After the incident at lunch, Kaien, Sosuke, Sora, and Tatsuki were each confused about what to do. They kept watching Miss Neliel as she taught class. She occasionally noticed the curious looks she got but didn't do anything about it. Finally school was over and the four started heading home.
"Okay does anyone have any idea what that was?" Kaien asked as the other three shrugged.
"No idea. Whatever it was it just defies the laws of nature. Maybe there's something more to this than we first figured." Sora said.
"You might be on to something Sora." Tatsuki said.
"Well…whatever the case we'll have to investigate some more tomorrow. I've got to get home for dinner." Kaien said as Sosuke chuckled.
"Still stuck with the seven-o-clock curfew huh? Does your dad still attack you when you're late?" Sosuke asked as Kaien sighed and nodded.
"Yeah and I don't know why. Mom says his dad did it all the time to him when he was my age." Kaien replied.
"We Kurosaki's have probably the weirdest lives ever." Sosuke deduced, earning nods.
"Yeah our dad is a music nut and will occasionally exclaim "Sing for me Kuroseika," whatever that means, whenever he hears a song he likes on the radio. Mom is kinda airheaded at times too…and she never takes off those old hairclips of hers. I will say one thing those hairclips are quite durable for their age." Tatsuki added.
"Well have fun with your dad Kaien. We'll probably hear the racket from home." Sora said with a snicker causing Kaien to roll his eyes.
"Thanks a lot." Kaien grumbled as he walked off ahead of them. Soon he arrived at an intersection and saw Hisana running home with something small and black clutched in her arms. He quickly caught up with her.
"Hisana what is that you have there?" Kaien asked, causing Hisana to freeze. She didn't turn towards him at all.
"Umm…nothing." She replied innocently.
"Liar. Let me see." Kaien said as the authoritative big brother. She slowly turned around to face him and he noticed the yellow eyes of a black cat looking up at him and purring loudly. He could also swear the cat was smiling at him.
"What the-? Hisana you know better than to bring a cat home! Dad hates cats! He doesn't even like rabbits but he concedes to them because you and mom like them!" Kaien said as Hisana looked down at the cat with a sad pouty look. She then looked up at Kaien with the same look.
"Aww pwease Kaien, pwetty pwease!" Hisana begged, causing Kaien to sigh. She was irresistible to most adults when she used the baby talk but not to Kaien. He knew he had no real say on the issue but he knew their father definitely would.
"Don't ask me, ask dad. He'll be the one to say no." Kaien replied as Hisana silently rejoiced and they both continued on towards home. It wasn't long before they heard the sounds of familiar laughter coming from outside the clinic. As they got closer they saw their father spraying their mother with the garden hose. Rukia was dying with laughter as she attempted, unsuccessfully, to ward off Ichigo's attack. Yuzu was standing nearby in her nurse's scrubs drying off from an earlier attack. She was almost as tall as Ichigo but only slightly shorter. Her hair was slightly longer, reaching the middle of her neck. She still wore the same red strawberry shaped hairclip in her hair as well. She was the first to notice the arrival of her brother's children so she quickly grabbed a length of hose and held it in a kink, cutting off the water supply.
"Huh? Hey! Cut it out Yuzu!" Ichigo yelled over his shoulder. Kaien then cleared his throat.
"Are we interrupting something?" Kaien asked as his father grinned and checked his watch.
"You're lucky Kaien; you're home early…but…" Ichigo said as he aimed the hose towards him.
"YOU'RE STILL GOING TO PAY FOR IT!"
Meow
Ichigo froze the second he heard the sound of a cat. He personally kinked the hose and looked at the cat square in the eyes. Kaien looked at the cat himself and he could have sworn he saw the cat actually wink at his father. Ichigo's face flashed with disbelief before quickly switching to rage.
"Get that CAT OUT OF HERE!" Ichigo roared, un-kinking the hose and aiming it at the cat, still in Hisana's arms. Fortunately Yuzu still had the kink in the hose on her end.
"Daddy, don't spray the kitty with water, it's so cute, and cats don't like water!" Hisana pleaded as Ichigo frantically shook his head.
"N! O! NO! That menace isn't staying here!" Ichigo replied.
