The inside of ‘Kurosaki Clinic’ was a great deal nicer than I thought it would be. Far more modern too, with all the modern conveniences that Tessai and Urahara simply didn’t need or didn’t care about. An expensive smart home system was installed, with small robotic caretakers and fancy machines littering the house. I myself had never been in a household that was rich enough to own tech this advanced, even when I lived with Ray and Sera—mostly because dad was stodgy and loved to do things the ‘old fashioned way’.

We sat on a nice couch in a living room watching TV, something that hadn’t even entered into my brain that I could do now. I could get by with closed captions, but I generally went for a good audiobook instead of a movie. Suzumi also hadn’t realised that I could actually use a screen again and started to get herself excited by promising to make me watch the classics like her father had once for her.

It was heart-warming, but I was distracted. Suzumi was way better at dealing with stress than I was, and I was possibly sitting in the house of the Kurosaki. Like Ichigo Kurosaki, the very same kid that Urahara said was possibly one of the most powerful beings in existence. So yes, I was nervous.

The older, orange haired lady who had brought us here suddenly emerged from the door beside us, holding up a tray of cups and biscuits. She placed the tray on the coffee table that sat in front of the couch, taking her own of the three cups and two chocolate biscuits and sitting in a comfy looking chair to the right of the couch and table.

“The two sugars is on your right.” The lady said pleasantly as she took a hearty sip from her tea. I took the cup on the right, tea with milk and no sugars. I didn’t take a biscuit yet, more interested in talking than eating, though the other woman didn’t seem in any rush, simply smiling contentedly to herself.

“Uh, ma’am?” I started, but immediately was shot down with a glare from the woman.

“No ma’ams here, young man. Call me Granny Inoue or just Granny.” I gulped, even though the anger had been the harmless kind, a light chastisement. I simply couldn’t separate the image of her two six petal flower pins burning with all that spiritual energy. Even Kisuke hadn’t shown me anything remotely close to that much power, though I had no doubt that he had something to trump it.

“Yes, Granny.” I said, though I couldn’t get the word to sound quite right in my mouth. The older woman sighed, comically depressed by the awkward use of the title.

“Just Inoue then!” she laughed, all sorrow gone from her expression, “May I ask who you two are? Or is it top secret information for Kisuke’s eyes only?” Her face transformed into something belonging out of a noir film. Thoroughly put off guard by the one-woman comedy act, Suzumi swallowed the last of her third biscuit and responded for me.

“I’m Suzumi Hamari, and this is my boyfriend Grayson Carter. A month or so ago we learned about the spiritual world and since then Kisuke has been helping out.” Inoue nodded sagely, as though she understood perfectly.

“Has Kisuke been nice to you two? I hope he hasn’t fallen back into bad habits…” Inoue asked, her voice was happy, but the smile was brittle.

“I’ll admit, we had a… rough start, and Kisuke is very concerned about Grayson and what he is—but we manage to hold our own against him pretty well, I think” Inoue took a gentle sip from her tea, and her thinking face was so obvious that I could just about make out the clanking and clicking of gears turning in her head.

“I see. He hasn’t done anything like trying to hollowfy you or put you through training that would result in immediate death after an allotted time period?” The room went very still as both Suzumi and I turned to look at each other, eyes wide with concern.

“No?” I said hesitantly, breaking the silence.

“Good!” Inoue said happily, the grim atmosphere suddenly lifted, “So if Kisuke is worrying over you so hard then that means… of course! You were the little disturbance we had in Karakura’s spiritual energy the other day, yes?” I nodded woodenly, though in my mind the question I’ve wanted to ask ever since I saw the sign outside burned.

“Are you related to Ichigo Kurosaki?” I blurted out, netting myself a sharp glare from Suzumi—her face telling me that she was going to get around to it a little more elegantly than I had. Apparently Suzumi was more socially gifted than I was, so I guess I’ll let her talk to new people next time instead of me blundering forth with less subtlety then a blind bull.

