"Rukia, you know Yuzu doesn't mind lending you her dresses, but maybe you should have some of your own." Mr. Kurosaki said out of the blue, jumping out from who knows where.

"Um, I-" That was all she managed to get out before he broke into one of his rants.

"I will be happy to give you the money, as long as you go buy a dress that makes you look so sweet I could eat you up! Although now that I think about it, it's high time-" Isshin began to cry so his words became the slightest bit muffled. "-That you get something sexy!" The tears turned to his signature bawling. "You-u ah-are a young wo-wo-woman nah-" Ichigo had delivered a fierce kick to his father's head.

"What was he bothering you about this time?" The teenaged boy asked, not having intended to get involved in anything. All he wanted was a snack before resuming his history homework, but in his household, anything could go wrong.

"Well, I think he wants me to go clothes shopping." Rukia said, sitting on the couch while playing her new GBA. She had bought it the other day, but was only now getting a chance to play with it. Or at least she had been until Ichigo's dad showed up.

"How could you, Ichigo! Your own flesh and blood!" The ex-captain began to throw a tantrum.

"You do that to me all the time." Ichigo said dryly, just irritated that he was being held up from doing his assignment. "Just give her the money and go away." He added, tone and attitude still cold. For unknown reasons, the man did so, and proceeded to go cry in a corner.

"Honestly... there is something seriously wrong with that guy. I have no idea how we're related..." The dandilon-head was bored and wasing time, so he turned around to go to his room.

"Thanks... So, you up for coming with me tomorrow?" She asked, knowing full well what the answer would be. Honestly, Rukia didn't really even want him there anyways, but asking was the polite thing to do, and he had just helped her out.

"Ha ha, very funny. I gotta get back to work. Anything else?" Ichigo put his hands in his pocket, suddenly feeling generous. Rukia thought for a moment before shaking her head.

The clock in the adolescent's room blinked 2:01, and said adolescent was having a very stressful dream where he was in the classroom and he was only about as tall as his desk. To make matters worse, Rukia was like seven feet tall. He had been unfortunate enough to accidentally see up her skirt. This resulted in being chased all throughout the building with her yelling "PERVERT!" at the top of her lungs. Just when she had him cornered, she shouted something different.

"Ichigo! Quit trying to evolve!"

Ichigo awoke with a start. The first thing he saw was a faint bluish light flowing through the gap between his closet door and it's frame.

"Rukia?" The orange-haired teen said groggily, wondering if he was still dreaming. "Shouldn't you be in your bed and not my closet? He asked rhetorically while half-sitting up.

"Hmm... So I am. I guess I must have been auto-pilot. I was so focused on my game, I must not have really thought about it." She slid open the door so they could actually see each other. "Why are you awake?" The Soul Reaper clambered out of her sleeping space with her eyes still glued to her console.

"Because you woke me up!" Ichigo raised his voice a bit, but hopefully not loudly enough to wake up the rest of the household.

"Oh, sorry..." The black-haired girl hopped out of the closet and walked across the room to Ichigp's bed. "Look, I named him after you!" Rukia smiled and held up her video game. On the screen was a level 22 Torchic named Ichigo.

"Why the hell did you name that thing after me?!" The substitute Soul Reaper seemed pretty darn agitated at this.

"Because he's the same color as your hair. Duh." She told him flatly while looking back down at her Pokemon: Sapphire Version.

"Ugh, can you just go away so I can get some sleep?" The boy laid back down, exhausted.

"Fine." Half of her wanted to walk towards the closet, and the other half wanted to use the door, thus causing her to collide with the small part of wall inbetween, then falling backwards onto the floor. Ichigo quickly sat back up, clearly fairly concerned.

"Rukia?"

A minute or so before, Yuzu's eyes flickered open, and she immediately wiped the sleepys from them. Not really paying attention, the cheerier twin wandered into the bathroom and went, before laying back in her bed. As the preteen began to fall back asleep, she realized something wasn't right. Rukia wasn't in her bed. Obviously she wasn't in the bathroom,, so Yuzu decided to check the kitchen first. Just as she turned on the light, there was a thud. "That came from Ichigo's room!" She rushed inside and gasped.

Ichigo got out of his bed, and crouched down, unabled to see. He moved his hand around until he found something that felt human. It was a bit soft and squishy, and warm.

