The second that they were in Sullivan's study, Opera made quick work of shutting the door and putting a privacy spell up so that they couldn't be eavesdropped on.
"Please, have a seat, Balam." Sulivan instructed the gargoyle, absently as he moved to seat himself behind his desk. His mind already going to worst case scenario as far as Ichigo's health went.
And he wasn't happy at the prospect of having to find another heir. Though he didn't blame Ichigo for the fact that she may very well be dying. He already knew that the girl worked far too much for her wellbeing to hold out forever.
Still...he was attached... And he really didn't want to hunt for another heir when Ichigo was pretty much perfect. To him anyway.
Sullivan took his seat and shifted a bit in it to make himself more comfortable while Opera took his place off to the side of the desk. The perfect position to attack or his master if need be.
Though he very much doubted that it would be necessary with Balam since the gargoyle held nothing but the upmost respect and esteem for Sullivan and all that he did.
Still, after Balam had said that he needed to speak with them so urgently... Opera couldn't help but be put on guard. Mostly because he had a gut feeling that whatever his Kohei wished to speak of wasn't going to be pleasant to hear.
"Now that all of us are comfortable," Sullivan said as he glanced Balam's way. "Please, tell us what it is that you wished to speak of. Is my daughter alright?"
Balam looked uncomfortable for a few seconds, but eventually replied. "The lady is in fine condition. Outside of the incident that frightened you both earlier, physically, she is in relatively good condition. A bit more tired than she probably should be. But that would be easy enough to remedy with some extra sleep and rest." Sullivan's expression shifted a bit with relief as Balam kept going. "I did notice some very faint discolorations on her skin though where it had bruised for one reason or another. But they looked as if they were ready to fade at any moment- so you shouldn't worry too much about those."
"We understand, Balam. Thank you." Sullivan said, preparing to dismiss the other demon when Balam stopped him by saying sharply.
"I'm not finished, Sullivan."
The elderly demon was slightly taken aback by the malice in the gargoyle's tone since he had never spoken to him in such a manner before and let his expression go right back to his poker face. "Very well, then do not mince words. Speak freely."
"Alright then," Balam said nodding his head curtly before slowly asking. "Did either of you know that Lady Ichigo has been...grounded?"
The effect that the mere mention of one of the Sullivan household had suffered being grounded was instantaneous.
Sullivan suddenly lost control of his mana and sent it crashing into Balam almost warningly. While Opera's ears and the fur on his tail puffed up and he bared his teeth in a snarl.
His own mana began to slip from his iron-controlled grasp, and somehow managed to push through Sullivan's and created a spectacular light show that would have sent any other demon fleeing in terror from the two enraged and upset demons.
But Balam stood his ground and waited for the two to calm themselves enough to ask him any questions that they might have. It took a little while. After all, the grounding of a demon was a very touchy subject and enraged many regardless of whether they were close to the victim or not.
Sullivan was the first to manage to calm himself.
His entire being seeming to have gone completely still at the news. Opera wasn't much better. Though he seemed far more deadly than usual. His temper barely restrained, seething and churning just below the surface of his skin.
"How bad?" Sullivan asked, wanting to know just how much damage there was to his child's body.
"Bad," Balam said grimly. "She has no wings left. Not even a single wing root. Both are simply...gone."
Sullivan made a strained sound and Balam saw a few tears slide down his face before he looked away from him and asked Opera to go and get Ichigo and bring her to him. Opera remained still for a few seconds longer than he probably should have, but finally turned and left to do was he was asked.
Leaving Balam and Sullivan alone to continue speaking.
"How long ago was it done?" Sullivan asked after several moments of trying to reign in his emotions.
"About nine, maybe ten years, I think."
"Ah, she still would have been a child then." Sullivan muttered as he took a moment to scrub his face with his hands before asking, "How bad is the residual scarring?"
"She has a bit of muscle along the back of her shoulder blades missing. It looked as if it had been gouged out somehow. There are also some scars along her spine, ribs, and...some of them go even lower. I'm not very sure about the lower scars but I would imagine that they aren't as severe as the rest of them are."
"Do you think that they hurt her?"
"I would imagine that with muscle missing- the areas would be very painful. Especially when she's stressed because the muscle knots and draws up tight underneath the skin. Honestly Sullivan, I have no idea how she manages to even function. Some of those scars are from injuries that should have crippled her for life!" Balam said fretfully.
Sullivan hummed thoughtfully, worried all over again for Ichigo's wellbeing since a demon's grounding was a tricky thing to handle, especially so for the few survivors.
It meant living with the horror and trauma that many demons simply couldn't handle for very long before they deteriorated.
Sure, he knew that Ichigo had lived in the human world as one since the day of her birth, but the girl's specialness meant that it was entirely possible that she could have also been born with wings and had to hide them all her life.
