Ichigo wasn't sure why things like this kept happening to her. All she knew was that the universe and its many deities seemed to like doing weird things to her for shits and giggles.

To begin with, she had made it to the toilet in time to pee.

Which was wonderful since she had absolutely no desire whatsoever to look Opera in the eye and explain to him that she'd had an accident of any kind.

Some things simply couldn't and shouldn't be done. Ever. Especially since said cat demon was trying to court her.

Second of all, while in the bathroom she had discovered that she was beginning to spot a bit. Which was normal for her to do a day or two before her period. And while it wasn't bad or anything, it still constituted the necessity of a pad.

And thankfully after looking for a few minutes, she found a few...million of them?

They were all in a hidden compartment underneath her bathroom sink, but they were there.

So, she pushed any questions that she had about their hiding place aside and grabbed what she needed plus a few extra for the next day or so and then went about her normal morning routine.

She brushed her teeth and took a bath and made sure to clean herself completely since she was sort of freaking out about how she must smell right then to Opera's enhanced senses. Once that was done, she drained the bath and then grabbed a towel and wrapped herself in it so that she could dry off.

It was right around then that she realized that she had forgotten to grab any clothes earlier.

Hanging her head for a second, she wondered if she could just stay in the bathroom for the next few hours instead of leaving it to face whatever ridiculousness Opera likely had in store for her today.

She hadn't thought about things overly much before since she'd needed to pee so bad and had just woken up, but now that she had had a little bit to really wake up and stuff- she realized that she had basically given Opera the green light to continue courting her.

Now don't get her wrong, she liked Opera.

He was a very blunt, and honest guy. He was also mischievous, playful, hardworking and decent. And while she somewhat wished that he had approached her at a much later time- by maybe a few years. She couldn't find it in herself to be all that upset with him for wanting to court her.

No matter how out of the blue it was.

She knew that she could definitely do worse for herself.

She just wished that she understood how the whole courtship thing was supposed to go. Like what were the steps? Were there even steps? Or was it something that was random and left up to the courting demon's discretion?

Was she supposed to do something in particular to reject or reciprocate?

She didn't know any of the answers, so she wasn't really sure how things were going to pan out further down the line. And that worried her immensely.

She wasn't sure just how long she stayed in the bathroom thinking things like that over, but it must have been quite a while. So much so that Opera decided to see if she was okay.

She heard him open the door just a tad, but when she looked, she couldn't see him peeking in. So, there was that at least as she heard him say, "My apologies, Miss but you have been in the bathroom for quite some time. And I was growing worried that perhaps something had happened to you."

Translation: You're taking a longer time that I thought you would, and I wanted to see if you have drowned in the bathtub.

"Message received, Opera." Ichigo called out. "I'm coming out now."

"I will await you, Miss." She heard him say politely as he moved away from the door.

Ichigo sighed and then took a second to slap both of her cheeks to make her mind go blank. She instantly regretted it due to how much it hurt but she managed to shrug any discomfort off as she walked towards the door.

Opera was indeed waiting for her when she stepped out of the bathroom, and after she paused for a second to wave at him, she made a beeline for her dresser to grab some panties and a bra when he suddenly spoke up and suggested, "Choose either a black set or a red set." As he brushed by her to go into the bathroom.

"Huh?" She said questioningly, idly wondering why he would suggest she wear one of those colors for a school day as she heard him moving around in the bathroom before suddenly smelling smoke.

She turned her head to glance towards the room, hoping that she was simply imaging the smell, but the whisps of dark smoke escaping the bathroom told her that she wasn't imagining anything. Something was actually on fire.

"Opera!" She called out, feeling just a bit panicked.

"Yes Miss?" He replied as he poked his head out of the room to see what she wanted.

"What's burning?" She asked warily.

"You're school uniform." He said in a totally unrepentant tone.

"What?!" She shrieked as she dropped the underwear in her hands and ran to the bathroom to see if she could save what was left of her uniform. But was forced to back off when he stepped out of the bathroom and placed himself in front of the door and refused to budge when she tried to force him to.

And he...stopped her with a simple boop to the nose which caused her to go completely and utterly still in shock. Chuckling at what had to be a pretty funny expression on her face, Opera then took several moments to explain himself.

"Since I am courting you, and you have given me permission to proceed...I have decided to give you a courting gift. You will wear it today instead of your normal uniform."

Ichigo's mind finally started working again and an argument was already forming on the tip of her tongue as he went on to say, "I know how you feel about dresses, as well as how subconscious you can be about the scars on your body. That is why I selected my gift very carefully with both of those things in mind. I cannot force you to like my gift, but...I at least hope that you will regardless."

