1 Maria’s Orphanage
"UUUUURRRRGGHHHH! Please, stop!" shouted a small, 6-year-old child, who came up with a very ingenious idea to steal toys from the other children while they went out to play outside.
"Kick him, guys! Show him what it means to steal!"
"Now you know what you get after you try to steal!"
"Hehe, boss. Look at him!"
However, the one they have referred to as their formal leader didn't answer, only gave a quick approving glance with raised eyebrows, as if giving the green light to a further beating of an "unstable element."
'Why do I even bother being a child gang boss in this orphanage?'
Yes, the child with silver-white hair sitting by the window with a glass of cold water and an indifferent expression was Gin. But moreover, Gin is not a native to the world of DanMachi.
At first, Gin was quite surprised at what world he got reincarnated in. Most fellow reincarnators usually end up being Uchiha or a Naruto Uzumaki. Sometimes, being a brother of Luffy or yet another intern at one of the Redhair's or Whitebeard's ships. The most ridiculous one was where an MC graduated with a perfect GPA from Beast Pirates Pirate Academy in Wano, and his amazing graduation project was noticed and promoted by Lord Kaido himself.
However, everything changed 7 years ago when he died after being run over by a subway train in his hometown and was reincarnated as a bastard child of some average merchant from the far east traveling through Orario. His mother was a whore who was captured as a teenager by the Ishtar Familia and tried to run away after learning of her pregnancy.
She had a few incredibly kind people from the Ishtar Familia help her hide her tracks and give birth to her child in relative safety. However, as it usually happens, she was still captured in the end and returned to the Pleasure District. Needless to say, severe punishment was executed on her by Ishtar's new rising star - Phryne Jamil.
However, Gin knew none of that. All he was able to capture from the few moments of clarity when he saw his mother staying with him at some small gloomy apartment right after his birth were his name - Gin, the city he was in - Orario, and her facial features - a mixture of silver and gray hair along with a quite impressive, plump, chest.
Another optimistic starting point was that his mother was clearly under enormous stress, and the whole apartment was full of different types of trash. Apparently, giving birth by herself in that cramped, tiny bedroom was not a good thing for her mental health.
The sounds of yelling and fighting coming from the rooms around him were also an excellent addition to the overall atmosphere. One time, someone even tried to break into the apartment through the front door, only to back off after his mother started yelling as if someone was murdering her.
Jokes aside, the best thing that his mother decided to do was to put him in a basket and bring him to Maria's orphanage sometime after his birth. A small, less than a year-old child with the name tag "Gin" wasn't even able to say a single word, but his life in the city of adventurers already delivered him quite a journey.
Subsequent years have gone by quite fast. As an adult who was able to keep all his memories intact, he was able to easily boss around the kids in the orphanage, even those who were older than him, which greatly surprised the matron.
He also knew better than anyone else what kind of city Orario was and that he needed to become an adventurer and join a familia.
When Mother Maria learned of this, she persuaded him to get a regular job - maybe even a job at the Guild because she didn't want any more of the children at the orphanage to pursue such a dangerous profession. Unfortunately, none of the children who joined familias have survived. Gin promised her that he would think about becoming a Guild employee.
One day, another group of orphans came to the orphanage because their own, somewhere in the northern Orario, was recently closed due to the lack of funds.
That day Gin was incredibly bored since he had nothing to do other than some bodyweight training and supervising other orphans through coercive means of the child gang under his control.
***
*1.5 years ago*
28 children have been sitting on the floor of a relatively big, somewhat old room with peach-colored walls and sparkling multicolored windows for almost an hour; however, no one wanted to leave because everyone was anticipating a promised meeting with the new children.
Mother Maria left around an hour ago and said she would bring back new children with whom they could be friends. As always happens with children, everyone was overexcited about something major happening and stopped playing with all the toys, only to obediently wait and be the first one to meet the newcomers.
Five minutes later, people finally heard the sound of the key opening from the outside, and the degree of the anticipation on the children's faces was hard to describe in plain words.
Finally, Mother Maria entered the door and immediately closed it before turning to them and giving those orphans her gentle, caring smile.
"Hey everybody, listen up! Today we are going to meet some new children who are going to join our orphanage. So everybody, please be kind to them," she said before opening the door and letting 13 children of different ages, ranging from 4 to 9, enter the biggest room in Maria's orphanage.
When the children entered the room, those who had been here from the beginning began to look at them like they were some new foreign objects. At the same time, the newcomers were visibly stressed and afraid of what was happening to them, despite the previous persuasions of the adults.
"Everyone say hi to each other!" Mother Maria broke the strange silent atmosphere permeating the room.
Right after that, the children from Gin's side looked at him as if asking for permission, to which he just slightly nodded, which prompted them to run as if their life depended on it and introduce themselves to the newcomers.
