The meeting

Shizuka Urahara put up her dark brown hair cut in hime-style to a high ponytail but found it looking weird so she pulled the hair ribbon out of her hair again. She tried another hair style by pinning her hair half up but found it weird this way, pulling the hair pin out of the brown streaks.

"Hm..." She made and crossed the arms before her chest. She was standing in front of the big mirror in her room and had already the school uniform of Karakura High on, her new school. Actually she did never visited a school before, she was taught all the things at home by her adoptive father. That was why she was so excited and couldn't decide on a hairstyle, she wanted to look good on the first day of school.

She then decided to let her hair loose when the adviser and long-time friend of her father called her for breakfast. Shizuka grabbed her bag and then went out of her room, making her way through the house which was built long time ago in the old Japanese style.

Shizuka sat down by the table on which the food had been already neatly placed, grabbing her favorite chopsticks in pink.

Kisuke was nowhere to be seen so he probably was still sleeping comfortably in his futon. Kisuke wasn't much of an early bird and 10 am was for him still early morning so Shizuka doesn't expected him to get up and watch her leave for school.

Shizuka yawned as she quickly ate her breakfast, she was still tired because she couldn't sleep too long - she was too excited, and took the bento Tessai handed her over as the shoji door slid aside.

"Good morning!" Kisuke's cheerful voice echoed through the whole room and Shizuka raised her head in surprise.

"Good morning…?" She replied, perplexed. "It's still early, what had caused you to get up at this hour?"

"I couldn't miss my beloved daughter's first day to school." Kisuke replied, sounding a bit offended. He went over to the table and sat down on the ground, next to his adoptive daughter. "Anyway, being excited about your first day?"

"Yes. I want to do a good impression." Shizuka said. "I don't want to be the freaky new student."

"I don't think you count as freaky." Kisuke said as he started to eat his breakfast while Shizuka almost finished hers.

"I think being able to see ghosts is freaky enough. Not being human also counts as freaky." Shizuka replied and her adoptive father raised his hand and patted her head.

"You're a soul, residing in a Gigai. That's normal." Kisuke replied. "Although there truly are humans with the ability to see plus. And there are also Quincies, just like Masaki."

"Right, right." Shizuka replied and remembered her best friend from some years ago. She met Masaki when the latter had been attacked by a semi Vasto Lorde called White. Shizuka had helped her and the former 10th Division captain of the Gotei 13 Isshin Shiba to defeat the Hollow and befriended each other again. At some time after their son Ichigo was born they lost contact. The last time she heard from them was that Masaki died because of a Hollow called Grand Fisher.

Shizuka had been always feeling weird being around Masaki; she was much more older than the woman but looked younger even though she should be grown-up after 93 years but no matter what Masaki looked younger. She also wasn't really a human, after all she had been born in the Soul Society to parents she doesn't remembered or knew. Kisuke told her that her mother gave her to him because something weird was happening to her father and she didn't wanted Shizuka to be close to him.

Shizuka had no memories of her biological parents as she was a newborn at that time but could remember something warm like a smile when thinking about them but she doesn't cared whether they're alive or not. Kisuke was enough of a parent for her.

She quickly finished her breakfast and gave Kisuke a hasty kiss on the cheek before she left the house and hurried to get to school.

She had to go to the Faculty Office and meet her new teacher who will introduce her then to her new class. The school year has started a week ago but they had some difficulties enrolling her in the school which is why she was joining so late.

As soon as she reached the school building and went under the gazes of the other students into the building. While searching the faculty office she bumped into someone and nearly fell down from the impact but somehow managed it to stand upright.

"Oh, sorry." She said and flashed a smile before she hurried off, noticing that the guy she bumped into had orange hair.

Remembering a certain little boy she looked around and saw that the boy truly had orange hair and was next to a taller one, walking down the corridor.

"Ichigo...?" She wondered, but shook her head and then walked on, still searching for the Faculty Office.

