First off, I owe you all a huge apology. I'll do some much needed explaining after the chapter. For now on with the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach in any way, shape, or form.
We waited patiently while Isshin was in the other room. At certain points we could hear him raising his voice, yelling and screaming at his friend on the other end. Though, from the names they were calling each other, it sounded like a very complicated friendship. I don't know how long it took because I would fade in and out of consciousness. When Isshin came out of the room, he wore a tired look on his face and mumbled, "You'd think the bastard would lighten up eventually."
"What's the verdict?" I tiredly asked.
"He's coming. He'll be taking his sweet time. Just… ah… don't get in his way."
After about an hour or so I heard what was presumably Isshin's "friend". He came into the room silently. He wore a solid, snow white suit. Even his hair was devoid of color, being a pale silver. His eyes held a certain amount of disgust for everything that surrounded him. He held a confident aura of superiority. This superiority was not from arrogance, but from being intelligent and having experience at winning and gaining control no matter who or what tried to overthrow him. He gave me a piercing glare giving me a quick once over.
"So, this is the trash you want me to treat."
"While I understand you disdain, Ryuuken, if you instigate a fight, even the both of us together could have a bit of trouble if we're not careful," warned Isshin.
"Don't give them so much credit. Isshin, help me get the anesthesia and other equipment out of the back of the car."
When Ryuuken and Isshin finally set up all the equipment, Ryuuken then went to inspect my leg. After some brief examination and a discussion with Isshin rife with medical jargon, he came to the same conclusion as Isshin had before. They then slowly proceeded to prep me and eventually, just as the sun was beginning to rise, I was put under.
I awoke at sundown in one of the medical rooms in the house. When I tried to move, I found my entire body covered with bandages. My regeneration had kicked in while I was out after the operation. The smaller cuts and scrapes were gone and the holes were significantly smaller. I looked to the left side and could see a black cat sleeping on a chair that was next to my bedside. On my right was various machinery with a display of my vitals, and the door that led to the rest of the house.
I slowly moved myself into a more comfortable position so that I could fall back asleep, and was about to, when an unfamiliar voice said, "Oh, you're awake. You had us a bit worried." I felt a weight settle on top of my chest and looked up to see the cat now sitting on my chest. I looked around for the owner of the voice, but found no one else in the room. The cat then went to sit on my lap as I once again repositioned myself so that I could sit up.
"Who's there and what happened?" I called out to the empty room.
"A large piece of rubble was knocked into one of your veins. We had to have Halibel beat you up a bit to try to get you to wake up and release a large burst of reiatsu to disintegrate it," said the voice again. "You did a bit more than disintegrate the piece. You ended up almost bringing the roof down on our heads. On the brightside it got rid of all the rubble in your wounds, letting Ryuuken and Isshin focus on fixing you up before letting your regeneration kick in."
Idle-mindedly I began petting the cat. Not bothering to question the conversation with an invisible person. "You know, explaining what happened to you while you were out is kind of hard when I have to resist purring."
"How drugged up am I? I don't think think that cats can talk." I asked the cat in my lap, praying I was in some kind of drug induced delusion.
"You're correct, cats can't talk, but I can." Mist started rising from the cat, obscuring it from my view. It started to grow larger and light started flashing from the mist. Next thing I knew, Yoruichi was standing on top of me, completely in the nude. I quickly shut my eyes.
"What? W-W-WHAT?! The HELL Yoruichi?!" I sputtered, feeling my cheeks heat up from the awkward situation.
"Wow. Your prudishness rivals Ichigo's. Never expected that from the Primera Espada."
"Well, I prefer to not be a pervert, unlike you."
"Yoruichi!" Urahara yelled from outside the room, "If you're done tormenting the poor soul, I need to tell him about the plans for his integration."
"Oh all right. I'll be out in a second," she yelled back, transformed into her cat form once again, and walked out.
Urahara walked into the room, eyed all the machinery, took a quick look at my vitals, and then sat down beside me. He quietly whistled and drummed his fingers on the arms of the chair. After a moment of awkward silence he finally spoke.
