July 22nd

A fan closed with a snap.

"Welcome! My name is Urahara Kisuke! It's nice to meet you Hiragi Katsuko!"

Startled by the sudden enthusiasm, Katsuko's eyes skittered away for a moment as she was unsure how to handle it, "… Hi." Came Katsuko's unenthusiastic response to the man with the bucket hat's cheerful greeting. The girl wasn't exactly the best social person so her responses were usually apathetic-like without a smile towards people she didn't quite know.

The black haired girl was dressed in a loose cobalt blue sweater that was zipped up and gray jeans with a blue backpack. Inside she packed a snack and a water bottle, her phone and her glasses inside.

"I assume Yoruichi-san has gone over the details with you?"

She looked back at him, "Yoru… oh, you mean the cat?"

"That's right."

Oh, it definitely did.

…

…

…

She was sitting under a tree in the park with the cat that approached her with its surprising ability to talk. It was talking to her. It took her a few minutes to get used to it though. It really freaked her out at first to the point where she would keep staring at the cat while it wasn't looking, wondering just what the hell it is.

Katsuko looked at the sky from her spot when she leaned back against the tree to just let it sink. She needed to think about this.

The black cat was asking her if she wanted to train to help Ichigo in his mission since having another Soul Reaper on the rescue operation would be most beneficial. Katsuko having powers that of a Soul Reaper was not something that could be overlooked. It was an offer which she had the right to refuse no matter what reason.

When she asked about the level of risk about the rescue operation, the cat basically confirmed to her that Ichigo going there alone was basically a suicide mission. A horrifying thought for Katsuko. Being one of his best friends that was actually aware of what he was planning on doing, she felt like she couldn't just turn a blind eye and turn down the opportunity to help without giving it a second thought at least.

With a heavy exhale, she sat cross-legged on the grass while propping up her head with her hand by setting down her elbow on her knee. She pressed her forehead against the palm of her head and shut her eyes.

"When Rukia was still here, she talked about something called the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. Just hearing the name makes me think like it's some sort of army." Katsuko shifted her head to look at the black cat, "How dangerous is this 'army'?"

If she was going to participate, she needed to know what she was getting herself into. She wanted to be informed.

"As the name suggests, there are Thirteen Squads. Each one is led by a captain that is very strong and beyond your comprehension. They also have their lieutenants as well as seated officers who may be in charge of their own smaller squads. All kinds of ranks will be running around to find the enemy. You do the math."

"Ooh… My head just did a backflip." Katsuko groaned and rubbed her temple, "And Ichigo thinks he can do this on his own? Oh, that freakin' reckless idiot. He can't do this alone. It's impossible."

The cat chuckled at her first choice of words, "Indeed, that's why I'm asking you if you want to help."

She plays video games with similar concepts. She has an idea of what kind of danger this boy was going into. Needless to say, she was immensely concerned about his decision to save Rukia since his first attempt ended up with him getting cut up. She knew that she wanted to help him somehow, but she the idea of her going to the Soul Society as well never really crossed her mind.

"If you do choose to participate in this mission, you will be training for eight days."

"E-Eight?" she repeated, shocked, "That's… not a lot of time."

Eight months sounded much more assuring.

The cat looked at her, "It should be enough for you since your circumstance is different than Ichigo's."

"Different—? Oh, right… the thing that Rukia talked about." Katsuko bit her lip as she bit her lip for a few seconds as she paused, "Are you going to train me…? I mean, If I do decide to help…?"

"No, not me. You'll be training with the same man who will be training your friend. He has a certain type of training in mind for you. Don't worry, training fledglings like you two won't be much trouble for him."

Katsuko wasn't sure how that person in the bucket hat was going to train her at the same time as Ichigo. Training two people wasn't exactly something you can multi-task.

The girl frowned and then dropped her head so she could just stare at the grass that swayed in the breeze.

"I'm scared of going." Katsuko admitted, "I can be scared, right?"

