Minor Edit: Thanks to RandomAsRainbow for pointing out my mistake.

Chapter 4: An Important Introduction

After obtaining directions to the Director's office from a harried-looking nurse, Snape and Harry picked their way through the meandering hallways of the hospital to find it. The venture took far longer than Snape imagined it would, and the end of it found them closer to an entrance to the hospital than he believed possible given the amount of walking involved. He knocked three times on the door before stepping back. A muffled 'enter' came from the other side of the door, and the pair of them walked in to the office.

The office was very organized. Grey filing cabinets lined part of the wall, and the papers that were on his desk or in trays atop the filing cabinets were tidy and squared off. A briefcase leaned against the desk, visible from the door. Ishida Ryuuken was white-haired, but that was likely from stress and not the process of aging, if not a set of unlikely genetics. He was, like Snape, prematurely aged. His suit was crisply tidy, and it seemed as if there was nothing out of place. The messiest thing in the room was Harry's hair.

The man was just looking up from a series of reports containing complaints and requests from the staff. He was in the middle of sorting them. The trash pile was suspiciously high. He barely looked up as the room was entered. He did not, in fact, register that the person who knocked was not a nurse with some problem to be solved by him until Snape spoke. "Ah, Ryuuken. Hard at work, as per usual." His English accent was obvious, his drawling voice characteristic. Ryuuken couldn't help but to recognize him.

Ryuuken unbent from his position leaning over his desk and sat back. "Severus." His voice conveyed happy surprise. "It has been entirely too long since I saw you last. " Ryuuken had stood up behind his desk, and reached out over it to clasp Snape's hand by the wrist in greeting. "How have you been? And how long are you planning on staying this time before you disappear again, you great bat?"

"Great bat? That sounds incredibly familiar, Sensei." The voice was soft in tone, obviously not trying to interrupt the moment overmuch.

Ryuuken angled towards the voice to see a young man, obviously a teenager, with black hair that showed hints of being grown out and a pale complexion. The boy's eyes were bright; to say they were green was to say the sun was bright at noon on a cloudless day. They were intense eyes, pessimist eyes, eyes far too old for that young face, too old for any young face. He took in a few more minor details as he blinked repeatedly, trying to rid the image of the haunting eyes. "Kami above, it's a mini-Snape. Does he share in your wit, Severus?"

Snape grimaced. "We are not so similar, Ryuuken. Neither in appearance nor in personality. Although," A small smile curved his lips as he continued, "as far as Urahara can guess, he has my personality in spades and Kurosaki has likely convinced himself by now that he is either my younger brother or my son. Both will be undoubtedly entertaining when we get around to spending time with them."

Ryuuken nearly snorted with the force of his amusement. Eyes flashing, he replied candidly. By that you mean that you dropped in on Kurosaki without warning and terrified him so thoroughly that his poster couldn't console him and he fried what few wits he was still possessed of."

"How could I resist, knowing the entertainment value Isshin is sure to have?" Snape quirked an eyebrow. "What poster?"

"Masaki's poster." Ryuuken turned away. "I know you know he married Masaki, I believe they were dating at least before you left for England again. She died a little more than three years ago, during an...attack." At the last word he hesitated, eyes flicking over to the as-of-yet unnamed boy.

"A hollow attack?" Snape replied, clearly surprised. "Isn't Masaki able to defend herself rather well from the kind of hollows that would be roaming around the Living World?"

Ryuuken shook his head. If Snape was fine going on about hollows in front of his apprentice, who was showing a remarkable lack of reaction, the boy must know about them already. "She was. She was also protecting her son, her eldest child. He has quite a bit of reiatsu, so he was able to see the hollow and decided to go after it. From what Kurosaki and I found out, it was Grand Fisher. It is a rather notorious hollow known to have consumed many souls, including several trained shinigami, mainly women. The hollow has a feeler, antennae, some sort of protrusion. On the end of the protrusion it can form an image of someone, anyone. From what we got from Ichigo, her son, afterwards, was that he was stopping a little girl from drowning in the river and saw the monster when he turned around. Masaki got between him and the monster it seems, but didn't have the time to defend herself. Ichigo passed out, possibly from shock or hitting his head on the sidewalk, we'll never know. When he woke up, she was dead."

