The little heart to heart that Sullivan and Opera had had turned out to be what the two of them had needed. Mostly because it had been a chance for the two of them to air any grievances between them. Which, there were none.

But it also gave a bit more insight to what Opera was thinking, regarding Ichigo.

Sullivan couldn't help but feel as if he should do something to help his security devil in his quest to win his only grandchild over.

After all, from what little interaction he'd already had with Ichigo he could tell that she didn't know what to think of the Netherworld and its people yet.

He knew for a fact that she was still adjusting to her new life and probably wasn't very comfortable with herself or anything else. And there was nothing wrong with that, really.

Although he was somewhat puzzled about how easily she seemed to go with the flow of things.

Oh sure, he knew that it was simply her way of feeling certain things out to see just how far they would go. After all, she was a young lady that had been raised as a human all her life until recently. It couldn't be easy for her to life her entire life one way only to have it upended, and everything that she'd ever known thrown into chaos.

There were certain stark differences in human culture that stood out in the Netherworld.

For instance, the whole Cycle fiasco.

Humans took care of themselves- knowing that they weren't hunted or stolen or forcibly bonded to others during their reproductive cycles was interesting. It also freaked Sullivan out on so many levels that it wasn't funny.

After all, he couldn't understand why a race that was so weak would force their young to care for themselves during their cycles. Didn't they understand how horrifying and confusing things could be without proper care and guidance?

They could grow up traumatized!

Or entirely too independent minded, like Ichigo was.

Now, don't mistake Sullivan for wanting a clingy grandchild that was utterly helpless. Though that would be nice for a little while. No- given Ichigo's uniqueness and how she had lived up until now- he could understand the appeal of an independent minded child.

After all, Ichigo had to be self-sufficient just to survive on the many battlefields that she had found herself on over the years. And Sullivan knew for a fact that someone who wasn't self-sufficient wasn't going to be anything but a burden on others and would likely die pretty quickly.

So he was actually very glad that Ichigo was so good at taking care of herself in that regard.

Still...there were other differences that had stood out to him in her explanation about how she grew up the day before too. Which explained a lot about his granddaughter and how she had been forced to grow up into the person that she was now.

It didn't mean that he had to like a lot of those things though.

He had been thinking about everything that he knew about his grandchild for the past several hours. At least since the last wave of demons had attacked.

So, he was only vaguely aware of the fact that Opera had scampered off a short while ago to bathe and make himself a bit more presentable and had finally returned to collect his many, many trophies and other things.

The cat demon was finishing up, grabbing everything and wrapping it all in the shirt that he had discarded the night before and was tying the shirt closed when he finally said, "I will be going shortly, master." Jolting Sullivan out of his thoughts as aptly as taking a knife to the ribs would have.

"Hm? Is that so?" Sullivan asked, just a little bit curious about why Opera would want to leave when they were having so much fun together slaughtering their unwanted guests.

"Yes," Opera said, drawing the word out as a hiss as he stood up to his full height and tucked his trophies underneath one of his arms. "Mistress Ichigo should be waking soon and I want to be back so that I can report that you are indeed well and not dead somewhere in the house as she had feared."

Oh. Well, as far as reasons to leave went, Sullivan supposed that that was a pretty good one.

After all, he didn't want Ichigo to worry that anything had actually happened to him. Nor did he want his darling to decide to come searching for him either.

The room was an absolute mess, and he was wearing nothing but a handmade loincloth.

His dearest grandchild would likely faint from the shock of seeing him as he was now. And that simply wasn't good for either of them. Especially since she would be mad at him once she woke up.

"Oh, alright." Sullivan said, not really knowing what else to say.

"The young mistress will likely decide to come and check on you at some point herself, do try not to get yourself into any more trouble while I'm away." Opera said before then adding, "And please clean up your mess so that she doesn't go into shock when she finally see's you again." And then walked away, leaving Sullivan to look around the mess that used to be his living room with wide horrified eyes.

Oh devi! He would never be able to clean all of this on his own as he called after the security devil.

"Opera! I need help!"


Opera chuckled softly to himself when he heard his master's panicked, "Opera! I need help!" And pointedly ignored it since he had more pressing things to do.

First thing was first, he needed to stop by his room and drop his things off. Then once that was done, he would be going to his mistress's room and grabbing some fresh clothing, bathing supplies, and toiletries for her since the poor thing had had no choice but to remain in her soiled and blood covered clothing yesterday as well as last night.