“Oh, you know of him? I haven’t ever had that question from a non-Soul Reaper before!” She smiled grandly, “Ichigo is my husband, so yes I know am related to him.” She giggled lightly while I tried to pull together my stunned face.

“Wait they called him a kid!” I reeled, my mind trying to readjust to this new reality of the ‘kid’ being a grandpa.

“Well, what is a child to Soul Reapers who live thousands of years. I think Kisuke and Tessai are at least five to six-hundred years old, but I can’t say I’ve ever asked.” She smiled cheerily even as she dropped that bomb on our heads, “But no, we haven’t been kids for some fifty odd years now.” I sighed but continued on with my line of questioning. There was time for existential crises later.

“Anyway, Kisuke mentioned Ichigo a few times when he was talking about my soul. Apparently Ichigo has a really weird soul too?” I asked, almost hesitant. I didn’t know if talking about someone’s actual soul was taboo, like talking about your privates in public, but Inoue seemed totally find with the invasive inquiry.

“Oh yes,” she chuckled to what had to be a private joke, “Ichigo’s soul is a bit of a mess, really. We had to make a checklist for all the different things his soul was, just to be able to keep up in conversations.” Suzumi turned her gaze towards me, accusingly. I pretended not to notice, but Inoue seemed to find it funny.

“You say that your soul is strange?” She asked gently, with a great deal more care than I had so bluntly asked. I hesitated, thinking of Kisuke’s outrage that I leaked ‘top secret’ information—as Inoue had put it—but I figured if anyone could help or at least give me advice, it’d be the wife of Ichigo Kurosaki.

“Uh, yeah. Just a bit.” I laughed nervously, and then proceeded to launch into an explanation of my soul and… well, everything. For some reason it felt like I was talking to a doctor like I had as a kid, telling them the rap sheet that is my medical history for the forty-seventh time. Hoping to get an opinion that didn’t tell me that there was ‘nothing to be done’. Suzumi and Inoue let me speak, though Suzumi piped up to explain a thing or two from her point of view every now and then. When I was all said and done, everyone’s cups were empty and the biscuit plate empty.

Inoue asked for a moment to go get more tea and biscuits, which I thought was fair enough—especially having been forced to sit through a recount of journeying into my soul. But, before Inoue had returned, there was a bang as the front door opened and then shut again.

“We’re home!” Two older women called out voices in synch despite their very different tones. One was far closer to Inoue’s own cheerful disposition, while the other seemed almost tired or frustrated. There was the sound of two sets of footsteps walking across the varnished wooden flooring of the Kurosaki household.

Two doors opened at once, one on the wall that the couch sat against, revealing Inoue holding a tray once again. The other door was on the wall directly to our lefts, revealing two older women—a woman with wild, black hair that sat in a high ponytail tied with a blue beaded hairband and another woman with hair that was a fainter orange than Inoue’s own, but gave the distinct impression of motherliness.

“Orihime, I–” The black-haired woman said, her sceptical grey eyes landing on us in our training uniforms, dark blue and white with a bright blue satin sash. The light orange haired woman did so as well, wearing a more innocently interested gaze. Both women, similar in age to Inoue, turned towards the tray-wielding matriarch with questioning expressions.

“More cultists? Really Orihime?” The black-haired woman began but was interrupted by her companion.

“No! They are obviously kendo practitioners, Karin!” The light orange haired woman said with indignance. This, of course, led the women to stare at me, ignoring Inoue as she walked past them and placed the tea and biscuits on the table. I turned to Suzumi with a serious face, and she nodded—allowing me to tell them our true identities.

“No, we aren’t cultists. We are merely here to talk about our lord and saviour–” Suzumi punched me in the arm, but I continued. “our lord and saviour, Kisuke Urahara.” Suzumi punched me in the arm, but hard this time. The two women stared at me for a while, eventually resulting in the black-haired woman—Karin—snorting with amusement.

“Kisuke’s found some new brats, huh? Fair enough. You seen Jinta around?” Karin said, though the last part came off a bit strangely.