The cat observed her for moment until it turned its head away from her, "Yes. But when you're in the Soul Society, you won't have time to be scared. Time will be of essence. The slightest hesitation might just be the end of you." The cat stood up on its four legs, "You will have three days to think it over carefully. Once you've made your decision, go to Urahara's shop in Mitsumiya."

…

…

…

It was difficult to finally come to a decision.

She didn't want Ichigo to die. She didn't want to die and never return home. After all, if she died in the Soul Society in her soul form, she was never going to come back home. Those conflicting thoughts didn't help her sleep on the first night, she had so much on her mind. The urge to ask her mother for advice was overwhelming, but she knew she could never ask. The only thing she could do was ask her two close friends in a rather cryptic way which provided little for her dilemma. Jun and Haruki didn't really question her since they knew she had an imaginative mind so they thought she was coming up with some story ideas.

Katsuko didn't want Rukia to die, but she also didn't want to die on a mission to save Rukia.

But if she chose to stay behind only to find out later that Ichigo died on that rescue operation, she was sure that she wouldn't be able to sleep at night. Guilt would be plaguing her mind for not trying to help. She cared about her friend.

That's why she decided to take part in the rescue operation after thinking about so many little details and realizing that, maybe, sometimes just caring about someone was enough of a reason.

In the end, supporting her friend and helping him stay alive was important to her. She was going to Soul Society. That was her choice.

So here she was, in some underground training room, underneath the Urahara shop with the man in the bucket hat. It was pretty impressive that he hid such a thing under a quaint little candy shop.

Katsuko would have to take it very seriously in order for her to survive and go home with Ichigo (and Rukia?). How? She wasn't sure. But she had to. She didn't have a choice.

Katsuko scratched the back of her head, "So, um, where's Ichigo?" she looked around curiously.

Urahara Kisuke plucked out his fan from his pocket and pointed behind him with a casual smile, "He's doing his training somewhere over there." Katsuko saw a giant hole in the ground, "So, it's best if we don't bother him since he's in the process of regaining his Soul Reaper powers."

"He lost it?" Katsuko blinked.

He didn't tell me that.

The heck, that's not good!

"So, he needs to concentrate with no distractions. In the meantime," he lifted his cane, making her panic a little, she wanted to tell him to wait until she put on her glasses since she obviously needed to have good eyesight for this training. He poked her forehead with the end of his cane, knocking her out of her body, "I'll be training you."

Katsuko stumbled out of her body and watched her physical one drop backwards. With a sharp inhale, she stepped forward and caught it before it crashed on the floor. If possible, she'd like to avoid bruises from nasty falls. Carefully, she set down her body. Getting shoved out of her body was something she would never really get used to. It was weird.

Huh?

"Whoa… wait." Katsuko looked around, blinking in disbelief, "I can see clearly… How come?"

I have horse shit eyes so it should be blurry.

Urahara blinked in confusion but then a look of realization replaced it, "Do you wear glasses?"

Nod.

"Physical complications or disabilities don't really affect the soul."

Hearing this made Katsuko's eyebrows shoot up to her hairline, "So, if I was deaf… I would be able to hear in my soul form?"

His fingers snapped and he pointed at her with a grin on his face, "Correct!"

"Seriously?!" she exclaimed, almost happy.

Katsuko couldn't resist looking around a little more to check out the details that normally would have been blurred. Man, she thought, I can't believe I'm thinking about this but… I can't wait until I'm dead! HAHA!

Urahara urged her to follow after him as she spoke.

"It was a surprising sight to see you, someone who hasn't wielded a Zanpakuto for that long, move well like an average Soul Reaper."

"Zanpakuto?"

"The term given to the swords of all Soul Reapers."

Katsuko looked at her sheathed sword attached to her hip.

"Kuchiki-san relayed to me what you told her the day you became a Soul Reaper. You said that it felt like you knew what to do in order to defeat the first Hollow that came after you."

"Um, yeah." She nodded even though he couldn't see her, "I felt like I knew what to do as if it was familiar to me."

