#autumn memories caught up in the wind : senna. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

strunmah-mah · 2 years

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The Gift of Life is Thine

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Ichigo Kurosaki x Senna

Ichigo grieves for Senna, who existed but never got to be real. But one autumn afternoon he discovers something that might be able to change that.

A crisp autumn breeze blew in through the open window while Ichigo sat studying. School had just started up again, and Ichigo was determined not to fall behind like he had in previous semesters because of hollows and other spiritual entities. Another breeze caused goosebumps to form on his arms, finally distracting him. He got up to get a jacket when something bright red grabbed his eye.

A ribbon was caught in the wind. With every gust it flew upward, and spiraled gently back down It danced in an invisible whirlwind, determined not to touch the ground

“I thought I had you put away,” Ichigo said. He gently grabbed the ribbon out of the air. As he did the breeze seemed to fill his lungs and the coolness of it made him freeze. Despite that the ribbon in his hand was warm, like it had been in the sun all day. And just for a single flickering second, Ichigo thought he felt a familiar reiatsu coming from it.

But that was impossible, she didn’t exist anymore. She never had despite what his memories said. Or perhaps she had. If he went to Urahara Ichigo was sure the man could tell him all sorts of technical details about the shinenju phenomenon. The mass of memories that somehow gained intelligence, and all of its associated abilities. He was sure that his Shinigami friends had all written up mission reports that they could no longer remember about the purple haired girl who had almost caused the worlds to collide.

What must that be like to exist, but to be fake? To be documented, but unremembered? She saved the world, that was her choice. But no one will ever know that. No one but Ichigo apparently.

She did it for him. Sacrificed herself for him. She didn’t save the world because that’s the right thing to do, but because it was the place Ichigo lived. She did it to protect him specifically. Perhaps that was why he remembered.

The thought made him shake. How often he defined himself as a protector. How could he not when his name literally meant the first protector. It was perhaps the reason he threw himself so fully into defending people, even those he had only the most tenuous of connections with.

Senna was the only one who had done the same for him.

He repaid her by lying to her.

To do otherwise would have been cruel, but that doesn’t make the memory haunt him any less The walk to the graveyard was quiet as she struggled to remain councess. He was glad she was too far gone to beagle to read the grave marker herself. But when she asked him instead, if her name was on that stone, he thought he would choke on that yes.

His shoulder shook with grief for a woman who wasn’t real, and a sob caught in his throat. Tears finally won as another breeze brought in the smell of dried leaves. They spilled onto the ribbon clutched tight in his fist. He swore he could feel the ghost of her reiatsu again. It felt like she was trying to comfort him.

“I miss you so much, Senna.” The ghost got stronger, and he thought he saw the red ribbon sparked green. He startled and fell backwards onto his butt. He stared at the ribbon uncomprehending. It was unchanged, but that spark of reiatsu. It had been the signature color of fullbring techniques, hadn’t it?

His mind raced to everything Ginjo had taught him about fullbring months ago. Ichigo’s training had been rushed, and like all of his mentors that came before him Ginjo had been a man who was sparse on details.

Every object had a soul, and the soul got stronger as more memories were associated with it. Or something like that? And if a person had an affinity for an object you could pull on it transforming it. Except affinity was vague at best, but what seemed to work best seemed to vary from person to person. Chad said you needed to have pride associated with the object to work. Which had worked for Ichgo when he had pulled power from his substitute shinigami pass. But pride was not an emotion Ichigo associated with Senna..

The dollhouse fullbringer, whatever her name is, she said that you needed to have love for an object. He hedged uncomfortably with that for a moment before remembering that love wasn’t necessarily romantic Renko (?) had hardly been in love with her many dolls after all. She just adored them for what they were. Which was too shallow, no to simple of an emotion for this.

Ginjo hadn’t seemed to rely on any particular emotion. He just said you needed an understanding of an object.

