Chapter Text
Ichigo loves the Sun.
The sunshine on his face during Karakura’s damp winter feels like his mum giving him hugs. (Her long hair glowing even lighter under sunshine).
Ichigo is okay with rain.
Rain makes his shoes wet ands his trousers damp, he hates how un-comfortable they stuck to his body, peeling them off always feels like reining in a horse. Does he know how does reining in a horse feels like? Of course not. But the effort those cowboys put in on TV sure looks like how he felt when he wrestled his damp pants. His dad tried to imitate (a new word he learned from Ossan few weeks ago) a cowboy to charm his sisters several times before. It’s so goofy and embarrassing to watch, even a 4 year old Karin side-eyes him. Yuzu was very into it though, even when Goat Face does that goofy dance with invisible horse in public she still claps along, always attracting so many people looking at them with annoyance and disapproval. He and Karin was hiding their faces behind their mum, if they can’t see the onlooker’s pitying eyes then the embarrassment would just go away, (it didn’t. The embarrassing Goat Face goofed the entire way home, Ichigo and Karin punched him on the nose for that).
Ichigo is okay with rain.
Sure, rain makes everything un-comfortable, but after rain always comes Sun. And the Sun comes with the bonus of mud puddles to play with. His little sisters loves him making squeaky noises with his mud-covered rain boots. Their mum agreed to take them to the river bank after school today, to play with the new mud puddles and importantly, making Yuzu and Karin laugh.
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Ichigo jumps into another puddle, making a bigger squeak under his dirty boots. His sisters giggled behind him, followed him to jump into the mud. They only managed to make a little puff than a full squeak, Karin looks disappointed while Yuzu looks down at her own rain boots looking confused.
“Don’t worry! You can make bigger noises when you grow up like I am!” Ichigo puffs up his chest, because it’s his duty as the big brother to cheer his little sisters up. “How ‘bout we try that bigger puddle over there?” He points to a mud puddle further away, but it’s twice the size as the one they were standing in. “The bigger the puddle the louder the noise can be right? First one get to it wins the first jump!”
His little sisters beams at him. Yes! Good job! Ichigo fist bumps himself, disaster averted. His little sisters runs ahead of him, trying to get the first splash in the fresh mud puddle. He begins to follow them, pretending to run so they can get the victory over him.
Something splashed into a puddle behind them, was his mum joining in the puddle jump too? He looks over his shoulder, smile turned into fear. His mum’s umbrella was in a puddle, she was facing away from him and his sisters, there were giant monsters with holes through their bodies around them.
Ichigo is scared, he froze at where he was. All the monsters looks at him with hunger, he can FEEL the bad intentions off them, he doesn’t know how but the air suddenly feels different, heavier than before the monsters showed up. His mum didn’t freeze, pulling out of a glowing blue bow from somewhere and aims at the ugly monster closest to them.
Karin and Yuzu is still ahead of him, if he just unfreeze his body and chase after them, maybe he can still escape with them. It’s a long way from home, but he’s a quick runner, he can piggyback his sisters too.
He looks back ahead and starts running. Karin froze in the middle of the mud puddle staring at the monsters around them with wide frightened eyes. Yuzu dosn’t seems to notice all the monsters at all, holding onto Karin’s sleeve nervously.
“Karin-chan? What’s wrong? Why is mum and Ichi-ni doing that?”
Ichigo opens his mouth, “RUn——.” Something slams into the side of his head with a bang, he crashes onto the bricked banks and slumps down into the cold muddy ground.
Everything after is a blur with noises and screams he never wants to hear again.
He knew—, he felt—, he hears the crunchy noises his right arm and shoulder makes, it lays uselessly limp next to him. Just like that terrible dream memory, from the sad spirit. His body hurts so much, his head feels weird like his brain is rattling and his ears rings. He needs to get up, Karin and Yuzu is right in front of him, he needs to get them home safe.
But his body is just not moving. ‘Get up! GET UP!!’ Ichigo thought desperately, he can’t gave up now. Breathing feels so hard as he barely pushes himself up on shaky limbs. He tries to breath out of his mouth instead, everything taste like sweet metal. Why is everything taste like sweet metal?
Ichigo looks up with blurry eyes, trying to find the bright yellow raincoats of his sisters. The yellow blobs are getting bigger, why are they getting bigger? He can see the fear on their faces now, why are they running TOWARDS HIM AND NOT RUNNING AWAY?! He opens his mouth, trying to tell them to run away again. His shaky legs gives away under him, mud covers his face and stops his words from leaving his already not working mouth.
