On the Rocks

by DelugeOfDreams

Tia Harribel woke up in the human world trapped in a human body, without any way to return to Las Noches. Making the most of her situation, she takes up residence in Naruki city, with the hope of returning to her former power. Running a bar on the side while helping the local population with their problems had not been part of the plan. Takes place before the start of Bleach.

So, uh, yeah... wrote a thing. Tia is probably my favorite character, so I wanted to write something for her, because every other story I've seen relegated her to some sort of harem role. So, I wrote a crappy fanfic. Yeaaaah... so there.

Things I listened to while writing this: Rain - cowboy bebop, the godly NieR soundtrack and the sweet, sweet tunes of shiro sagisu, mainly god's gift, sakkaku 57, and the final decision we all must take.

---

It was the rainy season in karakura town.

For the past few weeks, the rain had come on and off, ranging from gentle showers to heavy gales. The day had started out with the former, but seemed to be ramping up in intensity as the day went on.

Kisuke Urahara truthfully had no opinion on the rain. He didn't like it, he didn't hate it, it was simply… there. Certainly, there were some small benefits to having rain, such as the ability to relax for the day as he would have fewer customers, being able to enjoy the noise it made, and watching Yoruichi grumble about the weather. But, there was also the downside of not being that large in the first place, his roof leaking in several places, and Yoruichi taking out her grievances against the heavens on him.

Lucky for him Yoruichi had gotten tired of yelling at him to fix the roof and had gone to curl up by the

It wasn't as though he had secretly given her some mild sopophorics and turned the heat up a little to cause drowsiness. Nope, he definitely hadn't.

She did have a point about the roof though.

Normally he would leave that to Tessai, but Yoruichi had also told him it would be good for him to get out of his lab once in awhile and do some manual labor for a change, and tessai was busy cooking at the moment.

They both knew that his current project seemed to be going nowhere, so while it had probably mostly just been her annoyed at the current weather situation, he knew she also wanted him out so he could clear his head.

He looked up from his position behind the counter and sighed at the various small holes that littered it. It hadn't even been all his fault really. He had gotten a shipment of bad goods, one thing led to another, and the end result was shrapnel in the roof and red liquid covering half of the store.

Not like he could go back and change that outcome though.

… Unless he invented time travel.

...Perhaps at a later date. It would probably take more effort to invent time travel than it would to fix his roof, after all.

Walking around from behind the counter, Urahara made his way to the storage room and took a step ladder from it, along with what looked to be a bucket of paint that had been set aside, a concrete trowel and a cylindrical object with a nozzle at one end and a pump handle at the other.

Careful to avoid the various buckets that kept the floor from becoming slippery from with water, he set up the ladder under the hole at the furthest end of his shop and placed the bucket and cylinder at the top, ready to begin with repairs.

Opening the paint can revealed an odorless, thick, white liquid inside. Placing the nozzle end of the cylinder inside, he pulled on the handle end, drawing some of the liquid inside. He took a few steps up the ladder, just until he could comfortably reach the hole in the roof without straining himself, and placed the nozzle right at the tip of the hole. Then, he pushed on the handle gently, causing the paste inside to ooze out and fill the hole. Once it was completely filled, he took the trowel and evened the surface so that it was flush with the surrounding boards.

Finished, he closed the lid on the paint can and picked up the ladder, moving it over to the next hole.

Kisuke was actually rather proud of the compound in the can. He had taken inspiration from the quincy for it, as it was actually mostly reishi in a liquid form, plus some other things. It would stop the gap as it was, but over the course of an hour, it would take in atoms from the surroundings and reconfigure them to match what was around it, making it very useful for fixing things in a way that made it look like they were never broken in the first place.

Plus, it meant he wouldn't have to do it the old fashion way of taking a hammer and nails and replacing the boards.

The only downside was that if a normal person happened to walk into the shop and look up, they would see the holes still there, but no rain coming through. But that was only if they came in in the next hour or so and were attentive. And even then, normal people tended to explain away things that didn't make sense on their own anyway, so it wasn't that big of a deal.

He was halfway through when he heard the door to his shop open.

'Strange… The replacement shinigami isn't supposed to show up for another few days…'

The previous shinigami who had watched over the town had been recalled early for one reason or another. He knew that it would take a week for a replacement shinigami to show up, so the person at the door couldn't be the local shinigami, and he doubted any of his usual customers would show in this weather.

"Oi! Kisuke! You here?!" A voice bellowed out. "Don't tell me I came all the way here for nothing!"

Ah, that's who it was.

Urahara jumped off the step ladder and took out his fan, flicking it open and placing it in front of his face.

"You know, if you keep speaking that loudly, you might wake up Yoruichi." He made his way to the door and turned to face the soaking wet man standing at the door. "Now, would you kindly explain to me why you happen to be standing at my door and dripping water all over my floor, Isshin?"

Isshin didn't seem to hear him, as he had one of the largest smiles he had ever seen plastered on his face. "I'm going to have twins! Twins, Kisuke, twins! Two little girls!"

That explains why he rushed over here in the rain. He recalled him doing the same when he learned he was going to have Ichigo.

"Well, I suppose congratulations are in order." He smiled behind his fan and shut it. "Let me grab you a towel and I'll get Tessai to make you some tea, then we'll talk. In the meantime, go ahead and borrow some clothes from the guest room. Try not to step on Yoruichi on the way in."

A short while later he came in,Tessai in tow with a tray of tea, and sat down at the table, Tessai also picking up the used towel that had been folded to the side as he set down the tea set.

"So, daughters, you say? Anyone else happen to know?"

"So far, only Ishida and, of course, Masaki-chan know. I came here rushing from his hospital." Urahara poured him a cup of tea and pushed it toward him. "I just had to tell someone, so I rushed over here to tell you. I got caught up in the moment and forgot my umbrella…"

Taking out his fan once again, Urahara spoke, "So, you're telling me you just left poor Masaki-chan in the hands of Ishida-san in order to tell little old me that you were going to have kids? I'm touched."

Isshin paused halfway through taking a sip. "Well, when you put it that way…" He chugged down the rest and slammed the cup on the table. "It's no sake, but it's pretty good. Still nothing compared to Masaki's though. Her cooking is the best!"

"I'll let Tessai know you thought his tea was good." He poured himself and Isshin a cup and took a drink. "I'm assuming you want to get your hands on a good camera when you tell your son? I could sell you one at a discount."

"Ha. Not falling for it." He reached over to his side and pulled out a small camera that had been hidden under his leg. "Plus, I never go anywhere without this. Never know when I might need to take a picture! In fact, here…"

Isshin fiddled with the back of the camera and passed it over to him. "Digital? Must have cost you quite a bit."

"It did cost quite a bit of yen, yes. But I'm willing to spend any amount of money to keep what's in that for as long as I breathe."

Urahara looked down and gazed at the image on the screen. It showed an excited Masaki hugging Isshin, with Ryuken in the back. A bit of Isshin's arm could be seen where he was holding the camera away from the two of them. Out of curiosity, he pressed what he assumed to be the back button on the camera. There was a picture of his son, Ichigo, smiling at the ground in a raincoat and boots with masaki holding an umbrella next to him, the two of them out enjoying the rain.

He quickly flipped through a couple of others before handing it back. "You certainly like to take pictures."

"I can't let a single moment pass me by! That is the way of a father!" Isshin nodded to himself. "Haa… Thanks for taking the time to listen, Kisuke. I know you said we shouldn't be talking as much anymore because of Ichigo, but I felt like I had to."

Urahara waved it off and took another sip of his tea. "Don't worry about it. It was merely a suggestion anyway. If you want to drop by, you can. Isn't that right, Yoruichi?"

Yoruichi, who had been cuddled up in her cat form in the corner next to the heater, grumbled out a 'sure' a bit before settling back down.

"See? She says it's okay."

The man sitting across from him chuckled. "Doesn't like the weather, does she?"

He opened his fan, blocking the view of his smile. "Not in the least."

"Ha! I'd hate to see how she is out in the rain."

Urahara took another sip. "Well, she's really only bothered by it as a cat. Her instincts get the better of her. Isn't that right, Yoruichi?"

The cat in the corner compacted itself even more into a circle.

"I see, I see." Isshin nodded sagely to himself.

There was a pause between the two as they both took a drink out of their cups.

"So, have you thought up of any names yet for the two?"

Isshin responded in a negative. "Nope. Like I said, I heard the news, celebrated, and then came here to tell you. We have thought of a couple in the past before, though. For a girl, we were thinking something like Yuzuha or Yuna. Nothing concrete yet. We didn't think we'd have twins, so now we have to come up with two names."

"I see…" He said. "Well, I'm sure whatever names you pick, they'll be perfect."

"Of course they'll be perfect! My sweet Masaki and I will be coming up with them!" Isshin smiled as he downed the rest of his drink. "Well, I won't take up any more of your time. I do have to get my to my darling wife and also tell my son the good news." His smile got even wider as he got up and bounced toward the door. "Twins twins twins twins twins~~"

"Isshin, don't leave just yet, I do have something to give you," he called out before Isshin reached the door, "I can't not give Masaki-chan something, now can I?"

He finished up his tea and headed toward the door himself, Isshin side-stepping out of the way so he could pass.

"Wait by the entrance." He told him as he walked past him. "I think I put it in the storage room, so it may take me a bit to find it."

He hear Isshin nodding behind him as he took the opposing fork to the front of the shop while he headed for the storage room once again.

'Now, where was it... ' He thought to himself as he shifted around some boxes to find the item in question. 'I now Yoruichi keeps it stashed somewhere around here… There it is.'

Stashed away in the corner behind several boxes was a small box of chocolates. Yoruichi had used some of his money to import them without telling him, so he decided to get some minor revenge by sharing them with him.

He was sure she didn't mind sharing with Masaki-chan.

A sudden wave of rainwater pelted the roof above him. The storm seemed to be even stronger than it had been before.

Another reminder he had to fix his roof.

He sighed and got out of his crouching stance, walking over to where he saw Isshin leaning against the counter.

He tossed the box of chocolates in his direction. The former shinigami caught it and looked over the box.

"There you go, free of charge. Tell Masaki-chan I said hello, would you?" He pointed his closed fan toward the roof. "I have a roof I have to get back to fixing."

The other man in the room looked toward the holes in the ceiling. "I was going to ask about that, but just assumed it was one of your experiments gone wrong."

"As if any of my experiments wouldn't have a failsafe to prevent this from happening." He shook his head. "Besides, I test all my inventions in a safe environment. This was caused by a defective product."

"I'll take your word for it." He turned around to leave. "Thanks for the box."

He shook his head. "Just take it and go. I'll have Tessai deliver your clothes later. Oh, also-" He used his fan to direct his attention at the tall cylinder near the door. "Go ahead and borrow an umbrella. Bring it back when you have the time."

The other man nodded in response.

The familiar clattering of the door opening and closing was soon followed by the sound of footsteps and rain, with the steps themselves growing fainter as time passed.

'Back to repairs…'

Kisuke went back toward where he had left the ladder and resumed his work.

He didn't manage to get any farther than one done before he heard a familiar beeping noise coming from the front counter.

'A hollow… Of all the times, why now?' He sighed to himself. Now he had to go take care of it. 'Now what are we dealing with….'

He reached his around around behind the counter and rummaged for the beeping device. His fingers brushed across a smooth metallic material and reaching a bit farther, he clasped his fingers around it and brought the device to his face.

On the surface it looked like an average soul pager in the form of a flip phone, but kisuke had modified his own to meet his needs. Flipping it open with a flick of the wrist, a map popped up on the screen, along with a small readout on approximate power level along with any civilians in the area. The map only showed one dot, which allowed him to rest easy knowing that no one would get hurt. Taking a look at the number in the bottom corner, he was surprised to find that it was incredibly small, only about as much as a hollow after a year in the wild, and was decreasing.

Had it been hunted by other hollows in hueco mundo and escaped to the surface suffering injuries? That seemed the most logical conclusion. He had encountered similar incidents in the past, and judging by how fast the number was going down, it wouldn't take longer than fifteen or so minutes until the hollow died of it's injuries.

Pressing one of the buttons below, he tried to see if he could get any information on the hollow in question from the shinigami database.

Hollow

name: Unknown

Stage: Unknown

Powers:?

bounty: none

'A complete unknown. Worrisome.'

While he wasn't surprised that there was nothing on the hollow in the database, as he knew some hollows stayed in hueco mundo, the fact that the stage was unknown troubled him. It meant that the hollow was either able to mask its powers to fool his sensors, meaning that the power output could be wrong, or that the hollow wasn't part of the four stages of a hollow.

EIther one meant bad news.

Switching back to the map, he saw that the dot representing the hollow had apparently shuffled forward half a block, and a new dot had entered the fray. This dot did not represent a hollow, but a human, and this human was apparently completely oblivious to the supposed dying hollow in front of them.

He closed the phone and grabbed his cane.

Time was of the essence.

---

Isshin was thankful for the umbrella.

In the time it had taken for him to run over and have his conversation with Urahara, the rain had tripled in output, making it hard to see past the practical wall of water in front of him. It wasn't anywhere near the amount he knew a monsoon could create, but it still made it hard to see in front of him.

At least it wasn't windy. If it had been, he was positive that more than half his body would be dripping wet, rather than just his his ankles.

He took a turn into an alleyway, taking what he knew was a shorter path back to the hospital. The time saved was negligible in current traffic and weather conditions, with the roads being nearly empty, but he felt like taking it, and the overhangs provided decent cover from the rain. Even if it did cause his shoes to get muddy.

However, that was all only minor concerns to him. Currently, his thoughts were mostly filled with thoughts of his soon to be daughters.

Masaki had been keeping it a surprise for him, that she was pregnant. She had managed to fool him, a doctor, for several weeks, until she had told him outright. He supposed it couldn't really be helped. She showed no outward signs of pregnancy, such as a slight bump or morning sickness, and she had acted like she still had her period, all in order to fool him. Perhaps if he hadn't been so busy recently and had still had his powers, he would have felt the new lives growing within her.

But he hadn't, and his pride as a doctor had been hurt.

But, a little wounded pride was nothing compared to seeing the bright smile on her face when she realized she had successfully tricked him.

An iron will bound in mischief and love, that was his wife. And he would give anything to make her happy.

Stepping in a slightly deeper puddle of water than he had unconsciously assumed brought him out of his thoughts. It hadn't tripped him, but it had made a splash that had soaked the side of his pant leg.

He glanced down and maneuvered his way around the puddle before moving on.

He had nearly exited the alley when he heard another splash.

This one was distant, but it sounded more like someone had dropped something large outside rather than someone accidentally stepping into a puddle. Although, he couldn't be sure, as it was raining heavily and the sheer amount of noise from the amount of water hitting the ground could have affected his hearing.

Feeling curious, Isshin stuck his head of of the alleyway and faced toward where he assumed the sound came from.

The alleyway emptied out into a side street that branched off from the main road, so there were no cars or other pedestrians in the area. Across from him was a small park, and further down the road rested a knocked piece of cardboard, most likely one of those 'pick up trash if you see it!' signs that he had been seeing around recently..