Urahara hummed and then stopped walking which almost made her run into him just before he whirled around to look at her, eyes shaded by his hat, "Before I can permit you to go to the Soul Society, I'll be giving you two lessons. The first lesson is simple enough. I'll be helping you build the foundation of your combat skills by teaching you how to fight with your sword since you don't have as much experience with it. Depending on your progress, I'll be the one to judge whether or not you have cleared your lesson."

Katsuko paused and then nodded in agreement, "That makes sense."

I can't slack off then or else I'll waste time if he thinks I'm not good enough.

Experience in fighting was what she was lacking so he had to give her some to start off. As much as relying on her feelings of familiarity was a good idea, Katsuko still needed to know for herself just what exactly she was doing.

Unlike Ichigo, he permitted her to leave and head home and rest for the night before coming back and training again.

She thought it was odd that he was allowing her to leave home and rest whereas Ichigo had to stay. Just what the hell kind of training was he doing that required him to do it for non-stop?

…

…

…

When she returned home, her parents were out like usual, since it was still a weekday. That gave Katsuko the perfect opportunity to be out for a long time without having any of her parents being suspicious of her activity. Her plan was to inform her parents that she was out with her friends in the afternoon when they asked. Lying about her whereabouts wasn't something she liked doing, but she had to in this case.

She was lying in her bed and mentally reviewing her training lesson that she had with the store owner. Urahara had to polish and refine her fighting style by giving her tips since she fought like a neophyte on her own and without any other influence.

She was a quick learner. The credit could probably be given to her past self though that left some muscle memory.

Her hand outstretched to her ceiling room and she repeatedly opened and closed her fist as if to manifest the feeling of holding her Zanpakuto.

Katsuko slammed back into a rock after getting pushed back, she winced at the impact before quickly ducking to avoid the blade that pierced the rock. She held her sword tightly with one hand and swung upwards, forcing Urahara and take a nimble step back. She didn't stop there. With refined movements, she continued to swing her blade at him with precise attacks instead of her previous attacks that were driven by past experience or by reckless desperation.

It was strange. When she came back the next day, she saw a significant improvement in the way she fought against Urahara, causing him to come at her at a different level. He was fighting her with the intent of injuring her this time. When she protested at the difficulty out of worry for her being, he refused to comply with her wish to go easier on her which forced her to step up her game and fight back harder.

Urahara swung his sword down on her. Katsuko's eyes narrowed and she blocked his attack with unrelenting strength. Their swords created small sparks from their friction. Her dark brown eyes met his surprised black ones.

Her instructor chuckled at her significant improvement.

She was definitely not your average Soul Reaper with how she was practically cheating when it came to gaining new strength. Truly, an anomaly she was. It was still early to estimate her current power level though. His goal was to have her depend on herself in battle and not some ghost from the past.

Katsuko pushed his sword back with a grunt and was about to swing at him, but he was faster. Urahara used his Zanpakuto to push her back, making her stagger, then he used that opportunity to jump and attack her from above. With an eep, she leaped away while dodging a leg that swung in her direction once he landed.

So, fighting doesn't just limit to using the sword. You can use your body too? But isn't that dangerous? What if I get a limb cut off by trying to do the same?

"How careless of you."

Katsuko back-stepped when the tip of his sword came close to cutting the bridge of her nose. "Holy fuck—!" Katsuko freaked at the proximity and her hand flew up to her face in horror, "You nearly took my eyes out!"

"Well, of course!" He pointed the end of his blade at her from afar, "If I didn't come at you seriously then there would be no point in training you for a mission where it could mean death. That's what will happen if you get lost in thought."

Katsuko tensed when he reminded her that consequence of failure.

"Sorry…"

"I'll keep coming at you so that you'll remember not to make the same mistake." He said before warning her, "Don't take me lightly."

The black haired girl swallowed and breathed out. Yeah. There was no time to get lost in thought if she wanted to return home safely. She needed to succeed in this rescue mission.

