"I am home."
"Shiiiiroouuuu!"
Isshin rushed toward his oldest son as soon as he saw Shirou entered the house and hugged the poor boy with all his might.
The sight of him running was enough to make Shirou dodge the hug, making Isshin hit the wall with his face.
"Ugh!" He moaned in pain, clutching his broken nose, "That hurts... That was a bit mean, you know."
"You reap what you sow, dad. Don't suddenly jump on people." Shirou said with a deadpan look. "I have had my share of that."
Getting jumped on so suddenly was not a pleasant feeling. Not only that, but it also gave him a scare.
He was jumped by other people so many times in the past.
One time when he was unprepared, his heart was impaled by a spear. So he always dodged or avoided people suddenly lunging on him, because it was dangerous.
"Where is mom?" He asked as Isshi rose from his position and dusted off the dirt from his clothes. The wall had a slight crack from the impact, but it didn't crumble.
This was a good wall, it seemed.
"Shopping. She should be back soon." Isshin said while massaging his aching head.
"I see. And Ichigo?"
"Probably hunting hollows. He ran out of his room earlier." Isshin said, grinning like an idiot, "More importantly, how is your trip? Did you find a cute girl there? Did you have a romantic encounter?"
"..."
Shirou sighed at the question and proceeded to ignore the father, walking to his room. Isshin followed behind him, trying to get an answer.
But he got nothing. Shirou only entered his room and threw his luggage on the bed.
"You can talk with me if something happens. You can't keep it all by yourself. Do you understand, son?" Isshin asked, "You can tell your father everything!"
"Yes, I understand. I have to unpack my clothes, dad. Get out if you don't want to help."
"Ah, so cold..." Isshin dramatically held his hand on his chest, pretending to be hurt. He looked like he was about to cry and fall on the ground, but he quickly composed himself. "I am just worried about you. You have to know that."
"Dad..." Shirou turned to him with a gentle smile on his face. "Do you want to help me unpack my belongings that badly?"
Isshin twitched his mouth and said with a smile, "You know what, I should just leave. Do you need me for anything?"
"I'm good."
And so the father left.
Shirou didn't need his help and could do things himself anyway.
He opened the bag and took out some clothes from it. His hands reached inside the bag to pull out more things from the bag, but he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his finger.
"Huh?" He pulled his hand out of the bag to check what it was, only to find out that there was something that cut him in the bag.
"What is it..."
Something he didn't pack, for sure. Maybe it was from the hotel or he brought something with him from Reverse London by mistake.
Either way, it would be troublesome if it wasn't his.
So Shirou searched for the object.
And he found it.
Inside his bag, a small coin lay at the bottom.
Taking it in his hand, he inspected it closely. It looked new and shiny, with WB etched on the surface. He had no idea why this was here.
Maybe he put this in his bag accidentally.
But no matter where or when this thing ended up in his bag, Shirou didn't have any intention to throw it away.
Because this coin was the one he used to return to Front London from the Reverse London. One thing he was supposed to return but forgot to.
"Let's keep it as memorabilia, I guess." He decided to keep the coin as a memorabilia of his visit to the magical land called Reverse London.
Maybe it could be useful in the future.
"Anyway..." Shirou muttered, looking at the clock. It showed that the time was already 4 PM, meaning that he should start cooking for dinner now. "Let's make Yuzu and Karin happy with the new curry recipe!"
With a smile, Shirou went downstairs and into the kitchen, where he found Yuzu and Karin on the couch. They looked up at him and the former beamed into a smile.
"Shirou-nii! When did you arrive?"
"Just now. Did you not hear dad crashing into the wall earlier?"
"Ah, we thought he was doing something stupid again."
"I see." Shirou chuckled and took the apron on the kitchen's hanger, "Anyway, do you two want to try the new curry recipe I learned in London? It's called chicken tikka masala."
"Chicken what?"
"Tikka masala."
"That sounds good!"
"Is it delicious?" Karin raised her head from her game and asked.
"Yeah." Shirou answered while smiling at her. "Do you want to taste it?"
"Yeah! I want to eat it!"
"Great. Then help me make the ingredients, okay?" Shirou asked her with a smile on his face. She nodded eagerly at him before getting off the sofa.
And so the three siblings prepared the ingredients.
They started by cleaning the chicken, then chopping vegetables.
Cooking together has always been fun. Shirou also didn't mind teaching his little sisters about cooking, as he enjoyed doing things with them. He could spend time together and talk to them at the same time, and they could bond even closer with each other.
A few minutes later, the ingredients were fully prepared.
At the same time, Ichigo returned home from the window and walked downstairs because he heard about the commotion in the kitchen.
"Oh, you're back?" He exclaimed when he saw Shirou.
He never expected him to return so soon. Usually it was around two weeks.
"Yeah, just got home."
"That's nice. Did you enjoy your vacation?" He asked with a grin.
"I did, I guess." Shirou answered, shrugging, "There's a lot to see there. Including some unusual stuff."
"Good for you then."
They chatted with each other as Shirou cooked, talking about all sorts of things that happened in their life during his absence. It seemed like nothing much happened while Shirou was away, except for the appearance of the new kind of Hollow.