'Rain must have knocked it over.' He fully stepped out of the alleyway and walked over to the sign. 'Might as well put it back in place…'

Isshin picked up the fallen cardboard, taking a brief moment to examine the familiar stylized sanitary worker that decorated it, and fixated it back to its poll.

He turned back toward the road and was going to continue back on his way to the hospital, but he spotted something odd.

There was a bubble of air in the middle of the road not five feet away from him.

Blinked to make sure he wasn't just seeing things. No, there was definitely a bubble of air around the size of a person where the rain wasn't going.

Despite not being able to see the souls of the afterlife anymore, he certainly still had experience in dealing with them. And, upon seeing the bubble, two explanations came to mind. One, it was a shinigami. That he doubted as they tended to stick to the air unless there was a hollow nearby. The other…

The bubble of air extended itself upward.

Isshin barely reacted in time.

"Shit…!"

He had managed to backstep in time to not get sliced in half by what he assumed was probably some sort of claw, but he now sported a shallow gash running diagonally across his chest. Blood spilled out, mixing in with the rain as he had lowered the umbrella in order to use it as defense against the invisible attacker.

The hollow seemed to take a while before readying another swing, so Isshin used that time to try to get some more distance between them. That, however, only seemed to aggravate the hollow as it rushed toward him, giving him another cut on his shoulder as he rolled to the side to avoid the speeding figure.

He inwardly thanked whatever cosmic forces decided that it would be raining today, as otherwise he would be dead. Holding the umbrella in his hands made him feel safer, but he knew that against a hollow, an ordinary umbrella would do no good. It was practically like holding a balloon out against a hardened criminal. At least it was something.

He eyed the pocket of air carefully, trying to get a better idea of what he was dealing with. So far, he knew that the hollow in question was small, almost human-like in stature, with one arm either being much longer or having a very long claw on it. So far, it had only charged recklessly forward and made wide, wild swipes. As long as it stuck to that pattern, he could at least hold off until a shinigami came and dealt with it.

'Dammit… why'd it have to be me...' He tightened his grip on the umbrella, drops of water squeezing out from under his grip. 'No, it's best it was me. I doubt anyone else would have been able to deal with this.'

"Alright you hollow bastard, come at me!" He placed both hands on the handle. "I'll take you down with just a damn umbrella!"

The shape in the rain twisted and ran at him again. He tried once more to dodge out of the way of the charge, but this time the gap in the rain changed direction and tackled him in the direction he was dodging in.

Air was blasted out of his lungs as he was thrown into the opposing brick wall. He could feel his vision fading, but his body was telling him to move. He managed to roll out of the way just in time as the wall he had been leaning against exploded from the force of the followup charge performed by the hollow.

'All ribs broken or cracked… left lung punctured… brick shrapnel in leg and side… internal and external bleeding…' Isshin gave himself a quick diagnostic to focus his mind away from the pain and to see what he could do without hurting himself too much. '... concussion… right wrist sprained…'

Only two attacks and he was already in this state.

Well, if he survived, he could always tell his kids the story of how he had been mugged by an entire gang of thugs and had taken them all on single handedly. Yeah, that'd make a great story…

If he lived.

Despite only being able to hear the rain and not having his shinigami powers anymore, he swore he could hear the roar of the hollow he was fighting.

Hurrying over to where he dropped the umbrella, he picked it up again and aimed it at the hole where the hollow had barreled through.

One moment. Two. No mysterious bulges in space appeared.

He heard the rain intensify from above him.

Acting on instinct, he rolled once again to the side, and watched as the place he was standing was replaced by the air pocket, with the ground below it having been split in half. The pain in his chest intensified after coming out of the roll, causing him to stagger and lower his head, which allowed him to just barely dodge the hollow's followup attack and keep his head safe.

Taking several quick back steps and side steps, he dodged the next couple of swipes at his form.

'Strange… I should have slowed down due to all my injuries… why is this hollow also slowing down? Is it just adrenaline or am I not as injured as I thought it was …?'

Several more cuts appeared on his body as, while he managed to escape the brunt of it, his injuries had made it so that he could not fully escape all of the damage. But he saw that yes, the hollow in question was slowing down in it's assault, even if it was not by much.

Isshin didn't have to to wonder about the sudden stroke of luck or what caused it and instead used it to back away from the creature, using the umbrella to block its view so it would have a harder time finding his vitals.

He dodged as much as he could, but eventually found himself with his back to the pole he had affixed the cardboard cutout to. Seeing as he had his back to a pole, his options to get out of the way had been limited, so instead of doing that, he pulled the cutout from it's position and threw it at the figure.

The cardboard was cut in half, but now that he knew where the claw-sword was, he used that opportunity to muster up his strength and launch himself forward in an attempt to bypass the hollow.

He realized that there was no way he could outrun it, so he held on to the belief that if he just held out long enough he could eventually outpace it based off his previous observations of its waning strength. With the position of its weapon firmly in his mind, he got behind the creature and hoped to whatever was out there that the hollow had a similar biology to a human being. He closed the umbrella and placed it horizontally across where he assumed the neck was. Then, he pulled.

He instantly knew that this was not a good idea.

For a total of five seconds, he managed to keep the hollow from moving by lifting it into the air by its neck, but then he felt the break break in his hands, and the next thing he knew was that he was being lifted up by the neck and into a wall.

'Huh… so this is how I die. Not in my sleep, but to a damn hollow... ' He would have laughed, but his airways were constricted and when he did get the occasional breath, he found himself choking on his own blood rather than taking in air. 'Well, at least it was an interesting life…'

Despite having mentally resigned himself, Isshin was still attempting to pull at the hand gripping his neck. His vision, already hazy, was starting to darken bit by bit as the life was slowly drawn out of him bit by bit.

The pressure around his neck increased to the point where he was sure if it tightened any more, his head would explode, but it stopped there. Instead of increasing and finally crushing his jugular like he had thought, instead the grip rapidly loosened.

He fell to the ground, no longer having the strength in his legs to survive any kind of fall.

"Kisuke… What took you so long?" He tried to say, but he was pretty sure all that came out was a bunch of garbles.

Standing above him was Kisuke Urahara, cane sword unsheathed and looking not at him, but to something at the side of him.

He thought he heard him say something, but all he could make out was the blurry view of Urahara's lips moving and the increasingly loud sound of rain.

Soon enough, he couldn't even hear that anymore, as he had allowed himself to pass out.

---

When Urahara had arrived, he had almost been too late.

He had come to find two people, one being Kurosaki, who was held up against a wall by the throat, and the other being an unknown, who was hunched over, but from the back looked nothing like a hollow. He had only been able to see the person from the back, but his first thought had been perhaps it was a rogue shinigami, as she, as he could tell by the body shape, was wearing a tattered uniform that was inverted to what shinigami normally wore.

Aside from that, the figure also had numerous bleeding cuts which he was sure would have made it hard for him to identify who it was had it not been raining. In her other hand, the one that was not being used to choke Isshin, was a zanpaktou, her own from what he could see from the cut up sheath on her back.

However, he wasted no time after his initial musings and had rushed forward, benihime out, and had stabbed the female through the stomach. She instantly relaxed her grip and fell over to the wayside, letting Isshin fall to the ground.

"Ki… *cough* took you…" He heard him mumble out.

"Just relax. I brought Tessai with me, so he'll be able to heal you. We're going to take you back to my shop." He spoke, although he wasn't looking in his direction. He was more interested in the woman who he had been fighting with.

He leaned down and examined the body, while Tessai appeared behind him and picked up the former shinigami. "Sir, what are you going to do with her?"

"... I don't know quite yet…"

Indeed, he was slightly perplexed. At first, he had assumed it was a rogue shinigami who had undergone some sort of hollowfication, which would explain why his sensors had gone off, but that wasn't the case now that he was closer. He had found it troubling that he couldn't sense her reiryoku when he had left to find this place, but now that he was closer, he could feel that it was being… hidden, for lack of a better word. This close, he could feel it incredibly faintly, and from what he could feel, it was definitely more hollow than shinigami.

"Arrancar…" He whispered to himself.

Kneeling down next to the body, he examined her closer. She wasn't quite dead yet, as her chest was still rising and falling, but from the various injuries she had suffered, it wouldn't be long.

Many cuts littered her body, cutting up the outfit she was wearing and leaving her barely decent. He could make out the hint of a mask under the high collar that covered her face which had seemed to escape the damage done to the rest of her body, confirming his idea that the female before him was a complete arrancar. Aside from that, he spotted the number three on the side of one of her breasts, although he had no idea why it was there.

Something didn't add up. As something mostly hollow, she should have some sort of regeneration factor. In that case, why was she not healing?

Her breathing was becoming more shallow.

Poison.

It had to be some sort of poison. Something that could decay from the inside, possibly with an added effect of masking her presence so no one could come to her aide. An insidious, slow killer.

"Tessai."

Tessai, who had been standing behind him and had been performing various healing techniques on the man over his shoulder, walked over to him. "Yes?"

"Place her in stasis." He pointed at the hollow. "And teleport her back to the lab. I believe she might prove useful…"

Tessai nodded hesitantly. "Kisuke, are you sure…?"

"She's poisoned, so she won't pose a threat. And as far as I know, the only thing that could make a hybrid between shinigami and hollow would be…"

He didn't finish his sentence.

"She might be connected to Aizen."

Kisuke simply nodded.

"Very well. This may alert soul society, however…" He said as he placed one hand atop the other.

"I already made it so that their systems won't have any record of this hour."

Tessai simply nodded in response and began the incantation.

---

Kisuke took his eyes off the screen in front of him and back toward the female lying on the table behind him.

After returning, he had taken her back to the lab and attempted to stabilize her condition.

He had taken her clothes off and bandaged her up with the help of Tessai, but that did little to no good as she still bled continually, even with the constant attempts at various healing kido both he and tessa had done.

The problem was the poison he had theorized earlier was in her. Insidious could not describe it well enough.

It seemed designed around keeping the hollow's natural regenerative power from taking effect as well as weakening all parts of the body, including the mind. From what he could tell, with how far the poison had progressed, there was probably no way to tell where she was or who she was fighting. All she had been when they had found her had been a corpse walking, fighting based on instinct alone.

But it wasn't simply that. If it had been, then it would have been a simple fix. No, it also cut the soul off from a majority of its powers and ate it, using it to become stronger within the host. The pain of having one's soul eaten alive would have been excruciating, and with how slow it had been devouring her, probably even more so.

Trying to regenerate would have simply made it stronger, so she had forced herself to stop naturally healing and endure it instead of attempting to fix it and giving her a quick death.

He was lucky to find her when he did. He didn't know how much of her power had been eaten away, but all that was left was the very base of her soul along with a marginal portion of her power. If she did survive this, she might even be able to regain what power she originally had, but it would take years.

That was if he let her live, and if he could find a cure for it.

All he really needed from her was information on Aizen, and that was if she was sane enough to even speak with him. And hollows didn't have much of a track record of being sane. Even if she was an arrancar.

Currently, he was trying to find an antidote for the poison, but nothing seemed to work. Kido worked well enough against it, but it quickly regained a foothold by absorbing more of the hosts reiryoku and reopen the closed wounds.

He needed to find a way to isolate her source of power, but so far, he could not come up with anything.

At first, he had thought to use her sword, as he found it it was actually a sealed portion of her power, but he had dismissed it, as he had no idea how exactly it worked.

Then he thought maybe he could do some sort of dialysis, but that thought was also pushed to the side in that taking away any more blood could simply kill her.

He couldn't create an antidote in the time necessary either. Perhaps given a bit more time…

His eyes shifted over to the other project he had been working on.

That… could work…

---

Her body hurt.

That was the very first thing she noticed when she regained consciousness.

Her entire body felt like someone had taken every single nerve in her body and taken a hammer to them. Even the smallest twitches seemed to cause a dull throbbing in the location which she had moved. Breathing in itself was difficult to do due it making her chest hurt, but she endured.

She had been through much more than this in the past. Much more.

Despite being awake, she hadn't opened her eyes yet, partly due to the pain associated with opening them and partly due to her feeling that something was… off.

She tried to remember the last thing she had done before she had found herself… wherever she was.

There had been a meeting, as per usual. She had shown up with her fraccion in order to discuss the current recruitment tactics… And then it was blank.

All she could recall was sand, fighting, and… a sword...

Why couldn't she remember?

Sighing internally, she decided not to dwell on it and instead return to the present, mainly where she was and why she couldn't move.

Pushing the constant pain out of the way, she concentrated on the other sensations she felt.

Her current position… she was sitting down. A chair, perhaps. Her arms were tied behind her, behind the backing. There was some kind of binding around her waist as well, keeping her from moving ankles seemed to be tied to the chair's legs rather tightly.

Other than that, there seemed to be no other bindings.

She tried to pull apart her arms, but she could already tell that whoever had bound her had taken precautions. Her pulls felt pitifully weak. She doubted she could even lift them up fully given the opportunity.

She attempted to try and strengthen her arms with a bit of her power, but found another surprising fact.

The amount of power she had access to was impossibly low. Just attempting to send a tiny bit to her arm had instantly tired her out.

She instantly assumed that someone had placed some kind of seal on her. It would only make sense, after all. She was the third strongest of the espada.

The sound of a door sliding open greeted her ears.

Whoever had done this to her had finally come. She refused to drop the facade of still being was best to let the enemy underestimate one rather than attempt to play all the cards.

Footsteps and the chattering of porcelain drew slightly closer to her as she heard the door close. The footsteps stopped in front of her, replaced instead with the knocking of wood as she assumed whatever was carried inside was placed, probably on a table.

A familiar scent greeted her nose. Tea. The particular kind Aizen liked to drink. She was attentive enough to know that he had his own special blend that he liked to use, So Aizen had tied her up? For what reason? It didn't make sense…

"I know you're awake."

The voice was definitely Aizen's. So she had done something in the past twenty four hours to warrant her being restricted up like this? What exactly had she done?

"Come now, my dear arrancar. We have much to discuss. Why don't you drop the act so we can talk?"

She opened her mouth to speak. "Ah… Aizen…? What..."

She couldn't manage to get much more out of her mouth than that. Her mouth felt like a desert with how dry it was, and her vocal chords refused to cooperate with her.

"Do you not recall what you did? Or perhaps you do and you are stalling for time." She heard him sipping tea across from him. "Amuse me, why won't you? Go on, tell me what I already know…"

"I… I don't…"

At this point, she tried to lift her head and open her eyes to see the man, but her head refused to move. It was as if someone had placed a lump of raw iron on top of her head. She could feel the twinges of her muscles straining to perform the action, but there was no result.

Gathered her strength and tried a second time. Through sheer willpower, she managed to move her head upward half an inch. It was too much. Her brain felt like someone was shifting sand through it, slowly draining out the thoughts in her head and causing her head to grow heavier for each moment that passes. She let her head fall, and a feeling of lightheadedness and a buzzing sensation in her skull.

"Already moving? My my… Your will is certainly stronger than I had initially thought." The person across from her set down something. "Do you not recall anything at all? Or have you simply lost your memory of yesterday?"

