Yesterday was a long, long eventful day for me.

Gone to the funeral of my great uncle. Accidentally dropped my husband's potty bucket and literally got shit all over me. My back was hurt again, my head is pounding, and I do not want to move again for at least a week.

But if I don't my cats will starve.

Here's the next chapter. Please, don't complain about the lengths of the chapters. I can barely keep a coherent thought together on a good day. Just be happy that I still have them...

The journey back to town to tell everyone that Charybdis had been defeated and they were safe again went a bit slower than Rimuru had expected it to.

Rukia had been so stressed over the fact that Ichigo was being put in harm's way by he and the others that once everything was finally over with, she'd collapsed from a fainting spell.

Rimuru had done a health analysis on her to make sure that she and her child were alright and was relieved to find that they were. But he also felt incredibly guilty for upsetting her to begin with since it could have cost her the baby.

He'd offered to carry her but had been shot down in flames by Ichigo as she grabbed the smaller woman and pulled her up onto her back so that she could carry her.

Which just made him feel even guiltier since the girl had to be totally wiped after using as much power as she had. He wasn't sure what it was that kept her on her feet when she likely just wanted to fall over and take a really long nap, but he was impressed, nevertheless.

It didn't stop him from walking along side of her and worrying though.

About halfway back to town it occurred to him that he still hadn't apologized for his earlier behavior yet. Deciding that now was a good time- and that he'd do it again later in front of everyone in Tempest if he had too, he started by getting her attention.

"Ichigo," The girl hummed in acknowledgement as her citrine-colored eyes slid his way. "I'm sorry about my behavior before. There was no excuse for it. And Renji was right, it's your power. You decide how it should be used. Not us. If it helps things a bit, I will write out a decree that states that no one will ask you to ever fight for us again unless it is what you decide. And I will make sure that no one in Tempest talks about your abilities to any outsiders either." He paused for a moment to take a breath before finally tacking on, "I promised when you and your friends first came here that I would protect you, and I will."

She looked at him, her eyes searching his expression for any trace of deceit. But finally nodding her head in understanding, knowing that he meant every word.

"It doesn't have to be a decree."

"Oh?"

"Just make it a rule instead. And don't bar any extenuating circumstances from it either." She mumbled as she carefully started to step over a fallen tree limb and paused when Rimuru reached out and used his body to force the limb lower to the ground to make it easier on her.

"Huh?"

"Extenuating circumstances. For example, if the demon lords decide to send an army of undead to Tempest. Or the world is ending."

"Freaky," He said wryly, but understood better what she meant. "Yeah, if Tempest suddenly gets overrun by zombies- we're totally going to need your help. There's just no two ways about it." He said jokingly.

"I agree." She said as she shot him an amused look as she finally stepped over the limb and paused to wait for him to follow.

Rimuru stepped over the limb easily given the fact that he wasn't being weighed down by another person's dead weight and fell into step next to her again while he thought of some different things. Which brought him to his next question, sort of.

"You were afraid earlier."

She almost tripped over a root upon hearing his words, causing him to reach out and grab her just to keep her from falling. He knew that it would be bad if she hit the ground, especially while she was carrying Rukia. So, once he was sure that she had her footing again, he let her go as he continued, "Why were you afraid?"

She was quiet as they made their way along a bit further, seeming to try and come up with an answer for him. Maybe her fear before was something that she wasn't aware of? No- wait, that was dumb. Of course, she knew about it.

"I dislike having so many eyes on me." She finally said after a few heartbeats of silence. "Too much attention can bring curious outsiders to where I am."

"And curious outsiders cause-" Rimuru prompted, wanting her to explain further.

"Trouble," She said as she used one of her hands to help her vault over another tree limb. "Lots and lots of trouble."

Ah, he understood a bit better now. Her dislike of having attention stemmed from finding herself harassed. He like dumb for not thinking of that before word had been spread all over Tempest about her going to fight Charybdis. But no matter. He'd make sure to speak with everyone so that they didn't spread the word of her battle outside of their walls.

Anyone that did, would place not only she and her friends in danger...but probably everyone else in Tempest as well.

"I'll take care of it," He said quickly. "I'll make sure that anyone who tells any strange or untrusted people about you, or your abilities will suffer severe consequences for doing so."

"You don't have to go that far-" Ichigo started to say, probably thinking that he was going to beat the crap out of someone just for talking about her. But Rimuru cut her off with a firm.

