Disclaimer: I do not own bleach! All credits go to Tite Kubo

World of the living (Karakura town)

***Few days later***

The aftermath of Ichigo's actions with the Ginari family shook the entire spiritual world and caught it completely off guard, Inoue's spies even reported that the Dominion was stunned as news had quickly broken out with the help of 16 survivors that managed to escape the Quincy forces, there was absolutely nothing that described Ichigo as capable of something of this caliber, so it just came right out of nowhere.

The incident has gotten the name of the Ginari Massacre, because that was essentially what it was, it's true that there weren't any laws or rules of war protecting the individual in the spiritual world.

The massacre did it's job and set Ichigo up as a ruler who could be extremly ruthless when needed, and some even viewed the acts as outright tyrannical which wasn't exactly far from the truth due to the fact that innocents were involved just because of their line of work or because they were born into the wrong family or whatever reason brought them to the Ginari family.

Despite this however, no one actually compared Ichigo to Yhwach even though it was something that Yhwach was well capable off, the reason for this is extremly simple, Yhwach was hell bent on world destruction which would result in the murder of countless victims, Ichigo however was not, as he only did what he needed to do in order to ensure the safety and well being of things that mattered to him, namely his friends, family and the empire, even his allies can go under this same category.

If anything, central 46 saw an opportunity to use this rumor to their advantage, and so they wanted to maintain a particular closeness to Ichigo by remaining on his good side, and so did many other nobles aswell who wanted to use this massacre for their own safety by getting closer to the Stratburg family, the west branch who was limited in their military also saw this as a means of protection, because eventually, everyone will know, and those who oppose Ichigo will fear him, and it was the fear they wanted to utilize to assure their own protection, however, that didn't mean that they approved even if it was politically beneficial, as the majority of politicans saw this as an act that went way too far.

However, that doesn't mean that Ichigo's acts were justified, quite the contrary, such brutality was in reality completely unprovoked and uncalled for, and in reality, the top brass of Silbern going from sternritters, marshalls, chancellors and Bambietta, all had alarm bells ringing in their heads as soon as news broke out, but why?

Well to explain it, we need to look into the actual plan, which was to arres the family and everyone associated with them, the plan in theory was to have the family arrested, tried and sentenced where they could speak for themselves in the royal court on the charges of treason which they faced, however they assumed that they would resist which is why they dispatched such a force.

When Ichigo came back covered in blood, everyone just assumed that the family resisted and a battle occured, it wasn't until the after action report that arrived from the A.N.U to Bambietta and the chancellors, who all received a copy each to ensure that they knew what was going on as Ichigo's advisors and his second in command, they really knew what happened, and when they learned of it, they were all speechless, much of all Bambietta as they had assumed completely wrong, in short, the true operation was botched completely.

And while it was true that Ichigo could be ruthless and order the immediate execution of enemy combatants and leaders, going so far as to rape and torture them to death was clearly way to far, if they were going to die it was much better to just shove a reishi bullet in their heads and get it over with quickly rather then to give them grusome, horrible deaths, after all, killing enemy prisoners were ruthless in itself, but torturing them to death was outright tyrannical, and Ichigo was not a tyrant by nature.

A day later Masaki arrived after speaking with Bambietta who was not exactly pleased about the words she heard, however she wasn't angry either, rather she was stunned speechless over the actions of her own son and extremly concerned for his well-being, so she managed to persuade Ichigo rather forcibly to speak with the counsellor for an assement of his own mental well being, and sure enough, the counsellor became concerned and was quickly able to fix up a story that explained the recent turn of events.

So with that said, the operation was a success in removing the Ginari family, however it was also a total failure, so what went so horribly wrong? Well, to figure that out, we need to look backwards in time, far far back to the very beginning.

Ichigo was born in a normal family, he went to school like a normal child but unlike others, he went through a lot more then that after the death of his mother, which he blamed himself, eventually he got dragged into the spiritual world where one problem quickly became two, eventually Ichigo achieved the power to get his mother back, however by then the situation had drastically changed as salt was rubbed into a stressful wound.

Ichigo had become a monarch, the leader of an empire where the political status is an absolute monarchy, in short Ichigo has the final say and what he says goes, simple as that, and that in itself became a slight problem, because Ichigo has a history of fighting for the sake of others and to fight for what is just, but what is really just in a position of leadership? To make so many decisions that affects millions of people and countless families where some benefit and some lose?

The answer to that is very simple, it isn't justified at all, if anything it is unfair, everyone dreams of living as a monarch, everyone does your bidding and you live in a fancy castle but that is nothing else but a major dillusion because of the weight of the consequences and decisions are too high compared to any normal decision.

