Dabi stared out over the valley of lush greenery with a disdainful sneer. How typical of the hero's to choose such a nice, pretty place for their little 'training' camp. He already couldn't wait to burn it all to ashes.
"Hey, how many people are going to be joining us on this job?" A guy called, Twice asked curiously as he began to pull his suit, mask and weapons out of the bag that he'd brought with him.
"A few." Was all that Dabi could really, accurately say since he didn't know the specific number of people that would be joining them in attacking the hero's and kidnapping their target.
"That's helpful," A tall guy with spikey white hair and green, scaly skin, and a mask around the top part of his face- said sarcastically before sighing and tacking on in a slightly wistful tone. "I wish that we'd brought Sado with us. He seems like a guy that really knows how to strike fear into the hearts of others. I bet that he would have come in handy against the hero's..."
"Sado is a loose cannon." Dabi snapped in irritation as he thought of the strangely silent and watchful young man that had just been mentioned. Said kid had only been a member of the League for nearly three months and already he'd caused them no end of trouble.
Though Twice did have a point.
The kid did know how to strike fear into others. Weirdly enough, he rarely had to even try. Which was just plain annoying to Dabi. Though he was just a tad bit fascinated by how strangely knowledgeable the kid was as far as torturing people went.
He'd seen the kid work someone over like a fucking pro once and it had left him feeling oddly subdued. Not necessarily scared. Just...subdued. And maybe just a tad bit wary of him.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Twice asked curiously as he paused his movements for a moment to cock his head at Dabi.
"Dabi is probably talking about his temper. Sado got nice and riled up when he heard about this job," Sang the only girl present in the group as she came skipping up and suddenly jumped on Twice's back and held on as the man floundered and flailed in an effort to dislodge her. "I don't though. He looks so cool when he's bloody! It really would have been nice to bring him. I bet he could have bagged himself a hero or two!"
Everyone present rolled their eyes at the girl's comment and went about their business, preparing for when night fell.
Chad, Kenpachi and Ikkaku had reached their destination in record time a few hours prior. And were in the process of hiding their bikes and stuff when Chad suddenly stilled upon feeling something slither through the edge of his conscious mind.
His dark eyes narrowed a little bit as he tilted his head some and allowed his other senses free reign for several moments.
Reni was nearby.
He could feel the worried and nervous hum of his spirit energy. It was...chaotic and all over the place. Which was usually how one could tell that the man was scared or upset about something since he generally didn't show his emotions all that well.
"You feel that?" Kenpachi asked as he slowly walked up behind the teen. Chad hummed, his expression thoughtful. Something must have happened. He thought before he felt a tingle of something so achingly familiar that it sent chills down his spine.
Ichigo?
"Yeah, I feel it alright." He finally said as he grabbed the small bag that he'd packed his weapons in since he wasn't all that sure if his spirit energy would be strong enough to work on living bodies. And he'd rather be cautious when dealing with the league of assholes, since a majority of them were close combat fighters with quirks dangerous enough to kill a person easily.
Once he had the bag slung over his shoulder, he turned to look at Kenpachi and Ikkaku for a moment. The two were oddly distracted by whatever they were picking up from Renji.
Chad could tell by the fact hat Ikkaku had accidentally leaned his bike on Kenpachi's and sent both crashing to the ground. And Yet neither man even seemed to notice.
If they had, Ikkaku would be trying to apologize to his captain while Kenpachi just looked at him weird. Rolling his eyes at the two, Chad sighed as he thought, This is a fantastic crack team of individuals. At least two of us will probably die soon. Which was followed by the thought, Ichigo would be so proud. She's been trying to take Kenpachi out for ages.
He wondered if she'd pat him on the head or back for succeeding where she had failed. Or if he'd get a full on hug? Though he sort of felt bad that Ikkaku would probably die with his captain, but let's face it- the bald man vexed Ichigo to no end and she very rarely liked him anyways.
"I'm going to go and scope the area out." Chad said as he started to walk off. "I'll try to be back before dark."
"Okay, be careful kid." Ikkaku called out to him.
Chad waved at them from over his shoulder as he wandered off into the woods a little ways before then heading straight for where he could feel Ichigo the most since he very much doubted that Kenpachi and Ikkaku had even realized that she really was somewhere close by.
Otherwise they would have gone running towards her general location and probably gotten a nasty surprise for their efforts.
He supposed that he'd have to play interference between them, and the league. Sighing again, he picked up his pace in the hopes of reaching Ichigo's location before his time ran out.
He needed to appraise her of the situation with the league, and help her set some traps before he had to return to the others.
Tiger didn't know what to make of the current situation. But he knew that he didn't really like it any.
