An: This is a continuation of the fan fic "Familiar Faces" by Darico, if you want to read this fan fic, you might want to read Darico's fic in order to understand this one. For those of you who have read Familiar Faces, this prologue takes place during the fire that apparently ended Ichigo's life on earth and began his mysterious disappearance. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, or the orginal fan fic "Familiar Faces". Those are owned by Tite Kubo and Darico respecitively. This was written for entertainment only.
Familiar Faces: Regression
Prologue
Kurosaki Ichigo traveled in the space between life and the afterlife. He was a man of twenty six, dressed in black robes with billowing pant legs. His bright orange hair was trimmed in drooping spikes that emphasized his angular face and sharp battle honed eyes.
He had long since mastered the double life of a Shinigami for eleven years, ever since he was fifteen and received the powers of an injured Shinigami who was trying to save his family.
As Ichigo kept running in the path between life and death he felt something tumble out of a pocket of his kimono top. It was his cell phone, but his fingers were quick and deft enough to catch it in midair.
On the cell phone was a custom made charm carefully crafted by Ichigo's sister Yuzu, a small version of Ichigo she had carved out of sculpting clay once after she had a dream of him in a black kimono fighting monsters in a black and white world. Ichigo had to laugh off the idea, and ignored his other sister Karin's accusatory glance when he reassured Yuzu that what she had was just a dream. Later that week Yuzu made the charm "for luck."
He was going to miss living a human life; the day to day job as a police officer, regularly seeing Chad, Inoue, Ishida, Tatsuki, Mizhiro, and even Keigo; from his rambunctious father, to his independent-football-star-sister Karin, or his nurturing-premed-student-sister Yuzu.
Now at twenty-six, his human life ended in a strange murder case that wound up claiming his human body in the end.
From what Ichigo had gathered not only from the police report but from what his subordinates had unearthed as well, this was a collection of suspicious deaths that reeked of hollow
He managed to track down the malicious lost soul, called a hollow, or what he had assumed was once one, but something appeared to attract and tamper with it before the creature attacked.
Odd bruises besides the obvious giant bite marks were on all of the bodies, many of which were in the same area. Ichigo was the one to narrow down the exact location of the mutated hollow to this building, and uncovered its secret.
The hollow was hiding in the building, along with files and records as to what happened to it. Someone had done extensive research on something big, and Ichigo knew that it had to be reported before the Soul Society, before anyone acted. He wasn't as reckless as he used to be when he was a teenager, ordering a rag tag team of other teenagers in to dangerous places like the Seireitei, or Hueco Mundo. He would probably need the support of his co-captain and the rest of the ninth division.
Ichigo had found the mutated hollow in an old warehouse where he found the information and then due to some unknown call the hollow could hear, like a dog responding to a silent whistle, it took off to a nearby hospital. Ichigo was on duty as a police officer then, and was unable to switch places with a well trained Kon, as the mod soul had earned the day off.
The police would later claim the fire was a fault in the hospital's wiring, but Ichigo knew that the hollow caused it after killing one last victim, a young man about twenty five.
Now he was off to report what he found, as well as prepare to take on a permanent role as co-captain of the ninth division. He was sure his co-captain would be surprised to find that they could probably re-evolve their professional relationship back to normal captain/vice captain relations, seeing as neither man wanted the job as captain. Ichigo hated being judged because of his rank.
It was then Ichigo realized that he wasn't alone. Something was behind him and quickly approaching.
A figure dressed in a dark grey color appeared to his right and Ichigo pulled Zangetsu, his large cleaver shaped sword and caught the woman's attack with what appeared to look like a katana.
The figure leapt back after the element of surprised was gone and the katana shifted shape in to a dagger.
Ichigo found this weapon change as odd, and some what worrying, for it meant there was an unpredictable element in his opponent. Her reach would appear to be unlimited, or it could be an illusion to lure the opponent in range. He'd have to be careful.
"You have some information I want Mr. Shinigami." The woman's voice was firm and cold.
"And you want me to give it to you? Why?" Ichigo asked.
"It's my beloved's research."
Some how this froze Ichigo's insides faster than liquid Nitrogen. So that was what the research was about. From what Ichigo remembered the end results of the research did not have pretty results, and the hollow was a result of that 'research.' His eyes hardened.
The woman saw this and grimly she raised her weapon. It changed in to a large broadsword and she charged. Her spiritual pressure began leaking out of her every movement, as if it would possess and capture him.
This must be her ability.
Ichigo used his own pressure to press the energy back and managed to catch her blow with Zangetsu before he pushed her off and swung his sword in response. He managed to give the woman a shallow scratch on the leg, but it wasn't enough to affect her, seeing as it only grazed the skin.
She swung again.
He countered and tried to use more of his energy in to repelling her attacks, and keeping her energy at bay. Slowly it was growing to be too much.
She swung and Ichigo blocked. However this was not really the place to hold a battle. His reiatsu control might have improved marginally than when he was younger, but this area was better suited for traveling, not fighting. He was running out of time.
'You need me king!' The hollow growled inside Ichigo's mind. But Ichigo just simply shoved him down.
'No, I don't' Ichigo denied.
The Hollow rebelled and he had to use more mental force than usual to get results. Unfortunately this force also prevented him from reacting in time as the woman saw an opening.
'Ichigo, focus!' Zangetsu exclaimed but it was too late. The woman leapt up and hit Ichigo over the head with her blade. Ichigo felt his hollow take over and the mask formed in time to prevent most of the damage. But Ichigo felt winded, extremely dizzy, and in a lot of pain. Something was very wrong.
He felt the Hollow take over completely and as if he was in the process of detaching himself from his body, he felt the hollow cut in to the woman's side.
She stopped the blade with her own before it did to much damage and she fled. She might have just killed her last source of information.
Ichigo stumbled, it felt as if he was shrinking. His shoulders were getting narrower, and he was getting shorter. He tried to call for help, but his voice squeaked. He forced himself to move forward, and somehow made it in to one of the outer districts of Rukongai and before he could marvel at getting so far on his own he fainted.
His body kept morphing and shaping until a dizzy six year old child sat up.
Confused and tired, but not wanting to be out in the open, the child Ichigo got up and wearing only his under shirt, walked slowly away dragging a suddenly smaller sword with him. All that was left behind in the dust was, the rest of his clothing and personal items like his cell phone.
Later he would fall asleep, hidden in a bush, he would recover from his wounds with healing that was faster the what should occur for a normal child. He would have no recollection as to what had happened to him before he woke up.
The sword he took with him would soon vanish and reappear in his mind as an old man. And a second voice would talk to him, and Ichigo would grow to call this voice "the other me."
All that was left of this ordeal, would be a scar on the top of his head, hidden by his messy hair, the only real clue that it existed was when the hair would be properly groomed, and a tiny scar peeking out of his hair line.