Urahara's shop looked like a place where people would sell illegal things. That was Minako's opinion the moment Ichigo had brought her to the place, her eyes glancing from the sign to the building itself. She had a very strange feeling only she and Ichigo were able to see the place if they had been followed by a third party.
"Kisuke's pretty smart, so he'll help us figure out why this thing's happening," Ichigo said; the thing being Minako completely invading his private soul, something that seemed to cause a lot of discomfort spoken aloud. Minako looked at Ichigo with half-lidded eyes. "You're taking me into quite a suspicious location, Ichigo."
"What do you mean by that?" Ichigo narrowed his eyes at her. "Don't you trust me?"
"I don't know," she said honestly. "The only one I know is White. Twisted be it may, I trust him. I don't…really know you."
Ichigo was silent for a moment, as if taking in the information she had put in his head. Then he spoke. "Come on. They're waiting for us."
They? Minako followed Ichigo as he walked to the door and slid it open. "Hey!" he called out. "We're here!"
She sucked in a breath. Who else was here?
From within, Orihime bounded into view. "Minako-chan!" she greeted, cheerfully coming over to take Minako's hand to lead her inside. Minako was stunned. "O-Orihime! W-Why are you here?"
"You have powers, right?" Orihime asked. "So do I."
Minako allowed Orihime to pull her to a spacious room with a table and sitting at the head of the table was a man with a hat practically hiding his eyes, donning a green robe. Also at the table sat Chad, Uryu, and two people wearing black robes—one girl, one boy. The girl Minako recognized. "Kuchiki-san."
"Hello, Kazuya-san," Rukia said before she gestured to the male sitting next to her. "This is Renji."
"Hey," Renji raised a hand in greeting.
The man with the hat spoke, his voice high with cheerfulness. "You must be the Minako-chan Ichigo was talking about!" He had a grin that made Minako feel slightly uncomfortable. "He didn't mention how pretty you are!"
"Urahara, leave her alone. That's not the reason we're here," Ichigo muttered, standing behind Minako. Orihime tugged on Minako's hand. "You can sit right by me, Minako-chan," she said as she plopped down beside Rukia. The unfamiliar male spoke gruffly. "Since we're all finally here."
Urahara's cheerful grin melted into a serious expression. "That's right. There's a reason we're all here." He looked at Minako. "Ichigo says you've been entering his inner world and you've also been attacked by a Hollow not too long ago."
Minako looked down at her hand, her fingers lacing together. "By inner world, you mean his soul, am I right?" she murmured.
"That's right," replied Urahara. "Have you always had this ability?"
Minako flipped through her memories, trying to see when this ability of her started. "The extent before this was that I would just make physical contact with people and see snippets of their memories. But…the night when I first entered Ichigo's soul was when it all started," she whispered.
"Is there others in your family with that ability?"
"Others?"
"Your mother? Father? Siblings?"
When Ichigo glanced at Minako, he noticed her face had paled significantly at Urahara's question and there was a haunted look in her eyes. Her teeth furrowed into her lower lip. "I…" she whispered, "I think my…older brother did."
"What do you mean, Kazuya-san?" Uryu asked. "You had an older brother with the same ability as you?"
"Had being the operative word." The haunted look was more pronounced as the words escaped her lips.
"Where is your brother?" asked Orihime gently.
Minako's voice suddenly went cold. "He died while my mother was pregnant with me."
"How do you know?" asked Ichigo.
"I didn't until I was five years old," Minako sighed. "I took my mother's hand and I saw my brother's face while he lived and his face when he lay in a casket. He was able to know things about my parents that no one else knew."
"How did your brother die?" asked Rukia.
"Why is that important?" Minako shot at her. "We're not talking about a family tragedy."
"Your powers seem to only be flowing among siblings," Urahara said. "If it's evolving to allow you to penetrate people's souls, then it must be…"
"What must it be?" asked Renji.
"It must be Tamashī no Tankyū-Sha," answered Urahara. "It is something surprising because that power hasn't been seen in over a millennia."
"A millennia?" Orihime whispered. "Why?"
"Because those with the power don't exist anymore."
