Chapter Text
Her son was dying.
Masaki could feel it in the way his spiritual pressure was waning quickly, his fire sputtering into but an ember of what it once was. She could see it in the way his drooped eyes slowly went hazy, and his blood seeped sluggishly onto the pebbles below him. With the rain pelting down around her, she couldn’t tell when tears began to drip onto her cheeks. She blinked them away and turned her furious gaze back to the Hollow in front of her, the one who had injured her child. It laughed, high and cackling like a hyena, its eternally sneering mask splitting into two.
Masaki drew her bow and trained an arrow on its head, rage filling her heart. She pulled the arrow back, locked onto her target, and fired.
The arrow never hit.
The blue glow of gathered reishi faded into nothing midair and her bow flaked away until she was holding the air. Bells chimed across the sky like an omen, warning her of her imminent demise. The Hollow lunged. She drew her arm up, activating Blut Vene to protect herself, and felt her stomach sink as it flickered out at the last second. She knew with every fibre of her being that she was about to die.
Her eyes scrunched shut, preparing for the pain to come… but like the arrow, it never hit. An intense, thrashing spiritual pressure flared to life behind her, the pressure of it making her ears pop. An agonised roar from the front drilled into her ears, and she snapped open her eyes to see what was going on.
The Hollow was being driven back, its furry stomach repeatedly slashed open by a flurry of claws from a much, much smaller figure. Another Hollow, with skin like snow and hair in a very, very familiar shade of flaming orange.
Masaki glanced behind her, to where her son lay, and almost froze in pure shock. Ichigo was gone. The only sign that he’d ever been there was the puddle of blood on the ground and shredded red gumboots. She looked back forward at the ongoing battle between the two Hollows and took a closer look at the smaller being’s clothing. A bright yellow raincoat, just like the one he was wearing.
…Ichigo?
The smaller Hollow jumped up onto the larger’s face, and with a high-pitched screech that had Masaki wincing, took a ferocious bite out of its mask. The larger Hollow bellowed and stumbled back, its mask crumbling from the missing chunk and its body flaking away into dust. The other jumped from its face onto the pebbles and watched it fade, and Masaki was immediately on guard as it then turned to her. Yes, it could very possibly be her son, but it was still a Hollow, and Hollows only ever had one goal. To feed.
It took a step forward, its lizard-like feet sending little splashes of water into the air. She didn’t take a step away in response, putting up a strong front even though if it decided to attack, she’d be defenceless. Her Quincy abilities had vanished like dust in the wind, for what reason she hadn’t quite pinpointed yet. And without them, she couldn’t fight back. Not against a spiritual enemy, anyhow.
The little Hollow continued to approach, crossing half of the distance between them before it abruptly made a big leap and barrelled into her, thin limbs wrapping around her torso. She stumbled with the force of it, and for a moment instinctive fear took over her mind. Years of battle and natural reactions fought against her stillness, urging her to take a swing, but she squashed them down, because the eyes looking back at her weren’t those of a mindless beast. Yes, they were an acidic yellow surrounded by a sea of black instead of the warm chocolate she was used to, but she knew those eyes.
“Ichigo, can you hear me?” She asked gently, keeping her arms at her sides for the moment. No use startling him with any unexpected touch.
He didn’t reply in any human way, instead nudging the slightly raised nose of his mask into her chin. She took it as a yes and continued.
“That’s good. I’m going to put my arms around you, okay?” After receiving another nudge, she lifted her arms and wound them under his knees – avoiding contact with the tail he’d acquired – and around his back, ensuring he wouldn’t fall.
An odd noise came from her Hollowfied son, strangled and gargled like he was trying to speak through a mouthful of water. A few more noises later and they devolved into a frustrated whine. Masaki figured out that he was trying to talk, but evidently, he wasn’t used to doing it in this form of his and couldn’t do it just yet.
“It’s okay, honey. You don’t have to do that,” she assured. As he started gesturing towards the street beside the river instead, she guessed, “Do you want to go home? Is that it?”
Ichigo nodded rapidly.
“Alright then. We can go in a minute. I just have to do something first.”
That something being getting rid of the blood and gumboots which made the riverside look like a murder scene. Speaking of blood, Ichigo wasn't bleeding anymore. His injuries from the other Hollow had completely disappeared, not even a scar left over from where they'd been. Some kind of regeneration, probably. Whatever it was, she was thankful, because it meant he wasn't dying anymore.
She picked up the boots from the ground to take them home (chucking them in the river may look suspicious if anyone found them) and was glad to find that the blood was being washed away by the rain. She couldn’t do much about helping it along, so she hoped the water pelting from the sky would get rid of the rest of it. Afterwards, she convinced Ichigo to detach himself from her and walk beside her instead – any regular human walking past a woman holding nothing would think her crazy. He was a tad upset about it, but she quelled that by taking his hand into hers.
As they began to hurriedly walk home, Masaki prayed that Ichigo wouldn’t suddenly snap out of his surprisingly mellow state and start trying to eat the first person he saw. To say it would be a disaster would be an understatement. But, to her immense relief, he didn’t. His attention stayed on her the whole walk home apart from the times he tried to stray away to chase a bug running around on the concrete.
Another thing that surprised her was that Kisuke hadn’t turned up yet. Surely he’d have sensed the rapid drop and skyrocketing of Ichigo spiritual pressure, especially since he now felt like a Hollow, but maybe he was asleep or busy with something else. That thought was dismissed as they neared home and she picked up the sly man’s spiritual pressure coming from inside. Waiting for her return, then.
