Chapter Three: Birthdays, Candy Shops & Soul Reapers

*Hueco Mundo*

It had been a little over a month since Emilou and Yoshiro had begun their friendship. Their first couple of meet ups had been simply hanging on the same warehouse roof and relaxing, talking and listening to the young blond as he played his music. After the second meeting Yoshiro had suggested hanging out at his house as a change of pace for things. Emilou had been somewhat hesitant at first but agreed to it knowing Yoshiro had no ill intentions. Plus, there wasn't many places in karakura they could go. While she was invisible too seemingly every other human in the town. Even with keeping her spiritual energy low enough to avoid detection. Traveling openly around all karakura was too risky for possible unwanted sighting by soul reapers. Not to mention bringing Yoshiro to hueco mundo was certainly out of the question.

While Emilou was certain her friends and mistress wouldn't hurt the boy if she explained things to them. The rest of the hollow world was still far too dangerous for a human to be hanging out in. Not to mention she still wasn't sure how to go about explaining her newfound friendship with the human too the others.

So, spending time at his house for a change of pace was the only real option at the moment. In all honesty, Emilou came to enjoy the time there more than she had expected. She had come to learn some new facts about Yoshiro in the time spent at his home. Namely outside of his other passions of music, martial arts and kendo, the boy was a skilled self-taught cook and baker. Yoshiro explained he took up the trades when he was 10 seeing them as another hobby to pass the time with, as well as just being good life skills to have.

As a vasto lord Emilou had no need to eat souls or other hollows anymore. She had explained to Yoshiro during one of their meet ups. She didn't even need to eat or drink in general truthfully, though she was still capable of doing so. A fact she came to be quite thankful for. The boys cooking skills were wonderful, the first evening spent at his place he made a dish called shrimp lo-mein completely from scratch. She had been unsure about the food at first but ultimately decided to try it. It would have been rude to refuse, especially since the boy had gone through the trouble to make it. The moment it reached her mouth a single phrase entered her mind.

'Holy shit, this is amazing!'

The flavors and textures of the all the different ingredients blended together perfectly. Emilou had remembered in that moment just how good food from her past life as a normal human could be. The rest of her plates contents quickly disappeared, much to Yoshiro's delight.

Yoshiro's had turned her onto a few other aspects of the human world, namely this odd yet interesting cartoon like shows called 'Anime' and worded picture books called 'Manga'. She found herself very engrossed in reading a series called 'Hellsing', she enjoyed the overtop, gory violence of it. Yoshiro had also introduced her to an anime called 'Outlaw Star'. She found the whole space themed show very imaginative and thrilling. She also couldn't help but find that a certain cat like warrior woman in the show called 'Aisha Clan-Clan', to somehow remind her a bit of Mila rose.

So that was how they were spending time together and Emilou was having the most fun she's had in her whole existence as a hollow. Not that she didn't hate her time with her friends and mistress, but everything always seemed to be on the same constant loop. Her and Mila would bicker, argue and swear a bit at each other. Sung-sun would interject some backhanded comment with her high-class attitude, then Emilou and Mila both would yell at her. Then lady Halibel would have to tell them to calm down with her calm yet stern and caring tone. It all felt like a broken record at times.

Emilou realized just how much her time in the human world was such a needed injection of life and enjoyment in her existence.

It was an early morning on a Saturday, Emilou was getting ready to head to the human world. Yoshiro had wanted to meet up earlier than usual today, though he wouldn't say why. She didn't bother to push the issue that much, Emilou had come to trust the young man a good amount over there time together.

She made her way out her room and off towards the door, when Mila called out to her.

"where you off to Emilou?"

"just headed out to do someone personal training for the day is all." She said as smoothly as she could.

"seems like been doing that a lot more lately?" Mila responded with a raised eyebrow.

"perhaps I just want to be more proactive in bettering myself. Unlike a certain fat assed lion?" Emilou snapped back.

"what did you say? You, skinny bitch?!" the lion like vasto retorted angrily.

"I am just saying if you worked a little more you wouldn't have to worry about hitting things with that ass of yours, as you walked around." Emilou said jokingly.

Mila merely gritted her teeth and growled in frustration at her comments. When suddenly Sung-sun chimed in.

"will you two ever stop arguing like some set of barbaric, uncouth, gorillas. Sometimes it makes me wonder if you two are even actually women to begin with?"

