Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-6901880-20130304064503/@comment-27565137-20160107180244

Devmccall wrote: You guys, this was answered during the Lost Agent Arc. He is genetically Half-Human, Half-Quincy (so he should have died during one of the reaping of half-bloods, but it's no surprise he didn't. Uryu didn't die either, and he has way less power.) His soul contains soul reaper power because his dad was a soul reaper in a giga at the time of conception, and his dad's power was intertwined with his wife's inner hollow infection, so she didn't die. And his power is genetic. He and his dad have basically all the same powers (names and stuff).

Jeez... You really complicated things. The easiest most accurate way of explaining things is like this:

Ichigo mother, Masaki, was a pure blood Quincy that got infected by the bite of a Vasto Lord hollow created by Aizen. During his studies into the hollowfication process.

Ichigo father, Isshin, was a shinigami, captain of the tenth division of Soul Society, that got caught up, on Aizen experiments with hollowfication and had to fight the hollow that bit Masaki.

When Masaki started to show signs of hollowfication, Urahara offered the only viable cure for her, and the only way she wouldn't die. Because anything hollow is deadly to Quincy's and unlike Shinigami's, Quincy's can't survive hollowfication.

So we had a Quincy, Masaki, infected with hollow power, and that of a Vasto Lord to top it off. And we had Isshin that had grown to like Masaki ever since their first encounter. And he was a Shinigami. But Urahara needed a hybrid human/shinigami to connect Masaki soul to, so the hollowfication process would stop altogether and to seal the hollow power inside her.

Isshin, agreed to do whatever it took to save her. And even though Masaki got cured she could no longer be considered a pure blood Quincy and her arrenged marriage to Ryuken Ishida, Uryu Ishida father, was canceled.

Isshin and Masaki eventually falled in love with each other, and when Ichigo was conceived. He became the prefect mix of quincy, shinigami and hollow powers. All those different aspects of different beings got perfectly mixed in Ichigo.

So, Ichigo, is in some ways a living Hougyoku. Because like the hougyoku created by Urahara, Ichigo can breakdown the barriers that limits shinigami's, hollows, and quincy's. He's transcended the limits that bound all those three species as individuals.

Or if you want to make it even more accurate, Ichigo is the perfect hybrid, he's shinigami, hollow and quincy. Without any of the drawbacks.