards to Momo.

Aizen watches Toshiro stab Momo, and Ichigo is shocked into silence for a moment. Aizen lets everyone think it’s over for a minute and uses illusion Momo to draw Izuru and Iba away from the injured Shinigami. He reveals the illusion by finally letting them hear Ichigo (who finds his voice again) and unveiling himself to Iba and Izuru, who he comes up behind and cuts down. And the rest is history.

And now imagine this whole thing from Momo's perspective. I'll be talking more about this in my other upcoming post, but in short:

The angst, the angst!!

Other things to note about this moment:

What's up with Aizen's inner monologue before he gets stabbed by Toshiro?

We hear Aizen’s inner thoughts moments before he gets stabbed by Toshiro at the end of chapter 391. Honestly, I think this was Kubo trying to trick the reader/viewer (I guess you could say we were under Kyoka Suigetsu's influence too :P). The part where Aizen thinks about Toshiro rushing into battle could be real though; he's probably thinking it while he's on the ground watching all of this happen.

Why Momo?

The answer is obvious: she is the one who will get the most rise out of Toshiro when the reveal is made. Here's the thing though: I've always felt like there was something more behind this.

Aizen's swap would have worked just as well with Rangiku. Rangiku means a lot to Toshiro and he would also be enraged if this had happened to her, likely to the point of charging at Aizen. The main reason Aizen didn't pick her I think is because of Gin; Aizen knew he had a connection to Rangiku and couldn't risk jeopardizing his partnership with him...at this stage (Aizen knew Gin intended to betray him, but he was curious to see how).

Also, am I the only one who feels like Aizen hates Momo in particular? He tried to have her killed by Toshiro, but when that didn't work, he tried to kill her himself. That also didn't work so he tries to get her killed again in him vs everyone, and thankfully this also didn't work. Not only that, before he stabbed her in the Soul Society arc, he pretended to be his old self for longer than necessary. He could have acted for several seconds (just enough to let her guard down) before he rushes at her and stabs her. But this guy drags it out to the point that he's hugging, reassuring, and thanking her, ensuring she felt safe and happy, before he stabs her and gives her a look of contempt after she realises what's happened; he even smiles after leaving her to die and speaks about her to Toshiro as if she is an object of pity and irritation. In reality this was all probably dragged for dramatic effect and I'm just reading waaaaaay too much into it...but still!

Aizen seemed particularly brutal towards Toshiro

Aside from singling him out to antagonize and rile up, Aizen wounded Toshiro far more severely compared to the others he'd taken down. As far as I can see, Toshiro was the only one in the 'Aizen vs everyone' battle to lose his limbs, the others were taken down with deep cuts to their torso's and sides:

I may look into this in my upcoming post, but in the meantime this is just an observation I've had about the battle for a while now. (EDIT: you can now read this post here)

And with that I'll leave it here. I wasn't going to make a post about this, but as I said at the start, what started off as a bit of context for an upcoming post about how I think Toshiro and Momo reconciled after Aizen's defeated ballooned into this.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read to end if you did, and I'd like to know your thoughts on anything here or just about this moment in general.

I honestly wish they would animate some of the comics like as shorts! The pilots and early seasons of Ninjago didn't have the best pacing, while also skipping over fighting the skeletons as villains. That's what made the comics so good with how they characterized the ninja, while going into detail about the skeletons and the Stone Army, and even adding mature lore in later comics.

I’m never going to forgive the fandom for unanimously agreeing the comics aren’t canon even though their legitimately one of the best written ninjago media’s and have been referenced everywhere outside and inside the show itself

THE COMICS ARE GOOD AND IM

TIRED OF PRETENDING THERE NOT

I would love to see a fic on this.

What if Renji were the one who initially gave Ichigo his powers?

As requested by our-flame-never-goes-out. :)

Of course, it was Rukia who, in canon Bleach, gave Ichigo his original powers and then trained him in the ways of being a shinigami. But what if it were Renji who was sent to Karakura Town on a supposedly routine assignment, only to find himself losing his powers to some weird human? How would Bleach be different then? 

1. Renji would sacrifice his powers out of “weird-hair solidarity.”

In canon, Rukia’s motivation for giving Ichigo her powers was based partly on not wanting a family of humans to die, but mostly on the fact that Ichigo just looked so much like Kaien. But in this new reality, Renji’s motivation would be based largely on the fact that Ichigo has weird hair, just like him.

(later)

Byakuya: Renji….I understand.

Byakuya: This boy….has weird orange hair that reminds you of your own weird red hair.

Ichigo (bleeding on the ground): THAT was your motivation??

Renji: Hey! Don’t judge me!

2. Renji would follow Ichigo to school (in terrible clothes).

Like Rukia, Renji would stalk Ichigo until Ichigo agreed to be a shinigami. Unlike Rukia, though, Renji would show off his penchant for, just, really terrible clothing.

