Kenichi and Miu totally conked out around three am. Something that the masters were very grateful for since the videos after that one became considerably darker and more violent.
They had managed to watch the one with Rukia's kidnapping and somehow managed to stay still as they had watched Ichigo very nearly killed- this time for real.
She went up against two armed men intending to take her friend away to murder her for something that they had no real understanding of. And had apparently decided that armed or not, they couldn't have the smaller girl.
She put up a decent fight too.
Managing to injure one of the men fairly badly after nearly being cut in half. Even the masters knew that it was a miricle in itself that she had managed such a feat at all. Especially considering the sheer amount of agony that she had to be in from her arm almost being totally severed. As well as a number of the internal organs falling out of her body.
It was beyond sickening. It was gruesome. And so very utterly horrifying beyond belief to see a twelve year old child go through such a thing.
But they managed to hold themselves together so that they could keep going. The violence escalating bit by blood chilling bit.
Aizen made a few appearances along the way. And the two of them clashed repeatedly. Something that almost always ended in devastation of some kind.
Some people got hurt. And some even died every time it happened.
Some of them were close friends of Ichigo. Some of them were even people who had helped to train her along the way. But almost always- the same thing happened.
They would say this for the girl, she was very good at pushing her pain and suffering aside and simply moving on. And each time that she did, she became stronger, faster, fiercer.
Which was all well and good and everything. Up until...the very last video.
The masters had managed to go through each and every disk almost with a fine toothed comb, and as impressed as they were with the girl's abilities and strength- the very last disk nearly crushed them all under the weight of her personal heartbreak and sorrow.
The video they were watching now was of her family the night that they had died. And showed them the actual events that transpired that dark night.
It was bizarre.
Not to mention horribly shocking to them all to see Ichigo's friend, Rukia deal the death blow to the girl's father, cutting the startled man down before he could really do anything to defend himself. While her two battered younger sisters were dragged away yelling and screaming by some strange men.
"Something is wrong here." Akisame said as he leaned forward a little bit where he sat to examine Rukia a little bit closer.
"Wrong my ass!" Sakaki growled in anger, his hand crushing his half full beer can in his grip as he started to tremble with rage. "That little brat murdered the kid's dad in cold blood just now! How could she betray the kid like that?"
"Calm down, Sakaki." Hayato said. His sharp tone causing the karate master to jump a little bit as Akisame finally said,
"I thought so."
"Huh?"
"Rukia isn't in control of her body," Akisame explained as he pointed to the screen. "Look at her eyes. She hasn't blinked at all for several minutes now. She isn't even conscious! And look here," He said as he pointed to the screen. More specifically, to the girl in a particular scene where the pale right of the room seemed to catch something string-like attached to her. "Look, strings."
"That means that someone else is using her like a marionette." Kensei said sagely as Akisame nodded his head soberly. His expression troubled as he sat back on his heels.
"What?!" Sakaki nearly shouted in utter outrage and was quickly silenced by several hands quickly covering his mouth and muffling his voice as Hayato asked cautiously,
"Do you think that Aizen fellow might have had something to do with what we're seeing here? Do you think he is using Ichigo's friend Rukia for any particular reason?"
"I'm not sure. But just to be safe, I wouldn't rule him or anything else out." Akisame said as they went back to watching the video.
After that, several more people appeared.
Some of them were with Rukia while others- two of the kids that Ichigo usually hung out with- were merely dragged into the Kurosaki's home. And unceremoniously dropped just a few inches from Isshin Kurosaki's body, unconscious and bound.
And not long after everything was set up, Ichigo showed up.
he must have known that something was wrong before she even got there, because to distract everyone in the house- she threw a brick through a window. And while everyone was preoccupied with seeing where it came from, she slipped behind everyone.
It was easier than it should have been- especially for a fourteen year old girl whom had previously shied away from killing- to snap the neck of the first guy that she reached. Startling them all badly enough to make them jump, as she then picked him up and throw his body across the room- scaring the hell out of everyone else.
The next thing that she did was cut the strings that were holding Rukia up and backhand someone through a wall. The fight from there wasn't terribly impressive in comparison to some of the other fights that the girl had been in before the events that stole her family from her.
In fact there was very little finesse or even skill involved in this one.
It was nothing but pure anger and brutality. Honestly, all of them flinched from time to time whenever she smashed someone's head into something or whenever someone screamed in pain from having their bones savagely broken.
She was stabbed several times, and had something small and bullet sized forced through her body in several different places- which was shocking. But not nearly as shocking as the amount of blood spraying from the multiple wounds causing her to stagger a little bit and get herself tackled to the floor.
While she was being punched in the face, Rukia had finally come to and took in the scene before then running to help the others and told them to run before then turning back to help Ichigo.
The smaller girl slammed her shoulder into the guy sitting on top of Ichigo, knocking him over as he threw her into the nearest large piece of furniture. She hit it with a loud thud and then fell to the floor in a heap, but thankfully remained conscious.
"Ichigo! Your sisters! Go get your sisters!" Rukia screamed at her as she tried to push herself up so that she could fight the remaining guy, only to have a coffee table smashed over her back. She was out cold again after that.
Ichigo had been half way to the stairs when Rukia went down for the count and abruptly turned back to go and help her. Giving the guy that had knocked the smaller girl out, a chance to escape as Ichigo took a few moments to check the other girl over for any possibly life threatening injuries before leaning down to pick her up when there was a loud BOOM! and the two girls were suddenly flung through a wall.
Ichigo used her own body to take the brunt of the force to prevent Rukia from being hurt any further. And when she slowly got up and moved back through the wall to see what had happened.
Everything was burning.
The video cut out after that, though the audio still worked.
The masters could hear the kids screaming in agony and crying in fear. They could hear Ichigo trying to knock the door to the bedroom down and shouting at them to move away from the flames.
But her injuries were hindering her badly, and despite her usually monstrous strength- Ichigo couldn't get the door open. The masters all tensed up, waiting with bated breath while the girl kept trying to reach her sisters until the screams died down a bit and the sound of her shoulder ramming into wood went quiet.
That was when they heard the pain filled voice of one of the kids say, "I-Ichigo...a-are you still there?"
"I'm right here. I won't leave you." The defeat in the older girl's tone was audible. And something venomous churned in each of the master's guts at the sound.
"A couple of kids couldn't ask for a better sister..."
"Save your breath Karin!"
"No. I-I really need to say this. And I need you to listen." The younger girl said in a trembling tone. "It's important that you know that you're such an amazing person, Ichigo. In a lot of ways, Yuzu, dad and I can see mom in you. You've always been there for us. You're our hero, Ichigo." Her voice trailed off a little bit before she said.
"Yuzu and I are going to go on ahead. But before we do, I need you to promise us- that you'll live. Live and grow up and have a wonderful life. I-It's what we've always wanted for you. All of us... So please, Ichi-nee...live for us."
"Karin!" Ichigo screamed and then resumed trying to break the door down but then stopped again when she heard her sister say.
"I can see Yuzu, dad and mom... I love you Ichigo. Goodbye."
