*What... What just happened? One moment I'm standing in front of our house, then all of a sudden I'm... Well, it looks like a city that was swallowed by ice... It's not just frozen, the buildings are covered in several centimetres worth of the stuff. I don't think I got transported anywhere like before... There was no pulling sensation, just a flash of black, then when I managed to get my eyes open all I saw was blurry grey of the skyscraper covered in ice. Wait... Skyscraper... Ice... No way! Did I somehow end up in her soul world? She is currently using Rukia's powers, but if things are as they were with me, she should have her own set... Did the transfer of Rukia's powers cause this place to freeze over?*

As he was pondering this, there were other things going on. Urahara and co. had just left, after repairing the house, Rukia had slipped to hiding inside the closet housing the spare futons, Isshin was wondering about the strange young man claiming to be his son from an alternate timeline, Strawberry was laid in her bed still unconscious...

The morning arrived as it always did, with Isshin trying to ambush his daughter when she was coming down for breakfast. "GOOOOOOD! MOOOOOORRRRNNNIIIIINNNGGG! ICHIGOOOO!" was heard as Isshin tried to tackle her in the stairs. Ichigo simply jumped over him on a landing while he was crouching to grab her waist. She purposefully kicked him on the rear while coming down. With a realisation, she turned to look at him. "What happened to your injuries from last night?". While Isshin knew what she meant, he acted like he didn't know a thing. "Huh? Injuries? What are you talking about, I'm fit as a fiddle. Don't remember even stubbing my toe...". As Ichigo looked into the kitchen, she saw that her younger sisters were fine too. But... What about the monster she had fought? And that girl calling herself a shinigami, Rukia, where had she vanished? And what about the boy claiming to be her alternate version... "Must... must have been a dream then... The wall isn't broken either." she said halfheartedly. She sat at the table, and smiled at Yuzu. "Sorry for sleeping in so late. What kind of a big sister lets her little sister be the one to make breakfast.". Yuzu just smiled back at her and said "Oh, it's all right Ichi-nee. Besides, dad said he saw you sleepwalking while he was up getting water. Said to let you sleep in a little. If you hadn't gotten up, Karin would have come to wake you.". Karin looked at her older sister with a mischievous look in her eyes. "Five more minutes and I would have come and literally kicked you out of bed, lazybones." Yuzu pouted at her twin. "That's no way to treat your older sister.". Ichigo just ruffled both their hairs, causing Karin to look slightly annoyed. "It's fine. Besides, I got out of bed before there was any need for such tactics.". Yuzu sighed and gave Ichigo some toast and fried rice, along with a bowl of miso. After she finished her breakfast, Ichigo headed to school.

At the gates she happened to meet up with Yasutora "Chad" Sado, a friend of hers. He was an extremely tall young man, almost two meters high, with a tan looking skin and a very unruly mop of chocolate brown hair. She'd met him when he was being beaten by a bunch of teenage hoodlums and delinquents. She had been walking home from karate practice when she'd noticed them picking on the foreign looking Sado a few years back. She'd given them a through beating and befriended him in the process. "That's right, you cowards just run to your to tell your mommies you got beaten by a girl!" she had shouted after them. "Despicable bunch of losers, ganging up on someone like that... You okay there, big guy?" she had asked the giant. And from that day on, the two had been good friends. So good in fact, that some of the people at the school had begun to wonder if they were dating, some even spread rumours of it. And while Ichigo admitted that Chad was a good looking boy, he was a friend first and foremost. And besides, she wasn't interested in all of the high school drama that dating would bring. She also had very little time for dating with her helping at the clinic and training at the karate school, even if she were interested.

"You really should comb that mop of yours more. Might be able to find yourself a girlfriend if you did..." she jokingly teased him. Running a finger through his hair, Sado just laughed. "You're one to talk, miss puffer-fish-for-hair. If you combed it flat, you might be able to get a boyfriend.". She just lightly punched the giant on the arm. "If my hair is keeping away potential suitors, then good. If the hair is a deal breaker, they would have been jerks anyway.". And with that said, the friends headed into class and were greeted by friendly teasing from Keigo Asano, who got pulled into a headlock for his trouble. The class erupted into a murmur when miss Ochi, the teacher, was followed by a short young girl with black hair. It was Rukia, the shinigami from last night. Ichigo stared at the petite soul reaper in shock. She hadn't imagined last night's events after all.

