The last few months had been riddled with changes for not just Ichigo and Mizuiro. But for Sullivan and Opera as well. Why, you ask?
Because it had been necessary to adapt to their new home as well as each other being in nearly constant contact with one another. Especially since they didn't know each other very well at first.
Sure Sullivan, Opera and Ichigo all worked on various things almost daily. And that usually meant that Mizuiro was typically on his own for a while.
Which was a little bit of an issue when one took how long was needed to learn various things such as the dangers, environment, proximity of other demons and being able to read their intentions- and many, many other things that they had yet to really learn into consideration. Among other things.
Not only that but he'd had a few bad days since they had come to the Netherworld as well. And on days like that, he ran fevers, had some trouble breathing, got sick to his stomach, and was in nearly constant discomfort or pain until he rebounded. Which usually took a few days of bed rest before he was feeling up to socializing for any length of time.
Naturally, when he was like that, Ichigo didn't like letting him stay alone even for a few minutes without doing something to ease his discomfort and pain so that he could rest a bit easier on days like that.
After all, she knew that if she did nothing, then he eventually suffered so much that he either started crying or screaming from it. So, she always made sure to help him before that ever happened.
This was doubly true now since she was at least partially sure that Sullivan and Opera weren't not only really very knowledgeable about his cancer, nor it's symptoms. But had probably also sort of forgotten that he was ill to begin with and thus had absolutely no clue about how to help him.
Though to be fair, she was fairly certain that they had sort of forgotten that he was ill to begin with since they both had had a lot on their plates after their adoption.
She couldn't exactly blame them for that when she was more or less covering for him so that they wouldn't be able to notice. Though when she helped him- there was usually a backlash of sorts that she tended to suffer. In laymen's terms, she suffered as if she were the one dying instead.
Granted her suffering was more along the lines of phantom pains a lot of the time such since she wasn't actually the one with cancer- but even so- it didn't stop her from being able to feel a small amount of what Mizuiro felt.
Last night had been one of his bad nights.
Lately he seemed to have more of them than usual. Or at least it looked that way to Ichigo, anyway. And unlike the other times before, she felt as if her insides were being shredded. The sensation made her double over a bit as she slipped out of his bedroom to go back to her own, gasping for breath.
Oh god it hurt. She'd never felt sort of pain this before.
Not when her bones had shattered. Not when she'd have organs rupture, and not even when she'd been killed by Ulqiorra when she'd gone to Hueco Mundo to save Orihime from Aizen's grasp.
Her vision blurred and then when she tried to straighten her spine to walk back to her room, her vision went double, and she bent over coughing. There was a metallic taste in her mouth like she'd been putting pennies in her mouth, and she knew it was blood. She just didn't know where it was coming from since Mizuiro tended to either cough up blood from the back of his throat as byproduct of his screaming, or blood from his stomach.
Her stomach churned with nausea. She lifted an arm to use the back of her hand to cover her mouth, hoping that the feeling would fade in a second or so, but it didn't.
Unknown to her Opera was already up and going about his morning duties.
He came upon her and saw her weaving where she stood and panicked. He called out to her a time or two, trying to see if she was alright. But when she didn't respond, he then rushed to her and scooped her up in his arms and tried to think of what he should do.
After all, he had no idea what had caused her to collapse to begin with and thus had no clue of how to help his lady.
To his knowledge, limited as it was- the Soul King was supposed to be immune to all forms of illnesses and diseases. So, seeing her like this even though he didn't know what was wrong... Whatever had managed to lay her low, it was bad.
Really, really bad.
The situation got much worse when she tried to speak to him, her voice weak and trembling. Yet he managed to make out the words, "Mizuiro, sick." And then her softly spoken, "Sorry." before her eyes slid closed and she went totally limp in his arms. Squeezing her body close to his chest, Opera's mind worked frantically as he took off running through the house as fast as he could to find his master.
He knew that he needed to check on the young master, but for the moment his lady's life was the priority. He would return shortly to see if Mizuiro was alright. Until then the young man that his lady called her son simply had to be on his own.
A growl escaped him as he thought of possibly failing at his duty to protect even one of his wards. The utter feeling of failure wasn't one that he appreciated. And if anything happened to his lady- someone was going to pay, dearly.
Thankfully, his master was easy enough to find since the elderly demon had yet to awaken from his sleep. So, once Opera reached his master's room and kicked in the large and heavy wooden doors- which had not only woken up his poor tired master but put him on alert as well.
He took one look at Opera cradling Ichigo in his arms and leaped out of his bed and crossed the room to where Opera stood and gently took his child from the security devil as Opera gave him what information he had for the moment.
Which was both helpful and at the same time not.