Finally she found the room and knocked before walking in.

"Excuse me." She said and the only teacher in the room, a woman, looked up.

"Oh, are you the new student?" She asked and Shizuka nodded.

"Yes." She then listened to the teacher's order and went in while the woman looked through some papers.

"Ah, right. Shizuka Urahara, you're in 1-3. That's my class." The teacher said. "I'm Misato Ochi, nice to meet you and welcome to Karakura High."

"Yes, I'm pleased to meet you, too." Shizuka replied and smiled.

"Oh, what a polite girl you are." Misato Ochi said. "Well, the first class is about to start. Let's go to the homeroom."

Shizuka nodded as she followed her teacher to the homeroom of the class 1-3. While following the teacher Shizuka noticed that all the students returned to their classrooms and there was barely anyone on the corridors, it reminded her of a horror movie she once watched but tried not to remember it, she couldn't have slept for two entire nights because of it.

"Here it is." Misato Ochi said and slid the door aside. "Good morning!"

She sounded really enthusiastic as she stepped into the room and put her things down on her place. It got immediately quiet in the whole room and Shizuka noticed she was getting excited and also nervous as she followed the teacher inside.

The room was full with people who were around the age Shizuka was feeling and looking like and she bit on the inner of her cheek to try to fight against the nervousness as she noticed the students looking at her.

"This is your new classmate. Please, introduce yourself." Misato Ochi said and gave Shizuka a piece of chalk. Shizuka then went over to the chalkboard and wrote her name there.

"I'm Shizuka Urahara. Nice to meet you all." She said and slightly bowed. "Please take care of me."

She noticed the other students staring at her and also noticed orange hair underneath them and got surprised, as it was Ichigo. She didn't thought she would be in the same class as the child of Masaki and Isshin although she noticed that he had grew a lot.

"Hm, let's see where you can sit down." Misato Ochi said and Shizuka looked over to her. She noticed she was a half head taller than her teacher. She was usually taller than an average Japanese teenage girl and many people believed that one of her parent was from the west.

"There, before Kurosaki is an empty seat. You can sit down there." Misato Ochi said and pointed over to the empty seat with her thumb.

"Yes." Shizuka replied and walked over to the empty seat. She sat down without looking at Ichigo although she was really tempted to take a closer look at him. Somehow it made her nervous being around him, maybe because he changed into such a handsome guy while Shizuka still saw the baby Ichigo in him.

During the first break Shizuka noticed a girl with burnt orange hair and gray eyes approaching her, stopping right in front of her seat. She had quite a big chest for being a young girl, even Shizuka hadn't such a big chest although hers weren't that small.

"Good morning." The girl said with a little smile on her face and Shizuka found herself smiling back.

"Uhm... good morning."

"I'm Orihime Inoue. Nice to meet you, Urahara-chan." She said and slightly bowed while Shizuka did the same with her head.

"Nice to meet you, too, Orihime-san."

"Oh, you don't need to be so polite with me. Do you want to eat lunch with me and my friends?" Orihime asked and as Shizuka was about to answer suddenly a guy with medium-long brown hair and brown eyes appeared.

"Wait, Orihime-chan!" He shouted. "Shizuka-san can eat lunch with us!"

"You only want to take the advantage that she's the new kid, Keigo." A girl with short black hair appeared.

"Oh, Tatsuki-chan!" Orihime said, looking at her.

"Well, that's a part of it." Keigo replied and then looked over to Shizuka. "What do you think, Shizuka-san?"

"Actually I don't mind with whom I'll eat." She replied while looking troubled because the people were already fighting over her although she just got here.

"See? So Shizuka's eating lunch with us since Orihime asked her first." Tatsuki said and Shizuka sighed troubled and was happy the next class started. Still, she could feel someone looking at her back and knew that it was Ichigo who looked at her. Somehow she could tell from the feeling of being watched that it was him.

