Hello!~ Sorry I have been away for some time! I had a show going on that was very demanding, and as soon as that ended I left for Italy! I also went on a cruise out of Italy and got to see parts of Spain, Tunisia, Malta, and Sicily. It was a lovely trip. I again thank my grandma for making that possible because she works for the airlines. This means we got to fly for free and got a ridiculous deal on the cruise. But I am happy to be home! I'm not too excited about this installment, but it is important. I will say that I hate giving descriptions of my characters because I suck at them. But I hope I did alright at this one. You guys finally get to know what Kai looks like! Yay! But not really yay because my descriptions SUCK.

Okay I would really like to send a huge thank you out to all of the people who reviewed. 67 reviews? I couldn't believe it. I NEVER thought that getting that many reviews was even a possibility. 11 reviews from 1 chapter? I love you guys. c': If it wasn't for you guys I think I might have dropped this story. But you guys inspire me to write and make me come up with new ideas for it. I really love that you guys are enjoying it, and I hope you continue to let me know what you think of it!! Thank you so much again! Now on to the thank yous! I will only write responses to reviews to those who ask questions. I would love to reply to all of you but sadly I have no time. ;-; School is back and it's kicking my butt. But thankfully I'm really looking forward to the next chapter so it will be out fairly soon. I'm not going to make deadlines though because I just stress myself out and then they suck. D: So it will be out when it's out! :D In under 3 months. D: Anyways, onto thank yous!

Thank you for reviewing!: Mia Maha, The Shade of life and death, Angels Cry Tears of Bood, Kiki, The Loyal Newt, ToshiroHitsugayagirlfriend, Jessigato, xXxShinikazexXx, ChalkMuffins (what a cute username :3 and I like your analogy xD), Dai Seyensay, and XxSunbunxX!

Thank you for favoriting (yes I know this is not a word)/watching!: XxSunbunxX, yume girl 91, DaiSeyensay, pinkfire101, ToshiroHitsugayagirlfriend, Yuki Kinu, nami98, Angels Cry Tears of Bood, BloodyDragoon, charmy's choice, Rxroulette, Waterdog, Noir the Confused, secretlovers, heavensblackcat, and Mia Maha!

And thank you to charmy's choice for being the first person to send me a message! Even if it was just to tell me to update. xD I took it as a compliment. Thanks!

Well that's it. Sorry for this super long announcement! And sorry this is a rather short update. The next one will be much longer because it is the festival! Huzzah!
Enjoy!

The next 10 days passed by in a flurry. The evening my injuries were healed, I began training with Yoruichi. Although the training was difficult, I could feel myself gaining control over my body. The first 3 days were spent training in my canine form so that I would be able to easier defend myself without giving away my secret. The next 7 days were mostly in my human form, but still had lessons for my canine side. But despite all of the progress I had made, I would still come home every night to find Ichigo's power rising far faster than my own. Well, he had always been powerful, but now it seemed more refined and polished unlike his raw uncontrolled energy from before.

During our training, Ichigo and I had developed a pattern for our evenings. I am not sure what time Ichigo's training ended, but I knew it ended earlier than mine because he was always home before I was. I was mildly surprised that he never seemed to question where I went, since I was never home when he got home. But then I realized he must have enough on his mind that things like that were trivial.

By the time I would get home, Ichigo would already be lying in bed. After the first time I had slept in his bed, it started to become a nightly occurrence. The first night he invited me onto his bed I was mildly surprised but took him up on his offer anyways. Now there was not a night that went by where I did not sleep in his bed. Every night I would come home and jump up next to him, place my head on his chest, and lie flat next to him. Shortly after I would get settled, his hand would find its way to my head and start scratching.

He would then begin to talk about his day. The first time he did this, I was not sure what to think. The Ichigo I had come to know did not talk very often, much less about himself. Then again, for all he knew I had no idea what he was saying, which probably made it easier for him to talk to me. I heard that talking things out helps you organize them in your mind, but I had never really had the chance to experience if that was true or not. This led me to think that it was probably just a way for him to vent. In his mind, I was just his dog who did not understand a word he said. It took me awhile to think of the right words to describe what he was doing. He was letting his guard down. So this is where the term 'man's best friend' came from. Dogs truly are the best of listeners.

