Reflection Chapter 7: Planned Outline and Goodbye, a bleach fanfic

So… I am probably never going to finish this story. Apologies to anybody who liked it, but it was my first work, and I feel that it wasn't planned out well enough and hasn't turned out the way I wanted it to. I was going to include this great twist, but I never got far enough along to implement it.

I did a lot of planning for the long-term plot of the story, however I did very little short-term planning. As such, the characters have not grown at the rates I wanted them to and there are large plot holes that I forgot about. However, my long-term plans for the story are still around. After all this time, I decided to give you a summary of what this story could have been, if I'd continued it. Honestly, I doubt I'd be able to do justice to this story, but I'll give you my plans anyways. Maybe somebody will find them interesting.

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Section 1: General Basis and Long-Term Concept

Inspiration:

I've seen a lot of bad fanfic, and I found two specific main ideas for a fanfic that I could never find a good example of. I'm sure there are good examples, I just couldn't find any I liked. I thought, hey, why don't I do a version of these fanfics and try to make it halfway decent? So I did. And the two concepts that started Reflection are: Karin is the substitute instead of Ichigo, and Toshiro is the Hogyoku.

(There is probably more then one story out there with these premise, and I don't know which ones I read and disliked. So, not naming any names.)

And because I semi-ship Karin/Toshiro, the idea to fuse these plots into one came naturally to me. Ironically, among all the fighting and plot, I realized that I would never be able to work any romance into this story.

Wait a minute, What?:

Yes, the big twist that I never got around to is that Toshiro is the Hogyoku. I actually did manage to come up with an explanation for this, one that begins by changing the cannon pre-Bleach history. The next "chapter" I've added here is the long explanation, so the short version is this:

Urahara knew what was going down the night before his banishment, and he brought the Hogyoku with him to the field. Not knowing about the illegal teleportation Kido that Tessai has, he thought that if he left it behind there wouldn't be enough time to get the captains back to the lab before they died.

Naturally, Aizen showed up, having planned this from the beginning. He planned to take Urahara's Hogyoku from him that night, and had brought his own Hogyoku to mutate his Hollowified victims. Urahara had a few tricks up his sleeve, but ultimately Aizen managed to bring out a better ace (his sword) and win… So he thought.

This is what isn't explained in the scene I have posted: Aizen wanted his Hogyoku to absorb the power and abilities of Urahara's Hogyoku. By my HEADCANNON, the Hogyoku is designed to avoid warping reality too much, and will try to accomplish any task in the easiest way possible. ALSO MY HEADCANNON: That the Hogyoku functions like a supercomputer, without emotion or self-awareness, but the processing power needed to accomplish unspecified desires of it's user in any way it can.

I applied these ideas to my story, which means that Aizen's Hogyoku began attempting to satisfy his wish in the simplest way possible: it made a copy of the original Hogyoku and began modifying itself to match that one. As a result, Urahara would be able to collect his Hogyoku after the battle. This was all fine and dandy, until Aizen's Hogyoku ran into a problem- it had components that didn't match anything in Urahara's Hogyoku.

These components were the souls and soul-fragments that Aizen fed his Hogyoku. And the Hogyoku didn't know what to do with them. It began malfunctioning, trying to figure out what to do with them. Unlike a real computer, the Hogyoku cannot stop a command once it's started- it must see the wish through until the end.

So the solution this Hogyoku managed to come up with was this: It's current task was to take an alien example provided and alter it's own mechanics to match the provided example. Therefore, since it had more then one alien sample, it was supposed to match more then one outside device.

Aizen's Hogyoku first made a complete copy of Urahara's Hogyoku. Then, because it needed time to process the perceived wish and changing it's nature on such a large level would cause it to unleash a lot of dangerous energy (some radiation, harmful kido, ect), it pulled itself into the Dangai for the duration of this task.

As lame of an excuse as this is, FOR THE SAKE OF THIS STORY: Because they never said it couldn't in cannon, the Hogyoku is "programmed" not to cause any damage to the people it mutates. So when it has to perform an operation that might cause damage to any individuals in the surrounding area- something that has never happened in Bleach!Cannon- it automatically transports itself to a secluded area until the function has been completed, before teleporting back to the place it had vanished from.

The Hogyoku spent three years in the Dangai completing two tasks: finishing itself according to Urahara's Hogyoku, and using the soul fragments it had to design a soul of it's own. The end result was that once it had completed its new design, the Hogyoku had also taken on a different form: instead of a small marble, it was a newborn soul.

The characters in-story wouldn't get this explanation from Aizen, so I didn't have it written up in a scene yet. Another thing that would go unexplained until the final confrontation between Gin and Aizen is that Gin was the first one to discover the newborn Toshiro and realize what had happened. Due to unfinished planning, I never decided what stopped Gin from killing the baby right then and there, or how exactly he discovered Toshiro's importance, but he did.

Gin decided to hide the newborn Toshiro somewhere, knowing that if he kept the baby close Aizen would easily discover him. For the same undecided reason that Gin didn't just kill the kid, he decided to take the baby to a different district. He found an old woman in District One, and left the baby outside her door.

(FYI, this wasn't going to be compassion. I had several ideas, such as that Gin feared that if the kid was in danger he'd use the power of the Hogyoku and wanted him in a safer district. I also thought about Gin coming to the same conclusion Urahara did- that killing him would just cause him to reincarnate and make it more difficult to track down the Hogyoku again.)