It hadn't occurred to him right away that she would likely desire to clean up and other things. And he felt bad about his lack of foresight on the matter. However, he had been...distracted by everything that had happened the previous day.

So, hopefully he could make it up to her soon.

He also knew that he would have to get some extra things for the other children currently in their care. However, his desire to have them clean-up had much more to do with the fact that he didn't want their scents to upset his Mistress's delicate sensibilities. Not because he actually cared if they stank or were uncomfortable or not.

After all, they weren't his kids.

But regardless of that fact, he would see them cleaned up as well.

Reaching his room, he quickly unlocked the door and slipped inside and then placed his things on his bed. And then turned and went back out of the room and relocked the door behind him before walking away.

His next stop was his Mistress's room, as intended.

He reached her bedroom and gently opened the door half expecting to find her lying in her bed, sound asleep. And was just a bit saddened about the fact that she wasn't, despite knowing the reasons why.

Slipping into the room he made a beeline for her dresser and pulled out some clean undergarments, and then went to her closet and found a nice, comfortable black silk button up shirt and grabbed it before his eyes landed on a purple, black and blue plaid print skirt with little chains attached to it. He grabbed that too. And then he grabbed a few other things, just in case she didn't like his initial choice since she disliked skirts so much.

Once that was done, he laid everything out on her bed and then entered her bathroom where he was able to grab everything else. He even made sure to include some of the pads that she had wanted before exiting.

After that, he piled everything carefully and then lifted it all off of her bed and then left the room. Gently pulling the door closed with one of his feet as he went.

With that particular task out of the way, his next one was to find a room close enough to the 'training room' for his mistress to make use of while still giving her some privacy. Luckily, there were a number of bedrooms with bathrooms attached to them all over the mansion that could be used for this.

So, once he was almost back to the room where his mistress and the others were currently staying, he began looking for just the right room. And upon finally finding it after several minutes of searching- he got a giddy feeling while he went about setting the room up for his mistress's use.

The second that he was done, Opera took a moment to step back and look over his handywork with a critical eye before then nodding to himself in satisfaction. Everything looked perfect.

His mistress would undoubtedly love it.

And with that in mind, he then left the room and went to check on his mistress. After all, he had kept his end of their deal, so he wanted to make sure that she had kept hers.

Walking down the hall a short way to the training room, he grasped the doorknob and twisted it and then peeked inside to see what everyone was up to. Shichiro was still leaning against the wall where he had settled himself last night. The other two children were awake but appeared to be arguing amongst themselves about something.

And his mistress...was still lying in the bed where he had tucked her in, sound asleep. Which pleased him immensely since it meant that she had kept her word to rest.

Entering the room, he subtly waved at Shichiro who waved back as he moved to go over to the bed and see for himself just how deeply his mistress was sleeping.

Walking over to the bed, he carefully perched himself on the edge of the bed and took a moment to study his young mistress's sleeping face.

Ichigo was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful young ladies that Opera had ever laid eyes on. But it was more than her beauty that drew him. It was her innocence, compassion, and her strength that drew him like a moth to a flame. He simply didn't know how else to put it.

He coveted her. Irrevocably so.

Reaching out, he carefully brushed some of her hair back away from her face and then got up and removed himself from her side so that he wouldn't be tempted to do more than just touch her.


Ichigo wasn't sure how long she managed to sleep, but she knew that it was daylight when she finally woke up. She could tell due to the light streaming through the windows of the room.

Rolling over, she carefully pushed herself up so that she was sitting and took a few moments to look around the room to check everything.

"Master!" She heard Az cry happily as soon as his eyes locked on her sitting upright. She blinked her eyes at him, but gave a small, awkward wave to acknowledge the fact that she heard him.

"Ichi-ken!" Clara shrieked excitedly as she quickly jumped off of Shichiro's back where she had been hanging out and scampered so that she could attach herself to Ichigo. But was stopped when she was caught by the back of her shirt by Opera.

"Now, now, Mistress Ichigo has just awakened. Give her a little bit to eat and other things before you jump on her, alright?"

Clara whined a bit, but reluctantly complied and was eventually shooed off by the cat demon before he turned his attention back to Ichigo.

"Good morning, Miss. Did you rest well?"

"I think I slept like a rock." Ichigo said.

Opera hummed in agreement with her assessment. "I believe you may be right. You slept rather deeply."

"How was grandpa when you saw him?" She asked, her tone edging on worried.

"Your grandfather is doing just fine. I stayed with him for most of the time you slept- so he has been fed and waters adequately and will likely be expecting you to go and see him sometime today, if that is agreeable to you."

