Chapter Text
Quirks were miraculous things and often misunderstood when first appearing around the age of 5. Manifestation usually included some confusion and accidents, like, for example, when young Tenya Iida got his engine legs and ran straight into a wall. Some quirk manifestations are hard to categorise, as it isn’t immediately obvious what they were supposed to do, like Kyudai Garaki’s longevity quirk, which would’ve only made itself known as he aged half as fast as other people.
For little Ryu, his quirk falls into both categories. Ryu was quickly reaching his sixth birthday, and hadn’t yet realised he had a quirk. Unfortunately, when he was out with his dad shopping, Ryu understandably got bored and wandered off by accident. After noticing he couldn’t see his dad anywhere, he began to panic as any child would. In his panic, his quirk activated, which his dad would later dub “Summon”, which wasn’t entirely inaccurate. Little Ryu activated his quirk, which reached out into the ether for reasons yet to be known, and summoned two people to Hosu city. By that point, Ryu’s dad had found him, and they both missed the next important events in lieu of going home.
Now Ichigo considered himself very experienced in weird occurrences. After all, he’d become a Soul Reaper at 15, learned about Hollows and Quincys and Visoreds. Nary a day went by where Ichigo wouldn’t be part of some supernatural fiasco. Therefore the only thought he had when regaining consciousness, was what is it this time?
He was lying on something hard - a footpath? - and his hearing felt muffled, like he’d suffered some blunt force trauma. Also, the back of his head hurt.Sitting up in one motion, Ichigo flinched back when he headbutted something, eyes fluttering as they adjusted to the bright morning light. Great, now both the front and back of his head were smarting.
“Kid, you ok?”
Sound filtered back in all at once and Ichigo automatically moved back into a defensive position. His eyes finally focused and for the first time in a long while, Ichigo was shocked into stillness.
“Kid?” A guy wearing a pale blue jumpsuit asked again, a red spot on his forehead: he must’ve been the one Ichigo headbutted. He had this weird cap thing on his head that had a fin sticking up from the middle, and a visor that reminded him slightly of Renji. Due to his vaguely fish-like appearance, Ichigo dubbed him Fishman.
But that wasn’t what surprised Ichigo. It was the large crowd of humans and… non - humans? Aliens? Milling about Ichigo and Fishman. There were normal looking people, people with shifting colourful hair, extraordinarily tall, animal - like and… just generally supernatural appearances. Like, there was a guy with a hammer for a head! Ichigo was mildly worried that he might be hallucinating when Fishman spoke again.
“Calm down kid, I’m a Pro Hero. You and your friend here fell from quite a height there.”
Ever eloquent, Ichigo said the first thing that came to mind. “Huh?”
Fishman gave him a concerned look.
“Do you not remember?”
Nope, Ichigo did not remember how he ended up here - which wasn’t as uncommon a situation as he would like - but then the rest of the fish man’s sentence clicked. Your friend? Ichigo thought, turning slightly to his right to see a familiar man, clad in his usual white. A feeling of wrong, wrong, something is wrong rose up in his chest.
“Uryu?” Ichigo still wasn’t sure if he was hallucinating this whole thing. Had Uryu been there the entire time? Was he slipping that badly?
Fishman said something again, emergency services on the way blah blah blah. Ichigo tuned him out, finally realising that he was wearing his shihakusho and that Zangetsu was strapped to his back in full view of all the humans. Who could definitely see him. That, Ichigo determined, was probably the reason why everything felt wrong. How the hell could they see him in his Soul Reaper form… unless…
Ichigo’s musing was interrupted simultaneously by Uryu waking up, and the Fishman guy once again trying to get his attention (a futile endeavor, honestly). His Quincy friend sat up instantly, back ramrod straight as he scanned their surroundings. As his eyes came to rest on Ichigo, Ichigo was glad that Uryu looked as confused as he felt.
“Ichigo. Where are we?” To the point as always, Uryu.
“No clue,” Ichigo replied. Uryu did not like that answer, scowling at him, which wasn’t that far from his normal expression to be frank.
“Young men, can you please listen here?”
Both of them turned around to see Fishman looking all together done and concerned.
“Who are you, and where are we?” Uryu immediately asked, his hand subtly grabbing the Quincy bracelet at his left wrist.
Relieved that they were finally talking to him, Fishman answered Uryu’s questions: “My name is Manual, I am a Pro Hero. You are currently in Hosu City. You both fell from quite a height, and some medics are on the way to help-.”
“Pro Hero? Fell? From where?” Uryu interrupted, obviously uninterested in the medic part: though to be fair, Ichigo wasn’t all that sore (other than his head) and Uryu looked completely fine. Neither of them needed medical treatment.
