Ichigo finally has her panic attack.
Ichigo had never been much of a runner when it came to running away from things. She'd simply never considered herself to be a coward before. And that was still true in this case, despite suddenly breaking down crying and running off when Rimuru had been trying to introduce her as his new co-ruler.
For god's sake, she couldn't fucking breathe!
Her heart was beating so fast it felt as if it was trying to jump right out of her chest, and her stomach was lurching dangerously with nausea.
She was having a panic attack.
She knew this because she'd had them before despite them being something that she'd never been very prone to up until her final fight with Aizen, when she'd sacrificed her Soul Reaper abilities just to beat him. It had been one of the few times that she could recall being genuinely being so afraid.
Afraid of what would happen. What could happen. And what would happen to the people around her without her to fight and protect them.
Sure, she knew that Chad, Uryu, and Orihime could fight, to an extent. But what of the others dear to her?
Her sisters, Yuzu, and Karin? Keigo? Tatsuki? Mizuiro? As feisty as they were, they were still untrained in how to use their abilities. They would die if they were to come under attack.
She had been absolutely certain of it, and it had terrified her beyond comprehension.
The only other times that she had to compare the current feeling choking her to would be the day her mom had died. And the time that Ginjo had ripped her newly awakened Quincy abilities from her and left her on her knees, crying in desperation and helplessness.
She stumbled a bit over nothing and might have fallen if not for the fact that someone had caught her.
She had known that she had been followed when she had bolted from the gathering. She could easily sense Hakurou, Souei, and Benimaru behind her at a discreet distance, watching to see if they could discern what was wrong with her and how they could help.
"I have you, my Queen." She heard Souei say quietly, she tipped her head back a bit to see him looking down at her with a concerned look on his half-hidden face.
She would have tried to reassure him that she was fine, because she didn't want him nor the other two men to see her in such a sad state. But her stomach gave one last warning lurch and she had to quickly push him away a couple of inches so that she wouldn't accidentally throw up on him as she started dry heaving violently for several minutes.
Vaguely aware of the fact that all three men had more or less grabbed her hair and were all standing around looking very uncomfortable while she hacked and hurled her guts out.
What felt like ages to her was only a mere two or three minutes. But it must have felt like forever to the others. She would need to apologize for being so damn weak once she finally stopped freaking out.
"My lady?" She heard one of them, Benimaru from the sound of the voice, ask tentatively. "Do you require a healer?"
She shook her head no and slowly straightened her spine while they each took a cautious step back away from her to see what would happen next as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and took several deep breaths, finally feeling as if she could breathe again.
The fear and anxiety she had previously felt several moments prior had lessened its hold on her, but they were still there.
"Are you certain that you are well, Lady Ichigo?" Hakurou asked, eyeing her skeptically.
"I'm fine now." She finally said, offering the men a slight smile in the hopes that they would be reassured.
But they weren't. In fact, they looked as if they didn't believe her at all. It took her a few seconds to realize that none of them had ever witnessed someone in the grips of a panic attack before.
"None of you have ever seen someone have a panic attack before, have you?" She asked stupidly.
Hakurou and Souei both shook their heads no while Benimaru merely shrugged and said, "I merely thought that you were hysterical. I was preparing to slap you back to your senses until you became ill."
His confession won him a couple of dark glares from the other two men. While Ichigo merely looked at the red-haired ogre as if he were nuts and shook her head as him.
Finally managing to regain her ability to speak, she looked down at her feet and muttered, "I'm sorry."
The three men looked at her oddly. She didn't have to raise her head to see the odd looks when she could feel them as tangibly as she could feel some of their emotions. At a loss she tried to filter through their various emotions of hesitancy, concern, and perplexed amusement. But it was proving to be a bit much for her at the moment given how raw her own emotions felt right then.
So, she decided to elaborate. "I basically dragged the three of you away from the feast because I freaked out. I'm sorry."
"Ah, you feel badly because of that." Souei said in a thoughtful tone.
"Lady Ichigo, there is nothing for you to apologize for." Hakurou said with a kind smile. "Everyone has instances where they feel...panic. It's a perfectly normal thing. Especially for young ladies such as yourself."
He was probably just trying to think of the right way to tell her not to apologize for having a panic attack to begin with, but somehow wound up making it something to do with her age and gender. Under normal circumstances she would have decked anyone else for saying something so sexist to her.
After all, her age and gender had absolutely nothing to do with her having panic attacks. It had to do with more with trauma. Stress, fear, and severe anxiety were merely triggers the that caused them because those negative feelings reminded her too much of her past battles, and conflicts.
But she still understood what the elder was saying easily enough to know that he wasn't trying to offend her. So, she let his jab at her age and sex slide.
It had taken him several minutes longer than he would have liked before Rimuru could escape the crowd at the feast to go after Ichigo. And by then she'd had a pretty good head start on him. Which was concerning considering just how fast he knew that she could move.
He had known that she wasn't overly fond of the idea of becoming the Queen of Tempest. But he had simply thought that the reasons had more to do with poor self-esteem or self-confidence.
He had hoped that once he introduced her to everyone that didn't already know her at the feast- she would realize that her concerns, while valid, were nothing to be overly worried about.
His people were kind, after all.
They wouldn't judge her harshly for being new the various responsibilities of their Queen and needing to take time to adjust not just to the job itself, but to the authority and all of the other trappings that came with it. Everyone understood that it was easy to make mistakes.
It simply came with the territory.
He hadn't however, expected that once he turned to introduce her to everyone present, to burst into tears and flee the vicinity as if she'd just come upon a murder scene or something. So, naturally he was worried about what she was thinking right at that moment.
Thankfully, before he had taken off, Geld and Gabiru had both helpfully told him that Benimaru, Souei, and Hakruou had taken off after her immediately after she'd bolted.
So, he was fairly sure that she wasn't alone right then. Which was good since he knew that the three would protect her from anything that may happen.
He was honestly hoping now that they could calm her down before he found them and maybe sweet talk her into returning to the feast. But he wouldn't hold it against any of them if they couldn't.
Turning the latest corner, he suddenly stopped running as he caught sight of the four and took a second to look all of them over before letting himself breathe a sigh of relief.
Ichigo looked a lot better than she had earlier, but he couldn't quite stop himself from feeling concerned about whatever had been bothering her.
"Hey!" He called out as he started moving again.
Smiling as the men all snapped their heads around to look at him while Ichigo glanced at him and then slowly raised a hand to give him a small wave. It was actually more like a finger wiggle than an actual wave, but whatever. He'd take whatever he could get.
Besides, it was a somewhat encouraging sign.
Walking up to the four, he again took a moment to look Ichigo over and even did a subtle health appraisal on her to get a better idea of what she needed. He was more than a tad bit startled/shocked to learn that she had had a severe panic attack and was still trying to recover from it.
He might not have known much about things like panic attacks, but he knew how draining and tiring they could be. So, after taking a second to make a decision, he told the others to go ahead and return to the feast. He was going to see Ichigo home and then grab her some stuff to eat from the celebration before he finally rejoined them.