Chapter 26: Finally answered

While Ichigo was battling Shina, another presence was felt elsewhere. Kurodo was running for her life in Ichigo's body as a large, hollow-like woman was chasing her. How did Kurodo get here on the rooftops of the city, running for her life? Well, it really started when she and Kon felt Ichigo's spirit energy spike for a brief moment. They went out to check to see if he was okay when suddenly the large hollow came out of nowhere and attacked them both. The hollow may have looked human like, but it was clearly some kind of hollow the two had never seen before. It had half a mask that was in the form of a horse mask with a hole in its forehead that was completely threw her skull. She wore a large, white shihakusho and a tattered hakuma that covered some of her impressive bust. Her skin a pale color with her arms covered in horse hair.

As quickly as she appeared, she immediately knocked Kon away and began to make chase for Kurodo, cursing Ichigo's name all the while doing so. Kurodo was on the run for a few minutes now since then. As Kurodo was running away, she could hear the woman behind her spouting out nonsense that she didn't understand.

"This is for blowing a hole through my head, ICHIGO KUROSAKI!" She yelled out as she made to grab at Kurodo once more.

Kurodo, using her speed as best as she could, was able to avoid the large hands of this monster of a woman. "What are you talking about?!" She yelled back as she was beginning to run out of roof, and her shape-shifting ability doesn't work in Ichigo's body.

The large woman let out a primal scream filled with spirit energy and used sonido to reach Kurodo, much to the mod souls shock. "I will make you suffer for what you did to me! Ichigo Kurosaki!" She then punched Kurodo out of the sky and down onto the hard concrete of the street.

Kurodo, in her pained state in Ichigo's body, skidded for a time before hitting a parked car. She grabbed at her right shoulder as it felt dislocated and looked up to see the large woman coming down towards her. With no time to react, Kurodo could only hope that Ichigo would find it in his heart to forgive her for letting his body die.

The large fist that was on its way to destroy her was suddenly stopped when a woman with dark hair and a soul reapers uniform with a tattered white haori on her left shoulder appeared in front of Kurodo. Her long, dark hair flowed in the wind as she stood in front of the shaken and surprised mod soul. Using just one hand, the mysterious woman stopped the large fist with minimal effort. Kurodo was stunned by what she just saw. This soul reaper must've been very powerful to do something like this with so little effort.

"It seems I was just in the knick of time." The woman spoke up as she turned towards Kurodo, surprising the mod soul with her appearance. She had fair skin, a shapely face filled with experience but also some youth, and the most noteworthy of all was her eyes. They were brown, just like Ichigo's. Speaking of, she looked like she could be a gender swapped version of the strawberry. "You okay Kurodo?" She asked the still shocked girl in Ichigo's body.

"Y-yes." Kurodo stuttered out. "W-who are you?"

The woman gave a big toothed smile and chuckled a bit at the question. "You should already know who I am Kurodo. You see me every time you take control of Ichigo's body at the house."

Kurodo had no idea what the woman was talking about and struggled to put those pieces together only for the hollow woman to reel her fist back, causing the two to look back up at her.

"And just who in the hell are you?" The large woman demanded, angered that she was stopped from reaping the rewards of her vengeance.

The woman smirked as she folded her arms, the tattered haori and her hair flowing with the wind once more. "I am the former captain of squad ten." She started with pure confidence. "The former head of the proud Shiba clan and one of the few students of head captain Genmei Shigekuni Yamamoto. My name is Isshin Shiba, currently Isshin Kurosaki and the father of Ichigo, Yuzu and Karin Kurosaki."

The answer shocked both Kurodo and the hollow woman as they both were wide eyed. Kurodo had so many question right now as to how this was possible. How exactly had the overbearing and hyperactive father, who was definitely a man at the house, really a soul reaper? And what did she mean by former captain of squad ten? Why was her original name Shiba instead of what it is now? There were too many questions for the mod soul and no answers at the moment as the large woman began to chuckle.

The chuckle began to roar into mad cackling that rocked the neighborhood completely. While Kurodo was afraid of this large woman, Isshin was completely unfazed, causing Kurodo to wonder just how powerful she was.

