It's been three months since the Great War and Kurosaki Isshin figured out a long time ago that his son had been a key player. He had also confronted said son about in a very Isshin-like way, and he's pretty sure Ichigo gets the message now that he should never hide such important information from his father again! Not that it would stop him… but that would just make the chase more fun. Especially now that he's allowed to use his previously suppressed power to hunt him down.
Since the family was now more or less entirely exposed to Soul Society, there was no reason to hide the Shinigami coming over by only letting them visit in small numbers. Quite often a whole group of them came over and played outside, while Isshin sat somewhere off and watched, smoking a cigarette idly. Today he watched as Ichigo and Renji got into the seventh fight of the afternoon, contemplating butting in, when a small, pink child approached him.
Kusajishi Yachiru did not come to the Kurosaki place often, and it was always with her precious captain. Today, there was no captain, but there was the bald man she also seemed quite attached to. Isshin didn't really know her all that well as she sat next to him and proceeded to watch the fight.
"Icchy and Pineapple have boring fights," she remarked after a minute, sweet as can be. Isshin blinked at her.
"Well then, what's a real fight?"
"Oh, there's blood involved in those." If it was disturbing to hear a small child make such a remark so casually, Isshin didn't show it. The girl beamed and then continued. "Icchy got into a lot of real fights when we went to go see Fox-Face, Four-Eyes, and Braid-Head again, though! And you know, you're not supposed to live if you lose a fight, but me'n Ken-chan saved Icchy from gettin' killed all the time! I think Icchy made Ken-chan change his mind about that kinda thing, you know?"
Despite her age and the fact that the tiny pink-haired girl wasn't being truly serious about the whole thing, Isshin took the weight of the situation as a father should. He had left Soul Society because he hadn't cared much for it over his human world, not liking the apathetic nature of Shinigami. Perhaps this new generation was different. Or perhaps Ichigo had changed them. He didn't know.
"Thanks, then," he said when he finished his cigarette, snuffing it out in the grass beside him. "For saving Ichigo." He meant it, but said it in a light tone.
Yachiru beamed at him. "You're a funny man. That was a long time ago." Then she ran off to play with the others.