When Ichigo took the helm, Ichigo made all the decisions himself, when that became to much Ichigo reinstated the aristocracy to assist him as the work was just too much for him to handle, the chancellors and Bambietta also does their part but due to the prior work load, Ichigo had already accumilated a lot of mental stress, of course this could have been relieved with a short break or vacation but Ichigo never really took one, and all the most problematic and hardest decision were still thrown at him, and the sense of responsibility Ichigo held also played a role in this as Ichigo was never trained for this kind of responsibility, if anything he was used to his work by now but he hadn't adapted to the work and responsibility, causing it to weigh down heavily on Ichigo, further adding to his stress.

This mental stress was amplified by the outbreak of war, Ichigo wasn't exactly completely comfortable in his role and took on far to much work already to begin with, and with the war a lot of major decisions had to be made and Ichigo had the final say, although the O.D.K did have some freedom to act on their own accord as long as it was within Ichigo's parameters, however, Ichigo himself had to set those parameters and restrictions on the O.D.K, so that was a lot of work in itself.

This caused a problem, because the pot was already filled with water and put on the oven, the heat was already turned on by that point and with Ichigo's usual behavior he had put a lid on the pot, and with Ichigo's decision to not take a break and for Ichigo and Bambietta to mutually agree to delay their honeymoon ensure that the pot was still on the heater, if anything, the reinstatement of the aristocracy and to leave the regional and state work to them only reduced the temperature on the oven but it was still heating up, effectively delaying what was inevitable.

Then come the hellspawn, during the battle of the Seireitei, the hellspawn appeared, and the Wandenreich had major problems with fighting them and it was extremly costly, now the hellspawn had gotten outside the Seireitei aswell, and Ichigo needed to have a way for his soldiers to fight them, this in itself caused a lot of challenges to Ichigo.

Then come the Uramadani family who clearly caused Ichigo a lot of pain in the ass several times starting already just before the war, then they openly rebelled against him in his own throne room, of course Ichigo was already aware of this by that time, but what Ichigo never told anyone is that he lost a lot of trust in the nobles of the east branch as a result with very few exceptions.

Now the events surrounding the Uramadani family holds a major key in this, that is very important to remember, because these events and the lengths the Uramadani went through left a mark in Ichigo, which is why Ichigo has lost a lot of trust the nobles of the east branch, as it was developing in the form of slight paranoia which has gone unnoticed by everyone due to the timing, as Ichigo had ordered additional security for Karin and Yuzu personally after the Uramadani disaster, and that was the only symptom of Ichigo's paranoia, and given the timing, an increase of personal security was standard proceedure, now this is very important to remember.

Then come the gigantic monster of a hellspawn, almost all attempts failed except a major strike, namely the usage and authorization of weapons of mass destruction, knowing full well the outcome of using such a weapon, Ichigo was forced into a position where he had to make a difficult choice, what no one mentioned, Ichigo knew, for there was a possibility that smaller villages and lot of innocent victims would die a horrible death from radiation poisoning that would spread uncontrollably until it stopped, and the radius it would spread across was massive, however it all depended on the weather, but the chance was still high as radiation could be carried by the wind, however this wasn't much discussed or mentioned by anyone.

Now we get closer to the present, as Ichigo was in the helicopter waiting to arrive at the Ginari compund, the water in the pot was now boiling extremly and the lid was shaking from all the steam, as Ichigo looked out across the wasteland and saw the results of his own actions, he had to face the reality that his decisions was major and could quickly have severe consequences, however, it wasn't the trigger that caused this event, because that came just a few seconds later.

This is where the importance of Ichigo's slight paranoia comes into play, as it isn't unnatural for Ichigo to be concerned about his sisters safety and well-being after all that has happened.

With the news of events that Ichigo had no idea of happening so close to his own family and the potential risk of having a serious incident, all the worst case scenarios began to play in the back of Ichigo's head as he was underway further adding to his paranoia, despite the fact that Ichigo had decided to focus on the job at hand.

Additionally, Ichigo took on a lot more work then anyone else did, despite the fact that things calmed down after the reinstatement of the aristocracy, Ichigo still took on more work then what was actually healthy for him, and it did give a rather dependable persona, it only works for so long before the result comes in.

Stress, paranoia and overwork all led to what can be classified as the beginning stages of a nervous breakdown, though it was an incomplete nervous breakdown at that too, surprisingly Ichigo's work contributed to the fact that it was incomplete due to him attempting to focus on this one task alone, had it not been for that the situation could have played out entirely differently.

