Ichigo stared blankley at the infant sized Rukia. He had no idea if what he was seeing was true. Rukia, now practically four times smaller than her original size, has turned into a baby, and the hair on her head was the only noticable feature that remained the same, although it did shrink as well to match her head size. She also had her violet eyes that didn't appear to change in the slightest.
What was really strange to Ichigo though was whether or not this was for real. He thought to himself that he must've been all worked up and this happened to be a dream, because he knows for a fact Rukia was normal size as she entered the house last night. He rubbed his eyes again one more time, just to make sure his vision was accurate. Unfortunately to him, Rukia was the same size that she was before, continuing to stare at him while sniffling. Ichigo figured that the only way to see if this was for real or not, was to test it. He raised his finger slowly towards Rukia, wondering if it was a dream and his finger would pass right through her.
Rukia giggled in her infantile-like state as she grabbed Ichigo's finger with both of her tiny hands. Ichigo yelped as he fell back from shock, seeing how everything was real about it. Rukia just giggled again as she attempted to crawl out of the closet, heading towards him. But, because of her small size, she fell out and landed on her chest on the hard floor. Rukia's eyes watered as a high pitched cry filled the room. Ichigo squeezed his ears tight, being one of the loudest things he's heard in his life, or at least that he remembers. The chibi sized Rukia just continued to cry as she felt the pain of landing on the floor, a bit harshly due to her size.
"Gah! My ears..." Ichigo shouted in his head. Not knowing what else to, he quickly grabbed Rukia's kimono, which fell off because of Rukia's shrinkage, and picked up Rukia carefully, wrapping her a bit in it to keep her warm. Rukia just continued to cry though, increasing Ichigo's insane headache.
"Ah c'mon. Everything is fine, honest." Ichigo said, trying to comfort the upsetting Rukia. As she did, Ichigo turned around as he heard something crawling from out of his bed. When he looked, he saw Kon coming out, in his lion plushie like body.
"Hey, Ichigo! Shut..." Kon started, who was trying to sleep. But he looked strangely as he saw the baby in Ichigo's arm. He knew for a fact that it had to be Rukia, recognizing the hair and eyes, but other than that she was alot younger. Ichigo noticed however that Rukia reduced to sinffling as she saw the stuffed lion. After a few seconds, she started giggling as she reached towards the stuffed lion, as if pointing to it. She couldn't really get to it though, seeing how Ichigo was still holding her.
"What the heck is the brat looking at?" Kon asked, confused. Rukia just continued to giggle as she kept reaching her arms out for it.
"Bun bun!" She said, happily. Ichigo looked at her confusingly a bit.
"Bun bun?" He mimicked, trying to figure out what it was she was trying to say. It took him a few moments before he realized she meant bunny. He found it strange for two reasons. One, that he realized what it was because of the fact he remembered that she always liked to draw rabits in her pictures, and two, because he found it confusing as to how Kon looked like a rabit. Kon grew a nervous look as he saw an evil grin grow on Ichigo's face.
"Oh no!" He shouted, attempting to duck head first under the bed. Before he could get completely in though, he felt Ichigo grabbing his leg, and dangling him upside down. Kon looked nervously as he saw the baby in Ichigo's arm. As she attempted to grab him, Kon smacked her hands away. Rukia's eyes filled with tears as she began to cry loudly. Ichigo glared back at Kon, flipping him right side up so he could see normal.
"Hey! What did you do that for?" Ichigo asked, angrily.
"There's no way I'm going to let some two year old play with me! Next thing I know she's going to eat one of my parts off!" Kon yelled back. Even with the loudness the two argued with combined, they couldn't over come the loud sobbing of Rukia's crying. "Gah! Get her to stop!"
"She'll only stop if you play with her."
"And why...no. What makes you think I'll even let..." Kon started. Before he could finish though, Ichigo squeezed his neck tighter, and growing in a mischevious grin.
"Look you, either you do this, or I'm giving you to those two kids at Uruhara's shop ( I forget the name)." Ichigo replied, causing Kon to grow really nervous. How could he forget his last experience he had with those two, like when they gave him to a dog, tore the lines holding his stuffing, or purposely stretched him. Compared to that, he knew quite well that he'd be better off taking his changes off with the infant. Kon grunted as he crossed his arms.
"Fine! But I swear if that kid eats even one of my eyes..." Kon started, before Rukia grabbed him, squeezing him tightly. Kon coughed a bit as Rukia began to squeeze the life out of him, making him run out of air. Ichigo sighed as he smiled a bit. He was glad at least something worked out. The last he'd need is the whole neighborhood wonderin why a baby was crying in the Kurosaki residence, esspecially since Ichigo's mother died. He was actually somewhat glad that Rukia was a bit happy too. As long as she wasn't crying, it was easier for him to think about what to do next. But just as he thought things were about to get ok, he lost his train of thought as he heard Rukia crying again.
"Gah! What's she crying about now?" Ichigo asked, annoyed. As if to reply, as Rukia cried, she pointed to the inside of her mouth. Ichigo, unable to tell what it meant, looked inside. All he saw were a few baby teeth but it didn't really help him in figuring out what was wrong. Kon sighed annoyed as he knew Ichigo was completely stupped.