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Section 2: Short-Term Plans

First of all, I realized my planning problem while working on the next chapter, and as such I have a lot of detailed planning for the next two chapters. I'm just going to summarize the changes here.

Quincy Arc:

At some point during this chapter, Toshiro would agree to buy a gigai for Kon, so that he can at least try to get a semi-normal life. This sets up the next chapter.

For one thing, Toshiro makes a plan to draw out Uryu before he goes to face them. As a result, all three face Uryu together, but rather then fight him they talk. Toshiro is able to convince Uryu that fighting any of them would be pointless, as the only one with any real connection to the Soul Society has no powers.

After Toshiro learns the truth about the Quincy, the three of them would avoid Uryu for about a week to avoid Uryu. During this time, Karin would visit her mother's grave and have more character growth, Toshiro would be confused and start to realize that his gigai is defective, and the audience would get some insight into Sado's opinion on keeping the entire thing a secret from Ichigo. Also, he'd notice something about Uryu's attack pattern.

This would end when Sado takes on a Hollow that turns out to be fiercer then it looks, and Uryu would save him, shortly followed by Karin's arrival (Toshiro sent her ahead and is far behind, moving on foot. A short scene would show him on his way there). When Uryu tries to cut down on Soul Reapers, Sado would voice his observations. It would be revealed that Uryu has been ignoring nearby Hollows if there's one closer to Karin, just so he can show her up. Uruy always goes back and gets the ones he missed, and he usually tries to hit them on his way past, but the flaws in his logic and hypocacy would be pointed out.

The argument gets heated, and Uryu winds up proposing the cannon challenge. The Hollow Bait idea is explained, and though rejected at first, Uryu explains that the bait only lasts an hour at most and in such small quantities would attract a maximum of ten Hollows, not including ones that were already in the area.

Sado would then suggest that the competition only lasts an hour, since all of them have school the next day. Of course, unknown to them, Aizen unleashes a rather large amount of bait in Karakura at the same time.

Most of the other changes are fairly minor. Without her near-death experience, Orihime doesn't develop powers. Ichigo, however, does realize what's going on and finally confronts Sado about it. Ichigo winds up following him to the Menos, and watches his sister fight. Urahara explains the situation to him later. Toshiro still winds up restrained.

Another major change is that Karin does not take down the Menos. Instead, that goes to Sado- as he's become the fighter who's slow, but packs a lot of punch. I was also planning on Ichigo doing something rash and getting in trouble, and Sado remembering his promise and feeling the need to protect him. This would be in-battle character development for Sado, set up the same way Kubo has a lot of enemies backstories told while they're in the middle of a big fight.

The chapter would end with Karin and Ichigo finally talking about this, and getting into a fight about it, and Toshiro realizing that his gigai has a remote paralysis function he didn't know about- he cannot trust Urahara.

Goodbye:

The next arc would begin with Toshiro picking up the gigai for Kon. It would then check in with Ichigo and Karin- still not talking- then cover Ichigo and Sado, who manage to make up. Then Toshiro would have the day for setting up goodbyes, like Rukia did in cannon.

Toshiro would then steal Kon's gigai and abandon his own in a lake. Since Toshiro's suspects that Urahara is trying to use Toshiro's position, he plans to get as far from him as possible and then try to contact the Soul Society- since he doesn't have access to any other gigai, he really can't avoid using one provided by him. He takes a train out of town.

Karin and Ichigo would be having another fight when Karin storms out and runs right into the Soul Reapers sent after Toshiro- Ukitake, Kyoraku, Sentaro, Kiyone, Rukia & Nanao. Uryu shows up, not trusting the Soul Reapers, and aware of the fact that they're there to arrest Toshiro. Despite some hostilities, they all manage to avoid fighting (thank Ukitake). Everyone talks things out, Uryu leaves, and Karin consents to lose her Soul Reaper powers- the job is done quickly and efficiently, with Rukia acting as medic to make sure everything's okay. The humans are given the impression that Toshiro won't be badly punished for his actions since he had good reason for them (which they learn because one of the captains asked Karin for her testimony).

Kyoraku and Nanao go after Toshiro and manage to find him, while Rukia looks over Karin and ensures her safety. Toshiro explains his suspicions about Urahara before going willingly.

The rest of the chapter would be about things settling into place- Sado and Uryu fight Hollows, Karin and Ichigo still have tension. The chapter would end on a cliffhanger, after Urahara delivers the news of the upcoming execution. (Toshiro did not tell Karin or Sado his theories about Urahara.)

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Section 3: Plans for Before the First Rescue Arc

Due to the revelation that Ichigo's powers come from his genes, Karin wouldn't be that different from him in terms of getting her powers. She's got the same human-shinigami parentage, her mother was attacked by a Hollow before her birth, and it's all but confirmed in cannon that she has the same hollow-influenced abilities as she possesses a Fullbring in the anime (her soccer ball attack is clearly powered with spiritual energy). She'd have slightly different marks on her mask, and her sword would be named "Shingetsu"- which means "new moon" (going with the moon-phase theme in the family) and also "Advancing Moon," though she would also see a younger Ywatch first instead of a color-inverted version of her (the true Shingetsu).

Ichigo would go to Urahara, knowing what's going to happen, and asking to help. Sado would have different training focused on skill and tactics, not just accessing his powers, and Ichigo would develop a Fullbring. See the next section, because I put a lot of thought into this.

