The Madness of Insanity

A wishful dream

XXXXX

Nine year old Kurosaki Ichigo decided that tonight would be the night, the night that he would leave, leave everything behind and start anew. He knew that his leaving would result in his sisters being devastated. But they shouldn't, not for a murderer like him, the boy who killed their mother. He knew their father would be able to look after them. After all he was better with Yuzu and Karin than with him. His mother, Masaki was much better with looking after him.

Ichigo made sure he had everything he needed;

Snacks? Check.

His life savings? Check.

Spare clothes? Check.

Backpack? Check.

After double and triple checking that he had everything, he slung the bag over both shoulders before slowly opening his door, making sure that it didn't creak.

Ichigo snuck over to his sisters room, opening the door much like how he had opened his and tip-toed to the sleeping form of his sister, Yuzu. He kneeled down and gave her a kiss on the forehead. He did the same with Karin and as he was leaving, he whispered two words that would stay in the memory of his half-asleep sister, Karin for years to come.

"I'm sorry."

Upon closing Yuzu and Karin's door, Ichigo went quietly down the stairs, step by step, until he reached the bottom where he walked quietly to the door, past the darkened living room till he reached the door. As his hand was about to reach the handle, a voice called out, one that froze him in his place.

"Ichigo?" Ichigo turned his head slowly until he was facing his father, Kurosaki Isshin who looked at Ichigo with sadness in his eyes. "I won't be able to stop you, would I?"

Ichigo looked at his father, determination in his eyes. Isshin swore he saw a hint of blue tinge his sons eyes, but a second later the eyes took on a look of sadness and all he could offer his father was a slight shake of the head.

Isshin just sighed, got up from his chair, walked over to Ichigo, kneeled in front of him and hugged him warmly with tears falling freely down his cheeks. Ichigo wasn't faring any better with his tears streaming down his face. They both pulled away with Isshin swiping the few tears left on his face away and Ichigo using his sleeve to wipe his face clean.

Isshin turned and started to head up the stairs, but not before handing Ichigo the charm that his father had once told Ichigo and his sisters was given to him by their mother and leaving the young boy with two parting words.

"Good luck." That was all Ichigo needed to hear before he turned around, grabbed the door handle and opened the door to see the dark street only lit by the street lamps.

He walked out and turned to the right and started to walk in the direction of the bus stop.

Around fifteen minutes later, as Ichigo was waiting for the bus to show up, he heard the distinct noise of someone crying. He decided to check it out and turned a corner to find a girl with short auburn hair that looked to be about the same age as him, sitting outside an apartment complex with her knees bent into her chest and her face buried between her arms that were crossed over said knees.

Seeing the girl reminded Ichigo of how he was for the first few days after his mothers' death and couldn't help but walk over to the girl and before he could realise it, pulled the girl into a warm embrace. She stiffened with the feel of his arms wrapped around her in a comforting manner but soon relaxed and before she knew it, she was sobbing quietly.

When she finally finished, the boy pulled back, much to the girls disappointment and held one of her hands in both of his, looking in her brown eyes with his kind, amber ones and asked her a single question that made her overjoyed at the thought that someone other than her onii-san, Sora, would be nice to her. Not like those girls at school.

"Are you okay?" Ichigo felt he should try to comfort the girl some more, so he gave her the friendliest, kindest smile he could. Not the full blown ones that he gave his mother, he would never use those again.

The girl blushed, bright red and started to splutter out random things that made no sense. Seeing as she wasn't going to stop anytime soon, he put one of his hands up while still keeping the other one on hers so that she understood that he wasn't thinking of her as an annoyance.

"Why don't you tell me your name first, then you can tell me what happened, okay?" All the girl could do was nod weakly and mutter something that Ichigo couldn't catch.

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't catch that. Would you mind repeating it?" the girl just shook her head and said in a much louder voice, with a bright red tint to her cheeks.

"Orihime… Inoue Orihime." Ichigo stared at her with a blank expression that made Orihime start to think that she had said something wrong, but all the doubt disappeared when he gave her his kind smile again.

