But soon my wandering soul felt a chill in my back, like a thorn in my back.
"Bah, look at my dog eyes, bad mouth, and dog paws! Shut up, close your eyes, and beat me!"
The soul wished that it could temporarily block out all five senses of its own.
Is this something he can watch and discuss without paying? Or it would be better to pretend that nothing happened. If the elder brother knew that he dared to think about things behind his back, he would probably get rid of him...
"Why are you running so fast all of a sudden!?"
Kuchiki Rukia gasped for air and grabbed Kurosaki Ichigo's running figure.
Her prosthetic body's physical abilities are stronger than those of most ordinary humans, and Kurosaki Ichigo could not escape this category when he was still a human.
"..."
Kurosaki Ichigo, who was caught by Rukia Kuchiki, fell to his knees on the ground as if he was frustrated.
"Actually... the person who killed my mother... was me..."
Ever since I saw that familiar figure just now, the memory in my mind seemed to have been awakened and became clearer.
"If I hadn't been so nosy... Mom probably wouldn't have been killed by me!
I have been able to see ghosts since I was a child, and because they were so real, I couldn’t tell whether they were dead or alive. I always laughed it off.
I didn’t think it was a big deal, and even naively treated it as a special ability to show off to other children...
Until that day..."
Kurosaki Ichigo could never forget that rainy day with heavy rain.
Like today, it was also June 17, when he was nine years old.
Wow——
Dark clouds covered the white sky, and rain fell on the ground.
The truck followed the wide road and passed through the cover of dense jungle to the narrow path where Kurosaki Ichigo and his mother were walking.
Water gurgled in the roadside drainage ditch, and the path full of potholes was now soaked by the rain. On the opposite side of the road was a river with rapid water flow due to the rain.
The soil became muddy under the moisture of rain.
The truck suddenly broke into the narrow road with its monster-like front end.
puff--
The splashing rain rushed towards Kurosaki Ichigo's face. If it weren't for the raincoat he was wearing, he would have been completely soaked by the rain.
"Ichigo, are you okay?"
A gentle voice sounded in the ears of young Kurosaki Ichigo.
"Gee, this truck is so annoying."
Kurosaki Ichigo wiped his face while complaining.
"Sorry, let's change it and let mom go outside."
Kurosaki Masaki gently took out a handkerchief and gently wiped Kurosaki Ichigo's face.
"It's okay! I'll go outside!"
Kurosaki Ichigo patted the raincoat on his body, "It doesn't matter if you have a raincoat, so that I can protect my mother!"
"Ah, what a good boy."
Masaki Kurosaki still had a gentle smile on his face, "But, let's wait until you can defeat Long Gui before mom lets you go outside~"
"I've... ugh——"
"Haha..." Kurosaki Masaki chuckled and wiped Kurosaki Ichigo's wet face with a handkerchief, making him unable to speak, "What are you talking about? Mom didn't hear."
"I said!"
Kurosaki Ichigo pulled away his mother's hand, "I have been able to beat her once in a while!"
"Okay, okay, Ichigo is the most powerful."
Kurosaki Masaki smiled and touched his son's head, "Wipe it clean, let's go~"
As she said that, she took Kurosaki Ichigo's hand and continued walking towards home with a smile on her face.
Kurosaki Ichigo didn't know what was going on now, but at this moment he could look at the mother and son walking in the rain like a bystander.
Everything is as real as if it happened right in front of you, not like a memory at all.
He didn't know what kind of power allowed him to see this, but it didn't seem to matter.
He clearly understood that this was an opportunity, an opportunity for him to truly see everything that happened back then!
The mother and son in front of me are walking hand in hand in the pouring rain. The end of this rainy road is sadness.
Kurosaki Ichigo stretched out his hand to stop it, and wanted to remind the mother and son in front of him, 'stop it quickly'.
But this was meaningless, because the mother and son seemed unable to hear or feel his presence. Everything in front of them was like a bubble. He seemed to be standing in a gap in time, and could only watch everything.
I can only watch my beloved mother walking toward death again, step by step.
"..."
