Kisuke Urahara stood quietly for a moment, not thinking too deeply though. Judging by the confused and curious looks of half the American's he guessed Toshiro and Ichigo hadn't told everyone of the lovely existence of soul reapers.
"Did I say something wrong?" Urahara asked innocently, "I'm a bit rusty on my English but I'm pretty sure what I said would make some sense in English~"
Toshiro rolled his eyes, whatever Urahara was concocting would only temporarily get them out of hot water. If it even worked.
McGee looked at the group, wondering what on earth their plan was, or if they even had one. Sure a translation error was believable, but what about Karin suddenly able to speak and understand English? How does candy even work as a translator?
DiNozzo was freaked out, to say the least. He had eaten some candy that had strange properties with strange side effects, like understanding a foreign language. Wait, what if he could only speak Japanese now? Or since it was a different candy it translated some other language?
"You said shinigami, except a rough English translation," Gibbs replied to Urahara.
"Hmm… definitely not what I wanted to say. . . I meant to say soul keepers. It's what I like to call my dear children~" Kisuke smiled wide and attempted to hug his 'soul keeper' Toshiro. Toshiro, knowing it was probably the only way to save their asses, let the 'fatherly' Urahara hug him. Just because Toshiro let Kisuke hug him, didn't mean he had to hug back. Urahara on the other hand was enjoying the small form of annoyance to the captain.
"I don't think you were just referring to your 'child,'" Ziva said, unbelieving.
"I am a very good friend of their father and those two sometimes work for me!" Urahara replied happily, on the spot. Every word he said sounded honest and believable. Both Ichigo and Karin grimaced at his words. They only hoped they didn't have to do any of the 'work' here.
Karin was amazed though, through all the confusion and lies. Not that Urahara was a fantastic liar but rather her suddenly ability to understand. Every word of English registered and translated, making every conversation make sense. She didn't have to ask her brother what they said or have Ichigo translate for her, not that she wanted to talk then and there. She'd like to stay out of that lying game.
Toshiro was only annoyed. At his lack of ability, sure he could still use Kido and flash step in this gigai but his reiatsu was unstable in this particular 'new product' of Kisuke's. What Toshiro needed was to resolve everything quickly and quietly. The quietly part was not going so well.
"Soul keeper? What the heck is that?" Asked DiNozzo, curious about what he could mean, and also testing to see if he could still speak English, or speak at all.
Urahara's smile faltered ever so slightly, "It's a thing we like to call our very close friends and family," taking on his fake pouting face Urahara continued, "I guess it doesn't translate well into your language."
"What about that candy thing?" DiNozzo asked, still wondering about the side effects of the chocolate, "Well it tastes better than a fish in my ear."
"What are you talking about Tony?" Ziva asked, not understanding the reference.
"The Babel Fish? A universal translator? From The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?"
"Why is there a hitchhiking guide for the galaxy?"
"Never mind. Not about the chocolate though," DiNozzo finished.
"That's quite a mystery isn't it?"
. . .
Rangiku Matsumoto was over joyed about being out of the stuffy gigai. Rangiku Matsumoto was also over joyed about finally being able to remember who she was, which called for a drink of course! The orange haired lieutenant was trying to sneak from the medical division room she was in search for the perfect drink when she ran into Renji Abarai and Rukia Kuchiki.
"Matsumoto!"
With her back to the two, the lieutenant turned around slowly with a big grin, "Hi guys!"
"You should be resting, we don't know the effects of what the gigai did yet," said Renji, worried for the lieutenant.
"Well you know, I thought I'd have a recovery drink! Would you like to join me?"
"No!" Both soul reapers replied simultaneously.
Sighing Rangiku pushed out her lower lip and gave them her biggest puppy dog eyes, "Come on! Just one? I'm sure it won't hurt!"
"No."
Something sparked inside Matsumoto as the sudden memory of her captain came to mind, "Where's Hitsugaya-taichou? I'm sure we were together before. . ."
Renji tensed but Rukia remained calm and spoke, "He ended up in America."
"America?! How the hell did he get there? We were together in Karakura Town!"
"Matsumoto, we found you in Kyoto," said Rukia as calmly as possible.
Matsumoto scratched her head, her expression a mix of curiosity and shock. When did she get to Kyoto? How did she even get to Kyoto? She remembered going to Urahara's, which that 'ol bastard gave them these defective gigai, but that was the plan. She also remembered watching the soccer match when Hitsugaya-taichou played for Karin Kurosaki's team.
