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How Did Ichigo’s Mother Die In Bleach? Who Killed Her?

In Bleach Thousand Year Blood War anime episode 7, Yhwach passingly mentions Ichigo’s mother and calls him his son born in the dark. We know that Ichigo’s mother died protecting him when he was a kid.

However, Yhwach namedropping her suggests that there is more to Ichigo’s mother’s identity than what we know of her till now. Well, it was a huge surprise when it was revealed that Isshin was a soul reaper. So, does his mother too have any such connections?

Read on to find out!

P.S. Heavy manga spoilers ahead!

Masaki Kurosaki, Ichigo's mother in Bleach

Who is Ichigo’s mother?

Ichigo’s mother is Masaki Kurosaki an orphan royal quincy who was adopted by the Uryu family. Her parents had died in an ambush with Soul Reapers. She was adopted by Ishida’s grandmother, with hopes of marrying her off to Ishida’s father, Ryuken Ishida.

However, Masaki never had any feelings for Ryuken. She only stayed because of the kindness that the Uryu family showed her, even after realizing that they planned to marry her off.

Masaki and Isshin’s relationship:

When Masaki was residing with the Uryus, Isshin comes to the human world to investigate the disappearance of shinigamis. This is when Masaki and Isshin’s paths cross for the first time.

Though this was just a brief encounter, Masaki was smitten by Isshin, and she grew intrigued about the shinigamis and their way of life.

In the end, she gets married to Isshin Kurosaki, however the circumstances of her marriage with Isshin were set up by none other than Aizen himself.

If you remember Aizen said that he is the reason behind Ichigo’s birth.

As we all know Aizen was experimenting using Shinigami’s and Hollows’ in Soul Society. One such experiment he performed was a hollow he created and named “WHITE”. The hollow from whom the series gets its name “Bleach” which turns things, well, WHITE.

So, White was created using several Shinigami souls and was sent to attack Shinigami’s and humans in human world.

Isshin Kurosaki who was the then captain of the 10th division (before Toshiro Hitsugaya) went to investigate the disappearances of shinigami and was ambushed by White, Aizen and Gin himself.

This caused Masaki Kurosaki, a Royal Quincy, who had her moral compass pointing in the right place, to come and rescue Isshin. However, in her attempt to save Isshin, she was bitten by White, before proceeding to kill it.

Now, as we all know, Hollow particles are poisonous to quincies, and hollows can inject their particles with any and all kinds of damage into other people’s body and soul. That’s how Chad got his hollow powers and everyone who can use Fullbring powers.

Now in order to save the dying Masaki’s life, Urahara found a way that can keep the hollow inside her at bay. This involved Isshin instilling his Shinigami powers inside Masaki. As shinigami powers are balanced compared to hollow and quincy powers, he was able to save Masaki’s life.

However, this meant he would not be able to use his shinigami powers as long as Masaki lives.

Coming back to their relationship, eventually Masaki and Isshin got married and had 3 kids.

But, if Masaki was as strong as a captain and had Shinigami powers in her that were suppressing the hollow, that means she could have been able to use her Quincy powers at will. Then how did she die?

How Did Ichigo’s Mother Die? Rather, Who Killed Ichigo’s Mother In Bleach?

As mentioned above, Masaki was an extremely strong and powerful quincy, so her death by the hands of Gran Rey Fischer sounds very suspicious. Especially considering she had to protect Ichigo as well.

So who killed Ichigo’s mother?

The real reason for Ichigo’s mothers death was Yhwach! Since he performed Auschwalen, which is a move unique to Yhwach. With this move he can forcibly absorb and take back powers & life from all the quincies he chooses to take it from.

This is the only way he could gain life and powers.

So Yhwach’s main ability was not to see the future but rather to bestow powers upon others which he can take back along with receivers life.

Coincidentally and unfortunately, when Yhwach performed Auschwalen, Masaki was standing in front of Gran Rey Fischer. After knowing, she was any way going to die due to Auschwalen she decided to protect Ichigo by sacrificing her body.

So Yhwach is really the one who killed Ichigo’s mother, Masaki Kurosaki.

As Isshin later mentions to Ichigo, if Yhwach hadn’t performed the Auschwalen, Masaki would easily have defeated Gran Rey Fischer.

What are your thoughts on Ichigo’s mother’s death? Was his mother’s identity of being a quincy, an asspull by Tite Kubo? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section!

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