Snape's head bowed in a brief mourning for an old friend while the boy stood stiffly, hands clenching and unclenching helplessly. After a few moments of silence to remember her, Snape straightened his neck.

"The cemetery is easy enough to find if you want to pay your respects, Severus." Ryuuken said quietly. "Either way, I'm sure that both Kurosaki and Urahara are having nightmares because of you."

"Urahara especially." Snape replied. "I planned on opening an apothecary in the shop next to the Shoten. Urahara has no chance."

"Of course not. It's quite easy to put him into that position, as I'm sure you remember." The lingering tension had all but dissolved by this point. "Would you mind introducing your companion, Severus?"

"Of course." Snape motioned to Harry. "Allow me to introduce my apprentice, Potter Harry."

Harry dipped into a quick bow. "Sensei has told me much about you, Ishida-san. It's a pleasure to meet you." His voice was as polite as he could make it.

"And you, Potter-kun." Ryuuken nodded at Harry. "Severus, you will be busy setting up your shop. I assure you, however, that my son will be more than able to show you around town. Since your shop is next to the Urahara Shoten, it won't be difficult for him to find."

"Thank you, Ryuuken. Tonight we will be terrorizing Urahara, but my apprentice has the weekend off. If your son can spare the time to come on Saturday?"

"He will be there around ten in the morning on Saturday. The shops will all have opened by then if it turns out that you did forget to bring some items, or need replacements." Ryuuken inquired

"That would be acceptable." Snape acquiesced.

Ryuuken walked back around his desk and sat, clasping his hands together. "Good day, Severus,."

"Good day, Ryuuken." Snape turned and walked from the room.

"Good day, Ishida-san." Harry called the pleasantry out behind him as he hurried to keep up with Snape.

As the door shut, so did Ryuuken's eyes. His normally serene features remained impassive, but he was smirking rather nastily in his head. Kurosaki and Urahara didn't have a chance at peace so long as the master-apprentice pair were still in Karakura. Personally, and perhaps a bit vindictively, he hoped that the two never left. He picked up his desk phone and dialed his son's cell number. The boy was past regular school hours, and was likely at home or at an after-school club. "Uryuu, please come to my hospital office when you can. I have something that needs to be urgently discussed with you." After hearing an acquiesce, he hung up. He would be seeing his son soon, after all. He could barely hold in his chuckled. Kurosaki and Urahara were sure entertainment, especially Kurosaki.

"When are they supposed to get here, Kisuke?" Yoruichi was laying on a blanket in the sitting room. Her head was propped up on her hand as she glanced at Urahara, looking away from the door. She was growing impatient to see Sev and his apprentice. Really, it was their first day in Karakura; they hadn't even unpacked yet. Where could they have gone, anyway? "Kisuke, are you listening to me?"

Urahara ignored her. She had been going on and on for almost an hour. Severus hadn't given them an exact time, which was annoying because despite the man's other faults, he was obsessively punctual. If this went on much longer, Yoruichi was going to get twitchy, and perhaps destroy part of the basement again. Or get mischievous, and wouldn't that be worse-

"Kisuke, look! A bat and a mini-bat!" Missing from Yoruichi's voice was the irritation, and Urahara whirled around towards the door, nearly dropping his tea. He was half-way to standing when he realized that there was, indeed, no one there.

He'd been had. "Pull the other one, it's got bells on," he muttered petulantly in a quiet tone. "That was mean, Yoruichi-chan!" he whined more loudly.

"It got you moving, didn't it?" Yoruichi smirked playfully at her old friend. "It served it's purpose. I do believe I disabused you of the notion that I was nice a good long time ago."

