"Dad! Mom! I'm home!"
"You little brat! You actually know how to come back!!"
Ichigo opened the door and shouted his homecoming slogan, which earned him a super welcome from his father, Isshin gave him a flying kick.
"You old bastard!" Ichigo was kicked more than two meters away, so he ran up and retaliated, kicking Isshin more than a meter away as well.
Then the father and son of the Kurosaki Family started fighting. This was a common occurrence in the Kurosaki Family, nothing surprising. Their fights usually only took place in the entryway and outside the front door, but they quickly forgot about it.
"You two!" Mei suddenly teleported behind the struggling father and son, her eyes flashing with a dangerous light. The father and son broke out in a cold sweat, but this still didn't save them from Mei's brutal beating.
Karin and Yuzu, the two sisters, watched their father and older brother get beaten up and secretly laughed from the sidelines. Even Yuzu, such a well-behaved and gentle child, felt no sympathy for her foolish father and simple-minded brother. It could be said that the father and son had only themselves to blame for ending up like this.
On the other side, little Maya, already six months old, watched her mother beat up her father and brothers with a big smile, clapping and cheering, thinking the performance was excellent and that she would surely amount to something great in the future.
Have you finished eating?
"I came back after I finished eating."
Mei still cares about her son; as for her husband... well, Ichigen.
Although Ichigo got a beating, he was already used to it. What could you do with such a stupid father? Ichigo even felt that the reason he couldn't think things through before was entirely due to his stupid father.
"Mom, I'm going to take a shower now!"
"So early? That's fine."
Ichigo stretched his limbs. "I'm a bit too tired today, I want to go to bed early."
"Okay~ Go ahead, then let your dad take over the shower."
"Why!?" Isshin was extremely unwilling. "I want to wash after Yuzu, Karin, and you."
Mei flew to the phone like a rocket, "Police?!"
"No!!" Isshin quickly grabbed her beloved's leg, "I'm not serious, please spare me!"
Ichigo had no time to care about his idiot father anymore. He went to the bathroom, ran hot water, put his clothes outside, and then soaked in the tub. After staring at the ceiling for a while, Ichigo closed his eyes.
"Who I am?"
"Ichigo Kurosaki?"
"White?"
"Who I am?"
Ichigo suddenly opened his eyes. The bathroom was slightly steamy; the scene was quite ordinary, Ichigo didn't think much of it. He got up, shampooed his hair, then lathered himself up with shower gel. Ichigo skipped his father's back scrubbing, rinsed off, and went outside.
"You stupid old man~ it's your turn!" Ichigo shouted as he pulled out his pajamas and put them on. Mei had given them to him while he was taking Ichigo went to the living room and saw Isshin still lying on the sofa watching TV. He went over and kicked him.
"Go take a shower now!"
Isshin had no other choice but to wail, "Why do I have to share a bath with a grown man when I have two lovely daughters and a beautiful lover? Waaaaah!"
"Ah~ you're hopeless," Ichigo, rubbing his forehead. Sure enough, less than half a minute later, the voice begging for Isshin rang out again— the Kurosaki Family's routine bout of idiocy.
Ichigo was standing at the top of the stairs; he couldn't see the phone or his parents on the other side of the wall. Isshin and Mimi couldn't see Ichigo either; they didn't sense anything different about Ichigo, but Ichigo himself knew...
Looking at his parents now, Ichigo felt a sense of familiarity mixed with strangeness, so he covered one eye, shook his head, and went upstairs.
Pushing open his bedroom door, Ichigo looked at his desk, bed, and wardrobe. Everything seemed normal, but it didn't feel familiar; he felt like he was in a very strange place.
With a sigh, Ichigo lay down on the bed.
"Who I am?"
"Who am I?" Ichigo suddenly laughed. "Hahaha, I can finally think for myself, but I still don't know who I am? Ichigo Kurosaki is a fake existence!"
"Am I White then? Of course not! I'm just a wild beast."
"I'm now a combination of a counterfeit and a beast, hahaha, how ironic, how ironic!"
Lost in thought, Ichigo fell asleep without realizing it. Then Mi woke him up. Ichigo blinked groggily, only then remembering that he still had to go to school.
More than half a month later, Ichigo returned to school once again.
Ichigo wasn't late today, because Sado usually arrives a bit late. However, Ichigo was annoyed to find that Sado was early today. He could spot that big guy in the crowd, so he hesitated for a long time, unsure whether to greet him.
With this conflicting feeling, Ichigo finally arrived at class. As soon as he entered, he glanced at Sado's seat, and Sado saw him too, then nodded at him Sado.
Ichigo was a little confused. Something was off about Sado; their relationship couldn't be just a nod, could it? So Ichigo opened his arms and walked over, just like before.
