Chapter 4
To know Kisuke Urahara, one had to know his many masks. The crazy shopkeeper. The perverted man. Madness incarnate, in every thing he created. A kind mentor, who was unafraid to take out the claws if it helped his students. The kind of man you always wanted in your corner. And the kind of man you could never really trust. Because, in the end, you never could really know Kisuke Urahara. No one, truly, knew the man behind the mask. Some just...knew him a bit better.
One of those people, Yoruichi ShihÅin, stared at the man as he paced back and forth. Behind her, three teenage humans looked curiously over her shoulder. Well. Two of them were curious, and one looked as if he was ready to burn Urahara alive with his gaze. Considering it was the Quincy, that was probably to be expected.
"Kisuke," Yoruichi idly called out, her voice bored. This was nothing new, to her. "You going to talk to them?"
Orihime Inoue and Chad Sado looked curiously at the woman when she spoke. Uryu Ishida only continued looking annoyed at even being there. He had only agreed to this as, unlike the other two, he was good enough at energy sensory abilities to know that Ichigo wasn't in Karakura. And had been there when the Substitute had been dragged off in the first place. It was a strange mix of guilt and annoyance that had him here.
All three teenagers, regardless of feelings, turned to stare when Kisuke stopped pacing. The former Captain pulling his hat down, just enough to shadow his eyes when he spoke.
"Welcome to my humble shop!" And promptly ruined any sense of 'drama' when he put on his crazy shopkeeper mask. A wide grin crossed his lips, at the gobsmacked look on the teenagers. "What, are you surprised by everything? Didn't Yoruichi tell you-"
Before he could get much further, the woman in question flashed behind him, and cuffed the man in the back of the head. "Enough of that, Kisuke. We both know there isn't time for the shopkeeper act. Not anymore."
Kisuke frowned at her, though he didn't deny the point. "Right. Well, you three, I need you to follow me then." The scientist waved a hand at the teenagers, before gesturing towards the back of his shop with his fan. "This way, please."
Orihime gave him a weak smile as she walked past. A question on her lips...before she shook her head, and continued on. Sighing softly, Kisuke followed behind the group, until they reached the ladder. At which point he pushed his way to the front and opened the hatch leading into the training room. He, of course, just jumped straight down. If Yoruichi wanted him to be serious, he would be serious. The humans watched that warily. They weren't that durable- possibly excepting Chad -and had to go the long way down,with Yoruichi making sure they didn't fall.
"I'd say 'welcome to my training ground' but Yoruichi is right," Kisuke smiled grimly, looking over at the teens when they reached ground level. His gray eyes glinting like flints, beneath the shadow of his hat. "Ichigo doesn't have any idea what he got into, this time. I wasn't expecting this to happen or I would have intervened before it could."
What was left unsaid, was that he would have taken equally large risks doing so. The Soul Society tolerated him. If they really wanted him dead, or if he really gave them a reason to, they would send a team. He didn't need that, especially as Aizen would have been on any such team. His 'experience against the Traitor' made that something that was bound to happen.
Still, this is far from ideal. Ichigo...you've done more than I expected, and I expected a lot out of you.
Shaking his head, Kisuke drug his way out of the past. One of the humans, the tall Mexican boy, had raised a hand. Kisuke nodded, allowing the barest of real smiles to cross his lips. "Hmm?"
"What happened to Ichigo?" Chad's deep voice rumbled out. A simple question, and one he didn't follow up with anything else. A man of few words, that one.
Beside him, Orihime nodded her head vigorously. Worriedly biting her lip, she looked hopefully at the scientist, as if he could fix things on his own. "Ichigo never came to class today...we're worried about him! Miss Yoruichi wouldn't tell us anything, other than that we needed to talk to you..."
When all eyes turned to him, as the only one who hadn't spoken, Uryu Ishida grimaced.
"I just want to know why I had to come along," the Quincy spoke, pushing his glasses up. "I am not Kurosaki's friend."
Kisuke looked between the group, and waved his fan at each one in the order they had spoken:
"I can explain why Ichigo isn't here, Mr. Sado."
"I wouldn't worry too much about Ichigo. He isn't in any life-threatening danger. Yet."
