"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...
Kukaku and Ganju. Those names are unfamiliar to her, but she listens as he explains their roles. She smiles a little as he expresses his bewilderment. Unlike the mention of the Ishidas, he seems... less aggravated by this revelation.
Gradually, she finds a seat at the dinner table. Her attention remains on him, but she allows herself to pull out a chair and sink into it. "What are they like? Kukaku and Ganju? I've never met anyone from Isshin's family." He's mentioned a little bit about his former life, but those names in particular had never come up.
Well if she's sitting, he might as well join her. He chooses a seat across from her.
"I could probably show you that too, eventually," He points out. Then says, "They're... loud. They live in house with a big stupid banner over held up by these giant fake arms. Apparently they cause trouble and make fireworks. Kukaku's the one in charge of it all. Missing an arm, kicks the ass of anyone who doesn't listen to her, Ichigo finds her kind of intimidating. Ganju's the younger brother, real weird guy, rides around on a pig with his dumbass gang. Tried to fight Ichigo cause he hated shinigami. Apparently they had a brother, guy became a shinigami and got killed. A little in spite and a little because, they decided to help us break through the barrier. Ganju hung around with us for a bit but we kind of lost track of him about when we started fighting captains." A pause. "He lived though. Ichigo hung out with him after we won against soul society but before going back home."
The fact that her son finds a woman intimidating should not be as funny to her as it is, and yet she can't help grinning. It's painfully cute. She sounds like a fun kind of woman--and exactly the sort of person that she's imagine Isshin being related to. But the same also goes for Ganju. Riding around on a pig... Ridiculousness is apparently something that runs in the family.
But the mention of fighting captains wipes the grin from her face again. "I'm suddenly reminded why I don't ask about your Soul Society escapades," she laughs, a little strained. At least she doesn't freak out this time. But she does move the conversation in a slightly different direction.
"...Isshin used to be a captain, too. Did he tell you that?"
Ridiculousness definitely ran in that family, and in retrospect, he can see the resemblance in other ways too. She seems to be getting a kick out of it. At least for a little while.
He raises a brow at the strain of her laugh but his expression quickly becomes a scowl as she brings up Dad again.
"Chh. No. He didn't tell us anything. We just kind of figured it out from the fact he wore a captain's garb. Ichigo didn't even try to make him explain anything when he finally found out, just wrote it off that our father must have had a good reason if he didn't say anything all that time. It's sheer chance that I know anything at all." A chance that came a little too late for making a difference for him. Yeah, he liked the soul society escapades topic better.
There's that bitterness again. She can't help but frown, setting a crease between her brows as she listens to Zangetsu detail how Isshin had kept the truth from them--and how Ichigo hadn't bothered to press the issue. It's one of the few things that he's said that's put a note of pride in her heart for her son. And a small bit of hope with it.
"I'm sure it wasn't an easy thing for him to talk about," she explains, gently. She doesn't know Isshin's reasons for keeping quiet about all of that, but she can take a good guess. "He's never been good about opening up, and after keeping that secret for so long... I'm sure he found it difficult to find the right time to say something. He used to do the same with me." But she always knew how to read his evasiveness, and she could always find a way to make him come around, if it was something important. But without her there, it must have taken him a lot longer to speak up than anyone would have wanted--himself included.
"Oh yeah," He says, his sarcasm biting. "I'm sure it must have been real harrowing for him. How terrible to keep a secret for so long and ending up not even having to say anything at all. I'm sure he was just dying inside when he knowingly hung me out to dry. Poor old Dad."
What had before come out as frustration and annoyance, now reveals itself as a truer, deeper anger. But he clenches his jaw. He forces himself back down and he forces himself to breathe.
He looks away. "Whatever. It doesn't matter now. Knowing them, he'll take whatever secrets he has to the grave and Ichigo won't so much as wonder. I obviously won't say anything--" because he won't be able to. "-- so everything will be just peachy."
It's still weird to hear Zangetsu referring to Isshin as Dad, just as much as hearing him call her Mom. Maybe more. It doesn't match the scathing anger that she hears in those words, and she can't help but defend her absent husband.
"You have to understand... Isshin--He might be a Shinigami. A strong one that's good in combat... But there's a lot of things that he's not good at. He's needed help in so many things. Talking about himself, cooking and cleaning, raising children... Even the clinic when he first started... He was terrible. I really don't know how he managed to stay in business." Probably Urahara pulling the strings where needed. Or Ryuuken offering his distant but steadfast support. But she keeps going, her tone heartfelt.
"For a lot of those things, he looked to me. But one thing he's never needed help with--one thing that he's always been good at is caring about our family." She smiles fondly, but there's a touch of sadness in her tone. "He always promised that if I ever needed him, he would come running--Shinigami powers or not. Without a doubt, he would have taken a hit for any of us if he could. So if he was silent about all of this, then it's not because he didn't care. I'm sure that Ichigo understands that."