Kurosaki Ichigo watched silently as his mother smiled and pulled his young self forward.
That familiar smile once made him deeply infected.
Speaking of it, he seemed to have never seen his mother cry or lose her temper. No matter what troubles he encountered in the past, as long as he saw his mother's smile, he could throw all the worries away.
Perhaps because he was afraid that his parents' uneasiness would affect their children, Masaki Kurosaki faced everything with a smile, even when he left at the end.
"I failed to protect my mother..."
Kurosaki Ichigo lowered his head, looked at his trembling hands, and felt weak.
He still remembered in his vague memory that his father once told him that 'Ichigo' means 'to always protect something'.
His only wish was to protect his mother.
And despite making such a sworn promise, in the end not only failed to protect her, but she even killed her mother.
He raised his head and looked at the picture in front of him again.
That is the mother and son walking in the rain.
He knew the final result, but he still watched intently, as if he wanted to engrav every detail deeply in his mind and never forget it again.
He wanted to see clearly what happened that day.
The drooping rain curtain connects the river. The swollen river is like the legendary Sanzu River that divides the boundary between life and death. It makes Ichigo Kurosaki feel extremely frightened and angry, which is in stark contrast to the fearlessness and innocence in the eyes of the young figure in his memory.
Compared.
He saw clearly that it was a girl standing by the river.
A girl who didn't hold an umbrella even though it was pouring, stood blankly by the river as if she was about to jump into the river.
The young figure couldn't tell whether it was a dead person or a living person. He just said hello to his mother, then crossed the road and ran towards the river regardless of the obstruction.
At this moment, Kurosaki Ichigo knew that this was the cause of the tragedy.
He clenched his fists and stared at the scene in front of him. Of course he knew what he was thinking at that time.
At that time, he first wanted to protect his mother. Later, after he had a younger sister, there were more people he wanted to protect. In order to better protect them, he insisted on going to the dojo to exercise, hoping to become stronger.
At that time, he was young and in middle school, just like the protagonists in those cartoons, once he had power, he thought about "protecting more people".
So, tragedy happened.
The young figure rushes towards the girl by the river.
His mother followed him and shouted loudly to catch up, but it was not like the truck passing by as the adults said in his memory.
At that time, the young Ichigo had his back to his mother and it was raining heavily, so he had no idea what was happening behind him.
But this time, Kurosaki Ichigo saw it very clearly.
He saw the girl standing by the black side turning back when the young figure was about to run to her side.
She is laughing.
What kind of smile is that?
It made him feel cold from the bottom of his heart. He was obviously smiling, but it made him feel extremely scared.
The girl's lips moved slightly, and in Kurosaki Ichigo's eyes, time seemed to slow down countless times. Even if he couldn't hear the other person's voice, he could still judge the words the other person said from the shape of her lips.
"Took the bait."
Finally, Kurosaki Ichigo understood that it was the smile a hunter would show when he saw his prey stepping into a trap.
There was a suffocating killing intent in this smile.
Blood dyed the rain curtain red the next moment.
What followed was overwhelming anger.
Another killing intent shot up into the sky, as if it was going to tear the gray-black rain curtain apart!
"..."
Rukia Kuchiki stood silently in front of Kurosaki Ichigo, listening to him quietly.
For some reason, Kurosaki Ichigo's voice became smaller and smaller, as if he was deep in thought, lying on the ground in a daze.
After a while, Kurosaki Ichigo stood up.
"Wait for me here."
After leaving these words, Kurosaki Ichigo turned and left.
"this……"
Kuchiki Rukia stared blankly at Kurosaki Ichigo's back as he turned and left, a thin layer of cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
What a strong sense of oppression!
This guy obviously hasn't come out of his body yet...
She was shocked by the sudden courageous aura of Kurosaki Ichigo, which was an anger and murderous intention that came from nowhere.
"What on earth... happened?"
Kuchiki Rukia, who was stunned on the spot, was puzzled.
Kurosaki Ichigo hadn't finished speaking, and she hadn't figured out the whole story yet.
but……
"He cried?"
When she saw the tears left on the ground after Ichigo Kurosaki left.
