In the Netherworld-

Sullivan was excited for his trip to the human world to meet his family. He would admit, that until the black paper invitation had crossed his desk, he had all but forgotten about the fact that he even had family there.

Especially since the only family that he could recall having left was his nephew, Isshin Shiba. The son of his late younger brother who had been born in Soul Society.

Sullivan had only met the boy once when Isshin had still been very young and while he had become attached to him rather quickly. He had been unable to find him around his twenty-sixth birthday, so that he could bring him to the Netherworld and had eventually assumed that the lad had perished when he had gone missing in the human world over twenty years ago.

Yet the second that he had picked up the invitation, he had felt the thrum of all too familiar mana flowing into him and he had known that Isshin was alive and well.

The invitation, once he finally managed to turn his attention back to it, had explained everything.

Isshin had met and married a human woman shortly after his disappearance and they had had three beautiful children. All girls, and all sweet and charming in their own way, Sullivan would bet. Isshin's eldest child was turning twenty-six in a few days and his nephew had sent the invitation to him to inform him that he was to be present to gift his eldest child with a demon inheritance of some kind.

To say that Sullivan had been pleasantly surprised in a multitude of ways, would be an understatement. He had become so excited that he had practically bolted from his study to begin packing for the trip.

Ever since then he had tried to think of what sort of inheritance to give to his nephew's eldest child. And he'd finally come up with and settled on an idea.

If Isshin hadn't disappeared, then he would have taken him as his heir. So why not do the same for his nephew's eldest daughter?

His home could do with a woman's touch. And he and his security devil, Opera were just...so pitiful on their own. Sure, they managed to go about their day-to-day tasks just fine. But they got bored so easily.

And women were nice!

They were softer, sweeter, and so very pretty to look at. And He and Opera would just love having one around.

Opera would get to show off some of those skills that he prided himself in so much and Sullivan would finally have someone he could love and dote on.

After all, what woman wouldn't like to be adjourned in jewels and expensive fabrics. Or to go out shopping as often as she liked. It was a win-win!

Of course, containing his excitement was difficult. In the days counting down to the trip, Sullivan had conversed with his security devil on a multitude of subjects to distract himself. And he had gone about his usual duties as the principal of the demon school Babyls, and one of the thirteen crowns.

However, everyone around him was making things so very difficult for him.

So much so that he finally snapped and decided to call a meeting among the teachers and staff of Babyls to announce that he was going to finally have an heir.

Opera, of course was next to him on the stage in the auditorium to keep an eye on things and step in if need be while his master made his announcement.

"Everyone, I have the most wonderful news!" Sullivan started. "In one day's, time I will be going on a trip to finally collect my heir and bring them home! Which means that all of you will finally get to meet the person who may one day replace me as not only the Principal and Chair demon of Babyls school but as one of the Thirteen Crowns as well."

The auditorium was full of people so completely stunned by Sullivan's words that Opera could almost hear devi-crickets chirping somewhere outside the building.

His tail gave a twitch behind him as his master then decided to gush, "My heir is a girl, so everyone will have to be really nice to her- especially you Kalego. You will make her cry if you aren't nice. And then I'll have to chastise you."

Said demon sputtered in outrage at being singled out by Sullivan, and then shouted while he shook one of his fists, "I am nice you ancient lack witted fool!" Which only seemed to prove Sullivan's point about him not being nice.

Several people sniggered while others outright laughed at their co-worker's display of temper.

They would likely suffer for it later. But whatever, they would laugh when they could since the coming days were likely to be even more chaotic than usual.

"Oh yes, I'll have to assign someone from the school to act as a guard for my precious heir too. Hn...now who should it be?" Sullivan wondered aloud as he tried to think of who would be best for the position.

Opera sighed and leaned in a bit to whisper in his master's ear. "Sir, do not say anymore. You have yet to even meet your heir. You're boasts will only cause us trouble in the future if things do not work out."

Sullivan jolted a bit at the quiet words and knew that Opera was right to advise him against saying anything more right then. So, he abruptly ended the meeting and then walked off to think about some things.

Thankfully, the demon wasn't bombarded by anyone with questions about his heir once he was outside, so he was able to manage to get back to his office easily. Even if Opera did find him pretty easily.

The security devil was slipping silently inside of Sullivan's office window when he found his master looking a bit depressed. And instantly felt bad for dampening his master's spirits.

"Sir?"

"Hn? Oh, hello Opera." Sullivan said in an absent manner that had the younger demon's ears drooping.

"What's wrong?" He asked in concern as he uncurled his long legs so that his feet were planted on the floor of his master's office.

"Well, I was just thinking. What if my heir doesn't like me? I mean, I'm a virtual stranger even if we are related. And not everyone can handle the affections of a demon. So, what if she dislikes me? Or doesn't want to be my heir? Or what if she already has a life in the human world and doesn't want anything to do with moving here?"