Mila growled even louder and more threateningly, while Emilou yelled.

"I WILL SHOVE AN ANTLER UP YOUR SCALEY ASS!"

She then proceeded to turn on her a heel and went out the door.

"see you all later." Was all she called back before disappearing into the deserts of hueco mundo.

Halibel who had watched the whole exchange, simply turned her head to the remaining two women in the room. She simply looked at them and shook her head like a mother disappointed in her children. Mila and Sung-sun simply looked away sheepishly, trying to look as innocent as possible.

*Karakura town 20 minutes later*

It was about 9:30 in the morning and Yoshiro was sitting in his living room already ready for the day. He had on his usual gloves and shoes but was wearing a 'The Ramones' t-shirt and a pair of jeans that had been purposely faded and ripped in a fashionable way, along with a studded belt. He was listening to AC/DC's 'Highway to Hell' album, awaiting Emilou's arrival. When suddenly garganta opened in his living room and the deer like hollow woman stepped out and let it close behind her.

"you know I'm not sure if I'll ever get quite used to that?" He said somewhat jokingly.

Emilou just huffed a bit. He raised an eyebrow and responded.

"you ok? You seem a little upset?"

"it's nothing really, just my friends annoying me is all. It's not that big of a deal." She said honestly.

Yoshiro stood up, walked over and placed a comforting hand gently on Emilou's shoulder and kindly spoke. "Don't let it bother you, presides what would friends be if they didn't annoy each other every now and again? Just comes with the territory."

Emilou simply let out a sigh of relief and knew he was right. As much as they could annoy each other at times. She knew deep down they all cared a lot for one another. They had been through a lot traveling together in hueco mundo along with their lady. Back when they were all still just low-level adjucah hollows. They would all go to great lengths to protect each other if push came to shove.

She decided to push these thoughts aside and focused on what was in front of her. She made quick look over of what Yoshiro was wearing and mentally noted. 'does he ever not look good?' then spoke up.

"So, what did you want to do today? You asked me to come over earlier than usual for some reason I assume?

He smirked a bit before giving his reply. "but of course, I figured we could travel the town a bit and I could show some of my favorite spots around Karakura before spending the evening here. Until you have to go home. No one else in town presides me and other spirits can see you after all."

Emilou perked up at this suggestion but couldn't have some slight worry and said with slight concern. "That's too risky I thought we agreed because of accidently being seen by a soul reaper?"

"Don't worry." He kindly replied. "I've spent the last few weeks when you are not here scouting out the town for any sign of them. I haven't caught a trace of them. It doesn't seem like they patrol around here."

She thought to herself about this, while she still had some concern. Ultimately her curiosity to see what the rest of Karakura had to offer won out. "Ok." She replied with excitement. "I'm in."

"Excellent." Yoshiro spoke with his own excitement. "let me just grab my gear and we can head out." He quickly went and grabbed his guitar, slung it over his back and a small portable amp with cord that he could strap to his belt. "let's head out." With that they strode outside to begin their journey into town.

The very first place they went to was the local arcade. Emilou was floored by what she saw there. So many different machines with all sorts of lights, sounds and eye-catching animation flying about everywhere. Never had she seen anything so lively and colorful. Such things simply didn't exist in hueco mundo. She loved every second of it.

After some time, there it was about 11am. They decided to head off into the food district. Yoshiro decided to introduce her to his favorite soda and favorite food. After buying enough for him and her, they made sure to head off to a side alley where they couldn't be seen. Emilou had to admit she could she why he liked them so much. The drink was sweet but not overly so and had a pleasant after taste. The grilled octopus had been seasoned and grilled properly, which insured a nice grilled flavor with the octopus being done while not being rubbery. Both treats complimented each other nicely.

After eating the blond announced his next idea. "let's head out to the local graveyard and I'll introduce you to some of my other spirit friends and play a few tunes." He spoke with enthusiasm.

Emilou flinched a little at this. After all she was still a hollow and the normal souls could freak out when they saw her. Ultimately, she decided to trust his judgement. "lead the way." She said.

They headed off to a graveyard that was located towards the forest like hillsides of town. Yoshiro decided to take a trail that lead up to the graveyard that was practically never used by anyone other than him.