The moment Masaki and Ichigo reached the door it was thrown open to reveal the face of a very worried Isshin.
“Masaki! Ichigo! Are you- whoa!” Isshin flinched back into a defensive position as he noticed Ichigo, eyes blown wide open, “Masaki, wha-”
Ichigo made a confused noise and tilted his head, likely wondering why the man looked so wary. Masaki fixed her husband with a steely look, causing him to freeze.
“Sorry we were late, Ichigo and I had some complications,” she informed with forced sweetness, nodding to her son as she said his name.
Isshin’s gaze flicked between them both for a few moments. She saw the exact moment reality sunk in, and when he lowered his arms back to a neutral position, he pulled his face into a smile that looked more like a grimace.
“Ah, that’s… okay. Come inside, quick, you must be cold from all that rain,” he hurriedly said, ushering them inside.
Masaki nodded at him and walked past, leading Ichigo directly inside and to the couch. Crisis averted. She sat down beside him, and while he curled up on her lap with a soft chirp-like noise, she looked backwards to where Kisuke stood. The man looked thoroughly baffled, which was a first, but that was soon replaced with fascination.
“Kisuke,” she greeted with a nod.
“Masaki. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Nearly 10 years, if I’m remembering correctly,” he answered with his own nod, “I see young Ichigo is doing just fine. Well, apart from the new mask.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. Yes, Ichigo had been doing just fine, as much as a hybrid child could. When Ichigo had first come into being, she and Isshin had realised that they had no idea how it’d go with a child of all 4 major races. Human, Soul Reaper, Hollow and Quincy all wrapped into one little package. They’d been a mess, worrying constantly over his health and taking every minor abnormality or problem as a sign his soul was about to combust. It hadn’t happened, of course, and besides some odd quirks that popped up throughout his life, Ichigo was a perfectly normal child. That had all changed today, and she was completely lost.
“Do you know how this happened? Why it happened?” She asked, a bit quieter in the hope her son wouldn’t pick up on many of her words.
Kisuke switched into a much more serious mood instantly.
“I wouldn’t be able to make an accurate guess without knowing what happened. All I know currently is that you and Ichigo encountered a powerful Hollow, Ichigo’s spiritual pressure dropped like he was dying and then shot up with the feel of a Hollow. The Hollow then disappeared, and Ichigo didn’t return to normal. Neither did you.” Masaki raised an eyebrow and Kisuke elaborated, “Your spiritual pressure is also different now – it’s a lot weaker than before. Why, I couldn’t be sure. As previously stated, I need more information to make an accurate judgement.”
“You’re correct,” Masaki replied, “We were attacked by a Hollow, and I wasn’t able to fight it because my Quincy powers disappeared. Were stolen, really, but I’ll explain later. But just as the Hollow was about to kill me, Ichigo turned into a Hollow and… ate it.”
The thought of it was still jarring. Her innocent, can-do-no-harm son eating one of his own kind without a second thought? Impossible. And yet, it had happened, right before her eyes.
“And he didn’t then try to eat you?” Kisuke asked sceptically.
“No, not at all. He didn’t even try to eat any other people we walked past on the way back. It’s like his mind is still perfectly intact in there, just clouded by a bucket load of Hollow behaviour.”
“Hmm.”
Kisuke walked around the couch and crouched in front of the two. His gaze roamed over Ichigo’s new body, and a flicker of curiosity entered his eyes.
“Have you seen a Hollow hole, by any chance?”
“I… don’t know. Give me a second.”
The man nodded and stepped away. When he did, Masaki aided Ichigo in removing his raincoat and the top of his karate uniform without tearing them with his razor-sharp claws.
“No Hollow hole,” she murmured, eyebrows pulling together slightly.
“That might explain why he hasn’t gone into a frenzy by now,” Kisuke guessed, “You are aware of why Hollows have holes, yes?”
“Because when they become Hollows, their heart is torn out and forms their mask.”
He nodded. “Indeed. But Ichigo doesn’t appear to have one, at least not where it would usually be. That means he hasn’t lost his heart. Maybe it’s because he didn’t become a Hollow while being a soul, maybe it’s because his genes prevent him from getting one, maybe it’s because he only became a Hollow out of the desire to protect you. The reason behind it, I don’t know, but it’s a very good thing for us. It means he might not get the urges a regular Hollow would, those insatiable desires for food and violence.”
The information was a weight off Masaki’s shoulders. She wouldn’t know what to do if Ichigo actually started trying to eat people. She couldn’t bear the pain of having to lose him for the safety of everyone around him.
“In any case, though, I believe it would be beneficial to try and return him to his normal state. Having a Hollow for a child is bound to become an issue, not just for you and Isshin but for Ichigo’s whole life,” Kisuke warned gravely.
“I see.”
Masaki mulled over the information and the situation, sticking to her thoughts as Kisuke and Isshin did some small tests to check if Ichigo was alright both psychologically and physically. He appeared to be healthy. However, before he left Kisuke told the married couple that if any issues arose - even minor ones - call him immediately, and that he’d be back in a few days to check in. Once he was gone, Isshin and Masaki sat exhaustedly on the dry part of the couch together, eyeing the sleeping boy beside them.
They were both silent until Isshin raised a very important question.
“…So. How are we going to explain this to the girls?”
“…I have no idea.”