This chap mentions some of the reason why Ichigo left Karukura.


"What is supposed to happen once it's dark?" Shouta tried asking again.

But the boy, Sado was a pretty tight lipped little bastard, and upon having Shouta refuse to tell him where Ichigo was- had automatically clammed up and refused to speak to him anymore. Because apparently talking to him was a trial and he'd much rather speak to the girl.

If Shouta wasn't at least half sure that the kid was up to no good, he might have actually let him speak to Ichigo.

But he wouldn't have allowed the boy to be alone with her. In her present condition, there was no telling the damage that he might be able to do to her if he tried to attack her. And he didn't want his not-daughter to get hurt again.

Though the more time passed, the more he was beginning to suspect that the boy had no intentions of hurting anyone. When he'd asked about Ichigo, he'd seemed...worried for her. Maybe even a little bit scared that something was wrong with her?

Sighing because the boy wasn't saying anything, Shota decided to ask him something else to see if maybe it would get the boy to talk. "How did you and Ichigo meet? And what is the nature of your relationship?"

The boy visibly twitched a little bit at the questions. And remained silent for a moment before finally saying, "I'm her best friend and her right hand. I follow where she leads."

He blinked at the weirdly worded response. Because he had never heard someone refer to themselves as someone's 'right hand' before. And the boy's response was just a tad bit puzzling.

Sure he understood friendship. And even the lengths that some would go to help their friends and stuff. But the boy seemed to be weirdly devoted to Ichigo. Cult-like devoted.

It sent a shiver of apprehension down his spine that Shouta didn't like. Not one damned little bit. Especially since cult fanatics were in a whole new league of dangerous that he wasn't sure that he was quite ready to deal with.

"Okay, so you're friends." He didn't sound like he believed him. "How'd you two meet?"

The boy's lips quirked a little bit into a fond smile and Shouta cocked his head as the teen said, "I was walking to school when I decided to cut through an alley and walked myself into the damndest situation I'd ever seen before in my life- There was...I dunno, more than a dozen or so yakuza's strewn about the ground in various states of inured or unconscious. I think I must have at least tripped over one or two that were missing an ear, and a few fingers."

Shouta remained eerily silent as he listened.

"I started to freak out a little bit and moved faster because I didn't want to tangle with the person or...whatever that had left those thugs in such a state. And I got almost to the middle of the alley when I came up on these three guys- they were yakuza too I think. They had some poor kid down on the ground and were about to crack her head open with a home made sledge hammer wrapped in barb wire."

"The first thing that I really noticed about the group was, that the guys still standing had definitely seen better days. And the kid that they were holding down- was an eleven year old girl. Mean tempered, and even meaner mouthed. I've never heard a girl say such embarrassing things before. She called those guys everything that she could think of, she was so pissed."

Shouta's lips twitched a little bit as he imagined Ichigo as a mean mouthed eleven year old in a bad situation. She sounded like she'd been a hand full even back then.

"Anyways, they were about to crush her skull in when they saw me and figured that I must be there to help her. Technically they weren't wrong. And at the same time they were. I mean, I wanted to help her- but I also didn't want to get dragged into any yakuza stuff. Gang wars and such are a pain to try and avoid when you're new to an area. Ya know?"

Shouta didn't know. But he could certainly empathize.

"So upon deciding that I must have been there to help her, they attacked me. Broke a few two by fours over my chest, shoulder and stomach- and they made the horrible, horrible mistake of turning their back on the girl. One second these guy's are tying to wail on me with make shift weapons and the next they're being thrown around like rag dolls and the girl was stomping the ever loving hell out of them. She stole their weapons, their wallets-"

Shouta actually snorted in amusement at hearing the bit about Ichigo stealing the guy's wallets. Apparently that was her go to thing when she was irked at people attacking her.

"And then she asked what my name was. I told her that my name was Yasutora Sado. And she must have misheard because she was concussed and staggering around a little bit and was bleeding from a head wound. So she thought that I said that my name was Chad. She told me that I was awesome. Thanked me for helping, though I didn't really do anything at all to actually help. And then she sort of just...staggered off."

"And that's how you became friends?"

"Nah, we didn't really become friends until the second time that we ran into one another. She'd noticed that I froze up and didn't try and defend myself after the first time. So she tended to keep an eye on me, just in case. And it's a good thing too because some thugs from different gangs kept jumping me to and from school. She beat them up for me. I guess that she felt like she owed me after the first time or something." The boys shrugged his broad shoulders. "She didn't owe me anything. And I tried to tell her that repeatedly, but for some reason- she just...kept protecting me."

