He says everything but he probably wouldn't enjoy reliving life in its entirety. It's more that, he can't think of anything to hide. Ichigo probably wouldn't want all his memories spilled, but Ichigo could get over himself.
"I guess we could think about it," He says. "Probably nothing to do with Shinigami stuff, you seemed pretty nervous about that before. I could show you highschool or something. Middleschool sucked until Chad was there but I could show you that too. One of Karin's soccer games. One of those shows Yuzu likes-- we went to see one once, but it was stupid and we kind of crashed it when a hollow showed up."
Chad--she doesn't know that name, but she assumes it's one of Ichigo's friends. Karin's soccer games, Yuzu's shows... Everything he says just highlights how much she doesn't know about her children. And despite the nervousness that he mentions, she can't help wanting to see Soul Society through his eyes as well. That's not something that she would have normally seen, but she's always wondered...
"Would you want to see anything?" she asks, the thought just occurring to her. "I could show you my memories, too. Right?"
He blinks at her, surprised, and it's clear for all he's talked of sharing memories, filling her in even before this memory tree was an option, it's never once occurred that it could go both ways. His mouth opens but nothing comes out.
He looks down. He can't help wondering if that's not somewhat pointless.
"You probably could. I can't see why not. But... would it really matter? I can't pass things to Ichigo like that. I have his memories but he doesn't get mine. He couldn't use anything. I can't use anything Quincy based, and I already know about... that thing, more or less." There's nothing to use in battle. And everything else is just life he's not going to have. Does he really want more of that? His brows furrow, eyes close, and he runs a hand through his hair. "I guess if there was something worthwhile you thought I should see. But you'd be wasting on me. You could just tell Ichigo the story later."
Would it really matter? He explains away the reasons like she could only want to show him things to pass them on to Ichigo. Not because he might want to see them himself. Her brows lift at him.
"I didn't mean for it to be something that you pass to Ichigo. You're doing all of this for me. If there's anything that you want to see, I thought that I could offer. There doesn't have to be a reason."
"I told you, you don't owe me anything," He says. He does what he wants and does what he's supposed to do. She wouldn't have to be filled in on what she missed if she'd been able to be there. She would be there if--
"I don't know," He says softer. "I used to think you were just a normal human. And Dad too. Except for the thing I mentioned, I really don't know anything about either of you." He ponders, quiet, for an even longer moment. "Have you ever been somewhere you didn't take Ichigo to? Somewhere new. Outside or a building, it doesn't matter. Just... new. Interesting."
A place that she's never taken Ichigo before. That's a hard one, to be honest. "...It would have to be before he was born." She's gone almost everywhere with him since then at one time or another. But then that doesn't leave much else...
"I could show you my college--or my high school, when I was a girl. Those were still pretty normal, though." There's always her training in the Ishida household... "I could show you some Quincy stuff, if you really want to see it? It's mostly training--unless you wanted to watch me fight hollows."
There's a flicker of a smirk at that. So she's taken him everywhere she went. He'd thought as much.
He shrugs his shoulders. "Sure. Who doesn't love a good hollow hunt?" He sounds amused. He sighs then. "It's been so long since we've seen anything. I feel could almost forget what it was like. I could probably stand a college lecture or two. Maybe a Quincy one." As long it wasn't boring or the sort to make his eyes roll.
"Well, there were a lot of those..." Quincy lectures, she means. She smiles a little, trying for humor. "I think if they could have lectured the skill into me, that probably would have been preferable."
Because otherwise, she'd been fairly terrible at it.
"I don't have a lot of experiences with Quincies but from the one I did know of, I can tell you, I got a really clear image of what I expected the rest to be like and boring lectures that never end or get to the point sound pretty much like it," He says with a grin. He pauses, then adds, "Also, stupid clothes. They didn't force you into any of that did they?"
She blinks at him, confused for a moment, before the realization dawns on her. "Wait, you mean the traditional clothes? We only wore those for ceremonies... Is there someone running around in that?" She looks like she's a little bewildered by that fact.
"Is he an older gentlemen?" It certainly wouldn't be Ryuuken himself. Maybe his father? She hadn't seem him in ages, but she's certain that he was still around somewhere. Or it could be any number of the Gemischt...
Oh? So Ishida's an embarrassment unto himself? That's hysterical. That she thinks he must be an old man is enough to garner a laugh from him.
"This guy? Well, he's about as stuck up as one," He says. He shakes his head. "But no. He's in our grade. Our class actually. Didn't notice him until after we became a shinigami and he thought the best thing to do would be to challenge us head on."
"Oh!" Masaki's hand comes up to cover her mouth. She looks a little embarrassed by her assumption--but that doesn't last too long. If it's someone in Ichigo's class, then there's only one person it could be.
