After what felt like hours of laying on the floor and simply enjoying each other’s presence, there was a collection of gentle but firm knocks on the doorframe into our room.

“Miss Hamase and Mister Carter. Are you willing to train today?” He asked, his usually booming voice made gentle and soft.

However, something struck me as odd. He had never asked if we were willing to do so. It had always been a foregone conclusion. That, added with the extremely late calling time, meant that he had forewarning that something had happened or been talked about in this room. Unless he was able to hear us talk, or had somehow been close enough to the door to eavesdrop with regular human hearing, which I can confirm that he wasn’t, as his ribbon was over near Urahara’s…

Urahara. That control freak.

“Tessai. I respect you a lot, and I’m sure that you wouldn’t knowingly let Urahara plant surveillance in our room. I just want the immediate assurance that they will be taken out of the room. I’ll talk to Urahara about it in a moment, when we both get properly prepared for training.” I spoke in a low and even tone. There was a moment of quiet from beyond the door, but I got the distinct impression that Tessai was frustrated. Probably with Urahara.

“Of course, Mister Carter.” He said, simply. His tone was absolute with that same leader-like quality he had showed on rare occasion. The steps receded from the door and Suzumi tapped me on the hand.

“What was that about? Did you know about those cameras?” She whispered; confusion evident.

“A glorified guess, honestly. But I don’t know. Tessai acted oddly, like he knew what happened. Tessai wouldn’t peak on us, he’s to professional and just plain nice for that. But Urahara is a douchebag.” I shrugged. Against her form.

“Cool,” she drew out the word longer than normal, a smile touching her voice, “my boyfriend is a detective.” I grinned, a sudden flush of heat coming to my cheeks and in my chest.

“I’m your boyfriend now, am I?” I said, half joking, but I practically saw her grin through my foggy sight.

“Maybe. I can’t see myself going back to normal, regular, boring boys now that I know that you are the world’s greatest blind detective.” I rolled my eyes in mock offense.

“I’ll have you know, I’m the best blind detective in all of the spiritual realms, thank you very much.” I said, stone-faced, until I broke into laughter. We laughed together for a few minutes, before I felt a soft pair of lips lightly press against mine and then retreat before anything else could be said or done. That small flush in my chest was now a raging flame.

“Alright time to get up and get ready for this training. Need to go tell off discount Japanese batman with a bad sense of fashion.” Suzumi said quickly. I barked out a laugh, despite how badly I wanted to pull her into a hug, but she was right. We had work to do, unfortunately.

Mixing an intimate relationship into the mix of ‘not being human’ and ‘having my world view destroyed’ can’t be healthy, but you know what, fuck it. The universe can get fucked for a while. Maybe it’ll add some stability to the rapidly changing landscape of my mental understanding of the universe.

Walking down what felt like an infinite staircase to the study room was infuriating. Especially because I didn’t know the exact number of steps I needed to take, and also probably because even if I did, I would miscount somewhere. So, I had to trust in the strength of my newly minted and tenuously dubbed ‘relationship’ and give Suzumi the important responsibility of not letting me plant my face into a nice little patch of concrete.

Thankfully my trust in her turned out to be warranted, and so I directed us towards where both Tessai and Urahara’s ribbons were. It took another few minutes of walking to get to that spot. Why the hell did they make this place so inconvenient to get around?

“Good afternoon gentleman and absolute douchebag. How are you today.” I said as we approached the two Soul Reapers. There was a miffed silence from both of them. As we stopped in front of the duo I leaned over to where Urahara’s location and in a suitably loud stage whisper, “The douchebag is you by the way.” Suzumi giggled at my antics, but I could already feel the argument brewing in Urahara’s head.

“Nope, you don’t get to play with you stupid ‘save the world’ arguments this time, Urahara. I let you fly with that one last time. This time, you’re just an out and out jackass who can’t see far enough past his own paranoia that it makes me look like I have the eyes of an eagle.” Silence reigned as the air between the two of us suddenly became dense and thick, but I ignored the man with own shielding.

“I’m not playing around Urahara. You are being an incorrigible ass for no good reason. If you had asked for any of the information that you could have possibly gleaned from spying on me, I would have gladly given it to you. In fact, I would have been just as interested in what you could do with that information seeing as I have no fucking clue what the hell I am and would like to damn well know!” I was near close to yelling, a sudden anger boiling close to the edge.

“So, If you can’t treat me like an equal, deserving of at least the smallest bit of respect, I will walk right out of here and go find somewhere else to be trained where I might just be treated like a human being, even if it so happens that I’m not.” I heard Urahara growl, the spiritual pressure surrounding me shaking with Urahara’s petulant anger. I felt a rush of displaced air as collar of my shirt pulled me up and hung me just far enough up that I could only place my tippy toes on the ground. I heard a yelp from Suzumi, but as she tried to draw closer she was mercilessly pushed to the ground and had no choice but to retreat.

“What makes you think I’d let you leave alive?” He said, doing his best batman impression. I just laughed at him, his anger somehow making mine evaporate entirely. I just looked directly into his ribbon.

“Look, I don’t know much about you, Kisuke. In fact, I know nothing. I think you’re kind of an ass. I think anyone you could even remotely call a friend also thinks that. But I think you and Tessai are really good friends. Partners, working together for a long time and having known each other for longer.” I said calmly, not even trying to resist Kisuke’s grip.