However the fact is, Ichigo was now completely overworked and mentally exhausted, which resulted in a nervous breakdown where the symptoms was only paranoia, a slight panic attack where Ichigo was slightly deprived of his sense of reality due to his paranoia and mood swings, and that's what went wrong and caused this massacre, due to his mood swings Ichigo lost all emotions of empathy or sympathy and quite frankly was just angry and let it out on everyone else regardless of their innocence.

What surprised the counsellor the most however was the fact that Ichigo was able to maintain outer calmness despite his mood swings and paranoia, this added to the fact that no one actually noticed anything different about Ichigo at first.

This however presented certain problems, because the moment Ichigo fell into a minor nervous breakdown, he was essentially incapacitated as the head of state on the grounds that he cannot do his work reasonably with a clear and sane mind, effectively making Ichigo unable to govern, command and rule.

We all saw the result of what happened to the Ginari family, that is the result of a head of state falling into a nervous breakdown, and considering it was just them the Wandenreich got off extremly lucky, if anything, Ichigo was working so hard it was essentially reckless and outright dangerous, even more so now that the Wandenreich has weapons of mass destruction and Ichigo sits with the launch button, nothing is more reckless and dangerous then that.

Regardless they did get of with some luck though, the Ginari family was the only one who faced the wrath of Ichigo's nervous breakdown, Ichigo might not have been able to control his mind but he was in complete control over his body, and the fact that several people had alarms ringing in their heads when the news of the Ginari family reached them, resulting in some rather quick and decisive actions.

With Ichigo's permission, Masaki, Bambietta and the chancellors learned of Ichigo's plight, and they did understand why this happened, they were also all surprised, because none of the six individuals knew about the events in Karakura town, the chancellors and Bambietta only knew that Pascal was dispatched on Ichigo's direct orders, and that's it, not a word on why until just now, additionally there was also plenty of smaller cases which Ichigo had taken on by himself in large numbers.

This is why Ichigo was overworked, because despite the nobles of the Wandenreich relieving him of a lot of work, Ichigo still took on more then he could handle, a trait that wasn't uncommon of Ichigo, but now this trait was backfiring on him, and none of them knew why Ichigo did this because he had a lot of people around him to help him.

He had the chancellors and Bambietta who had little work in comparison to him, additionally he also had the members of the royal court aswell, who only reported the matters of the state and the given time and that's it, they were hardly ever given any proper work by Ichigo and spent most of their days bored, however the truth was soon found, as it turns out Ichigo didn't feel like bothering others with what he believed was his job, which was extremly wrong.

After all, being the monarch wasn't just to polish your ass on a shiny golden throne all day and give out orders as you see fit.

As a result of this, Ichigo was now forced to take two weeks off from the majority of his work and he was put on sick leave with permission to do partial work, in short, all Ichigo was permitted by the counsellor, Bambietta and the chancellors was to get verbal reports of the matters of state but he was not permitted to act on the reports for the duration of these two weeks, however he was permitted to act on certain situations which is too close to home.

This was done on the grounds that due to Ichigo's slight paranoia, the counsellor wanted to treat it before it got worse, and he figured that if he saw the security surrounding his family first hand then it might ease up a lot and Ichigo might feel more relieved, as the paranoia wasn't that severe as of right now, and it also allowed Ichigo to personally oversee the events in Karakura town under certain conditions.

The conditions were that Ichigo had to keep the chancellors and Bambietta in the loop, and that Ichigo was not permitted to do more then to oversee the situation and leave the majority work to his soldiers and officers, the one thing Ichigo should be focusing on is mostly relaxing, as a result he decided to take a trip to Karakura town for a family visit.

Naturally, all of this was extremly classified by the chancellors and Bambietta and kept under thight scrutiny to ensure that no leaks got out, if the empire found out that their head of state in incapacitated due to mental stress, it will highly affect the morale of the empire, and quite a few learned of this, mostly it was internally as the marshalls, sternritters, chancellors, courtiers and Bambietta knew aswell as certain members of the royal family, the Quincy nobles did not know however.

Externally, to maintain a trust and to ensure a stable flow of correct communications where Ichigo could take it easy, only the most trusted of the empires externals were told of this, these individuals included Kyoraku, Yamamoto, Ukitake, the Kuchiki family and the Shihoin family, of course only the direct members of these two families.

