2 Rewards?
Ichigo was currently in his soul world. His physical body was starting to fail due to his injuries. To his left sat Zangetsu and to his right stood the Old man. They did not speak, there was no need to. The silence that permeated his deteriorating soul world was enough to convey any feelings they shared.
The furthest buildings started to dissolve, indicating his death was near.
It was an odd sensation the hybrid mused, watching yourself die on the inside. The corner of his lips rose as he got a chuckle from Zangetsu with that comment.
The old man turned to Ichigo and spoke for the first time in what seemed an eternity.
"Are you not saddened by these developments Ichigo?"
Zangetsu took a peek at the sky in surprise, not even a hint of a downpour.
"Not in the least" Replied Ichigo.
"I can't say I've been dealt a bad hand in life, I saw more death than someone my age should, but I also forged more bonds than most people will over their entire lives."
The Old man's eyes looked heavy after that comment, Ichigo could feel the sadness radiate from them.
"You've come a long way Ichigo" the old man said.
"I am…. Happy, that I can see the end like this, beside you and even Zangetsu." He said as he sat down next to Ichigo.
They continued to sit silently as everything but the building they were sitting on was gone. Pure emptiness surrounded the trio and yet, no fear could be seen.
Ichigo closed his eye as the building they were on started to dissolve from both ends and was approaching quickly. It felt like hours and when it was about time to say the final goodbye, something unexpected happened.
The decay stopped. A type piece of building the three were sitting on in a vast world of emptiness. Before Ichigo could even question what happened, he felt something pull at him. It was almost as if a hand reached into his soul to pull his consciousness out into his body.
He opened his eyes and instead of seeing his empty soul world, he saw himself in a room of sorts. It had black walls, no windows or doors, and no decorations. The only things in the room beside himself were a table, a chair, and what looked like…. a tablet?
Just as Ichigo was about to question what was going on he heard a voice broadcast over the tablet.
"Welcome hero!" the childish voice sounded from the tablet.
"I bet your wondering what your doing here, well it's a long story, you died."
Ichigo didn't know what to say to this situation, he had fought monsters and gods and yet…. what the fuck?
It was almost instinct that he responded in the same way as if he were addressing Hat n' Clogs
"I thought you said it was a long story, all you said was I died?" The Shinigami replied.
"..." - tablet
"...…" - Ichigo
"I just said you died and that's the part you focus on?" the tablet responded in more of a deadpan manner.
"Wouldn't be the first time I've died" Ichigo said emotionlessly.
"......…. what?" The voice on the tablet obviously shaken with the response Ichigo gave.
The silence lasted several seconds before the tablet decided to respond.
"Um…let me check some stuff real quick, be right back." The person behind the tablet could be
heard getting up from some kind of desk in a hurry shouting towards his supervisor.
A conversation could be heard, it grew louder as two people approached the tablet from the other end.
"Alright alright, don't panic. Ill help you out on this one since its your first day newbie" The new, deeper, voice said as he sat down at the desk.
Ichigo remained silent as what appeared to be a more competent person taking charge.
"Alright lets pull up his information" The deeper voice continued.
"Name is Kurosaki Ichigo, gained Shinigami powers and defended his town from various hollows and died when a certain Urahara Kisuke threw him into a hole and turned him into a hollow in an attempt to get him his Shinigami powers back after losing them." The Deeper voice said.
"Seems pretty cut and dry, why did you need my help" The Deeper voice directing the comment towards to the childish voice.
"…..there are more pages" the childish voice said in the most serious voice he could muster.
"Oh, no wonder. Its rare to find someone who overcame certain death and got a multiplier" The deeper voice nonchalantly said.
He continued on, "Lets see...wait….what?"
"Something the matter?" Ichigo couldn't help but comment at this point.
"Ah..yes.. I forgot you were there for a second" the Deeper voice said.
"It seems I'll need to explain a few things, ill start from the beginning." He said.
"Basically, we regulate and sort the souls of the multiverse, since your previous world is about to collapse we got jurisdiction over your reincarnation."
"You've performed many heroic deeds in your life which earned you positive karma and….."
"WAIT" Ichigo abruptly interrupted.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY WORLD IS ABOUT TO COLLAPSE?"
"Ah…I wasn't supposed to mention that….well….I guess the cat is out of the bag?" The deep voice said.
"Alright, you've had a hard life I guess I can give you a freebee here, so you killed Yhwach, but he had already absorbed the spirit king which was essentially the bond that held your world together"
Ichigo was about to shout again before the Deeper voice continued, "and before you interrupt me, your world was going to end regardless of what you did. If you had lost the fight, he would have tried to usurp the spirit king's authority and fail in the process causing the same thing to occur."
"So, what I did was pointless…?" Ichigo barely managed to push the words out of his throat.
"Oh no no no, on the contrary actually, you did amazingly well and are getting rewarded for stopping him. Technically the world was still alive when you defeated Yhwach, so you get the points for saving the world"
Ichigo's mood dropped immediately, all his friends and family were going to die, and he couldn't do anything… once again he failed to protect those closest to him.
"I can practically feel your depression through the tablet young man" The deeper voice said, snapping Ichigo out of his own thoughts.
