CHAPTER 11: Isshin and Masaki Part 2
Masaki was angry no scratch that she was furious no not even that she was just depressed.
Just a year ago she was living in Silver City and chatting and playing with Gabriel but now, she was a Fallen Angel.
You may be confused about what happened so let me elaborate.
Masaki was a pure-blooded angel and a rising star in heaven because of her astonishing growth rate and the fact that she was doted a lot by Gabby(Gabriel). Some even considered the possibility of her eventually becoming an Archangel as well.
Around 10 months ago, she took a trip to the lower world to see how humans and the church functioned.
She found 98% of the church and humanity great but the problem arose with the remaining 2%.
She had lived a partially sheltered life thanks to Gabby and never knew people could be this evil when she used to think the devils were the biggest evils of the world.
But unfortunately, Humanity proved her wrong, to think these people were so twisted that they would commit such atrocities in the name of her father and religion.
She couldn't understand why her father or other Archangels hadn't interfered and stopped them.
Were they okay with these things? No, Gabby wasn't like that. Neither were the others. So why? Why?
Why!‽‽‽‽‽
For context, what she was witnessing was ethnic cleansing. A mass purging of one ethnic or religious group by another.
And it wasn't even for their religion as they claimed because she could sense the joy the invaders felt from killing these innocent people.
Then she saw Red before losing consciousness.
*Roaaaarrrrr*
When she came to, she had already Fallen and the surrounding area had turned into a wasteland with all the people who participated in the attack already dead.
She was the one to kill them all. This was a fact she could tell because the wounds were all caused by blood lightning her special ability. And no other attack would make the opponent both bleed and burn at the same time. There was also her fragmented memory which helped her come to this realisation.
The victims were nowhere in sight except for those who had died before she came here.
She spent the next few days digging the graves for the victims and collecting their bodies. It was easy to distinguish the two parties by their clothes and injuries.
After remorsefully burying the bodies, she destroyed the bodies of the attackers. They didn't deserve rest even in death.
After silently staring at the grave mounds for half a day. She spoke, "How long are you going to observe me?"
"Ah... I just didn't want to disturb you. You seemed to be busy."
A figure soon emerged from behind a building.
"Azazel"
"Yes? Masaki"
They knew each other plenty well. They had fought against each other more than a few times.
"What do you want?"Masaki spoke in an annoyed tone.
"Oh well... No point in Dilly-dallying" Azazel replied lazily "I want you to join Grigori"
Masaki's eye widened. Although she had expected it, she couldn't help but be surprised when receiving this offer.
'I..I really am a fallen now? huh' Masaki wondered
She hastily caught something which was thrown towards her. It was a piece of parchment.
"I don't expect an answer right away but give me a call when you make up your mind." Azazel waved as his 12 majestic wings appeared behind his back "Don't hesitate too much. They have abandoned you. Haven't they?"
With a flap of his wings, Azazel was gone. Masaki shuddered at Azazel's words, it wouldn't be strange for Heaven to abandon her now that she had fallen but she didn't want that. She was far too attached to her friends and didn't want to become an enemy with them. On top of it, no one was answering her communication calls.
Masaki tightly clutched the wooden bow given to her by Gabriel. In a sense, it was funny to see an Angel carrying a bow because they could just create light constructs but Masaki was, in the words of her enemies, 'defective'.
Masaki was an Angel born with huge amounts of holy energy i.e. when she only had two wings she had reserves of 8 wing Angels but unfortunately, everything had a price.
Even though she had so much energy, she couldn't use it properly because she could never maintain the holy constructs. So, she only trained in her innate ability, a red colour lightning, capable of burning the opponent and bursting their blood vessel wherever hit and thus aptly named Blood Lightning.
Honestly, she hated it. Her name and inability with holy energy already made her different from her fellow Angels, even her ability was mutated and cruel. This made her feel like an outcast in her own home, Silver City.
But she quietly suffered all this while training the ability she hated so much. She wanted to become useful for her family. Then, one day Archangel Gabriel, Gabby, saw her training and from small talk to talking about hobbies, they soon became friends.
This bow, made from a branch of the world tree, was a gift from Gabby when she learnt about her difficulties.
It was Nigh-Industrictible and allied her to use her holy energy to form arrows. Thanks to it she was able to learn how to control her energy better and explosively rise in ranks. Becoming, one of the strongest Rookies out of all the factions.
It also allowed her to fight without using Blood Lightning which she used to hate so much.
However, when she went berserk she used Blood Lightning to kill these despicable humans.
Tightly clutching Gamma the Bow she wondered what to do. And if there was any way to return to Heaven.