Kyoraku, Yamamoto and Ukitake were all stunned by Ichigo's actions and had grown weary of him, the same with the Kuchiki and the Shihoin family, but after learning the truth and about Ichigo's sick leave due to mental stress and so forth, they came to accept the whole ordeal as nothing but an accident that never should have happened in the first place due to circumstances, and they did genuinely sympathize with Ichigo and was grateful for learning about this, despite the tremendous risk of a leak by telling them, luckily they were trustworthy and they assured to assist the empire by ensuring that things get to the right places and not to Ichigo directly.

Bambietta was now currently, under a tight disguise the acting head of state as Ichigo's second in command during his sick leave and all communications became highly monitored by the A.N.U, and anything that could indicate Ichigo's current status was quickly censored or outright destroyed, what was needed was stamped as classified and hidden away, of course all of this was done covertly to ensure that no one would raise an eyebrow.

Additionally, Ichigo agreed to change the way he worked by leaving more work for his subordinates where they no longer needed to be bored to death due to the lack of work, aswell as take the necessary breaks needed to ensure that he doesn't fall back into this state, funnily enough, the whole situation could have been avoided if Ichigo was just more open about his personal stress and willing to take more breaks and let others do a bit more work for him.

Regardless, Ichigo took the trip to Karakura town with only Ulrik by his side to visit his family, although Karin and Yuzu were at school, Masaki was still at the house, and so Ichigo entered.

"I'm here." Ichigo said as he and Ulrik entered the house.

Almost immediately Ichigo noticed spiritual cameras and sensors, although small enough that no one would even think much about it, Ichigo did take notice, these devices were all attached to Silbern and Fort Karakura, as Fort Karakura would be the first to respond in case of emergency.

"Ahh, welcome back." Masaki said quite happily from the kitchen as Ichigo hung up his nice winter coat and took off his shoes and went for the kitchen.

"Thanks." Ichigo said as he eventually entered the kitchen.

"It's been a while since you've been here." Masaki asked.

"Feels like a long time yes." Ichigo said as he sat down on a chair.

Masaki took a peek and Ichigo and quickly raised an eyebrow but she wasn't exactly surprised, as she noticed that Ichigo was wearing his usual suit, with his vest and everything, of course Masaki thought Ichigo looked good in it, but he was usually always wearing one of three outfits and had stopped wearing jeans and regular clothing completely.

"You know, you're not actually at work here so you can be more comfortable." Masaki pointed out as she prepared a glass with soda.

"Hmm? I am quite comfortable?" Ichigo responded as he looked at her with a questionable look.

"You always dress up like that and still feel comfortable?" Masaki questioned as she went towards Ichigo.

"Hmm?.. Oh this? I'm used to it and it has become a habit, if anything wearing something like I did before is probably only going to cause me discomfort at this point." Ichigo said.

"I see, so how are you feeling?" Masaki asked as she handed the glass over to Ichigo, Ichigo knew she was speaking about his own mental state at this point.

"A lot better actually despite the circumstances." Ichigo replied rather honestly, not really wanting to keep any secrets from his own mother.

"By circumstances you mean Yuzu and Karin?" Masaki asked as she looked at Ichigo.

She didn't know it but she was spot on, considering how concerned Ichigo was for their safety and well being, it wouldn't be surprising that just a slight paranoia could give Ichigo so much mental stress, Ichigo was after all a brother that loved his sisters very dearly, and may mercy befall on anyone who dares to wrong them, given how much Ichigo cared about his sisters, if anyone ever made them cry, Masaki had a slight unrealistic feeling that Ichigo would pull every soldier from the front line and take personal charge over them as he hunted down the one that made them cry to the ends of the earth if he needed to, which was very unrealistic but also slightly accurate.

The reason on why it's unrealistic but also slightly accurate is because Ichigo would never pull troops from the front line and risk the war to hunt down one bastard, no, no, no, there is no need to pull troops from the front lines for that, after all, there is a reason why the Wandenreich has reserve troops and the national guard after all, so the fact that Ichigo would take charge and use the military to hunt the bastard to the ends of the earth however, was actually a very real possibility.

And despite Ichigo's claims that he wouldn't care much if they got a boyfriend or something and be happy for them was actually something Masaki and Bambietta slightly doubted, and with good reason, he might not look like it due to his usual attitude, but those who knew how to read him knew that Ichigo was actually a very doting and overprotective brother inside, despite outwards appearances.

Although Bambietta held the belief that Ichigo would most likely disapprove at first, as it was doubtful that Ichigo would approve of the boyfriend when either of them got one, quite the contrary, after all, if we look at the odds, what are the odds of Ichigo knowing who the boyfriend is from beforehand? Quite low actually, so why should he approve of someone he doesn't know?