Sullivan knew very little about human's and how they functioned. So, he wasn't entirely sure what to do. But he visibly bristled a bit when Ichigo coughed up a small bit of blood that the elder used his fingertips to wipe away as he looked at his security devil and started giving him instructions.
"Opera, call Balam to come here immediately. Tell him that this is an emergency, and his expertise may be of use. Then go and check on Mizuiro and awaken Rukia and bring her here to answer some questions."
"You think that she may know what is wrong with our lady?" Opera asked, narrowing his eyes slightly in displeasure as his master replied.
"I think if Mizuiro is ill, then it's possible that the both of them could be suffering from the same ailment. And if that is the case then Rukia is the next best person to answer my questions about this situation. Beyond that though, if Mizuiro's vitals are stable then let him rest for now and we'll see what we can find out while we wait for Balam to come and examine them."
"Yes sir." Opera said as he quickly spun on his heel and ran off to do as his master bid him.
Leaving Sullivan to take Ichigo over to his bed and gently place her on it and make her as comfortable as possible. He fluffed a few of his pillows and used them to semi prop her up so that if she started coughing up more blood then at least she wouldn't choke on it. He also made sure to pull his heavy covers up to her chin too. Not wanting whatever was wrong to become more of an issue if she caught a chill.
Then once he was done with those things, he climbed back into his bed and wrapped his large body around Ichigo's own with his wings out and one spread up over one of his shoulders so that it was protectively covering her just like a living blanket.
He wasn't sure how long it took Opera to return, but when he did, he had a grim expression on his face as well as Rukia tossed over one of his shoulders. And from the sound of the small woman's voice, she was not only wide awake but terribly confused too.
"What is going on? Put me down right now!"
Opera obliged her by unceremoniously dropping her at his feet. She yelped upon landing on her butt and whined a little bit. Opera merely crossed his arms over his chest with an unimpressed look on his face and stared at her unblinkingly as she growled at him.
"What the hell did you do that for?!"
"Rukia." Sullivan said, his voice deeper and colder than it usually was. Catching the woman's attention instantly and wiping any confusion from her mind. He could see understanding in the subtle change in her expression as she quickly got to her feet and scampered over to his bed and leaned over Ichigo to check her.
Reaching out, the guard placed one of her tiny hands against one of Ichigo's pale cheeks and frowned as she asked. "Was she with Mizuiro before she became like this?"
Opera's tail flicked behind him in agitation as he replied. "She said something about him being sick."
"Did you check on him?" Rukia asked next.
The security devil nodded his head and answered, "There were signs that he had been coughing up blood earlier. However, his vitals are strong and steady. There was no trace of any ailment to have caused this that I could see."
"That's because Ichigo sort of took it from him." Rukia said as she pried one of her friend's eyes open to check her pupil dilation and then took her pulse before backing off a bit.
"Ichigo's been doing this for a while now. Usually when she takes Mizuiro's suffering and discomfort from him, she winds up suffering it in his place. The good news is that she'll sleep for an hour or two and be up and on her feet again. But she'll be a bit weak from the strain for at least another few hours after that."
"When you say that she takes suffering and discomfort from Mizuiro... What exactly do you mean?" Sullivan asked.
"Don't you know?" Rukia asked in surprise as she looked between the two demons before adding slowly. "He's dying from a disease called cancer. Cancer of the lungs- I think?" She paused for a second to think before then tacking on, "I heard Ichigo speaking with him about it about a month ago after a visit to the doctor and she said something about his cancer having metastasized and spread to something. But I can't really remember where."
Both Sullivan and Opera were quiet, their mind working frantically.
Neither demon had ever heard of any abilities that allowed one person to take another's pain and suffering away before. Nor had they ever heard of any type of magic that allowed such a thing either. Aside from healing spells that is. But this didn't appear to be the work of any kind of healing spell that they had ever heard of.
This, whatever it was, was confusing and didn't make much sense to them. At all.
"Her life isn't in any danger, is it?" Opera asked, sounding worried. Which was understandable. Sullivan was worried as well. But weirdly, Rukia didn't seem to be worried very much. And that went a long way towards easing his concerns a bit.
"No. Ichigo's life isn't in any danger. Despite the fact that she's taking Mizuiro's suffering into herself, it isn't the same as taking on the exact same physical damage to her blood or organs. It's literally impossible for the cancer to begin affecting her as it does him. Especially since she's immune to all forms of disease and illness."
"But there was blood..." Sullivan said, sounding unsure of whether or not he should be concerned after all.
Rukia held a hand up and then leaned over Ichigo again and this time pried her mouth open and peeked inside for a second before making a triumphant sound and then announcing as she withdrew her hand, "She bit the inside of her cheek. So, the blood was probably from that."
Both demons blinked at her and then visibly sagged with relief.