Her hands gripped her hilt tighter with hardened resolve. She could not afford get distracted from a battle unless she never wanted to return home.

When she finished the training for the day, she ended up with a few injuries but nothing too serious that wouldn't be a problem to heal. Getting sword injuries was probably never going to be something she'll ever get used to.

July 24th

Urahara and Katsuko continued their fight from yesterday. Again, he raised the difficulty by coming at her even stronger. Again, there was an improvement in the way she fought and moved.

All of a sudden, there was a bunch of screaming echoing throughout the underground training room, causing Urahara and Katsuko to stop just before their swords could clash for the umpteenth time. As she panted, she wondered what was happening when Urahara ceased their fight.

"That sounds like Ichigo…" Katsuko quietly trailed after Urahara who approached the two kids who were peering down at the hole, "Uh, what's happening to him?"

The two kids were Jinta and Ururu. They were children who were living at the Urahara shop, and they were quite aware of what kind of person the shop owner truly was. She had only spoken to Ururu so far and that was during the times when she was preparing to go home. Apparently, Ururu was given the task of putting aside the bag she arrived with so it wouldn't just be laying around somewhere in the shop.

"Ichigo needs to become a Soul Reaper within eighty-two hours in order to climb out of Shattered Shaft. As a Plus, he is going through a process where he is gradually losing his Chain of Fate. Once the chain is no more, the Plus will become a Hollow. To avoid that terrible fate, his only choice is to become a Soul Reaper."

"Say what?!" Katsuko nearly dropped her sword, "You're telling me… Ichigo's been going through a gamble this whole time?!" she moved closer to the hole only for Urahara to tug her elbow to keep her away so she wouldn't jump down there, "And it's been eighty-two hours, so he's turning into a Hollow?!"

She didn't try to tug her elbow away since she wasn't planning to jump down there. What the hell could she do? This wasn't some story where a hug and a pathetic call of his name would bring him back from whatever hell he was in. She didn't know what she could do for him.

Panic surged through her body as she pictured her friend as one of those ugly monsters that went around threatening her life. There was no way her friend could end up like that. He can't! She gritted her teeth at the sound of his screaming echoing from the hole below. With her better eyesight, she could see him kneeling on the ground, face upwards, as white swirled around his face while the ground shook below her feet.

"Ichigo…" she whispered under her breath.

"Usually, when a Plus becomes a Hollow… the spiritual body first explodes, and then reforms." Urahara started to explaining, "But in his case, the order is all mixed up. The body is still a Plus, while the mask is being created first."

"Is… Is that a bad thing?" Katsuko wondered.

"No, it is proof that he is resisting the transformation."

Jinta looked away from the hole, "Isn't he just delaying the inevitable?"

"There's still a possibility that he will become a Soul Reaper again. So, let's watch a little longer and see if he truly becomes a Hollow. Just for a little longer."

In other words…

Katsuko peered into the hole, "This is your last chance..." she whispered to herself.

Just as Urahara suggested, Katsuko and the two kids waited and simply watched Ichigo from above. During that time, she finally noticed another person inside the whole in the shadows, something she couldn't notice since her attention and concern was on her classmate. She didn't know what he was doing there though.

Ichigo's face was gradually getting masked over by a Hollow mask. When the top half of his face was covered, she figured that Ichigo's resistance would be futile once the mask was fully completed, making her feel nervous, her heart thumping loudly that she could feel herself swaying from the beats of it. She kept her fingers crossed inside her sleeve.

Ichigo…

The mask was getting closer to completing, alarming her.

"Oi! Ichigo!" Katsuko bellowed into the hole, "You better not turn into a damn Hollow!" she shouted at him despite the bone chilling screams.

You can't just become a Hollow!

You can't!

You haven't even started yet!

Eventually, the mask was complete.

Jinta and Ururu backed away from the hole while Katsuko stared in disbelief once eyes glowed behind the mask.

The ground shook even harder followed by an increase volume of his screams. Katsuko could feel Spiritual Pressure coming out from the hole.

