Fanfic / Vow of the King

Or if this was an isekai anime: The Time a Busty Death God Stabbed Me in the Heart and Now I Have to Fight Monsters and Megalomaniacs in the Spirit World.

— FanFiction.Net summary.

Vow of the King is a Bleach fanfiction written by TheSinful that appears to be a What If? story where Nemu Kurotsuchi is sent to Karakura Town instead of Rukia Kuchiki, though later details show it's an outright Alternate Universe.

Can be read here on FanFiction.Net and here on Archive of Our Own. There is also a supplementary story called Extra Vows that can be found here and here. Still More Vowing is a collection of illustrations and can be found here.

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This fic contains examples of the following tropes, in addition to those already present in the source material:

• 2-D Space: During the Battle of Fake Karakura, the Shinigami and Hollows are largely fighting on air, with the more inexperienced fighters treating it like they are still on the ground. When fighting Apacci, Ikkaku lets himself drop out of the air beneath her, and comes back up to cut her.
• Abled in the Adaptation: Ukitake has his lungs healed by Orihime, enabling him to function normally for the first time in millennia.
• Actually Pretty Funny: When Orihime and Tatsuki steal a couple of Zanpakuto, Orihime can hear hers reprimanding her for stealing it, while Tatsuki says hers is laughing about this unusual situation.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Ichigo has better training than canon and can utilize some kido thanks to Nemu's mentoring.
  • Tatsuki gains powers of her own and is strong enough to match Ikkaku by the time she joins the others in storming Soul Society.
  • Sado has the second form of his Fullbring by the start of the Soul Society arc, something he didn't gain until the Hueco Mundo arc in canon.
  • By the start of the Hueco Mundo arc, Orihime has managed to duplicate her fairies, allowing her to use two of each of her abilities at once. She also develops Shiten Kōshun over a year early.
  • Aaroniero shows off more powers than canon, where he only used Kaien Shiba's zanpakuto and Metastacia's ability to break zanpakuto.
  • Downplayed for Ukitake, whose gets to demonstrate what his Bankai is capable of compared to canon, where it was never known.
• Adaptational Deviation: While not named until chapter 38, it appears as though Kon was found by Urahara before he could be mistakenly sold to a customer. He's obtained a body of his own (that of a kid's) and works at Urahara's shop alongside Jinta and Ururu.
• Adaptation Distillation: Ichigo's Hollow mask starts out with its design from later chapters of the manga, skipping the phase of increasing stripes across its left side, instead having one stripe across each eye from its debut. His Hollowfied form follows suit as he transforms into his horned "Vasto Lorde" form during his training with the Vizard.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Mayuri, Nemu, and Yoruichi all appear in the first chapter, a full season sooner than canon.
  • Candice Catnipp and Bambietta Basterbine officially debut at the start of the Soul Society arc (though there's hints of their arrival in earlier chapters), whereas they didn't appear until the final arc of the manga.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The powers of Unohana's Bankai, Minazuki, are properly explained. The former Kenpachi can use the blood summoned by Minazuki to regenerate instantaneously from any injury, even from severe maiming or decapitation (provided that she does so quickly). She does state that its healing abilities aren't infinite, but her supply of blood is derived from all the enemies she's slain over her considerable lifetime.
    Ichigo: And how many enemies have you slain?
    Yachiru: (shrugs) How many breaths have you taken?
  • Fans have long speculated about Yoruichi's Zanpakuto, as she's shown having one in flashbacks and had to have unlocked Bankai in order to be made a captain. Here, she explains to Ichigo that she undertook the transcendance ritual years ago and bonded so completely with her Zanpakuto, Raijin, that they fused into one. She became more powerful than ever, but at the cost of Raijin ceasing to be forever. Ichigo likens it to sacrificing a friend, and Yoruichi doesn't disagree.
• Adaptational Heroism: Bambietta and Candice are allies of Ichigo and company rather than enemies.
• Adaptational Job Change: According to Bambietta, Gerard Valkyrie became a priest after he had a one-night stand with her. As she puts it:
  Candice: Really? You’re so damn bad that you turned him off sex entirely?
  Bambietta: More like I fucked him so good he found God! My pussy is a religious experience!
• Adaptational Karma:
  • In canon, Uryu suffered no consequences for using Hollow bait and risking everyone in Karakura Town. In Vow, Ichigo breaks both his legs for it after the fact and admits to himself he probably would have killed Uryu if anyone had died because of his actions.
  • Canon!Mayuri Kurotsuchi got away with all the horrible things he did and is still alive by the events of the Howls from the Jaws of Hell arc. Vow of the King!Mayuri, however, gets what he deserves at the hands of Ichigo, who vaporizes him with a point-blank Tenka-Ichiken.
• Adaptational Modesty: Harribel's Resurrecion features a bodysuit that covers most of her torso along with armor that protects most of her body, a markedly different getup compared to the Stripperific outfit she sported with her canon Resurreccion.
• Adaptation Name Change: Kon is instead named Kai.
• Adaptation Personality Change:
  • Ichigo is more suspicious than canon, such as questioning why Urahara is so willing to help him rescue Nemu from Soul Society.
  • Momo did not get traumatized by finding a fake Aizen corpse and did not get impaled by him, meaning she did not get hospitalized and was able to witness Aizen betray Soul Society. As a result, her love for him has gone out the window and now she wants to kill him or at least beat him black and blue.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Unlike in canon where Ichigo did not know Uryu at the beginning, they know each other and already know they are related.
• Adaptational Sexuality:
  • Orihime is heterosexual in canon while Tatsuki's sexuality is never stated. Here, Orihime is bisexual while Tatsuki is a lesbian.
