Disclaimer: Tite Kubo owns Bleach.
Chapter One:
Geboren in der Dunkelheit (Born in the Darkness)
Darkness dominated the chilling night, goosebumps hit two people walking down the streets when raindrops fell. Masaki Kurosaki had gone through the Karate Dojo to pick up her beloved little son, Ichigo. He was crying again after he lost to his fellow friend Tatsuki Arisawa. Masaki didn't care if her son lost or won, she felt proud of his little "Guardian Angel".
He was one of her bright star in the sky. Her husband and her two young daughters were her other stars, and she loved them all the same. It was impossible to deny that she felt full of happiness with the beautiful family that she had, it was the greatest gift in the world to come home and be greeted by hugs and cuddles by her family.
So many years passed that she forgot all the hatred and conflict around her Quincy lineage. However, despite moving away from the few pure Quincies who were still alive in the world, Masaki still retained her powers but decided not to use them again. Unless it was extremely necessary.
That's why she still maintains her Quincy cross hanging from her wrist, not as a memory, but as a way to protect her family if they happen to be in danger. In a normal case, a Quincy descendant would be trained from youth in the arts of hunting Hollows, but Masaki did not think that way, she preferred their children to live their lives as normal human beings.
She wanted them to grow away from everything that had to do with the war between Quincy and Shinigami, after all, she had suffered from the ancient enmity between the two races first hand. But from that day on the chances of seeing her children grow up, and to grow old with her beloved husband were shattered.
Her beloved son saw something that made him run toward the edge of the river extremely alarmed, Masaki attempted to stop him but failed to achieve it. Ichigo inadvertently headed straight for a Hollow.
She tried to protect Ichigo by creating her own Heilig Bogen to guard her own son against the Hollow's attack by using Blut as a human shield. She planned to easily exterminate the Hollow, but for some reason that escaped her knowledge, her Blut did not activate, and she could not mold her reiatsu into a bow.
Masaki without thinking twice protected Ichigo from the Hollow regardless, she couldn't use any of her Quincy abilities now that she needed them the most. But that did not matter to Masaki, her maternal instinct and love for her firstborn forced Masaki to protect her child, even at the cost of her own life.
Ichigo was scared. He did not understand what just happened, everything had happened too fast for his human eyes to follow. He just try to help a girl that seemed to be about to fall into the river, but now his mother lay dead on top of him. Ichigo could only mourn and try to wake up his mother, but
...she did not wake up.
It was pointless.
He tried to raise her hand from the cold floor, but inadvertently ripped the strange cross that was hanging from her wrist. Suddenly he saw an intense blue light, and everything went black.
A strange shadow engulfed him.
He tried to react to the events but he was too exhausted to do anything, to the point that between sobs and tears he suddenly fainted. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't see. He couldn't hear anything. A black void engulfed him.
A few minutes later
...in some unknown place.
Everything cover in darkness. Ichigo felt like he was floating in a dense sea, although he didn't felt the lack of oxygen. As he felt down into the bottom he saw a reflection of himself, it was like a mirror in the sea, but that reflection was not him. It was an exact replica of Ichigo, but his skin was pure white as the snow.
His limited mobility along with his vision slowly began to come back to him.
"Mom ...Mom ...Where are you? Please come, I just had a nightmare ...please ...Mom? ...Dad? ...Someone, please HELP ME!" The young Ichigo begged but received no answer.
"Ichi- …go …Ichig…o ... come ...with me ...Come ...to..m..side ..." A voice resounded in a strange place. He could not recognize the man behind the voice, it sounded very far to understand, but he knew they were calling him, he could feel it.
"Who is it?" - Asked a fearful Ichigo.
"I am ...Yh - ...ch ... come ...I ... I can help-" was the answer he got, it was extremely choppy, but it seems that with each passing moment he could hear and understand the voice clearly. It was as if the voice was speaking to him from inside his mind.
