Urahara frowned as he glared at the display screens he was studying in one of the back rooms of his store, their bright screens illumination a pale face with the most striking features being the massive bags under his eyes, He didn't sleep enough on the best of days and preparing for his latest endeavour had taken far more out of him than he'd predicted… but it had to be done right, and even then the consequences could still be catastrophic
A knock at his door attracted his attention and angling his head slightly, he caught sight of Tessai at the door, no doubt there to confirm the readings he was getting
"Manager?" asked Tessai as he looked inside the door
Urahara nodded and motioned for him to speak as he returned to frowning at the screens
"It appears that our intervention was succesful; but there were some complications; you'd better come out and take a look"
"Yes, yes" replied Urahara, rubbing his eyes as he rose to his feet.
The two of them walked outside the store to witness a portal open up in the sky above Karakura town, invisible to all but those with the ability to see spirits, and streaks of light emerged from the portal's centre, shooting towards the ground as if they were fired from a cannon
Urahara smirked "Tessai-san the project appears to have been a success…except for some of the strange readings I was receiving"
"Yes, Manager, we detected one of our portals opening up in Seireitei"
Urahara acknowledged that, while unfortunate, it fell well within the expected range of what he was attempting
Tessai paused for a beat before delivering the news that Urahara had secretly been hoping had been a glitch in his system.
"Manager, one of the reiatsu signatures we detected read Vizard rather than the Shinigami you specified"
"Seireitei and Vizard" Urahara replied his voice tinged with concern "Then we didn't make it in time... or we were noticed"
The second part was the most concerning even though he committed to this undertaking in the utmost secrecy and with some of his strongest safeguards… because if he hadn't… at minimum three people would have died in the process, with the maximum numbering a whole lot more.
He paced around for a few seconds with his fan to his face before snapping it shut as he came to a decision.
"Tessai-san if you could go track down the Vizard and the other signature that landed here, We need them brought here as soon as possible"
"At once manager" said Tessai as he rushed off to complete the order.
While Urahara looked out at the sky again, specifically at one part in the sky where a certain portal had winked out of existence moments ago, then shook his head and stepped back into his store to make some arrangements.
Joel slowly awakened from his dreams of flying due to a wet feeling all over his lower back, assuming it was sweat, but it was actually caused by lying on grass that was soaked in morning dew, which had soaked through his white uniform shirt, causing it to stick uncomfortably to his back, though he didn't realize what it was at first, because his head was resting comfortably on something warm and smooth
He could faintly hear voices discussing something around him, and he could understand the language, but a few of the words they were using were throwing him for a loop,
"This guy's got a Lieutenant level reiatsu while he's unconscious, but no zanpakuto or uniform; just where did this guy come from?" one of them asked the rest quizzically "Even in Soul Society people don't just appear from the sky with no good explanation"
The portal that had dropped Joel off in the middle of a gathering of people had long since vanished but the mystery behind his appearance was not something they intended to let go of easily.
Confused now, Joel opened his eyes slowly, awake enough now to realize that he was neither anywhere he was supposed to be, nor anywhere he expected to be and stared straight up into the green eyes of the woman whose lap his head was resting on
She stared back down at him as he blinked in surprise, and after a few seconds of them staring blankly at each other he smiled weakly at her, and to his abject surprise... she smiled right back at him
His face turned red with embarrassment and he quickly sat up with a groan; eliciting squeals of surprise from the unsuspecting members of the SWA around him and alerting them to the fact that he was conscious.
Joel glanced around at the gaggle of women surrounding him closely, no less than six of them, and all of them wearing similar black robes that Joel could identify as a uniform of some sort and then there was the one whose lap he'd been resting on.. and she'd smiled at him
The thought made his blush even redder and he stared down at the ground, attempting to think of something, anything to explain what was going on
"Yay Curlyhead is awake" a small childish voice said cheerfully
"Please be quiet President-san, I'll try talking to him…he might know why he's here" a calm controlled voice said
"Ehhhh? Why does Nanao get the first crack at a new guy; you have Captain Kyoraku" a loud exuberant voice exclaimed
"What on earth do you mean Matsumoto-san, what does the fact that I have a captain have to do with anything?"