  • Word of God confirms that Yumichika is a bisexual Amazon Chaser in this story.
• Adaptation Species Change: Downplayed. Ichigo has been stated to have Quincy heritage, but he himself is not a Quincy.
• Adaptational Superpower Change:
  • Ichigo's zanpakuto is called Eien-ō rather than Zangetsu and can summon Golems in addition to its Sword Beam.
  • In canon, Isane's shikai was a katana with two prongs coming off the blade and was implied to be an ice type. In this story, her shikai is called Kesshōgiri and takes the form of a dozen crystals that she can store kido spells in.
  • Nemu's zanpakuto is called Tengoku Shibari and takes the form of four violet bands around her wrists and ankles that can create metallic ribbons that can be used to cut, bind, or pierce targets with.
  • Renji's Bankai is stated to remain as Hihiō Zabimaru rather than becoming Sōō Zabimaru.
  • Downplayed for Harribel. While her Ressurecion retains the water control and shark motif it had in canon, it's ultimate attack revolves round Harribel trapping her foes inside a gigantic sphere of pitch-black water while she rips them apart as a monstrous shark mermaid instead of drowning them with sheer water volume.
• Adaptational Wimp:
  • Candice and Bambietta are both somewhere between lieutenant and captain level, as opposed to canon where they easily thrashed captains.
  • Vollständig in canon was stated to be stronger than Letzt Stil with none of the drawbacks. Vow changed it so that Vollständig is weaker than Letzt Stil, though it still doesn't have the drawback of burning out the Quincy who uses it.
  • According to Unohana, Zaraki was a challenging opponent and might have defeated her in another century or two if he trained harder instead of stagnating. In the manga, Zaraki was explicitly much stronger than she was when they first fought and unconsciously sealed away most of his power in fear of never facing a strong opponent again.
  • The Vizards are stated to be quite rusty from their lives in exile, meaning that they do not fare as well as their canon counterparts do in the Battle of Karakura Town.
• Adapted Out:
  • Zangetsu doesn't exist in this story, with Ichigo's zanpakuto being a knightly woman called Eien-ō.
  • Ukitake's breathing problems are simply from a chronic illness he contracted as a child rather than Mimihagi possessing his lungs to keep him alive. The author has stated in an end-of-chapter note that they found the whole subplot of Ukitake being the host of Mimihagi in canon utterly pointless thanks to how poorly it was executed in the Thousand Year Blood War arc.
• Agony of the Feet:
  • During their fight, Ichigo uses Yūrei no Ken to nail Rukia's feet to the ground, only to then hit her hard enough for her feet to be torn free.
  • During their fight, Renji stomps on Ichigo's foot and breaks it. After he wins, Ichigo pays him back by stomping on both of his feet and breaking them.
• All There in the Manual: The side story Extra Vows contains background information about the universe in which the story takes place but isn't relevant to the actual story, such as the fate of Yhwach and how the Kenpachi title came to be.
• Amazonian Beauty: Isane's canonical height is coupled here with a deceptively-muscular build under her uniform, making her this. While she's somewhat shy about her physique, more than one character compliments her looks because of her muscles, particularly in the omakes where Chizuru unthinkingly says "Dom me, muscle mommy" when Isane flexes nude.
• Amazon Chaser: Word of God states that Yumichika prefers a combination of beauty and ferocity in his lovers.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • Tosen loses his hands in his fight against Bambietta due to her turning herself into a bomb just before he impaled her.
  • Unohana loses several limbs (they grow back) while fighting Ichigo.
  • Ichigo in turn loses his right arm fighting Unohana, though Orihime restores it.
  • Like canon, Grimmjow loses his left arm. Unlike canon, Ichigo was the one to cut it off, rather than Tosen doing it as punishment for invading Karakura without orders.
  • Toshiro gets his leg torn off by Harribel after she traps him with Llanura Abisal.
  • Halibel herself loses her arm to Byakuya's Shūkei: Hakuteiken.
  • Mashiro gets her leg torn off after Aizen catches her Mashiro Drop Kick.
• Apologetic Attacker: During the Soul Society arc, Shunsui makes it clear to the heroes that he'd rather not fight them if at all possible, but he absolutely will if they make him. Before the fight starts, he tells them he's sorry it came to that.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Averted. Ichigo is willing to beleve that anything is possible after he joins Soul Society, such as Yoruichi being both a cat and an attractive woman.
  Ichigo: But we’re in the afterlife because my android ghost samurai girlfriend broke the law when she stabbed me in the heart so I could use a sword that’s also a queen to hunt monsters that turn into butterflies when I kill them. Honestly, I’m just kinda assuming anything’s possible at this point.
• Armor-Piercing Response: After their battle, Orihime heals Dordonni, causing him to suggest he'll simply attack her when she's done. Her response stops him cold, largely due to the complete certainty with which she says it.
  Dordonni: How do you know I won't simply attack you the moment I'm healed and this barrier falls?
  Orihime: Because you're not that horrible a person.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Nemu, who had merely been Mayuri's assistant in canon, is Ichigo's first love interest.
  • Tatsuki gains powers of her own and thus becomes part of the True Companions.
  • Bambietta and Candice, previously just dark action girls for a single arc of the manga, join Ichigo and friends in storming Soul Society.
  • Isane gets much more focus than in canon, notably taking Hanataro's place as the shinigami who attempts to help break out Nemu.
• Asshole Victim: Practically nobody has a good word to say about Mayuri, beside his scientific genius, after Ichigo kills him. The fact that Mayuri's Bankai causes over eighty casualties during the aforementioned fight earns him no favors with Yamamoto, and Unohana agrees with Ichigo that he was an awful excuse for a person.
