Ichigo wasn't sure what bothered her more at this precise moment.

Being trapped in some sort of...black dome for seven hours straight with an malicious spirit that she couldn't exercise as easily as she could a Hollow. The sheer amount of blood and dismembered bodies that she'd had to wade through- and even swim through on occasion- as the fight had progressed.

Or the fact that once she'd finally managed to actually damage it enough with her spirit energy to force it to retreat, and the dome fell... And her adopted son literally seemed to appear out of nowhere and scared the ever loving hell out of her.

He scooped her up off of her feet so suddenly that she almost took his head off. Literally.

Thankfully, years and years of training and fighting had honed her reflexes enough to be able to completely stop herself from doing any harm in a fraction of a second. Instead choosing to wrap her arms around her boy's neck and just take a moment to let the fight drain out of her entirely.

Her body hurt everywhere. Her muscles were screaming in protest of any further movement as Yuji hugged her tightly against his chest and simply chanted, "Mom, mom, mom." Over and over again.

Letting her know just how badly it had shaken him to find her in this place.

Speaking of...what the hell was her son doing here in the first place? Shouldn't he be at school? Hanging out with friends? Wait- it was a school night wasn't it?

What the hell was her son doing in this abysmal place?!

She opened her mouth to begin demanding answers but the anger laced tone of a strange man wandering up to them both stopped her.

"Yoo-hoo, Yuji! You little dumbass. Who've ya got there?" A strange guy wearing all black clothing and spiky white hair practically growled at Yuji as he walked up to them.

"Huh?" The boy said unintelligibly. Earning him a hard punch to the back of the head from the man's fist.

Yuji managed to put her on her feet again before actually reacting to the blow by rubbing at the spot with one hand while he scowled at the guy.

The fact that the two of them seemed to know one another- and were even on friendly terms- wasn't lost on her. Truly it wasn't. But it also didn't stop her from feeling pissed at the guy for hitting her kid.

She was about to give him a piece of her mind when he seemed to decide that his business with her son was concluded for the moment and then turned to her and smiled his most charming smile and said, "Hi, I'm Gojo Satoru. Yuji's sensei at Tokyo Jujutsu High."

She blinked as she took a second to process what the man had just said, absently noting that not only did the place not sound familiar to her. But she was also fairly certain that her son didn't go there.

"Listen, whoever you are-"

"Gojo." The man interrupted her with a smile. "I'm Yuji's sensei." He said again.

It was hard to tell if he was actually being serious or not given how his tone changed from one word to the next. But she didn't really care.

"Yes, you've said that-" She started again only to be interrupted by him a second time when he asked her name.

She blinked at him, deciding that he was one of the rudest people that she'd ever met before in her life. Which was really saying quite a bit given the staggering number of rude people that she usually ran around with.

She scowled at him as she crossed her arms over her chest and pointedly glared at him. Silently daring him to interrupt her again as she said, "I don't give my name out to strangers-"

The man cut her off with an annoying whine. "Aww, but we aren't really strangers anymore Momma-chan."

Her eye didn't twitch like it felt it was going to, thank god. But her fingers did. Though it was probably really hard to tell that fact with the way that she had her arms crossed as she let the guy go ahead and dig his own grave a bit more.

"After all, we're both raising Yuji together now as parents!"

She moved so quickly that she doubted that the guy saw her move. He certainly didn't bother dodging her fist any if he did.

Her fist met his jaw in a spectacular fashion. The crack of flesh striking flesh was difficult not to see or hear happen in such a small area. Not only that but the man actually looked genuinely startled to have been struck by her from his place sitting on the ground where he'd fallen, clutching his face.

One hand moved up to the fabric wrapped around his eyes so that he could tug it out of the way and stare at her with a slightly bewildered/calculating expression on his face as she spat out.

"You aren't Yuji's father."

And then reached out and grabbed the boy by the front of his shirt and then started to walk away, dragging the protesting teen along behind her as she went.

She almost got them both through the gate when she felt the spark of malicious spirit energy rising again from somewhere behind her. And everything seemed to slow down to a snail's crawl for several seconds while she tried to find the source of the threatening energy.

Hoping to be able to finish what she started while she had enough strength to do so. However getting rid of her son and his friends was another problem entirely. One that she wasn't entirely sure that she had the time to really take care of when all of a sudden she heard maniacal, disembodied laughter coming from across the grounds from them a split second before something red shot out of the inky darkness.

