Renji should have known that wherever Ichigo was, she would have sensed him and come to intercept him. However he as much as he should have expected that, he also didn't. Which was why he barely managed more than a strangled high pitched scream when she suddenly came out of the woods to the left of him and tackled him to the ground.

They both hit the ground and went rolling due to the high speeds in which they'd been moving. And only ever came to a stop just shy of rolling into a large evergreen tree in a tangle of torso's and limbs.

"Dammit Ichigo!" Renji groaned once he was able to speak again. But Christ did his ribs hurt when he took a breath. Ichigo must not have been fooling around any when she'd slammed herself into him. "What the hell do you think you're going knocking me down like that?!" He snarled at her as she pushed herself up, off of him.

If he sounded angry at her, it was because he was.

Sure being knocked down in general wasn't a big deal. It was when one was traveling at inhuman speeds that being knocked down became detrimental to one's health.

And as it was, Ichigo's little stunt could have killed him. Which she would have remained fairly unscathed physically. The damage done to her mentally upon finding that she'd killed him would likely hurt her quite a bit.

Not to mention all of the negative effects that his death would have on her relationship with Rukia.

"Why are you here?" Ichigo finally asked as she looked at him.

"What do you mean; why am I here? I'm here to find you, you dumbass!" He growled.

"Why?" She asked a little bit more dully this time. Her voice taking on an flat and emotionless quality that sent chills down his spine. Reigning in his temper upon hearing the dead sounding tone, he took a moment to study her in concern.

Ichigo had changed in the recent months since her departure from her hometown. Though she was still young, just a kid- like the one that he'd nearly killed on multiple occasions- she also looked older. More tired and world weary than any fourteen year old kid had any right to be.

Her eyes were different too. And not just because of the color either.

Oh sure, everyone knew about Ganju Shiba and how one of Aizen's minions had manipulated the guy's mind and caused the two to fight after he had killed a bunch of people. Ichigo, had known that something was wrong with him from the moment that she'd heard of his killing spree, and had stepped in to prevent him from going after anyone else.

She may have won that fight, but the cost had still been staggering to her.

Ichigo's eyes, Ganju's life, and even the guy's older sister- which had caused the Shiba clan to all but die out until someone had learned of who Ichigo's father truly was. Once everything was settled, Ichigo had been gearing up to fight Aizen blind.

Literally.

However thanks to Ganju's sister's sacrifice and her instructions once dead- she'd had her eyes removed from her corpse and taken to the land of the living where they had been implanted in Ichigo. Which must have hurt the girl more than she had let on.

He'd never seen her cry over the loss of the family that she'd barely knew. But he knew that it couldn't have been easy to bury the siblings while making use of her aunt's eyes.

Her hair was longer, and her body was more mature looking too.

Sure, she'd always been exotically pretty before. But now she was just...well, it almost hurt to look at her.

Under normal circumstances, he would have joked with her about her appearance being more feminine. She'd always held a weird kind of disdain for her own gender. So it was fairly easy to rile her up when her being a girl was even mentioned.

But with things being the way that they were at present, it was best to simply tell her what was up and get it out of the way. Sighing, knowing that she wasn't going to be particularly happy to hear what he had to say, he decided to just dive right in.

He'd always been a firm believer in ripping the band aid off.

"It's the new Central forty six... They've handed down orders to apprehend and to have you locked away in a lab and integrated into a breeding program. With the goal of you hopefully birthing a new generation of-" He didn't get much further than that before she grabbed his hand and slapped something wet and warm and sticky into it.

Twitching a little bit in disgust he started to drop what she'd just placed in his hand but she held him firm and wouldn't allow him too. He started to get a sickening feeling of dread when she refused to break eye contact or let go of his hand right away.

"I-Ichigo w-what are y-you doing?" He stammered out as she gave him a wicked smile and abruptly released his hand so that he could see what she'd put in his palm.

He felt like he was going to cry and vomit both at the same time. As he slowly looked away from her and lifted his hand so that he could open his fingers enough to see what she'd done. The feeling of dread morphed into flat out horror when he realized that she'd slapped a couple of human ovaries into his hand.

Barely managing to keep himself from puking right then, he swallowed the unwelcome burn of bile and looked at her. Really, really looked at her as he slowly began to understand what she'd just done.

Lying on one of her pant's legs was a sharp, jagged, blood stained looking rock and there was a crimson stain blooming along the stomach area of her shirt.

"Oh god-" Was all that he managed to say before he dropped the freshly removed organs to the ground and promptly started to wretch violently.

When had she done it? When had she removed her own organs? He wondered dazedly. He'd never seen her so much as twitch a muscle the whole time he'd been looking at her! The moment that the realization of this fact dawned on him, he slowly turned his head to look at her with wide eyes.

She still hadn't moved an inch. She was completely, utterly, and perfectly still. Hell, he couldn't even tell if she was even breathing. But then he supposed that after removing her own ovaries with such a crude knife that maybe breathing too deeply was a little bit much for her right now.

Though it baffled him that she wasn't rolling around the ground howling in agony. But then Ichigo's pain threshold was beyond human.

