Urahara had let me off after his impromptu lecture. Maybe he thought it wasn’t worth trying to grill me with questions I definitely had no answer to, or maybe he was just waiting for something else to happen. Maybe for me to ‘remember’ something and analyse me like a test subject.
Over the next few days, I came to understand the sort of man that Urahara was. In his lessons he was strenuous, testing my shielding to the nth degree, finding its quirks and interests like a scientist dissecting a rat for study.
Most days Urahara would teach Suzumi how to get into contact with her spiritual self, something that I seemed very easily capable of, after the remembrance of that shielding. But Suzumi had to slowly learn to do it by herself. Her own shielding still retained some of the characteristics of mine, but highly diminished. I could ‘refresh’ the effect, and her shielding would mimic mine much more closely, and Urahara seemed intrigued by that fact.
He had explained to me, after annoying him for hours, that the average Soul Reaper wasn’t able to directly affect another being’s spiritual energy that way, past supressing it with their own or if they had specific abilities tailor made to do so.
It was much like my ribbon stealing ability in ‘uniqueness’, just more helpful.
Probably just another mystery to be solved, in Urahara’s mind. For me, it was something that kept me up at night. A worry that I was a pawn in a game much larger than what I understood. If I was able to ‘steal’ and ‘alter’, what would stop me from unintentionally harming someone’s soul?
Urahara made it pretty clear that Suzumi’s abilities were increasing incredibly quickly for what amounted to a slightly spiritually sensitive human, and it was likely that she was growing so quickly due to me.
For some reason this didn’t seem to bother Suzumi. When I had asked her about it, she had said:
“I don’t see what’s wrong with that. Maybe your soul is just sharing the wealth around?” Shrugging all the while.
But try as I might, I couldn’t possibly take it so easily, so nonchalantly. I couldn’t help but worry that I was hurting those I was around, just by being there. Maybe it was silly of me, I’m sure that Urahara would laugh in my face about it.
I sighed and got up from my futon on the floor. Trying my best to not wake up Suzumi, who was only a metre or so from me. I set foot lightly on the cool wooden boards, the early morning chill still lingering, my skin quickly covering in goosebumps from the abrasive cold.
The morning sun was only just starting to crest, judging from the foggy light creeping into the halls, down from the windows and the open store front. My sock clad feet padded down the hallway, trying to remember where the bathroom was again.
It was then that I heard… sweeping? Maybe Tessai was already awake. It was coming from the outside courtyard, just in front of the main doors to the store. I walked towards the sound, confident in remembering a solid pathway through the mess of counters and display bins for products.
I reached the door and slid it open, quickly being buffeted by the cool morning air.
“Tessai?” I called. There was no vocal response, but there was sound of a broom clattering to the ground, and then someone falling, accompanied by a gasp of surprise.
A very high-pitched gasp of surprise. From somewhere far below Tessai’s height. It was then that I checked the ribbon of whoever was standing in front of me and realised that this definitely wasn’t Tessai or Urahara’s ribbon. This was a pure white ribbon, standard for non-Soul Reapers.
“Excuse me, are you alright?” I asked hesitantly, crouching a little and extending my hand towards the ribbon I saw in front of me. The quiet dragged on for a long time before I heard some light shifting and a small, cold hand being placed in mine.
“U–um, I think so!” A small girl’s voice said, quiet enough that a light gust of wind almost blew it away. I pulled on the little hand gently, allowing the girl to rise to her feet easily. Once she had, she quickly pulled her hand away from mine and picked up the broom and began sweeping again.
I stood there, somewhat shocked. Was I being ignored?
“Hey, I’m Grayson. Are you Urahara’s employee?” I asked tentatively. There was another pause, the sweeping stopping entirely. I assume that the younger girl turned to look at me.
“U–uh, my mum told me not to speak to strangers!” The young girl blurted out quickly, her voice somehow both energetic and nervous. I smiled and nodded along.
“That’s good advice!” I said agreeably, “But I’m just worried about you being all alone out here so early is all.” Another pause, but shorter this time.
“I–it’s okay! I’ve been doing this since I started school!” She said, a bright spark of confidence entered her voice.
“Really?” I asked, a little more worried now but determined not to let it show, “That’s impressive! Do you just clean the yard in the mornings?”
“Yup! Yard in the morning before school and helping restock shelves on weekends!” She answered happily, much more comfortable talking about her work, apparently.
“I see, you’re very hard working.” I heard a little noise of excitement or embarrassment.
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“Thank you!” She said, and the sound of sweeping continued. I stood there for a moment, wondering if the little girl was going to say anything more, but the sound of sweeping continued. I nodded to myself, deciding to get back inside where it was warmer.
“Uyu.” A whispered voice reached my ears as I was closing the door behind me.
“Pardon?” I poked my head out of the door again, eliciting an ‘Eep!’ from the small girl. I gave a warm smile with a chuckle. I could only imagine her pouting face.
“M–my name is Uyu Hanakari! Nice to meet you!” The young girl basically yelled out her words before turning and furiously sweeping the concrete. I made sure I didn’t laugh too long at the outburst.
“I’m Grayson Carter. It was nice to meet you, Uyu.” I gave the girl’s ribbon one last smile before disappearing back into the shop, and making my way towards the toilet, like I had planned to before.
Looks like Urahara has more employees than just Tessai. Too bad I couldn’t see Uyu, she sounded super cute. Bet she had big cheeks just made for pouting.
I chuckled to myself at that image.
