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Overview

Masaki Kurosaki (黒崎 真咲, Kurosaki Masaki) was an Echt Quincy and the wife of Isshin Kurosaki, mother of Ichigo Kurosaki, Karin Kurosaki & Yuzu Kurosaki. She was killed 9 years ago trying to protect her son from Grand Fisher.

Appearance

Masaki is a woman of average height. She had fair skin and long, light, wavy brown hair down to her back, which she usually had tied in a knot in the back and bangs down to her chin in the front. She typically wore plain dresses and wore lipstick on occasion. She has brown eyes.[2]

Personality

Though not much was seen of her personality, her family has described her as being a very loving mother and wife. She also found men who smoke to be attractive. [3] Her view of "caring about herself" is to do everything she can daily. If she lets people die because of a custom her family upholds, she would never allow herself to live it down.[4]

When she was a teenager, she was shown to put out a strong, confident front around others, though she was nervous around her adoptive mother and cried when she was alone. She also had a sassy personality, as shown with her interactions with Ryūken Ishida.[5]

History

When Masaki was a teenage girl, she was the last of the Kurosaki family. She was taken in by Ryūken Ishida's mother so that she would be protected as one of the last Quincy, and so that one day she would marry Ryūken and keep the Quincy Bloodline of the Ishida family pure, due to the Quincy being an endangered race. She was scolded by her aunt at least once because of her slow progress in training.[6]

Sensing two powerful sources of Reiatsu drawing near, Masaki, running into the hallway, was stopped by Ryūken, who asked her where she was going. When Ryūken told her she should care more about herself and how the pure-blooded Quincy should not fight for just any reason, Masaki, sensing the explosion created by the Hollow creature firing a Cero, started running again. When told by Ryūken to stop, she told him even though she liked how he thought of everyone else before taking action, if someone died because she was forced to follow a custom, she could not live with herself.[7]

File:Masaki arriving.JPG

Masaki comes to Isshin's aid.

Masaki eventually came to the injured Isshin Shiba's rescue, firing at the "Black Hollow" he was facing, attracting its attention. When she realized that the creature was too fast for her to accurately aim at, she allowed it to get in close and bite her so that she could shoot it from point-blank range.[8]

This defeats the Hollow, but before she can react, the Hollow self-destructs, with her emerging unscathed due to Isshin taking the blast in her place.[9] After saving him, she introduces herself and says that she is a Quincy, when he asked her how she could possibly have defeated the Hollow.[10] After this encounter, she realizes the Shinigami are not what she thought them to be. She spends the night and the next day thinking about Isshin. As she was walking and talking with friends, she suddenly feels faint as she unknowingly walks by Kisuke Urahara. When she recovers, she says that she's fine.[11]

File:Masaki's Condition.JPG

A Hollow Hole forming on Masaki's chest.

Later that evening, she is confronted by her aunt, who begins scolding her for going against Quincy traditions. However, during this, Masaki collapses in pain. Ryūken and his mother then notice what appears to be a Hollow hole forming on her chest. Seeing this, Ryūken immediately takes her and leaves the house. Her condition is eventually discovered by Isshin, who gets into an argument with Ryūken, and Urahara, who claims he has a solution. [12]

File:Ch535P17IsshinCatchesMasaki.png

Isshin catches Masaki, banishing the Hollow presence.

At his shop, Urahara reveals that since his expulsion from the Soul Society, he has been studying Hollowfication and recognizes the symptoms in Masaki. He warns Isshin and Ryūken that the process was originally developed to strengthen Shinigami and while it failed, it was not developed for a Quincy, like Masaki and while he could help save her life, he could not return her to how she was before. Isshin agrees to save her life by giving up his life as a Shinigami, the opposite of a Quincy and become a Human, the opposite of a Hollow, thus tethering her life to his own until the Hollow left her or she passes away. Meanwhile, Masaki imagines she is falling down a dark hole but is not alone. The Hollow spirit approaches her but stops when Isshin appears, catching her and declaring that he is going to protect her.[13] Isshin then uses Getsuga Tenshō to kill the Hollow. With the Hollow gone, Masaki begins frantically questioning Isshin. In the physical world, Urahara proclaims that he successfully connected their souls.[14]

After she graduated high school, Masaki moved out of the Ishida household, and Isshin opened a small clinic. When Masaki started attending a university, while visiting Isshin, he told her that he lost his powers was because of a blunder that got him exiled from the Soul Society; however, she realized that he was lying to her.[15]

Ep8MasakiFamily

Masaki with her family.

Grand Fisher, a Hollow, used the forms of Humans whom he had devoured (mostly women) to attract other Humans with high spiritual energy.[16] Ichigo, who at the time could not distinguish between Souls and Humans, saw Grand Fisher's lure, in the form of a woman about to jump into a rushing river, and ran after it. Masaki, realizing the danger, went after Ichigo to protect him.[17] However, she was unable to use her Quincy powers, as Yhwach had stolen them from her, and she died as a result. [18] According to Ichigo, Masaki was the center of the family and everything that went on with the family revolved around her. Due to this fact, Ichigo's family was greatly devastated by her death.[19]

Ep8MasakiDead

Masaki lies dead.

The Kurosaki family now visits her grave every year, and that is the only day in the year Isshin smokes. The reason he smokes in front of her grave was because when they had first started dating, Masaki complimented him about how cool he looked while smoking. He also added that was the first and last time she complimented him about his appearance.[20] Isshin hung up a large poster of her in his home, displaying the phrase "Masaki Forever", and he frequently talks to it as if it were the real Masaki.[21][22]

File:BabyIchigo.jpg

Masaki caring for Ichigo when he was just a toddler.

