Chapter Text
Masaki woke up with a start, feeling like she'd been being suffocated for years, to find herself on a straw cot in what seemed like Edo Japan. A small, older woman was tending to her, and through her freshly functioning eyes she could see others laid out similarly.
“Oh, you're awake,” the lady smiled at her. “most of the time it takes longer for those released from a hollow, but my grandson had warned me you might be a special case.”
Masaki could feel the reiatsu all around her.
“So, I'm dead…” she muttered, “my son?” She asked as the lady passed her some water which she drank thirstily.
“He's grown into a fine young man,” the lady smiled.
“I didn't save him?” Masaki felt a pang inside her, if this lady in...what had Isshin called this...the rukon district, knew of her boy he must be here too.
“Oh no, you did. He just...he's a friend of my grandson's. My Toshiro was your husband's lieutenant.”
Masaki let out a breath she hadn't been aware she was holding. At least her boy was safe.
“And Isshin and the girls?” she pressed, given this lady seemed to know so much, she thought she might as well press onward.
“All fine. I'm to understand the youngest has virtually no spiritual pressure, so she should lead a wonderfully normal life, and Toshiro has become quite close to Karin. That one is a handful. He says she's very much like what he imagined her father would have been like at that age.”
Masaki smiled. “How long have I been here that you know who I am?” Masaki asked suddenly realizing that what Isshin had done was a criminal offense and he was supposed to remain hidden and that from what he had told her and her own experience, quincies were not welcomed and tended to by such sweet old ladies in the soul society. She felt a jolt of nerves at the thought.
“Well, that's an interesting story. And I'm not sure I'm the one to share it,” the small lady smiled. “You must be hungry. Normal souls don't eat much, but those with high spiritual pressure need to and yours is very high despite everything, Masaki. Which again, I was warned it must be. I have some rice balls on hand. Eat while I let my grandson know you're awake.” the tiny old woman crossed the room and pulled a few things together from the kitchen area before coming back with a tray and handing it to her then disappearing out the back door to somehow contact, what Masaki assumed where the shinigami. She still had suspicion of what their motives might be when they arrived and ate quickly to regain what little power she might have against them, should their intentions be ill.
[Bleach]
She had long finished her meal when a young boy with white hair arrived wearing a white haori as her husband had been when they first met. She sensed no malice in his incredibly strong presence and he was alone.
“Toshiro?” Masaki smiled, remembering her husband’s tales of him. Also remembering Isshin recounting how much the boy had stood on principle, she quickly self corrected and stood with a slight bow, “or I should say Captain Hitsugaya”
“No one else in the Kurosaki clan refers to me properly,” he sighed in fond exasperation, a small smirk quirking his lips. “I don't see why you should be any different. Toshiro is fine.”
“Isshin isn't...in jail, is he?” She blurted, no longer being able to contain her worry or the burning questions inside her, “And how long have I been here, and why does your grandma know so much? And what are your intentions with my daughter, I hear your close?”
“Wow,” Toshiro startled. “I had initially thought Ichigo took after his father, but I see his need to get straight to the point came from you.” He sighed, “First and most simply, Karin is like a sister, so don't worry about that. We spend most of our time together making fun of your husband, or playing soccer.”
Masaki laughed at that, she could only imagine the things that man pulled on the regular in her absence, or in Toshiro’s case, before her presence. He was always a lovable, foolish, child by default.
“The captain is not in jail. He's part of a liaison team now in Karakura Town with Kisuke and the others. Still running the emergency clinic where all the hollow victims go. Well, between him and Ryuken’s ER, depending on severity. The Quincy ironically sends the the worst to Isshin, which seems against his proud nature, but he has an analytical head, so I guess he understands where the value in spiritual healing lies,” Toshiro continued.
“So the quincies are in the open as well? Seriously, how long was I gone?”
“I'm getting to that. Stop interrupting, Kurosaki.” Toshiro admonished, again with a sense of something rather fond that spoke volumes of how many times he'd had to do that with other members of her clan.
“Ichigo is 19 now. You were trapped in the hollow for approximately 11 years. Isshin killed it, so he says. He stated it had become an arrancar and had a sword the size of a skyscraper, I don't know what to believe, he's like an old fisherman with his fighting tales, sometimes.”
Masaki chuckled. That was definitely a fact.
“You arrived here shortly after the hollow was killed, but you were merely transported to one of the victim care centers. It can take many years for the victims of a hollow to regain consciousness. Some never do. They eat your soul, as you know. It just depends how strong you are and when they're purified in relation to that. Those with strong spiritual pressure can sometimes withstand long enough. Very few survive, however, but we have designated care facilities until they either build up enough reiatsu to regain consciousness or fade away.