From there I wanted there to be parts in the Soul Society that set up the big twist, using several minor changes and a few major ones.

One recurring difference is that Toshiro unconsciously uses the Hogyoku's powers, making certain characters slightly stronger (if he likes them and wants them to survive) or giving them abilities they didn't have in cannon (if he wants them to do/be something specific).

Most of Squad 10 is well-organized and capable, and Shinigami who transfer out of this Squad often are known for being very intuitive to others feelings. This is something that's happened ever since Toshiro became a seated officer in this squad- when he was in other squads before then, some of the people he was close to had similar success rates, although more people were affected the higher his rank because he would get close to and feel responsible for more people.

Matsumoto has the ability to create perfect order with ink (something I stole from Gunnerkrigg court, minus the ink part). Basically, if she waves a wet brush at a piece of paper, ink will only stain the top sheet and it will somehow always fall into the exact words she needs it to be- basically, she can do paperwork without trying. At this point, this power is merely a party trick that Matsumoto decidedly doesn't want anybody from the science division to know about.

Momo is of course brought up as she's scared and sad, and Aizen acts all loving and protective and understanding. Momo is also mentioned to be training for Bankai, being somewhat stronger than in cannon. She's also always had trouble staying for very long in her inner world, feeling that something there isn't quite right.

Most importantly, the reader would discover that Toshiro Hitsugaya is rumored by many to be Gin Ichimaru's illegitimate child. Much of the following information would be revealed through flashbacks and conversation:

In this world, when/if Shinigami have children they can't care for and/or need to hide, a common tactic is setting up the child somewhere in the Rukon district. Higher-ranking officers can drop the kid off in nicer areas, and it's well known that many "new spirits" (ie recently deceased) who arrive in districts 1-5 as infants are actually the children of Shinigami.

When Toshiro started rising through the Academy so fast, rumors that he was one of these children started up quickly. However it wasn't until then-Lieutenant Ichimaru wandered off during a visit to the Academy to ask Toshiro's teachers about him that the rumors got more specific. Some students noted that when Gin had been following Aizen through the halls, he'd stopped briefly and dropped his grin for a moment upon seeing Toshiro.

After Toshiro joined, he was recommended for Squad 5 by the lieutenant, but he quickly transferred out one he realized that someone was pulling strings to make sure he was getting more important, if dangerous jobs. The day he left, the lieutenant came to see him personally for a brief chat (something extremely unusual for Gin), and suggested Toshiro join Squad 3- the very squad Gin was about to apply for captainship over. Toshiro refused, but said that if Gin was interested in talking to him nonetheless, Toshiro would be happy to meet with him over tea. Gin just smiled and said that if they were in different squads that would be a bad idea.

The following story would be conveyed through a handful of Shinigami from Squads 3 and 1 gossiping: Gin refused to vote on whether or not Toshiro should become a captain, and when pressured to do so by Yamamoto, ask to leave the room for a minute, go ask Kira his opinion, and vote exactly the same way Kira suggested. Yamamoto would allow it, and later confide in Sabisake that he believes that a decision this big should be made based on what's best for the Soul Society, not nepotism, and that Gin's decision to get the next-highest authority in his squad to vote for him shows that Gin understands this and is doing what he can to prevent his own feelings from interfering in his work. Something Yamamoto can respect.

At some point when Momo is visiting Toshiro in prison, Gin would show up and pretend he didn't know she was there, how rude of him to interrupt, he'll just go leave now. Momo would then try to leave so that Gin can talk to Toshiro, but Gin would be insistent. This would lead the two of them to talk about some of the aforementioned events, informing the audience of these changes and allowing Toshiro and Momo to honestly talk about their opinions on Gin and these rumors.

Both Toshiro and Momo knew that he'd been one such Shinigami Bastard, as he'd been found in their grandmother's foyer (something common in old Japanese homes) as a newborn infant. Both have come to believe that Gin is Toshiro's father, but whereas Momo thinks the two should connect, Toshiro knows that Gin has always avoided him and watched from afar and has grown comfortable with this unacknowledged connection. He suspects that Gin doesn't want to know him and only intervenes out of responsibility, whereas Momo thinks that Gin might not know how to talk to Toshiro.

When Matsumoto visits Toshiro, she learns of Gin's visit and the two talk about how when Toshiro had first transferred to Squad 10 Matsumoto had been uncomfortable around him. As he rose through the ranks her discomfort increased, until eventually Isshin had orchestrated a way for the two of them to talk to each other.

Thus, Matsumoto confessed to Toshiro her history with Gin, and that knowing Toshiro could be his son she's not sure how to interact with him. Toshiro in return admitted that now he wants to ask her about Gin, but that he knows he'd be doing so in order to get to know Gin without really meeting him, which is unfair to everyone involved. The two decided to get to know each other as people first, and their shared connections to Gin will be left on the side.

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Section 4: Ichigo's Powers

Originally I thought about not giving Ichigo Fullbring powers at all and instead discover his Quincy heritage, allowing Uryu's storyline to get more interesting as well. If so, his slow realization that Karin is in trouble and he can do nothing to help would lead him to look for his mother for guidance, going to the places she loved and at one point digging through her things in storage. He'd discover a Quincy cross in a box, and assume that she'd been Christian or Catholic, but feel a strange pull to it, so he'd keep it. This would of course be him sensing it's power, but he wouldn't know anything was off until Uryu approached him after school about the cross, leading the both of them to do some digging and then discovering that they're second cousins.