It was at this moment that Gin saw two newcomer girls around his height at the back who didn't run and stayed behind. One had strangely beautiful crystal-white hair, while the other had a dirty silver, ashy one. Another striking feature was their eyes. You do not often see someone with differently colored eyes, let alone two at the same time. Feeling as if something was calling him, he decided to come forward and started walking to their end of the room.
"Hey! My name is Gin. What are your names?"
"Alfia."
Her silky hair seemed to slightly dance in the air when she said that in a firm tone. Her small and delicate hand approached his, which resulted in a relatively firm handshake. It was apparent that she tried to look more formidable than she really was.
"Mete- *cough* Meteria," said the other one while waving her hand with a polite smile. However, it was obvious that she was not feeling well.
'Seriously?' Gin thought in his heart. 'I knew that it was some time before the OEBD because Mother Maria knows about Zeus and Hera's familias, but meeting these two in this orphanage?!
And how—'
"Is something wrong?"
However, Gin's rambling thoughts were interrupted by Alfia's abrupt question.
"No, everything is alright. I just thought of something," Gin answered before thinking about something else. "Your friend seems rather unwell. Is she sick?"
"It is nothing major. And she is my younger sister, not my friend."
The last sentence was said with such a tone as if Gin somehow offended her. But, at least now, he was 100% sure that she was the one who would later become a level 7 powerhouse, who would be able to challenge the strongest adventurers in this whole city.
'The inborn charisma - you just can't fake it.'
"Well, nice to meet you then," he said while keeping a weak smile. "If you would need anything you can ask Mother Maria - she is a very kind person. See you later, Meteria, Alfia."
"See you later."
"Bye, Gin!"
***
While Gin was still sitting by the window, he heard someone approaching him from behind.
'It's her, again,' he thought, after identifying the sounds of footsteps while closing his eyes and already knowing what the talk would be about.
"Gin…" was the only thing Alfia said to him with a complicated expression on her face.
"Is Meteria's condition getting worse?"
Meteria - an absolutely massive problem to solve for Gin ever since he met her. Although they were reluctant to admit it at first, he later learned that both Alfia and Meteria had some disease that made it hard for them to breathe and brought pain if they would do any kind of physical work for an extended period of time. Even running around would wear them out. In addition to that, Meteria clearly was affected by this much more than Alfia, who also had her own complications - like her hearing issue, where all the sounds would be severely amplified, which constantly irritated her.
It was unknown to him what kind of disease they had since he was not a doctor in his previous life, but he knew that in canon, they have persevered with Falna for at least the next 10 years - plenty of time to find a cure.
"Mm-hmmm… Did Lady Penia again not agree to give us Falna?" she quietly asked, hoping for a different answer from the one before.
"Yes. She said she won't open the door if I would come to her again about getting Falna. ...It seems like we have no choice but to try to go to other gods. Remember the Lady Demeter I talked about?"
"Do you think she would agree to give Meteria a Falna?"
"Most likely, however, she lives quite far away from here. Besides, it is unlikely other gods would accept broke and sick kids into their ranks," Gin said while still thinking if there were any better choices other than that.
Hera was already discarded long ago since he knew that the only way Alfia could have joined her would be some kind of chance encounter. Especially considering Hera's arrogant nature clash with prideful Alfia, this scenario was already regarded as impossible with his current involvement in canon.
Essentially, there were two problems: finding a familia to start making money by becoming an adventurer and finding a god or goddess willing to give falna to Meteria to help her condition, which was worsening daily.
Ideally, a familia would also lend money to immediately help both Alfia and Meteria since it is always better to start treatment earlier rather than later. If one would wait until you finally collect enough money to walk into the Dian Cecht Hospital, it could be the case that the disease has already progressed to a degree where it can't be treated, or it would take much more effort.
Zeus was also out of the question since they were currently at their peak and were more interested in being "heroes" rather than helping some burdensome stray kids on the street. Besides, he was stated to have the lowest level at his familia as 4 or something like that.
Loki could be the case since, from what Gin knew, she was one of the goddesses that genuinely cared about their children, but she wasn't Loki from the future. Her familia was still growing at this stage, with Finn still being a level 3 or even 2. There just wasn't any money to spare there, and she wasn't known to deal with strays like them. Another issue was Finn and trying to take away the captain seat from him if things were to work out there.
Ishtar… Whenever Gin would think about her, something in his soul would try to call him and join them, as if he would find something there that he was looking for, but he knew that this strange feeling was most likely nothing more than his adult mind trying to trick him into becoming the next Tammuz. This was even more likely, considering that his appearance highly resembled that of baby Ichimaru Gin from Bleach. The only thing missing was the Matsumoto Rangiku beside him *cough* *cough*.