That is if she had been allowed to keep them.
He wasn't sure if the wings could have been removed out of a means of preserving her life and better allowing her to blend in. Or out of malice.
Either way it was something that he would have to ask his nephew about later. Though the mere fact that it even appeared that she had been grounded at all was extremely troubling to him anyway given his reaction to Balam's discovery.
"Sullivan, what do you intend to do?" Balam asked worriedly. Probably thinking that he would decide that Ichigo was simply too weak to be his heir.
It was understandable that he may think such a thing since high-ranking demons had been known to abandon those who had been grounded for the discovery of such a terrible weakness since it could be used against them somehow.
But Sullivan wasn't such a heartless or cruel demon. Nor did the weakness matter to him any. Ichigo was his heir pure and simple. And he would never abandon her for something that was done to her regardless of the reasons why it had happened.
"She is my child; I will not abandon her." He said simply yet matter-of-factly.
Balam seemed relieved to hear that and nodded his head in understanding when Opera suddenly appeared, carrying Ichigo bridal style in his arms and Rukia tailing him.
"Here she is," The hell cat announced as he gently set the Lady of the house on her feet once he was in front of the desk. "I caught she and Rukia bickering with one another just down the hall."
Rukia gasped in outrage as Ichigo cried, "We were not bickering. We were making a bet!"
Balam took a moment to look the woman over and couldn't help but smile a tad despite the terrible circumstances behind the meeting with Sullivan.
Ichigo seemed to have decided to go ahead and get dressed for the day after he had left her. She was no longer wearing the cute silk and black lace PJ's from before and was instead dressed in a sapphire blue sweater dress that fell just a bit above her knees, and black cotton leggings.
Her long, mid back length black hair had been brushed and pulled back into a high ponytail, and she had a little blue headband on her head to hold some of her bangs back from her face while allowing the rest to frame it in a fetching way.
"Hello darling," Sullivan greeted her while Opera closed the door and placed the privacy spell back up. "How are you feeling?"
"Confused. I could feel yours and Opera's mana from the other side of the house. What's going on?" She asked/demanded with a frown on her face.
Ah, she's a fairly sharp one. Balam thought approvingly as she walked around Sullivan's desk and stood before the elderly demon, who had turned his chair to face her, with her hands on her hips.
"Come here, darling." Sullivan said as he held out a hand to her and wiggled his fingers to beckon her closer to him.
Balam's heart started beating frantically in his chest with worry. Because even if Sullivan had no plans to abandon her- he had no idea what was going on in the elder's head at the moment and he didn't want Ichigo to somehow be harmed. Even accidentally.
Ichigo tilted her head to the side for a second and considered the elderly demon for a second before reaching out and taking the offered limb. Sullivan's long, thin fingers closed around her tiny hand, and he gently tugged her forward so that he could wrap his arms around her and pick her up and place her in his lap.
And once there he hugged her tightly.
Balam started to relax a little bit, his worry gradually melting away at the display of affection before Sullivan released the woman and then said, "Balam was just telling Opera and I about your back. I know that it may be distressing to you dearest, but is it okay if I ask you some questions about the scars you have there?"
"Oh," Ichigo muttered, looking back and forth between Sullivan, Opera and Balam for a second before saying with a frown. "I didn't realize that they were so bad that it warranted a discussion of some kind."
All three demons' kind of goggled at her for saying that. After all, her scars were so bad that some of them were disfiguring! How could she not know that?! Much less know that it would at one point, or another warrant a conversation with some of them.
"But if you have some questions about them then I'll do my best to answer them." She said with a smile. Sullivan looked as if he were about to start crying again, and quickly hugged her in order to calm himself down as Opera turned to Rukia and spoke.
"We will have questions for you as well. Will you answer them?"
Rukia looked a bit startled but nodded her head in understanding. "Yeah, sure."
"Thank you." Opera said softly as he noticed that his master had finally stopped hugging his lady and was ready to begin.
"Can you please tell us how you got some of the scars on your back?" Sullivan asked, kindly as he started to pet her head. Obviously attempting not to upset her.
"Oh, uh yeah. Let me think for a second..." Ichigo muttered before finally saying, "Well, I've had a few buildings collapse on top of me during some fights. And some of the metal, glass and stone caught my back and shoulders and laid them both open pretty good. I've been slammed through walls and marble pillars after being grabbed by my neck. That wasn't fun. My back was a bruised and bloody mess because a lot of my skin was basically torn off. I've been caught by claws, and fang- Oh, right! I was attacked one by some creature that escaped from a science lab once." She said it as if she had entirely forgotten the incident up until right that moment.
