The weather was horrible this day.

All you could see around you was the rain hastily crashing down from the heavens, only to meet solid ground as well as the darkening sky as the hidden sun faded away past the non-viewable horizon. All you could hear was the steady beating of the droplets splattering against the cold earth and steel and tile rooftops of nearby homes and apartments.

Not many people would want to go out on such a day like this. Yet two people could be seen hastily walking next to a river that had begun to swell and run furiously through the centre of Karakura town.

These people. A Young boy no older than the age of 9 going by the name of Kurosaki Ichigo and beautiful, brown-haired woman most likely in her late 30's named Kurosaki Masaki, the two were family, the boy being her eldest child and her only son in a loving family of five.

As the mother and son hurriedly traipsed over the waterlogged ground they sent small splashes from the puddles at their feet into the air to reform back into the very puddle that had been displaced.

"Come on Ichigo, we've got to get home before you catch a cold out here." his mother told him after the small child had paused to look out over the river.

He turned to her and nodded.

"Okay Mom! let's go!"

Under the shelter of an umbrella they set off at a steady pace, ignoring the cars that drove by on the nearby road and the roar of their engines as they ventured their own way home from the dreary day of work.

After a few minutes they we just about to pass under a bridge that extended over the swollen river and gave passage for vehicles of all kinds to get to the other half of town that lay waiting on the other side of the river.

Looking up at the bridge above them Ichigo stopped in his tracks and just stared upwards from under the umbrella.

Masaki stopped as well. Since she had been holding onto her sons small hand she had felt him stop and had her arm stretch back behind her because she had still been moving forward when Ichigo had paused to look up.

"What's the matter Ichi-kun? Did something happen?" She asked as she looked at his befuddled expression.

Ichigo just continued to stare at a certain spot on the bridge. He wasn't sure if he was seeing things or not. The spot that he was looking at seemed to be blurred and slightly shimmering as if there something invisible was hanging onto the side the overpass. Had it not been raining he would've completely missed it. But since it was indeed raining at the time it stood out. So Ichigo had noticed that the rain droplets seemed to fall and stop, colliding with whatever the invisible thing was, displaying a cold outline of small runs of water.

Masaki looked at her son and then followed his gaze to see where or what he was staring at so intently. Her eyes looked up and she was nothing. What was there that would make Ichigo stop like that?

"Ichi-kun?" she asked with a small amount of concern as well as curiosity in her voice.

Ichigo soon remembered he had been standing there observing the thing for a minute or two while his mom had been trying to get his attention.

"Oh! Sorry Momma, I'm okay. Lets hurry back home, I bet Yuzu and Karin are waiting for us!" he eagerly spoke out to his mother. Taking one quick glance at the thing he had been staring at before starting to walk off again with Masaki trailing behind him.

Masaki gave a quick chuckle at Ichigo's antics and brought her pace to match with his. She however looked back up at where he was looking as they started walking off. It was then that she saw what he had been staring at, the outline and figure of the thing was just there hanging off the side of the bridge, made more visible but the layer of water running down it's form. She couldn't make out any fine details at all, just that it was tall and had an immense build. Two yellow lights flickered into view for a brief moment, right were the eyes would be if it were a human. Masaki had to suppress a small yelp of surprise when she felt Ichigo tug on her hand to get her to follow after him. How did she get so distracted in such a short amount of time? Looking back up the thing was gone. Maybe it had be her eyes playing tricks on her? No. If that was true then Ichigo wouldn't have been looking at it as well... Thoughts for another day she guessed.

She turned back around and saw her son waiting for her under the overpass seeking shelter from the rain, she gave him a quick smile which he returned in full and then some, as she walked up to him and claimed his hand for them to start walking again.

After several more minutes of walking next to the rushing river and talking about their day as they made their way home, Ichigo had come to a stop again. This time he shifted his gave to the edge of the swollen river, where this time he could see what he was looking at.

A small girl around the same age as himself was standing on the edge of the roaring stream. Her black hair stuck to her head and shoulders, as the rain drenched her clothing that clung onto her small frame.

Seeing this Ichigo quickly let go of his mother's hand and started to run to the little girl to stop her from falling in, all while calling out to her to get away from the edge of the river.

"Ichigo! Don't!" Masaki's cries fell on deaf ears.

