Hey Everyone!
As i haven't seen you all for a while I figured I'd keep this short. =)
I do not own Bleach or any of it's characters!
Do people have hope just because they can't see Death standing behind them, or because they have faith that their friends will come to their aid?
Ichigo's frown deepened as he thought back to the two white auras that circled within the small parakeet known as Yuichi Shibata.
According to Urahara, having two spirits reside in one body was unheard of unless you were a Shinigami. Chad had said he had been given the small parakeet yesterday by a friend, but for some reason Ichigo knew that the gentle giant had left something unsaid. What that was, Ichigo had no idea but he was determined to find out.
"Ichigo, to the side!" called Yuzu sounding somewhat rushed.
Ichigo quickly pushed himself against the wall as he heard one of the squeaky gurneys the belonged to Kurosaki Clinic rushing towards him. "Yuzu?! What's happened?" called Ichigo after her only to quickly dodge yet another gurney being rushed past by Karin. "Karin?" he asked only for Yuzu to poke her head out of the emergency room.
"There was an accident; a big car wreck at the intersection!"
"An accident?" he asked, "How bad?"
Yuzu was about to respond when Isshin could be hear yelling from his office. "I told you; four cars! What do you mean not enough space! We can't treat them all here! There's gotta be somewhere!"
There was a frustrated growl, "Listen you! Tell your boss this is a request from Kurosaki! Yeah, Kurosaki! He'll find me some free beds real quick!" yelled Isshin slamming the phone back into its cradle.
It wasn't very often that the paternal figure of the Kurosaki family was serious, in fact earlier that morning he had found an old bubble-blower and was giggling like a two-year old on sugar, but aside from that, when it came to saving lives Isshin Kurosaki was dead serious. So when his father had told him to 'assume the foetal position and stay out of the way!' that is just what Ichigo did.
Being blind, Ichigo knew he wouldn't be much help in this kind of situation.
Suddenly the doors to the clinic slid open and Ichigo felt the young child-like spirit of Yuichi enter the clinic, and Ichigo knew that wherever Yuichi went, so did Chad.
"Whoa! We got a big one here! Ichigo, help me with this giant!" called Isshin as he rushed past. Hurrying over, Ichigo swung one of Chad's arms over his shoulders.
"Chad! Chad what happened?" asked Ichigo dragging him over to one of the free beds with the help of Yuzu while Isshin raced off to get some equipment.
"Hu...? St-Straw...berry?"
Ichigo held in a snappy retort as he sat Chad down on a bed. Stepping back, his eyes narrowed in thought as he allowed Yuzu and Isshin to take over; whatever kind of wound Chad had, it absolutely reeked of hollow.
After a short episode in which Chad tried to leave the clinic only to collapse, Ichigo found himself in Chad's room on guard duty.
"Chad... do you remember how I once told you about my spirit duties?" said the orangette softly. Hearing a rustling of sheets, Ichigo assumed that Chad had turned his attention towards himself. "Your parakeet... has the soul of both a young boy and a parakeet inside of him. I have a feeling that someone is playing with you, or Yuichi."
A tense silence spread throughout the room before Chad spoke up. "I made him a promise... I'm going to save both him and his mother."
"Who, Chad? Save them from who?"
There was a long pause before Chad spoke up. "I can't see him, but Yuichi says he looks like a huge black monster with a white mask... like one of those hollows you once told me about."
Ichigo clenched his fists tightly enough to create small red crescents in his palm. It wasn't often he came across a hollow who enjoyed messing with his prey; usually they were too starved to bother. But this time it seemed that he had come across a particularly sadistic one.
And he hated it.
It had been the same type of hollow that had taken pleasure in killing his mother only after it had taken his eyes and made her listen to him scream.
A sad chirring caught Ichigo's attention and he turned to the dual-soul of the parakeet. "Yuichi?" he asked softly.
"It's all my fault... You keep getting hurt 'cause of me."
There was a short rattling sound and soon Yuichi's soul's moved onto Chad's lap. "I made a promise Yuichi," muttered Chad. "I won't break it just because I got hurt."
"I'm sorry... I'm really sorry. I just want to bring mom back to life."
Karakura's nightlife was nothing out of the ordinary; a harmony of crickets and bugs chirping away contently. The minor seismic tremors originating from beneath the Urahara Shōten however were not.
Ichigo cried out in anger as he swung Zangetsu in a great arc, decimating a bolder a few feet away before loosening his grip on the hilt and letting the swords bandage slide through his hand until the blade became an airborne weapon. Tightening his grip on the bandage once more, Ichigo swung Zangetsu above his head, building up momentum.
Feeling power building up in his chest, he channelled it into Zangetsu before releasing a huge wave of raitsu, keeping the blade swinging above his head.
Once the dust from the attack cleared, a crater had swallowed everything within a fifty meter radius but Ichigo who stood at the centre of the destruction, panting in frustration.
"Bad day, hu?"
Ichigo turned around to 'look' at the ladder which led back up to the Shōten.
"It's playing with the kid, Urahara... telling him that he could bring his mother back. That fucking hollow is playing with him!" yelled Ichigo, swinging Zangetsu at another bolder towards the back of the underground room.
"Well... what are you going to do about it? Are you going to let that hollow keep messing with the poor kid? Or are you going to stop moping and get out there to hunt some hollow?"
Ichigo sighed heavily and lowered Zangetsu.
"It makes me wonder; if a hollow had offered me the same deal, I probably would have taken it..." he murmured, caressing Zangetsu's blade, lost in his memories.
"Ichigo. We've been over this; you were seven years old. There is nothing that you could have done." said Urahara sternly, making his way through the rubble of the underground room towards Ichigo.
