Chapter 7 | A Rather Ridiculous Basement

I had found a new mentor in Urahara Kisuke, owner of a shady candy store. Urahara wanted me to bring my physical body with me next time so he could check some things. It's quite bothersome, but if that's what it takes for me to get taught properly, then that's what I'll do.

I went to school the next day as normal. The difference now though was that I was actually looking forward to something. This didn't go unnoticed by Akane who used it as an opportunity to further tease me.

"So, you finally ready to tell us who's the lucky guy?"

"W-What?" Akane's words snapped me out of my thoughts. Her grin just grew wider and she poked my forehead. Not this shit again…

"That expression, the daydreaming, the sudden light in your eyes, it can mean only one thing: You're going on a date!"

"W-What? NO!" What kind of fantasies are you brewing in that head of yours?!

"Oh come on, we're your best friends! You can tell us!" Chie too now joined in with a smile radiating innocence. I just buried my face in my hands.

"Look, just 'cause I don't look dead for a change doesn't mean I'm dating anyone. So cut it out!"

"Wow, we really did hit something there!" Akane laughed. "But I'll let it slide, Koharu-chan… for now." I just rolled my eyes.

After school I bade farewell to both of my gal pals. Akane of course volunteered to accompany me but I adamantly refused. Her normally nonchalant and humorous personality faltered ever so slightly, exposing a side of her that I didn't get to often see. I did my best to reassure her that everything was going to be fine. As we parted though, a mischievous grin appeared on Akane's face and she wished me the best of luck on my 'date'. I told her to piss off of course.

The trip to Urahara's shop was an odd one. I would have normally never travelled anywhere unless it was absolutely necessary. Now that I was alone, the alley where the shop was located looked even more creepy and sent shivers down my spine. I took a step and…

"Yo!"

I instinctively threw a punch behind me, only to hit Hisashi, who promptly fell down on his ass. I clutched my hand. That really, really hurt.

"Hey, what's the big deal?!" he shouted as he got up, covering his nose.

"Don't you 'Yo!' at me, dumbass! Jeez, you almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Ugh, and here I thought about being considerate, making sure you're all safe and sound, and this is how you repay me?" Hisashi grumbled.

I just turned my head back towards the alley, ignoring him. "Next time don't be a creep, and you won't get hit."

The two of us found the shop once more and politely excused ourselves inside. Instead of Mr. Hat-and-Clogs though there was a boy moving stuff around in the shop.

"Oh, a customer! Hello!"

I waved at him. He wasn't here yesterday, where did he come from? The boy was young, perhaps three or four years younger than me. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and a very energetic demeanor.

I looked around. "Hi! Umm, we're here to see Urahara-san. Is he here?"

The boy stared at me, giving Hisashi a quick subtle glance. I was pretty sure he could see him.

"Well, owner's out doing some biz, yeah!" He came closer and bowed. "I'm Kuroda Jun, the owner's assistant! Pleased to meet ya!"

"Tamaki Koharu." I nodded, a bit confused, sparing Hisashi a stray glance. Kisuke didn't mention him and based on this, he didn't tell this boy anything either.

"Kuroda-kun," I began, scratching the back of my head awkwardly. "Can you, umm… see him?" I pointed over my shoulder. Either this'll make things easier… or it'll make me look like a total idiot.

"Umm.." Jun looked at me, then over at Hisashi, then back at me. Yeah, this boy has no poker face whatsoever. I was about to say something when Hisashi just burst out laughing.

"Pffft, we've already met, Tamaki-chan," Hisashi said. Poor lad just didn't know if you could see me."

I planted my elbow in his gut. "Great, now that that's sorted out.." I said and moved further in with a smile hiding my annoyance, while Hisashi clutched his stomach. "If you can see ghosts, it must mean you're not just an ordinary boy, right?"