She was panicking as she watched her only son run to the girl, though she knew better. She could see the tentacle-like extension that was attached to the top of the girl's head and where the other end of it was attached to. Rushing after him as he neared the girl-shaped lure, Masaki threw herself onto her son in a desperate attempt to protect him.

As Ichigo got close to the black haired child, he was about to reach and pull the girl back when he was something emerge out of the river in a rush. It was covered in a spiky brown fur and rushed at them like a animal pouncing on its prey, the next thing Ichigo felt was something wrapping themselves around his tiny body and knocking him to the ground as the mass of brown continued it's attack and then, darkness.

Several Minutes later

Three people currently sat in an office in the Kurosaki household that doubled as the local medical clinic. The three persons, two of which were seated in front and the third behind a desk, couldn't look any different from each other. The one seated behind the desk was Kurosaki Isshin, a man in his early 40's, spiky black hair and thin black facial hair along his jaw line and chin and a large smile plastered across his face.

"I'm so glad we had time to finally catch up today, you two! It's been so long!" Isshin spoke in a cheery manner, trying hard to not dive out of chair and tackle his two long time friends.

"That it has Isshin-san, it's a shame Masaki-san isn't here at the moment, it would have been nice to see her again since the last time was when your son Ichigo was born." The blonde haired spoke, Urahara Kisuke was his name. He sported a black Haori and a dark green undershirt giving him a very vague 'homeless' feel about him, atop his pale blonde hair was a green and white striped bucket hat and on his feet were a pair of traditional Geta.

"Oh yeah, she would've loved to have seen you two again, but she's out picking Ichigo up from karate practise, they should be home in a few minutes actually." Isshin told Kisuke.

"Speaking of Ichigo, how is the little heart-throb doing?" This time it was a woman who spoke up, her name, Shihōin Yoruichi.

She was a gorgeous dark skinned woman, with long purple hair that was tied up in a ponytail and hung down, reaching to just above her hips. Her clothes were a tight black body suit that seemed to give any kind of restrictive movements. Over that she wore a bright, almost fluorescent orange coloured vest and on her feet she wore a pair of light brown shoes that came up to just below her knees.

"I didn't figure you for a cradle-robber Yoruichi-san!" Kisuke teased, only to receive a smack to the back of the head.

"Stop acting like such a pervert Kisuke!" She scalded as she sat back in her chair having stood up to punish Kisuke. "Although, maybe when he's grown up I'll have a go at him" Yoruichi said with a cheeky smile.

"And knowing you, you'd be able to get him out of his momma's boy phase." Isshin began with no small amount of amusement in his voice. "I swear that boy seems to be stuck to Masaki's hand."

They all begun a round of laughter knowing how Yoruichi teased someone once she had selected them as her victim.

It was abruptly brought to a hold as Kisuke and Yoruichi went wide-eyed and looked at each other, then giving a quick nod, Yoruichi Shunpoed through the house and out the front door as fast as she could. Isshin was confused and a bit afraid of what was happening but decided to voice this.

"What's going on Kisuke?" The worry in his voice was very evident.

"We felt your wife's Reishi flare a few minutes ago, but it was only for a brief second so we thought nothing of it because you had said it happened sometimes when your kids would fall over or hurt themselves in her company." Kisuke explained as the two began to run out of the house after the purple haired lady.

"So what changed?" Isshin said catching up to the hat wearing man after locking the house behind him.

"Her Reishi changed.. Or rather, it vanished." Kisuke told him, his tone grim and dark.

Isshin's heart stopped in his chest and his blood ran cold from what he had just been told. Redoubling his efforts to get there as soon as he could the sprinted off as fast as they could.

Several minutes ago

The only thing Ichigo could hear was the heavy pelting of rain against the ground next to him and against his head, as well as the rushing river that he lay near.

What had happened? He remembered running to stop the black-haired girl from falling into the river that he and his mother had been walking adjacent to and then seeing the furry brown mass jump at him from the very river the girl was about to fall in and then something ran into him from behind and he fell over, blacking out instantly the moment his body hit the ground.

That's when he had noticed that the thing that had barged into him from the rear was now lying on top of the small him, it was soft, but heavy and had its arms wrapped limply around his small frame.

Ichigo tried turning to see what was weighing him down keeping him pinned to the cold earth underneath him, but to no avail. So giving up on that, he slowly pried himself from the objects grasp using the drenched grass and any protruding rock as a hand-hold to help get him out from under the mystery weight.

