Before the creature could pull any punkass lame moves, Ichigo had cut all of the thing's mechanical arms and legs off, and finished it off by slicing its head in half. He finished it all off by sheathing his sword in a badass way, like he didn't even give a shit about what just happened.

He walked the mech over to the girl and asked:

"You alright?"

"Yeah, it's only a flesh wound."

"Did anyone get hurt?" he said, motioning towards his family.

"They don't seem to have suffered anything, at least not on the outside."

"Well, they're all tough, so they're probably fine." said Ichigo.

'Can't believe they're still asleep…' he muttered to himself.

He picked up his sisters' and his father's beds, and placed them all back inside the house (places where they wouldn't be liable to come falling back out).

Ichigo then climbed out of the machine, and handed the key back to the woman.

"By the way, what's your name?" he asked.

"Kuchiki Rukia."

"I'm Kurosaki Ichigo and well…thanks for letting me save my family I guess."

"I can see where this is heading, but I must decline", Rukia said while holding her hand out towards him. "It is against official policy to date lower beings, and even if it weren't I wouldn't be tempted to anyways."

Ichigo's slightly thankful face turned to a vicious scowl as he said loudly:

"What the hell made you think I was going to ask you out? I just said thank you!"

"I know, but you start off saying thanks, then it goes on to asking for a date, then it's kissing, and lastly it's making little abominations. I was simply making sure it didn't end up getting out of hand by preventing any early progress."

"You're a real stuck-up bitch who doesn't realize when a 'thank you' is just a 'thank you', you know that?"

"Beats being a lowly human."

"Goddamnit. Okay, you know what? I'm just going to finish handing you this key then let you be all alone out here with your damn mech."

He started walking towards his house when he turned around and said:

"That thing's ugly too."

And went on his way again.


"ICHIGOOOOOO" yelled out Isshin and Yuzu in unison while they crashed through Ichigo's door, both doing a flying kick, daughter imitating father.

"Goddamnit…" muttered Ichigo as he recovered from the sudden and loud intrusion which just woke him up.

"Ichigo, we just wanted to remind you that it's 'Bring your daughter to work day' down at the office, and Yuzu really wanted me to bring her along, and Karin didn't seem to care much about it." said Isshin.

He leaned closer to Ichigo and raised his hand next to his own mouth.

"I bet she's just shy." he whispered.

There was a short pause before Ichigo sighed and finally answered.

"If by 'office' you mean 'downstairs where your medical practice is', then yes I know about it since that's all you two talked about during supper last night."

"Because it's gonna be such an exciting and awesome day!" they both yelled.

"And I recall Karin just looking at you two like you were morons when you asked her."

"Maybe she just didn't want to be introduced to some of my coworkers because of any possible embarrassment." replied Isshin.

"What, 'Karin, meet Mr. Hospital Bed?' 'Ms. Scalpel meet my daughter Karin' ?"

"Ahhh hahaha, Ichigo you big joker. You're sure to make a woman fall for your wits some day." said Isshin with a big proud smile on his face.

"You're just avoiding my question."

"Well Yuzu, shall we go prepare for today? We gotta make sure we have a good breakfast before heading off!"

"How about pancakes along with eggs and toast?"

"Ooooo, that sounds super! Kurosaki Team, prepare for takeoff!"

They both put their arms straight out on either side and faced the doorway.

"T-minus…three…two…one…SUPER-KUROSAKI-LIFTOFFF!"

And with that they both ran out of Ichigo's room and down the stairs making airplane sounds.

"Why me?..." said Ichigo with his head lowered.


After getting dressed, Ichigo went downstairs to the kitchen.

"Oh no! Yuzu, we gotta hurry making the pancakes otherwise we'll end up running late and the boss will chew me out! He's a real stickler for being on time, and on top of that he'll probably lecture me about how being late translates as being a bad role model for my child!"

"No! We have to hurry then!"

"Guess I have no choice but to use my super-secret-Kurosaki-Isshin-style-pancake-making-speeder-uper technique!"

"Oooooo" said Yuzu with a look of amazement and anticipation.


