The World in Black and White
is a For Want Of A Nail Bleach fanfic by Kyrial Halcoryn.
The story splits off from canon several years before it starts, when Grand Fisher's attack kills Ichigo as well as his mother. However, whether by accident or design, Ichigo avoids getting eaten and a short while later he encounters Ishida Uryuu, the first person he's met since his death who can see him, and ends up following the young Quincy home. Years later, the inevitable happens and Ichigo Hollowfies but, Ichigo being Ichigo, it'd take more than a mask and a Hollow-hole to make him stop protecting someone he cares about and Uryuu can't bring himself to destroy the soul of his only friend. A year or so later, the two of them are living together in what has to be the most unlikely flatshare in history. Then a shinigami by the name of Kuchiki Rukia shows up in said apartment on the trail of a hollow...
Features bipolar!hollow!Ichigo with a thing for candy, pyromaniac!spy!Uryuu with button-induced genocide mode, cats that are not, in fact, cats, a mod soul not named Kon, Chekhov's Gunmen, a whole lot of minor characters being more badass than they are in canon, black humour, quite a bit of misunderstanding, and no ridiculously overpowered substitute shinigami. At all.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Badass: Tatsuki, Mizuiro, and Keigo all get this treatment ending being part of the ryoka and with powers of their own.
Word of God states that they're essentially Fullbringers due to exposure to a Vasto Lorde's (Ichigo's) reiatsu but they're never referred to as such due to the story being set long before the Fullbringer arc. - Because You Were Nice to Me: Nemu's reason for making Uryuu captain instead of killing him.
- Berserk Button: Kind of a literal example; Uryuu really, really doesn't like it when buttons get pulled off his clothes.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Ichigo has definite shades of this, being somewhat more child-like than his canon self along with a fair amount of odd that may come from being a Hollow, while still being able to kick an ungodly amount of ass.
- Deader than Dead: Mayuri not only dies, his back-up brain is destroyed as well.
- Healing Factor: Uryuu gains this thanks to ending up slightly Hollowfied. It ends up making a big difference in the fight with Mayuri, which leads to..
- Klingon Promotion: Uryuu accidently ends up becoming taicho of the Twelfth Division when he manages to kill Mayuri in single combat while half the Twelfth are watching the fight via the surveillance systems. After an inital 'WTF' moment, he takes the opportunity to purge the worst of the bad apples in the division.
- Loophole Abuse: Nothing says a Quincy can't become a captain using the Kenpachi method.
- Odd Friendship: Uryuu is a Quincy and Ichigo is a hollow. You don't really get any odder than that. And then Rukia joins them.
- Oh, Crap!: Rukia has one when she realises that Ichigo is a Vasto Lorde.
- Sharing a Body: As a hollow, Ichigo is made up of many, many souls, most being subsumed into the whole with him firmly in charge. However, in the course of the story he ends up eating Aaroniero and while most of the component Hollows suffer the usual fate, he and Kaien end up coming to an agreement with the latter basically becoming the former's 'inner shinigami'.