"She's hungry you idiot." Kon answered. His evidence came as Ichigo and Kon heard Rukia's belly ached. Ichigo scratched his head a bit confused, knowing that if anything, they didn't have baby food anymore, and they couldn't go bringing her around town. He sighed a bit irritably again as he walked down stares, carrying Rukia, who had her head up to his shoulders, and went into the kitchen. He knew that babies had to eat soft food, but he didn't know what exactly they had that was soft. As he looked in the fridge, he moaned a bit annoyed as he saw they didn't have much, esspecially not much that a baby could eat. He looked down at Rukia curiously though as he heard her giggling as she reached for something. As Ichigo looked in the same direction, he grew rather interested as he saw a carton of milk. It wasn't the milk that interested him, it was the fact that Rukia knew what it was that she wanted almost every time. Right when he was about to pick it up though, Kon scratched at his hand. Even though he was all wool and patches, it was still annoying when it hit him.
"Now what are you complaining about?" Ichigo asked, angrily. Rukia looked curiously at the living stuffed animal.
"Idiot, you can't just expect her to drink from that!" Ichigo looked down at Kon, annoyed and irritated.
"And why not?"
"Did the words, ba and by, cross your mind at any given moment?" Kon asked. Ichigo tightened his grip on Kon's neck, purposely choking him for a few seconds, before letting go a bit.
"So then what do we use?"
"Bogu." Rukia said, as if answering their qeustion. Ichigo and Kon blinked confusingly as they looked at Rukia, mainly they were surprised she could even under stand them at all.
"Bogu?" Ichigo replied, confusingly.
"She means bottle, idiot." Kon replied. He coughed a bit as Ichigo "accidently" squeezed him tightly again. "Where the heck are you going to get one anyway?" Kon asked.
"Probably upstairs in the storage area." He replied. He set Rukia and Kon on the couch. "If you make her cry when I get back I'm gonna kill you." Ichigo stammered, giving Kon a menacing glare. Kon felt sweat dropping as he saluted, as if a way of saying "sir yes sir!". Ichigo sighed as he quickly walked upstairs, and opened up the ladder that went into the ceiling.
He'd thought he'd never been more thankful that they kept the old baby stuff up in here since Yuzu was a baby. It was sorta their family momento as a way to remember their mother. It took Ichigo a few minutes before he found a box listed from Yuzu's baby years. As he looked through it, he saw quite a few extras they still had. Keeping alot of the stuff was mostly dad's idea, but he found it weird why they would keep all of it. In addition to the bottle, he found a pacifier and some old baby clothes that Yuzu used to wear. Right when he grabbed it though, it was as if an alarm went off, because the next thing he knew he heard Rukia's crying from downstairs.
Grunting in anger from Kon doing something, which Ichigo knew it was his fault for, he grabbed the stuff he found in the box, and ran downstairs. When he saw them, he looked surprised and a bit shocked as he saw Rukia had fallen off the catch, with Kon looking down at her. Kon then nervously looked surprised as he saw Ichigo standing there, glaring at him.
"What the hell happened?" Ichigo yelled, quickly picking up Rukia.
"W-Well technically you said I couldn't do anything to make her cry. She was reaching to play with the remote on the coffee table, and she sorta crawled off and bumped her head..." Kon replied. As he did, Ichigo looked as she saw a tiny black and blue mark on Rukia's forehead. "S-So since I didn't do anything...I'm not in t-trouble...right?" Kon asked. To reply to his question, Ichigo quickly grabbed his head, and threw him out the window.
Ichigo sighed as he quickly dressed Rukia in the baby sized dark green pants, and the yellow shirt. Once that was finished, he set her back on the couch, putting the pacifier in her mouth to hope it would at least have some effect. He then quickly proceeded to fill the bottle with milk. Wasting no other time, he quickly picked up Rukia, who was still crying, softly took the pacifier out, and fed her the bottle. She sniffled for a few seconds before she began drinking the bottle, slowly closing her eyes as she did.
Ichigo, tired out from the morning, sat down on the couch. He never really expected kids to be a handful, esspecially not when it was someone he really knew. His sister, Yuzu, wasn't much of a problem when Ichigo had to help his dad since his mother died, but then again she wasn't two years old, she was more like four or so at the time, or at least what Ichigo remembers.
"I can't wait to see what the rest of the day brings." Ichigo said, using sarcasm on the wait. Having nothing else to do, he decided to turn on the tv. He let go of the bottle quickly, which Rukia seemed to have a firm grip on, and then used the remote to turn on the tv. He was expecting to see something on the news about spring break and all, but what surprised him was a bulletin. In the background, it had coffins and knew it wouldn't be good.
"Today's top story," the news reporter started, "a series of murders has spread across town. There appears to be someone or some people, who have begun killing girls across towns." Ichigo's eyes widened at this. "We've been informed some light news, most of these girls consist of blue hair and violet eyes, but for all precautions, we advise all parents to keep their kids inside."
Ichigo snapped back into reality as he heard Rukia moaning. As he looked down, he saw Rukia, with tears rolling down her eyes, looking at the tv. Ichigo quickly turned off the tv, seeing how it was partially upsetting her. He thought it strange of two things. One, if Rukia retained any memories since she regressed. Two, if the muders were all just couincidental. There would be way they could all be linked to Rukia. He came out of his train of thought though as he heard Rukia beginning to cry. He smiled for a bit as he gently stroked her hair, calming her down a bit.
"Don't worry Rukia. I'm not going to let anyone hurt you." Ichigo said, causing Rukia to reduce the crying a bit. She looked up at him with tears in her eyes as she sniffled a bit. Ichigo's eyes widened as he heard someone banging on the door.
"Hey, Ichigo. You home?" Ichigo knew who it was. He completely forgot he was going to go surfing with his friends this week...