Yoruichi is napping in the courtyard, curled up in a patch of sun and covered in fine black fur. Kukaku sits beside her, her gaze on the sky while Ganju insistently commands Tessai to show him more and more elaborate (not dangerous, just colorful and flashy) kido.
It's as picturesque as their lives ever get, and Kisuke wants to enjoy the moment he had with his lady and his new work-mate. Tessai is new-ish. He's from one of the small clans that belong to the Shihoin, and he's been with Yoruichi for almost as long as Kisuke has, although it was never in any official capacity. No more official than her relationship with Kukaku.
Now, he's officially a shinigami, fresh out of the academy and on his way to the kido corps.
Everyone is off in their own worlds, in the summer sun and the lazy heat that beats down from the sky. The Shiba's sand garden has a few new stones, he notes idly, and when Kaien comes in from outside Kisuke is the only one who's really paying attention.
He's watching over them, watching over Yoruichi, just like he always has and will.
Kaien catches his eye and waves at him.
Kisuke would like to believe he's a difficult person to read, that he's gotten enough practice in over the years to be incredible, but something on his face must show because Kaien comes over and sits beside him. Miyako is nowhere to be seen.
"Hey, you're Yoruichi's little shadow," he says, and Kisuke can only smile a little sheepishly in response.
"That's me, yes. Urahara Kisuke, pleased to meet you," he rises to bow properly to the noble, but Kaien waves him off. Kisuke settles back down on the engawa. Kaien sits beside him, cross legged.
"Come on, I get enough bowing already, and Yoruichi is basically my sister so-" Kaien shrugs, "You looked like you wanted to say something."
Kisuke is briefly horrified. Had he been read so easily? Was he always so easy to read? He was supposed to be a spy!
Kaien laughs at him, and he sounds exactly like Ichigo.
"It's only because I grew up with Yoruichi trying to weasel out of trouble. Relax."
Kisuke does his best to obey. He wasn't going to be so blunt, he's used to circling problems and finding clever openings that no one else with notice, and drawing information out of people who don't realize they're giving it. Being blunt is-
It feels unnatural these days.
"What do Shiba do with bastards?"
Whatever Kaien thought he was going to ask, that's clearly not it.
Kaien sits straighter.
"Why?"
Kisuke presses his lips together. It tastes like a betrayal, the words sitting on his tongue.
Kaien crosses his arms over his chest. "The Shiba are very family oriented, everyone knows it. It would depend on the circumstances, but at the very least we'd do our best to support them and their parents. Again, why?"
Betrayal tastes like citrus pith.
"I may have found one, but he's a man grown already."
"Eh? Where is he? Where did you find him?"
"I don't know. We met in the rukongai."
"And you didn't bring him here?!" Kaien looks physically betrayed.
Kisuke gives him his most innocent smile.
(The one that Yoruichi says makes her skin crawl, the one that makes his subordinates turn away from him quickly, knowing a storm is on the horizon, the one that the Shihoin Elders would very much like to smack right off his face.)
"Forgive me, my lord, I don't recall working for you," he says as formally and sweetly at he can.
Kaien, for his part, looks annoyed. It's the same expression Kisuke has seen on Ichigo. They're nearly identical, and it's almost terrifying.
"No wonder Yoruichi likes you. You're just her kind of asshole."
Kisuke isn't about to deny that.
"Anyways," Kaien waves his fake innocence away, "If this guy is a Shiba then he's one of our clansmen, and I'd like to meet him. He's my family and my responsibility, after all."
Kisuke had probably known that Kaien would say something like that. It didn't surprise him even a little bit that that was his reaction to the possibility of having more relatives out there. As he'd said, everyone knew that the Shiba were very family oriented and they would never leave one of their own out in the cold.
Even if that person was a bastard who refused to accept their surname.
"I don't think he'll agree with you, but if I see him again," When he sees him again, because Ichigo promised, "I'll tell him you're interested in a meeting."
Kaien squints at him, his mouth pursed like Kisuke had shoved a lemon into it to shut him up like he'd seen Kukaku do before.
"That's probably the best I'm going to get out of you, isn't it? Geez, why is everyone so stubborn?"
Kisuke just arches a brow and Kaien scowls at him. They both know he's an utter hypocrit to be saying that.
Kisuke has to slip Kaien after that more than once. He seems certain that Kisuke is going to one day lead him to this long lost kinsmen, and Kisuke almost regrets asking him the question in the first place.
Except he knows this now for certain; Ichigo has a place amongst the Shiba even if he doesn't want it.
He's never seen Ichigo with anyone else, besides the hollow hound that seemed perfectly content to simply trot beside him and never even bared his teeth at souls that would offer it nurishment. He has no idea if Ichigo has other friends (If Kisuke could call himself a friend) or where he spends all of his time when he's not dragging Kisuke out of hostile territory.
No one bats an eye when Kisuke starts checking the service records for all of the shinigami who had served in the past four hundred years. Mostly because no one notices that he's there at all.
There's no way Ichigo is older than that, Kisuke doesn't think. Although he knows that the more powerful the shinigami the slower they tend to age past a certain point.
He searches through the rosters for each squad in order, seeking any mention of Kurosaki Ichigo. That turns up nothing, so he switches it to Shiba Ichigo, just in case.
