"My...master?" The expression on Rukia's face, illuminated by the fluorescent lights in Kisuke's lab, told Yoruichi the story of where the young girl's thoughts were going with that suggestion.
She had climbed out of the tin tube butt-naked and gloopy, with viscous fluid hanging thickly off her new body. Despite the freezing temperature, thanks to Shirayuki's presence in the room, which made fog form on Yoruichi's breaths, Rukia didn't so much as shiver—a telling indication of her mastery so far of her Zanpakutō's abilities at the Shikai level.
"Yes," Yoruichi's deep voice said coolly. "You're my new student, Rukia. How kind of Ukitake to send you to the World of the Living without assignment. Perhaps he thought he was doing you a favor by making you take a break as a thank you for killing all those hollows on your own for him. Well, not 100% on your own, right? Makes it easier, don't you think? Than me coming to the Soul Society to get you."
"Uh, I don't think we're on the same page here, Lady Yoruichi. With all due respect, I'm not your student, and I don't want to be your student. So I'll be leaving as soon as I'm dressed." Rukia said, quickly rummaging through the clothes Kisuke had provided before he left his lab. She wiped the sticky, nasty-looking substance off her body with a towel Kisuke had thoughtfully laid out for her and then discarded it in a waste basket to the side of the tin can. He didn't have a closet, or at the very least, a curtain thrust up over a plank for privacy, so everyone in the lab was getting a full display of Rukia's naked form, perfectly representative of her Soul Reaper visage.
Not bad. Yoruichi thought, looking at the girl's muscle structure and overall toned physique. Just looking at her body's physical representation thanks to the Gigai, even an untrained eye can see that Rukia's no slouch when it comes to hard work—evident from her reaching Shikai already. Well, the basics.
Though they were all girls in the lab, Yoruichi's eyes registered a light blush running from the girl's hairline down to her chest before she caught a subtle glance once, then twice, from Rukia in her direction, who seems to be in a hurry to get dressed.
Modesty? Is she uncomfortable being naked in front of a cat? Yoruichi wonders off-handedly. Rukia knows that I'm a woman despite being a cat with a man's voice, so what the hell did she have to be shy about? I never picked her for the shy type.
Given Rukia's background growing up on the streets of Hanging Dog, where there were worst sights to behold night or day, enough to shred any child-like innocence, Yoruichi was slightly surprised at her behavior.
Shirayuki chose that moment to cluck her tongue from her cold corner, almost as if to remind the room that she was still there as if the unnaturally freezing temperature in the lab wasn't enough of a neon sign. With a dramatic sigh, the Zanpakutō spirit turned to her young wielder with annoyance in her voice. "Could you please keep your petty little thoughts to yourself, Rukia?"
Rukia's face wore a confused expression for a second before clarity played in her expressive violet eyes, which grew wider. "What?"
Yoruichi's whiskers quivered with interest.
"Were you not aware that I can hear every vulgar little thought you've ever had? Troublesome even more so because I remember every single one of them, too. Unfortunate for me, wouldn't you agree?"
Disbelief succeeded where the cold from Shirayuki failed, as Rukia froze on the spot, one leg stabbed through a skirt, staring at her Zanpakutō spirit who was wearing a smug look on her face at the results of her confession. Yoruichi wondered how long Shirayuki has been waiting to kick over that apple cart just to see that look on Rukia's face.
The girl shook her head in denial. "I've never heard of that.
Neither had Yoruichi, but she supposes it is not impossible with their souls needing to be in sync constantly, thought-sharing between souls might be the same as connections between twins.
"A Zanpakutō is just," Rukia started,
"A tool?" Shirayuki finished her sentence for her haughtily. "Why, we must be mindless things coming to your aid in a conflict whenever you call our names, then disappearing like good little toys that are out of the way once you're done with us, correct?!"
"I never said that." Rukia was barely stopping herself from snapping, but she was growing irritable, Yoruichi could see.
"But you were going to say it, Rukia." Shirayuki said insistently, indicating her temple with a forefinger, "I know what you're thinking, all the time. "Just a moment ago," the Zanpakut spirit said, turning to address the Goddess of Flash, "Rukia's thoughts were painted green," the sword spirit slyly told the cat.
"Really? How so?" Yoruichi asked, gladly playing the devil's advocate.
"She was just thinking back to that beach trip to this world; you recall the one, do you not?"