"It's just a cat dad. We can have it declawed." Kaien said. He noticed the cat flinch at the mention of being declawed. Ichigo looked at him curiously for a moment before a sinister grin swept his face.
"You're right…we can have it declawed and spayed." Ichigo said as the cat glared at him and hissed.
"Uh Ichigo…I wouldn't torque the cat off." Rukia said as Yuzu nodded quickly.
"Yeah I don't think Miss Yoruichi would like that. She is kinda attached to that cat you know." Yuzu said, earning a confused look from her nephew.
"Who's Miss Yoruichi?" Kaien asked but he was ignored.
"Please daddy, can we keep it, pwease!" Hisana begged with her pouty face.
"Ichigo she's only going to keep bringing the cat home until we finally let her keep it." Rukia said causing Ichigo's eye to twitch.
"I said she could have a pet rabbit." Ichigo said.
"But rabbits can bite off your finger with their teeth if they're not careful! My friend Suki Asano almost had her finger bitten off by her pet bunny." Hisana replied. Ichigo was losing this one and he did not like it one bit. Finally he caved.
"Alright…fine…she can stay." Ichigo said through clinched teeth.
"YAY!" Hisana cheered.
"BUT! I am not taking care of it! You're feeding it and making sure that it doesn't poop on the carpet. This is a medical clinic after all and we need to keep the place sterile." Ichigo said in defeat as Hisana ran inside with the cat still in her arms.
"What's the big deal with a cat dad? Sure they claw the furniture and mess up the floors but what's the problem?" Kaien asked before receiving a glare from his father that meant if he asked again in the next few minutes it would bring impending doom upon him. He quickly hurried inside after Hisana.
"If I find that cat in his room at night I'm going to freaking kill it." Ichigo mumbled as soon as Kaien was out of earshot.
"It can't be all that bad Ichigo. She would have turned back up eventually. Besides what makes you think it's her in the first place?" Yuzu asked.
"Oh trust me, I can tell." Ichigo replied, clinching his fists.
"Well come on Ichigo, we better go give the cat the name Yoruichi before Hisana names it something like Squiggles or something worse." Rukia said as Ichigo sighed with his head drooped down and trudged in after her. Yuzu sighed with a smile at the antics of her older brother's family and headed back to her house next door.
Later at dinner…
The family of four sat quietly around the dinner table, munching down on the pizza they had heated up in the oven (Rukia couldn't cook by her own admission), when Kaien felt something at his feet. He looked down and saw the cat, newly named Yoruichi, rubbing up against him. Ichigo noticed his son's reaction and quickly looked under the table.
"BEAT IT!" he yelled, startling almost everyone at the table and hitting his head on said table simultaneously.
"Ichigo! Quit antagonizing Yoruichi!" Rukia said in an exasperated attempt to maintain the peace.
"She started it!" Ichigo retorted.
"Ichigo don't make me send for Zaraki because he's been itching for a reason to come here!" Rukia warned as Ichigo gave her an exasperated look.
"You wouldn't." he said but Rukia gave him a smirk and a glare.
"In a minute." She replied.
"Who's Zaraki?" Kaien asked finally.
"You don't want to know…in fact I pray you never meet him." Ichigo replied.
"Okay?" Kaien replied with a confused look.
"So, what's your problem with cats, daddy? You never have said why." Hisana asked. Ichigo instantly glanced over at the couch where Yoruichi sat bathing, glaring straight at him the entire time with a smug smile. He then looked at Rukia who motioned with her head to answer his daughter's question.
"I've just…had a bad experience with cats. They always…were not what I expected and you never can get rid of them either." Ichigo explained.
"That's no excuse dad." Kaien said, earning a death glare from his father.
"Kaien let me tell you something. Believe me when I say to never judge anything by its appearance on the outside. It could be something completely different underneath." Ichigo said as Kaien nodded. He had unknowingly brought up the incident with Rukia having shed her body that morning and with Neliel eating the strange giant monster that afternoon.
"Speaking of which. I saw Miss Neliel do something curious today." Kaien said.
"Oh yeah? What was it Kaien?" Rukia asked as she bit into a slice of pizza.
