95 Down The Rabbit Hole

= Back on Earth, August 19th =

Reina arrived in front of a small run-down store on a bare plot in a back alley of Karakura town. It was a traditional styled two story Japanese building built out of wood and plaster walls with a black tiled roof . A big sign hung above the sliding wood door entrance that simply said Urahara Shop. Due to its diminutive size it looked more like a home than a shop if one ignored the sign.

The building stood out from its surroundings not only due to its traditional style, but also because it was surrounded by much taller modern looking flats causing quite the contrast.

A white compact Japanese truck was parked beside the building.

The mostly gravel plot with some grass growing here and there indicating a lack of maintenance didn't help the shabby appearance it was giving off.

Reina looked the place up and down. 'Did I really come to the right place?' she wondered to herself in confusion.

She hesitated. 'I wasn't expecting something quite so.... run-down when Masaki invited me over. Should I call to make sure?" she wondered.

Before she could decide one of the front doors slid open revealing a cute little black haired girl. Her hair was put up in two ponytails coming down to her shoulders. Her bangs were parted down the middle, but a single long tuft of hair seemed to have escaped this hanging down the centre of her face. She was wearing a white t-shirt that said Urahara shop in red on it, a pink skirt with white circles on it, and a pair of sandals.

The two stared at each other for a while in awkward silence, but the girl didn't seem to plan to say anything at all.

Eventually Reina caved. "Hi there... uhm... I was told to meet someone here... I think..." she said awkwardly.

The girl looked at her silently for a little longer. "H-hello," she eventually managed to get out in a shy whisper.

This didn't help Reina all that much though as it didn't answer any of her questions.

Reina bit her lip. "Ok... well... is Masaki here?" she asked trying to keep it simple for the little girl.

The girl nodded again, but still did nothing else.

Reina nodded slowly. "Then could I meet her?" she asked unsurely.

Suddenly a boy with short spiky red hair wearing the same t-shirt and blue sweatpants popped up from behind the girl with an annoyed look on his face. He grind both his knuckles on the sides of he head. "Ururu you idiot! Stop wasting time," he growls at her.

"That hurts, Jinta-kun!" Ururu cried out in tears.

Jinta continued grinding his knuckles on the sides of her head. "Shut up! Maybe you will learn this time!" he yelled back.

He suddenly stopped when Reina jumped in and hit the top of his head.

"Ahh, what the hell do you think you're doing?" he cried out holding on to his head.

Reina stared at him with a menacing smile and cracked her fist. "I would like to know what you think you're doing? You brat!" she asked menacingly.

Ururu quickly hid behind her back holding on to her clothes nervously and trying to make herself as small as possible.

Jinta glared at her with tears in the corners of his eyes for a while. "Whatever... come in," he finally said begrudgingly guiding them into the store.

Reina narrowed her eyes at him, but didn't say anything further about it.

The store portion of the building took up only a small room lined with waist-height wooden shelves stocking a large variety of strange products.

Sitting in the back on an elevated platform was a large muscular lightly tanned man with his black hair in corn rows and a large handlebar moustache. He wore glasses with thin rectangular lenses, a white t-shirt and blue apron.

He nodded, but didn't say anything. Instead he got up removing one of the wooden panels he was sitting on to reveal a large dark hole with a ladder leading down into it.

Jinta followed them while grumbling.

Climbing down the ladder took quite a while until eventually the hole opened up into a giant square room large enough to hold a city block with blue walls and ceiling. The ground was a rocky terrain.

Reina looked around in amazement while still climbing down the ladder. 'So this is Uruhara's basement,' she thought remembering the things Masaki had mentioned to her over the phone.

It didn't take her long to find who she was looking for as she found a group in the distance.

It was Masaki having another training session with Ichigo and Ishida while they were being leisurely watched by a plush lion, Urahara, and the black cat.

Reina gulped watching the training as it was rather spartan. 'The orange head is her son right?' she wondered. Questioning if that actually was the case with how ruthless Masaki was.

The first to notice their arrival was Urahara who was watching her intently, his eyes were covered in the shadow of his bucket hat.

It was quickly replaced with a big smile, but you could still see a hidden glint in his eyes if you looked close enough. "Oh my... and who do we have here?" he asked excitedly.

As soon as Urahara called attention to them everyone stopped what they were doing and watched in curiosity except for Masaki who ran towards Reina with a wide smile. "Reina-chan!" she shouted.

She pulled Reina into a big hug who returned it in kind.

Masaki pulled back to take a look at Reina. "I'm so glad you were able to make it here," she said.

Reina smiled awkwardly looking at everyone that was staring at the two of them. "Y-yes, you too," she said.

Urahara chuckled. "Are you going to introduce the rest of us to this young lady?" he asked.

Rein swore the black cat seemed to roll its eyes at him. 'I must be imagining things," she thought.

-X-X-X-

I've gone and started adding dates to the Earth chapters to make the progress of time at least compared to the canon timeline a bit clearer. I've gone ahead and also updated the previous chapters where it cuts to Earth to have the same thing.

Hopefully that'll make it easier both for people familiar with the original timeline and also for those not to know how much time has passed on Earth.

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Writing Soundtrack: Dark Summer - Various Tracks