• Bavarian Fire Drill: Yoruichi infiltrates Second Division in "the most effective way possible". That is to say, she steals a uniform and walks right in while acting like she's too busy for idle chat. Ichigo does the same thing accidentally later, as his foul mood and stolen shirt make every shinigami he crosses think he is a seated officer in a hurry.
• Begin with a Finisher: Ichigo's "fight" against Cirucci starts and ends with him impaling her and immediately blasting her with his Sword Beam.
• Berserk Button:
  • Tarnishing Ichigo's memory of his dead mom is guaranteed to enrage him, as Grand Fisher finds out when he decides to move his body into his lure.
  • Don't insult David Hasselhoff or his music around Bambietta. An offhand remark by Candice results in Bambietta threatening to "shoot her tits off".
  • As Findorr finds out, reminding Momo of Aizen's betrayal is a surefire way to piss her off.
• BFG: Kanae's spirit weapon is functionally a portable cannon which Uryu compares to an artillery gun.
• Breath Weapon: Tatsuki can shoot a beam of lightning out of her mouth when using her powers.
• Broken Pedestal: Nemu realizes how much of a terrible father and person Mayuri is after enough time away from him and with Ichigo. After Ichigo kills him, she agonizes a bit with the idea but ultimately ensures he stays dead.
• Broken Tears: As she kills Mayuri, Nemu cries bitterly as she questions why Mayuri had to be such a terrible person and father.
• Brought Down to Badass: Szayelapporo uses devices that can prevent Unohana from using kido or bankai. However, she's so much stronger and more skilled than him that it doesn't make much difference and he still dies without causing any significant injuries.
• Brutal Brawl: Pretty much any fight that isn't a Curb-Stomp Battle is going to feature the fighters just completely brutalizing each other until one gives up or dies.
  • Ichigo's fight with Renji is particularly notable for featuring almost no usage of their zanpakuto. The two simply pummel each other barehanded after getting disarmed.
• Brutal Honesty: As Ikkakku notes to himself, Yumichika does not hold anything back whenever he describes someone's looks, meaning that his remarks about Milia Rose and Apacci's looks are very much genuine rather than mere taunts.
• Clone Degeneration: Szayel cannot create clones that are stronger than he is, so the clones he makes of Unohana are much weaker than the original.
• Clothing Damage: Exceedingly common in most fights. Yoruichi's training would leave her student's functionally nude if not for Orihime's abilities affecting clothes and Unohana ends up naked after her fight with Ichigo to name two examples.
• Collateral Damage: While blindly swinging her poisonous arms at Isane, Loly accidentally hits her partner Menoly.
• Combat Breakdown: Ichigo's Bankai training lasts long enough for him and Eien-ō to completely exhaust the latter's Field of Blades. By the end, Eien-ō is reduced to a broken sword while Ichigo has nothing but a sharp rock and a piece of Eien-ō's broken gauntlet.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Unohana easily defeats dozens of clones of herself with the justification that the one who created them, Szayelapporo, couldn't make them stronger than himself, making each one far weaker than the original.
• Contrived Coincidence: Momo doesn't discover Aizen's fake corpse because she sensed Orihime's spirit energy nearby and ran off to confront her.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Zigzagged. Yoruichi comments that she could have rescued Nemu and escaped within fifteen minutes if Urahara had sent her alone. But doing so would leave Aizen in a position of power. Instead, the teens were sent to do it as they'd be able to grow stronger in a relatively safe environment and Yoruichi could step in to save them if things went sideways.
• Crippling Overspecialization:
  • Zommari admits that he focused so heavily on his speed and Amor that his more basic skills such as Cero and Bala are far weaker than they should be. This comes back to bite him when facing an enemy who can keep up with his speed and has a way to negate his Amor.
  • Earning his bankai so early in his career^note According to Tite Kubo, Toshiro learned his bankai before graduating from the academy resulted in Toshiro not having the solid foundation most shinigami possess. When he's temporarily unable to utilize his zanpakuto's ice powers, he quickly learns he has little other skills to fall back on.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Ichigo's fights against Shunsui can both be described as the older man merely humoring him. The second fight sees Shunsui nearly kill him with a Finger Poke of Doom.
  • Sado versus Jidanbo is just as one-sided against the giant as it was when he fought Ichigo in canon.
  • Ichigo versus four lieutenants at Nemu's execution. He defeats all of them in the time it takes Momo to knock out a fifth with a kido.
  • Cirucci manages to launch exactly one attack before being killed in a single attack when she tries to fight Ichigo.
  • Post-transcendence Ichigo beats the Hogyoku-powered Aizen silly during their fight in Karakura Town and finishes off the former Shinigami captain with a single superpowered slash that obliterates him and the Hogyoku from existence.
• Curb Stomp Cushion:
  • Rukia lands a few hits on Ichigo, but he quickly puts her on the ground without taking much more damage than a broken nose.
  • Ichigo does well when fighting against Unohana, but she makes it clear that he wasn't ready to truly kill her. Once she gets serious, she pretty much manhandles him.
  • The dozens of clones of Unohana that Szayelapporo creates manage to cut off her arm and stab her a few times, but she easily hacks her way through all of them, later remarking how disappointing she found the fight.
• Deader than Dead: Nemu makes sure Mayuri is this by obliterating his backup brain.
  • Ichigo hits Aizen so hard with Tenka-Ichiken that he is removed from existence.
• Deadly Dodging: Renji knocks Ichigo down and attempts a knee drop, but Ichigo rolls out of the way, causing his knee to land on the pavement and get hurt.
• Deadpan Snarker: Uryu's mother, Kanae, reacts to him calling his father a "motherfucker" by insisting he shouldn't say such things about the man, no matter how accurate.
