Yeeeeeeesssss, I'm alive! *cringes under glares and waves weakly* It's been a while… but, here I am! Oh, and I've changed a small but critical detail in the story… concerning Kon… if you know what I'm talking about, you should be less confused, but if not, then it obviously wasn't a problem in the first place!

At any rate, I do have a good excuse (moving to freaking Northern Idaho ), so you can't kill me! However, under the suspicion that some of you out there may not hesitate to at least torture this poor authoress, I now present the next chapter of Why am I King?, a Bleach Fanfiction.

Oh, and just so you know, the time gap here is like the one in The Count of Monte Cristo … you may never know what happened… (unless I do a companion piece or something). Enjoy!

Edit: Oops! Had to fix that… thanks to Mist Shadow for the catch!

1 Year Later

"I'm serious, Kirio, I'm going! No, you can't come. Yes, I'm going alone. Yes, it'll be okay. He's been working on this stupid thing for months, and, while I can't believe I'm saying this, he's probably the only person I know who could actually pull of something like that. Yes, that includes Unohana. Now Good-bye!" I closed the gate possibly more forcefully than strictly necessary, but I was ready to get out of there. And, judging by the immense feeling of freedom and relief, it seemed like Hichigo was as well.

I looked at him pointedly as he materialized and stretched next to me, and he exhaled with relief. I raised an eyebrow, and he looked over to me, slightly embarrassed.

"What? This is the first time you've freaking let me out in over a year. I'll be damned if I don't enjoy it!" He finished with a smirking glare at me, and I shrugged.

"Hey, just be happy Urahara found that kido to keep you separate. Would've been hell trying to figure out how to do this crap with you complaining the entire time." I returned his glare, and he shrugged and walked forward.

The gate from the King's Dimension had landed us in a grassy field dotted with wildflowers, which seemed to bow a little as my reiatsu pressed down on them. I frowned slightly, but reminded myself as to my purpose in the Soul Society in the first place. I felt my pulse race as I looked for Kisuke, and smiled when I saw his green and white striped hat poking out above a rather vivid group of flowers.

I motioned to my hollow to keep quiet as I all-but-floated to the captain turned shopkeeper, and stood right behind his sleeping form. With another gesture to Hichigo, I watched as he positioned himself right in front of our victim. I looked at him, we matched gazes, and both sucked in a deep breath.

"GOOOOD MORNING HAT N' CLOGS!"

We both yelled, then ducked as the unfortunate Urahara jumped away and swung Benihime in a wide arc over our heads. We laughed simultaneously, and I felt Zangetsu materialize behind Kisuke, with a small smirk on his face as he placed his hand on the half-awake blond.

"You must excuse the poor boy. He's been lacking anything resembling entertainment for the better part of a year." the sword-manifistation said with a meaningful glance at Hichigo and I, who both shrugged. Urahara blinked several times, then rubbed his eyes and stared at the three of us, and gave us his own smirk.

"Seems like you've adjusted well, Kurosaki-dono." He said, unfolding his ever-present fan over his mouth. I looked down at the purple cloak I was wearing over my usual uniform, and rolled my eyes.

"It's not like I have that much of a choice ya' know." I replied with a meaningful look at him. He just continued to smile. I tapped my foot impatiently, and he raised an eyebrow.

"Are we in that much of a hurry, Kurosaki-dono?" He asked innocently, and I scowled, even with my two manifested others laughing quietly at me with Urahara, and nodded.

"I've been waiting to be able to go back for a year. And don't call me that. It's annoying." I tapped my hand on my leg in time with my foot and glared at the amused look he gave me.

"You might wanna just do it, idiot. The angrier King-y here gets, the flatter you're gonna be." Hichigo pointed out, and when Zangetsu nodded his agreement, I realized my control over my reiatsu had slipped a little and some grass had been disintegrated in a circle around me. I sighed, and closed my eyes, reigning in the excess power I could, and opened them again to see Urahara about 5 inches from my face.

"Well, it seems you've actually gained a little control!" He said cheerfully, ignoring my surprised yell and jump back. Hichigo snickered, while Zangetsu just said something about my "abysmal sensing abilities". I glared at the duo, who both just shrugged innocently. I sighed, and looked back at Kisuke, who brought the tip of his hat low to darken his eyes, the way he usually did when he was actually serious.

"Well, as you've no doubt heard, I've done the impossible! I've actually devised a way to compress your beastly pressure!" He pulled out his fan and laughed manically, not at all serious. Hichigo laughed along with him, but when I scowled in his direction, he settled for a smirk and wandered off with Zangetsu.

Finally alone with the eccentric shopkeeper, I exhaled slowly and looked at him seriously.