After the fire trucks had left, Ichigo approached his father who was busy comforting Yuzu after they had lost their pancakes (along with a few other things).

"What were you honestly thinking would happen after using that?"

"Oh, I just assumed that it would speed up the pancake-making so that Yuzu and I could make it to work on time without having empty tummies."

"…"

"Ah come on, it could've happened to anybody really. I'm just glad nothing too bad happened."

Yuzu, sniffling a bit, nodded in agreement.

"It's written right under the product name to never put that thing anywhere within a mile of an open flame."

"I was in a hurry!"

"The warning is written even bigger than the product name is!" yelled Ichigo, exasperated.

"I think I'm gonna write the company a letter demanding some explanations. They need to take some responsibility for the lives they put at risk with a shoddy product!"

"Yeah!" said Yuzu raising her clenched fist towards the sky like her father had just done.

"I can't believe this…" muttered Ichigo.

"Neither can I, old friend slash son of mine. But someone has to be willing to step forward and speak up! Otherwise, if we all keep silent, tragedies such as these will just

propagate unchecked!"

Ichigo muttered some more under his breath, and when he raised his head back up he saw that a chunk of the house was (still) missing.

"Ah, you're wondering what happened there Ichigo?"

Ichigo turned towards his father while the latter was explaining, slightly cautious about the words that would follow.

"Well, it turns out", continued Isshin "that a movie is being filmed in the neighbourhood! Can you believe it?"

"A what?"

"You heard me right, Ichigo! A movie taking place right here in our little quaint community."

"And what's the movie about?"

"That's the best part! It's apparently gonna be an action-romance-adventure-drama-super-mega-mecha movie!"

"And what does any of this have to do with our house?"

"Well, apparently while they were filming, they destroyed part of our house for a mid-movie fight scene!"

"And…are they gonna pay to rebuild it or something?"

"Not a cent!"

"It's useless Ichigo", said Karin, the more level-headed of his relatives. "They don't even care if there aren't any movie companies that have any kind of permit to film anywhere near this city, or if there weren't even any kind of filming crews nearby, or even the fact that the entire thing was explained in a letter left in our mailbox this morning, with the entire text containing heart-dotted-i's and what looked like a crudely-drawn picture of a rabbit or hamster."

Ichigo looked around after hearing someone talking not too far away.

"What's with that reporter over there?" he asked Karin.

"I'll be happy to answer that question Ichigo!" yelled Isshin as he inexplicably started doing the Twist.

"Oh God, why." Ichigo said in a low voice as he held his hand to his face again.

"You see, apparently someone thought there was some kind of earthquake or terrorist attack or something, which was actually the movie being filmed, and called some news company, and they sent a reporter and cameraman in order to investigate what had happened." he explained.

"That doesn't explain you doing the Twist."

"Or does it?"

"No, I don't think it does."

"I'll take that as a challenge to a dance-off!"

"What!"

"You're free to back down, but that means forfeiting, just so you're aware."

"Just-…God-…Damnit, screw you." said Ichigo before leaving to go back inside the house.

"Another victory for the great Kurosakisshin!" he yelled as he held both his arms outstretched towards the sky.

"Yay!" shouted Yuzu.

Karin silently proceeded to follow her older brother inside the house while trying to prevent either of her other relatives from noticing her presence as she did so.


"Kurosaki!" said Ichigo's teacher loudly as she threw a piece of chalk at his head.

"You're dozing off during homeroom, that's something new."

"Yeah…"Ichigo said while rubbing his eyes. "Didn't get much sleep last night."

"Well, in that case you should plan your day better so that you can get the recommended amount of sleep, don't you think?"

"Yes, ma'am…"

"Good, now if I catch you dozing off again, you get detention for the rest of the week."

"MA'AM! DOES THAT MEAN I CAN DOZE OFF IN HIS PLACE?" shouted Keigo.

The chalkboard eraser colliding with his face answered his question.


Later, Ichigo watched the tv with horror as a clip of his father doing the Twist appeared on a national television evening news program.