"Oh god kid-" He wheezed in between coughs, his eyes stinging with unshed tears as he tried desperately to pull himself together and do something aside from sit there and let her bleed. Finally managing to shake himself, he scurried over to her and carefully pressed a shaky hand to her stomach. She made a weird, strained sound in the back of her throat. But otherwise didn't really react to him or the press of his hand against her wound.

She continued to hold herself perfectly still.

Probably because she was focusing on healing herself without re growing the organs. It would be tricky, considering that her absolute regeneration was exactly that- absolute. But if anyone could manage it, it was her.

"I need to get you someplace safe," He finally said after a heartbeat or two of indecision. "There's too many animals and shit that can smell your blood out here." Carefully slipping his arms around her, he did his best to get her up without causing her any further pain or discomfort, but it was difficult considering that he needed to keep one hand on the wound and lift her with his other. But he somehow managed it after several clumsy tries.

One of which resulting in his nearly dropping her and her growling at him from between tightly gritted teeth, "Do that again and no one will ever find your body."

She meant it too.

He might have found the threat amusing if not for the fact that it felt as if her insides were trying to spill out of her, underneath his hand. "Where's the nearest rescue center?" He asked, knowing that a rescue center would likely have medical tools and such. Including pain killers and medicines.

Ichigo would at least need a little bit of both. Pain killers for...obvious reasons. And something to keep her wound from getting infected. He'd also likely need a needle, threat, alcohol, bandages ect.

"Don't go there." She hissed out once he had her in a semi comfortable position up off of the ground. Her torso was pressed tight against his own and her head was resting on one of his shoulders.

"I don't have a choice kid. You need medical help."

"I'll be fine."

"You'll bleed out."

"I'll be fine." She said again, her tone slightly weaker than it was before. He muttered a few choice words about her parentage underneath his breath and then turned and quickly started off in the direction that he thought he could feel other living beings in.

He just hoped that he didn't wind up running them into a bear cave.

Shouta was understandably upset upon Bakago finding him and telling him that there was a 'stranger' loose in the valley where his students were training. He got even more upset when the boy told him that Ichigo had run off to intercept the person.

So after leaving some instructions to 'apprehend' the stranger- if there was in fact one- with the others, should said person show up in their camp. He taken off into the woods in the hopes of finding his not-daughter so that he could box her damned ears for scaring him. Again.

Just what the hell goes on in that girl's mind? He wondered as he tore through the underbrush and came to the clearing that Bakago had mentioned when he'd told him where she was likely going.

The boy may not have known many specifics, but he'd given him a general location in which to search.

So that was something. He supposed as he took a moment to scan the clearing for any recent traces of her when he heard movement across from him and saw the vague outline of a person moving around in the bushes.

Slipping his visors on, he took a moment to size the person up- noting that it wasn't one of the other teachers. Whoever it was wasn't Ichigo or one of the other kids either. Growling low in his throat, his eyes glittered an angry feral red as he activated his quirk and moved on.

Ichigo must have been right, was the last thing that he thought until he tore through the thicket behind the person and nearly tripped over his own feet in his haste to stop. His eyes landing on the stranger and then going to the familiar figure of his not-daughter, clutched in the stranger's arms.

She wasn't moving. Wasn't struggling or screaming in an effort to call attention to herself or get help. She didn't even look like she was even breathing.

Feeling something dark, and possessive in his mind shift to the forefront of his consciousness- Shouta managed to do a quick scan of the stranger as he turned to look at him wide eyed.

His feral red eyes seeing the drying blood staining the guy's skin and clothing and he just lost his fucking mind.

He didn't even really bother to stop and consider whether she may/may not still be alive at the moment. There was no reason present in him. No logic outside of someone had hurt his kid. Again.

And he wanted fucking blood.

There was no warning- no witty banter, nothing at all to even give his present state of mind away to the other man. And yet somehow he knew.

It didn't matter any though, Shouta had him down on the ground by his throat and was beating him bloody within moments. His fist viciously slamming into the guy's face repeatedly.

If not for the fact that Ichigo finally made a sound- a pained sounding scream- the moment that guy carrying her squeezed her too tightly.

Shouta might have kept going.

Fortunately, the moment that he heard Ichigo cry out, his senses returned to him and he quickly dragged himself off of the guy so that he could see her. Hitting the ground on his knees, next to them both, he took a moment to carefully pry his kid from the guy's grasp. And then once she was free- he rolled her over onto her back and his breath escaped him in a hiss as he finally noted where the blood covering the two was coming from.

"Kid?" Shouta said softly as he quickly slipped his capture tool over his head and spread it out so that he could lay her on it and use it to tie the wound off. It wouldn't stop the bleeding, but then it didn't really need to considering the fact that she was probably already healing.

But it was better to be safe than sorry, right?

Once that was done, Shouta quickly collected her in his arms and then jumped to his feet and started running back the way that he'd come. He didn't care if the stranger followed him or not. He'd send someone to collect him either way once Ichigo was back at the camp where she could be taken care of.