Serendipity

Eyes of the Unknown (Part 2)

Later That Morning,
Still At The Shop

"Seren-chan~!" Urahara sang cheerfully as he stuck his head into the room she was currently cleaning, already in work mode. He held up the outfit he had picked out especially for her. "I've brought your unifor—"

FWOMP!

"So why is it a sexy maid costume!?" she demanded coolly as she nailed him in the face with the dust rag she had just thrown, vein throbbing on her forehead. "Hmph! Sexually harassing old man..." she huffed indignantly as she turned her back on him and continued sorting out the clutter.

"Now, now. You know I'm just teasing, Seren-chan," Urahara said, winking, as he held up option number two. "I have your real uniform right—"

WHAMM!

"..." Urahara said, slightly chagrined, as the magazine that had just slammed into his face slowly slipped down and fell to the floor. He was only holding up a normal t-shirt with the shop's logo on it, just like the ones Ururu, Jinta, and Tessai were all wearing... just what had he done wrong this time?

"Urahara-san... If you're going to make me play maid like Cinderella... At least get rid of your dirty magazines first, so I won't have to see them!!" she shouted with righteous fury as she pointed at the dirty magazine she had just thrown. There was another vein throbbing on her forehead, and she was shooting him a steely glare.

Urahara froze like a deer caught in the headlights. He could've sworn he had already disposed of any evidence like that already, since they had to be careful with impressionable kids like Ururu and Jinta in the shop...

Why was such a thing even in the back storeroom, with the rest of the stock, to begin with?

Before Urahara could formulate a reasonable explanation, Seren was already out of the room, as if she were trying to literally run away from reality.

"Hm? Is something wrong, Seren-dono?" Tessai asked as the teen flew past him.

"I-I need some air! And eye-bleach, if anyone's invented it yet!" she shouted in reply as she paused briefly to pull on her sandals before dashing out into the streets. After receiving such a shock, she needed a little time and space to regain her composure.

"..." Tessai stared after her. The expression on Seren's incredibly red face had been an odd combination of embarrassment, shock, horror, disappointment, and possibly even a little heart break.

Unless he was seeing things...

And just what had she meant by that 'eye-bleach' comment?

Urahara sighed as he picked up the magazine. This was exactly why he had always made sure there wasn't anything like this left in the shop whenever Seren had come to stay with him in the past. He hadn't wanted to be the one responsible for mentally scarring poor Seren or spoiling her innocent naivety by accidentally exposing her to such... naughty and risqué subject material.

Although, come to think of it, she must have eventually learned about the existence of porn sometime over the years, seeing as she grew up around someone like Yadōmaru Lisa...

Urahara stiffened when he took a closer look at the magazine.

It was a special edition that contained XXX-rated material featuring curvaceous brunettes with huge breasts and tan bodies, and the few with anything even remotely resembling clothing were all wearing strips of fabric that could barely even be justified as lingerie.

The pages crinkled as Urahara clenched the magazine in his fist and gritted his teeth. A vein throbbed angrily on his tense jaw.

No wonder Seren had been so freaked out.

A dark and dangerous aura began to manifest around the normally flippant and laidback shopkeeper. Not only had this magazine probably left a few mental scars on Seren's psyche, but also, she thought it was his—which it most definitely wasn't.

It was Tessai's.

"Tessai-san..." Urahara muttered darkly as his eyes seemed to take on a demonic gleam. His assistant manager was a dead man.

"?" Tessai said as he adjusted one of the candy displays in the front of the shop, a little puzzled when a chill went up his spine. Why did he suddenly feel like his life was in grave danger...?

Meanwhile,
On A Random Street

'Kisuke, you idiot...!' Seren cried internally as she continued to run.

It wasn't so much discovering that her crush owned dirty magazine that bothered her, but more the fact that the girls in it had all been much older than her, dark-haired, and big-breasted venuses...

Pretty much her exact opposite in every way.

She already knew she probably didn't stand a chance with him since he always treated her like a child (apart from the occasional joke, like with the maid outfit just now, which she did find a little funny despite her embarrassment), but to find out that she was nowhere near being his type had been a huge blow. She shook her head, trying to shoo away the depressing thoughts.

She couldn't let this get to her! She was tougher than this. So what if she wasn't his type? It just meant she'd have to try harder from now on! Though... it would probably help if her automatic response to hide how flustered he sometimes made her feel wasn't to turn into an ice queen and push him away...

Both Seren's thoughts and feet were stopped short when something in her peripheral vision caught her attention. There were two high school students, a tall Hispanic guy and a pretty redheaded girl, who were just standing there and talking to a redheaded Shinigami as if it was something perfectly normal to do, and she could sense the traces of the spiritual energy of a Hollow, so the Shinigami must have just defeated it...

But that wasn't what had made her stop. What had really gotten her attention was the blonde young man wearing the same high school uniform as them and a news cap.

The one standing upside down... suspended in the middle of the sky... in broad daylight...

Her jaw dropped as she gaped at him.

What in the name of William H. Macy was he thinking!?

"Kurosaki... Ichigo, huh?" Shinji said, smirking as he watched the Substitute Shinigami and his friends walk away.

Seren continued to stare blankly up at her father in disbelief for a few more minutes, before reaching down to remove one of her sandals. She waited until the other teens had turned the corner and were out of sight to make her move.

WHACK!