DISCLAIMER: I'll check for extra bleach in my closet. In the meantime, however, I do not own it.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This is a sequel/companion piece to my other fic, "The Beginning That Never Was". PLEASE do read that one before reading this, otherwise you will be completely and utterly lost.

Author's Note: Dedicated to derderxp, who asked for a continuation of the story. Hope I meet expectations! :) On to the story then...

Ichigo ran behind the shorter girl, wondering how, precisely, she could move so fast without breaking a sweat. Especially when she had just been hurt so badly yesterday.

If I had been hurt like that, I probably would have to hobble along for at least a few days. He winced at the memory of her wound, eyeing the shinigami warily. But then again, she is dead. Maybe spirits have some super-fast healing powers or something. Whatever.

As they ran towards their destination, a stray thought crossed Ichigo's mind.

Thank Kami-sama that I thought to bring a spare set of clothes to school today. No way am I running across the city in my uniform.

He would have snickered at the prospect of running this distance in the Karakura High uniform.

If he had had enough breath left, that is.

Rukia rushed into the compound of the Urahara Shop. She could already predict what was going on in the courtyard, based on Ururu's screams.

As usual, she was correct. Jinta had shoved his brush into Ururu's hair, and was yelling at her.

"Where's Uruhara?" she asked, automatically grabbing Jinta's brush with one hand.

Ururu replied in a timid voice. "Owner is out. Would you like to wait–"

Before she even finished her sentence, the raven-haired shinigami had already ran past her, dragging a protesting Ichigo along. "When he comes back, tell him I'm here. He will know where to find me," she told Ururu over her shoulder, disappearing into the building.

The doors of the shop closed behind the two with a bang.

The two employees stood outside for a moment, stunned. Then –

"You should have stopped her!" shouted Jinta.

He was only stopped from pulling her pigtails by the appearance of Tessai and the Owner.

A little cloud of dust rose as Rukia and Ichigo landed in the underground training facility.

He stared in shock. The place was huge, even larger than the Karakura High assembly hall. How did they even manage to find such a large space under the shop?

"Close your mouth, baka. The flies are going to get in."

The shinigami's voice interrupted his thoughts as Ichigo realised that his mouth had, indeed, dropped open slightly. He shut it quickly as Rukia turned around to face him. She was a good few metres away from him now, her black robe fluttering behind her as she walked towards him.

Her words carried clearly across to him still, ringing in the empty room.

"We have come down here to begin your training against the Hollows. First things first..."

She drew her weapon from its sheath, the same sword that Ichigo himself had wielded yesterday. In the bright light, it was revealed to be a katana with a reddish-brown hilt, which she now held in one hand.

"This is a zanpakutou. Each shinigami is given one, and it serves two functions."

Ichigo tried to hold back a sigh as he prepared to be here for a long, long time.

"She had violet eyes?" said Kisuke Urahara, some amusement in his tone. "About this tall?"

He held his hand three inches above Ururu's head.

The girl nodded, uncertainty in her eyes.

"I-I'm so-sorry, sir," she stammered. "I shouldn't ha-have let her in…"

"It's okay, Ururu." He knelt down to face her. She looked at him disbelievingly. "If she insisted on coming in, it's probably an emergency. You weren't wrong to let her in."

Urahara stood up, still smiling at her. "Now run along and find Tessai. I think he has something for you and Jinta to do."

He watched Ururu as she ran towards the front of the shop, possibilities running through his head.

What could Kuchiki-san possibly intend to do? he wondered as he walked towards where he knew her to be, based on her spirit power.

Time to find out.

Ichigo was annoyed.

He had been down here for a long time, he knew. And he still hadn't succeeded in concentrating his spirit power.

Rukia had explained to him that this was necessary in order for him to fight Hollows. In fact, she had made this point adamantly clear.

"Yeah," he muttered darkly, "by aiming one right at me. How convincing." His side still hurt where the ball of energy had hit.

And then she'd left him there, telling him to work on concentrating his energy. Which he'd been doing, quite unsuccessfully, until now.

He looked up as he heard the creak of the ladder. Rukia was back.

"Have you managed it yet?" she asked, jumping off the last few steps as he shook his head.

