Gateway 53

“He’s the one who showed me the way here,” I said, stepping forward. “I have a soul-related problem, and I heard you were the expert on the subject, so it made sense to come see you first.”

“Oh?” Urahara said, covering his face with a paper fan he had hidden in his sleeve. “And you used a Captain as a guide?”

His challenge wasn’t without merit. Ukitake could just as well have sent one of his subordinates to guide me here.

Of course, the reason he came was to make sure everything was on the up and up, but saying so before Urahara even agreed to help would be counterproductive.

“My problem is private,” I shrugged. “And he didn’t trust anyone else knowing your location.”

Urahara looked over my shoulder at Ukitake, staring at him for what felt like minutes before gazing at me again.

“Let’s hear it then, what issue was so dire that you came to me?”

___

“And now she has to control her emotions to avoid strengthening the connection,” I finished my tale, taking a sip of the tea Tessai, a tall, muscular, lightly tan-skinned man, had made.

The fact that the previous Captain of the Kido Corps was here acting as a glorified shop assistant/maid stoked an ember of rage inside of me that I didn’t even know I had.

But I pushed it down, now wasn’t the time nor the place, and if he was fine living like this, who was I to judge?

After introductions, Urahara led us to the back of his shop, where there was what I imagined to be a standard Japanese house.

Urahara, Ukitake, and I sat around a small table while Tessai, wearing a blue apron, worked around the place.

Getting my mind back to the matter at hand, I waited for Urahara’s thoughts on things. I hadn’t told him the specifics of Luna’s ‘emotional episode’, but from the smirk he had barely hidden behind his paper fan, I knew he guessed it right.

After a few seconds, Urahara snapped his paper fan shut, his smirk replaced by a serious look.

“A connection like that is not something to be meddled with lightly,” he said, tapping lightly on the table with the fan. “The only thing close to it that I’ve worked on was…” He glanced at Ukitake. “No, yours goes even deeper than that. But maybe…”

He sprang to his feet, prompting Ukitake to do the same while I calmly stood up.

“Tessai, we’re going to my lab! If anything happens, call Yoruichi!” He called out as he led us to what looked like a small utility closet until he opened the door, revealing a long stairwell going down.

“Nice,” I muttered, appreciating the thought of a hidden room underground.

The lab itself was almost alien to me. From one room to the next, we went from modern-day to Sci-Fi. Metal paneling covered the walls, floor, and ceiling. Machines big and small beeped, booped, and churned every which way as we walked by them. Tables full of papers, test tubes, and every kind of doohicky under the sun were scattered about.

I was used to modern science interacting with magic thanks to the help I gave the researchers back home, but this was futuristic in a way I didn’t think was possible, especially in this world, where the Soul Society was still stuck in the feudal era.

“Stand here,” Urahara said, pointing to a circular platform connected to a computer terminal at its side.

As I moved to stand where he indicated, Urahara explained.

“Since you said Captain Unohana didn’t find anything when she examined you, we’re going to use the DeepSoul 4 to see anything that is currently affecting your soul,” he said, pressing a button on the terminal’s keyboard and activating it.

The platform I was on had multiple concentric circular grooves, which began to glow from outside in, each layer taking longer than the last.

I stood still as I waited, watching as Urahara and Ukitake looked at the terminal with expectant expressions.

As the second-to-last groove lit up, Urahara made a shocked sound before he hurriedly started typing.

“This doesn’t make sense!” He exclaimed, his fingers flying over the keyboard as the machine under my feet started humming, the lights brightening in response.

“What doesn’t make sense!?” Ukitake exclaimed back, Urahara’s panicked energy affecting him.

“The readings! There are three more signatures where his Zanpakuto spirit’s and inner world’s should be!” He said, both of them looking over at me as I realized what he had picked up.

‘My Authorities, ’ I thought, having forgotten that a deeper look into my soul would logically find them.

“Don’t bother with it!” I said, grabbing their attention. “Those are normal! Focus on what we came here to do!”

Both men gave me suspicious looks, with Ukitake saying, “You’ll explain this when we’re done.”

I nodded at him, and he traded a meaningful look with Urahara before Urahara pressed another button, making the machine quiet down and the lights lower to their previous state.

With things back on track, the last circle lit up.

“Whoa,” Urahara muttered, staring wide-eyed at the terminal as the readings came through.

“Did you find it?” Ukitake asked, his hopeful expression probably mirroring mine as we waited for an answer.

“I did,” Urahara nodded. “And it’s beyond anything I could come up with. You said it happened naturally?”

“As far as I can tell,” I agreed. “I told you about the weirdness that went on to get things to this point, so why are you asking?”

“Because,” he said, tapping a key and turning the machine off. “There are only three ways I can see for a connection like that to form.”

I stepped out of the machine as he guided us to another part of the lab, where a fax machine-type printer was churning out a continuous stream of paper on the ground.

He turned to us as the machine finished, raising a closed hand.

“The first,” he raised a finger. “Would be on your first meeting, something akin to the soulmate bond from romance stories. We know that didn’t happen, so that’s out.”

“The second,” he raised another finger. “Would be for your love for one another to be so great that at some point, probably involving heightened emotions about said love, the connection would form.” He gave me a knowing look. “And we know that only started happening after the connection was already in place.”