She felt compelled to reply. "Just… ye… yest…" She couldn't finish her sentence.

He sighed, "I wouldn't try straining yourself too much. The amount of sedatives and serums in your body should have had you out for two or three days, but you woke up in less than twenty four hours. That is quite an achievement."

She took his advice and stopped struggling, instead using the time to think about what he had said. She was currently drugged… and bound to a chair. Something about this didn't make sense. Several things about this didn't make sense, now that she took the time to think about it.

Why was she tied to a chair of all things? She was positive that she had been injured, so why was she not in a bed? Then there was the sound of the door… The doors in Las Noches made a rather distinct sliding noise that she had become accustomed to. The door she had heard, while it had made a sliding noise, sounded different, as if the materials rubbing together were different.

Then there was the man across from her. Aizen. Something about the way he spoke, his mannerisms when drinking tea, the fact that there was no one else around…

"Who... are you?" she rasped out. "Not… Aizen…"

There was a pause.

"Well, I didn't expect you to figure it out so soon. I was certain I played the part correctly..." A completely different voice, one that was lighter and more lively in comparison to aizen smooth and even, spoke to her. So she had been correct. "What gave me away? You didn't even bother opening your eyes coming to that conclusion… I don't think it's because you sensed my reiatsu…. no, there's some other reason…" She swore she could hear the gears turning in his head. "I would like to know how, but I don't think it would be wise to ask you in that state. I would be asking you to hold still right now, but I don't think you are currently capable of doing anything but that."

'Hold still? What was he-'

Two sharp pains suddenly erupted from the side of the neck and her left temple. Her eyes fluttered open as what felt like every muscle in her body spasm for several seconds. Once it was over, her body collapsed on itself like a puppet on strings, her eyes closed once more.

"There! Now you should be able to move!" She heard the sound of a fan opening. "I'll release the restraints. I'll trust you to be civil, but do that I can very easily cut you down…" His voice took a darker turn toward the end. "Now, I'm sure you're thirsty, why don't you have some tea!"

The bonds that had been keeping her against the chair fell away, and her upper torso fell forward. She quickly caught herself and managed to upright herself, finding that, as he had said, she could indeed move, even if the movement felt…. floaty, for lack of a better word.

She hadn't been able to register what she had seen while her body had been spasming, so she opened her eyes once again.

She was forced to blink several times with how bright the room looked to her, but once the initial brightness wore off, she took in her surroundings.

It… was not what she was expecting. It seemed to be an ordinary six tatami room with a sliding door on one end and a kotatsu in the center, which happened to be right in front of her. On top was a wooden board with a tea set placed on it, steam still coming out of the top of the kettle. Off in the corner was a tv, with a sleeping cat on the opposite corner, next to what appeared to be a heater. Directly across from her was a shady looking, scruffy blond man with a hat and a fan in front of his face, his eyes staring gleefully at her own.

Looking down, she saw that the clothes that she was used to wearing was gone, instead replaced by an overly large T-shirt and blue jeans. He had also seen fit to give her a scarf that covered the parts that used to be covered by her high collar. How quaint.

"Well? Go on. Have some." He pushed the tray the tea set was on toward her. "Or do you perhaps not like tea? Should I get you some water instead?"

She felt apprehensive about taking anything from the strange man in front of her, but decided that if he had wanted her dead, he would have killed her long ago.

Carefully taking the pot, she poured herself a stream of piping hot tea into the porcelain cup.

The taste was familiar to her, if slightly sweeter than what she was used to. It was difficult to swallow, even with how little she was taking in, but after a few sips, her throat seemed to open up and the scratchy, dry sensation she felt all but disappeared.

"I'm sure you have many questions, plenty of which I am willing to answer. However, I have questions as well. Thus, I propose a trade." The man in front of her closed the fan and placed it vertically on the table, using his finger to keep it in place. "I'll ask a question and you answer, then we'll do the opposite. Fair?"

She took a moment to think about it before nodding. She didn't really have much of a choice but to abide by his rules, so she would play along…. for now.

"Perfect! Now… what question to ask…" He placed his closed fan on his chin as he thought. "Alright, how about a name? I assume you don't go by arrancar #3."

She narrowed her eyes at him. Well, he must have seen, given that her clothes had been changed…

"Tia Harribel." She spoke.

"Tia Harribel, hm? Very well, Harribel-san, if you mind me calling. Now for your question?"

Tia plucked a question out of the many in her mind. "Who are you?"

He gave a slight bow. "Urahara Kisuke, humble candy shop owner, at your service!"

One of her eyebrows rose. "I doubt that's all you are."

"And you would be correct!" He replied. "But at the moment, that is all I am."

Kisuke poured himself some more tea before speaking again. "Now for my question. What is your relation to Aizen Sosuke?"

'Straight to that, it seems…'

She had no idea what sort of relation the man across from her had with Aizen, but if she assumed an enemy, then anything she handed over to him would be dangerous. She may not have had much loyalty to the shinigami, she still placed her trust in him, and she would rather not give information that might get her fraccion or fellow arrancar killed.

"He made me what I am today."

She felt that that was a vague enough answer.

"So he used his hogyoku to make you?" The reply startled her. Urahara smiled at her reaction. "Seems I am right. Then I assume the number on your breast either represents order of creation or power, if I work under the assumption that Aizen is creating some sort of arrancar army."

She kept silent, not wanting to give away anymore aside from what she had already given. Urahara Kisuke had already deduced too much.

"Where am I?" She asked, hoping to break away from the previous topic.

"Karakura town, Japan, the human world." Urahara answered. "And currently in the break room of my shop."

The human world? She had thought perhaps soul society, but the human world?

"Now onto my question. Is Aizen working alone or with others?"

Tia thought on the question. She knew Aizen was usually flanked by those other two shinigami, but…

"Yes." She replied.

"... I should have expected that." Urahara said as he sighed. "Very well, your turn."

"Why am I here?"

It was probably the most important thing on her mind.

"Why? I have no idea why you're here." Tia narrowed her eyes at him. "I will tell you that you were bleeding heavily and that you nearly killed my friend. And yet I still decided to save you. Make of that what you will."

The jovial tone he used was still there, but there was an edge to it as he completed his sentence.

"How many arrancar are there? I don't need an exact number. Just a ballpark estimate of how many you know."

How many…? That wouldn't hurt too much to reveal… "Fifty-two, give or take." She retaliated with a question of her own. "Why did you save me? I assume you are a soul reaper. Am I not your natural enemy?"

Urahara mulled over the question. "You would be correct that I am a soul reaper… but as for why… well, I can't exactly say why. Would you be content with me saying that the words you speak right now is enough reason to have saved you? Or that I have use of you?" The way he spoke reminded her eerily of Aizen. "Let's just say I took a gamble, and so far, it is paying off."

That did not answer much, but at least she was told that she would be of use. She loathed pretenses, so if she had been told that she had been saved out of the goodness of his heart, she would have had a much harder time believing anything that came out of his mouth.

"How do your abilities work? I have researched arrancar before, but there had been nothing on their abilities…"

She took a moment to recall what Aizen had told them about how their conception came about. "When an arrancar removes their masks, they gain the powers of a shinigami, and naturally obtain a zanpaktou, which holds a large portion of their power. When it is released they regain their original form as well as a tremendous increase in power."

Kisuke nodded. "That is mostly how I assumed it worked, plus a few details. A naturally occurring zanpaktou, however…" He shook his head. "Well, I asked my question. Your turn."

"... Will I be allowed to leave?"

Tia already knew the answer. The question itself was not if she could leave, but more of would she be allowed some freedom in regards to her imprisonment.

"Absolutely! In fact, if you wanted to, you could walk out the door right now. The tying you up thing was just to make certain that you wouldn't try to, you know, kill me, because you are a hollow." He scratched the back of his head. "I was unsure if you actually had any sanity in you, based on what happened last night…."

She was taken aback. That answer was definitely not what she was expecting.

… Well, now that she thought about it, it wouldn't matter if she left now. Her powers were all but gone. If she left, then all that would accomplish would be her being confined to the human world without any way to protect herself against other hollows or shinigami. It simply meant that he wasn't going to release her spiritual bindings at all, if ever.

He was expecting her to take the option of 'voluntary' confinement.

… She would probably never see her fraccion again.

"Now, my questio-"

"I'm leaving." She cut him off.

Urahara tilted his head. "I'm sorry?"

Harribel carefully lifted herself up off the chair and found her center of balance, trying not to make too many movements lest she fall. "I said I am leaving. This session is over."

"Hm? Not even going to go looking for your zanpaktou…?"

Her shoulders slumped slightly. "As much as I hate to admit it, with the way I am right now, having a zanpaktou wouldn't be much use. It would help, but I am currently no better than a plus. My hand to hand combat skills will prove good enough for the time being until I recover my power and forcefully take it back from you."

"Already threatening me? And I thought we were getting along…" Kisuke sighed, but didn't seem to move to stop her as she headed closer to the door. "Well, I did say that you could leave whenever you wanted. I am in no way going to stop you. But when you do happen to notice, my doors will be open."

"... Notice?" She paused as her hand reached the door. "What are you talking about…?"

"Nope! You have to answer my question first! That's how it works, remember?" He tapped his fingers against the table. "And my question is, where is the location of your base of operations? And no saying Hueco Mundo."

"... Goodbye." She promptly said before exiting the room, not even bothering to give an answer.

---

Urahara sighed as he let himself fall backwards onto the floor.

"Well, that went better than I had expected." He said outloud. "I win the bet, Yoruichi. Time to pay up!"

The cat that had been curled up in the corner of the room slowly unfurled and stretched, a yawn coming out of its mouth. "Fine, fine… You'll get your damn roof fixed…" The cat yawned again. "I didn't expect her to last two questions, but she seemed surprisingly reasonable… for a hollow."

Urahara spread his arms out. "Well, not quite hollow. She's an arrancar." A thoughtful look overtook his face. "Actually, now I'm not completely sure… Can she still be called an arrancar?"

Yoruichi strolled over to the chair where the hollow had previously been sitting and sat down. "How should I know? You're the scientist…" She laid down, placing her paws under her chin. "I give her… until the end of today."

"Making a bet again?" Urahara chuckled. "Fine. I'll say tomorrow morning before she decides to comes back."

"Bet's on then. Better pay up when you lose."

Urahara raised a finger and waggled it back and forth. "The real question is, will you?"

"...We'll see after I win, Kisuke."

Urahara shook his head and poured himself another cup of tea.

---

Tia really wished she had stolen a jacket along with the boots she had taken from Urahara's shop.

It was a cold, cloudy evening, with the sun visible far off in the distance, held in place between the cloud layer and the earth.

The concrete was littered with puddles, which made her thankful for having the foresight to steal some boots, but the faint, chilling wind was starting to get to her.

She had definitely experienced colder in Hueco Mundo and had bared with it just fine, so why was a slight wind causing her to shiver?

The only logical conclusion she could come up with was that whatever Urahara had dosed her with made her skin particularly sensitive. That, and perhaps the sudden absence of power flowing through her.

She tugged slightly at the scarf around her neck, making sure it as secure.

Now, where to go…?

Her knowledge of the modern world was… spotty, at best. As a hollow, she had devoured hundreds of thousands of her own kind, and with each one, her power had increased. But it hadn't merely just been power. There was also an echo left by the soul. Not a memory, per say, but certain pieces of knowledge and tactile skills, although the latter was rare.

The only one that she knew that subverted that was Aaroniero, but that's because that was just his ability.

Karakura town… located somewhere west of Tokyo.

That seemed to be all she knew on the subject of the town. There was plenty of information on Tokyo itself and the city close by, Naruki, but there was nothing on Karakura itself.

… Naruki city it was then.

She took another look at where the sun was and oriented herself west.

All she had to do was keeping walking in that direction and she would eventually wind up there.

The streets were quiet, although there were a few people wandering around here and there. Mostly she tried to keep away from them by sticking to the edge of the road and sticking her hands in her pockets, but occasionally she would swear that a couple of people were staring at her.

That couldn't be possible, however. She was dead, so they couldn't possibly see her.

So far, the only plan that she could come up with was to find a hollow and hopefully hijack a garganta back to Hueco Mundo. From there, she could hopefully climb up and get back to Las Noches.

Hopefully.

She didn't really hold much stock in the plan, but so far it was the only one she had. Mostly, she was going to try to use her reputation as an arrancar to scare off any would be hollows that would try and eat her, as even the weakest arrancar could easily kill any low level hollow or gillian without much thought.

The other option was just to return to the shop. That was not something she was willing to do.

Kisuke Urahara… On a spectrum, he and Aizen were on opposite ends, yet the two were all too alike. She might have given her loyalty to Aizen, but by no means did she trust the man. Urahara, while in his debt, was not someone she trusted. He was much too smart, and even now she was sure he was planning something. Perhaps her leaving had even been within his plans, now that she thought about it.

Speaking of, what had he meant by notice? It had to be something that would without a doubt give him leverage over her, with the way he had said it.

So far, she hadn't been able to figure out what it was, which annoyed her as she felt like the thing he was talking bout should be obvious, but she hadn't seemed to have caught on yet.

A droplet of water fell on her nose.

"Hmm?"

She looked up.

The mostly cloudy skies had actually broken up in the half an hour or so she had been walking, but the particular cloud hanging above her head shadowed the part of the city she was standing in, releasing its bounty onto it. She judged it to just be sprinkling, but soon enough it would start to pour.

Well, at least she had a definable goal now, and that was to get out of the rain.

Her current location wouldn't be much help, in that regard. There was only the river and the train station around. She could follow the river to the bridge in the distance and camp out under there, but that was something that she considered a last resort.

Looking around carefully, she spotted a few pluses here and there. One in particular was an elderly man that was sitting on a nearby bench looking out at the water. He was smartly dressed, wearing a black suit with a hat, and leaning forward on a cane, staring at te last remnants of the sun.

He would do.

She walked over to him and sat down next to him, the old man not moving an inch.

'Strange… usually plus souls instinctively shy away from hollows… do I have so little power left that I am not emitting any kind of spiritual pressure? Or did that man do something to me when he sealed away my powers?'

Putting the question back in the back of her mind along with the other things that didn't make sense, she waited on the bench.

After a minute or so of waiting, the spirit turned to her. "It will be pouring soon, young lady… you should go home, lest you catch a cold."

His words caused her to wonder what he was talking about. She was dead as well, so there was no point in her having a home. Perhaps the ghost of Karakura chose a certain place to wander about? But that didn't explain the cold part...

"I have no home to go back to." Tia replied, still gazing out at the water below, watching as ripples were quickly swept away by the tides of the shallow river. She decided she would play along, for now.

The old man seemed taken aback by her words. "You… you can see me? You can hear me?"

"And why wouldn't I be able to?"

He stared at her incredulously before laughing. "Hohoho! Indeed! Why wouldn't you be able to?" He settled down and looked back at the water. "So, are you perhaps a drifter? I have been in Karakura town of over fifty years and I haven't seen you around before…"

"I simply have no place to go back to at the moment."

Well, there was Urahara's, but she was not going to go back there.

