Synopsis: After he was stabbed by Yhwach, Ichigo has ended up back in time. But, it's not as simple as that...

Proper authors notes will follow after the story. And yes, i know this story is short, around 2k words. It only covers the very beginning...

Key: *Text* means these are characters internal thoughts.

"text" means the character is talking aloud.

'text' within the previous means the character is putting minor emphasis on something, either as a quote or to denote sarcasm etc.

text mean that the character is putting a lot more emphasis on something.

*Where am I...? I can't sense anyone anywhere, and I'm just floating in a black void. Did Yhwach do something to me, the bastard? Tsch, I got careless and got stabbed. He must have used his powers to somehow render me into this state...*

Suddenly, Ichigo feels like he's being pulled by something. Having no control over his body, he floats along, pulled by an invisible thread. Slowly a faint light begins to shine ahead, getting brighter. It starts out as faintly red, growing dark red before slowly becoming orange, then yellow, all the way to an intense blue and finally growing too bright to bear. All of a sudden Ichigo felt a sword in his chest, but it somehow felt different from the sword Yhwach stabbed him with. In fact, somehow it felt familiar... But why would it feel that familiar? It's not like he had a habit of being stabbed. Slashed in fights maybe, but certainly not stabbed. Then the stabbing sensation went away and he fell backwards to the ground. And not just any ground, but the ground in front of his home... Even if he couldn't open his eyes, he knew what the ground before his home felt like, having jumped out of his window so many times as to lose count.

He finally managed to open his eyes, and what he saw stunned him. He saw Rukia, with wound looking like bite marks, he saw the hollow that had attacked his home the night they had met... And he saw a girl with shoulder length red hair... Orihime? No, she looked different, more slender... And vaguely familiar, as if he'd seen her before. And she was wearing a shihakushõ and had a sword. Who was this mysterious shinigami girl? So familiar, yet an utter stranger...

Before he had time to ponder this quandary any more he heard Rukia shout; "Ichigo! Watch out!". However, before he could react, the girl blocked the hollows attack. He was going to rush the hollow when Rukia spoke up once more, this time directly at him. "Who... who are you? Where did you even come from? Did Soul Society send someone already?" Ichigo looked at her with a very confused look on his face. "Wh- what are you looking at?" she asked him. Just as he was about to open his mouth, the mystery girl was slammed by the hollow through the side of the house."Enough of this nonsense!" he shouted as he rushed the hollow and with this twin blades sliced the head clean off the hollow. He turned to talk with Rukia. "What do you mean 'who am i', huh? I'm Ichigo, Ichigo Kurosaki, remember?". This time it was Rukia who looked confused. And not just confused, but utterly dazed by his words. "Ichi... go? Kurosaki Ichigo? But... you can't be...". Just as he was about to ask what she meant, the mystery girl jumped out of the rubble of the house. "Did I hear my name? And who are you?", she asked of Ichigo. This revelation left Ichigo momentarily stunned. What the heck? The girl was called Ichigo? But, this was his home, wasn't it...?

Finally he was snapped out of daze when Rukia lightly kicked his shin. "Well, don't just stand there 'Mr. Kurosaki', do tell me, tell us, who you are". At this, the mystery girl turned to look at him. "Kurosaki? But... I don't recognise you as family, not even extended family. I'm pretty certain there aren't any shinigami in our family tree." Shaking his head to throw off the last of the daze and to suppress laughter, Ichigo then spoke; "My name IS Ichigo Kurosaki, son of Isshin and Masaki Kurosaki, older brother to Yuzu and Karin.". At this the mystery girl looked quite shocked. After taking a deep breath, she spoke up; "But, my name ALSO is Ichigo Kurosaki, daughter of Isshin and Masaki and the older sister of Yuzu and Karin. But, now that i get a good look at you, I can certainly see a resemblance to dad in you. But... how?"

This reveal caused him to growl a little and punch a nearby street lamp, denting it a little. "I don't know how, but this has to be the fault of Yhwach. Damn him!" This startled the two girls, if you can call some over 150 years old a girl. It was now that the male Ichigo noticed the faint strand flowing his chest into his female counterparts chest. "Oi, Rukia. Do you know why there's a strand connecting me to her?" he asked her. She responded snappily "Why would I know? Do i look like a scientist to you?". At this he snapped back "You're the one with most experience about spiritual shit like this.". It was only now that he saw her wounds. "Damn it, why didn't i notice you wounds before. Are you all right?" The shinigami just smiled and said "I will be, but thank you for concern. Though i did end up giving all of my powers to her, even though i only meant to give half.". "So, just like what happened with me... If things are as they were with me... It probably has something to do with her own shinigami powers...". At this revelation both of the girls shouted in unison "WHAT!?". "It's true, you probably have your own powers hidden inside your soul. It was until some time into my 'career' as a substitute shinigami that i learned the truth from dad... DAMN IT!" Suddenly he bolted into the house. Female Ichigo realised a second later that her male counterpart must have gone back inside to see how dad and the twins were doing and bolted in after him, leaving Rukia standing outside, confused. She didn't realise why the pair had rushed in until they emerged, carrying the unconscious bodied of Isshin, Yuzu and Karin. Female Ichigo pondered aloud"What do we do, dad's bleeding badly from his back and the twins are badly beaten...", with male Ichigo turning to Rukia and asking her "You know kido right? Can you heal them?", but the petite shinigami shook her head. "I do know kido, but like i said earlier, i lost my powers to her...". At this the eldest daughter of the Kurosaki family fell to her knees and began to weep. Then, out of the shadows stepped a thin figure that was close to two meters tall thanks in part to the strange wooden shoes he wore.

