Disclaimer= I do not own Bleach.

Me, Inoue, and our son Kenshin happily lived our lives as a family. 8 years had passed since my dad died in a house fire. My younger sisters died later from smoke inhalations as a result of that fire. I seriously wanted to end it all during that time. I was tired of being a substitute shinigami, tired of school and basically tired of life in general. To recap, I had gotten hold of that deadly "quid" stuff and tried to self-execute myself by lethal injection. Good thing my future wife (at the time) stopped me from ending it. We graduated high school, got married and for a few years lived as a happy childless married couple. Knowing what Inoue's home meant to her, I could not ask her to move with me to a nice house by the countryside, so I moved in with her. Since her brother died way back when, she was always alone. She spent the holidays alone, birthdays alone, etc. She was never again going to spend another holiday alone nor another night alone because I now lived with her as her lover, friend, but more importantly, her husband.

Then Kenshin came along after we were settled for a few years. Before Kenshin came along, I used all that time to the fullest. I split time in the real world working at some jobs and when I wasn't doing that, I was in Soul Society training. Gramps said after our last training session and I quote," You have grown very powerful. If I had to rate your level, you are amongst the strongest captains in the Gotei 13. Jushiro would round your power at just below Royal Guard level." Training with gramps was invaluable. Aside from improving my swordsmanship, I learned kendo and some high level kido (if I recall correctly, the highest level hadou and bakudo I could do was 88 and 75, respectively). While I was training with gramps, Unohana-san took Inoue under her wing to show her some new healing things. I also improved my vizard skills with Urahara-san, who somehow taught me to control my form that I turned into when I defeated Ulquiorra. Everything stopped when Inoue became pregnant with Kenshin. Inoue and I ceased all training knowing that what we accumulated in skill was sufficient to take care of our children as well as each other. I never had to go to the hospital because I was married to the best doctor in the world.

A very interesting story is attached to how Inoue was pregnant with our first child. She was acting pretty weird up to that point. Whenever I asked her what was wrong, she would say that nothing was wrong. During this period, Tatsuki was a frequent visitor. It was great for Inoue to spend time with her since they did not really hang out much since we all graduated. The only news I heard from her was that she became a top instructor for the most prestigious martial arts academy in Karakura Town. Oh, and she briefly dated Ishida, for reasons I do not know. As for Ishida, ever since graduation, he'd been low key, dating Tatsuki for a bit and then getting serious with Chizuru. Chad had been even more low key. Anyways, I was fixing dinner one evening when we were engaged in some pretty interesting dialogue.

"Inoue, I'm prepping sushi rolls, is that okay?"

"Yea sure."

"We ran out of wasabi, I know how much you like that stuff."

"Its fine."

"Are you feeling okay?"

"Its nothing honey, just some stomach pa - -" thats when Inoue got up and raced to the sink and threw up. There goes the rice, I thought. On a serious note, I got some towels to wipe her mouth. This was my first time dealing with this, so I had no idea what the hell I was doing. Luckily for Inoue, Tatsuki was dropping by for her weekly visit right when she was throwing up. Tatsuki opened the door, went towards the sink and layed a judo chop on me that sent me all the way towards the sofa.

"Idiot, don't you know that she's pregnant," she said, "You're as air-headed as ever." I was going to rebuttal with if it read stupid on my forehead. Of course I knew she was pregnant. I was no expert, but I could identify the important signs. I did not add wasabi to the sushi because I felt that the wasabi was going to mess up Inoue's stomach since she was pregnant with Kenshin.

Every parent likes to say that their newborn is the cutest baby in the world. I'm pretty sure that I had a legitimate claim to that title because Kenshin had Inoue's eyes and personality. He had my face and hair. It was rough at first with being a first time father and all, but I eventually got used to it. It was pretty fun changing his diaper and feeding him baby food like mashed up carrots. Time sure does pass on by when you are having fun. About a year and a half later, Inoue is pregnant with our second child. I'm very happy because Kenshin was going to have a younger sibling to play with and be a role model for. Unfortunately, life is always that rosy.

- - -

- -

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Inoue had gone through the 9 months pretty smoothly. It was the labor that was pure hell for her. No matter how hard she pushed, my baby daughter would not come out. After much deliberation, the doctors decided to have Inoue give birth via C-section... AFTER 4 HOURS. Who knows how much blood she lost... They went through the procedure and got baby Haru out, but she was not breathing. They tried making her breathe and stuff, but her body was limp............................................. Inoue was very pale. One of the nurses told me that she wanted to talk to me. It crushed me on the inside because I didn't know how was I going to break it to her that Haru was born dead. I got it out somehow, but she was too weak to cry. I bawled my eyes out, telling her that we were going to get through this loss, that we still had Kenshin. Inoue's eyes were narrowing, which told me she was slowing leaving. I stroked her hair and pleaded with her not to leave this world yet. I pleaded with her not to leave Kenshin motherless. With the last of her strength, she pulled me close to her and said her final words before her body fell limp.

"Live on."

Her body fell limp, and it marked two people I had just lost that were near and dear to me. Kenshin wasn't there, since Yoruichi-san was babysitting him. I completely lost it, throwing stuff around, screaming and cursing at the doctors for failing to save Inoue and Haru. Chad and Ishida were in the waiting area when they heard the commotion (and sensed the reiatsu I was apparently releasing). It took those two, the two nurses, and Urahara-san (who came out of nowhere) to restrain me from charging towards the doctor. They had to inject me with that stuff that makes you go to sleep. When I woke up, I was at Urahara's shop and was explained why Inoue died. It did not make me feel any better. I just wanted to be with my son and not with anyone else for a while.

Kenshin missed the next two weeks of school, but I eventually took him back to school. His teacher didn't seem to mind him missing class since he ( and everyone in the entire town) knew what had happened. I left him at school and started walking aimlessly. I went back to work eventually but it wasn't the same. I still had Kenshin but it was like a couple of parts of me died when Haru and Inoue died. It was like this for well over 2 years. One day I was walking aimlessly, with a bottle of alcohol in my hand. I stumbled across the bridge where I almost took my life all that time ago. I downed the entire bottle at threw it against the wall. It shatters into several pieces. I was drunk as hell, my hair grown out and facial hair bushy. I noticed a particular piece of broken bottle that looked like a small switchblade. I picked it up and proceeded to try and slit my wrist. I was in the downwards motion when Tatsuki came out of nowhere to kick the piece away and slap me. She had tears in her eyes and said something that told me I had to clean up my act.

"Don't start with that Ichigo, she would not appreciate it." I lived another day thanks to Tatsuki.

A/N= There will be a final fic concluding this "trilogy." I hope you enjoyed reading this fic; stay tuned for the next one.