Masaki Kurosaki

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

Background
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 fighting 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]

Masaki eventually came to the injured Isshin'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 from a Hollow, she introduces herself and also says that she is a Quincy, when he asked her how she could possibly have defeated him.[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]

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]

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 Qunicy 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 vanishes 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]

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.

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. 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.

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.

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 ]

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 ]

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 to be exceptionally powerful, preventing her from suffering any wounds from Hollow attacks after her fight with White.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-c537p3_29-1">[30 ]

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.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-c532p16-19_28-1">[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.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-30">[31 ]

Legacy
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.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-19">[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.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-20">[21] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-21">[22]

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.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-22">[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.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-23">[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.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-24">[25]

The Substitute 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.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-25">[26] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-26">[27]

The new Captain Shunsuke Amagai arc
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.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-e178_27-0">[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.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-e178_27-1">[28]

Bleach movie ll
She is mention by Ichigo, and Isshin.

Bleach movie llll
She appears in a photograph. Ichigo tells Isshin to really get rid of the huge memorial photo of her.

Memories in the Rain OVA
The OVA starts off with Ichigo Kurosaki fighting Grand Fisher before it cuts back to showing Ichigo when he was a child. One rainy day while Ichigo and his mother were walking.Ichigo sees a kid walking into a river bank, and tries to save her. Ichigo runs to save the kid and then the scene ends with Ichigo’s mother dead and on top of him.

At school, Orihime, and her friend are talking about their art class when Ichigo walks in the room. Orihime says hi, and Ichigo responds, acting very happy, which is a strange manner for him to behave. Tatsuki Arisawa tells Orihime that he is hiding his real feelings, and that tomorrow he’ll not be at school.

The next day Ichigo and his family go to his mother's grave. As they get close to the cemetery, they see Rukia Kuchiki. Ichigo and Rukia talk alone about his mother's death, and she asks him if a hollow killed his mother. Ichigo gets mad at her for even bringing up the idea that a Hollow killed his mother, and runs off. At the same time, the rest of Ichigo's family are praying at his mother's grave where Rukia is watching them from a distance, when Rukia's Spirit Phone rings and indicates a Hollow is near.

Grand Fisher attacks Ichigo's sisters. As he is about to eat Yuzu, he is stopped by Rukia. She tries to buy time while she waits for Ichigo. At this time Ichigo sees a figure that looks like his mother, and starts thinking about old memories of her. But he figures out that it is not his mother, but the girl he was trying to save the day she died.

The Grand Fisher goes after Ichigo's family but Ichigo appears, and goes into Shinigami form. Ichigo attacks the Hollow,and finds out the Hollow killed his mother. He tells Rukia not to help him. As they fight, Ichigo is not having much luck since this Hollow is much stronger than any other Hollow he has faced before. Grand Fisher then sends out a soul that looks like his mother. While Ichigo is distracted, the Grand Fisher stabs him.

After this big blow, Ichigo gets mad at Grand Fisher for using his mother as a way to trick him, and stabs into him. Grand Fisher transforms himself into the girl which Ichigo tried to save from drowning in the river, and then escapes.

That night, Ichigo talks with his father about his mother's death. His father tells him to live his life to the fullest because that's what his mother would want for him. After the talk with his dad, Ichigo tells Rukia that he wants to get stronger, and kill Grand Fisher. So this way he can Avenge Masaki.

Legacy
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. 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.

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. 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.

Quotes

 * (To Ryuken 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."

Knownable Relatives

 * Isshin Kurosaki (Husband)
 * Ichigo Kurosaki (Son)
 * Karin Kurosaki (Daughter)
 * Yuzu Kurosaki (Daughter)

Voice Actresses
all information on Masaki Kurosaki came from http://bleach.wikia.com/wiki/Masaki_Kurosaki
 * Japanese : Sayaka Ohara
 * English : Ellyn Stern