As they traveled up Emilou stopped to admire some local birds she noticed in the trees fluttering about and singing to one another. She watched them with a smile on her face.

Yoshiro looked at what the woman just behind him was doing. He couldn't but muse to himself. 'you know, she fits in really well here among the forest like environment.' He smiled and continued to walk ahead figuring she would catch up once she was done bird watching. He got about 30 yards ahead of Emilou when suddenly he could feel an odd presence.

He looked to his right where he saw some black mass lunging at him. Reflexes kicked in and he managed to dodge just in time. He looked at what had attacked him. It looked like some kind of mutant spider with eight pairs of legs covered in spikes, the body had had a weird hourglass like shape to it. The head was white with four eye holes and two sets of pincer like mandibles. It was fucking freaky that's for sure Yoshiro noted to himself. Then he saw a hole that went clean through the body and realized it then. 'oh shit, it's one of those low-level hollows Emilou told me about.' He thought.

Then it spoke to him in a sickly, low and hissing like voice. "well, well, aren't you the quick one and here I was hoping to get you with one strike. Oh well, you can't escape me after all. Just let me eat you like the tasty little snack you are boy. I promise to kill you with the first bite so you won't have to feel anything. That's rather generous of me don't you think?"

"yeah you see, I am gonna have to ask you politely to go off and fuck yourself. Plus, my friend is probably about to kick the ever loving shit out of you."

"why you-"the hollow began to speak but then suddenly was cut off.

"You aren't going to fucking touch him!"

Yoshiro looked past the hollow to see Emilou walking up behind it. What he saw honestly surprised him. Luckily, he was good at keeping a straight face.

Emilou had a look of pure murderous rage on her face. Her eyes were narrowed in an angry predatory like manor. Her teeth bared out in a vicious snarl, with an unearthly like growl escaping from her throat. He could swear he was also seeing a red like aura swirling around her. He found the sight both intimidating and exciting all at once for some odd reason. 'hmmm…I think I have some weird fetishes I'm not aware of yet.' He thought.

The spider hollow having felt Emilou's presence turned around and was terrified beyond belief. Looking at another hollow of far greater superiority and quite clearly all sorts of pissed at it.

"Wha…wha…what is someone of your caliber doing here?" clearly terrified for its existence.

"what I am doing here is not the concern of a whelp like you." She said never dropping her fierce glare and murderous tone of voice. "you attacked the human there when you shouldn't have, I already have a claim on him you ignorant little shit!"

"P-p-p-p-please forgive me my lady I did not mean to cause offense. H-h-h-had I known of your claim I would have left the human be." The hollow spoke out in a rather sad and pathetic manner.

"a little late for apologies asshole." She said in response.

Too say Emilou was pissed would be an understatement, she was angrier than hell itself. When she sensed the pathetic excuse of a hollow and saw it had attacked and tried kill Yoshiro. She immediately flew into predatory kill mode. How dare this little bastard attack him. Human or not, Yoshiro had quickly become one of the few people in her existence she considered a true friend. Emilou wasn't going to hesitate to destroy anyone or anything that threatened her friends.

Emilou used sonido to get up into the hollows face in an instant and kicked with enough force to send it flying out of control. While it screamed in terror flying through the air, she gathered her power around her horn. As it built up and focused into a red sphere of energy, she simply shouted "CERO!" It shot out in a beam of red light and engulfed the screaming hollow, vaporizing it instantly. Emilou looked at her work with a smiling, somewhat malicious smirk.

"well….shit." Was all Yoshiro could bring himself to mutter in the moment.

Emilou quickly looked over too Yoshiro, calming down and making her way to him. "Did that bastard hurt you at all?" she asked with a worried and concerning tone.

"nah, I'm good, I managed to dodge the initial strike without any damage. Then you showed up and took care of things. Thanks a lot for that, it would have killed me for sure otherwise." He said in an assuring manner.

She left out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. So, what now?"

Yoshiro thought about it for a moment. While events of what just happened were certainly at the front of his mind. He decided not to bring it up unless Emilou did first. He didn't want to risk doing anything that could potentially kill the mood of things any further. "let's head back to town, theirs this candy shop I frequent. Has the best selection in town. I think you'll like." He said with confidence.