Tears runs down his face, he did his best to push himself up from the mud. Karin is finally dragging Yuzu away from him now. 'Yes! RUN!!' Ichigo is feeling slightly relieved, maybe his sisters can get away from all this. He trusts his mum can hold the monsters back long enough for the twins to run home, Ichigo is happy to play as the bait for the monsters if it means his sisters can get away.
That hope is shattered before he can get back up again. He watched helplessly as his sisters getting strikes down, an ugly monster picks up the sobbing Yuzu and opens its’ mouth—-
A blue arrow hits the monster on the mask and it spits Yuzu back out. Ichigo thinks it had spitted Yuzu back out with something else, his eyes are getting too blurry to see it clearly again, he feels like throwing up.
“ICHIGO! Run!!” It’s his mum’s voice, mum is telling him to run. Does she mean leaving her behind? Ichigo don’t think he can pick up Karin or Yuzu to run right now. But, -he pushes himself back up again-, if his mum asks, he will do anything.
Something changed in the air. Ichigo looks over his good shoulder, the one that isn’t feeling like crumbled cookies. More monsters are showing up, this newer group was led by a much smaller monster with 4 long horns on its’s shoulder, the air feels even heavier now.
What feels like giant hands grabbed onto his legs, making him fell into the mud again. Then his legs made the same gross noise as his shoulder. It HURTS!, it hurts so much. Ichigo can’t help the tears running down his face, he’s scared. Too scared to look back at his legs; too scared to look back at his sisters; too scared to look up to see more monsters.
Mum was screaming something, he can’t hear her, Ichigo never heard her scream like that before. He looks up to see her running towards him, her cream dress was half red now. The small monster comes behind her and takes her down. Ichigo wasn’t able to do anything but watch.
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He passed out at some point, it’s hard to remember anything with his head hurting this much and his ears ringing screams. Ichigo opens his eyes to see more monsters coming closer through his mum’s brown locks. she's on top of him. He felt with his only good hand, her back is wet and sticky. The monsters are still getting closer. But Ichigo can’t do anything, his mum feels like dying in his arms and he can’t do anything.
Ichigo grasped at her wet jumper with his cold cold fingers and tries to shout as loud as he can.
“Help! Someone HELP!! DAD HELP!!” Nobody answered, nobody came. Tears running down his face into the cold puddle under his head.
“HELP!! ANYONE HELP?!!” Who else? There are no one else except the monsters almost over him now.
Who else?! WHO ELSE??!!, “HELP ME! Mura…MURAMASA!!” Ichigo screws his eyes shut, that’s it. At least he will die with his mum.
Something inside him awakens and roars. Something changed deep inside him. Something is pulling his broken bones together from the inside.
Everything around him stopped.
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There are several classes of hollows.
Adjuchas. They are much smarter and stronger than Gillians, and are often the ones who lead Gillians into battle
Gillians are composed of hundreds of hollows
Hollows are the dead relying on their instinct to survive
How would a normal hollow react to a Vasto Lorde? A class of beings that their stronger fellows bowls at the shear strength of a Vasto Lorde’s presence?
Listen to their instincts and survive til another day?
Follow their urge to fight like their heart desires?
Try to be opportunist and savage anything left behind by such force of nature?
Or down right stunted in any decision making.
Unfortunately for the Hollows present, indecision would proof deadly.
The opening of a Garganta nearby signals the arrival of another powerful player to this exhibition of slaughter.
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When Aizen Sōsuke planned this little test for his experiment project, he did not expect to yield some serendipitous results beyond his control.
The boy is yet to display any signs of reiatsu usage in the past nine years of his short life. A puzzling development, with his hybrid heritage in tandem with his impressive reiatsu reserve, Aizen had expected at least one of his parents would begin to nurture him in the control or manipulation of his power. But no, both of his parents turned a blind eye to the boy’s potential, ignorantly avoiding teaching him any method to rein in his uncontrolled power.
Therefore a test is needed. If the experiment failed to progress on its own, then a catalyst will be inserted as encouragement.
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The two girls was eliminated first, as expected, either inherited enough traits of power to survive the onslaught.
The Quincy mother performed better than she did more than a decade ago. However, she was still loosing her defence, quantity does at times, overwhelms quality.
