9 Chapter 9

Entering the Kurosaki residence Ace was very comfortable. For years now he has been quite close with them, he has lost count how many times he came to visit and he have come at least once or twice a week over to this place. He knew everyone in this house like the back of his hand (as long as one didn't count the supernatural side of things) and he considered most of them no different than family.

It was honestly more comforting a place than his own home, back home his aunt and uncle were good people but they were a bit distant with him as they were forced to focus most of their attention on Isane while growing up. It didn't help that they could never understand Ace's obsession with money, but they supported him getting a job and being useful for society, hoping it would work as a good example for Isane and that he could 'take care of their daughter when they are gone'. Needless to say the two already thought that Ace and Isane ending up together was a foregone conclusion and completely supported it (they doubted there was any other man that could actually deal with their daughter and her 'unique' antics)

Internally Ace could only suppose that they being distant with him was fair, he was not their son and apparently his own parents were rather distant with the Hyoudou couple, Ace ending up with them only due to being the closest relatives.

Deciding not to think on that Ace spoke to the twins.

"So, how have my two favorite twins have been?" He asked them, a smile on his face as he looked at the two.

"Well enough, even if the idiot you sent to us is as annoying as they come." Karin said with a bit of irritation and Yuzu gave a forced smile.

"She was a... challenge, but she was not a bad person." Yuzu said and Ace nodded, huffling the hair of Yuzu.

"This is my Yuzu. Always so kind, it is surprising you didn't get a boyfriend or two already." Ace said and Yuzu blushed hearing his words.

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[+1 Affection with Yuzu Kurosaki (43/100)]

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Ace's face twitched. He had to chant to himself that she was only getting more family affection. She was like a little sister to him, and he would not lewd her in his mind.

"Speaking of which, didn't you say you would come earlier yesterday? Did something happen?" Yuzu asked, trying to change the subject while playing with a lock of her hair.

"Sorry, I ended up in some troubles. Some pervs were trying to accost Mio here and I had to stop them and then beat the crap out of their boss for good measure." Ace said and Mio blushed at his words, on one side it was true and he was like a hero at that moment, but on the other hand he ruined his own image for instantly asking for payment in exchange for that. She didn't know how to react to him at all, so she could only blush when Ace spoke in such a manner. As for the twins, the two widened their eyes and turned to Mio.

Scrutinizing her the two felt slightly defeated with Karin speaking up first.

"Humm, interesting. So you went about being a hero then? And here I thought you would not do anything like that unless there is money involved." Karin said, a slight undertone of bitterness in her voice. She thought that only she and Yuzu were special as he would only save them for free, so she was slightly disapointed right now. Meanwhile, hearing her sister's words, Yuzu sent her a glare.

"Karin-chan, Ace-kun is not such a bad person he wouldn't help a girl when she is under this sort of situation." Yuzu said to her twin. Yuzu absolutely believed in Ace just as she believed in Ichigo, never really believing his claims of only doing things if there was money involved. For Yuzu this was just Ace's way of trying to act all tought, on Yuzu's mind this was actually sorta cute. Yuzu then processed what was said and turned to Mio. "Are you okay? Did they manage to do anything to you?"

"N-No they didn't. Ace saved me before that." Mio said and Yuzu sent Karin a victorious smirk only for Mio to continue. "But he said I owe him one and if I can't pay him then I have to pay with work." This time it was Karin who sent the victorious smirk at Yuzu who turned to the side and pouted. The two sister's understanding each other way too well.

The two's reactions were quite cute and entertaining in Ace's eyes, a smile on his face as he saw their actions.

"Anyway, where is Ichigo? I wanted to talk to him about some stuff." Ace asked. He wanted to confirm that Ichigo was a Shinigami already or not and what were his plans for now (maybe help push him harder a bit, the stronger his allies the better things would be for Ace).

Hearing Ace's words, however, made Yuzu slightly downcasted as she wanted to talk to Ace some more.