Emilou was taken by surprise from his suggestion. She thought for sure he would want to address nearly being killed by a hollow, but she decided not to press the issue. Figuring that talking about it, if they did. Would be better done later in the privacy of his home. For now, she was happy to go along with his candy shop idea.

"Sounds great, lead the way." She chirped.

As they made their way down the trail back towards town the young blond had a single thought. 'sure, hope that's the last of any wildness along those lines today.'

He should've knocked on wood.

*15 minutes later in soul society*

All the captains of the Gotei 13 had been called for an emergency meeting. They were all standing in place in the meeting hall, awaiting to be addressed of the situation that had just come to light. At the very end by himself was the head captain, old he may be, but he practically glowed with an aura of power, respect and someone not to be messed with. Seeing all the captains present he began the meeting.

"Thank you all for making it her in such a timely on such short notice." He spoke. "Our sensors in the living world some 15 minutes ago picked up the presence of a hallow that from the readings can only be determined to be a vasto lord. This sent a jolt of surprise through all present, the head captain continued to speak. "our sensors indicate it is located currently in a place called Karakura, Japan. For what reasons it has to be in such place is unknown but nor does it matter." He spoke with authority.

"A beast of such power cannot be allowed to roam freely in the living world. It could cause unfathomable amounts of damage. The creature must be hunted down and dealt with immediately before it can escape. Thus, I am assigning three captains to this task. Captain Hitsyugaya, captain Sui-feng and captain Shunsui. I assign you to this mission and permit you to bring your lieutenants if you choose too." He spoke with a tone that left no room for questioning. "Head out immediately, dismissed!"

*5 minutes later in Karakura*

Yoshiro and Emilou were walking towards the candy shop, it was about a quarter mile away and in their line of sight. As they casually strode down the road. Yoshiro looked at the woman beside him and noticed there was a slight glow of red surrounding her.

"Hey Emilou, I think your energy is still flared up a little from earlier?" He piped up.

Emilou mentally cursed at herself. 'Mother fucker!' She thought as she dropped her energy down to non-detectable levels. 'I was so caught up in the moment of everything I forgot to drop my energy back down to non-existent levels after killing that bastard. Hopefully in went unnoticed.'

As if the universe wanting to spite her in that very moment. Emilou suddenly felt the incoming presence of the one thing she didn't want to see more than anything. Yoshiro noticed her suddenly locking up and then felt the mysterious presence as well and asked.

"Emilou, what is that presence?"

She looked at him with concerned eyes and with a worrisome tone. Speaking only two words almost hoarsely.

"Soul Reapers."

The blond' s eyes suddenly shot wide, he grabbed the woman by one of her hands and said.

"Run!"

He took off running with Emilou in tow, heading for the only place he could think of in the moment. The candy shop, not the best hiding spot but it was the best they had at that point. Quickly they made their way inside and had Emilou hide on the floor up against the wall of one the corners of the room, that acted as the entrance of shop before the actual sales room. completely out of view of anyone unless they were to walk inside.

Yoshiro positioned himself just inside the doorway to the outside, as too see everything that was just outside the shop. As well as giving him a clear view of both ends of the street the shop sat on. He eyed back and forth intently trying to see anything out of place.

Emilou sat in the corner watching the young man before her as he kept a close look out for any soul reaper activity. She mentally cursed herself again, she could have killed the bastard from earlier without going so overboard but she was so caught up in her anger she didn't think about it. Now this was happening, she could only hope now they could get out of this ok. Kami willing.

Both so focused on the current situation, they failed to notice the same black cat from a month ago watching them. As well as a man in green and white holding a cane.

Yoshiro kept watching hoping that maybe it was a false alarm, then his worse fears were realized. He saw four figures appear at one end of the street all varying sizes, two looked like women, one with a build seemingly like Emilous, another taller and with breast the size of large watermelons. The other looked like two guys one older and wearing a pink colored kimono and the other looked to be some middle schooler with a snow top for hair. He also noticed both guys and the smaller woman had a white coat of sorts. He quickly and quietly whispered this too Emilou. Her eyes went wide, and she simply whispered back.

"captains"

Yoshiro's own eyes went wide from this, Emilou had once told him during one her earlier visits about captains and now there were atleast three of them here to hunt and kill her. Like hell he was gonna let that happen. He had an idea, not a very good one in all honesty but he had no time for anything else. Especially when he noticed the soul reapers had started to make their way down to the shop, slowly but surely. He decided to tell her his plan. He looked to her and whispered.

