Far Into the Future

Ichigo sat on the couch, half-scowling as his cheek rested on his fist and he flipped through the thousands of channels he got though supernatural satellite TV. He was also doing his damned best to ignore the teenager pacing a trench in his living room floor while in the midst of a semi-panic attack.

"I can do it! I can do it!" Millicas chanted to himself as he bit his thumbnail anxiously.

"Uh-huh." was Ichigo's unenthusiastic reply.

"I'm serious Nii-sama! I'm finally going to do it!"

Ichigo lifted his eyes from the TV and let them fall on the frantic red-headed Devil. Millicas had grown into a highly respected young Devil in the Empire, which wasn't surprising given Grayfia-nee's strict parental methods. The kid was a rising star in the junior Rating Games and was expected to be allowed to make a professional debut very shortly. His performance was so great that all five Satans had already given permission for him to be granted his own separate territory to be managed and cultivated. But if there was one, glaring weakness the boy had...

"I'm going to ask Kunou out! I'm finally going to do it!"

Then it was his crippling and hopeless crush on his daughter Kunou.

After years and years, from being her childhood playmate all the way into college, he made no progress in his pursuit of Kunou. Actually, no. It couldn't even be called a pursuit, Ichigo rationalized. In what reality is staring slack-jaw and being reduced to a mumbling idiot considered a romantic pursuit?

"I've checked Nii-sama! Kunou has nothing planned for this Sunday! I'll-I'll ask her out! We'll go to the theme park, and-and then we'll date and get married and have eight kids!"

Ichigo gave the kid a strange look. Why eight? Also, should he tell Millicas that Kunou hates theme parks because of that one time they went to one and she got into a fight with some lady who tried to skip ahead of the line, resulting in Kunou being banned for punching the lady?

Eh, no, let him learn on his own.

 A few more moments passed of Millicas' pacing, and then he suddenly stopped and frantically grabbed his hair. "Gah! No! I can't do it! Nii-sama, I can't do it! What if she says no? What if she's weirded out and stops talking to me?”

Ichigo just shook his head with a sigh. However, at that moment, the wards of the palace flared, and not a second later Kunou slipped into reality, easily teleporting but a few feet away from him.

"I'm home!" She announced in her typical boisterous fashion.

Ichigo gave his daughter a once over. She was dressed in designer jeans and an elegant-looking large white sweater that revealed a little too much shoulder skin for his liking, but he held back any sort of comment. Instead, he replied, "Welcome home."

"Onii-san! You're home early!" And she swept her arms around his neck and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek as a greeting. "Oh, Millicas! What's up! What are you doing here?"

The poor kid was as red as his hair. "I-I came to-to a-ask y-"

"More training with Onii-san? You're such a one-track mind, sheesh!" And then she proceeded to turn her full attention away from Millicas and back to him, much to Ichigo's amusement. "Onii-san, you wouldn't believe what happened to me today!"

Kunou plopped down next to him on the couch, arms crossed as she puffed out her cheeks angrily. "You know how I'm taking that macroeconomics class, right? Well, today, I was supposed to meet Kasumi, you know, that mutt Byakuren’s, who's always shamelessly flirting with you, granddaughter? Anyways, I'm supposed to meet her in the library because we have a joint paper on trans-dimensional supply chains, and you know what the bitch does! She texts me she can't make it because she has a sudden 'emergency',” and Kunou emphasized her skepticism by making quote marks in the air, "and literally not ten minutes later I see her sitting in the campus café on a date with Kensuke from Metaphysics. First off, eww, him? And secondly, like, what makes her think I’m just gonna put her name on the paper after she literally ditched me? And, oh my gosh, when I finally got to the library-”

At this point, Ichigo began tuning her out.

He knew his daughter well enough that she just needed an ear to rant on to make herself feel better. As it was, that ear tended to be him.

Years of experience had him reach out and put a gentle hand across her shoulders, and within that same second, Kunou collapsed into his side even as she continued to rage on about the unfairness of the world and the sheer stupidity of all its denizens.

After a few minutes of Kunou motioning angrily with her hands and releasing a verbal tirade with some choice vocabulary that had even a Demon like him raise an eyebrow at times, Kunou finally let out a tired huff. “Urgh, today was the worst!”

Ichigo had to resist the urge to snort. Where did her ridiculous sense of hyperbole come from? Yasaka was, ironically, so down to earth. And Ichigo’s own brand of dry sarcasm usually flew over Kunou’s head.

“Well, sweetheart,” he said slowly, “I’m sorry you had such a rough day. But, how ‘bout this? Do you have anything planned for this Sunday?”

And the long forgotten Millicas went stiff in the corner of his vision.

“No, not really,” she said, shaking her head and sending locks of her golden hair tumbling over her shoulder.

“Well, how about I take you to the mall then? It’s been a while since you and I had a father-daughter date.” And he made sure to emphasize the date part teasingly, causing Millicas’ jaw to drop.

She immediately shot up. “Eh, really!? What about Okaa-sama?”

“I’m sure she wouldn’t mind. Besides, I don’t think I could survive shopping with both of you at once. One shopaholic Kitsune at a time, thanks.”

Kunou squealed. “Shopping?! Sun above, Onii-san, you’re the best! Mmmmwaah!” And she gave him an extra enthusiastic kiss on the cheek. “Anyways, I’m gonna go change and freshen up! Millicas, you should totally stay for dinner!”

And with that, she darted away, leaving a chuckling Ichigo and a stricken Millicas behind.

The latter of which simply turned towards Ichigo with a look of utter betrayal and cried, “Nii-sama! How could you!”

But Ichigo happily ignored the despondent teenager and went back to watching TV.

Sorry kid, but I’m not ready to hand over my daughter just yet.

A/N: Happy New Years.