Rukia looked surprised. "Try it again," she instructed. She watched carefully as he attempted to centre his power in the palm of his hand.

Ichigo thought he saw a slight smile on her face as she spoke. "You're doing it the wrong way. Same problem as I had when I learned it." She paused to consider her next words.

"You shouldn't force the energy to your hands. It should flow naturally, like this." She demonstrated a few times, and Ichigo finally saw what he was doing wrong. With this new information, he soon had a medium-sized energy ball floating above his palm. Rukia looked on, nodding.

"Now direct the energy," she told him. "Instruct it to do what you want."

Ichigo felt slightly stupid as he told the glowing ball of bluish energy to form something to kill Hollows with. It's just a ball of energy. What could it possibly become?

His question was answered immediately as a bright flash of light enveloped his palm, blinding them both.

Ichigo was the first to react as his eyesight returned.

"What the heck is that?"

Neither of them had an answer to the question as they stared at the silver-and-black gun that lay in his hand.

Tessai blinked at the wave of spirit power that passed through the shop.

He wondered, briefly, what the Owner was doing down there.

"Why don't you try it out, then?"

Both Rukia and Ichigo whirled around at the sound of the new voice.

"Urahara-san!" Rukia's voice broke the surprised silence.

The green-clad man smiled.

"Good morning, Kuchiki-san. You brought a friend, I see." His gaze shifted to Ichigo.

"Kurosaki Ichigo," he said automatically, in response the unasked question. Beside him, Rukia began to explain the situation.

Ichigo tuned her out as he studied the weapon in his hands.

He had never fired a gun before himself, but he could see the differences. This gun had no bullets, so the overall design was less bulky than usual handguns, though it still possessed the same basic structure. The most outstanding part was the top part of the gun, which had one silver stripe running vertically along it. It made the gun look like something out of a movie.

Men in Black, maybe.

Rukia's voice broke his reverie. "Ready to try it, Ichigo?"

Snapping out of his thoughts, Ichigo nodded, and the two others moved to stand behind him as he moved into battle stance, gripping the gun with both hands. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Urahara's hand move to his cane. He wondered why, very briefly, before he arranged his finger around the trigger.

Ichigo took a deep breath, and fired.

The blast of spirit power was enough to knock all three backwards, even though Ichigo had fired at the far wall. He looked up to see a red shield in front of them, blocking the bulk of the blast, although he had absolutely no idea when it had appeared.

"Nice work, Urahara-san." Rukia coughed slightly as she straightened. "I wasn't even expecting it."

Ichigo realised, with a start, that the shield was, indeed, Urahara's. It dissipated as he lowered his sword – where did that come from? Ichigo wondered – as the impact faded.

Urahara smiled at the compliment. "Thank you, Kuchiki-san. I was expecting that, actually. Considering who he is and all."

Ichigo's brain whirred to life. "Wait, 'who I am'? What is that supposed to mean?"

The shopkeeper turned to him, surprised. Ichigo was pleased to see that Rukia seemed as confused as he did, although realization seemed to be dawning for her.

"Well," said Urahara, "your father is Kurosaki Isshin, isn't he?"

Ichigo nodded.

"Let me tell you this, then," continued Urahara. "Your father was, just twenty years ago, one of the most powerful shinigami in Soul Society. In fact, he would've been made captain, had he not rejected the post."

Silence reigned for a moment.

Then Ichigo spoke, and it raised the hairs on both his companions' necks.

"May I go now, Rukia? Somebody is going to have hell to pay."

The two shinigami watched as he stalked off, muttering to himself.

Rukia barely caught the former taichou's words.

"Should I have told him, Kuchiki-san?"

The younger shinigami could only shrug helplessly in response.

That night, a crash resounded through the Kurosaki home as a person, namely Kurosaki Isshin, former shinigami, fell out of a window.

END

2nd Author's Note: Hope you guys liked it. First time I'm writing on request (kind of), so it might be a tad different from the usual. (Since what I usually do is sit in class and wait for inspiration to strike.) So...

3rd (and last) Author's Note: ...please review, and tell me what you think, good or bad! Any requests (and this includes all stories, not just this one) very welcome! I will be waiting here, with my cursor on the "reply to review" button. So do me a favour and review! Thanks!