Disclaimer: Nope. Me no own it. People who say so say they also crazy. (If my English teacher was reading this, they'd probably be insane right now).
This isn't a chapter story. Sorry, but it's gonna be very...Random. Well, not really, but I like that word. I'm gonna be writing a bunch of these about different characters and maybe I'll start some new chapter stories about different characters than Toushiro, Kaien, and Masaki and Ichigo. Oh, and this song is inspired by the song 'All These Lives' by Daughtry. It's about when Ichigo was a little boy and it takes place about the time his mom dies. It might be a little sad, so beware!
--
"Ichigo! Come on and eat your breakfast! You're going to be late for karate practice!" Masaki called from the downstairs kitchen. She walked over to the counter and picked up Ichigo's breakfast.
Ichigo was such a hyper little boy, and he never stopped smiling when he was around her, but that made him even cuter than he already was, in her opinion. He had insisted on karate lessons so that his friend, Tatsuki, wouldn't have to protect him from the other kids that teased him about his vibrant orange hair. Masaki reluctantly agreed, but still didn't feel right about letting him take the classes. What if he got hurt? But unfortunately, Ichigo was a nine year old boy who wouldn't listen to proper reasoning.
She heard a crash from a room upstairs and ran upstairs to check on Ichigo. She couldn't get down the halls, which were covered in glass and parts of the wall. Carefully making her way around all the debris, Masaki ran into Ichigo's room and saw him curled up in a little ball on the other side of the room, right behind the bed. She ran over, took him in her arms and held him close. He was shaking, but thankfully not crying or hurt in any way that she could physically see.
"It wants to get me, Mommy!" Ichigo cried as he buried his face in her chest as he stroked his back to calm him down.
Masaki looked down at her son in concern. "What wants to get you, sweety?"
"The monster!" he whimpered back as a reply. It was barely a whisper, but Masaki still managed to catch it.
"Did the monster make the mess in the hallway?" she asked softly. He nodded in a fast manner, that if he weren't careful, she was afraid he'd brake his neck
"It said it wanted to eat my soul! It said something about eating all these other people he called shinigami and he said my soul would be tastier than any of them!" he started to cry again and Masaki petted his head.
"What did it look like, Ichigo?" Masaki asked, remembering the creatures called 'hollows' that Ishin used to purify when he was a shinigami.
"It was big, green, and looked like a gorilla or some other fuzzy thing," he said, then added, "Oh! It had a fishing lure and when he opened his mouth, there was another one inside it!"
Yep. A hollow. She'd better tell Ishin about this when he got back from the story. But for now, she had to protect her baby, and nothing would come in the way of that. Or maybe, if Ichigo still wanted to go to practice, she'd visit Urahara on the way back. He may be a weirdo, but he was a smart one and he'd know what to do. No matter what it took, she'd find that hollow and do what she could to kill it before it got to Ichigo.
She looked at Ichigo who was still pondering the lives that had been lost to the hollow, and he feared for his. Her heart was breaking, seeing him in so much fear. She couldn't stand to see him so frightened. Hollows like that only lived to separate families and homes and that was in violation of every value she'd ever had in her life. It was so wrong, and hopefully it would see that when Ishin killed it, or rather, just before. Ichigo was the world to her, and she'd never let anyone or anything take him away from her. As far as she knew, only people who were dead knew what a hollow was and Ishin had told her that they were from a place called Hueco Mundo, or rather, under Hueco Mundo in a strange forest only inhabited by hollows. She wished they'd never came into this world.
Ichigo looked at her and cocked his head to one side is such a cute manner that she just had to smile, even if it was only a small one. "Is something wrong?" he asked, adopting the face of someone who was deeply concerned, but it didn't exactly turn out right. It looked like he was concentrating so hard his head was going to pop.
She let out a little laugh and finally said, "I'm fine. Do you still want to go, Ichigo?"
He smiled and nodded with that huge, goofy grin spread across his face. "Yeah! I've got to protect you, Karin and Yuzu, so I need this practice," he said so seriously it was like he had a completely different personality.
Masaki laughed again. "Is that so?" When he nodded she announced, "Well, then we'd better get going, right?" She held out her hand to him and he eagerly ran over to her and took in, his tiny hand almost disappearing in that of his mother's.
They walked out the door and Masaki remembered all the debris from the hollow attack. She picked him up in her arms and went around the rubble the best she could. She still stepped on a few shards of glass, but her shoes prevented them from getting to the flesh of her feet. Once they were next to the stairs, she put Ichigo down and they walked down into the hallway leading to the kitchen, Ichigo still clutching her hand, afraid that if he let go, she'd disappear and he'd never see her again.
Masaki took him into the kitchen and he gulped down his breakfast as fast as he could, knowing that they were late enough as it was. After he finished, they walked out the front door and took the usual path to the dojo where Ichigo learned karate. They chattered about random things that Ichigo brought up and laughed. She almost forgot that she was to pay Kisuke a visit after dropping Ichigo off at the dojo. When they arrived at his lesson, they were greeted by his sensei.
