1 Transmigrated?! To Where?!

Splashing the water onto my face, I held my hands there for a few seconds, my eyes closed, before I finally opened them and looked back up at the mirror in front of me.

...And I was still a different person. Jesus Christ. What the hell happened?

I closed my eyes again, rubbing at my throbbing forehead, while I thought about what had happened not ten minutes before. I was walking home from the pub, walking through a pretty narrow alleyway and then everything went black.

Not a second later did I wake up on a plane, a flight attendant shaking me awake and telling me the flight was over. Then came the memories.

The rough childhood because of becoming an orphan, living in Mexico with my paternal grandfather, Oscar Joaquín de la Rosa...getting fights and being an overall arsehole, my grandfather stepping up and taking a punishment for me, the promise I made to myself and to him afterwards about never fighting unless it was to protect someone.

I remembered my name. Or rather, I remembered this body's name.

Sado Yasutora. A character from the series 'Bleach'.

After realizing that, I rushed off the plane and found a nearby bathroom. And that's how we got to where I am now, standing in front of a sink and trying to come to terms with my sudden body swap.

What the hell was I gonna do now?

. . .

It's been a month since the time I entered this body and I'd somewhat come to terms with the fact that I wasn't just me anymore. I was my old self, mixed with this new self, to create an entirely different person.

I don't know exactly how I feel about the fact that the old me is practically gone and I'm a new person but that's a thought I can delve into later when I have time.

Right now my focus is entirely on preparing.

Because I haven't found myself in a normal anime world. No, I'm in a world full of absolutely broken characters, all with their own level of plot armor and OPness.

Aizen, Yhwach, an assortment of Hollows and Shinigami with absurd powers, and last but not least, Ichigo Kurosaki himself. He's arguably the most broken of them all because of the fact that he's the main character of 'Bleach'. Plot armor is something that strawberry-haired bastard has in spades and when all else fails, he'll fall back on his abundance of the stuff and turn any situation around through some asspull power-up.

Which means I need strength. Sado had his moments but like all side characters, he was never in the spotlight as much as he should've been.

I mean, he was a pure human. He didn't have absurd natural spiritual energy, nor did he have an absurd power-up device like a Zanpakuto - he had to fist fight Hollows before he awoke his Fullbring. Even then, he still had to fight supernatural monsters with his human body.

I'll be the first to admit that Sado wasn't exactly a 'normal' human. The dude tanked a metal girder falling on him. If I remember correctly, the girder bent out of shape upon hitting him. The dude is a physical beast. But even that level of absurdity wasn't enough.

So, the question is how do I change that? Training. Utterly, absolutely, entirely horrific training. Training that would kill an ordinary person.

Sado was somewhat complacent. I can't remember a time in the anime where he actually trained seriously. I think he did some sparring and combat training but I never saw him workout or exercise his body; which is his biggest advantage. Imagine, if you will, a Sado who trained his naturally superhuman body into something more imposing? Imagine if he actually incorporated martial arts into his style of fighting instead of being a pure brute-force brawler?

As a result of this line of thought, I was currently working my body ragged through an assortment of exercises. Calisthenics, intensive cardio that left me nearly dead, yoga, weightlifting, underwater resistance training* at a nearby public pool - I did everything I knew about and knew could improve my physical condition.

(*A/N - As in being underwater and punching, kicking and moving. It'd develop his explosive power, lung strength, oxygen efficiency and overall endurance.)

In typical anime fashion, or rather this body just being as absurd as they come, I was already seeing good results. Alongside a more refined diet, and I was seeing more muscle growth, more definition and increased physical ability.

Where was I getting the money for all of this? Life insurance. This body's Abuelo took out a life insurance policy and it gave this body enough money to move back to Japan.

That's not even including the money left behind for Sado by his parents.

I have more than enough money to get by without much hassle, and I even took up a part-time job as a construction worker while I spend the nights either working out more or studying.

This body is currently 14-years-old, and despite looking much, much older, I still need to go to school. But, with my foreknowledge, I know that school is the least of my worries currently. Spending multiple hours learning would be hours I'm not spending getting stronger. I've come up with a plan, that once I hit a certain threshold, I'll look at quitting my part-time job and getting into school.

The studying I do now is to make sure I don't get denied. Also the reason I spend some money on tutors when I feel the need to round up my studying acumen.

What kind of goal had I set for myself? I want to achieve my Fullbring before joining school.

Weirdly enough, Sado never used his Fullbring to it's full effect. Not from what I saw or can remember, anyway. I guess the fact he never had any formal tutoring like Ichigo wasn't helping him - he was blindly flailing in the dark for most of the series, not knowing the origin of his powers. Not like Rukia or Ishida could help him either. Fullbrings are closer to Hollow powers than they are to Shinigami or Quincy powers.

Luckily, I had an idea on how to awaken my Fullbring or at least grow in power on the spiritual side and not just in a physical way.

If I remember correctly, Sado had decent natural sensing when it came to spiritual things. He sensed Hollows before he awakened his Fullbring fully* and had a naturally high spiritual power.

All I have to do is sense that power now and learn how to control it.

