Yes, I changed the summary again.
Oh, it's always amazing how fast the world can be ripped out from under your feet.
Ichigo is thrown to one side as the car flips over with a deafening noise, its metal walls denting, all at once too delicate and too heavy around him. He wraps his arms around his sisters, shielding them as they cry out. The car grinds to a spine-jolting stop along the asphalt, resting on its side.
He coughs at the acrid smoke in the air. "Dad?" he calls out as he tries to extricate himself from the seatbelt and airbags. There is no reply from the front seat. "Dad!"
A huge roar shakes the air, the frame of the car, his bones. With his door pinned between the car and the ground, Ichigo tries to clamber over the seats and reach for the other side. He gropes for a handhold to grab onto, only to jerk his hand back with a gasp. Blood wells from a cut across his palm from the sharp edges of broken glass. He clutches it to himself, wincing.
The car's frame shakes from a foot slamming into the asphalt next to it, then there comes the horrible screech of metal like some unliving beast in agony. The whole side of the car is ripped apart. He glimpses a giant hand and wicked claws.
It knocks the car back, flipping it over again. Yuzu clings to him with a wail until everything stops moving. He hugs her to his chest, grabs Karin's hand, and manages to shoulder his way out through a tangle of twisted metal.
Something like a monster out of nightmares stands over them. It has slitted reptilian eyes, huge black sickle claws, and spikes jutting out from its limbs, spine, and tail. There is a hole in its chest, which he can see clearly through.
It roars, a blood-chilling sound not of this world, and raises a hand to strike. The sound snaps Ichigo out of his shock. "Run!" he shouts, pushing his sisters ahead of him.
He dives and rolls, trying to cover his head against the hail of rubble thrown up when its claw slams into the street. He scrambles back to his feet, stumbling on the uneven ground, his mind a whirl of panic.
A thick spiked tail slams into him and sends him flying.
Something crunches as he slams into a building. He doubles over, clutching at his stomach. The warm feeling across his hands is blood, he realizes. All too much of it.
He looks up, blinking to focus his vision and see the monster approaching him. Every breath tears at his lungs. It's an effort to stay conscious, let alone move. Karin and Yuzu, he thinks. At least they're okay.
It brings up a hand. A brick clonks off the side of its head.
Ichigo follows its sight as it turns. Behind it stands the dark shape of his father. There's a cut on his forehead, blood covering half his face, and a grim smile across his lips.
"Yeah, that's right, big boy," he calls out. "You wanna eat someone tonight? It's gonna have to be me first!"
Ichigo hears the beast chuckle lowly beneath the rough hiss of its breath. It steps towards his father, who stands his ground with a set jaw. Ichigo reaches out a hand, mouthing a plea he doesn't have the breath to say.
There is a small choked sound, harshly cut off, as the monster swings its claws in an almost lazy swat at his father. A wet-sounding crunch, the snapping of bone.
Ichigo finds his voice in time to scream.
He doesn't remember getting to his feet. The pain in his side and back is beyond him. He yells hoarsely, charging at the beast with a swinging fist, only managing to scrape his knuckles against its scales. It casually backhands him. A blinding pain flashes behind his eyes as his head cracks against the ground. He lies there, gasping for breath, his limbs refusing to obey his commands. No, he thinks, this can't be happening, this can't be happening.
He can't let this monster kill him. He can't let it callously cut down his father like that. It doesn't deserve to live.
It raises its claws and time slows down.
'Do you want power?' a voice hisses at Ichigo from everywhere, nowhere, all around him. 'Do you want to live?'
"Yes," Ichigo gasps.
'Are you sure?' it says. 'Once you draw my blade, you'll never be able to let go of it again.'
It certainly doesn't sound concerned for him. Its voice is filled with a vicious barely-hidden glee.
I don't care, Ichigo thinks. I'm sure.
Darkness surrounds him like a veil dropped. In front of him stands a shadowed figure, with long hair and a white cloak and a slasher's smile across his face. The only solid thing he can see in the dark is its eyes, glowing yellow and piercing into him like a predator's.
'Then I'll give you my power,' it says.
Its hand raises a sword, slim and darker than night, darker than even their surroundings. It pierces into Ichigo's chest.
He screams. It's pain of a kind he's never felt before—it tears at his heart and into the depths of his soul. All he can hear is the high cruel laughter of the yellow-eyed fiend as his vision fades.
