[X] Accept Kukaku's offer and take the Shiba name
Super tempting, but won't this make it a bit obvious who that family we keep wanting to go visit really is?
...It's not exactly a
secret, the Shiba's being super-eccentric-and-in-your-face fireworks peeps outside the city nowadays.
I'd reckon anyone that cares to know, already knows he's visiting them - where else in that general region outside Soul Society, is he going to even
find training that could get him regularly beat-up-looking? 'S process of elimination - and I wouldn't be surprised if unreleased state or not, at least
some of the interested parties watching the burgeoning strawberry-savant can detect the shiba-ness of the spirit pressure of his sword, or some other bullshit nonsense. It fits the setting and what certain kinds of badasses do in it - and Ichigo's
already got some badasses interested in him. So for the people that matter, the Shiba cat's either out of the bag, or inevitably easily let out of the bag no matter what we do.
Well, unless we get so good at Bakudo/Spirit Control that we can nope the efforts of those snooping badasses - I'm totally down for that as a goal, but I don't see that achieved quickly, so...
Since Aizen or Old Man Genocide or whoever else of import either already knows, or can casually know with extant data the Shiba angle, I'd rather try to get a jump on it. Who knows, maybe we can just sell it as 'reincarnation of a Kiba
(possibly Kaian, possibly Isshin), hence the bullshit huge spirit power and shiba-style shikai and stupid-fast learning'. There's even precedent for reincarnated Soul Reapers, what with, you know, Hitsugaya. It's definitely not a
quiet way to sell ourselves and explain things, but it
would do a fair job of diverting attention from the truth of it. Not for everyone, obviously - some parties just know way too much from the outset - but for anyone that
can be effected by what story Ichigo tells, this particular story seems effective.
Tell 'em what they're kinda expecting to hear, basically.
Shikai being similar+ Looks near exactly like one of the past members + outright taking the Shiba name will undoubtedly raise flags.
Honestly, I don't think the third point is even necessary to raise flags - those first two are pretty damn solid all on their own.
Indeed, I reckon the flags are already raised or being raised, so why not try to ride that tiger, rather than
(likely) futilely try to wrangle it?
We know reincarnation happens, and adoption into noble families happens. I imagine the excuse Kukaku will cook up will be something like
"He looks like a Shiba, and his Zanpakuto is like a Shiba's, so he's probably a Shiba that got reincarnated in the living world then died again. Might as well adopt him and make it official."
Exactly - all parties involved have very blatant reason to NOT present it as '
Hi I'm actually a Shiba, let's focus on the mortal family I had!' rather than '
Hi it looks like I was once a Shiba, I'm learning bunches about what was my old family I guess!' - and with the example of Toshiro, it shouldn't even be that hard/bullshit of a sell.
Being a Shiba would be awesome. But it means not being a Kurosaki. And that'd mean giving up a connection to Masaki. And that's just not IC.
This is a concern to be sure, but way I figure it, to Ichigo this is just 'the name/title these ghost-types know him by' - that doesn't make it who he is, it's just a mask he's donning to facilitate his goals of getting back to that very family he cherishes. You know, some 'so what if they call me Shiba, I'll always be Kurosaki in my heart' type stuff. Sounds Ichigo-like to me.
Flaunting our name? Well I'm not really wanting our sisters to get killed. *shrug* Seems a bit paranoid but the possibility exists.
By that same paranoid logic, by following the Omaeda we'll end up so in debt as a means to control us is massively slows our fasttracking attempts to get back to Karakura, or we get put in an extra objectionable part of the 2nd and have instant, violent friction and have to go rebel for moral reasons - or with the other option, we just piss off someone too stuck up their butt with too much power by being, y'know, Ichigo, and get imprisoned or labelled a criminal or blacklisted. Sure, all unlikely - but so is Ichigo/Kukaku's execution of his Shiba'ing actually coming off in a way that produces threat and risk to his family back in the mortal realm. Which is the whole point.
If you're going to be paranoid, might as well spread it around to try and keep it from unduly biasing you, yo!