"This is the limit, Boss! I am switching to Suppression Mode." The man bellow shouted, "Bakudo 99 Part 2: Ban-kin! First Incantation: Bandage!"

Katsuko watched Ichigo get wrapped in a sheet of white, mummifying him. What the hell was that guy doing to him?!

"Second Incantation: Hundred Dead Bolts!"

"What the fu…?!" Katsuko gaped as the big needles punctured him, "Hold on! W-Wait!"

Jinta was also shocked at the sight since he dropped on his knees and yelled, "Oi Tessai! If you do that, he'll die!"

"There is no other way! I can't hold him down any longer! I must destroy him before he comes a Hollow!"

Katsuko whipped her head around to look at the owner, "C-Can't you knock him out or something?! Will that help?!"

"It won't." he replied simply.

"Hah?!"

"Final Incantation: Fatal Seal!"

Katsuko's eyes widened at the name of the spell. Then she felt something fall past her and drop into the hole, "Ichi—" her panicked voice was cut off when she felt Urahara immediately pull her away from the hole with the two kids standing with her, and then she saw a blast erupt from the hole when she moved back. Urahara covered for the children while Katsuko staggered backwards when she caught her footing once she was released.

Driven by the fear of not knowing what was happening, Katsuko held her sword in both her hands and stared at the pillar of light that suddenly jumped and bounced off the ceiling and the walls of the underground training room before finally crashing into the ground a few feet away from the hole on the opposite end of where they were situated.

They all stilled at the cloud of smoke on the other side of the hole.

"Hey! Is that you?!" Jinta shouted while cautiously walking forward once Urahara thought it was safe for them, "Answer, orange head! If you're alive, answer me!"

The smoke slowly started to clear, revealing a silhouette. Katsuko's eyes narrowed when she saw the shape. From what she could see so far, she knew that Ichigo wasn't wearing his preferred tight fitted clothing. He was wearing something loose. Being keenly attentive to body shapes was something she learned to pick up since she didn't like wearing her glasses in public, making it easy for her to distinguish people she knew when their face was blurred.

Katsuko's blinked in surprise when the smoke finally cleared.

"A Shikakusho… and a mask?" Jinta identified, "Is he a Hollow? Or a Soul Reaper?"

"Ichigo?" Katsuko called his name nervously.

Ichigo reached for the sword sheathed on his back and pulled, causing Ururu and Jinta to get into defensive positions, but instead of attacking them, he rammed the end of his hilt into his mask, cracking and shattering the lower half before pulling it off, revealing his normal smug face. In his hand was only the hilt of his Zanpakuto. It was broken.

Katsuko heaved out the breath she didn't realize she was holding in, relief flooding her body. From her spot behind Urahara, she relaxed her grip on her sword at the sight of him closing and opening his fist as he walked towards them. He was still himself. He wasn't a Hollow.

Man, that was so stressful to watch…

She hadn't even noticed that her heart was beating fast.

I can't believe he nearly became a Hollow.

Did he turn into one for a second though? He had a mask on…

Katsuko was pulled away from her thoughts when she heard the owner of the shop clapping his hands while congratulating him in a cheerful tune.

"Shut up!" Ichigo growled just as he rammed the end of his hilt under Urahara's face, causing him to cry out in pain and recoil away from the angry teen. Katsuko quickly scampered away from the older man just before he could fall on her. Ichigo didn't quite notice her since he was so focused on the man dressed in dark green. He looked really pissed off.

"Ha! Your number is up now that I came back alive! I swore! That when I got out of the hole alive, I'd kill you without fail!" Ichigo pointed at him with a menacing grin. It was only after he finished speaking that he finally noticed Katsuko standing there staring at him with furrowed brows and a frown.

"You look fine and act like yourself. I guess I don't need to worry about you." Katsuko looked away from him, trying to keep a straight face after seeing Ichigo's face turn from one of anger to shock. It was kinda funny.

"Katsuko?! What are you doing?!" he approached her.