Having the Kurosaki heritage be discovered sooner would lead to Uryu giving Ichigo a crash-course in fighting (which would have me writing Orihime back into the story), but that led to too many secrets being discovered early and destroyed any reason for Isshin to remain at home during the rescue arc. Although Isshin is badass and having him be there would be awesome, I couldn't put Isshin into the rescue arc because he's too badass: he'd have people he trusted who he could contact, professionals he knows from his days as a captain, convince them to help, and then stealthily sneak in and smuggle Toshiro out. Which Aizen would predict and prevent, leading Isshin and most of those involved to die. From there I could have the rescue continue as planned, but it felt… cheap and unnecessary to kill Isshin off so soon, before he had a chance to re-connect with his kids and tell them the truth. So I turned to giving him a Fullbring.

When it came to Ichigo's powers, I had trouble thinking up what to give him. I like Orihime, but her story just doesn't fit into this one, so I decided that her skillset would be somehow transferred to Ichigo's- the ability to reject reality. He would of course have more emphasis on fighting, and more importantly be able to mimic some basic Shinigami skills. However he wouldn't use the same channel for his Fullbring as Orihime or as in cannon, and here I ran into some trouble.

In cannon Ichigo's Fullbring is his Substitute Soul Reaper badge, because by the time he develops it being a soul reaper has been a crucial and huge part of his life. I couldn't use that, and sadly for all his character development, we don't get much information on what being a protector meant to him before gaining his powers. Well, we do, but there's no one item he associates with it.

That's when I remembered- there's no item that he thinks of, but there's a person- his mother. Like I mentioned in the Ichigo-Quincy plan, she's the reason he puts so much effort into protecting his loved ones, and therefore for his Fullbring I needed something that reminded him of her. But there is no one item of hers that he has, and Quincy Cross was still out of the question. So thinking about what we know about Ichigo in general prior to Rukia entering his life, I realized that there's one thing that stood out to me- his hair.

It's rarely mentioned, but if you know anything about Japanese high school you know that sticking out leads to bullying, and Ichigo says in cannon that it was his hair color that got him into fights a lot. He also claimed to Sado at one point that he doesn't care what other people think (despite freaking out about Kon ruining "his image"), but it still struck me as odd that he doesn't do anything about it.

So I took some liberties and decided to interpret Ichigo's desire to keep his hair as it is a way to be close to his mother, who he clearly inherits his hair color from. This would give me a way to explore in-story how his mom's death has affected his life and his self-imposed role of a protector, since he wasn't in the Grand Fisher fight.

Ichigo's fullbring allows him to grow his hair at remarkable rates- as in, ankle-length in seconds. When his hair get cut off or falls out, the strands simply float in the air, and he can control their movement. If he bends these strands so that they form a shape, he can project three different types of shields from his hair- like I said, I ripped of Orihime's powers. Later on Ichigo would gain the ability to form shields without having a continuous shape of hair, so that two strands a foot from each other can form a shield between them.

To explain this power I was going to use his drive to protect, more specifically the fact that in this story Ichigo has been largely helpless when his loved ones were in danger, becoming something to protect instead of a protector. This feeling of helplessness led him to desire protection specifically over power- hence why his abilities manifest in the form of a shield, something specifically defensive. But yeah, instead of three or two fairies, Ichigo needs three or two strands of hair in different locations.

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Section 3: Plans the First Rescue Arc

Much of the main story for this arc would be very similar, and I'd focus largely on having brief snippits of events that are very similar to let the audience know that yes, X event still happened, and more detail put on the major changes.

One advantage to Gin being rumored as Toshiro's father is that it makes suspicions about Aizen's death even more complicated, especially for Momo, who now wonders if Aizen knew or did something about Toshiro's sentence that he hid from her. Later Aizen's letter- which still incriminates an innocent man who isn't Gin and who Momo is close to (Renji or Kira or both)- warn her not to seek help from several people (with various explanations given) including Gin, since he's got reason to protect Toshiro and Aizen suspects that he's hiding enough malice and rage that if he learned the true culprit he'd go on a rampage.

As a result of this and because in this story Momo loves the person about to be executed, Momo doesn't immediately apprehend the person she believes is responsible- she tries to break Toshiro out of prison first and plans to apprehend the "true criminal" once he's safe. Because Aizen told her that Gin's love for his son would be stronger than his sense of duty, she plans to take Toshiro to Gin so they can hide him while arresting the true convict.

Momo is successful in breaking into the tower and carrying Toshiro out, but she's shaken by how feverish he is and briefly stops running at one point so he can catch his breath. Toshiro (and the audience) learns the entire story from Momo

Meanwhile, the possibility that Gin's suspicious activities are related to his potential son's upcoming execution lead several people in circles. I'm not sure about everyone's specific guesses, but I know that at one point Unohana goes to visit Toshiro and Momo's grandmother for more information (which sets up the fact that Toshiro's powers have extended his grandmother's lifespan).

Aizen also believes that since Gin was the last person to make direct contact with the Hogyoku before it's transformation, it's manifestation is more influenced by Gin than any other soul it's composed of. Thus they decided to have Gin behave as though Toshiro was his child in order to spy on Toshiro and influence his life without drawing attention to themselves- Gin's influence would be interpreted by all as a concerned yet confused parent awkwardly trying to help his son.

