Changes to Pre-Series Events for KSH
So, I switched some stuff around with two of the trans men, filled in Chad's backstory and family, developed an interesting thing between Issin and Ryuken, and filled in some neighbours of Ichigo, as well as cleaned up some loose ends about reorganising the Siba/Isida/Kurosaki houses.
1. Jugo is actually pretty grunge and also doesn’t want kids. He actually doesn't even like having hair longer than Kurt Cobain. Cobain is also the most concise way to explain his preferred style of dress. This meshes better with his attitude in canon and what I added--that he escaped his transphobic abusive family to live with Buzz and his grandparents, who were fairly accepting, and was quite happy before Bach killed them to get to Buzz and especially Jugo. They lived in rural Venezuela instead of Germany (?) but Jugo did come from Germany.
2. Ichigo wants and has a few. This allows Kazui to exist, meshes better with him and his attitudes towards children and family in canon.
3. Ichigo now potentially has a 2 y.o. with Chad at the story’s outset. This also lets me talk about “don’t abandon your goddamn children even if they aren’t doing exactly what you want them to do.” It ends up providing an interesting contrast to Ryuken and Uryu’s relationship and Ryuken’s inflexibility/Uryu not wanting to call him dad and sneaking around to use his powers. For consistency’s sake, Rukia would recognise Captain Kurosaki (canon plothole), so it’s been long planned Issin comes clean off the bat.
4. It’s probably been mentioned before that Ryuken and Masaki are siblings in this. Souken had a grandfather Keita Isida, who had a descendant in Japan born in ‘39, Kaien, who helped them flee to Japan in the height of Apartheid in the '60s. Despite being ¼ Japanese, Souken was designated Black, and “Mrs Isida” (not that they could actually marry) was white from the start and pretty racist. It’s possible to marry someone you’re racist against. I’m part Asian. Trust me. I’ve had it done to me and was born of a relationship that didn’t end in marriage between a mixed guy and a racist.
5. Ichigo and Chad are still just non-romantic best friends and will always be.
6. I came up with this because of kids I knew who ended up in medical emergencies and abusive situations after they ended up pregnant PLUS California is a rare exception but most places demand sterility to recognise your gender. So this is both an issue with parenting and an issue that needs discussion for trans people lumped in to one. The latter, Ichigo has more as an adult and is addressed on its own onscreen separate from the issue of abandoning your children because we think “controlling your children,” controlling another human being, is a good thing for some reason. I feel like the point here is it won’t always end up optimal, but your child’s life is their own and not yours. And you committed the rest of yours to caring for them and loving them no matter what when you decided to keep/adopt them. And trying to “control them” isn’t gonna do either of you much good. Sure, Uryu is valedictorian and never gets in school fights and Ichigo is a teen dad who’s always in fights, but who trusts their dad that they can talk to them?
7. The “totally not an orphanage” (they have a name like “Orphan Welfare Facility,” but they’re totally orphanages) that Chad stayed at until the siblings that ran it (missionaries from Kenya, Sister Mary and Reverend Luke Gisemba, not white supremacist assholes) just gave him a apartment near them because the bullying was so bad are actually aware of Chad’s daughter’s lineage and are totally down with Ichigo’s transness. They also create a chain going back to a priest in Mexico City to ensure Yasuko can have children's books in both her parents' languages, since she was born in '98, before buying on the Web really took off. This meshes well with what I have them do to Kamakura First International High School later on.
8. Ichigo and Chad’s daughter is Yasuko Kurosaki.
9. Chad’s original last name was Soto. It was changed because some of the bullying involved other kids locking him out because “soto” is not a name, but the word “outside” in Japanese. His parents enlisted in the US military to gain US citizenship, hence Okinawa. They were shipped off to the front lines of the Gulf War, dying in February '91. Chad stayed with his granpa and he has an Aunt Laura who lives in Yuracuero.
10. Chizuru’s out about being a lesbian and gets close to Ichigo. She actually lives close to the clinic, and met Ichigo before Kamakura Int'l High. She has an aunt from Siberia (she’s a result of the Russo-Japanese war) and the aunts meet when Yasuko is born and get along very well despite the language barrier. They’re both hard-partying gals. They may end up like-liking Kenpachi a/o Retu.
11. Another neighbour is Mrs. Satou. No relationship to Tousirou’s grandma Satou Noriko. It’s an incredibly common name. An expy of a same name character from the TV Asahi dramedy Sinigami-kun, she’s a widow at age 90 at the outset of the series. But still spends time with her husband who is a spirit, her best friend, a Vietnamese immigrant, who is also a spirit, accepts Ichigo because “we all change! I wasn’t always a wrinkled anarchist!” Likes SMAP, Dragon Ash, and Usher, and is chill with all people and forms of (after)life, as long as they’re not bigots. Probably would just think Yoruichi’s turning into a cat is neat if she finds out.
12. About Kaien. He dies in '75, and is a normal soldier in Squad 13. Miyako is the VC. He still treats Rukia like a normal human being and Miyako is a graceful and efficient VC that deserves and commands respect, so nothing is really lost there.