Opera wound up in a squatting position not too far away from the bed with his arms wrapped around his knees and his face hidden, muttering something underneath his breath. While Sullivan recovered from his relief quickly and sighed.
There were several heartbeats of silence when Rukia suddenly asked, "Would you two like me to show you a small trick to help get Ichigo back to normal sooner?"
Both demons snapped to attention so quickly that it startled her. Especially when they began to crowd her a little bit and then started to bombard her with questions.
"A trick?"
"What kind?"
"Will it really help?"
"Is it difficult?"
"Is it dangerous?"
"Show us! Show us!"
Rukia held her hands up a bit in surrender and quickly told them both to give her a little bit of breathings room. Both demons backed off, but not entirely as they waited for her to show them what to do to help their heir/lady feel better.
"Okay, to begin with, what Ichigo used to take Mizuiro's suffering from him is a form of magic. And because of that it can be disrupted a bit. The first thing that you want to do, is check her breathing. Depending on whether or not she's able to breathe very well- helps to determine the amount of strength that you want to use to disrupt the spell a bit."
Rukia showed them how to check Ichigo's breathing by laying her head on her friend's chest and shushing them when Sullivan started to say something. After all, silence was sometimes necessary to hear correctly.
Then once that was done, she lifted her head and used one hand to tuck a few strands of her dark hair behind one of her ears and then started to explain again.
"Her breathing is ragged, as if she's been running a long distance. And she isn't wheezing for breath. So that's a good sign. Next, you want to focus a small amount of reiatsu into your hand. Though in your case, you would use a very little bit of mana. And next, you reach out and touch her. It doesn't matter where just as long as she's able to absorb it into herself."
Rukia reached out and very softly placed her hand on Ichigo's cheek and Sullivan and Opera watched as the soft glow of the woman's reiatsu slowly disappeared into the sleeping woman's body, causing it to glow very softly for a moment before the glow faded. And when it did, Ichigo's slowly eyes fluttered open.
"W-What's going on?" She asked groggily as she looked at the three of them with a frown. Sullivan wasted no time at all in pouncing on Ichigo and smothering her in hugs and nuzzles while the confused woman squeaked and squirmed to get away from his steely grasp.
"Thank you, for showing us this but- Won't this cause Mizuiro to begin suffering all over again?" Opera asked worriedly.
"No," Rukia said with shake of her head. "Once she takes his pain from him, it can't begin to affect him again for a while. Usually, for a few weeks or so. It's why he always has so much energy and strength when he shouldn't."
"I see." Opera said thoughtfully as he watched his master finally sit up on his bed and pull Ichigo into his lap to cuddle her. "So, this will happen again in a few weeks?"
"Yeah. Probably." Rukia said almost awkwardly.
She really didn't know what else to say at the moment. She already knew that Ichigo wasn't going to stop- not even if it did kill her. She was simply far too kind for her own good sometimes. Especially where her friends were concerned.
Though Rukia couldn't entirely blame her friend any. After all, Mizuiro was probably the closest that Ichigo would ever come to being an actual mother to someone. Unless she decided to adopt a bunch of cats, dogs, and orphaned kids.
Which...Rukia wouldn't entirely put it past Ichigo to do if she got lonely enough.
She was just weird like that. But then, Ichigo wouldn't be herself if she wasn't weird to some degree.
Balam wasn't sure what to think about the urgent phone call that he'd gotten from Opera, demanding his presence at Lord Sullivan's home immediately. All that he could think of was that there was some sort of emergency, and he was the only person that Opera could think of to call for help.
And if that were the case... then there was no telling what he should expect upon his arrival.
Of course, that was before he had arrived, and no one answered the door. Which was unusual of Opera since the security devil always opened the door for someone. Especially when said person was expected.
Fearing that something was wrong with both Lord Sullivan and Opera.
Balam silently picked the lock on the door with one of his claws and let himself into the large mansion. After that, it was only a matter of using his unusually sharp sense of both smell and hearing to locate the two demons.
However, upon reaching the room, he wasn't expecting to see anything like the bizarre scene unfolding in front of him.
First of all, there were two strange demons present in Sullivan's private rooms.
One was a very tiny, short young woman with shoulder length dark hair and wide eyes. While the other...was shockingly lovely despite the fact that she was more or less being cuddled by an overly affectionate Sullivan.
And since the elderly demon had announced that he had an heir a few months back- a female one at that- it wasn't hard for Balam to put one and one together given how affectionate Sullivan was being with the woman in his grasp.
He stood there for several moments, simply observing everyone and how they all interacted with one another with a critical eye before finally deciding to announce his presence to them by clearing his throat.
The second that he did so- everyone went totally silent and utterly still.
