Chapter 36: Progressive actions

After a couple minutes, Isshin let her son go and could see Yuzu and Karin staring at her with both wonder and curiosity in their eyes. She could only smile towards the twins as they rushed over towards her. She knelt down and embraced them both as she was happy to no longer have to hide her true self from her children anymore. It was a nice moment for the family as so many things started to make sense towards Ichigo. Like how he was always able to see spirits and the like since he was a kid, or now why his 'father' would always try to attack him to keep his skills sharp just in case things like this happened with the soul reapers and hollows.

"Ahem," Kisuke interrupted the nice moment between Isshin and her daughters. "I think it's time you explained everything to them Isshin."

Isshin nodded and looked towards her son with a slight smile. She motioned for him to sit down as she did the same on a recliner next to the couches. Ichigo was quick to sit down as Quorro scooted next to him and Yuzu and Karin also sat near him. "Well, I guess I might as well get the fairly obvious out of the way." She motioned to herself. "As you can see, I am a woman. Born and raised in the soul society into the Shiba clan."

"Shiba?" Ichigo questioned with a raised brow. "You mean like Kukaku and her sister Genji?"

"Yep." Isshin smirked at her son and even wiggled her eyebrows a bit. "They're distant cousins of mine, which makes them distant cousins of yours."

Hearing this, Ichigo paled a bit as he remembered his night with both Kukaku and Yoruichi. Isshin couldn't help but laugh at her son's face as he just put two and two together on what this new information meant to him.

Deciding to save that for later, Isshin continued. "I was the head of the Shiba clan and former captain of squad ten about over one hundred years ago, but then I met your mother Masaki." She turned to the large poster of her wife and let a warm smile cross her face. "We didn't get along at first with her being a Quincy and I a soul reaper, but soon enough, we were inseparable."

Both Ichigo and Uryu gasped at that.

"Mom was a Quincy?" He asked her with slightly widened eyes.

"Yep. A pureblood Quincy too." Isshin answered. "We had a run in with a very powerful hollow. She took a hit to save my life and kill that hollow, but it cost Masaki her powers and even mine when I used my energy to stabilize hers. Had to get Kisuke's help for that one."

"You're still very much welcome." Kisuke said in a sing song like tone with her fan out.

"Anyway," Isshin continued on, "once I realized I had lost all my spirit energy, I decided to live in the world of the living with Masaki. Like I said, we were inseparable and soon fell in love with each other." There was a genuine look of longing in Isshin's eyes as she reminisced about the old days. "Then, pretty soon we decided to start a family. As you know Ichigo, there is a way for us to reproduce in the soul society using our own energies, but since both myself and Maski lost ours, we had to get creative."

"So, what did you both do?" Ichigo's curiosity was peaked on this.

"We went back to Kisuke and explained what we wanted to do. She was happy to help by placing us in specialty gigai that would, at least for when we were intimate, would restore a portion of our energy in order to have children. That is how you were born Ichigo."

While most people would never want to hear how intimate their parents were in creating them, Ichigo was actually very intrigued by just how he was born. It somewhat explained a few things, but there was one thing he wanted an answer to.

"I thought whenever a child was born, they always come out female." Ichigo started, gaining everyone's attention as he looked to his 'father' with a stern look that held so much hunger for an answer. "So why was I born male?"

There was a bit of tension in the room as Isshin and Ichigo stared at each other for what felt like hours. Neither wanting to back down from the other as time seem to tick away. Eventually, Isshin let out a sigh that caught his attention.

"We honestly don't know." She answered in a low tone that caught Ichigo off guard. "Maybe it was because Masaki was still human and I a soul reaper, maybe it was because of our own energies mixing in an unnatural way with the gigai's, or maybe it was just a twist of fate. All I know is that you were born and that was all that mattered to us at the time."

Everyone expected Ichigo to blow up in a fit of anger or outrage at hearing that his own existence was some unknown anomaly, but instead he just sighed and leaned back on the couch, head resting on the back. He closed his eyes and just chuckled to himself for a moment, confusing everyone there, especially Isshin.

"Ichigo?" She asked her son only for him to open his eyes and raise his head once more.

"I guess it's just gonna be a mystery for now." He stood up and stretched a bit, popping several bones in the process, before looking back to Isshin. "Whether it was some sort of accident or like you said a twist of fate, I'm happy that I even exist anyway to begin with. I may not know much about how everything works, but I'm hoping you can teach me, dad."

Isshin could only smile as she stood up to meet her son's gaze. "Then I might as well show you a few moves before you head back to the soul society." She saw Ichigo's raised brow and chuckled herself. "I say we spar for a bit."

"Let's do it." Ichigo said without a moment's hesitation.

Everyone else in the room, aside from Yuzuki who was still in the kitchen with Kon and Kuroda, sighed at how gung-ho these two were to fight each other. One thing was for sure though, it would be an interesting fight.

[Kisuke's underground training area, ten minutes later]

Ichigo and Isshin stood in the center of the training area as everyone else stood far away to watch. Yuzuki was on her mother's shoulders cheering her dad on while Quorro did the same. Yuzu and Karin were cheering on both as they just wanted to be amazed by their brother and 'father'. Yamma sat down on a rock with her arms crossed as she was very interested in how strong Ichigo was in a fight. Kisuke and the rest of the girls watched on and would step in if things got out of hand.

Isshin drew her blade first. "Ready, Ichigo?"

Ichigo drew his cleaver and readied himself. "Bring it on."