"Oh, Ichi-nii is with uncle Urahara. It seems he wanted to talk to him about something." Yuzu said, she knew Urahara for a while now due to her parents actually knowing them in return.

Nodding Ace was about to speak some more when someone else spoke.

"Heh, so you want to know where my son is." Masaki said, sitting at the table with a gentle smile on her lips. "You know, I really like the friendship you two have, it is almost like you two are family sometimes." She then gave a sideway glance at her daughters and said. "I wonder if Ace-kun will really join the family one of these days. I do love the idea of a large, big family."

Ace honestly wanted to just laugh up this comment but when he saw the two girls blushing a bit he began to get quite nervous. Quickly checking his status and the notifications he had ignored while on the devil's mansion due to being too stressed over it he noticed something worrying.

There, on his relationship status page, two new entrances showed up.

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[Yuzu Kurosaki: 'Angelic cutiepie']

[Relationship Status: First crush and brother figure]

[Affection Points (43/100)]

[Heroine Summary: Yuzu Kurosaki, the oldest daughter of the Kurosaki residence, is a sweet girl. She cares deeply for others and likes taking care of those close to her more than most other things, her favorite pass time is making food for her family in the weekends (especially if Ace shows up as she can then show to him how good she is). Growing up close to two older brother figures in Ace and Ichigo she never could not help but compare others boys with them and find others lacking. Since hitting puberty she has developed a crush on Ace as the only male figure close by who she is close to and is not a member of her family. She is someone who got asked out 97 times due to how cute she is but refused every single one as none of them ever even bothered to know her before asking her on a date. She hates these superficial types the most, even if she does try and look for the good on people. However, do not doubt that beneath all that sweetness she is still a fierce girl who gets what she wants without hesitation.]

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[Karin Kurosaki: 'Tomboy extraordinare']

[Relationship Status: boyish tsundere crush]

[Affection Points (38/100)]

[Heroine Summary: the youngest daughter of the kurosaki residence. She is a tomboy through and through. She never once used a dress out of her own volution and would spend more time playing soccer than dolls or talking about boys. She cares about her family but hates her father when he is being specially annoying (which, for her, is about 95% of the time). Growing up with her older brother and Ace she always know that Ace is a money grabber, he would get the chance to make any money, but despite not looking like it she appreciates it as it shows he is not some 'dumbass' who gets taken advantage off so easily. Since hitting puberty she developed a crush on Ace as he was the only male figure close to her family that she knew well enough and never judged her over her preferences, many times even helping her one way or another. She is a strong fierce girl with a tomboy attitude who does not back down from any challenge life sends her way.

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Seeing how high his affection points were with the twins Ace's eyebrows twitched.

He has known them for years now, he in truth still sees them as the same little girls as back then so knowing they have crushes on him makes him rather uncomfortable, especially since they didn't exactly told him anything.

In his confusion over what to do, not knowing how to react, Ace came to the decision over what he would do next. The ultimate strategy of the Joestar family.

Ace quickly said his goodbyes saying he had to go speak with Ichigo before turning to run away from the problem. Before leaving, however, he turned to Isshin, who was glaring at him, and asked him to protect Mio while he was gone. Ace could swear Isshin was cursing him with a voodoo doll and internally he winced as he could imagine himself doing the same for whoever the first boyfriend or date of the Kurosaki twins was. This only things even more of a mess in Ace's mind who quickly left the place, he would need to think properly on how to deal with this situation.

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Getting out of there Ace went to search for Ichigo in Urahara's shop. It took about fifteen minutes to get there as he didn't run there, instead thinking on what he was to do exactly regarding Mio's parents.

He could imagine two possible ways to bring them back or at least letting them talk and interact with Mio. However for either of them he would need the help of Urahara so he could o

Only hope the man wouldn't be an ass about it.

Seeing the shop Ace could sense Ichigo inside there with Urahara and another presence. It wasn't quite human but was not inhuman either so he could only assume it would be Rukia inside her Gigai.

Entering the shop Ace could see Ichigo and gave him a friendly wave.