"A new hollow?" Shirou asked after he was sure Yuzu and Karin returned to the dining room to watch television. His eyes narrowed slightly in concern. "How's that?"
"Some kind of stronger hollow. I need to use Getsuga Tenshou to kill one." Ichigo explained, leaning against the table and watching his oldest brother stirring the curry, "That was the first time I couldn't kill a hollow with a simple sword swing since we returned from Soul Society."
Ichigo had gotten way stronger than before with his training. A normal hollow was no longer a match for him.
So a new type of hollow...
Shirou hummed, "Did they say something weird? Or did they look different from usual?"
"Well, yeah. Their masks are a bit unusual. Like part of their mask has been taken off. But they still act like normal hollows." He scratched the back of his head, thinking, "Maybe it's just a random mutation?"
"Hm... Maybe. We can only hope they are just a mutation. Have you asked Urahara-san about it?"
"Not really, but he was the one who informed me about them." Ichigo shook his head. "He said I only need to be more careful. That was it. You know how useless Hat and Clog are in this kind of situation."
Shirou laughed wryly.
Indeed, Urahara had always been that mysterious person. Never really giving them a direct answer, and letting them figure out everything on their own.
Not only that, he always had a plan in his sleeve, no matter what happened. And the fact that he never told Ichigo the truth unless he had no other choice made it hard to trust the man completely.
Even so, they trusted him. Shirou knew that man wouldn't put them in danger without any reason.
And if Urahara Kisuke couldn't be trusted, Shirou believed Isshin would never introduce him when he was a kid. So he could just trust the shady shopkeeper.
At least until he showed a clear hostility toward them, which he hoped never came. The shopkeeper had helped them too many times.
So this was a problem that they needed to solve themselves.
"Then let's hope for the best."
"Yeah."
They couldn't really do anything until they knew what was going on, anyway. Ichigo then moved on to another topic.
"So, what was the unusual thing that you said you found?"
"A dragon." Shirou answered so casually as if it was a normal thing.
Ichigo stared blankly at his brother's back for a second.
"What?"
"I said, I met a dragon." He repeated without turning around. "You heard it, right? It's a dragon."
Ichigo didn't know whether to laugh at him or just keep quiet.
His oldest brother was a serious person, not to mention the most normal among them. He would never lie, nor did he joke.
If he told Ichigo he had met a dragon, then he was not lying. However, the idea of a dragon still seemed too surreal.
"Umm..."
Shirou chuckled when he saw his little brother's expression. He put down his knife before looking up and smiling.
"Did you know there is something like Soul Society in London? It's called the Reversed World. There are wizards and witches there. And dragons. Lots of them."
"What...?"
"Well, I accidentally encountered them in my vacation. And the tour guide was a Witch." He said with an amused tone, "Quite unbelievable, but that's true. I even have proof."
He then told his little brother the tale of the Reverse London, including his first encounter with Noel and his tour around Reverse London, his short trip to Glastonbury to see King Arthur's grave, and finally showing the coin that he could use to enter the Reverse London.
Looking at the coin, Ichigo still couldn't believe what Shirou had said, but he had to accept it. Because there's no way that his oldest brother was lying to him.
Not to mention, he showed him the proof that it existed.
"... I won't even be surprised if you said that you encountered King Arthur directly and that he's actually a woman."
At that strange statement, Shirou couldn't help but laugh loudly.
How ridiculous. To think that his crazy guess hit on point, it's hilarious. Shirou couldn't stop laughing, clutching his stomach as he laughed.
"What?" The orange-haired brow raised his eyebrows as he saw his brother laughing at his statement, "Is it that funny?"
After calming down, Shirou wiped off his tears and grinned widely at him, "Well, your imagination is amusing." He said, "Come on. Help me plate this curry. Mom will return soon."
***
Just as Shirou had guessed, Masaki returned home just a few minutes later.
He knew that she wouldn't really take a long time outside because of the earlier phone call. She had someone to introduce to Shirou, a Quincy mentor that could teach him how to use their power.
The first person who came into his mind was someone from Ishida's family.
Out of everyone, they were the only Quincy family his mother had connection to. Not to mention, Quincy had already been eradicated, leaving only few left in the world. The chances were high that she had contacted someone in Ishida's family to teach him.
And his guess was spot on, it seemed.
After the meal, Masaki gave Shirou a paper.
"Unfortunately the person himself doesn't want to come here, so you have to go meet him."
His mother explained, handing over the address and smiling at Shirou, "I've already contacted him. So just show up and talk to him tomorrow."
Taking the paper and looking at the address, Shirou frowned as he thought, "This is..."
It's the Karakura hospital's address.
"He's your friend's father. But that person doesn't really have the same idea about teaching you, but I managed to convince him." The mother explained with a smug smile. "You should be able to handle the rest. Good luck."
She then went back to her seat and continued to eat.
Shirou stared at the paper for a few moments before putting it inside his pocket. His gaze shifted toward the direction where Karakura Hospital was located before sighing quietly.
'Looks like I have a place to visit tomorrow.'
The next day came, and Shirou visited the address.