That Man

The morning after the incident at their mother's grave, Keiji was still at the hospital, recuperating from the large wound he sustained from the hollow.

'A minute before six…' he thought as he glanced at the clock on the wall. Ichigo has just woken up in the chair beside his bed and was giving a big yawn as he stretched his arms upwards.

'I should probably enjoy these few seconds of peace and calm…' Keiji told himself as he sensed an approaching disturber of his treasured moment.

"GOOOOD MOOOORNING KEIJI!" Isshin immediately shouted when he walked into Keiji's hospital room, acting like nothing happened the day before or that his son is still injured. He pulled a large luggage bag behind him, Yuzu and Karin following inside.

"Good morning, Yuzu-nee, Karin-nee…" Keiji greeted, intentionally ignoring their father.

"Good morning Kei-chan, Ichi-nii!" Yuzu greeted back.

"Morning…" Karin greeted as well.

Isshin noticed that his children were ignoring him. "That's rude Kei-chan" he pouted and then started to cry like an overgrown kid as he usually do. "You didn't even greet your old man... And here I am… wanting nothing more than to spend the day with you!" he wailed loudly. "Maaasaaaaki! Little Kei-chan is so mean… Just like Ichigo!" he cried out as he took out a large picture of their mother from the luggage bag and hugged it with both arms.

Ichigo's right eye twitched at seeing their father's antics. "Hnn… What's with that bag?" Ichigo asked Karin while trying to tune out their father's stupidity.

"You both don't wanna know…" Karin answered as she sat on Keiji's bed while Yuzu prepared the breakfast they brought with them on a nearby table.

At hearing Ichigo's inquiry, their father's mood changed alarmingly. He stopped crying and gave them an all-too-radiant smile.

"Good of you to ask Ichigo! I see… you're not that totally mean to your old man…" Isshin said as he patted Ichigo's shoulder, making the latter's eye twitch again but chose not to say anything.

Isshin bent down to open his luggage bag, his back facing Keiji and Ichigo as the latter sat on the bed beside Karin. It was obvious that their father did not want them to know the contents of the bag as he made an effort to hide what he was searching. He hummed while rummaging though, making both Ichigo and Keiji nervous. Anything that made their father in such a good mood was always something harmful to Keiji's or Ichigo's reputation.

"Your cheerful mood is so disturbing…" Keiji commented warily. His father, as if not hearing anything continued his rummaging.

"Just wait Kei-chan. I know you're excited and all…" their father remarked before humming again.

"As you can see… I'm not…" Keiji said impassively.

Isshin appeared to have found what he's searching as he stood up and faced them. He clasped both hands on the object that he took from the bag though so they could not see what it was.

"I brought things to keep Kei-chan entertained! For starters, I brought your favorite WITTLE DUCKY!" Isshin exclaimed as he showed them a small, yellow rubber duck and moved it around with his hand like it was flying or swimming. "Quack! Quack! Quack! Quack!"

Keiji and Ichigo groaned. "Karin…" Ichigo started as he turned to their sister but Karin cut him off immediately.

"I tried to stop him! I really did!" Karin protested.

"Oh, oh!" Isshin rummaged his bag excitedly, not deterred by his sons annoyed looks. "I also brought your choo-choo train! And your broom-broom car, too! And here's more!" he added as he dumped his luggage's contents on the edge of Keiji's bed.

Keiji had to sit up to see what their father brought him. A rubber duck, toy train, remote control car, robot, remote control plane, a couple of books and... a doll?

"What's that doll doing here? I'm pretty certain that's not mine!" Keiji freaked out as he saw the doll in a white dress with straight blond hair and blue eyes.

"The doll is not yours, idiot!" their father remarked. "Your sister Yuzu has kindly lent it to you though… Such a loving sister you have there…" his voice was full of pride.

"Yuzu-nee…" Keiji groaned as he brought his right hand over his face while both Ichigo and Karin tried not to laugh at his situation.

Yuzu smiled apologetically. "Dad asked for suggestions to keep you from getting bored. So I told him you can have a tea party. But a tea party is better if there are many participants so I told him he can bring Hime-chan."

"You should be happy, you ungrateful son!" Isshin said in a scolding way as he folded both arms across his chest as if trying to appear like an adult at the moment. "I even brought Yuzu's story books with me. I'll read them all to you now if you want!"