"Breathing." she replied after turning her head to look at him, her tone flat.

Ichigo narrowed his eyes at that nonchanlant answer, "You know that's not what I meant!" he dropped his hands to his sides after exasperatedly holding them up, "You're in a Shihakusho… don't tell me you're planning on going with me?" she saw concern display on his face. Earlier, in the hole, he heard fighting coming from above, but Tessai had urged him to focus on his himself instead of above. He didn't think Katsuko would be up here training, "It's… I mean, you know it's going to be dangerous, right?"

"I know that." Katsuko arched a brow and raised a hand to scratch the back of her head, "I'll admit, I'd rather not get involved and just stay home." She admitted with a sigh, "But I don't want to be passive about this and get nightmares if something bad were to happen to you. I'll regret it." She finished with a shrug.

"That's quite the roundabout way to say that you care." Urahara said behind his fan with a snort, making her stare at him in annoyance.

With a serious look, the orange haired boy asked her, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah." She told him firmly, "I've had time to think it over before coming here. Three days. It's more than you." She lifted her sword to look away from him and just stared at her hilt, "I want to help. You can't do this alone after all."

Ichigo was surprised when he heard her say that. He actually expected her to be more nonchalant about the matter while saying it indirectly. Hearing the firm resolve in her voice, Ichigo's shoulders, that he didn't know were tense, relaxed, "Well, if you're sure, then I'd appreciate the help. Thanks."

Katsuko chucked at that and looked back at him, "If you appreciate it so much, then maybe you can do me a favor once it's all over." She made a 'money' motion with her fingers, a smirk on her face.

"Don't push it." Ichigo grumbled with a pointed look.

Urahara decided to interject by maneuvering behind Katsuko and dropping his hands on her shoulders, startling her a little, "While you were down there getting your powers back, Hiragi-san has been training with me. She's been getting stronger each day—"

Yeah, thanks to my soul cheat code I bet.

"But now that Kurosaki-san has got his powers back, Hiragi-san will now go on a two day break before resuming her training."

"HUH?!" Katsuko gaped and looked over her shoulder, "Two days?! Seriously?! No way. There's no time for a break!"

"Now, now, no need to get all worked up." Urahara removed his hands off her shoulders, "Your break is included in your training, Hiragi-san. It's much more effective that way."

"But why?" she frowned, still not happy about her break.

"Well, for one, I can't exactly train you both now that Kurosaki-san is going to be doing Lesson 3." Katsuko deadpanned at the nonchalant shrug he did, "Besides, you need to let all that training sink with that soul of yours."

Katsuko gave Urahara a suspicious look.

… Does he really know what he's doing? I'm scared that he's half-assed training me… I don't want to die over there.

He just smiled at her.

But every time I return here, I come back a bit stronger… so I guess I should trust in him.

"Alright, but can I stay here and watch a little?"

"Be my guest~"

"Great, now I get to watch Ichigo's ass get beat by Urahara-san!"

"Come again?! If anyone's getting their ass kicked, it's him!"

Katsuko snickered, "Suuure."

Ichigo's third lesson was to knock off Urahara's hat with his Zanpakuto.

Katsuko turned away and sheathed her sword while she hid a knowing grin. If Ichigo thinks beating Urahara was going to be a walk in the park then he had another thing coming.

She was lucky her days off happened on the weekend. She could stay home and pretend all was fine, and then resume her secret training on Monday. On Saturday, she was out with her mother buying groceries since they were running low on supply. While her mother was busy somewhere on the other side of the grocery store, Katsuko went off to grab something that she liked once her mother gave her the 'OK'.

She passed by Yuzu and Karin on the way.

"Katsuko-chan!" Yuzu exclaimed happily.

Katsuko wasn't really big on the honorifics unless it was absolutely necessary, but there was a certain degree of familiarity that had to be necessary in order for others to call her in certain ways. Yuzu, being the younger sister of her best friend, had automatically gotten the free pas to refer to her as 'Katsuko-chan' despite her not liking that specific honorific.