"It was horrible! The stupid thing caught me from behind because it could hide its presence, and I didn't notice it until it was too late to run. It had super sharp teeth and it bit into the back of one of my shoulders and did this sawing thing with its teeth because it had some trouble ripping a chunk out of my back. I got really mad about it catching me unawares. So, I headbutted it and startled it bad enough for it to let me go. Then I turned around and bit it back. It was super freaked out since none of its other prey had ever done that before, so it ran away howling. I managed to hunt it down later and kill it before it could attack anyone else though."
Sullivan, Opera, and Balam all looked as if their eyes were trying to pop right out of their heads at the moment as they tried to keep up with everything that she said.
"I accidentally fell down a couple of cliffs a few times. And wound up with some cracked ribs and a few other things. In my defense though, my night vision wasn't as developed back then as it is now. So that shouldn't happen again. Another time I fought against a guy that tried to excite a rebellion and dethrone a princess. He had some sort of device that was created to magnify his natural abilities to wield fire."
"He basically threw a bunch of massive magma laced fireballs at me. And at least one hit me before I was able to really avoid the rest of them. But that was mostly because I was protecting a couple of people at the time who had been taken hostage and disabled."
Sullivan made a strained sound of distress in the back of his throat. But otherwise, didn't react.
"And the rest of the scars were made by...uh, well. Mizuiro's biological family." This is when everyone snapped to attention and waited for her to enlighten them. "His family wasn't very nice; they didn't care for or love him like they should have when he was younger. They hurt him, a lot. They also used him to make money for them. And I interfered one day because I could hear him screaming for help. So, I..."
Sullivan's eyes started to tear up again as he stared down at her expression.
Balam let out a low snake-like hiss of utter fury. The mere thought of someone laying a hand on her setting his blood to boiling. Especially since her grounding had happened when she had still just been a child.
Opera flattened his against his head as he listened intently to his lady speak. The only outward sign that he was becoming angry. But if one bothered to look closer at the hell cat, they would have seen death in his eyes.
However, despite the fact that they were waiting to hear the rest of the story, Ichigo zoned out for a few seconds and then suddenly said. "I should go and check on Mizuiro."
And then before Sullivan could react or even call her back, she jumped down from his lap and quickly ran over to the door and slipped out of the room.
Once she was gone, the three demons turned to Rukia who hastily put her hands up and squeaked, "Don't look at me! I wasn't with her that day so I can't tell you what happened."
The three demons stared at Rukia hard, obviously disappointed about not knowing the rest of the details that Ichigo had run off before divulging. Causing her to visibly bristle and get defensive as she said. "Well, I can't!"
Sullivan, Opera and Balam all sighed, each one understanding, but still unhappy with the way things had turned out as Opera finally asked, "Rukia, have you ever seen Lady Ichigo's wings?"
She blinked at the hell cat, but then smiled and replied. "Yeah, I have. They were so beautiful. And she was so proud to even have them that she would take a day or so when nothing was going on to meticulously groom them."
Opera's eyes slowly slid closed, a pained expression crossing his face as he looked away from her, "I see. I have no further questions for you."
"I do," Sullivan said as he looked at Rukia. "Can you...describe her wings to us please?"
Rukia frowned, wondering why they seemed to have such a strange fixation with Ichigo and her wings. She wanted to ask them about it. But with Balam still present, she didn't dare to, or she could give herself away as a non-demon. Thinking carefully for a moment or two, she then took a breath and finally said.
"Well, Ichigo is a unique person... so we figured out early on that she for some strange reason she had an innate ability to change the shape and appearance of her wings to suit whatever situation she was in. Which is why they could easily change color from black to white with feathers, like a bird. To black and red flames or shaped like bat wings... Actually, now that I think about it, I think I have a few pictures of her with her wings out. Hang on." Rukia said as she held up a finger and then quickly dug into her pants pocket to retrieve her cell phone.
And then spent the next few seconds or so going through the various pictures of everyone dear to her, until she found what she was looking for and made a small sound of triumph.
"Here they are! I managed to get several dozen pictures of her with her different looking wings. Here," she said as she held the phone out to Opera whose eyes widened a bit as he reached out and took the device from her and then quickly carried it over to his master so that he could be the first among them to see his child's lost wings.
Sullivan took the phone from the hell cat's grasp and glanced down at the screen.
There, frozen in time was Ichigo as a teenage girl. Her hair was short like a boy, and her eyes were intensely focused on something outside of the frame.
She was wearing a black, red and orange kimono floral print kimono and there were red and yellow leaves falling around her. Her wings were very bird-like in the image, just as Rukia had described and yet...not.
The feathers were a lovely thick glossy black like a raven's wings.
And Ichigo appeared to have been caught in the middle of spinning underneath some trees, her wings were spread wide in the light. Her expression was so happy that Sullivan's eyes teared up and he quickly had to hand the phone back to Opera so that he could see the image for himself while he tried to regain control over himself and his emotions.
