"HYAAHHHHHH!"

Judging by the tone of the scream, I could tell that whoever I shared this fate with was a female and apparently angry. I slowly turned around, expecting to get a kick in the face or a punch in the gut, but what happened was even too fast for me to tell. There was a flash of white then black before I suddenly realised my attacker's foot had landed in my palm.

'Do I have te do everythin' for ya?'

'I should've known you'd interfere if I did nothing.'

'Well, I wouldn't want yer pretty little face gettin' scratched now would I? Besides, what if she was attackin' with a sword? Then ya'd be dead.'

'Or I'd have half a hand.'

'Tch.'

I smiled a little, but that all disappeared within the next few seconds. My eyes fell apon my attacker, a girl, of course, with black hair and brown eyes. She looked to be a little older than me, but her features, such as her eyes, hadn't matured yet. I knew this person… but it couldn't be… it wouldn't be… was she-?

"Looks like your reactions have improved, Ichigo."

Tatsuki?

She laughed then withdrew her foot. "Though, I really wish you didn't block my kick. You deserve a right hard smack to the head, you idiot."

"T- Tatsuki?" I was stuttering. Gosh I'm such an idiot. But the questions I had, I guess it wasn't really surprising that they didn't want to come out. So, I started with the basics. "Why are you here?"

"Well," Tatsuki sighed. "I guess it all depends. Do you want the full story, or the short and sweet one?"

"Well, I guess it all depends," I repeated mockingly, "what do I need to know?

"The long one."

I laughed.

"Okay." She tried to sound happy, but it wasn't working. I had seen this trick way too many times before. Whoever was talking would smile or try to sound okay, but the truth was that whatever news was coming was bad. Tatsuki took in a deep breath before she continued. I took her hint and did the same. "Give me your hand, Ichigo."

That I didn't expect. "Why?"

She smiled, "My ability."

"You're what?"

She laughed this time. "You're not the only one around here with special abilities, hero-boy. Now give me your hand."

Author's POV

Tatsuki sighed idly as yet another school day came and went with no signs of Ichigo Kurosaki. Sure, one day gone was understandable, but a whole week?

"Hey, Tatsuki Arisawa eh?"

Tatsuki spun around and held her fists threateningly in the air. The man sounded like he was drunk or at least too happy to be a simple passerby. There was also the fact that he knew her name, but Tatsuki hadn't quite noticed that. "What do you want?"

"Ooh, a little fast aren't we?" The man pulled out a white fan in order to try and cover up his giggle. "My name's Kisuke Urahara and what I want is for you to try and knock my hat off my head."

"Why would I do that?" Tatsuki questioned with an eyebrow raised.

Kisuke closed his fan revealing an almost icy stare. "If you can knock off my hat, I'll show you where Ichigo is."

Tatsuki's heart skipped a beat and she suddenly forgot how to breathe. She recovered quickly however, and allowed a smirk to cross over her face. "Alright then," Tatsuki agreed, "Just tell me where and when."

"Here and now."

Tatsuki made the first move, coming at Kisuke as fast as she could. Her hand got close to Kisuke's hat, but he ended up using his cane to swat her hand away. Next thing that happened happened so fast it was as though the time in-between the move had never existed. Kisuke caught Tatsuki's arms and held them behind her back while using his foot to pin her to the ground. Tatsuki's eyes opened wide but the fact remained he had her beat. That's when she suddenly found out about her abilities. Tatsuki's white reiatsu flared wildly temporarily blinding Kisuke. When he regained his vision the first thing he noticed was a black wolf with large blue eyes glaring calmly at him. The next thing he noticed was his hat clenched tightly in the wolf's teeth and the smirk that the wolf nearly had.

"How's that for a surprise," Kisuke remarked. "Oi, Yoruichi! Did ya see that?"

A woman appeared at Kisuke's side, obviously this was Yoruichi, holding a white blanket. "I did." She turned to the wolf. "Come here kiddo, I won't hurt you."

The wolf lowered its head and placed the hat on the ground before slowly making its way over to Yoruichi. When Yoruichi began to gently pet the wolf's head, it flashed white before Tatsuki reappeared with a horrified look on her face. Yoruichi wrapped the blanket around her and lifted her to her feet. Tatsuki awkwardly walked back to her house with Yoruichi keeping her balanced. Once they were at Tatsuki's house, Yoruichi laid her down and took to caring for Tatsuki. She instantly found the kitchen and had a great time using all possible utensils in trying to cook a meal.

"So," Tatsuki eventually spoke.

Yoruichi interrupted, "Ichigo's safe, for now. I assume with spiritual pressure like that, you were able to see him in his spirit form?"

"Huh? You mean, when he was in those black robes?"

"Yeah." Yoruichi smiled. "Well, Ichigo's a Shinigami."

