Your merch is bad and you should feel bad [Kisuke, Yugiri]

Yugiri had made an order from this small little Japanese store, and frankly the only reason that she did order some equipment from this store was its long esteemed history with cooperation with the Gotei back in the older eras and the fact that Kisuke Urahara was a particularly famous individual historically - even if he wasn't so prolific as a public figure as he was in the present. That's why she was so irritated by the shoddy merchandise that turned up damaged that sent her into coming here personally to storm right into the store and demand to talk to Urahara himself.

The petite woman with a temper far bigger than her short stature should be able to contain and whatever employees he had to approach her wouldn't remain longer as she insisted on meeting him.

"Urahara! Get your butt out here and give me back my money, you thief!"

She'd slander him in front of this whole small neighbourhood as long as it took him to get out here and explain the state of the deployable gigai that she was holding in her hand, the thing that was meant to deploy from a small size and had been tested instead showing that it was all broken and disfigured.

It was going to be today, wasn't it?

Kisuke had certainly prepared for this day for several decades, that did not mean it was now going to be any easier. How exactly did one rationalise what had happened back then? He had spent long enough asking himself for an answer, why they had acted as they had and why he had chosen to act in the manner he continued to do. That was why he had let Tessai handle the order, intending to avoid any form of indirect contact, and also why he had then amended the order before shipping it to have some 'unique' problems.

If she had thrown it away, that would have been fine. It was hardly his place to blame her for such a decision, even if it was extremely wasteful. Instead, she could come here - right to his doorstep - and call him out in front of the whole neighbourhood. Less than ideal, but workable.

From the shadows of the doorway he emerged, like a spectre creeping across the threshold, his hat tipped low though his features were still very much identifiable. The man in the hat and sandals, Kisuke Urahara, in all of his glory. His posture was somewhat hunched over, a wide but thin smile spreading across a face that suited it all too well.

"Forgive me for picking at the fine print, but I do not believe we do refunds, Miss Yugiri. Perhaps instead we can come to some form of an arrangement that is still beneficial for both parties? Please, come inside."

A hand was outstretched, inviting her inside with an idle gesture, as he dropped into a somewhat exaggerated bow.

The nerve of this guy and the audacity to try and wave it off. Faulty merchandise and pulling some nonsense like no refunds, she'd have accepted something so absurd if the product was actually in working order but it wasn't and frankly that only angered her further. This damn guy.

"No way! Either replace it or give me my money back. What kind of dodgy show do you think you're running here?"

Surely this place had consumer laws like one was legally obligated to ensure that they product was what they had advertised and something that broke on its first use could not be just palmed off as it being a-ok. That was just slimy, this shaggy looking weasel of a man.

"So what's it going to be? I expected a former captain to have more going for him than being so cheap and to think you revolutionised the twelth division. Are you senile or something?"

Rising from his aforementioned bow, Kisuke cocked his head to one side as he appeared to study the damaged item in Yugiri’s hand for a long moment. She was perfectly justified in her complaint, to the untrained eye it certainly appeared as if her gigai was broken beyond repair, but that was perhaps why the thin smile upon his lips only curled upward a little more.

“There is nothing dodgy about this establishment, Miss. The Urahara Shop would never issue faulty establishment to a customer, which is why we do not offer refunds on our products.”

Consumer laws might well apply to his regular stock, but one could hardly find a place to properly regulate his specialist items - even the ones that had become almost ubiquitous for Shinigami over the past few centuries. If anything, it was a testament to his skill that so few issues were ever raised with the technology he delivered so consistently. Though perhaps more than one had chosen to avoid confronting him about it, quite unlike the valiant Yugiri.

“Were you to come inside, I could potentially investigate the issues with your deployable gigai. Then we can determine where this fault originated from, for I would not be so brash as to accuse such an upstanding Shinigami as yourself of misuse. As for my past, that was over five hundred years ago. I’m just a humble merchant nowadays, nothing special.”

"Humph."

She glared at the man who met the dictionary's definition of dodgy in her book but conceded and the staring contest ended with her dragging the deformed gigai behind her and into his store.

Where did she put this thing? Why was this place so dreary and small? It wasn't that impressive, not that she could say too much given her own little spots she made to live were also small and not the most impressive things.

"So hop to fixing it. Come on. I don't have all day, you know."

Kisuke held her stare for a little while, though her intensity was met only with a calm smile and those wide eyes. As she finally began to approach, he flashed his teeth for a second before leading the way.

It was certainly true that the shop was hardly an imposing sight, but an attentive eye would notice that there was little on display that implied this place was anything more than a human convenience store. In fact, beyond a few items that Yugiri might herself recognise as they were certainly not marked or ticketed, there was nothing much spiritual about the Urahara Shop at all.

“Welcome, welcome. You know, ever since we started taking long distance orders, it’s so rare to meet a customer face-to-face…”

He addressed her as she entered, his voice trailing off as she made her demands of him. Of course she would want to be in and out of here as quickly as possible, that made perfect sense. Why would she want to stick around anyway? With little grace nor elegance, he ran an arm across the counter and swept aside much of what had previously rested upon it.

“Alright, alright. Set it down so I can have a look at it. You know, they really oughta teach you Shinigami how to better look after these things. There’s a knack to it that the Academy certainly doesn’t care to teach, you know?”

Already fumbling with something behind the counter, emerging again with what appeared like an Allen key of sorts. But soon his grey eyes met hers as he waited for the gigai to be deposited before him.

"It was broken when I got it. Clean out your ears, jeez. You don't listen for someone who was such an esteemed shinigami, do you?"

She closed her eyes and hoisted the broken gigai onto the counter while looking around at his wares with a particular gaze. She wondered just how much of it was ordinary and how much of it was for the more supernatural applications. She liked to imagine it was all mundane for some reason, why keep all the useful stuff on display where it could easily be used against you?

Yugiri folded her arms over her chest and waited for him to do his scientific mumbo jumbo. It would be a lie if she said that she didn't show an inkling of interest in whatever he was doing. It wasn't like she was the most intelligent when it came to science over matters of stealth, interrogration and all those other kinds of talents suited to assassins and the like. She just didn't want to give him anything to use against her is all.

"Is it done yet?"

There really was no patience for a girl that ran through life so quickly.

"So you think of me as esteemed? How kind of you to say. But you won't get a discount out of me that easily, you know!"

Kisuke leaned over the gigai, planting an elbow on its chest whilst using the hand to support his chin. It was plain to see that his focus lay on Yugiri alone rather than the object she had brought him, and yet he twirled the strange tool in his offhand with an alarming degree of finesse. Fingers drummed absentmindedly on his cheek as he continued to stare at her, trying to gauge something about her though his intentions were veiled behind that ever-present smile.

"Sorry, Miss, but this is going to take a little while. I'll have to run some diagnostics to see what caused the issue, then I can see what to do about correcting those faults. Quick, pass me one of those."

With his implement-holding hand, he pointed in the direction of a selection of small but colourful boxes that were on the bottom shelf of the display opposite the counter. There were several patterns, one for each section of a rainbow, and he had not specified one shade in particular. With little of his apparent grace, he then rammed the tool into the back of the gigai's skull. There was an unsettlingly sickening crunch as it impacted, and then it began to turn as the tool bored into the back of the head of this faux body.

Tch. This guy, thinking she wanted a discount out of his stupid shaggy looking figure. She just wanted her merchandise to be in working order when she paid for them. That wasn't unreasonable, was it? She didn't think so. Perhaps the more concerning matter was the blase way that he took to jamming the tool within the skull of the doll, given that it was a gigai of her she might've taken more time to analyse it and consider whether or not it was done with undertones of threat but that was the girl who grew up in Soul Society, not the young woman who had become more travelled and seen the world.

Once upon a time she'd have acted to change the world back to its former state without an iota of consideration for this world's denizens but now it was a lot harder with how she knew them.

"Could you be any less clear in your intentions."

She muttered at him while staring at the array of boxes. This technical junk was beyond her, the finer points of whatever those diabolical nerds in the Research and Development section of the Gotei got up to was not something she ever touched into and seeing this man's work didn't help change that perspective either. She was blissfully ignorant and wouldn't mind remaining as such.

"Probably? If I put my mind to it. But I'm told it's good to have a little mystery in your life."

Kisuke threw her a wolfish smile as she continued to throw shade his way with every passing comment, not that he minded all that much when exchanging banter with any of his clients. He offered a certain special kind of customer service, and even those that didn't like it could rarely fault the products. So he continued to drill into the back of gigai-Yugiri's skull as she went to do as he asked.

"The pinkish-red one, not reddish-pink or the light red ones. Should be at least one of them left I think. Or if not just grab a lime green one, that'll do."

He motioned almost absentmindedly, gaze now focused on the gigai. He knew what he had done to break it, that much did not take up any brainpower, but it was now a matter of rectifying this problem. Should just be a simple matter of working out a few kinks and making sure that all the pieces were back in the right places, though he did also need to make a show of it. How else was he meant to impress her with some scientific marvel like this? Showmanship was key, and that was where he excelled.