My name is Kioshi Mamoru. I am the former commander of the S.R.P.D. (Spiritual Realms Protection Division), although then we just called ourselves the 14th division. While we weren't an official squad of the Gotei 13, we were given the same rights and authority as actual squad members. I guess you could consider us private contractors. We are allies of the Soul Society, but we do not take orders from the Soul King or my brother Head-Captain Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto. That's quite the bomb to drop, I'm sure. Yes, it is completely true. Genryusai and I are brothers. We were both exceptionally powerful humans when we were alive. This is our story.

-2,257 YEARS BEFORE ICHIGO GAINS SOUL REAPER POWERS-

One day when we were around fifteen years of age, we encountered a monster while hiking near the stream next to our home. At once, we knew it was not our imagination and that something was terribly wrong.

The monster, that I would soon come to know as a Hollow, seemed to eye us up before it lunged at Genryusai, who was two years younger than me. Even at that young age I was very protective over those close to me, so I did the only thing I could think of to save him. I pushed him out of the way of the attack, taking the entirety of it upon myself. I let out a blood curdling scream as I felt the beast's teeth sink into the flesh of my leg-all of the way to the bone. Once the teeth reached my femur, the pain of having my flesh shredded was overwhelmed by an intense searing heat. This–for lack of a better term–fire seemed to come from the hollows teeth and traveled into my bones and from there, into my very soul.

It was then that I realized the beast was seriously wounded. It was missing its left arm. It also had several slashes in its chest and back. But above all, I noticed the six-inch-wide hole in its chest where its heart should be.

My father told stories of terrible undead creatures from another dimension that would feed on the souls of the living. I couldn't understand how a monster from one of my father's bedtime stories could be there attacking us. Then I remembered that the brave knight would always swoop in and save the innocent person about to be devoured. My dad said the knight would find the person in danger by his reiryoku being pushed out.

I started to search for my reiryoku. After a few seconds, I found it. I thought that it must have been the wrong thing to do, since the hollow only sunk his teeth deeper onto my leg, shattering my femur bone. All of a sudden, the hollow released me and let out an anguished yelp as its right arm was severed from its body. Then I was falling, and I realized this beast was at least fifty feet tall.

Several thoughts were running through my head as I was falling to my death. What happened to make its arm fall off? Where is the brave knight that is supposed to save me? Who will protect my brother if I die? The knight isn't real. No one is coming to save us. If no one will protect my brother, then I will not die. I will survive so I can protect my brother! As soon as that thought passed through my head I felt my reiryoku release itself. One small burst of power; then a second medium burst of power; and finally, as I was fifteen feet from the ground, a third, massive burst of power left my body.

When I was only five feet from the ground, a man clad in a black shihakusho caught me. I couldn't see his face. Everything was going black. I couldn't see at all; but I could hear. I could hear him frantically calling my name. "Kioshi! Kioshi! Kioshi! Damn it! Son, listen to me. If it all goes black, that's ok. Just find the light and don't let go of it." After those words left the mouth of the man that I had identified as my father, I felt a horrible pain in my chest.

In order to save my life, my father had to give me his shinigami powers. This was not illegal, nor was it commonly known that it was possible. My father stabbed me through my heart with his Zanpakutō, and forced his immense reiryoku through it.

Frankly, it's too difficult to remember anything else in great detail. Try to understand, this was over two-thousand years ago. Not to mention I was still alive when this happened. That makes it ten times more difficult to recall many, if any details.

Basically, I became a soul reaper. I used my Zanpakutō to slice through the monsters mask as per my father's instructions. My father used the last of his reiryoku to heal my injuries and explain what happened.

My father said he had encountered the hollow near our home. He asked the hollow to leave in peace. I will never know why, nor do I care why. Anyways, the hollow didn't seem to understand what my father said to it, and so my dad proceeded to attack the beast. He had severed one of its arms and given it several other serious wounds. The hollow, knowing it couldn't win, fled. It must have had the ability to mask its reiatsu, because it could no longer be sensed. It was then that he felt my spiritual pressure fluctuate before it started flaring in increasingly large bursts. He rushed to my location only to discover my soul was in the process of being devoured by the same hollow he had just fought. Knowing I could hold on a little longer, my father got Genryusai, who had fainted, a safe distance away from what was soon to be a battlefield. He returned in a spectacular display of shunpo and sliced off the hollow's arm, causing it to release me from its mouth. My dad caught me just before I fell to the ground. This was when he gave me his powers, and I slew the beast that had caused my family harm. My father then told me that the hollow that I killed had devoured a portion of my soul.

In order for my soul not to collapse upon itself due to the void that was created by the hollow devouring a portion of my soul, I subconsciously took a piece of the hollow's soul into my own. Being a fifteen-year-old human at the time, I had no clue what that meant. I don't think my father knew either.

My father died less than a half an hour later. Since he had given me all of his spiritual energy, he wasn't able to heal himself. He bled out while I sat in his lap.

I lived a long happy life, dying at the ripe old age of eighty-three. Because I was already a soul reaper when I died, I woke up in the Soul Society with all my powers and memories fully intact. A few months after I woke in the west district 30 of the Rukongai, I headed inwards to the Seireitei to the Shino Academy so I could become an official soul reaper. I stayed an unseated member of squad eight for nearly twelve hundred years. Over the next four hundred years, I ascended the ranks through many different squads. I was promoted to the fifteenth seat of squad six, then to the twelfth seat of squad ten, then I became the third seat of squad two before finally, I was awarded the rank of lieutenant in squad twelve.