Chapter 21

(General P.O.V)

Ururu thought the new guy was strange. After Urahara had managed to use something he called the Void Extractor, the older teen with deep blue eyes was not what Ururu was expecting. She thought the thing that was going to come out of the portal would be mean with over a thousand tentacles flying in the air and a thousand eyes! Or at least that was what Jinta had loudly and excitedly said.

Ururu hadn't had an opinion so she decided to expect the same thing. But never in a million years...

"So what do you do?"

Jinta asked, right after Urahara had introduced himself. The strange guy blinked his eyes and looked around the room in bewilderment.

"Where the fuck am I?"

He finally asked.

"Language."

Urahara chided softly, just as Jinta snorted at the vulgar language. Ururu blushed.

The strange guy, stood up and stretched his body, looking around at the trashed room. He winced at the broken table and shattered candy bowl.

"Sorry about the... mess."

He sounded truly regretful and although Ururu and Jinta were the ones who were going to clean it up, Ururu decided to forgive him. Jinta didn't feel the same way.

"Thanks a lot loser. Now my Saturday plans are ruined."

The younger boy told the older one. Ash's eyebrows rose up, before his face twisted in annoyance.

"I already said sorry Kid. What more do you want?"

"Oh, because sorry makes it all fine right? I should kick your..."

The younger boy raged, only to be grabbed by the stoic Tessai.

"Now now Jinta we should show our guest some hospitality. Threatening to kick anyone's anything is hardly good manners."

Jinta huffed and left the room. Ururu rose up and bowed slightly to the strange boy. She had a feeling that this was not the last time they were going to see each other. Then she quickly followed behind Jinta. She had to try to keep him out of trouble.

The door slid close and Ash was left in the store alone with two ex soul reapers with skills that put them in the top 20 strongest characters in bleach. Urahara was a former captain of the gotei 13 and Tessai was the former captain of the Kido corps. If they decided to attack him, there was nothing he could do to them.

Oh and Ash had realized by now that the language translation was carried out by the Ouroboros interface. To Urahara and Tessai, the boy was speaking in Japanese. Urahara knew the chances of him managing to summon someone who could fluently speak Japanese with the same level of vernacular cues and pronunciation was close to zero. He speculated that his new friend must have had an ability that translated whatever he said into Japanese.

The three individuals were silent for a short time before Urahara sighed and opened his fan.

"How long are you going to keep us waiting?"

He asked slightly miffed.

"Huh?"

Ash blinked, wondering what Urahara was talking about.

"Introduce yourself."

Tessai, pitched in, stacking up some of the fallen boxes. His voice was deep and throaty, sounding unused.

"I'm Ash."

The teen replied, seeing no reason to hide his name.

The loop system and his situation however was best kept secret from the mad scientist. Urahara was dangerous with information. Ash decided to adopt a wait and see approach, not really giving too much info while also trying to be a little open.

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"So...what now?"

Ash asked after Urahara had introduced Tessai and the kids who had just left.

From out of nowhere, Urahara produced a bunch of paperwork.

"Now we sign a contract."

He said enthusiastically.

"Contract?"

Ash asked in surprise.

Urahara got to his feet.

"Follow me, perhaps this is a conversation best had over tea. I have some Jasmine leaves that came in from..."

He trailed off with Ash following after him, leaving Tessai alone in the shop.

A black cat jumped on top of the counter and laid there.

"I do not like this."

Yoruichi said. Her deep voice reverberated across the shop.

"Even for Kisuke, this plan was too insane to work. I warned him that the chances we'd get 'him' back were close to 0. I warned him!"

Tessai grunted in response.

"Then again, I understand why he did it. We were pushed. And he promised that he would find him."

Tessai clutched the broom in his hands tightly.

"How is the family?"

Tessai spoke up.

"Distraught. First the mother and now..."

Yoroichi sighed.

"Rukia's abilities have yet to come back and that is more than a little worrying..."

Yoruichi let the statement hang in the air.

"Do you think he is still alive?"

Tessai asked to which the cat jumped off the counter and walked away.

"I don't know."

She left it at that and disappeared into a dark corner.

