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Urahara Kisuke is a curious man, it's just in his nature as a scientist. And to see this hollow with such an apathetic expression tucked neatly into the kotatsu, as polite as can be, next to young miss Inoue Orihime, as she cheerfully gabs about whatever, is a very curious sight indeed.
Especially after Jinta begrudgingly offers the hollow a grape flavoured juice box, and Orihime babbles about how tasty the flavour is, encouraging the hollow to try it. Then the hollow actually takes a sip.
How curious indeed.
First he's intrigued by how the hollow allowed itself to be directed by Orihime without any fuss. Wasn't this the one that took her to Hueco Mundo in the first place? That was back in October, on the thirtieth if his memory was to be trusted, barely even a month ago, there couldn't have been enough time to turn someone with the emotional range of a corpse into a friend. Having no immediate answers to that line of questioning without asking the hollow itself, he starts to wonder about its sense of taste, and what it does to expel the materials it's putting into its body. The gigais he makes tend to just combust food products into pure spiritual energy with no waste products to remove. He supposes the hollow might have a similar function, if not just getting sick and throwing the foreign materials back up later.
He studies the hollow, still utterly and completely phlegmatic— it shifts a little, such a minuscule amount, Kisuke is delighted to have even caught the sight; the hollow will probably most likely get sick from ingesting human foods.
“Oh, oh,” Orihime's smile goes wide with excitement, “Jinta-kun, do you have apple and orange too?”
Jinta eyes her warily, nodding, giving her a quiet and shy affirmation.
He hands her the juice boxes she asked for. She pokes the straws through the holes, and presents them to the hollow along with the original grape flavoured one, “here, try these together! It's tasty, I promise!”
Keisuke doesn't quite believe her, and sparing a glance at Jinta, clearly neither does his young employee. But, he gives her the benefit of the doubt, they do make fruit punch flavoured juice boxes, and those are mixed with all sorts of fruits. The scientific method required experimentation to get anywhere, perhaps young Inoue was of a similar mindset.
The hollow nods and takes the boxes and puts the straws to his mouth, Kisuke watches with anticipation, as the hollow takes a sip as it was instructed.
Keisuke lowers his fan a smidge, expecting a look of disgust to pass over the criminally stoic face of the hollow but no, its cold blank stare changes so slightly, its eyes seem to be twinkling and it drinks the juice boxes fervently. It finishes it in record speed and politely nods, thanking Orihime for the suggestion.
Fascinating. Riveting even. He hopes all his security cameras are catching this, he wants to take notes.
“You've never had juice before, Ulquiorra?” Orihime asks, mildly confused as to why Ulquiorra apparently finds this experience so novel.
Urahara is extremely curious about that as well now that it's been brought to his attention. How old is this hollow? To predate the march of technology, modern conveniences like the humble juice box, originating in the 1960s? Perhaps the hollow's memory of life just didn't make note of drinking juice.
“I have no memories of being human,” the hollow answers, no emotion in its voice to indicate any feelings about that fact.
Keisuke pauses, finding this to be the most curious thing about this entire scene. Hollows were famously emotional about their human lives, it's why they even became hollows in the first place. Surely arrancar level hollows could retain memories better than the weakest ones, unless of course, they had forgotten them all before becoming arrancar...
But, this one does seem pretty nonchalant about the whole thing; that very few things mattered to it. He recalls learning about how easily it had agreed to help Orihime find the Hougyoku, with no sense of loyalty to its former master.
And with the way it sits next to Orihime, he wonders if perhaps its loyalties now solely reside in the young girl, for whatever reason. Another curiosity.
He supposes he's done enough hiding, gathering intel about his two guests. The cameras surely caught whatever he hadn't.
“How unexpected,” he cheerfully announces, stepping into their view, delighting in how Orihime jumps at his sudden entrance, “what brings you here to my shop Orihime-chan,” he grins with utter glee at the sharp look the hollow gives him, “your company too, this is most surprising! Forgive me for having you wait so long."
Orihime beams at him, “good afternoon Urahara-san! It was no trouble waiting, I know you're a busy man!"
Her expression changes, appearing almost shy suddenly, but she remains optimistic, "I was wondering if you could make a gigai for Ulquiorra,” her smile a managing to express a threat.
How exciting!