"You had absolutely no experience with Hollow's, not to mention being a Shinigami, but now you've learnt from it. It sounds cruel of me to say so when it's caused you so much pain, but with your knowledge you can now save others from the suffering the same fate."
Ichigo stood still for a moment, contemplating Urahara's words, before he inhaled deeply and raised his head. "I suppose your right. Let's go kick some Hollow butt!" He smirked.
"I think we ditched him, somehow." murmured Chad, leaning up against the flimsy wall of the old factory.
"Wait mister... you're in danger." chirped Yuichi softly.
Chad rubbed the side of his face, "Don't worry, I'm fine. I'm nothing if not sturdy. So..."
Hearing the wall he was leaning against begin to crack, Chad grabbed Yuichi's cage and leapt to his feet, bounding away just as the wall broke down behind him.
"It found us! We're outta here." he grunted, sprinting out onto the streets.
"Mister..." Yuichi whispered.
Chad smiled down reassuringly at the small Parakeet, "Don't worry; we're going to make it. And I promise... I'm going to save your mother too."
As the large teen ran down the streets, he heard his long-time friend call out to him.
"Chad! Duck!"
Having learnt long ago to trust Ichigo even if he was blind, Chad did as he was told and ducked, feeling a strong gust of wind, as if someone had taken a swipe at him, rush above his head moments later.
"Get outta here Chad! Go!" the teen yelled.
Despite not being able to see Ichigo or the monster he had been running from, Chad nodded in determination and took off once more, trying to put as much distance between Yuichi and the monster as he could.
"So you're the bastard who enjoys messing with little kids, hu?" hissed Ichigo, tightening his grip on Zangetsu.
The hollow turned to Ichigo, analysing the teen before him then laughing a few moments later.
"A blind brat! HA! Is that the best Soul Society can do?! What are you going to do about it white-eyes!" laughed the hollow.
"Unfortunately for you... I'm not under Soul Society's jurisdiction." smirked Ichigo, swinging Zangetsu above his head.
"Darken the Skies... Zangetsu! Let's make this bastard feel our pain!"
The hollow chuckled darkly, "We'll see about that!"
"It's your kind of Hollow that I hate the most..."
The hollow gasped as best it could with the blood flooding it's mouth at Ichigo's feet, Zangetsu's blade poised on the edge of its mask and his tongue, now just a lump of flesh, lay a few feet away.
"You let that child suffer; you killed that boy's mother and led him on a sick twisted game for your own amusement." hissed Ichigo pressing down on Zangetsu's blade. "I'll let you in on a little secret; it was a hollow just like you who took my eyes from me... do you want to know what else they took from me that night?"
The hollow glanced up at Ichigo's own dead eyes which almost deemed to glow in the gloom brought on by the Shinigami's blade.
"He took my mother."
-SHRIKT-
The bone white mask began to crumble.
"Your soul is too dark to cleanse... I hope you enjoy Hell."
A bone chilling shriek of terror filled the air as the hollow was impaled on the sword of the underworld and pulled into the gates of Hell.
"Good riddance..." muttered Ichigo, listening as the skeleton guards closed the gates once more. Sheathing Zangetsu, he walked calmly down the street, setting off to find Chad and Yuichi.
Down a few blocks, Ichigo found Chad and Yuichi already being lectured by Rukia on the benefits of soul society.
"The Soul Society is a nice place! You'll never be hungry, and you'll be happy! It's better than here!" she insisted.
"Rukia, back off."
Ichigo walked up to the Mexican teen and pet him on the shoulder. "He's gone. I'm sorry I wasn't able to do more." He said before pushing past an open-mouthed Rukia and kneeling down to be face to face with the small parakeet.
"I can't really tell you how great soul society is... I've never been there myself. The midget probably isn't telling the whole truth either, but what I do know... is that you'll find a family there, maybe even your mother." He said smiling softly. "You have to promise me something though; become stronger, and protect the ones you care about. Can you do that for me?"
Rukia glanced between the parakeet and the teen before her in disbelief. Never before had she seen a Shinigami interact this deeply with a soul, it seemed almost as if Ichigo were speaking to a younger brother. What also shocked her was the total change in Ichigo's demeanour; from the punk who-gives-a-shit teen, to the compassionate elder brother.
Yuichi nodded in agreement, smiling in a way that only birds could.
"Alright then, it's a promise. I think Chad wants to talk to you a bit; I'll be back soon, okay?" smiled Ichigo.
The teen stood up and grabbed Rukia by the scruff of her uniform, his smile gone, replaced by a grim scowl, and dragged her down one of the side streets despite her protests.
"Hey! Let go of me! Let go!"
Ichigo ignored her cries and dumped her onto the floor, a fierce growl making its way up his throat. "I don't know what you're playing at Shinigami but I warned you once already. Stay away from me and my family! Don't for a minute think that that doesn't include my friends." He hissed.
Rukia scowled, "What's your problem! I haven't done anything to you to deserve this mistrust!"
"Trust me! Your kind had done more than enough! Go back to Soul Society where you and your kind belong and keep out of Karakura!"
"I have a job to do! I'm not leaving until it's done!"
Ichigo snarled and drew Zangetsu, causing Rukia to take a cautionary step back.
"This is your last warning. You can stay until the moment your work is done, but if I sense that you or any other Shinigami have been anywhere near my family..." he warned, pointing Zangetsu in her direction.
The threat hung in the air like a fog as Ichigo sheathed his blade.
"I'd say see you around, but unless you have a death wish you better hope I don't."
Hope you enjoyed it!
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