The Child Born in Light

And the Butterfly flaps its wings

Masaki Kurosaki, watched as her husband Isshin Kurosaki nee Shiba fell asleep with a wide beaming smile on his face, while watching over their equally asleep daughter Ichigo, if she had earlier thought that her husband was a man child, this time he went well beyond that, but she also adored him for it from the moment they realized that they were going to become parents he was so excited.

She grabbed the sleeping infant to hold her closer, then for a moment she thought she had disturbed the infant's slumber as she seemingly scrunched her face but then settled back into her sleep, and she would swear up and down that in this moment despite the biological impossibility of it she had the most I-Don't-Give-a-fuck face she and Isshin had whenever they were set on doing something.

Then like a flash she recalled something, a memory she had tucked back in the depths of her mind - for it hurt to remember - her mother, telling her about her history, about the ancient tales of Qunicies and Shinigami's the tales she had been brought up on, the legacy of the Kurosaki family as the keeper of records of history, of all time since before the start of the conflict a time when people started to develop miraculous pavers which were used to hunt the horrors of night later called Hollows, to the conflicts that started because of differences that were one a many and then escalated but also boiled down to one thing Survival.

Survival a thing so basic but wretched, the Quincy desire to survive against the threat of Hollows who were toxic to their very existence and the Shinigami who loathed their existence for reasons they couldn't understand, the Hollow's desire to survive their soul wrenching hunger and struggle against those who could purify them or worse yet erase their very existence, and the desire of Shinigami to keep the balance, for the loss of the balance would destroy it all.

Both Isshin and Herself had decided that they would not burden their child with the affairs of the afterlife, unless they had no other option, but at that moment she had decided, that she would write, write everything there was to write, of things she hopes she never has to tell her child, of Hollows Shinigamis, and of course of Quincys, she wrote for her daughter to know if ever needed, but if it is never needed they could have a laugh at the things that the air headed imaginative mom could come up with.

Three weeks later.

Masaki started writing first beginning with a Preface, "My dearest Ichigo, these stories are for you - and possibly any siblings you might have - to read and go through you might find them simply entertaining or perhaps something deeper but these are a gift from your mother to you and the story begins with a man who could nothing yet everything, was the closest thing to a God…"

She filled books with all the love she had for her daughter, which only increased after 4 years when her twins Karin and Yuzu were born, they had name their eldest Ichigo for her strawberry blonde hair, but their daughter as strong willed as both of them combined had decided that her name meant the number one protector, and she would protect everyone, her mommy and day, her dog Inu and her cat Nyan and when the twins were born it was hard to get her to pry her away from the twins, the only way to send her to school was to convince her that she needs to be smart to protect them, which later turned Ichigo into joining the same dojo as her friend Tatsuki to protect the twins.

And as such the years passed in a whirl of joy, which change on June 17th 1994, when she was escorting back Ichigo from the dojo, she saw her daughter run headfirst at what looked like a spirit of a young child - they had found out as soon as her 3rd birthday, Ichigo could see spirits just like any other quincy, not that the girl realized that they were spirits - it took her a moment to realize what looked like a ordinary plus was very much not one, it reeked of a Hollow even though it was devious enough to not look like one.

She ran towards the two and conjured her bow, but then she felt a soul searing pain throughout her being, and the next thing she knew her bow vanished and she found herself unable to conjure another, not that it really mattered to her, all those years ago she had not even hesitated at charging at a captain class Hollow for a Shinigami that she did not know, now here at this time as a Hollow threatened one of the lights of her life, she realized what the hysteric strength everyone had told her of was, as she dive tackled her daughter just in time to fell the Hollow's claws rake across her back.

The last thing she ever saw was the terror in her daughter's eyes and her mind screamed to hold her daughter close and tell her that all will be good, that she will keep her safe but as she willed her throat to spew the words the world went dark.