Mentions of blood, death and war in this chap. If triggered, then skip it.

To say that Koenma was startled by his visit barely an hour after Kurama had left his home to go to work, would be an understatement. The sad truth of the matter was that while he had expected the fox to visit him again at some point- he just hadn't really thought it would be so soon.

But apparently something must have happened with Miss Kurosaki. Otherwise, Kurama might not have been there to demand answers.

"Hello Kurama. How are you?" The toddler prince asked as one of his favorite demon's entered his office, causing him to pause working on his stack of endless paperwork.

"Hello Koenma." Kurama greeted him before then tacking on. "I believe that you know why I'm here."

Koenma heaved a sigh and reached up to massage his head for a moment. "Of course, I know." He admitted knowing that it would anger the demon. But he wanted to be as honest as possible here.

And an upset fox demon wasn't something to be trifled with. Especially when said upset demon was Kurama, the legendary thief, himself. Besides, he doubted that security was well equipped to handle the demon's wrath.

Watching the redheaded man warily, the toddler prince said nothing else for the moment as Kurama took a second to intimidate Jorge and the other ogres into fleeing the office and then closed the door behind them and then turned the lock. The second that Koenma heard the lock to the door engage- he started to sweat bullets.

"Now," Kurama said as he seated himself in the chair right across the desk from the prince as he leveled a displeased glare the child's way. "Tell me everything that you've been hiding from me."

Koenma had to resist the urge to squirm under the weight of the fox demon's glare as he tried to think of which information the man had come for today. Sure, he knew that there was a lot that he had never informed Kurama of. But there were a lot of reasons for that.

One was the security of Spirit World. Another was the security of the woman that Kurama was interested in, herself. After all, the name Ichigo Kurosaki was notorious here in Spirit World. And for a damned good reason too.

How many people got to say that they knew a war hero of- all three realms- and actually mean it? Not many, not anymore. He could tell you that much.

"Do you want me to tell you everything from the last few years?" Koenma asked hesitantly while mentally chanting, Please say yes, please say yes, please say yes...

If Kurama wanted every scrap of information on the woman- he would likely have to steal it from him since he didn't have high enough clearance to get it normally.

"Yes. Anything combat related."

Koenma tried not to show it, but he was ecstatically happy that Kurama just wanted the information from the past few years. Now he wouldn't have to worry about being burgled. Happy day!

"Very well," The toddler said as he relaxed a little bit without trying to seem too relieved. The last thing that he wanted was Kurama demanding answers about Ichigo's teen years and such. "I have been withholding some information from you deliberately." And the rest he withheld because he didn't have a choice.

"According to her files, Ichigo finished up her last year of high school while in America. However, there is more to the story than that. She chose to go to America for certain reasons that she didn't bother to share with many people before leaving. And while she was still seventeen, she signed up to be one of the US Marines." He paused for a moment when Kurama merely blinked at him as if he didn't understand what a Marine was. So, he explained.

"Marines are soldiers in the US military."

The fox growled at him in warning so he decided to just carry on and hope that the red head wouldn't attack him. "Her training began almost immediately after she turned eighteen. And after that she spent several years in the military as both a combat medic and a sniper. She served several tours overseas in Iraq during the war. She saw her fair share of violence and bloodshed and then once she turned twenty three she retired."

Kurama seemed to be digesting this information at the moment, so Koenma continued on. "Her military service records are outstanding. From what I've read of them so far- she was a wonderful soldier, sniper, and excellent medic as well. She helped to save many people's lives."

"Can you show me?"

"Huh?"

"Is there any way that you can show me what she went through?"

Koenma blinked at the man startled for a second before blurting out, "Of course I can. But are you sure that you want to see those things, Kurama? War and violence that go with it aren't for the faint of heart."

"I've lived lifetimes longer than she, Koenma. There is nothing that you show me that I've likely not seen before."

The toddler took a moment to cringe, his expression all but telling the red headed man that he very much doubted that as he then reached out and pressed a glowing fingertip to the demon's forehead.

Kurama wasn't sure what he was actually expecting when he'd asked Koenma to show him what his dearest had gone through during her time as a Marine... But a thing similar to the video game Call of Duty wasn't anywhere near what he'd been expecting.

The only reason that he didn't bother to complain was because he doubted that the toddler would be able to hear him anyways.

Looking around a moment to get his bearings, the first thing that he became aware of was the fact that he was in a dessert. It was overwhelmingly hot, and there was little green vegetation anywhere.

The second thing that he noticed was that there were people in dust covered uniforms, carrying weapons moving along beside a caravan of vehicles.

It took him a moment until he was able to spot Ichigo, but once he did, he was slightly shocked by the very odd differences in her appearance.

For starters, her hair was cut short like a man's and it also appeared to have been dyed black. Obviously to make herself appear more like a male than a female. Though to him she was still the lovely woman that he was growing to adore.

Second of all, she was wearing a somewhat large and baggy uniform and vest lined with extra ammo and other things.

She was also the only person daring to sit on top of the roof of one of the vehicles. Which was dangerous for a multitude of reasons. But since she was supposed to be a sniper- he supposed that it made sense for her to be up high.

It both made her a target and gave her a better view of the area. As well as made, it a bit easier to spot any immediate threats.

Taking another moment to look around, his eye's spotted Byakuya Kuchiki moving along the side of the vehicle that she was riding on. And there were several other familiar faces that he recognized too.

Ichigo's father was trailing along the other side of the vehicle. And not too far away from him- was the scruffy blond man that he'd seen the other day.