"Is that... Ryuuken's son?" He's the only person that age that might also be a Quincy, though the last she'd heard of Ryuuken, he wasn't keen on passing down his heritage. "I didn't realize that he'd been training him..."
"Who the hell is Ryuuken?" He asks immediately. Obviously a quincy but--
"The guy I knew called himself The Last Quincy. He mentioned having some old teacher who trained him, but he's never talked about any family asides then. I kind of assumed the 'last' bit meant something. Though I guess, considering nobody knew about you, that might not mean anything afterall."
"Ryuuken Ishida." She's mention him before, but only briefly. He probably doesn't remember. She didn't really elaborate at the time who he was. But the mention of being the Last Quincy does catch her up a bit. There's a flash of guilt in her expression before she's pushing it aside and moving forward.
"He's my cousin--Well, distant cousin. But I stayed with his family, when I lost my parents. The Quincy you know must be his son, Uryuu." And the teacher is probably Ryuuken's father. As far as she knows, Ryuuken didn't have any interest in continuing with Quincy traditions. Not after what happened between them.
There's something like a train crash within his skull. A screech of brakes, a crunch of metal, bursts of explosives and faint and distant screams drowned in shattering glass. His jaw hangs a little and slowly, oh so slowly, the weight of her words set in.
"Ishida Uryuu," He repeats, not at all as if the name is foreign. And then his face twists into horrified disgust.
"You're cousins?! You and he-- We're related to Ishida!?" His voice, already rather high as it is, nearly cracks.
"Yes?" That is a very extreme response to what she thought was already common knowledge. She's not quite sure what's so alarming about this, though it has her a little on edge. "I... told you that, didn't I? Every Quincy in history can be traced back to one man. We're not just related to the Ishidas, we're related to all Quincies."
"That's different!" He splutters, hands thrown up in the air. "There's a huge difference in everyone in the world is related via some caveman and oh, we're cousins!"
He groans. He doesn't have the damn capacity to deal with this. "Ichigo's going to love this," He says dryly, pushing his bangs back. He looks back at her.
"Any more family secrets I should know about? Powers, cousins, a long lost fortune?" He asks. "And for that matter, are you two... close?"
He's so up in arms about this, and she really really doesn't understand why. Is there...a problem with being related to the Ishidas? They haven't exactly spoken fondly of Uryuu, so maybe that's it? She can't help but wonder what happened between them.
She's about to mention that they might have relatives on the Shingiami side of their family, too, when Zangetsu abruptly asks her if she was close to Ryuuken. She flushes a little, looking briefly caught in an awkward situation. How does she explain this...
"We, uh..." She hesitates, then with a small, awkward laugh and a smile, continues: "We were kinda sorta... betrothed, I guess? Before I met Isshin."
He says he doesn't want to know anymore, but Masaki is already too flustered not to explain.
"It's not as bad as it sounds! Ryuuken and I... We're still close friends. He's a good man, and I appreciate everything he's done for me, but... I think I broke his heart." Or broke his dreams for the future. She's really not sure which it is, but either way she knows that she hurt him. "That's why I said before... I don't want to be any more unkind to him than I already have been."
"What? Are you kidding?!" He could almost laugh with his disbelief but he doesn't, just stares at her utterly boggled. She's not kidding. He knows she's not. But he still can't wrap his head around it.
"Screw his broken heart! Did he even ask you before you went into this? Did anyone!? You made it sound like he bent over backwards for you, not that you had a guilty conscience because you decided to live your own life! You don't owe him that! It's your life! You can't really believe that was some kind of unkindness on your part."
"It's not like that," she quickly to counter, her own defensiveness rising. "He protected me, more times than I can count. His mother was a very strict woman, and I was... not so great at being a Quincy back then. She was often disappointed with me, and he shielded me from that."
That's not really the point that she's talking about here, but she can't help but defend Ryuuken. Despite everything that's happened between them, she still has a deep care and respect for the other Quincy. Even if her feelings can't be the way he would have wanted from her.
"When I insisted on helping Isshin, he tried to stop me. Even more than welcoming his mother's ire, he was worried about my safety. I went anyway. And when I collapsed from my injuries then, he was the one who grabbed me. He ran with me to find help--and found Isshin again. They would have been enemies any other day, but that day, they saved me. Together. I'm never not going to be grateful for that."
Oh great, he wants to argue, he protected her from his tyrannical mother. How generous of him to take the blows so she would stay a little longer somewhere it's sounding like she didn't want to be to do something she didn't want to do. He is just bursting with new sympathy for this asshole.
The expression on his face, the breath he pulls, all of it tells of the angry rebuttal she's about to get. It dies in his throat.