Freya was the most likely one to fulfill the ideal scenario since she was one of the goddesses who was taking strays from the street if she liked their souls. This, along with the fact that she was one of the most eccentric goddesses and had a pretty strong familia even before the OEBD, would mean that she would definitely have enough money for whatever treatment would be needed.
And it is not like the treatment would have to be a total charity. Although Gin didn't know how much of a talent he had, he knew that Alfia herself definitely would be able to repay whatever medical costs would amou—
[Ding! Congratulations, host! The Bleach System has completed the initial setup and is now fully available to the user.]
'Sure enough, I've got a system. As a future strongest adventurer in the world, how can I not have a system?'
"Hahaha! Yessss!" Gin started laughing and grinning like a madman and almost fell off the chair, while Alfia was pondering if he had a mental disease of his own that he didn't tell them about…
'System!' he said in his heart, only to see a transparent window with a blue outline right in front of his eyes:
[Congratulations to the host for obtaining the brand new System. A beginner gift pack is available to the host.
Beginner gift pack: Random Bleach Character Template
]
'System, can I talk to you?'
[You are able to do so, host, but the System only supports basic functions and would not be able to accomplish anything significant outside the intended scope. System only supports two functions: "Status" and "Hidden tasks." Please use those functions in the future.]
'I see.. then… Status!'
[Name: Gin
Age: 7
Race: Human
Mind power: 5/5
Level: 0
Strength: I 0
Defense: I 0
Dexterity: I 0
Agility: I 0
Magic: I 0
Magic:
Skills:
]
No magic and skills at all? This starts to look interesting….
While looking at his Status panel, Gin became quite surprised because he expected at least some skills or magic to show up. He knew that in the world of DanMachi, magic is usually only available to higher-level adventurers, and usually, no one has it on level 1, while skills are inherent abilities that can be discovered by those that have just received a falna, as well as at any other point of time. In this case, it should be correct that one doesn't have any at the current stage.
'System, can I get a beginner gift pack, please?'
After saying these words, Gin started seeing many Bleach characters appearing in rapid succession; however, the speed of their change started rapidly decreasing at some point.
Aizen, no… Zaraki, no… Maybe Ichigo? Damn, not Tousen… Wait, was that Tier Harribel and Coyote Starrk?! God, so many good ones have been missed… Wait!
[Ding! Congratulations, host. You have obtained the Unohana Retsu character template.]
Tears of happiness immediately started running on his cheeks at the same moment when his mind got filled with seemingly simple information - the basics of kendo. The other thing that he immediately understood was that by practicing his own swordsmanship, he could reach higher levels by himself. However, he was still in the world of DanMachi, so his experience with swordsmanship would only matter if he had enough stats on his Falna.
Besides, although he still knew very little regarding how exactly character templates worked, he still knew that Unohana was the captain of the Medical Division. If all her abilities were learned by him, he would be able to become a great healer, not cannon fodder. Perhaps, even joining Dian Cecht Familia and *cough* taking care of Amid *cough* would be an option.
At the exact moment, as the sound came, a somewhat long, nonstraight sword with a red handle and a very delicate oval sword guard appeared in his hands. The sword immediately felt like a natural extension of his body.
'...System' was everything Gin said in his heart while looking at the seemingly regular Zanpakuto in his hands.
'Do I still use Reiatsu for all my spells?' he asked because this was one of the most important things when one tries to transfer an existing energy system to another world.
[System has optimized the usage of all spells to require mind and act similarly to magic in this world. Therefore, the host should be careful to not get affected by a mind down. The host should be able to get Falna, and all the abilities of the host would be synchronized with it.]
'Thanks, system.'
With those thoughts in mind, Gin called 'Status' in his heart, after which he immediately saw a transparent information table in front of him.
[Name: Gin
Age: 7
Race: Human
Mind: 5/5
Strength: I 0
Defense: I 0
Dexterity: I 0
Agility: I 0
Magic: I 0
Magic:
Skills:
Unity with Sword Spirits
[Provides the ability for a user to summon and use Zanpakuto (Soul Cutting Sword) in the real world. In addition, the spirits of the swords being summoned can assist the user by providing the user with new abilities.]
]
'System, how do I unlock other abilities of the character other than basic Zanpakuto?'
[Other character abilities such as Kido, Shunpo, individual Shikai, Bankai, and others could only be obtained as rewards for the Hidden Tasks. Please explore those on your own, host.]
"Hey! Hey! I am talking to you, bastard!" someone yelled to him in the background while waving their small hands in front of his face.
Gin suddenly remembered that he was actually talking to Alfia about going to Demeter for Falna, but now he knew that his plans could change a little.