She wondered what he was thinking and if he could remember her. Although she was doubting this, he was one year old when she saw him for the last time. Shizuka wondered also why she was making such a fuss about the fact that he got older. He was a human, after all, and it's usual that he was growing.

Maybe she got used to the fact that the people around her weren't aging, such as herself, Kisuke and Tessai and thought it was normal. The teacher for mathematics walked in and Shizuka forced herself to concentrate back on the lesson.

As soon as the lunch break begun Orihime appeared next to Shizuka's seat and grabbed her wrist.

"Come, we're going to eat outside since the weather is good!" She said and dragged Shizuka with her who managed to grab her bento and the coffee can before Orihime pulled her out of the room. While walking outside Orihime showed her a part of the school and also the schoolyard where Shizuka's female classmates were, sitting underneath a tree.

"Here we are." Orihime said as they sat down and Shizuka leaned with her back against the tree. She put the can aside and unpacked her bento while listening to the conversations of the girls, noticing they were talking about some of their classmates and were badmouthing some teachers.

"Oh, hey, Urahara." Said a girl whom Shizuka recognized as Mahana. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course." Shizuka replied surprised and raised her eyebrows as she stopped eating. The right manners were still stuck in her head as she had been born in an era where girls had to be very lady-like. That's also why Shizuka still sometimes talk in an old-fashioned and polite way, she was used to it and also sat in the polite Japanese style.

"Are those contacts? I mean, purple eyes are quite unusual, after all." Mahana said and Shizuka winced. She had been asked about her eye color a lot of times and at some point she got annoyed about this. Not everyone was able to look normal and Shizuka already felt enough like a freak for being a shinigami.

"No, that's my real eye color, I was born with them being in such an usual color." She replied, feeling a bit flustered that once again someone asked her about her eye color.

"Who cares? Ichigo also has got unusual hair, so it doesn't matter." Tatsuki said and drunk her juice while Shizuka opened the coffee can.

"By the way, Shizuka-san, how old are you?" Asked one of the girls among them. "You're talking sometimes in a quite old-fashioned way, don't you think?"

Shizuka nearly choked on the hot drink and fought against coughing.

"Uhm, I'm only 15. My father is talking like this so it rubbed off on me." She hastily replied before she would say something she would regret later.

"Ah, right, you've been a homeschooler before, right? That's probably why you're not into the way teenagers speak this days, right?" Orihime asked while eating her huge bread with red bean paste. Shizuka nodded and wondered if it really tasted this good like she said, Shizuka wasn't really into Japanese sweets, she moreover loved the western style sweets and sometimes sneaked some of them from Kisuke's shop whenever he have got some there.

The rest of the lunch break Shizuka spent her time answering the questions about herself from the others.

She was happy when the break was finally over and looked forward to finish her first day at school which happened not long after.

Shizuka said goodbye to Orihime and Tatsuki and grabbed her bag, she went then back the same way she had arrived at school although she crossed the street and walk to another one since she had promised Tessai yesterday to go to the grocery shop to buy some groceries.

However, as she walked through an alleyway she heard suddenly someone crying and stopped. Shizuka looked around and found a little ghost boy by the street. He was kneeling there and crying terribly, rubbing the tears from his eyes through it seemed to not work.

"Hello." She said softly to not scare him as she walked up to the ghost and reached out her hand to him but he winced back as he saw her.

"No!"

"Don't worry, I don't mean any harm to you." She said and knelt down before the boy so she wouldn't look too intimidating to him. She reached out her hand and patted the ghost boy's head.

"You can... see me?" He asked surprised and Shizuka nodded. Suddenly the boy threw himself in her arms and she noticed that he was trembling terribly which caused her to pity him.

"Those monsters are terrible! They were following me the whole night over!" He cried loudly. "I wanna see my mommy and daddy!"