"Ah, yes," Yoruichi affirmed, watching as Rukia's face leveled up from pink to red enough to compete with ripe tomatoes. "What about it?" the cat woman asked in a business tone she was barely hanging on to while simultaneously thinking;
A cat sits in a lab to watch the beginnings of a catfight. Who came up with this brilliant idea? Kisuke must have a glass of milk for me around here, somewhere in this heap.
"Would you just shut up?" Rukia demanded angrily of her Zanpakutō, "Fine, you can read my thoughts, okay?" The girl admitted, hoping that will be the end of that but the sword spirit was just getting started.
Shirayuki silently regarded Rukia for a moment, then continued briskly, "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," the Zanpakutō spirit said in a cutting remark dashing the girl's hopes to the rocks, "Rukia was just thinking about you in your orange two-piece bathing suit and how she got an "eyeful" that day."
"It's not... that isn't what I was really saying..." The girl's head swiveled desperately between the cat and the snowwoman. "You're making it sound weird!" she exclaimed to the icy Zanpakutō, obviously flustered.
"Eyeful?" Yoruichi echoed, beginning to enjoy this a little too much, but the rabbit hole can only go deeper from here.
"Yes," Shirayuki drawled sweetly, "she was just thinking how embarrassing it is to be naked in front of me, the most beautiful Zanpakutō in the Seireitei, ever," she stressed. "And in front of you, the woman, who was, and I quote, 'created by a Deity of Aesthetics with too much time on its hands'."
"I've never heard it put like that before. I'm flattered, Rukia."
"I'm so gone," Rukia hissed under her breath, beyond embarrassed. She was busying herself with latching the hooks of a bra she found in her cup size among the pile of clothing as her search continues for a decent blouse to go with her skirt. Undergarments from the World of the Living are much more practical than Seireitei fashion and a lot more fashionable.
"Going to Ichigo's?" Yoruichi asked out of curiosity. "He doesn't know you're in the living world yet, does he?"
"I might go to Ichigo's," Rukia confessed, partially answering the question, "I don't know yet. This trip wasn't exactly planned."
"Oh," Shirayuki said abruptly, as though she just had a lightbulb moment and remembered something critical. "And while we're on the subject, master Rukia," the Zanpakutō spirit said blithely with a flip of her long, pale lavender hair, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she continued: "I would appreciate it ever so much if you stopped subjecting my ears to your silly fantasies about you and Ichigo Kurosake. Please, have some pride and give up the impossibility of an 'us' between you and that human boy. Accept the fact that your love interest is looking in another direction already."
"Haven't you proven your point already?" Rukia asked Shirayuki harshly, through clenched teeth. "Yes, you can hear my thoughts, and I'm coming to the rapid conclusion of what a nightmare you are when your nasty little personality intrudes not only into the privacy of my head but so much more disturbingly, into my reality. But to blatantly lie like this just to shame me? As my Zanpakutō, what do you get out of that?"
"Satisfaction, of course," Shirayuki replied placidly.
Yoruichi's face broke into a feline grin at that, loving every bit of this. "You and Ichigo? I suspected as much seeing how he risked life and limb for you, but..." the cat trailed off, yellow eyes alive with interest at the entertaining snit transpiring before her.
"It's a lie!" Rukia said adamantly. "I'm not interested in Ichigo. Never have I ever been interested in Ichigo."
"Well, he's not interested in your... assets, that's for sure," her Zanpakutō said, gesturing disdainfully at Rukia's petite body, now finally covered with fitting clothing. "I understand the attraction to him, Rukia." Shirayuki affected a sympathetic tone, warming her cold voice for a moment, "If not for that bright orange hair, it would be like looking at Kaien's identical twin brother."
Rukia sucked on an indignant breath, "Don't you dare speak of him!"
"Kaien?!" Yoruichi interrupted, gasping in shock as much as her cat's lungs allowed. "Kaien Shiba? You were in love with Kaien, Rukia?"
"Head over heels," the Zanpakutō gossiped wickedly, "and while he was married at that." Shirayuki grinned naughtily at her master who looked as if she was ready to throttle the beautiful sword spirit with the nasty personality.
"13 Hells, I've been out of the loop," Yoruichi said talking to herself, her cat's brows furrowing before turning to the girl obviously thinking vicious thoughts involving her icy Zanpakutō and several interludes with boiling hot water. "So, did you two ever find a brush while training alone? Some tall grass, at least." the cat teased Rukia mercilessly.