“You keep saying that the connection forms through love,” Ukitake cut in, looking uncomfortable. “Isn’t there any other reason for such connections to take place?”

“Ah, I know the cases you’re thinking of,” Urahara nodded with a smile. “The first was done through love. Although it was to accept an object, and not a person, into their soul,” Urahara gave Ukitake a look. “While the other did not so much accept someone into his soul as he was too weak and dying to deny or fight off an invasion, and even then, the one invading did it to save his life. And even then, none of these reach that deep.”

Ukitake covered his mouth and coughed. Hard. His pale face getting paler as the coughing didn’t stop.

When I saw a hint of crimson on his hand, I didn’t hesitate. Pulling out my wand, I started casting. A spell to drain the lungs of fluids, one to relax the throat’s muscles, and one to repair any superficial damage one could get from coughing too much.

“You good?” I asked, staring at Ukitake’s panting form. His breathing sounded fine, but I didn’t know the details of his disease to know what to look for.

“Yes,” he said, taking a deep breath and straightening himself. “I feel better than I have in years! Thank you, Alex.”

“Don’t thank me yet. I didn’t cure you,” I said, looking at him seriously. “I just gave you some respite. Once you actually talk about your disease, then I’ll see about figuring out how to deal with it permanently.”

“Of course,” he nodded with a smile.

“While this is a touching moment,” Urahara said from his position beside the pile of paper, grabbing our attention. “I still have to finish explaining things before we can move on to how to fix them.”

He tried to play it casually, but I saw his assessing gaze on my wand as I put it away.

“As I was saying,” Urahara continued, raising his hand back up, now with three fingers up. “The third way for such a connection to form, is through force,” he waited a moment to continue, lowering his hand and crossing his arms. “The problem, is how deep the connection is. Those circular grooves in the machine? Each one represents a layer of your soul, and the connection is on the deepest one, after even your inner world and Zanpakuto spirit.”

Noticing my confused look, Urahara sighed.

“The number of beings I know who are capable of reaching such a deep part of a soul without provoking a Soul Suicide can be counted on one hand, and I’d have 4 fingers left after it,” he said, looking annoyed.

“I thought Soul Suicide only happened to opposed existences?” Ukitake asked.

“For the outer layers? Yes. But for the deepest one? The core of your being? There, everything that isn’t you is an opposing existence,” Urahara took the end of the paper still attached to the machine at his side. “That’s why I said the only other way for such a connection to form is through love. It’s the only way both souls would recognize each other as part of themselves without dying first.”

“So, who can do it?” I asked. Not to know who did it, as I doubted whomever he mentioned could reach me back home or the Wizardign World, but to at least give an idea of where to look.

“The Soul King,” he grimaced. “And even then, I doubt it was him.”

He leaned forward, his eyes glinting with an emotion I could not recognize.

“So tell me, Alex Lupi. Who and what are you?”

___

We moved back upstairs so we could sit down while I told my story. Tessai brewed tea and sat down with us at the table while a black cat lounged on his shoulder.

My explanation was long. I had to stop multiple times to expand on concepts and subjects they had no reference to. Just the basics of my world took half an hour due to Urahara and Tessai bombarding me with questions.

“So, Kisuke, turn her into a substitute as a start and figure out from there?”

The question made me do a double take. Not because of its contents, but because of its source.

Perched on Tessai’s shoulder, the black cat had opened its eyes and was staring intently at Urahara, waiting for an answer to its question.

“Yes,” he nodded. “I’m sure Ukitake had the same idea. And without access to her, I’m limited in what I can do beyond that. But Alex won’t be able to do it himself, since the risk of overpowering her soul will be too great.” He looked at me. “I’ll see about developing something so you can do it safely. All I’ll need is a fresh Asauchi to use as the base.”

“I can do that,” I said, wondering if the cat was a type of animagus or if this universe just had talking animals.

“Well then,” Ukitake said, stretching himself. “It’s late. Time for us to go back before people ask too many questions, Alex.

“Actually,” I said, leaning back. “I wanted to talk shop with Tessai for a bit, you up for it?” I finished aiming my question at Tessai.

“Of course! It’s been a long time since I had anyone to talk magic with,” he smiled at me, standing up and motioning me to follow him.

“When you want to leave, call me so I can open a door for you, Ukitake!” I called out behind me as I walked deeper into the store.

___

Jushiro Ukitake

He sighed as he watched Alex walk away. He should have known he wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to talk with someone of Tessai’s skill in Kido.

But it worked just as well for him. At least this way, he wouldn’t need to specifically request Alex to take him here.

“Finally ready to talk, Ukitake?” The cat, who had jumped from Tessai’s shoulder and was now sitting on the table in front of Urahara, asked.

He bunched his fist on his Haori. He still remembered Nanao crying and how hard Shunsui took losing Lisa. It was time to get to the bottom of the events from 100 years ago.

“Yes, Yoruichi Shihouin,” He said, staring seriously at the two in front of him. “I am.”

___

A/N: And that’s that.

We delve deeper into what’s going on with Alex and Luna’s connection, and Ukitake sits down to talk with Urahara. And what will come out of Alex’s and Tessai’s little talk?

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Also, I found out how to add the pdf and epub versions back. Patreon really likes to make the UI as unintuitive as possible.

As always, thank you all for the support! See you next week!