"No way are you running from me!" Masaki exclaims brightly, rushing forward with her hands outstretched. Nine year old Ichigo squeals in delight when Masaki wraps her arms around his waist.
"Mama!" Ichigo laughs loudly as Masaki hugs him.
"Caught you, my beastie!" Masaki states brightly before laughing. "You won't escape me so easily!"
Ichigo smiles brightly and turns around, hugging his mother back. He grabs Masaki's hand as they continue to walk across a bridge
A wet shuffle from below makes Ichigo turn his head. He switches hands with his mother to walk closer to the railing.
"Ichigo? Did you hear something?" Masaki asks, curious and bright.
Ichigo leans over the railing and strains his ears to listen. He hears another shuffle and heavy breathing.
"Mama, I think someone's hurt!" Ichigo states, looking up at his mother with wide eyes. She always said he needed to help people when they're hurt–that aren't hurt because of him.
Masaki narrows her eyes, her hand tightening around Ichigo's. She glances at the overflowing river before sighing.
"Alright! Let's go check! But be careful, Ichigo." Masaki smiles brightly down at her son.
Ichigo was too young to notice her apprehension and tension. Ichigo was too young to pay attention to the late night news the past few weeks when all he wanted to do was hang out with his mother.
"We'll be arriving at Karakura Honchō station, passengers that will disembark at the station please wait until the train has fully stopped to approach the doors," The announcement startles Ichigo out of his unwanted memories. He lifts his head from the warm glass, tired eyes glancing around.
A businessman was ignoring the message, arguing on the phone while standing in front of the doors. A mother was calming her crying infant while holding the hand of her two year old. A group of teenagers, clearly skipping class, were giggling and laughing at whatever they were watching on one of their phones.
Ichigo rubs his face, sighing heavily. He didn't expect to fall asleep. He takes out his phone and checks if anything important had come up while he slept. A name appears at the very top of his notifications, making Ichigo blink.
Inoue Orihime:
I hope you're doing well, Kurosaki-kun! Tatsuki-chan told me you were visiting this week!
Tawny eyes narrow at the message. Hurt and betrayal wells up and sticks to the back of his throat. Ichigo resists the urge to smash his phone on the ground and instead hovers his thumb over the keyboard.
"We have arrived at Karakura Honchō station. Thank you and have a nice day. We have arrived at Karakura Honchō–" Ichigo stares at the message a moment longer before he gets up from his seat. He grabs the duffel bag next to him and leaves the train. His fingers swipe out of the messages and into his contacts, pressing the call button for Karin.
It barely takes a second before she answers. "Ichi-nī! Finally! You said you'd call when you entered Karakura!"
"Sorry Karin. I fell asleep." Ichigo can't help, but smile at his sister's voice. "I just arrived at the station. I'll be there in ten minutes. Has Yuzu started cooking?"
"She started an hour ago, rambling about how we need to make all of your favorites." Ichigo could practically hear the eye roll... and the smile.
He chuckles quietly as he starts walking out of the station. Ichigo glances around, only for a moment, to gather his bearings before he turns to the left.
"I'll be there soon," Ichigo says quietly. Karin stays silent before huffing loudly.
"Stupid Ichi-nī. Don't get in trouble," Karin states, hanging up right after. The orange haired man smiles at Karin's usual goodbye and shakes his head. Some things never change.
Ichigo walks down the sidewalk with his hands stuffed in his hoodie. He glances around the busiest side of Karakura Town, his smile gone from his face. It's the same as always. Drab and painstakingly normal.
He looks to his right and spots the old bridge over the Karasu River. His feet stop at the path that branches towards it.
An impossibly heavy weight crushes Ichigo's already strained lungs. The pouring rain hitting his eyes makes his face scrunch up. Cold... he was cold. He was freezing...
He opens his eyes, staring up at the old bridge above the Karasu River before lowering his gaze. Rain soaked orange hair fell limply over him. Ichigo's breath stalls when the dots snap in place.
"Ma...ma. M-mama... Mama." Ichigo lifts his shaking, blood soaked, hands and shakes his mother's shoulders. "Mama. Mama! Ma-Mama... you–you gotta wake–wake–wake up. Wake up!"
A throbbing pain in his hands makes Ichigo snap out of his thoughts. He glances down, opening his fists. Blood starts to seep through fingernail shaped cuts.
Ichigo takes a stuttering breath, clenching his eyes shut. He counts in between his breaths as he hugs himself. He'll make his sisters worry if he walks up with blood on his hands.