Ichigo could work with that. He understood her fear. How when a problem seemed too big she liked to climb up high until everything was small again. But more importantly, he understood how she interacted with the world with an almost childlike wonder. He didn’t share it, but appreciation for the simple things was something that had been important to her. A good view, a fun game, her favorite color.

He smiled fondly as he remembered the trip to the mall. A sudden game of tag turned into an impromptu tightwalk show. Her theft of the very hair ribbon he was holding, and her surprise at him going back and buying it. She was right, the red did suit her better than the yellow had. Not the kind of thing he would have noticed himself, but the red clearly made her happier which is why it suited her.

She didn’t take it off after that. It stayed on till the wind tore it away from her, just before she made her sacrifice Maybe that’s why it seemed to serve as a token of her now. She had only owned it briefly, but her existence had been brief as well. Maybe her joy from it had been enough to make it a part of her. As being made from other people’s memories, this was the only thing that had actually been hers. But even if that was true, that still didn’t answer why the ribbon was reacting like a fullbring. Hadn’t that ability been stolen from him? After all, he hadn't ever used bringer light after his ability had been stolen. But on the other hand his shinigami power had been restored immediately after the theft of his fullbringer ones so, had he ever tried to use bringer light? It was meant for use in his physical body, and leaving said body was second nature in fights. So maybe, he hadn’t lost the ability to use fullbring and it had only been the soul of the combat pass that had been stolen.

Could it be he was still a fullbringer, and had unconsciously tried to use it on Senna’s ribbon?

He reached his reiatsu out to it, and tried to shove his memories of her onto it. How she looked like she was dancing when she fought. How they spent all day helping that little boy find a small festival. “I have to save the world, because the world is where Ichigo lives.”

There! Another spark of green, and that familiar crisp, dry, autumn reiatsu spiked again. An idea formed in Ichigo’s mind, and he was out the window. A bright green spark lit up with each footstep as he ran above the rooftops.

_______________________________________

To say that Urahara Kisuke was surprised at the sudden appearance of Kurosaki Ichigo in his shop was an understatement. The young man usually only showed up when there was an emergency, and even then he usually had to be sought out. Not that Ichigo had to be poked and prodded into dealing with such threats, but that he on occasion had to be poked and prodded into thinking critically about threats. Kisuke supposed he was to blame for Kurosaki’s bad habits, Kisue had his own bad habit of presenting situations to be much simpler than they actually were and the boy was always willing to take him at face value. But all this was a tangent and did nothing to explain Kurosaki’s currently heaving chest and his white knuckled grip on a red hair ribbon.

“Kurosaki-kun?” he inquired mildly

The ribbon was shoved into Kisuke’s face, “save her!”

He stared at the ribbon in bafflement, “Save who, Kurosaki-kun? I don’t understand”

“Senna, the shinenju. She’s made of memories right? All of hers are right here!” There was a frantic, desperate look in Ichigo's eyes that Kisuke was wholly unfamiliar with, it unnerved the older shinigami.

Kisuke leaned back to think and snapped his fan open to hide his expression. The shinenju? He had records detailing that such a phenomenon had occurred a couple years ago, but how did Ichgo remember that, and why was he so desperate to revive it, her?

Idle thoughts drifted through his head from when Ichigo had first become a shinigami. Had there not been a similar incident when Ichgo had refused to let Kon, the artificial mod soul, be destroyed? And when memories of Rukia had been taken from everyone’s mind, Ichigo had also been the only person to gain back his memories without intervention then too. Perhaps this was yet another quirk of Ichigo simply being Ichigo.

He looked again at the boy’s eyes and dismissed the idea. Desperation. He had never seen it on Ichigo’s face before. Usually the only emotion he let through was raw determination. He knew the odds were against him in nearly every task he had ever undertaken, but never let himself truly consider failure as an option. Seeing Ichigo’s desperation now ment the boy understood exactly how impossible what he was asking for was. But Kisuke owed the boy far, far too many favors to not even try.

“Tell me Kurosaki-kun, what even makes you think it’s possible?”

