The dingy candy store was bigger than I thought.
What I thought was the backroom turned out to be a full- blown house. Mr. Urahara's, I suppose.
"Come, sit. Make yourself comfortable!" Urahara sat down at small tea table, and gestured for us to do the same. We sat. Tessai appeared out of nowhere and started serving tea, while Urahara pulled a fan out of his sleeve and fanned himself.
"Okay," Urahara said after we'd made ourselves comfortable. "So, how much do you know, Ichigo?"
Is he making fun of me? "I don't really know. Rukia speaks in riddles. I merely came because of some monster or something."
Urahara nodded. "Rukia does speak in riddles." He sipped his tea, and Rukia threw him a dirty look. She picked up for me, recounting the lunchtime weirdness and the monster. Urahara looked like he could care less. But somehow he picked up on everything, commenting every once in awhile.
This man is really annoying. I thought for what seemed to be the millionth time.
"—And that's why I decided to put him in your care. It's too much of a hassle to train him when I still have duties." I tuned in just as she was saying this.
Urahara sat up. "I can't train him. I'm too busy." Rukia rolled her eyes. "That's a load of crap. You're never busy, always sleeping."
"Or inventing things." Urahara said, proud of his lazy genius. Rukia sighed.
"What the heck are you even talking about?! I'm not going to do this! You didn't even tell me what you're doing! Is this some kind of Mafia thing? I'm not going to work for you wacked up people!" I yelled. I got up and started to open the sliding door, but something stopped me.
Rukia was yelling, "Ichigo, wait—", but it wasn't her voice that stopped me. A voice, soft, yet commanding and authoritative said from a corner of the room:
"Bakudo Number One: Sai!"
And suddenly I was falling. I tried putting my hands out to catch my fall, but it was done in vain. I fell and hit my head on the screen door.
"Ow! Dammit!" I couldn't move my arms or legs. What the hell did they do to me?! Was there something in the tea?!
I turned my head to glance back at the two strange people. Rukia looked surprised, but Urahara didn't. He must have planned something!
"Now," Urahara tsked at Ichigo. "We can't have you leaving. What with all that pent up soul pressure?" He glanced in the corner, where the voice that paralyzed me had come from. Rukia gasped.
"Yourichi!"
I couldn't see anything from my angle, so I was getting really annoyed as they started talking to the voice and ignored me.
"Oi! You gonna untie me?!" I thrashed around and tried to break the invisible bonds. The voice sounded male, pretty deep, so I was expecting a big man who was going to come and kill me.
Oh, shit! I knew they worked for the mafia! I frantically tried working against the bonds, but with no avail.
Something landed on my back; not that heavy, and I yelled with surprise and tried to see what they threw on me.
I flipped on my back in attempt to get whatever it was off my back. What stared me in the face was a cat. A freaking cat. It was solid black, with long whiskers and brightly gleaming golden eyes.
"Hello." It said.