Ash's first thought upon sitting on the tatami mat and taking a sip of Urahara's offered tea was that the man was trying to kill him with bitterness. He contemplated spitting it out but noticed the interest in which Urahara stared at him with. It was almost as if the man was waiting for Ash to complain. And sure enough, Urahara released a sigh of disappointment once Ash forced the bitter tea down.

"How's the tea?"

Ash barely his the distaste as he placed the cup down.

"Good. Thanks."

"Mmmh. You're welcome." The soul reaper nodded.

"Not many can appreciate the fine taste..."

"It was bad. Is bad."

Ash interrupted rather bluntly.

"Oh, I appreciate the honesty, Ash-kun."

Urahara smiled, one of his eyebrows twitching in a little annoyance.

"So...the contract."

Urahara placed a hand inside his robes and removed the sheet of papers as a response.

"You mean these?"

He waved them through the air enticingly. Ash stared at the man with a blank look on his face. Urahara cleared his throat in embarrassment and lowered his hand.

"Right. Here you go Ash-kun."

Ash threw an annoyed glance the Soul Reaper's way before snatching the papers off his hand. He ran his gaze down the sheets, reaching the end fairly quick where 2 signature stamps, one blank and the other signed with Japanese kanji and something that suspiciously looked like blood.

Ash held up the papers with a frown on his face.

"You want me to work for you for 6 months?! Are you crazy!"

Sure enough those were the terms proposed in the contract.

"In exchange, I'll allow you to be the first successful 'Reiatsu super pill' user that can give a normal human fancy abilities...oohh aahhh. It's for only a short time but still can you imagine..."

The shop keeper answered trying to be mysterious.

"Fuck no!"

Ash yelled, he knew what was coming. Going by the ages of Ururu and Jinta, this seemed to be just after canon had begun. If so, there was the whole 'Ichigo becomes a soul reaper' thing, then Rukia getting retrieved by a frigging Captain and his lieutenant and a few weeks after that the fucking war for Karakura begun. Ash hadn't made it this way to die so soon again.

"6 months is too long."

He shook his head and refused. Urahara said nothing. His eyes were simply curious from underneath the hat.

"Why do you need my help anyway? I doubt you could have brought me here just to help you sell candy or sweep the floor."

"You say I brought you here...where were you before?"

Urahara's question seemed to have come out of nowhere, leaving Ash surprised.

"What?"

He asked dumbly.

"Where do you come from?"

Urahara repeated.

Ash looked down to the floor.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

He finally replied, not knowing how to approach the matter.

Surprisingly, Urahara smiled.

"Exactly. You just asked me to trust you. To take your word for it."

Ash realized the trick too late.

"That's different and you know it!"

He hurriedly stated only for Urahara to shake his head.

"Just trust me when I say I need you to work for me for 6 months." He smirked.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you the reason why."

Ash was still uncomfortable with the idea. He already knew that Urahara was planning on including him in his schemes.

"Will you tell me everything?"

He asked, there was a clear thing he was missing. Some detail in the whole thing that would make everything come together and make sense on why the shopkeeper was acting off.

Ash thought of protesting or refusing or a number of other things but in the end, he settled for a sigh and a short nod.

"Fine. You win. But I'm choosing my Working hours."

Urahara thought it over before shaking his head with a satisfied smirk.

"You will have to take that up with Tessai."

Ash rolled his eyes.

"Give me a break Urahara."

The shop keeper laughed.

"I would Ash-kun but sometimes I love to try new things. One of them is sadism."

Urahara responded, pushing the papers near Ash.

Ash got to his seated position and while grumbling, he dipped the brush into the ink and tried to carve out his signature. The stamp turned out to have splotches but at least it was readable. Ash's eyes jumped from the stamp to Urahara.

"Is blood necessary?"

Urahara hid his smile behind the fan that he opened in response.

Ash sighed and hardened his finger into a sharp spike. Urahara slammed the fan shut and sat up straighter, watching as Ash ran the finger down the skin of the palm of his other hand. He used his blood to sign on the signature stump.

Ash was startled when the contact suddenly burst into blue flames. He felt a sensation deep within him. A sort of sixth sense that informed him that some connection had been made between him and Urahara.

"Ok, I held up my end of the bargain. Now tell me everything."