Two Souls, One Story

Izuru adapts to the Soul Society

‘I’m starting to sense a pattern,’ Izuru thought to himself when the voice in his head ordered him to wake up and Gin was, once again, lounging in his room eating… he had to guess dried persimmons but they honestly looked like abominations to the food world. 

“Ah, Izuru! Let’s go for a walk together!” Gin declared that to be their morning activity.

Was Gin always this clingy to Izuru? 

Sighing, Izuru got out of bed and collected his clothes, vanishing into the bathroom to dress for the day. This body was low maintenance, at least compared to his… his old body. Splashing the face with some water, a few sweeps of a hair comb, and slipping on the Soul Reaper robes was all that were needed to complete his morning routine. At least, from what he was able to gather after snooping around his new home when Gin left him last night.

All of the shower products Izuru had were going to change though. 

He left his Zanpakuto as he followed Gin outside at the order of his internal Jiminy Cricket, munching on… some kind of protein bar. It had chocolate and that was all Izuru cared about. 

As they walked, Izuru took to counting each persimmon tree on Squad 3’s property, and by the time they had reached the exit to walk around the… uh… Seireitei- Izuru confirmed that Gin had issues and needed to widen his fruit palette. 

Granted, this was coming from a soul that had an unhealthy obsession with grapes and Japanese melons.

The Seireitei was bustling with activity, at least from Izuru’s perspective. Soul Reapers were running to and fro, many of them going out of their way to bow to them as they walked passed. Izuru felt his face warm up and he had to kill the urge to hide somewhere as the 10th poor unfortunate soul to pass us froze at the sight of Gin, bowed, then ran away.

“Wonder what got ‘em so spooked,” Gin mused humorously.

Jiminy Cricket was louder than ever. ‘Don’t say it. Don’t say it! DO NOT SAY WHAT YOU ARE THINKING!’

“Your face?” Izuru slapped a hand over his mouth. Stopping to prevent himself from running into Gin’s back, since the captain stopped dead in his tracks. He bowed. “Forgive me, Captain Ichimaru. I don’t know why I said that!”

Gin looked over his shoulder with a face that Izuru could only describe as kicked puppy-like. “I know I asked, but did ya have to be honest, Izuru?”

“I’m not supposed to lie to my captain, sir,” Izuru said through his mouth, praying that Gin didn’t question the personality change. Ten years was a perfect amount of time to learn someone’s personality inside and out. Who knows how much Gin manipulated the original Izuru to make him the gloomy mess from the manga?

“What happened ta the Izuru I remembered?” Gin asked, turning fully to face me. 

Izuru froze in place. What could he say to that? “Sorry, your Lieutenant died the other day and I’m inhabiting his soul-body-thing. I’m Luna, nice to meet you!” Yeah right. He would get killed on the spot just for spouting that nonsense. But at the same time, what if Gin doesn’t want a more expressive Izuru and tosses him aside at Aizen’s orders? What if-

A hand was planted on top of his head.

“Just kiddin’~ Yer so high-strung, Izuru. I like this expressive side of ya. Reminds me of the cute lil’ student from the academy.” Gin let go of Izuru’s head and continued walking. With a sigh of relief, the Lieutenant followed him. 

Within minutes, Izuru felt… something. It was like the Menos, a pressure on his person that made breathing difficult. He had to pause to collect his breath and look up, his heart dropping to his stomach.