"Well, these things do follow ghosts to eat them. But I can help you to reunite with your parents." Shizuka said and took out the device Kisuke gave her so she doesn't needed to draw her Zanpakuto to perform Konso.

She put the stamp on the ghost boy's forehead and he started to be engulfed in light blue light while changing into a Jigokucho and then flew away. Shizuka smiled as she stood up and was about to walk to the nearby grocery shop when she noticed someone standing close and winced.

"Oh..." She said and was about to say his name until she realized no one having told her his name and quickly bit on her tongue to not let it slip.

"You are able to see them, too?" Ichigo asked surprised while Shizuka didn't wondered that he also could see the plus, after all his father is a shinigami and his mother a Quincy. However, he seemed not to know what his parents were as Shizuka saw through the look in his eyes so she held back any comments which were on her tongue.

"Yeah..." She muttered. She still had problems to not see him as the baby Ichigo she knew.

"Hm, I never knew there were other people aside from me to be able to see them." He said and Shizuka noticed him having a toy plane in his hand and as Ichigo followed her sight he went over to where the boy formerly was kneeling and put the toy plane there.

"I was going to give it to him, but I guess I don't need to do this anymore." Ichigo muttered and then looked over to Shizuka. "Oh, I guess I haven't introduced myself. I'm Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Uh, nice to meet you, I... Kurosaki-kun." She replied, a bit nervous, having to remind herself that it would be too familiar to call him Ichigo as he thinks they are strangers. Shizuka still didn't understood why she was this nervous around him, it made her feel really funny.

"What you have done before... did you exorcise the ghost or something?"

"Kind of." Shizuka replied and put the stamp back in her bag. The two then started to go on and Shizuka wondered why Ichigo was walking right beside her.

"Hm, that's better. They probably are able to have some peace, at last." Ichigo said and Shizuka smiled. She knew they were having partially peace, waiting in the Soul Society to be reborn until they will experience another demise in the Human World and return up there - a never ending circle.

"Yeah." She said. "But I also haven't thought of anyone in my school being able to see ghosts, too. How long are you able to see them already?"

"As long as I can remember." Ichigo replied. "Though no one ever believed me except of my family."

"I was the same, they were always around. Although I was afraid of them in the beginning." Shizuka said. Still, she had been more afraid of the Hollows when she was younger after one attacked her which caused her shinigami powers to be forced out. But because of she had been attacked by the Hollow she got a little phobia of fighting them and also had a lot of nightmares in which they were hunting her and slowly devouring them.

They then continued walking with an awkward silence between them and Shizuka soon spotted the grocery shop.

"We have got the same way home." Ichigo then noticed. "Where are you living?"

He looked then down at her and Shizuka noticed interest flickering in his brown eyes.

"Hm? I'm living in my father's shop in Mitsumiya. So I don't have it very far to school." Shizuka said as she stopped in front of the grocery shop. "And you?"

"Minamikawase." Ichigo replied.

"So you have really a long way home." Shizuka said and noticed how Ichigo furrowed his brows more. "Kurosaki-kun? Are you all right?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Why do you ask?" He asked surprised.

"You looked troubled."

"Oh that. I only wondered how to avoid my stupid father today." Ichigo replied but it sounded much like an excuse for Shizuka.

"Is he really that bad?" Shizuka asked. She remembered Isshin being a little bit stupid but like Ichigo said that he seemed to have changed. Maybe because of Masaki's death.

"You can't imagine that. He's a stupid old man." Ichigo replied and Shizuka chuckled.

"I see. Guess mine is no other." She replied and remembered how Kisuke reacted when developing things and discovering new sweets. Kisuke then often tends to react like an excited kid. Shizuka then noticed that it had gotten quite late and that Tessai was probably waiting for the groceries she had to buy.

"Well, I have to buy some things. See you tomorrow then." She said with a smile and raised her hand while Ichigo nodded and then went off. Shizuka looked for a moment at him, reminding herself to stop seeing him as a baby and then walked into the grocery shop.