Content warnings: Suicide, attempted suicide, major character death, gore, mild body horror, unwilling transformation, loss of autonomy
I have to say, this is going to be pretty dark. It shouldn't be quite this dark in later chapters. But just be warned, throughout reading this fic.
Unassuming Karakura Town has the dubious honor of being ground zero.
What happened? Half the day was like any other. The other half, a nightmare from the pits of hell.
It all starts with a fire truck going by, sirens roaring. Two more emergency vehicles follow ten minutes later. The sound of breaking glass comes from the distance, followed by gunshots.
"What's going on?" Karin says, trying to peek out a window. "A riot?"
Their dad cheerfully tells them not to worry and also not to leave the house. None of the local TV stations are broadcasting, so he heads out himself to check.
He comes back with a young man mauled by bites like a wild animal's and on the verge of succumbing to shock from blood loss. Hauling him to the nearest bed, he starts binding his wounds, grim-faced and without a word. He doesn't tell any of them what he saw outside.
"Call up the hospital," he says to Ichigo midway. "He needs a blood transfusion."
The phone rings strangely long before someone answers. "Kurosaki!" the voice snaps before Ichigo can get a word out. "Don't go outside! Don't open the door for anyone!"
"Th—this is the hospital, right?" Ichigo says. "We've got a badly injured man—"
"Why are you treating them?" cries the voice. "Throw him back outside! Do not treat any of them!"
"What the hell are you saying?"
"If they're bitten, they're beyond help! Quick, before it's too late! Lock and bar the doors, with that man outside!"
"You're crazy," Ichigo says. "Are you listening to yourself?"
"Your father knows I'm not crazy. Go, tell him now. Tell him the message is from Ishida Ryuuken."
The phone clicks. Ichigo's left standing there feeling like the floor's been pulled out from under him. He turns back into the hallway to the room where they'd left the patient, only for his father to stagger out cursing and slam the door behind him.
He's cradling his wrist in his hands. Blood flows from a bite wound made with blunt human teeth. The sight chills Ichigo to the core.
"Do you know who Ishida is?" Ichigo says.
"Manager of Karakura General Hospital. He picked up the phone himself? Must be bad."
Ichigo wets his lips. "You gotta get that disinfected."
They both jump as a thump comes from the closed door behind Isshin. The knob rattles but doesn't turn. Someone inside screams incoherently and slams against the door again.
"He shouldn't be alive," Isshin says. He shakes his head. "Get the medical kit from the bathroom."
Ichigo runs for it. A white-faced Yuzu trails him back to the clinic's front lobby, where Isshin is pacing and looking out from the glass doors. A fire alarm shrieks somewhere. A car's horn honks. A plume of smoke snakes from the top of a distant building.
"Lock the doors," Ichigo blurts out. Isshin gives him a curious look.
"It's what Ishida-san said. He also said—" He breaks off at another thump against the patient's door. He barely forces out the rest of the sentence. "He said the ones who were bitten were beyond help."
Isshin's silent for a while. "Give me that kit," he says.
Ichigo passes the canvas bag over to him. He sets it down on the tiled floor, riffling one-handedly through its contents.
"Dad, you're hurt," Yuzu says. She sounds on the verge of tears.
Isshin has a strange smile on his face. "Don't worry about daddy."
"What's happening?" she says. "I don't understand." She presses her face against Ichigo's side, fingers clutching his shirt. He can feel her shaking against him.
Isshin's found a syringe and a vial of clear fluid. He fills the syringe, watches the liquid inside slosh, then looks up at them with the same strange smile. "I love you. Tell Karin I love her."
He plunges the syringe into his arm.
"Wait," Ichigo says. "What are you doing?"
He pushes Yuzu away and stumbles a step forward. "What are you doing?!"
He knocks the syringe out of Isshin's hands. Less than an quarter of the liquid is left. He rummages through the bag until he finds the vial. The label reads morphine.
"No. No!" He grabs Isshin by the shoulders. The man's eyes are closed, his breathing too shallow. He slumps over in Ichigo's arms.
"Dad!" Yuzu wails.
Ichigo hears feet patter in the house and Karin comes running down the hallway. "What? What's happening?"