"And what is with this sword that appeared in your hands? Is this your skill?" she asked while carefully trying to touch the blade's tip with her index finger.
"Yes. With this skill, we can get the attention of a certain goddess that can help us."
"Can you teach me, too? I mean, how to summon the sword. I am sure we will get into good familia with this," she said - her voice full of newfound hope.
"...I can't. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to."
"I see… Still, I hope you are not lying to me," she said, with a suspicious gaze, to which Gin only rolled his eyes.
"We are going for a walk tomorrow morning. Worst case, Meteria would get Lady Demeter's Falna. Best case, we all get into the same familia that will pay for the treatment."
"Really?!" she asked, somewhat excited, "But what god or goddess would let us in and even help?"
"There is one goddess who doesn't mind picking up strays from the street who show great potential," Gin answered while unsummoning the Minazuki.
'It feels so natural to use this blade,' he thought.
'But, again, Freya seems like the best choice.'
In Gin's understanding, it seemed like it still was the best choice to join a Freya Familia - Folkvangr would bring an opportunity for talent to show itself, while the Zanpakuto in his hand would bring him extra negotiation capital when joining. Also, doesn't the Zanpakuto contain part of the soul of the wielder - something like that would definitely arouse her attention. Finally, doesn't she like "new and unknown"? He can show plenty of that.
In addition, it would be a good balance between a suitable growth environment and a place where you won't necessarily be snatched upon your first few level-ups. From what he remembered, Freya even lost some of her elites to Hera before they went to complete 3 Great Quests in the War Game, so there should definitely be at least a few level 6s to protect him.
Also, once he joined, he probably would accomplish some "Hidden tasks" like getting level 1 and joining a familia - those could also make him more marketable. However, that would be only after the decision to join the familia had been made.
Although it was still possible for everyone to join Demeter Familia, she never seemed like a goddess who would have a lot of extra money to spend. It would be quite hard to grow there because of all the farming one has to engage in. Even if farming were unnecessary, it still would leave a bad taste to ask her to pay for the medical treatment.
On the other hand, Freya would definitely have enough money and would not hesitate to pay for the treatment up front. Therefore, whatever negative consequences of this decision could be, in the long term, all of them pale in comparison with an opportunity to get medical treatment as soon as possible and for everyone to join the same familia.
Besides, if things would work out in Gin's favor, perhaps, he would even become the next captain of her familia in the next 10 - 15 years.
"What is the name of that goddess, Gin?"
"Freya."
—
Author's Note:
Well, this is it for the first chapter. I want to ask your opinions on the plot so far,
Whether you like the choice of familia (it literally makes sense for MC to choose Freya, like bruh fr).
Whether the character is logical/no plot armor.
Another thing I wanted to ask would be what character from Bleach MC would be getting powers from and when. So far, I've chosen it so that on every level starting from level 2 (he already got one so far, and it should be enough for the first level), he would be getting a new character template that would basically give him bare-bones Zanpakuto/Bow/Something else for Hollows/Fullbringer powers.
That character would be upgraded throughout the following 2 levels until the Bankai stage.
For example, if one gets, for instance, the Byakuya Kuchiki template on level 3, then:
On level 3: bare Zanpakuto.
Somewhere around 3.5: Byakuya Shikai.
Upon reaching level 5: Byakuya Bankai.
So it basically would be x, x+0.5, x+2. Then, perhaps, Beyond Bankai could be added later if the plot would require it.
As for characters that I plan on using:
Tenjiro Kirinji
Inoue Orihime
Unohana Retsu
The total should be something like 8 characters by the end of the story.
Also, I am interested in hearing what Bleach characters should be used - in this case, only their primary abilities would be taken.
For example, I thought about using Lille Barro, and his character template would basically give MC his weapon and later get his OP powers.
As for how the System would interact with Falna, it would be because of (Hashirama Cells) Spirits.
As for magic, I would keep the 3 magic slots rule by inserting all Hado, Bakudo, and Kido into them. They all have some chanting, so I guess they should be similar in a way? Especially since the "chant" start the same (Hado #2, Bakudo #81, etc.). Therefore, it seems Hollow/Fullbringer/Quincy magic would have to go to Skills. Or perhaps, even removing Kido altogether, leaving only powers specific to a particular individual's template, i.e., Zanpakuto.
As for the story's timing, it starts around 24 years before Bell comes to Orario.
Also, comment here if you would like me to make any OC familias. I thought about Skadi Familia (violent berserker familia), Eir Familia (healing familia), or for example, Nyx Familia (not sure, up for debate).
As for other things, I would also make MC hide his skills/be lowkey. Adventurers already have so few skills to hide, so it would be MC's most considerable help throughout the story.
Well, that is about it. I wish you guys good luck so that you can help me to finish this fic.