"You're late," he said simply, even though he was smiling down at Ichigo. His name was Chaku Hisashiwa. He was in his fifties and had snow white hair, and a medium build to his somewhat muscular body.
"Sorry. There was an incident at the house that sort of delayed us," Masaki said to the sensei with a smile that she always wore on her face. Ichigo looked up at her, curious as to why she wasn't telling him the whole story. Was it a secret? Did the sensei even know those things existed?
"Mom?" Ichigo said, now desperately needing an answer to his thoughts.
"Ichigo, why don't you go over with Tatsuki?" she suggested, sensing her son's curiosity.
He hesitated for a minute then said, "Okay," and ran over to Tatsuki where they immediately got into an animated conversation about something that obviously involved a lot of jumping around.
"So what exactly happened?" Chaku asked.
"It was just a little damage to one of the upstairs walls. It was really difficult to get through the hallway," she explained. He didn't need to know what caused the damage to the wall.
He sighed, knowing he wasn't going to get Masaki to tell him everything about what had happened. "Well, okay. We hadn't even started the lesson yet. There was a parent complaint about their kid trying to attack anything that moved and he told them I told them to do so,"
She laughed then called, "Good-bye, Ichigo!" She walked out the door and Ichigo noticed that she went in the opposite direction from home. He tried not to ponder on this too much and focused on his sensei, who was about to start the lesson.
--
Masaki knew Ichigo had seen her go the 'wrong' way, but he'd probably let it go, thinking that she had to run an unknown errand. She kept walking and said to the many people who stopped to greet her and see how she and the family was doing. She dealt with the interuptions patiently and kept walking toward Kisuke's store.
She finally arrived and saw that Jinta was outside teasing Ururu like he always did. She walked up to them, completely unknown, and said firmly, "Jinta, stop teasing Ururu!"
They turned around, shocked, to see a very amused Masaki standing right behind them. Their surprised expressions turned to happy ones and they each gave Masaki a hug.
"Is Kisuke here?" she asked smiling down at the two. They looked like ordinary kids, but Ururu was unusually strong and Jinta was strong and could fire a giant gun with undeniably amazing aim. And he never missed his target.. They were truly amazing, but she wasn't there to see them; she was there to see one of the most amazing men ever: Kisuke Urahara. He had once been the captain of squad 12 and also formed the research department, which was now run by Kurotsuchi. Kisuke had been banished from the seireitei for developing the most destructible weapon in history. Masaki didn't know what it was, but she had a feeling that the world would know eventually.
Jinta and Ururu led her inside the shop and down into the basement thing that Kisuke had made below his shop. It was huge and unbelievably like the desert. It was impossible to tell whether it was day or night down there, but apparently Kisuke didn't care about simple things like that. She looked around the place and eventually, she spotted Kisuke he was practicing with his zanpakutou, Benihime. He sensed her reiatsu (which she had plenty of) and turned around, smiling. His eyes were invisible from underneath his hat, so she couldn't tell whether he was surprised to see her or not.
"Why don't you just get rid of that hat, Kisuke? I can't see your whole face," she suggested for about the hundredth time since she'd met him so many years before.
Now she could tell he was shocked. He stumbled backward against a rock and clutched at his chest, pretending to be devastated and shocked at her suggestion. "Are you mad, woman? The hat is god, you fool!" He said that every time she made the suggestion, but it never ceased to amuse her.
She stopped laughing and her face became serious. He noticed her change in character, which only happened when she was in trouble, and turned serious as well. "What happened Masaki," he asked as he motioned for the others to go back above ground.
"A hollow attacked Ichigo. He said it looked like a...well, I don't know what he said it looked similar to, but he said it had a lot of hair and had a fishing lure hanging off it's head." she explained.
Kisuke's face got even more serious and his hat shadowed his entire face. "Does Ishin know?" he asked gravely.
"Not yet," she explained. "He wasn't home when this happened."
Kisuke looked toward her and said, "The hollow's name is Grand Fisher. He has killed more than fifty shinigami who'd gone after them. Three of them were captains."
Masaki was terrified. She couldn't lose her son. Not like that or any other way. He was far too young to be involved in matters like these. "What do I do? I can't lose Ichigo!"
"Just tell Ishin," Kisuke said simply. "He's the only one who can fully protect you now. And don't hesitate. Your son has powers even the King doesn't have."
Masaki nodded and looked at her watch. Ichigo's lesson was already almost over. How couldn't that be? She'd only been down there for a few minutes, but two hours had gone by. That defied the laws of physics, but then again, this was Kisuke Urahara she was talking about.
She walked out of Kisuke's shop and went to pick Ichigo up from his karate lesson. She thought about what Kisuke had told her and was close to tears. She ignored the many people who tried to say hi to her. Some of the smarter ones saw that she was upset and left her alone, only giving her a small smile, which she returned gratefully.
She arrived back at the dojo just as they were cleaning up and getting ready to go home. Thankfully this was Ichigo's only morning lesson for the entire five days. Sunday's were always hard, but with the hollow attack, things just got harder.
Ichigo ran up to her with his usual big grin plastered on his face. He gave her a big hug and said, "I almost beat Tatsuki!"