The scene before her stops her in her tracks. Ichigo holding his father, staring at her unfocusedly. Yuzu on her knees, hand covering her mouth and tears streaming from her eyes.
The door to the patient's room down the hall explodes into matchsticks. What's standing there is no longer human. A white mask with grinning skull teeth covers its face, two red pinpoints glaring out from the eyeholes. Spikes of bone jut from its body, still covered with the tattered remains of clothes. Through the center of its chest is a hole Ichigo can see clean through. It takes an uneven step down the hall.
Yuzu screams. Ichigo sets his father's body on the floor and gets up slowly. He can't think. He just feels numb.
"Yuzu, Karin," he says. "Run."
"Ichigo," Karin says. "What's that look in your eyes? No way, Ichigo, you have to come too!"
"Just run, now!"
The monster lunges in the blink of an eye. Ichigo barely turns fast enough to see it behind him before one claw lands a crushing blow to the center of his chest. He's thrown back until he slams into the far wall and slumps to the floor, his breath like acid in his lungs, warm blood slicking the floor beneath him as he tries to get up.
Yuzu screams.
"No!" Karin wails. "No, let go of her!"
This has to be a nightmare. Ichigo's hand falls on the leg of a small wooden stand nearby. He forces himself up.
The monster sinks its teeth into Yuzu's shoulder. Blood is streaming down her back as she struggles helplessly. Karin's crawling along the floor to her, blood smeared across her face from a cut on her forehead.
Ichigo charges, swinging the piece of furniture, and smashes it into the monster's face.
It wails, staggering back and letting go of Yuzu, who collapses back onto the floor. One flailing claw knocks into the stand and shatters it into kindling. Ichigo picks up one of the longer pieces, sturdy and splintered to a sharp end. The monster's howling and clutching at its mask, which Ichigo's put a shallow crack through.
While it's distracted, Ichigo lunges at it with a hoarse cry and jabs the stick into its gut. He yanks it out, a jet of blood splashing across his clothes and face. He stabs it in again.
The monster's claws rip deep into his arm and it falls limp at his side. He can see blood flowing across his skin, dripping from his fingers, but he doesn't feel any pain. He swaps the stick to his other hand and goes for the throat. He can see the monster lunging for him, its mouth gaping with sharp teeth bared, then it drops to the floor twitching as Ichigo stumbles over his feet to get back, leaving the bloodstained stake skewered through its neck.
He whirls around. Karin has gotten the medical kit and is bandaging Yuzu's shoulder with shaky fingers. Yuzu looks pale but conscious, leaning against her.
Karin looks up. "Oh god, Ichigo!"
Ichigo looks down at himself. His shirt is torn and soaked in blood from deep gashes in his ribs and right arm. He's dizzy, he realizes. He slumps to the ground as Karin runs to him.
"I'm fine," he grumbles, as Karin starts winding bandages around his arm. "Is Yuzu okay?"
Karin glances back at Yuzu and nods automatically. "What's going on, Ichigo?" she says in a shaking voice. "What was that monster?"
"I don't know," Ichigo says. He pushes her away and gets unsteadily to his feet. His eyes wander out the window. A car's crashed down the street, smoke pouring from under its hood. Shambling up the sidewalk, arms dragging along the ground, is another one of the masked monsters.
"Run!" Ichigo chokes out. He shoves Karin in the direction of the stairs and runs across the floor to pick up Yuzu. As they're halfway up the stairs, the glass door shatters behind them.
Ichigo sets Yuzu on her feet at the top of the stairs, looking frantically around the hallway. Where can he find a weapon?
"Hide somewhere," he says to Yuzu and Karin, and shoves them down the hall.
"You too," Karin says, but she takes Yuzu's uninjured arm and starts running while half-supporting her sister.
Ichigo turns to look back down the stairs, one hand on the banister. He can feel the tremors throughout the house as the monster smashes its way through the bottom floor rooms. What can he do? He's never felt so helpless. Pain throbs in his arm and chest. His ribs stab him every time he tries to breathe. He's barely staying on his feet, weariness dragging at his limbs.
If he gave himself up to that thing, would it leave his family alone?
No, he can't think like that. He has to kill it. He has to save Yuzu and Karin.