"Five days. It's only five days," Ichigo tries to reassure himself. Ichigo takes another deep breath before opening his eyes. He steps towards the bridge, keeping his gaze at his feet. He continues to hug himself as he walks past the place where everything changed.
If only... If only he had ignored the noises... his mother... the sun of his universe would never have been killed.
Despite "Town" being in the name, Karakura Town was more of a small city than an actual town. With a population over 100,000 and a more than decent number of medical businesses, it was actually quite hard for local clinics to survive. Well... for all except the Kurosaki Clinic.
Ichigo, through his own curiosity and attachment to his mother, learned what a medical student learns as he grew up. After "Mama" being his first word, the next was "prescription", "sedative", and "bacterial". He learned how to read through medical books after picture books got too boring. He learned math through calculating prescriptions and IV drips.
He was, and still is, good at medicine and science. If he cared about people's opinions of him, he would have long gone to school for medicine and take over his family's clinic once his father retires. The thing is, Ichigo only cared about his mother's and his sisters' opinions. And they wanted him to pursue his dreams–his talent and life in his art.
It was a sore subject. Isshin thinks Ichigo is wasting his life away–a life he already believed to be worthless. Ichigo knows he can catch a break, even if he has to fight tooth and nail for it.
It's what caused that argument almost a year ago in the first place. And Ichigo doesn't regret it.
Ichigo stares at the front door of Isshin's house. His hands itch to claw at his own skin. Ichigo does not want to be here at all.
A sigh leaves his mouth before he opens the door. Ichigo steps into the house, already slipping out of his shoes.
"I'm here!" Ichigo calls out loudly, closing the door behind him; not too loud to scare his sisters, but enough to announce himself.
Ichigo smiles softly and drops his duffel bag when running footsteps quickly get closer. He barely has time to open his arms before a small blur of light brown and pink barrels into him.
"Onīchan! Onīchan, I've missed you!" Yuzu exclaims, voice muffled by Ichigo's hoodie. Ichigo laughs quietly and rests a hand on the 16 year old's head.
Yuzu was the same as always, and yet was beginning to blossom into her own person. Her hair was its normal light blonde, reaching down to her shoulders in messy waves. Her brown eyes still held that bright innocence that Ichigo savagely fought to keep there, yet held a familiar maturity and perception. She still wore her pinks and her dresses, only Ichigo could clearly see she was beginning to grow into a beautiful young woman he was absolutely proud to raise.
"I've missed you too, Yuzu." Ichigo can't help the bright tone despite his exhaustion and trepidation to being back in the first place. His sisters always made his day brighter.
Yuzu raises her head, eyebrows furrowed and a heavy pout on her teary-eyed face. "Onīchan, you've gotten skinnier! Are you sick? Have you been making enough money? Do Karin-chan and I need to get jobs?"
Ichigo internally winces. He didn't realize he'd lost even more weight. Remembering to eat for himself was hard!
"I'm fine Yuzu. Promise! I just... forget," Ichigo defends himself with his hand raised to swear on it. Yuzu pouts even more before another set of footsteps shuffling down the stairs.
Karin seemed the most different by her appearance, yet still was the same ferocious girl that just defined her. Straight black hair reaching her mid-back in a ponytail, and dark eyes that glittered in unnerving intuition and perception of whomever they laid upon. She started to crop tops, it seems, but still kept the jeans and the worn tennis shoes. Ichigo even spotted a faint purple shadow on her eyelids. The ferocious girl that Ichigo would still protect with his life is becoming even bolder as she grew. He couldn't be prouder.
"Yuzu, stop hogging Ichi-nī! I haven't seen him either!" Karin states with a scowl as she walks over with her hands on her hips. Yuzu turns her head and sticks out her tongue at her twin sister. Karin's eyebrow twitches, making Ichigo sweatdrop.
"Girls. I'll be here for five days. You'll both have plenty of time to spend time with me," Ichigo says before a fight could break out. Both girls point their glares at Ichigo, both of their eyes narrowing at the same time at his amused smile.
"You two..." Ichigo sighs and moves Yuzu underneath one arm before raising the other. "Come on! I have two arms for a reason, Karin!"
Karin's face flushes a bright red, an annoyed huff leaving her mouth. She quickly gives in with a pouting scowl and rushes over to hug Ichigo.
"Stupid Ichi-nī," Karin mumbles as Ichigo holds her tightly to his side. Ichigo hums noncommittally before kissing the top of Karin's head.
