False Worries

To Reina's relief, Urahara's intentions were nowhere near as invasive as she had feared.

She spent the rest of the afternoon doing as he asked. Besides having her wear some strange devices while doing it, he just had her go through the motions of using her powers. Sometimes he would have her repeat some things or direct her to try specific things.

Urahara looked up at her from one of his devices with an excited gaze. "How interesting," he said.

She frowned. 'Could he stop with this cryptic shit?' She thought.

"Anything in particular you would like to share?" She asked in exasperation.

He smiled. "Oh... right... I almost forgot about you. Though not a complete match there is indeed a lot of overlap with the spiritual power signature Hollow give off. It seems similar to Ichigo's little friends, though I haven't had a chance to play with them as much. They were in such a rush to get to Soul Society. Such a pity," he said.

He seemed to get lost in thought. "Could she consume spirits?" He mumbled to himself.

Reina frowned when overhearing him. "We will not be testing that," she said with determination.

He sighed dramatically. "Such a shame," he said.

She decided to just ignore it. "How about something actually useful to me?" She asked.

He shrugged and smiled. "I have some ideas," he said.

"Since your powers are at least largely based on the Hollow's system of power you might be able to absorb ambient spirit particles like they do to grow. Unfortunately, the ambient density of spirit particles on Earth is barely even enough for them to sustain themselves, let alone grow. Worse yet, this only works for them at the lowest levels though. Once they evolve to the Menos Grande stage the density on Earth isn't even enough to sustain them forcing most to escape to Hueco Mundo. Unlike them though you have a living human body acting as a shell, protecting your soul. It shouldn't require as much spirit particles to maintain the power of your soul," he said.

Reina wasn't sure exactly what he was talking about. Although Hisashi had explained some of the basics to her over the years he had never gone into depth about how souls, Hollows, and Shinigami worked. She wasn't even sure how much of this her brother knew. Urahara was a strange one. He seemed to know more than anyone she knew.

He tilted his head, pinching his chin, and looking at her thoughtfully. "Have you noticed any growth in your power since you got them?" He asked.

Reina tried thinking about when she first got her powers to now, but eventually shook her head. "I'm not sure. If I have it wouldn't have been much and would have grown very slowly," she said unsurely.

He tapped his lips slowly. "Well we can try having you train in an enriched spirit particle environment. If we simulate levels similar to Hueco Mundo or Soul Society the difference might become more noticeable. It's worth a try," he said.

She looked a little intrigued. "Does that mean I can go to Hueco Mundo?" She asked.

"No! Are you crazy?!" Masaki yelled from the side.

Urahara had so many things he wanted to measure and try out they didn't finish until well into the evening.

They retired up to Urahara's shop to enjoy some nabe(hot pot) together.

During their after dinner tea an agitated Ichigo burst through the door in his Shinigami form dragging his own body along. "Mom? Are you here?" He yelled.

Ishida Uryū and Abarai Renji ran in moments after him.

Masaki smiled and waved him over to them.

She smiled patiently. "What is it?" She asked.

He clenches his fist. "We went back to Inoue's house like the girl told us to and Inoue was actually back home. Everything seemed normal, but then she suddenly attacked Chad! It turned out to be some glasses freak disguised as Inoue," he said.

Ishida frowned. "What do you mean by glasses freak?" He asked.

Ichigo coughed awkwardly. "I wasn't talking about you. Don't take it so personal. You know what? That's not important right now!" he said.

Ichigo's gaze turned serious again. "Then a ninja joined him and they kidnapped Chad too. They disappeared before we could even do anything. We couldn't even protect Chad, how can we save Inoue? They're picking us off one by one..." he said.

Urahara just smiled mysteriously, but said nothing.

Reina almost couldn't resist rolling her eyes at Urahara.

Masaki looked conflicted, but Urahara subtly shook his head. "I'm sure you can save them. So what brought you here sweetie?" she eventually asked.

He looked at Urahara. "Urahara-san, could I leave my body here for a while? This is the only safe place remaining to leave it," he said.

"Well I understand the situation. We'll look after your body," Urahara said.

Ichigo pressed a bronze badge with a skull decoration on it against his body causing a round green pill to pop out of its mouth.

He stuffed the pill into the mouth of a stuffed lion. The stuffed lion suddenly sprang to life. "What the hell was that for?!" it yelled aggressively.

"You're coming with me," Ichigo said.

"Oh?! So you're finally acknowledging my abilities, huh?! You should have told me earlier if that's the case!" It responded with a smug look.

They sat down at the table with them.

"Damn! What's with those guys?! It was incredibly hard to fight them!" Renji said.

"It means that there's more to fighting than just charging at your enemies," Ishida retorted.

"Could it be that Aizen is involved?" Renji asked.

"Who knows..." Ichigo said.

"Did you find anything out Urahara-san?" Ishida asked.

"I analysed the telephone conversation, but there wasn't a Reimon which is the spirit equivalent of a voice print," Urahara answered.

"What does that mean?" Ichigo asked.

"Who knows..." Urahara said mysteriously.

Reina and Masaki glanced at each other.

Masaki still seemed to be struggling to hold back from simply spilling the beans.

"At any rate, it means they're probably not humans or Shinigami," Urahara continued.

"The spiritual pressure of those three are definitely a little strange," Ishida agreed.

"You can tell?" Ichigo asked.

Ishida pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Your ability to sense Spiritual Pressure is as poor as usual," he said.

Ichigo frowned. "Shut up!" He retorted.

Masaki frowned and smacked him over the back of the head. "Watch your language! Also you do need to practice more," she said.

Ichigo and Ishida felt a cold tingle travel up their spine that quickly shut them up.

Tessai poured them all a cup of tea. "If the enemies' power are derived from Kido it will be difficult to get them using the Zanpakuto's direct attacks," he chimed in.

They discussed their different attacks and which would be most effective to determine the best course of action in dealing with the kidnappers. They decided Ishida with his Quincy powers was their best bet.

"The enemy targeted Inoue-dono and Sado-dono first because they were easier to take out," Tessai said.

"Everything is going exactly as they planned," Ichigo said.

The phone suddenly rang. Urahara answered with a smile. "Thank you for your patronage. This is Urahara's shop," he said.

"Where's big brother?" a girl's voice on the other end of the line said.

Urahara held out the phone to Ichigo.

Ichigo looked at it seriously before accepting it. "It's me," he said.

"Let's continue our game at the Karakura museum! Come with everyone!" the girl said.

"Hey, wait! Hey! What happened to Chad and Inoue?! Are they safe?! Hey!" Ichigo yelled.

There was no answer though. 

He put down the phone. "It seems they're at the museum," he said.

Renji tisked. "Again?" he questioned.

"All right! This time, I'm with you! Put your minds at ease and follow me!" the plush lion said arrogantly.

As soon as Ichigo and his friends left Masaki grabbed Urahara by the collar aggressively.

He raised his hands in surrender with his usual smile still playing on his lips.

"You better not take this too far," she threatened.

Reina just looked mildly confused. "Despite their friends getting kidnapped and believing they are in danger, are they not going to ask why none of us are helping?" She asked.

-X-X-X-

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