"Sado ~"
"Yo~ Ichigo," Sado extended his strong hand and shook hands with him, then smiled at Ichigo.
However, this laugh gave away Sado's true nature; Sado didn't like to laugh at all. Ichigo shifted his position on Sado's table and said, "You stood me up last night."
"I'm so sorry! I really have something to do."
"Well, I'll let you off this time," Ichigo said, leaving Sado's seat. He'd just pulled out Mod Soul- Sado Pill from his pocket and waved it when he sat down; Chad nodded. It was indeed Mod Soul. Ichigo had said that wasn't Sado.
Uryū witnessed their interaction, and Ichigo also saw Uryū, raising his hand to greet him. Uryū turned his head away, adjusted his glasses, and pretended not to see him. Ichigo then confirmed that this was indeed the real Uryū.
So Ichigo was out of trouble, but Uryū had a question in his mind, "Why does this Ichigo seem a little different?"
After the first class, Ichigo went to Class 2 to find Orihime, only to discover that Orihime also had Mod Soul. This really surprised Ichigo, leaving him very puzzled. What exactly had happened in the past two weeks?
At noon, just as Uryū took out his bento box, Ichigo patted his desk, "Rooftop, let's go!"
Uryū looked at Ichigo, nodded, took the bento box, and went out with Ichigo. The two went to a corner on the rooftop, where Ichigo finally asked the question that had been bothering him.
"What happened?"
"You're allowed to use a substitute Mod Soul to cultivate on your own, but no one else is allowed to do the same?"
"Is that so? Hehe, that's not bad either."
Uryū looked Ichigo up and down. "And you? I feel like you're a little different."
Hey~ Is it obvious?
"Of course it's obvious, but in my eyes, you usually just barge in, pat Sado on the shoulder, and then..."
"Then you find out it's fake, right? And then you're incredibly embarrassed and stupidly trying to cover it up, hahaha."
Uryū looked at Ichigo with surprise, "You really are different? Hmm, I think you're fine now, but what exactly happened?"
"Hmm, he looks more like a person now," Ichigo pondered for a moment, then nodded. "That's exactly it, he really does look more like a person now."
Uryū was speechless. "Are you saying that you weren't even human before?"
"Yes!"
Ichigo answered very seriously, leaving Uryū completely bewildered. "You're serious!?"
"Seriously!"
Uryū stood up and carefully examined Ichigo several times. "How come I don't see it?"
"Hey, are you an idiot? You're Uryū, I'm talking about a change in mindset."
Upon hearing this, Uryū's eyes behind his glasses lit up, and he nodded vigorously, "To be able to say such profound things, you've really changed a lot, Ichigo."
"Yes! I think so too."
"Why this change?" Uryū's curiosity was piqued. "Have you been cultivating or attending tutoring classes for the past two weeks? I'd like to try a tutoring class that can turn a simple-minded person into a thinker too!"
"You've really gone too far!"
"Haha, you would never have said that before."
"Why?"
"Because you don't understand this joke."
"Fart!"
The two hadn't even finished their meal; they'd only been fooling around for a little while. After they finished eating, Ichigo looked up at the sky and suddenly asked...
"Uryū, tell me, what would happen if someone lost their instincts?"
"Instinct? No? How could that be? And speaking of instincts, what kind of instincts are you talking about?"
"Anger, jealousy, thoughts about the opposite sex, and more of this."
Ichigo looked at Uryū, their eyes met, and Uryū adjusted his glasses, becoming serious. Uryū noticed Ichigo was now earnest. "You've really changed a lot. What happened?"
"You know that there's a void residing within me."
"Oh, what's wrong?"
"I merged with that void."
"Is this even possible?"
Uryū was truly shocked, because it was a Hollow! How could it possibly merge with a Hollow?
"That's what makes my body so special," Ichigo said, looking up at Uryū and explaining the reason for his being the chosen one. "Because I have a Hollow inside me, from the first time I saw Dead Souls or a Hollow, I entrusted my fear to it."
"Uh, you entrusted your fear to that Hollow?"
"Ah, that's not all. Part of it was anger, all of it was jealousy, all of it was inferiority, including so many unwanted feelings—I gave them all to him," Ichigo said, a smirk playing on his lips. "But now they're all back."
"You," Uryū hesitated for a moment, "Don't overthink it, you are still the best version of yourself."
"I know I've lost so much emotion over the years, and even getting it back now isn't something I can fully appreciate right away. But honestly, I used to be such a role model, don't you understand?"
Do you regret saving Rukia?
"How is that possible!?" Ichigo up and tilted his head. "It's just that what I want now isn't just to save Rukia. I've found what I've been looking for. I didn't have any desires before."
"And now?"
Ichigo looked at Uryū and smiled in a particularly manly way, "I want Rukia! I love her! I want her as my lover!"