"It was at lunch time and my friends and I, you know Sosuke, Sora, and Tatsuki, we were on the roof and we hear this awful roar. We look around and we see this giant monster with a white mask on its face." Kaien said. Instantly Ichigo and Rukia froze with their eyes wide open. Hisana had noticed the sudden reaction too.
"A…A monster with a white mask huh? What happened next?" Rukia asked curiously.
"Well, Miss Neliel uses some kind of glove and she sheds her body like it was just an outer skin. She had a mask on her head too but then I think she somehow ate the thing. What was weird was her clothing changed too. She was wearing white robes too." Kaien explained.
"Are you sure that you saw this?" Ichigo asked as Kaien nodded.
"I wouldn't lie about anything like this. I even saw Mom do something like that this morning." Kaien said as Rukia nearly choked on a bite of pizza.
"Say what?" Ichigo asked.
"Mom shed her body like Miss Neliel did but her robes were black and she had this white armband arm her left sleeve. She also had a sword and she used it to…I guess exorcise the ghost Hisana and I saw this morning." Kaien explained.
"What are you talking about Kaien? Are you feeling okay?" Ichigo asked as he stood up and headed for the coat rack where his doctor's coat was hanging.
"I don't know if I was seeing things this morning but all four of us saw Miss Neliel eat that thing this afternoon at lunch!" Kaien replied as Ichigo grabbed the thermometer from his coat pocket.
"Well there is a fever going around. That could have caused you to hallucinate." Ichigo said as he stuck the thermometer in his son's mouth and checked his pulse.
"But for four people to hallucinate the same thing though?" Kaien asked.
"Don't talk with the thermometer in your mouth son." Rukia said as Kaien scowled again.
"Well no sign of a fever, but that's not to say you don't have something. You haven't been doing drugs have you Kaien?" Ichigo asked.
"Never!" Kaien replied as if he had been offended.
"Boys!" Rukia shouted, stopping the argument before it started, "Kaien if you're done with dinner, go do your homework. Ichigo, sit down."
The two Kurosaki men complied, Kaien heading to his room and Ichigo sitting back down at his chair. Hisana sat silently eating her pizza.
"So…Hisana how was your day?" Rukia asked sweetly.
"Umm…I brought a kitty home today." Hisana said innocently. She couldn't top Kaien's story no matter how hard she tried.
Up in Kaien's room…
Kaien walked in and plopped down onto his bed. It had been his father's old room for years before Ichigo had married Rukia, then it became Kaien's upon his birth. He then opened the drawer on his desk and pulled out an old stuffed Lion plushy doll. The doll immediately took a deep breath.
"Man! You just had to leave me locked in that drawer didn't you Kaien?" Kon asked indignantly.
"Shut up Kon I'm not interested in arguing with you. I only opened the drawer because I needed to talk to you about something." Kaien replied.
"Ha! Your mother would be ashamed of you locking a poor defenseless stuffed animal in here! She would be like "Oh Kaien how could you do such a thing to such a cute, cuddly, and super sexy lion?" Kon said, impersonating Rukia.
"I said, SHUT UP!" Kaien yelled at the doll.
"You're just like your father you know that! You never show me any respect!" Kon argued.
"Gee I can't imagine why." Kaien replied sarcastically.
"Orihime would have cuddled me and snuggled me in her inviting bosom and ACH!" Kon yelped as Kaien grabbed the doll by the head.
"Listen you pervert! I want answers and you're the only one I can trust to give me some!" Kaien said as he let go of the doll.
"Well alright fine, what is it you want to know?" Kon asked with his back turned towards Kaien.
"What's the deal with my mother and my teacher? How were they able to shed their bodies like they were wearing second skins?" Kaien asked. Kon looked at him over his shoulder.
"Huh? Wait a minute what are you talking about?" Kon asked curiously.
"You were around when my dad was my age and you know just about all of the secrets in this family. I'm talking about how my mother and my teacher, Miss Neliel, are able to shed their bodies. My mom exorcised a ghost from here this morning and Miss Neliel I think ate some giant monster with a mask this afternoon." Kaien explained.
"Well…I just happen to know what it is you're talking about but my answer has a price." Kon said as Kaien grumbled.
