It's always bothered me that a captain level shinigami was going to let his entire family get destroyed by a hollow. My way of addressing that. And no, this story has nothing to do with !
~Bard
Disclaimer: If I owned it, there would be more Ichigo!whumpage.
Ghosts of the Beloved Past
Ichigo got her selfless spirit, Yuzu her caring nature, and Karin her fearsome ire when provoked. It is as clear as day when Isshin looks at them that they are Masaki's children.
They are hers, and really always have been, so when the first Hollow comes and takes her away, he lets it take a part of himself with it, and uses what's left to try to raise Masaki's children on his own.
They are Masaki's children, and somehow, he had taken the bit of his wife in each of them an broken it; broken them. Ichigo, lost in his self-blame and chaffed by his helplessness, draws in on himself, while Karin lashes out. Yuzu works herself to the bone, struggling under the heavy burden of domestic chores because nothing can bring their sun back.
Isshin sees this, and now, all he can do is watch and weep to that damnable poster on the wall, because the better part of him died along with his wife,
So when the second hollow comes to take the Masaki's selflessness and caring and temper from him, from the world, he lays down quietly and smiles to himself; the little that's left of him will pass away too. But it doesn't, because somehow the shinigami girl helps Ichigo put himself back together, just a bit, by giving him what he craves: The power to protect.
Since she has fixed his awefull blunder, fixed Masaki's son, he lets the shinigami girl think that she had erased his memory of his near salvation and that he's unaware that his son has become more like his mother than he'll ever know (a woman with bright orange hair, burning as bright as her resolve to protect, and a gleaming sharp sword in her hands with which to do it.)
They are Masaki's children, and they each have something of her alive in them. Ichigo has her selfless spirit, Yuzu her caring nature, and Karin her fearsome ire when provoked. All Isshin has are three ghosts of a woman he will never see again.
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