Perhaps it's because she was adopted into the Kuchiki Clan, but at that moment, Yoruichi noticed the same attitude in Byakuya when he's had enough of something, possessing Rukia's features. A bone-chilling mask of indifference—nothing says 'Kuchiki' like that expression.
"Why don't you two continue this little chat without me? You can listen to whatever lies Shirayuki wants to spew into your ears. I'm out of here. And as I've said, 'Lady Yoruichi,'" Rukia's voice simmered with an angry undertone, turning the title of 'Lady' into an insult that had Yoruichi's cat brows arching, a half smile playing at the corner of her whiskers. "I will not be your student, but thank you for the offer," the girl said in a tone of voice that brooked no argument, before turning on her heels, ready to leave this dreary lab with the talking cat and the gossiping, bitter snowwoman.
So, she is a Kuchiki. Yoruichi thought amused at the circumstance. Kuchikis has his annoying habit of thinking that their word is law once said, and everyone is supposed to abide by what they say because they said it. Unfortunately for Rukia, Yoruichi Shihōin is not just anybody.
There's a saying that goes; "Wherever you go, you take yourself with you". Even in exile from the world of her birth, walking in the shadows of mortals, Yoruichi Shihōin still carries the attitude of the 22nd Head of the Shihōin Clan, the former Captain of the 2nd Division in the Gotei 13, the Onmitsukidō Commander-in-Chief, Corrections Corps Commander, and the Executive Militia Corps Commander. No baby Kuchiki pretending to have an understanding of authority was going to get her to back off by squeaking. Rukia will have to come better than that.
"You can decline my offer all you want, but you were already my student from the moment you stepped into the World of the Living. That's a definite, no matter what you say, Lady Kuchiki." the cat said, smiling up at the girl, whose hands were balling into fists.
That last bit piqued Rukia's interest, effectively halting her march to the exit. With her back turned to both of them, Yoruichi felt the tension rolling off the younger woman in waves and could just imagine the look on her face.
If Yoruichi could roll her eyes in this form she would at the predictability of Rukia's reactions. Tapping into your emotions, Rukia because things aren't going your way, how pedestrian. Yoruichi's mental voice was bored.
"What's with everyone deciding for me who I'm to marry?!" the girl screamed. Yes, she literally lost it like a teenager throwing a tantrum.
The cat shrugged. "You are the future Lady Kuchiki; that's already decided."
"Decided by whom?" Rukia asked icily, turning slowly to face Yoruichi. "You? Kisuke Urahara? The elders of the Kuchiki Clan? Byakuya doesn't see me like that, and I don't see him like that, either." Her violet eyes snapped in Shiroyuki's direction, daring the Zanpakutō to say something smart at this inopportune moment, but the pretty sword spirit just ignored her furious master, examining her clean nails as if their importance warranted constant attention at the moment.
"Me?" Yoruichi sounded amused. "Me?" She repeated the word as if she were tasting it on her breath for the first time: "An exile with influence in the lives of nobles in the Soul Society? Though I am a young and beautiful woman just turning 400 years old, I have much to busy myself with other than the lives of nobles in the world I was kicked out of. Please do better than that, my student, especially in the world of clever morals, where technology development happens every 30 days or so."
A moment passed between them as Rukia chewed that over, her arms folded across her slowly heaving chest as the heat of her emotions started cool and reasoning trickled into her being. "Let's say," she began, "I agree to be your student-"
"You speak like you have a choice." Yoruichi's eyes twinkle mischievously.
"Why me?" Rukia said, getting impatient again. "Apart from the title of 'Kuchiki', I'm not even a ranked officer. I'm a nobody in the Goeti 13, so why do you want to train a nobody, Lady Yoruichi? What's in it for you?"
"Oh, yes! Ask all your questions, Rukia, and I will do my best to dutifully answer them in all sincerity." Yoruichi said mockingly, rolling her furry head to one shoulder, because a cat's eyes are made for glaring at you with impudence, not to expressively roll them to convey sarcasm. "That's a fine-looking high horse you're sitting on, isn't it?" Yoruichi continued, standing on all fours and stretching on the desk. "People hunt me down to beg me to teach them a fraction of my dexterity, and here you are, puffed up in your ignorance and playing stubborn over some light teasing. "You're one hundred and fifty years old, yet you're still such a child." Yoruichi barbed at the girl, prickling at her pride just enough to get a reaction.
