Chapter 2 - Preparations
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity"
Urahara Kisuke was sitting in his shop, bored out of his mind. The town had been quiet recently, with only very few weak hollows attacking the town, nothing which the stationed shinigami could not handle. Rarely did he ever receive customers, be it shinigami shopping for soul society gadgets or humans shopping for candies. Every stand-alone businessman knows that the weather affects business – the depressing rain was therefore not helping.
Although he was exiled for 80 years, he still had a good idea of what was going on in Soul Society thanks to Yoruichi. Yet, they only see each other when something important occurs. Otherwise, Urahara and Tessai took care of the shop on their own.
With nothing else to do, his thoughts wandered to Aizen. Urahara knew that Aizen would find out where he hid the Hogyoku eventually, but for now it seems that Aizen had no use for it. What Aizen is truly planning by experimenting hollow-shinigami hybrids, Urahara could only guess. For now, all he could do was to wait for Aizen to make his move.
His eyes widened slightly when he sensed an unknown shinigami's reiastu suddenly appeared in front of his store. Urahara remained still. It was not unusual for shinigami to enter the real world once in a while, plus he did not know all shinigami's identity after all. What bothered him was that he did not notice a shinigami entering Karakura town before they were literally in front of his store.
"Urahara Shouten. It's this place alright," muttered a deep voice.
Urahara squeezed his cane tightly once before relaxing his grip. Only those who have vast and strong reiastu can disguise themselves this well, signifying that whoever this customer was, he must be really strong. Regardless, when the shop's door was opened, Urahara lowered his head, covered his face with his fan subconsciously as he said cheerfully, "Welcome to Urahara Shouten~ What can I do for you today?" Peering over his fan, he saw a middle-aged looking man and a female wearing a draped hat entering the store shyly. When he saw the fastened haori worn by the man, however, he nearly dropped his fan.
"I was told that you rent untraceable gigai(s) here. Do you by chance have any in stock right now?" The man inquired, staring intently at the shopkeeper.
Urahara only hesitated for a moment before uttering, "Of course we do! Do come in, the rain is so dreary, and it wouldn't be very nice of me to keep you outside." He noticed that both of their clothes were completely soaked. "Why don't you dry yourself off while I go to get the product?" The customer did not have enough time to protest before Urahara shouted, "Tessai!" A large, tanned man with braided hair and glasses jumped out from nowhere and somehow was able to crouch in kneeling position in mid-air. He slammed his fists onto the floor to stop his momentum and said, "Yes, Boss?"
"Can you bring some towels for these lovely customers?"
"Of course," Tessai disappeared in a flash, only to reappear immediately with two fresh white towels in his hands. He handed the towels to the two customers. "Here you go."
"Thank you," said the woman. "It's very nice of you." Both of the customers seemed shocked to see tears of gratitude glistening from Tessai's eyes.
"Please wait here for a bit while I go to retrieve the gigai(s). In the meantime, take a look around for any other products you may be interested in~!" Urahara said lightly. Yet, in the back of his mind, he wondered why a Squad Zero member (accompanied by a female who had to be a royalty) would ever appear on the face of the human world.
Kurosaki Isshin. An orphan born in Rukongai District 78. He completed Shinigami Academy in two years. Previously a Squad 3 Captain, he retired after 30 years of service. He was a specialist in the affairs of human world. Though retired, some evidences point that he still appears in the human world once in a while.
Aizen sat in his office, reading Kurosaki Isshin's short profile for what felt like the thousandth time. Normally, when a captain is promoted to Squad Zero, the captain is pronounced as "retired". All previous records of that captain would then be gradually erased from the face of Soul Society's history. Aizen originally wanted to find more information about Kirio Hikifune, but all files relating to her past were already destroyed due to her amiable personality. Aizen, for one, knew that Captain Hikifune was a kind, motherly captain in Squad 12, yet she kept to herself mostly, allowing only tiniest of her true emotions to be shown.
The only way to find more information, Aizen decided, was to try the Kuchiki noble house's historical files. The Kuchiki clan was responsible to keep a complete record of Soul Society's history, so only by the slimmest chance would the files about promoted captains be kept. He took careful precautions and planning before he entered the Kuchiki's History Warehouse. Rows and rows of soul society untold history lined the walls, yet Aizen had eyes only for one particular event.