“You were in that care facility for another year before I found out from Ichigo that you might be here somewhere and decided to go look. Your dumbass husband has a 1 ½ by 2 meter picture of you in their living room so it wasn't hard to find you based on looks. When I did, I had you moved here to the facility granny tends to, and here we are.”
Masaki rolled her eyes at her husband's giant tribute to her.
“Ok, but I'm still confused as to how all of this was discovered, and from the stories, how everyone is out in the open and ok with it all...and do my husband or children know I'm here?”
“They believed you dead, I did not tell them there was a possibility of you being here until i knew if you would wake up.” Toshiro stated solemnly. “It was another year after I found you till this day. As for the everything being open and ok, well, your son did that. He and a ragtag band of especially spiritually adept misfits, including a Quincy, Ryuken’s kid, Uryu, much to his father's chagrin, started it all when they decided to break into the seireitei to save a soul reaper friend and after fighting all of us, somehow ended up as our friends too once it was revealed they were right all along.”
“How could they take on the Soul Society?” Masaki shook her head in disbelief.
“Sorry, I might have buried the lead. Seems Ichigo took a lot after his dad. He's one of the most powerful soul reapers we've ever seen. Although, calling him a soul reaper seems wrong...he's a human, Quincy, hollow, soul hybrid and has about every power under the sun. And he has his father’s skill in battle combined with your analytical mind, I presume because Lord knows the captain doesn't have that...And at any rate, it would be foolhardy for anyone to cross him.
“When they broke into the soul society, it was the catalyst that revealed the traitor in our midst and led to a war, during which I found out Captain Shiba was very much alive and well, and Ichigo's father. Which made Ichigo and Karin’s powers make a lot more sense.
“It was in talking with him sometime later I learned the story of what had happened. Who and what you were, and what had led to Ichigo's hollow powers and your demise. Isshin also told me how he had finally avenged you.
“I too presumed you were dead. But later, one night after dinner at your house, Ichigo told me how you'd said goodbye to him, that when Grand Fisher attacked him and tried to use your likeness to distract him, you took over and it was your spiritual pressure, not his. He said Uryu, told him it was probably a death imprint. I had a hunch though.
“Coinciding with when Isshin had told me he'd finally slayed the hollow, there was a sudden influx of many hollow victims in the rukon. We hadn't thought much of it, as hollows were attacking in greater numbers every day as both sides prepared for war, it's only natural the number of survivors might have increased. But when Ichigo told me of this particular hollow’s power, I began to think maybe this one intentionally didn't bleed the souls dry. Maybe a lot of the recovering souls came from Grand Fisher because he wanted to keep a piece of them for his mimicry.”
Masaki had sat quietly through all of that. Mostly because she'd just been stunned into silence at the thought that her sweet little boy, who cried when Tatsuki hit him in karate, was the most powerful warrior in the soul society or the world of the living. Toshiro had said every power…
“Ichigo is that powerful?” She asked, stunned.
“He’s probably the most powerful being to ever exist,” Toshiro nodded with such reverence, it almost shocked Masaki more, “And it's thanks to him that all those entities now live a peaceful existence. I think showing the world they can live in harmony within one soul, proved we could find a way to live in harmony outside of it as well. I mean, it's not a paradise, by any means, there are still errant hollows to kill and soul reapers who betray and humans who are bad, but it proved it wasn't as cut and dry as we all once believed.” he sighed heavily.
“At any rate, now that you're awake, would you like to see them? I figure we've waited this long, at this point it should be your choice.”
“What kind of a question is that, Toshiro?” She laughed, simultaneously choking on a sob that threatened to break free as she could only nod as she began crying.
[Bleach]
Toshiro knocked on the Kurosaki’s door.
“Hey, Toshiro!” Karin answered. “Baka is at work. Particularly nasty attack left a few injured. Hanataro and Orihime even came to help. Ichigo is up in his room,” she told him then noticed a vaguely familiar woman standing behind him. She stopped suddenly in her movement to step aside and let him enter as the familiarity in the woman's spiritual pressure overwhelmed her.
“I brought someone to see you,” Toshiro said and he smiled brilliantly, in a way Karin rarely saw out of the stoic captain.
“M...Mom?…” Karin asked, still frozen there, blocking the door. The woman definitely looked like the giant portrait of her mother on the wall, and it wouldn't be the most outlandish thing to believe in the last 3 years.
“Kisuke-san created a special gigai for me,” the woman stated, stepping around Toshiro to touch her daughter's cheek. “You've grown so beautiful. Are you sure she's just a sister to you?” She gave Toshiro a sidelong glance and he had the decency to gape at her.
“Omg, mom!” Karin said in exasperation. She'd had a mom for the first time in her life and less than 2 minutes in she was experiencing the morbid embarrassment her friends all spoke of. She couldn't help but smile and suddenly unfrozen, practically leap into her mother's arms.