Their father became overly excited again as he picked a book from the bed. "How about I start with Cinderella!" he then pulled the chair near Keiji's bed, making himself comfortable before he started to read out loud.

Keiji groaned as he lay down and pulled a pillow over his face.

"Do that later Dad. Breakfast is ready. I just made some sandwiches, bacon and eggs…" Yuzu said as she brought a chicken sandwich and a small pack of fresh milk to Keiji.

Their breakfast was uneventful, except for a couple of times when their father had to dramatically tell Keiji of his plans for their day together.

And after almost an hour, the time that Keiji was dreading has finally come. Ichigo, Yuzu and Karin had to leave for school, leaving him alone with their father. Keiji did plead them not to go though.

"Don't be so mean Ichi-nii!" Keiji cried out. "I'll do anything! Just don't leave me with that man!" Keiji pulled on the hem of his brother's shirt to prevent him from leaving.

"I'm so happy Kei-chan! It has been years since the last time we had a father-and-son bonding time! Do you remember those times Kei-chan?" Isshin asked dreamily as if not hearing Keiji begging Ichigo not to leave.

"Thank god, I don't remember those times or else I'll be having nightmares…" Keiji remarked in relief as Ichigo yanked his shirt off his hands to free himself and followed Yuzu and Karin to the door.

"You won't get bored with what I planned!" Isshin added as he picked a book from the bed and start to read 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs', which in Keiji's opinion was worse than 'Cinderella'.

"Serves you right…See you after school, Kei-chan!" Ichigo said, turning towards Keiji when he reached the door.

"Better you than me…" Karin added as she closed the door behind them with a grin.

"Bastards…" Keiji muttered darkly, trying to tune out his father's story telling but failing miserably.

Listening to stories about princesses was one thing but seeing and hearing it being acted by a grown man while reading from a story book was another. The nurse and the doctor who checked on him two hours after his siblings left made their work routine rather quickly. They obviously did not want to be in the same room with his father. Thankfully, the medicine that the nurse gave him made him sleepy and just minutes after taking it, he then happily succumbed to sleep.

Keiji woke up with a start. 'What's this ominous feeling…' he thought. He grimaced as he placed a hand over his chest, feeling the fast beating of his heart.

He checked the time at the clock on the wall. "Three-ten…" he mumbled sleepily. 'Karin-nee and Yuzu-nee are on their way home from school. I wonder if they'll visit me again. Probably not…' He glanced at the chair beside his bed. 'It looks like Dad is not here, too…'

'I have this terrible feeling that something bad will happen…' Keiji thought. 'I hope they're fine…'

He sighed and then stared outside the window, unable to push the anxiety he was feeling. The door to his room then opened. A doctor and a nurse walked in to check on him.

"Oh, I'm glad you're awake, Kurosaki-kun…" the doctor greeted professionally as he adjusted his glasses and read Keiji's record. He was the same doctor who checked on him that morning and he looked like he was relieved to see that the senior Kurosaki was not with Keiji.

"I talked with your father earlier and told him that the hospital will release you tomorrow. All the test results from last night and this morning showed that there is no serious harm done from your accident except for a bruised rib. Take it easy for about three to four weeks for it to completely heal. Well, your father will know what to do… He's a good doctor, too..." he said with a smile. "And oh… I almost forgot. He said that your brother will be here later to keep you company…"

"Thank you Doctor …" Keiji said before the doctor and nurse left.

"A match? Between you and me?" Ichigo asked the black-haired, bespectacled teenager in front of him. His name was Uryu Ishida, a quincy.

A quincy is a spiritually aware human with special ability. In a sense, they are like shinigami. They fight hollows using their special ability. But their difference lies in the way they get rid of their common enemy. A quincy destroys a hollow with an arrow fired from a bow both made from their spiritual power or reiatsu. A shinigami however, does not destroy a hollow, instead he cleanses it from the sins it committed as a hollow.

"That's right…" Uryu answered, both glaring at each other.

"That's stupid. I don't really know why you hate shinigami so much. But it has nothing to do with me…" Ichigo scoffed as he turned away from Uryu.

Uryu's eyes narrowed before he adjusted his glasses and regarded Ichigo mockingly.