Minako stiffened. Don't exist anymore…The words bumped around in her brain. "How do I control it?" she whispered.
"Kazuya-san," Uryu met her eyes after pushing his glasses up briefly, "this is a lot for you to take in. Especially since there's things you still don't know-"
"I can worry about that another time," Minako said sharply before turning to look at Urahara. "How do I control it?"
"The ones who know are in no condition to tell us," sighed Urahara. Minako pushed herself up with more force than necessary, shocking everyone present. "Why?" she asked. "Why would they in no condition, aside that they're dead?"
"From what little information we have, using your ability for anything more than what you're doing now will cause your sanity to deteriorate."
"You mean…I'll lose my mind, right?"
"There's no proof that it does, but it is very likely."
Minako bit her lip again and Orihime stood up. "Minako-chan, please calm down," she murmured. "Like Urahara-san said, there's no proof."
"But it's highly likely," she told Orihime. Orihime made a move to touch Minako's shoulder, but she recoiled. "I need air," she mumbled, stumbling for the exit, her hand pressing against her head. She had to get out of here, to clear her head, to take in the facts that she could be losing her mind.
"Great way to scare the crap out of her, don't you think?" Ichigo asked, crossing his arms.
"If you'd rather Urahara didn't tell her that-" began Rukia, looking at the deputy Soul Reaper pointedly.
"Of course he shouldn't have told her that! She wants to control her ability, not get scared of it!"
"You're being stupid, Ichigo," spoke Renji bluntly. "You brought the girl here so she could understand what she's getting into. You can't have it where she learns the positives without learning the negatives."
"If she's able to keep going into your soul like she has been, there's a trigger. Any idea what it could be?" asked Urahara.
"I think it's..." Ichigo winced, feeling a sharp tug of energy inside him, like something had ripped.
"Ichigo?" Orihime whispered. "What's wrong?"
"The princess ran for it." His Hollow's tone was strange—a mix of pleased and irritated.
"The trigger's my Hollow," Ichigo said.
"What do you mean?" Rukia asked.
"Minako. Every time she gets into my soul, my Hollow's always there, waiting for her." Even as he said it, he could feel his Hollow's energy drop, as if it were…waiting.
"Why do you think it's waiting for her?" asked Renji.
"Could be that their energies are binding together," Urahara said, "if it's expecting her to be in your soul, then it's obviously attracted to her spiritual pressure."
"But Minako-chan never had a spiritual pressure before," Orihime breathed. "Why couldn't we sense it before?"
"She said she could sense energies by making physical contact," Chad said slowly, as though contemplating his thought. "Maybe that's why we haven't sensed her spiritual pressure."
It was the only real explanation for the notion. No one could sense anything from her until she made contact. But, now that Ichigo thought of it, how did his Hollow find Minako's energy before he made contact with her?
"I'm not telling you anything, King," he hissed right as everyone else stood. They had something important to prepare for, a coming battle. As much as Ichigo wanted to know more about the ability Minako had, it would have to wait.
Minako fell to her knees, eyes on the river, trying to catch her breath. It had taken her to run blindly to find the river and she had just stumbled, trying to clear the fog that was in her head. She shouldn't have known any of this. She was better off not knowing anything. The rage that bubbled inside her was shocking. If it hadn't been…
Stop it. Placing blame did nothing. Minako sighed, moving her legs out from underneath her so they wouldn't go numb, and brought her knees up to her chest. She wanted to stay here, curled, forever, so she wouldn't have to endure anything...
Maybe this whole thing with White is a sign that I'm losing it. What a depressing thought, that visiting a psychopath would cause her sanity to drop twenty points. She absently wondered what would it be like if she had never encountered the beast inside Ichigo's soul. Would she still go on in her quiet existence, waiting for something to happen, for someone to reach out?
A chill crept up her spine, causing Minako to turn to look up to the streets from where she sat. Something was happening. She could feel it. She couldn't name it, but it was a feeling of complete and utter dread. Something's coming...
She rose to her feet, walking cautiously back to the street, keeping her eyes on the sky. But nothing came.
Or at least she had thought it hadn't.