"That's a very beautiful name, Orihime-chan." Orihime was blushing so hard after that compliment, that it was a big surprise that she didn't faint on the spot. "Well, since you told me your name, I should tell you mine as well. My name's…" Ichigo suddenly stopped and put his right hand to his chin and took a thinking pose.

Orihime started to think that just maybe the boy in front of her forgot his own name. Or maybe the little green aliens that like to come down from space and steal memories through peoples' ears, or maybe…

While Orihime was thinking things that no one would ever be able to fathom, Ichigo was thinking something completely different, "Wait, this is my chance to start anew. I'll need to come up with a better name…' Ichigo started to think of names one after the other, when suddenly one name came to the front of his mind, 'I got it!'

Ichigo slightly squeezed his left hand, which was still on Orihimes' own to get her attention. When she looked at him, he gave her another one of his kind smiles that made her blush as red as a tomato.

"Kurama Ichiro." That was all Ichigo/Ichiro had said. Orihime smiled brightly at Ichiro and gave him a beautifully kind smile that made Ichiro blush slightly.

"That's a nice name, Ichiro-kun." Orihime then started to get a little nervous and slackened her grip on Ichiro, but a tightening of Ichiros' grip and Orihime was encouraged to ask what was on her mind. "Ichiro-kun, are you sure it's okay for me to tell you of my problems?"

"Yeah, it's okay, go ahead." Ichigo's reassuring words convinced Orihime to tell him whatever was bothering her. So Orihime told Ichigo everything, from how all the other girls at school were so jealous of her long beautiful hair, as her onii-san, Sora, put it. That a group of them would continuously bully her and that not only eight hours ago they had even cut her long hair short. She also told Ichigo of how she made sure to even out her hair so her Onii-san wouldn't know.

"Kurosaki-san."

"No."

"Kurosaki-san."

"Damnit, not now."

"Kurosaki-san, it's time for your medication."

Ichigo's eyes opened as he awoke from his dream. He let them wander around his padded, three-by-three metre room, before allowing them to settle on the orderly who had opened the door to his room.

The man entered Ichigo's room, carrying a plastic tray of various foods, not paying attention to the young man as he sat the tray on the bedside table.

"So it was just a dream, eh."

"What was that?"

"Oh, it was nothing." Ichigo waved the orderly off as he stood up and lead the other man out the door by his arm. "You get going now, must have much to do."

Ichigo closed the door and made his way over to his bed, taking a seat and picking up the tray. He devoured all of it quite quickly before lying back down on his bed. He began to doze off before knocking on his door made him sit up.

"It's okay to enter." He called out as the door was unlocked and then opened.

"I have something we need to talk about." His doctor, Ishida Ryūken said as he entered the room, raising an eyebrow as he inspected it.

'Straight to the point. That's what I like about you, Ishida-san.' Ichigo thought, looking at Ryūken with eyes wide in child-like wonder.

"Where are the pictures?" Ryūken asked as he looked Ichigo straight in his eyes.

A shrug was the response to his question as one of Ichigo's own was asked.

"So, what do you need to talk about?"

Ryūken leaned against the wall, pulled out and lit one of his cigarettes before taking a puff and blowing a perfect circle of smoke. Ichigo clapped at what the doctor could do before he got distracted by his fingernails.

"My son and his classmates received an assignment yesterday." He started but was cut off by Ichigo.

"Oooh, yesterday was a fun day. I remember it was just like yesterday that I was put in here for attacking Señor Paula."

"It was yesterday, Ichigo." Ryūken told the boy as he finished his smoke and pulled out another one. Luckily there was no smoke detector in the room, right? "As I was say, the assignment that my son and his classmates got, involves looking into those with mental problems and figuring out why they are the way they are."

"Okay, and this has to do with me… how?" Ichigo asked as he started having a thumb war with himself. Oh, would you look at that, his index fingers joined the war and have teamed up to take down both thumbs. Now his thumbs have teamed up and-

"This has everything to do with you, as I decided that you would be the one that they would be meeting."

Ichigo's thumbs stilled as he heard what his doctor said. It was too bad, as they had almost saved the princesses, Princess Left Pinkie and Princess Right Pinkie.

