The Royalty Series

It was the one time of year when Kurosaki Yuzu went from a docile, sweet tempered little wisp of a girl into a raging force of nature. She glanced at her troops, preparing to send then out to do battle against the forces of dirt in this yearly ritual. Her family stood in various states of dis-attention, but they were armed for battle. Ichigo had the mop and disinfectant, Karin was glaring at her toilet brush, her daddy was pouting at the vacuum, Karin's boyfriend was scowling furiously at the dusting wand he had been given. Ichigo's boyfriend had turned down the oven cleaner and held...well, she wasn't entirely sure what it was, but the crazy blonde shopkeeper claimed it would clean the oven.

Yuzu smiled at them all. "Remember, take no prisoners," she told them firmly.

Her family all nodded grimly, none looking particularly thrilled but all knowing better than to object. Yuzu gave them all a nod and marched off to see to her assignment - the attic, otherwise known as the place her father dumped everything they would never need.

She was three hours and six garbage bags into cleaning the attic when she found the trunk. It was a large, solid looking thing, of dark wood with an elaborate old lock on it. It looked out of place among the cardboard boxes littering her family's attic.

"Ichi-nii, Shiro-nii, can you give me a hand?" she called down, the two men responding quickly to her summons.

"Do you recognize it, Ichi-nii?" she asked after showing her brother the box.

"Nah."

"Those symbols look familiar though," murmured Toushiro, frowning at a design carved into the lid.

"Well, let's get it downstairs and see what it is," grumbled her brother, lifting one end as Toushiro hoisted the other. The two men carried the trunk down to the living room, Karin and Kisuke both pausing in their cleaning to see what the commotion was.

"Where's daddy? Maybe he has a key," Yuzu murmured, frowning at the lock.

"He went to get more vacuum bags. He had an accident," explained Kisuke with a grin and a nod to the fine layer of dust and dirt that now covered the entire living room.

"Every fucking year," muttered Karin darkly.

"Never fear, Yuzu-chan. I can get that open," murmured Urahara, producing an odd little tool from somewhere within his sleeves.

"Why the hell do you have a lock pick?" demanded her older brother, glowering darkly at his boyfriend.

"Would you like me to answer that or open the box, Ichigo?" purred Kisuke, a bright and completely untrustworthy smile on his face. Her brother wisely decided that there were some things even he didn't need to know and just waved his boyfriend at the box.

They watched as Urahara went to work, barely a moment later the lock gave way and the blonde grinned. "We are having a long talk about this, Kisuke," growled her brother.

"Of course, Ichigo-kun," murmured Kisuke placidly, something about his tone making Yuzu think that her brother and his boyfriend would find other things to talk about once the house was cleaned.

Karin frowned and pushed the two aside, tossing open the lid of the chest. Yuzu peered around her sister and gasped. "How pretty!" she exclaimed, lifting a beautiful circlet from the chest. The crown was skillfully worked with a simple and elegant design. It was set in the finest gold and three lovely gems that seemed to glow and sparkle with an unnatural silver-blue light were arranged to span the wearer’s forehead.

"Fuck!" In the silence that had fallen as she raised the crown Kisuke's muttered curse was startlingly loud. Four pairs of eyes pinned the blonde, who was staring at the crown with horror, before Hitsugaya's eyes grew wide and his gaze snapped back to the circlet. His face went as ashen as his hair.

"Bloody fucking hell!"

"I'm just going to be going," exclaimed the blonde, darting for the door and colliding with Isshin. "Oh! Hello, Isshin. Good to see you, can't stay, urgent business. Bye!"

Kurosaki Isshin stared at Urahara's retreating form for a second before turning back to take in the scene in his living room. All three of his children were staring at him and Hitsugaya looked decidedly unsteady and was pointing at him sputtering. Yuzu held up a crown for him to see and the four watched as he made an undignified 'eep' sound and fled.

"The king of fucking Soul Society," muttered Hitsugaya, slumping onto the couch and sending a wave of dust into the air. “That idiot…the king…we’re doomed. We’re all just doomed.”