The bathroom. He'll shatter the mirror and use a shard as a blade. He takes a step down the hall and nearly collapses, grabbing at the wall for support.
Then he hears Karin scream.
"No," he gasps, clawing his way to his feet. He drags himself along the wall to the room Yuzu and Karin are in. His hand reaches out and closes weakly around the doorknob.
The door flies open. A hand grabs Ichigo around the neck. He holds up an arm to shield himself and teeth sink into his forearm.
Reflexively, he lashes out at his attacker and Karin's head snaps back as his fist slams into her cheek. She staggers back and collapses on the floor in a heap.
"No!" Ichigo says, rushing forward. Karin has several messy wounds over her arms and one ankle, marks of blunt teeth and fingernails. Ichigo doesn't reach her before another small body slams into him. Yuzu's arms clutch around him, nails breaking skin, and her teeth sink into his shoulder.
He grabs her by the neck, trying to yank her off. Her eyes are dull, no recognition in them. She bares teeth at him, stained red by blood.
"Yuzu! Dammit, dammit!" His knee jabs into her gut. Her grip on him loosens for a moment and he throws her off him and onto the floor. Her head bangs on the floorboards and her eyes slowly slide shut.
"No," Ichigo chokes out, backing away. He stares uncomprehendingly at the bite marks across his arm, oozing blood. He turns and runs.
The door of his room slams shut behind him. He turns the lock, then tries to drag a shelf in front of it. He barely gets it a few feet along the floor before collapsing.
Dragging himself over to his desk, he grabs its edge to haul himself up and picks up the cell phone left on it. He collapses on his bed, curling up against the wall. It takes him several seconds of staring blankly at the phone before his panicked mind can recall the general hospital's number. His fingers are almost shaking too badly to dial it.
"Is this Ryuuken-san?" he whispers into the phone.
The same voice as before is on the other end. "Kurosaki Ichigo? What happened?"
"How long do I have?" Ichigo says.
For what seems like a long time, the phone is silent. Finally, Ryuuken says, "That depends on where the bite was, how close to major blood vessels. Ten to fifteen minutes is what I've seen."
"I'm going to turn into one of those things?" He can't quite keep his voice from wavering.
"I'm sorry," Ryuuken says. "Death is kinder."
"What are those monsters?"
"We call them hollows. I don't know where the infection came from. I don't know how it could have spread like this."
"You gotta find a cure," Ichigo says. His thoughts are muddled. He doesn't really know what he's saying. "You gotta save my sisters. Please. At least them."
"Your sisters were bitten?" Ryuuken says. Ichigo's silence is his answer.
"What happened to your father?"
"He's dead," Ichigo whispers. "I'm sorry, Ryuuken-san. I guess I'm out of time."
The phone tumbles from his fingers. On the other end, he hears a fist slam on something and a curse. He grabs his windowsill and drags himself up, pressing his forehead against the cool pane. Weariness drags at his eyelids.
He raises a hand and smashes a fist into the window. The glass shatters, tinkling on the ground far below. He yanks a large shard out of the frame, not feeling it even when the edges slice into his palm and fingers.
He stares at the point of the glass as it glints in the weak afternoon light, long like a crooked dagger and as sharp. In a single swift movement, he plunges it into his throat.
He yanks it out again, barely able to grab onto its edges with the blood slicking it, and stares at his fingers dripping with scarlet. The blade falls to the bed. He clutches at his neck with shaking fingers, unable to stem the blood gushing over his fingers in time with his pulse. Darkness gathers at the edges of his vision as he collapses on his bed.
Hurts. Everything hurts. His chest…
It feels like something inside him has been gouged out…
Pain… his chest, his head…
Is he dead? It can't hurt this much if he's dead, can it?
His eyes crack open. He's staring at the wall of his room. He's lying in an uncomfortable heap on his bed, the covers soaked in blood. His clothes are too.
He props himself up on his arms and his eyes fall on the bloody shard of glass near his hand. He freezes. His blood. He stares at the bed. All his blood.
He's supposed to be dead. Why isn't he dead?
He stares down at his hand. Still human. His shaking fingers reach up to his face and touch the smooth surface of a mask around his left eye.
