Chapter 6 | The Candy Shop

A week went by during which I noticed that reality started feeling more distant than ever before. My encounters with the two strong hollows, working with a Shinigami, as well as that weird encounter at Hiraoka-jinja had significantly strengthened my ties to the spirit world. My reikaku had become as precise while in my living body as outside of it. This meant that ignoring the peculiarities of the spirit world became nigh impossible.

Both Akane and Chie noticed the change too. Despite my body technically sleeping, it didn't negate the exhaustion I gained during my nightly activities. I kept my lips tightly sealed on the matters of ghosts; There was no need to involve my friends in any of it. Seeing Akane and Chie so carefree about everything was one of the few joys of my life. They were my anchors to normality and physical reality.

I continued my partnership with Hisashi to find lingering souls and hollows. He became more protective after our fight with the Wisp Angler, keeping any hollow fights purely to himself. He even attempted to teach me shunpo. Unfortunately for me, Hisashi was a horrendous teacher.

"Just… do it like this?" He waved his hands and performed a flash step.

"Again, how?! EXPLAIN!"

It was a miracle that I made something happen, although there was a lot left to be desired. It would take much more training before I could do anything else than fling myself, tumble awkwardly, and land on my head.

One quiet and sleepless night we sat on the roof, watching the starry night and a waxing moon. I had realized I didn't really know much about my Shinigami partner. Maybe I should start with where he's from..?

"Takenaka-kun? What's… the afterlife like? This Soul Society?"

"It's… complicated." He sighed and shrugged. "It's much more stale and boring than what you'd expect. Sorry, I can't really share much. The living aren't supposed to know."

I felt disappointed from the lack of information alone, but knowing that I'd be disappointed from the truth was even worse. What's the point of an afterlife like that?

"Alright, keep your secrets then. Is there anything you can tell me then? I don't know much about you, for example."

Hisashi just sayed quiet and kept staring at the sky.

"Come on, anything?" I leant forward, trying to put myself in his field of vision. "I've already told you about me. It's only fair, you know..?"

"...Fine," he finally gave in. "I guess you could say I'm from the 'countryside' of Soul Society, the Rukongai."

"Oh? As opposed to like, say… a city?"

"...I knew I should've just kept quiet."

I raised my hands. "Sheesh, fine, I'll stick to personal things then. What do you like to do?"

He was suspiciously quiet again.

"I mean, there must be something you do when you're not… working, right? Shinigami do have free time, right?"

"...Does drinking with my buddies count?"

I blinked, thinking he was messing with me. But as he retained that serious expression of his, I covered my mouth in shock. "You… you poor thing..! Overworked and alcoholic?"

Hisashi looked like a rock had hit the back of his head. "You're making some weird conclusions there, Tamaki-chan, stop it."

We kept chatting for a while, but after it became clear that Hisashi wasn't going to reveal anything more, I went to sleep instead. Why all the secrecy? I wondered.

The day came when I'd meet the fabled, sketchy, candy-selling man. It didn't help that I was underage. Leaving my body behind at home, I left with Hisashi to find this man.

The shop was located in, for a lack of a better word, in a sketchy ass alley one wouldn't dare go into for the fear of being mugged or worse. Concrete and metal dominated the architecture in a rather brutalistic way. Hisashi just tugged me along the way with an expression of 'I know, shut up.' He knocked on a door and opened it, excusing himself out loud.

The interior was mostly made of wood to my surprise, much in contrast to the exterior. Combined with all the colorful candy presented in various boxes gave the place an interesting, sweet and fragrant smell. A door slid open towards the back of the shop, revealing a blonde man in green with a weird striped hat and wooden sandals.

"My, my, if it isn't Hisashi-kun! How you've grown!" he said in a suspiciously casual tone. It made him look clumsy and weird, yet my gut was telling me to be wary. Hisashi didn't look too amused by his comment.

"And you brought with you a pretty miss!" he continued, "I'm Urahara Kisuke, the owner of this fine shop!"