Opera peered down at the image and uttered the words, "They are resplendent. Do you wish to see them, Balam?"
"No. Maybe someday I'll ask to see them, but not today." The gargoyle said firmly yet kindly. It would be rude to ask to see Ichigo's wings before speaking with her about their situation anyways. Besides, the loss of her wings was something for her family to mourn.
It wasn't his place to but in just yet.
Opera merely nodded his head and then took the phone back to Rukia and muttered a quiet, 'thank you' to her as she took possession of it again with a curt nod.
"If it's okay, I'm going to go and see if I can find Ichigo and Mizuiro."
"Of course," Sullivan said with a slight incline of his head. "Opera, could you perhaps begin making breakfast? And make sure to include enough for Balam to. That is, if he wishes to stay."
"I do." Balam said firmly. "Your daughter and I still have some serious things to discuss."
Sullivan hummed and nodded his head in understanding. "Ah yes, the whole Rukia marrying the two of you...thing. Of course. Take all the time that you need to sort things out."
Balam stared at the elder for several heartbeats in puzzlement as Opera and Rukia both left the room before finally blurting out, "Why aren't you more upset about this?"
Sullivan merely looked at him and chortled before replying, "I've known you a long, long time Shichiro Balam. You're a fine demon despite your eccentricities. My child would be damned lucky to have you as a life-mate. Just as you would be very lucky to have her." Balam blinked, feeling a tad bit flattered by the elderly demon's words as Sullivan then tacked on, "Besides, I already think of you as family. Now go and find Ichigo and have your talk."
"Uh...o-okay." Balam said as he slowly got up and walked towards the door. Leaving Sullivan alone in the study with his chaotic thoughts.
"Rukia, would you mind waiting for Balam with me before we go and find Lady Ichigo?" Opera asked once they were outside of the study. The small woman paused in mid step and glanced back at him with a slightly perturbed look on her face before replying.
"Only if you explain what that meeting was about?"
Opera blinked at her for a second before heaving a great sigh and nodding his head. "Very well. The meeting was initially about Lady Ichigo's wellbeing after she collapsed this morning. However, Balam found something while examining our lady that seemed to upset him greatly."
Opera paused for a moment or two to think of a good way to help Rukia understand the great significance of losing one's wings for a demon that had been grounded. But because she wasn't a demon herself, he wasn't entirely sure that she would understand.
"Tell me, Rukia. Do other Reaper's like yourself have wings?"
Rukia looked a bit startled and even more confused, if that were possible, which seemed to be all the answer that he needed to try and make her understand.
"Demons are born with wings. It is one of the very few things that all demons have in common. To us, wings are an essential and necessary tool for survival. A means of escaping life-threatening and dangerous situations. Losing them is something that is utterly disastrous to our physical as well as our mental wellbeing." He could see that something had clicked in the woman's mind by how pale Rukia became.
"Those who have lost their wings are referred to as 'grounded' for obvious reasons since flight is no longer available to them. And the consequences of being a grounded demon are...beyond agonizing to the victims. To begin with, there is the physical pain that comes from having your wings torn from your body. It takes a great deal of strength for any demon to be able to rend the flesh of another demon's wings just right and remove them. Next comes the removal of the wing roots-"
Rukia felt ill. So much so that she held up a hand to stop him from going on any further.
There were only a few things that she absolutely needed to know at this point. Especially since she knew for a fact that Ichigo had lost her wings in a similar fashion to what Opera had just described.
"What happens to the victims once they lose their wings?"
"Many suffer from crippling nerve damage so excruciatingly painful that their bodies begin to shut down one organ at a time and they die," Rukia could barely hold back her flinch as panic filled her being as Opera finally said. "Or they suffer from a depression so great that they take their own lives..."
Rukia let out a snake-like hiss of fury at that last part. Granted that she knew that Ichigo's back still pained her from time to time, but for the most part she was able to function well enough to go through her day-to-day routine and work without worrying anyone. And Rukia also knew that Ichigo had become very depressed after the loss of her wings as well. But...she had never shown anything that one typically associated with suicidal behavior and tendencies.
Yet even so...this was troubling to say the least. She would have to send a report to Kyoraku and have a meeting with the other guards so that all of them could be aware of the mere possibility and watch Ichigo for any signs of red flags. Mentally and physically.
"Ichigo will not die." The small woman snarled at the hellcat.
To his credit, Opera looked fairly taken aback by being snarled at by the smaller woman, yet at the same time he was also very pleased by the fact that she now knew and understood why wings were so very important to demons.
She would help to watch the lady of the Sullivan house and prevent any senseless tragedy from occurring. Just as he and his master would. Between the three of them and other royal guards- nothing would happen to their lady.
He would make certain of it.