Opera had a vague look of concern on his face. While Sullivan looked as if he were starting to sweat bullets. The two women however...just looked at him as if they weren't really sure what to say or do. They blinked at him a few times and then finally the short one growled out, "Who the hell is this?"
Balam looked at her strangely, idly wondering if no one had bothered to mention the fact that he had been called to come there and do a favor for Lord Sullivan. He opened his mouth to reply when Opera stepped over to him and began to chatter at him in a flustered manner.
"Ah, Shichiro. I apologize for not letting you in once you arrived-"
"Wait- you didn't let him in?" The small woman snarled at the cat demon. "What do you mean that you didn't let him in?! Do random demons usually come trapsing through the house?"
Balam felt himself shiver a bit in fear when the woman got up in Opera's personal space and began poking him in the chest with one of her index fingers while he looked down at her wide eyed.
"Did you leave a window cracked? The basement gate unlocked. Are there no big, terrifying monsters to eat any unwanted intruders?" Both Opera and Balam both put their hands up in surrender, hoping to pacify her. But the woman was on a roll and not feeling very inclined about stopping just yet. "You do know that there's more than one person in this house that people would love to either kidnap or kill, right?"
Ah, so that's why. Balam thought as it occurred to him that the tiny woman was a security demon.
A new security demon who obviously didn't appreciate the fact that he had let himself into the house out of worry. Opera was once the same way when he had been younger. But he inevitably got used to Balam picking locks on windows and doors around the mansion and letting himself in at random times of the day or night, depending on what the situation was of course.
Still...as unsurprised as he was that she was upset about him simply intruding.
Even he knew better than to talk to Opera the way that she currently was. Unless he really wanted to see how quickly Opera could hand him his own ass, that is.
However, despite the fact that Opera would typically get violent with someone who called his judgement into question...the cat demon simply stared at the woman with a strangely amused look on his face as he patiently waited for her to pause for breath since that was probably the only way he was going to get a word in edgewise.
Balam was doing his best not to feel afraid or even alarmed. But it was difficult since he'd never been introduced to the woman before, and he had no prior knowledge of her abilities. Thus, making her a very unpredictable and dangerous person to him.
"Rukia," The woman in Sullivan's grasp called out, her voice gentle yet firm. The small security devil- Rukia? turned her head and looked at the other woman as she said. "Stop. Opera would have done something by now if the guy was anyone dangerous to any of us."
"I'm not worried about Sullivan and Opera, you idiot. I'm worried about you! This latest episode has taken more out of you than you're letting on. Don't forget, I've seen you at some of the darkest and more horrific times in your life in various states of physical and emotional distress. Have a care for who you are and stop taking stupid risks!" Rukia snapped.
The unknown woman merely grinned at Rukia's words and responded with. "I love you too." Causing Rukia to shoot a dark look her way before grumbling something rude underneath her breath and then shifting her attention back to Balam.
"Well, introduce yourself and tell us why your here already." Rukia snapped at him, causing the giant silver haired demon to squeak and take a step back.
"Oh...m-my name is Shichiro Balam and-" Sullivan finally decided to chime in and explain.
"He's a co-worker of mine and former schoolmate of Opera's. He has various degrees in Mythology, Medicine, and Science. He's also an expert at unconventional medicine, and medical practices. I had Opera call him here to check Ichigo because we were worried that her life may be in danger earlier."
Balam shifted his attention from Rukia to the woman that Sullivan was holding onto, his eyes fixing on...Ichigo? Tilting his head back a little bit, he took a subtle deep breath, taking in the various scents in the room.
Sullivan smelled a lot like eucalyptus. Opera was like, well, oddly enough- sunshine after a rainfall. The small security devil- Rukia...she smelled like freshly fallen snow and mint. Whereas the other woman, Ichigo, smelled very strongly of wind, fire, warmth and...flowers.
It was an interesting scent to be sure. But that isn't what stood out the most to him about her scent, there was also an underlying tang that was very difficult to place.
It wasn't very strong. In fact, it was very faint. But the fact that it was there at all told him that there was indeed something wrong with her.
"What are her symptoms?" He suddenly asked as he fixed his gaze on her face. His mind absently taking notice of things that Sullivan and Opera may not see.
For instance, she was unusually pale for someone with a tanned complexion. There were some dark circles underneath her eyes. They were barely noticeable, even to him. But as someone who typically went without sleep for long periods of time, he could still see them easily. There was also the very small and barely noticeable scent of fresh blood, though she didn't look injured.
Then again, the blood smell could be coming from one of the others. It was hard to say right then.
"Her symptoms were coughing up blood, wheezing, unconsciousness, raspy breathing, pain-" Balam stared at the woman as Opera rattled off what he'd seen earlier to him. His mind filing everything away for later as his former classmate finally stopped talking and allowed him a moment to ask for permission to enter Sullivan's room to examine her.