(MA saki + GA briel= GA MA= Gamma. Masaki named it after the two of them to celebrate their friendship)
It had been 6 years since Masaki fell. In these 6 years, she went to through a lot. At first, she only wandered aimlessly without anywhere to go. Just helping humans now and then and eradicating evils, which the justice of humans could do nothing against, whether the culprits were humans or otherwise.
Sometimes she wondered what even was the point of helping humans if all they did was conflict and cause harm to each other. But she saw many kind humans as well, a mother not eating anything to provide food for her children, a father working hard to provide for his family, strangers helping each other in times of need. The kindness of humanity as she travelled to various countries was the only thing that brought her comfort nowadays.
She thought hard about it and decided against joining Grigori. Even though she had Fallen, she didn't have a skin thick enough to just forget the past and join her former enemies and fight her former friends.
She had decided to move alone and be a Mercenary, but she only took jobs against heinous criminals.
It was a difficult path as she could only rely only on herself even when faced with multiple opponents but she hoped one day she could make more friends.
Right now, she was doing a favour for Azazel for his help in settling down in the human world.
Her job was simple: Find the cause of Mass Murder and Kidnapping in Japan and solve it.
When Masaki heard her quest, she was taken aback. Japan should be Yokai territory, why was this quest coming from Grigori? Couldn't the Yokais solve it themselves?
All her questions were answered when she arrived at one of the crime scenes. Although the traces were very faint, someone of her calibre could immediately determine that the culprit was a Yokai, and a powerful one capable of extreme stealth at that.
If it was done rogue Yokai that would explain it all. Since the culprit was capable of stealth, the Yokai would have no choice but to spread their forces throughout Japan, just to catch him/her.
But.
But a weakened faction like Yokais would be like a sitting duck for enemies and all that.
"Mhhhm" Masaki rubbed her temple as she groaned why was such a troublesome mission given to her. Oh yeah, Azazel's Favor. The bastard sure was getting all he could out of the favour.
"Oh well"
Masaki started to do her work while cussing Azazel in hundreds of different languages.
(A/N: We can thank her (human)neighbours for her knowledge in profanity)
Finally, when it seemed like there was no progress, one of her sensor magic circles picked up an energy signature which was more than 90% similar to the culprit.
Calculating the coordinates she immediately prepared a teleport circle and with a flash she was gone.
When Masaki appeared she didn't know what she was expecting but she sure wasn't expecting an area covered in flesh and blood with four disfigured male bodies on the ground and a grown man(Yokai) comforting a little girl of 12-13.
While investigating the murders, Masaki found that a bunch of kidnappings were taking place as well with the only similarity being that all the victims were young girls.
Now that she was seeing this scene Masaki naturally assumed Isshin to be the culprit, especially since he was giving off such a similar aura.
"Haah!! Finally, I found you!! You Bastard!!"
Masaki couldn't help but shout in anger and excitement at having finally caught the criminal. As she opened her wings in a show of intimidation and pride and donned her orichalcum Armor.
Isshin just raised an eyebrow "What do you want crow? I thought Crows and Yokais had a peace treaty"
Masaki gritted her teeth "Don't call me that and I am not with Grigori, I work alone. So, the treaty doesn't work on me."
Why did everyone call Fallen crows!!
"Okaaaaay." Isshin said "But what kind of benefit enticed you into making an enemy out of both factions"
Masaki glared furiously at Isshin and gritted her teeth so hard one wondered how were they still intact? 'Playing innocent now is he?!'
"Don't play dumb with me you bastard!!! I know that you have been killing innocent Humans and kidnapping young girls." She pointed at the fleshy surrounding "Not only your method of killing is the same but your energy is similar to the residue I found on the crime scene. Run now girl, I don't know what lies he has fed you but I am almost certain that he is the criminal"
"M-me!?" Isshin pointed at himself flabbergasted as if he could not believe what he had just heard.
'Why is he acting so surprised for? Did he really believe that no one would be able to decode his stealth'
This arrogance only irritated Masaki further.
Suddenly, Isshin launched himself at Masaki as he threw a punch encased in crimson flames.
Although the conversation earlier might have seemed like an idle chit-chat to an observer but alongside the conversation, the two were also trying to find a gap or weakness in the opponent as they could both sense they had similar levels of strength not counting hidden or life-saving measures.
Still, Masaki didn't expect him to attack so suddenly when she hadn't even finished assessing his power level.
It couldn't be that he had attacked in anger, could he? No, that was not possible. No criminal capable of such stealth would give in to his anger so easily. Then .... He must be overconfident in his abilities. The @#@"##.
She couldn't continue her train of thought as he was almost upon her, she hurriedly pulled back and fired a relentless barrage of arrows.
Isshin punched some of the arrows away but as Masaki's firing continued some managed to slip by and pierced into his flesh penetrating his touki barrier and injuring though none hit any vital organs.