I did notice that he never once spoke of Rukia or any of the recent events. He only spoke of his training. Perhaps the talking was a distraction to stop him from thinking about the Rukia incident? It certainly was a good distraction for me.

Although he did not know I understood him, it still made me happy when he would share things with me. It made me feel like a special person in his life. Maybe I was just fooling myself, but it was a lovely distraction from the open wound Rukia had left behind in our hearts.

I managed to survive those 10 days of training easier than I thought I would, and I was then granted a week of free time before the gate would be opened. Thankfully it was summer vacation, so Ichigo stayed home during this week. The first several days were spent going places with Ichigo and his family. I noticed that he was spending a lot more time with them than usual, probably due to the fact that he was not sure how dangerous this upcoming journey would be.

As much as we both tried to relax during this week of freedom, I could tell that Ichigo grew just as uneasy as I did as the day of departure approached. My mind was still set on rescuing Rukia, and I never even thought of backing out, but I could still not help the feeling of uncertainty for what lied ahead.

My physical training was over, but that did not stop me from visiting my teacher whenever she had a break. Yes, she. I figured it out on my 4th day of practice when she helped me on transformation by demonstrating her own human form. It was quite a shock, but made me feel slightly more comfortable.

Yoruichi used these times to give me her crash course on Soul Society. She told me that someone besides her should have an idea of what is going on while we are there. During these lessons, she also tried to teach me some manners. Turns out not talking to anyone for 7 years does not help your social skills. A lot of the information she shared with me was quite interesting, and I found myself looking forward to these little lessons on the roof of the Urahara Shoten.

I was currently sitting in on one of her miniature lessons, with only 2 more days before we were to depart for Soul Society. She had just finished explaining the social system to me when she paused in thought. Several minutes passed before she seemed to come to a conclusion in her mind. A mischievous smile appeared on her lips and I began to question her thoughts.

"I have one final training exercise for you," she told me with a hint of playfulness behind her words that I was not sure if I liked.

"Oh? And what might that be?" I spoke with cautiousness.

"I'm sure you are aware that tomorrow is the summer festival," I did not like where this was going, "I'm curious to see how long you can hold your human form for." I knew I didn't like where this was going. I glared at her and immediately protested.

"No." She was not going to tolerate my protests.

"Yes. In fact, I think this would also be a good chance to work on those social skills you lack," she mocked me. I frowned in disproval but kept silent. There is no arguing with Yoruichi Shihoun once she has made up her mind, especially when she is your teacher.

"Then it is settled. Meet me here tomorrow at noon. We will get you presentable from there." Without another word, she disappeared, mostly likely into the shop below us. I took that as my cue to leave as well and leapt off the roof.

When I returned home, I could not help but wonder if Ichigo was going to be at the festival tomorrow. At first I entertained the idea of meeting him under different circumstances. Would he like human me? But that idea quickly died when I realized that I was not sure if I wanted to know the answer to that. I decided that I would not avoid him at the festival, but I would not try to talk to him either. I would just have to leave it up to coincidence.

Noon the next day came too soon. My thoughts consumed me throughout the night, and before I realized it, it was already 11:30. I arrived at the Urahara Shoten at precisely noon. As promised, Yoruichi was waiting there for me. She smiled playfully and waved for me to follow her inside. She led me to a small side closet that contained a variety of street clothes. I cocked my head in curiosity at the odd compilation of clothes, and Yoruichi noticed.

"One man's trash is another man's treasure. That's his motto." She spoke smiling coyly, making me assume she was talking about the man with the hat. I had my suspicions about their relationship, but I suppose that's not really important right now. What was important was where did these clothes come from that they would be considered trash? I hoped that they were not dug out of a trash can to be called that. My standards for appearances were not too high, since I was generally naked the majority of time, but cleanliness was still a priority for me.

