It was amazing how having a deadline until I had to deal with the plot of an anime that I only passingly remembered changed very little in my day-to-day schedule.

I still dealt with various tasks for the Urahara shop, hunted the occasional Hollow, worked on magecraft, and trained as a fighter. But even the added pressure didn’t magically resolve any of the issues I was dealing with.

So I continued on like I had the last few months, and eventually came face to face with the catalyst for all the events to come. Rukia Kuchiki.

I’d like to say that seeing her in person came with some grand feeling of how things would change for me. That the universe had given me a sign. That this was the start of challenges to come!

In reality? It felt like dealing with anyone else who had come through the shop. Although she was more polite than normal. Most of the souls on vacation had that annoying tendency to talk down to me since I apparently was just a normal human. Rukia was professional though, so I decided she would get the comprehensive info package rather than the basic one.

So I get to pull that packet together while Urahara and Rukia talk in the back of the shop. I’m sure they are talking about some specific things needed for a personnel transfer, but until they I just need to prep the paperwork aspect.

Not long after, Rukia returns looking mildly frustrated and heads in my direction. Not an uncommon look for those who deal directly with Urahara alone for any amount of time.

“Excuse me, I am told you have the area informational packet for me? As well as the equipment verification form?”

Aww, she acts so serious! I guess she is trying to keep up the image of a serious soldier but combined with her stature, it just makes her look like a teenager acting tough. Though I think by soul standards, she actually is a teenager? Meh, soul ages are weird. Let’s ignore that and get everything squared away.

I lean down on the counter and idly hand her the info packet and equipment request forms, “Here is the intro guide to the town and surrounding area you will be responsible for. In it you will find landmarks, parol routes, areas of interest and a brief history on certain locations that may need investigation. Please take the time to read through everything, though additional information can be requested for a small fee. We also have equipment request forms for anything you want to order in the field.”

With that I hand over the papers. Rukia fills out some other paperwork confirming she received everything and it is acceptable for her to begin her post. Mostly boring things that will never really be looked at, but need to be filed for bureaucracy's sake.

With everything filled out Rukia takes her leave and disappears to do her duty.

I put away my paperwork and turn to Urahara, who is now lurking in the doorway watching where Rukia just left. “So you gonna tell me what has you so bothered, boss?”

When Urahara meets my eyes, a chill runs through me. He has the same look as in his eyes as when he takes something completely seriously. Even if he has the same relaxed smile on his face, it's terrifying.

“Nothing really Alex-chan, just getting used to the new face. Can’t be too soft on new Reapers or they think they can get everything at a discount!” he weakly jokes.

I sighed, this is the problem with extra dimensional knowledge. I knew why Urahara was freaking out about Rukia being nearby but there was no reason for me to know that, ugh.

“Kisuke”, he actually looked startled by that. Come to think of it, I don’t think I really ever used his first name. “You are really good at misdirecting people,” a wince “making people misunderstand you,” another wince “generally just being a pain in the ass about actually explaining what’s going on,” Oh, he actually dropped to the floor now. I pause, and start tapping a finger on my chin. “There was somewhere I was going with this but it seems I lost my train of thought.”

“Point is something is bothering you so please let’s skip the whole ‘nothing is wrong’ act and you just tell me.”

Urahara looked at me for a long time. Long enough that I started fidgeting under his gaze. Finally he stood back up and sighed, “Alexandria, can I trust you to keep a secret?” I blinked, seems like today is the day for rarely used names. Even so I nod seriously. “Remember what I told you about the man who drove me out of the Soul Society?”

“Yeah Aizen Sōsuke, guy doing a bunch of experiments on people for some reason and blamed you for the more visible one.” Urahara wasn’t exactly letting me into his inner circle the last few months, but he did drop tidbits to get me onboard with opposing Aizen if the opportunity came up.

“Yes, well Rukia being here means that Aizen found an object I made and then hid with her a long time ago. Normally a Reaper of her rank would never get approval for a long term deployment but the captain of squad 5 somehow arranged it, even despite her not being part of his squad.”

“Wait, how do you even know who signed her deployment orders? And you said he knows where this object is so he just sends it to you? Just take it back then.” I thought Aizen only found out where the wishmarble was after Rukia was deployed. If he knew where it was, why risk sending it back to Urahara?

“I do have some highly placed friends in Soul Society, even if we can’t communicate much” Urahara rubbed the back of his head frustratedly, “And if only it was that easy. Unfortunately I hid the object, the Hōgyoku, in Rukia’s soul. I can’t take it out without killing her. Not without taking a rather drastic step.”

A silence falls between us. I wait for him to continue but it seems like he is willing to let the silence stretch.

“Okay? You shoved a random object into someone’s soul and the psychopath who seems to like experimenting on people wants it. Not really seeing a reason to avoid drastic.”

“The reason is that it requires the cooperation of Rukia herself to actually pull off. And she would never agree to the terms since the only way to safely remove the Hōgyoku, is to kill her.”

Wait, what?! How does that make any sense?