Isshin wasted no time as she rushed towards Ichigo at impressive speeds that even surprised her son. She brought her blade up and brought it crashing down. Ichigo blocked it but the force caused a crater to form at his feet. Both gave the other a wide grin as they both knew this would be fun for sure.

Ichigo forced her off and leapt at her. He brought his own blade down and the two began to clash with one another. Each clang of their blades sent a shockwave of power throughout the training grounds as it seemed that both knew they were evenly matched. They would continue to clash for several seconds, moving faster and faster with each passing moment, before appearing away from each other back on the ground.

Kisuke analyzed their fight carefully. While she knew of how strong Ichigo was, this was the first time she saw him fight herself. From what she observed, Isshin had the edge in technique and experience, while Ichigo had power and speed for spades. That, and he was quick to adapt to her fighting style. It was intriguing to the former captain.

Uryu, Chad, Orihime, Kon and Kuroda were in awe of the fight. They had seen Ichigo fight before, but this was different. He seemed to be enjoying himself, same with Isshin. It was a shocker to know that Isshin used to be a former captain, but to actually see her back up that claim against Ichigo was something else entirely.

Yamma was impressed by Ichigo's display. It seems that he really is as strong as he looked and as strong as he fucked too. The thought of being nearly manhandled by him sent a shiver down her spine.

Yuzu and Karin, along with Yuzuki, were amazed by what they were seeing. The fight was too fast for them to keep up with, but from what they can see was that Ichigo was very strong just as Isshin was as well. Yuzuki kept on cheering for her dad while also enjoying seeing her father fight for the first time.

Quorro was not surprised by the display she saw as she knew just how strong Ichigo was. She was slightly surprised by how strong his 'father' was but then again if Ichigo came from her, then it made sense.

"Wow Ichigo." Isshin started as she stood at the ready with hands on her zanpakuto. "I gotta say, you're just as strong as I was in my prime, maybe even stronger, but let's see if you can match this."

She raised her blade high into the air and channeled her energy into it. Ichigo grinned widely and raised his cleaver with one hand, gathering his own energy in the process. "You better bring it then!"

Everyone could feel the intensity of their spirit energy as they prepared to launch their respective attacks. The two stared each other down as they finished gathering their respective energies and right before they launched them, they both shouted out loud two words.

""GETSUGA TENSHO!""

From Isshin, a wave of blue energy fired from her blade.

From Ichigo, a wave of black with red highlights left his.

The two waves of energy clashed and caused a large explosion that many had to shield themselves from. Both Kisuke and Orihime used their own shields for the ones who wouldn't be able to withstand the force of the explosion. Mainly, Chad, Uryu, Kuroda, Yuzu and Karin. Quorro held onto to Yuzuki while said girl was still cheering on her father. Yamma just braced herself as best as she could.

Once the dust settled, there was now a large hole in the earth of the training grounds.

Both Ichigo and Isshin were only sweating lightly and still grinning from ear to ear once everything had settled down. Isshin couldn't help but laugh at what they just did, and it caused Ichigo to join in a laughing fit. The two sheathed their respective weapons and walked over to each other. Yuzuki got out of her mother's grip and raced over to her dad with a twinkle in her eyes.

"Daddy! That was so cool!" She yelled out as she jumped up to Ichigo's waiting arms.

Ichigo hugged her as Isshin smiled at her granddaughter's childish nature. This would definitely be good times for her and her family as a whole. One thing Isshin was very much looking forward to was seeing all of her many grandchildren. She giggled to herself as she thought about all the grandchildren she could spoil. She stopped her daydreaming as she saw the others rushing over. Quorro was already kissing Ichigo as she was happy nothing too bad happened. Yuzu and Karin were asking him so many different questions about just how powerful he was, stars in their eyes as they did so. Uryu and Orihime were both interested in that as well. Chad and Yamma just stood back to watch, both smirking. Kon and Kuroda were both at the edge of the crater along with Kisuke as they were baffled by just how deep it was. Kisuke was crying crocodile tears over her training ground now having basically a small lake without water in it.

Isshin shook her head at her old friend's misery and turned back to her son who was smiling at all the girls around him.

'You would be proud of him, Masaki.'

[Aizen's room at the moment]

Sorako watched the entirety of the fight and didn't know how to feel at the moment. On one hand, she was very impressed by the boy's power and how it matched and even in some cases surpassed Isshin's. On the other hand, Ichigo was still an anomaly to her, and one that was throwing too much of a wrench in her plans. Not to mention that two of her espada were willingly with him now and the fact that one of them had a child right under her nose. It was frustrating to the rogue to think how one person could make such a difference in such a short time.

"I need to think of a way to neutralize this boy while I find out why the Hogyoku was not inside of Rukia Kuchiki." She thought for a moment before an idea came to her. If Quorro became pregnant in such a short time and gave birth in that same window, then that means Yamma was now in the same boat. That also meant that all those other women he's had relations with are also pregnant.

"If I can capture one of them, then I can entice the boy, and end him before he can-"

Before she could finish her sentence, Gina snuck up behind her and started to grope her breast, catching the woman by surprise.

"Gina?" Sorako started as she turned to see the woman carrying a large pink dildo in her mouth. With a sigh of contempt, Sorako put her thoughts on hold for now to indulge in cardinal desire for now. Though she knew to herself that while she would enjoy herself, she would still be thinking about Ichigo Kurosaki.

That's it for this chapter. Next one will have Ichigo seeing his other girls in the soul society.

Stay awesome, and as always...

PEACE!