= Back on Earth, August 13th =
Ichigo and his friends stepped back onto Earth in Kisuke's basement. Their moods were still mixed. They had managed to save Rukia, however Aizen's betrayal was a shock to everyone. Even though none of them knew him before they all realized this wasn't good news for them.
Kisuke welcomed them in his usual happy go lucky way before all of them left to finally get some good rest.
Ichigo walked into his home. He heard some sounds from the kitchen.
'Yuzu must be preparing something.' He though to himself and decided he would say hi before crashing on his bed like he had originally planned.
When he made it to the kitchen he saw what could only be a hallucination of his mother. He rubbed his eye trying to clear it up, but on a second look it hadn't changed. Despite deciding to always be strong for his friends and family after losing his mom he broke down in tears.
"What?" Masaki said turning around surprised to see Ichigo in the doorway bawling his eyes out just like he used to.
Despite him growing to be much taller than her she quickly went up to him wrapping her arms around him tightly as she rubbed the back of his head.
"There..there…" she said trying to soothe him as best she could. Rather than calm down though his tears just kept coming and she didn't stop soothing him for as long as he needed it to the point where some of the things on the stove burnt, but she couldn't be bothered to care.
It took a long time before Ichigo could even get a coherent sentence out trying to find out what was going on. She explained how they had been attacked by one Hollow, but saved by another. Ichigo refused to believe it at first as he had been there that day, but it was the truth that his mom was in front of him alive and well. That was something he couldn't deny. She explained she got back a few weeks ago and when she asked where he was he got very awkward making an excuse about how he went on a road-trip with his friends to visit another friend they hadn't seen in a while.
Masaki sighed inwardly as she obviously knew exactly what had happened and where he had gone, but she didn't call him out on it deciding to just enjoy their reunion instead. Though she really wanted to punish him for lying too.
- A couple of days later -
Masaki found herself in a large underground chamber that looked like some kind of rocky wasteland. Strangely enough it looked like there was sunlight despite them being deep underground and the chamber being massive.
"Welcome to my basement." Kisuke said with excitement.
"Alright, I don't have all day. My kids will be back from school in a while and I still need to prepare for dinner." She says impatiently. If it wasn't for his incessant requests she wouldn't even be here in the first place.
It had been a few weeks since she returned to her family and had been catching up with them. Even with the regular reports from Hisashi there was still a lot that was missed out on. Isshin was no longer in the doghouse since Ichigo and his friends had returned though they all acted like they didn't know where he had been. The only one Ichigo was aware about knowing was Kisuke.
Though she missed her new friends Reina and Hisashi she was happy to have been able to catch up with her family and she regularly talked with Reina on the phone sharing what they had been up to.
Kisuke nodded, he had configured a barrier around the store and all the employees were present in case they were needed for anything.
"Ok, what do you need? Masaki asked impatiently.
"Let's start by unleashing that hollow form." Kisuke said. He wasn't able to conceal the excitement in his eyes at being able to witness something that had never existed before.
Masaki shifted into her Nichtig form the Hollow armour with Blut like patterns covering her entire body, her eyes turning black with an orange iris and her incisors elongating. She remained in complete control as usual though. By now she had had a lot of practice maintaining the form and keeping full control of herself while using it.
"Interesting…how unusual…" Kisuke was mumbling to himself as he was measuring the changes she went through during and after the transformation. He noted how during the transformation the Hollow spirit power surged past the Quincy spirit power only for the Quincy power to surge to match it until they found a balance boosting her power far beyond her untransformed self. He was also no longer able to find any of Isshin's Shinigami power. It looked like all of it had indeed been forced out and returned to him already.
He ended up having her use all her different abilities. Both those she had as a Quincy, but also those unlocked in her Nichtig form making sure to take measurements of everything that happened during them for him to go over later and improve his knowledge regarding Hollowfication. The data regarding such a virtually impossible Hollow hybrid was a veritable treasure trove to a scientist like him and might lead to him being able to help others like the Visored.
He was still very curious about the Hollow she had met and that had affected her in such an unusual way, but he knew he had been gone for over a month now and no one knew where he was. Not even Masaki or Reina knew.
During all of this Reina had been training like crazy. She knew Hisashi was worried about her and that he wasn't sharing all his worries with her which she blamed on her own weakness. She wanted to be strong enough to where he could share everything with her and she could share some of his burden for him. He had done so much for her and she felt she could never do enough to make up for it.