"All right. Tell me how, and make it quick." He grinned widely.

"Well, after making that breakthrough with Hichigo's issue with the King's.. well, your, dimension, I actually took a small sample of reiatsu off you, that was untainted by him." I heard a soft but indignant protest from the hollow, but ignored it; so did Urahara.

"Well, after days and days of sacrificed sleep and near-starvation from my dedication to my task," I rolled my eyes. "I finally found a solution! We've been trying to seal your reiatsu inside you, which would kill you! Instead, I devised a device to contain some extra! Not enough to make you all that small and humble, but enough to prevent any spontaneous disintegrations of anyone below a tenth seat." He finished with a flourish, and pulled out…

Kon.

Well, not exactly, but it was his plushie. No other thing in this universe would look that idiotic. Urahara put the stuffed lion in my limp hand, and I immediately felt a 'sucking' feeling coming from the doll and, to my immense shock, I could actually feel myself get weaker and weaker.

I let go of it immediately. I instinctively tended not to hold onto things that weakened me, even though I knew this wasn't that dangerous… I think.

Of course, when the small but noticeable bit of strength that had been absorbed didn't return when I let go, I became suspicious. Well, what do you expect? My whole existence kind of depended on me being stronger than every being ever… so losing some of that strength put my 'life' in danger.

Urahara just chuckled at my reaction, so I directed a small flare of energy at him, making him stumble. It made me feel better, on the inside. I smirked lightly as he righted himself and threw a smug glance in my direction, which I returned with a scowl.

"Well, if you'd do me the honor of actually explaining what my plan is before disintegrating me, I think you'd think better of me for it." He said a little pompously, but I just folded my arms and waited for him to continue on his own, which he did gladly.

"Well, I was thinking mainly aesthetically when I designed that little toy to keep any reiatsu it absorbed. I mean, it wouldn't do to have our King walking around clutching a plushy in public, would it?" I thought on this for a moment, and then shrugged.

"If anyone complained…" I left that hanging, and Kisuke chuckled.

"Good point, but not mine. Basically, the doll will continuously absorb any reiatsu it comes in contact with," I raised an eyebrow. "Hey, it was difficult enough trying to keep it from exploding to worry about discrimination!

"Anyways, it'll contain what it's absorbed, completely sealed off from any other entity around it, but still be able to absorb nearly anything thrown its way. The nice part is, the more power it's given, the more… indestructible it becomes, so if something threatens it, it'll be able to defend itself in measure with the amount of power stored.

"Of course, you'll probably want some of that power back eventually, right?"

I nodded sarcastically, and he smiled manically.

"Great! Come here!" He skipped, seriously skipped, through the field towards a small hill I had overlooked before. I followed, cautiously. When he did reach the hill, he reached… under it, (I guess that made it a fake hill...) and pulled out a small remote with a ridiculously large red button obnoxiously set smack dab in its center. I felt myself deflate slightly, but eyed the device warily.

"WELL, this little friend here will return all the power in that little friend over there to its original owner! … I think."

"You think?" I asked, slightly dumbfounded. If the power that thing contained was returned to someone less… deserving, it could mean a whole mess of issues I didn't want to deal with.

Urahara shrugged.

"Well, I decided this little venture of mine should be kept on the down-low side of business, so I haven't really had many test subjects!" He said, feigning complete innocence. I groaned.

"Are you freaking kidding me? Am I seriously your guinea pig for this?" He nodded happily, and I had to keep myself from throttling him.

"Deep breaths, you still might need him… in the very distant future" I told myself, breathing deeply.

"Alright." I said, once I felt I could control myself. "Let's try it out." He smiled widely, threw the plush toy at me, and pressed the red button.

I caught the toy out of reflex, but tensed once it actually landed in my hands. However, I relaxed when I felt the bit of strength the toy had absorbed flow back into me. I looked at Urahara, who, it seemed, had expected something akin to a nuclear explosion. His kido-bomb shelter disintegrated as I looked disdainfully at him, not really noticing that the plush, while still in my hands, wasn't doing anything.

However, I did notice when he asked about it. I looked at the little lion curiously, then back at the shopkeeper.

"Well, I designed it not to absorb anything else once released, unless the button was pressed again." He went to press it again, but I dropped the toy on the ground, preventing the expected absorption. He laughed, taking his thumb away from the button, which remained un-pressed.

"You shouldn't drop something I worked so hard on, Kurosaki-dono!" He said, sounding hurt, but I rolled my eyes and picked up the doll.

"All right. Well, let's see how much can this stupid thing can hold." I said, taking a wide stance, as he pressed the button.