Later on, when Momo tried to rescue Toshiro, this story gave Aizen an excuse to direct her towards Gin. Had Toshiro and her friends not foiled her attempt, Gin would have led the both of them to Aizen, so that he could kill Momo and keep Toshiro safely out of the Ryoka's hands until it was time to sneak him back into his cell for the execution.

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Section 5: Toshiro's Powers Explained

So, remember how I said that part of my inspiration came from several badly written fanficion stories that all had similar twists? Well this is one of the twists:

"Toshiro Hitsugaya is/possesses half of/all of the Hogyoku, and always has." Okay, pretty much everybody knew that Toshiro had to have half the Hogyoku placed into him by Urahara. The entire Rescue arc is meaningless without it. But what I got from previous stories was the idea that Hitsugaya himself has some great power Aizen wants, specifically part of the power he's been after throughout the entire series. Later in life, I saw Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I loved the fifth season. So after reading one of these bad stories, my brain came up with an idea: what if Toshiro was half of the Hogyoku, as Dawn Summers is the Key?

My brain then came up with this lovely idea: "The Hogyoku can't be destroyed unless it's in one piece, which is why Urahara would need to put his half of it into Toshiro instead of Rukia." Which of course replaces her role for the first three seasons, but oh well. Then my brain thought: "Aizen would have grabbed Hitsugaya before then…" and was responded with: "…but if he grabbed Toshiro, Urahara would never let him get anywhere near his half of the Hogyoku. He'd be forced to trick Urahara into putting the two together with the intention of destroying the whole thing. Just like how he got Rukia, Aizen thought Urahara meant to hide the Hogyoku in her, so he'd just as easily be convinced that Urahara wanted to have Toshiro absorb both halves of the Hogyoku's power before killing him." Sort of like the knights who want to kill Dawn Summers, they think the MacGuffin can only be destroyed when it's in human (or Shinigami) form, so Urahara would have to put the two together to destroy both halves.

I later realized: "Aizen's a very god-I-am man, he wouldn't want to share his power with another. Suppose he had some way to separate Hitsugaya from the Hogyoku, and then Toshiro would be just like Rukia. That explains the need for execution by Sokyoku, same method of retrieving the thing." The whole thing about the Hogyoku reacting to Shinigami energy came from a convenient idea I had about how the Senzaikyu repression of Toshiro's spiritual energy somehow helps separate Shinigami from godlike power hiding inside Shinigami. This explains why the Hogyoku would need to create a Shinigami around itself anyways, it was told to shut down, and being encased in a Shinigami helps slow it down. I'll say this in-story later, but Toshiro was also created to be unchangeable to the Hogyoku- meaning that it's power has no effect on him. I was surprised that merging with the Hogyoku didn't make Rukia a Vizard, so in this story the Hogyoku couldn't make Toshiro a Vizard, it couldn't change his reiatsu to let it through, so his reiatsu muffled it a great deal. This is also why his powers developed so early in life; he was born a Shinigami, but something (or someone) tried to repress his powers so that he'd have a chance to grow up (since being a Shinigami slows down the whole aging process). The idea to have the Hogyoku grow in strength with Hitsugaya was another convenient excuse to have Aizen leave him alone for a few decades.

Also, I went more in-depth with how the Hogyoku works, and changed it a little in this universe. In this universe, the power of the Hogyoku sometimes "leaks" out, as I'll describe here:

The Hogyoku unlocks whatever internal barriers block a person from achieving power. For one use: It gives it's target the potential to do anything- however, the Hogyoku will first unlock potential that the target currently needs, if they are in danger. If the target doesn't need anything, it then unlocks the potential to achieve whatever the target is trying to do. If this doesn't apply, it unlocks the target's potential to do the next most-likely yet impossible thing the target can achieve. (If it's impossible for a Shinigami and a Hollow to coexist in a single body but the two spirits are similar in nature/compatible except for one crucial detail/something is actively blocking the merger, then the Hogyoku will make it possible for a Shinigami and Hollow to coexist in the same body). It then continues on with the next easiest change to make. So the change that takes the least energy will always be the default change made, if there is no intention associated with the target and any changes to the target. Whatever warps reality the least, is the easiest.

If there is intention, that takes presence over what's easiest. Subconcious intention works as well, but conscious intention (such as Aizen's transformations) can be more powerful because the target knows what they/it wants and can guide the Hogyoku to give it exactly what it/they desires. This explains part of the second movie of Bleach, for my fanfic-verse.

So what happened with Kusaka? Well you see SXXXXX.

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Section 6: Future Arcs

By the end of the rescue arc, I had no idea where to go. I knew that the second rescue arc might not even happen, but didn't know what to replace it with.

I had two ways this could go: when/if Urahara tried to discourage Ichigo from fighting, the latter gets upset, calls Urahara out right then and there, and points out that Urahara's previous actions and Ichigo's performance don't line up with what he's saying. As a result, Urahara tries the direct method, cheerfully compliments Ichigo's deduction skills, and tells him outright that he thinks Ichigo might be targeted for the ability to speed up Aizen's Hogyoku's powers (or potentially to remove the last traces of Toshiro's soul from the Hogyoku, on the off-chance that Aizen has discovered that his attempts at separating the two weren't entirely successful, but Urahara wants to keep the knowledge of that fact a secret and doesn't reveal it to Ichigo). As a result Ichigo is moved to the Soul Society for longer, gets to know the soul reapers better, and doesn't leave until the next major battle/story arc. Or he takes a break from school and starts lodging with Urahara, who can both train him and protect him. Should an Espada try to approach Ichigo, Urahara will be alerted to the fact that his friends need back-up to help avoid potential hostage situations.