"I'm going to go out there and misdirect them away from here."

Suddenly Emilou looked at him with an expression as if he had just walked up to lady Halibel and slapped her. She quickly whispered back.

"are you out of your fucking mind?!"

"most likely in all honesty." He quietly spoke back and before Emilou could say or do anything else he casually strode out the door pulling his guitar from his back.

As he stepped out with his guitar in-hand he mused quietly to himself. "whatever higher powers exist, please let this work." His plan was simple really, he was going to act as if he was too engrossed with messing with his guitar to pay attention to where he was walking. Not a hard thing to pull off for him. Then "accidently" bump into one of them and catch them off-guard with him being a spiritually aware human and to get their attention focused on him. In order to then try to direct them away. 'Time to nut up' he thought to himself.

He began making his way down looking solely at his guitar fiddling with the frets and strings. While Yoshiro never cared for lying, he was certainly glad in this situation that he had a knack for keeping a straight face and smooth talking when he needed too. He focused on the sound of the footsteps of the soul reapers as he made his way closer preparing to make his move as smoothly as he could.

Toshiro and his fellow captains along with his lieutenant Rangiku made their way down the street and stopped when the trail of the hollow energy suddenly cut out. "hmmmm, this isn't good." He muttered.

"Did it somehow sense us and already make an escape?" Sui-feng questioned somewhat angrily.

"Maa, maa don't get so discouraged so quickly Sui-feng." Shunsui said in his usual manner. "I don't see how it could have made an escape with garganta or other means without us sensing it. It may have sensed our approach, so it's most likely dropped its pressure and his hiding out nearby. Waiting for us to pass or to attack."

"I agree with Shunsui." Toshiro spoke up. "it would do best to atleast search the immediate area first and proceed to fan out if we don't find anything."

"Fair enough." spoke Sui-Feng.

Rangiku who was just listening to the captains when she suddenly heard some footsteps coming from one end of the street, she turned her head to see what it was. The captains apparently heard too as they all paused to turn their heads and looked as well.

Rangiku saw what may have been the most handsome and exotic looking young man she had ever laid her eyes on. He had mocha skin, wild blond hair with a braided ponytail he had draped across the back his neck, with the rest of it laying against the front of the right side of his chest. He was a bit tall with a lean but muscular build, wearing a shirt that was just tight enough to somewhat display his sculpted abs. then there were his eyes, his eyes were a deep cerulean blue that glistened like sapphire's.

Despite what some might say, Rangiku wasn't the type to drag a handsome person back to her place for fun on a whim, just because she found them cute and nothing more. However, she had to admit she was awfully tempted to do so at the current moment. Glancing around her quickly, she noticed that even captain Sui-feng was seemingly enthralled by the boys looks a bit. Judging by the slight blush she had on her face.

Focusing her attention back on the boy, she noted his attire and figured he must be some sort of musician. His look just screamed, 'rock n' roll bad boy'. She, also noticed he was walking down the street directly towards them fully engrossed adjusting his guitar as he walked, paying no attention to anything around him.

Her captain broke the moment "Don't worry about him, he just human. He can't see, hear or feel us. Let's keep focused on the task at hand." Said the child sized captain.

"agreed" spoke sui-feng trying to speak in a firm tone with a slight blush still adorning her face.

Shunsui merely nodded his head in agreement and they began making their way down the street in the blond boy's direction. As they got close to the boy, he was still fully focused on his guitar to notice anything around him. He began slightly swerving into Rangiku's direction as he walked. Rangiku believing he'd just pass through her as non-spiritually aware humans do, so she didn't bother to move. Then something happened no one expected to happen. When he reached her instead of phasing through as expected, he collided full on into her. Catching everyone by surprise the boy included. The boy lost his footing caught by surprise from the contact and fell forward, face first right into Rangiku's chest. Rangiku on reflex, threw her arms ups around the boy to stop his fall and inadvertently pushing him deeper into her chest.

Yoshiro had expected when he made his move for the collision whoever he was aiming for would try to move out of the way. Thus, leading to a slight bumping to initiate everything. He wasn't expecting full frontal contact, which caused him to lose his footing and fall forward. Next thing he knew he was submerged in darkness by two gigantic mounds of blissfully squishy flesh. He swore he saw the complete knowledge of the universe flash before him for a brief second. Then he noted his lack of oxygen, thankfully it didn't last long.