• Death by Adaptation:
  • The Gillian from the hollow hunting contest is killed rather than merely injured.
  • Ichigo kills Mayuri Kurotsuchi in Soul Society.
  • The supplementary material states that Yhwach is well and truly dead, and has in fact died and reincarnated multiple times over the centuries.
  • As Dordonni was more thoroughly healed and his zanpakuto wasn't broken, Rudbornn dies trying to execute him.
  • Menoly is accidentally hit by Loly's poison, forcing Isane to give her a Mercy Kill.
  • Uryu is killed by a surprise attack by Nnoitra while fighting Tesra.
  • Hiyori dies rushing Barragan while the Segunda Espada is pumping out his Respira.
  • Kensei gets his chest blown through by Tosen's Los Nueve Aspectos.
  • Omaeda is tenderized by Momo's improper Kurohitsugi thanks to Aizen using Kyoka Suigetsu to play hell with everyone's senses.
  • Aizen doesn't survive his final battle against Ichigo.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Nemu, by virtue of spending time with Ichigo and his family. At the start of the story, she tries to kidnap Ichigo to be one of Mayuri's specimens. By the end of the first arc, she goes on a date with Ichigo.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit:
  • Tatsuki allows Ikakku to impale her with his zanpakuto so she can blast him point blank with her Breath Weapon.
  • Bambietta lets Tousen impale her so she can grab his sword and blow it up.
  • Due to her healing factor, Unohana tends to let attacks hit her just so she can ensure her own land.
• Demoted to Extra: Even more so than canon, Kon only gets a couple brief mentions as a third child working for Urahara.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • Grand Fisher dies to Ichigo instead of Isshin.
  • Yoruichi splits Yammy in half with a single axe kick to his head when he and Ulquiorra show up in Karakura town.
  • Zommari gets blown in half by Candice's Galvano Javelin.
  • Unohana impales her sword through Szayel's upper jaw and right into his brain.
  • Tesra is killed by Uryu via a Seele Schneider headshot.
  • Nnoitra is obliterated by a Eikō no Yari-powered Tenka-Ichiken from Ichigo.
  • Findorr is immobilized by Momo, frozen by Rukia, and then blasted apart with a fireball from Tobiume before he even has a chance to demonstrate the full extent of his power.
  • Nirgge gets his head pulped from the inside out by Rangiku after Hisagi stuns him with a Tsuzuri Raiden.
  • Choe Neng Poww is obliterated with a Sword Beam from Renji's bankai.
  • Ggio Vega gets his brain skewered on Iba's falchion after Kira immobilizes Vega with Wabisuke.
  • Gin is impaled through the heart by Chojiro, with the lightning from the First Division lieutenant's zanpakuto frying the traitor in the process.
  • Ulquiorra is obliterated by Soifon's Jakuho Raikoben thanks to Shunsui's Shikai massively boosting its damage via the rules of its Color Demon game.
  • Tosen is bisected lengthwise by Komamura right after the traitorous captain kills Kensei.
  • Barragan is incinerated from the inside out by the second Judgement of Ukitake's Sōhandan: Kindan Sensō.
• Didn't Think This Through: Isane decides to help Nemu escape her impending execution, but admits she did not have a plan for what to do after getting Nemu out of her cell. Shunsui ends up arresting her.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: Senjumaru Shutara has six artificial arms in canon but there appears to be nothing wrong with her natural arms. Extra Vows makes it clear that she lost her arms to Baraggan and her artificial ones are her shikai, which she keeps permanently active.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You:
  • Ichigo asks Cirucci to stand down, insisting they don't have to fight so long as she doesn't support Aizen. When she insists, she finds herself on the wrong end of a Single-Stroke Battle.
  • Orihime always asks her opponent to not force her to fight due to her distaste for violence.
• Double Entendre: The next-chapter previews are absolutely loaded with sexual puns and jokes.
• Dressing as the Enemy: Like canon, Orihime does this in Soul Society, though she does so with Tatsuki rather than Uryu. Unlike canon, they think to steal a couple zanpakuto as well.
• Due to the Dead: Hollows eat any other Hollows (and presumably other souls) they kill as a form of respect towards their foes and see not doing so as incredibly disrespectful.
• Dungeon Bypass: After getting fed up with the traps and changing hallways of Las Noches, Captain Unohana levels the entire area with a high level kido.
• Eating the Eye Candy: When Ichigo loses his clothing during his bankai training, Candice and Bambietta are quite happy to enjoy the view.
• Europeans Are Kinky: Implied to be the case with Candice, who has several piercings and jokingly offers Ichigo anal sex when they're lounging in a hot spring.
• Even the Girls Want Her:
  • Unohana is lusted after by sixty percent of the Seireitei overall and ninety-three percent of her own division.
  • Candice is mesmerized when she sees Yoruichi in human form and calls her a Nubian goddess.
• Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: Though most characters obligingly explain their abilities, Candice not only averts it, but mocks Zommari for explaining his powers to her, including its limitations.
• Expy:
  • Eien-ō's spirit form is heavily based off Lancer Artoria.
  • Ichigo's inner hollow Tirana is visually identical to Skull Knight when armored and Lady Dimtrescu unarmored. Her personality is also very similar to the latter.
• Eye Scream:
  • Tatsuki has an eye cut out twice, though it's healed both times. The first time is against Ikkaku and the second time against Yachiru Kusajishi.
  • When fighting his hollow for the first time, Ichigo stabs her in the eye with a rapier.
  • Near the end of his bankai training, Ichigo smacks Eien-ō in the face with a broken fragment of her armor, cutting open her eye.