"Something tells me that is not entirely true, but I won't push the subject." He dipped his hat downward blocking the view of his eyes. "What brings a pretty young woman to this bench on a rainy day like this? Not thinking of joining the land of the dead like I have, are you?"

'Joining the land of the dead? He thinks I am alive?'

"Do I look like I am alive?" She responded. "I've been dead for a long time."

He shook his head. "Dead… You appear perfectly alive to me, but I suppose that's not what you are talking about, is it?"

It actually had been, but he didn't need to know that. She had meant to put a double meaning behind her words in case he thought her insane or delusional, so she would let the spirit talk as he wanted, letting him control the flow rather than her.

"I can't say I know what happened to you, nor can I say I know what you are going through, but take it from an old man who has spent much too long on this plane of existence. Now is not your time."

Of course it wouldn't be her time any time soon. Even in death she had been strong enough not to die and had had enough strength left over to keep her subordinates from re-entering the cycle.

'Are they looking for me…? To them, I probably up and disappeared into thin air…'

"Reminiscing? Yes, I know that look, I've seen it on my own face too many times not to know. Remembering your loved ones perhaps? boyfriend? Husband? … Wife? I know how these times have changed…" He chuckled. "Have they passed as well?"

Well, she couldn't quantify the bond she had with her fraccion as something like 'love,' but it was definitely something a little higher than respect between a commanding officer and her subordinates. But it wasn't quite friendship either, however…

"Three… siblings. Three younger sisters." Yes, that was the closest she could come up with. "All passed a long time ago."

They were technically dead.

"Ah… I see," he nodded sagely, "What age were you when that happened? Five? Ten? You look to be no older than twenty-five, so it must have been somewhere around then."

She gave no response.

"Don't want to talk about it then? That's fine too."

They both sat there, with Tia listening to the distant sound of heavier rain draw closer while she felt the droplets of water that pelted her skin intensify slightly, marking the light drizzle of earlier ending, instead turning into gentle rainfall.

"Would you mind me telling you a story then? You don't have to if you don't want to."

Tia shrugged. "Do as you please."

He nodded and went back to viewing the river. "There were once two brothers, with a bond like iron. The older of the two had a mind as sharp as freshly broken glass, while the younger of the two was as strong as ox, and then some. They weren't rich, but they were happy."

He had a strange smile on his face as he took a small pause.

"The two would play all day and get into all sorts of trouble until they were called home by their mother, where they would then fall asleep and dream of what they were going to do tomorrow. The two thought they would spend the rest of their life like that, but it was not to be."

One day, the two happened to come across a girl. She was incredibly pretty, and had clothes on that reminded them of the special clothes their mother had hidden away for special occasions. Being young, they did the only thing that young boys did; they played a mean trick on her and laughed at her misfortune. But, after quite a lot of yelling and the younger brother breaking up a fight between the girl and the older brother, they invited her to play with them."

And just like that, the two became three. Time passed. They grew and they learned. It was a time of youth, and emotions ran wild. And they were happy." He sighed and gripped the cane in his hands tighter, his semi-transparent nature nearly blocking the motion from her view. "But, the girl had brought something to the two boys that they had never heard of before, and that was knowledge."

For you see, they knew of the world outside, but the people who knew about it had never bothered to tell them about it. The girl however, knew. She listened in on her father's conversations and told the two stories of the outside world. The younger brother loved hearing about the stories, but was content with the soil he stood on. The older brother, however, was enamoured. He vowed that one day, he would take all three across the world."

One particular day, in the heat of summer, the younger brother had brought a bottle of sake in order to commemorate the day they had met. Where he had gotten the sake, they had never questioned it. Instead, it became a yearly tradition for the three of them to drink a bottle down on that day."

But, war was on the horizon. And the older brother wanted no part in it. He attempted to convince the two to cross the ocean with him and see the world before the fighting started, but neither would have a part of it. Who would take care of their mother? Who would uphold the family name? The older brother planned on leaving either way, so he went to the docks and awaited his ship."

The girl caught up with him. At first he thought that she wanted to go with him, but it was not to be. Instead, she wanted him to stay, and professed her love for him, then and there, in hopes he would take responsibility."

He stopped talking at that point.

"And…?" Tia asked.

"And nothing." He replied. "The man, unknowingly cruel, returned her love for one night, and left the next. He saw the world. Collected bottles of wine and alcohol which he sent back, thinking she would forgive him. And every year, while he was out on his lonesome, he would drink a bottle of sake."

And when he had returned, he found his mother dead, the girl he loved gone, his brother crippled, and a woman who said she was his child, but was no father of hers. In the time he had gone, his brother had married his deceased love and had treated the girl as her own daughter, taking responsibility for his actions when he had run away…"

Another pause passed by. The sound of the wind whistling filled the silence.

"Rather depressing, isn't it?" He stated. "Lucky for us it is only a story… But one I hope you learned from."

Tia knew that the story he had told was definitely more than a piece of fiction, but she let it go. The old man's chain of fate was already near the point where he would go hollow any month now, so dwelling on it would only cause her trouble over someone who had little time left.

"The older brother… does he still regret it?" She questioned.

"Regret? It is merely a story. But, I'm sure he still regrets. But that's all fine then, isn't it? Can't be a human being without regret…" He took in a deep breath. "But sometimes regret hits far too late, and by then there is nothing to be done."

She sat with him a while longer, simply feeling the rain on her skin and listening to the distant rumble and pitter patter of rain.

Her mind felt empty. All the questions that she had had were gone, along with her worries and doubts. All that was there was the water.

She needed to get moving and find a place to think. Then she could organize her thoughts…

Getting up from the chair, she started moving in the direction of the bridge.

"Young lady, where are you going?"

She turned her head back to the old man. "Shelter." She pointed toward the sky. "I will not sleep in the rain."

He blinked at her, an owlish look on his face. "Oh, I thought… Well, nevermind. I can give you a place to stay, if you so wish."

Tia tilted her head, a few drop of water dripping down from her braid and onto her scarf. "And how would you manage that?"

The old man floated up and hovered over to her. "Just follow me. It will not take too long. As a gentleman, I refuse to let a lady stay out in the rain."

She shrugged and smiled a bit behind her scarf. She had hoped that he would give her a place to stay, but had been fully prepared to sleep under a bridge if necessary.

Turning around, she followed the man as he floated down the walkway, putting her hands in her pockets.

---

"This is it."

"... It is more than what I was expecting." She turned to look at him. "Are you certain it is abandoned?"

He dipped his head. "There are a group of hoodlums that like to occupy it from time to time, but they aren't here right now. It doesn't belong to anyone anyway. At least, not anymore…"

The old man had taken her to a place several miles from their original location, on the border between Naruki City and Karakura Town. He had taken her to what appeared to be a shopping district, except most if not all the buildings in it were dilapidated, with broken windows, crumbling walls or peeling paint. From what she had seen, though, the businesses were still running despite their state.

Her current location was in between two other buildings, in a narrow alleyway near the entrance. In front of her was a cracked wooden door, with a faded sign hanging on for dear life on a bent metal pole above it. The brick wall around it, despite being whole, seemed like it would fall apart any moment with the sheer amount of cracks running through it.

"The door isn't locked. Can't, since the lock is broken. Lights should still be working, however. The entire building runs on the same power grid. The tenants equally split the power bill between them, if you're wondering how that works."

Harribel nodded, causing some water from her now thoroughly soaked hair to fall into the gulf between her face and the scarf that was covering it, joining the parade of other droplets from above.

She took hold of the knob and and pushed it, opening the door and letting some of the rain into the building. It was dark inside, but even in the darkness, she see a glare coming from a large solid black countertop on one side of the small shop, along with the glint of several glass bottles on several tall shelves behind the counter, although most were broken.

The place was littered with discarded pieces of trash and broken chairs, along with the smell of alcohol. There were scratch marks on the wooden floor in front of her, which looked like they were made with a knife, as though someone had used one as a doorstopper, the pointy end pointed at the ground. A broken lamp rested in front of her, having fallen from the ceiling, and from the looks of it several of the bulbs in the other low hanging lamps were shattered as well.

"They certainly did a number on the old place... " The old man floated in and looked around. "Light switch should be on the back wall. Be wary of the glass."

She took a deep breath before crossing the threshold, the occasional crunch of glass sounding out below her boots. It took several minutes to find the light switch, which was unusually high up and hidden next to one of the shelves containing the broken bottles, but she eventually found it and flipped the switch.

Only two of the eight lights lit up, but it was enough. The room lit up, revealing the true extent of the damage the room had sustained over the years.

Harribel could tell that the place had once been a rather fancy bar, but over time it had fallen into disrepair. The floor was covered in more scratches than she had initially thought, with some deep scars running down the length of the room. Floorboards had been upturned, joining the various piles of broken white wood that had once been chairs. Square tables, some missing legs, had words carved into them, some innocent like names, most not so innocent.

The only part of the room that looked relatively untouched was the couch area in the back, with a dusty glass and marble table and several couches surrounding it.

"I'm sorry about your clothes, but there isn't anything to replace them with around here." The ghost said. "I would tell you about the bathroom, but… Anyway, the door at the end of the hall leads to that bathroom, which I would advise you to stay away from, and the second floor flat, which is empty and also has a bathroom that is much safer to use. There might be some towels under the counter to dry yourself off."

She nodded and went over to the counter, searching through the cupboards underneath for something to dry herself off with. Half of the doors were coming off of their hinges while the remaining half were simply not there, so the search did not take long.

Surprisingly, she found a perfectly dry washcloth covered in dust that she could use. It did not even appear to be used.

Taking it, she went over to the door the old man spoke of earlier, leaving a trail of water in her wake.

The door led to an incredibly dusty small room that had three doors, one to the left and two to the right, along with a spiral staircase leading up. The doors to the right were separated by signs that said ''male' and ''female,' while the door to the left had the words storage closet on a plaque next to it, along with the words ''if you take anything from here without bosses permission, you are dead!'

Feeling curious, she cracked open the door and saw bundles of different weapons inside, from bats to kendo sticks to actual swords, although the last of those was very few in number.

Closing the door, she used the stairs to head to the second floor, intent on using the bathroom to dry herself and perhaps take a shower, if the second floor had a shower.

Climbing to the top, she found another door, this one with a knife jammed in it along with the words "enter this room and you die!" carved into its surface.

'Dead? I already died once.' she sighed. 'At least they are not here right now. I would rather not have to deal with them.'

Not that she couldn't if the time came. She had regained her motor skills, even if it felt horribly sluggish compared to what she was used to. She just didn't want to add another problem on her list of constantly growing problems.

The door, she found, also had a broken lock, and she entered the room easily enough. The room on the other side was large and spacious, more reminiscent of a western style apartment than an eastern abode. It seemed like it took up one fourth of the floor she was on, taking up the entire corner space. It was nearly empty, with only a couple of couches from different sets set up in the corner and a television plugged into an unprotected outlet. The windows were shattered and had been boarded up in a poor fashion, with rain seeping in through the cracks and creating an unpleasant cold breeze in the room.

'Probably why they aren't here…' A shiver ran through her. 'It must get cold in here on rainy days…'

It was especially chilling for her due to her soaked clothes.

Striding across the room, the still dripping blonde opened an ajar door that sat in the corner of the room with a light push, and entered what she found to be, in her opinion, a very nice bathroom.

The mirror that spanned one side of the wall and the granite counter with the sinks were cracked, and the bathtub was cracked in two, but it was certainly better than what she had been expecting initially.

She immediately took a look at herself in the mirror, not having had time to get a proper look at herself since she had woken up.

As expected, her opposite's clothes were a completely soaked through, with both the top and bottom clinging to her skin. The T-shirt she was wearing clung oddly to the top portions of her chest and to her abdomen, while the back side hung loosely, too heavy with water to stick to her. Her black scarf, despite being water-logged, had managed to stay around her, with the tail ends resting atop her chest, blocking certain parts from being revealed due to her shirt's now semi-transparent nature. Her jeans had dropped slightly from gaining mass, only not completely falling off due to the size of her hips.

Carefully, she took off both her top and her scarf in one fell swoop and looked back toward the mirror, taking a look at her now bare upper body.

"... So they are gone." She said outloud to herself.

The remnants of her hollow mask were no longer there. Instead, all that was left was bare skin and the facial markings she was used to seeing when she used ressurection. Oddly enough, she could still see the number three still tattooed to her breast.

She reached up and grasped at her neck, noting the smooth feeling of actual skin and the feel of fingers across it.

It had been a long time since she had actually felt something touch her neck. Hollow masks did transmit sensation, but it was as if someone were touching one through several layers of clothing, and everything was always felt at the same pressure. But now it was gone.

Looking further down, she undid the button of her pants and looked at the area where she knew her hollow hole was located. It was no longer there.

She absentmindedly reached down and traced with her finger where she recalled it being.

What had that man done to her? How had he done this? Why had he done this?

How was she alive, and as a human at that?

Another thought struck her.

He had, through some unknown means, turned her human. In that case, what did that mean for her powers? Or tiburon?

No, she needed to think this through. How had he done this…?

Well, the most obvious answer that she could think of was he had, in some manner, managed to get a soul to vacate a body for her to use.

She knew that a soul could technically occupy a body, even if it wasn't their own. However, there were always circumstances with those, and human bodies tended to instantly reject any attempt to host a soul that wasn't their own, and that was only if their chain of fate wasn't severed.

Then there was the fact that he would have had to have found a body that was exactly like her own, so that was off the table.

So some sort of artificial body then, or some way to turn reishi to matter. The first seemed much more likely. She didn't know much of shinigami affairs, but if they were smart enough to create something like the hogyoku, then they could create an artificial body.

She didn't know how he could have created one in her image so quickly, but that seemed the most likely case. She would stick with it until she found a better explanation.

In any case, she was going back to Uraharas tomorrow to get an explanation.

Done organizing her thoughts, Tia Wandered over to the shower, turning it on to see if it had any hot water. The shower head sputtered to life, and after a minute or two of waiting, steam started to rise.

'Plumbing works as well?'

She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her current fortune. It almost felt too coincidental.

Deciding not to think too much on it, she draped her clothes over the edge of the broken tub to dry a bit and entered.

The pressure of the water was low, but she didn't mind. Water was her element, and she felt at home in it. Even out in the rain, as while she had wanted to get out of it, that was only because of the uncomfortable feeling of her clothes becoming soggy.

Beaches were her absolute favorite. Hollows didn't retain many memories of when they were alive, but she recalled one particularly good memory of the sea as viewed from a beach. It was only that image however. There was no context behind it, other than the pleasant feeling she got when she remembered it.

Ten minutes of standing under the warm water later, she reached a hand up and turned it off, letting the rest of the water slide off her body.

Taking the cloth she had procured, she quickly dried herself off and tossed the used cloth on the counter, now taking the opportunity to think of how she would dry her clothes.

They were currently the only set she had, and while she didn't mind being naked, the cold draft coming in from the windows was pushing her to find something to wear.

She could put the scarf on the boards and use the wind to dry it out, that would be simple enough, but the question came from the other two pieces of clothing. As far as she knew, there was no way to dry them in a timely manner.

