1,784Since for some reason fanfiction cut this out, this is a Bleach/God of War cross.
It said a lot that when she saw someone entering her room using an unusual method, her only reaction to immediately attack with her house slipper.
"You...hit me?" said the young woman baffled.
Ichigo glared at her in annoyance.
"What's a soul reaper doing in my room?" she demanded.
Yoruichi had explained things to her after she happened to see a soul reaper chasing after a hollow.
"Wait. How does a human know about soul reapers?" she asked suspiciously. "For that matter how are you able to see me?"
"My dad knows a certain shop owner, and most of my family is spiritually active enough to see hollows," deadpanned Ichigo.
The fact she worked part time for Urahara to pay for her reading material and other hobbies didn't hurt. She learned more working as a lab assistant with him than she had in her actual classes.
They still didn't know what she was, just that her body seemed naturally predisposed to absorbing various forms of energy and adapting to the point she then turn around and use it herself.
She couldn't use Kido or any of the soul reaper arts worth a damn, because her power was too internalized, but she could channel her spiritual energy into her weapons just fine to deal with any hollows after her.
Coincidentally Urahara had to create special items to help curtail her natural aura, because it was drawing all sorts of the wrong sort of attention. Whatever she was had an insane sex appeal to both genders, even if Ichigo herself was not interested in the other party. The leading suspicion was that she was some variant of kitsune that specialized in attracting their victims, or some other allure-type creature.
The soul reaper stared at her in disbelief, and Ichigo glared right back.
"...I'm on the hunt for a hollow," she admitted.
"I figured as much, but there isn't one near here," said Ichigo flatly.
"I was following a ghost, and the signature lead me right here. The hollow has been tracking it all day," she replied.
A faint memory stirred in Ichigo.
"Female ghost, about 16 to 17 with brown hair?" she asked. The soul reaper nodded. "Yeah, I did her a favor earlier because some idiots knocked over her memorial vase and didn't apologize for it."
It was at that moment when Ichigo heard a faint roaring sound.
"Oh for the love of..."
To the disbelief of the soul reaper, Ichigo went into her closet and pulled out...a wooden sword?
"What are you..." started the soul reaper, before she heard the roar as well. Her head turned in the direction of the sound.
She opened the window and now she could hear the thing clearly.
Ichigo had already headed downstairs, and there was the sound of fighting. The soul reaper raced to the ground level, only to find Ichigo parrying a claw about to strike at her sister.
Her jaw dropped as she watched the girl easily punt the much larger hollow down the street.
"Wha..."
"Don't you have a job to do?" said Ichigo annoyed. She wasn't being paid to kill the damn thing after all.
She shook her shock off and immediately went to deal with the hollow.
Ichigo went back inside, once she was sure that the thing was well and truly gone. They were a bunch of pests.
Ichigo's face twitched when not even a week later, the soul reaper showed up in her class as a damn transfer student.
Seriously, what the hell? There was no way she was actually in the same age group. She knew perfectly well that most soul reapers lived several human lifetimes and rarely aged.
You could imagine how annoyed she was when the soul reaper (Rukia) all but demanded that Ichigo take over her duties because apparently she had managed to screw up something as simple as a low-ranked hollow extermination.
"No," said Ichigo flatly.
Rukia puffed up, fully prepared to say something, but Ichigo held up a hand.
"In case you didn't understand, no is a complete sentence. I am not about to do your job simply because you screwed up. For one thing I am fully aware of the fact that the soul society heavily frowns upon the living interfering with matters of the dead."
Uryu was very vocal about what happened to his grandfather to his cousin. Ichigo had been utterly appalled by the story, and agreed that the soul society was full of shit if they didn't understand the sheer hypocrisy.
According to the soul reapers, the 'balance' had been heavily damaged by the Quincy dealing with the hollows naturally drawn to the high concentrations of spiritual energy. The fact that their powers allowed them to 'erase' rather than to 'purify' didn't help matters.
Ichigo called bullshit on that. Clearly they didn't want the competition and had decided to erase the Quincy before they got any ideas. A hypothesis Uryu had been highly inclined to agree with, because it made far more sense than them causing some sort of spiritual imbalance.
"Are you really willing to ignore the fact hollows will attack the living out of petty spite?" Rukia demanded.
Ichigo rolled her eyes.
"Pull the other leg, it has bells on it," she snarked. "The only reason you want me to do your job is to delay your superiors finding out that you fucked up for as long as possible. I'd rather stay off their radar a bit longer, thank you very much. I've heard things about your so called government that would give any sane person a reason to hesitate helping you."
The fact Rukia was being so pushy and rude about the matter didn't help either.
As Ichigo went to visit her other teacher, Urahara, she heard the full story from him.
"Wait...so she's stuck boarding with you because she screwed up the hollow extermination and nearly died because she didn't bother to use her shikai?" said Ichigo incredulous.
"Yup," he agreed. "Anyway Tessai wants your help with inventory for the week. We got a new shipment in earlier."
Ichigo was deep into the recently delivered stock when she stumbled across something.
"Hey Tessai-sensei...I think someone shipped one of those mod souls that Urahara-sensei told me about," said Ichigo.
Tessai looked at the item in her hand.
"You may be right."
