Though this story forms part of Misplaced Souls, it wasn't born out of originality and my own sadistic desire to throw people with different backgrounds and experiences together. Nope, this one was born out of a selfish desire to have Kagome hold a Quincy Cross so that she could never be defenseless - and then I dusted up my knowledge of Quincy lore and thought 'why the hell not?'. Fair warning though, I abandoned Bleach when it started to lose its sense - namely when it was revealed that Zangetsu wasn't who we believed he was - so everything I know of the Wandenreich Arc is mostly through my friends who kept on with the series and my own light readings on the matter. In other words, if Adult!Uryuu is not in character is because I skipped that part of his character development.

This one will be a three-parts work and will be steadily updated every Saturday until completion, the same as with Songs of the Past. The Timeline, however, is a bit wonky, but I'll make sure you know when each event takes place.

I hope you like it.

Spring Breeze

First Encounter - Nakidashita Onna to Kyomukan

The dull and grey sky served as a nice counterpoint to how she felt that day.

It had been a week already since she was back for good from the Feudal Era, and things weren't going as well as she would've liked.

It had all ended so quickly that easing back into a normal teenager's life was proving difficult: from waking up at night because a cat had deemed it funny to climb the roof to being unable to let go of her old bow and almost using it on her little brother because he had jumped at her from behind in the middle of the street. It was harrowing and it was painful to see his kind happy eyes look at her in fear and mistrust, and it was even harder to see her supportive mother look at her with sadness and wariness. Her battle instincts so used to the constant danger of the last days of battle now hardly let her pass as a normal person.

Her mother had suggested looking for help in veteran circles, but what was she to tell them? That she had fought a war against an evil hayou five hundred years into the past? No woman, no eighteen-year-old child could have lived through what she did if not living in a war zone, and to lie to a psychologist would not only be pointless but also call unwanted attention towards her.

So here she was walking on a gray day, having a blue one and haunted by the red ones. What a mess.

For once she was thankful that her traves to the Feudal Era had made her grades drop, or else she might have even more hours to duel on this instead of spending them taking supplementary classes to try and learn mathematical tricks she was pretty sure she was never going to use in her life.

A shine she hadn't seen in a time called her attention, and it only took her a second for her body to react even though her mind took a while to catch up. She had the ghost-child in her arms, forbidding him from going into the road even though she knew that he was already dead.

The child held his wide eyes upwards, surprised and afraid.

"Are you alright?" she asked with kindness yet firmness.

The small boy didn't have a chance to answer, as soon enough a roar the kinds of which she hadn't feared since she was fifteen signaled the coming of whatever scared the child. Pulling him gently to stand behind her, Kagome soon had her bow in hand with an arrow ready to shot.

"Wait!" An unexpected call coming from the side started her, no doubt some civilian seeing her with her arm ready.

The monster, whatever it was, gave them no time as the second it appeared from a bend it shot forward intent on her and the ghost. And Kagome didn't hesitate.

The arrow shot, the familiar lilac light engulfing it, the beast - mindless as it seemed to be - didn't even make an attempt to get out of its path, and soon enough it was purified to dust.

The signature of another power called her attention again, and soon enough she had notched another arrow and held her bow at the ready at a man, who also held a bow... made out of light?

They stood at a standstill before an awed cry from the child took her out of her combat trance, and she made sure to read correctly his aura - clearly human, perhaps a remaining monk? - before breaking form, sure that even if he shot her reflexes would be enough. The boy was now holding her leg, and it reminded her of Rin so much for a second that she couldn't help to smile down at him and patting his head.

The moment her hand made contact with the child's head both him and her hand shone a soft lilac and he too started to turn into dust. He smiled and thanked her, before his particles vanished into the air, the same way the monster's had.

"I thought Shinigamis couldn't perform Konso without their Zampakuto?" Said the man, now approaching her.