"You did this without my permission?"

"Yes."

Ichigo smiled as he raised his left hand, sticking his index finger and closing the others, he stuck his thumb up and pretended that it was a gun.

"Bang."

Ryūken finished his smoke and left the room, waving his hand over his shoulder.

"They'll meet you tomorrow, outside and at your favourite spot."

Just as he closed the door, Ryūken saw through the window that Ichigo was sporting a smirk as he spoke out loud, creeping the doctor out.

"You give my best wishes to Uryu, Sado, Orihime, Tatsuki, Keigo, Mizuiro, Chizuru, Mahana, Michiru and Ryō, why don't you."

Ryūken gave a nod before turning and walking away from the mentally-damaged fifteen year old.

'How does he know this stuff?' he thought to himself.

XXXXX

"Ha-ha… thanks for keeping an eye on him and telling me what was going on." Ichigo spoke to a strange being that only he could see.

The being in question stood at almost three metres in height and had a lanky, thin body. It had no hair and no face upon its head but wore a torn suit. It nodded its head before walking into the shadows of the room, disappearing from Ichigo's senses.

"Not even a word more than needed, huh?" he chuckled as he hopped of his bed and looked out of the window facing the centre of the asylum, where there was a tiny forest of trees. His eyes focused on the direct centre, where a lone tree sat. It was his favourite tree to sit under when allowed outside.

"Well, better make sure that I'll look good for my visitors." With that he walked over to his mirror and checked on how he looked.

He stood at under six feet, though he didn't worry as he knew he would grow taller in the next couple of years. He wore light-green pants and a short-sleeved, V-neck shirt, with both being made of the same soft, thin material. His hair fell all the way to his ankles and he didn't even bother to tie it up. Instead, he just offered his reflection a smile before walking over to his bed and lying down on it.

He held a couple of strands between his fingers and gave them a few tugs as he examined them.

'If you don't get your hair cut, having hair this long is a possibility.' He thought to himself before speaking aloud, for the three new ghosts that just entered his room to hear. "Tomorrow is going to be a good day."

XXXXX

Sado, Orihime, Tatsuki, Keigo, Mizuiro, Chizuru, Mahana, Michiru and Ryō were sitting in their empty classroom, waiting for the last member of their group to show up.

Ryō was reading her book as Mahana and Michiru were having a conversation. Tatsuki was trying and succeeding with stopping Chizuru from groping Orihime, while Keigo was complaining about something to Mizuiro. Chad was leaning against the wall, looking out of a window.

"I wonder what we're going to do about our mental illness project?" they all stopped what they were doing and looked to Michiru, who asked the question. Before anyone could say anything, the door opened and Uryu entered the room.

"I was able to contact my father and told him about our project." He told them as he took a seat on one of the tables. "Ryūken told me that he had the perfect patient for us to meet with and do this project about, and that we can go meet him tomorrow. Does this sound good to you guys?"

They all agreed that the next day would be good for them and then the question was asked by Sado.

"Who are we meeting?"

Tatsuki for some reason felt a slight amount of dread fill her as Uryu checked the message on his phone that had the patient's name.

"His name is, let me see… Ichigo. Kurosaki Ichigo."

'Oh crap!"

EXTRA

"It's time for a haircut, Kurosaki-san."

"No! Get that thing away from me!"

"Come on, child. We have to do this."

"If you get any closer, I will bite your itty-bitty toes off. Do you hear me?"

"Now, now. There's no need to be so viol- Augh! You fucker! You bit my fucking toes off!"

"I warned you, Penis-head."

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"I see dead people, Dumb-dumb."

"You're insane!"

"Well I'm not trying to be funny. So keep those things away from me."

"I'm gonna fucking kill you!"

"Get him, Mr No-face."

"Who the fuck is Mr- Augh"

"Are you finally quiet?"

...

"Are you dead?"

…

"Did you kill him, Mr No-face?"

"…"

"That wasn't nice."

"…"

"Can I have his face?"

"…"

"Imma take his face now."

XXXXX

[A.N.]

I don't know if this story will take a darker route or not, but just so you guys know, the extras could have a lighter or darker tone.