After Shouta had returned with Ichigo, and he'd told him that he'd keep an eye out for the guy that had probably hurt her- he'd left camp to go and collect him. However he'd yet to find him and had simply started to follow after the blood trail left behind since he smelled very strongly of Ichigo's blood's scent.
He had gotten a fair distance away from the camp before he'd hit his first problem.
The stranger and the blood trail simply vanished into thin air. And not long after that, he'd heard people talking. It was vague, and the sound was slightly distant- but he'd decided to follow it just the same.
Now, here he was up in a tree- watching several men with bikes and weapons.
And he could feel the nearly overwhelming urge to jump down and maim them all steadily rising within him. But he held himself back because he felt the need to gather information on them so that he could plan ahead first.
So far, only one of the three seemed to be a kitten.
Not quite eighteen years old. So yeah...technically still a kitten. Though the boy was considerably taller and more built than any kitten he'd ever seen before. He was tall, probably taller than Toshinori- with dark skin and wavy hair that brushed past his shoulders a little bit.
The kitten strangely seemed like he had very sharp claws to Tiger.
And while that was nice and all, Tiger was in no hurry to test him just yet. But it bothered him more than a little bit when the kitten split off from the other two. Since it meant that he was going to be stuck with his information gathering while the kitten ran ahead to god knew where. To do heaven knew what.
As soon as the kitten was gone and well out of hearing range, one of the two men chuckled and shook his head as the other one asked, "Think he's going to go find Ichigo?"
The mention of Shouta's injured and vulnerable kitten made Tiger growl softly in anger.
"You know he is," The tall man with the dreadlocks and eye patch said in amusement. "I keep half expecting him to start wearing a dog collar that says, Property of Ichigo, around his neck."
Tiger cocked his head to the side a little bit, his curiosity about the comment, piqued.
"He is sort of like her guard dog." The bald guy chuckled.
"Well, you can't exactly blame him," Eye patch said in a bemused tone. "They are best friends after all."
"Yeah I know... D-Do you think that she'll be happy to see us?"
"Hm?"
"Well, I mean- she left for a reason and-"
"She's in danger Ikkaku," Eye patch said. "And after everything that she's sacrificed and lost and had ripped away from her- she needs us to have her back on this."
"I know. But I also worry that we may be forcing ourselves into her life again."
"We don't really have a choice this time," Eye patch said with a careless shrug. "She needs us. She may not like it any, and she may downright hate it. But she does. And since she needs us, we have no choice but to follow wherever she leads us."
"It sounds like you've finally met someone worthy of following, captain."
"Your damn right."
Shouta put his phone away with a sigh once he was done speaking to Toshinori.
And to say that the man was understandably upset about everything that had happened so far, was an understatement- would be an understatement of it's own.
Toshinori had practically gone rabid once Shouta had told him of the most recent development. After which he had assured the dark haired man that he'd be on his way to the camp as soon as he either found a pet carrier so that he could bring the cats with him, or he found a cat sitter.
Shouta had told him to dump the felines on Hazashi's doorstep and then leave. Hizashi should be able to handle the little monsters easily enough. Besides, Shouta needed him here.
Reaching out absently, he gently ran his knuckles along the curve of Ichigo's pale cheek. Noting that for the moment, between the IV, the meds, and her regeneration ability- that she seemed to be stable. Just...resting. Likely from exhaustion as well as blood loss.
Not long after the WWP's had managed to stabilize her condition, he'd been left alone to keep an eye on her. While they went and made sure that the rest of the kids in the camp were still where they should be, and were staying out of trouble.
"What am I going to do with you? Hm...problem child?" He asked softly to no one in particular as he brushed a few strands of her hair away from her face.
He wasn't usually the type of guy to get affectionate with someone that he didn't know very well. But for some reason...touching Ichigo made his already frazzled nerves feel less frayed at the edges. It pushed away his anxiousness and helped him to try and focus on what he should be focusing on right then.
It was also a good way to assure himself that she really was okay-ish.
"Toshi's going to be here in a few hours kid... He's really pissed at your current state. So if I were you," He leaned down to ghost his lips along her forehead for a moment. "I'd try to wake up before he gets here. Otherwise he's going to throw a tantrum and turn this training camp into a newer version of ancient Sparta." He chuckled a little bit at the funny mental image of his students all marching around wearing armor and carrying flint tipped spears.
He had no doubt that Toshi would even have a bottomless pit dug in the center of the camp so that he could kick kids into it whenever they irked him.
The thought truly might have been actually funny, if not for the present circumstances.
Exhaling the breath that he hadn't realized that he was holding, he brushed his fingers across her cheek again and then simply muttered, "Wake up soon kid... And please stop worrying me."