She could have if she wanted to but she needed him for questioning.
Inhale
Isshin suddenly took a huge breath in and then he blew.
Exhale
Masaki's Instincts immediately warned her allowing her to stop firing and cast a protective spell.
The next moment majority of the arrows disappeared and Masaki appeared to have sustained severe burns on her arms and her wings were singed, even the armour seemed to have melted a little.
'What the....!!!!!!'
She couldn't believe it, she knew he was strong enough to fight her but not this strong. Not only did the attack destroy her protective spell but also melted her armour made of ORICHALCUM.
If he was this strong there would have been no need to hide, even both old and new Maous could do as they pleased because of their strength only.
It was when she raised her guard and senses to max that she sensed it, there was an unfamiliar energy signature in the area just for a moment, it was coming from Isshin or rather affecting Isshin.
Looking at him, he seemed to have realised the same thing as well.
Someone was manipulating Isshin into fighting Masaki...with the intent to kill.
Then a certain eye communication passed between them as they decided to settle it later, right now catching the culprit was more important.
Oh yeah, Masaki ignored it while in the battle but she realised that he was not the killer after fighting against him.
Just as they were getting ready to pursue the culprit there was a shout from below.
"S-S-Stop!!!"
The two were stunned for a moment before looking at the source.
" D-Don't Fight! Isshin-sama is not evil. He would never do something like that!!"
Ichigo(Edo era)was shouting at the top of her lungs while shaking in fear.
Masaki looked at the young girl before letting out a beautiful smile. Maybe there was hope for humans still.
(Present time)
Isshin stopped his story there as he greedily drank some water.
Meanwhile, Ichigo just blinked repeatedly 'What was that?'
Just now it seemed like he saw the past Isshin was talking about.
Although, Isshin had changed some things like making those r**ist bastards into just bad people and brutally murdering them into beating them up. Mostly because of Karin and Yuzu but it was pretty much the same.
But it made him wonder how did he see the past? Was it the third eye? Ichigo had read about Gods in his past life and how they could see the future with their third eye, was seeing the past also the same?
Then Isshin continued "Although I don't remember what happened after this-"
Karin frowned " What do you mean?"
Ichigo also had the same question. So did Yuzu. And the gaze of three siblings once again returned to their father.
It was Azazel who answered " It's because I erased his 15 yrs worth of memories"
Ichigo glared at the man...Fallen Angel.
"Now..Now don't get worked up. It was your parents who asked this" Azazel took out a little beer bottle and took a sip " After that day. They, well they disappeared.. just vanished from the face of Earth. Oh, you wouldn't believe how hectic those 15 years were. Isshin, The Crown Prince of Yokais and Masaki, An Ultimate level Fallen Angel. Both disappeared from the face of Earth after a Fight. Now, that isn't a big deal but Masaki went there on a mission from Yokais themselves. You can imagine how hectic those years were."
Yeah, Ichigo could imagine this all right but.
"Wait.. You said things were hectic but why would that be when Mom refused to join your team?"
- Way to go Yuzu. Yuzu sure is smart.. unlike a certain someone. (Hichigo)
'Hey!!!' Ichigo mentally yelled at his Zanpakuto.'But, Yeah Good going Yuzu'.
Azazel raised an eyebrow " Well you aren't wrong. But it doesn't have to be factions who raise a fuss, People can also raise a fuss and Masaki had Gabriel, Serafall, and I on her side...What? I thought she would agree to join after a few years."
"Who's Serafall?" Yuzu asked curiously.
"It doesn't matter... It doesn't matter .. Why Don't we change the subject" Isshin rushly interjected.
Azazel's eyes flashed as his lips quirked into a mischievous smile "You see" Azazel ignored Isshin's puppy dog eyes " Serafall Leviathan is one of the Four Maous. She was deeply and madly in love with" A dramatic pause " Your Mother. Uh.. calling Masaki your mother gives me goosebumps."
Well, wasn't that a surprise? He thought Azazel was gonna say your father.
"Then why is Goat-face's acting like this?" Ichigo asked eyeing the man whose face was buried in his hands.
"It happened rather recently around a century ago, One day when Masaki and Serafall were dressed up as each other" Isshin's strangled cry "Isshin ended up proposing to the wrong girl..i.e. he wanted to propose to your mother but ended up proposing to the Maou and ended up being beaten black and blue by your mother... Before she accepted his proposal"
"How do you know that?"
"He was drunk on the day before his wedding. Almost everyone knows of this incident. Especially because Serafall almost agreed to be with your mother."