"Silly Imōto," He retorts warmly. Karin lightly hits his chest with a glare, still hugging him.
"...missed you..." The black haired teenager mumbles into Ichigo's side.
"Missed you too. Both of you, so much." Ichigo reluctantly breaks the hug with a smile when Yuzu takes a step back, literally impersonating the sun itself.
"Ichi-nī, you must be starving! I've made all of your favorites and Karin-chan went to the store earlier to get you that milk tea you like! You have so much to tell us!" Yuzu exclaims as she grabs her big brother's hand and drags him towards the dining table.
"Has anyone commissioned you recently? Have you been living comfortably? Have you been socializing?" The light blonde continues without a break to even breathe.
Karin rolls her eyes, grabbing Ichigo's other hand to follow them. "Yuzu wants to know if she should be cooking for another person."
"Karin-chan!" Yuzu shouts, scandalized that her twin would call her out so easily.
"You think too highly of people actually wanting to give me a chance," Ichigo states with a small look towards his little sister. Yuzu puffs out her pink cheeks, making Ichigo sit in the chair at the end of the table before she sits to his left.
"And you think too lowly of yourself, Ichi-nī," Karin retorts, backing up her twin's silent protest.
Ichigo glances at both of them with a look. He sighs quietly, shaking his head. Silly girls trying to get him to find love.
"...no, Yuzu. You won't need to cook for anyone else. Not yet." Ichigo avoids the almost argument about his appearance and his severe self-esteem issues with a ten foot pole. Yuzu and Karin glance at each other, wide-eyed and mouths open.
"Not yet? Wait, Onīchan–you–are you talking with someone?!" Karin explodes, rising from her seat and slamming her hands on the table.
"Kurosaki Karin! What have I told you about slamming your hands on the dining table when it's already set?!" Ichigo scolds lightly, immediately casting a small glare towards the teenager. He sighs quietly and accepts Karin's sheepish expression as her apology, already knowing she won't drop his words.
"I... think so. He... has a teasing nature, so I don't know..." The young man answers the question slowly, trying to pick the right words.
He doesn't speak about the yearning he constantly has for the man. He doesn't speak about how he wants to draw him, nor about the way he wants to just touch him. This has to take some patience. Ichigo has to be patient.
One step too fast and everything, everything that Ichigo wants–everything that he needs will be gone forever. He'd rather die than let that happen.
"Ichi-nī, you're so silly!" Yuzu states brightly. Ichigo blinks back into reality and stares at his little sister.
Yuzu smiles, fully believing in what she says next, "If it's Ichi-nī, no one would ever tease you like that! You're too pretty! Inside and out!"
Ichigo stares at her with wide eyes, frozen where he sat. Red starts to crawl up his neck as the words process in his mind.
"Look at what you did! You broke him!" Karin exclaims with a wand waving towards their big brother, not disagreeing with what her older twin had said.
Yuzu just sticks out her tongue before she leans over to grab the spoon she had put into one of the dishes she made. "Onīchan, let me fix your plate! You must be starving!"
Kisuke looks up at the clear sky, wiping the sweat off of his forehead. Today was just unbearably hot.
A hum leaves Kisuke's mouth as he continues to walk, twirling his cane to a silent beat. It's a shame Ichigo would be gone for the next few days.
"There it is!" Kisuke brightens at the familiar silhouette of an old apartment complex. He doesn't pay attention to any of the incessant whispers and stares as he walks by. He's not surprised by it really; he's not exactly a common face around a district like this. Kisuke rarely went out of his own home and his work... until he met Ichigo.
Kisuke walks up to the crappy apartment complex. His hands start to shake in his unbridled excitement as he opens the door to enter.
His expression becomes cheerfully blank when he steps through the door. A musty smell hits his nose first before the noise comes next.
The walls of the first floor looked stained by floodwater, wallpaper peeling and years of hidden mold growing to make it stain this badly. The carpet was old and worn, making Kisuke's skin crawl even when he had shoes protecting his feet.
A woman sat inside the office near the front door, music blasting through her phone as she read a magazine. Kisuke walks past the office and twirls his cane once more. He glances over the mailbox names, pausing when he spots Ichigo's last name.
"305B..." Kisuke mutters under his breath and uses his cane to lift open the flap. No mail. Ichigo likes to keep track of his mail, then.
The blonde hums again and lowers his cane before he walks towards the stairs. The flap bangs down, making the woman inside the office look up from her magazine.
"I've told you all so many times to not make any noise!" The woman shouts angrily before she goes back to her magazine.
