Kapitel 1: Awakening in a New World
Ichigo awoke with a start.
Just as there are an immeasurable number of futures, so too are there an infinite number of realities. And among those realities lies an alternate path that forever changes the course of its fate, thus creating a mirror reflection of what such a reality can be.
1. The Awakening in a New World
Be it by instinct or a sudden jolt of the nerves, Ichigo wanted to rise from his bed but immediately noticed something was wrong. The area around him looked like his room, but at the same time, it was not. It had the same white wallpaper and the same wooden floor, but his bed looked bigger along with the rest of his furniture.
Kurosaki narrowed his eyes in concern and alertness.
"So, someone tried to kidnap me, huh...Strangely, I should have felt their spiritual power, or maybe all my downtime since the war has made my senses dull...damn, I don't know anymore, given all the bullshit that has happened in my life now," Ichigo thought bitterly as he went to the bathroom to check himself in the mirror. He might as well freshen up if he had been kidnapped against his will before figuring things out.
But when he looked at himself in the mirror, he was even more shocked at what he saw. It was not just his room that looked different, but himself as well. Kurosaki's orange hair was longer, similar in length to what it looked like after his training in the Dangai, except his sideburns were gone. "The hell? Did I sleep so long my hair started to overgrow again?"
As the human Soul Reaper pondered these questions, a voice called out to him.
"Ichigo, are you up? You don't want to receive a mean scolding from your superiors?"
Ichigo widened his eyes in complete and utter shock. His mind went utterly blank upon hearing that voice—a voice that should no longer be heard, a voice that should have been nothing more than a memory, a voice that he had not heard since he was a child.
"It... can't be," he muttered shakily, almost wanting to ignore the call, to dismiss it as nothing more than a cruel trick of the mind resulting from his dreariness. But even so, he had to confirm it with his own eyes. So Kurosaki, with a deep breath, slowly walked downstairs to the kitchen.
And what he saw confirmed it all.
It was his mother, Masaki Kurosaki, alive and healthy. Her brown hair was tied into a bun, and she was dressed in a simple blue dress and white apron—the same outfit she wore when he was a kid all those years ago.
The woman then looked at her son as Ichigo widened his eyes in sheer disbelief, fear, and complete and absolute incomprehension at what he was witnessing.
"Ichigo...is there something wrong?" she asked innocently enough. Yet Ichigo couldn't even begin to answer.
His mother was gone. Grand Fisher killed her because Yhwach took her powers at the last second when she confronted him, and if the Hollow poisoning didn't destroy her, she would have been in the Rukongai district, dwelling among the billions of souls within the Soul Society. Yet here she was, in the kitchen, fixing breakfast as if her death had never happened.
"Ichigo...?" she repeated, and Ichigo, hesitantly, decided to answer.
"I'm... fine," he lied, but he didn't like lashing out, not in front of his mother or at least a version of her. "Just give me a minute," Ichigo said hastily as he returned to his bathroom for privacy.
Ichigo took a deep, steady breath as he tried to stop himself from hyperventilating. This whole situation just went from bizarre to outright mind-fuckery. He did not know if this was a cruel trick another bad guy made—or simply an odd dream. Or hell, maybe both.
As Ichigo continued to ponder, he decided to stretch out his spiritual senses to determine how many others were in this town and precisely what he was facing. But what he sensed only gave him even more questions. The spiritual pressures were that of Quincies, and they seemed to have populated the entire town, yet his mother felt...different at the same time. He didn't know how else to describe it. In many ways, it was similar to Uryu's or the spiritual pressure of the Quincies from the Wandenreich. Yet, simultaneously, it felt the polar opposite of them. Why, he had no idea.
Ichigo took another heavy breath and decided to brush off the question, as he knew that he would not find out if all he did was mope to himself. So the young man got out of the bathroom and confronted his supposed mother again.
Masaki perked up at seeing her son again. "Ichigo, are you alright? You seemed very disturbed... didn't have a bad dream, did you?"
Ichigo remained quiet momentarily before coming up with a plan. "Alright...I will play along for now and try not to ask too many questions. If only to know exactly what I have gotten myself into," the teen thought while keeping a calm facade.
"Uh...yeah...a bad nightmare, that was...it," he spoke nervously, hoping his subpar acting was on point. "So...what exactly am I supposed to do today again?"
Masaki eyed her son for a bit before smirking in amusement. "Bad nightmare and now a bit of forgetfulness...hmph, if I didn't know any better, I would say you want to skip out on work."
Ichigo shrugged uneasily as he tried his best to maintain his cover. "Let's just say I have a lot on my mind lately and want to be up to speed."
The older Kurosaki looked at him and gently nodded her head in understanding before smiling back. "I know...especially after everything you went through. Defending the town from the Hollow raids, working with the Holy Kingdom..." Ichigo's eyes then widened at hearing that, "...and dealing with His Majesty," she finished sadly. "It must be a lot to handle for a young man like you."
Ms. Kurosaki immediately changed her mood as she smiled and tenderly grasped her son's hands. "But I know you can handle all that with no problems."
Ichigo's heart skipped a beat as he felt the warmth of his mother's hands...it was the same warmth and love he felt when he was a kid. Whenever he got upset, she would comfort him, and all the despair and pain that plagued him just disappeared. And just like before, the same thing happened to the point that his worries and confusion felt like a distant dream.
But he knew better.
The reluctant Soul Reaper shut down the warm feelings in his heart, refocused on his plan, and took in everything she just said.
"So not only is...Mom alive but also Yhwach too...this just keeps getting weirder, on top of having some sort of relationship with him as well...though I'm still fighting Hollows? Why did she call them raids?" He pondered and then narrowed his eyes in concentration.
"Well, I want to let you know I am over it. So, tell me what my schedule is?"
Masaki hummed and giggled in approval. "Okay then, well, you have a mission at 9:00 a.m. today scouting out Hollows. You also have a meeting with some friends after that, and of course, you have some important business in the Soul Society with His Majesty at 2:00 p.m. So be sure to dress up by then and eat your breakfast," she explained and finished with a double clap. "Chop chop."
Ichigo couldn't help but chuckle at that. For despite being a supposed imposter...her acting was on point. Ichigo then walked up to his room and then to his closet, and opening it up, he saw a uniform.
A Quincy uniform.
Its design was similar to Uryu's, only that it had a black cloak over it that was held together by several straps, making it look almost identical to his Fullbring Bankai outfit, with a white strip outline on the left side of the shoulder with a tuft of hair.
Kurosaki put on the outfit and looked at himself in the mirror...
And it was like seeing a mirror reflection of himself.
"So... this is how I look as a Quincy, huh? It looks pretty slick if anything else," the Soul Reaper said to himself as he fully fastened his uniform and then looked at the Quincy cross. Ichigo lowered his head to the floor as sobering thoughts clouded his mind.
"I... don't know what is going on, and I don't even know how long I can pretend to be someone else. I'm not even sure if this is a dream or if I'm another pawn in some game," he then closed his eyes and erased all forms of doubt inside himself.
"But even so, I have to keep moving forward."
And with that, Kurosaki Ichigo, now impersonating a Quincy version of himself, went downstairs to enjoy breakfast with an alternate version of his mother.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein