Alexis landed on the edge of town and twisted her neck around to grab the carry-strap slung across her body. It took a bit of wriggling to free herself of the burden and dump it on the ground, but it was a move she’d been practicing for decades so it wasn’t too difficult.

At her side, Briar yanked his carry-pouch off and stepped back, giving her room to change forms and rise to her feet, both pouches in her hand.

“Now to find our guest’s friend,” Alexis murmured as she shrugged off her feather-cloak and tossed it to Briar.

He squawked as it landed atop him, voice warbling as he changed forms mid-protest. “One of these days…!”

“You’ll actually expect that?” She laughed and flashed him a smile as she pulled the human clothing out of the pouches and started to get dressed.

Briar snorted and carefully folded her cloak, his wings ruffling in affront. “One of these days I’ll just let it land in the dirt,” he said, head tilted away from her and eyes half-closed.

Alexis just smiled, watching the way Briar’s fingers combed gently through the feathers of her cloak, straightening the quills and barbs with each pass. His words were nothing more than empty air, because Briar would never let harm come to her or her cloak without a fight and they both knew it.

(His loyalty always took her breath away, forged in war and tempered in peace.)

(He was the only swankin who remained of their original War Flight.)

(How she missed some of them even now…)

She shook off the burst of melancholy and finished getting dressed, tucking away the letter that Urahara had written for his friend. There were better things to do than getting lost in the past — none of her old companions would approve, anyway — and right now that involved meeting the man that Urahara named ‘friend’ and informing him that Urahara was alive and healing.

“Be safe,” Briar told her as he stepped back into the forest and sang a short melody of concealment.

Alexis bobbed her head in agreement and strode off, slipping into the town and eyeing the buildings around her. Urahara had given her both the address and fairly detailed instructions on how to get there, but it had been a while since she’d bothered to enter Karakura.

The town had certainly changed in the time she’d been away.

She wended her way through the streets, looking for any of the landmarks Urahara had mentioned and marveling at the progress that humans had made. While she and her flock had been secluded away, recovering from the horrors of human war and readjusting to life as swankin, humans had gleefully raced ahead.

(How terrible would war be now, driven by the technology she could see on display?)

(She really didn’t want to know.)

It was almost a relief to spot a street sign she recognized, giving her mind something to focus on beyond the changes. A few minutes to orient herself and she was on her way, heading towards the outskirts.

It didn’t take long before she found the place, small and set back from the street just like Urahara had described, and she paused to take in the building and yard where a young boy was pretending to sweep. There was something… odd about the place, an almost-scent that made her want to ruffle her feathers and turn away; there was something concealed about it, something trying to gently nudge her attention away, despite the place being a shop as well as a home.

She hummed a short, quiet melody and narrowed her eyes at the information it returned; wards she had expected, but the flavour of them…

(Neither fae nor yokai nor kami…)

(Which left human… or Shinigami.)

Alexis tipped her head to the side and considered the options, wondering if she cared that Urahara was probably related to Shinigami. But… he was comfortable enough to set up shop in the Living World, settled enough that his wards felt old, and still a reckless little fool when bored.

(If he was a Shinigami, he’d clearly gone native.)

(How interesting.)

“Hey, you going to just stand there and stare? Store’s not open today!” the young boy shouted at her, broom slung over his shoulder and eyes narrowed.

“I’m looking for Tsukabishi Tessai,” Alexis replied, stepping off the sidewalk and crossing the ward-line as she approached the boy. “I have a letter for him.”

“A letter,” the boy repeatedly flatly, clearly unimpressed. “You don’t look like a mail carrier.”

“Oh, it’s quite the vocation swap for me, I agree,” she said with a sharp grin, pulling the letter out and holding it up between two fingers so that Urahara’s distinctive scrawl could be seen on the envelope. “But needs must, hm?”

“Wh—hey! Let me see that!” the boy exclaimed, lunging for the letter and missing as Alexis raised it a few inches higher. “That’s—”

“For Tsukabishi Tessai, who I do not believe you are.”

The boy scowled at her and began to gather himself, clearly planning on trying again, before a sharply cleared throat drew both of their attention to the shop’s door and the man standing there.

“Jinta,” he said sternly, making the boy huff and shuffle a few paces away. “Thank you. And you would be?”

“I’m Alexis.” She took a few steps closer to the man who matched Tsukabishi’s description and held out Urahara’s letter. “Tsukabishi Tessai, I believe? This is from Urahara.”

She caught the barest hint of surprise before Tsukabishi shuttered it away as he accepted the letter from her. He opened the envelope and pulled the letter out to read, expression going flat the further he read until, with a sigh, he tucked it away and fixed her with a dry, exasperated look.

“He’s actually fine?” Tsukabishi asked.

Alexis hummed and considered her words. “He’s healing,” she decided upon. “His strength was depleted and the wounds were deep, but my husband and I helped with the second. We’re not healers—” lie, Erich could have returned him to full health with barely a thought— “but we make do. The wounds will probably scar, and they make it hard for him to move around due to their placement, but another few days and he’ll be able to return.”

If anything, her words only served to exasperate Tsukabishi more, though she had the impression it was aimed at Urahara. He reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose, shoulders rising and falling in a silent sigh. “Is there anything I can do to assist? I imagine he’s being… quite the handful if you’re trying to make him rest.”

“He’s currently too fascinated by my husband to make a fuss,” Alexis said with amusement, then arched an eyebrow when Tsukibashi’s lips thinned and his expression turned pinched. “Something wrong with what I said?”

“If he’s bothering either of you—”

“Why would he be bothering us? My husband is a very fascinating man,” Alexis interrupted, smirking up at him as dismay appeared in his eyes. “Though I suppose my husband would prefer fewer ‘angel-san’s being directed at him.”

Tsukabishi groaned quietly. “I apologize for anything he does to offend either of you.”

“He’s fine, he’s fine. We don’t mind keeping him around for another few days.” Alexis turned to go before Tsukabishi could make another attempt to apologize, then paused to look back over her shoulder before she went too far, feeling suddenly impish. “Maybe it will make him familiar enough with us that he can find his way back later.”

She laughed at the way Tessai’s lips twitched down into a frown, waved goodbye to Jinta, then sauntered back across the ward-line and left the way she’d come.

Messaged delivered.

Time to get back to her flock.