1,784Solo Leveling/Bleach cross. The first few chapters are mostly from Shirosaki (Zangetsu) and Tensa (Old Man Zangetsu) POV. Oh and this is Fem Ichigo, mostly for fun.
The first moment Masaki knew something strange was going on was that day. It had seemed so harmless. She was leading her daughter from karate practice, taking the scenic route to enjoy a bit of time away from the twins, only for Ichigo to spot something dangerous by the river's edge.
Ichigo raced towards it, and Masaki knew that moment that her life would almost certainly end to the hollow. She could only pray Ichigo survived.
Except...it didn't. One moment the hollow's claws were about to claw through her defenseless form, the next something stronger and far more dangerous appeared.
"Tch! The King is going to owe me for this!"they complained.
The figure easily knocked back the hollow, who tried to escape.
"You ain't going back there that easily, you half-assed spirit!" they shouted. They struck the hollow's mask with precision and it disappeared. Masaki stared at the...being... who had saved her and her daughter. However she did not move from between her and it.
She didn't care if the being wore a reverse-colored shihakusho... something told her this being was far more dangerous than the one it had dispatched.
"Who are you?" she asked.
The being turned. It looked decidedly female, but the way it acted and spoke sounded more masculine than anything.
"Call me Shirosaki," they said simply. They turned towards a certain direction, before scoffing and vanishing as quickly as they had arrived.
Masaki was just exhausted when Kisuke arrived. She still didn't understand what was going on.
In another area, far away from Karakura...
Shirosaki was annoyed. The king was as reckless as always, and seeing her soft, weak form pissed them off. They didn't know why they had landed at this point, just that the idea of Ichigo falling to that pathetic Hollow annoyed them.
There was no telling how things would go now, since the very act of 'returning' before they spawned would divert the future as they remembered it.
Ichigo hadn't cared, and as her horse they would follow her decisions regardless. At least Tensa was still asleep...the old man could be rather annoying at times.
It was going to be such a pain until Ichigo was physically strong enough to handle even a fraction of their powers. At least things would divert enough that they wouldn't be too bored waiting for that point.
Time passes...
For the longest time, Ichigo had noticed she had... watchers, for lack of a better term. However she never mentioned it to her parents or friends, because for some reason she instinctively knew they wouldn't do anything to hurt her or her family. In fact she would even claim they'd go out of their way to protect them without even being asked.
It wasn't a feeling she could explain, so she simply kept quiet. However she always felt...safer...in a way she couldn't explain whenever they were around.
With Shiro and Tensa...
"Tch...the king as grown soft,"said Shiro.
"It's better this way. She will not be burdened by those memories," said Tensa.
"I don't like it...if she was attacked now, she'd be killed instantly," said Shiro.
"That's why we protect her from the shadows. So that she can leave a peaceful life,"said Tensa. "Is it really that bad, that she can smile like that without worry?"
"You and I both know that things are happening. She's almost strong enough to handle her powers, and that man is beginning to act already."
Tensa did not reply, merely hid a slight scowl. There was someone in the shadows who they suspected was after the physical fragment of the world they had worked so hard for the past ten years to prevent. Even if they prevented dungeons from forming, the energy had remained. And all indicators showed that a soul reaper had discovered that energy and had managed to manifest it into a physical object.
So far they had been unable to locate it, let alone who had pulled it off.
Seeing Ichigo laughing freely with the people who would have been her comrades in another life, the two knew they had chosen well. She was free of the burdens she had carried and she would never comprehend the suffering her other self had endured because of those beings who saw Earth as a plaything.
Even if she never fully awakened her powers, they were fine with that. They were her swords after all.
Shirosaki was racing... they had to make it in time. Ichigo's power had been rising, and it only got worse whenever they were close to her. That was the main reason they limited their presence around her.
Seeing the Kurosaki clinic badly damaged, Shirosaki almost feared the worst. Then he felt it...Ichigo's natural powers flaring up and breaking what they cold only assume was a kido spell. Made sense...the soul reaper's presence was what tipped them off something was wrong.
Shirosaki got there in time to see Ichigo stab themselves with the soul reaper's sword. They couldn't help the vicious and vehement cursing that sprang to mind.
After all that work, after all the headaches they had to endure...and this shitty brat ruined everything.
Shiro was going to make her life hell, regardless of how useful she had been in the previous world.
Seeing Ichigo in that outfit made their heart ache.
"Tch..."
Shiro ran their hand through their hair in annoyance. They could sense that man about to show up, and they didn't trust Urahara as far as they could throw him. Not at the moment anyway.
They disappeared before Urahara showed up. However Shiro failed to noticed that someone had seen them before they fled.
Someone who, by all rights, shouldn't still be alive for certain reasons.
Masaki certainly never forgot the figure who had protected her and her daughter that day.
The next day...
Masaki knew Ichigo would have no idea who that figure was, or if she did, she would not say anything.
Which is why she waited for her daughters to be at school before she used her limited senses to track the figure down.
The moment she saw them, she was immediately struck with a simple fact.