Noticing my confusion Urahara continues, “The Hōgyoku is unique among everything that I have created because it works on concepts rather than anything scientific. It’s primary use is to remove the barriers between things. Not physical walls, but mental ones that is shared by people unconsciously. For instance, everyone knows that a Hollow is the opposite of a Shinigami, or Soul Reaper, because they are opposite existences as far as anyone is concerned. Hollows consume souls, and Soul Reapers let them move on. By using the Hōgyoku, the user can grant the powers of a Soul Reaper or Hollow to the other by removing that conceptional barrier.”

Okay Urahara, thanks for the lesson. Leaving aside the fact you actually made a conceptual weapon in a universe I was convinced couldn’t have those and terrifying me with your ability to do such a thing, still not seeing the point.

“Even in its sealed away state, the Hōgyoku is capable of breaking down these barriers and removing it from Rukia will activate it automatically. But granting Hollow powers to a Soul Reaper is dangerous, and doing so while trying to remove an object imbedded in the soul will result in the complete destruction of said soul. The only way for Rukia to survive the removal would be to ensure she had a different barrier to remove. And she would never consent to giving up her powers even if the alternative was death.” Urahara finishes solemnly.

My eyes widen as I catch the implications. Death for Humans is actually more of a second life in this universe. It's probably not the most comfortable existence for most, but you keep all your memories and experiences after death and go to the Soul Society, but death for souls means moving to the wheel of reincarnation. Its an end. All experiences washed away and given a new life in the World of the Living.

In other words, the only way to remove the Hōgyoku from Rukia and have her live, was to ensure that she died as a normal, unpowered human. And Kisuke Urahara knew how to do that.

“I’m not going to do anything to her, Alex-chan. It’s just a longshot plan I thought of.” Urahara says softly.

That snaps me out of my distracted state and I refocus on him. He… looks kinda hurt, for some reason.

Oh. He misunderstood my silence as thinking that he would forcibly rip Rukia’s powers away. I should fix that. “I didn’t mean it like that. Just wondering why Aizen would risk it even if he knew you weren’t likely to take it back.”

He does seem to cheer up at that, so mission accomplished? “The thing is with Aizen, everything needs to be a performance, at least to those he considers to be on his level. By shoving Rukia in our faces, he lets me know that he is starting something and is confident he can get away with it. But that isn’t enough, he needs to make sure that I know I can’t stop him since he considers me an intellectual peer. And if I tried anything overt and Rukia reports it, then the Seireitei would be forced to respond to a direct attack, which Aizen is no doubt on the lookout for.”

“So we won’t make a move cause it would be wrong, and its irrelevant cause we would call an army on our heads?”

“Pretty much.”

“Could we convince her that we need to remove the Hōgyoku by sealing her powers cause a madman is after it and just have me run around as her substitute?”

Urahara considers it, “If you were a Soul Reaper, we might have a chance. But the mission data wouldn’t match her reports since your Reiatsu is completely different and you can’t perform a Konsō. They would notice the first time they looked at the reports. It's not a bad plan, you just don’t have the abilities for it.”

And with that any plans of just throwing canon out the window die a quiet death. Damn, at least I figured out why Urahara never made a move before the invasion arc. Though it seems Ichigo was just a lucky coincidence and not a preplanned move by Urahara.

Urahara and I switch to some lighter subjects and talk for a short while before I excused myself and head to the lab. I wanted to finish developing my first custom spell as quickly as possible to have more time to practice it.

I’m actually pretty close to finishing my version of the Flash Step. Which is huge cause without it I don't stand a chance against anyone decent at Hohō.

In my spars against Urahara, we figured out pretty quickly that between my natural physique and Reinforcement I am just faster than him. But the second he uses the more advanced Hohō techniques, I can’t keep up. So I had him break down exactly what the Flash Step is so I can work out a spell to imitate at least a short range version. Getting a spell to move a person at high speeds wasn’t something FATE magic was good at, and MGLN magic required too much computation to be used without a device. Pulling a hybrid spell was going pretty well, but I was having trouble calibrating my senses.

See, Flash Step is basically just a Soul Reaper flooding their body with their Reiatsu to dramatically increase movement speed by accelerating themselves instantly. Sounds simple, but in practice it was hard to master since the technique required precise control, timing, and power to use correctly.

I decided to mimic the ability by breaking it into three parts. Reinforcement, acceleration, and perception. In other words, make sure I can handle moving fast, actually go fast, and process what’s going on fast enough to not run into walls.

I could handle the first two easily, but thought acceleration was hard to judge. I was trying to make the spell, which I was unimaginably calling Haste, to scale the thought acceleration with how fast I was moving so when I used the spell there wouldn’t be a noticeable difference to me. Judging by the many me-sized holes in the boulders in the training room, I hadn’t quite nailed it.

-CRASH-

Pulling myself out of the new hole in a boulder I had a few thoughts. The first was OW! The second was to make a note to dial back perception some more. Still, it was better than the last time I tried it. At this rate I might have a working version by the end of the week! Or a concussion.

Glancing to the side, I saw Yoruichi perched on another boulder looking smug.

“It’s harder when you’re starting from scratch!” I comp- explained, collapsing on the ground in front of her. She just jumped down next to me, gave me a condescending pat on the shoulder and walked off.

Stupid cat.