This is one of five one-shots written as part of a Holiday Specials incentive that is severely lacking due to my busy school schedule. Normally, these specials are wordpress-only, but I feel that not many know about them and given that I haven't updated for several weeks, I thought it would be a good idea to bring them over for everyone that hasn't read them to get a chance to do so.

Do consider these AU despite occurring in the same universe as the stories from which they are derived. I generally like to consider a lot of these "what if" scenarios, but a lot of them can fit within the stories (however, I can't add them for craft reasons).

I have also chosen to post them separately from the related stories because it would be too strange to have a sudden break in between events, so I hope you don't mind this.

That said, I hope you enjoy reading them (or this). Also, future specials will be posted as follow-up chapters to their respective entries.

Story: Thirteen

Pairing(s): None

Word Count: 634

Rating: E

Summary: At age 8, Ichigo encounters members of the Arcana during the annual Halloween Festival in Karakura Town.

Author's Comment: I had a different Halloween special written up, but this sounded cuter, so I scrapped the other one and wrote this one last minute. It's short and to the point. Only a few Arcana make an appearance in this: the Wakatsuki twins, Kouyou, Ageha, and Nagata. See if you can spot them. The others weren't around in Karakura Town. Obviously. Touma was throwing his annual Halloween Scare Festival. It's basically a glorified costume play driven orgy with dance music.

Originally posted on October 31, 2015. Written for Halloween.

The Four Fates

For the third consecutive year, the Kurosaki family would attend the Halloween Festival at the park a few blocks away from the Kurosaki Clinic. The park was packed with children in all manner of costumes. There were rows of food stands mixed together with game stands where they could win prizes. Stings of small lights crisscrossed above their heads, illuminating the man-made paths created specifically for the festival.

Karin wanted to play games. Naturally, she wanted their mother to take her, but Yuzu wanted to collect sweets from the vendors, who were giving out free candy. Ichigo wanted to explore the area. His father offered to take Yuzu to fill her plastic pumpkin and asked if Ichigo wanted to accompany them. He agreed. He figured he could find his way around faster that way.

As his mother and Karin went in one direction, his young sister dressed up as her favorite ranger from TV, he and Yuzu, a fairy princess, walked towards the first row of stands in their immediate left with their father. He dressed up as a werewolf that year. Although, the mask was stuffy, he quite enjoyed the reaction he received from all the other kids his age. He did see Tatsuki in the distance with her parents looking fearsome as a zombie.

Ichigo heard a pair of bickering children near him when someone bumped into him hard before falling to the ground. He turned around as a boy with short golden-brown hair turned red with annoyance.

"HARU!" he shouted at the girl in the alligator costume in front of him. They resembled one another from the same colored hair to the same blue eyes. Their faces were small. They wore similar costumes, cotton, hand-made alligator costumes.

"Sorry!" the girl apologized to her brother, helping him up. She looked up at him and bowed. "I'm sorry we bumped into you."

The two children bounded away, splitting up to make way for a tall man with white hair wearing a yukata.

"Ichigo," his father called.

Ichigo ran up to him and his sister, who offered him a lollipop. As he took it, thanking her, he saw a person in a panda suit push the plates and cups from a table, leaving the two young boys sitting at it staring up stunned. Another young man in a pirate suit appeared and demanded, "Who are you?"

The person in the panda costume went to the shouting boy and punched him in the nose. A fight broke out and the boy in the panda costume had his head knocked off revealing bright red hair and a determination to beat them all. The other two young men jumped in to aid their broken nosed friend, but the red head made easy work of them before they were all separated by some of the shop venders.

Ichigo's father picked Yuzu up and took Ichigo by the hand, guiding them away from the scene. He decided it would be best to meet with their mother and Karin. They found their mother saying goodbye to a well-dressed man in a bowler hat.

"Who was that?" asked Ichigo.

"A newcomer it seems," answered his mother. "He wanted directions to a house." To his father, she said, "I think he might be going up to the Wakatsukis."

"I thought I saw Sara-san around here with her twins," his father said.

"Who are the Wakatsukis?"

His father and mother smiled, glancing at one another before answering, "Old friends."

Kurosaki Ichigo left the Halloween Festival unaware that he was being watched by the white-haired man in the yukata sitting on a park bench and the small girl in the alligator costume. Both strangers smiled at one another before the man disappeared in a cloud of black smoke, impressing the girl into excited laughter.