She scowled at him but inevitably said, "I get that, but burning my uniform is cheating."

"Perhaps. But I find that I'm very eager to see you wearing my gift." Opera said with a cat like grin as Ichigo heaved a sigh and then muttered for him to show the damn dress to her.

She couldn't help but wonder when she'd become such a push over around others as he took hold of her shoulders, spun her around and then led her over to the bed where the dress and other things were laid out for her to see.

Ichigo kind of felt as if she'd just been punched in the stomach- though not in a bad way. Opera had obviously put a lot of thought into his gift, everything from the design of the dress to the color and accents were meant to entice her with feelings or specialness and beauty. And dammit it was working!

Honestly, she was left stunned speechless. She simply didn't know what to say. So, she once she was able to articulate her thoughts again, she said the only thing that seemed to be going through her mind right then.

"Okay."

Opera had been patiently waiting for her to say something about the dress and was utterly thrilled that his mistress had relented and was going to wear his lovely gift. So much so that he wasted absolutely no time at all in telling her that he would style her hair for her, and even do her makeup.

All she had to do was put her underwear on while he went into the bathroom to collect the items he needed.

Opera was nothing but meticulous while he worked on her hair and makeup.

He was determined to make his mistress the physical embodiment of love and desire. Opera wanted his mistress to be compared to the legendary demoness, Lilith.

The perfect woman.

Of course, he already knew that there was no such thing as a perfect woman.

Everyone had flaws. Even him. But that didn't mean that one couldn't ignore said flaws especially while courting someone with the intention of settling down with them.

Besides, he had his reasons for doing this.

And it wasn't just the fact that he was courting her. Though that did play a major role in his actions at the moment. No- making his mistress one of the most desirable women in the Netherworld also had to do with the fact that he had yet to prove his prowess in battle to her.

Sure, they had sparred, and she had likely calculated his strength and ability the same way that he had with her. But it wasn't the same as seeing someone go all out in battle. And if there was one thing that his mistress needed to learn about courting a demon- it was that male demons tended to be very, very possessive of their mates. Even the potential ones.

Besides, unless he could provoke a few other males- even some younger ones- into battling him for her affections, then he wasn't sure how to proceed to the next step of their courtship.

Setting the brush that he had just finished using to paint her lips a fetching shade of ruby red, he took a moment to lean back and carefully examine his handywork.

"Perfect." He muttered in satisfaction as he watched his mistress's eyes flutter open once she realized that he was finally finished with her.

"How do I look?" She asked warily, despite the fact that she had just heard him speak. "Do I look like a clown? I promise that I won't be upset if I do. Especially since most people find them terrifying."

Opera gave a breathy chuckle at her strange sense of humor before saying firmly. "You look breathtaking, Miss. Very regal."

"I'm the furthest thing from regal, and we both know it." She said to him absently as she looked over herself in the mirror.

Opera merely cocked his head at the comment but decided to ignore it.

While his mistress may have certain inclinations towards unladylike behavior, he felt that that wasn't her fault. In fact, he blamed her father for almost all of her unladylike tendencies. Though he knew that her working with the Soul Reapers had likely attributed to some things as well.

After all, an impressionable young lady shouldn't spend so much time around rowdy, soldiers.

Though he had no doubt that his mistress had enjoyed her time amongst them, he also knew that she had picked up some very questionable habits while there. But he also knew that his mistress chose to apply what she had learned from those Soul Reapers to certain everyday things.

And while he disliked how many of them had betrayed her and treated her as if she were disposable to them- he couldn't argue with the results of what they had taught her.

He was pulled from his thoughts when she turned away from the mirror and said to him, "Holy crap you've turned me into Cinderella. I actually look like a frigging princess!"

He blinked at her, caught off guard by the words. But took them as a compliment anyway.

She hadn't had any time for breakfast by the time Opera had let her know that they had spent far too much time getting her ready. And while she was a bit bummed about that since she hadn't eaten anything the evening before, Opera had been prepared for her to miss breakfast.

He had handed her a bento and winked at her and then told her that he was going to go and get the carriage for her. After that he walked away and left her waiting while he wrangled her grandpa and then went outside to pull the carriage around while she went into the bathroom to grab her pads and stuff them into her school bag after putting one on.

Once that was done, she grabbed her bento box, her bag and tried her best not to step on her long skirt as she headed out the door.

To say that her trip to school was full of gawking from her grandpa, would be an understatement. Her grandpa couldn't seem to make up his mind between snapping more pictures of her, crying, gushing over her beauty, or being a pest in general.

So, he did all of those things and annoyed the hell out of her the entire trip.