“Karin, who's at the door?” The younger twin asked, coming from the direction of the kitchen, “I thought they'd be inside by now, are they here for dinn..er…” Yuzu trailed off seeing the woman holding her now crying sister.
“ICHIGO!” she shouted, not taking nearly as long to process as her sister had and running to join the embrace. Toshiro was now pretty well stuck outside till this was over. He thought he ought go over and speed things along at the clinic, or maybe just take over for his former captain so he could join the reunion. He wasn't nearly as skilled at healing but the heavy lifting was probably already done in that department, especially if Ichigo's girlfriend was there.
Ichigo wandered down the stairs with a lazy “Is dinner ready?” when he saw his sisters crushing someone in a hug. He immediately flashed back to the bastard fullbringers and bristled at the thought it might be a threat before noticing it was a woman whose hair was the same color as Yuzu’s and who's spiritual presence was hauntingly familiar and overwhelmingly comforting. When she looked up, eyes glistening with tears and smiled radiantly at him, it washed away any doubt he had ever had and he took the last 4 steps in a leap so fast and with such grace, it spoke of his inhuman ability, to envelope all 3 in a hug with his much longer arms.
“My how you've all grown,” Masaki said through tears, hugging her most beloved treasures close to her, overwhelmed by feeling more joy than she ever thought possible in seeing them.
[Bleach]
Much as Toshiro thought, most of the patients were in recovery. The healers had repaired just enough that the clients would believe it had been western medicine. It had taken Orihime a bit of getting used to to not heal people completely lest they believe it was a miracle and they all be discovered. Now she managed to leave some superficial wounds, some aches and pains, even a few partially healed fractures to cast up and send on their way. She had also began studying pre med at university. Isshin had designs that she take over the clinic when he retired. If she and Ichigo worked out, then it would be perfect. They could have the house and the clinic and many little red headed grandbabies for him.
Toshiro thought talk of retirement was crazy, considering Isshin was practically immortal as a pure soul of a noble clan, but acknowledged there would come a time in the human world he'd at least have to reinvent himself to not raise suspicion. He figured at that point the captain would come back to the soul society for a bit, to do what who knew, maybe help Hanataro and his cousin Ganju run the new convenience store, the boy chuckled under his breath.
“Oi, Toshiro!” His captain called and Orihime and Hanataro finally also looked up from their work. He had known they all knew he was there. He hadn't been masking his spiritual pressure and healers were adept at isolating and identifying such. He'd been by so often in the past couple years however, finding he'd missed the bumbling fool of the only father figure he'd known and being more than willing to reconnect with the man and his family, that no one really batted an eye at his presence.
“We're pretty well done here. You here for dinner? Orihime is making dessert.” Isshin smiled.
Toshiro took a moment to ponder if he wanted to stay for whatever monstrosity dessert would be but when he heard Orihime’s pleased giggle and saw her smile, all he managed was, “Great! I brought someone else with me, as well.”
“A lady friend!? Did you finally confess to you know who?” Isshin asked conspiratorially putting an arm around the smaller man and ribbing him a bit to jovially.
“No,” the 3rd seat of squad 4 answered frankly. “He has still not confessed his love...and I'm pretty sure Momo is the only person in the seireitei who is oblivious to it at this point, ironically.”
Toshiro turned entirely red at that...when had Hanataro grown a set like that, he wondered. Then realized the snark had been steadily building since most of the boy's best friends had become members of the Shiba clan.
“You used to be such a nice boy,” Toshiro glowered at him. Hanataro just shrugged and finished bandaging up the last of the patients.
Isshin laughed heartily, “So who'd you bring?”
“A surprise for you,” Toshiro smirked fondly, “If you're all done here, the kids should have gotten it out of their system by now and be ready for you to jump into the fray, baka taichou.”
Isshin gave him a meaningful look trying to decipher who this person was and what his former lieutenant was talking about. Let it never be said that Isshin was, in fact, an idiot. He just enjoyed playing the part. “Ok then.” He stated softly and headed through the door that led directly to his house from the clinic. Toshiro stepped in front of it as Orihime made to follow.
“No,” he smiled at the girl's shocked expression. “Give him a minute, ok.”
Orihime nodded, still slightly puzzled, but seeing the distance in Toshiro’s eyes which alluded to how much more he knew than she.
[Bleach]
Isshin entered his family’s half of the dwelling and immediately felt her presence, which had previously been only a faint familiar sense against the amount of reiatsu floating around the clinic. He cautiously took a deep breath and made his way to the kitchen, the feeling becoming stronger as he went. At some point, and he'd be damned if he knew when, he'd started crying. It was a choked sob that finally alerted Yuzu and her mom to his presence as they happily made dinner together. He was somehow upset he'd disrupted this vision of his perfect dream as they suddenly looked at him.
“Hi, honey,” Masaki said with a smile, her voice just as sweet as he remembered it, “I'm home.”