  • Unohana's eyes are burnt out by witnessing Isshin perform Mugetsu and ignoring Urahara's warning.
• Fake-Out Make-Out: As part of an Infraction Distraction while infiltrating Soul Society, Orihime pulls Tatsuki into a nearby alley and starts making out with her when they sense a captain nearby. After getting "caught", they act deeply apologetic for fooling around when they're supposed to be patrolling, causing Komamura to let them off with a warning.
• Fan Disservice: A lot of characters suffer Clothing Damage throughout the story. More often than not, it's because they've just been grievously injured, such as Unohana ending up nude because Ichigo kept hacking off her body parts.
• Figure It Out Yourself: Yoruichi and Kisuke learned the hard way that this is required to pull off a Fusion Dance with one's zanpakuto. Yoruichi did it herself and attempted to tell Kisuke how to do so but accidentally prevented him from ever being able to.
  Yoruichi: If I tell you, you won’t be able to do it. Enlightenment is a journey, not a destination.
• Finger Poke of Doom:
  • While playing Irooni (color demon) against Ichigo, Shunsui declares black and pokes him in the chest. The "attack" sends Ichigo hurtling backwards and badly breaks his ribs.
  • Aizen flicks Tatsuki in the mouth hard enough to break her jaw.
• Food Pills: At some point in the past, Mayuri Kurotsuchi developed a nutrient bar that provides all the energy and nutrients a shinigami needs for an entire day. It also apparently tastes like "a size ten boot with depression".
• For the Evulz: Aizen specifically arranged for Momo to stumble across his fake corpse just for his own amusement at her breakdown. To his annoyance, she instead takes a different route by sheer chance and doesn't learn of his "death" until later that day.
• Gaining the Will to Kill: Yoruichi forces this upon Orihime in training, making it look like she'll kill Tatsuki if Orihime doesn't kill her.
• Gemstone Assault: Isane's shikai, Kesshōgiri, takes the form of a dozen jade crystals which she can store kido spells in as well as shape how she pleases.
• Genre Savvy: After an Internal Reveal about what her brother's been up to, Yuzu pegs him as a "shonen protagonist". After a moment's thought, she discards the idea because he's actually had sex with his Battle Harem and has killed someone, meaning he's a seinen protagonist.
• Glass Cannon: While using Eikō no Yari, Ichigo has enough offensive power to generate Razor Wind with every strike and slice up even captain level enemies from a distance but sacrifices all of his defensive ability to do so.
• Going Commando: Tatsuki is shocked and a little turned on to learn that Orihime was not wearing any underwear when they pull their Dressing as the Enemy ploy.
• Golem: Eien-ō can summon copies of itself in shikai with an ability called Yūrei no Ken, which Ichigo can control with his mind. In bankai, he can summon up to five full duplicates of his bankai which are fully autonomous but have an unspecified cooldown before he can summon more.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: How much damage people take in a fight notably increases after healing kido and Orihime's healing powers are introduced.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: At Nemu's execution, Ichigo knocks out Renji by hitting him with Iba.
• Head Crushing: One of the Unohana clones is punched into a wall hard enough for her head to splatter all over it.
• Heal It with Blood: Unohana's bankai summons a massive pool of blood created from all the people she's ever killed. So long as her bankai is active, she can heal by using up some of said blood, and the more contact she has with it, the faster she regenerates.
• I Am Not Left-Handed:
  • Ichigo's bankai has an alternate form called Eikō no Yari (Spear of Glory) which sacrifices his armor for offensive power, which he uses in his fight against Unohana.
  • When Ichigo's hollow possesses him during their fight, Unohana manipulates the pool of blood her bankai summons to start raining down upon them, both hindering his vision and massively boosting her Healing Factor.
  • While fighting Soifon, Yoruichi shows just how far her student has to go by activating the second level of Shunko, allowing her to perform a Speed Blitz on the younger woman.
• Ignore the Fanservice: Like canon, Matsumoto attempts to Show Some Leg to get Ichigo to let her stay at his place. Unlike canon, Ichigo has been living with Nemu for months (and has recently started having sex with her) and completely ignores her unbuttoning her blouse.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: Grimmjow's comments and inner thoughts show definite signs of this, and is largely confirmed later by Starrk.
• Infraction Distraction: Orihime and Tatsuki are caught "slacking off" while disguised as Shinigami to keep Komamura from realizing they're actually invaders.
• Innocent Fanservice Girl: Nemu is completely oblivious when it comes to exposing her body for all to see thanks to her upbringing under Kurotsuchi, though her time with Ichigo has averted it somewhat.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Even though Yhwach is long dead, Masaki was still eaten by Grand Fisher as her powers hadn't properly returned yet.
  • Ganju still messes up the kido chant for the Flower Crane Cannon even though the others aren't bickering. Instead, the problem is caused by him having smudged his notes.
• Internal Reveal:
  • In chapter 18, Ichigo learns about his heritage from his father.
  • In chapter 23, Yuzu confronts Alfred and learns about what her brother has really been up to the last several months. She's rather put out to learn that her twin had confronted Ichigo a month prior without telling her.
• I Shall Taunt You: Ichigo tells Ganju that he was resting from banging Kukaku all day when Ganju tries to pick a fight with him so Ganju will do something really stupid in his rage.
• It Can Think: Ichigo's Hollow form acts like The Berserker, but it's still capable of tactics when it needs to. After getting fed up with Shinji's shikai, it intentionally causes its own Cero to misfire and detonate, blasting the entire area at once.
• Klatchian Coffee: Implied. Candice's preferred coffee is mentioned to be the same kind her great-grandfather drank in the army and once ate a hole in Bambietta's mug.
