When Rukia had first received her assignment to a small town in Japan, she had not thought much of it and had resigned herself to a boring couple of days where she would have no one but herself as company. As she started reading the folder given to her with the descriptions of the location and what she was to expect, the information actually provided had been very, very lacking.

Her predecessor, the Shinigami that had been in charge of the area previous to her had not put much stock in filing his reports, and the data he had collected was severely lacking and utterly useless. The man was retired now, and really, Rukia was only going to be on assignment until they could find a more permanent Shinigami to take up the position and that would definitely not be her.

In the end, she decided to make the best of it and proceeded to make her journey to the quaint town that would be her temporary home.

She should have noticed that all those things were red flags. How could she have been so utterly blind?!

Once she actually arrived, the first thing that stood out was the sheer amount of reiatsu signatures cluttered in such close proximity of each other. At first she had thought they were all hollows and felt a chill go down her spine. However, the more she rationalized it, the more it didn't make sense. If there were really so many strong hollows, they would have been destroying each other and trying to ascertain their dominance over their territory, as it is, everything in this town was almost peaceful.

That still didn't explain why there were so many strong presences nearby, but it did ease her a bit that she didn't have to scramble to defeat Hollows left and right. Before she could even think about examining the reiatsu further or call for back up, she startled at hearing a loud and rhythmic clank against the side walk. Soon enough, the one responsible for all the noise -a blonde man wearing traditional Japanese clothing with his geta clad feet- stopped right in front of her as if it shouldn't be impossible for humans to see her.

"Good evening, Shinigami-san." He stated calmly, giving a seemingly friendly smile and slight nod in lieu of a bow. "My name is Urahara Kisuke and I am to take you to meet the one in charge of this territory."

Rukia felt her eyes widening as she stared incomprehensibly at the man. But the more she stared, the more she realized that this was not a figment of her imagination and there was indeed a man looking right at her and not right through her as he should. Even then, there was no doubt that he was talking to her, he had called her by what she was, even if not by name.

So she did the only thing she could do under these circumstances.

"What…?"

His smile did not twitch, and while the man –Urahara Kisuke, her mind supplied- had not changed his demeanor at all, she was still given the impression that he was not impressed by her shock even if he was amused.

"I am to take you to meet the one in charge of this territory." He repeated. "May I have a name, or should I continue to address you as Shinigami-san?"

Rukia blinked rapidly but managed to stammer out. "U-um, my name is Kuchiki Rukia, unseated office of the Gotei 13." She paused, before adding. "And you?"

The blonde man's smile widened and he took out a fan from seemingly nowhere and began fanning himself as if to hide his expression. "My, I thought you had at least caught my name!"

Rukia coughed. "I did, I mean, who are you? I- uh, don't sense any reiatsu but…"

Urahara hummed in agreement but did not elaborate as he turned the way he had come and sent her a sideward glance. "Coming Kuchiki-san? I think I should tell you in advance that no spiritual active being is allowed into Karakura town without permission."

Put like that, even if not understanding what was going on, she started to trail after the man and hope that she was not being led to her downfall. Really, everything about this assignment was only turning to be more and more confusing as the seconds ticked by.

After walking for what seemed like eons, but was probably only 5 minutes, she was led to an arched gate that seemed like the entry point for the building that had been surrounded by a wall since the last corner they turned.

The property seemed huge, and if what she could see was anything to go by, it was an old traditional style compound not unlike what one would find in Soul Society nobility. As it was, the blonde man waltzed in as if he owned the place and made his way towards the entrance of the building with unwavering concentration on his task.

Rukia, on the other hand, couldn't make it more than a couple steps without gawking because this place was filled with reiatsu signatures; it was as if she were in the midst of Seireitei and not in some human town. Even the air felt heavier with reishi and she could see quite a couple others mulling around the gardens or engawas that went towards other smaller buildings separate from the compound. There were everything from adults to children and it was all so surprising in how each and every one of them had at least enough reiatsu to most definitely see hollows, if not maybe even Shinigami. Some people wore yukatas and other wore more modern clothing and really, the only thing that seemed standard were the ocean blue yukatas that the personal of the compound wore. They had a symbol on their back, and it seemed to be a recurring thing on the rice doors and archways which made it obvious that it was some sort of clan symbol.