"Oh this is absolutely rich!" The woman shouted out into the air, causing the windows of the building to crack. "Since I can't get to Ichigo just yet, I'll deal with you first! Then, I will feast upon his heart for what he did to-" Before she could even finish her sentence or even unsheathe her large blade from back, she was cut down the middle in a perfect cut. "me?"

Those were the last words she could have said as she was split in half without so much as a warning.

Kurodo was beyond amazed by what she just saw. All she did see was at one moment Isshin was standing there calmly, the next she was standing there with her own zanpakuto and some blood on it. The large body split up and fell on the sides of the two. Kurodo quickly stood up, albeit in some pain from the strike and the fall she experienced earlier, and watched as Isshin flicked her blade free of the blood. She sheathed it and turned towards the stunned Kurodo with a small smile.

"I would very much appreciate it if you didn't mention any of this to Ichigo, Kurodo." She asked in a kind voice as she walked over to the mod soul in her son's body. "I'm not as good as other medics, but this'll help." Her right hand glowed a faint green as she placed it upon the dislocated shoulder. Kurodo flinched for a second before feeling the shoulder being put back into place as painlessly as possible. "Good. Glad to see that still works." Isshin spoke as she looked Kurodo in the eyes. "I've already brought Kon back to the house. We should get there quickly before anyone shows up."

Before Kurodo could even say anything, Isshin grabbed her by the shoulder and used shunpo to get them out of there quickly.

[With Ichigo, five minutes ago]

Ichigo and Shina clashed a few times, testing each others strengths for starters. Ichigo could tell that Shina was powerful without the mask, but with it on, she was on par with him on pure strength alone. What really surprised him the most was how skillful she was with her blade. Her attacks were precise, vicious and filled with purpose. He has seen fighting techniques like this before when he was in the soul society to rescue Rukia, but hers seemed a bit older fashioned than say Renka or Kenpachi's style.

They clashed for a bit more until Ichigo noticed that her mask had started to crack. She jumped back as that happened and quickly dragged her hand over the mask once more to disperse it into reiatsu. Ichigo smirked a bit at this as he saw her sweating a bit and panting.

"So I take it that you can only hold that mask for a limited time huh?" He placed his blade on his shoulder and watched her scowl at him.

"Well," she stood up straight and looked at him with a now calm demeanor. "It seems the rumors really are true about you Ichigo. You are strong, stronger than I gave you credit for."

"I tend to do that a lot." Ichigo joked to her. "Now, just what the hell do you want Shina? If that even is your real name."

"Oh it is Ichigo, and I came to you with an offer."

"What offer would that be?" Ichigo narrowed his eyes towards her. It could not be a coincidence that he would run into her not so long after running into Grimmjane. They both had a similar kind of power, but it was different in many ways. 'What does this all mean?'

"My offer, Ichigo, is that-" She was cut off when a large spirit energy flared fro a brief moment before disappearing far off from their fight. "What the hell?"

The two looked off in that direction and Ichigo felt something familiar about where that energy was. It was odd that he would seeing as though it felt so off. Almost like Grimmjane's energy, but on a weaker scale. As a matter of fact, it felt like a certain Vasto Lorde Ichigo fought not to long ago back in Hueco Mundo. Fearing the worse for Kiku and the Fullbrings, especially Aqua, Ichigo leapt off the rooftop to make his way over to that lost energy.

"Hey!" Shina called out to him.

"We'll finish this later!" Ichigo called out to her from over his shoulder. "And next time, you better straight up tell me what you want, cause I'm pretty sick of having to fight women who want my help!"

And with that, Ichigo was moving far away from her line of sight in that direction. Shina sighed as she sheathed her blade and looked back into that direction. "I really hope he's the one that'll help defeat Aizen when the time comes."

And I'm back in the saddle. Did ya'll miss these updates? Lol.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the reveal of Isshin, though I really couldn't figure out a female name for that name to save my life.

Anyway, next chapter won't have as much action in it. I'm also gonna update Redo and Change, Chibi Hollow, and What If 2 this week along with What If 7. Hope ya'll will look forward to those.

Stay awesome and as always,

PEACE!