"Hey Ichigo! We're heading out to karaoke tonight, want to join in?" asked Tatsuki.

"Sure, just let me text mom first!" said Ichigo.

"Didn't you agree to do the chores for Yuzu in exchange for her covering you last week?" asked Muramasa.

Ichigo winced.

"I completely forgot about that. Yuzu has been eager for that big sale all week because of it, and Mom said they'd make a day of it."

"Muramasa again?" asked Tatsuki.

"He reminded me I agreed to do Yuzu's chores today in exchange for her covering me last week," said Ichigo. She spotted a familiar face returning from the restroom. "Hey Chad! Yuzu wanted to know if you would like to join her and mom for their extended shopping trip later tonight."

Chad did a slow blink.

"Same agreement as usual?" said Chad.

"I'm assuming," said Ichigo.

The agreement being that the women would help Chad buy groceries during the special sales, and all he had to do was carry the loads home until they got them seperated. It was a win-win for everyone...especially since Chad's height and build meant that the 'nice housewives' wouldn't be able to actually fight him for the items the two women secured for themselves.

Ichigo had gone exactly once. That was a battlefield she happily left to her mother and sister, because it was downright terrifying.

As she headed home, she saw some punks knock over a memorial vase without any regard to the person it was left for. Since she could see spirits, this pissed her off immensely.

Inside Ichigo's inner world...

She took one look at the ghostly girl and knew exactly what was about to happen. Muramasa was resting on the crystalline pillars that jutted out from the lake that had formed in Ichigo's inner world after he tentatively bonded with her. He had found his spiritual pressure had stabilized after the bond formed, and he found Ichigo's inner world strange...but restful.

Close to the lake was a massive cave that seemed to go quite deep. Muramasa wisely never ventured close to the area, as he instinctively knew it belonged to Ichigo's original zanpakuto. So as not to awaken the great beast, Muramasa only ever referred to her as "Shirosaki" or "Shiro" for short.

The first and only time Shiro had given him a hint of her spiritual power, he had understood why she had sought out even a lost zanpakuto such as him. Ichigo's spiritual powers were strong...too strong for a mere human to contain if Shiro were to go all out.

Having her support a second zanpakuto allowed her to learn how to properly use one without accidentally killing her. Or as Shiro had pointed out, drawing the absolute wrong sort of attention to a child who had no idea how deadly the afterlife could be to those with real power.

Better for him to mask her true power until she was old enough to use it. The fact it allowed him to exist properly was just a pleasant bonus for him.

Muramasa noticed Shiro waking up slightly. Not enough to leave the inner world, but enough to talk properly.

"Is something wrong?"

"Tonight there will be a soul reaper in Ichigo's room. She will be following a hollow, but Ichigo's spiritual density is so strong it will block her senses," said Shiro.

Muramasa went ramrod straight.

"Are you sure?"

Shiro let out a sardonic laugh.

"This event was ingrained in my memory since the day Rukia Kuchiki shoved her sword into Ichigo's chest to kickstart their shinigami heritage."

Muramasa narrowed his eyes.

"I see."

Shiro stared the 'older' zanpakuto down.

"You know what is required of you."

"I will not allow the shinigami to share their powers with Ichigo. She has no need of them anyway," said Muramasa.

Ichigo's powers were already active, more or less. Isshin had started Ichigo on proper kendo lessons the day she brought Muramasa home. Shortly after she hit puberty, he introduced her to a friend of his...Yoruichi.

Much to his dismay, Yoruichi was swift to train Ichigo out of any sense of body shame whatsover. If not for Masaki's intervention, Ichigo would walk around without a stitch on while at home.

On the plus side, Ichigo was at least trained this time. Shiro would count it as a win.

Later that night, Muramasa watched as things played out pretty much as Shiro had told him. The woman appeared in Ichigo's room, clearly chasing a hollow. However Ichigo's spiritual density blocked her senses, so she didn't really notice when the hollow came too close.

Not until Yuzu came up the stairs, bleeding from the hollow's attack.

Ichigo saw red, and did not let the fact Rukia had bound her with a spell prevent her from getting up to protect her family. Breaking the binding was nothing.

Muramasa made sure to speak to Ichigo before she could think to charge against the hollow.

"Ichigo. The sword on the mantle. Use it."

Ichigo paused.

'Are you sure Muramasa?'

"It will be more effective than the crutches and you can take out the monster if you target the mask," explained Muramasa. "Not to mention the sword can block the claws without issue."

Ichigo didn't question his words, and rather than grab the crutches nearby, she took the sword off the wall. Rukia hadn't noticed the blade, but she definitely felt the way the spiritual pressure around her shifted.

Ichigo took a proper defensive stance, and when the hollow went to attack she parried it's claws. Then she used the blade to cut off the arm holding Karin. Catching her sister, she put her out of harm's way before she glared at the monster.

"No one targets my family and gets away with it," she snarled.

With precision that belayed her inexperience with actual fighting, Ichigo slashed the mask of the hollow. It screamed as the zanpakuto purified the fallen spirit.

"You...how did you defeat that hollow?" demanded Rukia.

"I've been taking kendo lessons for almost five years now," shrugged Ichigo.

She did not tell Rukia that Muramasa suggested using him instead of the crutches though.

Ichigo's face twitched when she saw Rukia in her class.

She was even less amused when Rukia forcibly dragged her off during lunch.

