Summary: Later in life, he would realize Aizen was right, he was merely a toy that Soul Society flung away, but then again, Ichigo would muse, with a smile on his lips, that Aizen had also been wrong about the way he would be alone. For he was very much not alone in his life right now.
******* MUST READ ********
Type: Oneshot
Note: I got the general idea for this story from Wanderlust by cwyscross. If you guys haven't read it, I recommend it!
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN BLEACH OR KUROKO NO BASUKE
type: AU, this fanfic will have nothing to do with the DECIDE arc or the Quincy arc.
Starting from when he was a child, he always yearned for an adventure. He would always be reading those hero books with the princes saving a princess from an evil witch, and imagine him as the one that protected the princesses. Although he often thought that these stories were...how to say it…cheesy, because the prince would either kiss the princess or marry her, or both. And don't even remind him that they were so girly! But, alas, there were good things in those kind of books, the prince would always slay the dragon, would always break the sleeping spell on the princess, and would always protect the princess. And that was what his name, Ichigo, 'first protector', meant. After all, a protector was supposed to protect those that he loved, right?
When he was nine years old, he failed to protect the one he loved most, his mother. Scratch that, he was the one to actually cause it. One day, when he and his mother were walking home from karate practice, he saw a girl looking as if she was about to jump into the water and commit suicide. Being just a young four-year-old kid, he couldn't distinguish whether or not she was human or spirit, therefore, he left his mom and sprinted to stop the girl. In the background, he could hear his mother yelling for him to stop, and wait for her, but he did not listen. He kept on running and running until he reached the girl. Then all of a sudden, he saw a huge monster -and that was all he remembered before he fainted. When he woke up, he found the girl gone, with a heavy weight on top of him. He looked up. He wished he hadn't.
His mother was on top of him, dead. Bleeding out from a wound that he couldn't see and didn't want to see. His mother was on top of him, dead. Bleeding out from a wound that he couldn't see and didn't want to see. His mother was on top of him, dead. Bleeding out from a wound that he couldn't see and didn't want to see. His mother was on top of him, dead. Bleeding out from a wound that he couldn't see an- All of a sudden, he could see out of the corner of his eye, his father running toward him with a rather horrific facial expression on his face. If he wasn't so shocked and his mother wasn't dead, then he would laugh at his face and then would hear the laughter of his mom, he mother, his mama's laugh join in with his. But, it was too late. His mother was lying on top of him and wouldn't, couldn't laugh anymore. With that thought, and a distant voice shouting his name, he blacked out.
After that certain event, he was never the same boy anymore. He would often be found on the riverbed, staring into the river and wishing, hoping against all odds that his mother would come back.
She didn't came back.
Because of the guilt, and pressure of just everything, he began to distance himself from his family; not talking to them, always avoiding them. Heck, he barely talked to his sisters anymore. One day, when he was by the riverbed an extra hour, staring into the water blankly, he heard heavy footsteps. When he turned around, he saw them, his family. His dad, and his two little sisters. He...he didn't know what to say, after all, he was the one who killed their mother, shouldn't they hate him? He was named 'first protector', and yet he caused his mother to die, he caused them grief, shouldn't they hate him? Finally, arrived at the riverbed, panting, and sweating, and looking like a family that just finished running a marathon. His father had his arms open, as if welcoming him into a hug. He really wanted to tackle his father, to cry his heart out, but no, he had to stay strong, he just had to. After his father realized that he wasn't going to hug him, he lowered his hands, and said with a rather serious voice something that made him unable to bear it anymore. He tackled his father and sisters and hugged them, hugged them for all of his worth, but did not cry. He wouldn't cry anymore; he promised himself that day, when he went to the funeral, that he would stay strong, look out for his sisters. Just because their only parent figure died, it didn't mean that somebody else couldn't look out for them.
The years passed, he began to fight back against the thugs that messed with him because of his hair color, met Chad, and then he graduated middle school with his father crying how 'my little son is growing up!'. Then again, without all the tackles and embarrassing remarks, he probably wouldn't be his father.
