The silenced knight

Disclaimer: I do not own bleach (big surprise)

Warning: will contain graphic descriptions of gore etc. and possibly Yaoi (future chapters).

Chapter 2: bloodlust.

When Isshin opened the door he was utterly shocked…

Most people would not know the significance of the small form in front of him.

A young boy, hunched over with only a ragged black coat covering him. The top of his head was covered in half-long, unruly, matted orange hair.

When the boy looked up Isshin looked into two large chocolate orbs.

The small boy did not speak, the only move he made was using his small hands to clutch onto Isshin's pants while his large eyes slowly began to water.

Unable to think of any other way to react Isshin grabbed onto the boy as fast as he could, as if he was afraid that his son would disappear once again.

Once he had successfully dragged the small boy inside he noticed the dirt that covered the boy from top to bottom, and in his back he could feel the burning gazes of his daughters.

As he turned around to face them he saw the tears that were streaming from their eyes.

The girls were a mere 5 years old when their dear nii-san disappeared but they never forgot him in the year he was missing.

They both gazed at the form of their older brother, Yuzu slowly walked towards the unmoving boy whilst Karin reluctantly held herself back.

As both Yuzu and Karin started hugging Ichigo, Isshin noted that the tears in the boy's eyes had dried and he was staring with lifeless eyes towards his sisters.

Since it was one of the rare moments that Isshin was utilizing his intellect, he carefully pried his son from his daughters' arms and took him in his arms.

As Isshin elevated the small boy, Ichigo slowly lost consciousness and slumped in his father's arms.

However Isshin did not fail to notice that his son had become lighter over the past year, and the only thing that had grown was his hair.

'Ichigo is going to take a nap' he told his girls while he cradled the unconscious redhead in his arms.

It seems they understood what their father meant as the twins slowly and reluctantly nodded while dragging themselves back to the table.

Isshin threw the girls his classic goofy smile with an apologetic edge while he dragged Ichigo to the upstairs bathroom.

When he finally placed Ichigo on the chair he carefully removed the ragged black coat that covered the redhead's small form.

When he threw the dirty coat aside he felt his heart stop, his worst presumptions were coming true.

As he looked upon his son's small form he saw that the slightly tanned skin was littered with, scars, bruises and even fresh wounds.

His knuckled fist turned white when his eyes fell on the boys pelvis, the flesh was littered with bruises in several different shades.

The evidence was clear, however he could not allow himself to lose focus.

The most important thing at the moment was Ichigo being home, shocking details could be discussed later.

Isshin calmed himself as he slowly drew a bath for Ichigo.

However Isshin was a mere man and thus, unable to contain his anger and the feeling of powerlessness he hit the wall beside him with his white fist.

As the wall slightly cracked he cursed himself for losing his power and being reduced to such a state.

He lost his wife and he was unable to save his only son from a cursed faith.

What cruel fate, that the power he gave up to save his wife was the one thing he needed to prevent his son from being lost.

As the damp of the hot bath slowly filled the bathroom and condensed on the mirror Ichigo eyes slowly began to flutter.

Isshin was slowly lowering his bruised son into the warm water when Ichigo woke up with a shock.

He began to tremble in his father's arms, when he noticed he was still being constrained Ichigo began to trash around heavily and fell harshly into the water when Isshin let go of him.

When Ichigo noticed his position he slowly lessened his violent trashing and let his bruised limbs soak in the hot water.

His eyes were dull as he looked at the man beside him.

The man had spiky black hair which flowed into a thin beard with eyes in a dark brown shade.

The sight before him filled Ichigo with a melancholic feeling.

His lifeless eyes lay upon the large man which stood above him protectively and unknown feelings brimmed under the edge.

When he tried to make a sound to acknowledge the large men, Ichigo could only produce a shriek.

He repeated it.

He repeated it.

He repeated it.

Then the shrieking stopped and he felt himself unable to continue.

Ichigo then began to use his small hands to claw at the man before him, an act of confusion as paranoia and fear filled the apathetic redhead.

When the man's eyes were also filled with confusion Ichigo began to use his hands to claw at his own neck. Red scratch marks formed on the tanned skin as Ichigo continued scratching his own neck.

Isshin looked at his son's neck before using his large hands to stop the boy, he almost faltered when he noticed that there were several similar scars beneath the fresh scratches.

He quickly snapped out of the confusion to grab the small arms harshly and attempted to calm the trembling form beneath him.