She took a moment to take him in, with her bow still loosely held in her hand even though he had - somehow - vanished his. He was as tall as Miroku had been, though thinner somehow, with pale skin, dark blue eyes and black hair. He was lean, and the way he moved betrayed his combat readiness - he hadn't been bluffing then when he had pointed an arrow at her. He seemed a few years older than her, and his casual clothes confirmed that at least he wasn't a high schooler. It would be important to mention that his bored, somewhat snobbish tone, he spoke unintelligible gibberish.

Though she wasn't letting him know that, she had learned the hard way that information was as much a weapon as a sword. Instead, she went with her instinct and answered as well as she could, channeling her inner Sesshomaru.

"Perhaps a Soul Reaper would indeed need an element blessed by the Gods to carry out their will. Their Servants, however, wouldn't."

Faster than possible for a human he made his own bow reappear and shot a shining blue arrow at her. She could feel the reiki that formed it and didn't even needed to lift a hand to erect a lilac dome that swallowed the arrow and used its power to strengthen its own walls. He didn't seem fazed at this, and she could hear his not-so-quiet words.

"Figures, after years of tagging along physical fighters now I only come across Kido experts." His eyes met hers and he seemed to back down at her own emotionless face. "As long as you aren't tailing me everything is fine I guess."

This time she had a front-row seat at the event of his bow vanishing, the light forming it slowly vanished and the only thing that remained was some sort of bracelet with a trinket the man seemed to wear around his wrist. And just like he had come he turned around and left, again using a speed no human should be able to possess.

She wondered for a second if perhaps he held an ounce of youkai blood flowing through his veins, but had that been the case not only she would've been able to sense it, but he would be using youki instead of reiki to perform his attacks - and not even a half-blood from a powerful line like Inuyasha had been able of that things. She just nodded to herself, resolving to study this trouble more in deep at a later date.

Happy to have something to occupy her mind besides her lessons, she lowered her gaze to her wristwatch.

The speed at which she took off to school had nothing to envy the man's.

The happiness she felt when acing an exam was greater now than what had ever been, probably due to her strict training before with Sesshomaru, under whom you had to get happy with what you got.

Still, she felt well enough to accept Ayumi's invitation to a road trip without giving it much thought - well, as much as a job interview could be called a road trip.

It was amazing that her friend not only was already going through her first College year in a recognized conservatory, but one of her compositions had caught the attention of the producer and host to a popular ghost-themed TV show. If everything went well she might be contracted to make the music for its new season, and her name would be already out there for all producers and musicians to see her talent.

So here she was, following her friend to a small city west of Tokyo that was the man's base. They were to stay a night and go back to home the next day in the afternoon, and they would have a few hours to explore the city if so they wished.

The moment she put a foot on the city two things came to her mind: one, how this city held a strong aura and gave her a bad feeling, and two, how she wished she had brought her bow along.

Reishi and a corrupted variety, the likes of which you would only find on a Dark Miko permeated the very air she breathed, and for a second she considered to just tell Ayumi to leave. Then she remembered how their friends had put up with her through thick and thin, and how they had managed to keep their friendship even with her travels to the past, she couldn't - wouldn't - be the reason her friend hadn't started off to a bright future. Besides, she reasoned with herself, if she was with her she could protect her from whatever gave off those energies.

The checked in at their hotel, left their night bags and went straight to the studio where the host and other producers were waiting for Ayumi. She sat in the waiting room, trying to further her education in how to properly use a mobile phone by sending emails to her mother to let her know everything was alright.

Half-an-hour later she was being dismissed - with great apologies - by Ayumi, as they wanted to see what she could do in a studio with proper musicians and perhaps even design a few pieces now. In other words, she got the job.

That meant that she was free for the rest of the evening, though she was to meet with her friend and the producers to eat. She was useless at a recording studio and would only get in the way, so she just congratulated her friend and went for a walk, though not before making sure to get the hour of the dinner and a promise that Ayumi wouldn't leave with her.