Seeing no other solution, Tia decided that the best scenario would be to just get rid of as much water as possible and wear the wet clothes.

Taking the discarded cloth, she laid it out flat against the sink and placed the shirt on top. Then, she tightly rolled the entire thing up and twisted at both ends, hoping that the combination of the washcloth's absorbent properties and the wringing of the shirt would work in conjunction to get the most water out of it.

After twisting the cloth several times and seeing droplets of water start to come out, she opened the towel and unraveled the now drier but now incredibly wrinkly shirt.

'It will have to do…' she sighed.

She put on the shirt and went to work on the pants before putting them on as well. They still felt heavy from the water trapped within the fabric, but it was no longer sticking to her.

She picked up the scarf and went out of the room and to one of the windows, placing one of the loose fringes of the scarf in a splintered portion of the wood, pinning it in place.

With that done, she headed back down the stairs to check on the ghost.

"Hello, miss. Care for a drink?" he said as she closed the door behind her. "We have some wonderful chilled wines that have been left open for just the right taste. Or perhaps you would prefer a sharper flavor?"

He chuckled at his own joke while she simply stared at him, the same stoic look on her face that she normally had.

"It's a joke you know. The kind you laugh at?" she continued to stare. "Hmph. Not a funny bone in your body it seems."

She ignored him and turned to the nearby couches, walking over and sitting down. "So, young lady, I do not believe I got your name…?"

She briefly made herself comfortable by placing her elbows along the top of the couch and crossing her legs before speaking. "Tia Harribel."

"Tia…? So you are a foreigner. I thought you were, based on your looks, but I didn't want to assume. I originally assumed you were a south islander or from the states, but your name is spanish. How peculiar..."

She shrugged. "It is simply the name I've always had. Call me what you feel comfortable with. As for my place of origin, I have none. I've always drifted from place to place"

She never stayed in one place too long while in hueco mundo. That was one of the ironclad laws of the land, unless one were powerful enough to have the ability to fight off the hordes of other hollows that would converge on one's location.

She happened to be one of those hollows, but she still prefered to wander over sticking to one place.

At least, that was how it had been till she had found those three..

"Seen the world, have you? Well, my name is Ryutaro Yoshida, globe trotter, gentleman, and lover of spirits." he grinned. "And by spirits, I mean a good old drink. Not that I don't like seeing a lovely lady or two."

"Ill pass." she replied.

"Ho! So you can joke! What a pleasant surprise!"

"I never said I could not."

The man smiled. "No, no you didn't."

A moment of silence passed between the two.

"Well, I suppose I have some questions for you, young miss." He said as he twirled the cane in his hand. "How long have you been able to see ghosts? Did you develop it recently, or is it something you've always had? I can imagine how much trouble it must be for you if you had had it since birth. Plenty of people who died with unresolved problems, and no way to communicate them…"

"... My heart ceased to beat, once upon a time. The next time my eyes opened, I could see the spirits of the dead." A truthful, if vague answer. "And yes, they can be... bothersome."

If she were to count off the number of hollows that had gotten on her bad side, she would probably count for the next hundred or so years. If she talked fast.

"A near death experience? First I've seen someone gain the ability to see us with something like that. But then again, what do I know of the matters of the dead?" He shrugged nonchalantly. "If you do not mind me asking, how did it happen? I understand if it might be a sensitive subject for you…"

Her death… it had been such a long time since she had even thought about it, let lone tried to remember it.

"My memories on it are hazy, unfortunately. I was asleep for a long time after it had happened." After she had died, she had a solid recollection of being eaten by a hollow not even a day after. She wasn't sure how long that hollow had existed until it had evolved into a menos grande, where she had assumed control over the body. "But… I think I drowned."

She wasn't sure if it was a memory of her death, but there was an image in her mind. She was underwater, with her eyes open. Moonlight was filtering in through the surface of the water, the image above visible due to how clear and calm the water was. Her hands were reaching toward the moon, with a cloudy red mist seeming to twirl around her hands and touch the surface for her, as though answering her wish of wanting to reach the heavenly body high above her...

"In that case, I'm sorry for bringing up old memories." He turned around and looked at the rows of broken bottles on the shelf behind him. "I do have another question, however. Can you do anything else besides seeing ghosts? I remember all those tales of spirit mediums and the like having certain powers, and I simply wanted to know if you had anything like that."

She shook her head. "I can somewhat sense your presence, but other than that, it does not appear I have any other powers at this point in time."

She had tried, but nothing seemed to work. She couldn't seem to get enough spiritual energy together to do anything that she deemed useful. At most, she could probably just concentrate it on her palm and make a small light.

And doing that would most likely tire her out.

"I see, I see…" He seemed disappointed in her answer. "I was hoping that, maybe…"

She tilted her head. "Maybe what?"

He sighed and let his shoulders fall to his side. "I've been around a long time. And frankly, I wish to pass on, but it seems that I am destined to remain here." He tugged slightly on the chain on his chest. "I have had a few friends, as a ghost. From what I've seen, when this chain disappears, they pass on. I've never been around to see what happens, but one day, I saw a man screaming as the chain on his chest ate itself away. I assume it is simply a tribulation given by god for those that have sinned…"

He moved out from behind the counter and went over to the couches where she sat, taking a seat on the couch to her side. "For most, it only takes five or ten years, but for me… I've been here fifty odd years, and it has only gotten this short. I had been hoping you had some power to exorcise me, somehow…"

"... I cannot do that." She had actually never tried to see if the zanpaktou she wielded could perform a soul burial, but even if it could, she no longer had it. "But I do know who can."

He whipped his head at her and blinked. "You do?"

Harribel nodded slowly. "If you wish, I can take you to him tomorrow. I had been planning on talking to him anyway."

"I hadn't actually… I didn't think…" A large smile made itself known on his face. "Well, you've made an old spirit very happy today, you know? I thought I would have to pull this chain right out of my chest if I had to wait around here any longer…"

She felt a slight urge to explain hollows and how they were formed to him, but she quashed that urge down. There was no need for him to panic.

"So, who is this man? And how do you know him?"

She shrugged. "He is what you would call a shinigami, although he seems to be more interested in running a candy shop rather than ferrying the dead to the afterlife." That was simply one of the questions she had about him, on top of the pile of other questions that surrounded the enigma known as Kisuke Urahara. "As for how… He saved my life recently. I intended to go back and repay him."

It was a lie, but a small, white one. She knew how much better it was to go to soul society than to be a hollow and suffer. Better to let him believe Kisuke was a good person and get a soul burial over having him mistrust the shopkeeper and become a hollow. It wasn't like he would be meeting the man any time after he fully passed on.

His eyes widened. "Shinigami?! They exist?"

"Yes. Although from what I've seen, they are either incredibly lazy, entirely too shrewd, or are too caught up in their own agendas to care to do their job."

He raised an eyebrow and tapped his cane. "Really? Do you know many? Because you sound as though you have something against them." He coughed lightly, clearing his throat. "If you do, could you tell me what you know of them? I would like to know what these shinigami are and what they are like. Are they like the legends describe them to be?"

"The term shinigami is just a title. In the afterlife, there is a group of spirits that gather up the recently departed and send them over, lest the world be covered in ghosts who can't pass on due to their attachment to the world," she explained, "They are people just like you or I given power, and thus fall to the follies of power."

The explanation itself wasn't entirely correct, but he didn't need to know much else.

"I understand that. I understand that all too well…" He said in a hushed voice. "So, we are going to meet just just an ordinary person? Well, there goes my expectations…"

"I would consider him anything but ordinary, Yoshida-san, but I would think you would have to meet him to see."

"I see then... " He leaned back and placed his cane in his lap. "You know, it is getting late. I do have a lot of questions I wish to ask, but you must be getting tired."

Tia didn't particularly feel tired, but she nodded anyway. Sleep was important.

"Well, I won't trouble you any further. Go on. I happen to have something I need to do anyway."

She nodded one last time and got up from the couch, planning on going upstairs and using the couch up there for rest. While it did happen to be colder up there, the idea of being disturbed in her sleep by someone was not something that appealed to her.

Her hand had been inches from the door when she heard the spirit behind her speak up one more time. "Harribel-san, if it is okay, would you mind if I ask you a favor?"

She paused her hand but did not turn around. "I am currently in your debt, Yoshida-san. I will do what I am able."

"Oh! It is nothing difficult… I just wish for you to deliver something… Well, two things actually. Nothing heavy and not that far. Before we meet with the shinigami…"

"... As I said, I will do what I can."

"Thank you, Harribel-san."

She simply walked through the door and went up the stairs.

---

She awoke to the sound of a thud echoing up from the lower floor.

"Fucking hell, did some hobo come in here again?!" A scratchy male voice yelled angrily. "There's fucking shitty ass water all over the floor!"

There was a brief pause of silence.

"Well? Did I fucking stutter or something, shitheads? Clean this shit up! And someone grab me a fucking drink already!"

"Y-yes boss!" Several different voices said in chorus.

"And what did I say about fucking stuttering?!"

"Don't do it, boss! Yes boss!"

Footsteps sounded out as several of the men downstairs ran around and performed various tasks.

"Shit, Yamazaki, you have a smoke? I'm all out." The high-pitched voice of the boss bellowed.

'It seems his natural speaking volume is several decibels higher than the average person.'

"Thanks, Yamazaki. See, fucktards?! Yamazaki's got his shit together, why the fuck don't you?!"

"Yes boss! We're sorry boss!" They all responded in unison.

"Morons, all of you!"

"Yes Boss!"

"Fucking hell... " She could hear him sigh, even through the floorboards. "I don't feel like fucking around today, so just give me the damn status report."

Another voice spoke up, but she couldn't quite hear what the voice was saying. Being very careful not to cause the floorboards below her to creak, she carefully rolled off the couch and landed on the ground in a push-up position before lowering herself and placing her ear to the floor.

"... is time to start some more aggressive tactics." A much calmer voice said. "Tonho has already made his move, and Rei-"

"Don't fucking mention that damn bitch and her shitty bitch gang!"

"... As I was saying, Rei has had a very aggressive stance against us. Many of our men have wound up in the hospital because of her."

"You and I both fucking know it's because the supreme bitch can't keep her fucking guard bitch on a damn leash! She let's her mutt loose on whatever the fuck she wants, and then says 'Oh, I don't have any control over her actions.' Don't have any control over her actions my ass! And when I went to ask miss supreme bitch, politely, to get the fuck off our territory or at least hand that dick mongler over for some punishment, she slapped me in the damn face and had that fucking unagi piece of shit punch me in the dick!" She heard him take several angry breaths in succession. "... When I find that damn bitch, I'm going to fucking kill her. No, I'm going to pin her to a fucking wall, stick needles under her nails, have my way with her, kill her, chop her to pieces and then-"

"Boss, need I remind you that the Unagi is still a high school student?"

The sound of glass breaking rang out from below. "I don't fucking care anymore! No one fucking does what that little bitch did! Not to me!"

"But boss, like I said, she is-"

The familiar dull thud of a punch met her ears.

"Damn it, Yamazaki, you and I both know I'm just pissed as fucked right now! Why the fuck are you trying to argue shit you know I'm not going to fucking do?!"

"... I know boss. It's just that after Rei left you, you've-"

"The past is the past, Yamazaki. Do not bring that shit up around me unless you want to die." There was a moment's pause. "... Well, what the hell, Yamazaki? Keep talkin'. You and I both know you're the smart one here."

"Yes Boss. Along with the situation with Rei and Tonho, Watanuki and his gang have been intruding on our turf again. They just hit Koizumi's last night. As for Tanaka and Kojima, those two have been really quiet as of late, in accordance with the truce we made."

"Watanuki is just a little pussy. He can't do shit to us. As for the other two, well that's one piece of good news. Kojima scares the shit out of me…" Another pause. "Any way we can get kojima to deal with Rei for us? I don't want to deal with that bitch if I don't have to."

"You know how Kojima is."

"... Well fuck. Guess that's a no." A snapping noise echoed in from down below. "Oi! Jiro! Grab that TV from upstairs. Don't feel like freezing my ass off upstairs to watch shit."

"Yes boss!"

'Damn.' The blonde mentally cursed.

Tia knew she wouldn't be able to reach the bathroom in time from her current position, so instead she decided to move the couch that was next to the wall just a slight bit and ducked behind it, hoping the delinquent coming upstairs wouldn't be able to notice the widened gap between the wall and the couch.

Her fighting prowess was high enough to easily take out even a highly skilled opponent, but she did not wish to fight if she did not have to. If she had to stay in the human world for longer than necessary, then making them her enemy would make it annoying to move around.

The door at the other end opened, and heavy footsteps grew closer to her location.

"Why'd boss have to send me? I hate picking up heavy things…"

Several sharp creaks emanating from the TV sounded out as the man picked it up.

"Shit shit shit shit!" There were several more creaks as well as the feeling of the couch she was hiding behind being pushed against her. "Fucking hell that thing is heavy…"

There was another small push as she heard the sound of the couch being sat on. "I'll just take a small break before trying again… yeah, I'm sure boss won't mind waiting a bit…"

A small amount of time passed, in which the person sitting on the couch had taken out a lighter and flicked it open and closed, creating a rhythmic clicking noise.

Tia felt a cold breeze come in from the window, along with a flapping noise. Turning her head to see what the noise was, she saw her scarf dangling on the wall, whipping about as the wind passed by it.

She mentally cursed again.

"Hmm?" The man got p from the couch, relieving some of the pressure that had been placed against her. "A scarf…? Well, boss did say a hobo might've wandered in… Must be his."

She watched as the man, who she could now identify as an average sized, thin male wearing a white T-shirt and some blue jeans with a head of short, black hair, went over and plucked the long piece of fabric from the window, placing it around his neck. He couldn't be any older than twenty, in her opinion. Perhaps a college dropout?

"Damn, this is pretty warm… Kinda wet in some places, but damn snug…" He said to himself.

"Fucking hell Jiro! Get that damn TV before I fucking break your spine!" A voice called up from below.

Jiro instantly stiffened. "Yes boss!"

He rushed over to where the television rested, picked it up after a brief moment of struggling with it, and waddled carefully toward the door, shutting it on his way out.

Harribel sighed in relief. It had cost her a scarf, but at least she didn't have to get into a fight.

"Fucking finally! What the hell were you doing up there Jiro? Jacking off?" The boss called out in that obnoxiously loud voice of his. "Set it down on the table. Yamazaki will hook it up."

There were some moving sounds downstairs as Tia got up from behind the couch.

She really must have been out of it, she thought. Normally, she would have just taken the man by the neck and either snapped it or put him to sleep, then waited for the next person to come up and done the same to them.

Hiding behind couches was not something she normally did. It was… beneath her. She had her pride as a vastro lorde and an arrancar.

Yet she had rationalized hiding as her first instinct when clearly simply knocking him out and running would have been easiest.

Was suddenly finding herself so weak such a blow to her thought processes…?

"Oi! Jiro! What the fuck is that around your neck?!"

The former arrancar already knew how this was probably going to end. Again, she felt the vague urge to hide, but instead of following it, she immediately destroyed any thoughts of doing so and instead stood her ground, waiting to see what would happen.