Jun chuckled lightly, putting his hands behind his head. "Well… yeah! I help the owner out with all kinds of stuff! But mostly the shop. Especially that guy. He always loses things, but hey, more business for us! Though I did have to make a tedious run to replenish our stuff because of him…"

Hisashi, recovered from my elbow, loomed over my shoulder, his eyes turned into menacing white stars. I put my arm up in front of him and glared at him. "No bullying!"

The sliding door in the back opened once more, revealing Urahara and Tessai. "Why hello! Looks like you're already getting along with Jun-kun!"

After brief pleasantries we followed Urahara to his 'training area'. And by that, he meant a hatch in some corner of his establishment. He opened it, revealing a long, very long ladder directly downwards into some bright space. W-What the hell is this?

While Urahara, Tessai and Jun went down quickly by sliding along the ladder, I was too afraid of hurting myself. Not to mention it was such a long drop. How the hell is there such a space in the middle of a city?!

Hisashi, who was right after me, got more and more impatient as I slowly descended the ladder. "That's it, screw this!"

I watched in horror as he jumped off the ladder right above me, grabbing me with him on the way. I screamed from the top of my lungs as we fell down. Fortunately, Hisashi somehow cushioned the fall.

The moment I calmed down I flailed punches at him and wrestled out of his arms. "I thought I was going to die, you asshole!"

"You're welcome, miss slowpoke," Hisashi grumbled. "At least now we're here, and not spending the rest of the day climbing a damn ladder."

Urahara coughed to get my attention, muttering something about ruining a grand entrance or something. Only then did I realize that we were in an absurdly humongous space lit up as if in broad daylight. My jaw dropped as I saw that there was even a blue sky above us. It has to be fake, right?!

"Wooow, who could have guessed there was this in my basement?" Urahara shouted into the distance, his voice echoing back in response. With a satisfied smirk, he turned to face me, twirling a cane and promptly leaning onto it. Wait, where did he take that from?

"Well then, Tamaki-chan, we can finally start your training! Hooray!" he fluttered his fan around, almost expecting a buzz sound to come from somewhere. Then his expression turned more serious. "One usually starts with theory, but perhaps going straight to the practical part could work better?" he mused, watching me curiously.

I dusted the dirt off of my school uniform as I glared at Hisashi. I'll need to wash these again, ugh. With a sigh, I switched my focus to Kisuke. "I'd rather listen to the 'what' and 'why's first. A lot of things have happened but nobody has explained a damn thing to me yet."

Kisuke nodded, smiling. "Well, let's get comfortable then!" He gave Tessai a nod, who then placed his palms onto the ground, and suddenly a picnic table emerged from a cloud of smoke. I carefully poked it. Urahara invited me and Jun to sit, while Hisashi and Tessai left for another spot to do something of their own.

"Well then!" Kisuke opened his fan and covered his mouth. "I guess we should begin from scratch!"

"First off, is this table real?" I asked, uncomfortable with how I couldn't distinguish physical reality from spiritual.

"Well, you are sitting on it, are you not? Wouldn't that make it real?" Kisuke said. I responded with a murderous stare. He coughed. "In the physical sense, no. This is a product of kidō, ghost magic if you will."

"So if someone who can't see ghosts would look…"

"We'd be floating in thin air." Kisuke nodded.

I imagined for a moment how that would look from an outside perspective.

"So that means spiritual stuff can still affect the physical world?" I poked the table again. I recalled the damage the Wisp Angler hollow caused on the roof. Despite the bombs it set off as well as its sheer size, there were only light scorch marks from the explosions and a door that popped out of its hinges.

Kisuke nodded and raised a finger. "There is an imbalance though. If we were all just souls without a physical body, any Shinigami with at least some skill in kidō could make us a table, and we'd be having a nice wee little picnic. But for this to interact with humans, beings with physical bodies… It requires a lot more effort. Physical matter is what normally dictates how things should be, not the other way around."

Kisuke tapped the chair he was sitting on with his folded fan. "If you try to sit without a physical chair underneath you, you'd just look silly in a second. Anything without a physical counterpart will be violently reminded of the physical reality. A spiritual boulder wouldn't kill a mouse unless thrown with enough power. An ordinary pebble thrown by a child can wound a soul."