The main test subject of his experiment did not perform well in the first stage of this evaluation. He failed to sense the numerous reiatsu sources around him; too shocked to allow his survival instincts to take over his little body. Aizen frowned, was his young age the reason for this poor display? If there was any trace of the Hollow that was inserted into him, he would at least have the survival instinct to either escape or lashes out.
Something is awakening in the boy. Aizen watched in fascination as bright blue veins crawled up his bare legs, a fraction of a second before a Hollow would sever the limbs. He still falls from the impact, but he still have both of his legs attached to his body, only suffering fractures or minor breaks in the bone. A Quincy technique activating on its own? How peculiar, for a mixed blood to have this ability without any prior training.
The Quincy mother is on her wit's end, she stumbled over to the boy, pulling the blue veins on her entire body and shields her son with her own body. The Adjuchas pulled back to inspect its handiwork, this one had a tendency to toy with its food before devouring them. Undoubtedly, it will take a few more less lethal strikes before ending the mother and son. Would the boy finally do something astonishing on the break of his own death? The death of this boy would be a massive loss. Or, Aizen smiles, what would happen if the soul already containing traces of Hollow becomes a Hollow? There are so much potential developments here.
The answer came soon enough, when the hybrid boy finally awakens from shock, wailing something incoherent to the Hollows around him. Aizen looked on with disappointment, what a childish behaviour, he had more hope for this boy than just verbal attack.
Suddenly, a burst of immense reiatsu buried out from his body, still hidden under his mother’s dying corpse. The unquestionable reiatsu of a Vasto Lorde. Ah, finally he has awaken. The Hollows around him froze in shock and fear. Aizen watched on, for the next minute and half, all the pathetic creatures were holding back from the instinctual fear of death befalling themselves. The Adjuchas is the first to recover, pacing around the duo, tempted to attack but coward to the unknown. The rest were slowly following their leader’s action, getting braver with their pact mentality.
Between the testing ground and Aizen, the space above the flooding river warped, distorted, then begins to open.
Oh? This was unexpected, Aizen arched an eyebrow at the opening space. Someone had opened an Garganta, someone in white and purple stepped out of the opening, the Garganta closes behind them. What a strange being, Aizen focused onto this newcomer, an odd reiatsu signature with both shinigami and Hollow intertwined, but not one of his own Arrancar, none of his army would have wore this much colour.
“Aizen-sama, we had not ordered any Arrancar to be here.” His diligent follower informed him from his right.
“Aehh~ this doesn’t look like one of our own, can’t see any mask on this one. What do ya think Aizen-taichou?” His mischievous follower asked from his left.
He hummed softly, “Let them be, our mysterious guest might bring more welcoming news other than themselves.” Their white and purple guest locked onto Aizen’s experiment, waved a hand towards the circle of Hollows while pulling out a zanpakutō in a flash of purple reiatsu, Shunpōed into the mix and begins to dispatch Aizen’s catalysts.
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Aizen watched with slight annoyance as the uninvited guest stopped the culling game his Hollows were playing with the Kurosakis. He had higher expectations for the Hollows than being simply wiped out with ease in this feeble manner. Concurrently, this proves their guest is stronger than they looked. His curiosity was hooked now, what is this being? Another naturally occurring Arrancar? Or was there other parties experimenting with Hollowfication on shinigamis? How could they summon a zanpakutō in the air? A new ability or Kidō perhaps? How enthralling, there are so much mysteries that are waiting to be uncovered.
The being peered at them as the last Hollow died under their zanpakutō. Narrowing their icy eyes at Aizen and his subordinates, still clutching tightly onto their zanpakutō.
Mildly disturbing, this newcomer is sharp, somehow managed to detect he and his followers while they have donned Urahara’s cloaks. He unsheathed Kyoka Suigetsu, bring up the blade between himself and the gaze of this new being. Just a touch of illusion, keeping the attention away from them.
The being narrowed their eyes on Aizen’s blade, tilted their head, then runs their scrutinising gaze at Gin and Tosen.
“I shall dealt with this intruder Aizen-sama. This experiment had already have too much outside interference over the years.” Tosen rest a hand on his own zanpakutō, moving to attack the strange being. The being followed Tosen’s movement with their icy eyes.