"Oh, hey Katsuko." Karin greeted her casually.

"Oh, Yuzu, Karin. Hey." She waved at the twins.

Obviously, Katsuko felt more at ease around Karin since they were sort of on the same wavelength. It must be the black hair.

"It's been a while since I saw you!" Yuzu smiled at her.

"Really?" Katsuko looked up, trying to swim through her memories to try and find the last time she saw their faces.

Karin nodded, "Uh-huh, last time we saw you was when you and Ichi-nii were coming back from school."

The taller girl dropped her fist in her hand, "Oh, right! We bought a snack on the way home. Ichigo gave you a piece of his cookie when we ran into you."

Karin flinched when she remembered something and then she slowly looked over her shoulder. Katsuko blinked and stared at the other Kurosaki child that fell silent. Yuzu was all pouty and sad while holding the basket of groceries.

Confused, Katsuko slowly directed her gaze onto Karin who only sighed when she looked back at the older girl.

"Ichi-nii is kind of a sensitive topic right now." She said nonchalantly with her hands behind her head, "Yuzu said that he promised he would play with her during the summer, but he's off somewhere doing who knows what." The girl shrugged.

"Onii-chan, is a liar!" Yuzu grumbled as she plucked an item from the shelf, "I'm going to make his favorite Karashi Mentaiko and he won't get to have any! Not even leftovers!"

Katsuko chuckled silently at Yuzu's childish behaviour, but she was surprised upon hearing Karin's rather nonchalant tone about Ichigo's whereabouts. Were they always this lax when it came to him not coming home?

It must be because he's a guy, she thought, I can't get away with disappearing like that.

Now that she thought about it, how the hell was she going to get away with leaving for the Soul Society? There's no way her mother wouldn't get worried, especially considering how Katsuko wasn't the type to suddenly leave the house. Katsuko was the type of person to stay home during the summer vacation.

What am I going to do about that…?

July 27th

…

…

…

"I've prepared something for that!" Urahara exclaimed.

Katsuko gave him a look of disbelief, "Huh?!"

When she returned to Urahara's shop, she was informed that Ichigo was asleep somewhere in the shop despite it being early in the day. According to Tessai, Urahara purposely messed up his sense of time by training him at night so that Katsuko could train during the day.

Urahara dug into his pocket and pulled a small pill bottle that had a single green pill inside, "I'm giving you this little Soul Candy."

Katsuko blinked her dark brown eyes, "Wait… what is that?"

He gently rolled it around inside the bottle, "Well, it's also called Gikongan. They are artificial souls meant for taking over the body after forcing out the current soul inside of it."

Katsuko eyed the moving pill, eyes curious like that of a cat's, "Um, is it like when Ichigo had a modified soul inside his body that ran around town?"

"Exactly. However, yours won't be running off with your body. It'll act like a normal human soul that will be taking your place once you leave for the Soul Society."

Seeing the worried look on her face, Urahara made sure to reassure her that the Soul Candy that would be inhabiting her body was chosen based on how similar its personality was to hers. There were several types of Soul Candies such as: Chappy, Yuki, Alfred, Kaneshiro, Gringo, Steiner, etc. It was also better that way since having Katsuko having a completely different personality might end up with her human body visiting some type of psychological facility or something.

Urahara hid away the bottle in his pocket, "But we'll talk about it more once your training is finished."

"Yeah, I really don't want to worry about that right now." Katsuko looked to the side, trying to ease her concerns. She hoped she didn't end up with a female version of Ichigo's soul pill. That would be a disaster. Her hole image would be ruined and she would never be able to show her face around her mother again if she found out.

She saw her instructor pull out his sword which she figured was also a Zanpakuto at this point.

"Let's continue your lesson."

Katsuko straightened up and breathed in, "Okay." she nodded.

Definitely meant to get this out during December but laziness and irl stuff got in the way. I got this done while adjusting some stuff for this story.

One more chapter!

We're getting closer to the Soul Society Arc!

See you in the next chapter!