"Okay everyone, calm down. As you noticed, we have a transfer student. This is Kuchiki Rukia. Because she had to move so suddenly because of her fathers work, she doesn't have her books yet. Let's see... Why don't you go sit next to Kurosaki-chan, she'll share her books with you for today. Now then, settle down.". Ichigo's friends had noticed her staring at Rukia. Tatsuki even asked Ichigo if she knew the girl. "No, I just... Was shocked for a moment. I thought she was previous patient of our clinic, but she just looks similar. And doesn't have stitches on her hand.". Rukia settled to the empty desk next to Ichigo. "A pleasure to meet you. Kurosaki-chan was it? Like miss Ochi said, I don't have any books, so you probably won't mind if I look at yours for the day". Ichigo eyed the newcomer for half a second, before offering her book to her. Rukia scooted her table next to Ichigo's and whispered "Didn't even make a scene. You've got nerves of steel." before settling in for the lesson. At lunch Ichigo invited Rukia to join her and her friends, since she didn't know anyone at the school. Mostly this was just an excuse to keep the strange girl/woman nearby so Ichigo could keep an eye on her for anything suspicious. "Oh, Kurosaki-chan. Would you mind showing me around the town? I heard your family runs a clinic, so you probably know the neighbourhood quite well. Unless you are needed at the clinic, that is.". After eyeing her suspiciously, Ichigo agreed as she thought she might get answers about yesterday if she did. Thankfully none of Ichigo's friends wanted to tag along, so she didn't have to make up any excuses to get rid of them.

With a false cheer in her voice, Ichigo asked Rukia "So, Kuchiki-chan... Where do you want to go first?". This just caused Rukia to glare at her."Drop the act. I know you want answers, but I don't have them. I do, however know someone who does. Urahara-san from the candy store. He's a... loose associate of Soul Society and Shinigami visiting the human world often buy supplies from him. Last night he asked me to bring you along to visit him for answers. Follow me." And with that Rukia began walking off.

A short while later the pair of them arrived at the shop. "Good day dear customers, what can I... Ah it's Kuchiki-chan and Kurosaki-chan. Good. Tessai, take over the counter while I go talk with our friends.". The giant man emerged from the back with the day's newspaper in hand and sat behind the counter. "Ahaha. Don't mind him, he's always serious about his job, and tuesday's are often a quiet day. Now then, if you two would follow me to the back where we can talk in peace.". Urahara, with his sandals clacking as he walked, made his way to the backroom. Rukia followed right away, but Ichigo hesitated for a second, before deciding that if she wanted answers, she had to talk to this strange man.