"Deny it all you want, I know you are his friend, Ishida!" that last one included a wide grin as Uryu glared daggers at the former Captain.
"I am not his friend." The Quincy tried to deny it, though no one listened to him. Why would they?
It was certain that Kisuke wouldn't, as he waved at Yoruichi instead. "We brought you here to train. You see, I can't go back to the Soul Society myself. I know that you want to save Ichigo, though, so I'm giving you all the chance to do that. Yoruichi is just looking you all over, first."
While Kisuke smiled at them, Yoruichi stepped forward to take his place. For this part, at least.
She looked over the three teens, frowning as she scanned their unique powers. Chad was the easiest, in a way. Raw power with a hint of Hollow, buried beneath. He was strong...but untrained. It would take a lot of training and experience to unlock his potential. Orihime was different. She seemed to have full access to her powers, though Yoruichi couldn't make heads or tails of what exactly it was. It wasn't Quincy, it wasn't Shinigami, it wasn't even Hollow. It was just very, very strange.
Uryu was the easiest to read, even if he shot his head up and turned his glare on the cat-woman when she scanned him. "What do you think you're doing?"
The Quincy boy's powers were fully accessed. He didn't need any training in how to use his abilities. The incident with the Hollow Bait had proven that rather easily. His issue was lack of raw power and technique. By definition, a Quincy had less raw spiritual power to work with than a Shinigami, as they drew their power from the environment around them. Thus, though innate abilities did have an effect, a Quincy's power was highly reliant on how well they could channel ambient energy into their bow.
Uryu Ishida was not a fully trained Quincy. Not by a long shot. He was certainly capable of taking down the average Hollow, but against even a novice Shinigami he would lose. Renji had beaten him with most of his powers sealed, and done it easily. If Renji hadn't been fighting with a hand behind his back...well. It didn't need mentioning.
"Hmm." Humming in thought, Yoruchi turned her gaze up to the 'sky'. Painted blue and white stared down on her, simulating the outside. It was just like home. She was already getting a nostalgia kick, just thinking about it. "Chad, Orihime, head with Kisuke. He'll help you train your powers."
Turning her head down, the cat-woman grinned at the angry look the Quincy was sending her way. "You...you're with me, Quincy-boy."
"Wait, you're going to train us?" Orihime asked, with a shocked look on her pretty face. She stared at Kisuke, who gave her a little wave of his fan in response. "N-not that I mean anything by that, Mr. Urahara! I'm just surprised!"
"Hmm," was all Chad said, as he moved to Kisuke.
Said shopkeeper grinned at Orihime, "Yep! We know you're Ichigo's friends, and right now? As I said, I can't do anything myself." It burned, even if he wouldn't show it, to admit that. However, Kisuke couldn't go back to the Soul Society. Not even for this. "If we want to save Ichigo and Rukia, that will need the three of you. You have to go save him, not us."
Orihime nodded. An entirely out of place- yet strangely fitting -determined turn to her lips, as she replied. "Right! We'll save them!"
"Ichigo and Rukia are our friends," Chad spoke, slowly and determinedly. He moved, just enough to let Orihime stand beside him. "He would do the same for us."
That was all that needed to be said, really. Ichigo would do the same for them. It was never a question, once they realized they had powers, that Orihime and Chad would use them to help Ichigo. Kisuke recognized that in them. The same kind of comradery and determination found in the greatest of Shinigami. He was proud already, and he hadn't even started training them.
...so what, if he had chosen this route specifically so he could study their powers. Especially Orihime's almost divine abilities.
What can I say? I've never encountered something quite like her, from what little I've seen. I need to know more. Maybe she can even destroy...no. That's for later.
While that group walked off, Uryu moved to leave. Yoruichi didn't move at all, settling for yelling at his retreating back. "Where do you think you're going, Quincy?"
Uryu turned around, glaring behind his glasses. His dark eyes narrowed into flinty slits. "Away from here. I want to defeat the Shinigami, more than you could ever know. I have no desire to train with anyone else to do so." Pushing the lenses up his nose, the Quincy grit his teeth in frustration. "Certainly not with another Shinigami. You can't teach me anything. I'm fully capable of learning on my-"
The last part of his sentence ended in a very unflattering scream. Before Uryu could blink, he had been laid out on the hard dirt. Yoruichi, smugly smirking, sat on his back. She shook her head, purple locks flowing around her face. Past her smug grin, the hint of disappointment lingered in her eyes. In this boy for his inability to move, and in Ichigo for having so much difficulty. Uryu struggled underneath her, of course. The barest hint of her true power was enough to put an end to that.