One day, after another day of boring school, he was in his bedroom just lounging on his bed and reading Naruto, when suddenly, a petite girl jumped through his window and landed on the floor. That's was the day that his life started becoming hectic, het strangely satisfying.
He found on that'd day that there were people called shinigami's, a spirit that goes around killing Hollows, which were monsters that devoured souls and interupts the work of the shinigami's. It was also on that day, that officially met Rukia Kuchiki and got Soul Reaper powers. With those Soul Reaper powers of his, he began to take on the duties of a soul reaper, of course, with his ever-leaking powers, he began to 'contaminate' his friends. Chad and Orihime were both the recipients of this contamination. Chad began to develop Hollow-like powers, but used them as a shield. Orihime developed something called Shun Shun Rikka, six-fairy like creatures that resides in her blue hair clips that her brother gave her as a child. With his powers, he also gained another ally, Ishida Uryuu. A Quincy.
Then, Rukia got herself captured by her brother of all things and had not wanted him to go and save her. But then again, who was he to listen to a petite soul reaper and not save her when it was his fault to that she broke a law in the first place? But first, he would have to get his powers back.
After nearly having his chain of fate deterioating, and gaining his kick-ass powers, he was ready to storm Soul Society and save Rukia. Imagine his surprise when he saw Chad, Orihime, and Ishida waiting for him. Chad because he could protect people, Orihime because she saw Rukia as a friend and had the powers to do so, and Ishida because he wanted to 'get revenge' on the Shinigami.
Then, he found out that there was something called Bankai, a level of power that was 10 times stronger than Shikai. Therefore, to save Rukia, he ended up learning his Bankai in three days, and also beating Byakuya with it. Then, after being, just, so close in rescuing Rukia, he found out that apparently the nicest captain, Aizen was actually a traitor.
Aizen. Traitor. Planning a war big enough to totally destroy the world...worlds, and Soul Society did not notice. Right.
So, he trained some more, found out that apparently he's got an insane Hollow in his head. He also learned that if he wanted to survive, he would have to work together with it. So, he compromised, he fought it out with his Hollow and ended up gaining some more powers and managed to floor all the Vizards with how long he took to defeat his Hollow: sixty-nine minutes and fifty-eight seconds.
Then, Orihime gets kidnapped and yet the Gotei 13 still does not do anything. They just sit there and actually accuse Orhime with betrayal when they all knew that she was a healer and not a fighter. So, he gathers up his friends from the Workd of the Living and asks Kiskue to open a Garganta to Hueco Mundo. Then, when he get nearly killed by the sand monster thing, he doesn't bother with names when he knew it wasn't something important, Renji and Rukia arrives and stall the sand monster long enough. Although, in the end, they end up get 'swallowed' and falls underground.
That was the first time he nearly got killed. The second time was with Grimmjow, in which he had to show his Hollow side to Orihime. Then, in his fight with Ulqiorra, he pretty much does die when Ulqiorra blasts a gaping hole in his chest. Then he returns to the World of the Living and fights some more. Afterwards, a lot later, after Aizen has the Hogyouku shoved into his chest and metamorphosized into a human-butterfly-thing, his father drags him into the Dangai and tells him to learn the Final Gesugatenshou, a fatal form that can and will be able to defeat Aizen.
In the end, he learns the Final Gesugatenshou and activates it, even though he knows that he will pay the ultimate price in the end.
Right when the Kidou spell that Kiskue put on him was about to activate and close, Aizen spoke his last words to him:
"You will always be alone... Don't think that I don't know what that form does...you will loose your powers and in the end, you will be but a mere toy that Soul Society has gotten bored of."
What infuriates him the most is not that Aizen actually had the gall to look at him in that pitying gaze, no, it was the fact that there was a sliver of worry in him that maybe, just maybe, Aizen was right. But then again, Aizen was most likely wrong and was bluffing. After all, hasn't he done more than enough for Soul Society, for his friends, that they wouldn't just turn there backs on him?