Suddenly he was pulled out of the darkness into the light of the world. Gasped for breath and noted the people around him. The snow top middle schooler was giving him a questioning raised eyebrows look, the guy with the pink kimono looked to be resisting the urge to laugh. The smaller women had a look of not knowing what to make of him, and the women whos' chest he had just un-intentionally dived into. Was giving him a playful, coy look that seemed like she wanted to go somewhere more private and continue things. Thrown off his game for a moment, he said the one thing came to mind in the moment.

"uhhhh….how's it going?" Once more he was putting his mastery of language on full display.

Then the snow top spoke up. "you're a spiritually aware human?"

Uhhh…yes, I suppose whatever you mean by that? Wait a minute are you saying your ghost or something?" Yoshiro lied as smoothly as he could with his surprised/dumb act. It seemed to be working. The small woman spoke up.

"quite odd to find a spiritually aware human, I wonder if that's what you really are?" she spoke somewhat threateningly with a look that yelled 'I will do awful things to you for answers.' Thankfully pink kimono man spoke up.

"maa, maa don't give the boy such a hard time he's clearly very weirded out by all of this. Forgive my colleagues rudeness young man, were hear on an important mission perhaps you could help us out?"

"ok, shoot." Yoshiro giving his best 'I'll do what I can expression.'

"Well you see young man" said pink kimono man. "were looking for a creature of sorts you see. It will have some semblance to a person but still have plenty of non-person like semblance. It's quite dangerous and needs to be dealt with as soon as possible. We followed its trail to around this area before it went cold. Did you see anything by chance?"

Yoshiro had to resist reflexing in anger over his 'needs to be dealt with comment', thankfully he managed without tipping them off. He politely spoke in a 'think I remember this kind of tone.'

"About 10 minutes before you arrived here, I did notice some weird thing in the air." That grabbed their attention. "it looked to be female roughly in shape, had antlers and a horn from what I could tell. Fur from the waist down to its ankles. It turned towards the industrial district of town, northeast of here. Then it just suddenly disappeared in some blur. Sound like what you're looking for by chance?"

"more or less" said snow top "we have a lead we had better head off that way before it makes a total escape."

"agreed, thank you for help young man." Said pink kimono man.

"anytime" that was a lie. Yashiro turned to the blond with the massive chest. "by the way I didn't mean for the whole falling down into your chest thing." That however was the truth.

She merely winked and said, "For you, not a problem cutie." This got an honest eyebrow raise out of Yoshiro. He could practically hear snow top shake his head in annoyance from behind him. Meanwhile the small woman just continued to glare at him in some sort of annoyance.

And then they all disappeared in an instant. Yoshiro hung around a bit acting like he was still trying to accept everything that had just happened. In case they were secretly watching him. After a few minutes and affirming they had truly left, he casually turned on his heel and went back to the candy shop to check on Emilou.

As the soul reapers traveled, sui-feng spoke up. "was it wise not to do anything with that boy? Running into a spiritually aware human isn't a common thing."

Shunsui spoke up. "normally, I would agree but we have a vasto lord to hunt down and deal with. That takes precedence over everything else while we're here."

The others nodded silently in agreement and continued the false trail Yoshiro managed to put them on. They would end up going home empty handed.

Yoshiro strode back into the candy shop quite pleased with his work. "well despite all the odds I managed to fool them with my act." He then noticed Emilou was still on the floor but there was black cat sitting in front of her and a guy he noticed as the shop owner standing next to her. Emilou had an awkward look of 'this is happening right now' on her face.

"Son of a bitch." Yoshiro muttered out loud.

Yoshiro approached the man he knew as the shop owner named Kisuke Urahara and spoke calmly. "judging by this scene I assume you can see her?"

Urahara merely smiled from behind his fan and chirped. "why yes indeed my young friend! Before you ask, I'll also just confirm I know just what she is and what those individuals, you just so slyly like a fox managed to fool are as well."

Then his expression turned serious and calmly spoke "I would very much like to hear about the story between you two."