Helping Dad. Because he-- the hollow, had attacked. Right. No matter what this Ryuuken did to her, what Dad did to him, they're never going to be the bad guy of the tale. It always comes back to this; the hollow and the whole.
His presses to a line. He breathes out and forces his shoulders to drop, even as his brows remain knotted. "...Alright. Fine." He looks away, arms folded. "So you're close but it's not a come-over-for-dinner sort of close. I understand. That's all I was wondering." He moves, not wanting to face her, wondering what he can do now to change the topic. He supposes he could just leave. But...
She's said something wrong. What it is, she's not entirely sure. All she knows is that one second, he'd been combative and the next he was backing down, turning his back to her. She feels a little off balance from the sudden exit, like one of the supports she was leaning on had just suddenly vanished.
She bites back the urge to apologize. That would probably just make him even less happy. She's caught on that he doesn't seem to like that from her. So she offers an olive branch in another manner.
"There's Isshin's side of the family as well," she starts, soft and slow. "All Shinigamis, so I've never met any of them, but... I don't know who you met in Soul Society. Was... there anyone from the Shiba clan?"
He turns as she starts to speak again. It's so strange how, before she'd given indication otherwise, it never really occurred to him (as himself or as Ichigo) to consider any family beyond. Now they're tracing lines across worlds.
His reaction is far more muted than it might've been a moment ago, but there's still definitely a reaction. A laugh, followed by another, almost helpless the way it comes out. He runs a hand through his hair and shakes his head with disbelief.
"Yeah, there was. Kukaku and Ganju. Former helped us past the Seireitei with a canon, latter came with us when we started fighting our way pas the Shinigami." Dad's a Shiba. That actually explained some things in retrospect. "Ganju and Ishida were there fighting when we were. Dammit, I can't believe this whole time..."
They'd had no idea. None of them. Maybe Yoruichi, definitely Urahara, but...
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"I guess we could think about it," He says. "Probably nothing to do with Shinigami stuff, you seemed pretty nervous about that before. I could show you highschool or something. Middleschool sucked until Chad was there but I could show you that too. One of Karin's soccer games. One of those shows Yuzu likes-- we went to see one once, but it was stupid and we kind of crashed it when a hollow showed up."
He shrugs. "There's time."
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"Would you want to see anything?" she asks, the thought just occurring to her. "I could show you my memories, too. Right?"
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He looks down. He can't help wondering if that's not somewhat pointless.
"You probably could. I can't see why not. But... would it really matter? I can't pass things to Ichigo like that. I have his memories but he doesn't get mine. He couldn't use anything. I can't use anything Quincy based, and I already know about... that thing, more or less." There's nothing to use in battle. And everything else is just life he's not going to have. Does he really want more of that? His brows furrow, eyes close, and he runs a hand through his hair. "I guess if there was something worthwhile you thought I should see. But you'd be wasting on me. You could just tell Ichigo the story later."
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"I didn't mean for it to be something that you pass to Ichigo. You're doing all of this for me. If there's anything that you want to see, I thought that I could offer. There doesn't have to be a reason."
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"I don't know," He says softer. "I used to think you were just a normal human. And Dad too. Except for the thing I mentioned, I really don't know anything about either of you." He ponders, quiet, for an even longer moment. "Have you ever been somewhere you didn't take Ichigo to? Somewhere new. Outside or a building, it doesn't matter. Just... new. Interesting."
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"I could show you my college--or my high school, when I was a girl. Those were still pretty normal, though." There's always her training in the Ishida household... "I could show you some Quincy stuff, if you really want to see it? It's mostly training--unless you wanted to watch me fight hollows."
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He shrugs his shoulders. "Sure. Who doesn't love a good hollow hunt?" He sounds amused. He sighs then. "It's been so long since we've seen anything. I feel could almost forget what it was like. I could probably stand a college lecture or two. Maybe a Quincy one." As long it wasn't boring or the sort to make his eyes roll.
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Because otherwise, she'd been fairly terrible at it.
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She blinks at him, confused for a moment, before the realization dawns on her. "Wait, you mean the traditional clothes? We only wore those for ceremonies... Is there someone running around in that?" She looks like she's a little bewildered by that fact.
"Is he an older gentlemen?" It certainly wouldn't be Ryuuken himself. Maybe his father? She hadn't seem him in ages, but she's certain that he was still around somewhere. Or it could be any number of the Gemischt...
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"This guy? Well, he's about as stuck up as one," He says. He shakes his head. "But no. He's in our grade. Our class actually. Didn't notice him until after we became a shinigami and he thought the best thing to do would be to challenge us head on."
The idiot. Hadn't learned much.
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"Is that... Ryuuken's son?" He's the only person that age that might also be a Quincy, though the last she'd heard of Ryuuken, he wasn't keen on passing down his heritage. "I didn't realize that he'd been training him..."