She only had a split second to react. And as much as she wanted to run, she had to stand her ground and protect Yuji, his idiot sensei, and the other two kids that she'd spied a few moments ago from the corner of her eye.

So that meant that she was stuck.

It occurred to her when she was staring down the possible kill shot that this, ironically, must be some sort of payback for all the shit she put her dad through as a kid. Especially during her years as a Soul Reaper.

She didn't have any time to brace for impact. Nor did she want to take the moments that she had left to shove Yuji to get him out of the way.

She knew that she'd likely wind up putting too much force behind the move and accidentally send him crashing through a few trees.

And she was pretty sure that the police and Child Protective Services tended to frown on that kind of stuff. Especially since the boy would suffer broken bones and other injuries from the force behind her push.

Turning as quickly as she could, she managed to push him behind her- amazingly, she didn't send him flying and he instead only ended up stumbling and falling as she braced to use herself as a human shield.

She was ready for whatever was going to happen. Or so she thought.

However the impact never made it to her. Yuji was up and moving in a second. Though it was difficult for her to tell where exactly he was moving too. And in the next moment- she vaguely felt strong arms wrap around her and scoop her up and then take flight.

She was high above the area she'd just been standing in with her kid when she finally seemed to return to her senses and realize that she was still in one piece. But more than that...she also realized that the man that she'd punched before for calling himself Yuji's dad- had her safely cradled in his arms and was watching the chaos unfolding below.

She could hear the kids shouting and cursing. Yuji as well.

So she knew that they were all safe-ish. But more importantly, they were alive. And really that was all that she seemed to care about at the moment as she tried to squirm herself free of the man's grasp. Uncaring that they were more then several stories up, and a normal person would break more than a few bones and stuff if they were to fall from such a height.

However the more she tried to squirm loose, the tighter that he held her as he chuckled at her and said.

"Damn momma-chan, you really are something."

She tipped her head a little bit to look at him for a second. She was beginning to get a weird feeling that she should have been alarmed by how pleased he sounded. But all she seemed to be able to focus on was the fact that her son and the other two kids were running around willy-nilly and screaming below them.

So she really couldn't bring herself to care how pleased he sounded. Or even why.

"Let go! They're in trouble!" She hissed as she continued to try and free herself from his grasp. But she wasn't making any progress and just seemed to be wasting her energy give the fact that his grip had tightened so much now that she could feel bruises forming on her skin.

"Oh, I know that they're in trouble. I've got my eyes on them for a reason. But they don't actually need my help yet," He paused for a moment before continuing on. "Let's talk about you."

"Huh?"

"You can see cursed energy. But more than that, you've been here alone, and unarmed from what I can tell, fighting a very dangerous cursed spirit."

"Huh?" She said again, still trying to understand what he was talking about. After all, weren't malicious spirits just malicious spirits? What was all of this 'cursed' nonsense?

Was he trying to say that the spirit in this place something that was created by a human made curse?

"But what's even more impressive to me is the fact that you actually managed to hit me. Do you know how rare it is that I come across someone who can actually land a strike on me?"

She didn't. But that weird feeling was beginning to turn her stomach now as he went on to say with a grin.

"I like you. Be my woman."

She'd had a feeling that he was about to say something ridiculously stupid, which was why she went ahead and waited for him to finish. And now that he had, and she knew what was on his mind- she gave him the most utterly disgusted look that she could muster.

After all, this was definitely the wrong time and place to be flirting with someone.

Pinching the bridge of her nose and cursing softly underneath her breath- because oh dear Christ, here was yet another weirdo that she wasn't going to be able to get rid of easily- before then deadpanning, "Are you a masochist?"

This time he seemed slightly confused by her question. So she went ahead and elaborated hoping that he would drop the matter and never say anything dumb like before, ever again.

"I've been warned about bringing more masochist's home with me. Apparently I tend to pick them up like strays."

He blinked his cyan blue eyes are her in utter bewilderment and then gave her a grin. And it wasn't a normal grin either.

His grin sort of remined her of the first time she had made Kenpachi grin when they'd been fighting, back when she'd broken into the Seireitei to save Rukia. It sent shivers down her spine, and not in a good way.

It was the grin of someone totally off his fucking rocker.

And she suddenly fervently wished to be anywhere else but here with him.