Kisuke hums a soft tune as he opens the door to the stairwell. Old, creaky, and clearly in desperate need of repairs.
"None of this will do. Not for Ichigo-kun..." A frown is the only thing to break Kisuke's blank expression. He sighs quietly and begins his trek up the stairs.
If he managed to convince Ichigo to move in with him... would he be better off? Kisuke doesn't even use the second bedroom, and it's easy to renovate one of the walls to be all glass. If he recalls, that room was built with the perfect view of the skyline.
Kisuke smiles at the thought of Ichigo living with him. So many things would be easier. So many things he could do with Ichigo... So many things he could do to him.
He takes a deep breath and pushes the thoughts away before they could settle further in his mind. Patience–he has to be patient.
The first step is making sure Ichigo's home is secure, and safe to live in. His chances are better if he has time to get everything ready. Of course, if something happens, there's always room to keep Ichigo locked away until he falls in love with him.
But, he'd rather go through with making Ichigo fall in love with him first before keeping him for himself. It would be irksome to fake his beloved's death in such a way that not even his sisters would question it. And that would probably shatter anything possible between the two if Kisuke took away something Ichigo loved dearly.
"You're certainly making this a challenge for me, Ichigo-kun," Kisuke sighs quietly, a small smile growing on his face. It just makes the love burn hotter in his veins.
Kisuke stops before apartment 305B and faces the worn wooden door. Weirdly enough, there was a brand new lock on the door compared to the others on the same floor. Ichigo was either rightfully paranoid or still caught in old habits.
The quirky scientist doesn't bother to check his surroundings as he takes out a small leather roll from the inside of his haori. He unfurls it, smiling down at the gleaming lock picking tools he brought with him. Time to get to work!
It took Kisuke a bit longer than he expected to get into the apartment. As he stepped through the threshold, Kisuke takes in the almost too clean scenery in front of him with pleasant surprise.
The apartment looked the same as the entire building, yet it's clear that the man who lived here cleaned almost every day. There was no musty smell; it actually smelled wonderfully addicting with Ichigo's normal scent of paint and jasmine flowers. Dozens of canvases leaned against the walls
Kisuke's eyes narrow at the sight of only a decently patched up couch on its last legs, a laptop resting on a milk crate in front of the couch, a rolled up futon, and a cramped tiny kitchen. He walks towards the kitchen first, not before politely taking his shoes off.
The kitchen barely looked used, and the oven didn't even seem to be hooked up. There was an old vase of jasmine flowers sitting on the cluttered dining table forcibly squished into the kitchen, well-taken care of. Kisuke opens the old fridge and scowls darkly at the amount of food inside–or lack thereof.
"Does he not make enough money for food? No... I looked up how much waiters at that restaurant get paid. Ichigo-kun makes enough to live decently in this apartment... does he starve himself? No. Not purposefully anyway. Accidentally? Then he's so used to going without food, he probably forgets." Kisuke's thoughts race to find a reason for Ichigo's severe lack of food.
He glances at the wrapped bowl of seasoned baby potatoes and rice. "Food might have been a struggle to get as he grew up. Ichigo-kun must have made sure his sisters ate their fill. But... his father... was he doing the same? No... that doesn't make any sense. Ichigo-kun's father runs a pretty popular family clinic. Then why...?"
A sudden stab of bloodlust makes Kisuke's mouth curl into a snarl.
No one hurts Ichigo!
He's mine!
I should have his father's eyes gouged out.
I'll rip out his stomach with my own hands!
Kisuke shuts the fridge with a harsher than necessary slam. He takes a long, deep breath as the bloodlust simmers underneath his crawling skin. Kisuke turns back towards the dining table and spots a striking flash of red.
"Is that..." Kisuke walks forward and gently brushes away the few papers laying on top of the crimson red. His eyes behold the beautifully drawn carnage drawn with reverent rushed strokes of pastels on the paper.
Dozens of corpses lay across the blood soaked ground, most ripped apart with bright splashes of purple thistles sprouting in droves. A deceptively lithe man stood in the middle of a massacre wearing a wine red yukata with a grey obi belt tied around his waist. The front of the yukata was loose, revealing a muscled chest and fiar skin.
Striking quicksilver eyes stared back at whomever looks at the drawing, a soft smile adorning a slightly sharp face. Blood splattered over the man's face and pale blonde hair that hung over his face and shoulders. The sun laid right behind the man, barely touching the horizon in the unfinished sky.