• Klingon Promotion: After killing Mayuri, Ichigo is promoted to captain of 12th Division, though it's currently a probationary appointment.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Ichigo's bankai Eien-ō Tenmai gives him this look, including a Knightly Sword and Shield.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • Shunsui convinces Ichigo to simply let him take Nemu back to Soul Society by convincing him that all he's doing is making her position worse by fighting.
  • After being ambushed by Soifon, Sado and Ganju both quietly surrender rather than fight.
  • Starrk chooses to establish a ceasefire between him and Ichigo's crew after nearly dying to Tirana, declaring himself and anyone siding with him neutral in the Winter War and deciding to let Ichigo and company return to Karakura to face Aizen while he takes wounded arrancars back to Hueco Mundo for rest and recovery.
• Logical Weakness:
  • The duplicates summoned by Yūrei no Ken are controlled by Ichigo's mind. As such, he can only create so many before his ability to finely control them weakens and he's reduced to just launching them at his enemy.
  • Tosen's shikai uses a high pitched sound to instantly knock out his enemies. Anyone who can't hear it, such as Bambietta (who has tinnitus), is immune.
  • In canon, Mayuri installed a sensor into his zanpakuto that allows him to counter any sword technique within a given range. Ichigo gets around it by punching him in the face.
  • Tesra's cero cornea fires a cero from his eye. The fact he has to look at whatever he's attacking and only has one eye not only makes it easy to dodge his attack but also leaves him a significant blindspot.
• Loophole Abuse: Soul Society's Klingon Promotion system wasn't written with substitute shinigami in mind, causing Yamamoto to admit they're in a rather odd position after Ichigo kills Mayuri. The Head Captain ultimately decides to go with the letter of the law, even if it technically doesn't follow the spirit.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Captain Unohana has a pain tolerance far beyond most shinigami, who are already remarkably good at ignoring deblitating injuries to keep fighting. If an injury doesn't actually hamper her ability to fight, she'll likely completely ignore it. Urahara is notably impressed at how she doesn't even react to getting her eyes burnt out by witnessing Isshin use Mugetsu.
• Man of Kryptonite: In addition to Wonderweiss, Monet is another modified Arrancar created by Aizen with the ability to negate Kido.
• Mercy Kill: Isane finishes off Menoly after she's accidentally hit with Loly's poison to give her a quicker death than being slowly melted alive.
• More Dakka: Bambietta favors "spray and pray" when shooting compared to Candice, who favors accuracy over volume of fire.
• Morph Weapon: Kesshōgiri's crystals can transform into a variety of forms, such as a kanabo, gauntlets, or a naginata.
• Mugged for Disguise: Yoruichi knocks out some members of the Stealth Forces to steal a uniform off them.
• Multi-Melee Master:
  • Ichigo's zanpakuto forces him to be proficient in using two different kinds of two-handed swords, Knightly Sword and Shield, and a spear.
  • Besides the katana of her sealed zanpakuto, Isane has shown the ability to use a naginata, a kanabo, and armored gauntlets. Unlike Ichigo, her zanpakuto is explicitly a Morph Weapon, so she doesn't have to change forms to change weapons.
• Mutual Kill: A variation. In their second fight, Ichigo decapitates Unohana in the same clash where she fatally slices open his chest. As she was in bankai at the time, Unohana grows an entire new body then heals Ichigo's injuries.
• Mythology Gag: Two of the swords used by Ichigo and Eien-ō during the former's bankai training are the original forms of Zangetsu and Tensa Zangetsu.
• Noodle Incident: Rangiku's attempt to set Gin up on a date with Soifon aren't elaborated on except that the 11th Division was convinced that a Hollow invasion was occurring.
  Rangiku: I saw it and I still don't understand what happened.
• No-Sell:
  • The Gillian accidentally summoned during the hollow killing contest breaks right through Ichigo's strongest bakudo.
  • During their two fights, Shunsui basically ignores Ichigo's attacks, though the second time was because Ichigo didn't understand the rules of Irooni.
  • Bambietta ignores Tosen's shikai because her explosions gave her tinnitus.
  • After the Soul Society arc, a random punk tries to punch Ichigo in the back of the head, only to seemingly break his hand due to the sheer amount of spirit energy Ichigo leaks passively.
• Not Hyperbole: When Bambietta claimed Candice's coffee was strong enough to eat through her mug, she wasn't joking and grouses that it had been her favorite mug.
• Not Enough to Bury: Mayuri is reduced to a single burnt hand after his battle with Ichigo.
• Omake: The story has several, most of a Not Safe for Work variety, that vary between Loose Canon and completely noncanon, such as Isane being sent to Karakura rather than Nemu.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: The story of how Isane broke two 11th Division members' collarbones with her thumb for getting belligerent with her quickly circulates around her own division, to her embarrassment.
• Open Secret: Ichigo mentally lampshades how he and Nemu's relationship is practically out in the open despite everyone else being unaware about the supernatural.
• Original Character: Ichigo's Gikon is Alfred, who is more gentle, professional, and obedient than Kon.
• Outfit Decoy: In her fight against Momo, Orihime strips out of her borrowed uniform and throws it in the opposite direction, distracting the lieutenant long enough to choke her out.
• Panty Thief: For her own amusement, Yoruichi steals all of Soifon's panties and strings them up in the captain assembly hall just before a meeting.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: Uryu isn't happy to hear his mother joke about her sex life with his father, thinking to himself that he could feel his future therapist go up a tax bracket.

Uryu: That motherfucker.

Kanae: Language dear. No matter how accurate, you shouldn't say such things about your father.

• Person of Mass Destruction: Ichigo's power post-Winter War is so high that he has to spend time in the Soul Palace until Urahara can develop a proper seal for him lest he devastate the living world and Soul Society on accident.