That's exactly what they did.
It was slow at first, nothing more but a hesitant glance at him when he decided to join in on whatever they were talking about. He didn't really notice until he reflected on his friends behaviors after the War. Then, it slowly escalated. Well, you couldn't really call it escalating when there was no was base to escalate off of. He brushed it off, though. He just thought of it as a minor obstacle tp and that his friends would warm up to him later. He was wrong.
When there were Hollow near, he would actually know, not because he could sense them, no, but because of all the worried glances and stares he was receiving.
Whenever he walks by his supposed group of friends he would hear them whispering, yes, whispering - because they didn't want him to overhear and breakdown because he couldn't communicate with spirits anymore - about Hollows, Shinigami's, and training techniques. Then, he would decide to join them and give them a few tips, but they would suddenly go very quiet, and hush up. This frustrated him, why were they treating him as if he would have mental breakdown any minute? It seemed as if they believed that just whispering the word Hollow would set him off and make him go crazy.
He would even bet that Tatsuki, Mizuiro, and even Keigo were talking with his allies, the ones that fought in the bloody war with him, about Shinigami and supernatural things.
God, even his own fucking family was drifting away from him. After his father told him he was a Shinigami, he began to stay out of the house more. Opting to stay over at Kisuke's or Ishida's old man, Ishida Ryuuken's house. It's to catch up, his father says.
Then, after his father, his father he could understand. After having you Shinigami powers stripped of from you, and then gaining them back, you would want to catch up with old friends and such. What he can't and doesn't want to understand is why Karin also seems to be out of the house more. And when he sees Karin entering Geta-Boushi's shop, he finally understands. Understands everything.
He understands the hesitant attitude to approach any kind of subject with him. He understands the pitiful glances and gazes he get when they think he isn't looking. And he understands why his family, his life, is falling apart at its seams, and he hates it. He hates getting looked at pitifully, hates the way the house is more empty than it should ever be.
He hopes and hopes, hopes that this was only temporary and not permanent when one day, his mind gave him an off-the-chart crazy suggestion to just leave everything behind. Because, why couldn't he? Why couldn't he just leave this life when he had no more responsibilities? He didn't have anymore powers, so he wasn't of any more use to the Shinigami's. His littl- no, not little anymore, - sisters could take care of themselves. And he was also sure that Karin was able to and would beat a guy's ass any day if they made a move on Yuzu. He was also almost 19, close to the legal age in Japan, and one year older than the legal age in America. He would be able to explore the world... But still, he hanged on, hanged on to the tiny hope that things would go back to the way it was before.
The push that had him packing was when he was walking around town, and his feet automatically led him to Urahara Shoten, the place that he had trained in, the place that so many fun memories took place.
Then, he heard it. He heard the witty remark that Ishida quipped at someone. Then, a loud crash followed by laughter. Lots of laughter, to say the truth. That was when he realized, things weren't going to go back to the way it was, simply because they didn't need him anymore. They didn't need to be there, they didn't need him to be the one to tease, they just didn't need him at all. The truth hurt more then he thought it would.
It was right after that, right after that mind-whirling relevation that he ran back to the house and started packing. He decided to bring a simple backpack that had an extra t-shirt, a jacket, and extra pants, a fake passport that his underground friend, yes, underground, made for him, some dried food, and some extra money that he saved up for college. He would survive.
He didn't nesscesarily have a concrete destination in mind, but he knew he da to get out of Karakura Town before he did something amazingly stupid.
An hour and eleven minutes later, he was at the Karakura Train Station, nonetheless younger, but certainly excited with the thought of leaving all his respondsabilities and exploring the world with no care at all. He wouldn't have to care about looking over his back to see if an Arrancar was following, no, he would be able to enjoy life, and live it to the fullest. Though, he mused he would have to come back sooner or later, probably later, but he would.
So, with a text message of I'm leaving to his family and friends, he boarded the train to a brighter future.
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Rose Catcher