With every word Uryu spoke, Manual seemed to get more and more confused, the crowd shuffling about in curiosity.
“You fell from about five stories above us here, there were no witnesses as to whether you jumped or not,” the hero said, hesitating a bit. “I managed to cushion your fall with my quirk. Do you not know what Pro Heroes are?”
At this point, all of Ichigo’s head was hurting, not just the front and back. Quirk? Pro Hero? What in the actual hell was going on. Out of the corner of his eye, Ichigo saw Uryu shift, legs moving under him. Recognising the motion, Ichigo met Manual’s eyes and shrugged.
“Sorry dude, no idea what you’re talking about.”
In the next second, they were gone.
Hosu seemed like a busy place, and as Ichigo followed Uryu (where was he going??) using flash step, he noticed more people dressed in strange spandex outfits, like from out of a comic book. Was it some kind of city - wide cosplay day? Nah, that sounded far fetched, even to Ichigo. Ahead of him, Uryu alighted on top of a small apartment building. Ichigo immediately joined him. They both stood in silence for a moment, before Uryu started speaking.
“The reishi in the air feels different, thinner than usual.”
As a Quincy of course Uryu would notice that (Ichigo steadfastly ignored the fact that he himself was also part Quincy), and Ichigo, despite his absolutely abysmal skill at sensing reishi, had to agree.
“It doesn’t feel like Hueco Mundo, the Seireitei, Hell or the world of the living,” Ichigo pointed out. “Nor like the Garganta or those other in between spaces.”
“We should catalog what we know so far,” Uryu said, pushing his glasses up his nose (which had somehow survived the five story fall).
Ichigo started listing out the facts on his fingers.
“We apparently fell five stories and that Manual guy used his “quirk” - whatever that is - to cushion our fall. I am in my Soul Reaper form, and yet normal humans can see me. And the reishi is weird.”
“You missed the fact that just before this, both you and I were headed for Orihime’s house in normal clothes.” The memories came back as Uryu said so. They had met up along the way to Orihime’s house for a catch up since they’d all been so busy lately, and Ichigo recalled bickering with Uryu when everything just… blacked out. And he had definitely been in his body. Now that Ichigo had a moment to think and feel, he noticed that it didn’t actually feel like he was in his Soul Reaper body: it felt more like a mix, like having his Soul Reaper powers in his human body.
“I think we might be in another dimension,” Uryu said suddenly as Ichigo opened his mouth to share his epiphany with the other. Stumped for a second, Ichigo just stared at the Quincy. Uryu shot him an irritated look in response.
“...You can’t be serious.”
“I am,” Uryu snapped. “Think about it: technically Hueco Mundo, Hell and the Soul Society are all different dimensions, with bridges between them. The reishi levels in each one differ, not quite the same, like where we are now.”
“Isn’t that still a bit of a leap?” Ichigo said, skeptical. Uryu made a long suffering sound, something he did around the soul reaper quite often. He disappeared for a second, using the Quincy’s hirenkyaku, and reappeared with a newspaper. Ichigo stared, then whistled.
“I’m impressed, did you just steal that?”
“I’ll give it back!”
“Still stealing.”
Frustrated, Uryu shoved the newspaper at Ichigo, who immediately looked at the date. x/xx/2xxx. What the actual fuck.
“It says we’re over 300 years into the future,” Uryu said unhelpfully.
“We could’ve just time traveled: it wouldn’t be the craziest thing to happen to us,” Ichigo pointed out. Uryu gave him a deadpan look that said he wasn’t fucking around. In an act of magnanimity, Ichigo dropped the argument. Then he squinted.
“Uryu, why do you look like you did when we first met?”
“What?”
“Like, you look like you did when you stupidly challenged me to that Hollow killing contest-.”
“You look more idiotic than usual,” Uryu interrupted, a faint pink on his cheeks telling Ichigo he was embarrassed. It was a testament to how well they knew each other that Ichigo understood Uryu was saying he looked younger too. He didn’t appreciate the insult, though.
“So we both look 15 again?” Ichigo asked aloud.
“Seems like it.”
“So, we’re 15 year olds stuck in another dimension with living people who can see Soul Reapers. Great. Cool.”
“Shut up.”
Silence fell between them, the wind whipping their clothes and hair messily as they both tried to figure out their next move.
“...We need to gather more information on this dimension before we do anything else,” Uryu eventually said. “Also, some disguises.”
“Disguises?” Ichigo questioned. “Are we running from the law or something?”
The Quincy gestured to the ginger’s outfit, then his own.
“We’re not exactly subtle in these outfits, and your sword definitely doesn’t help things.”