"That sounds good. But later. First I have some things that I need to do before that."

"Like perhaps bathing?" Opera suggested.

Ichigo got a funny look on her face for a second and then blushed a vivid shade of red as she internally screamed upon realizing that Opera was not only right, but she could smell herself. Like actually smell herself.

And if she could smell herself then there was also the fact that the others could smell her to.

Oh ew. She thought in horror as she lifted her hands to cover her face.

"You know what, a bath would be great." She said in a muffled, but mortified tone.

Opera's ears drooped a little bit upon realizing that he had accidentally made his Mistress feel bad. After all, it wasn't as if she could entirely help the fact that she had forgotten to bathe after killing some of the demons attacking their home.

She'd been distracted by everything that had been going on at the time and had simply forgotten to clean herself up. It hadn't really occurred to him any either since he had been pretty stressed out and teetering on the brink of going into his Wicked Phase.

"Forgive me for my carelessness, Miss. I did not intend to embarrass you." He said, feeling flustered by his misstep. Oh, what would he do if she never forgave him?

Ichigo eventually lowered her hands away from her face. Especially when Opera began to panic. The guy really had her attention at that point given the strange way that he was gesturing with his hands and stuff.

"I'm not mad," She said after watching him flounder for several moments. "I'm just...embarrassed that I didn't think of that before. BO isn't exactly pleasant under normal circumstances. I can't imagine what it's like when mixed with dried blood and sweat. Especially for those of you with a sharper sense of smell than mine. Talk about disgusting."

Opera stopped panicking and calmed almost immediately once he heard her say that she wasn't mad. However, hearing her talk about her scent as if it were utterly wretched made him somewhat irked. After all, she didn't smell gross or disgusting to him.

He very much doubted that she smelled like that to Shichiro, or her two friends either.

If anything, she smelled sweeter than she had before her cycle started. Sure, she had smelled sweet to begin with, but the ripeness that her scent carried at the moment was...mouth wateringly delicious.

He honestly wished that he could bottle her scent. If he could, then he would drown his stuff in his bedroom with it and happily spend the end of each day rolling around in it.

He took a small step towards her, wanting to tell her that but she clapped her hands together and then muttered, "I should really get out of this bed and get my day started. I need to eat something and then see what Az learned before he fell asleep so that I can begin his training."

She was rambling as she slipped out of the bed. Yet despite that fact, Opera couldn't help but think it was rather precious of his mistress to worry about such silly things so much.


An hour later-

Ichigo was circling Az as if she were channeling a vulture right then. Her red eyes locked on her friend's form, completely ignoring the way that the boy flushed and started to stammer out the words, "M-Master, w-what are you d-doing?"

She didn't answer him since she was intent on how he was holding himself.

Az was in a fighting stance at the moment, showing her what sort of form he had been taught by his martial arts teacher. It was a decent enough stance, she supposed. But his vitals were open. Every. Last. One.

Which was frustrating to her since she spent so much time correcting his stance to protect his vitals while allowing him a bit more speed to strike.

Once she was done adjusting his stance, she began to walk a slow circle around him again to double check her handiwork. She couldn't help herself. When it came to fighting, she liked to think of herself as a bit of a perfectionist. Especially when it came to beginners' stuff.

Upon finishing her latest walk around him, she finally deemed his stance suitable.

"Okay, now we're going to start with some light hand work." She said as she held her hands up with her palms flat. "You're going to stay in that stance and punch my hands. Okay?"

Az looked somewhat alarmed by her instructions, but it couldn't be helped. Usually for something like this she would have padded gloves to help protect her hands, but she didn't have those here. So, she had to simply improvise.

"Um...m-master are y-you sure that that's a wise idea?" Az asked as he cast a 'help me' glance towards Clara and the others. All of whom were watching them with a keen amount of interest.

"It's fine Az. You aren't going to hurt me any." She said as she motioned at him to go ahead with her fingers. Az looked hesitant for several seconds longer but still did as she bid him. Though she could tell that he was holding back out of concern for her.

The second that his fist hit her palm, she kicked his legs out from under him and sent him crashing to the floor. Az let out an indignant yelp but quickly got back to his feet and assumed his stance.

"Again."

He punched her palm a few times, this time a bit harder than before. She didn't kick his feet out from under him again unless she deemed it necessary. So, Az worked on his stance and punching her hands for a while, and then once her hands started to hurt a little bit, she decided to switch tactics and give him something else to work on. Like his footwork. And for that she decided to teach him a special exercise.