A mother's instinct was a powerful thing, and she knew without being told that this being was connected strongly to her eldest. They were clad in almost all white, and every gut instinct she had told her that this being was likely a hollow or close enough to make very little difference. The lack of mask alone spoke volumes of their power levels, so antagonizing it was a horrible idea.
However something told her they would not attack unless she did so first, and even then they would hold back on the lethal ones.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"I told ya before, my name is Shirosaki,"they said annoyed.
Masaki didn't back down.
"That's not what I meant. Who are you?" she repeated.
Shirosaki looked at her oddly. What they said next confirmed her worst fears and brought up countless questions.
"You already know what I am. Besides, that's not the question you should be asking."
"And what question is that?" asked Masaki patiently.
"The question you should have asked is... 'Why are your daughter's spiritual weapons manifested before her power was fully unlocked'?" said a second voice.
Masaki did her best not to flinch and more or less succeeded.
The other being was just as intimidating as the first, however they did not feel like a hollow. Rather, their energy was distinctly reminiscent of a Quincy.
"Yo, old man Tensa!" greeted Shirosaki.
Tensa, unlike Shirosaki, was distinctly masculine in both form and aura.
Masaki stared at them both.
"Ichigo is powerful, but there is no way she's capable of manifesting her any of her powers...especially not to this extent."
"You're right, the King isn't ready to use us properly...yet. But that's only because the midget unlocked a fragment of it last night,"agreed Shirosaki sourly. "All that planning and effort, and that stupid runt ruined everything!"
Masaki was starting to put the pieces together. Ichigo's swords had somehow manifested themselves and had been discreetly protecting her daughter (and by extension the rest of the family) for years. Ichigo had clearly sensed them, but had never acted upon this information and they had kept their distance for reasons of their own.
"Why haven't you come forward sooner?" she asked.
Shirosaki sighed, deeply.
"We can't," they explained.
"Our very presence causes her soul to rise in an attempt to equalize things. She was far too young for her human body to do so, and attempting it would destroy the limited protection she has as one of the living," said Tensa patiently.
"Never mind the memories...as much as we want to be back with the King, she's nowhere near mature or emotionally ready for that burden. Our job is to keep her safe and to insure she never gets dragged into the problems of the dead...something that damn midget ruined rather spectacularly last night,"said Shiro sourly.
"What do you plan to do now?"
"Ichigo is not ready for us. There's also the fact that the soul reaper committed a great crime when she transferred those powers to Ichigo. It's better we lay under the radar until they come looking for her," said Tensa patiently.
In the previous world, the Soul Reapers had done their part to help...even if it was to find out why the balance of souls had gotten so screwed up. Ichigo had worked great with them, and they had learned several of their laws as a side effect of a close working relationship.
One of which was that transferring powers to a human, regardless of the circumstances, was strictly forbidden. If Rukia had died, it would have been one thing, but the fool had survived and now they had to keep a firmer eye on Ichigo to keep the soul reapers from targetting her.
Not that anything short of a captain-class Shinigami would stand a chance in hell against Shiro or Tensa (much less if they were working together), but they did not want to alert any potential enemies about their existence. There were several sticklers that can and would cause them grief, especially if they made the connection between the two and Ichigo.
And right now, the soul society had a firm "death to all hollows" policy. Shiro had a few run-ins, and not just in Japan.
Masaki considered her options. On one hand, the two had clearly been protecting Ichigo and the family for years, without a word of thanks. On the other hand, it was obvious they were hurting being so far away from Ichigo. They were her swords...eventually they would run out of spirit energy, and when that happened it would be catastrophic.
"How much energy do you two have?" she asked honestly.
"...Enough,"said Shiro cryptically. They averted their eyes, as they had been supplementing their missing energy by eating other hollows and spending large amounts of time in Hueco Mundo.
Tensa, on the other hand, had been hiding in the soul society for years now on the outskirts and usually went to play shogi with a few friends he had made.
Oddly enough, he even managed to track down Chad's grandfather there, and fully planned to reunite the two. Eventually anyway.
"Is there really no way for you to siphon off Ichigo's excess energy?" asked Masaki. She wasn't happy about Ichigo awakening those powers either.
"The only way to do that is to re-establish the connection and Ichigo's powers are still too young and unstable. The most effective way to resolve the issue...is for her to learn our name," said Tensa.
"Or at least learn how to unlock shikai anyway. Problem is, there's no way in hell she'd go unnoticed by the reapers if she pulled that off, and the best way to protect her is to have her fly under their radar."
"Is there nothing I can do for either of you?"
Shirosaki was about to reply before they remembered something. A wicked grin filled their features.
"Actually, there is... You see it's like this..."
Masaki's face was incredulous, but apparently Shirosaki really didn't like this soul reaper for some reason and wanted to make her day difficult.
It would be hard for Rukia to fly under the radar and push Ichigo into ridiculous situations if she was exposed after all.
(Ichigo tried...and failed...to explain to her mother why there was a complete stranger living in her closet. Rukia was shocked to be busted so easily, and quickly agreed to help around the house to help pay for her 'board' since her excuses about why she was even there were flimsy at best.)