I gulped and took a moment to do my best and wrap my head around it all.

"And this brings us to reishi!" Kisuke tapped the table. "Spiritual matter. Now that's the tricky thing. Everything physical naturally develops, or grows, a reishi counterpart. If you rip it away, you are in a sense only left with the memory of whatever thing it belonged to."

"Memory?" I narrowed my eyes. This was starting to get complicated for my brain. "So this table.. is just a memory of a table? And these chairs too?"

"Bingo!" Kisuke applauded. "Nothing more, nothing less. That's why it's relatively easy to shape it into whatever we want. Food, furniture, money!"

I facepalmed. "Why am I not surprised you'd make counterfeit money?"

He looked wounded. "I would never, ever do anything like that! Right Jun-kun?"

The boy looked awkwardly to the side, a drop of sweat appearing on his forehead. All that was missing was whistling. Right…

"Where were we? Oh right, reishi! That's why, for instance, if you were to separate from your body right now…"

"...I'd appear with my current clothes," I completed my mentor's thought. He looked pleased. "Speaking of separation, Hisashi-san said I'm weird. I mean, the fact that I can separate at will. Why?"

Kisuke put his cane against his shoulder. "Well, for starters a soul is not quite meant to leave the body unless they die." Kisuke cheerfully explained. "So that alone makes you quite a curious case. I would say the weirder thing is that you don't even have a chain of fate."

I touched my chest, recalling the lingering souls I've encountered. "But some ghosts don't have them either?"

Kisuke nodded. "And how did they look? Translucent, almost formless even? Those are the souls that have begun to naturally drift away, their reishi bodies eroding. Usually not too long after their death. Those that have a broken chain are the ones that linger for a much longer time." He paused, eyeing me.

"In any case, you are still very much alive. You should have that bond between body and soul. The only time there's none is if the soul doesn't exactly belong to the body." He lowered his head, giving me a rather creepy, analytical stare, his eyes covered by his hat's shadow.

"That… that can't be right," I objected, anxiety creeping in through my stomach. I pinched my body, as if to disprove Kisuke. "I mean, I just know this is my body, ever since birth! My caretakers would've noticed something, even though my mother-"

"Died? Curious. Did you perhaps happen to start seeing ghosts right after her death too?" Urahara prodded with more intrusive questions that made my insides turn further.

"L-let's assume, just for a moment, that you are right. Where is my real body then? And whose body is this?"

Kisuke stayed silent, all the while fanning some air in his direction. "Well, one thing being true doesn't mean the other one isn't. That is, this could very well be your body, but your soul could have some.. additional baggage on it, if you pardon the crude metaphor."

I blinked, then shook my head. This is too much. "What do you mean? Like.. something else that isn't me?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Whatever it is, it stabilizes your soul enough that it doesn't pass on, but it also skews it just enough that your soul doesn't stick to your body properly. Like clothes that are just slightly the wrong fit."

I clenched my fists, looking down at my legs. It made sense, painfully so. Shit… is that why my body's felt frail and difficult all this time? Because my soul is the wrong damn fit?! I gritted my teeth and furrowed my eyebrows. "Is there… any way to make it fit then?"

"Not without getting you another body. I don't have one for you sadly, but I do have a gigai! It's an amazing piece of ghost science, I'll tell you that!" Kisuke eagerly explained his invention, like a child talking about his favorite toy. His tone shifted from glum to annoyingly cheerful. This gigai was some sort of temporary body for souls that was almost like the real deal. He noticed my rather delicately fuming state of mind and turned serious again.

He coughed. "What I'm saying is, I could give you such a gigai and it would shape itself to be a perfect container for your soul. But it isn't and never will be a true physical body, even if the living can see and interact with it."

As I was thinking, Kisuke raised his cane and lightly poked my forehead with its end.