"My oh my, what happened here? I'm trying to enjoy a nice evening walk and all of sudden there's a huge commotion..." At the sight of the white and green striped suit and the sound of an unmistakable voice, the Kurosaki son ran up to the man. "Hat and clogs! You have to help. Please heal them," he said while pointing towards Ishhin and the girls, "Rukia lost her powers and can't heal them.". At the sight of this strange young man who looked almost like a certain Shiba except for the mop of hair on his head was reddish in color instead of black. "And who might you be, young man?" Ichigo grabbed a hold of the mans robe and growled "I'll answer later, but only if you heal Isshin and the girls... Now get to it." Rukia stared at the man in surprise, for it was Kisuke Urahara, the exiled former captain of the Twelfth division. After Ichigo let go of his lapels Urahara proceeded to heal the injured members of the Kurosaki family.

Turning towards the group of the two Ichigo and Rukia, he noticed the strand between the two namesakes. "My,this is interesting... Somehow you two are linked together by a soul strand, as if you had the same soul...". Hearing this, female Ichigo looked confused while her male counterpart looked annoyed, yet having a gleam of understanding in his eyes. "That... certainly would explain things a little bit. You wanted to know who i am, right? The name's Ichigo Kurosaki, son of Isshin and Masaki. And i have somehow ended up not only back in time, but seemingly in an alternate timeline since she's also Ichigo Kurosaki..." At this, Urahara began to tap his chin, as if deep in thought.

Then, after a few moments of silence he snapped open his fan and began to flail it in front of his face. "And what makes you think i should believe any of what you just said? It all seems quite far fetched to me.". Hearing this the son of Isshin scowled a little and poked Urahara's chest, and said "Didn't you just say that she and I had the same soul? I don't know how i ended up here, but i bet it has something to do with that rat bastard Yhwach...". Urahara visibly flinched at the mention of Yhwach, giving Ichigo more fuel to his fire. "You know him, don't you. And i know about why you got exiled from Soul Society, i know about Aizen and the hogyoku. And this time i won't let you hide it inside of Rukia. I don't know how Aizen found out about it the last time, but he orchestrated Renji and Byakuya to retrieve her..."

Suddenly, the eldest Kurosaki daughter fainted and Urahara rushed to catch her. When he looked around, the male Ichigo had vanished into thin air. After healing the eldest daughter, he wiped the memories of the other members of the family. He then turned to Rukia. "I'll help repair the house. If you'd be so kind as to take the girls to their beds. I'll bring the father." Rukia nodded and picked Yuzu into her arms and carried her away. When she was out of earshot he budged Isshin "You can stop pretending now. I'm sure you heard everything..." Isshin laid motionless on the ground, but opened his eyes. "I did. Do you think the kid was telling the truth? He does look a lot like my nephew Kaien did..." Urahara nodded and looked serious. "I'm not quite sure. But, you heard him. He knows too much for him to be working with Aizen. And with the amount of care he showed towards you and the girls, i felt that if i had even jokingly tried to refuse he would have strangled me until i agreed."

Upon hearing footsteps coming down, Isshin quickly closed his eyes. Rukia picked up Karin and began to make her way back to the bedroom. After she was gone, Isshin opened his eyes again. "So, what should we do? The boy seemed to know a lot. He even knew about Yhwach, and it sounded like they had fought...". Urahara dusted his hat before speaking again "I will have Kuchiki-chan go meet your daughter at school tomorrow and tell her to bring Ichigo to meet me... I want to get to the bottom of this mystery. Now, if you'll excuse me, i did promise to help repair your house so i'll call Tessai and the kids over." Dialling the number of his shop, he walked off to the side while telling the burly man what had happened. Rukia returned just then, and with a bit of effort managed to hoist the eldest girl on her back and carry her to bed. Tessai arrived a few minutes later and, after Kisuke explained to Rukia that Isshin was heavier than he thought and so had asked Tessai to carry the man in his stead, carried the not-really unconscious Isshin inside before helping Kisuke and the two mod soul kids to repair the wall that the hollow had busted open.

After the repairs were done, he left with Tessai and the kids, leaving Rukia at the Kurosaki household. She had said that she was still worried about Ichigo, and that after what the male Ichigo had said, she had reservations about fully trusting him. She said that she'd try to talk Ichigo into visiting him, but wouldn't guarantee anything.

Author's notes:

Thank you for reading the first chapter of my sort-of Peggy Sue fic. This chapter of the fic basically covers only the first chapter or so of the manga. However, Ichigo's presence and actions have caused waves.

Also, in future during narration i will refer to the two Ichigo's using the terms Guardian or Protector for the "original" male Ichigo and Strawberry for female Ichigo. If you know even just a bit about the name Ichigo, you know that when spelled using different kanji, it can mean First Guardian or Strawberry. The first is the masculine form and the other is the feminine form.

However, people won't be calling them Guardian and Strawberry, but Ichigo-kun and -chan respectively, as i will be writing the story as if the characters were speaking japanese, unless noted otherwise.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.