Kick boxing seemed like a good thing to start with. It was fairly easy to pick up as a fighting style and could easily be integrated into other fighting styles to help the one using it to stay unpredictable.

Az would be able to pick it up as easily as she had when she had first been taught. And once he mastered it, she could teach him something else.

First, she taught him how to stand, with his arms up, and his legs apart. She demonstrated to help him understand how to do it without her needing to correct him constantly and then waited for him to copy her. The second thing that she taught him was the footwork.

And once he got that done, she moved on to educate him on how to use them together by demonstrating. Az got the first few steps down easily and committed them to memory. Then once she was sure that he had them, she went on to demonstrate some of the other moves for him.

She had to do a few of them several times since she moved a bit on the fast side.

But once Az was able to see them better, he was able to execute the moves almost perfectly. Which made her very happy.

She had him run through the same movements that he'd just learned from her for an hour straight before finally stopping him so that he wouldn't overdo things any.

She made sure to tell him to practice for at least one or two hours daily. And then once he had it completely mastered then she'd show him some of the more complicated moves and combos to use when fighting.

Then she dismissed him to go and do whatever he wanted. Though she didn't say that aloud. If he got any particular ideas in his head about trying what he was learning on others- she was going to be pretty pissed at him. So, it was better for everyone if she didn't give her overly eager to please little duckling any ridiculous ideas.

Walking back towards the others with Az prattling about how wonderous the fighting style that she was teaching him was, she tuned him out and started thinking about seeing her grandpa.

It was a little bit before noon from what she could tell from the position of the sun in the sky. But then, she was also more or less guessing since she still didn't know much about the Netherworld just yet.

Opera was waiting for her once she made it back to, he and the others.

"That was a very interesting fighting style Miss." He said, apparently having questions about it. Or having taken a liking to it and wanted to learn it himself. Ichigo didn't care either way. "May I ask, how many fighting styles do you know?"

Ichigo did a funny full body jerk and looked at him with wide startled eyes while mentally turning the question over in her mind. How many fighting styles did she know?

To be honest most of what she knew was simply vicious street fighting with some martial arts thrown into it. Or at least that had been the case when she had been younger. But since becoming a Soul Reaper when she was fourteen, she had managed to train under assassins, and others with certain skills that were more professional and disciplined than not.

It took her a few seconds to go through her list of fighting disciplines, but by the time she was through she realized that she had learned at least ten different martial arts, and some other, more human ones too.

The list started at Karate and eventually ended with Kyudo- an archery-based combat style that she had learned with the help of Ginjo Kugo before he had revealed himself to be her enemy.

Either way, the list was extensive. Even by human standards.

"Officially I know more than ten various fighting disciplines. Each one focused on different areas of expertise ranging from self-defense, to killing techniques and stealth."

Opera's eyes went wide upon hearing this and he started to shiver and look as if he wanted to pounce on her as Az exclaimed excitedly, "Truly master? That is amazing! Will you be teaching me all of them?"

"I'm not sure if you would want to learn all of them. They take a lot of time to master. But I'll teach you as much as I think will best suite your own fighting style."

Az started sparkling at hearing her say that. And it was on the tip of her tongue to tell him to go and see a doctor about that since there was no frigging way that it was normal. But she bit back the words at the last second when Opera suddenly asked, "Do you think that you could teach me some?"

"Huh?" She said unintelligibly, not able to even form coherent thought because of his question. It had just blown her mind and needed a few minutes to reboot.

"As a security devil, it is my duty to protect and serve my master. But now I also serve you as well. Because of this, I am always looking for new ways to improve my skills in combat. The fact that you know so much about various fighting styles is good since it would make you the perfect person to teach me those combat styles so that I may better serve both you and your grandfather. Do you not agree, Mistress?"

It was a loaded question if Ichigo ever heard one. Especially since Opera was already more than lethal with what knowledge and training, he had already had in preparation for his job. Not to mention everything that he had learned after the fact.

So, she had no idea why he would honestly think that he needed to know more ways to hurt and kill people. Unless he was simply using the idea of learning more skills from her as a way to monopolize her time for the sake of their courtship.

Ah, that actually makes a ridiculous amount of sense. She thought as she stammered out weakly that she needed a bath in an effort to shift the conversation to something else. Something much, much safer. At least to her since her poor heart was beating freakishly fast in her chest.