"SO! In the acquiring of a house it turns out that when configuring all the variables that go into successfully relocating you, ugh…"
"Spit it out, Urahara!" I said, growing more agitated. He inaudibly whispered his response.
"Urahara…" I growled.
"I HAD TO MAKE IT SO THAT YOU AND HALIBEL WOULD BE LIVING TOGETHER!" he screamed in panic.
"And does Halibel know?"
"Yes."
"Well then, the fact that you're alive and screaming at me means that she isn't completely opposed at this. Now mind telling me which variables influenced this decision?"
"For starters, you two would appear to be a couple which would be less conspicuous. You would also be in close contact in case any kind of situation were to come up and we were to need your assistance," he slowly rambled off as he was obviously creating these on the spot.
"You frugal bastard," I said.
"Caught red-handed. At any rate you'll be moving in roughly a week. We've paid for various pieces of furniture and have set up a bank account with a large sum of money that you can draw upon whenever you don't have enough money for whatever reason. Of course you'll also have to have jobs to avoid suspicions. We'll also try to slowly introduce you to Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends. If you're going to conduct any activities, it's best to be on their good side. Besides their nice kids. You'll like 'em"
"Alright. Doesn't sound like too much of a hassle. What kind of job would I be doing?"
"We were think of you being a teacher."
"What kind?"
"What subjects were you good at back when you were human?"
"Hmmm… That's tough. That was a long… looong… time ago. If I remember correctly, I was pretty good at language arts. As well as physics. And if I recall I was a pretty good musician. A mighty fine fiddler. That's what my father used to say. As a music teacher, he was a slave driver. But as a single father, he was a pretty good one. When he was done teaching me, I could see a lot of pride in his eyes."
"So you know how to play a violin?"
"Among other instruments."
"Hmm… As much as I want you to be able to be a teacher in Ichigo's school, I'd hate to see that kind of skill wasted. Plus I guess it might be better to have you teaching music lessons. Gives you a bit more flexibility to go hunt Hollows. Whether Ichigo and his friends would like to admit it, they need to devote a bit more of their lives to their school work. Even though they're at the top of their class, we can't have them slipping up. After all, Ichigo isn't the brightest bulb in the shed and they'll eventually have responsibilities in this world that may take a bit more precedence than their obligations to purify Hollows."
"Whatever you say, Urahara. As you know what's going on, I imagine we'll do fine."
"Alright. I'll leave to your own thoughts then. We'll discuss this in further detail when you've completely healed. Have a good evening, Starrk."
"You too, Urahara." He nodded and then stood up, stretched, and left the room. I was quite surprised that Halibel hadn't killed Urahara when he told her the news. I had no doubt that she wasn't completely okay with this, but her being her, she was willing if it meant the first step toward a normal, and maybe, just maybe, a maybe that is a silent prayer in the back of your head, the part that even your dreams can't hear, that wants a peaceful life.
I actually didn't mind having to live with her. She had a good head on her shoulders and as long as I didn't offend her, I wouldn't be killed. More importantly was the fact that it would prevent the degradation that I would go through in isolation. When you spend so long in isolation, no matter how used to it you get, it doesn't make you immune to it. If anything it can make you weaker to it. So really this was a good thing. With my daily minimum requirement of thinking fulfilled, I settled back into the bed.
"The plus side to being injured; I get to be as lazy as I want and nobody will yell at me."
Sooooo, next chapter I'll have moving in stuff and maybe some stuff with their first day on their jobs. Now onto a much needed explanation. So in the original first two weeks, I was trying to buy a french horn because I'm a bit of a musician. Eventually found one that I could afford. After a few days of testing it out and comparison with some other horns, I came to the decision that it wasn't the quality I was looking for. Looked around some more, got distracted. I also have been trying to take the CSWA exam to become a Certified Solidworks Associate. However there have been various obstacles that I am still trying to tackle. I don't mean these as an excuse for my tardiness, merely an explanation. Whenever I have a late chapter if one of you would be willing to pm me to ask why, or simply be like "Hey, don't forget to post that chapter". Because I may need that. Once again I'm sorry for the tardiness and also for the shortness of the chapter. You all have a wonderful two weeks.