Just Who Was Urahara?
Part 1
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Edward Elric, aka State Alchemist, aka Fullmetal Alchemist, felt that his death was rather anti climactic.
He'd faced the living dead, chimeras, several crazy immortals, an insane Teacher, and more people than he could count who were out to kill him.
So when he died, he always assumed that it would be on the battlefield, or even being tortured to death in a dungeon, not drinking a glass of milk in a café on a bet with Winrie.
It wasn't the milk that killed him, although he almost wished that it was, and later would attest partial responsibility of his demise to it. Ironically for once he wasn't the intended victim of this homicide.
See, it was a classic case of girl likes guy, but they're families hate each other and periodically go about killing each other. The girl and guy managed to escape, but her brother decided to in vengeance kill off the guys best friend, who had killed some cousin, and well, you get the picture.
Unfortunately this guy was an alchemist. A very, very stupid alchemist. He also was a big fan large flashy explosion.
In an attempt to draw a transmutation circle, he forgot one of the symbols, so instead of a small controlled explosion killing off only one guy trying to finish his lunch, the whole café blew up.
Ed was busy choking on milk to clap his hands together. Fortunately he had enough wits about him to throw his body over Winrie's before the shrapnel started flying.
He never found out if she survived.
After a flash and the pain of something drilling its way through his chest, he awoke in a rather quaint village wearing strange faded white cloths.
He didn't remember who he was; a common affliction to those newly arrived souls, but had a thirst for knowledge, which led him to the Shinigami academy.
There he met Yoruichi, a forceful woman prone to hit people for displeasing her. It brought back a sense on nostalgia.
They actually met when he accidentally bumped into her during the sign in for new reapers. She yelled something about short people needing to watch out where they were going.
On reflex the Not- Ed shouted something back along the lines of, "Who are you calling so short you cant even see with a microscope?"
She laughed, and the not- Ed cut himself off mid sentence, not quite sure where that burst of anger had come from.
When it was revealed that the blonde didn't have a name, nor did he know how to write their language the girl happily dubbed him Kitsuke Urahara on all the paperwork.
The former Alchemist spent his schooling in a daze. Soon he joined the second division, for lack of anything better to do. Then he found himself to be a captain of the 12th division.
Never having lost his love for pushing the boundaries of acceptable science, the newly dubbed Urahara dove into his work with gusto.
When he finally created the hogyoku, the ultimate creation crossing the lines of the dead, he felt a sick sense of dejavu.
People around him using his work to experiment with the former however, he had long grown used to that feeling of dejavu.
Urahara had always seen the vizards with something akin to pity, guilt, and uncanny familiarity.
In the back of his heart he silently swore to never to let a group of unfortunate souls die by his hands again. Especially not when his work contributed to their condition.
Later when he found himself experimenting on the soul of a human boy, desperate for the return of his shinigami powers, the alchemist turned scientist felt that he had stepped over a line even he should not have crossed.
'Again...' he thought wistfully. Although he couldn't remember another time when he personally played with science and souls.
He silently prayed to a god he did not believe in that this time his consequences would m=not be as dire.