Alternatively, Urahara would know that Ichigo is the kind of person to be encouraged when/if someone tells him he's not good enough, and instead of verbally downgrading him like Orihime finds a way to keep Ichigo occupied and safe. He has Yoruichi offer to help train Ichigo long-term, thus keeping him close to her and safe.

This plan would lead into the second rescue arc, since Aizen would come up with a way to distract Yoruichi and block any calls for backup, thus isolating Ichigo during the hostage battle. Ichigo would keep fighting Ulquiorra (and nearly win) until he manages to land a hit, making the latter realize that this guy is serious and drop straight into his second resurrection to quickly overpower his target. Ichigo would then have faith in his friends ability to win, leading Ulquiorra to contact the other Espada to organize a "moment of truth" by having all of the hostages about to be killed at once, instead of just stuck in hopeless battles. This would be enough pressure for Ichigo to give in (though he recognizes and addresses the dirty psychological tactics, they still work).

One way or another, I had a plan for how Aizen is defeated:

One thing to change is that one person overtakes him completely until he loses the Hogyoku. Instead, the entire main team goes to Karakura to face him as the last stand protecting their home. Urahara sends someone to get them there (as he knows why Toshiro needs to be there, expects the others to die and motivate him, and Soul Society wouldn't send them off to their deaths). They know they can't win, but they try anyways. By working together and working well, they manage to push Aizen to the point where Urahara can activate that seal, get Toshiro to reclaim the Hogyoku power, and win.

On a character-by-character level:

Uryu provides air support (ie distractions) and strategy for the others. He also sets up Ichigo and Karin's attacks by running around scattering Ichigo's hair, and occasionally draining enough spiritual energy in the right ways that Karin can "see" Aizen and attack him.

Sado activates another "awakening" mid-battle, increasing his total power capacity, just as he did against the menos grande earlier. This upgrade allows him to "hold" Aizen- this ability being used to prevent his target from making serious attacks or fleeing (it doesn't always work, but Sado prioritizes and uses it at the exact moments where it can work, backing out right after to avoid Aizen sabotaging his ability or figuring out a way around it). His role is providing cover for Ichigo to get close and distractions.

Ichigo uses rejection fiercely against Aizen, He's one of the only two who can land direct hits, due to reality-warping being so strong. Karin is the other, but…

The "final bankai" is something Isshin had taught Karin previously prior to the last arc, not something she had on her own (so no spending three months training inbetween worlds). It's powerful, but she's incapable of accessing it's full potential because it's something she's never done and only taught to her in theory. Furthermore it increases her empathy/telepath abilities to the point where she can hear the thoughts of everyone around her, which distract and confuse her, preventing her from attacking. She mostly identifies her friends and uses her own reiatsu to protect them from Aizen's power, occasionally releasing pure power onto Aizen if/when she can identify him. Later, Aizen would compare her status in this moment to her ancestor Yhwach: all-powerful but unable to move, merely able to give others power and rely on them for support and protection.

Toshiro, meanwhile, first appears to be the Load here as he isn't very useful in the battle itself, largely staying out of it for (according to what he claims) weak reasons. He stays by Karin's side and actually focuses on calling to the Hogyoku, until he's able to use Urahara's training to reconnect with and reclaim his powers.

In order to win, all members of the team strike together in one blow- powers of several different types striking at the moment when Toshiro calls to the Hogyoku hard, breaking Aizen's concentration enough for Toshiro to reach his power. What actually defeats Aizen technically isn't the characters being strong enough when fighting together, but Aizen losing control over his power source when he's distracted by staying alive against several different types of powerful attacks. What makes this group capable of defeating him isn't just their ability to work together, it's the diversity of their powers.

The Execution arc can go two ways: closer to cannon, or no regained powers.

If it went as cannon, Ichigo would be one of those who stays by Karin's side, sticking with his sister over his "friend". Also in this arc, Sado would pick up several tricks from the other Fullbringers, in order to help keep him from lagging behind in terms of power.

Otherwise, Karin's powers would not be restored by Soul Society. She would gain either Fullbring or Quincy powers, but her Reaper powers are staying locked up until death. In the former case, she takes a backseat in the battle to get her powers back, and in the latter she gets Uryu to start training her from the moment she loses her abilities as despite her age and the fact that this is a new chance for her, she admits she cannot go back to being in the dark and pretending everything's normal. So when the Fullbringers come into town, her plotline is more about those around Karin accepting that she's grown up and cannot be held back anymore, not about giving her a Fullbring.

The final battle, if it was still against the main characters in Yhwach, would have the whole team against him. Furthermore they would be one group of many- not the sole victors, and they would be a supporting team- pulling their weight, but not making the most impact. The people who fight Yhwach head-on would be Urahara, Shunsui, Yoruichi (who FINALLY reveals her true power), Harribel (who can not only pull her own weight, she actually WINS battles and is a credible threat as befitting the Queen of Hueco Mundo), Unohana (whose battle with Kenpachi was held off until Ichigo was at hand- not only b/c letting her die like that is stupid, but because it would have made Kenpachi afraid of never having someone strong enough to challenge him again since someone he cares about dies when he releases his true strength, and would thus be counter-productive to his goals), Kukaku (who ALSO shows her true powers), one person from each of the other three noble houses who display WHY they have the rank they do ('cause that was a huge Checkhov's gun that never went off and is definitely related to the Soul King- the entire focus of this arc), and possibly Aizen. Plus anybody from Squad Zero who Ichigo/any healer managed to get up to full strength again.