Oh, there's a couple hundred Ichigo's, most of them women, but no Kurosaki or Shiba has ever carried the name.
When that turns up nothing he looks for his Zanpakutou. Ichigo could change his name, but not his weapon's.
Split the sky and rage through heaven, pierce the earth and slay hell. Protect thy heart, Zangetsu.
Zangetsu. Two swords, with one name, and a duel zanpakuto was more than a little distinct. Kisuke had only ever seen two shinigami with such a thing, and they were both captains.
Still nothing.
There was no record of Ichigo ever existing.
And the only reason for a shinigami to have no record at all would be if they had been erased from history. And Kisuke, lucky man that he was, was a member of the squad in charge of just such people. If Yoruichi was to be believed he would soon be in charge of the detention division too.
So, with the impunity that came of being close to the Clan Head, and the Commander-in-Chief, he went seaking through their files too. There were no names, but descriptions and records of reitsu, and abilities and goals.
None of them fit the right criteria.
Not a single one.
Ichigo is a veritable ghost in the afterlife.
"Who are you really?"
Is what he wants to ask Ichigo when he sees him next. It's in the secret training grounds again, months after their last encounter and Kisuke is a few days shy of his biggest promotion.
Who are you really? Where do you come from? How do you open Garganta when only hollows should be able to do so so easily?
(How thin really is the line between hollows and shinigami, he wonders in the darkness of the night, in the recesses of his mind, where the world exists as a pattern on a loom and he longs to pull it apart thread by careful, bloody thread)
But Ichigo looks upset. Not furious, he's not red faced or swinging his sword like he intends to decapitate anyone around him. It's not the quiet, stalking anger of Yoruichi, either.
There's a furrow in hisb row, his brown eyes are darker than Kisuke's ever seen them and his scowl is less habitual and more genuine that it's ever been.
It draws Kisuke up short.
The words die on his tongue.
Instead, he asks, "What happened?"
Ichigo looks at him, and the furrow eases, ever so slightly. His shoulders slump. He looks so much younger than Kisuke has ever seen him.
"People suck and hollows are assholes," Ichigo says succinctly, and Kisuke can't exactly disagree with that.
Kisuke touches Benihime's handle. "Wanna fight?"
Ichigo draws his swords and shoots Kisuke a fond look. The scowl doesn't vanish, but his dark eyes soften minutely.
"You always know what to say." It comes out teasing, but Kisuke feels his skin warm all the same. Benihime feels distinctly like she's laughing at him under his hand. Isn't she supposed to be part of his soul? Rude.
Kisuke draws his sword, awakens the crimson energy that flows viciously around his body, and flings the energy at Ichigo in a mockery of Ichigo's own technique.
Ichigo is flawless when he blocks it, and vicious when he strikes back, his release chant on his lips. Zangetsu twists with red-black shadows, and the feeling of winter sunlight brushes Kisuke's skin.
They come together, a swirl of power and shadow and steel. Benihime sings in Kisuke's grasp. Ichigo is still stronger than him, but each day Kisuke is growing closer and closer to him.
By the time they've both worked off their energy Ichigo is flushed and the weight on his shoulders has eased. They clean up together, quiet in their own minds but close. Close enough to touch, if Kisuke wanted. No one comes that close besides Yoruichi. He is dangerous, and those who don't think he's dangerous think he's still half feral, even half a hundred years into serving the Shihion.
"Do you want to go to lunch?" Kisuke asks suddenly.
Ichigo cocks his head. "Lunch sounds good, actually. I don't know when the last time I ate is," his smile is sheepish.
Kisuke gives him a frown that Yoruichi would call fussy.
"Come on then," Kisuke leads the way out of the hideout. There's a dozen bolt holes, if not more, and the path they take through the long tunnels drops them in one of the first few districts in the west. They duck into a restaurant that isn't typically frequented by shinigami, and while they stand out, him in his shihakusho and Ichigo still in a plain yukata, they're close enough to seireitei that is won't make much of a difference to the staff. They won't garner to much unwanted attention, and Kisuke can ignore the prickly feeling of stares on the back of his neck for a couple of hours of Ichigo's time.
"Where do you go, when you're not here?" Kisuke asks once they've been served. A small flash of kidou seals them off from eavesdropping.
Ichigo must trust him enough to keep his secrets.
"Mostly Hueco Mundo."
Kisuke can't hide his horror. "Why?"
Ichigo laughs at him, but there's an edge of bitterness to it that Kisuke hates.
"Because that's where I belong."
He touches the hilt of his zanpakutou, and Kisuke feels faintly ill.
All shinigami fight hollows, yes, but for Ichigo to spend most of his life doing it? Alone?
There was something horribly wrong with that.
"You could-"
Kisuke bites back the offer he'd almost made. There was no way he could offer Ichigo a place amongst the onmitsukido. Ichigo was not made for that kind of darkness, and he got the sense that he wouldn't take kindly to orders.
Ichigo shoots him a half quirked smile.
"Thanks, but I'm fine. Really. You don't need to worry about me. I can take care of myself."
A traitorous part of Kisuke's mind whispers that just because Ichigo can, doesn't mean he should.
Kisuke looked down at Benihime. He needed to get stronger faster. He wanted to-
He wanted to do a hundred things.
Chief amongst them, he wanted to be able to stand at Ichigo's side as an equal.