"Hey." Ace said and Ichigo went straight to launch a punch at him. Avoiding it as he was using his observation haki he spoke. "Geez, you are a bit more prissy than normal, you know that?"

"Shut up, idiot. You said she would only spend a few hours at most in my home, instead she spent the entire night and I couldn't even sleep properly!" Ichigo said before he and Ichigo started to exchange blows.

As Masaki has never died Ichigo never stopped his training at Karate, even branching out to other martial arts under the encouragement of his mother, by now Ichigo was already a black belt in several martial arts like Karate, Chinese Kenpo, Muay Thai, and Jujitsu. Adding to that his mostly quite abnormal strength for a regular human he was already considerably strong.

Even if Ace was pulling his punches hard and was not using absolutely any of his actual skills it was still a feat to be able to trade strikes with him as Ichigo was doing.

Rukia, on the side, was quite surprised to see them exchanging strikes like that. It was honestly a bit similar to what she knew of hakuda, the fighting style commonly used by shinigami. After a few minutes of this the two stopped and Ichigo gave a content sigh.

"Phew, that was good. I needed some sparing like that, getting all this tension out." Ichigo said and Ace rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, use me like a punching bag for that will you. If you keep this up I might start demanding payment for that, just so you know." Ace said and Ichigo laughed that up.

"Yeah, yeah, you always say that. Anyway, why didn't you come yesterday? You normally keep this sort of compromise, especially if it is related to some work." Ichigo said.

"When I was getting back I ended up witnessing some guys trying to abuse a girl. I had to stop that and one thing led to another and I somehow became her bodyguard. Don't ask, it is complicated as all hell to explain it properly, but everything should be fine for now." Ace said and Ichigo nodded before speaking.

"And, did you deal with those guys trying to abuse the girl? If not then you can tell me their name and I will have a good, nice, and calm talk about why doing that is not okay and perhaps break some bones along the way." Ichigo said, thinking if those guys were still in town then they might try something with his sisters.

Just the possibility is enough for Ichigo to think if executing them early wasn't an possible good decision.

"Nah, I dealt with them. Anyway," Ace turned to Rukia and spoke up. "You are a shinigami, right?"

"Y-Yes, how did you figure?" Rukia said before remembering how Ichigo said that Ace dealt with hollows and other such beings. However, she shouldn't really have any spiritual fluctuation while inside her gigai so she was in doubt over why Ace figured out she was a shinigami.

"Simple, really. I could sense it quite easily." Ace said before looking intently at her, then at Ichigo, then back at her. "Hey, quick question but did you give your powers to Ichigo over here? I can sense some spiritual power on him and it doesn't seem to quite fit with him, so I have to wonder."

As Ace said that Rukia quickly reacted, aiming her hand at him attacked quickly.

"Bakudō number 1: Sai."

As she said that a pressure tried to lock Ace in place, making him stop for a bit.

He looked at himself in this condition and just used some of his armament haki to break the spell and be able to walk and move freely again.

Looking at her he said.

"Rude. I expected better of a Shinigami." As he said this she looked shocked. Seeing her expression Ace decided to speak. "You seem worried how I know what I know, I have a special form of spiritual power called Haki. Well, I made up the name so maybe somebody else named it something else in another place, I dunno. This power let me see and sense spirits as well as detecting their race quite easily, as well as letting me do some other things."

As Rukia heard this she had only one main thought in her mind.

"... I hope you never meet Captain Kurotsushi." She said honestly and Ace had to really try and not show his skin crawling at the thought of the being (he wasn't really sure he was still a man after who knows how many modifications he went through). If he feared Kenpachi for the sake of him being Kenpachi he absolutely feared Mayuri for how absolutely absurd the man most certainly was.

Said thing was that Ace was quite confident he was the captain he had the most chance of beating if his stats grows high enough for him to be able to fight back properly.

Regardless Ace continued.