Only then did she realize that she was an idiot.
Perhaps because she is a god of death, she has long been a little numb to things like 'death'. A person's death is nothing more than a transfer process from the current world to Soul Society. As long as he does not become a Hollow, it is not a big deal.
.
But seeing Kurosaki Ichigo's appearance at this moment, she realized that this was not the case.
In people's eyes, death is an extremely sad and sad thing.
She is simply a bastard for only considering the 'empty' issue first!
But...what about this murderous intention and anger that comes from nowhere?
Kuchiki Rukia started to panic.
She thought to herself that this guy wasn't going to kill her because she said something wrong, right?
In front of the Kurosaki family's grave.
Ichigo Kurosaki placed the flowers used for sweeping the grave gently in front of his mother's tombstone.
The anger in his eyes seemed to have faded, and he clasped his hands together and said to himself, "Don't worry, Mom, I will catch it."
Now he finally understood the truth on that rainy day.
Kuchiki Rukia's guess was right, the real murderer of his mother was Kyon!
And... just now, he saw it again.
You can’t go wrong!
Higher up where no one was paying attention, in mid-air without any support, Xuan Hao looked down at the figure standing in front of the tombstone.
Feeling the anger and murderous intent coming from the other party, he couldn't help but reveal a faint smile on his face.
"The show has begun."
······
"Please...please stop crying, okay?"
A helpless voice came from the hillside.
After worshiping his mother, the wanderer secretly came to this deserted place to cry.
Xia Li, who was worried that something might happen to her, comforted her softly, "You can't come here and cry every year, right? We are already eleven years old and we are adults! Don't let those unreliable dad and brother see the joke.
ah……"
"Yeah... I understand... Wow ah ah ah..."
Youzi said he understood and continued to cry.
"well……"
Xia Li on the side sighed, her face full of helplessness.
"Okay, it's almost time to go back, otherwise dad and brother should worry."
With that said, she stood up and looked around, trying to confirm the way back.
But as soon as he raised his head, he saw a petite figure standing on the edge of the cliff.
It was a girl who looked younger than them, standing on the edge of the cliff, teetering on the edge.
"Then kid...what are you standing there for?"
Xia Li asked subconsciously.
"Ah? Who are you talking about?"
The wanderer was a little confused.
"..."
Xia Li was silent for a moment.
It's not a secret that she can see ghosts. Everyone in the family knows it. But except for the elder brother who can also see ghosts, the father simply thinks they are playing a game, and the wanderer only cooperates with hesitation.
Generally speaking, it seems that only she and her unreliable brother can actually see ghosts in the whole family.
So now... the wanderer can't see the girl on the cliff, which means that she is a ghost.
"Oh...it's really troublesome."
Xia Li held up the peaked cap on her head and walked towards the cliff while complaining.
"Youzi, please wait for me."
"Ah? Oh, where are you going?" The wanderer looked confused.
"Don't worry, I'll be back soon."
Xia Li waved her hand and said nonchalantly.
Being nosy seems to be a fine tradition in the Kurosaki family. Not only Kurosaki Ichigo, his sister is also an enthusiastic guy with a sharp mouth and a heart.
"It's probably some poor lost guy wandering around here..."
Xia Li thought this while approaching that figure.
Perhaps because the memory of the encounter with Xu was replaced, in her impression, ghosts are not scary things. They can communicate with each other just like living humans and are not harmful. After all, the ghosts she has met
It's all like this, and because they have a clinic at home, ghosts actually visit their home from time to time, and she's used to it.
"Hey, what are you standing on the edge of the cliff staring down at?"
After getting closer, Xia Li asked while scratching her neck.
"If you get lost, you can go down the mountain road over there. This is a tomb mountain. There is a temple at the foot of the mountain. The monks inside can probably help you..." Speaking of people who can help these lonely ghosts guide the way, she can imagine
The only ones who arrived were the monks from the temple. Although she didn't know if it was useful, she still reminded her kindly out of good intentions.
But... the girl standing on the edge of the cliff didn't seem to listen to Xia Li's words at all. Instead, she turned her head with interest and a weird smile on her face.