Ichigo brushed a hand against Zangestu’s hilt, then looked down at his shihakusho. Yeah, not very normal looking. Decided, Ichigo looked to Uryu for a plan (yes it rankled him, but Uryu was the better strategist).
“We should split up,” Uryu began, which was not what Ichigo expected. “Split up and find a change of clothes and some way to hide your Zanpakuto. While doing that, look for an internet cafe or library where we can start investigating this situation.”
“Meet back here in an hour?” Ichigo suggested. Uryu gave an affirmative nod, then disappeared. In the quiet, the soul reaper looked up at the sky for a moment, and let out a bone deep sigh. Time to face whatever fuckery they were in for this time.
Ever since the Stain fiasco, followed quickly by All Might’s retirement, Manual had been fervently hoping his patrols would be normal (or as normal as one can get with quirks running rampant). It seemed his wish had been in vain. The two kids - they looked around Tenya Iida’s age - had just disappeared, with nothing to suggest where they’d gone. Did one of them have a teleportation quirk, or some kind of super speed? As the paramedics rolled up, Manual could only mourn for a simpler day.
Thankfully currency worked the same in this dimension, so Ichigo didn’t have to resort to stealing a new outfit. He quickly found a small department store and flash stepped until he found a second hand clothes shop. Scant minutes later he exited wearing a new outfit: a thin sky blue jacket, with an embroidered 05 on the front, a white shirt with a low neckline and violet pants. Overall, not a bad haul. However, he was still drawing attention due to the massive sword strapped to his back. Apparently even in a world with superhumans swords were still a novelty.
Disguising Zangetsu was definitely a priority, so Ichigo used flash step to get back to the roof, sitting down and unsheathing his blade. Zangetsu gleamed in the bright sunlight as Ichigo settled the sword across his knees, placing one hand on the hilt and the other on the blade. Former Captain Commander Yamamoto had been able to disguise his zanpakuto as a cane, and Urahara did something similar: surely Ichigo could do the same even with his abysmal reishi control.
He let himself sink into his subconscious world, blinking open his eyes in the strange sideways cityscape, face to face with Shiro.
“You wanna fight?” the hollow asked, voice reverberating with his strange layered baritone. Ichigo gave him a look. Shiro rolled his eyes in return.
“Fine, fine. You want to transform me into something smaller? Too bad I don’t want that.”
Of course he didn’t. Fucking of course.
Ichigo held back his annoyance and scanned the surrounding area to see if he could find the other half of Zangetsu. Ever since the battle with Ywach the old man sort of haunted the edges of Ichigo’s soul, obviously not wanting to interfere with Ichigo’s power anymore, but sometimes he’d appear with Shiro. Not today apparently.
“Look,” Ichigo tried reasoning with his Hollow. “We’re in another dimension where people don’t seem to generally carry massive zanpakuto around. If we want to be less conspicuous you need to be something less attention grabbing.”
“How about we fight it out, and if you win I’ll become whatever you want me to be. If you lose, I stay as I am,” Shiro suggested, grinning. Ichigo squinted back.
“You’re being strangely reasonable…”
Shiro shrugged, pulling Zangestu from his back in one smooth motion.
“I’ve been bored and I can’t take over your body anymore because you’ve accepted your Quincy side too. So let's just fight.”
Ichigo grinned, mirroring his Hollow’s stance.
“Sure.”
When Ichigo opened his eyes, there was a black ring on his middle finger on his right hand, shining dimly in the sunlight. He touched it gently with his other hand, finding it cool to the touch.
“Your zanpakuto changed into that a few seconds ago.”
Ichigo looked up to see Uryu, also in a new fit, standing over him impatiently. Next to his feet was a bag that Ichigo assumed had the Quincy’s old clothes. Heaving himself to his feet, Ichigo took in Uryu’s new look - which was ironically mighty similar to an outfit he’d worn at fifteen: a brown gold button up and gray slacks.
“Did you find an internet cafe or library?” Ichigo asked, swiping the bag and stuffing his shihakusho into it, earning a scowl from Uryu.
“Yes, now let’s go.”
“What, no ‘wow Ichigo how did you manage to transform your zanpakuto like that’?”
Uryu snorted. “I know Urahara just like you: obviously this was possible, you just never had the brains to try it before now.”
“Hey!”
Once again Uryu took off using hirenkyaku, leaving Ichigo to follow. Grumbling under his breath the ginger did so and in seconds the two were standing in an alleyway next to what looked to be a public library. The Quincy tilted his head in a let’s go motion, and they exited the alley and ducked inside. It was much cooler and infinitely quieter than outside, dozens of shelves piled to the brim with books. There weren’t many people there, a few adults and the library staff who shot them strange looks. It only then occurred to Ichigo that this was because he and Uryu looked fifteen again, and today was a school day. Hopefully the librarians wouldn’t bother them about it.
