A/n: Other stories are pending, I know, but this idea would not leave me alone. I am just trying it out for now ;)

)&.)#.!%

Chapter 1 : Remind me next time to not to skip back sixteen years in time while sleeping

Ichigo woke up feeling disoriented and utterly tired, as if he had been crushed under a ton of bricks and, wait – was that debris under his back?

"Mommy, is this nii-chan alive?" came a high-pitched voice.

"I don't know, Ruko! Don't touch, it might be a bomb!" Ruko's mother, probably, warned.

The girl poked his eye – and Ichigo wanted to cry out in pain – then the odd pair walked away, Ichigo felt himself thinking, the wheels of his mind whirring painfully. He just wanted to say something to dispel the queasiness in his stomach. His limbs felt heavy and it ached all over,

I'm not a bomb, where is this place, what am I doing here, and why the fuck am I on the road?

But he said nothing and curled to his side, drifting off to sleep like the homeless street urchin he felt. Because having no energy really sucked.

The next time he woke up, Ichigo felt a lot better but he was still unable to open his eyes.

"Oi lad, get up!"

Great. This time it's a policeman. How bad could today go?

He then felt a recognizable kick to his side. Swiftly moving his hand to the foot approaching a second time, he caught it mid-air.

"Oi goat-chin, stop bothering me first thing in the morning." Ichigo gave a yawn, now sure that it was his bed he was laying on, and it was his uselessly-free-totally-having-no-job-to-do-in-the-morning father trying to wake him up. He still wasn't sure why it felt like it was of coal tar, though, but if it was Karin trying on her Super Spike Slippers on his bed yesterday that he recalled, then it was understandable.

His father's voice loud laugh resounded in his ears. "Kids these days, they drink too much."

"What happened, dear?"

Another sweet voice called out, hearing which, Ichigo's eyes snapped open immediately, pain or no pain, road-style bed or not, because surely her voice was a dream. Was that really-?

Ichigo commanded his body to just get up, because there was no way it could be her; the voice never sounded so real in his any of his previous dreams. As he stood, a strange sight met his eyes. There stood a woman, who, on close inspection, could be seen as the younger image of the big poster that adorned the walls of the Kurosaki household.

Ichigo almost fainted again.

A/n: Review please! Leave a comment about Karin's SSS if you liked them! :)