001 - The Unluckiest Transmigrator
001 - The Unluckiest Transmigrator
Karakura Town, the World of the Living. A strange rift split open in midair, invisible to every ordinary person passing beneath it. A black shadow slipped through.
"Ha! I died and actually transmigrated? Does that make me some kind of chosen one?"
The shadow floated above the street, laughing with the kind of confidence only an idiot could have before disaster noticed him.
"Let's see what world I landed in."
He looked down and found a modern city beneath him: tall buildings, busy sidewalks, cars streaming through the streets.
"A modern world? Perfect. Give me a body, a bank account, and five years. I'll own half of it."
The shadow's excitement lasted only a moment. His form flickered at the edges, already thinning.
"But first I need a body. If I stay like this, my soul is going to scatter."
That was when a boy with spiky orange hair happened to walk right underneath him.
"No time to think. You'll do."
The shadow shrieked and dove straight at the boy. He did not even make contact.
"Wham!"
The boy reacted with absurd speed and knocked him flat with one punch.
"Why?" the shadow groaned from the ground. "I'm a soul! How can this guy even see me?"
The boy crouched in front of him and rubbed his chin, more curious than afraid.
"Never seen a soul like you before."
The shadow's panic sharpened into desperation.
'Now.'
While the boy was distracted, the shadow forced himself forward and plunged into the boy's body. For less than a second, nothing happened. Then the boy stood, scratched the back of his head, and frowned.
"Weird soul. Did it just vanish?"
Yes. It had vanished. The instant the foreign soul entered him, something vast and half-awake inside the boy tore it apart. It did not even have time to scream before it scattered like smoke on the wind.
It might have been the unluckiest transmigrator ever to die a second time.
After all, the body he had tried to steal belonged to Ichigo Kurosaki. Ichigo Kurosaki was preparing to start his first year at Karakura High. He lived with his father and two younger sisters.
That day, while he was out shopping with his childhood friend Tatsuki, he had run into a strange soul and somehow punched it out of existence. Hopefully, it got reincarnated properly this time.
Ichigo did not yet understand that although the soul had been destroyed, something had been left behind.
A few subtle changes had already begun to take root, and those changes would lead him down a path completely different from the one he was supposed to follow.
"You're late, Ichigo!"
The girl waiting for him stood with one hand on her hip, her short hair and sharp posture giving her a tomboyish edge.
"Yeah, yeah. Something weird happened on the way. Sorry, Tatsu."
Tatsuki Arisawa froze.
"Tatsu?"
She stepped closer and put a hand against his forehead. Ichigo blinked at her. "What are you doing?"
"Checking if you have a fever." Tatsuki pulled her hand back, still staring at him. "You haven't called me that since middle school."
More accurately, he had stopped using that nickname the day he finally beat her at the dojo. Ichigo looked away, trying and failing to look innocent. "Did I? I don't remember." Tatsuki narrowed her eyes.
"Fine, my bad. I won't drop it again, Tatsu."
That only made her look more annoyed, though her eyes softened. She jabbed him in the stomach with her elbow.
"Idiot," she muttered. "For a second, I thought you were going to keep drifting away from me."
"What was that?"
"Nothing." Tatsuki turned toward the shopping district. "Come on."
Ichigo rubbed his stomach and followed. "So why did you drag me out today?" Tatsuki did not answer right away. If Ichigo had been his usual distant self, she might have gone through with her plan.
She could have introduced him to someone else and quietly let their relationship settle back into simple childhood friendship.
But today he was smiling. The boy beside her was not the stern, closed-off Ichigo who had slowly pulled away after middle school began.
For the first time in a long while, Tatsuki felt as if she could see the warm, bright kid she had protected when they were little.
Because of that, she suddenly did not want to let him go.
"I wanted to introduce you to a new friend," she said at last.
"A new friend?"
Ichigo's circle was not exactly large, so the words caught him off guard. Tatsuki sighed. She had promised, and a promise was a promise.
"Tatsuki!"
At the call, both of them looked over. The first thing Ichigo noticed was her long orange hair as she hurried toward them. The second was her figure.
She was exceptionally well-endowed, and his gaze lingered for one stupid second. Tatsuki's elbow found his ribs immediately.
"Eyes up," she hissed beside his ear. "Try not to look like a creep."
Ichigo turned red and forced himself to look at her face. Even setting her curves aside, she was striking in a bright, gentle way, with a smile that made the air around her feel warmer. Her clothes suited her, cheerful without being loud.
When the girl noticed Ichigo, her cheeks flushed faintly before she turned her smile on Tatsuki.
"Sorry, Tatsuki. I woke up late. My alarm clock betrayed me."
Tatsuki waved it off. "It's fine. We just got here. This guy was late too."
"Tatsu, you don't have to keep bringing that up," Ichigo muttered, already losing the argument.
The girl's eyes widened at the nickname.
"Wait. Is he your boyfriend?"
Ichigo and Tatsuki looked at each other.
"What?!"
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