Heroes

Chapter Forty-One

A smooth, flirtatious voice interrupted us. “I believe that’s where I come in, ladies.”

I turned my head and grinned. “Hey, Kisuke. Ya can help him, right? You know Byakuya severed all his chains, took away his powers. That won’t implicate you, will it?”

I could see his sarcastic grin from under the shadow cast by his hat. “Never stopped me before.”

“Awesome.” I got Tara calm and together the three of us took Ichigo to Urahara Shoten, where Strawberry, completely unconcious the entire time, was quickly bandaged and put to bed.

“So,” Tara said uncomfortably, as she wasn’t used to Urahara yet, “is Ichigo gonna be okay?”

“Oh, yeah,” Kisuke said. “The Boy Wonder’s gonna be fine, there’s no worries about that. But what about you guys?”

I looked at her, sending a girl-telepathy message. She shrugged and agreed silently. I turned back to the shop owner. “You got any room here for us?”

He looked pensive for a moment before shrugging. “I’m sure we have an extra room for ya. But it’s late; why don’t you girlies head on home and you can come tomorrow, bring your stuff.”

I nodded. “Sounds good, Kisuke.” I motioned to Tara. “Come on, Ichi’s head isn’t going to explode while we’re gone. Let’s go home and we’ll explain everything to Isshin in the morning.”

She was apprehensive but nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. Hopefully Isshin hasn’t woken up and noticed we’re gone or anything.”

I chuckled. “Please, that man can’t notice Kon in the morning, he won’t notice us at four A.M.” I waved goodbye to the shady shop owner as we exited. “See you in a few hours, Kisuke.”

“Goodbye, ladies!” he said in that all-too-cheery voice.

We walked home in silence, too much on both of our minds to make mindless chatter. Once home we quietly snuck into our bedroom and fell asleep quickly; who knew how exhausting a three-A.M. battle could be?

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“Isshin!” I called the next morning, stomping down the stairs, sleepover bag in hand. “Tara and I are leaving!”

We’d explained to him earlier that a “friend” (if you could call that shopkeeper a friend) had gone through some trauma recently (claiming it was too horrible to spread around) and we were going to spend the weekend with “her,” to help relieve the pain, distract “her” a bit. Isshin immediately went sympathetic and accepted, saying we could stay as long as we wanted. We asked Babs in private if she wanted to accompany us, but she declined forcefully, saying she “didn’t want to mess with this Bleach stuff.” So around ten we exited the Clinic and made our way to the Shoten.

When we arrived we were quickly shoved in and showed to our room: it was plain, wooden, very traditional-Japanese. Instead of beds we had floor mats. It was refreshing, to say the least.

We only had time to throw our things into the room before we where whisked away to Kurosaki’s room. Tara quickly kneeled by his side while I stayed behind, opting to lean on the doorframe at the end of the room.

We only had to wait a few minutes before Kisuke entered the room. “And how are you ladies doing this fine Saturday morning?” he asked so sweetly you could almost see the moe hearts floating around the man.

“We’re good, Kisuke,” I said. “How’s CarrotTop over there?”

Kisuke his his face behind his green fan. “Just peachy,” he squealed, “he should be awake any minute.”