"Oh, I get it… You just received that shinigami power from Rukia Kuchiki, right? Without her permission, you have no right to use it… You are after all, just as shinigami substitute…" Uryu sneered.

Not one to back away when his pride was being trampled, Ichigo faced Uryu. He looked at him for a moment before saying, "Fine… I'll fight you if that's what you want…" He then opened his bag and took out a lion stuffed toy.

The lion stuffed toy surprisingly talked as soon as Ichigo pulled it out from his bag. "Damn it Ichigo! You don't have any right to put me inside your bag! Only nee-san can do that! Speaking of nee-san… Where is nee – sum, hmmm…"

It continued to create noises which were muffled when Ichigo pushed his hand inside its mouth. "We're switching. Take care of my body for now, Kon…" Ichigo uttered before his hand found a green candy inside the stuffed toy's body.

He took the candy, rubbed it against his shirt before he placed it in his mouth and swallowed. He swayed left and right for a second before his shinigami form separated from his physical body and then Kon, the soul inside the stuffed toy, took control of it.

"Move out of the way, Kon. Watch me beat this guy…" Ichigo smirked cockily as Kon moved behind Ichigo.

"So, go ahead and tell me the rules of this match…" Ichigo told Uryu, his right hand gripped his large sword tightly.

Uryu pushed a hand inside his shirt's pocket and took out what looked like a flat, rounded stone. "Let's use this" he said, showing the object to Ichigo.

The latter looked at the object with puzzled expression before asking the obvious. "What's that?"

"It's anti-hollow bait. If you break this thing and scatter it around, hollows will soon appear" Uryu explained.

Ichigo tensed from what he said. "What the – "

But Uryu cut him off immediately. "In the next twenty-four hours, the one who beats most hollows will win the match… It's a simple rule, right?" he stated with an arrogant smile.

"That's stupid!" Ichigo was beside himself. "Do you want to put the lives of people in danger just for this match?"

"Shut up!" Uryu retorted as Ichigo gritted his teeth in agitation. "You don't have to worry about the people… because I'm going to destroy every hollow that will appear…" he stated with confidence as he crushed the anti-hollow object into dust with his bare hand.

Just in mere seconds, dozens of hollows appeared one by one.

Ichigo was momentarily shocked. The situation sunk in his mind after a few seconds as he suddenly pushed Uryu on the ground in anger. "Undo what you did! Send those hollows back!"

"I can't… The die has been cast, as they say…" Uryu calmly stated as he pushed the other and stood up. "Shouldn't you be doing something else instead of attacking me? Hollows go after humans with high reiatsu after all…"

Ichigo was overcome by dread as he realized what Ishida was implying. "Bastard…" he muttered before leaving Uryu. "Yuzu, Karin, Keiji…"

"So he hasn't realized yet… His family is not the only ones with high reiatsu…" Uryu said, voicing out his thoughts to no one. 'His friends, too…'

'Dozens of hollows just appeared… Ichi-nii, what's happening there…?' Keiji gazed outside the window worriedly.

He pushed himself to sit up straight so he can see better outside the window. He gasped at what he saw. Hollows after hollows appear in the sky.

"Shit…" he muttered as he swung his feet off the bed and tried to get up. He grimaced then when muscles around his wound clenched from the movement. Breathing deeply, he tried to calm his nerves. 'One step at a time…' he told his self.

But before he could even move a step, the door to his room opened and a doctor came in. It was a different doctor from earlier, though he was also wearing glasses like the other. The doctor looks young but his hair are all grayish-white.

Keiji looked in his eyes and noticed a smart and cold personality reflected from them. "Where do you think you're going, Kurosaki-kun?" he asked coolly, his hands were pushed inside the pocket of his white coat as he walked to Keiji's bed.

"Going out for a walk?" he answered lamely as he noticed the high reiatsu of the man in front of him. 'Not a man to trifle with…' he thought.

"You won't be able to do anything in your condition. The fact that you are injured by a single hollow yesterday tells everything of your current ability…" the doctor stated when he finally stopped in front of Keiji.

Somehow, Keiji was not surprised that the doctor knew what really happened. He sighed before he lay down in bed.

"Don't worry" the doctor said as he moved closer to Keiji's bed. "Have faith in your brother. I know they will get out of this situation alive…"he added as he looked outside the window.