Yoshiro and Emilou looked at one another, then turned to Urahara and nodded their heads in agreement seeing as how they didn't seem to have any choice in the matter. They were led to a backroom in the shop. Emilou and Yoshiro told him everything. Once they were finished, Urahara looked at them with a deep in thought expression from behind his fan and calmly spoke.

"well, that certainly is quite a story. I have to admit I've never heard of, let alone seen someone befriend a hollow before." He spoke inquisitively. Yoshiro than spoke up with a question of his own.

"how is it that you know so much about all this stuff?"

Urahara looked at the young blond in a studying like manner and spoke. "you see, I was once closely associated with the people you fooled earlier as well as the organization they worked." Emilou and Yoshiro flinched at this but then Urahara continued. "but we had a falling out a long time ago and I've been hiding out from them ever since." They both relaxed a bit upon hearing that.

"So, what happens now?" Yoshiro piped up.

"Simple." Urahara spoke with a smile and a happy tone. "I'm going to help you two out."

"Why?" the young man and hollow woman said together.

"in all honesty, a whim. Also, I can sympathize with being hunted and hated by soul society." The shopkeeper said somewhat somberly.

"what do you think about this Emilou?" the blond asked his friend.

Emilou sat there for a moment in deep thought before speaking. "while I have reservations about this, ultimately I can tell your being honest with us. Plus, with what happened earlier. We need whatever help we can get to avoid any further detection from the soul reapers." She said with a serious tone.

Urahara perked up a little behind his fan and said. "very well then, I'm going to get you fitted with a gigai then."

"the fuck is that?" Both boy and girl said in unison. Making the shopkeeper chuckle a bit before explaining. "you see a gigai is essentially a fake body crafted to look like just like you would if you were a human. It will complete suppress your spiritual energy, though you will still have access to your raw strength and speed that doesn't require the use of your spiritual energy."

"damn that's impressive." Said Emilou.

Urahara merely smiled more at the statement before speaking. "well miss Apacci, I'll just need some slight assistance on your part." He pulled out a fist sized orb and held it out. "just focus some of your energy into this and it will do the rest."

Emilou did so and the orb began to glow.

"very good." Spoke Urahara as he stood up and headed towards another to door to the shop. "the process will take roughly an hour I'll call you all back when everything is ready." They nodded their heads in response.

They sat around in relative silence for the hour, thinking about the day's events. Although the black cat strode over to Yoshiro and proceeded to lay in front of him. Being somewhat of an animal person he passed the time petting, scratching and belly rubbing the feline. It resisted a bit at first before it relaxed and purred intensely. Something the boy found a little odd but ultimately just rolled with. Eventually Urahara called them back. Yoshiro strode in the back carrying the cat while still scratching it, with Emilou just behind him.

Urahara raised an inquisitive eyebrow at this but said nothing. What they saw before them left Emilou and Yoshiro's jaws hanging. The gigai looked just like Emilou just minus her hollow features. Different eye colors with the red ring as well. It was dressed in a form fitting jean, a slim fit black and red striped shirt. A pair of terry cloth wristbands on her wrists and shoes like Yoshiro's only the ones on the gigai were blue with white.

Neither boy nor girl could come up with any words to say. The shopkeeper chuckled and spoke up. "miss Apacci, you'll just need to come over and focus your energy on the gigai, it will do the rest. Just a fair warning, when you first enter it. You won't be able to move at all for a bit. The gigai needs time to adjust to your energy, this only last a few minutes and is a one-time thing." He then held out a little green pill and explained. "whenever you need to leave your gigai just put this pill in your mouth and it will do the rest."

Emilou nodded in understanding then walked over to the gigai and began to focus her energy. She felt a sudden tug like sensation and then before she knew it, she was on her back, she was in the gigai. It felt so alien at first but after a few minutes of waiting she steadily regained all her functions and felt more comfortable. She stood and began stretching a bit to better loosen the gigai up a bit. Yoshiro averted his eyes to avoid staring at the display too much. Then Urahara spoke.

"how does it feel miss Apacci?"

"Feels perfectly fine surprisingly enough." she replied.

The shopkeeper smiled in response to this and said a little joyfully. "well then, that's good to hear. You two are welcome to leave when ready."

With that Yoshiro put the cat down, he and Emilou spared a few words of gratitude to the shopkeeper and strode to the front of the shop and out the door. Deciding to head back to his house for the rest of day with all that had happened.