Renji: Yo.

Ichigo: WE HAVE A UNIFORM HERE, MAN!

Ichigo: Also what are you doing here?

Renji: Being a lot cooler than you, to be honest.

Ichigo: That is just not true.

3. Renji would sleep under Ichigo’s bed.

Unable to fit in Ichigo’s closet due to being giant, Renji would instead just sleep under Ichigo’s bed.

[hollow warning sound]

Ichigo: Where the hell is that noise coming from?

Renji (appearing suddenly from beneath the bed): Ichigo, let’s go!

Ichigo: HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN UNDER MY BED?!

4. Renji would still do chores for Urahara.

After all, like Rukia, Renji would need help with his mysterious “powers not coming back” affliction. And so would buy stuff from Urahara’s shop.

Urahara: All right! Your total comes to….sweeping my shop!

Renji: …or I could pay with money?

Urahara: No, that doesn’t feel right.

5. Chad and Renji would send a hollow to hell together.

I bring this up only because I want you to imagine - really imagine - Chad picking Renji up, and throwing him into the air to fight the hollow.

Renji: You are freakishly strong.

Chad: You just watched me swing a telephone pole like a baseball bat.

Chad: This surprises you?

6. Eventually, Byakuya and Rukia would come to arrest him.

I have decided that in this universe, Renji and Rukia have basically switched places: Rukia is the lieutenant of Squad 6, and Renji is an unseated officer. He’s also in Squad 6, though, because Renji still secretly wants to beat Byakuya. Naturally enough, when it comes time for Renji to get arrested, his childhood friend and the super scary captain he admires from afar come for him.

Rukia: Abarai! Abarai Renji!

Renji: K-Kuchiki Rukia, is that you?

Rukia: …

Rukia: You know, it hasn’t been *that* long since we were in school together. Why are we being so formal?

Renji: Well, from my side it’s mostly because of the scary, murderous look you have on your face.

Rukia: That’s fair.

7. Ichigo’s first big fight would be against Rukia.

And he’d nearly lose, too. Because in this universe, Rukia never hesitates to use her shikai.

Ichigo: Ice powers? Do all of you shinigami have elemental powers?

Rukia: How ignorant you are, fool!

Rukia: You don’t even know that my brother, a famous captain, has flower petal powers!

Ichigo: Flowers are basically an element.

Rukia: FLOWERS ARE SO NOT AN ELEMENT

8. In jail, Renji would mostly be sad about losing Rukia.

He just can’t get over how depressing his life became after he and Rukia went to shinigami school. First he ended up in the remedial class while Rukia went to the top, then she got adopted by some hot-shot captain, and then she became lieutenant. And Renji ended up as some unseated officer. It’s no wonder he’s about to be executed, he thinks.

Renji: Maybe if I had trained harder.

Renji: Maybe if I had practiced kido more.

Renji: I just got so tired of blowing myself up!!

9. But Rukia would defect to save Renji.

After her epic fight with Ichigo and 20 minute flashback, I mean.

Rukia: Ichigo, I am on my knees begging you! You have to save Renji!

Rukia: Because sure, he may be a big dumb idiot sometimes, but he is MY big dumb idiot!

Ichigo: …

Ichigo: Man. We’re both so shippy with that guy.

Ichigo: Is this an OT3 sort of situation, do you think?

Rukia: FOCUS

10. Rukia would have to fight Byakuya.

She’d meet Ichigo during his training for bankai, let him know that Renji’s execution has been moved up, and then go off to fight her captain and brother, Byakuya.

Byakuya: Rukia….are you really going to fight me, your brother, in order to defend a scruffy peasant?

Rukia: If I have to, yes!

Byakuya: Respect.

Rukia: What?

Byakuya: I mean I will never let you get away with this.

11. Ichigo would rescue Renji at the very last second.

And then do his best to strike a cool pose on top of the scaffolding…while holding Renji.

Renji: PUT ME DOWN

Ichigo: Dude, I carry a sword bigger than me. I’ve got this.

Renji: THAT ISN’T REALLY THE POINT

12. And would then throw Renji directly at Rukia.

This would not work as well as the opposite did in canon.

Rukia: WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU FOOL?!

Renji: OH MY GOD I’M ABOUT TO KILL RUKIA

Ichigo: Wait, why did I think Rukia could catch Renji?

Ichigo: Oh well I’m sure it’ll be fine.

I wonder if his status as a low-ranking noble and how he saw the difference between nobility and regular shinigami is what made him a more colder and serious shinigami after the academy.

Side note: I have to read 13 blades, Kira taking responsibility for his actions, such integrity.

Kira Izuru and loyalty

Among the many misconceptions people seem to have about Izuru, he’s “loyal to a fault” is a very, very popular one.

For some reason.

But he’s not. Not really. It’s a lot more complicated than that.

Keep reading