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The day passed as close to as usual as it could. Tessai took us through the regular run, steadily increasing in speed until we were forced to use spiritual energy to reinforce our body.
It was harder than the shielding for me, not coming so easily or naturally. Though I was able to give myself a good amount of speed, just enough to keep up, really.
Suzumi, however, had made it clear that she was simply better at this than I was. Sure, her shield was shabby in comparison to mine, but I couldn’t help but feel I had just been handed that particular achievement.
Suzumi, in comparison, was far more efficient when it came to physical enhancement. Something I can’t say that I expected.
“What do you mean you didn’t expect me to be good at this stuff?” She had exclaimed, jokingly scandalized. “I’ll have you know that I was on the national level for three different sports as a kid!”
Those sports had turned out to be Ballet, Gymnastics and Karate. She did admit, though, that she had stopped doing all those when she went into high school. She had only done the sports at a competitive level because she had a self-proclaimed ‘knack’ for sports. Though she had none of the athletic abilities she once did.
“I see!” Tessai’s voice boomed from in front of us, “This is consistent with our understanding that you were spiritually sensitive in some way before meeting Mister Carter. May I ask a personal question, Miss Hamase?” I turned my head towards Suzumi’s ribbon, which twisted to face me as well.
“Uh, sure you can Tessai.” She said, her words hesitant. I turned back to the blurry form of the big man, interested in this question that was so private. I turned back to Suzumi’s ribbon and found that it was ramrod straight, looking more like a very white plank of wood than a ribbon.
“As a child did you experience dreams or illusions of phantoms speaking to you?”
Suddenly Suzumi was quiet. The silence dragged on so long that Tessai simply nodded his head, his ribbon following suit.
“I see. Those phantoms were, in fact, real spirits. Those either unfound by Soul Reapers, or incapable of moving on to their respective afterlife. This is an early childhood indicator of spiritual sensitivity. Night terrors and other similar afflictions are also indicators of such. If these connections to the spiritual world are harnessed, the child may become capable of entirely seeing spirits and even interacting with them. Some are so spiritually potent that seeing spirits is simply their way of life.”
Suzumi didn’t seem to want to respond to Tessai, stewing in her own thoughts, so I asked my own question. Honestly, if it kept the atmosphere away from utterly awkward silence, filling the social air with the smell of an old wound being re-opened.
“Am I capable of sensing spirits myself?” I asked. I hadn’t ever experienced any of the things that Tessai had said were spiritual sensitivity. I did have the ribbons, but there was a chance—
Tessai and Suzumi’s ribbon whipped around to stare at me. I swear to god that I could see their incredulousness impressed upon the ribbon.
“Of course, you can, Mister Carter.” There was a moment of hesitation in Tessai’s sentence, “Though your visual impairment may have impeded your ability to interact or even notices the spirits. Spirits tend to keep to themselves unless it becomes obvious that someone can see them.” There was a collective ‘Aha!’ moment between Suzumi and I.
“Though I am surprised you have not encountered a Hollow, or the equivalent for your prior location.” I just shrugged.
“I lived out of the way of big cities, and most of the time before that was… unpleasant.” I smiled sadly, and I felt the conversation die. In the silence, we merely redoubled out efforts, Tessai always one step ahead of us.
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Night fell after the training with Urahara. It was another session of a fairly rote exercise. This time I was encouraged to try to battle Urahara’s spiritual pressure with my own, which was obviously an impossible task, but it was as close as I could get to resistance training. Basically Urahara spent most of the hour doing the spiritual equivalent of bitch slapping me hundreds of times a second, while Suzumi did a tamer version of the same exercise.
After that I had spent some time helping out Tessai in the store. The man always had something for you to clean or do. I didn’t have the sight to verify, but I was absolutely sure that the place was cleaner than a hospital.
I’m not sure that I was required to help out in the store, but it was what I had applied for as a job, so I may as well deliver on it a little. Plus, Tessai lit up like a Christmas tree when you complimented him on his work and became a different sort of person when you were doing work for him.
He ran a tight ship, and expected things done in a very particular way, which typically meant efficiency, but he was warm instead of harsh. Unless you were being stupid, but thankfully that was a rarity. The man was like a big teddy bear, and he treated worker safety incredibly seriously.
I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy being fussed over by the big man when I accidentally cut my finger, but it was kind of ridiculous. I was laughing most of the way through, but I don’t think Tessai minded.
And here I was, laying in bed only a metre or so away from me was someone I had connected with so quickly over these past few whirlwind days. But earlier today made me realise just how little I know of her. And how little she knew of me.
I looked over to her ribbon, its radiant whiteness somewhat muted in her sleep.
It wasn’t any of our faults that we didn’t know much of each other. I knew about her dad, but she didn’t know about my parents, or anything else about my life. Actually, I’m pretty sure we haven’t had a single conversation about me from before I moved to Japan.
These handful of days have been the most insane tonal shift in my life, and I was sure the sentiment was the same for her. She had a job, a life. Aspirations and conceptions about her home, and they were all torn apart as soon as I stepped foot in her life.
Since then we have both been blind, desperately learning inside the bubble that was Urahara’s Sweets.
I wasn’t sure if she still had her job as an air stewardess, though I doubted it seeing as she hadn’t left the shop in the past week, the same as myself. Did her mother know about this? What was happening to her life?
I reached out a hand and gently caressed the side of Suzumi’s face as she slept. She gently moved, leaning into my touch. I resolved myself.
“A conversation for tomorrow.” I whispered to myself, before allowing myself blissful sleep.