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"The guy I knew called himself The Last Quincy. He mentioned having some old teacher who trained him, but he's never talked about any family asides then. I kind of assumed the 'last' bit meant something. Though I guess, considering nobody knew about you, that might not mean anything afterall."
He doesn't know what she's embarrassed for.
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"Ryuuken Ishida." She's mention him before, but only briefly. He probably doesn't remember. She didn't really elaborate at the time who he was. But the mention of being the Last Quincy does catch her up a bit. There's a flash of guilt in her expression before she's pushing it aside and moving forward.
"He's my cousin--Well, distant cousin. But I stayed with his family, when I lost my parents. The Quincy you know must be his son, Uryuu." And the teacher is probably Ryuuken's father. As far as she knows, Ryuuken didn't have any interest in continuing with Quincy traditions. Not after what happened between them.
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"Ishida Uryuu," He repeats, not at all as if the name is foreign. And then his face twists into horrified disgust.
"You're cousins?! You and he-- We're related to Ishida!?" His voice, already rather high as it is, nearly cracks.
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He groans. He doesn't have the damn capacity to deal with this. "Ichigo's going to love this," He says dryly, pushing his bangs back. He looks back at her.
"Any more family secrets I should know about? Powers, cousins, a long lost fortune?" He asks. "And for that matter, are you two... close?"
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She's about to mention that they might have relatives on the Shingiami side of their family, too, when Zangetsu abruptly asks her if she was close to Ryuuken. She flushes a little, looking briefly caught in an awkward situation. How does she explain this...
"We, uh..." She hesitates, then with a small, awkward laugh and a smile, continues: "We were kinda sorta... betrothed, I guess? Before I met Isshin."
Nailed it.
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That...
"You..."
They were cousins... who were betrothe--
His hands go up in surrender. "Alright, forget I asked! For once, I don't want to know!"
He might be angry at their father but that doesn't mean he'd ask for... literally any part of this.
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"It's not as bad as it sounds! Ryuuken and I... We're still close friends. He's a good man, and I appreciate everything he's done for me, but... I think I broke his heart." Or broke his dreams for the future. She's really not sure which it is, but either way she knows that she hurt him. "That's why I said before... I don't want to be any more unkind to him than I already have been."
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"Screw his broken heart! Did he even ask you before you went into this? Did anyone!? You made it sound like he bent over backwards for you, not that you had a guilty conscience because you decided to live your own life! You don't owe him that! It's your life! You can't really believe that was some kind of unkindness on your part."
Can she? Probably.
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That's not really the point that she's talking about here, but she can't help but defend Ryuuken. Despite everything that's happened between them, she still has a deep care and respect for the other Quincy. Even if her feelings can't be the way he would have wanted from her.
"When I insisted on helping Isshin, he tried to stop me. Even more than welcoming his mother's ire, he was worried about my safety. I went anyway. And when I collapsed from my injuries then, he was the one who grabbed me. He ran with me to find help--and found Isshin again. They would have been enemies any other day, but that day, they saved me. Together. I'm never not going to be grateful for that."
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The expression on his face, the breath he pulls, all of it tells of the angry rebuttal she's about to get. It dies in his throat.
Helping Dad. Because he-- the hollow, had attacked. Right. No matter what this Ryuuken did to her, what Dad did to him, they're never going to be the bad guy of the tale. It always comes back to this; the hollow and the whole.
His presses to a line. He breathes out and forces his shoulders to drop, even as his brows remain knotted. "...Alright. Fine." He looks away, arms folded. "So you're close but it's not a come-over-for-dinner sort of close. I understand. That's all I was wondering." He moves, not wanting to face her, wondering what he can do now to change the topic. He supposes he could just leave. But...
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She bites back the urge to apologize. That would probably just make him even less happy. She's caught on that he doesn't seem to like that from her. So she offers an olive branch in another manner.
"There's Isshin's side of the family as well," she starts, soft and slow. "All Shinigamis, so I've never met any of them, but... I don't know who you met in Soul Society. Was... there anyone from the Shiba clan?"
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His reaction is far more muted than it might've been a moment ago, but there's still definitely a reaction. A laugh, followed by another, almost helpless the way it comes out. He runs a hand through his hair and shakes his head with disbelief.
"Yeah, there was. Kukaku and Ganju. Former helped us past the Seireitei with a canon, latter came with us when we started fighting our way pas the Shinigami." Dad's a Shiba. That actually explained some things in retrospect. "Ganju and Ishida were there fighting when we were. Dammit, I can't believe this whole time..."
They'd had no idea. None of them. Maybe Yoruichi, definitely Urahara, but...
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