"Rangiku-san you get more than enough attention as it is" a fourth timid voice offered up meekly in an effort to avoid a conflict before it began
While the voices continued arguing amongst themselves, Joel fell back into unconsciousness slumping backwards back into the lap, deciding he was still dreaming as he again drifted away.
Moll woke up in a bed with a start, her memories of the previous events all coming to her in an instant, causing her to sit up with a small shout ; to the small surprise of one Kisuke Urahara.
"My, my awake now are we?" he said lightly, snapping his fan shut as he checked over an IV bag that she was attached to
She looked over at the figure sitting next to her bedside. He was wearing a green and white striped hat that covered most of his eyes and in a dark green overcoat.
"Who the hell are you… where the hell am I, where the hell is Layne and Joel, what the hell is going on!"
Moll's rapid firing of questions was a good sign that she was on the road to recovery, but it was also too much, too fast, thought Urahara decided to answer as best he was able
"My name is Kisuke Urahara, you're in my shop, I have one of the two you mentioned, with the black hair and wrist wound, and I'll answer that when I can explain it to both of you... you should go back to sleep until I've finished helping your friend up"
Moll felt so tired she couldn't actually disagree, slumping back into the bed as her body admitted defeat for her, she turned her head to look at Urahara before saying on last thing.
"Alright but if he's not healed by the time I wake up again I'll kick your ass"
"I'll accept that" he replied with a tight smile, getting up and walking to the door of the room they were in
As soon as he exited the room though, his smile faded and his thoughts over took him
"They're both just teenagers; and they should have nothing to do with this, what on earth is he playing at?… they aren't ready for this… but I guess neither was Kurosaki-san… "
Meanwhile in the Seireitei; once the SWA got over the shock of Joel falling down in the middle of their picnic and the subsequent arguments that brought with it, they quite sensibly agreed to Isane's suggestion to take him to Captain Unohana for a medical examination.
After Nanao had taken her glasses off to make Yachiru and Matsumoto stop arguing over what division he was destined for, of course.
It was unheard of before for a soul displaying the sheer amount of reiatsu that Joel had to appear in the Soul Society by normal methods, let alone unexpectedly through the sky and it warranted further investigation, but at the same time, his potential could not be ignored, so on their way to the 4th division HQ, Joel hanging limply over Nemu's shoulders, all the women discussed the possibilities excitedly, though the most popular idea was that the overworked Captain Ukitake needed a proper Lieutenant, instead of his constantly bickering, conjoined third seats.
Cursing their bad luck that the portal had arrived directly above a SWA meeting the shadows in the background slipped away silently, not really willing to report their failure to Aizen but resolved to do so anyway.
When they arrived at the 4th division headquarters Captain Unohana examined Joel and mended several small scrapes and bruises from the rough ride to the portal, apart from that he'd been moderately malnourished and dehydrated, but had no seriously maladies from his rough ride.
The rest of the SWA had gone back to their divisions to make their reports and only Nemu Kurotsuchi and Isane Kotetsu had remained behind in the 4th division HQ, awaiting Unohana's return patiently
Isane because she was waiting for further instructions from her Captain
Nemu because she knew that Mayuri would be furious if she reported without some samples of this latest scientific anomaly and partially to satisfy her own very curious about Joel, it had been a surprise when he landed in her lap.
She pressed a hand to the side of her lips, which felt as they always did, and didn't appear to be moving involuntarily, unlike before when the enigma had smiled up at her, she had a feeling that this was a line of inquiry she didn't want Mayuri to be involved with.
Unohana came out of Joel's ward, her usual smile attached to her face, indicating that Joel's condition was acceptable to her, and both the women waiting stood up at her appearance
"Captain-"
Unohana held up a hand to forestall any further talking from Isane and began speaking
"The boy is in a stable condition but I would like someone to watch over him for a while"
She turned to Nemu "Nemu-san if I could trouble you?"