• Polyamory: Ichigo is currently in a polycule with Nemu, Candice, Isane, and Unohana at the moment, with Nelliel, Harribel, and Yoruichi set to join later in the story.
• Porn Stash: When Aizen murders the Central 46, he finds that some of the members had porn novels and reads them to pass the time.
• Power Perversion Potential: Discussed when Ichigo displays talent in bakudo (binding spells). While practicing, he accidentally ties Nemu up twice. She asks if he is this talented because he is into bondage, embarrassing him.
• Precision F-Strike: After Aizen tells her that her son is dead, Kanae curses for the first time in the story.
  Kanae: I'm going to fucking kill you.
• Promoted to Love Interest: Orihime and Tatsuki, merely best friends in canon, are instead lovers as of the end of chapter six.
• A Rare Sentence:
  • Ichigo gives one, and lampshades it, after Yoruichi informs him of Nemu's pending execution.
  Ichigo: A Shinigami cat just told me his spy in the afterlife said my ghost girlfriend is going to be killed! That sentence shouldn’t exist!
  • He has another after his bankai training.
  Ichigo: Oh right. I fought my sword to the death. ...My life is never gonna make sense again.
• Racist Grandpa: According to Candice, her great-grandfather insists that "America should have let the Nazis take England".
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: From the moment he enters the battlefield, Starrk makes it explicitly clear why he is the Primera and leader of the Espada. He casually unleashes overwhelming power, and there is no contest between him and the likes of Grimmjow (#6) and Nnoitra (#5).
• Relationship Upgrade:
  • In chapter 6, Orihime and Tatsuki confess their feelings for each other and kiss.
  • In chapter 17, Ichigo and Nemu make love for the first time.
  • In chapter 19, despite knowing that Unohana was interested in Ichigo, Isane confesses her feelings and kisses her. Unohana invites her to share Ichigo and she agrees.
• Relatively Flimsy Excuse: Uryu introduces Candice and Bambietta as his cousins. The two shrug and say Sure, Let's Go with That.
• Retroactive Wish: When two intruders fall out of the sky after Yumichika says it won't happen, Ikkaku says the same about a barrel of high quality sake.
• Samus Is a Girl: Tirana, Ichigo's Hollow, initially appears to be a man due to wearing a full suit of plate armor. A later comment by her suggests that it was Eien-ō influencing things to make her appear that way.
• Scaled Up: Tatsuki's powers let her transform into a draconic form. As her powers grow, her size goes up as her transformation progresses further.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Several hundred years after the first Quincy war, some of the Quincy tried to take their revenge on the Shinigami. Though he was ordered to exterminate them to the last, Yamamoto took care to only kill those part of the antagonizing faction. This is in stark contrast to the first Quincy war where he had to be talked out of exterminating even children too young to fight.
• Seen It All: Multiple shinigami are initially dismissive of Ichigo's attack on Soul Society, stating they've lived through far worse. Unohana in particular seems more annoyed that Aizen's actions kept them from setting a new record on longest time between conflicts.
• Sex Is Violence: Implied. The day after her battle with Ichigo, Unohana is described as having a remarkable glow about her. Bambietta comes right out and says she has "that post-dicking glow".
• Sexual Karma:
  • Kukaku rewards Sado this way for saving her little brother's life in Soul Society.
  • Nemu allows Ichigo to indulge himself with Candice and Bambietta partially because she feels he deserves it and also because she wanted to watch.
• Shameless Fanservice Girl:
  • Yoruichi thinks nothing of lounging around naked.
  • Candice taunts Ichigo with her naked body at one point in Soul Society.
  • By the end of her fight with Ichigo, Unohana is stated to be completely nude due to the damage she's taken. Even afterwards when the fighting's over, she spends some time healing others before bothering to get dressed.
• Shout-Out:
  • Ichigo mentions being a fan of Dragon Ball Z and hoping to use kido to imitate a Kamehameha. In Ichigo's spar with the super strong Ururu, he describes it as a game of cat and mouse if the cat was a Dragon Ball Z character.
  • Ryuken's maid is named Sayoko Shinozaki.
  • Bambietta attempts to invoke the iconic "I'm here to kick ass and Chew Bubblegum" one-liner from They Live! in chapter 7, only for Candice to deflate the moment with some bubblegum she had on hand.
  • Several of the weapons in Eien-ō's Field of Blades are taken from other works, including:
    • Inigo Montoya's rapier.
    • Gut's Dragonslayer.
    • Zuko's twin swords.
  • Ransōtengai being used as a countermeasure against Zommari's Amor is lifted straight from A Protector's Pride.
  • Candice's response to Zommari's speech about "sovereignty" is taken directly from Hellsing Ultimate Abridged.
  Candice: Is there a rest stop between now and the fucking point?
• Show Some Leg:
  • Bambietta attempts this when cornered by Tosen and Hisagi, lifting her skirt and flirting with them, only to immediately draw her rifle and open fire mid-sentence. It doesn't distract either of them.
  • Like in canon, Rangiku unbuttons her shirt to coerce Ichigo into letting her stay at his place. Having been living with Nemu for months, he completely ignores the attempt.
• Sorry, I'm Gay: Comes up when Orhime thinks Yumichika is flirting with her, though he's actually bisexual and she's just not his type.
  Orihime: I'm taken!
  Yumichika: And I'm not interested.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Because Yhwach is long-dead in this continuity, he never performs Auswählen to restore his powers. Uryu's mother Kanae is alive and well in the present day as a result, but Masaki is still killed at the hands of the Grand Fisher.