"A Death God?" Tatsuki questioned in alarm.

The purple haired girl laughed. "Okay, maybe the more correct term here would be a Soul Reaper. Basically it's a Soul Reaper, or Shinigami's job to send good souls to the Soul Society and bad souls to… well, hell. Then either soul that becomes locked to earth can turn into a hollow. It's also the Shinigami's job to fight hollows and return them to their original soul form."

"Shinigami send souls to the Soul Society or to hell, then save them from becoming hollows, got it," Tatsuki restated. "That still doesn't tell me where Ichigo is."

"If I were to tell you, you'd go rushing off trying to find a way to get there. You haven't trained, you need to sleep and you wouldn't last one day in the Soul Society. You'd be lucky if you even got a glimpse of the Seireitei."

"What's that?"

"Where the other Shinigami live," Yoruichi answered quickly. "It consists of three palaces, thirteen squad barracks and over a double dozen prison cells. With the level you're at, you were lucky to even knock off Kisuke's hat, but if you were to enter the Soul Society right now, you'd either be captured or dead in less than an hour."

Tatsuki sighed, and then nodded. "You'll train me, right?"

"Of course."

Days passed while Tatsuki trained at Kisuke's training grounds. She fought Yoruichi for eight hours straight then battle with Kisuke for another two. The deal was that as soon as she was able to get to Kisuke's Shikai level and knock of his hat, she'd be able to go to the Seireitei. And so, the week passed and she continued to fight.

Day seven came along; she was half an hour away from finishing fighting Yoruichi. Yoruichi was running around as a black cat. Her speed was definitely much faster in this form versus her human one, but Tatsuki was fast too. Yoruichi had spent one of their training sessions teaching Tatsuki how to use Shunpo and surprisingly she had gotten the hang of it in only four hours.

Now that Shunpo was coming quite handily. Tatsuki was using it every five seconds because of the rate of Yoruichi's attacks. It was time for Tatsuki to change from defence to offense though because just flashing around wasn't much help training wise.

So Tatsuki focused her energy on the howling she heard in her heart. Before she knew it, Yoruichi was beneath her claws and Tatsuki was snarling right in her face. Yoruichi quickly turned the tables though and changed back to her human form so she could shove Tatsuki away. Yoruichi turned back into her cat form and she and Tatsuki battled all out for the last twenty five minutes.

"Arisawa," Kisuke called excitedly, "Time to calm down!"

Tatsuki instantly stopped herself from jumping at Yoruichi and instead used her energy to find her clothing. It only took a few seconds to change back to a human then to put her shorts, shirt and sneakers back on. "Coming Mr. Urahara!" she called to Kisuke as she ran out from behind a giant rocky hill.

'She's such a great student,' Yoruichi silently complemented, 'she learns fast and she's got great respected.'

"Are you ready," Kisuke asked.

Tatsuki nodded, putting her hands in front of her to block any attacks that may come.

Kisuke tapped his cane against the ground below and the wooden part fell off to reveal a hidden Zanpakuto. Her pointed the blade at Tatsuki then calmly said, "Awaken, Benihime."

'Thank you, Mr. Urahara.'

Kisuke's Shikai took the form of a sleek, medium-sized sword. The hilt of his Zanpakuto bent forward at the end with a crimson tassel dangling from its base. As expected, he called out the name of a barely heard attack and a bright red arc of light came straight for Tatsuki. She flashed to the right then dove to Kisuke's side. Before he was able to make her move she flashed to his other side and proceeded to give him the hardest kick she could muster to his foot. Kisuke temporarily lost balance just long enough to Tatsuki's finger to skim the top of his hat. Kisuke swung Benihime upwards causing Tatsuki to retreat. She landed far back from where she started and only caught her balance in time to evade another one of Kisuke's attacks.

Their battle basically went on for a whole other hour. Tatsuki got close, but Kisuke was just barely faster than she was. He stated that Tatsuki definitely learned Shunpo from Yoruichi because there was no one else he knew who could have moved that fast. Just when the time was almost up, Tatsuki had managed to hit Kisuke with her elbow and stun him just long enough to aim a kick at his head.

"That was close," Kisuke laughed. "You could've taken my head off with that blow!"

Yoruichi laughed from behind him. "She wasn't aiming for your head."

Kisuke turned around and sure enough there was his hat being twirled from the tip of Yoruichi's finger. He turned back to Tatsuki while putting away his Zanpakuto then pulled out his fan a chuckled. "Well done Miss Arisawa!"

"C'mon kiddo, I'll take you to see Ichigo now," Yoruichi informed.

Tatsuki was overwhelmed with joy.

. : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : .

This turned out a little differently than I thought it was going to... but... I like it!

Hope you've enjoyed this chapter!

R&R and I'll see ya later!