In the end the biggest battle-related contribution that the main cast makes is Uryu shooting that one arrow, allowing a major attack that takes Yhwach down. Everyone else still pulls their weight being support fighters, but none of them are over-powered enough to play a serious major role in the fight.

…/…/…/…/…/…|…\…\…\…\…\…

Section 7: Tidbits and Extra

One of the ways I feel that I've failed this story is that there hasn't been enough foreshadowing of this twist. The only foreshadowing was when Sado developed his powers.

The "bright light" he saw was actually the power of the Hogyoku, and the reason why he developed super-powers right then and there, before his own stores of spiritual energy had time to grow and develop, was because Toshiro unconsciously used his own abilities to give Sado his powers early.

The new name for Kon, Kaikon, was thought up by Sado. He came up with it when Karin and Kon were arguing on what the modsoul's name should be, and this fact would be revealed when Ichigo first meets Kaikon and asks who thought up "that stupid name."

The Title:

The summary for this story is about how Karin and Toshiro have two powers they never knew about, and would eventually learn throughout the course of the story: Karin is a telepath, and Toshiro is the Hogyoku. These powers would manifest within their own inner worlds through reflective surfaces, hence the name "Reflection".

To clarify, Karin's inner world would include a "floor" of black glass, with grass growing up through random places in the glass. By focusing on the reflection in this grass, she would be able to watch through the memories and thoughts of people she's met, memories she unconsciously picked up, or simply re-watching what she's already seen.

Toshiro's power would be literally hidden beneath the ice of his inner world. After the removal of the Hogyoku's power, he would find when he next re-entered his inner world that the sheet of ice on the ground has been torn up into shreds. At first, Toshiro would assume that this was to get the Hogyoku out of the ice, where it was buried. After Aizen's defeat, he'd discover that the Hogyoku's power was scattered throughout the entire field- an undeniable part of him. When learning with Urahara to control this power, he'd find a useful tactic is to look into his own reflection in the ground and use that to access the Hogyoku's power without losing himself to it. Like using a mirror to study the sun, it helps him keep control.

Power:

One of the problems Bleach has is that Ichigo becomes extremely over-powered in an extremely short amount of time, and his friends and allies all struggle to keep up. Thus Tite Kubo introduces new allies who are already extremely strong, and then struggles to keep the previous badasses in the story. But, making them extremely powerful makes for a fun story. One of the things I wanted to do was strike a compromise between two extremes: some characters are OP with their established powers, but nobody rises extremely high above the rest.

That's why one of my ideas was for Karin to never access Fullbring or regain Soul Reaper powers- to keep her even after the last ending. If she had regained her powers, she never would have accessed her Quincy powers or her Fullbring. Either way, she'd never gain Bankai unless Urahara's three-day method came with a price (such as locking away bankai forever after a certain time or permanently crippling it). I was going to make Sado far more powerful than in cannon, and have Ichigo use his powers effectively, but more than that I wanted to make all the characters fight smart.

Instead of breaking up and going one-on-one against opponents they'd fight together and fight well. Even when faced with an equal number of opponents, instead of breaking off into duels the characters would help each other out and fight with strategy. In that way, each individual member of the group would get as strong as a Lieutenant (is supposed to be, we're not counting lieutenants far stronger than their rank implies), but together capable of taking down Aizen-level enemies.

That being said the group would not win every battle alone. I wanted them to not be the victors against Yhwach, instead playing a role in the battle and (as I've said five times) pulling their own weight, but apart from Uryu's one moment of importance with the arrow the group plays support by fighting any surviving flunkies of Yhwach, catching more powerful allies when they fall and healing them up, and getting other support teams to safety when they're injured.

I wanted this group to be awesome, but not OP. Their fight against Aizen is their personal greatest moment (except for Uryu, whose personal greatest moment is firing the silver arrow). They wouldn't be the ones to defeat the Espada, and in fact none of them would fight Ulquiorra- Ichigo sneaks out of his room or is rescued quietly and then the entire group teleports to Karakura immediately in order to get the person they came to rescue to safety, leaving the rest of the battle in the hands of those stronger than them. And it works.

Urahara claims he's sending them back to get them out of the way, but really it's because he knows Toshiro is the last defense, and if it comes to that Aizen will be in Karakura anyways. Once they settle in Konohana Toshiro is supposed to go back, but Urahara doesn't create a gate for him to do so. When Aizen arrives, the group realizes what happened and decides unanimously to fight, knowing they'll probably die, but hoping that someone is still alive and that they can buy enough time for backup.

You can see from my "future arcs" section that it works in ways they didn't expect.

A running theme in my story would have been teamwork. People becoming something amazing by learning to work together and each utilize their own strengths to help each other and achieve greater goals. This wasn't just something I wanted to show with the main cast (although I've been mentioning them a lot that's because I've put the most thought into them, as they do show up the most), but also with Urahara and his allies (having them work together), some of the various villains, and finally by having this be a lesson the Seireitei learns as a whole over the course of the story by seeing what their enemies/allies accomplish with the power of friendship and trust. In addition, friendships tried and tested by mistrust, yet overcoming these problems to become stronger.