"Please help me find my mom! She and I were going home, please, I want to see my dad and Karin and Yuzu" The poor child continued begging still trying to believe that this was just a terrible nightmare.
"Accept me... ...say …that you accept me ...and ...I'll be able ... to help-"
"Yes, yes, I accept, but please help me wake up from this nightmare …" He unexpectedly felt like an invisible force attracted him to solid ground.
Finally.
The place became slightly lighter, now he was able to see where he was. A room, but it resembled a city, although the buildings were in a horizontal position, so he was standing in the windows of one of the buildings. It was very strange, very strange, but it hardly mattered, he just wanted to go home with his mother and forget this nightmare.
Out of nowhere, a man appeared before the child, he was on in his forties and wore a long-sleeved white shirt, black pants and a cloak covering the rest of his body. He also had clear lenses, and his expression was extremely melancholy.
"Ichigo ...Is me... we just spoke... I am the one you choose ..." the man said starting to get close to Ichigo.
"You, you were the one who was calling me? Do you know where my mom is? Do you know how I can go home? I do not want to be in this place, I must tell Dad to help mom ... she is hurt."
"Ichigo ... I'm sorry but you can not go back, I will take care of you now ...I'll give you the tools to survive, I'll be your mentor it is necessary" the mysterious man said.
"Why can't I return? Mom and I were walking home, please tell me how to get out of this place, Dad doesn't like when we are late. He says that these days the streets are very dangerous" Ichigo responded refusing to understand his current situation.
"Ichigo ... we're not in Karakura actually ... we're not even in the living world" He tried to explain but it was very difficult to explain to a nine-year-old child of travel through dimensions.
"What do you mean by that? and How do you know my name? I do not remember telling you my name, sir."
"I know it because I know everything about you. I've been with you since birth."
"Who are you?"
"My name is Yhwach ... and I'm the Sealed King of the Quincy ... your mother was a Quincy as well and so are you ..."- he said approaching Ichigo and crouching in front of him.
"What's a Quincy?"-Ichigo asked confusedly since he does not understand what the man was talking about.
"It's a powerful race that existed long ago, it was brought to almost extinction, ...by very evil people, ..." Yhwach said as he placed a hand on Ichigo's head and ruffled his hair.
"Open your hand... Ichigo" Yhwach placed his hand on top of Kurosaki's, and Ichigo opened his hand, to his surprise he was inadvertently clutching the cross that his mother always wore in her wrist.
"It's the bracelet that mom always wears ..." Ichigo said already beginning to shed tears.
"It's not just a bracelet Ichigo. It is a Quincy cross, is a tool to protect ... that's why your mother wore it, she wanted to protect her family ..and she did protect you, right until the end." Yhwach said as he gently squeezed the boy's hand.
"Where's Mom?"
"Masaki ...did manage to protect you" He responded trying to be as subtle as possible.
"B-but ...Where's Mom?" Ichigo screamed, trying not to acknowledge that her mother had sacrificed for him.
"She saved your life in exchange for hers, child."
"Mama died?" - Ichigo mourn.
"Ichigo ...is not your fault, she's the kind of woman who happily gives her own life to protect her family."
"How do you know?" He asked still sobbing.
"I dwell in your soul, as I dwell on your mother's. She died with a smile, you know why?" He asked standing.
"Why? He answered with a question, as he begins to dry the tears.
"Because she does not feel remorse to die protecting the source of her happiness"
Yhwach slowly stood up and began to move away from the child.
Ichigo's body ached a bit.
"Where are you going, Mr. Yhwach? Please do not leave me alone ...I'm afraid."
"Ichigo, do not worry, you're not alone ... I will always be with you. But it is time for you to wake up…" He replied, fading away.
Yhwach had disappeared. Gone from view. The young Quincy was afraid to stay there alone, but before he could do anything, he felt as if he was pulled out of this strange place.
"Hey! He's waking up!" Ichigo began to wake up as he heard a voice but he could not recognize it.