"How dare you insult me like this? I'm a child?!"
"Insults only hold weight when they come from a source you respect," Yoruichi stated. "So I suppose I already have your respect, as it should be." Then the tone in her voice turned serious: "And yes, you are a child, Rukia Kuchiki, because if you think that when you go back to the Soul Society, you're going back to normalcy now that you've defeated the class of hollows that you have, then let me be the first to disappoint you. These little developments in the nobility—the elders of the Kuchiki Clan, Byakuya, and the Gotei 13—that all managed to latch themselves onto your life in a matter of hours, do you think that they will disappear because you wish them away with a pretty please or two?"
"I'm not that naive, Lady Yoruichi," the girl snapped.
"Aren't you?" Yoruichi asked sharply. "Because in my eyes, you've failed to begin to grasp the level of danger just in front of you." Frustration was getting the better of Yoruichi at having to spell this out to the girl. When she decided to take on Rukia as a favor for old man Ginrei, she didn't picture it going south as it is right now.
"You're failing to notice that, literally overnight, you, the street rat that no one in the nobility cared to think about unless a scandal had your name written all over it, You, the street urchin who Byakuya Kuchiki rescued from poverty because of a promise he made to his late wife. You, Rukia, are about to remove the Seireitei's most elusive bachelor from the pedestal he has been sitting on, gathering dust, untouched for over fifty years-the unreachable prize that the vicious covey of noblewomen has had their piggy little eyes on for decades. How do you think they are taking this development right now? With grace?"
"I don't even want the man!" Rukia shot back, her violet eyes glaring down at the cat. "He's my brother-in-law by the lowest regions of hell, and he doesn't want me, either. I have no romantic feelings whatsoever for Byakuya at all."
"Do you think sense will prevail in cases like these? Even if you shouted that from the highest mountain in the Seireitei and all the nobles heard you, all that would be prominent in their minds was the mere idea that you were considered a bridal candidate for the great 28th head of the Kuchiki Clan. It's an insult to them. And how do nobles in the Seireitei usually respond to insults? Refresh my memory, Rukia, if you please."
Rukia inhaled deeply then exhaled softly, almost defeatedly, "with assassination." She dutifully replied before bristly assuring the cat, "But I can take care of myself, Lady Yoruichi."
"Take care of yourself? Listen to you." Yoruichi laughed fiendishly in the girl's face. "What has convinced you of that conclusion?"
"Well, I've-" Rukia began trying to conceal her annoyance and doing a poor job of it.
"Let me stop whatever victory survival story you're about to tell me that happened to you one time long ago," Yoruichi flexed her tail, "hear this well just so we're clear, Rukia, the only reason you're not dead, and your essence not returned to the Ether is because Byakuya has had a personal guard secretly watching over you constantly from the day he found you."
"What?" Rukia inquired, her voice scoffing, barely holding back her didn't take long to win the battle because the girl doubled over, her shoulder shaking in her merriment. "Do you really," Rukia tried to regain her composure, and failing to do, "expect me to believe that my brother would care enough to do that? Byakuya-Ni-Sama, in my experience, does not care if I live or die. It's always been that way, Lady Yoruichi. A secret guard...on me?! Oh, please, do better than that." she exclaimed, wiping tears from her eyes.
"I, too, find that hard to believe as well," Shirayuki weighed in; "pained though I am to admit it, I have to agree with Rukia."
"Hmm," the cat mused. This might be tougher than anyone thinks. Yoruichi knew Byakuya was a turnip when it came to romance. Scratch that, he was a dull wall to any emotion that endangered him to act rashly or out of character, but damn, from Rukia's reaction, how did they expect that forcing a marriage between them will produce anything, much more an heir for the clan?
Thankfully, that has nothing to do with my job. Yoruichi exhaled.
"To make matters worse than they need to be," Yoruichi continued all business, "you're out of sync with your Zanpakutō," The cat chuffed in Shirayuki's direction.
Rukia's laughing fit calmed down. "Out of sync? I thought a Zanpakutō appearance in the wielder's world was a sign of Bankai."
"You may believe that this is a good thing when a Zanpakutō manifests physically, but oh no." Yoruichi emphasized, pointing her tail in Shikayui's direction: "This is bad! Because you're nowhere near the level of Bankai."
