Chapter Text
If his mother’s death was the turning point in Ichigo’s life, her funeral was the warning sign of what was to come. Ichigo didn’t recognise many of the people who showed up to his mother’s funeral besides his estranged uncle, Dr Ishida. His father was a cold stranger who looked at him with malice in his eyes. Two blond men, who exuded suspicious vibes, stood nearby. One, with straw coloured hair, grinned at him, and Ichigo felt a shiver run through his body. The other had platinum blonde hair and looked rather shady. He had a hat that covered his eyes and a fan that obscured the rest of his face. Even though he could not see them, Ichigo felt the man’s eyes studying him like he was a particularly interesting science project.
Neither of them paid attention to Isshin, who was ignoring everyone the only way a man one drink away from being drunk could. The twins were crying and confused, not old enough to understand the permanence of death yet and still asking where mommy had gone. After the service, Isshin walked away, pulling the twins along with him and leaving Ichigo to stand awkwardly in front of his mother’s grave. After one last evaluating look at him, the two strange men drifted away.
Dr Ishida joined Ichigo, standing quietly by his side. The silver-haired man looked down the hill where Isshin had already disappeared with the twins. “Kurosaki-kun,” he said gravely, “if anything happens, anything at all, come see me. Do you remember where I live?”
Even though Ichigo was bewildered at the sudden attention, he answered, “Yes, sir.”
Still looking away from him, Dr Ishida held out his hand for the shy ten-year-old. “I’ll escort you home.”
A month later, Ichigo cried quietly as he wrapped a bandage around his chest to hold a gel pack in place. It was getting harder to hide the bruises from his teachers at school. So far, most of them accepted that he was training harder in karate, but some of them had started asking him peculiar questions. It was getting easier to predict when his father was going to have a bad day and prepare for it. New bottles would appear in the cabinet, and if his father started drinking before dinner was finished, Ichigo knew to get the twins into bed soon after. He considered going to Dr Ishida for help, but once again, he talked himself out of it. After all, he reasoned, it was his fault that his mother had died. His father had every right to be angry with him.
Two months later, Ichigo had been enduring the abuse, but then Karin threw a temper tantrum about going to bed early. It was one of Dad’s bad days, and he was in a hurry to get the twins out of the line of fire. Her yelling drew their father into the hallway. “Karin! Be quiet,” he roared.
“No! I don’t want to go to bed!” she yelled back.
Isshin raised his hand towards her. Before he could hit her, Ichigo slid in between them, head down, prepared to take the blow. Isshin stopped as they both cringed, looking between them. The man grumbled under his breath and stalked away. Unbeknownst to anyone at that moment, Ichigo’s eyes had briefly flashed gold.
The next morning, Ichigo lay in bed and turned over in his head the strange dream he had. For several weeks, he’d been hearing someone whisper to him to fight back, that the voice would help him, if he just decided to stand up for himself. Last night, however, when Isshin had been poised to strike Karin, white-hot rage had filled him, and the voice had howled at him to kill his father. He had found out in his dream who the voice belonged to, a mirror image of himself, with white hair, black and gold eyes, and a sadistic grin. His double had berated him in his dream, pointing out that Isshin had been getting too violent, and Ichigo needed to fight back.
For a moment, his inverted self had hesitated, looking off into the distance. Before he could see what the other was looking at, his white-haired clone took an exasperated breath and spoke again. He had reasoned that if Isshin's treatment was punishment, then why would he raise his hand to Karin? Then his scary twin had taken him on a tour of his childhood, one in which Isshin had ignored him, belittled him, and been generally indifferent. He had also glaringly exposed how his father’s current behaviour was hurting them all. It had been eye-opening, and only served to intensify his grief over losing his mother. The dream had ended with his doppelganger promising to lend him his strength as long as he would just fight back.
Later that day, Ichigo picked up the twins at preschool and headed in the opposite direction of their house. He didn’t tell them where they were going, but the twins must have recognised the route from the few times Masaki had taken them. As they approached the Ishidas’ house, two figures came around the corner dressed in black. They had arrived just in time to catch Dr Ishida and Uryuu returning from Aunt Kanae’s funeral.
“Kurosaki-kun?” The silver-haired man seemed surprised to see them. His eyes swept over Ichigo and immediately darkened. “Come inside. I see something has happened after all.” Once inside, Uryuu herded the twins into the kitchen with the lure of juice and cookies while Dr Ishida escorted Ichigo to his office. The man guided Ichigo to a chair and began to look him over. “Why didn’t you come to me when this started?” He asked as he examined the bandages around Ichigo’s chest.
“I can handle it,” he said instead of answering. “I just want to keep my sisters out of it.”
Ryuuken pulled back and looked at him disapprovingly, but Ichigo just glared back. If his father’s angry scowls didn’t frighten him, then Dr Ishida’s look was not going to do anything. After a minute of staring at him, the man muttered, “You’re just as stubborn as she was.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and then asked, “What do you need?”
“On the bad days, I want the twins out of the house. Can they stay here? I can bring them over after school and pick them up in the morning.”
Dr Ishida was quiet for several moments. “Kurosaki-kun, you realise that with what I have seen today, I can take you and your sisters away from him? That there is no need for you to spend the rest of your life with that man and endure this?”
“You can do that?” Ichigo asked softly.
“Yes. It may take some time, but I am not going to lose more family members.”
Ryuuken explained it would take a couple of weeks for his lawyer to draw up the paperwork and prove the familial connection with Masaki, so in the meantime, he grudgingly agreed to Ichigo’s plan. He also insisted that Ichigo let him take pictures of the bruises as proof of the abuse. Afterwards, he called in Uryuu and the twins and explained in vague detail that on certain nights the girls would have a ‘sleepover’ at the Ishidas’.
Ichigo hurried home after school. It was nearing the end of two weeks, and Isshin still hadn’t caught on that the twins weren’t always home at dinnertime. Ichigo had to check the cabinets before he picked up the twins. Depending on what he found, it would be a gamble on whether or not to take them to the Ishidas’. So far, the lie that they were doing after-school activities, despite their age, had been working. However, he’s unlucky today. Isshin had already closed the clinic and was sitting at the kitchen table. There was an empty bottle sitting on it. He was only able to register his father looming over him before a hand came out of nowhere and slammed him against the wall. “Where are they?” Isshin yelled. “Where are my girls?”
“I sent them away to be safe from you!” he yelled, tired of making excuses.
“What?” the man roared. “You took them away from me! Just like you took Masaki away!” Isshin lunged at him, and for the first time Ichigo dodged, then rounded on his father and hit back. His resistance was short-lived, as the man grabbed his arm and began pummeling him mercilessly. Isshin tossed him against the table, and Ichigo cried out as his head hit the sharp corner. His body fell to the ground, and he was stunned to be standing over it. He looked down and saw that his soul chain was broken, instantly understanding what had happened from the numerous times he had encountered ghosts. Isshin had killed him. He was dead.
Suddenly the rage that he had felt before consumed him. The voice of his doppelganger rang out in his head. “Don’t worry kiddo, I’ve got it from here.” Ichigo let go and let his temper loose. Power like he had never felt before exploded out from him. He snarled as he was attacked once again. He knocked Isshin down, and when the man didn’t get up, Ichigo fled the house. He escaped into the night, instinct guiding him to the riverbank where his mother had died. Black spots swam through his vision as he collapsed onto the grass. The last thing he saw before he passed out was a man with dark brown hair standing over him.