I was not prepared for my soul to be ejected as if it were fired from a cannon. I flew quite a distance before tumbling across the ground until I hit a boulder. I yelped out in pain, wincing. My clothes were ruined here and there, with bruises forming in multiple spots. What the hell?! That… asshole..!

"Tamaki-chan~!" Kisuke shouted from the picnic table as he and Jun came rushing to me. Jun reached me first and helped me stand up.

"What the hell was that for?!" I shouted at Kisuke, fuming. The fact that he was just scratching the chin of his goofy face infuriated me even more.

"W-Well, I wasn't expecting you to fly off like that at all!" he said, trying to sound cheerful. I punched him in the face.

"Apology maybe accepted," I grumbled, waving my hand in pain from the punch, while his face remained unscathed.

"Well, this does confirm it," Kisuke sighed, "your soul doesn't fit your body. Otherwise it wouldn't have ejected you this violently."

I took a few deep breaths, feeling a light panic at the back of my head. I knew my life was a tad bit more messed up than that of others, but with all this ghost mumbo-jumbo, I wasn't sure about who I even was anymore. The rumors of the shrine maidens at Kasuga-taisha flooded my mind. Maybe my family line really is cursed? Maybe my family really did harbor some demon..?

"Nope, timeout," I announced, raising my hands up, and turned towards the approximate direction of Hisashi.

"Take your time! We'll have a nice picnic in the meantime!"

I walked over to Hisashi who was doing some training with kidō under the guidance of Tessai. He looked at me with a raised eyebrow and a puzzled expression, which promptly turned redder as he noticed the state of my clothing.

Nonetheless, I grabbed him by his ear and dragged him to the side, disregarding his objections. Tessai looked on with pity.

We got to a small rock formation and I simply sat down, holding my head between my hands. My difficult feelings far eclipsed the stinging of my bruises.

"What's the big idea?" Hisashi rubbed his ear.

"Just… shut up for a moment," I said, looking for words. Thankfully he seemed to realize my distress and frustration. "Shit, where do I even begin?"

"That bad, huh? No rush, Tamaki-chan."

I breathed in and out. "Okay, so, apparently, my soul doesn't match my body."

"Excuse me, what?"

"Just listen, okay? Maybe if I say this stuff aloud myself it'll make sense," I sighed, trying to keep it together.

"And if they don't match, it means I-" I looked at my bruised hands, then at my body, still sitting limp at the picnic table with Kisuke and Jun. While it felt uncomfortable to see it like that, I couldn't help it for now. "It means I am somehow different from what I should've been when I was born."

Hisashi listened and scratched the back of his head, resting his zanpakutō against his shoulder. While he didn't have much to say, he continued to listen patiently as I vented. I told the rest of Kisuke's explanations, my frustration with it all, and my resurfaced identity crisis.

"Well," Hisashi began, shifting his position, "I say take a step back. You're still you, and you are in control of yourself. Whatever the reason is for this mismatch, I'm sure we can figure it out and find something good out of it, one way or another, right? That's why we came to see Urahara-san in the first place."

I sighed. He had a point, but it didn't really alleviate the tension I felt. Hisashi came closer, lowering himself to a knee and gently raised my head up by my chin.

"This battle may not be won but it ain't lost either. So cheer up." I saw his face up close and the genuinely warm smile on it, in contrast to his usual bleak and serious face.

I breathed in deep, and gave him a smile in return.

"Thank you Takenaka-san. This… really helped me. I don't know what I would do if I were alone right now."

Hisashi stood up and extended his hand, which I took and he helped me up. After a short and awkward silence Hisashi averted his eyes and scrambled around, scratching the back of his head. "Oh wow, I've been down here for quite long, haha! Duty calls, I'll see you later.. Koharu-chan, yeah?"

I blinked, then shook my head, with an amused smile nonetheless. Really, changing it in such a moment…

"Hey Hisashi-kun!" I called out as he was about to run towards the ladder. "If you do need my help some time… don't hesitate to ask."

Hisashi gave me a thumbs up and continued his sprint. Considering he could've used that flash step of his, it looked extra comical.

"...What a dork."