:My drawing of Kana:
When was the last time I had a break? You'd think that owning a small bakery would make life easier. Instead, you get customer after customer and order after order. It's only been four years since I opened my own shop, with the help of an old friend of course, but its service is way off the charts. My bakery ended up being the best in town.
With a long sigh, the glass door to the assorted sweets on display is closed loudly. I set the sweets in a big brown paper bag sitting on the counter. Looking outside my shop windows, I notice the sun is slowly starting to hide behind the tall buildings, darkness taking over.
It took me about an hour to clean up the shop. The routine is like clockwork. After so long of working here, it's been a faster process of finishing the cleanup. I soon look through my phone as I pull on my coat, a reminder of the cold breeze coming in with fall. Summer was over, school started for the young and busy teens I know, and the year somehow got busier for me. As I looked through my phone, a small smile graced my lips when I noticed a message from a familiar young teen. Her prominent and often set meeting spot before going home was almost comical. I'm surprised she's not with her crush as much as she hangs out with him.
The nightly breeze reaches my bare neck, sending a shiver down my spine. I hold the dessert-filled bag with one arm, locking my shop door with the other. The streets were practically empty, with the moon now shining brightly with the stars. It was my nightly routine, a usual relaxed feeling soon taking over my stressed body. But this time...
This time felt different.
I could feel the uneasy tingles running up my back and over my shoulders. I observed my surroundings from my view, refraining from looking around to cause suspicion to whoever was following me. If they knew I detected them, then it's over. Nobody seemed to be around on the streets, so I went low in a nearby alleyway.
A hard gush of wind flies by just as I reach for my necklace. I gasp at the abnormal wind, the bag of sweets falling out of my grip and onto the ground. I reached once more for my necklace, but nothing was there. My neck was bare to the touch, with no metal hanging around it.
My weapon...!
A low chuckle rumbles through the cold air, echoing against the stone buildings I stood in between. I turn to the voice. A figure stood in the air, but it was too dark to see any details.
"You know how long it took me to find you?"
The presence was threatening enough. Not only that, but the guy was stealthy. With how quickly he grabbed my necklace before I could even touch it, he was going to be trouble...but...how did he know it was my...?
"I suppose that's what you were aiming for, hm?"
I try to take a step forward, urging my body to try to do something. My knees give out before I can even take another breath. The ground is rough beneath my hands. Heavy. I feel like there are weights holding down my limbs. I try to reach forward, hand outstretched to anyone who could possibly be looking. Nothing. There was nobody there to help me. I'm all alone. I try to yell out, but it keeps getting stuck in my throat. Time felt slow, and my eyelids started to betray me. It was getting difficult to keep them open. The harder I tried to keep them open, the more bright white dots I began to see. The dots took more and more of my vision, like glittering snow, soon turning pitch black.
— — — —
The sun shone brightly through the window, taking its rightful place in the silent room. The warmth from the sun felt anything like it as the man in green sat right in the middle of it. Instead, he felt colder the longer he looked at the main object sitting on the table.
Kisuke Urahara stared intensely at the phone as if it would blow a hole through it. No matter how long he observed it, he still couldn't figure out why it was there. Or, to be specific, why the person who owned it wasn't there. And somehow, with a man who seems to never get angry, he started to feel that very emotion rising in the pit of his stomach.
Kisuke decides to push his nerves away and gently picks up the flip phone. The phone beeps loudly as he presses the buttons, looking for more information. He looked through the messages, but nothing suspicious there. He looked through the voicemails, but nothing besides himself constantly calling his friend for attention. And last but not least, he checks the history of phone calls. She didn't try to contact anyone before her kidnapping. Kisuke closes the phone and sets it back on the table. He's puzzled by the new information he just gathered.
Why didn't she call anyone, especially him, when she was in trouble? Was she taken out that fast, to where she had no time to take her phone out? He thinks that's not possible; she's too strong to be taken so quickly.
His thoughts are interrupted when a knock is heard at the sliding Japanese-traditional doors. Kisuke looks up at the door, his shoulders finally relaxing when he realizes who's behind it.