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Date: 2018-05-04 02:37 am (UTC)Because otherwise, she'd been fairly terrible at it.
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Date: 2018-05-04 02:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-08 11:33 pm (UTC)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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Date: 2018-05-09 12:39 am (UTC)"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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Date: 2018-05-09 01:04 am (UTC)"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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Date: 2018-05-09 11:30 am (UTC)"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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Date: 2018-05-09 03:02 pm (UTC)"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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Date: 2018-05-09 03:13 pm (UTC)"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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Date: 2018-05-09 04:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-09 04:30 pm (UTC)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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Date: 2018-05-09 05:40 pm (UTC)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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Date: 2018-05-09 06:01 pm (UTC)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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Date: 2018-05-09 06:14 pm (UTC)"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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Date: 2018-05-09 06:29 pm (UTC)"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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Date: 2018-05-09 07:45 pm (UTC)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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Date: 2018-05-09 08:16 pm (UTC)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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Date: 2018-05-10 12:50 am (UTC)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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Date: 2018-05-10 01:22 am (UTC)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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Date: 2018-05-10 07:27 pm (UTC)Gradually, she finds a seat at the dinner table. Her attention remains on him, but she allows herself to pull out a chair and sink into it. "What are they like? Kukaku and Ganju? I've never met anyone from Isshin's family." He's mentioned a little bit about his former life, but those names in particular had never come up.
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Date: 2018-05-10 08:10 pm (UTC)"I could probably show you that too, eventually," He points out. Then says, "They're... loud. They live in house with a big stupid banner over held up by these giant fake arms. Apparently they cause trouble and make fireworks. Kukaku's the one in charge of it all. Missing an arm, kicks the ass of anyone who doesn't listen to her, Ichigo finds her kind of intimidating. Ganju's the younger brother, real weird guy, rides around on a pig with his dumbass gang. Tried to fight Ichigo cause he hated shinigami. Apparently they had a brother, guy became a shinigami and got killed. A little in spite and a little because, they decided to help us break through the barrier. Ganju hung around with us for a bit but we kind of lost track of him about when we started fighting captains." A pause. "He lived though. Ichigo hung out with him after we won against soul society but before going back home."
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Date: 2018-05-11 01:46 pm (UTC)But the mention of fighting captains wipes the grin from her face again. "I'm suddenly reminded why I don't ask about your Soul Society escapades," she laughs, a little strained. At least she doesn't freak out this time. But she does move the conversation in a slightly different direction.
"...Isshin used to be a captain, too. Did he tell you that?"
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Date: 2018-05-11 02:08 pm (UTC)He raises a brow at the strain of her laugh but his expression quickly becomes a scowl as she brings up Dad again.
"Chh. No. He didn't tell us anything. We just kind of figured it out from the fact he wore a captain's garb. Ichigo didn't even try to make him explain anything when he finally found out, just wrote it off that our father must have had a good reason if he didn't say anything all that time. It's sheer chance that I know anything at all." A chance that came a little too late for making a difference for him. Yeah, he liked the soul society escapades topic better.
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Date: 2018-05-21 10:37 pm (UTC)"I'm sure it wasn't an easy thing for him to talk about," she explains, gently. She doesn't know Isshin's reasons for keeping quiet about all of that, but she can take a good guess. "He's never been good about opening up, and after keeping that secret for so long... I'm sure he found it difficult to find the right time to say something. He used to do the same with me." But she always knew how to read his evasiveness, and she could always find a way to make him come around, if it was something important. But without her there, it must have taken him a lot longer to speak up than anyone would have wanted--himself included.
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Date: 2018-05-21 11:06 pm (UTC)What had before come out as frustration and annoyance, now reveals itself as a truer, deeper anger. But he clenches his jaw. He forces himself back down and he forces himself to breathe.
He looks away. "Whatever. It doesn't matter now. Knowing them, he'll take whatever secrets he has to the grave and Ichigo won't so much as wonder. I obviously won't say anything--" because he won't be able to. "-- so everything will be just peachy."
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Date: 2018-05-21 11:22 pm (UTC)"You have to understand... Isshin--He might be a Shinigami. A strong one that's good in combat... But there's a lot of things that he's not good at. He's needed help in so many things. Talking about himself, cooking and cleaning, raising children... Even the clinic when he first started... He was terrible. I really don't know how he managed to stay in business." Probably Urahara pulling the strings where needed. Or Ryuuken offering his distant but steadfast support. But she keeps going, her tone heartfelt.
"For a lot of those things, he looked to me. But one thing he's never needed help with--one thing that he's always been good at is caring about our family." She smiles fondly, but there's a touch of sadness in her tone. "He always promised that if I ever needed him, he would come running--Shinigami powers or not. Without a doubt, he would have taken a hit for any of us if he could. So if he was silent about all of this, then it's not because he didn't care. I'm sure that Ichigo understands that."
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