“A gigai for an arrancar?” He loudly gasps, for the theatrics of it, getting her to giggle and the hollow in question to frown deeper.
“Yes! I think it'd be easier to keep him around as my prisoner if he could attend school and stuff, it'll be fun!”
Keisuke blinks, hiding the action under the shade of his hat, his guests don't need to know he's genuinely surprised.
It hadn't occurred to him to question why this particular hollow was even in his shop. He supposes he'd just got caught up in the weirdness of the localized sight, rather than the weirdness of the whole scene. Foolish, beginner's mistake. This hollow had been a loyal follower of Aizen, perhaps even the most obedient. The man might be in prison for the rest of human history, but how much trust could they give to this hollow?
“Your prisoner? Did Soul Society order you to do this?” He can't imagine them leaving the fourth strongest member of Aizen’s army in the hands of a fifteen year old human girl. They'd probably just lock it up for a couple weeks, then publicly execute it. Or privately, considering what happened with the last public execution.
But... the hollow is sitting in front of him.
The girl smiles, eyebrows furrowing in apology, looking utterly sheepish as she rubs the back of her head, giggling nervously, “they don't really know?”
His shock is palpable.
“Well, they know he helped us! But they haven't quite… forgiven him for being under Aizen's command.” She looks a bit sad, but continues, “he's agreed to stay with me as my prisoner, when I first suggested it, I was only joking. But he insists it's only fair that he has to live under my rule, as I did with him.”
Kisuke looks at the hollow, baffled. It was willingly subjecting itself to this? The hollow remains impassive towards the conversation, but notices his blatant stare, “I will refrain from using my powers unless necessary. I doubt I shall need to, I think her strength is formidable.”
That's, what, that's not even the problem here! Orihime's bright red face catches his attention, that's an interesting thread of intrigue— no, no, not the time for that sort of thing!
“Soul Society won't be very happy once it finds out," he says. He's an adult, Orihime is just a kid, he ought to be a bit responsible for her life choices. "Isn't there a shinigami positioned in town? They might avoid your lot, but they'll notice eventually and report their findings to the captains.”
Orihime smiles brightly, “not if you make a super special gigai for Ulquiorra that hides his spiritual energy so he appears to be nothing more than a human!”
Keisuke's lips form a line. Responsible adult.
"My former lord had the technology to create tools to hide spiritual energy for a limited amount of time, it seems to be an older version of the technology you're using for this building and your own gigai," the hollow adds.
It takes off a bracelet off its wrist and places it on the table, pushing it towards Keisuke.
Keisuke feels a smile begin to form, he raises his fan to hide it.
Orihime laughs quietly, a bit nervously. Keisuke's interest in why that is vaguely piqued, he figures Orihime was given a similar tool to the one hollow had been wearing, but he can't follow that train of thought, she coughs into her fist and has started talking—
"This bracelet only lasts for twelve hours. And needs time to recharge. Ulquiorra's reiatsu popping in and out of existence would get us caught immediately.
"If not a gigai, could you please adjust this to last longer?"
Well. Keisuke can't help his lips curling up into a grin.
He looks at Orihime, she's smiling triumphantly. Glancing back towards the hollow, it seems pleased as well. But Kisuke isn't sure if that's because it knows their request will be granted, or simply because Orihime is happy.
Kisuke thinks the odds are high that it's because of the later.
"Ulquiorra-kun was it?" he grins, "I'll have to take your measurements, but you look to be about fifteen I suppose, we could easily put you into Orihime's class in school. Might have to rename you for the legal documents though... we could pass you off as an European exchange student." Keisuke's mind is already racing, considering the optimal possibilities for this to succeed. He could certainly hide the 4th strongest Espada in among the mortals in the sleepy town of Karakura. He wouldn't be Urahara Kisuke if he couldn't!
Orihime cheers, "thank you Urahara-san!"
"Just Ulquiorra if you will," Ulquiorra sours.
"Now, now, Ulquiorra-kun," Kisuke waves his hand at Ulquiorra, "if you're to fit in among humans, you need to adapt to our human society. A charming young man such as yourself, everyone will be calling you that. Best to get used to it now.
Orihime's face flushed red once more, and Keisuke laughs behind his fan, as Ulquiorra-kun glares at him.
Oh, these two are going to be fun. He wants to see how far they'll go.
A human and a hollow. How fascinating.