"Everyone just calls him Mr. Hat-and-Clogs though," Hisashi whispered.

I nodded, eyeing this 'candy-man' up and down with narrowed eyes. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Hat-and-Clogs, I'm Tamaki Koharu."

Kisuke chuckled awkwardly. "So, I hear you are quite a peculiar sort, and possibly in need of some help, yes?" His eyes turned serious, with a curiosity one could only attribute to a zealous scientist.

"Yeah, kind of. I wish to understand myself better, but.. I am more in need of a mentor," I said, bolstering my resolve. All my life I had felt weak and useless, and now I had a chance at actually amounting to something. I couldn't waste this chance.

"I've become a target for hollows. Not only that, but I've done… weird things that I can't explain." I clenched my fists, recalling the moments I felt that primal fear and the subsequent screams. The trembling threatened to return.

"I can't just ignore all this, or else I'll endanger myself and those around me. I want to understand why I'm like this. I want to get stronger so I won't have to depend on Takenaka-san. So I ask you, Urahara-dono, please teach me!" I bowed.

Kisuke took out a fan and unfolded it, covering his face except for his eyes. That gaze made me feel uneasy, like some sort of commodity being appraised. Then he closed it and gave me that cheerful but goofy look of his again.

"Alright, you win! But don't complain after you sign the deal, terms and conditions will apply after all," he said, while turning around towards the hallway from where he came. "Tessai-san! Can you please make some tea for our fine guests?"

A rather large and muscular man peeked out of a door with a moustache that would put most Englishmen to shame and eyeglasses that were a bit too reflective. He gave Kisuke a thumbs up and went back.

"Please follow me, let's sit and relax first! You too, Takenaka-kun, I'm sure you're overworked as it is!" Hisashi looked like he'd rather not, but after giving me a glance he surrendered with a sigh.

Once we were all seated around a low table in an adjacent room, this man named Tessai brought us all a cup of green tea along with some snacks.

Urahara once again turned his focus to me. "So tell me about yourself, Tamaki-san. Maybe your history will give us some clues, hmm?" he said in an annoyingly carefree voice. He has to be faking that, right?

I sighed and sipped a little bit of the hot tea. Wait, is this actual, physical tea? It didn't splash through me as I drank it. Does that make it 'spiritual tea'? The more I thought about it, the more I just got confused and my head started to hurt. I decided to simply drink it and worry later.

"I was born in Nara, near Kasuga-taisha. I was mostly raised by my caretakers as my mother… she passed on when I was young." My memory of her was quite fuzzy, but I did remember her eyes. The memory felt warm and comforting, but also melancholic.

"I began seeing ghosts also quite early on, I think… I can't exactly remember when, but I just shrugged it off. Once I grew old enough that I was told not to have imaginary friends, I put two and two together. About at the same time my sixth sense… or reikaku as Hisashi-san called it, developed."

"I've heard it's quite exceptional," Kisuke commented, glancing towards Hisashi.

I narrowed my eyes with a nod, giving Hisashi a look. I guess Hisashi must've told him everything.

"A bit over a year ago I moved away from Nara in order to attend high school, thanks to my father. It really made my life more fulfilling, even if it's hard to move much for me. I was glad to leave that place behind."

"Ah, the rebellious phase! Such mysterious power puberty brings!" I glared daggers at Kisuke, who promptly hid his face behind that fan of his. "You have problems with your physical body?"

I nodded again. "It wasn't always this bad, but my caretakers told me it will only get worse. Moving, regardless how, feels like small needles poke at my skin and at times I can't feel parts of my body. Other times it feels like I'm being crushed underneath a boulder."

Kisuke nodded, tapping his chin with his now folded fan.

"Then there's been these two weird incidents, both times when I was face to face with a hollow. They were about to kill me when I panicked and just… screamed. And the hollows stopped. The first time it was only brief, and it only angered the hollow. A lot. Were it not for Takenaka-san, I would really be dead right now." I gripped my skirt and glanced towards Hisashi, who returned the gaze. "The second time though, the hollow became paralyzed."