(*A/N - I know that there was that weird bit where Sado saves that parakeet that's actually a dead kid or whatever and that's how he begins to sense Spiritual things but I'd rather have Sado be able to do it naturally like Ichigo than have to wait for the plot to start and have the parakeet fall into his hands for him to sense stuff.)

So, that's why I'm sitting and meditating right now. I'd probably have more luck entering life and death situations and awakening my Fullbring that way but I have time to take the easy and safe way for now. After all, entering life and death situations where I can't guarantee the outcome would just be a bit stupid.

Would suck to die so soon after getting to this world, wouldn't it?

Meditating was something I was used to doing. I did it a lot in my past life to control my anger and sort out internal problems without falling back on my baser instincts and just hitting things.

So I was well versed in calming my breathing, keeping my thoughts calm and focused and then thinking my problems through without allowing myself to get taken away by my anxieties, worries or go into a panic.

It was quite odd though. Probably because I was in 'Bleach' but meditation was way different.

Instead of being a calm process, I was sweating buckets just trying to reach a calm state. But I did reach it in the end, which is when I found myself in a grassy field - an inner world of sorts, I think.

Looking around, I saw nothing in any direction other than grass-filled fields. No changes, it would seem. Seeing that, I sat down and began trying to sense Reiryoku or Spiritual Power for those of us who don't speak Japanese. I mean, I can speak it now but I couldn't in my previous life which is still an odd scenario I find myself thinking about quite a bit.

Either way, I pushed that thought away and kept myself focused.

This was the fifth time I'd entered this inner world and I knew losing focus for any period of time could lead to you getting kicked out of it and having to start all over again.

During my third and fourth attempts, I felt like I'd come close to sensing Spiritual Power but it was an elusive feeling. Like trying to grip and grab at air - it always seemed to slip through my fingers, no matter what I did.

But this time I was determined to sense the energy. It'd already been a month. I needed to get my Fullbring before the plot started.

As usual, I started sensing for everything around me but this time I turned my attention inside myself as well. It pushed my concentration to it's maximum but I held on. I sensed everything around and inside me. My blood flow, my heart beating, my muscles occasionally twitching, my lungs expanding with every breath--I also felt the wind around me, the grass moving, the cool temperature. I sensed everything I could because everything held spiritual power, to an extent.

I felt the usual sensation of what I felt was spiritual power, both inside me and outside of me, and this time I felt a pull on my eyes to open. So, unlike all the other times where I ignored the sensation, I followed it and opened my eyes.

...I'm an idiot. Such a simple solution was there all this time and I ignored it? Idiot. Absolute idiot.

I could see it. Reishi, or spirit particles, surrounded me. I lifted my arm and saw the Reishi entering me and becoming Reiryoku.

Seconds later, I left my inner world and saw that my sensing ability had fully awakened. I could see the sparse Reishi in the Human World, flowing through the air and seemingly carried around like flower petals by the wind.

It allowed me to also sense the spiritual power inside of myself.

Step one, completed. Step two? Control the energy you could now sense in yourself.

. . .

"Are you sure you need to quit the dojo, Sado-kun?" the lean and dark-haired girl sitting next to me asked, frustration marking her pretty features.

I shrugged, wryly smiling as I continued stretching after the exercise, "I quit my part-time job, so I'm afraid I won't have enough money to pay for my membership anymore when I take into account rent and buying food."

This caused the girl to raise an eyebrow, a smirk barely hiding the actual relief she felt, "It's about time. I mean, who'd think a 14-year-old would be working part-time as a construction worker? You're lucky you look so old otherwise you'd never have had a chance at holding that job down," she scoffed before her brow scrunched up, "...But I could speak to sensei, if you want. You know, to keep your membership while paying a discounted price," her cheeks went a little red, "I'm only offering because you're the only person who can give me a decent fight, okay?" then she mumbled something I didn't quite hear.

"What was that?" I asked, a teasing tone to my voice - I hadn't heard it clearly but I could guess what she'd said.

"I said I'd do it because you're also my friend! Damn idiot," she tried to hit me but I ducked away, letting it harmlessly sail passed my face. She clicked her tongue upon seeing the miss and commented, "Your progress is insane, Sado-kun. When you came here six and half months ago, all you had was raw power and it was all very uncoordinated...and look at you now, dodging my hits when I'm the second strongest female Karate practitioner in the nation."

I rolled my eyes at her description, no matter how right it was, about my earlier state, "Yeah, yeah, say what you will but remember who won most of our spars? Yeah, that's right, it was me, Tatsuki-chan," I gave her a shit eating grin that I knew pissed her off and dodged backward and away from the blindingly quick jab that came my way.

...For a normal human, she's pretty strong, you know? I had thought about trying to get her to train with me and show her the existence of Hollows but I'd laid off the idea for now. One, she'd think I was crazy until I actually showed her a Hollow, and two, I don't want to draw attention to myself.

Fighting Hollows and then training Tatsuki to fight Hollows would get some Shinigami on my ass very swiftly. After all, that's why they wiped out the Quincy.

Balance or whatever.