"I'm not buying you dirty magazines Kon. You made me a laughing stock at show-and-tell when I was in preschool, when you wouldn't come alive like you were supposed to, and I'm still bitter about that." Kaien said as Kon smiled slightly.
"No magazines this time Kaien. This time you're going to get me some real action!" Kon replied as Kaien took a deep breath. He had a feeling that he wouldn't like what Kon requested.
"What do you want Kon?" Kaien asked as Kon smiled.
"I want you to take me to school and get a cute girl in your class to hug me. Preferably your cousin Tatsuki." Kon said as Kaien sweat dropped.
"Tatsuki, are you mad? She'd kill me on sight if I did that. I guess I could try Miss Neliel though." Kaien said as Kon panicked.
"NO NOT HER!" Kon yelped.
"Why not her? She's got the breast size your interested in." Kaien asked.
"Because…well…never let the enemy know what your plans are…you get me?" Kon asked as Kaien groaned.
"She knows about you doesn't she?" Kaien asked as Kon nodded.
"She'll eat me alive if she spots me." Kon whimpered.
"Alright fine I'll try for Tatsuki but you better own up with the info once you've been paid and it better be good." Kaien said as Kon extended a plushy paw.
"You've got a deal Kaien." Kon replied as Kaien shook the paw in a gentleman's agreement. They weren't aware that there was a certain feline sitting outside the door that immediately vanished into thin air.
That night…
Ichigo was finishing up some paperwork on the couch. Rukia was asleep in the recliner nearby. As far as he knew, Kaien and Hisana had both gone to bed an hour ago. He then felt something furry brush against his leg.
"Yoruichi you can cut that out immediately." Ichigo said.
"Aww Ichigo is that the way you treat a former lover?" Yoruichi asked with the deep male voice of her cat form.
"Shut up we never did anything! And don't you go giving Rukia the idea that we did anything either! The last thing I need is for her to become suspicious or something." Ichigo said as Yoruichi leapt onto the couch next to him.
"I know that Ichigo, and I suppose you've got a point. I probably shouldn't be joking around like that anymore now that you're a married man. Wow it feels weird to say that out loud. How long has it been? Twenty years?" Yoruichi asked as Ichigo groaned inwardly.
"Twenty years of happy marrage, and twenty three just as blissful years without you causing trouble." Ichigo replied.
"And I can sure tell that those two kids are yours. That Kaien of yours has the same amount of spiritual energy you did at that age. He's leaking it like a sieve. Hisana's isn't that different from Karin's spiritual energy level when she was ten either but I suspect that her spiritual energy levels will increase the older she gets." Yoruichi said.
"Just do me a favor and don't go transforming into a woman around my kids alright. We don't need the neighbors asking questions." Ichigo replied.
"I'm not making any promises for Kaien, Ichigo. He is rather cute." Yoruichi replied, causing Ichigo to scowl.
"Do you want to be spayed?" Ichigo threatened.
"No but I know something that Kaien is planning." Yoruichi said, causing Ichigo to sigh in frustration. Whenever Yoruichi said something like that it usually meant that he would want to hear it.
"Alright I'm listening. What's he planning?" Ichigo asked.
"Well let me put it to you this way. He knows about Kon." She said as Ichigo rolled his eyes.
"Big deal. He's known about Kon since he was a toddler. He took him to school for show and tell once but we took the pill out of the lion first." Ichigo replied.
"Ah but now he's scheming to try and discover the family business." Yoruichi said causing Ichigo to pause.
"When you say family business…do you mean-." Ichigo said as Yoruichi looked him square in the eyes and replied…
"I mean the Clan business…Captain Kurosaki." Yoruichi said as a worried look swept Ichigo's face. He remained silent for a moment, glancing at Rukia who was still asleep in the recliner. He then fished into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.
"Who are you calling Ichigo?" Yoruichi asked.
"I'm calling in some back up." Ichigo replied as he dialed a number. It rang for a moment before a voice on the other end answered.
"Hey…its Ichigo…yeah I know it's late but it's kinda urgent…I need to ask you for a favor."
End Chapter 2.
Please R&R...