Urahara's return under-the-hat glare at Yoruichi was interrupted by a child's voice with a choking English accent. "Sensei, if this is Shihoin-sama, then I do believe that we will get along quite well."

The boy who had spoken was standing next to a much-aged Snape Severus. Yoruichi's first observation was that the rather vertically-challenged youth was Sev's apprentice. The second..."Aww, he's so cute!" Yoruichi pushed herself off of the ground and threw the boy a grin. "And he's just so polite! Sev, can I have him? Pretty please?"

Snape's mouth firmed. "We will have this discussion later, Shihoin." Unluckily for her, Snape was resistant to her pout and kitten-eyes, which he merely ignored as he turned to Urahara. "Kisuke, it's been a long time. And you as well, Shihoin. You both seem to be doing well enough."

Yoruichi was not one to be deterred, however. "But, Sev!" She grabbed Harry and pressed him into a tight hug. "Pretty please?"

"Why should I share my apprentice with you, Shihoin?" His eyes were firm, serious, and he shared none of Urahara's amusement or Yoruichi's excitement. "You forwent taking care of yours, leaving her behind nary so much as a note much less asking her what she wanted to do when you all left. Why should I let you anywhere near mine?"

Yoruichi's countenance darkened as Snape's barb hit home, as Snape's were apt to do. "Soi Fon was not my apprentice. She was a member of my corps. She was someone I looked in on, yes, someone I cared for, yes, but she was not my apprentice. The closest thing I had to an apprentice was bucket-hat over there. Moreover," She protested, "I am the Goddess of Flash, an ex-captain of the second division, ex-head of Onmitsukido and various subdivisions of it, as well as born into a clan where we learned all sorts of histories and things. Think of what I could get away teaching him, if he were my apprentice!" She looked back at the man she was trying to convince. "Please, Sev?"

She amended her earlier exclamation to Kisuke. The boy she was currently clutching was not a mini-bat, no matter how much he looked like Sev. He was a kitten. As a cat, it was her right to teach the little kittens. Sev didn't have to be so difficult about all this, did he? She was a huge resource to any person she chose to teach, after all. If the kid had the kind of reiryoku and whatever powers beside that Sev thought, in the end it would be impossible to keep Soul Society's noses out of it for too long. Even with the kind of training that they gave Onmitsukido, and knowing how the Soul Society would go about finding him if rumor ever made it back to their mills.

Luckily for her, Snape's features slid into amusement. "Yoruichi, please release the boy, he's turning blue." Yoruichi loosened her hold on him reluctantly, feeling a flare of hope that she hoped meant that she had won the argument, a thought that was quickly shattered by Snape's continuation, "You can't have him-" She groaned, disappointed. "Though, if you both are agreed, you may teach him during the time when he is not busy studying or doing work for me. Given that it's his own free time, I will not begrudge his choice to learn from you, whatever you wish to teach him being up to you, of course."

Yoruichi grinned widely in the way that had once made a squad of Onmitsukido actually back up without any reiatsu involved. "I do get the green-eyed kitty to train." She pulled Harry close again, and nuzzled his face. Harry was doing his best not to blush, but was not doing well with superimposing his confusion over his embarrassment, especially given how closely the two were twined. "A little kitten to pamper and push." She let go of Harry in favor of embracing Snape, failing to embarrass him given his relative height even in comparison to the rather tall woman. "He's going to be a proper mini-me by the time we're done!"She glanced at Snape and amended, "In skills, anyway. Either way, I won't be dealing with boredom anytime soon. Watching Kisuke sweat because of you does get repetitive after a time."

Snape's amusement held through. "So long as you do remember that he is nominally my apprentice, and that I plan on having him able to attain his own Mastery in potionmaking in the next few years, a half-decade at most."

