outside his vision
5. needles in haystacks

'Who is your mother?' his grandfather-to-be asks.

Well, Kazui muses, that's a valid question. Though his father was rather dense when it came to girls, or so everybody said. They had embarrassing stories to tell. And stories apparently not for a child's ears that they hadn't told him yet – including one involving old man Urahara.

But he's not in the mood to just answer the question. Truthfully, he rarely is. He's told Itsuka he's "kind of a Shinigami" after all, and she's still trying to figure out what he means.

To be fair though, he can't help that. He's got four separate bloodlines in him: Shinigami, Quincy, Hallow and whatever his mother's powers qualify as.

Still… 'Guess,' he offers.

'Hmm,' his grandfather-to-be hums. 'Well, Ichigo's never really been interested in many girls, so I'm going to have to say Kuchiki-chan or Inoue-chan.'

'Inoue,' Kazui agrees. Well, apparently his parents' friends had those stories right, at least. 'So, know where to find her?'

'Hmm…' the man hums again. 'I don't know her address, no.' And Kazui groans, because of course it won't be that simple. But then his grandfather-to-be adds: 'The girls might. Or we can ask Ichigo. Or just wait for Inoue-chan to drop by herself.'

They go with plan A first, obviously. Except neither Yuzu nor Karin have any idea where Inoue Orihime lives, and Ichigo races out of the house before anyone can come up with a good excuse to ask him with. And so Kazui winds up following his father to school because his mother goes there too and he's got a better chance finding a needle in a haystack than hanging around at the surgery and accomplishing nothing.

Or finding a way back to his own time, which would probably be more productive. But he can't be blamed for not thinking productively right now, right? He's young. He wants his parents, and his aunts and grandfather aren't quite the same thing (especially when one aunt can't even see him).

It's just his luck, really, to land in the period of time his father can't see spirits. Fingers crossed his mother can, because she said she hadn't been able to until a little after the whole mess with Soul Society started. But "a little after" was still surely before Aizen's defeat, right?

Or maybe that's just wistful thinking on his part. Or just the little boy who wants his parents.

It is like finding a needle in a haystack though. He tries asking if anybody's seem an Inoue Orihime but they'd have to be able to see and hear him to answer and it doesn't seem like anybody can. Until someone finally does. Black hair and black eyes and glasses and a stern expression… Ishida Uryuu hasn't changed much either, apparently.

The boy frowns at him. 'How do you know my name?'

And now would probably be a good time to withhold information, but relief overrides his filters and he blurts out: 'Because I'm from the future and you visit our house at least once a fortnight.'

Though he's probably lucky he's small and cute and looks pretty non-threatening, because all Ishida Uryuu does is drag him up to the roof by his collar.