However, if Aizen was looking for Hikifune's detailed files, he was disappointed. All he ever found was this one thin book that documented the names of captains who were promoted and the era in which they were promoted. During his time as a shinigami, only two captains were promoted to Squad Zero. One was obviously Hikifune, and the other…Kurosaki Isshin. The only reason why Isshin's profile was slightly more documented than the others, Aizen could only guess, was due to his origins. Aizen would have to thank the arrogance of the nobles for this.
Aizen was still deep in thought when he was interrupted by a knock on his door. Aizen composed himself, plastered a smile on his face before saying, "Come in."
The door slid open, revealing a grinning, fox-faced captain, "Good afternoon, Aizen-taichou."
"Ichimaru-taichou, what can I do for you today?" Aizen said calmly.
"Ah, well, it's nothing too important really," Gin said slyly, closing the door as he said so, "It just so happens that someone of your interest was seen visiting the shop of an old friend of ours in Karakura Town." Naturally, Aizen had been keeping an eye on Urahara, and ever since learning that Kurosaki Isshin dropped by the human world once in a while, Aizen had kept an even closer look on the human world. It was most fortunate and fateful, therefore, for Isshin to appear there. A flash of red gleamed through Aizen's eyes as his façade slipped slightly on hearing this wonderful news.
"Such an interesting location he decides to show up in," Aizen said, "does he have any company?"
"The reports say that he was with a woman wearing a nice hat. My, my, I do wonder what they're trying to buy there," Gin's smirk widened, adding in a slightly more business-like tone under Aizen's stare, "They were hiding their reiastu, so I bet they're probably looking for those sneaky reiastu-hiding gigai(s). What will you do?"
Aizen smiled confidently in response, "To take advantage of the situation, of course."
"I'm Kurosaki Isshin, and this is Suzuki Masaki. Nice to meet you," said Isshin curtly.
Urahara made the customers sit inside of his store. Tea was served. Urahara simply could not sell his gigai(s) without getting more information about them…under the guise of informing them about the gigai(s), of course.
"Hai, hai! These are the gigai(s) that you're looking for~!" Urahara pointed at the two large boxes in the small room, "I can assure you that they are in top condition! Your room is also ready. Now, about the method of payment…"
"Can I pay using Bounty rewards?" Isshin took out his black, ancient-looking Soul Pager, silently grateful that he did not spend much during his time in Gotei 13 (for they could not use the royal reserve)
"Sure." Urahara held onto the Soul Pager, paused for a moment before saying ominously, "Though I must warn you, you can't stay in these gigai(s) for too long, because the substance used for this particular gigai will deteriorate your spiritual powers. Eventually, you will lose all of your spiritual powers and turn into a normal human spirit." Urahara snapped his fan close and said airily, "However, that wouldn't been a problem if you don't stay too long in it~"
"What's the time limit before you turn into a human?" Isshin asked.
"This is still a new prototype, so optimistically you can stay in it for two months."
"That should be long enough," Isshin muttered. Masaki, who was sitting beside Isshin, shifted slightly.
"Oh and one more thing, it's hard to get out of that gigai in an emergency," Urahara eyes peered towards Masaki, "I'll give you a discount! We have Soul Candy, and even this new badge-"
"Well, hopefully your gigai(s) work well enough so that we won't attract any unwanted attention," a slightly annoyed Isshin cut Urahara off, "Thank you very much for your help, though I would appreciate if you keep this business quiet."
"Of course, of course, us businessmen know how to keep trade secrets~" Urahara said. Once the customers were secured in their gigai(s), he ushered them out of his shop, handing them an umbrella as the rain was still pouring heavily, though not as heavy as before. He silently mused that his customers' errands were less work-involved than he originally thought. Not only that, but he had an intuitive feeling that something was going to happen. He will keep an eye on them during their stay, hoping desperately that he would be the only one doing so.
A/N: Thank you so much for all the favourite/alerts/reviews :)
I'm not really sure what the plural form for gigai, so I just added the (s) at the end
Next chapter is going to take a while