According to Tatsuki Arisawa, Ichigo stopped crying every time he saw his mother. She claimed Ichigo had the most beautiful mother ever, and he took it upon himself for her death.[23] Isshin also thought it was his own fault his wife died. His reason was: he could not get there in time to protect her from Grand Fisher.[24] When Ichigo asked him why nobody ever blamed him for his mother's death, Isshin explained to him that he was "the woman I fell in love with was a woman I fell in love with gave her life to save." He also added that when they meet each other again, if he had ever blamed Ichigo, Masaki would not be able to forgive him.[25]

Plot

Agent of the Shinigami arc

When the Kurosaki family visited Masaki's grave, Grand Fisher returned as he could sense their high spiritual power. During the fight, when Ichigo began to lose, her memory upon being killed was released from Grand Fisher's lure, telling Ichigo her last thoughts before she died. All she could think about was how much fun they all had together, and for Ichigo to never stop smiling. Her spirit gave Ichigo the strength to nearly kill the Hollow, forcing him to retreat.[26][27]

The New Captain Shūsuke Amagai arc (anime only)

Note: Events occurring in this arc are only in the anime and do not constitute canon material.

Click "show" to read the plot arc. 
File:Kurosaki Masaki.jpg

Masaki in Nukui's Bakkōtō.

Masaki Kurosaki reappears when Ichigo Kurosaki faces off against Hanza Nukui. Hanza Nukui uses his Bakkōtō, Saiga, to look into Ichigo's memories, and then tortures him with the memories of the death of his mother. Hanza makes it so she tries to choke Ichigo, making it so Ichigo can't harm her or fight back. Before Ichigo chokes to death, the pleasant memories he had with his mother rise up from deep within him. A twister of Reiatsu surrounds them.[28]

Ichigo then tells his mother how much everybody misses her, and he manages even without her. Before she vanishes, she smiles after Ichigo thanks her for protecting him that day.[28]

Powers & Abilities

Reishi Absorption: As a Quincy, Masaki can absorb spiritual energy from the atmosphere, combining it with her own spiritual energy to form weapons and use different techniques.[29]

File:537Masaki's Blut Vene.png

Masaki's Blut Vene.

Blut (血装 (ブルート), burūto; German for "Blood", Japanese for "Blood Guise"): An advanced Quincy technique which grants one inhuman defensive and offensive capabilities by making Reishi flow into the user's blood vessels. As a pure-blooded Quincy, Masaki has possessed this ability since birth.[30]
  • Blut Vene (静血装 (ブルート・ヴェーネ), burūto vēne; German for "Blood Vein", Japanese for "Stilled Blood Guise"): Masaki's defensive form of Blut has been noted by Isshin Kurosaki to be exceptionally powerful, preventing her from suffering any wounds from Hollow attacks after her fight with White.[30]

Spirit Weapon

532Masaki's Spirit Weapon

Masaki's Spirit Weapon.

Reishi Bow: Like most Quincy, Masaki uses a bow as her primary weapon. She can generate a uniquely small bow similar in size to a handgun, which can fire Heilig Pfeil with the same force and power as an average sized bow.[29]

  • Heilig Pfeil (神聖滅矢 (ハイリッヒ・ブファイル), Hairihhi Bufairu; German for "Holy Arrow," Japanese for "Sacred Destruction Arrows"): By further condensing Reishi, Masaki can form spiritual arrows.[31]


Quotes

(To Ryūken Ishida) "I understand how you're always thinking about your mother and the Quincy as a whole. Always considering what's best for the future, taking into account all the consequences of your actions. And I honestly admire the way you're able to do that. But you see, I'm not you, Ryuu-chan. To me, "taking proper care of myself" means making sure I do what I can in the here and now. Because if I decided not to take action because of rules and customs and somebody died because I did nothing, I don't think I'd be able to forgive myself for that."[32]

References

  1. Bleach Official Character Book Souls, page 50
  2. Bleach manga; Chapter 534, page 1
  3. ’’Bleach’’ manga; Chapter 25, page 9
  4. Bleach manga; Chapter 531, page 15
  5. Bleach manga; Chapter 530, pages 7-12
  6. Bleach manga; Chapter 530, pages 7-15
  7. Bleach manga; Chapter 531
  8. Bleach manga; Chapter 532 pages 16-19
  9. Bleach manga; Chapter 533, pages 4-7
  10. Bleach manga; Chapter 528, pages 16-17
  11. Bleach manga; Chapter 533, pages 16-19
  12. Bleach manga; Chapter 514 pages 6-20
  13. Bleach manga; Chapter 535, pages 1-17
  14. Bleach manga; Chapter 536, pages 1-5
  15. Bleach manga; Chapter 536, pages 11-12
  16. Bleach manga; Chapter 21, page 9
  17. Bleach manga; Chapter 19, pages 12-15
  18. Bleach manga; Chapter 537, pages 9-10
  19. Bleach manga; Chapter 19, pages 11 & 15-16
  20. Bleach manga; Chapter 25, pages 9-10
  21. Bleach manga; Chapter 1, page 11
  22. Bleach manga; Chapter 199, page 2
  23. Bleach manga; Chapter 18, pages 3-5
  24. Bleach manga; Chapter 188, page 7
  25. Bleach manga; Chapter 25, pages 11-13
  26. Bleach manga; Chapters 23-24
  27. Bleach anime; Episode 9
  28. 28.0 28.1 Bleach anime; Episode 178
  29. 29.0 29.1 Bleach manga; Chapter 495, pages 7-15
  30. 30.0 30.1 Bleach manga; Chapter 537, page 3
  31. Bleach manga; Chapter 532, page 16
  32. Bleach manga; Chapter 531, page 13

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