Finally getting himself free he let out a tired sigh and could help hold back a shiver. He was cold and the rain was not helping with that whatsoever, how long had he been out for?

Not wanting to think on the topic anymore he turned around to see what had hit him and what he'd been wedged underneath that whole time. What he saw made him cry out.

"Mom!" His little voice screamed.

Lying there, motionless was his own mother, her eyes which were normally joy filled and so full of life, were now drained, emotionless shells of what they used to be. Surrounding her was a slowly spreading and washing away puddle of deep crimson liquid that stained the grass and dirt around her.

The centre of his world, the person he loved above all and the woman who brought him to life, his mother, was dead.

His voice rose to a pained cry as he slowly crawled through the mud and blood to get to his mothers cadaver. Every rain drop beating down on his back trying to get him to give up his movement and just lay down in his own parent's lifeblood. He had managed to drag his weakening body over to his mother, he placed his tiny hands on her shoulder and started to slowly rock her back and forth thinking she would wake.

"Momma... Mom, please wake up... Please... Wake up, Mommy..." His voice was weak. He could barely hold himself together from completely breaking down right there, though he couldn't hold back the tears forming in his eyes and running down his cheeks, mixing with the rain and dirt already present on his childish face.

A deep mirthful chuckling became audible next to the small crying child. Followed by an equally deep voice that sounds like someone was talking with gravel in their throat.

"Heh heh heh, mommy's not gonna wake up kid," When Ichigo heard that his head spun around to see who had spoken to him and his vision was greeted by a grotesque looking giant hamster, covered in thick brown that had a face of white bone almost like a he was wearing a skull as a mask but far larger and more deformed than it should be.

"W-wha..." Was all he could stutter our from the shock and fright of seeing such a creature.

"Because I tore the soul right out of her body, AHAHAHA!" The monster laughed out at the child's distress and to further prove his point he lifted up his clawed bird like foot and held someone that looked exactly the same as his mother. The difference being she had a long broken chain attached to the centre of her chest.

"MOM!" Ichigo screamed when he saw her, he was confused. Why was there two mom's? Was that her soul, like the monster said? A low murmur broke his thoughts.

"... Ichi-kun... Run..." His mother wheezed out, clearly in pain from being held around the neck.

He could only hear it slightly but it was enough. Finding strength he didn't think he had in such a tired state, he stood up with his fists in a fight position.

"Give back my mom, you monster!" He shouted at said monster.

It looked at him and then at his mother and broke into a face-splitting grin. It raised the brown haired woman higher tightening its grip around her neck, producing a painful whimper.

"PUT HER DOWN YOU FRE-" Ichigo started a yell but was cut off.

"Ichigo..." Masaki's voice barely a whisper got his attention.

"Y-yes mommy?"

There was a long pause and she struggled to find her breath again, but when she found it she said three words that he always loved to hear her speak.

"I love you..." She said finally with a proud smile playing on her lips. With that the monster moved her closer to its face as it's gaping maw opened up.

What Ichigo's young, innocent eyes saw next would forever scar and traumatise the small child. The monster clamped it's mouth down on Masaki's body, creating sickening crunches and tearing sounds as he devoured the woman's soul right in front of that very woman's son. Her whole being was in its mouth, only leaving the head neck and part of the shoulders left exposed. With a quick twist of the hand and a jerk of the head the upper portion of Masaki tore free and was then tossed at Ichigo who had fallen to his knees crying.

Ichigo having just witnessed the beast consume his mother couldn't hold back any more, the dam finally burst, the poor child was sobbing into his palms as the rain tormented him with it's cold embrace, and the mud and blood of his parent stained his entire body. He heard dull a 'thud' and then something knocking into his knees. Removing his hands from his face he looked down.

Staring back at him was the lifeless face of his mother's soul.

Something in the boy snapped and his arms fell limply to his side. His sad expression ceased to exist and was replaced by an expressionless mask as he continued to stare deep into the dead eyes of his once alive mother, who was now slowly breaking down into glowing blue particles.

The deep, gravelly voice of his mom's murderer started up again, but he paid it no heed, he knew it was just taunting him, he just knew.

"... And now I will consume your- AHCK!" Ichigo had only heard the very last of what he had been saying when it was cut off by a sound that was similar to metal going through flesh, followed by a heavy 'THUMP' and the splattering of rancid, decaying blood over his small frame and the floor below him, all accompanied by a flash of light and the sound of some kind of gun being fired.