“So, Kisuke. I have a good feeling that he already knows he is going to have to clean up after you being a childish moron. I bet he has done just that thousands of times, like he has tried to do for you every time you have mistreated us. But this is different Kisuke. This is a breaking point.” I smiled down at the man’s ribbon and reached out with my hand and grabbed the ribbon and tearing it away from the man, discarding it without a second thought. Kisuke immediately let go of me, surprised maybe. I heard a high-pitched keening noise slice through the air but before it could reach me a deep, rumbling voice called out.

“Pale Lightning.” Those two words felt superfluous, but so intently powerful. There was a bright flash through my fog, almost sharp enough to pierce through the fog in truth. I heard a clattering as what I presumed was a sword fell to the ground.

“Do you really want to fight the same man that has been helping you all these years? Because I’m not sure how fights go in Soul Reaper land, but I can’t imagine they end well.” I looked stoically at the Urahara’s ribbon, that had quickly regrown, but wasn’t as large anymore. Though the air in the study room did feel denser now. There was a long silence, and it was Tessai who broke the spell.

“Leave, Kisuke.” Tessai said, the presence of his words amazingly powerful. Maybe this was what Tessai was like when he was actually really angry. Scary.

The silence dragged on for a little while longer before the displacement of the air in front of me signalled Urahara’s departure. There was a loud clearing of the throat from Tessai.

“I am deeply sorry for this.” He started, but stopped midway. “I will not make excuses for him. You have brought up a good point. He has not acted this way for a long time, and I believe it is time for me to truly put my foot down.”

“Tessai, it’s all good. You are hardly the one at fault here.” I shrugged. “It’s not like I can’t see where Urahara is coming from, either. He has a world that he desperately wants to protect. I have no doubt that he’d gladly be wrong about me, and have treated me terribly, than have treated me kindly and have me be exactly what he fears.” A smile quirked itself onto my face. I was fumbling my way through this situation, but I had to advocate for myself somewhere, otherwise I’d just be walked all over by Kisuke and I can’t say that I fancy that very much.

“I understand your fears, Mister Carter. I have to say, not many have been able to talk to Urahara like that. He is a man of singular drive and focus. He is, in certain ways, unfathomably intelligent to you and I, but lacks the barest understanding in others.” The large man sighed heavily, filled with emotion, “We have known each other for a long, long time. Initially brought together in scholarly pursuits, we worked closely as partners in many projects. I am a very skilled kidō practitioner and our skills combined were incredibly potent. We have saved each other from terrible fates many times over. However, it seems that he has become… obsessed with his past failings.” He shook his head sadly, silhouette clearly defined in the fog due to the artificial light hidden in the ceiling somewhere.

“Again, Tessai. This isn’t your fault. I’m not really sure it is anyone’s fault.” I laughed as I walked forward and patted the immensely tall man on the arm. “Either way, I still need training. So unless Kisuke decides to kick me out or kill me, then training is still on?” There was a deep laugh from the man who quickly turned away from us.

“Indeed. As such, I will go and collect your training partner for the day.” Displaced air gently brushed against our skin as Tessai left us in the study room alone.

“What the hell Grayson!” Suzumi yelled suddenly, making me jump. She rushed over and slapped me on the face, which surprisingly hurt very little.

“What?” I asked, bewildered and concerned.

“What do you mean ‘what?’, do you have a death wish? You intentionally provoked Urahara! He pulled out a sword.” I grimaced. That probably did look scarier if you could actually see what was happening, but I just got to hear it.

“Honestly Suzumi. I’m not sure I was thinking about that too hard. Plus, I trust Tessai and I know that Urahara trusts Tessai. I felt secure enough that I wouldn’t be actually killed.” Suzumi slapped me again, this time I felt my shielding strain with the spiritual energy she infused with the blow.

“Tessai shot lightning out of his finger! Lightning! And then they stared at each other and the whole place started to get heavy. I could barely breathe.” Her voice started to get quieter and quieter, her anger subsiding into fear. I drew closer to her and gently started to wrap my arms around her form, which seemed smaller than before.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay. Tessai was going to protect me just fine. I know it was scary, but I think this is our life now. I don’t think scary people are going to be any less scary because we are weak, Suzumi.” I felt her look up into my eyes, and I looked directly into her ribbon, which always seemed to coincide with their eyes, and smiled gently.

“Why do we have to suddenly be wrapped up in all of this?” I thought for a moment before speaking, trying to make sure I didn’t say it wrong.

“Suzumi. You don’t have to. This is a me thing, something that being around me will bring. I’m not sure I have a choice here. You do. You can go home to your mother, try and pick up your job again. You can go back to your normal life–”

“And leave you.” She said with finality, ending my sentence. She shook her head. “No, that isn’t fair. I can’t leave you here to face this all alone. I’m not sure that I could walk out those doors and go back to a normal life knowing that there was more than I could ever know still out there, waiting to destroy everything that I love. These Hollows that eat souls and kill people and Soul Reapers that protect us from them. God knows how many other different afterlives and their versions of Soul Reapers. I can’t.”

There was a certain steel in her voice that let me know that she wouldn’t have it argued about. I honestly couldn’t tell if I wanted her here at my side in all of this, or safe somewhere, where she won’t be hurt. But it wasn’t my choice, and she deserves to make that choice herself.

So, I just held her close and respected it.