"It's a scarf, boss!"

"I know that, fuckhead! Where the fuck did you get it?!" The boss roared.

"U-upstairs, boss. It was hanging from the window… I assumed it belonged to the hobo you were talking about when we got here, so I-"

"You fucking moron!" His voice grew even louder. "It's been raining since last night and only just fucking cleared up! Now, if you were a shitty little hobo, would you leave without grabbing your fucking scarf?"

"N-no boss…"

"Fuck right no! Do you know what that means, you piece of shit?"

Silence reigned once more as the seconds ticked by.

"For fucks sake! This is why I'm the boss and you're the pissant! Yamazaki, since he can't seem to figure shit out!"

"Very well." Tia was surprised, as the voice spoke loud enough for her to hear this time. "If you were to think about it, then obviously the person that wore that scarf must still be here."

"Damn right they're still here!" A yelp closely followed by a thud sounded out. "Yo! Shitty hobo! Get the hell down here and we won't hurt you too much!"

Tia felt she had two choices. One was to remain where she was, while the other was to go downstairs and deal with the problem.

Problem solving had always been one of her strong suits…

She walked over to the door and down the stairs, not bothering in trying to conceal her steps anymore.

Upon entering the main bar room, she found that approximately twenty or so people were spread out throughout the entire room. Some were dressed as the man who had come upstairs had, with a T-shirt and some jeans, while others were dressed in open black dress shirts or jackets. Some had visible tattoos or piercings, and she spotted five or so with dyed blonde hair. Nearly all of them were carrying some sort of weapon.

In front of her were two people sitting on the couch that seemed to be the boss she had heard earlier and Yamazaki. The one sitting on the couch facing the back wall almost looked like he didn't belong. He wore an expensive suit with wavy, shoulder length hair, and the only piercings he had were on his ears. His features were striking, something she would expect more from a fashion model rather than a delinquent.

The person on the opposite couch who was currently facing her seemed to be his complete opposite. While he also wore a similarly expensive suit, he was covered in piercings and tattoos, with his hair in the shape of a pompadour and a pair of shades blocking his eyes. Also, judging from his posture, he was tall, with lanky arms and legs.

Neither of them looked to be any older than twenty-two, at the very most.

"Alright you shitty hobo, I'll-" The voice she associated with the boss came not from the the heavily pierced one, but from the wavy-haired one. "Well well well, would you look at that. We've got a woman! I guess I'll have to go back on trying to beat the shit out of you like I was planning on." He clapped his hands together. "Ya got a name?"

She kept her silence, instead using the time to look at who the most dangerous threats in the room were. Two larger men stood next to the door behind her without and weapons, no doubt meant to have kept the person coming through the door in place at the boss's command. The door was blocked by three men, two carrying the wooden swords she had spotted earlier with the third carrying a bat littered with nails. Four or five were behind the bar counter, which could lead to bottles being thrown in her direction should she not be careful. Some of the chairs were also occupied, so she had to keep her guard up in case any decided to use them as a weapon against her.

Finally there were the two in front of her. Those two were the most dangerous, in her opinion. She could spot what looked like a golf club next to the boss's side, while the other, Yamazaki, if she were correct, had brass knuckles on the glass table in front of him.

This would be easier to deal with than she thought.

The man raised his hand, revealing a lit cigarette clutched between his fingers, and put it to his mouth, taking in a puff of smoke and nicotine. A second or so passed and he blew it out, a ring shape appearing in the smoke.

"So, not going to tell me, huh?" He flicked his cigarette on the floor. "That's fine. I can deal with that. Names aren't all that important, and you can tell me it later." He smiled in her direction, showing off a row of perfect teeth. "I'm Sora, by the way. Leader of the west river gang. And you somehow managed to hole yourself up in my base of operations."

Instead of replying, she instead crossed her arms below her breasts in a manner that felt natural to her.

Raising his hands and dropping his head to display a non-threatening atmosphere, he continued to speak. "Now, I won't go asking why a hot chick like you is here in this sort of place. Maybe you're far from home and decided this was a good place to stay. Maybe you decided are a hobo and this looked like a really nice place to relax. Or, the most likely case, judging by your clothes and the fact your nips are poking through that shirt of yours because you're not wearing a bra, you had an argument with your boyfriend and ran. Like I said, I won't ask. But, since you are here, I suppose I should treat you like a guest." He snapped his fingers. "Shiro, two glasses, grab the Vermouth."

Tilting her head so she could see the bar, a young whitish-blond haired individual nodded and pulled one of the intact bottles from the shelf behind him as well as two glasses, filling them with the bottle and then sliding them down the table with practiced ease to a man who was sitting near the end of the table. He grabbed both drinks and carried them to the table, where he set them down.

"Well? Come here and sit next to me. Then we can talk and have a drink. What do you say?"

She held her ground and narrowed her eyes instead.

Sora frowned as she rejected the offer, but the smile that he had been putting on quickly returned to her face. "If you want to stand, that's fine too. Give her her drink."

The delinquent who had originally placed the drink on the table got up and presented the cup toward her.

She remained rigid in her stance, not taking her gaze away from Sora.

"... Not a drinker are you? That's fine too…" He snapped his fingers again and pointed a thumb at Yamazaki. "Since our dear guest doesn't seem to want it, you want it?"

The man nodded, his pompadour swaying as he did so. He took the cup and downed it in three gulps. "It's good, boss."

"Of course it's fucking good, Yamazaki. I know my damn alcohol!" He turned back to face her. "Ah, sorry about that. I tend to let my temper get the best of me. So, lady, what do you want? Something to eat perhaps? Water? Maybe a proper shirt? While I do like the look, it's rather unbecoming."

He waited for her to respond. Her lips remained sealed.

"Hello? Anyone there? Can you speak? Are you retarded perhaps?" He snapped in her direction a couple of times. "If not, then at least show some sign you're not a statue, yeah?"

Mentally sighing, Tia decided now was probably the time to break her self imposed silence. While she preferred not to speak, the fact that he hadn't used a show of force yet despite her remaining silent meant she might be able to get away without sending anyone to the hospital.

She held her hand out. "My scarf."

"So you can speak!" A moment passed, with an annoyed look quickly forming on Sora's face. "You heard her, give her back her scarf!"

Yamazaki nodded to one of the men close to him, with one of them producing the scarf that Urahara had given her. She was glad to have it back, despite having no personal attachment to the accessory. She had grown used to covering her mask fragments, so having something to cover the lower half of her face once more was a comforting feeling.

"So, now I know you can talk, let's discuss. I'm sure you and I both know that you probably want to leave right now." he said. "And I want to give it to you. I really do. After all, that lover of yours could be that piece of shit Kojima for all I know, and I wouldn't want to deal with that. But, you came here, into our hideout, so now I expect some sort of payment."

"I have nothing to give," Tia responded.

He sighed in a dramatic fashion. "I see… well, there are… other means of paying. As I said before, you do have a very nice body." he flashed her another smile. "Tell you what. You sit with me for an hour or so. We'll have some drinks, talk interests, exchange numbers… maybe some other things." He said in a flippant manner. "Nothing bad. At most, maybe just some light touching what do you say?"

Harribel found herself becoming more and more irritated the longer the man talked. She would, under no circumstances, do any such thing, especially with a person like him. So far, he had presented himself as belligerent, lecherous, and uncouth, none of which she considered shining qualities. The only redeeming attributes she could find in him were that he had been truthful with his intentions, even if his intentions were to ''lightly touch' her.

If anything, he reminded her of Nnoitra.

She loathed Nnoitra.

"Going back to the whole 'not talking' thing, are we?" he let himself fall back and sink into the couch. "Well, yeah, I can understand your hesitation. I mean, here you are, probably just looking for a place to stay for the night, and when you woke up, you found yourself surrounded by a gang of thugs for unknowingly trespassing. I mean, look at the state of this place. Not very pretty is it?"

None of it, however, was caused by us. Sure, there are a couple of scratches in the floor and on the tables that for sure are ours, I'll admit that, but everything else? That's been like that." He lifted his feet and placed them on the table. "There was an earthquake a few years back along with a gang that used to be here. Most of it was caused by them."

He held his hand out toward the man known as Yamazaki, who supplied him with another cigarette from a case from his pouch. Taking an ornate lighter from his pocket, he flipped it open and lit it, blowing some more smoke.

"But that doesn't matter all that much to ya, does it?" He continued. "At the end of the day, we're still a gang of thugs, going around and causing all sorts of problems for the folks right?"

But that's not all true. Sure, we're just a bunch of delinquents, and sure, we do go around and cause some trouble from time to time and collect money, but that is all for a purpose."

He slowly go up from his position on the couch and walked around the table, beginning to walk back and forth in front of it.

"You saw how it was outside. All those crumbling buildings. When that earthquake hit, this area was practically destroyed. The buildings themselves stayed up, sure, but the structures inside were ruined. Entire floors collapsed. People died."

Most of Naruki was rebuilt. But not this place. No, never this place. You know why?"

Harribel didn't know, and honestly didn't care, but she kept quiet and let the man continue.

"... This place used to be bustling. Lots of people came here, because it's close to karakura and it had a lot of specialty goods. Mostly just family businesses you know? But once the earthquake hit and the buildings here became unsafe to live in, some fuckhead came up with the stunning idea of putting off the reconstruction indefinitely, forcing all the families that made a living here out, and then buying the land at a cheaper price to sell to whoever wanted it!"

A loud crash sounded out as Sora kicked over one of the tables, causing it to splinter as it broke in half.

"But the families were stubborn. They stayed. They weren't going to move out. But because they didnt, business declined, gangs moved in, crime shot up… it was a fucking nightmare." Sora scowled as his pacing intensified. "Those people working out there? Our brothers. Our sisters. Our mothers, fathers, uncles, grandparents… they are our family."

As the oldest sons, we were supposed to protect them, but we couldn't. How could we? We could barely make enough money to keep ourselves afloat, too weak to fight back, and too naive to think that they might go away one day. Some of us were, as some would say, lucky. I call them cowards, because they were too fucking smart or too fucking athletic and got some damn scholarship and left this shithole behind."

He walked up to her and met her eyes.

"But we didn't. Not Yamazaki and I. We stayed. We gathered a gang together and kicked the shit out of those thugs and, after a year, we took over the area. We took all those dropouts who couldn't afford to go to college, we took all those guys who had to stay to take care of their siblings and banded together. And we decided, together, that we're going to move up in the world." He leaned back on the heel of one of his dress shoes and turned around, laughing as he did so. "you've heard of Yakuza, right? Well, once our plans are set, we're going to graduate form some mere hoodlums up to that level, and from there, who knows?"

He went back to his couch and sat down, taking the same casual cross legged position he had been un when she had walked into the room. "So, as you can see, we're not really bad guys. Just men who found themselves in a real shitty situation." He raised a hand toward her. "So, what do you think of my offer now? Am I really such the horrid person you made me out to be."

For half a second, Harribel almost felt tempted to accept, but it was only almost. She knew better than to trust a silver tongue when she saw one. Perhaps what he had said might have been true, but that did not necessarily describe his nature.

"No."

"... No?" He instantly formed a frown and his hand slowly lowered. "Alright, bitch. I gave you the chance to do this the easy way. Grab her, tie her up and bring her here."

Harribel had just about expected this outcome, so when the two men behind her reached out to grab her, she leaned to the side and struck with her elbow, dodging the two and sending one of the two men careening into the wall from the elbow strike, knocking him out instantly.

She then took a step back and placed her palm on the back of the skull of her other attacker, and, using the fact that he was off balance from having missed her, crushed her face into the floor with a sickening crunch.

'Still stiff, but good enough for now…'

The one who had gotten the cup of Vermouth then shot after her. She had yet to get up from slamming the other delinquent into the floorboards, so she instead delivered a sweep with a leg, dropping him onto her awaiting fist.

"So nip-bitch has moves…" Sora clenched his jaw, splitting the cigarette he had in his mouth in two. "What the hell are you cocksuckers waiting for?! Grab her!"

Tia had already jumped over to the bar area, delivering a flying kick to the skull of one of the thugs, causing him to smash into the one behind him and knocking the two of them out. Using the momentum, she rolled forward and jumped, sending a spinning axe kick to the top of another one of Sora's men.

Another one came up to her and tried to use the lull from the landing to send a strong left hook in her direction, but she lowered her head and redirected the left over speed from her fall into a headbutt to his skull, dropping him like a sack of rocks.

"Haaaa!" Another man with a broken bottle in his grip rushed at her, intending to pierce her with the sharp edges of the broken glass.

To her side, from across the countertop, a heavily pierced punk had raised his sword and was planning on nailing her in the head with it.

She dealt with the bottle-wielding enemy first using her right arm by grabbing his wrist and redirecting the force to her side, while she used her left hand to reach up and stop with sword. Pulling the wrist of the broken bottle wielder to send him behind her, she then used both hands to bring the sword wielder across the table by yanking the sword toward her and bringing his arm in reach, which she used to judo throw him into the man using the bottle.

'Nine down, eleven to go…'

The rest of the men in the bar all had weapons out aside from the two at the door. However, now that she had a wooden sword, it would be all that much easier to deal with them.

"Get the bitch!"

At the boss's words, all the men except the two at the door rushed at her, with some in the back having thrown an entire table in her direction.

Instead of dodging and heading for the door, where the two guards were waiting, she instead jumped up and over the obsidian countertop and met the table with a downward kick, sending it down onto the three closest minions and causing her to backflip from the counterforce. She then landed on top of the overturned table, which was laid flat over the three, in order to make sure that they were down for good.

Dusting herself off and fixing her shirt, which had managed to catch on top of one of her breasts from performing the maneuver, she held the wooden sword in front of her and waited for them to try and attack her.

Instead of attacking, like she thought they would, they instead stood remarkably still.

"What the fuck are you?!" one of the men asked, pointing a shaking finger at her, "How the hell did you do that?!"

She took the moment of hesitation to go on the attack.

Tia let her body run on autopilot, not even bothering to think about her actions as she had before. She let her mind wander as she went through the motions that had been ingrained into her after hundreds of thousands of battles.

Jab with tip of sword into solar plexus. Crush skull between knee and elbow. Slice with blunt side into ribs. Follow up with punch to throat. Roundhouse kick to temple. Follow through and crush skull under foot. Break incoming bat with sword and power through into collar bone.

It was actually rather calming, fighting without a care in the world... just doing what felt natural to her.

Doing what any hollow would find natural.

But, she was different.

Despite the call of battle, of power, that flowed within her, she had resisted it. She had become one of the strongest being in Hueco Mundo, keeping her sanity mostly intact while being more than just a hollow that followed their base instincts, like grimmjow. She reasoned. she calculated. she planned.

Tia would never deny what she was. A hollow, a devourer of souls. But she had a choice in the matter. If she could spare them and conquer through numbers over mindless slaughter, she would take that route.

And so, despite falling into the lull that was her instinct for battle, she held back as to not kill them.

Her hand instinctively raised to catch a thin, cold, rod not three inches from her face, with part of the weighted iron end blocking part of her vision.