"Kuchiki-san." A voice cut through her surprise. "Follow me please."

Rukia cleared her throat as more than a couple of the people mulling about turned towards her and gave her everything from a smile, to a glare. She turned back towards her escort and followed him through the double rice doors where she took off her shoes and was lead through the twisting hallways.

"Um," she began, uncertain if her questions would be answered. "what is this place?"

Urahara hummed before closing his fan. "I guess you could call this a safe place."

"A safe place… for what?" she tried to inquiry.

"Hollows mostly." Urahara elaborated vaguely. "Everyone here is spiritually active as you sensed, and they are all in danger without protection so this is a safe place where nothing can harm them."

She furrowed her brows as she mulled his words over. "I don't understand. There are Shinigami that take care of hollows."

He suddenly stopped and Rukia had to make a quick halt herself to avoid colliding with his back. The man did not turn back, but he did look over his shoulder to give her an almost deadly gray stare.

"If you think that Shinigami always take care of hollows before they eat someone, you are only deluding yourself." He replied coldly.

Rukia winced and lowered her head slightly in apology. She had not meant it that way, and she was not trying to sound offensive even if it was perceived that way.

Urahara kept his stare steady for another second before continuing to move forward and taking the lead. Rukia made sure to keep step, and soon enough they arrived towards another set of doors with the emblem from before that the blonde opened without fanfare.

"Kurosaki-san~!" Urahara called out as he stepped into the room. "I brought your guest!"

Rukia hesitantly walked in on light feet and only spared half a glance towards Urahara as he sat down on one of the cushions settled on the right side of the room before her gaze was completely and utterly taken by the person seated at the end of the two rows of sitting people and staring right at her.

It was a man, probably in his mid-twenties though that may be debatable what with the reiatsu he was putting off. People with high spiritual pressure tended to age in weird ways, and Rukia didn't know enough about the composition in humans to know if it affected them too. He had light brown eyes, almost amber in the lighting and the most striking and vibrant orange hair she had ever seen. It was mostly short, though she could see that some of the back part hung all the way towards the floor. He was wearing a dark red yukata with swirling yellow and blue patterns with a black haori thrown on top, worn in a way that seemed casual and yet formal as if he were utterly used to wearing these kind of clothing but always did it on his own terms.

Really, the man could only be summed in one word.

Regal.

And yet… and yet…

She felt a small bead of sweat go down her neck, he was oh so completely and utterly dangerous. This was a person that could and would destroy the world if he needed to and no one, absolutely no one could stop him.

He had a very interesting amass of people too, all weird and not lacking reiatsu and just as dangerous in their own right but something about this orange haired man made a knot grow in her stomach and her hackles rise.

The man has an amused tilt to his lips, slouched contentedly over his throne (power)

He's holding command over the beasts that roam by his side as if they were tame puppies ready to do anything he so much as insinuates he needs (leadership)

His reiatsu like flames coiled to attack and itching under his skin, no hesitance in his eyes (violence)

(This man, holding their lives in his hands)

She sees this and thinks 'Ah, so this is how empires fall'.

Not to be continued…

I… don't know where this came from? Maybe I'll create a part 2 down the line where the Gotei gets involved, who knows. A bit of extra context, Karakura is such a reiatsu rich town that 90% of it's inhabitants can see or somewhat see spirits and 60% can see Hollows and Shinigami. I'm setting Ichigo and them maybe like 10 yrs older than canon, and after Masaki died, he promised himself he would make the streets safe and so trained and pushed and became powerful and kinda turned into like the local Boss and took over a Yakuza base to make his base or something like it.. idk.