"Woah"(Karin)
"So cute"(Yuzu)
"I see"( Ichigo)
"The best part is, it's your mother who refused Serafall not your father"
"Pervert" and with that one word from Karin. Isshin's heart was torn into a thousand pieces. Yuzu's disappointed eyes tore it into another thousand pieces.
Azazel just took a sip from his flask while his eyes were gleaming in delight at Isshin's suffering.
Ichigo decided to spare his dad from further embarrassment "Why did you erase memories? It can't be just because he asked."
"Haah.. It is all there is to it. After 15 years of disappearance, they suddenly appeared when a war was about to spark. They were both badly dehydrated and were starving to the bone. Another week or two and even they could not have survived. When they woke up in the infirmary, they attacked anyone in sight almost killing a few people."
The twins gasped, Isshin looked sad and Ichigo had a poker face on.
"When they calmed down, they could recount everything till before disappearance, remembering the 15 would always cause another mental breakdown. So, they asked me to erase those missing memories after telling me three things.1)They were in love. 2)The human, Ichigo, saved their lives and 3) Evie. Although I still don't know the meaning of the word. Considering how much Masaki emitted while saying this name, it's safe to assume they are enemies. After that, I erased their memories as they had asked."
With another sip, Azazel concluded his tale.
"After that, it's pretty much the common 3rd-rate romance where the two fall in love once again and eventually marry. That's all"
Ichigo frowned at that "Then how did they turn into humans and what about the curse on Mom?"
"What curse?!" Practically everyone in the room shouted.
Once again Ichigo was confused, how could they not even find the curse on Masaki but he explained nonetheless.
"Mom had a curse placed on her since before my birth, the curse had only one function that is to steal the life force of the victim, after my birth the curse passed on to me but it still affected her, that's why she left us"
Everyone was shocked still.
"Are you okay Ichigo/ Ichi-nii/ Nii-chan?! " (Family)
"It can't be!! Not only me but many other researchers and doctors couldn't find the reason for Masaki's condition at all!!" (Azazel)
"Yeah, Yeah, Calm down. I am fine. I destroyed it when I was becoming a God." Ichigo tried to calm his family who were already on the edge from his fainting and vomiting and godhood "Anyway, putting that aside how and why did you turn into humans?"
This question was directed at Isshin making Isshin sigh "It's not like we wanted to become humans or something but Shinto gods were against our union. So I performed a ritual turning completely human and Masaki followed suit because she didn't want to burden me. Well, the end result was us becoming humans. But I don't hate it as much as I thought I would after all I got you three after turning into human only"
"I see" Ichigo simply said in an emotionless tone.
"Hey, Ichigo-"
* Ring* Ring**Ring* Ring* *Ring* Ring*
"I will go see who's calling, you guys continue"
*Whisper* Whisper*
As Ichigo left the dining room, he could hear the rest of them whispering. If he wanted Ichigo could hear what they were talking about (most probably Ichigo) but he let them keep their privacy.
Right now, there was a lot on his mind. First of all, in this world, his parents were a lot more older than their counterparts in "Earth -1" as Ichigo decided to call it. Secondly, No one seemed to know his mother was cursed at all. Thirdly, What happened in those "Missing 15 Years", whoever hurt his parents would surely pay. Even Shinto, if only they allowed his parents to be together, his mother would still be a Fallen Angel and maybe, just maybe, she would still be alive. Even Biblical God, If only he hadn't made mom into a fallen, she just dealt with some trash.
Ichigo knew he was being somewhat unfair but he didn't care or rather he didn't want to. If only they hadn't done as they did, Masaki would have been alive. Or at least maybe lived till now for him to cure her. But all these were just what-ifs.
* Sigh*
'Ossan, did you find who cursed Mom?'
Ichigo asked Zangetsu, who was using the method taught by the "Being" to search for one who cursed his mother.
- There's good news and bad news .
Ichigo immediately knew something was wrong. The answer should be Yes or No, not good news and bad news.
- The good news is that I scanned the whole planet at least 3 times and found many traces of the Caster. (Ossan)
-The bad news is that we only found traces, old traces, the caster itself wasn't found. Which means they are either dead ~( Hichigo)
-Or they aren't in this dimension at all( Ossan).
Ichigo was silent and then picked up the phone.
"Hello, Kurosaki Residence"
"Hello, Kurosaki-kun"
Suddenly there was a smile of pleasant surprise lit up Ichigo's face.
"Orihime!!"
*Squealing Sound*
* Sound of something falling*
"Hey, you okay?"
"Y,yeah..Yeah I am good, good."
"Okay"
"Oh, I am such a klutz, I almost forgot to tell you. I am coming back to Japan."
To be Continued...
You guys can join my discord if you wish (https://dis//cord.gg/ahcECQxP68) just remove the / from discord