"Well, anyway, I am sure you have your reasons for doing what you did. How about we get inside, I was hoping to talk with Ichigo some more and seeing as he now has some power maybe we could have a more proper match." Ace said and Ichigo smirked, excited for a good fight.

They entered the shop and Urahara pointed them to the training grounds underneath the shop.

Getting in that place Ichigo spoke up.

"You know, it may have been a few years since I found out about this place, but it still is surprising." Ichigo said, remembering the first time he came to this place.

In the past, seven years back to be precise, Ichigo and his mother were going back home from a karate tournament. Ichigo lost quite early as he didn't want to hurt anyone, even if it was only on friendly competition. His mother was walking him home when she suddenly felt ill, not able to move at all and became pale as a ghost.

A weird light was coming out of her body at that time and soon afterwards a monster showed up. That was the first time Ichigo has seen a hollow as it tried to eat him and his mother.

He remembers being so scared at that time, only for Ace to show up using candy, out of all things, to try and stop the monster. He still remembers that day quite clearly, how the monster broke free and attacked Ace, resulting in him getting injured before Urahara showed up and sliced that monster.

It was all a jumbled mess, Ichigo could remember that very well, but at least that helped him in meeting his friend Ace and his mother was saved. Ichigo was not fully sure about everything that was to know regarding this world, but he knew that it existed and he decided to train himself to be able to defend himself properly.

'Not that it did shit to me when I needed it.' Ichigo grumbled to himself.

"Anyway, Ichigo why the hell do you have Shinigami powers now?" Ace asked and Ichigo looked a bit defeated.

"Let me explain-" And so Ichigo explained everything, how he and his sisters were attacked suddenly by a hollow while his parents were out taking care of some business (translation, in a love hotel as it was their marriage birthday and they didn't want to be quiet during the celebration). Of how both Ichigo as well as his sisters were almost killed that day but Rukia helped them and ended up transferring her own power to Ichigo which allowed him to save his sisters.

Hearing this Ace looked straight at Rukia, right at her eyes, and gave her a respectful bow.

"Thanks for helping them in their hour of need. I owe you one." Ace said honestly.

In truth he knew that this was possibly how events would happen, but he hoped it would happen when he was around or that SOMEONE would be there to help making sure the twins would be safe.

Ace didn't worry about Ichigo, even if his Quincy and hollow powers were dormant he was confident they would be able to at least protect his life against a weaker hollow, but the twins' own powers were even more dormant and he had honestly no idea if they could defend themselves like that.

Rukia, seeing this, smiled at him before speaking.

"Don't worry, it was part of my responsibilities to make sure that no human was to be injured by a hollow." Rukia said and Ace smiled at her.

"Regardless, thanks anyway. When you need help I will help you once for free, I promise." Ace said before he thought about something for a moment before speaking. "Hey, Ichigo, how about if we spare for a bit? I would like to t try out how strong you are and as you are now I may not need to hold back as much." Ace said and Ichigo groaned.

"You won't be needing to hold back at all, let's do it." Ichigo said as he looked at Rukia who was also interested in seeing just how Ace intended to face Ichigo. With her glove she hit Ichigo in the back, ejecting his soul out of his body, shinigami clothes equipped.

Ace too changed clothes, he was using some simple clothes Sirzechs have provided before but now he felt like he wanted to look better. As such he looked over his menu and choose the clothes worn by Zoro during the movie Gold, composed of a white suit with a black undershirt and black pants and, purely out for style, sunglasses as they looked cool. The only difference between his get up to that of Zoro was that he only had one sword strapped to his side and he had the red beaded necklace that belonged to the Ace in One Piece. He has been using it for so long that by now it became second nature to him.

Rukia looked surprised at the sudden change of wardrobe, but chose not to comment. She knew that in this realm (human realm) there were many weird powers and other species as well as other types of power than the one she was used to. Considering this she just chucked this whole weird thing Ace did as another strangeness of Earth.

With this Ichigo and Ace prepared to move. Ichigo went first, his sword style being more instinctive than anything as, despite prompting from his mother and father, he never really felt like learning swordsmanship properly.

