I discovered upon looking it up on the internet that 'proove' is a common misspelling of 'prove' (I didn't know). So I'm making an effort here to spell it the right way...

Anyway, I am again so sorry for the lateness (I really have to stop being late, especially that much, don't I?) but I've been having such time problems that my morale was a bit low for me to deal with translating during the weekends (plus I had half of my holiday completely taken up and had to do all my homework on the other).

I'm going to go change this thing about bucket hats.

Anyways, hope you enjoy reading this, and thanks again Aurore Heart for this amazing story.

Have a nice reading!

Shinji sighed silently. He wasn't sure the teenager would accept, despite Natsu thinking so. It wasn't because one had nearly died that he or she would be ready do to anything, even following a stranger, just for it not to happen again. He gestured for her to follow, she obeyed him, though wary. He crossed the exit door and winced as he felt a familiar reiatsu... What was Lisa doing here? He did as if he hadn't felt anything, Lisbeth still behind him, but addressed her a slight nod to show he had noticed her.

He brought the young girl in a discreet and still open bar, then invited her to settle herself in a booth out of people's view. They ordered, then sat down. While waiting for somebody to come serve them, Shinji propped his chin onto his hands, elbows on the table, and gazed at Lisbeth.

"I assume you have a ton of questions to ask me, don't you?"

"A few, indeed," she admitted. "First who are you? A Soul Reaper? A Quincy? A Fullbringer?"

The blond frowned, he hadn't thought she would know this much.

"Who told you so many things? Surely it's not Natsu, he would have made you pay far too much for this information, besides, you're not a Fullbringer, he wouldn't have been pleased to give it to you..."

"I don't see why this would interest you," she replied sharply. "And you haven't answered my question."

"I'm not really part of any of the categories you've named..." said Shinji calmly, an amused smile on his lips. "Did you ever hear of the Visored?"

The brunette's lost expression said it all. She gazed at him with her grey eyes and demanded more details. He replied with the same tone that it was him helping her, not the opposite, so he could very well change his mind if she wasn't more polite than this. She breathed deeply, before asking with an icy and sarcastic tone if Mr. Hirako would mind to provide her with the details she wished to know. He held back a smile, before explaining:

"Visored are a slightly apart category of Soul Reapers. It's a mix between a Soul Reaper and a Hollow, as one may say."

"Oh, now that you say so, I remember, Ur... A friend mentioned it to me. But I am not a Soul Reaper," she countered, blowing on her hair strand. "I'd know if it was the case."

Shinji shook his head.

"Not necessarily, if one of your parents is a deserting Soul Reaper, you can have Soul Reaper powers. And then for the Hollow side... In this case I have to admit we don't know how to explain it."

"And in general? How does a Soul Reaper become a Visored?"

The blond cringed, and was about to look for something to answer when Lisbeth stopped him. She had felt it was a subject he wasn't ready to talk about, and she respected others' wishes. So she moved on to the subject that mattered the most to her right now.

"You... You really can help me control my Hollow?"

There was a hopeful note in her voice that didn't escape the Visored. He nodded.

"Prove it to me, please."

The young woman was wary. On the one side he could understand her, on the other it annoyed him. His cell phone vibrated - yes, the Visored had started using phones at the time when they were still banished from the Soul Society, it was more low-key than a Hell butterfly to send messages -, and gestured for Lisbeth to wait.

It was a message from Liza. He frowned as he read it, then sighed. This could explain a lot of things... If Urahara was the girl's father, then it could explain her latent Soul Reaper powers and her high reiatsu, as for her inner Hollow... The former Captain probably had an explanation in mind. As he went on reading he stopped himself from cringing. How had Lisbeth managed to get in such conflict with her father that she would go as far as to leave the hospital right after she'd nearly gotten killed? He glanced at the young girl, that was waiting for him to finish reading his message, and Shinji remembered the bandages she had shown the Fullbringers. If she had been in a state as bad as what Liza described, they should have been bloodstained from all her movements that would have made some of her stitching go undone... So her Hollow probably had regeneration powers. Not a good thing, these were the hardest to defeat. He put away his phone and turned back his attention to the brunette, who only let her impatience show through her fingers lightly tapping the edge of the table, then answered her previous question.

"I could prove it to you, but not in a place like this, and even less while I'm inside my Gigai."

She lifted an eyebrow, not seeming to know the word, but did not ask for details. Strange. Or maybe she knew what it was but did not want to show him the extent of her knowledge. This last theory seemed more likely to him.