He slowly lifted his head up to see what had caused the sudden increase in activity. He was very surprised, but didn't show it.

Lying down in a putrid pile of hair and flesh, as a puddle of disgusting black blood grew and began washing away in the heavy precipitation was the abomination of nature. The main difference being the metallic looking spear that had been impaled through its skull and the gaping hole that had been blasted dead centre between its eyes.

Looking on top of the thing of nightmares, his surprise had turned to astonishment. Standing there was the invisible figure he had spotted hanging from the top of the overpass, rain acting like it had been early, splashing against it's form and slowly running down the curves and lines that made up it's body shape which was distinctly humanoid.

It started moving towards Ichigo, who had yet to shift from his spot or even move at all, aside from lifting his head up to try and get a better look at the being that had saved him from a gruesome and more than likely, violent death.

Something was happening to it as it walked off the mound it was standing on. Its body was becoming visible!

Ichigo just watched as a pale green skin was exposed that seemed to be covered by dark green almost black scales and an equally dark, very heavy looking metal body armor. Eventually it's whole body was revealed and Ichigo looked up with emotionless eyes. The being was easily over twice his own height, maybe around 8 and a half feet.

They both sat there looking at each other, the boy staring into the faceless void that was the metal mask that replaced the taller person's face and said person was staring at the blood covered child, his expression indistinguishable behind the mask of steel.

He had seen the youngling stare at him as he hung off the metallic construct that the humans used for their vehicles to pass over. He had seen the child-bearer spot him as they walked off, the curiosity got the better of him and decided to trail after them a few minutes after they had left. When he arrived at the scene he watched as the infant boy stood his ground against the beast who taunted him with his own elder's soul, but did not move to intervene. Having hunted around this concrete jungle for many months he soon found that the individuals that inhabited it had an 'inner being' that was ejected when their bodies were destroyed or fatally wounded, though these second bodies did not provide trophies when they were killed again, they simply dispersed into a type of particle unfamiliar to him, so he watched knowing that he could do nothing for the child-bearer. He watched as the monstrosity consumed the boy's mother and threw the remains at him, that was the thing that pushed him into action. It was disrespectful to treat the dead as such and even more so that it was the child's life-giver. Did this thing know no honour? His disgust rose when it appeared that the youngling was just staring at the decapitated head of his mother, while the beast seemed to be taunting him.

Drawing the Combi-stick -a large, extendible spear capable of being thrown long distances or used as a staff weapon- that was attached to his hip, he jumped from the building he had been crouched upon. Extending the weapon mid leap he bearing down on the creature. Pointing his spear downwards so it was below his feet, he aimed for the back of its cranium just a few dozen feet away... He hit dead on, bringing his full weight behind the point of the spear and into the beast's head.

When he had landed his feet on the back of its now impaled crown the creatures legs gave out and slammed hard against the wet soil beneath it. He knew it would die and dissipate like the other beast similar to it that roamed this stretch of land. But that didn't mean it couldn't move any more.

His Plasma-caster -a shoulder mounted gun-like weapon that shoots out highly explosive orbs of plasma at long ranges- was aimed at the back of the hollows head and fired, blasting a hole through the back of its head and out the front of its mask spraying it's disgusting flesh and blood over the ground and on the young boy. Normally such method of execution was dishonourable to the prey being hunted, but it did not deserve such pleasantries for its actions against the two humans.

Deactivating his Plasma-caster and closing the distance between them, he watched as the boy stared up at him as he advanced towards him until they were within touching distance, allowing his Active Camouflage to turn off to let the child see his form.

To him, no child should have to go through such thing. He wasn't even near hitting puberty yet and here he was sitting, covered in the blood of his elder and some disgusting excuse for an animal and had witnessed the very creature kill his parent right in front of him. The youngling now reeked of death and despair.

Ichigo watched as the mysterious armoured man crouched down before him. It raised a scaly, green, clawed hand to his face and cupped his chin between its thumb and index finger. As it slowly turned his head in each direction it was letting out a series of what sounded like clicks, growls and hums. Ichigo just stared at the featureless, grey coloured mask, as it appeared to be inspecting him in some way.

With one final grunt he let go of Ichigo's face and grabbed onto the front of his crimson stained shirt. He hoisted the small boy up and stood up at the same time, like he weighed nothing at all. This action eliciting a small 'Eep' from the child and with a quick movement he was slung over the larger man's broad shoulder.