At the back wall there were three computers, two currently in use. Uryu slipped into the chair before Ichigo could, leaving him to lean against it instead. Dropping the bag with their other clothes by his feet, he watched Uryu boot the device up and pull up the internet browser. Looked like it worked the same as in their home world, thank god.
“What should we search first?” Ichigo asked as Uryu paused above the search bar.
“Pro heroes and quirks,” the dark haired teen answered, pushing his glasses up. “I believe they are a massive part of this dimension: that guy who allegedly caught us seemed very confused when you didn’t know of these ‘heroes’.”
Turns out Pro Heroes were literally that: people with superpowers who took down criminals the ordinary law enforcement couldn’t handle. ‘Quirks’ were the name for the superpowers 80% of the population had developed and needed a license to use in public. Over the course of the next few hours Ichigo and Uryu dove into the internet, gathering as much information as they could about the strange new place they’d ended up in.
Shouta Aizawa was roused from his sleep by the insistent voice of his husband yammering on about something on the news. Reluctantly blinking his eyes open, he took in the staff room, which was chaotic on a normal day but was now mostly empty. Frowning, Aizawa wriggled in his sleeping bag, turning from his desk to see Hizashi, Nemuri and Yagi crowded in front of Vlad’s computer screen. He really did not want to know what that was about. Intending to sleep for the rest of the lunch break, Aizawa had laid his head back onto his desk when Hizashi spotted the movement, eyes lighting up.
“Hey Sho, come have a look at this!”
For a moment, he was sincerely debating disappointing his husband by going back to sleep, but with a sigh he uncurled from his sleeping bag and walked over to the gaggle of idiots. Hizashi slung an affectionate arm around Aizawa’s shoulder just as Aizawa saw the screen. The four pros had been looking at a news report from about an hour ago, talking about two teens. Aizawa leaned in a little, quickly scanning the article, and sucked in a breath. Two teenagers fell out of a building and were caught by Pro Hero Manual, and then apparently teleported away. Local pros were on the lookout for them, but no sightings yet, which begged the question of how far these two could teleport. Adding to the weirdness, they’d both been dressed strangely, one of them wielding a sword the size of himself.
Manual had reported and requested backup after they’d disappeared, and had said the two seemed to have no idea what ‘pro heroes’ were, or quirks.
Aizawa turned to look at Nemuri and Hizashi, both of whom were fully decked out in their hero gear like usual.
“How many heroes are looking for these kids?” He asked. Nemuri shrugged as Yagi turned around, meeting Aizawa’s gaze.
“I heard Hawks was asked to help. Other than him, Manual and the other local pros are on the lookout,” All Might answered. Aizawa raised a brow. Getting Hawks, the number two on the case… that must mean the Commission had a vested interest in capturing these two as fast as possible. Otherwise this case would be left purely to the local heroes. If they didn’t find the boys before tonight, Aizawa bet that the police would contact him for help during his patrol: he’d dealt with runaway kids/vigilantes before.
“Aaaaand there goes the bell!” Hizashi sang, ripping Aizawa out of his musings as the bell indeed rang. Swiping his sleeping bag, Aizawa trudged out of the faculty lounge, Hizashi waving at him energetically. Honestly, Aizawa didn’t know where he got the energy. He shoved the thoughts of the two boys from his mind as he prepared to face his class of hellions.
Ichigo had never been on the news before, but now really wasn’t the best time to be. They’d headed out as the sun started to set and wandered a bit, ending up in a small park. On the way Uryu had pointed out the news, which had very blurry photos of the two of them circulating. Apparently a civilian snapped a pic or something, but the quality was nowhere near good enough to actually get the two recognised, especially without Zangetsu strapped to his back.
After plopping down onto a bench, Ichigo let his thoughts wander for the first time since landing in this new place. Next to him, Uryu was also quiet. It was peaceful, with the soft rustling of trees and the distant car horns making Ichigo feel removed from the current situation. Then Uryu ruined it, turning to Ichigo and opening his mouth.
“We should talk about what to do next.” When Ichigo didn’t respond, Uryu continued. “It's pretty clear that we won’t be able to find the quirk user who brought us here without help - talking to the police could solve that, but then we’d have to reveal our circumstances. Another option could be approaching some pro heroes for help, but again, how would we get them to believe us without revealing too much?”
Uryu was silent for a second, then made a thoughtful expression. “Ichigo, do you think this quirk pulled us here for a reason? Like we have to do something for it to send us home?”
“What-.”
The next second they were both on their feet, Zangetsu manifesting in Ichigo’s hand. A sharp spike in spiritual pressure had appeared in this world where none had been before: there was a Hollow on the loose.