As Kisuke watched the two individuals walk down the street to their next destination. The cat disappeared behind a wall, a brief glow appeared and a few moments later a woman stepped out. She hard dark skin, purple/black hair and wore a skintight black suit with an orange jacket of sorts. She walked up beside the shopkeeper and spoke in a concerning tone.

"Are you sure this was a good idea Kisuke?"

Urahara gave a glance to his friend and calmly said. "this was for the best Yoruichi. It's obvious they have no intention of stopping their visits to each other. Giving her a gigai like I did, will help drastically reduce any future problems with soul society. The boy and the girl got extremely lucky today, as did we all things considered. Doing what I did will benefit us all for the current moment of things. Last thing we need is a fight between captains and a vasto lord in the middle of Karakura." He finished.

Yoruichi merely sighed in agreement knowing he was right. Then she had a coy smirk play across her face and spoke. "I'll give the boy this, he can certainly think pretty well on the fly and he has no fear. Not to mention he has very skilled hands." She finished with a rather playful and seductive purr.

As Yoshiro and Emilou entered his home. They both let out a sigh of huge relief. The day had turned out wilder than either could have ever expected. They relaxed for a while in silence in his living room processing the day's events. Yoshiro looked up at the clock and noticed it about 5:45 in the afternoon. Time had flown by in the craziness of everything. However, he had something in store for his friend and wasn't going to let the day's events stop him. He got up and said.

"wait here for a sec, I have a surprise for you." He spoke with excitement.

"I think I've had enough with surprises for one day." She responded sarcastically.

"trust me, you'll like this." With that he strode into his kitchen.

Emilou sat on the couch in front of a coffee table in Yoshiro's living room, wondering just what it was the blond boy was planning. Then she heard steps coming her way and what she saw truly baffled her. Yoshiro was walking towards her with a cake, as he set it down on the table in front of her. She noticed it had the words 'Happy Birthday' on it.

"just what the hell is this?" she asked in questioned shock.

"it's a birthday cake, it's May 17th. That is your birthday, correct?" he warmly replied.

Then she suddenly remembered, it was her birthday. Granted she never really thought about her birthday these days since she was a hollow. While she and all her friends weren't all that old for hollows. Lady Halibel being the oldest amongst them at around 16 years of age as a hollow. Hollows could live for hundreds of years even longer, if they could survive that long. So, the concept of having a birthday loses its meaning when someone can live so long. Despite that fact Emilou found herself barely keeping back tears of joy and had a beaming smile on her face at the display before her.

"I can't even remember the last time I celebrated a birthday you know?" she said with calm joy. "I honestly almost can't believe you actually remembered it. Thank you so much Yoshiro, this is thoughtful beyond what I can possibly express in thanks." He merely beamed with a kindly, warm smile looking directly at her and spoke.

"It's no problem at all Emilou, this what friends do for each other after all."

"so, what's the cake anyways?" she asked with genuine curiosity.

"It's a chocolate and vanilla swirl cake, with buttercream frosting and a drizzle of caramel over top of it." He said with a bit of pride. "I made it yesterday myself." With that, he cut out a piece and served it to her.

A little while later after they had satisfied their fill of cake, which Emilou had to admit was positively delicious. Then Yoshiro pulled out a small square box, she had missed before and handed it to her.

"What's this?" she spoke.

"It's your birthday present, open it up. I think you're going to like it." He said with warmth.

Emilou decided to not question it and opened the box. What she saw almost made her drop it in surprise.

Inside was a pendent made of silver about three inches in circumference. Attached to a silver chain but what was so special about it was the image on it. Engraved on the pendent was the image of a doe, it stood in field with a few flowers at its hooves. With the backdrop of a lush forest and the sun shining in the sky. She merely looked up Yoshiro now with a few tears of happiness now sliding down her face and kindly said.

"This is beautiful, thank you so much." She wiped some of the tears away.

"Here" He said as he sat down next to her. He reached over and grabbed the pendent out of the box. He gently and caringly placed it around Emilou's neck.

"It looks good on you." He said with warmth and a smile.

Emilou wasn't sure what she was feeling at that moment. All she knew it was something new to her. It was something unlike anything she had felt before. All she knew was this feeling she had for Yoshiro currently went beyond friendship, whatever it was.

Whatever it was, she liked it more than any other feeling she had felt before.