How long had it been? How long had it been since he had seen the light of day, or heard the outside world? Would he be able to tell how many days, weeks, months, years had passed? It seemed impossible to him. Never the less, opening ones eyes would certainly make a difference he was sure.

"Ahhh, glad to see you've finally come to." Sitting up was a shock to his body. A firm and steady hand pushed the man back down as he tried to rise. "Now now, we mustn't get ahead of ourselves. You've been out for a long time now. I'm actually surprised that you're able to move about so quickly, then again why should I expect anything less from one such as yourself? You did indeed do a heavy bit of damage... It's such a shame that your plan didn't carry out as you wanted. Ah well, nothing we can do about that now."

Plan? ... Yes! That was why his chest hurt and his arm- Jerking his head to the right his eyebrows raised in shock. The right arm that had been with him for as long as he could recall was now gone. Bandages had been firmly swathed around the man's chest and stump where the missing appendage had been. A numb feeling coursed through out his right side.

"Where am I?"

"Where? Why you're in a back room of my humble shop, of course~ You've been rather easy to hide too I must say!" The shop owner chuckled and moved about the room adjusting things here and there as he spoke. "You've also missed quite a lot since you've been... indisposed. No one but myself and my employees know you're here, if any one did. Well there certainly would be complications wouldn't there? Seeing as you are supposed to be dead and all..." A timid knock sounded on the door before it slid open.

"Um, excuse me Mr. Urahara... We have a customer..."

"Hmmmm? Oh we do, that's great Ururu! I'll be right back and take care of things, can you see about getting out guest some food? He must be hungry." Slipping quietly from the room Kisuke left Ururu alone with the wounded man, whom looked over to the little girl. She fidgeted nervously before bolting from the room. Sighing he turned his face towards the ceiling. It was amazing what one could find in the patterning of the roof when one was given the chance to look. He did not know how long the girl was gone, but the creaking of the floor boards signaled her return.

Setting a tray down to his left hand side Ururu looked nervously down at him.
"I brought you some-"

"URURUUUU! WHERE ARE YOU URURU- Oh THERE you are! ... Oh, you're awake."

"Jinta, you should be quieter when back here... You know he's still healing..."

"I don't care about that, Ururu! Tesai needs to know where you put the shipment that came in yesterday. You know the one. Urahara says he'll need it to get everything finished on time."

"It's in the back under all those spare boxes..." Without a word the overly excited young boy departed at a run to find what he was looking for, shutting the door behind him. Again leaving Ururu alone with the silver haired man. He could tell she wasn't at all comfortable being around him by herself. As she reached for the glass of water on the tray scuffling could be heard from down the hall, followed by silence. THWACK! The sliding was slammed back as far as it would go, a teenage boy with orange hair stared boldly down at the man on the floor.

"Ichigo, I told you not to go back there." Kisuke came up quickly behind and pulled him gently on the shoulder. "You really should learn to listen to what people have to tell you."

"Kisuke... What's he doing here?"

"Relaaaaax. I know what I'm doing, though I will eventually need Miss Inoue's help right now I have to keep this a secret. Can you do the same Ichigo?" The teenager looked through a hardened gaze at the man below him.

"Yeah..."

"Great! Now let's all leave Mr. Ichimaru alone to get some rest."