"How can you know that?" Rukia protested, "Ichigo wasn't supposed to reach Shikai, let alone Bankai, but he did it in a matter of days. When a Zanpakutō manifests independently without its wielder's permission, it usually means they are close to Bankai, everyone knows this."
"Then why didn't everyone at Bankai?" Yoruichi challenged. "And Ichigo's situation and yours are demonstrably different. You must know that."
"Demonstrably?" Rukia huffed. "Why use the fancy words? Why not just tell me that I'm a waste of space, then?"
"I've had enough for one day spelling things out for 'the nobody', thank you very much," Yoruichi said acidly.
"I see you haven't had your fill of insulting me," Rukia bristled.
"Aren't you the one who's acclimated to being a nobody even when the opportunity to explore the vastness that is your potential backhands you in the face?" Yoruichi asked, sitting on her hind legs and pointing a claw at herself. "Yet here you stand, and all you have is your ability to react," Yoruichi stated, unimpressed. "Pathetic. You don't want to be his wife, fine! What can you do against that inevitability? Can you change it? Blend it? Make a stand against that decision that was made for your life without your permission. No? Can you do anything other than stand before me and bawl about how life is unfair while shaking your fist at the wind?!" The cat hopped off the desk and onto the floor, its black silhouette blending in and out of the shadows of the lab, "When what you should be doing is building sails for your boat."
As the cat pushed the lab door ajar, she made a final comment to the audience in the room: "You have ten minutes to accept my offer; after that, you can take your chances and die with them."
Exiting the lab, Yoruichi bounded up the stairs, where she found Kisuke waiting at the top.
"That's not like you," he cooed teasingly, the green stripe hat hiding his eyes as he leaned against the wall, his broad shoulders taking up most of the space of the little alcove at the top of the stairs. "You don't usually give cryptic, chatty, philosophical pep talks to your prospective victims. You must want Rukia badly."
"Being around you after all these centuries, you must be rubbing off on me," Yoruichi remarked after passing him and entering the kitchen area of the house.
"Progress is progress," Kisuke said with a smile on his face.
The stairs exited conveniently at the threshold of the kitchen. Walking over to the refrigerator and taking out a large bottle of milk, Kisuke offered his companion, "Warm or cold?"
"Cold is fine."
"So, you think she'll take the bait and train under you?" He inquired, taking a clean bowl from the dishwasher and placing it on the counter. Unscrewing the top of the plastic jug, Kisuke poured the milk liberally into the bowl. Kisuke's lab might be a nightmare to behold for anyone even remotely fastidious, but in his house and the shop, the theme is spic and span as far as Tessai is concerned. Everything must be neat and tidy up here. "Your sales pitch was a bit gruff," he commented.
Hopping up onto the counter, Yoruichi absentmindedly answered, "Maybe," as she eyed the milk. "All that talking made me thirsty," Yoruichi said before extending her neck at the bowl, her tongue flicking droplets of milk into her mouth. After two minutes of constant flicking, Yoruichi sighed contentedly, licking a paw to clean her whiskers free of milk; the bowl emptied. "The thing is," she said, picking up the conversation where they left it before the milk entered her field of vision, "I don't have high hopes that training her will make a difference." Yoruichi related, swishing her tail languidly back and forth. "Two weeks, no matter how intense, will do little to help her."
"Perhaps you're speaking too soon," Kisuke said vaguely, tipping back his hat to reveal a gleam in his eyes. "More?" he said, holding up the plastic bottle to his companion.
"Kisuke?" Yoruichi purred, stretching out his name a little, "Do you have something for this kind of situation?"
"Situation?" the man asked in a wondering tone. "You mean cold feet?" Kisuke said innocently, "My vast knowledge crumbles in the face of such an adversary." He chuckled, but Yoruichi knew the man before her too well to believe in his feigned ignorance.
"You know I'm five seconds away from knocking your hat off and kicking you in the eye if you don't answer my question, don't you?" Yoruichi said half-seriously.
"Is that the case of it," Kisuke replied, easily.
Yoruichi tensed to pounce.
"Fine." He said this while raising his hands in surrender. Though his voice sounded like he was annoyed Yoruichi could tell he was dying to reveal whatever he's secretly been working on. That's the thing about creative people, they're like proud parents when it comes to showing off their work and once they get going you can't get them to shut up. At least, I'm used to Kisuke. "We know far too much about one another."