"Of course Captain Unohana" Nemu replied unemotionally "Mayuri-sama will need to be informed of my absence"
"It will be taken care of it"
Nemu moved inside Joel's room and immediately began taking certain samples; she could always ask someone to drop them at the 12th division later
Unohana smiled and closed the door behind them and motioned for the confused Isane to follow her with a tilt of her head
"Isane, please join me for some tea; there are some things we need to discuss"
She led Isane to her office and poured them both a cup of earl grey tea, her preference for the stronger flavour well known among the Gotei 13
"There is something happening Isane, and the upcoming execution of Kuchiki Rukia is only the beginning" Unohana said in between sips of tea
Isane blinked in surprise, apart from the news of the upcoming execution, and Joel's sudden appearance, everything else had been business as usual
Unohana continued, trusting that Isane had put together the dots that a scheduling of such an out dated, barbaric practice likes a public execution and the sudden appearance of a man with a lieutenants reiatsu was anything but business as usual
"I believe this boy will play a significant part in events that are to come, and with that in mind, there are some errands I would like you to run, starting with this message to Lieutenant Renji, in the 6th Division"
"Yes Captain"
Back in the Urahara store Layne was finally waking up, the day after Moll had surprised Urahara.
"It's about damned time you wake up, you always sleep for too damn long, you jerk" he heard a familiar voice say with her regular levels of scorn and sass, and something else as well, like she had something caught in her throat
"What the hell Moll, It's too damned early for sane people to be awake"
With that statement he sat up groaning; when he opened his eyes he noticed a couple of things. One he wasn't in either his, Moll's or Joel's house. Secondly but far more importantly Moll looked like she'd been crying
"Shit Moll haven't I told you, it's not bloody use worrying about me, I'm like a cockroach, I'll be around after the apocalypse" Layne said with a grin, hoping that his shitty humor would infuriate her out of her melancholy state
"Shut the hell up" she replied, wiping some loose tears off her face with her wrist "I'm not crying cause I though you would die, In case you haven't noticed; Joel isn't here with us and we don't know if he survived that trip through the hole"
With the mention of that hole Layne's memories came flooding back, he immediately remembered his wrist being pierced. But checking it the only trace of a hole he could see was a small mark that looked like it was glowing black and green.
Layne blinked in surprise, the black and green glow was gone.
Must have been a trick of the light
Layne was silent in thought for a couple for minutes before he said
"Wouldn't you be better off crying if we find his body? A little thing like falling into some weird-ass hole wouldn't kill Joel, although if he feels anything like I do at the moment... he probably wishes it had"
"You're an idiot" Moll replied with a strained smile, wiping a couple of stray tears from the corner of her eyes "If you keep saying dumb shit like that i'm not going to feel better at all"
"Yeah" he grinned "I know there's not a thing i could say that would help you at all"
"My, my; It appears you have woken up"
Urahara stood by the entrance to the room they were sitting in, and without waiting for an invitation strode right in, putting Layne on guard because he hadn't encountered this strange man before, though Moll shot him a glance that indicated he could chill as Urahara faced the two of them, Layne in the bed and Moll sitting in a chair beside him
"I kept my promise didn't I" he said directing his first question at Moll who only shrugged
"Guess you did"
"But before we continue we should probably exchange introductions; Kisuke Urahara, Manager of this here convenience store"
Layne and Moll exchanged a glance and in a very rare occurrence, their thoughts aligned
Convenience Store? No way is this guy who he says he is
Layne and Moll continued to stare at each other, each looking to the other to provide some source of bearing for the situation before Layne sighed, and took charge
"Layne Trell"
"Moll Rayner"
"Good; Now Trell-san, Rayner-san if you could follow me… I'll do my best to explain what has happened to you"
"Ugh" Joel thought to himself "My head feels like the last time i got punched in the face...except worse somehow"
He tried to sit up but realized he couldn't move, something was holding him down, so he opened his eyes instead, then screwed them shut immediately as the light hit them
"You are awake?"
A soft female voice was coming from above him, causing him to realize that he hadn't been dreaming earlier
"Yeah" Joel replied, completely unnecessarily
"Please do not attempt to move, I have been performing tests and taking samples and I need to finish, otherwise you might be injured"
The voice stopped speaking and Joel could hear scratching as a pen made notes on paper for a couple or seconds, and he felt a swab across his skin and then pain as a needle pierced his arm.
He gasped, what the hell was in those needles? It hurt a hell of a lot more than any previous needles he'd ever had.
And then the voice said "I am now going to move the light out of your face, this should allow you to see."