"DAAAAAAAAAD!" The young girl yelled, turning on the light to see her brother grabbing at Rukia's small left breast. The gropee slapped the hand away and proceeded to slap the face even harder.

"It-it was an accident!" Ichigo was freaking out, and in a lot of pain.

"Ichigo was getting handsy with Rukia!" Yuzu added. Before long, Karin and his dad were in his room as well.

"I'm telling you, it was an accident! Like I'd ever want to feel her up." He rebutted, the firm softness of her small but perky bosom still haunting his thoughts.

"Oh, so I'm not good enough for you?" Rukia asked him, a tone in her voice that confirmed what he already knew-he was screwed. Surely many-a-man had fallen prey to such a scenario.

"..." The blushing teen boy fell silent, deciding that to be the safest bet.

"Answer her!" Isshin told his son, secretly very happy that his boy was finally growing up. For a while he was wondering if Ichigo was gay or something. Not that that would be the worst thing in the world-he just wanted to make sure someone would carry on his family name.

Meanwhile, Rukia was putting on an act, pulling out all the stops. "Oh, I feel so violated. I trusted you, Ichigo!" She said amongst fake tears and sobs.

"I respect you too much to do that purposefully." The substitute Soul Reaper uttered the only thing he could think of that might not get him killed. His family stared at him, trying to decide if he was telling the truth or not. After a full minute of silence besides Rukia's weeping, the girls all left to go to bed, the eldest of the three shooting Ichigo an evil look.

"I'm so proud of you!" Mr. Kurosaki rushed to hug his male offspring, who quickly sidestepped to avoid his father's embrace.

"But you should still treat a woman with more respect than that." The man reprimanded, putting his hand on Ichigo's shoulder.

"I told you." He stepped away and sat on his bed. "It was an accident. Get that into your head, old man." Exhausted, he then slid his body under the covers. "Mind getting the light on your way out?" Ichigo yawned, closing his eyes.

"Even so... what was she doing in your room this late at night? Hmmm?" Isshin interrogated, torn between protecting his third daughter and wanting his son to become a man.

"I think she was looking for batteries for her game." The carrot-top lied, for his dad did not know (or so he thought) that the girl used to sleep in his closet.

"...fine."

"So, where is a good place to buy clothes?" The female Soul Reaper asked her friend. She and Orihime had arranged to meet up in town after school the next day, which was at this point, today.

"Uummm..." The well-endowed girl tilted her head to the side to think. "There's a big department store nearby, so that might be a good place to start. And when we get hungry, I brought snacks!" She held up a bag containing who-knows-what. Rukia grimaced at this, because the only one she knew who liked Orihime's cooking was Rangiku, and while Rukia herself didn't despise it nearly as much as most people did, it was still barely tolerable.

As soon as they stepped inside the department store, the much elder girl stopped in awe, absorbing as much of the sights and smells as she could. Ichigo never took her inside one of these. In fact, he avoided doing much shopping at all with her, and when they did it was usually in specialty stores. The girls held hands as the taller of the two led them to the clothing section, desperately trying to keep Rukia from looking at everything. They passed the food, the furniture, and the electronics sections, finally arriving at their final destination.

"Oooh, look at this one!" It's almost the exact same color as your eyes!" Orihime removed a flowy, knee-length skirt and shoved it in Rukia's face. "And..." She dashed across to another part of the section, returning with a cute white button-up blouse. "...this would go perfectly with it." The young woman shoved that in her face as well, then shoving said face and attached body into a changing room.

"Wow, this looks pretty good, Orihime. You really have an eye for these things." The violet-eyed girl was pleased and admired herself in the mirror in the little room.

"Lemme see, lemme see!" The fifteen year old girl hopped up and down a bit, excited to see her handywork.

Things continued like this for a good hour or two, some garments were misses, and some were hits.

"That bra does not work with that neckline." Orihime stated this as if it were the only absolute truth in the world.

"Erm, it doesn't?" She asked, completely clueless. After all, in the Seireitei, everyone wears pretty much the same thing, and back when she was in the Rukon, one wore whatever they could get.