"So you became friends?" Shouta asked again. He was unable to hide his amusement as the boy replied in an incredulous tone.

"I wasn't about to piss off the little firecracker. She was a mean kid. Cute. But fucking mean. Besides, I developed a healthy respect and fear of her temper early on because I didn't want her coming after me."

Shouta supposed that he couldn't fault the boy there. If ichigo truly had done those things as an eleven year old then he might have reacted in much the same manner. Still, he had more questions for the boy before he decided to either let him go or...lock him up.

"If your both such good friends- then why didn't you come with her when she left home?"

The boy swallowed. His adam's apple bobbing slightly with the action before slowly saying, "I don't know exactly how well you know Ichigo- But...if you knew anything about her at all, you would know that she isn't someone who would ask a person to do something like uprooting themselves, at the drop of a hat. That being said, something happened to one of our mutual friends. It was after Ichigo's dad and sisters were killed."

"The last time that I saw her, was when we were both sitting in the hospital waiting room together. Waiting for someone to tell us whether or not Orihime would make it. It must have hurt more than she let on to find Orihime like she did. And doubly so when she found the note that she had left behind explaining her actions. But the long and short of it was that Orihime suffered from survivors remorse as well as guilt from not being able to help save at least one of Ichigo's baby sisters."

Shouta frowned as the boy kept speaking. "Orihime's a healer who can bend the laws of physics and space and time. Returning one or even both of the girls would have been easy for her. But she couldn't do it. And she felt really, really bad for being so weak that she couldn't give at least one of them back to Ichigo. So she did something stupid to punish herself. And once everyone found out about the letter that she'd left for Ichigo, explaining why- a couple of our friends turned on her. And it was bad."

"One of them attacked her. Another one burned her home down thinking that they might be able to purge Ichigo from the world by burning her alive. But she was staying with me at the time, so that person missed their chance to actually kill her. Things escalated quickly from there and soon everyone was at everyone else's throat over whether something should or shouldn't be done to make Ichigo pay for something that she had no hand in whatsoever. So she did what she could to stop all of the fighting- and she left home. She didn't say goodbye, didn't leave anything telling any of us where she was going. She just left. And those of us who still care have been worried sick about her."

Shouta shifted a little bit from one foot to the other as he considered this new information carefully before muttering a quiet oath and deciding to cut the boy loose for now. He'd simply have to keep an eye on him in the meantime and hope that he could get some more answers before the sun set.


Toshinori had stood outside of the room that Shouta had been questioning the villain in, listening for something. Anything that would explain why a 'villain' was in their student's training camp. So he was naturally relieved to learn that the person that had been captured wasn't actually a villain.

Though that didn't really mean anything as far as trustworthiness. But then knowing Shouta as he did, he knew that he would be keeping an eye on the guy while he was there.

Huffing quietly, he pushed away from the wall and decided to move on and go check on Ichigo since Shouta was otherwise occupied for the moment.

Making his way to the infirmary, he expected to walk in and find Ichigo resting or something instead of sitting up on the bed, looking...like something was horribly, horribly wrong.

She was pale, her face nearly bloodless. And her hair and skin was damp with sweat that could indicate either a severe fever or something else wrong.

"Ichigo!" He said as he rushed to her side and started to reach out and grab her shoulders when she jerked her body away from his hands and snapped.

"No! Don't touch me!"

He froze up as she lifted her head and looked at him with wide, glowing blue-white eyes that seemed to look right through him. Feeling his heart begin to pound out a rhythm filled with dread and fear.

"Ichigo? It's me, Toshinori." He said softly, hoping that she might snap out of whatever was wrong with her if she heard his name. She didn't. If anything she continued to look at him with those eerie glowing eyes that were both strangely focused and unfocused at once.

"Ichi-"

"Shh," She shushed him. "There's something in the woods. Something horrible that threatens all of us." He frowned and opened his mouth to ask her what she was talking about but she silenced him by reached out and absently laying a finger against his lips before then saying, "I need Chad brought to me. I need him brought to me right now."

Toshinori didn't know why she was wanting the person that Shouta had been speaking with brought to her, but something about the way that she kept insisting that he be gotten for her, spurred him into action. Quickly moving away from her, he ran to the door of the infirmary and shouted for Shouta to come there...now.

Once he was sure that he could hear his friend's semi hurried foot falls heading in his direction, Toshi stepped back inside of the room and moved back to Ichigo's side. His anxiety spiking even more when he noticed that the girl seemed to have zoned out on him.