“Ooh, we’re still pining after the one that got away, are we Karin?” The light orange haired woman teased lovingly—Karin spluttered, a blush rising to her face.

“Oh shut it, Yuzu—just because you can’t get a boy to save your life doesn’t mean the rest of us have to be celibate for the rest of existence.” Karin scowled venomously, making Yuzu scoff in offence.

“Pardon me, little miss ‘I get around’! When was the last time you went on a date, huh? Fifteen years? Twenty?” The door closed behind the two bickering women, their voices still hearable as they walk down the hallway.

“Oh yeah? How’re your ‘housewife’ skills helping you now, hmm?” Karin’s snide voice rang out, before stopping and rushing to open the door peaking in and looking at Inoue.

“By the way, Orihime, we cleaned up the Hollow you cut up and sent that demi-Hollow off to Soul Society.” Orihime Inoue nodded and gave a few words of thanks before Karin disappeared down the hallway, the bickering between the two women restarting as she did. Suzumi and I sat in stunned silence after that, dumbfounded by the whirlwind that was the two women. Inoue cleared her throat gently.

“So that was Karin and Yuzu Kurosaki, Ichigo’s little sisters and my sisters in law.” She smiled as we turned to look at her, eyes wide. The two women had looked somewhere in their forties, younger than even Jinta looked. She chuckled.

“I mostly choose to look this way,” motioning to her current grandmotherly appearance, “Ichigo and I wanted the experience of growing old together, and I think we have achieved that much.” I did some quick pseudo math based on context and came to the realisation that Ichigo Kurosaki and likely his wife as well were in their late sixties or early seventies. Which was still a hell of a lot older than Inoue looked.

“Regardless, my opinion on your soul situation.” My mind snapped back to the important topic at hand—the woman’s face, normally cheerful, was a dead serious now, “My opinion is that you must do whatever it is that you feel is right. Learn what you need to, and don’t let the words of others sway your opinion of your own soul too much. You constantly second guessing the genuine experiences that you’ve had within your soul will get you anywhere but where you want to be.” She took a momentary sip of tea.

“You will find out what you need to in time. Now that you are involved, your various histories and powers will make themselves known in time. It’s almost unavoidable—trust me.” And I did. This was the woman behind Ichigo Kurosaki, and they said that every powerful man had a powerful woman. Though I had a sneaking suspicion—based on that moment of intense spiritual energy earlier—that Orihime Inoue may be a whole lot stronger than you’d give her credit for on appearances alone.

“Granny Inoue?” Suzumi said, the title rolling off of her tongue easier than it had mine, “Do you think we could meet Mister Kurosaki?” Inoue smiled sadly.

“If you had come only months ago then yes, but at the moment all four generations of the Kurosaki boys are off galivanting around Heuco Mundo—or any other spiritual dimension with nasties they can find themselves in.” Inoue shook her head in something as close to exasperation I think was possible for the woman. I was a little sour about it, to be honest. During the small snippets of stories I had heard about the man, I had found a strange kinship with him. A man who hadn’t known the first thing about himself, who had gone on a journey that taught him more and more about who he was, resulting in him being the truest version of himself he could be. If I couldn’t relate to that, then I didn’t know who I could.

“But, while you cannot meet the man himself,” Inoue continued with a smile, “there are more spiritual powerhouses that live inside of Karakura town than you’d ever expect. If you would like, I can help you meet them?” We would have been stupid if we had refused the Kurosaki household’s Matriarch, even though she didn’t assume the name. We were going to continue talking, but suddenly there was a light warning sound coming from speakers around the room, followed by a gentle voice announcing that a patient was incoming, including a rather serious list of injuries. As the voice sounded out, two sets of footsteps came rushing down the hallway and through a few doors into a conjoining medical space.

“I’m sorry, we’re going to have to end our chat here.” Inoue smiled apologetically as she rose from her seat, making a few quick goodbyes before sending us out the door.

Well, that was certainly a wild ride.