He raised a hand to block his loyal subordinate from striking out, “No, I want to see what more our new guest can do.” The icy eyes followed Aizen’s own hand as well. Aizen frowned, the illusion he had casted should have convinced this being that all three of them were absent from this location. Kyoka Suigetsu’s hypnosis is perfect, this being had never touched his blade, what was the evidence that this being is tracing?
Tosen fell back with an apology, but Aizen is more focused on their mysterious guest. He lowered his arm with further arching movement than needed, the pale eyes followed his arm. So this being can see him through the illusion by Kyoka Suigetsu, how interesting. As soon as Aizen’s posture relaxed, the being turned around to approach his little experiment. He rests his hand on the hilt of his zanpakutō again, ready to cut down this mysterious guest if they decided to kill Aizen’s pet project, as much as he was entertained by this being, the Kurosaki boy is worth more than this newcomer.
Aizen withdraws his hand as the newcomer kneeled down by the boy and his mother. So, an ally to Kurosakis then, he turned around, the boy will survive.
“Let us return, Gin, Kaname. We have achieved what we seek to do today.”
“Yes, Aizen-sama.” Tosen opens a Garganta at his command.
“Hai~~ Aizen-taichou~”
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How fortuitous, Aizen mused, to discover both the new player in his experiment and confirming the boy can utilise both his Quincy and Hollow qualities simultaneously. He wonders what more can the mysterious guest bring to his little project.
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A game of slaughter greeted Muramasa as they exited the Garganta. They knew their other-half is in trouble before they opened the Garganta at Front London, but they were not expecting this.
A ring of Hollows gather around something on a drizzling river bank, the entire place reeks of fresh blood and wet soil. None of the Hollows were attacking, there at least half a dozen Menos Grandes lead by an Adjuchas. The reiatsu signature in the centre feels…comparable their current self, a concoction between the power of a zanpakutō and Hollow, no, not a mere Hollow, a Vasto Lorde.
Nevertheless, the voice that have called out for them is somewhere among the gang of Hollows.
Muramasa summons their sword, using the distraction to bind the Hollows and went down to work.
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Just as the last Hollow disintegrated past their blade, Muramasa felt the familiar connections, succinctly. They swiftly turned to face where the zanpakutōs were, narrowing their eyes at the three figures dressed in dark cloak, observing Muramasa and this massacre among the rolling storm clouds.
Shinigamis? Why were they only stood by rather than saving lives as their job description entailed? Those cloaks appears to be dampening their reiatsu signatures, even so, the signatures of zanpakutōs were unmistakable. These shinigamis can disguise to all their heart’s contempt, but Muramasa knows zanpakutōs better than shinigami currently in Gotei 13, the soul’s of zanpakutōs cannot lie. They reached out to the zanpakutō in Shikai, inquiring about her wielder’s intentions for attack. She replied quietly in negative.
Sparing one last glance at the three in dark cloak, Muramasa left them alone. Those shinigamis have not displayed any intention of direct bodily harm and Muramasa have more urgent business to take care right now.
They found the source of the immense spiritual pressure coming from a human boy, covered under his presumed mother’s gravely injured body, their reiatsu signature shares too much likeness to not be a blood relative.
A strangled little whimper came out under the dying woman’s body, followed by a slightly louder murmur, “Mura…ma…sa?”
They gasped, this is the boy! The other-half of their soul that Muramasa had been searching for! They knelt down by the boy, he had substantial injuries too, both he and the woman above him will need urgent medical attention if they wanted to survive.
Before they can form a word of greeting, their battered lungs gave in. The violent coughing brought up much more blood than usual, the blood creeping down their eyes made it harder to see the boy’s features in between the coughing fits. ‘Was this amount of exertion already too much for our failing body?’ They grimaced behind their hand, trying to recover their breaths.
“Muramasa?” Fear and hope laced into the quiet mumble.
“Yes, I am here, by your side as promised, Master Ichigo.” They squeezed out between gasps.
A little sniffle responded their greetings. “Um, ‘an you pass me m-my mum’s ‘hone in ‘er ‘ocket? An’ try to sto’ ‘er bleedin’ ‘lease?” The later half of that order was more a mumble of letters than words, but, they have received their first two command from this new wielder, their body followed without thinking.
The three zanpakutōs had suddenly evaporated. Muramasa looked up, scrutinising the space they have last sensed them. The one in Shikai is Kyoka Suigetsu, flanked by Suzumushi and Shinsō. Why was their shinigamis here? Muramasa needs a more lucid head to ruminate, the worsening migraine is hindering their capacity to ponder, they pushed their speculation down for now.