For example, one of the ways I messed up was by having Sado feel too comfortable with Toshiro- I wanted a plotline to be Sado and Toshiro disagreeing on certain points and overcoming this with Sado learning more about situational reasons for Toshiro's behavior and Toshiro learning not to expect his human allies to obey his orders unconditionally, learning what he can tell then and should tell them.

I mentioned the Seireitei learning this lesson about friendship, and to this end I want to direct the audience to a filler villain known as Shusuke Amagai. He's a captain who turned out to be tragically misled, allied himself with the wrong people, and was killed. Before then, he encouraged inter-squad relations and Shinigami to work together. In this story, I wanted to not only spare this man, but make his lessons remain.

The Ending:

By the end of my story, the Soul Society would face major social reformation: Shinigami now form guard posts in the human world where several stay at once, using the budget that once went into Mayuri's insane experiments to equip each station with technology to catch wholes where they form instead of just Hollows, performing Konso early and decreasing the number of Hollows that form. In addition to Central 46, a civilian council is formed to help run the Rukon districts and provide them with some way of getting law enforcement and telling the Shinigami if/when Shinigami are harassing the locals, to lessen corruption (this is something Komamura supports fiercely, knowing that corruption in Rukon led to his friend's fall from grace). Each division is subject to checks by Central 46 (it was suggested the civilian senate as well, but there wasn't enough power in there to do something like that yet) every so often to ensure nothing insane or inhumane is happening without justifiable reason (the last part was added in by people who want some corruption to continue, and others acknowledge it as a legal loophole for future evil to be state-sanctioned). While it's acknowledged that the moment war breaks out the government is put into what it was, this is because honestly democracies aren't very good at fighting wars, and there are limits put in place to ensure the Seireitei can't stay "at war" permanently to keep themselves in power. The system is still nowhere near perfect or even a good system, but these are the changes they manage to make in the wake of a new Central 46 being formed, and they do create improvements.

The main cast could end up a few different ways: they could largely continue to live as humans, or most of the human characters could die off in the final battle (since I'm a sucker for happy endings). In the former case, the final act is ten years later with Karin dying of cancer, her human friends sad and she's sad to leave them. However, she accepts death and tells her spiritually-aware friends that she'll see them again soon, with them a little less depressed and Ichigo and Yuzu insisting that she has to visit- once she gets settled at least, so they know she's okay. That night Karin slowly wakes from sleep, hearing Toshiro's voice, who walked in though the window. They talk briefly, acknowledge that she died in her sleep and Toshiro waited until then to wake her so that she could at least go peacefully. They discuss where Kukaku is currently staying, where it is in relation to the Seireitei, and that the gates have been temporarily lowered as a favor from the Head Captain. He performs Konso, and Karin feels herself pulled through worlds. She re-forms near a lake, finds the Seireitei, and- for the first time since the battle against Aizen- calls upon a shinigami flash-step to begin the journey towards her clan's home, where her father should be waiting, and realizes she never actually asked how long after death one has to wait to enroll in the Academy and if it's easier if you've already got a Zanpakuto- since for the first time in a long time she can feel Shingetsu by her side.

In the latter case, because like I said I want to balance awesome with realism, everyone goes out like a badass and meaningfully, with Ishida the last one to go, avenging the others. The ten-years-later reveals that Yuzu is doing fine in the human world, now able to see spirits and visited by her family, but still preferring normal human life and never regretting it for a moment. Ichigo and Karin were obviously inducted into their father's clan, the latter losing her Quincy powers upon death and regaining her Shinigami ones (you know which squad she's the third seat for- girl refuses to kick Matumoto out) and the former either a Shinigami or still wielding his Fullbring. Uryu decided to play a role in the now-growing civilian politics, refusing to join the Seireitei despite having the skill to and instead playing a role in the new social reformations, as it's the best way to prevent what happened to his people and grandfather from happening again. Sado either works with Uryu or lives a happy life in Rukon, one of the newly-formed local law enforcers and the best one in whatever division of Rukon he lives in. He also helps take care of local orphans until they can find adoptive families and he's also the founder of a new tradition of find-my-family poster boards, dedicated to helping people find their loved ones after death.

One plotline that I considered but wasn't sure when to throw in: Yuzu getting stronger spiritually, that lion from the one filler becoming a lasting ally (and them finding a way to prevent it from attracting Hollows), but deciding she prefers domestic life to fighting on her own. A crack idea I had was for her to meet Hanataro after the first timeskip, when he stays at their house for one reason or another. Potentially, this would culminate in the epilogue mentioning Yuzu dying of natural causes at age 19, going to the Seireitei, and re-meeting Hanataro, who's friends with Ganju and visits on his days off. There would be a secondary and final epilogue scene 50 years later, both demonstrating what the main cast has accomplished long-term (with the previous instances showing what they're attempting but being slightly more realistic in that everyone's future isn't fully certain yet), Karin and Toshiro have sort-of started dating (ie they'll make it official soon and everyone can see it), and the whole reason the main cast is together today is because Hanataro and Yuzu are getting married.

… It's a crack ship that I think would work out if they were the same age, don't judge me! I'd NEVER support it when Yuzu's a child, but considering their respective personalities I can see them being attracted to each other in later years.