Fate (A Bleach Fanfiction)

Chapter 8: June 17, Memories of Rain

Kuroki's pov

We were walking to Mom's grave, it was really nice outside but it didn't help the mood. We were going up a hill and I heard Dad blow his whistle, while Yuzu complained that the hill was to steep. "I'm fine, it's nothing really." Karin said since she was ahead of us, Dad kept urging Yuzu on and I look forward to see Dad do a handstand. I looked at Ichigo and then we looked back at Dad, who was being a complete and total idiot. "Ignore him Yuzu, if you respond to it they'll just be on your back forever." Karin said, I was right next to ichigo. Dad squinted his eyes at Karin, making me roll my eyes at his weirdness. "You're naive, even if you ignore me I'll be on your back." Dad said and started running on his hands calling it the 'Deadly Dad sliding' and rushes past Yuzu, who held her dress down. "Lookout, Yuzu!" Karin shouted as Dad rushed towards her, Karin got angry and kicked Dad in the face. He quickly flies backwards and rolls down the hill, past Ichigo and I. Ichigo just watched him go down the hill, while I was to busy laughing, "Good one Karin!" I said, laughing at the fact that he rolled all the way down the hill. "Oh grow up will ya, Kuro." Ichigo said and I jumped on his back and started messing with his hair, "Hey, stop that! Get off of me!" Ichigo said, but he continued up the hill to Mom's grave. 

"You better go before Dad comes back." Karin said as we continued up the hill. Finally making it there I was still on Ichigo's back, since I didn't want to walk and I'm usually clinging to him. As we made it up the hill Ichigo and I spot Rukia standing at the top of this small cliff just across from the grave and we deny knowing her. "She looks familiar. Like I've seen her before." Karin said, "She's one our high school classmates and we gotta go talk to her alone." Ichigo said "Go up to mom's grave, we will be there in a little while." I said and Ichigo rushed towards Rukia with me still on his back, he grabs Rukia by the arm and pulls her into the grove of the trees.

"What are you doing here?" Ichigo asked, sounding a little annoyed by Rukia. 

"Why were you following us?" I asked, looking to Rukia. "What would you two do if I wasn't by your side when a hollow appears?" Rukia said, "Well if you were going to follow us, you should do it more inconspicuously." Ichigo said, "Are you angry?" He asked, but she denied it. "Ichigo, Kuro... Do you know who killed your mother?" Rukia asked and I looked down, burying my face into Ichigo's back.

I was always so emotional as a little girl especially on the day that Mom died, I never liked to talk about it. "Since you two have been able to see ghosts for as long as you two can remember. Do you think your mother was killed by a hollow?" I looked up at her in shock, "Since you both seem to have high spiritual powers its highly possible a hollow was after you it's likely that it killed your mother by mistake." Rukia added and my eyes widened, as I got off his back. "I'm done with this, with your hollows with everything!" Ichigo yelled, walking up to her. "You are incorrect." Ichigo said, his tone scared me. He never usually got that angry with someone unless they bothered the family or talked bad about mom, which wasn't often. "But it wasn't a hollow who killed my mom, the one who killed my mother was me." Ichigo ran off without another word, which worried me. 

I looked down at the ground as tears clouded my vision, and a tear rolled down my cheek. "I'm sorry, Kuro. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it." Rukia came towards me but I backed away from her grip and shook my head at her, "Rukia, I can't believe you thought that a hollow killed my Mom. Ichigo blames himself but I was there that day. I was the one Mom fell on top of and had her blood all over my clothes. Although he blames himself for mom's death I feel responsible, for not telling him to not go over there. He shouldn't blame himself I should be the one to blame when Ichigo went down there I followed and mom followed after trying to get me to come back to her but I didn't listen and she died because she was trying to protect us." I said as Rukia looked at me, "I-." I didn't bother listening to another word, as I ran off. I ran past Mom's grave, heading to the one place I needed to go. I have a spot I go to when I need to be alone, usually I came to this spot  when I visited Mom's grave. I finally made it there and crawled up the tree and closed my eyes. Memories of Mom flashed through my head, as well as that day by the river bank.

"Momma! Momma! Why won't she wake up Ichigo? Ichigo, what's wrong with momma?" The little me cried in fear, tears streaming down my face. "Ichigo, I'm scared." I hugged him and just held onto him.  Ichigo wrapped his arms around me, staring at Mom's body in horror as I cried into him.

"Kuro!!" I heard a voice and looked down from the tree to see Mari standing there, "Mari, what are you doing here?" I wiped my tears away and looked down at her. "Rukia is trouble. Kon went to get ichigo." Mari said, "What do you mean she's in trouble?" I asked hopping off the tree, "Some guy is threatening Rukia." I grabbed Mari and started running, she explained everything. I ran into ichigo and Kon first and headed in the direction of where Rukia is, "Rukia!! Rukia!" Ichigo yelled, "Ruki!" I yelled and we finally reach Rukia but there was a man standing in front of Rukia. "Rukia, who is that?" Ichigo asked, "Who are you two?" The guy asked, "Mari, who is that?" I shifted my eyes over to Mari, who sat on my shoulder. "That's Eikichirō." She said, "We are substitute soul reapers." Ichigo said. Eikichiro laughed and pulled his straw hat down lower, he was giving me a bad feeling.

"You know what your doing Rukia, is a felony. It won't be fun to fight a gigai." He threw his hat away, before charging at us both. We both dodged it and the second one, I reach into the stuffed rabbit and pull out the pill. I swallow it emerging as a soul reaper, I pull out my zanpakuto but Rukia intervenes telling us not to fight but Ichigo pushed her away. "What can you do unarmed?" Ichigo said and I stand back watching as Ichigo fights Eikichiro, who keeps dodging all of his attacks. Rukia's phone beeps, I look over her shoulder to see where the hollow was. I recognized the area it was in, was where Yuzu and Karin were. I reacted fast by grabbing Ichigo's  arm and dragging him away, while Rukia followed after us.

"Rukia, what did Eikichiro mean by felony?" Ichigo said, "Forget about my problems, saving your family is more of a priority right now." Rukia said, "Are you going to ask about our Mom?" Ichigo asked, as we ran down the staircase. "If I did, would you answer? It's a deep problem that you two have, there is no way of asking about it. I'll just wait until you're ready to tell me." Rukia said and we kept running.