However, with that said, it is also very important to seperate two major factors, and that is approval and support, because in this case, they do not go hand in hand, as mention, Ichigo would most likely disapprove of the relationship until he got to know the boyfriend a lot better, that does not mean that Ichigo would openly go against it to begin with or fail to support it, quite the contrary.

Ichigo will atleast support the relationship and see were it leads, and either then he will approve of the relationship or he is probably never going to acknowledge it, by that time of course Ichigo would most likely have seen enough to know where things are headed and whether the relationship is good for the said sister or not.

Masaki however would probably be the quite identical under normal circumstances although she had a higher probability of approving of the boyfriend almost immediately, despite prior appearance, as Masaki was more eager to have her children happy, however as mentioned, when Masaki came back to life by Ichigo's powers, the situations was not exactly normal at all.

For despite her initial reluctance to accept that Ichigo had a grown up, that was almost guaranteed to be caused by her death, for when she died, her son was just a little child, then suddenly she comes back and suddenly her children is all grown up, her only son has suddenly gotten a girlfriend and is now ruling an empire and everything had turned out far different then what she probably imagined of the future.

If anything it could be said that Masaki had more problems accepting reality as it was rather then having an issue with Bambietta herself, causing Masaki to have severe problems accepting the fact that Ichigo was all grown up, same with her daughters but they were still young compared to Ichigo who was an adult, and who would accept something like that? To die and then suddenly come back several years later and everything you knew has just changed? Anyone would probably struggle with that.

For while Masaki's reluctance to accept the fact that Ichigo was grown up and having problems accepting his relationship was extremly unfair to Ichigo and Bambietta, it was also extremly unfair for Masaki to suddenly awake and all she knew was either gone or had changed and she would never get it back, and such naturally be hard to accept, if anything, Masaki wasn't unfair to Ichigo and Bambietta and vice versa, but rather reality itself was unfair.

"You always look out for them, even given your station huh?" Masaki said with a low but content voice, though Ichigo struggled to hear what she said.

"Hmm? Did you say something?" Ichigo asked curiously.

"It's nothing." Masaki replied as she went to the kitchen counter.

"Still, I wonder why you didn't mention anything to me?" Masaki asked curiously.

"Well, truthfully, and I hope it is such, the situation might be nothing worth making a fuss about." Ichigo replied.

"I see..." Masaki replied before she went quiet.

Whether it was because Ichigo didn't want her to worry or to bother her about the issue, Masaki really didn't know, but she did know more then she let on, she had already gotten a copy of the A.N.U report per her personal request which Bambietta granted, and if anything, she knew that the family in question was looking for Yuzu and the A.N.U had launched counter intelligence operations.

But how far would that last I wonder?

Karakura High School

Yuzu and Karin had just gotten back from lunch break, Karin and Yuzu were sitting almost at the opposite ends of the classroom, of course they always had two guards each with them, aswell as two guards constantly stationed in the classroom just as a precaution, so in total the classroom had six royal guardsmen inside it, although they were in spirit form so normal humans were naturally unable to see them.

The rest of the guards were in the hallway or patrolling the school grounds and ensured that the school was deemed safe for them to be in, although there were emergency plans and proceedures in place should the worst ever happen.

"Alright class, be seated!" The teacher said as he entered, causing the students to go to their respective seats and sit down.

"Alright, so we have a new transfer student here today, would please come in and introduce yourself?" The teacher asked as a new student entered the class room.

Yuzu and Karin was both surprised, and rightfully so, it was rare for a student to transfer this late of the year, so she did wonder who it was, then the student revealed himself as he entered with a few people, surprising Yuzu even more as she recognized the face from not too long ago.

"Good morning, my name is Enos Kenly, nice to meet you." The boy said.

The boy further introduced himself, and he was seated right next to Yuzu, much to the annoyance of the royal guard, so they changed their position and remained close to Yuzu, and act that Karin noticed very easily, causing her to become very suspicious as she had some knowledge of K.G movements after observing them for a time, and for her, this was not normal.

To be continued

A/N: Alright, so this chapter mainly focuses on private affairs of the royal family and personal strain caused by the job and the aftermath of the event now called the Ginari massacre, mostly mental on Ichigo aswell as some parts on Masaki, there will be more of Ichigo's sick leave aswell as a continuation of Karakura town and personal emotions to some situations.

The chapter is short primarily because it only focuses on the aftermath and slightly on the events at Karakura town, so I didn't feel the need to write an overly long one, the reason mostly for this chapter is because of some backlash as a result of the previous chapter, this chapter wasn't originally planned but I decided to write it to explain various situations and it also gives us some time to look at Ichigo's family life that hasn't been shown too much that has been specifically requested aswell.