Everyone knew Urahara Kisuke. If they didn't know Kisuke, they knew of him. His reputation preceded him by some distance.
Rukia had not expected him to find her, but, nine days in to her first commission, she owed him her life.
"What will you do?" he had asked.
She was sitting on the floor staring at her reflection. It was definitely her; there was no doubt about that: her face, her body, her violet eyes, her hands clutching her knees. But she was not used to looking out at the world from a human body, even one that was an exact replica of her spirit-form.
Urahara was standing behind her, he was a tall man with flyaway blond hair and startling blue eyes, which he hid in the shadow of a striped, felt hat. An affectation of his. But, with Kisuke, everything was an affectation. Like her, Urahara was a shinigami. He had long ago been exiled from Soul Society for a crime that no-one seemed able to remember or else conveniently forgot for the simple reason that the man was useful. He had contacts in the human world, links to the spirit world and, to Rukia's great relief, enough compassion that he had come looking for her the night he sensed she nearly died. He, like her, had resorted to wearing a gigai, a false human body: "There's a human boy walking around out there with shinigami powers," he said: "Are you just going to let him run rampant?"
"Of course not."
"You'll report him then?"
"I don't know yet."
"Will you go back to Soul Society?"
"I don't know yet. Kisuke, what do human girls wear?" For now, she was dressed in a short, white yukata, but it wasn't the sort of outfit she had seen humans wearing.
"That depends what sort of human girl you would like to be." He grinned and ducked his face behind a fan he always carried with him. Something in his expression made the heat rise in her cheeks.
"The boy, the one who took my powers, he was a schoolboy. Can you find out which school?"
"All the humans in a ten mile radius send their children to Karakura High."
"He was fifteen, sixteen years old. How old do you think I look in human terms?"
Kisuke lowered the fan and attended her with a serious expression that made her pull the garment she wore more tightly around her:
"About that Kuchiki-dono."
"Really?"
"Humans age at a constant rate. Given the level of your reiatsu, he is probably aging eight to ten times faster than you. Although might I enquire as to your actual age?"
"I don't think that will be necessary." He smiled at that and brought the fan up again to hide his face. "A school uniform then. I need to find that boy."
"It would be my pleasure, Kuchiki-dono."
Rukia stood up and went to leave the room, but he called after her: "You know, they would be lenient if you contacted them now. They would understand. It's only been one night and your injuries were serious, but if you wait another day or two, or three, Kuchiki-dono, they will start to ask questions."
"I know," she said.