"Take a rest Kurosaki and stop thinking of ways to get yourself into trouble again. A nurse will come here later to change your wound dressing…" the doctor added as he turned to leave.

"But my family…" Keiji started to protest.

"I told you…" the doctor stopped before he reached the door, turning slightly towards Keiji as he talked. "They will be fine. If there is something that you should learn from this... it's patience. Both your father and brother seemed to not have it… I am sure your father does not have it…" he added as he continued his way to the door.

"Excuse me, Doctor?" Keiji called out as the latter is already at the door. "May I have your name, sir?" he asked politely as he did not notice any nameplate on the doctor's coat.

"Ryuken Ishida…" he replied before he closed the door behind him.

'Ryuken Ishida, huh? You have a very interesting type of reiatsu… One of human but a little different, not just in its level but also in quality…' Keiji thought as his gaze moved outside the window. 'What do you know about my father though? If you knew about my ability, does this mean that Dad also knew about it…? That man…'

Hours passed since the hollow foray.

Keiji stayed at the hospital as Doctor Ishida told him. From that time onwards, he felt several reiatsu spikes from Ichigo and from other people. He was certain that those were Ichigo's friends. One of those reiatsu's however, caught his attention well. It was a reiatsu similar with the doctor.

'I wonder if they're related…Do they belong to same unique race?' he thought as he looked outside the window before glancing at the clock. 'Seven-fifteen… I wonder how Ichi-nii is faring…'

He then frowned as he remembered the reiatsu of the hollow that last appeared. 'It was definitely a hollow but has a far greater reiatsu than a normal hollow… It was far stronger than the one I fought yesterday…What could that be? I remember Akihara-san mentioned something about hollow levels in passing… Could that hollow be on a different level?' he sighed.

'Damn… I barely know anything... I'm completely useless…' Keiji thought miserably as he turned on his other side.

'Yes you are…' his dragon zanpaktou agreed jeeringly, which only made him feel worse.

He heard his zanpaktou sighed before speaking again. 'You already said it yourself, you are currently useless. If you went outside and attempted to protect them, you'll just get in your brother's way…' his zanpaktou stated.

'I know… I can't help but worry about my sisters though…' he said as he turned on his other side again.

'Stop tossing and turning already… You'll open that wound…' the dragon scolded him.

'Fine…' he grumbled before his eyes fell on the rubber duck that his father brought with him. It was sitting on the chair beside his bed which was easy enough for him to reach.

"Why the hell did he leave this thing here?" he muttered to himself as he reached out to take it.

He raised the toy towards the light, scrutinizing its every angle just as the door opened and the nurse in duty walked in.

"I need to change your wound dressing Kurosaki-kun…" she politely said.

"Alright…" he answered, his boredom was clear in his voice.

The nurse was gentle when cleaning his wound. She did not talk much but rather hummed a tune to herself. When she was almost through, she noticed the rubber duck on Keiji's hand.

"You have a wonderful father…" she said softly.

Keiji thought she was being sarcastic and was not too polite in his reply. "Yeah right…"

The nurse just smiled at him. "Well, it's true…" she continued just as Keiji looked at her.

He then smiled awkwardly when he noticed her sincerity.

"The doctor informed me that your brother will arrive later… Rest for now" she said before leaving.

When the door closed behind the nurse, Keiji continued to look at the rubber duck.

"I do have fond memories of this thing…" he muttered as he remembered one vague memory from when he was so much younger.

Flashback

"Kei-chan! It's bath time!" Isshin called out for his four-year-old son.

"Don't want to!" little Keiji shouted back from under his bed.

"Come on, Kei-chan! If you do, wittle ducky will join you in your bath!" Isshin said in a singsong as he bent down to show the rubber duck to Keiji for the first time.

A little curious, Keiji emerged from under his bed and looked at the toy curiously.

"It doesn't look interesting…" he remarked as his father placed the toy in his hands. "What does it do?"

"Well… I don't know. You have to find out yourself…" his father said as he gazed at his youngest son lovingly. "So, that means bath time!"

"Fine…" Keiji muttered as he allowed his father to carry him in his arms while he holds his new toy tightly.

End of Flashback

'It is not easy to raise four children alone. But somehow, Dad is doing it fine. She is right… We have a wonderful father…'