"Come in."
The door slides open without a sound, and an orange-haired girl pokes her head in. "I'm sorry to interrupt Mr. Urahara, but..." She trails off as she looks down at her feet.
"Ah, Orihime. No need to apologize. You're curious about my discoveries." He clarifies with a smile.
In her school uniform, Orihime sits on her knees on the other side of the table across from the man. She was supposed to go to school, but something, in particular, distracted her from that task. She had no choice but to come to Kisuke for help. She then never left, too worried about the person she came to Kisuke about.
"Did you find anything about Kana? Is she okay?" Her voice was panicky, too worried to notice how disrespectful she was being.
But Kisuke chuckled lightly at her antics. He's not the type to care for such formalities. "I'm afraid not. It seems she vanished into thin air." The look in his eyes saddened considerably, as much as Orihime's did when she looked down at her lap.
"Oh... I see." A few moments whisked by as they sat in silence, their unnerving thoughts seemed to come to life the longer their minds turned. Orihime couldn't help but look at her hands in her lap, fidgeting with them as the nerves rose even higher. As someone who always tries to stay positive for her friends, the orange-haired girl could feel her eyes start to water, her vision getting blurry.
Kisuke quietly observes the girl. He knows her well, like her friends, and he knows exactly how she feels. He knows full well how kind-hearted Orihime is, and with one of her friends, Kana, gone missing, she wants to do her best to help. Unfortunately, there isn't much anyone could do.
The male hums, getting the girl's attention. "Don't worry, your pretty little head over Kana," he smiles, "she's one of the strongest people I know. I assure you, she'll be just fine."
Orihime clutches onto her uniform skirt, nodding at Kisuke's words. "R-right. I guess...I'll be on my way, then. Please excuse me."
He watches her close the door behind her, leaving him in the silent room once more. It was just him and the phone belonging to someone important. Someone who has gone missing. A brief memory of what happened that early morning appeared in his mind. A very worried Orihime ran to his shop with Kana's belongings in her hands. It took a bit of time for Kisuke to calm the girl down so she could explain what had happened.
"We...we were going to meet at Ichigo's house...she had leftover sweets from her bakery and asked if I wanted them. I was going to share it with Ichigo...." Orihime tried her best to hold in her tears. Her grip on the teacup tightened as she spoke each word.
Kisuke sat silently, listening to her story. "Then what happened?" He asks her.
"Well...she didn't arrive at the time we set. I figured she got held up so I decided to check on her in the morning. But...on my way to the bakery....I found her phone and the bag of sweets on the ground in an alleyway." The dam broke, letting the tears flow down her cheeks.
Kisuke could feel how upset the girl was. He would say he was even more upset and confused by this situation. He was by her side since he was banned from the Soul Society and became very close to the girl. Not only that, but Kana is a powerful girl. If someone were to kidnap her...well, it's practically impossible. Which could only mean one thing: Kana is in trouble.
The male in green finds himself in the very same spot Kana was last at, by the description of Orihime's words. This is where she found Kana's phone. Kisuke took his time checking every crevice of the area. He even walked to her bakery and back to see if anything was out of the ordinary. There was nothing. He was stumped. His hand cups his chin as he looks at the cement ground in thought.
"Did you find anything?"
A voice breaks Kisuke's concentration. He didn't need to look to see who it was. "Unfortunately, no. How about you?"
Yoruichi meets his eyes when he turns to look at her. She shakes her head in reply, the corners of her lips curling downwards into a frown. "Nothing."
Kisuke sighs when a thought comes to mind. "I guess we have no choice but to speak to the old man."
The purple-haired girl stares at her friend in surprise. Her eyes widened as she knew full well how this predicament would go. "Are you sure? He hasn't seen her for over one hundred years."
The blond nods in understanding. "I know. But nobody knows about Kana in the world of the living, so it has to be someone from the Soul Society who knows her," he says, "It's our best lead."
Yoruichi thinks about his words. He was right, nonetheless. Although it's risky for the two, it's the only way to get her back. "I suppose you're right."