"Of course, of course," Yoruichi agreed, almost absently. Her oddly-colored eyes were studying the boy, deciding on what might be best to do first. Sev had asked her to come for the boy's sake, after all. She hadn't been nearly as close to him as he and Kisuke had been, and it was only proper that the two estranged friends catch up with each other before she did. It also got the boy out from underfoot as they did it.

"Get out of here, cat." Snape rolled his eyes, but given that he was behind Yoruichi, she didn't see it. "And take the brat with you. He'll be suffering from jet-lag, and will likely need to be worn out before he gets to sleep if he is to get on a reasonable schedule for this time zone quickly. Either way, given that it feels like early afternoon, he's wide awake. It should take the rest of the week to unpack, but he has this weekend free. If either of you try to keep him when he's supposed to be working with me, you will be restricted from training him for the rest of the year."

Yoruichi crossed her arms. "Alright, you great bat. We've got it. Kitty's gotta be back at your shop when kitty's supposed to be back at your shop. Can I at least have all his weekends for my training?"

"That would be acceptable," Snape inclined his head. "From midnight on Fridays to six in the morning on Mondays for the forseeable future, he is yours, barring special circumstances and the full and dark moons. Those will be up for negotiation. Furthermore, you may not make the assumption that he will sleep only during my appointed times."

Yoruichi acknowledged Snape's conditions, and called behind her to the boy, "Follow me. And tell me your name, little kitty."

After a quick look back at his sensei, Harry followed the woman who had just claimed the rest of his time. "I'm Potter Harry, Shihoin-sama," He called down in front of him as he climbed down the ladder to the much-expanded basement, closing the trapdoor above him.

Silence reigned the sitting room for a few moments before conversation picked up between Urahara and Snape. Urahara poured Snape a half-saucer of sake, which he quickly took a sip of.

"Thank you," Snape managed, sighing deeply. "That-brat lives solely to provide me with reason to brew headache relievers in large cauldrons. When it is relatively safe to do so, alcohol is a necessity. This is the good kind, no?"

"It is," Urahara smiled beneath his hat. "I wasn't sure you would recognize it as such, Severus. It has been far too long since we have last seen each other. So tell me, old friend," Urahara stopped to pour them both a second saucer, this one fuller. "What is so troublesome? Is it about the boy?"

Snape snorted. "What is troublesome about the brat, indeed! I have no idea what possessed me to take such a troublesome brat as my apprentice. I must have taken complete leave of my senses, that is the only way to explain it!" He took a sip of the sake, savoring it. "The boy delights in causing heart attacks, he always has. Even when he was a baby! With a single year under his belt, at an age where most brats just scream, cry, sleep, eat, and require diaper changes, he survived the Killing Curse. The Killing Curse, of all things!" Snape knocked back the rest of the saucer, feeling that he'd need the fortitude it would bring if he were to tell all the stories of what the brat had managed to do.

Urahara choked on his alcohol, a little bit sloshing over the side as his hand jerked in surprise. "The Killing Curse? That's impossible, Severus. The boy-your apprentice survived the wizards' ultimate one-hit-kill technique? How in this world did that happen?"

Snape smirked, smug at having gotten one over the tricky ex-shinigami captain. "He definitely did, and he has the scar to prove it. Now, shall I begin on his Hogwarts years? I am not privy to the details of what has happened before them, the boy is extremely close-lipped, but I am certain that his...escapades, shall we call them, are no less surprising."

"Indeed?" Urahara looked at him, eyes shadowed. "Get on with it, then. This is bound to be interesting."

"Indeed." Snape poured this round of sake. "Shall we begin with his acceptance letters? Yes, I do mean letters, plural, and didn't Minerva have fun with those. I heard, though second hand and a while after it happened, that she ended up sending upwards of four hundred of them, before she finally broke down and asked Albus to send someone to him on his birthday, which is only a month before the school year began. I truly believed it wholesale falsehood until Harry told me otherwise. He claims that she even sent two dozen of them inside of eggs, for whatever reason..."