"Now let me continue where I left off previously before I was so rudely interrupted."
"Doing heroic deeds earns you karma for your next life, and you get to spend it when you die and shape your reincarnation."
"There are also special multipliers that apply when you do something especially amazing, like saving the world, or overcoming certain death"
"Both in this case are applied to you. You see, you overcame certain death 17 times in your short few years running around as a Shinigami. And not only that, you saved the world 3 times."
"Kid, you have the highest amount of karma I've ever seen."
Ichigo looked towards the tablet, pondering for a seconds before finally asking what was on his mind, "Can I use my karma to save my previous world?"
"Sorry kid, thats not one of the options you can use your kar...what the hell?" The deeper voice said surprised.
"I've never seen someone's karma go up AFTER they died and before they reincarnated, you are quite the pure hearted kid"
"I like you kid so ill help you as much as I can, I can't stop your worlds destruction, nor can I bring it back, but I can delay it."
"And what good will that do me if I'm stuck in another world" Ichigo asked with slight anger in his voice.
"There are rules kid, I can't tell you everything. I need you to think, if there are multiple worlds then what else would there be?" The deeper voice said.
Ichigo was deep in thought he sat there for several minutes before it donned on him, "If there are multiple worlds…. then there has to be a way to travel between them?
Unbeknownst to Ichigo a smirk appeared on the face of the man with the deeper voice. "There you go kid, its expensive but it exists, and you have quite the fortune to spend."
"So I can get this way to travel between worlds, and grab my friends and family then bring them to my new world?" Ichigo asked.
"Not quite kid" The deeper voice responded.
"First off your memories are scrubbed clean when you reincarnate, if there is no outside force stopping that........Wink wink...…"
"Um…can I add keeping my memories to my next life" The substitute Shinigami asked hesitantly.
"Oh, what a good idea kid, your pretty smart" The Deeper voice said.
"Hey kid, you ever see that movie war of the worlds?"
"Um…yeah?" Ichigo replied.
"You remember the ending where the aliens pretty much died off because they couldn't adapt to earth?" The deeper voice said follow by an exaggerated clearing of his throat.
"Is….is there something preventing me from having my friends and family from my previous world living in my new world?"
"Wow you are the smart one kid, not many people would ask about the world wills that reject foreign souls unless they are reincarnated into the world." The deeper voice mused.
"There's a way around this, ill just add in the price of reincarnating to the specific world and to the family required to get around this little bit"
"Um…thanks?" Ichigo said
"Can I also keep my powers when I reincarnate?"
"I wasn't expecting you to get that one by yourself kid." The voice said in amusement.
"This one is also very expensive and its multiplied because your power does not have an existing counterpart in the world your going to, but it shouldn't be a problem."
"Also I think I should explain a bit with regards to world wills if your going to be world hopping."
"The world wills are just that, the will of the very world you walk on. Its only concern is protecting itself and securing a stable future, some wills are more automated and some are very aggressive."
"The world your going to be reincarnated to is the former, its very much automated because the world is still in a state that's commonly referred to as the age of gods, and yes that's a literal statement for where the world current stands. Gods walk the earth so to speak."
"Anyways, back to the world wills, they will reject foreign entities at a rate that's associated with their aggressiveness, a more automated system will take several years before it starts to take action against foreign entities. And about 99% of worlds are automated in such a way, so your world hopping shouldn't be too hindered."
"Well that should be about everything after I add in the harem, anything small you want to add in with the few remaining points you have left?" The voice said without missing a beat.
"Yeah if possible can I have my….wait WHAT HAREM?" Ichigo yelled in response.
"What do you mean?" The voice said, clearly amused.
"I NEVER ASKED FOR A HAREM" Ichigo roared in response.
"Well…. Zangetsu is technically a part of you and he's been screaming for a harem since the moment I mentioned rewards after reincarnating."
"But…wait I forgot, why can't I hear them?" Ichigo asked with concern.
"Oh right, sealed your soul from dying so we could have this talk. It will be unsealed with you
reincarnate, and boy does your sword look happy." The voice mused.
"Dammit Zangetsu, if you can hear this I'm going to shove my blade so far up your ass….."
"Isn't Zangetsu himself your blade?" The voice asked
"So you're going to shove him in his own ass, and for that matter isn't he part of you?"
....- Ichigo
...-Tablet
"I see why he wanted a harem so much…." The voice said quietly.
"Just…reincarnate me dammit" Ichigo voiced, feeling defeated on the matter.
"Oh and before I forget, the item that will allow you to dimension hop will be keyed into your previous world and it takes several years to charge, I would wait until your 16th birthday before you decide to use it otherwise something bad may happen. Also, don't show it to anyone and don't take it out of its special dimensional space, it may attract unwanted attention and if someone unauthorized gets a hold of it and tried to use it, it will self-destruct."
"oh, and a double side note, your powers won't activate until your 12th birthday, so be prepared for that, your powers are completely foreign to that world and will attract the attention of various factions, even if the world itself won't reject you the inhabitants may."
"That should be it kid, I'll check in from time to time, I can't offer any assistance, but I'll enjoy the show. Good luck."
Ichigo barely caught the last of the voices words before he faded away.