Once again Ichigo attempted to use his voice but trembled again when he was only able to produce an even softer shriek.

It was then that Isshin noticed what his trembling son was trying to achieve, talking.

'My beautiful son, can't you speak?' Isshin asked in a cooing voice.

Ichigo tried processing the words that the man was saying to him.

'Son?' 'Speak?'

Was the muscular man before him his father? That was impossible.

Where was his real father?

He started looking around frantically while shrieking at an almost silent volume.

Ichigo felt the fear fill him to the brim and his eyes filled with tears of longing, for his real father.

He wondered who the man before him was, claiming to be his sire.

The man was nothing like his father, he was obviously lacking the intellect, gentleness and power.

He snorted inwardly as he forced himself to calm down.

His father had told him to always keep his composure.

Ichigo then continued to ignore the strange but familiar man as he started scrubbing himself.

He flinched as the goat-faced man reached out to touch Ichigo's tan skin and he lashed out at him once again.

As he looked upon the feral, silent boy before him Isshin decided that he only had one option and he grabbed his cell phone out of his pocket while keeping one eye focused upon Ichigo.

When he verified that Ichigo was relaxing in the hot water he quickly scanned his phone for the number he longed he wouldn't have to call.

After reluctantly pressing the dial tone Isshin waited for the man to answer:

'Hello, this is Urahara'

Ichigo sat in his suds and the cold water as he waited for his supposed father to come back and lift him out of the high tub. He snorted inwardly when thinking about the fact that he was unable to scale the bath because of his wounds.

He readied himself when the door swung open, throughout the door walked in a man with a striped hat, clogs, blond hair and a stubble.

The abnormal man had a strange grin on his face which irritated Ichigo, and he felt a form of relief when his fake-father walked in.

'Hello Kurosaki-kun' the man spoke, his grin turned into a frown when he glanced at Ichigo's bruised form.

Ichigo reacted by clawing at the unknown before him and making his quiet shrieking sound.

'He's quite feral isn't he Isshin?' the man said as he directed his grin at Ichigo's faux-father.

Isshin grabbed his son out of the bath as his frown continued to deepen, this allowed Urahara to look upon Ichigo. He was a boy too small for his age, his body littered with scars, bruises and lacerations.

As Urahara looked away from the form before him he turned towards Isshin who started to speak:

'His body has been abused several times, he is unable to speak and he has shown no sign of recognizing me or the twins.'

Isshin glanced downward as het spat out the truth of the situation.

'I'll look him over' Urahara cooed noticing that Isshin was not willing to discuss it any further.

He channelled some reiatsu into his hand while Isshin forcibly held his son down.

Anyone could see the reluctance on Isshin's face while his only son clawed at him and thus Urahara quickly scanned the squirming boy.

As he dissolved the reiatsu running through his hand Urahara turned towards Isshin.

'It appears the scars and bruises are not the only damage that Ichigo has received' Urahara started.

'His vocal cords have been removed completely, there are also traces of foreign reiatsu running course in his body.'

'It is possible to remove the foreign reiatsu but this would either result in traumatizing amounts of pain or death.' Urahara ended his last sentence with determination to convey his seriousness to Isshin.

'Will he regain his memories of the past years?' Isshin asked with his eyes cast downwards.

'It is very improbable, but I am unsure of what exactly has happened to him.'

'Then I guess we'll have to make new memories for him' Isshin said as the spark in his eyes was reignited.

~~ Time skip~~

His silence had not helped Ichigo throughout his youth, in combination with his bright red hair Ichigo was a magnet for bullies and fights.

The constant torture of the fights and his inability to speak up for himself had plastered a constant scowl on Ichigo's face.

He did not have many friends and the only person that he treasured was his friend Yasutora Sado with whom he could share his silence in bliss.

They had a bond build on mutual trust, which was quite surprising since trust was not an simple matter for Ichigo.

His lack of memories, his inability to speak and the scars that adorned his body made trusting quite the challenge for the bullied red-head.

Even though his body had become immensely strong over the years he was still unable to overcome the shackles of his past.

He spent his days in a fleeting manner, his vision on the world apathetic.

The only things that stirred his mindless existence was the killing, the delicious killing.

He would go out and kill the beasts that killed his mother, called hollows, like his father had instructed him.

He would don his claws and kill everything that came onto his way.

Tonight would be another night, and thus he went through the numbing routine of daily life.