"So then... You probably have a lot of questions. Where do you want to start miss substitute shinigami?" "Huh? What? Substitute... shinigami. I don't remember agreeing to anything like that. And besides, I don't have those powers anymore. Where did they even vanish off to?" "You do have those powers, they're just somewhat 'hidden' as they're inside you, in your soul. Allow me to demonstrate.". With this said, Urahara gently poked Ichigo on the forehead, dislodging her soul from her body. And with a bright flash of red, white and blue light along with swirls of black reishi the male Ichigo emerged as well. He seemed almost nonplussed by this. "Hm? Hat-and-clogs? Rukia? Ah, good, I'm in the living world then. From the look of things, we're in your shop.". "You! Where have you been hiding!?" came a sudden and loud shout from right next to his ear. It was Strawberry. "My personal guess, inside you soul world. I don't know why, but maybe Urahara does.". "Now, why would I, a humble candy shop owner know...". "Cut the crap. If you didn't know at least something, Rukia wouldn't have brought her here." he said while pointing at Strawberry. "And besides, I have other reasons to believe you know at least something, Mr. Exiled Captain of the Twelfth. Now fess up.". At the mention of his former position, Urahara narrowed his eyes. "You seem to know a lot about me, 'Kurosaki-san'... How?". There was a chilling edge to his voice. While it was mostly the same tone as before, Urahara's eyes were sharp like those on a bird of prey. "You said it yourself. I'm Ichigo Kurosaki-kun, son of Isshin and Masaki Kurosaki. I come from what I can only suspect to be either an alternate timeline or some kind of a parallel reality. Though I would personally use the latter to more so describe Soul Society, Hueco Mundo etc. I was stabbed by Yhwach, leader of the Wandenreich sect of quincies. Next thing I know, I'm pulled through some sort of a tunnel or a void and landed on the yard of our house. Or, I should say the Kurosaki residence of this timeline... Still trying to wrap my head around that...". Urahara opened his eyes a bit. "How can I be sure you're telling the truth and aren't just some delusional shinigami or... something else...". "Something else like a creation of Aizen? Which reminds me, you should probably start preparing. With the disappearance of Rukia he probably has began putting his plan into motion. I wonder if he has already killed the Central 46. I would like to prevent his ascension into godhood or near enough. Which is why I will not allow you to place that damn invention of yours inside of Rukia as it's what lead to the mess in the first place. He has his own incomplete version of the thing and wants your version to finish his. When you put Rukia into that gikai that would have turned her human, you also slipped the thing into her soul. When Rukia was due to be executed, Aizen faked his death and then later, during the actual execution managed to steal the thing. I keep calling it a thing because I can't remember what it was called.". "I suppose you mean the hõgyoku. Well, at least now I know for certain that you aren't working for Aizen. Very well, tell your story and we'll go from there. And when I say story, I do mean basically all the details that could relate to Aizen or Yhwach.". Guardian-Ichigo then sat down opposite of Urahara. He gestured to Strawberry to sit down as well. "This is going to take a while, so you might as well sit down too sis.". She stared at him. Why had he called her his sister? With a bit of hesitation, she eventually did sit down however. "I saw you were wondering why I called you sis. But really, what else can I call you besides some variation on our name? It's really for conveniences sake that I'll refer to you as a sister. While I was stuck inside your soul world, I had the whole night and day to think about things. And one of the things I thought about was our relationship and I came upon the conclusion that we're sort of twins, just separated by a timeline. Now then. Urahara-san. Where should I start? The night I first got shinigami powers from Rukia? From the machinations of Aizen that lead to me having a hollow as a part of me?". "I suppose the simplest way is to cover the events in the order you experienced them. I assume we can interrupt you with questions, should the need arise?". "As long as it's not over something trivial. And I assume that most, if not all of my powers are shared by my twin... do say if things are different in this timeline versus how they were in mine. That goes for all three of you.".

And with that, Ichigo began to explain his life story and other things he knew about.

Hello hello, Des here. That's Chapter two now up and done. Do let me know if there are any typos etc.

As for proper authors notes, i want to ask you readers a few things. Should i cover the conversation between Ichigo and the rest as it's own chapter? And should i do it as a full chapter, or as chapter 2.5? Or should i cover it as bits and pieces in chapter 3? Or a mix of both? Make a 2.5 then include the more necessary bits in 3 and leave 2.5 as optional? Also, i completely re-wrote this chapter from the ground up as i wasn't satisfied with the original version of it. And no, i don't have that version, i save over it. That's how unsatisfied i was with it.

Don't know when i will publish the next chapter, as this is being published right after i finished writing and reviewing this chapter. I'll try and not take a month to write the next chapter. I'm still figuring out things relating to how to use the site, so i will reply to your reviews here.

I might cover some of the anime fillers, if i can get them to fit the canonical timeline in a way that makes sense. The easiest one to add would probably be the Bount arc as it takes place right between arcs, instead of being shoved on top of an on going arc. As for the light novels and games, i have zero experience with those, but i am interested in reading the novels at least. As for Ichigo's other friends, i do want to include at least Tatsuki in some way. She's my favorite of Ichigo's friends, with Chad coming in second. As for romance, well there was very little of it in the original and there probably won't be much here either. I at least don't have any plans for shipping and relationships. One thing i WILL say is that there will be NO Ichigo-Grimmjow, Ichigo-Ulquiorra or Orihime-Ulquiorra in this fic. Not ever. I don't even get the appeal of such pairing, het or yaoi. And they make no damn sense either.

That's all for now, see you guys next chapter. Des out.

P.S like i said, i'll try not to take a month to make the next chapter, but we will see how things go with Uni and how inspired i am and what the quality ends up being.