Opera listened to his master's rambling in silence while trying to find the right words to say to make the elderly demon feel better. He had never seen his master like this before. Well, okay he had- back a few hundred years ago when the demon king had first vanished. But...that was different due to specific circumstances.

After all, the king was a far cry from his master's own flesh and blood.

"You were so excited before Sir, that I can't help but wonder where your insecurities are coming from? They are uncharacteristic for a demon such as yourself."

Sullivan was quiet for a few moments before finally speaking. "It's just... I haven't had a family in a long time. And I can't help but wonder if I'll ever have that sort of closeness with another/others again. I missed out on so many chances to have it again back when I was younger."

Opera tilted his head a bit as he studied his master before finally saying, "That is true. However, I'm sure that once your heir meets you...she will love you," As I do, went unsaid by Opera. But Sullivan understood his security devil's meaning easily and gave him a small, smile as the younger demon then asked, "Would you like if I went with you tomorrow to meet your heir?"

"Yes, please."

"Alright, I'll go with you." Opera said as he walked over to his master and wrapped his arms around the older demon and hugged him.

Human world-

It took Ichigo two and a half days to finally calm everyone down. Especially the Soul Reapers.

And while she couldn't exactly blame anyone for being riled or upset about the impending arrival of her dad's kin. She couldn't exactly blame anyone for planning out certain security measures to protect her from her dad's... relative either.

Especially given how bad it could be if she were to be taken by someone nefarious and malicious minded. Still...she at least wished that her many, many concerned friends hadn't stayed for the past few days and then finally left at nearly three in the morning.

Her head was hurting, and she just wanted to get some sleep before her birthday since it was already shaping up to be a fiasco in the making.

She squirmed a little bit on her bed in an effort to get comfortable, but all she managed to do was knock her pillow and a few other things- like the couple of plush toy rabbits that her sister Yuzu had made for her as gifts- onto the floor.

"Aw, dammit." She muttered tiredly.

Sure, she knew that she could just wave her hand and her stuff would jump up from the floor and back onto her bed, but she didn't want to use any energy for that since it was a silly ability. And despite how tired she was at present, she wasn't lazy enough to resort to the use of her power.

Rolling over to the edge of her bed, the settled on her side and reached down and grabbed the pillow and her toys and dumped them all back onto her bed, just above where her head was resting on the mattress.

She was about to stuff her pillow underneath her head and hug one of the toys to her chest for comfort when she heard a soft knock on her bedroom door and let out a frustrated sound of annoyance before calling out, "Come in."

She would have to remember to get a sign for her door that said something like, I'm sleeping, wake me at your own risk. But then if she did get one, she'd probably abuse it by refusing to leave her room to speak to anyone unless she was hungry.

A second or so later her dad poked his head into her room and smiled at her despite the fact that she was sort of glaring at him. "What do you need, dad?" She asked as she slowly pushed herself up until she was sitting on the bed.

"I came to give you the birthday gift that I found you." He said as he slipped into her room and then gently shut the door behind him. He walked over to her desk and turned on the small lamp there, and then held a big box out to her. "It's actually more than one gift, but I wanted to see if you liked them." He explained as Ichigo took the box from him and set it in her lap.

She frowned down at the box because of the size, automatically knowing that part of it was likely expensive clothing of some kind. But she knew that she wouldn't be able to get any rest until she opened it and looked inside.

Sighing quietly, she slipped the lid off of the box and peeled back the layers of crinkly paper to find a beautiful, violet colored dress.

"Can you see it well enough?" Her dad suddenly asked before moving to turn on her ceiling light and blinded her temporarily given how she hissed. But once her eyes adjusted to the abrupt glow in the room, she could see the dress much more clearly.

She had been wrong about the color of the dress though; it wasn't violet as much as it was a pretty plum purple color. Tilting her head ever so slightly, she pulled it from the box and took a moment or so to look it over.

To be honest, dresses weren't her thing. But the one that she held in her hands honestly took her breath away a bit.

The dress was the height of fashion, the fabric was made of shimmery satin that seemed to change color in the light. Plum purple one second and black the next. Not only that but it had a heart shaped neckline with what looked like black feathers attached to it. There were more black feathers attached to the hem of the floor length skirt, and a black boa was sitting in the box too.

Ichigo took an extra minute to look the dress over before finally setting it aside carefully, and then peeking back into the box to find black lace gloves, some fingernail polish to match the dress, a shade of lipstick that was red, but still matched the dress. Some crystal hair combs with black feathers attached to them as accents. And then there was the jewelry.

White gold and diamonds with what looked like blood red rubies accents. There was a necklace, ring, earrings and bangle bracelet to complete the whole look.

"Well?"

"They're beautiful." She said honestly as she fingered one of the pieces of jewelry.

"I'm glad that you think so, because you're getting married in that dress and the jewels." Isshin said with a wide grin.

Ichigo snorted in amusement but agreed with him. Considering how much everything must have cost him, she would indeed be wearing the dress and other things for her wedding one day.