He screams. His fingers pry at it, digging into its edges until he screams again at the pain stabbing through his core. He shoves himself off the bed and staggers to his feet, legs unsteady beneath him, somehow managing to fumble his way through his door's lock and make it to the bathroom.
He slumps against the sink counter. His eyes are fixed on his reflection in the mirror.
A ragged fragment of a mask surrounds his left eye, white with diagonal slashes of red. And his eyes, what's wrong with his eyes? Black and a haunting yellow stare back at him, like a predator's, like a night creature's.
Those eyes aren't human. He's not human.
Why is he still sane?
He wipes the blood from his neck the best he can and fingers the thin scar that's all that's left of a fatal wound. The cuts on his arms and chest have healed without a trace.
What happened to him? What is he?
He drags himself away from the counter and puts a hand on the doorknob. The door flies open, swinging edge knocking into him and sending him staggering back. A white blur throws itself upon him, hooking on with talons sinking into his shoulders.
Karin's lifeless eyes stare at him, a mask taking over half her face. Her small body is a ruin of spikes and bone plates jutting out of her skin, covered with half-dried blood. He barely recognizes her.
"Karin," he whispers hoarsely. "Karin, can't you hear me? Say something."
His little sister can't be gone forever, can she? She's right in front of him.
Karin howls in glee and sinks elongated teeth into his shoulder. Some unknown force drives Ichigo's limbs. He tears her grip from him, grabs her by the arm and twists, and slams her to the floor.
He backs away, gasping. Blood's trickling from his shoulder down his back, but the wound had almost immediately started healing. He blinks at his hand. Blood stains his fingers, tipped with heavy black claws. Karin picks herself up like a broken puppet, one arm dangling at her side, skin rent from the marks of those same claws.
No. How could he hurt his sisters? Karin rushes forward and Ichigo steps back until his back hits the wall and then Karin tackles him, claws carving through his skin, bloodstained teeth bared.
Ichigo closes his eyes. This is fine. Isn't this his penance for failing to protect his sisters? Maybe his life can be enough payment.
"I'm sorry," he whispers. Karin's claws tear across his chest, shattering ribs and spraying blood across the walls and floor. Ichigo's knocked to the ground. The tiled floor is slick with his blood. Karin shrieks with glee and pounces.
'Get up.'
Some voice that's not his, ringing like a command in his mind.
'You idiot. You're not gonna die here.'
He watches his hand move, grab Karin by the throat and shove her back as he gets to his feet, bracing against the wall for support. His body's a puppet under someone else's command. His hand tightens on Karin's throat, forcing her head back. A pulse rushes under his fingers, strong and quickened by panic.
A flick of his hand, his claws tear her throat open, and she crumples to the floor, mouth agape in silent shock.
Ichigo stares at his sister, her eyes fixed unseeingly on the ceiling, the blood spilling from her arteries across the floor so bright red it's almost unreal. He turns away and heaves up the contents of his stomach into the toilet.
'You're weak,' the voice in his head tells him. 'You're so unbearably weak. Just give your body over to me already. You'll never feel pain again.'
Who are you, Ichigo wonders, but he doesn't want to know.
He looks over to Karin. Her mask and the bone armor over her body have faded away, leaving her small battered figure lying like a discarded doll in a pool of cooling blood. Ichigo reaches over with shaking hands and slides her eyelids shut. Her body feels too light as he scoops it up, her head and arms dangling limply.
He steps out the door and a whirlwind of claws sets upon him and once again, some instinct drives his movements. His hand slams into the figure's chest and sends it tumbling down the stairs. He walks back, sets Karin gently down, and turns around to see the creature claw its way upstairs.
A growl rattles behind its mask. A crown of horns encircles its head, smooth white armor covering its body and a unnatural hole through the center of its chest. It has bone-thin arms and elongated spiked fingers tipped with claws. Only the blonde hair matted about its head and the tatters of clothes it wears tell him who it used to be.
"Yuzu," Ichigo gasps. She cocks her head at him and then she's a white blur through the air. Claws sink into Ichigo's arm. He lashes out with one hand and hears bone snap, Yuzu's screech of pain. Stop, stop, he's screaming at himself in his mind but he can't do anything, he's nothing but an observer in his own body.