The first thing Joel noticed when his eyes had adjusted and he could see again was that the room he was in was very old fashioned, the second thing that he noticed was that he was strapped to the table, and thirdly, that his 'captor' was the poor woman he'd landed on before
"Well first of all... is this really necessary?"
She only blinked at his question, which Joel took to mean that it was probably a stupid one
"I guess that's fair" he continued "I'm sorry about..."
Trailing off, he remembered how soft her lap had been, and then blushed, while she waiting for him to finish... but before he could, he noticed several vials of blood and other pieces on a nearby counter... and suddenly realized why the previous needle had hurt so bad
"What are you going to do to me?!" he exclaimed as she produced another far-too-large needle
"Taking tests for Mayuri-sama" she replied, apparently completely unperturbed by the fact that she was holding a needle the approximate size of a large drinking straw
"Let's start from the beginning" Joel said, having finally convinced her that she had more than enough of his blood already, and to sit in a chair next to the bed if she wanted to talk or perform further tests. "Who are you, where am I, Why am I here and where are my friends",
"Kurotsuchi Nemu 12th division Lieutenant, You are currently in the 4th division headquarters in the hospital section in Seireitei, Myself and the members of the Shinigami's woman's association found you when you fell down in the middle of our picnic and we brought you here, and as for your friends I would have no idea... We only found you.
Joel was silent at that news, though he'd passed out before being sucked into the hole, he distinctly remembered Layne taking a large spike to the wrist for him and hoped that he was okay
"Since i answered all of your questions...would you answer one of my questions?" She asked, taking his silence as an opening to speak
"I guess..."
"What is your name?"
"Joel Bracer"
Nemu made some more notes on the pad in front of her while Joel remained silent, attempting to process the absurdity of the situation
"So... what happens to me now?" He asked, the thought occurring to him that he was a stranger in a strange land, strapped to a strange table in a strange hospital, and had no idea where to go from here
"We require a new lieutenant and since you are the only lieutenant level reiatsu to come through in a while you have been nominated for the task"
"Whoa, what's a reiatsu?... what's a lieutenant?"
Nemu attempted to give him the condensed version of the crash course to Shinigami abilities, life and responsibilities, that still hit him like a ton of bricks
"Do I get a choice here?" Joel asked weakly when she finished "Not that i would know what to choose..."
"I do not believe so" she said, finally giving into another urge to smile at him, one that she'd been carrying since he'd awoken
"It is my wish that you go through with this and join me in being a lieutenant"
"Shit" Joel thought as he blushed furiously "I am no good with beautiful women"
"Ok I'll do it then, it's not like I have anything else to do here anyway, without my friends"
"As soon as Captain Unohana returns, she will give you a final examination and then our work will begin."
"What on earth have I signed myself up for!"
Looking around at the huge-ass cavern under the shop that Urahara had led them to, Layne had a pretty good guess as to what kind of reaction Urahara was looking for
"Wow who would of expected such a huge-ass space under that tiny shop" he said dryly, rolling his eyes as he watched Urahara start tearing up in happiness
Moll shook her head and slapped Layne
"You, idiot, don't encourage him"
Layne grinned apologetically and rubbed his face as he resumed looking at what appeared to be a painted on sky, which was somehow providing perfect daylight to their desolate rocky surroundings
"Putting aside unimportant things Kisuke, why don't you explain to these two what happened?" a new voice said, snapping Layne's attention back to the present
"Holy Fuck!, A talking cat!" Moll exclaimed as she identified the source of the voice, a small black cat that was heading towards them with a purpose
The cat seemed to smirk "Not exactly"
It began to glow and suddenly transformed into a very tall and very naked dark skinned woman with long purple hair and golden eyes
Urahara started shooting blood from his nose and covered his face with his fan, while Layne turned the color of said blood and very quickly averted his gaze, suddenly unnaturally interested in the grain of wood that made up the ladder they'd climbed down on
"Now you were saying Kisuke?" Yoruichi said, proving to them that it was not a talking cat… just some kind of werecat
"Hold it" Moll interrupted before Urahara could say anything "I don't really care, because you're hot… but you should probably put some clothes on or nothing you say will get through to that idiot, and he'll be useless to us for the rest of the day" she indicated Layne who was still giving the ladder the most thorough inspection of its existence from and was the exact colour of a ripe tomato.
