Bleach One Shots

The early mistakes.

Take Eight: Union of a family.

Panting, bleeding, and facing one of the toughest hollows he had yet encountered, Ichigo Kurosaki leveled a glare on the natural shinigami up the hill. "You stay out of this!" he ordered her, as Grand Fisher laughed at his idiocy and shot forward again.

Ichigo growled and rushed forward, slashing his sword through the air and nicking Fishers right leg. The furry beast kicked him in the back for it as it passed and threw the teenager into a tree.

Landing on all fours and turning back to face him, the hollow mocked Ichigo. "I've been killin' for fifty years now, son. What makes you think an up-start like you can finish me off with that toothpick o' yours?" Grand Fisher bellowed in laughter as Ichigo pushed up on one hand, then used his grip of his Zanpakutou to help him further to both knees.

"Tha's a perfect pose right there, son! Just stay on your knees and die-- but I hope you enjoy the sight o' your lovely mother as you bleed out!" he taunted as the lure hanging out of his head shifted and changed to represent Masaki, a moment before he leaped forward.

'I.. can not.. move...' Ichigo thought slowly, clenching his sword tightly to keep upright, fury burning through his veins at the hollows words. An odd thud broke into this thoughts as a high voice yelled in anger and Grand Fishers body slammed into the dirt and skidded a couple dozen feet to Ichigo's left.

Kon, in Ichigo's body, landed lightly on his feet with the right foot outstretched. "C'mon, Ichigo! I wanna get back to snuggling nee-san! Get up and slay the hollow already!" he whined. 'Kon!?' unable to turn far for the pain lancing through his back muscles Ichigo was able to crane his neck enough to see that the mod-soul was indeed standing guard near his back.

"Kon! He can't move!" Rukia's voice called down from the hill side. "Aw, maaaaaaaan!" with a grunt Grand Fisher pushed to his feet and spun around sharply, a crack in his mask from where Kons kick had landed. "You... you... I'm going to fillet you!" the hollow snarled. Never before had it's mask been damaged.

"Oh?" inquired a new voice from behind Fisher. The hollow lashed out with a hind leg on reflex and felt the air woosh as the figure dodged with shunpo. "Ichigo... you really took some damage, huh?" Isshin asked without a hint of seriousness as he appeared beside his son, crouched down in a shinigami's outfit. 'DAD!?!' Ichigo's mind took in the clothing and sword hung over one shoulder and all but flat-lined. He had to have taken too many blows and was hallucinating. There wasn't any other logical answer-- how could his father be a shinigami!?

Fisher hissed and Isshin looked over one shoulder. His eyes narrowed at the sight of Masaki dangling off the lure. "Kon?" Isshin asked. The mod-soul turned to look at him. "Yeah??" he questioned. "Do me a favor." slowly pushing to his feet and turning from Ichigo, Isshin drew his blade. "Come over to me once I cut it's lure off."

"Uh... okay?" he agreed in confusion. Fishers eyes roamed between the lot of them. Three shinigami, two all but useless, and a mod-soul unless he was mistaking the orange haired duplicate for a twin. The super-powered kick mostly ruled out of the latter. And it was fast to intercept him like that, even without shunpo.

'Enough measuring the odds! I'll fillet them all!' taking motion again he leaped into the air with his claws extending rapidly and came down at the easier weak point, the girl up the hill. He was intercepted with a sword slicing cleaning through his lure an instant before another kick nearly smashed his mask in and left him tumbling down into the dirt again, only this time he crashed and rolled right up to Ichigo.

And into Zangetsu, as the teenagers head snapped around with a look akin to insanity in his eyes behind a burning desire to protect once again re-awoken. The insanity, for the most part, came from concluding that he had a lot of questions to ask once this battle was over and thereby accepting that his father was a shinigami as well.

What energy he had left propelled his body around at the waist and driving his zanpakutou through the crack already in place straight out the back of its head. The hollow choked and a moment later blood erupted from several other holes in its back side where Isshin had cut it before working up to the lure.

Panting, gasping in agony, Fisher was about to die and in those final seconds wanted to warp to the other body. All hope that had of going though vanished when Kon had approached Isshin.

The older shinigami was on his knees and holding the wreckage of the lure, eyes closed tightly to keep the tears in. Kon stared at him sadly as he scrapped pieces of the body off his shoes and finally looked over to the still stunned Rukia and exhausted Ichigo.

Fisher died at the hands of the Kurosaki men.

Masaki's spirit had been avenged.

--bbbbbbb--

A/N: Bleach One Shots! The movie-length chapter! Feels like it, any way. This wasn't planned to be so long but it just kept going as I brought in Kon and then Isshin.