His swordplay was heretic but his speed and strength were higher than Ace while he wasn't using his Zoan devil fruit. Ichigo got confident when he saw that he was stronger and faster than Ace, but he soon began to frown as he realized his strikes weren't connecting.

Ace's swordsmanship was by now at 48 of 100, his technique was leagues above the current Ichigo and with the addition of Ace using his Observation and Armament Haki he was completely dominating the match. Soon multiple cuts started appearing all over Ichigo who growled at that and began to push himself further. His speed and strength increasing fast as he slowly started to adapt to Ace's movements.

Seeing this Ace nodded to himself before using a downward swing from Ichigo to push Ichigo's sword down. At the same momentum as he used his sword to push Ichigo's sword down he jumped up, going above Ichigo and started delivering a series of kicks at Ichigo's face.

Ichigo quickly managed to jump back to avoid more hits but Ace didn't slow down, using Soru from the Rokushiki he accelerated at Ichigo and tried to attack him again, the two locked blades and Ace was pulled back on the strike. He grumbled that his base stats were really far too low and he definitely needed more levels to improve that.

Ace hit the ground and was about to move again when someone stood in front of both teens.

"Hey, hey, that is enough now. If you guys continue it would be troublesome." Urahara said and Ace snorted at that. He knew perfectly well that this was far from a level of fighting that would create any troubles for the shopkeeper.

Regardless, Ace had something to speak with Urahara anyway so this worked as well.

"Urahara-san, I was hoping to talk to you about something." Ace said and Urahara looked at him with mild interest.

"And what would that be?" Urahara asked Ace as Ichigo looked interested in the conversation (he never really got involved with any supernatural business before but he was still curious about what Ace would want to talk with the man).

"I wanted to ask you two things, if possible." Ace said. "I want two gigais based on the genetic information of a certain couple, one for each, as well as a way to enter and return from Hueco Mundo."

"WHAT?! Are you insane?" Rukia said and Ace shrugged at her words. "You have any idea how many violations there would be in a human wanting to enter Hueco Mundo? And in creating a gigai for humans?"

Ace just looked at her as if she was dumb.

"You do realize that you have zero rights of saying that what I am doing is wrong, right?" Ace said and she gnashed her teeth at him. She knows he is right on that account, as she already violated the rules and if anyone found out what she did she would die by burning chicken, but she still didn't have to like being told that by someone she just met.

Seeing Rukia almost growling at Ace Ichigo looked confused about what he was talking about, but before he could speak about it Urahara answered Ace.

"Well, I do have a way to get the gigais, but they will not come out cheap. 100 thousand each, no discussion." Urahara said and Ace felt like he would have to make Mio work her pretty ass a lot more than expected if she was to pay him back this much. "But, you gotta know, if the spirits are just that, spirits, then I can't put their souls in Gigais. It won't work."

Urahara said and Ace waved him off.

"Don't worry, I will deal with that myself. Just tell me how long until you have them ready." Ace said and Urahara put a finger to his chin and answered.

"It should take two days, give or take. So come by on Sunday and I probably will have it ready by then." Urahara said and Ace nodded.

He then turned to Ichigo and said.

"Hey, Ichigo, can you do me a favor and make sure that the spirits on this address are safe until then?" Ace said as he took out a pen and paper from his inventory (he had even that amongst his junk) and quickly wrote down the address of Mio's house.

Ichigo looked at this and just nodded. He might not have any interest in working as a Shinigami, but helping out a friend was something Ichigo would never say no to.

Seeing that this was solved Ace looked at Urahara again.

"So, can you get me to Hueco Mundo or not?" Ace asked and Urahara shook his head.

"No, I can't. Only hollows can do that."

'Bullshit.' Ace thought immediately, knowing Urahara knew perfectly well how to get there and probably only refused because he either didn't have a way to return or because of not wanting Aizen to know he had a way to do that.