However instead of simply giving up on his idea of monopolizing her time, Opera perked up visibly at the mention of her needing a bath and quickly pounced at the opening that she had unknowingly given him.

"I will go and run your bath for you, and then if you like I can even scrub your back for you." He suggested, knowing that she was already flustered and unlikely to be able to react to his words fast enough to argue with him.

"Huh?!" Ichigo said, startled by the very idea that he would want to stick around while she bathed. After all, she wasn't sure that that was even part of his job. And if it was, it was pretty suspicious.

Wait! Does this mean that he secretly scrubs Grandpa's back? She wondered as she got a mental image of her grandpa having his back scrubbed by Opera while soaking in a nice warm bubble bath. It was a very disturbing image, so she tried her best to get rid of it by thinking of something else.

Like puppies running across a meadow.

And once she was finally able to shake the nightmare-ish vision, she then turned to Az, Clara, and Shichiro and asked them. "Do you guys want to get cleaned up too? All of us have blood and other things on us- some more than others." She said as she cast a look in Shichiro's direction, and smiled when the giant demon did a funny little movement in place from embarrassment. "So, if you want, I can wait to take my bath until a bit later if any of you want to go first."

"I'll go!" Clara said loudly.

And as she started to get up, was quickly grabbed by the back of her shirt by Az who placed a hand over her mouth before saying, "We thank you for your thoughtfulness, master. But you should go first. This is your home after all. And you are the one currently in a frightful state."

Ichigo stared at Az hard for that jib. Especially since he made it sound as if she needed to bathe far more than they did. It kind of hurt her feelings a little bit. But it also kind of pissed her off too.

"No, no, Az. You're a literal mess yourself. I insist, you go first." She replied, hoping that the kid would catch onto the fact that she was giving off murder vibes now because of him.

She might have also been contemplating assigning a certain cat demon to semi drown him while attempting to 'scrub' his back. But thankfully, she didn't voice that fact. If she had, there would likely be no stopping Opera from carrying through with it.

"I'm with young Asmodeus," Shichiro chimed in. Though he tried to be a bit more tactful. "You need to be able to clean yourself up so that you do not fall prey to an illness of some kind."

"I understand that, however, while in this house the lot of you are partially my responsibility. Which means that your well-being, and health are as well. So, if you need to take a shower to destress, relax, or just because you want to feel better about something- then you should." She said with her hands on her hips.

"Master..." Az said, his eyes tearing up for some reason that she couldn't fathom.

Shichiro seemed to mull over her words for several heartbeats before finally saying, "Your right. However, you should still go first. We can wait."

Ichigo opened her mouth to argue with them some more when Clara let out a cackle and then suddenly tapped her pocket and pulled out something thin and stringy and held it up as she said, "This will solve our problem!"

It took Ichigo about two seconds to realize that Clara had created and was holding up a bathing suit top. It was a neon green color and was likely Clara's size. But Ichigo semi caught on to the girl's idea before blurting out, "You want to put Az in a two-piece bathing suit?"

She would wind up kicking herself for the silly question later. But for the moment all she could think was that the bathing suit didn't suit Az. Color or design-wise anyway.

Az sputtered in horror. And next to her Opera was awfully quiet.

Shichiro however, she could see shaking with barely suppressed laughter as she went on to say, "Don't get me wrong Clara. Az would look good in a two-piece bathing suit, but I think he'd also burn you to a crisp if you forced him to wear it. Besides, the color is off. Az would need something white, or black."

Said boy looked as if his soul had just left his body and he was nothing but an empty husk now as Clara giggled happily and began to create multiple bathing suites.

Swimming trunks for Shichiro and Opera. And a several one and two-piece suits for she, Az, and Ichigo.

Ichigo grabbed one of the few one pieces that Clara had created and looked at it with a critical eye. It was a nice, white suit with small multicolored polka dots on it. It was definitely cute without being overly feminine.

She liked it.

A few minutes after that, Ichigo found herself sitting chest deep in some warm water with bubbles in it, nestled between Opera's legs, with her back against his front while everyone else was spread out around the bath, relaxing or scrubbing themselves.

Her heart was beating so fast that it was a wonder that it hadn't burst through her ribs as she felt one of the cat demon's hands rest on her stomach as she felt him lean into her a little bit until his mouth was next to her ear. "Are you comfortable, Miss?"

She made a weird high pitch sound in response and swore that she could actually feel Opera's lips quirk up into a smile as he asked her, "Shall I scrub your back for you?" She made another sound and lifted her hands up out of the water to cover her face as she heard him chuckle softly.