"Honestly, you Quincy are all the same." Yoruichi sighed in annoyance. She tapped her chin, keeping the pressure on the boy. "Your pride gets in the way of reality. You, your father...it doesn't matter. At least Ryuken can back up his pride. You can't do that, Quincy-boy."
"Wh-what are you talking about?" Uryu panted out beneath her, his breaths labored as he struggled against the power pressing on him. Even Kurosaki hadn't matched this, when he fought the Menos.
Sighing again, Yoruichi released her grip. She remained firmly planted on his back, however, when she continued speaking. "That was the energy of, oh, the average Third Seat. Do you know the ranking system that Shinigami use?" Not giving the Quincy a chance to answer, the former Captain finally stood up. She stared at him, deathly serious, when he got to his feet. "A Third Seat is the third strongest member of a Squad. A Lieutenant, like Renji Abarai, is dozens of times stronger. At minimum." Holding up a hand, she waved it around to emphasize her next point. "And a Captain can handle all of the Lieutenant's on their own, if they're serious. The average Captain. I'm not even talking about Kenpachi Zaraki, or the Head-Captain."
She was simplifying things, greatly. Kisuke, in the distance, twitched a little. Yoruichi showed no signs of caring. She was going to get her point across, if it killed her. Quincies and their pride. It was almost as bad as Ukitake.
"I'm not even talking about what Kido could do, either. Do you want to try against that?"
Uryu glared at her. His hands reached towards his cross, anger visible in his every movement. "Do you doubt my abilities that much, Shinigami?"
"Bakudo Number 1, Sai." Yoruichi dismissively waved a hand, snorting at the stupidity of the Quincy before her.
A teenager who, promptly, fell to the ground as his hands were tied behind his back by invisible strands. Invisible to the naked eye. Uryu could see purple strands of energy rippling around his body as they held his arms together behind his back. Bonds that, no matter how he struggled, wouldn't break. Even attempting to tear away the energy supporting them failed. For ever bit of power he siphoned into his own body, double was added back in by Yoruichi. He couldn't get free. He wouldn't be released, until the woman ended the Kido all on her own.
With another dismissive wave of her hand.
"Still think I'm lying? That was a low-level Bakudo. If you can't even get around that..." she trailed off, letting Uryu's brain do the rest.
And pride or not, he knew when he was beaten. His original plan had been to train with the glove his Grandfather had left him, despite knowing it would do more to limit him than aid him in the end. As, while it would help him in the short-term with channeling power, it would keep him from developing beyond that. His powers would plateau, because he could never remove the Sanrei Glove. It would kill him, as surely as if he actually died. His powers would be gone. Forever.
Perhaps...perhaps this woman was a way around that.
"Fine, say I let you train me," Uryu grumbled. He dusted himself off, again, and stared hard at the dark-skinned Shinigami. "How can you possibly teach me anything? You aren't a Quincy."
Yoruichi grinned, "I know your father, Quincy-boy. I can't teach you any sort of Quincy techniques, but I can teach you how to use them. How Shinigami fight, and how you should fight them." Grin widening, the woman cracked her knuckles, and tilted her head to the side. Her yellow eyes danced with amusement. "I haven't had this much fun in a long time, so I hope you know what you're doing.~"
And somewhere, in the depths of his soul, Uryu felt a deep shudder go through his very being.
AN: I debated if I wanted to include anything with Ichigo and Shirayuki, but in the end, I figured that was a natural point to end the chapter. This will be one of the rare times I salvage a lot of old material. I debated with myself on if I wanted to do something with the old material or not...and, well, it's there. Might as well use what I can.
I have cleaned it up and added a fair bit of new stuff, however. Cleared things up here and there. Stuff like that.
Next chapter should be almost entirely (if not entirely) new. Now that I have a better job (for my health) I think it won't take as long, either. I'm slowly but surely getting back into the swing of things, writing-wise.