"He's still embarrassed by stuff like this, I don't even think he's ever watched porn"
"Aww, how cute" Yoruichi said as she laughed "Very well"
When Yoruichi was dressed and Urahara cleaned up his nosebleed, Urahara finally began to explain while the four of them sat in a circle beside one of the tall cairns that dotted the landscape, close to the ladder, but out of sight of several of Urahara's construction projects
"That hole you described, it's something i've been keeping an eye on... we're not sure what it why or why it exists but we do know what it does. It pulled you from where you were previously, to here, Karakura Town. Those ropes you described, the best guess i have for them is conjecture... i believe that they pumped spiritual energy directly into your souls"
Layne and Moll just sat there in shock not knowing exactly what to say, and Urahara braced himself for an attack that didn't come.
"PFFT" Moll burst into laughter "What a load of shit, black hole of teleportation, spiritual energy?!"
Layne raised an eyebrow at her "Oh yeah, that's the part you can't believe... it's not like it the exact scenario didn't happen to us and there was a talking cat who transformed into a naked lady"
"Please, when the ladies get naked that's when I know i'm dreaming" Moll replied derisively
"No... you always wake up when a dream is getting good" Layne replied "That's how dreams work... I don't think we're dreaming"
Moll's eyes widened as she finally accepted that everything happening in front of her had been really happening
"You're right... i saw all the good bits"
Moll whipped around to Yoruichi and bowed down
"Yoruichi-san i'm so sorry! I made several exceptionally inappropriate comments because I thought none of this was real"
Layne and Yoruichi burst into laughter at the absurdity of her apology, however Urahara's look betrayed his confusion
"Aren't you angry with me?" he asked, he knew it would be a lot to take in at once, but they seemed utterly unfazed by what he said
Layne and Moll glanced at each other before Layne spoke for the both of them
"Mad as hell" Layne confirmed "But like...from the sounds of everything, it's not your fault that this happened to us, in fact if you hadn't involved yourself... things might have been worse off for us"
Layne paused and looked around at the other three people at the table before continuing
"But we aren't going to act on it until we confirm what happened to our friend, Moll saw him go into the portal earlier; and if he isn't here, he's somewhere else. Plus you said we now have powers, If staying here means we get to learn to use em' then I'm all for it, right Moll?"
"Idiot, you don't sound half as cool as you think you do"
"It's ok you don't understand just how cool I think I sound, so half of that is more than you could ever know"
Urahara and Yoruichi looked at each other in amusement
"… Well then I supposed I have to explain from the start" Urahara muttered and he launched into a lengthy explanation about Shinigami, Hollows and all that
While he was explaining Yoruichi observed Layne and Moll, trying to get a feel for their movements and guess what kind of fighters they would be, judging by the relaxed way Layne sat and his confident air Yoruichi assumed he was either very confident, very lazy or just both.
Moll on the other hand looked like she wore her heart on her sleeve and used her fists instead of her mouth to talk sense into other people. A power fighter, Yoruichi decided watching her hit Layne again as he started drifting off to sleep.
But Layne was a specimen that defied classification, he had definite power, after watching him crush a decent sized rock in his fist, and obviously insane endurance due to the fact he was alive after associating with Moll for so long.
But it wasn't until Moll threw a fork at him with all her force until Yoruichi saw what his true strength was.
Speed
The fork had been moving so fast that Moll who had thrown it, had been unable to track it, but Kisuke and Yoruichi had followed its flight path perfectly, Layne wasn't even looking in the direction of the fork and he had moved his hand so fast that Yoruichi in her semi-indolent state had to strain incredibly hard to track it with her eyes.
The fork was back at the table before Moll could blink
Damn, how does someone so apparently lazy have such good speed and finesse
"Well now that Yoruichi seems to be done observing you two; we can actually begin unsealing your powers", Urahara finished.
He turned to Yoruichi "Which one would you like Yoruichi-san?"
"With speed like that?, Layne definitely, plus he's cute to boot"
Moll and Yoruichi laughed as Layne regained his tomato shading faster than he had caught the fork
"Fun to tease as well"
"Amen to that sister" Moll agreed
Urahara nodded and turned to Moll, indicating a direction with his fan
"Then Rayner-san if you could accompany me we shall get started"