"Matsumoto, we were hoping you could answer these questions," said Rukia, she and Renji were temporarily in charge of the matter.
"I can't give you the mission details, but all I can tell you is that Hitsugaya-taichou and I were to investigate the emergence of a black market and that's why we went to Urahara's." Matsumoto cursed silently, so there were black market goods at Urahara's, and she and Hitsugaya-taichou had bought and used them. If black market goods were at Urahara's shop then supposedly they should be at other soul reaper shops across Japan.
Rukia was curious, sure there'd been talks about underground goods but not specifically about a black market. In the Seireitei, or in the living world, soul reaper black markets were rare, occasionally one might pop up but subside quickly.
"You said Hitsugaya-taichou was in America, how'd he get there? And why is he still in that gigai? Wait, did he lose his memory too! Why isn't he here?" Matsumoto was worried for her little captain but she also knew Toshiro could take care of himself.
"Hitsugaya had lost his memory, but was regained before you regained yours. Ichigo Kurosaki and Karin Kurosaki have gone to America to get him, but it seems a government agency has him as a suspect in a murder investigation," Rukia reported.
"Ok, ok. So he's fine? Great! I hope everything is going alright there!"
"Matsumoto, do you remember anything about why you and Hitsugaya might have lost your memories?" Renji interjected.
"Hmm... I remember being in Karakura Town, I remember Urahara's visit and the soccer game. After that Toshiro-taichou talked with Karin for a bit. Our investigation had just started but we had a decent lead, but I can't seem to remember it? I remember Toshiro-taichou coming back and we were suddenly battle ready but we couldn't escape the gigais," Matsumoto chuckled, "Toshiro-taichou was so angry at Urahara, I've never seen him angrier than that!"
"That's all you remember?" Renji asked.
"Yup," Rangiku replied turning away to try to get that drink again.
"Matsumoto."
"Heh, yeah?"
"Your room is the other way," Rukia said, gesturing down the hall.
"Right…"
. . .
After the candy conversation went cold, they were standing in silence. McGee had been quiet through the whole thing, not sure whether he should take the side of the soul reapers or of his boss. He should support his boss and DiNozzo right? But soul reapers were on a different scale, they were other worldly. McGee knew that Ziva and DiNozzo would be skeptical of 'soul reapers' and with Gibbs McGee just didn't know. Him and Abby took everything well, but him and Abby were more open minded. Maybe DiNozzo would handle the concept, maybe.
DiNozzo shook his head, there was no way the geezer didn't know what would happen. He offered the candy to Karin. At he knew he could speak English, he just needed to see if he could understand a foreign language now.
"I've always been able to speak English, I just pretended to not understand," Karin suddenly said.
Urahara grinned, he knew she would speak up.
"I only started to speak because Urahara-san came," Karin spoke with confidence. She would try to keep the secret, she didn't want to be the reason why everyone found out.
"Why would you pretend?" DiNozzo asked skeptically.
"Do you know how weird it is here? Not to mention you've got a good friend of mine trapped here. Then when Urahara-san came I knew I couldn't keep it up. Do you know how hard it is to be practically silent for that long?" Karin sighed and hoped she sounded convincing enough.
Though the NCIS team didn't really trust this answer, they accepted it. Candy that can act as a universal translator seemed impossible.
"You can have Abby check the candy out," Karin said. The young Kurosaki didn't know if there was anything in the candy or not, or even if whatever made it work would show on any of the tests, but since Abby knew the secret she hoped the goth wouldn't reveal anything.
. . .
There was silence. She liked silence. The woman held a dark blade laced with a divine silver, her zanpakutō. Her eyes were closed but she was still awake, she enjoyed the serene darkness inside her mind. Then there was noise. The loud chatter of three men in which she recognized. She sensed them approach and stand in front of her, their chatter subsiding significantly.
"We delivered the goods," said a higher-pitched male voice, whose enthusiasm shone through.
"Good," she grumbled.
"Boss?" said a different voice of the three, a worried, weak, voice.
"What?" The woman replied irritably, sensing the shift from one foot to another that the man made.
"The white haired kid? Uh, he was seen in America. . .The DC area?" He said weakly.
"WHAT?" The woman's eyes burst open, revealing piercing emerald eyes.
Two of the three men winced and leaned back. The voice to which the higher pitch belonged to stayed still.
"Does he remember anything?" She hissed, annoyed.
"Uh, we don't know," reported the same weak voice.
"Well. FIND OUT THEN." She replied angrily.
The woman watched as her three useless men walked out, and with that she closed her eyes and tried to forget about the annoying white haired captain.