"Ok, what the actual hell?" she demanded.

"I need you to do my job. Due to my injuries, I've lost the ability to fight hollows and I have to wait for my spiritual power to recover."

"And this involves me why?" demanded Ichigo.

"You were able to cut though the hollow's mask last night with a sword," said Rukia as if that explained everything. It really didn't.

"Absolutely not," said Ichigo. "I am not doing your job just because you screwed up."

Rukia put on a strange glove, and some instinct caused Ichigo to dodge the attack. She glared at Rukia, as it was clear the other woman intended to force Ichigo's compliance in the matter.

Instead Ichigo went back to class and made a note to visit Hat and Clogs to demand an explanation.

"You have got to be joking," said Ichigo irate.

"Nope. For whatever reason, Kuchiki-san has lost her powers and will take some time to recover," said Urahara.

Ichigo felt something in the back of her mind wake up, and knew it was likely Shiro. Something about the situation pissed her off immensely, so she decided to cede control to Shiro and let this idiot have it.

"You arrogant ass. Did you really think this was the BEST time to use a defective gigai to erase that damn thing?! She's the adopted sister of the Kuchiki-clan head!" snapped Shiro.

Urahara went absolutely stiff in shock, before he looked at Ichigo properly.

"And to whom am I speaking?"

"Shirosaki, you halfwit. You're practically handing that bastard Aizen the Hogyoku on a damn platter at this rate!" said Shiro irate.

Urahara openly flinched.

"How do you..."

"I know what really happened to Hiyori and the others and why you had to flee the Soul Society. They're going to come for her the second she fails to report back, and it won't be some paltry soul reaper. It'll be the Captain of the sixth division and his vice-captain," said Shiro matter of factly. "Why do you think I directed Ichigo to Muramasa in the first place?"

Urahara looked at the very irritated "Shiro" with interest.

"And how do you know all this?"

Shiro stared him dead in the eye, before rattling off a series of letters and numbers. Urahara looked absolutely gobsmacked, when he realized what she was referencing.

"Wait...it actually worked?"

"Only because Ichigo's power levels became utterly ridiculous after the Winter War. She had to stay behind to keep the device active...so I was sent in her place. We failed to take into account that the first time we came in contact with the afterlife was the day mom was killed at the riverbank."

Urahara could tell that Ichigo was lagging. Before he could ask any other questions, Ichigo slumped slightly before regaining control.

"Well that was interesting."

Ichigo tilted her head before she looked at Urahara.

"She said don't bother asking her about future events, because she's not talking."

"Why?"

"Too much information leads to her knowledge becoming useless, or events playing out worse than they already have," said Ichigo. "Though she did share one bit of information."

"What's that?"

"When you come across a mod konpaku that's labeled defective in one of your shipments, hold it back. Apparently popping them into dolls works just as well, and she was fond of the perverted idiot."

Urahara blinked.

"A defective mod soul?" he said. "Give me a moment."

He went into the back, and after about ten minutes came out with what looked like an odd pill dispenser.

"Is this what she's talking about?" asked Urahara.

Ichigo nodded. She would get a plushie from the store to put the soul in, just to be sure.

"How much?"

"Free of charge," said Urahara easily. "I'd have disposed of it otherwise, so this saves me the trouble. Besides, I had no idea you could put them in dolls."

When he saw Ichigo again two days later, it was with a stuffed lion in her bag. He had to blink when it waved at him briefly before going limp again.

"How are things with the soul reaper?" asked Urahara.

By this point, anyone with regular contact with Ichigo had learned sign language to communicate with Muramasa in case he didn't have his white board and marker handy.

Muramasa had a very tired expression on his face.

"That bad huh."

The deadpan look he gave said volumes. Since Urahara was a soul reaper, Muramasa wrapped one of his strings around his wrist.

"The woman is a damn menace and I cannot wait for her to leave."

Urahara winced.

"What happened?"

It was a good thing he kept the liquor cabinet stocked, because Muramasa had a long rant to get off his chest. Apparently Rukia had been trying to force Ichigo into doing her job, since her powers were being used to hopefully destroy that artifact using the defective gigai Urahara gave her.

He now understood it was a lost cause, but the only thing he had to remove the Hogyoku without killing her was in the soul society...likely in the hands of the very man Shirosaki wanted to pummel into the ground.

"Things are getting better at least...right?"

"Shiro said that the timeline is syncing up to when Ichigo's cousin will use hollow bait in an attempt to prove his superiority...which is a disaster because with her energy levels it'll only summon a Menos by the end of things," sighed Muramasa. "Though she's not sure why that idiot would bother, since Ichigo had been very clear she's not interested in acting as a soul reaper."

"Someone is stupid enough to pull that around her?" said Urahara.

"His grandfather was killed in front of him because the current head of the Twelfth division ordered his men to be extra slow in assisting Quincies. Apparently he was experimenting on them once they passed, with his grandfather being the last victim."

Urahara winced. Yeah...he could see why the kid would be pissed about that.

At least he had some forewarning when a week later, there was a MASSIVE hollow outbreak that resulted in a Menos Grande showing up.

Ichigo took entirely too much joy in calling Uryu's father to read her idiot cousin the riot act over his stupidity. While his father was a trained Quincy, he wisely did his best to keep out of matters involving the afterlife. Especially after his father's death.