Urahara looked at the mod soul, then at Ichigo.
"Normally I'd destroy this out of hand...but you look like you have an idea."
"I know Gikongan are ridiculously expensive, and there's a backlog on ordering them. But this one is considered defective and can't be sold," said Ichigo slowly. "So I was wondering if I could have it to experiment with."
"What sort of experiments?" asked Urahara, interested.
"Honestly I was wondering if they could only be used on the false bodies soul reapers use, or if an alternate vessel could be used instead."
Urahara looked intrigued. Gigai were expensive as hell, and had to be customized for reapers to use.
"I'll hold on to this for now...but if you can find an alternate vessel to experiment with, then we'll see if your hypothesis is correct."
Ichigo came back a few days later with a toy doll she had found discarded in the trash. She had washed it, of course and if this didn't work out then she was sure Yuzu wouldn't mind a free toy. She had a stuffed animal collection that she took very good care of and the doll would suit the collection perfectly as a new addition.
Fortunately the thing had a mouth, which made inserting the pill into it much easier.
At first Ichigo thought it was a failure...until the doll got up and started to move.
Urahara was beyond pleased, as Ichigo's hunch had been correct.
"Alright Ichigo, it looks like your idea was correct. What do you plan to do with them now?"
Ichigo picked up the unnamed doll, as the mod soul seemed to realize she might be his best bet at not getting destroyed by the scientist.
"Mom could use an extra hand around the house, and dad could use an assistant. If anyone asks, one of my crazy science obsessed teachers made a very realistic AI that I turned into a helper for my parents once he lost interest."
Tessai...was trying very hard not to laugh in front of his boss and friend.
"I resemble that remark," said Urahara dryly.
"I know," deadpanned Ichigo.
The being in her arms looked up at her in confusion.
"Why did you save me?" he asked, honestly.
"You didn't ask to be created, and the only 'crime' you committed was being born around the time an experiment was reaching the point that the higher ups no longer wanted any part of it," said Ichigo flatly. "And I wasn't joking when I said I was curious whether a gikongan pill could be put in something other than a gigai."
The doll was silent in her arms, as he understood all too well how narrowly he avoided being destroyed out of hand for stupid reasons.
Ichigo took him home and properly introduced him to her family.
"So what's his name?" asked Karin.
"I haven't got one."
"Well that's no good. If you're going to be my new assistant, we'll need something to call you," said Masaki frowning.
"What is he again?" asked Karin.
"He's a konpaku. Some idiot scientists got it in their head to create modified human souls to help fight the hollows before the higher ups cut the project short due to ethical reasons," said Ichigo.
Karin looked at the doll who seemed rather depressed over the subject, even if he had been spared because of Ichigo's curiosity and Urahara humoring her scientific process.
He liked having Ichigo around to help him with experiments, as he found her thought process fascinating. The fact both of them were still trying to figure out what the heck she actually was didn't hurt either.
She wasn't human, she wasn't a soul reaper, and her spiritual density was like nothing he had ever seen. And yet she instinctively knew how to modify her body and soul to adapt to the people around her.
She showed every sign of having a zanpakuto, or at least being able to mimic having one to the point it was unlikely anyone would be able to tell the difference.
"Kon," said Karin. "His name is Kon."
Ichigo and the rest of the family accepted the name with ease. It was as good as any, really.
"Welcome to the family Kon," said Masaki smiling.
Kon, if he could, would have teared up. He had gone from an unwanted experiment that was on verge of being destroyed for simply existing to being welcomed wholeheartedly in a family.
As it was, the patients of the clinic easily accepted the 'odd robot' created by Ichigo's after-school teacher. To be fair, this was Japan which was on the cutting edge of technology. An AI being used as a 'helper' was easier to accept than a specially modified soul pill.
"So, any reason the 'transfer' has been glaring daggers at you for weeks?" asked Tatsuki.
"She's a soul reaper who screwed up and is trying to cover her own ass, and is pissed I said 'no' to helping her hide the fact she messed up," said Ichigo.
"A soul reaper, here?" said Uryu, glaring in her direction.
"She's boarding with Urahara-sensei. Idiot was dealing with a hollow and was too stupid to use their shikai when needed. No idea why she didn't just go back," said Ichigo.
That was the part that bugged her. Urahara was extremely capable, so the idea of him being able to punt the soul reaper back to the soul society once she was healed up enough was something she knew he could do. The fact she was not only still here, but in a gigai was very troubling.
For that matter, it had been two weeks already. Why hadn't she gone back yet?
"You don't think she's here to observe you or anything do you?" asked Tatsuki.
"Doubtful," said Ichigo. "If that was the case she's doing a shitty job of it."
"How's Kon working out, by the way?" asked Orihime cheerfully.
Ichigo brightened at the change of topic.
"Mom is thrilled, and dad said that he's very enthusiastic about learning how to help around the clinic. While he can't move the patients directly, he's pretty good at retrieving things quickly. Dad's been teaching him how to help with the paperwork too," said Ichigo.
Kon didn't mind being treated like the 'family pet' of sorts. As far as the Kurosaki were concerned, he wasn't very different from a trained service animal.
Having him around certainly made life easier for Masaki, as he could reach things she couldn't while Isshin was busy with work.