He ignored the glances at school, he ignored Uryu who seemed to hate him for some reason and once again he was on his way home again.

There was one last obstacle in his way; dinner with the people whom claimed to be his family.

As he walked through the front door he changed his honest scowl to a fake smile.

He worked quickly through dinner, occasionally he felt himself throwing an honest smile towards the twins.

He had truly come to like the both of them, they had always been nice and they had grown on him.

However he was unable to like Isshin, he simply could not like a man who pretended to be his father. He was nothing like him, no one was.

Ichigo dragged himself upstairs, he could finally kill again.

The urges had started not long after he had been forced to leave his fathers side and was dumped to be raised by his faux family.

It had started small, as he would enter a daze when the smell of blood wafted in his face.

Next came the claws, his hands losing all of their colour and a black substance coating his finger to form sharp tips. He could not remember when these first signs had evolved into full on bloodlust and killing, mainly because he could not remember the times when he entered a blood daze.

What he did remember was the fear he felt at first, not being in control of his own body, however once he learned to embody his darker side he came to love it.

It was never easy though, since his father loathed his urges for some reason and he felt fundamentally different from the other kids.

Isshin suffered a small breakdown when Ichigo had first shown him his clawed hands with a somewhat crooked and frightened smile on his face.

Since then he was forbidden from playing outside with his sisters or the other kids, in the fear that someone got a wound and Ichigo would be exposed to blood.

Isshin also started to give him 'lessons', in which Ichigo was taught the difference between good and wrong killing. It was good to kill hollows, however it was taboo to kill humans.

Ichigo never understood the difference but followed Isshins orders nevertheless.

The orange haired boy was not obedient by nature, but ever since his disappearance he felt compelled to listen to people from whom he felt a large 'aura' of power.

Deciding to stop dwelling on the past Ichigo plopped himself down on the bed for a quick nap, tomorrow marked 6 years since he last saw his father.

As though in reaction to his earlier reminiscing, his sleep was filled with dreams of the past.

He looked around as he was hit with a wave of nostalgia, his clawed hands were covered in blood and his mother's corpse lay before him.

However he did not faint, he used his small body to walk towards his mother's corpse

He looked upon his mutilated mother, he ran his clawed finger over the lacerations as he felt the smell of blood waft in his face.

And the lust inside him grew as he licked the crimson blood from his fingers, with every lick he slowly came into a trance. When his hand were lapped clean he moved his claws towards the large cuts which ran across his mother's figure, he started by tracing the crimson edges of the wounds but it did not take long before he stuck his claw into the wound and ripped out the abdomen.

He then moved the bloody organ towards his mouth and he began chewing on it, when the blood and power entered his system he felt his trance slowly turn into a high.

When he moved to rip the heart out of his mother's chest her limp arms suddenly shot up and coiled around his neck.

The hand covered in dried crimson blood slowly started to strangle him, in his small form he felt unable to free himself.

He moved his black and white hands to claw his mother but his short arms were unable to reach her.

As Ichigo looked into her eyes she started to speak:
'you killed me, again!'

He froze as he heard the words come out of her mouth.

He had killed her? Again? What was she saying?
He then opened his mouth to scream, something he had not been able to do for 6 years.

He used the last of air that remained in his lungs to produce a piercing scream which slowly turned into a feral growl.

When the red-head felt himself starting to lose consciousness he blinked when he was abruptly freed.

His mother's corpse cracked beneath him and disappeared, the small boy fell from her strangling grip and fell to the ground.

When he looked up a smile spread across his bloodied mouth.

'Father!' The boy practically squealed.

He threw his crimson arms around the body in front of him and clutched onto it.

'Yes Ichigo, I have come for you!' a husky voice spoke.

The blood on the small boy's frame stained the white coat of his father.

He bathed in the happiness of the moment as he suddenly felt his own blood drizzle from his mouth.

When he looked below him a katana with a green handle was wedged through his heart.

The last thing he heard before he lost consciousness, were words that twisted Ichigo's mouth into a crooked heartfelt smile.

'And now you will come for me' the voice whispered to him as Ichigo fell further into the embrace and his eyes fell shut.

Note: second chapter is finished, another 'cliff hanger'. Since Ichigo is a born Visored, I decided that his hollow side had started to leak into his human body due to the trauma of his mother's brutal death, this resulted into his hollow attributes such as his claws and bloodlust.

Thank you for reading and feel free to leave remarks or suggestions.