At the age of eight, Kurosaki Ichigo spoke to his mother of an older woman who was sitting across from them in the park, as his family was having a picnic under a cherry tree. He felt the need to mention the elderly lady to his mother because she seemed to have a chain coming out of her chest, which shackled her to the tree she was sitting in front of.

Masaki turned around to see what lady he was talking about, and came to the realisation that Ichigo, just like his father and herself, could see ghosts.

That resulted in a slightly awkward conversation wither son, in which all previous knowledge of life and death that young Ichigo had accumulated in the short years of his life were called into question.

Ichigo now knew that some people, or well, their souls, were stranded in the Living World after they died, either because their emotions wouldn't let them go or they had some unfinished business.

Ichigo could tell there was something else they weren't telling him, but the whole situation was new to him so he couldn't be sure.

"But the old lady looks so sad, mum, maybe she doesn't want to be here anymore but she can't go? Can we do anything to help her, mum?"

Masaki couldn't help but smile at her son's kindness, so she called Isshin over from where he was pretending to be dead while Karin kicked him in the side while laughing and told her what just happened.

Isshin smiled warmly at his son and spoke to his wife "Let me handle this." Masaki nodded while smiling warmly once more at her son, who looked at his father questioningly as he took his hand and went walking slowly to where the elderly lady was chained to a tree.

"Do you mind if we sit here ma'am?" Isshin told the ghost of the old woman who looked sufficiently surprised that anyone could see her let alone speak to her.

"My my, what a couple of strapping men we have here. Of course I don't mind the company, come sit with me and talk to good ole' lady Shima, dohohoho!" The old lady spoke in a tone only a loving grandmother could use after years of raising children and grandchildren, followed by an honest laugh.

That day, Ichigo, for the first time in his life, felt like crying for someone else, the old lady was waiting for her husband, she told them that the morning that she died, she had told her husband that she would wait for him in that very tree for their yearly picnic in celebration of the founding of their bookstore. She had, as usual, awakened before her husband and left him a note where she said where she would be and that everything would be ready when he got there.

During the walk to their usual spot in the park, a thief came at her with a knife, and told her to give him everything of value she had. The scare was too much for her old heart of seventy years to handle, and the subsequent stroke made her death mercifully swift, if a bit painful. But she ended up getting to the where she had told her husband she would be at so that he would not be worried about her, the old coot.

This happened forty years ago.

Ichigo didn't have the heart to tell her of all the grim possibilities his mind came up with, from the obvious one that her husband was dead and probably moved on by now, to the far more depressing one that her husband had probably died in his sleep that one morning.

It was with heavy hearts that both of the male Kurosaki family members that they went back to their girls.

Ichigo went back to the park the day after, to see if the old lady wanted company once again. It was to his great relief that he found that the old lady was no longer there, and had now moved on. The day before was the last time Kurosaki Ichigo saw Old Lady Shima.

Isshin Kurosaki, however, saw her one more time.

The day that would forever change the lives of the people in the Kurosaki household was July 17th; two days after young Ichigo turned nine years old.

They were out having yet another family picnic, as was now custom for them all, two days later than usual due to the fact that the Kurosaki clinic had been overwhelmed with patients in the past week.

Ichigo was about to help picking up their supplies when he noticed something the silhouette of a young girl falling into the nearby river, which was going stronger than it usually did.

Ichigo's first thought was, rather than telling his parents about it, to run after the girl and do anything in his hands to help her.

"Ichigo, get away from it!"

Masaki's spiritual sense, far more developed than her son's, could see what was invisible to him. A hamster-like monstrosity, with its lure taking the form of the 'drowning girl'. The horrific rictus of a grin on its mask seemed to grow larger as Ichigo got closer to its bait. Taking out her cross, Masaki pulled the reiatsu around her into a bow. With Ichigo so close, she couldn't risk firing a barrage of Heilig Pfeil. A direct shot to the mask would have to do.

Auswählen

Just like that, Masaki's grasp over her reiatsu spluttered as her partially manifested bow and arrow dissipated. She saw the hollow's maw open wide and its muscles tense and it prepared to lunge at Ichigo. Isshin was too far away, so Masaki did the only thing she could do. Using her rapidly disappearing control of reiatsu, she used hirenkyaku to grab Ichigo and throw him out of the way, leaving Grand Fisher's jaws to clamp down on her body.

Ichigo was forced to watch his mother's soul get forcibly torn out of her body and messily devoured, teeth crushing bone and flesh.

The world of skyscrapers was flooded in an instant, drowned by the despair of its creator, the skies roaring in a violent storm. There was a blurring effect on the world, as if it had not completely solidified yet. Fitting, as the Inner World was in its inchoate form.

"Oi old man, let me kill that piece of shit!" Zangetsu's rage was reaching its zenith, his hollow eyes burning with fury as his mask covered his face.

The shadow of Yhwach wore a pained expression instead of his normally stoic look. It disgusted him, to see how low his current self had fallen, taking away the boy's mother in order to further his plans. He too, wanted to assist in his wielder in destroying the hollow, to remove the bastard from the cycle and consign him to oblivion if Masaki wasn't eaten by it, but …

"If we were to manifest ourselves, our spiritual pressure would crush Ichigo's body. If he manages to survive that, our influence could have unprecedented effects-."

"Fuck that! My high-speed regeneration can take care of any problems. Any price is worth the opportunity to rip that fucker to pieces!"

The manifestation of Ichigo's Quincy powers nodded in consent. Flaring their reiatsu, they merged into one, vaporising the water covering Ichigo's Inner World.

Ichigo's head slumped down. Grand Fisher reached for the boy, believing that he would be a good snack after devouring the woman… when reiatsu burst from his body, containing an unmistakable hollow taint. The hollow could only look on in shock as a mask formed over the boy's face, and a daito that seemed to be forged from the moonless night materialised in his hand. A glowing pattern of what appeared to be blood vessels was overlaid over his body. With a reverberating roar, the boy vanished … and Grand Fisher was split in twain, his mask as well as the rest of his body neatly sliced in half.

Zangetsu pumped as such of his reiatsu into Ichigo's body, the bones and muscles simultaneously being ripped apart by the spiritual pressure and regenerated. The pain was comparable to molten steel been poured into his nerves, but his resolve was stronger than that. Slowly drawing away his influence, the pressure faded away along with the sword and the mask. The reinforcement provided by Blut Vene faded, Ichigo's unconscious body falling to the ground as Zangetsu withdrew control over his body.

AN: Well, there's the intro. Ichigo's introduction to the World of the Dead come earlier, so he'll be a more balanced fighter