Regardless Ace could only nod his head, he couldn't force Urahara over anything at this point since he honestly was many times weaker than Urahara and if he were to push it then it was possible that Urahara would push back and that would not end well for Ace.

Anyway, Ace could only wonder how the hell was he to get enough points then? He needed foes, many of them, and fast. Soon it would be time for Kokabiel to show up and, even worse, time for Rukia's execution which would mean the invasion of Soul Society.

Ace felt he needed to his stats be all at least 2000 if he was to have any chance to not die instantly in either depending on how things go, and from there the difficulty would only rise.

He needs a solution, and he needs it fast.

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Back in the Kuoh, Isane was freaking out. Her cousin had vanished out of nowhere and no one could contact him, Yuma had not appeared to their date (which made Isane think she was being an idiot for over preparing only for being stood up), and Rias-senpai approached her earlier about some nonsense regarding devils and whatnot.

In all honesty, Isane didn't get even a tenth of what Rias said, she was staring at her breasts too much to pay attention to whatever she said (she was imagining sucking on them and a lot more), but when Rias gave her an offer to become her servant and how this would help her in obtaining an harem she instantly wanted to agree. Especially when Rias said that devils could raise in ranks until they were High Class devils, in Isane's mind she could see herself doing that, making Ace one of her peerage members, and then having hot passionate sex all the time with him and the rest of the peerage, possibly in giant orgies.

Again, Isane is a pervert.

Unfortunately Rias told Isane that she should first talk of her decision with Ace, about how she intended to literally sell her soul to the devil. Only after Isane talked with Ace would Rias accept to turn her.

As Isane walked from side to side in her room she noticed some noises outside and looked at the house to the right of her own. It was previously a fairly normal house with a fairly normal family, her neighbor had a small pair of boobs but it was still something Isane tried to get a peak at every chance she could (even had some pictures of it).

Unfortunately they seemed to be moving out as a group of constructors began working on the house, there were a lot of them and Isane was shocked as she could see the progress with her bare eyes, it was almost like magic really.

In no more than half an hour the house was apparently done and the workers left with only a single girl coming to Isane's doors and some other people entering the house.

Seeing that a girl was coming to her house Isane quickly put on some better clothes and that showed some of her curves. After getting ready she went down to see who it was, getting downstairs she saw her mother face to face with the girl.

She is a petite beautiful girl with long silver hair and purple eyes and despite looking so young there was an undeniable allure to her. She is dressed in a black dress that has white frills and what seemed to be like a functional keyhole on her collar. As she looked at Isane she waved at the Red Dragon Empress with a smile.

"Hello, I am your new neighbor. My name is Maria and I hope to get along with you all." Maria said and she could already predict she would likely get along splendidly with Isane, with one glance she could tell that Isane was a erotic figure that was full of lust and desire.

Maria smiled, feeling right at home with someone like Isane around. Liking this sort of person comes with the territory of being a succubus, after all.

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AN:

So, this happened. In case anyone is wondering Ace basic stats right now are nothing too impressive (if you ignore his charisma that is) so him even managing to fight Ichigo properly without using any of his powers except what he did is already good enough. It is like in Game of Thrones if someone like a teen Jaime Lannister were to fight the Mountain, even if Jaime is clearly superior in technique and most things it is still a hard fight that sheer difference in stats is hard to suppress.

If the fight continued then Ace would likely have to use one of his Devil Fruit powers to be able to win since his base stats are certainly much lower than the current Ichigo with his Shinigami powers.

In other news, Maria the succubus is here and is talking with Isane, who wants to sell her soul for a harem, which is not really surprising.

A question, about Ichigo's sisters, should Ace pair with either, both, or none of them (be just like an older brother for them)? I will let you all decide now.

And one last thing, should I change the start to use someone else for the first pairing? I will wait for the reviews about this for the next 24 hours from posting to know this, if I should change it and for who (if there is a change I will fix the previous chapters and explain what change was made on the start of the next chapter).

Anyway, if you have any idea or suggestion for this fic please tell me on your reviews, thanks for reading and until next time.