Urahara whistled. "That's not something you hear every day!"

"That's about it," I concluded. Hisashi warned me not to trust him blindly, so I stopped there. Not that there was much more to tell.

The three of us sat in silence for a few minutes. The suspense was killing me. When I saw that a bubble formed from Urahara's nose and he had dozed off of all things, I snapped.

"Damn it Urahara-san, at least pretend to care if you offer to help!" I threw a cracker at him. To my surprise, he simply caught it between two fingers and started munching on it. His reflexes shocked me.

"Don't worry Tamaki-san, I was just thinking about our options." He finished it before continuing. "For starters, I could teach you the basic skills of a Shinigami, which includes four subjects."

Kisuke explained to me the four cornerstones of Shinigami technique, also called the zankensōki. There was hohō, which included the fast-movement techniques. "You've no doubt seen Hisashi use shunpo—flash steps," he explained.

The second one was kidō, which was all about 'magic' per his words. Spells, incantations, apparently a very versatile art that was often underappreciated. Hakuda was the third subject, which was a Shinigami's to-go-to martial art without weapons.

"As souls we're not bound to the same restrictions as humans, so we can push our physique beyond the normal human limit." Kisuke sipped some tea.

"And finally, we have zanjutsu, but without a zanpakutō like Takenaka-kun's, I'm afraid I can't teach you other than simple kenjutsu." He paused to think for a moment, his expression turning serious and somewhat scary. "Maybe we could try giving you one..?"

Hisashi slammed his hands on the table, almost spilling his teacup. "Urahara-san… You know the Gotei 13 wouldn't ignore that. Aiding Shinigami is one thing, and by teaching Shinigami arts outside Soul Society you're already treading on dangerous waters, but outright handing humans our tools? That'd mark her a criminal too!"

"Now, now, Takenaka-kun, please calm down," Urahara raised his hands in defense, "I wasn't saying I'd actually do it, just that it's simply an interesting hypothetical idea. Purely academic in nature." He wasn't fooling anybody.

Kisuke coughed. "In any case, disregarding that last idea, those are the mundane and honestly boring parts I could help you out with. What's more interesting is your hollow-affecting power. We could have you train it on me or my associates, but if I'm right… We'll need a more applicable type of specimen, if you catch my drift."

I gulped. That whole idea screamed like trouble. Thankfully Hisashi decided to make use of the lingering pause to talk some Shinigami business with Urahara, giving me time. I pressed the teacup against my lips and fell into deeper thought. Those Shinigami skills sure sounded quite handy, and at the very least if I were to learn shunpo I wouldn't need to be piggybacked everywhere when I accompanied Hisashi. It was too embarrassing.

Finally, I put down my empty teacup, a resolution made.

"I'd be more than happy to learn those basic skills that you've mentioned, Urahara-sensei. At the very least I'd like to learn how to move properly so I won't drag Takenaka-san down by requiring protection." Hisashi was about to interject, but he stayed quiet after I gave him a stern look.

"That alone won't do though. I know it'll be dangerous, but I want to understand and learn how to control this weird power of mine. If I can stop, even paralyze hollows just by shouting at them, then I think it's worth the risk."

Hisashi breathed a sigh of relief, probably from the fact that I didn't bring up the zanpakutō idea, though he remained concerned. Kisuke on the other hand looked slightly disappointed, but he nonetheless agreed with my choice. "Very thoughtful, I do think those skills will do you wonders."

His voice shifted to something more befitting of a mentor. "You will get one week. That's all the time I have in this corner of Japan, before I need to go attend to business elsewhere. It's up to you just how much time you want to dedicate to your training." He studied my expression for a moment. I swallowed hard.

"Make no mistake Tamaki-san, while you could train day and night, you shouldn't underestimate the importance of rest and your actual life. The more time you spend outside your physical body…" Kisuke lowered his head, his hat casting a shadow over his eyes.

"...The weaker your link to it becomes."