Kisuke reaches with barely shaking fingers and touches the silhouette of the drawn man. His eyes shined in excitement and curiosity. It was him. Ichigo drew him. Ichigo was drawing him.
"...I like drawing what a person's appearance and personality would fit in if they interest me..." Ichigo's voice pierces through his head as he leans his head back. He stares up at the water stained ceiling with wide eyes, a grin slowly growing in his manic excitement.
This must mean he loves me right?
He has to love me!
He drew such a beautiful piece about me.
Kisuke chuckled quietly, his cane creaking underneath the amount of pressure he was gripping it.
He's interested. He has to be interested.
I have to take him! Before it's too late!
He has to be mine! He has to–
Kisuke turns sharply and exits the kitchen. He takes off the bag he had hung over his shoulder and tosses it on the ground before crouching to open it.
Dozens of wires and plugs and small cameras innocently stared up at quicksilver eyes. He needs to make sure that this apartment is safe for Ichigo to live in. He needs to make it secure. And the only way that would satisfy him would be to have a direct security feed of Ichigo's apartment every second of the day.
"Patience... patience. It just means it'll be easier, but don't get too reckless. Don't be reckless..." Kisuke repeats the mantra, softly humming as he takes out one of the cameras and a wire.
He stands back up and glances around. Now... Time to find a few good hiding places for his cameras.
Ichigo tugs at the collar of his shirt, scowling at the sweat practically dripping off of him. It was so hot... too hot.
Ichigo picks up his pace to reach the top of the steep hill, watching his sisters converse with each other and ignoring the ear piercing whistling behind him. He quickly stuffs his hands into the pockets of his jeans to stop himself from punching the person that wraps an arm around his shoulders.
"I bet you wished you wore shorts today, hm? It's wonderful that my son wants to dress like me and endure this horrid heat!" Kurosaki Isshin's booming voice brings a stabbing pain into Ichigo's head. His eyebrow twitches as he attempts to keep his temper in check.
"You can handle his antics for just a day. Just for today. For Mama," Ichigo thinks, taking a deep breath.
He scowls darkly and digs a sharp elbow into Isshin's side. "Fuck off, Goat Face. I don't even own a pair of shorts. And who would want to dress like some trashy pornstar like you?"
"Girls! Ichigo's being mean to Daddy! Tell him off for me!" Isshin cries loudly, racing forward to hug Yuzu and Karin. Yuzu easily dodges the man with a twirl while Karin lifts back her leg. Isshin chokes on air before he suddenly rolls back down the steep hill from Karin's harsh kick.
"You're the one fucking with Ichi-nī! And stop being so clingy, idiot!" Karin scolds their father loudly, barely keeping herself in control of her temper.
"Karin!" Ichigo exclaims with a small glare, making the 16 year old blush a faint pink. She glares back before she turns around with a scowl.
"Oh, look! Onīchan, we're already here!" Yuzu states excitedly, pointing at the cemetery at the right of where they all stood. Ichigo smiles softly as he finally stops walking in front of the entrance.
"Yeah... we've made it in time..." Ichigo surprises Yuzu and Karin with head pats. "Go ahead of me. I'll catch up. Mama will be so happy to see you two again."
"Stupid Ichi-nī. We're going together!" Karin grabs Ichigo's hand, as she always does since the first anniversary, and drags him through the entrance. Yuzu quickly joins in by grabbing his other hand and pulling him forward.
"Girls..." Ichigo sighs softly, glancing at both teenagers in fond exasperation.
"Mama won't like it if we're not together!" Yuzu states brightly, her commonly hidden stubbornness coming through in a blazing inferno.
Ichigo sighs again, but stays silent. There was no point in having this argument again.
His sisters never blamed him, and they always tell him Mama wouldn't either. It was hard to remember, especially today of all days. When Isshin pretended to be a father, even after the years of torment and hurt he put his own children through.
Just because Ichigo was a child who didn't understand that some people were horrible, horrible, monsters and shouldn't be helped.
"Mama... you can be happy about one thing that Isshin has taught me." Ichigo looks up at the stalling clouds, smiling coldly with dead eyes. "He showed me that monsters can take any form. Just like the one that killed you. Just like me."
Hey! Hope you all like the new chapter! Posting it barely in time!
A bit of a longer chapter too! Woo woo!
Dunno what's all gonna be in the next chapter, but I may or may not pick up the pace just a bit. We'll see how it all pans out.
I hope you all are enjoying the story so far! Bye!
WhovianWhoudini