10 First Step

It was a night like any other, the moon shining in the sky and darkness almost taking over the world. Shin at his habitude after cooking his dinner, went back to his room after messing around with his family for a bit.

After browsing through the internet to see if there was anything interesting, he started his nightly seance of meditation.

It's been a while already since the last time he slept as meditation was just better than sleep in many regards. Not only was he growing stronger while doing so, but he would also feel refreshed every time he did so.

As he immersed himself in these feelings, time seemed to pass by quicker and quicker.

Though it seemed like tonight would be a little different from the usual he opened his eyes as he felt a present just outside his room.

Two knock echoed as he finally got up and walked towards the door, he didn't even need to ask who it was as the familiar spiritual pressure couldn't be mistaken.

He opened the door and came to face his father.

"Are you ready? We are done with the preparation on our side." His father said, and he didn't fail to on his choice of words.

"We?" He asked but it was clearly just for convenience's sake as his face didn't show any surprise.

"Yes, we, they are people you already "know" to some point already." Isshin answered, referring to not only his ability to see the future but also the time when he caught on to them during their sparing session.

"hm..." Shin hummed as he nodded his head, he was not going to ask for more information, it would obviously be useless since he already knew more than enough. "Shall we go then?"

Isshin merely nodded to his question and then they went out as they leisurely walked toward their destination, Shin couldn't help but notice that it was relatively late... around midnight probably, he estimated.

[It's exactly 11: 43 pm]

Thanks, he mentally expressed his appreciation.

Thus they kept pace in silence without any of them saying anything or trying to even start a conversation. It was not awkward thought, this silence was rather adequate.

Twenty minutes later they arrived at their destination. It was what seemed in all points to be an average shop, and its ensign was comprised of Japanese later which could be read as "Urahara's Shop."

They walked closer until they were before the door and knocked, not even ten seconds after someone opened the door and it was none other than Kisuke Urahara himself.

"Hoya? Look who we got here." Urahara said with fake surprise which caused Shin's eyes to narrow as he carefully observed the man.

This was the first time he met the man after all, even if he knew about him priorly to this, it was quite not the same thing to meet the real deal.

"Yeah, it's also good to see you Urahara." Isshin said, not minding the peculiar behavior of his friend.

"Always Isshin-san, always," Urahara said as he gestured toward the inside of the shop. "Come in, come in."

Looking at Shin for a moment, Isshin nodded, indicating that it was fine. Urahara was a trustworthy person and he wouldn't and didn't want Shin to doubt a single second.

"Then, excuse us." Shin said as they followed behind the rather suspicious man.

"So formal," Urahara said with a sigh, but it was a normal comportment toward someone you never met, he was the peculiar one.

As they walked through the shop, Shin noticed that there was seemingly no one around, the two kids, Jinta and Ururu, who repetitively appeared in the show were nowhere to be seen.

'Perhaps they are sleeping' He concluded and he was right, they were not needed for what is to come.

They walked down some stairs which took them to a giant room designed by Urahara in resemblance to the training field training area of Soul society.

There, two people were waiting for them, first, a tall, muscular, lightly tan-skinned man. His hair is cornrowed and he has a large handlebar mustache, which is connected to his long sideburns. He wears a pair of rectangular-shaped glasses. His attire consists of a white muscle shirt with regular pants and a blue apron.

The second is a slender and well-endowed woman of average height. She has dark skin, golden irises, and black hair. Her hair is waist-length and kept in a ponytail with chin-length bangs framing the sides of her face. Her standard attire consists of a black, backless, sleeveless undershirt, an orange over-shirt with two white straps on each shoulder, a large beige sash around her waist, and black stretch pants with a pair of lightweight brown shoes.

(Sorry, I copy-pasted the wiki...)

"Now, I think introductions are in order since we never formally met." Urahara voiced with a certain smirk on his face as he briefly eyed the sole woman in the room.

"I am the optimistic, jovial, and humble Kisuke Urahara."

"Ahem, you forgot eccentric." Isshin added with his hand near his mouth but his remark was successfully ignored by Urahara who continued with the Introductions.

"The guy over there with a stern face is Tessai Tsukabishi." He pointed at the man in question who nodded a little, then he faced the woman as he continued "The Tomboyish-" He quickly corrected himself after a threatening glare from the concerned "I mean elegant woman over there is Yoruichi Shishoin"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

.

"Hey, Shin..." Isshin called out as he pulled his son's sleeves.

"Yes?" Shin answered but he was clearly not focused on the subject at hand.

"It's your turn." Isshin remarked and that was enough to get him out of his trance-like state.

What is happening is that, while Urahara was introducing everyone, Shin however was so taken aback by what he would refer to as "Yoruichi's beauty" that he ended up intensely staring at her while pacing out.

"Please excuse me, Kurosaki Shin, Nice to meet you." Coming back to his sense, he quickly apologized, although he was quite embarrassed he choose to hide it under a poker face as if what he just did was totally natural.

Still, he did notice, Yoruichi's cheeks, reddening a little, even if it was difficult to perceive due to the color of her skin. It was really cute though.

Yoruichi herself was quite happy, although not much, she was now aware that he, at least found her attractive. Otherwise, why would he look at her so intently?

"Then since we are done with the introductions. Let's get real."

"Shin-san, your father already explained to us the current situation." Urahara didn't beat around the bush as he directly stated. To his surprise, however, Shin didn't outwardly react as if he was expecting it.

"But we are not here to talk about that today but rather help you out with your powers."

"To be completely honest, helping you is not really difficult and wouldn't take that much preparation and time. It's something that can be done in a single night, the preparations were for something else entirely. But let's not talk about that as well... yet."

"Okay, now stop, just tell me what we are going to do, and stop throwing all those information at me," Shin said while pinching the bridge of his nose, he was getting a little impatient... and anxious.

He would rather talk with Yoruichi than stop here and listen to Urahara's blabbing nonsense. Seriously the man was talking but at the same time, he was saying nothing.

"Tsk, tsk, Kid those days, always in a rush." Urahara complained while Isshin and Yoruichi face-palmed. Tessai... was just standing here his arm crossed.

Although he said so, he soon turned serious and explained. "This is what we are going to do."

Or not... he just walked toward shin and used his staff to force his soul out of his body.

Shin felt like he could resist the extraction if he wanted but choose to not do as he remembered how they helped Ichigo regain his shinigami powers.

"You shouldn't feel any kind of problem except that you became weaker since right now you are in your spiritual body..." Urahara explained.

"Okay, I get what you are trying to do." Shin directly said after Urahara. "Since in my spiritual form I will be closer to my shinigami powers thus Zanpakuto spirit, you are counting on that so I can feel the connection between us."

"Truly a genius heu..." Urahara lowly muttered, still he didn't appreciate what the young man did. "Man, don't go around stealing other people's jobs. Explaining things to people is my role." He said turning his back to Shin, his shoulder dropped as he walked away, a little depressed.

Since Shin already understood the meaning of his actions, he decided to try, he sat in a comfortable position, which coincidently enough was the lotus position used for meditation.

Closing his eyes, he looked deep inside himself, trying to feel the connection, between him and the spirit. Seconds passed and soon became minutes as everyone observed what would happen.

They didn't have to worry about his chain of fate corroding since it normally took months before it happened.

As a little more than five minutes passed without any sign of change, suddenly Shin heard a voice in his head? Soul?

"Took you long enough." Directly after, his shadow expanded as he was seemingly completely absorbed by it.

...

Yeah, I am not particularly proud of this chapter but anyway. Anytway, I hope it was at least bearable