AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS

Erm... Hi? Enjoy the chappy? Don't kill me? PLease? You need me alive to read this... X(

She panted as the shop owner launched yet another crimson ark of death at her. Wearily, she set her own zanpakuto up for a block. It hurt extremely to even do that much with the ove rsized katana. The attack broke on the sword, but first it broke off a large bit of the tempered steel. It sent an enormous shock up her arms and her numbed hands dropped the blade as another crimson wave soared straight towards her. She tried to dodge, but just managed a slightly useless collapse to the side. In a flash, literally, the green robed man was at her side feeling for a pulse (Did a spirit even have a pulse? She supposed that she must, she wasn't even dead after all…) and other vitals with a strange kido that cast an orange light over her torso. After a few moments he released the kido and slid his zanpakuto (she thought that it was called Benihime) back into his cane.

"Break time," he declared, helping her to her shaking feet, "Let's go introduce you to the hot spring." She simply walked as best she could with a halfhearted smile aimed at him.

"Arigatou Urahara-san," she said once he'd sat her down on a ledge near the alleged hot-spring. He glanced at her now callous developing hands and retrieved his fan from out of his sleeve.

"If you get into the hot-spring it should help to reduce the sprains and anything else as well as give you a chance to rest." He waited for a moment, but she made no move to slide in, instead fingering her obi nervously.

"Gomen, ano… Could you go get my zanpakuto for me? I left it over where I fell… I couldn't quite lift it…" Urahara took the nervous hint and turned away, walking out of sight before calling behind him to the rustle of fabric.

"I need to go help Tessai-san up in the shop, if I stay down here with you any longer I'm afraid he'll come looking for me~!" Urahara slid his fan back into his sleeve and glanced around the underground room to survey the damages. The two hour training session had really done a number on the place and it was definitely worse for the wear. A frown made its way onto his face. The extent of the damage was enormous due to Ritsu's heavily unstable reatisu. He'd applied kido after kido to try and help, but no matter what it did it was just as volatile as before, if not more so. He let out a sigh as he approached the ladder; that would be the focus of the next session.

He ascended to the trapdoor by way of a platform of reatisu. If it were any other day he'd just climb, but he was exhausted and didn't feel the need to have to change his clothes. Plus, if it were any other day he'd be soaking in the hot-spring too. Ritsu's fiery reatisu was very similar to the head captain's and therefore really hurt when it was released to its full potential. If it were any more like the head captain's reatisu, he'd just start calling Ritsu 'Yamamoto Ritsu'. It was almost as if she was his daughter. His eyes widened fractionally. Her reatisu wasn't enough to be a daughter, or a granddaughter, but farther down the line was definitely possible. Especially if…

Urahara walked out into the front of the shop to discover Tessai arguing with Jinta about the sweeping and Ururu standing off to the side, holding a broom that was twice as tall as she was. She nodded when she saw him, but otherwise stayed silent. He nodded back and approached the bickering pair.

"Tessai-san?" he asked, voice serious for once, "Could you come with me for a moment?"

"Hai," replied the man, dropping the squirming Jinta back onto his feet, "What do you need?" he asked as they walked inside. Urahara held up a hand and led the way to his private rooms where several monitors sat. Displayed on the various screens where the miscellaneous records and readings he'd taken of Ritsu throughout the lesson.

"I…" Urahara started, not quite sure how to proceed, "I have a theory, but I'll need your help proving it. Do you know where the remains of the Head Captain's reatisu samples are?"

"No Urahara-san," Tessai answered, pushing his glasses farther up onto his face, "They were destroyed shortly after we had gathered them. Don't you remember?"

"Oh," Urahara laughed nervously, "I guess I don't. Do you still have the readings?"

"Hai," Tessai replied, "Shall I fetch them for you?" Urahara nodded and sat at one of the monitors that held a picture of the hot spring below. If normal people knew that he was looking at a 'helpless' girl bathing, he would be called 'hentai' and 'chikan' faster than you could possibly imagine. In reality though, he wasn't studying the girl at all, but rather, the particles that were flowing even now towards her gigai.

That connection was strange, and he had no idea how it functioned. For some reason, the gigai could tell that Ritsu was a living soul. It knew that she existed in the world of the living. Why was that? He'd built the gigai specifically to have the proper adjustments to resolve a few unwanted complaints by previous shinigami. For his adjustments to have taken the sensor capabilities that high, was a little troubling. It meant, for at least one thing, that active shinigami would not be able to use this new gigai. They wouldn't be able to enter into the false body the same way they couldn't enter a human's body. It would reject them.

"But how can it tell what you are, Ritsu-chan?" Urahara mused aloud. Soft footsteps warned him of Tessai's imminent return and he spun to face the gentle giant.

"Here you are, Urahara-san." Urahara took the report from Tessai and flipped straight to the direct analysis on the composition, more specifically, the elemental base of Yamamoto's reatisu. At first he skimmed briefly, but then he froze and read over the words in greater detail.

"Get me an analysis of Ritsu's reatisu, right now. Immediately." Tessai nodded and turned once more to retrieve the equipment to take a sample of the scraps of reatisu floating downstairs in the training chamber. After Tessai left, Urahara turned back to the computer screens, attempting to discern the meaning of the trailing particles.

Ritsu settled down into the hot spring, letting out a long sigh as the warmth began to seep into her weary bones.

'I'm so exhausted…' she thought to herself as she draped her hair over the edge of the tub-like indentation, 'He's been training me for a month and a half now… So… Exhausting… I can't really do much still though, just basic training. And Ichigo… I know that he and I… are… Related, twins… But… How can I be positive? I haven't… Can't remember anything else…'

Ritsu shifted her weight and let out a sigh. Somehow, on some basic level, she knew that what she was doing now was not what she did before. Before she… Forgot… Of her past, things had been different, much, much different. But what exactly did she do? What did Ichigo do? He… Went to… School. He went to school everyday. Did she want… Could she…?

"Could I… Go to school?" Ritsu mused aloud. It sounded reasonable to her, but Urahara-san… He might not think so. After all, he wanted her to be trained for some reason. She just didn't know why.

Ritsu soaked for some time and only once her bruises and sprains were healed did she climb out. She dressed quickly and started for the ladder once she retrieved her zanpakuto. It was time to see where Urahara-san was hiding. As she turned around a pillar of rock, she saw Tessai appear out of nowhere.

"Hello Tessai-san," she said, hiding her surprise, "What are you doing?"

"Collecting some of Urahara-san's reatisu scraps," Tessai lied, thinking quickly, "He always loves to analyze his own reatisu for changes." Rtisu nodded, but frowned at the same time.

"Do you know where Urahara-san is right now?"

"I do believe the boss is labeling merchandise in the back." Ritsu nodded and headed to the ladder, getting the feeling that Tessai had been lying to her. He didn't have any reason to, she mused in her head, but she was getting the same feeling that she'd gotten before when her instincts had insisted to only partially trust Urahara. 'My youfu...' she thought carefully, 'My adoptive father...' She, of course, had figured out by now that Urahara had lied to her on that front. He'd presented foods to her that she figured out she hated by the smell and refused to tell her of any of her old hobbies. Ritsu shook her head and climbed, thinking of 'school'.

AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS

Look at me bein' all fancy and showing everybody I'm alive! XD Anyways, I think I actually know what's going to happen next, so just let me know what you guys think! X3