"No, of course not. The point is to show off a little cleavage, and you can't do that in a sports bra! All I can see is a big ugly grey panel of fabric." The dirty blonde [because that's the hair color she's supposed to have, the anime got it wrong-it's supposed to be blonde-brown] scolded.

"Okay..." This experience was making Rukia a tad anxious, for there was never any telling what her friend would do. Sometimes, that girl could be really hyper. Then again, so could she if bunnies were involved.

A minute later, they were surrounded by ladies' undergarments. There were simple ones, sweet lacy ones, and ones that clearly wouldn't work under clothes. Fortunately, Rukia knew a little about lingere from when she discovered hentai. It was inlikely that Ichigo would ever allow her to use the computer unsupervised again after that incident.

"Hey, what's this one?" She approached a display of bras that had very, very rounded cups with a lot of foam. There seemed to be some wire too.

"That? Looks like a push-up bra. It makes your boobs look bigger." Orihime explained simply.

"Is that what you use?" Rukia couldn't help herself. She just had to ask. It would explain a lot after all.

"No, no. I wear a minimizer bra. It makes them look smaller." The busty girl smiled, but something about the way she said it made Rukia feel like she had asked a very stupid question. "You should try a push-up bra!"

"Um..." She was unsure, but she had always been a little disappointed with her breast size. In her Shihakusho, one couldn't always tell if they were there or not. "Okay, I'll give it a shot." Rukia put her fist in a position that said 'let's do it'.

"Rukia, you look so...womanish!" Orihime remarked, struggling to find the right words. However silly said words were, they were nonetheless true. She without a doubt looked less like a girl and more like a woman. While Orihime had a womanly body, her face was childish. Rukia was just the opposite, with a young body and an adult face.

"I guess I do look pretty good. I think I'm ready to buy stuff now though. But..." The Soul Reaper remembered Isshin's instructions. He had been kind enough to give her some money for clothing, so it would be rude to not honor his request. "I also need something 'sexy'." The girl understood the base concept of the word 'sexy'. It meant it had sex appeal. The question of the day was 'What is sexy?'. She had gotten a thing or two that was a little revealing, but nothing with a particularly large amount of sex appeal.

Orihime took a moment to ponder her friend's request. "I know a store near here with lots of sexy things. I'd never feel comfortable to go in alone though..." She blushed a tad. "But it should be fine if you're there too!" Orihime grinned and the two girls hurried excitedly towards the checkout stand.

Purchases in hand, the females headed over to the store Orihime had mentioned. The sign was in pink neon and in English. It read 'Sexy! Sexy! Sexy!'. English lettering had become fairly trendy lately, but this sign was a bit hard to read due to how squiggly and loopy it was [aka, cursive].

"There's a lot of weird stuff in here..." Rukia looked at various mysterious thingamabobs and liquids, wondering what the heck they were. "This must be what Ichigo called a 'novelty shop'." She thought. It was how he described it. Strange objects, pictures and drawings of nudity, and who-knows-what-else. Above all, it had an eerie feeling despite the bright colors. He had also told her to never, ever go in one. Apparently his dad had taken him to one when he was 10 and he had been slightly traumatized.

"Ah, here's where they keep the clothes." Orihime had seemed just as curious about the cases of stuff as Rukia had, but she had happened to notice the clothes amongst the aisles. The lingerie was nearby as well, but that wasn't what they came for.

Before Rukia could look at anything else, she spotted bunny ears. Immediately, caution was thrown to the wind.

"I want the thing with the bunny ears." She declared, making it clear that nothing would change her mind.

Once they were outside the store, the girls opened up the packaging to get a better look at what she had bought.

"A bunny-girl outfit." Orihime observed.

"I've seen those in manga. At least in manga, those are definitely considered sexy." The shorter female wasn't sure where we should wear it though.

And so they headed back to their respective homes, Rukia wearing the first new outfit they found, and sporting her new push-up bra.

"Hello Ichigo." Rukia entered his room after putting her new clothes away.

"Why the hell are you so against me getting any sleep?" He shouted, for he had been trying to take a much-needed nap before dinner. After all, it was difficult for him to get back to sleep after the disaster that had befallen him. The moment he laid eyes on her, he knew there was something different, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out what. Yeah, there was what he was pretty sure was a new outfit, but there was something beyond that.

End of Part 1, Chapter 1