Shinigami, Arrancar, or Something More?

Bleach and all related characters belong to Tite Kubo

Chapter 1: Heritage

It was a rainy day as one Masaki Kuroaski and her was walking in the rain with her nine year old son. They were headed home from Ichigo's karate class. Masaki was humming a random tune she had heard, but couldn't quite recall from where. Suddenly she felt her son's hand leave hers, an odd thing since he never let go of her hand when they were out and about.

"Ichigo?" Masaki called, very curious about what her son was up to. Masaki's blood ran cold when she saw Ichigo running toward a rushing river toward a small girl. Masaki ran after her son, for she knew that was no normal little girl. The second Ichigo made contact with the girl, a giant fish like creature with a white mask similar to a fish skull erupted from the river.

"MOM!" The orange haired boy yelled as he suddenly fainted from fright at the monstrous creature. The fish creature loomed over the boy, but suddenly he was blasted with a red beam with blasted it's arm off. The creature looked to see a woman dressed in a white uniform with what looked like bone fragments on the right side her head that bore red stripes. The mask like bone covered much of the side of her face with some of it reaching slightly to the top of her head, with teeth like sections around the bottom of the mask. She also had a sword, a claymore to be precise, which had a skeletal design to it with the guard looking like a rib-cage and the hilt having a spine motif.

"Back away from my son, or learn the difference between a low class Hollow and an Arrancar!" The woman said, revealing herself to be Masaki Kurosaki! The Hollow chuckled and said,

"I don't know what an Arrancar is, but I do know you got high reiatsu and will be the best dinner I've ever had!" The Hollow then charged forward, only for the woman to disappear with a static like sound. Suddenly the Hollow's head went flying through the air before it dissolved. At this moment Ichigo slowly woke up and looked at his mother in awe.

"Mom?" Ichigo said in an unsure voice, slightly dazed. Masaki then realized she was still in her Arrancar form. She quickly bent down and stroked her son's hair as she softly said,

"It's just a dream, go back to sleep." Ichigo, still dazed, listened to his mother and closed his eyes as he drifted off to sleep. Masaki sighed as she returned to her gigai and picked up her son and headed home.

'I just hope he can forget this.' The Arrancar woman thought as she neared her home.

FAST FORWARD 2 YEARS

It had been two years since that incident with the Hollow, and Ichigo had just chalked the whole ordeal up to a bad dream. Masaki was thankful, though she did notice something that disturbed her. Ever since that night, Ichigo's reiatsu had steadily been growing. Masaki knew that this meant he was a walking target for Hollow's, so when her husband Isshin went out to pick up their twin daughters from kindergarten, she made her decision.

"Ichigo come down here for a moment." The brown haired Arrancar called to her son, who came from his room and smiled at his mother as he said,

"What's up Mom?" Masaki bit her lip and decided to do it fast, like ripping off a band-aid, as she left her gigai and revealed her true self to her son. Ichigo's smile faded, to be replaced with a look of pure shock as he recognized that white mask like mark. He had seen that kind of mask on monsters around town when driving around in the car, but never said anything since he felt no one would believe him.

"That wasn't a dream was it?" The orange haired boy asked, to which his mother shook her head no. Ichigo plopped down on the stares and covered his eyes with his hands as a couple of tears ran down his face.

"You're one of those monsters." He said barely above a whisper, though Masaki caught it clearly and it tore at her heart. She quickly pulled him into a hug that he fought against, which was useless as she was his physical superior.

"I'm not like those other Hollows. I'd never hurt you, your father, Karin, or Yuzu." Masaki whispered into her son's ear as she rubbed his back, trying to calm him down. This worked as he soon stopped struggling and slowly returned her embrace. Ichigo knew she was one of them, but he also knew she was his mother and couldn't imagine not loving her.

"If you're not one of those Hollow things, then what are you?" Ichigo whispered. Masaki released him and looked him in the eye as she said,

"I'm an Arrancar, a Hollow that has removed its mask." She then went on to explain what Hollows exactly were. Hollow's were a race of creatures which were born from human souls who, for various reasons, did not cross over to the realm known as Soul Society after their death and stayed in the human world for too long. Ichigo grasped all this with surprising ease, so Masaki decided to break some bad news to him.

"Just because I'm an Arrancar, regrettably doesn't mean I'm not a Hollow." Masaki said as she rubbed her son's hair. Ichigo nodded but confessed that he didn't care, that he knew she would never hurt their family, which made Masaki smile.

"Now Ichigo, the reason I'm telling you is because I'm afraid that you've inherited much of my power. This means that you are a bigger target to Hollows, and they'll eventually start to attack regardless if I'm around." Masaki said in a tone that Ichigo knew meant he should just listen and wait until she was done to speak.

"So I'm going to train you to use your powers so in case I'm not there or can't reach you, you can defend yourself." The Arrancar woman continued. Ichigo was a little excited by this, after all who wouldn't be excited at the idea of having powers no one else did?

"Now under no circumstances are you to tell your father, sisters, or friends about what I told you or about our training. Do you understand?" Masaki questioned in a no nonsense tone, to which Ichigo nodded with conviction. Masaki smiled at him as she re-entered her gigai.

"We start tonight after everyone has gone to sleep." Masaki said as Isshin entered with Karin and Yuzu in tow.

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