Yuzu tries to pull back with Ichigo's hand still clamped around her broken arm. She rams her head against his body, horns goring deep gouges through his chest. He closes his eyes, feeling the pain ebb away as the wound regenerates.
The heel of his palm lashes out and smashes into one side of her mask, shattering it and throwing Yuzu's head back. Ichigo loses his grip on her arm as she collapses on the floorboards. Her eyes are closed, her breathing shallow. Her hair is matted to her brow with sweat, skin pallid beneath the dried blood streaking it.
"Yuzu," Ichigo croaks, sinking to his knees next to her. "Yuzu, please. Look at me."
Her eyes creep open. They fix blindly on Ichigo. Her head lolls on her neck as she claws her way upright, her mask slowly regrowing across her face.
Ichigo lifts a clawed hand, reaching for her helplessly. She throws herself on Ichigo, seizing him by his shoulders and arms and pinning him in place.
Ichigo stays down. His arm find her back and wrap around her in an embrace. Yuzu's teeth sink into his neck.
"I'm sorry, Yuzu," he says. His hand grabs the back of her neck and wrenches her teeth away from him. Black spots dance in front of his eyes as a sudden rush of dizziness hits him. That'll be the blood loss. Hr's more surprised at how quickly he recovers.
His thumb grazes along her neck and presses against her carotid artery. He slices it open with a claw, blood spraying into the air and his face. Yuzu howls and her arm reaches for him. He stabs his claws deeper, until he feels the strength in that tiny body drain away and she falls limp to the floor in a sea of blood, hers and his own.
Her mask shatters and the armor encasing her body slowly fades away. "Yuzu," Ichigo says, a convulsive gasp that tears at his throat.
He lifts her in his arms, his head pressing against her shoulder. No heartbeat or breath, just a lingering warmth quickly fleeing her body.
He raises his head and screams.
He stumbles through the door of his bedroom. His wounds are all healed now, but his shirt hangs in tatters and his clothes are too dyed in blood to tell their original color. Walking over to his bed, he picks up his cell phone and perches on a corner not stained by blood. It looks like a murder took place here. That's right, he killed himself here. He can't stop feeling like it worked and this is his punishment.
He flips the phone open and dials up the hospital again. It's a good thing he only needs to press redial this time, because he can hardly work the phone buttons with clawed hands.
"Ryuuken-san," he says as it picks up. "Where are you?"
Silence from the other end for a moment. "Kurosaki!" the man nearly shouts into the phone. "How?"
Ichigo hacks a laugh. "I don't know. You at the hospital? How are things there?"
"A nightmare," Ryuuken says. "I'm trapped in my office. Been contemplating putting a bullet through my brain."
"Don't!" Ichigo smashes the rest of his window, knocks out the shards of glass in the bottom frame, and climbs onto the windowsill. "How much longer can you hold out? I'm coming for you."
Ryuuken laughs tiredly. "You're coming?"
"Tatsuki, you there? Good."
"Ichigo! Wow, things must be bad if you're calling. I'm guessing you've seen the news?"
"Seen? Sure. Not on the news."
"..It's true?"
"Stay where you are. Lock all the doors and windows and lie low. Don't let anyone in."
"Ichigo… are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
"Don't lie to me."
"Worry about yourself, Tatsuki."
"Ichigo, please, tell me what's going on! You can't just act like this. You know I'm your friend, so why can't you tell me?"
"...Stay safe, Tatsuki."
When Kurosaki Ichigo called him, he was succumbing to hollowfication, right? Who could fake that kind of fear and desperation in their voice?
No one he's seen the hollowfication serum used on ever survived. No one's ever resisted for more than about half an hour. Even that was an exceptional case.
If Ichigo had been bitten, he couldn't be the one Ryuuken's speaking to on the phone right now. Just who—what—is he guiding toward his office? His gun is trained on the barricaded oak doors. He supposes he'll find his answer when those doors open, one way or another.
Why would Ichigo come for him? He must know. He's Masaki's son, after all.
For his role in bringing about this disaster now unfolding, Ryuuken too must pay.
Thank you for reading! Please, drop me a line about what you think!