He rolled his eyes and groaned at just how far the three men were willing to go to hassle his darling. Especially since he was fairly certain that this wasn't normal behavior. Not for nobles. And certainly not for people who were just overly protective.

This- This sort of behavior was more like that of certain demon breeds. Not terribly unlike his own.

But since he was fairly certain that the men weren't demons like himself all he could do was shake his head and marvel at their commitment to being near Ichigo.

God knew that their presence, even in a war zone must have been secretly driving the poor woman crazy! Yet she didn't react to any of them being near her.

She remained entirely focused on her task and eventually, she moved. Using one of her hands to bang on the roof, the vehicle came to an abrupt stop and she jumped down from her perch as several other soldiers came jogging to the front of the caravan and all took up defensive positions around the vehicle with their weapons at the ready.

"What's going on Kurosaki?" Someone- another soldier called out from the inside of the vehicle as he poked his head out of the window.

"I see something in the dirt!" Ichigo called back, drawing Kurama's attention to the road. But even his sharp eyes had no idea of what to look for. Whereas his darling did.

She raised her gun and fired off a round into the ground several feet away. And was rewarded by the ground erupting into an explosive fireball that spat dirt and dust everywhere.

The sound was enough to make Kurama quickly clamp his hands to his ears in an effort to protect his hearing. Honestly the sound was much louder than he'd expected it to be.

Especially since once the dust settled a bit, she managed to find several other mines hidden in the dirt and went ahead and set them off too before spotting some more a little way further from the last one that she set off. Turning around she called out, "We got a mine field here!"

And got a shouted, "Can you find them all?" in reply. She lifted one of her hands and made a sign with her fingers to indicate that they hold their position as she slowly and cautiously began to sweep the road for signs of more. She found them too.

But because some were buried deeper than others- she had to alternate between bullets and rocks that she picked up as she went. It took her several minutes- and from he could see she was pretty thorough. So much so that Kurama was genuinely surprised.

Not to mention more than a little proud.

He may not be a military man, but even he knew how difficult it could be to find land mines. Much less be as accurate as possible about finding them.

"You got em all Kurosaki?" Another man called out. She lifted her head despite the fact that she was still scanning the ground for anything that she may have missed, but curtly nodded when she saw nothing else suspicious.

"Good!"

After that everyone was given the order to get ready to move on. And Ichigo got a lift back up to the roof of the vehicle that she'd been sitting on previously by one of the men before it started to move. She was in the middle of becoming comfortable again when she heard a sudden whistling sound.

Jumping to her feet, she pulled her gun up into position and the second that she saw what was causing the whistling sound, she called out a warning about the incoming missel as she fired at it.

The missel didn't hit the vehicle. But it did get close enough to throw her off of the roof and send her flying while the driver and passenger both screamed in fear at the fireball that was suddenly close to their faces.

After that, chaos erupted all over the place.

The soldiers scrambled for cover while the enemy seemed to martialize out of thin air and attacked them. There was smoke, gunfire, explosions, and the screams of injured and dying men permeating the air.

Ichigo managed to join the fray a few minutes after climbing out of the place she'd been thrown earlier. And though her head and mouth were both bleeding, she seemed to be otherwise miraculously unharmed. Or at least unharmed enough to do her job anyways.

Kurama counter her killing at least a dozen or so men before the attack finally ended. And in the aftermath, everyone checked on each other- their fallen comrades, and the vehicles to make sure that they could still be used. After that, they drove on.

With the small change of the soldier's riding in the backs of the vehicles this time instead of walking alongside them. After all, there was no point in keeping their men out in the open after that.

Everything blurred a little bit- and it seemed as if what he was seeing was changing. It was disorienting but he bore with it so that he could see what happened next.

The second that everything settled down again, he saw Ichigo hunched over a soldier's body trying to help him. There was a growing crimson stain spreading underneath the man, and from the looks of it, a major organ somewhere had been damaged.

He could hear rapid gunfire around him indicating an attack of some kind as Ichigo tried desperately to save the injured soldier only for him to die when a stray bullet hit him in the head causing it to explode like a watermelon. Ichigo froze in horror and disbelief as the soldiers blood and brain matter spattered across her face.

He saw the brief flash of pain cross her face as she blinked back tears and then lifted a bloody hand to her mouth and let out a loud whistle and then called out, "I've got blood in my eye!" to the rest of her comrades.

Kurama didn't know the significance of her words until several of the others began to call out the same words to the rest of their friends as she shrugged off her vest after grabbing a wicked looking knife and a small gun and then standing up and running in the direction of the attackers.

Someone called out to the other marines to lay down a cover fire and distract the enemy. And the bottom dropped out of Kurama's stomach as he realized what his darling was planning on doing.

He didn't know how many men she tore through once she reached them. But he would always recall how she looked as she slit throats and shot some of the enemy men between the eyes.

Everything seemed to happen so fast to him that he could barely keep track of everything that she did. But by the time she had finished, he could easily see that she had killed- well perhaps, killed was too mild a word to use. It looked more to him as if she had slaughtered them. All twenty of the enemy men lay dead at her feet.

And the fact that she had killed them all on her own was nothing short of horrifying. Yet even so, the demon simply purred at the sight of her spattered in all of that red blood.

Figuring that he'd seen enough for the moment he flared his energy so that Koenma could return him so that he could ask him something else. He had a good enough feel for Ichigo as a soldier to understand that she had had a flashback of some kind the evening prior.

And while that was a bit worrying to him. He could easily figure out how to handle it.