Masaki smiled back and laughed, "Why didn't you win?"
He looked down, a small blush rising to his cheeks and said, "I fell."
Masaki laughed a little and gave Ichigo a hug back. "That's okay. Maybe next time."
He nodded and they began the semi-long walk home. When they got home, the hole was still very apparent in the wall and they saw Ishin staring right through it, as though in a trance. He obviously knew what caused it and was concerned for his family.
Ichigo saw his dad and started running toward the front door, completely oblivious to his fathers concerned expression. Masaki halted for a moment to look at her husband, wondering exactly what he would do about this 'Grand Fisher' that Kisuke had told her about. Then she followed her hyperactive son inside the house and upstairs.
When she got into the hallway, she saw Ichigo jump into his father's arms. Ishin was smiling. Though Masaki could tell it wasn't a happy smile, but a sad and confused one. Ichigo still didn't notice his father's discomfort and started telling him about karate practice and how he'd almost beaten Tatsuki in that day's match.
Ishin told Ichigo to go take a shower and change. When Ichigo had finally run off, Ishin walked over and hugged Masaki. "What happened," he asked softly.
She continued leaning against his chest and said, "Ichigo was attacked by a hollow called Grand Fisher. I went to Kisuke during his match and he told me to tell you. He said that you'd be able to take care of it and protect him."
"I will. Nothing is going to get in my way," Ishin declared firmly.
--
The next week went perfectly normal, as it had been before the hollow attack. Masaki was about to take Ichigo to his evening practice, which he had every Friday. It was raining and the outside was darker than it would normally be at this time of night.
"Ichigo, are you ready?" she called to him.
He walked into the kitchen wearing his uniform and a rain coat that seemed to be just slightly too large for him. "Yep!" he answered cheerfully.
Masaki smiled and took his hand and called, "We're leaving, Ishin!"
He slid through the door and down the hallway and clutched onto Masaki and sobbed, "No! Don't leave me! What did I do wrong? Whatever it is I can change it, just don't leave me!"
Masaki laughed and said, "Cut it out, Ishin," then looked down to Ichigo, who was also laughing at his father. "I'll be back soon."
They walked outside and opened their umbrella. They walked down their usual path until they hit the main street, which was blocked off, due to flooding. So they went down to where the ground sloped next to the river and took that path instead.
Then, Ichigo looked down toward the river and saw a young girl about to jump in and shouted, "No! Don't do that! Please!" Masake looked over and also saw the little girl, but saw something else that Ichigo missed: a fishing line hanging off of the girl's head.
"No! Ichigo!" She shouted as she ran after him. He couldn't have known better, but that young girl was the lure for Grand Fisher to get Ichigo.
She jumped in the hollow's path as he attacked and instead of it hitting Ichigo and killing him, it did so to Masaki.
The young girl disappeared right in front of Ichigo's eyes. Confused, he turned around to aske his mother what happened, but saw his mother laying lifeless on the ground.
"Mommy!" Ichigo cried as he ran toward her. He collapsed next to her and tried shaking her awake, telling her to wake up and that it wasn't funny. When she didn't move, he gave up his futile attempts at shaking her awake and screamed. He screamed until his voice went hoarse and died off. His cries for help were muffled by the storm, so no one came and Ichigo cried harder.
--
The funeral was beautiful. It was exactly how Masaki would have wanted it to be. Flowers were everywhere and nearly everyone in town came. Even Urahara, who'd sworn never to come out of his little shop unless it was necessary. Well, now it was. Ichigo was at the very front, and crying just as hard as he had the night she had died. Ishin, Karin, and Yuzu stood beside him, also silently crying their hearts out.
The town news and newspapers all had pictures of Masaki and how they had no idea how she had died. No clues at all. It had been about a month since Masaki died. The family had all changed, except for Ishin, who kept up his goofy personality to entertain the kids. It worked on Yuzu and Karin, but not Ichigo. He'd gone from being the happy child who never stopped smiling to a sad child who didn't seem to know how to smile. Karin and Yuzu used to cry at almost everything, but now Yuzu took on the chores of the household and Karin wouldn't cry at all and spent all day kicking a soccer ball.
The Kurosaki family had changed in that one night, and they never went back to the way they used to be. They all missed Masaki more that anything, but they kept going with their lives. Yuzu and Karin started junior high school eventually and kept up their good grades and avoided being embarrassed by their father as much as possible. Ichigo ended up being the most dangerous person to get into a fight with, but was also one of the gentlest people you would ever meet. He went into high school and made new friends and eventually got control of his reiatsu. But that didn't fill the giant hole that had been created in the heart of their family. That could never be fixed. As Ichigo and his family finally left the funeral, after staying after for more than two hours, only one thought remained in Ichigo's mind. He would get revenge for all the lives that monster took, and not just his mother's, but everyone else he'd killed.
--
A/N: I'm not sure if that was the best story I've ever written, but I'm used to writing more than one chapter, so please don't be too evil with the reviews. I'm not saying I don't want the reviews, just consider the fact that I suck at one chapter stories. If you pay attention enough, you'll probably see that this story and Memories of a Past Life are connected.