That made, the second she stepped out, she turned and erected a powerful barrier around the building: no beast or being of corrupt energy could even feel that there was a building there, much less pass through the barrier. Satisfied with her work, she turned and started to walk, letting her senses guide her, looking for answers as to whom those energies belonged to.

Hours later she still was devoid of answers.

Whenever she got close to one of those dark energies it disappeared, and wherever she went with a reiki concentration all she could see was normal people going on with their normal lives. Perhaps she was getting paranoid and this was just another way for her battle instincts to reappear - though she knew for a fact that couldn't be after her encounter with the monster and the archer back in Tokyo.

Youkai might be extinct and she couldn't feel an ounce of youki no matter how hard she tried, but reiki was still pretty much present and she wasn't chasing ghost with this one - in the figurative sense at least.

When the sun started to pain long shadows she decided it was time for a snack and for starting the way back to the producer's building to meet Ayumi. Looking for a place to buy a snack a shop caught her gaze.

There was no one outside and seemed a cozy enough place with its traditional doors and clean front; though there was no sign indicating whether it was open or not, she took the lack of one - and that of a 'closed down' one - as an invitation. Making a desition she walked forward and entered the shop.

It was unusually dark inside, with a few aisles with diverse things - from food items to books - and a few refrigerators but what really called her attention was the raised platform at the end of the room, where a man she assumed was the shopkeeper sat with crossed legs.

She stood at attention when she let her senses wash over him: he was one of the fonts of strong reiki on this town, or so she assumed due to the stong seal he seemed to have on him.

He had blond hair unusual in any Japanese not of youkai origin, the cane he had to the side also reeked of reiki and his penetrating grey eyes seemed to tear into her soul even through the shadow cast by his hat. His soul was worst of all, it was bright and big, its light bursting from the seems of his body as if it wasn't meant to be contained by flesh. It gave him an unnatural glow that she had never seen and wasn't keen on finding what it meant, even with her miko powers more than ready to jump at her defense.

For one second she thought that this man of serious, calculated gaze was going to jump at her and try some sort of violent confrontation. The next second he lifted his head and with his eyes still in shadows gave her an overly-bright smile.

"Welcome to Urahara Shop! If there is anything you need just ask!"

There was only one word going through Kagome's mind at that statement made in a jolly voice, contrasting with his unkempt aspect.

Creepy.

"I'm just looking, thank you." She answered politely, letting her gaze go through the aisles in look for something that caught her eye.

Finally spotting the mark of a well-known snack brand she walked ahead, and after deciding quickly which one of those she wished to consume, walked towards the man to pay her selection when something else caught her eye.

A pendant, a beautiful one of a five-point star within a circle. It brought memories of a blue-light bow and a severe man that had shot an arrow at her. Taking it in her hand she took it with her, thinking on trying to investigate this kind of things once she goes back home. The man spoke again while she approached with the same jolly tone.

"You know, if you are a Quincy perhaps you would be interested in another kind of... equipment."

She denied softly with her head, inferring 'quicy' was a street-band or something.

"I am not a Quincy..."

The second the words left her mouth she felt something change in the room. Kagome couldn't even finish the sentence before her battle instincts - who she imagined materialized as chibi Inuyasha, smug at being proven right - kicked in and she did the first thing she thought of: channel her powers to create a barrier.

Thing is, the second the reiki in her body touched the star-shaped trinket she found herself not only inside her semi-transparent barrier but also with a bow made of a light purple-ish metal that seemed to sing in her mind when the steady beat of her power touched it. The man in front of her seemed unfazed by the bow, now with his cane over his lap - and she was willing to bet her arm that was a sealed sword of some form this close -, though there was a mild surprise at the barrier she erected.

"My, my, they have been teaching new tricks. I'm impressed! So how about we discuss a little bit of how you don't seem to know what I am?"

Direct approach, Sesshomaru would like this guy.

"Funny, I was about to say the same thing myself."