Ichigo didn't care any more, his eyes were devoid of the life that they once had, especially when around his mom. But that part of his life was gone and now he was being abducted it seemed by something that was close to, but not really human, he gave up trying to get his undeveloped mind around all that had happened in the past 15 minutes.

Hearing a series of electronic beeps, followed by a mechanical whirl, the sound of steel against steel and then the rumbling of powerful engines, Ichigo turned his head over his shoulder to get a view.

And apparently his abductor was also not from this planet because not 30 feet behind the dissipating mass of dead flesh, was a spaceship! It's door wide open with a small ramp leading into a red lit interior. Any sense that Ichigo's brain was trying to make of the situation went right out the window.

The alien creature that was currently carrying him unceremoniously over his shoulders begun his walk towards the ship, picking up the metallic spear that had been freed from the confines of the hollow's skull and but still stood, jabbed into the ground by its tip.

As they reached the small ramp and begun the ascension into it, a whoosh of air and the pattering of feet caught both the outer-worldly being as well as Ichigo's attention.

The hulking man turned on the spot.

Having reached the entrance to the ship he dropped the boy as he turned, who instantly collapsed to his hands and knees they both looked to the new-comer and watched as the purple haired female walked over to Masaki's empty body and leant down and placed a light hand on the saturated shoulder.

"Oh, no! Masaki!" The unknown woman said out loud.

A few moments later another swish of air and the heavy thumbing of feet resounded through the area.

"MASAKI-CHAN!" The black haired man shouted whom Ichigo recognised as his father, Isshin, but was unable to find his voice. The third, a blonde haired man looked grimly at the scene before him, his long time friend rolling over his dead wife's body to expose the gaping wound in her front that seemed to be filled with hollow Reishi, however when a line of glowing red entered his peripherals he took his view away from the morbid scene and looked down at his chest to see three red dots in a triangle formation that trailed back in a line of light back to a massive pale green man standing in what looked like a spaceship, with dark armour and a mask that the laser light was coming from and what looked to be a small automated shoulder cannon, the whole thing looked like it was straight out of a Sci-Fi movie.

That's when he noticed the small shape of a bloodied, orange haired boy in the shadow of the beast, he was shaking and wobbling from side to side despite being in a sitting position. He recognised the kid instantly. It was Ichigo. He was about to rush to help the kid, but stopped when the three dots on his chest rose up, past his chin and stopped on his forehead.

Raising his hands and the cane he had with him up in surrender, he spoke to the two still sitting next to Isshin's now dead wife.

"Hey, you two, I found Ichigo." His voice was dark and serious.

"What!? Where is he Kisuke!?" They yelled in synchronization, both turning to see their friend with a red laser pointed at his head and his hands up near his shoulders.

They followed the red trail and both their mouth's dropped open when they saw what Kisuke had been staring at.

Then Isshin spotted his son.

"ICHIGO!" The moment the word left his mouth, the targeting laser and the shoulder cannon turned to aim at him and he instantly grit his teeth in frustration, not knowing what to do against this unknown threat that had his only son behind it on the ship.

Kisuke however was silently drawing the Zanpakutō hidden within his cane, quietly muttering it's release phrase as discreetly as he could.

However the being seemed to notice and returned the dots to him. Upon seeing the weapon on its shoulder start to charge blue he instantly shunpoed over to his friends and shouted out just as the glowing blue orb was fired.

"Nake! Benihime!" As the blood red shield appeared between the two parties, a large explosion ensued as the plasma blast collided with the shield. What was left was the shattered pieces of Benihime's protective red barrier and a large cloud of wet, upturned mud and rock.

As things began to settle they heard the telltale sign of engines gearing up. They looked and saw that the ship was indeed lifting off, the two people there in the closing doorway looking back at them. Ichigo was staring at his dad with lifeless and dead eyes with a face covered in his mother's blood, that slowly dripped off onto the warm metal that he was sitting on.

They all watched as his inanimate eyes turned to the limp body of Masaki that Isshin currently held tightly in his arms. He then spoke. Forever leaving that empty sounding shell of a voice echoing through their heads.

"I love you too Momma..."

I have begun removing the author notes from the earlier chapters of this story.

This is because most of the information and plans in these, for future chapters, has become irrelevant and incorrect. Such as pairings, power and progression.

If you are new to this story: I greet you with kind regards and many thanks for taking your time to read my first real story to be posted on this site and I sincerely hope you enjoy it.