She interrupted his thinking by laying her hands on the table.

"Very well, assuming you are telling the truth, how do you intend on helping me? What are the conditions and counterparts?"

"Oh, so you think there will be counterparts?"

Shinji had an amused smile, Lisbeth really was interesting, and seemed much more implicated in her business than her father. But anyway Kisuke was unique, and his daughter, by the one fact of not getting along with him, already showed she wasn't much like him, for the temper at least. He laughed briefly, before reassuring her.

"We only ask of you that you don't reveal our existence to someone without telling us first, and that you help us if we ask you to. For the conditions... You won't be able to return to school before you have controlled your Hollow, and might as well warn you, you could very well die. Only I don't think you have any more than six years to live, and still, I'm generous, if you don't learn to control it and so to lower your reiatsu, because might as well admit you are an enticing target."

"So I don't really have a choice, since I'll die young anyways, if I understand you correctly."

"Exactly."

Lisbeth sighed, then, resettling herself in her chair, she closed her eyes to think. It matched what Natsu and Uryu had told her: her spiritual power, that escaped without her knowledge, even if she had learned to lower and hide it, lured the most powerful and dangerous Hollows. Besides, that was why Uryu had taken the habit of escorting her back part of her way when their classes ended at the same hour - which meant nearly every day, except when he had his club to go to - and several times that had probably saved her life without her knowing. She sighed again and looked straight into the Visored's grey eyes.

"Can I stay in contact with my friends?"

"Not the ones who don't know about your powers. This leaves you the young Haruka from Devil's Game, Ury... only, I think?"

He had stopped himself just in time, he had nearly talked about the young Quincy and Ichigo's group, which would probably have alerted Lisbeth, he wasn't supposed to know them!

She nodded to say she understood, and a waiter came up at that moment, laying their command on the table. The brunette paid for both of them before Shinji even got the time to take out his wallet.

"You weren't forced to pay," he commented.

"You're not forced to help me," she retorted with a small smile, sure to have shut him up.

"We wouldn't want our existence to be put in peril by a little girl who thinks she has an answer to everything."

"It is you who's trying to be right at any cost and it's me the little girl? Bravo, what a wonderful proof of maturity!" she said sarcastically.

Shinji breathed slowly, and restrained from letting his head fall to the table and complaining. He corrected what he had said earlier: Lisbeth was similar to her father concerning her sense of humor. Why had he volunteered to offer her to be part of the Visored? He should have let Kensei, or Love, or anybody else go! Lisbeth started drinking her tea, watching him with a mocking smile he'd have wanted to strangle her for - before remembering she would suffer largely enough for him not to answer back, even if he longed to do so - and when she put down her cup on the saucer she whispered:

"I've considered all the risks, and I accept your offer."

Shinji held back a smile, like if the girl had a choice. Even if she had said no he would still have brought her along. He'd only need to put a sleeping tablet in her drink... Yes, it wasn't very honorable, but the Soul Society wouldn't have appreciated treceivinga soul with uncontrolled Visored powers if Lisbeth died, and they would be the ones to get in trouble. So yes, but no thanks, he had been banned for a century, he wasn't going to be again!

They finished their drinks in silence then walked out, and it was Lisbeth who continued the conversation first.

"Where are we going?"

"Karakura."

Shinji saw the young woman's quick frown before she resumed her impassive face. She apparently didn't like the news. Her relationship with Urahara was that bad? What had that idiot done this time? Because to Shinji, most of the faults were clearly the former Captain's, horrible at human relationships, you only needed to see the conflicting and complicated relationship he shared with Hiyori, his former Lieutenant. It wasn't because he cared about her that he would show it... So with his own daughter, he must have damaged her esteem. He would see what he could do to help it get better, because he might need him at some point... Suddenly a part of their discussion came back to him.

'Can I stay in contact with my friends?'

She hadn't asked for her family. Was it that bad?

"Lisbeth, why didn't you ask if you could stay in contact with your family? You must surely have one?"

"If you can call it a family," she hissed. "And anyway... I guess the restriction is the same as for my friends, so it wouldn't have been necessary."

Shinji didn't insist, but he made sure to remember to go kick Urahara's ass, and ask Yoruichi to do so too. The 12th Squad's former Captain should have briefed his daughter, at least to protect her, especially when feeling her reiatsu!

Yeah, he was going to kick his ass... unless Hiyori did it for him.