She blinked.

She felt only two more strong signatures left, with one right behind her and the other standing a fair distance away. One she recognized as the boss's, while the other was Yamazaki's.

It had not even been six seconds since she had begun her onslaught and she had already taken out everyone in the room.

'Too slow…' She thought to herself.

There was a tugging sensation from the golf club, but her grip remained firm and unmoving. Also translated through the piece of metal was a minor trembling sensation.

'So he's afraid of me…'

Raising the sword in her hand, or what was once a sword but was now a splintered piece of wood with flecks of blood on it, she made a slashing motion with it, causing some of the blood to splatter onto the floor before she dropped it with a clatter.

"That was not a wise decision on your part." She spoke softly, not bothering to turn around. "You made me get blood on my scarf."

It was true. The scarf she had been wearing down bore several darkened stains along with the rest of the articles of clothing she was wearing and her fists. However, her scarf seemed to have taken the brunt of the coughed up or wound related blood.

"Shit! Fucking- Damn- Shit!" The tugging intensified, but she refused to let go. "Let- Go!"

It was at this moment where she slowly turned, drawing the club toward her along with the person at the other end. "You first."

She lifted her leg and kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying back and rolling into one of the many upturned tables.

She gave him no opportunity to regain his bearings and was instantly on top of him, harshly kicking him in the side of the temple and stomping on his back, causing blood to fly out of his mouth.

"F-fuck…" He managed to cough out.

She flicked her wrist and flipped the golf club in her hand, catching it and letting it slide down her arm until it was at a usable length.

"You should have let me leave when you had the chance." she spoke to him, tapping him on the head with the end of the 9 iron. "Now I'm in a position to kill you. One swing with to the side of your head and you will die."

She gripped the handle win between her fingers, letting it swing freely like a pendulum and allowing it to collide with his mouth.

"Mmmmph!" He squirmed under her, his head shaking back and forth in an erratic manner as blood seeped out of his now busted lip. "Mmmmph! Fuck! My fucking lip! You fucking busted it!"

Harribel raised an eyebrow. "You seem to be worried more about me hurting your face over me killing you."

He attempted to turn his face to glare at her, but the most he could manage was moving his eye and narrowing his eyelids. "Fucking hell I'm afraid, violence bitch! But I'm not going to shit my pants over it!" He tossed a side along glance toward some of the others in the room. "I'm not worried about dying, either. Sure, your fucking freaky acrobatic show knocked out all my guys, but that's it. They're just knocked out." He smirked. "Also, Yamazaki already contacted an ambulance for these guys. Even if you had the balls, do you think you could make it out in time before they arrive?"

Looking over her shoulder, she saw the man known as Yamazaki holding up a cellphone while still holding out a brass knuckled fist in her direction.

"... Interesting." she muttered. "Yes, I did spare your underlings. But that is because I am tired of killing. I've… retired from that sort of business." While it wasn't exactly false, she decided to simply say as few details as possible and let him fill in the blanks. "You, however, have proven an annoyance, and both my patience and my mercy are running thin. You have wasted my time and ruined the only good scarf I had, so what is keeping me from killing you and using my contacts to erase this incident from existence?"

It was a bluff, but one with truth to it. Urahara was technically her only contact, and she was sure as a shinigami he had methods to erase memories. She was certain that she wouldn't help her if she killed him. In fact, he was more likely to stab her through the throat over such a thing, but nothing she had said was a lie.

His eyes widened. "You're fucking lying. There's no fucking way you're a damn hitman!"

"Look at the room around you, Sora." She played off his assumption. "As I said, I could have killed every single one of you. I have killed before, and if I have to, yours and perhaps every other existence here could simply disappear."

He laid flat against the floor for a good while, his breathing escalated and an occasional tremor running through his body. "Fine, fine! What do you want?! Just take it! Just leave me and my gang alone!"

The desperation in his voice was apparent.

"Anything?" She asked.

"Yes! Yes! Anything! Please, just leave me alone!" He begged.

Tia had actually been planning on simply leaving and going to Urahara's shop to fix her current situation, but she had to also work under the possibility that the man would not let her leave.

In that case, she needed a base of operations, away from that man.

"... Very well. I have but one request." She slammed the weighted end down onto the floor in front of his eyes, causing his entire body to jump. "Leave this place. I own it now."

He took a few moments to register her words. "...own? No, y-you can't! This place has- it was going to be our-! You can't do that!"

She narrowed her eyes. "And why not?"

"We haven't found-!" He instantly shut his mouth. "Listen, please, let us keep this place. Anything but that. Please!"

"So you lied when you said anything…"

A look of panic overtook his face. "No! Please just listen-"

Instead of continuing to let him talk, she took her boot off of his back and kicked him in the ribs with enough force to send him into the base of the bar table.

His back arched upon hitting it, and his arms instantly rose up and began clawing at his throat, his ability to breathe out having been taken by the sudden blow.

With the way he was, he looked more like a flopping fish than a human.

Raising a leg, she planted the sole of her shoe against his sternum, pinning him between her and the counter wall, and raised the golf club above her head.

"..." Tia didn't bother speaking as she looked upon the now helpless figure of the previously crude human.

His eyes were unfocused as he continued to breathe in air at an accelerated rate, but unable to exhale. Tears had begun to fall, quickened in pace by his constant quaking, some turning a slight pinkish hue from mixing with the blood running down his lip. His mouth hung open while one hand weakly gripped her shoe in a weak effort to try and remove it.

'It really would be incredibly easy...'

She swung.

"No, stop!" A voice behind her rang out.

*Bang!*

The body in front of her slumped over.

"Yes?" She said, keeping her head facing the scene in front of her.

The man known as Yamazaki had his hand stretched out toward her, but he seemed stuck in place, unable to move. "You… you…"

Tia sighed and shook her head. "Dont worry. I didnt kill him." she turned her body to the side to reveal the head of the club she had been using halfway into the side of the countertop, stopping not even half an inch short of where his head used to be. "He only fainted."

She pulled the club out and tossed it on top of the slumped over body of Sora, before walking past Yamazaki and sitting on the couch the boss had been sitting on in his position. "I would suggest you follow my earlier request and leave the premise, or I might just change my mind."

Yamazaki stared at her dumbly for several seconds before bowing to her. "I thank you for sparing my friend's life, miss."

She didn't respond.

The last remaining member of Sora's gang took it as a sign to get moving, and not five minutes later, she found herself alone once more, only accompanied by the sight and smell of fresh blood and newly broken furniture.

That had taken more out of her than she had initially thought. She was actually feeling tired, which was a sensation she had not experienced in a long time.

But, now that she had dealt with them, it was time to deal with the other pressing issue at hand.

"I took care of your problem for you," she spoke to the empty room.

Tia felt the area her to her left chill as the ghost of the man known as Yoshida made his presence known. He floated into the room through the wall, his hat covering his eyes and his posture bent over his walking stick.

"... So, you got rid of them, did you?" He asked, his voice now carrying a slight edge to it.

She shot him a look. "I do not like being used."

Yoshida glanced at the carnage around him. "No, I suppose you would not…"

She leaned back and looked up at the ceiling, not focusing on anything in particular.

"... How did you know?"

"That you would have the ability to take care of them?" He finished for her. "You have a well defined body, that of one who keeps in shape regularly. Your stance is that of one with supreme confidence. And then there are your eyes. They are… cold. calculating. Judging. The eyes of a predator. A killer."

She tossed him a look. "So you wanted me to kill them."

He shook his head.

"I did not believe you would." He replied. "You did not seem the type. But that was a gamble, I suppose…"

"You gambled with another man's life." She retorted.

"... That I did." For a moment, the lines on his face deepened, making him look much older than he had originally appeared. "That I did…"

"... I should erase you from existence."

He quirked an eyebrow. "Ah, but the question is, can you?"

Tia sighed. "I cannot."

He tapped his cane. "Then the matter is settled then. The past is the past, let's move on. If you want, you can consider it payment for showing you the way here."

"I thought that was settled with the delivery I was going to do for you."

He lifted a finger. "Ah ah! That's is for staying here." His grin returned. "Getting here and staying here are two different things."

She just shook her head and let her muscles slowly relax themselves.

While she did not like being used, he had given her a place to stay, and even if he hadn't known that gang were here, she would have dealt with them anyway. As a hollow, she had been known to carry grudges, but this once, she supposed she could let it go.

"Just answer me two questions then. Why do this? and why not just ask me?"

He bridged his hands over his cane and placed his chin on top. "Old yearnings die hard, and old habits die harder... This place is one of the last things I have left in the world, next to the last remnants of my family. If you had said no, then I had no one else to go to. Such is the life of a ghost..."

"... I see then." She said, and then carefully got up off the couch, making sure the clothes was wearing weren't wrinkled. "Very well. Let's continue on with today's agenda. Where is the package you wanted me to deliver?"

He jerked his head over to the doorway leading to the second floor and the bathroom. "Come along. This won't take too long…"

Yoshida led her to the area behind the metallic staircase, pointing at the ground. "Harribel-san, if you wouldn't mind opening this hatch right here?"

She followed his finger and saw nothing out of the ordinary, but soon enough found what appeared to be a small indent, only large enough to fit a nail or the very tip of her finger. She probably wouldn't have even noticed it due to the poor lighting and the dust unless he had pointed it out to her.

Kneeling, she placed one of her fingers along the groove and dusted it away, feeling the prominent edge of the depression. Placing her finger right up against the edge of the indent, she pulled back and up, bringing up a single floorboard about an inch from the ground. The reason she could not seem to pull it up any further was that it was attached to the neighboring boards using two pieces of metal hinged to each other, with one piece connected to the board she had lifted and the other attached to the floor.

Using her intuition and some logical deduction, she placed her other hand at the end of the raised floorboard and pulled that up, raising that and a couple of the surrounding boards to reveal a hole leading into darkness, the glint of a metal staircase leading down into it the only visible thing she could see. The strong smell of alcohol drifted up from below, even stronger than it had been in the main room.

"Perfect! Now let's go." He said as he floated down the hole.

Following his example, she gently placed the hatch down and went down the stairs, careful of her steps as she journeyed down.

It wasn't long before there were no more steps to take, leaving her in pitch blackness.

"There is a light switch to the wall on the right. You'll have to feel for it."

She ran her fingers along the wall, noting the rough texture of the cool stone. Her fingers passed over an out of place, smooth protrudement.

*click*

The blackness instantly retreated, replaced with the sight of several dark wood racks filled with all different sorts of wine. They were ordered in two columns, one on her left, and one on her right, with both having five racks. However, three of the racks on the right had been knocked over, with most of the bottles on them having been broken.

At the far end was a tall black safe, fitted with a three-pronged metal handle and three dials.

"It's in that safe. Just twist the handle three times to the right, two times to the left, and once to the right. The combination lock is just for show and to confuse would-be thieves." He chuckled to himself. "Although what's in the safe in not the most valuable thing in the room…"

She wanted to get this over with quickly, so she fast-walked over to the safe and did as he had said, taking two of the prongs into her grip and moving the seemingly locked handle in the way he had mentioned. Once the motions were completed, she found the handle loose, and fully opened the safe.

At first she thought it was empty, but at a second glance it held a small stack of papers on the top shelf, along with several empty manilla envelopes.

"If you're wondering, some of those papers allow access to my personal oversea strong boxes, while the others are documents detailing the ownership of this place. The latter of the two is basically useless, but if you show them to the current owner of this building, you might be able to keep it… If you want it, that is." He smiled sadly. "The ones I want you to deliver are the pieces of paper. Hopefully the people I trusted with my belongings are still in business…"

he carefully took the papers out of the safe and gave them a quick look over. Most of it was legal jargon that she didn't care much for, but she understood it well enough and could tell that he was telling the truth in that matter.

"You stated that this was not the most valuable object in the room." She flipped to another of the pages in her hand, this one about the ownership of the building. "What did you mean by that?"

"Just look around, Harribel-san. Most of these alcohols were collected by me, and I happened to have a taste for… expensive… drinks. Despite some of them being destroyed, the total value you are seeing here is around seventy or eighty million yen, although most of that is due to two bottles in particular."

Harribel simply nodded. She wasn't very interested in money, although she could appreciate such a number.

Placing the documents back in the order she found them in, she took two envelopes from the safe and separated the pages, placing the old ownership papers in one with the strong box contract in the other.

"Let's go," she stated, walking back toward the stairs.

"... What, not going to ask about my collection?" Tia ignored him, continuing to walk up the stairs. "But I have a genuine 1811 bottle of-"

"Do you want this delivered or not?" She held up the envelope in question. "My patience with you is already running thin."

He pursed his lips and sighed. "Very well then. I suppose you would prefer to simply get this over with."

They exited the building and joined the main road, which now had more people than the last time she had been there, but still relatively few people. "Follow me. The house is back in Karakura Town, so I hope you do not mind walking a fair distance."

---

The reflection of Karakura cloudy grey skies could be seen in the puddles that Tia passed. The reflections were occasionally disturbed as a drop of water from above would fall and create ripples along the mirror-like surface, but these were few and far in between. However, it was a herald for a continued shower for later today, so the scant drop would soon be joined by many others of their kind.

The journey back to karakura had been peaceful. The streets were were littered with various people going about their day, the occasional car passing to and fro. Unlike yesterday, where people would occasionally look her way, today it seemed as though people were going out of their way to not look at her.

The place that Yoshida had led her was north of Urahara's place, according to her mental map.

It was a small apartment complex, and nothing about it looked out of the ordinary. It was an off grey color, just like the surrounding buildings, with five floors total. Yoshida had asked her to stay outside for a short time while he went in to see if the person they came here for was in.

Currently, she was leaning against a pole with her eyes shut.

"She's in." The voice of Yoshida called out. "Fourth floor, number 407."

She opened her eyes, nodded, and pushed back against the pole to give herself a small boost.

The interior of the first floor was plain, with plaster white walls and off yellow lighting. All there was to it was a small corridor with an offshoot to a sitting area and an office, which did not look to be occupied at the current time. On the wall was a list of names and numbers along with a small dial pad.

'407... Ikumi Unagiya… 808470...'

She memorized the call number and the name, then used the first of the two to call the apartment.

"... Hello…?" The voice on the other end said. It sounded muffled and had a croak to it.

"Is this Ikumi Unagiya?"

"Yeah, that's my name. Don't wear it out." The raspy voice on the other end said. "Achoo! ah, sorry, I'm kind of sick right now, if you can't tell from my voice."

"I see. I won't spend much longer than I have to, then. I came here to deliver something."

"Delivery…? I didn't order anything… Oh, wait, are you someone from class then?" The voice questioned. "Hana said she was coming over later to bring the work I'm missing though… unless she gave it to you?"

"No. This is a separate matter. If you would not mind, could you open the door so I can give them to you?"

"... Not until you tell me what you're giving me."

Tia thought for a few seconds on what to say before continuing. "I am an associate representing a deceased relative of yours. I have some papers with me that will transfer some of his possessions over to you."

There was a moment's pause before the voice on the other side spoke up again, this time with anger in her voice. "I call bullshit! I don't have any relatives that can still die, so take your damn scam somewhere else before I call the cops or I personally come out there and kick your ass!"

