predomination | futurology ENDGAME FIC

𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐲 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬

At the end of Hathaway’s run, Imogen asks Urahara if he still wants for nothing for his service to the Guild and to ALASTAIR before it, and he admits that things have changed. He has a request, but it could be… complicated.

A week later, he returns home to a still war-torn Soul Society still enclosed inside Askin’s prison fortress and drags Yoruichi to safety with a confused Nelliel bringing Grimmjow and Yuushiro. A now-shortened time in the Gift Ball leaves him heartier and free of every scar except the ones snaking up his arms. He’s still blind in one eye, but the glass one hides that, for the most part. Everyone has better things to think about.

He sees to healing the three poisoned individuals, taking care of each of them before leaving them in Nelliel’s care. She questions, implores, and then begs him to stay back, because surely he has to be worse off than he looks, but he only smiles and says, “It’s fine. I can take it from here.”

In the end, Ichigo is still the one to kill Yhwach, but the tides are turned by what no one in the Gotei 13 can fully comprehend- the once dead Soul King now risen again, except not exactly. It’s a magitek construct, one that Urahara spent a week with the best Inventors in Hathaway’s care to build. He designed the specifications and the cats of Terra Felis did the rest. The result stabilized Soul Society, wrenched it free of the Almighty’s chokehold and allowed Ichigo and his allies to deal the decisive blow.

In the wake of the war, Urahara is the first to extend a hand to the remaining Quincies, and Ishida and his father aid him. A new alliance is forged in that moment, free of Yhwach’s tyranny and the blood on Yamamoto’s hands. Something good will come of this and Urahara looks to the stars, hoping somewhere out there, a girl with a Quincy’s sharp mind knows he did all that he could, just as she implored him to.

Mayuri pours everything into figuring out the artificial Soul King, but is at a loss to understand it and Urahara won’t tell and Captain-Commander Kyoraku is more than happy to not look a gift horse in the mouth. It won’t bring Ukitake back- Urahara is deeply sorry for that- but it means that his death wasn’t in vain. Soul Society lived, and it was no longer dependant on the soul of an individual who had to give up everything to become a lonely god.

He visits Aizen in the Mugen once. He’s bound, again, head to feet, mouth covered, and Urahara sits in front of the chair that holds him and tells him everything. He tells him about ALASTAIR, about Zymandis, about the cost of burning things to ash so you can rule over what comes after. He talks about the Hollowfication Incident and the Bristol Virus and how he did everything to escape a legacy that Aizen exploited. Mostly he talks about gods and the people who aspire to become them, and what a horrible fate it must be to have that kind of power- that kind of life.

He leaves the prison, but before he exits, he turns to Aizen one last time and says, “Be grateful you never became a god, Aizen-san. I’ve met true gods. They’re more lonely than you’ll ever understand.”

He never sees Aizen again.

He never thinks of him again, either.

He goes home to his shop, to a human world that knew nothing of what it almost avoided. He, at first, doesn’t tell anyone about his time away, but Yoruichi finally corners him and has Tessai sit on him until he tells her how he built the artificial Soul King. Neither them nor the children really know what to say to his story, but eventually Yoruichi bashes him across the head and tells him he should’ve told her so she could have come along.

He doesn’t tell her that he wished she was there with him every day.

After that, he tells more personal stories. He tells Ururu about the little girl with fiery determination who stood up to spirits and never let anything drag her down. He tells Jinta about all the people who came to him for training (Jinta believes, of course, that he could take any of them). He tells Tessai about the princess who refused to leave her people to a fate she placed on them and he gets a bit weepy about it in a very Tessai way. Yoruichi pretends not to care, but sometimes late at night when they’re watching the stars on the roof, she asks about what it was like “up there.”

He never gives seeing anyone again much thought. They’re memories and stories and little else. He’s a shinigami. They don’t make friends with mortals and expect to hold onto them, especially not if they’re worlds away. He could have checked to see if any of them shared a world with him, but… He was almost too anxious to know the truth. What if they didn’t? What if they did? What kind of people would they be if they met one another outside of their time with Hathaway and ALASTAIR?

But then, one day, Ururu comes home from her trip abroad and shoves a book at his chest. “Kisuke-san, is this-?”

It’s in German, which he’s picked up out of boredom and a little bit of fondness, and it’s just a children’s book, but as he skims through it he recognizes the illustrations and the tales, even if he doesn’t entirely recognize the name on the cover. It’s not the correct name, but it’s close enough.

He laughs and hugs Ururu so hard, she startles herself into tears and it’s hard to tell if she’s happy for him or terrified that he’s cracked.

Even after he has the knowledge, finding her is a bit harder, requiring both human and Soul Society methods. Far be it for anyone to refuse a favor to the man who re-balanced Soul Society, even if no one is quite sure how he did it (Mayuri really will be tearing his fancy hats into shreds over that one for years). Once he has his answer, he still hesitates on going to her- it doesn’t seem fair to go to her in her aging years when he hasn’t changed a bit. It’s only been a handful of years for him, but it’s been a lifetime for her.

He finds a compromise.

The shinigami responsible for that area is quickly bribed and shuffled away with promises that no one will ever know what happened. And as Urahara enters the grounds of the estate where a single Plus in the form of an old woman who still looks every bit the girl of thirteen Urahara met not so very long ago stares up at the stars as if she can see them clearly for the first time in ages.

He hasn't performed a Konso since before his exile, and he'll likely never perform one again. He’ll find some way to cheat the general system in Soul Society, make sure she isn’t shuffled to some far part of the Rukongai. Surely a soul like hers would have a spark of something that could put her in the Seireitei and if not, he’ll find a place for her where she’ll be safe and cared for.

Death is really just another adventure to another world, if you think about it.

“Sieglinde-saaaaa~aaaan,” he sing-songs, his voice cutting through the night. The grieving family inside will never hear or see him. It’s just the two of him. She turns to look at him, surprise at first, and then recognition. He hasn’t changed a day, after all.

He tilts the brim of his hat up and steps closer to her, his cane dangling from the crook of his arm. His smile is sheepish, but still bright, and there’s a light in his one good eye that makes all the dark circles and concealed sorrow there seem to vanish. “Sorry, I’m late. Please don’t be angry with me.”