She silently rummaged through the closet before pulling out a single white piece of cloth. It was nothing special. It was just a simple plain white dress that looked like it would reach my knees. I shrugged in acceptance, just happy that it looked to be clean. Not one to waste time, Yoruichi quickly handed me the clothing and ordered me to transform. I closed my eyes and focused on changing my reiatsu into the shape of a human. Quite some time passed before I could feel my body begin to change. When I finally opened my eyes, I was greeted with a punch to the top of my head. My head throbbed in pain at the sudden assault and I glared up at my teacher's face.

"What the hell was that for?" I growled at her, clutching my head in an attempt to get rid of the oncoming headache.

"Did you not notice how long it took you to transform? That was embarrassing," she chided me, "Work on that, or your enemy will take advantage of that time and kill you before you even get a chance to fight." I kept my frown but nodded anyways. Like I said, arguing with her would not do me any good.

"And get taller while you're at it," she added as a last remark. I said nothing again, noticing that I still only came up to her chin. The only change to my demeanor was that my frown deepened and my glare sharpened. I took this time to slide on the provided undergarments and white dress. Although I had worn clothes while training, it still felt weird to be constricted by them. Being naked never really bothered me since the whole dog thing, but it embarrassed me to see others naked so I assumed it was the same for other people.

"Looks good enough to me," Yoruichi commented. She tossed a pair of shoes to me and swiftly turned around before exiting the room. I slid the white sandals on before following behind her. She led me to a mirror and gestured towards it, telling me to look in to it. I was slightly hesitant at first, considering this would be the first time I would look into a mirror as my human self in the past 7 years.

Upon glancing in the mirror I was greeted with an unfamiliar face. My eyes were a dark brown, and my hair was long, straight, and black. Since I had not had it cut since I was 8, it was unstyled and rather unruly. So far, average. I glanced down at my body. My chest was average sized, not big, but still noticeable. I smiled at this as it seemed like poor Orihime had trouble with hers and I did not want to experience the same inconvenience. I did not really have "curves" but I was glad to see that my figure still showed that I was a girl.

I was generally pleased with my appearance, seeing as I turned out to be rather average. I looked like any other Japanese girl. I could have turned out worse. I smiled as I relished in looking at my now human body. It felt good (although slightly weird) to be back in my rightful body.

I turned to Yoruichi and smiled. She reflected my smile and grabbed my hand before dragging me to her room. She walked behind me and reached up to touch my hair.

"Now, we need to fix that rat's nest that is your hair," she spoke before grabbing said hair and pulling me to sit on the floor with it. I winced slightly at having my hair pulled and turned to glare at her. She shrugged and proceeded to brush and cut at my hair. I will admit that having my hair brushed hurt quite a bit. Apparently not having anyone touch my hair for 7 years made my head quite sensitive. About an hour passed before she finally stopped her relentless pulling and cutting. I was slightly worried about what she had done to my hair since I was pretty sure she did not have much experience in the hair cutting department.

She stood up, dragging me with her to the same mirror as before. My hair looked relatively the same, just more evenly cut and straight. I was mildly surprised that she had made the cut rather level. I reached my hand up to my head and was pleasantly surprised to see that I could run my fingers through my hair with ease.

"Thanks." I turned and smiled at her. I was really grateful that she did all of this for me, even if it was just part of her evil plot to make me go out in public. She grinned back at me and spoke,

"No problem. Now, let's get you to that festival."

I sighed. 'Here goes nothing…' I thought. And by nothing I meant everything.

Well that's it for this time! Again, I suck at descriptions so my apologies! And when I say she is average looking I mean actually average, not Bella Swan average. Sorry it's not very long but look forward to the next chapter because Ichigo and Kai finally meet as people! And that is the only spoiler I am going to give! Please let me know if I made any spelling errors or anything.

Hope you liked it and please review and tell me what you think. :3 Thank you and I love you all!