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Title: Everything for Love
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 600
Warning/s: Spoilers for after Soul Society Arc
Summary: Isshin thinks about everything that lead to this moment
Dedication: To anyone who was a fan of Isshin before chapter 186. I can't have been the only one.
A/N: I've been planning a bunch of Isshin drabbles for awhile-- before I got off my ass and decided to read what had been released by manga-subbers online, actually. Which just made a few of my ideas go out the window, and others get seriously revamped. And last night my mother was an hour late in picking me up, so I had the time to write this. Enjoy.

He told them he didn't see ghosts. He made a production out of it, wailing and wishing so badly that he wanted to have the ability that so precious few did. His actions and words so over the top that not one of them had noticed.

They didn't notice as his eyes tracked the specters that followed his son and daughters. Did not notice when a spirit suddenly stopped being quite so abrasive or annoying. After awhile, he didn't even have to be secretive about it; no one expected him to see or sense anything.

Though the outrageous acts had continued. Loud and boisterous... she had loved that. Masaki's compliments for him may have been few and far between, but that look in her eyes...! He had done everything he could for her. He had given up his life, and learned to live in her world. No backwards glances, no hesitation. For Masaki it was all or nothing.

And had done it all. For her, he stopped being what had been his sole dream all his life.

He was practically a traitor. Twenty years without touching his Zanpakutou, twenty years of standing by and allowing Hollows to kill mortals and eat souls.

He supposed it was karmic justice that his beautiful wife had died by the very hands that he had allowed to terrorize the world. Ichigo thought to take the blame upon himself, but an untrained nine-year old shinigami locked into a mortal body? There was nothing that the child could have done.

Isshin blamed himself; he was captain class. He could have saved her, if only he hadn't been so stalwart in maintaining his human image. If he hadn't vowed to himself to never change back, to never fight, to never be found...

After her death, he threw himself into caring for his children. Always playing the fool, always trying to keep their minds off the past. It would not do to dwell, he had learned the hard way. Highly spiritual mortals, let alone the children of a captain-class shinigami, would always be targets, but as long as they did not stand out, they would be safe.

So Isshin stood out for them.

When the Shinigami-girl showed up, Isshin had been prepared to turn himself in, thinking that she had come for him. But there was no recognition in her eyes, and once more he played the fool.

He watched as Ichigo grew in those four short weeks. He grew and became the man that Isshin had always known was there. The man that he had tried so hard, and so very long, to prevent Ichigo from becoming. He did not wish for his son to live that life. Not that he would or could ever tell him that.

So when the girl vanished back into Soul Society, and Ichigo's powers seemed to be jumping all over the place, Isshin said nothing.

But he broke his vow to himself. He would not allow another beloved family member to die at the hands of a Hollow. So while his son trained, Isshin contacted Urahara Kisuke. He made a deal, and purchased the required "ingredients". He fashioned a ward.

Which led him to his current place, sitting up here on the roof and waiting for Ichigo to leave the house. Urahara's amusing brand of messaging people was hard not to notice, especially by someone who had been on the receiving end of it several times two decades earlier.

Ears pricked as the front door opened. Isshin peeked over the edge of the roof. There was his son.

"Good Morning Ichigo!"

END