1
It was early morning in Karakura town, everything was quiet and peaceful. Suddenly a bright flash of light illuminated a small, seemingly innocent candy shop known as Urahara Shoten. The two adult occupants of the shop awoke quickly and rushed outside. One man was tall and muscular with cornrowed hair and a large moustache. In front of him was a slightly shorter male, leanly built with light blond almost pale hair, in his hand he had an ordinary cane from which he drew out a lethal looking sword.
With a cry of "Awaken Benihime", the blond man faced a cloaked figure standing a few meters from the entrance of the shop. Before he could make any further movements, the cloaked figure pulled down the hood covering his head. The two men gasped as a short, spiky orange hair covered head emerged, followed by two warm brown eyes that at the moment were looking very confused at his surroundings. A face so familiar appeared, one that had not been seen in the last four years after the defeat of the Wandenreich by the shinigami. The man before them had been at the centre of that war before he had dramatically disappeared after dealing the final blow to the Quincy king. After months of searching for him with no leads or any traces of him, it was thought that during the final battle his soul itself might have been destroyed and he was very reluctantly declared dead.
Urahara Kisuke stepped forward, shock clearly written on face.
"Ichigo is that you", he managed to choke out.