Aurthors notes: Firstly I need to thank Kuroi-cho-tasuki- shiro as a source of inspiration and encouragement and also give her credit for all the work editing this! Please check out here storeys. Bleach itself has given me almost too much room to play around an improvise wile sticking to the cannon (as far as it is known), and I have tried to check everything thoroughly . I can say that this story won't die a sudden death with no updates I've written the first 15 chapters already, I will get you to the soul society and beyond. First time I've written anything like this so I hope you enjoy

The Cat that Came to Stay.

This town again, a feast for the senses. As a cat, the smells, the view over garden walls, the noise, the taste on the air; it was almost the same as any other town; as a shinigami there was the overwhelming sense of spiritual pressure: old, new, changed, grown, masked. She tasted them all on the skin of her very soul. And, as a woman, she had a sense of tension, anticipation and foreboding. She did not know how this was going to play out; better to be a cat. Her own spiritual pressure was well-masked, something she could accomplish completely, but she was uncertain that this still worked on him. If anything was going to cut through 1000 years of death-god ninja arts, it would be science; best to approach confidently, with stealth, but give no sense of the urge to hesitate. No stopping before the final corner or stealthy observations. Confident strides; don't creep over the roof likes a cat; head for the door. A girl she'd not seen before saw her first, well before the point when she would have expected to be seen, pointing straight at her.

"Tessai, Kisuke–san,theres a cat..." Don't break stride, don't act surprised. Who was she? Why the strange reiatsu? Was she only noticed by chance? But he rushed forward to meet her.

"Yoruichi, you're back!" She responded to his joy with her own, other emotions fading into the background. It was often awkward to be lifted as a cat and today was no exception, but the enthusiasm was all too easy to fall for, raised high and made a fuss off. She heard Tessei explain her presence to the other child, a boy:

"That is Urahara's best friend." It wasn't a lie. That was one of many things that was true about them . Why was a kid here though ?

That seems just like our Tencho, very pitiful." He obviously didn't know Kisuke that well; Tessai's reply filtered in between Urahara's clumsy, affectionate exclamations.

"I guess you could say that." How had he been since she'd left? Surely not pitiful?

Seated outside, she stared at the sky, sensing again all the town had to offer. Reiatsu out of sight but not far away, much older, much stronger, but It had to be him.

"What going on Yoruichi? Do you think it's going to rain? Here's your milk 3" playing dumb, the genius who hides it as always; Urahara's redundant question.

"Stop acting. You know full well they have already come." And I suppose that's why I'm here, she thought.

"About that" - the first serious reply she'd had since her arrival - "do you want to talk about it now or when you've finished your milk?"

"You had better explain a few things to me." It was hard to look stern while lapping milk up in cat-form, but he knew her well enough to understand the seriousness of the question; it was hard for either of them to be serious though. She looked across at her best friend, her childhood playmate, her protégé, her 3rd seat, her fellow captain, the man she risked her life and gave up her titles to save. It was one thing to know you could take someone on in a fight, but that meant nothing when you knew they could outsmart you; was she being used? Was she foolish? Why had she come? Hadn't she been the one to push him forward, encourage his work, rescue him? Doesn't he owe me a sight of his true face . His reply was playful from behind the fan,

"What things, Yoruichi–San?" Today she found her cat-form voice advantageous, to answer him like a man, to look like an animal. He knew her as a cat, of course, but this body was not the one he had made love to in the days after the escape.

"You talk, I'll drink. Tell me your plan." There was no need to hesitate; he would have already thought of a way to deal with it, and so she was told... all the time aware of the spiritual storm about to break over the town.

"Kisuke, you're using everyone: me, the human children, you've used this Kuchiki Rukia most of all." She'd been feeling the weak reiatsu of this unknown soul, who must be the adopted Kuchiki, spike through emotions of sadness and fear, unable to rally her dwindling power in defence as she was pursued; it was hard not to feel some sympathy.

"I'm a shady guy!" No remorse. Has he really become so cold? "Kisuke, have you set us all up? Innocent look.

"Forced the situation a little maybe?" He remained inscrutable and she continued, "Placed the Hokyoku in danger to lure out Aizen?"

"No 3"

"Placed a girl in danger to lure these powerful humans into rescuing her?"

"Of course not."

"Placed me in a position of having to help because..." Should she say: because I never say no to you? Because it involves a Kuchiki? Because I miss my home? Because I miss you? "Because it's our best chance, the only chance we've had to expose the truth?" Yourichi, defender of justice. Isn't that why she said she saved him?

"Maybe."

It was pretty unusual to find a Quincy; well, anywhere but here. She had sensed he was the first to interfere, but could hardly believe what Urahara had told her, especially the 'others' he spoke of. Training kids was something she had only done once, and never seriously, and it seemed he had done very well since she left.

"How can you be sure what's going to happen?" she asked the shopkeeper next to her.

"I can't, but it will happen soon; it's happening now." No need to look at the sky; they had both been feeling the reiatsu storm throughout the conversation. The cat tried a different tack. There are a lot of loose ends. How about he told her something she didn't need to know:

"What are those kids working here for?"

"Lots of shopkeepers have part-timers." She noticed that the 'answer' was a statement of fact about all shops, an evasion.

"What did you intend to do if the gigai made Kuchiki a normal human girl?" Silence and when he did speak:

"I'll have to go soon." He looked down and stroked her head: a goodbye for a cat. "I think she would have liked being human." She watched his back as he advanced into the night. Do you mean she'd be more suited to this world than us? Pfftt, that wasn't exactly hard. He was going to interfere now, grease the wheels of his plan. How could Isshin's son possibly face little Byakuya, even restricted here in the human world, she could feel how much he had grown. Urahara's decision to help the boy to transform for this last time ... she always let him do as he liked; if it was Kisuke, it was fine. But now with so many misgivings.