"Yes, I do. As I said before, I'll protect you. And I know I'm going to sometimes have to do things that I dislike to do it. But I can't do it half assed. If I do, others will think that they can get away with placing you at risk."

"It's not that I don't understand why or anything. I just...don't want anyone getting hurt because of me."

She didn't have to say it aloud, but Rimuru knew that she meant everyone in Tempest, under his rule. She didn't know how he would punish someone if they talked and was reluctant to allow him to physically harm any of them since many of his subjects were such kind natured and excitable people.

Rimuru caught on to what she was reluctant to actually say and blinked at her in surprise before slowly smiling.

Despite the insinuation that he may get violent with them, he wasn't really insulted or hurt. After all, Ichigo had only been in Tempest for several months now. And because she tended to keep to herself as much as possible, she still didn't really know how he ran the place or ruled over his people.

She'd only seen small glimpses of how he ruled here and there. Maybe it was time to cluse her in on just what kind of person he was.

"I know that I can be a bit...wild sometimes," He started, knowing that the word was a bit of an understatement given his monster nature. "But I'm not a purposely cruel person. As far as the punishment for talking goes, for example, I can just have whoever stand with their nose in a corner somewhere and scar them for life."

She turned her head to glance at him, questioningly when one of the others finally chimed in.

"Lord Rimuru is right, Lady Ichigo. Everyone in Tempest adores our lord to the extent that being out of his good graces would scar them terribly." Souei said as he appeared next to the monster lord.

Rimuru started, nearly jumping out of his skin at the man's sudden appearance but calmed himself almost just as quickly as he frowned at the man's words.

"Lady Ichigo?" He asked the man curiously.

Souei nodded sagely and then explained, "One of the best ways to protect her would be to make her your Ward, or to become her Champion and protector. Once that is done you can then elevate her status to that of a noble. You can make her status that of someone directly under you, or that of a Princess. None in Tempest will question you if you make it a decree. Whatever you choose, Lady Ichigo will then be protected by the entirety of Tempest. The elevation in status will also come with certain perks as well. Such as being able to command our forces if anything happens to you."

Rimuru let out a thoughtful sound as Ichigo stopped walking and turned to look at the two of them in wide eyed disbelief. One of the multiple voices in her head all but screaming, No, no, no, no, no, no! As she thought, Kisuke will kill someone in that bizarre overprotective 'dad' way that's he's developed since we came here!

"That's actually a pretty decent idea," Rimuru said as the voices in her head started shouting so loudly that it was a wonder that her ears didn't start bleeding, the sound was so loud that it was making her head ache terribly. "I'll have to think on which title to bestow-"

That was the last thing that she heard before her eyes rolled back in her head and she fell.

She didn't know what happened after that since she had passed out, her nerves frayed beyond belief. Nor did she know that the second that everyone saw her fall- everyone lunged for her so that they could catch her before she hit the ground.

Rimuru nearly had a heart attack when the girl finally collapsed, especially since she had seemed to still have enough strength to keep going. In hindsight he should have known that something like this would happen. But he'd been busy thinking over other things and hadn't paid as much attention to her health as he should have.

Needless to say, he was just a tab it upset with himself for being off to such a splendid start as the girl's Guardian and protector.

Thankfully, between himself and everyone else within reaching distance- both Ichigo and Rukia were caught before either of them could hit the ground and get hurt.

Presently, Chad had Rukia in his arms, carrying her.

While Rimuru carried Ichigo in his as Tempest's gate came into sight.

"I'm going to go ahead and take Rukia home." Chad said, not even waiting for any sort of acknowledgement from anyone before breaking away from the group and somehow disappearing into thin air as the citizens of the town closed in on their small group with expectant expressions of both fear and excitement.

"Benimaru, can you please take care of telling everyone about the battle's outcome." Rimuru asked. The red-haired ogre nodded his head curtly and separated from the group to do as his lord asked of him.

Which somehow led some of the citizen's away so that Rimuru and the others could pass a bit more unhindered than before. After that, it was only a matter of getting to their destination, the lord's home, where he would let Ichigo rest until she felt better.

In the meantime, he would run various ideas past Shion, Souei, Hakurou, and Princess Shuna until Benimaru finally rejoined them to help.

He had a feeling that this would take up more than half of the rest of the day and evening as well. So, it was best to begin as soon as possible.