"Probably," Yoruichi agreed. "So, what do you have for me?"
"Come with me," Kisuke said, putting the remainder of the milk back into the refrigerator.
"Back to the lab?" Yoruichi inquired, on furry brow arched.
"No," Kisuke said succinctly.
With the refrigerator door still open, he reached behind the grocery shelves and pressed something that made a sharp, 'click' sound. A soft hissing noise followed before the refrigerator slid a few inches to the right, revealing an elevator.
"You see why I said probably," Yoruichi intoned after releasing a sigh. She was used to Kisuke's surprises, or so she thought. "That wasn't there last week before I went to North Africa."
Kisuke shrugged: "When you're four hundred years old and bored out of your mind, these things happen. Besides, isn't this your fourth trip to that side of the world since your exile?"
"When you're four hundred years old and bored." Yoruichi gave him a meaningful look.
Kisuke snorted, "I suppose. Shall we?"
The cat and the man approached the elevator, which swooshed open silently inches before them.
"You didn't press any buttons," Yoruichi observed.
"When the trigger is pressed, pressure sensors built into the floor activate," Kisuke explained.
"Sensors for an elevator. Someone is taking advantage of mortal technology."
"Shamelessly," Kisuke replied with a wicked grin under his hat.
Yoruichi let out a short chuckle at that.
The elevator closed a few seconds after they entered; however, it did not descend or ascend; instead, it reversed, moving away from the wall, then gliding to the right, where it continues to move.
Yoruichi grinned. "Is this like—" she began, then the two of them blurted out at once, "-Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!"
"We know each other too well."
"I suppose we do. Too bad it couldn't be fully glass. " Kisuke lamented playfully.
"While we have some privacy, how is Ururu these days?" Yoruichi said casually.
"She's as Ururu as Ururu gets." Kisuke smiled, "Shy, apologetic, and unbearably helpful, even when she's been clumsy and making a mess of things."
"You sound like a doting father," Yoruichi observed.
Kisuke pinches his hat down, but Yoruichi heard the smile in his voice: "They might be mod souls, but you quickly forget that around her and Jinta."
"Hmm," the cat simply said.
"We're here," Kisuke said after a comfortable silence reigned for the rest of the ride.
"Here?" Yoruichi questioned her companion, a brow arched, once the doors swooshed open into nothingness: "If you mean we're at the intersection of darkness and nowhere, then yes, we have indeed arrived." the cat quipped.
"Such impatience, Yoruichi". Kisuke was amused. " just watch,"
Then Kisuke stepped out into the darkness between the walls of his home; a figure in green was seemingly floating on nothing but shadow. Behind him, about three yards away, a single point of light was fighting a losing battle against the darkness. Yoruichi has been to Kisuke's house many times, but it is far beyond her understanding of how a distance of three yards could exist between the walls.
"What is going on?" Yoruichi couldn't help but ask the question. "You're not gathering Reishi under your feet to stand in mid-air, so what in the nine hells are you standing on?"
Kisuke replied, "Pause," because it made logical and grammatical sense.
"What are you talking about?" Yoruichi asked, intrigued to bursting but confused and growing itchy with frustration—a weird mixture of emotions to be sure. Only Kisuke can have that effect on her even after centuries of knowing one another intimately.
"That," Kisuke hiked a thumb over his left shoulder at the speck of light behind him, "is the culmination of 180 years worth of work."
"What by hell's eternal fire is that?"
"It's called a Grain of Pause, and what I'm standing on is the threshold to its realm," Kisuke , unless you want to take a 100-day staycation in a time loop, then this is as close as we're going to get to that light."
"A 100 days? That's short." Yoruichi stated matter-of-factly, but couldn't help but be impressed.
"It sounds short, but time moves differently inside that grain. A day there is a minute in this reality." Kisuke's voice brimmed with pride.
"Really?" Interest ignited in the cat's voice. Yoriuchi didn't question Kisuke because of their standing relationship. Kisuke will joke around and goof off, but when it came to his work, he was as serious as a winter storm. "How many minutes are there in two weeks?" the cat asked, knowing Kisuke would have an answer. Sure enough, the man didn't disappoint.
"20,160," Kisuke gleefully replied. "Approximately 55 years in the Grain of Pause. Perfect for a reluctant student, don't you think?"
"Kisuke, you mad, beautiful bastard. You have my undivided attention." Yoruichi laughed.