"Who said that the person I speak of died recently?"

"... Wait, what?" There was a coughing noise on the other end. "The hell are you talking about?"

"I'm saying that these papers belonged to a predecessor of yours, and have only recently been found."

"... You do know that still sounds bullshit right?"

The former arrancar sighed. "I could leave and let you not have them. I came here on a favor, so if you don't want them, they are most likely going to end up in the trash."

"... Fine." The person on the other side relented. "But if you're pulling some scam on me, I'm going to track you down and beat the hell out of you!"

There was a small buzz followed by a click, and the door behind her opened up.

She let go of the button, hanging up the call, and entered the apartment part of the building, taking the elevator at the end of the hallway up to the fourth floor.

"... You know, this will probably be my last time seeing her." The ghost next to her said. "I've been following her since she was a little baby… She was always a rambunctious little tyke. Still is, in some regard."

The elevator slowed as it hit the third floor, the doors silently opening up into the balcony hallway.

"I know I said it a lot on the way here, but I am sorry about earlier, and I really am grateful to you."

She walked down until she reached door 407 and knocked on it. "I don't need your thanks."

There was the sound of shuffling from behind the door before it opened. "Alright lady, listen up, I-"

The person who answered the door was a young, taller than average girl wearing plain white pajamas and a surgical mask. Her back length raven hair was loose and clung to her back due to the slight wetness of her clothing. Her skin was incredibly pale, in stark contrast to her hair. She was hunched over, staring her with wide, gawking eyes, her mouth open under the mask.

"... You were saying?"

She blinked and took a step back. "You know, when I hear someone say their an associate of a deceased relative, I think lawyer or something like that. You know, the kind that would show up in a suit? Not some foreign exhibitionist chick."

Not caring for her comments, she shoved one of the two envelopes she had been carrying toward her. "This is yours now. Do with it as you see fit."

The young girl looked surprised and took the folder. With that, she turned and attempted to leave.

"Hey! You! Wait a second!" Tia stopped walking and waited for her to continue. "Aren't you supposed to, like, I don't know, convince me to sign stuff and that sort of thing? I didn't even get your name!"

"My purpose here was to deliver that envelope. No more, no less." She continued walking. "And as for my name, you will probably not see me after today."

"Ah! Hey-"

By that point, she had already entered the elevator and was starting to descend.

"... You could have stayed a bit longer."

"I could have." She acknowledged. "But the deed was already done. There was no point in staying."

He didn't respond to her comment, instead deciding to find an interesting spot on the floor to look at.

---

The trip to Urahara's shop was substantially shorter than the trip to Unagiya's apartment.

She hadn't really had a chance to take a good look at his shop, but now that she was entering, she couldn't help but feel there was something off about the building. It was an old fashioned store tucked between a modern day building and another of it's kind, but it was pushed back from the road. Since it was morning, the building was lit up by the sun, but by noon it would be overshadowed by the neighboring building.

It was almost like the building itself did not want to be seen.

"This is the place you speak of? … Doesn't look like much."

She shrugged in response.

The two moved forward, one walking at a steady pace while the other floated, and entered the shop.

The jingle of bells and the sound of a fan opening hit their ears once they had entered the premise. Looking in the direction of the annoying fan opening noise, she found Urahara waving at her.

"Welcome to Urahara shop! Your number one shop for all your worldly and otherworldly needs!" He drummed his fingers against the counter. "Although I'm sure you're only here for one of those, isn't that right, Harribel-san."

She walked up to him and stared him down. "An explanation. Now."

He collapsed his fan, unveiling a sly smile. "Why certainly, most valued customer! You did help me win a bet, after all." The striped-hatted shinigami leaned to the left to look behind her. "Although, I must ask, why is a plus following you?"

Tia stepped to the side and jerked her head toward Urahara, indicating that he should talk to him.

Yoshida floated forward and bowed. "Ah, shinigami-sama, Harribel-san has told me that you may be able to send me to the afterlife. I've been on this planet for over one hundred years, fifty of them as a ghost, and I would like some rest, if that is not too much to ask."

"It's just Urahara, or Kisuke if you want." Urahara put a hand to his chin, seeming to think about what Yoshida had said. "Fifty years…? Are you positive…?"

"Yes, shi- Urahara-sama." He lowered himself even further. "I understand if you do not wish to send-"

"Alright." He cut off the spirit.

"-me to the… wait, did you say alright?"

Urahara nodded. "Yes. I was planning to do it anyway, I just wanted to know if what you said was correct. Just wait one moment…" He cut off the spirit. "I need to rummage around under here for a second… here! Found it!"

Urahara held up what looked like a common old fashion wooden stamp.

"A… stamp?" Yoshida questioned. "What are you going to do with that?"

"This."

With lightning fast movement, Urahara lashed out with his hand and placed the stamp against the forehead of the old man. Within moments, a light blue glow surrounded him.

He seemed to open his mouth to talk, but instead of words forming, he closed it and smiled, tipping his hat one last time and throwing her one final glance before disappearing.

Tia had never seen a soul burial before, but that was tamer than she had expected. She had expected something with a it more ceremony, perhaps something that would have given the old man some time to say his final piece, but he had simply been stamped on the head and gone over.

Urahara returned his arm back to his side and smiled at her.

"And now that that business was concluded, let's talk." He bowed and put his arm out, directing her down the hall. "Water fine with you?"

She ignored the question and walked over to the familiar room, finding everything mostly the same with the only difference being the absence of a chair and the cat that had previously occupied the corner of the room.

"Water it is then!" She heard him call from down the hall.

She decided to take up the table position she had previously been in, this time sitting on the floor instead of on a chair.

Urahara soon walked in carrying two cups and a bottle of water, placing them on the table and sitting down at the other end.

"Rather strange spirit you found… Most don't last more than ten." He uncapped the bottle and poured out water into both cups. "Anyway, you were saying something about wanting an explanation?"

"Yes, and I would prefer it now rather than later." She stated, glaring at him. "So no more stalling."

"Hey hey, don't give me that look! I'm just a humble shopkeeper! My soul can't take such a gaze!" He held up his hands and ducked behind them, as if to hide from her. "I was planning on explaining to you anyway. You simply left before I was able to give it to you yesterday."

She quirked an eyebrow. "What about the question exchange…?"

His mouth twitched upward. "I got enough. And this issue isn't something I should be keeping from you." He picked up his glass and drank it down. "Ah, that was refreshing. Why don't you go ahead and take a drink as well?"

Tia stared at the cup before caving in and taking a slow, methodical sip. She had actually been feeling both hungry and thirsty, but had been suppressing the need. Now that she had a glass in front of her, she found herself needing something to kill the dryness in her mouth.

"Better?" She hesitantly nodded. "Good. Now, where to start…" He took out his fan and tapped the table rhythmically with it. "From the beginning is a good a place as any…"

As I have said before, I found you bleeding out without a shred of sanity left in you out in the rain. Due to certain reasons, I decided to save you. However, in order to save you, I had to take… extreme measures."

He took another sip of his drink. "You were suffering from a poison that ate at your power and grew stronger the more it ate. The only thing that seemed to affect it was the spiritual energy of a shinigami, which explained why you did not instantly die, as some of your energy is shinigami-like, but you still would have died had I not done something."

"And this something was?"

"An artificial body. A gigai." He stated. "It was an… experimental one I was working with. I hadn't quite ironed out the kinks."

Tia pursed her lips under the scarf she was wearing. That was not what she had wanted to hear.

"Kinks?"

He nodded. "Yup. But that's just in regards to it's original purpose. It still functions perfectly well as a gigai. Although, unlike a normal Gigai, where it's just a dummy body, the one you have right now restructured your chain of fate. You are currently 100% human!"

She took some time to digest the information being given to her. She had thought it impossible for a spirit of any kind to once again become human, but the way ghosts reacted around her made her assume that whatever spiritual pressure she gave off, what little it may have been, no longer gave off the signature malice of a hollow. She had thought whatever Urahara had done to her had simply masked her signature, but now that she knew that she was a human… She had dismissed the thought earlier, but to find out it was actually the truth was not something she had expected at all.

"... Earlier, you mentioned that you still had Tiburon. Was that a lie?"

"Tiburon is your zanpaktou, correct? I believe what I said was 'are you not going to look for it?', not 'I have it.'" He corrected. "But no, I placed you with your zanpaktou into the body. While it would have been useful for me to have taken and studied it, having your soul whole was the priority."

"I see…" She gazed into her cup, swirling the water around inside with a small movement of her wrist. "That is… good."

She felt relieved with that bit of information, but it was but one brief respite amongst an ocean of troubles this man had now sent her way.

"... Why did you have to place me in this body? Was there no other option?"

Urahara's smiling facade faded, and he took another sip of water. "In truth? No, I did not have to. I needed to test the Gigai, and I needed you under control. While I had other options, this one would have the best outcome for me personally. I hope you do not take offense to that, but I saw an opportunity and I took it."

She did, but she didn't show it. Instead, she asked a different question.

"... Will I ever regain the power I had?"

Urahara put on a thoughtful expression. "That is a difficult question to answer. The exact power you had? The power of an arrancar? The most likely answer is no." Tia clenched her fist. So that was it then. "But gaining a power similar to your original power? That is possible."

The former arrancar found herself confused. "And what do you mean by that?"

"It's as I said. You are currently a human, but your soul and the power it once had is still there. So, while you may not be a hollow, you may gain hollow-like powers." He concluded. "But only time will tell if it is one or the other."

"... I see." So there was a slight hope. "In that case, I must go."

"Leaving already? I thought you would have more questions than that..." Urahara tilted his head. "Also, where to? You have no other clothes and no place to stay, and you and I both know that I am the only one that can help you."

"I have secured myself a place to stay and a source of income, so contrary to what you may believe, I can manage myself just fine." She straightened out her shirt and stood up. "And if I asked, would you?"

"Well, when you put it that way, helping a hollow regain its powers to go back to my sworn enemy doesn't sound like the most sound idea, does it?" A sigh escaped his mouth. "Not right now, no, I wouldn't. But, my doors are always open, so if you need anything at all, I'll be right here."

She sent him a brief nod and exited the room.

"Oh, Harribel-san! Wait one moment!" She heard from the other side of the door. "If you are leaving, I need to give you these."

There was some brief rustling along with the clacking of panels being open and shut, but soon enough Urahara exited with a smooth black briefcase in tow and a navy blue carry-on suitcase that looked like it had seen some use.

"These two are for you." He carefully passed over the briefcase and maneuvered the carry-on to rest next to her. "The briefcase contains all the necessary things that you will need while you are living here. Passports, identification, tax information, previous residences, money, that sort of thing." He pointed to the larger bag on wheels next to her. "That has clothes I had a friend of mine get. I know your measurements, so they should fit, but in case they don't, then you can return them to me."

Tia idly examined the suitcase in her hand. It didn't look out of the ordinary, other than feeling a bit heavier than she would have expected. Placing it flat atop one hand, she undid the silver buckles and took a glance inside.

It was as he had said. On the top half piled neatly into the fishnet pouch was a small stack of papers, the top most one bearing an pale blue color with a repeating faded official looking symbol in the back. On the bottom half was a small pile of neatly organized money, by her estimates a little over 500,000 yen in 10,000 yen bills. Next to it was a classy looking folded all black suit, two pairs of shades having been centered on top of it.

She shut the case with a click and faced Urahara. "Is there a reason you are doing this for me?"

He smiled. "What, I can't do this out of the goodness of my own heart?" He turned around and walked down the hall. "I had already anticipated that you did not want to stay here with me, so I prepared that for you. Go do whatever it is you want, just don't draw too much attention to yourself."

She looked back down at the two items that Urahara had given to her and sighed, taking the handle of the carry-on and dragging it behind her as she went after Urahara. "You did not answer the question."

"And I don't have to." He lifted his hand and waved with his fingers. "There are a lot of reasons why people do things, Harribel-san. I chose to save you, thus you are my responsibility. Leave it at that for now."

She knew for a fact that Urahara was keeping things from her, but she chose to not pursue them at the moment. Instead, she put her mental pursuits into her possible futures.

"I hope to not see you again, but I doubt that will be the case." She opened the door to his shop and left, shutting the door behind her.

---

"Are you sure it's alright to just let her leave?"

A small, black cat made itself known to kisuke, who had been busy tending to the shelves.

"She can't do much harm, Yoruichi. We also may need her on our side in the future. Making her feel trapped would push her away from us. It's best to give her some space." He opened a box next to him and placed a row of candies on the shelf. "Besides, you were the one that followed her. She didn't seem all that bad, from what you described."

"She beat up an entire gang by herself." The cat jumped onto the table that held the shelves, glaring at the shopkeeper. "She nearly killed them."

"Nearly! That's good enough in my book!" He picked up the box and rummaged around inside, looking for one particular case. "She also did it to help that old man, so she has some sense of morals."

"She did it because she owed him." Yoruichi jumped higher, onto the next shelf above. "Like I said, I don't trust her."

"She can't do anything at the moment, so there is no point worrying. And if she does get out of hand, need I remind you I included some failsafes in that gigai?"

"And how are you so sure they'll work?" The cat carefully maneuvered its body along the inch thick top of the shelf. "It is an experimental Gigai. And then there was that other thing you didn't mention to her."

"It'll work. It's a separate system entirely. And as for the other thing..." Urahara pulled out a particularly large case from inside the box and opened it up, restocking the next line of shelves with it. "It won't matter right now, as she's a human at the moment."

"And when the time comes for you to ask for her help? Then what?"

"... By then I'll have something figured out. If she turns out anything like the vizards, it should be easier for her than it was for them."

"I certainly hope so, for her and our sake." Yoruichi sighed. "Why did you ask me to do that anyway? I'll be stuck like this for a while because you asked me to help stabilize her using that other project of yours."

He turned to the cat and shrugged. "You know how it works. Take a shinigami and a hollow and put them together and they cancel each other out. Put them both in a human body and the balance will be tipped. So you have to add quincy to the mix to stabilize it. The problem with her was that the balance was off."

"So the trick was to add more shinigami?"

"It worked, didn't it?"

"Yeah yeah… Just never ask me to do that again." Yoruichi jumped off from where she had been standing and went to the back of the shop. "I'm going to sleep. Have fun restocking for customers that never come!"

Kisuke merely shook his head and went back to putting goods on the shelves.

---

Well, done with that. This is my first time writing anything for fun and whatnot, so... Hope it's not bad? I was kinda lazy with it...

Honestly, now that I have written this, I feel like I should have put the time period at right around the two year time skip, but... eh, I already wrote it.

Kind of a funny story about this, but this initial idea for this was the first part of bleach, you know, the 'villain of the week' type thing, but with tia harribel. Who's a bartender. Which, weirdly, was not influenced by that one bleach ED. I had that idea on my own and I was looking up images of Tia to get certain details right, and I happened across an image of her as a bartender. I am very much a manga only person.

I hope this isn't too long? I noticed that stories don't tend to be this long, especially for the first chapter.

I guess it's back to playing NieR for me!