They rolled the presumed mother of their new wielder off his little body, laying her down carefully, then tightens multiple spiritual threads around the worse wounds on her torso. A temporary solution, the best they could provide right now. Looking over to where their new wielder lays, he had put down her phone, the emergency phone call must have ended.
Muramasa approached him with a slight stumble, vertigo is coming back, their own damaged body is suffering under strain. Muramasa grind their teeth and knelt down by his side again, his pupils are blown, his small body was loosing heat. Muramasa hopes medical assistance would arrive soon, their other half is right here, so close to reach. ‘But will he make it?’ He will have to. Muramasa rebukes, if they are delusional enough then perhaps it will become true.
Brushing his messy orange locks aside to check his temperature again, something about his face looks familiar, but where? The humans of Asian decent in Reverse London were a rare sight, Muramasa was certain they have not seen a similar face among the human population there. They let the boy’s damp bang fell back on his face. His pale lips mouthed something, they lowered their head to listen.
“…’m sis’ers, they ‘live?”
Sisters? Muramasa looked up, there is some more pools of blood further away.
“I will check, please do stay alive.” Before rising again, They brushed away few drops of blood on his cold cheek with the back of their fingers, hoping the extra act could offer some warmth and comfort to his cold body.
The scenery felt disorientating, they groans, that nausea is coming back with vengeance. Still, Muramasa had an order, so they moved on, powered on by sheer will.
There were deceased bodies of two little girls, they look similar in age, a few years younger than Muramasa’s new Master, is this the ‘sisters’ he was referring to? They bent down slightly to take a closer look. Their death was inevitable, the small girl with light hair had been bisected, her shoulder and head was a few steps away from the rest of her body. The girl with dark hair was missing most of her torso, inner organs and both of her lower legs. Both have injuries beyond what human body can recover from. Muramasa pushes on their knee, breathing heavily from simply standing. They looks down at the remains of the girls again.
Their soul has yet to leave their bodies, if they do leave their body before Ichigo would be ferried to a Hospital, Muramasa will perform Konsō for both of them. ‘We are very out of touch with Konsō; we hadn’t need to perform one for centuries.’ The little voice reminded them, “I know, my muscle memory still knows how to perform one, you needn’t to remind me.” They looked back at where their young Master lays, “What should we tell him? Painful truth or comforting lie?”
There is a pained whimper from the woman they had been putting constriction on. Ah, perhaps there won’t be the need for them to choose after all.
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Kurosaki Masaki knew she was fighting a loosing battle. The number of Hollows was already overwhelming, then that Adjuchas showed up with several Menos Grandes, sealing the fate of her children and herself.
Something is seriously wrong, there shouldn’t be this much Hollows here all at once. Her Blut is failing, she was concentrating all her power into Blut Arterie, she can’t use Vene while attacking. Karin and Yuzu were both too far away, both laying in a puddle of blood surrounded by Hollows. She shoots a barrage of arrows to keep the Hollows away from her daughters, she hopes that can stop the Hollows from eating their little bodies. ‘They were already dead. You knew from their reiatsu—.'
Masaki grinds her teeth, NO! Do not think that way! There is still hope, she turns to Ichigo. His little body is also in a puddle of blood, he gasps a horrible noise out of his little chest. That Adjuchas is going after him. She diverts all her remaining reishi into Blut Vene and shields Ichigo with her own body.
—Something digs deep into her torso then exiting from her front, her forehead digs into the mud, Masaki fells into darkness—
She wakes up briefly, her face cold and wet. Oh HER BABIES!! THE TWINS!! And where is Ichigo?? Her little boy?
—Her memories fragmented—
Ichigo lays limp under her body, his little limbs are ALL IN THE WRONG ANGLE!
—White statics—
Her little Ichigo was saying something, to who?
—Tightness envelopes her bleeding torso but without pain, must've been the blood loss —
A pair of pale turquoise eyes; borderline inhuman. She instinctually pulls at her Ransōtengai but not enough reishi around her.
—Lightheadedness—
people over her talking, smell of disinfectants, the bed she was laying on bumps as if they were driving over speed bumps. ICHIGO! There is something different about her little boy’s reiatsu, but he is still in the vehicle with her. Where is Karin and Yuzu?
Cold needle pressed under her skin, her eyelids droops down involuntarily.