12.15 PM Urahara's place
Isshin had clearly overestimated the hurry he had been in to inform Urahara of the terrible twist his vacation had taken.
It wasn't until noon that the police showed up on the shop's doorstep, their rusty police car parking only a couple of meters from his front door.
Within moments from hearing the bell ring it's foreboding melody, Urahara had been ready to open it up to greet his unwelcome guests. They had been waiting several hours for them to arrive, but they still were not ready once they actually showed.
The officer cracked her fingers when she saw him.
"Mr Kisuke Urahara, I presume" she said in a stern voice.
Before he could ask if she would like to come inside, she had already stepped right passed him with a few steady steps. He slowly nodded from where he stood behind her, not knowing if she could still see him from the corners of her eyes.
"What a pleasure meeting you," she said, her painted lips were barely moving as she spoke. They had the odd color of ripe plum and looked oddly misplaced on her white face – like two worms crawling on the asphalt during a hot summer's day.
She looked around the hall before turning to look at Urahara again, flashing him a grin that showed off most of her yellow teeth. She broke the silence once more, adding "Is what I would have said, if it had been the truth".
It was as if the air had left the room, leaving a cold hollow feeling behind. Urahara was drowning in the abyss. Of all the different officers he had seen when he had envisioned this encounter, he certainly hadn't imagined someone like her. Not only did she come off as two-faced and bitter during their first encounter, he thought, but there was also something he found vaguely familiar about her facial features that made him wonder if she possibly lived close by, in that seniors' complex on the opposite side of the street. Still, he couldn't place where he had seen the elderly woman.
She reached out her hand to greet him. "Hi, I'm officer Tylien."
"Hello," Urahara said while shaking her hand. He smiled back suspiciously.
"Aren't you a disappointment," she said.
The woman sighted as she retracted her wrinkly hand and lowered her eyes to study the rings on her fingers. The only remotely beautiful one was the wedding band on her right hand – the other two were in tacky bright colors, probably left since a decade long gone. There was something he couldn't pinpoint, that was deeply disturbing about her body language.
"You are a horrible person, you know," she informed him then. There was a pause when her eyes shot to his. "I am only joking. Isn't that hilarious. Ha. Ha."
The officer wasn't smiling and there was more color in her grey hair than in her eyes when she eyed him. She sighed again, this time more deeply. Every breath she took sounded more wheezily than the last. Her voice was that of a chain-smoker, he realized.
"I would be allowed to say that to you if I wanted," she added and gave him a small smile. "Because I am not here to question you, you slimy bastard. He will be questioning you."
The officer pointed to her colleague and driver who had been parking their police car.
"Don't worry. He won't bite." she continued. "Now, as for me. Is Miss Shihouin Yoruichi here? You both need to come with us downtown to the station."