He opens his eyes to find himself standing. The monster lets out a howl of pain behind him. Blood covers his hands, its heavy scent tainting the air.
A smile spreads across his face. The heady sensation of power courses through his limbs. The pain from his wounds disappears. He feels indomitable, unstoppable.
He turns and meets a blow from the monster in a block with his arm. He feels the wind from its swing ruffle his hair, the concrete crack as he plants his feet, but he stands his ground, perfectly steady as he catches its strike. He doesn't even feel it.
He grabs its arm, sinks his claws into its hide, pulls, twists.
It howls as its arm is ripped from its body. He lets it fall to the ground with a thud and runs at the beast. Charging his legs with energy, he jumps ten feet without even trying and swings a clawed hand for its mask. It raises an arm to block. He rebounds off the air, changing directions to slash through the inside of its elbow. Its arm falls limp.
The scent of blood in the air is intoxicating. He hears wild laughter that rings in his ears—is it his own? He can't stop. He doesn't want to stop. The power humming through his veins tells him to destroy, consume, conquer.
The monster howls again and turns to flee. In a flash, a tendon in its leg is cut, and it crashes to the ground.
Ichigo advances on it. He's not done. It won't be over until he's taken from it everything it's taken from him. It won't be over until he's taken everything it is.
"I-Ichigo!"
He freezes.
That voice.
So small and so weak, but its sound cuts through the haze in his mind and suddenly he's on his knees, gasping for gulps of cold clear air, and there's blood on his hands and splattered all around him and a monster lying at his feet.
He stands up and backs away shakily. He's not injured anymore, he realizes. And are those… claws on his hands? His sisters are crouched somewhere behind him, clinging to each other. Karin looks pale. Yuzu gasps when she sees him.
What? What's… what's wrong with him? What's going on?
The monster on the ground snarls, flailing for him with one arm. He backs up, staring at it, his heart pounding. Did he do that?
'Finish it!' a voice in his head is yelling and he tries to shake his head, tries to say no, but the pain in his head is like a vice and his body won't obey him. He takes a step forward without his will, raises a hand. It swings down, driving a scythe of pitch-dark energy through the monster's skull. It falls limp, and slowly dissolves into black particles that fade away.
Ichigo falls to his knees on the shattered concrete ground. It's all he can do to focus on breathing. His mind feels so fuzzy—half the fight is a blur. The haunting emptiness in his chest cries out for more death, for blood, flesh—
He shakes his head, trying to focus. No. No, no.
A small hand twists into the fabric of his shirt. He stiffens and whirls around, batting the hand away. Yuzu stares back at him, pale and wide-eyed.
"Ichi-nii?" she whispers. "Are… you okay?"
"Yuzu," he murmurs. He tears his eyes away. "I'm sorry."
He staggers shakily to his feet, turning away. "Karin. Call an ambulance."
Like walking in a dream, he makes his way to his father's side. Blood surrounds his prone figure, his skin ashen against the pool of dark liquid. Ichigo kneels down next to him, blood soaking into his jeans. It's already cooling. He fumbles at Isshin's neck for a pulse.
He's dead, some part of his mind tells him. No, he thinks, and tries again at another spot.
He looks up. "Dad?" he whispers. He grits his teeth and bows his head as only silence answers him. As ever, as always.
"Ichigo? What… happened?" Karin whispers from behind him. "That… that mask…"
Mask? Ichigo reaches up to his face. His claws scrape against something hard, and a shudder runs through him.
Gritting his teeth, he hooks his claws around the edge of the mask. The pain forces a wild cry from his lips, stabbing down to his very core. With a gasp, he rips the mask from his face. He collapses to his knees on the hard ground, staring at it in his hands and gasping uneven breaths. A skull mask, bone-white with red stripes surrounding the left eye.
He doesn't feel Yuzu's hand that clings to his shoulder, doesn't hear whatever words Karin says. All he hears is the hissing voice in his mind.
'My mark. It means you'll never be free of me.'
It's ok Ichi and Zan will work things out eventually.
Here we go, it's my first fanfic. It's a more casual story I'm doing in between my various other works. It's basically going to be a canon rewrite for now but who knows where it'll go? Here's to a long and fun ride!
Please review! Reviews are the best. Also, do tell me if you find any errors.