But I wouldn't let them wipe her memory in the same way they did in canon. Tatsuki had potential to become a strong ally, if only she was given the chance and not turned into some sort of perpetual side character through the use of memory wiping.

Tatsuki clicked her tongue again, putting her hand back down again, "I told you not to call me that, you overgrown bundle of muscle," she glared over at me, trying to look intimidating but with the pout she was sporting, it really only made her look as threatening as a puppy barking at you. Oblivious to the ineffectiveness of her intimidation, she continued, "So, what do you say? Want me to speak to sensei about a discount?"

Seeing the conversation turn back to a more serious direction, I shook my head, "No need. If you want to spar, just ask me. You do have my contact information after all," I smiled, running a hand through my thick head of brown hair, "I didn't join the dojo because I wanted to become the best karate practitioner, Tatsuki, I joined--"

"Because you wanted to be better at fighting and more coordinated," she cut me off, a grumpy look on her face, "I know. You've told me, like, a dozen times already, Sado-kun. It's also the reason why you took up lessons from other dojos, isn't it?" her tone showed her frustration.

Tatsuki wasn't like a normal girl, for the most part. But one thing she did share in common with most teenage girls, is that she'd get jealous over the weirdest stuff.

After sensing Reishi and Reiryoku, I began attending multiple different dojos.

I knew how to fight, as per my last life's experience as a semi-pro boxer, but I needed more coordination and experience if I were to survive in this world. Which is why I took lessons in Karate, Jeet Kune Do, Muay Thai, Kickboxing and multiple other martial arts. All so I could refine my own way of fighting and condition my body into something more.

It's how I met this girl next to me, who if you hadn't already figured out, was Tatsuki Arisawa from 'Bleach'. Aka Orihime's and Ichigo's childhood friend.

Honestly, I'm lucky this body is so obscenely talented when it comes to combat. Otherwise there's no way I'd have been able to keep up with so many different kinds of martial arts and body conditioning exercises.

Tatsuki hadn't showed such confidence in my ability to learn and when I showed her I was keeping up with all my lessons, even excelling at them, she got jealous that I trained in anything other than karate. Like I said, she gets jealous at the weirdest of things.

"Hey, come on, we've been over this, Tatsuki. I wanted to know how to fight multiple different combat styles, not just karate," I tried to lessen her frustration but only seemed to make her more moody as she stood up and threw her towel to the floor - we'd just been exercising and sparring with one another, so the towel was to clean up her sweaty appearance - and her expression clouded with a complicated emotion. Narrowing my eyes, I stood up and gave her a worried look, "What's up, Tatsuki?"

She looked back at me over her shoulder, before looking away, shaking her head and then looking back toward me, "W-well," she paused, her mouth opening and closing like she couldn't get the words out, "It's just I'm...I'm kinda bummed out we won't be training together in the dojo anymore," she averted her gaze while looking embarrassed, "I mean, it's not like you're gonna spend a lot of time with a tomboy like me outside of this setting, you know...?"

...Ah, I get it.

"Is that it?" I asked and her gaze snapped back to me, anger slowly building up in her eyes. But I continued nonetheless. "Tatsuki, whether you wanted me to or not, I'm gonna be clinging to you when I enter the local middle school. I doubt many people are gonna wanna be friends with a guy who looks like me, and you're basically the only friend I have," I admitted and her anger vanished completely, replaced by relief and a not-so-very subtle joy.

I wouldn't call my current appearance ugly by any means. I just wasn't what most people were looking for in a friend during middle school. Teenagers around middle school/high school age are very, very shallow and being friends with someone of my appearance isn't a very attractive prospect.

What's wrong with my appearance? The fact I look like I'm in my twenties, to start with. Then there's the fact that I'm not a pretty boy in terms of appearance. I actually look like a man, for one, - ruggedly handsome, is a way I'd put it.

No matter how I put it, however, it isn't what teenagers are looking for in a person. And teenagers usually judge someone based off of their appearance and go from there.

Besides, facial features aside, I'm 6'4" and broad as hell. Not to mention my muscular physique. Most people straight up think I'm a thug when they first meet me--hell, Tatsuki thought I was a delinquent when I first showed up in the dojo.

"I..." Tatsuki started before trailing off, her gaze averted once more and her cheeks flushed in a way that wasn't from our earlier exercise or from anger at what I'd said, "I think Sado-kun is actually quite handsome. Now that you've swiped your hair back and out of the way of your face anyway..." she rambled a little toward the end, her embarrassment getting the better of her and making her look adorable.

I chuckled and couldn't stop myself as I put a hand out and pat her head, "Thanks, Tatsuki. I think you're pretty cute as well," I smiled as I sincerely said this.

Tatsuki's blush covered her entire face, reaching the tips of her ears as she slapped away my hand, spinning and charging off, mumbling about how I'm an idiot...I'm not the most intelligent guy in the world, but I ain't dense. I know she has a bit of a crush on me. But I ain't interested in kids. Maybe in a few years, if she's still interested, something can come out of it.

Sighing, I gave a wry grin as I wiped my face with a towel - maybe I'm more handsome than I thought?