"Chirp chirp—"
"Tweet tweet—"
Clear birdsong echoed overhead, rousing Kisuke Urahara from a brief nap.
He slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a stretch of brilliant blue sky and a few cotton-like white clouds.
"Well now… another fine day—no wind, no rain."
Urahara sighed as he sat up on the veranda, stretching his arms and scratching at his messy hair. Then, for no particular reason, he let out a long breath.
"Whoosh—"
Suddenly, a faint ripple sounded in the empty lot across from the Urahara Shop. A cross-shaped tear slowly split open in the air, and from the dark void poked out the head of Fūjin Taichi.
"Good morning, Shopkeeper Urahara!"
"Good morni— Mr. Fūj—"
Before he could finish the word "jin," Urahara reacted. In an instant, he lunged like a starving tiger pouncing on prey.
Grabbing Taichi by the throat with both hands, he growled:
"You finally show yourself, you bastard! Return the goods you stole from me!!"
"Ack... cough, cough!"
Taichi's face turned red as he nearly passed out from being strangled. After finally escaping Urahara's grip, he jumped far away and shouted:
"Urahara Kisuke, are you crazy?!"
"Crazy?! You stole so much of my merchandise, and I didn't cut you down—that's already me showing restraint!!"
Urahara snapped, one hand pressing down his green-striped hat, the other pointing accusingly at Taichi.
"We're adults here, don't sweat the small stuff! Besides—"
Rubbing his neck, Taichi reached back into the cross-shaped void and dragged out a corpse. Grinning, he said:
"I brought you what you want most. That should settle the debt, right?"
"Huh…? That is—"
Urahara froze, staring at the body in shock.
"You actually managed to get your hands on that thing… I really underestimated you. No—this might be the flashiest move I've seen in a hundred years, Mr. Fūjin."
"Thanks for the compliment."
Taichi tossed Aizen's corpse in front of him, then extended a hand.
"In exchange, give me that anti–soul implantation reagent."
"Oh?"
Urahara paused mid-inspection. Straightening slightly, his olive-green eyes fixed deeply on Taichi.
"As expected… you know quite a bit about my past, Mr. Fūjin. Do you even know about the Hōgyoku as well?"
"Don't misunderstand, I learned that from the Great Archive—"
"Don't tell me you 'looked it up in the Great Archive,'" Urahara interrupted, pressing down the brim of his hat.
"At your age, you shouldn't even know my name, originally. So spare me that nonsense. If I'm not mistaken… you're from one of the Four Great Noble Houses—the branch family of the Kazama clan, the Fūma family, aren't you?
"And judging from your age and your Zanpakutō's abilities… you must be the one who mysteriously disappeared a hundred years ago from East Rukongai, District 76—Sakahone District?"
"Huh?"
Taichi's jaw dropped. He studied Urahara carefully to confirm he wasn't joking.
"There's really a Fūma family in Soul Society? I've… never heard of it."
"That kind of joke isn't funny, Mr. Fūjin."
For once, Urahara's face turned unusually serious.
"And what I want to tell you is this… over the past century, the heirs of the Fūma family seem to have fallen under a dreadful curse."
"A curse? You Shinigami believe in that too?"
"Yes."
Urahara nodded.
"As far as I know, the first heir, Fūma Hashirama, died young. The second heir, Fūma Tobirama, drowned. The third heir, Fūma Hiruzen, succumbed to illness. The fourth heir, Fūma Minato, died suddenly.
"As for the fifth and only remaining heir, Fūma Tsunade…"
"What happened to the fifth heir?"
Though Taichi didn't entirely believe him, he couldn't help but ask.
"Shortly after the curse appeared, she used a Gigai I developed to live in seclusion in the Human World—Naruki City—and changed her name to Saitō Sakura.
"That's right. The girl you met earlier in Naruki City is Tsukuyomi Saitō, the eldest daughter of Hyakudo Saitō, current head of the Saitō family."
"Saitō… Hyakudo?"
Taichi murmured the name, feeling it strangely familiar—like some shameless search engine?
"Exactly."
Urahara's eyes narrowed slightly.
"I imagine you've already realized this. That's why, under the name 'Fūjin Taichi,' you've been helping Tsukuyomi Saitō both openly and secretly… haven't you?"
"…,"
Fūjin Taichi stood there dumbfounded. Urahara Kisuke, you've got the wrong idea… I honestly had no clue that 'Fūjin Taichi' had such a bizarre family background…
"However, the frightening part is…"
Kisuke Urahara sat down cross-legged on the veranda and sighed before continuing,
"Even so, the Saitō family still seems unable to escape that curse…
Over the past fifty years, Saitō Sakura, her son Saitō Hidemitsu, her grandson Saitō Hyakudo, and his two daughters—Saitō Tsukuyomi and Saitō Hana —have all died one after another…"
"So… the Saitō family's been completely wiped out?"
"Of course not."
Urahara's gaze settled back on Taichi as he said gravely,
"You are one of the only two members of the Fūma family who escaped the curse."
"Only two? Who's the other?"
"Saitō Nawaki—the current head of the Saitō family, and the second-in-line heir of the Fūma family."
"Second-in-line? Then the first is—"
Taichi suddenly froze mid-sentence.
"Wait—damn, that's me?!"
"At this point… it certainly appears so."
Urahara nodded. Then he stretched out a hand and placed it on "Aizen's corpse." With an unknown method, the body slowly reverted into a Zanpakutō with a green hilt—Sōsuke Aizen's Kyōka Suigetsu.
"But… no matter how I look at it, this is strange," Taichi said, now partly convinced yet utterly at a loss. "It feels like the Fūma family was deliberately targeted. Maybe… it's connected to the Royal Kazama clan?"
"Bingo! Correct—but no bonus points!"
Urahara suddenly dropped his solemn expression and cheerfully exclaimed,
"As expected of the Fūma family's sixth—no, first heir. You figured out the truth quickly."
Taichi ignored Urahara's erratic behavior and asked coldly,
"Then I'm guessing there's trouble among the heirs of the Royal Kazama clan.
Someone who wants the throne has to eliminate all uncontrollable factors—
For example, killing off the direct bloodline of the branch family, the so-called Fūma family?"
"While I don't know the exact upheaval within the Royal Kazama clan… it's probably close to what you suspect."
Urahara picked up Kyōka Suigetsu and walked toward the Urahara Shop, speaking calmly as he went:
"Mr. Fūjin, whether it's defeating Aizen or breaking the curse, both mean saving Soul Society. Why not entrust it all to you?"
"Heh, easy for you to say."
Taichi scoffed.
"You created the Hōgyoku. You lent that spirit-hating artificial Gigai to Saitō Tsukuyomi. Why is it that when things go wrong, you hide in the shadows?"
"Tap…"
Urahara suddenly stopped walking. After a long silence, he finally answered:
"Because… what I've always feared has finally come to pass."
"What?"
"That person…"
Urahara slightly turned his head, one eye watching Taichi from beneath the shadow of his hat brim.
"…has revived."