“I can feel her, or a residual of her anyway using fullbring. I guess that power isn’t as gone as we thought it was.”

Kisuke started to flutter his hand slightly in excitement, “Really, can you show me?”

Ichigo gave a stiff nod, and loosened his grip on the ribbon till it was gently cradled in his hand. He brought his other to hover a couple inches over the top of it. It stayed there for several seconds and Kisuke couldn’t quite tell what the other shinigami was doing. He hadn’t witnessed any fullbring techniques aside from Sado-san first hand, and Sado-san seemed to be an atypical example of the ability set.

Just as Kisuke began to wonder if anything was going to happen, there was a green spark. It faded and the smell of dried leaves filled the room, so thick he could taste it, and crisp air filled her lungs. It was reiatsu, and powerful too. Was the shinenju naturally that strong or was Ichigo amplifying whatever remnants were left on the ribbon? So many questions, but how many would ichigo know the answer to? The boy was intelligent but technical details often escaped him and he usually did his best when operating on pure instinct anyway. Even with the most advanced of techniques Ichigo understood more intuitively than he did consciously. Did that apply here, or did ichigo know what he was doing?

The green light was back and had begun to animate the ribbon. It lifted off of Ichogo’s palm and began to dance on a wind that didn’t exist. It twirled and looped through itself, somehow never knotting.

“Are you doing that Kuroasaki-kun?” Kisuke asked, fascinated.

“I mean, I’m feeding it reiatsu. But she’s dancing because she wants to, I think.”

Kisuke snapped his fan shut and poked at the ribbon. It nimbly evaded his physical finger, and when he reached out with reiatsu, it seemed to poke him back in curiosity. Kisuke laid his hand flat and let the odd autumn reiatsu investigate him. The ribbon did a few lazy loops around his wrist before ksuke got the sensation of . . . was that boredom?

No sooner had he identified the emotion then the ribbon physically poked him and then flew off to some far corner of the room. Ichigo groaned and held his face in his hands. “It’s just a ribbon, but it still wants to play that weird hybrid of tag and hide-n-seek just like her.” The boy reached out to where it was hiding and twisted his fingers. Ichigo’s reiatsu seemed to pull at it and the ribbon came back to his hand while pouting.

Kisuke never thought he would ever describe a ribbon as being pouting, but that was definitely what was happening before his eyes. A ribbon was pouting like a dog that didn’t want to be inside and Ichigo's eyes were shining with fond exasperation.

“Well-” Kisuke said “-you’ve certainly give me a lot to work with. That will help. I also have a bit of a background with making artificial souls and gigai’s which will also be of a huge benefit. But most importantly Kurosaki-kun, I will be needing your help. Your skill with fullbring will be the most vital part of making this work. Can you do that for me?”

Ichigo squared his shoulders and looked Kisuke in the eye, “Of course, what do you need?”

Kisuke felt his own shoulders drop and relax. His determination was back. No matter how impossible this should actually be, the two of them were guaranteed to succeed now. “Excellent. Let’s go down to the basement and test a few things, I want a baseline on how fullbring actually functions without a focus like the combat pass or ribbon. It will help me determine what is you and what is her.”

_______________________________________

After much testing and trial and error, the solution to Senna’s revival turned out to be quite simple. Urahara-san prepared a gigai, they tied the ribbon into the gagia’s hair, and Ichigo activated his fullbring. There was the signature green spark and the ribbon attached itself to the gigai like a modsoul.

Senna’s reiatsu filled the room, crisp and fresh and strong. She blinked and looked around disoriented. After a moment she finally seemed to notice Ichigo. She whispered his name and reached out a hand. He took it.

“I told you we’d meet again.”

“Of course, Ichigo always keeps his promises,” she grinned.

Off to the side Urahara sat, waiting to run more tests. But he could wait. Just for a moment Ichigo wanted to sit and do nothing more than marvel that Senna finally got to be real.

#bleach #kurosaki ichigo #senna #ichigo x senna #do they have a ship name?#fanfiction

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