  • Dordonni survives his fight against Rudbornn due to having been more fully healed and his zanpakuto not being damaged.
  • Halibel's Fraccion go up against Ikakku and Yumichika instead of Yamamoto, meaning that they are just knocked out by getting their reiatsu drained.
  • Abirama is merely rendered unconscious after Byakuya destroys his Haketsu and Sokatsui, allowing Starrk to recover him for healing.
• The Starscream: As described in Extra Vows, Tirana plays the role of dutiful servant to Ichigo after her initial defeat and let him use his Hollow abilities however he sees fit while plotting to seize control of his body as soon as the opportunity presents itself. She gets that chance after Ichigo is badly injured by Starrk during their battle, briefly seizing control of his body before Ichigo regains control.
• Steel Eardrums: Averted; Bambietta's explosions give her tinnitus, which gives her temporary immunity to Tosen's sound based shikai.
• Storm of Blades: An alternate use of Yūrei no ken is to simply launch all of the summoned blades at once.
• Sword Beam: Ichigo's zanpakuto has one called Tenka-Ichiken and is based off both Getsuga Tenshou and Excalibur.
• Talk to the Fist: Grimmjow tries to refuse orders to return to Los Noches, only to be cut off by Halibel sucker punching him.
• Taught by Experience: A good deal of Ichigo's training, whether it's from Nemu, Tessai, or Eien-ō, consists of fighting them until he learns how to fight properly.
• Teacher/Student Romance: Played With; while Nemu and Ichigo are already in a relationship and understand what's going on betwen them perfectly, most of Ichigo's classmates believe that they're engaged in this ever since Nemu replaced Kagine as PE teacher.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Just before Tatsuki blasts him with her Breath Weapon, Ikkaku realizes what she's about to do and has this attitude towards his impending defeat
  Ikkaku: Well, that's not good.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: When Ichigo defeats Shrieker, his Zanpakuto tells him Chad has to kill him because he was the one protecting Yūichi Shibata from him. So Ichigo hands his Zanpakuto to Chad and he finishes Shrieker off.
• Titled After the Song: Every chapter is named after a song lyric with a notable preference towards rock and metal.
• Touché: When Shunsui tries to get Ichigo to surrender, he promises all of the intruders lives will be spared, but has no retort to Ichigo pointing out he promised the same of Nemu, who's slated for execution.
  Shunsui: Just surrender. I promise your lives will be spared.
  Ichigo: Just like you promised Nemu's life would be spared?!
  Shunsui: I suppose I deserve that.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Ice cream for Nemu. When Ichigo's busy coming to terms with the near extermination of the Quincy, Nemu steals his ice cream and quickly wolfs it down when he notices.
• Tranquil Fury: Unlike her husband, when Kanae learns her son has been killed, her expression and voice are compared to "the ocean on a windless day, tranquil but filled with unimaginable terrors in its depths."
• Transformation Is a Free Action: Averted when Uryu fights Tesra. The Quincy first interrupts his release phrase by shooting at him, then uses a Seele Schneider to cut his zanpakuto in two, leaving him unable to release at all.
• Translator Microbes: Anyone in Soul Society or Hueco Mundo can understand each other perfectly as there's apparently no language barrier between souls.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Kanae insists she isn't much of a Quincy because she can only use basic techniques, but she proves to be roughly as strong as her husband, just less skilled.
• Villainous Breakdown: Aizen devolves into a ranting, screaming mess as Ichigo tosses him around like a ragdoll, vehemently denying that Ichigo is just that much stronger than he is after his transcendence and futilely attempting to discard Kyoka Suigetsu to reach Ichigo's level of strength.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: As Chojiro notes in his duel against Gin, Ichigo defeating him helped him realize that he had become rusty over the years thanks to the lack of challenge he faced up to that point.
• Was Once a Man: Grand Fisher's central soul was originally a little girl named Kyoka before she ended up mutating into the Hollow that would kill Masaki. She apologizes to Ichigo for all the things she did as Grand Fisher and thanks him for releasing her from her previous state when they meet each other in Soul Society.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Ichigo calls Uryu out on his unwillingness to let go of his pride over his Quincy heritage when he and the others are called in by Nemu to listen to what she has to explain about the spiritual world, pointing out how his bullheadedness nearly got Karakura Town destroyed by a horde of Hollows.
  Uryu: How dare you?! First you Shinigami try to genocide my people and now you try to dictate when I can and cannot use my powers?! I won’t stand for it! I have my pride as a Quincy, and I will not be ordered around by a Shinigami!
  Ichigo: Shut the fuck up, Ishida. Your Quincy bullshit is what caused the trouble two days ago. Your fucking pride caused you to unleash a horde of Hollows on our town rather than listen to reason. Far as I’m concerned? Your “pride” can go die in a ditch. So get your head out of your ass and listen up!
• When She Smiles: Nemu gives a genuine smile after trying ice cream for the first time. Ichigo declares to himself that he must protect it.
• Worthy Opponent: Kenpachi and Yachiru show respect to Tatsuki when she battles Yachiru to a draw.
• Wrecked Weapon: Suzumushi, due to it being turned into a bomb by Bambietta using her Schrift. Unlike canon, the fact it was in bankai does not prevent it from ever being repaired.
• Wrestler in All of Us: While fighting Renji, Ichigo German suplexes him off a roof.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: Aizen's plan gets disrupted more than once, but he's quick to adapt as need be.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Both Ichigo and Isane insist that, despite what she says, Nemu is not replaceable.
  Isane: Hey now, none of that. Even if you are artificial, it doesn't mean you're replaceable. You're the only you there is.
• You Are Not Alone: During the Soul Society arc, Isane comforts Nemu by insisting she's not alone.