Rukia and magic stuff in this chap.
It isn't detailed, but it does touch on some stuff including, 'magic futa', pregnancy, and child death. So be warned.
Once she was far enough away from the Boar Hat, she dropped her glamor allowing her appearance to change a little bit. Despite how she looked with it in place, she was actually much shorter and less buxom than the glamor made her appear. Her hair was also a little bit longer. Her golden amber eyes changing to their normal indigo-violet hue as she walked the streets.
Ichigo was probably going to be a little bit upset with her for leaving her behind with the other Sins, but it didn't really matter all that much since it was simply something that needed to be done sooner or later. Besides, she needed to take this chance to go and visit the small grave just outside of Liones since Ichigo had already been several times.
And why wouldn't she have?
The grave contained her- well, if one wanted to get technical- their baby, after all.
It was something that had happened about fifty years ago when Rukia had been screwing around with her new abilities as a Sin.
She hadn't meant to make herself into a temporary- yet fully functioning- futa, but she had. And what was worse was that she hadn't been able to stop herself from experimenting with the 'temporary' organs.
At Ichigo's expense no less.
But then, the other girl didn't really complain all that much when she wanted to use her for something weird nowadays anyways. Probably because she finally realized that resistance was futile. Either that or she just wanted to see what happened in the aftermath.
It was difficult to pinpoint Ichigo's motives of late. She'd developed that weird personality trait that Rukia identified as sadist-like.
How did Ban and Meliodas often phrase it? Set em up, and knock em down?
Truer words were never spoken before. Especially when it concerned those two men. Though perhaps the most fitting phrase was, Giving you enough rope to hang yourself with. Yeah, that definitely sounded more like Ichigo. It certainly fit her personality.
Or at least that's what she believed anyways.
Sighing she though back to that day fifty years ago when Ichigo had gone into labor. She had been feeling weird all morning and had decided to stay in bed. Her lower back had been hurting her and she had just felt...off. Rukia had been outside practicing her magic for a little while when she had suddenly heard her friend screaming.
She remembered running to see what was wrong, worried that there may have been bandits or something attacking their home since they'd been having some trouble with them off and on for several years. And the most recent attacks on them had been happening more and more frequently.
And with Ichigo pregnant, letting her suffer an attack in her delicate state would only end badly for everyone involved. She had stumbled into their home to find Ichigo doubled over holding her stomach, her expression a mixture of agony and fear.
She'd gone into labor several months prematurely, and struggled for nearly three hours before finally giving birth to their stillborn child. She had very nearly hemorrhaged to death too. She'd lost consciousness before the infant had even slid out of her body due to blood loss, and exhaustion.
Leaving Rukia to take care of her before she could collect the half formed baby and examine it with a critical eye in an effort to figure out why it hadn't survived only to surmised that it perished because of a mixture of lacking in development and from being born too early.
It wasn't anybody's fault.
Not hers. And certainly not Ichigo's.
"What are you doing?" Ichigo asked as Gowther moved his hand to try and touch her head when she grabbed his hand in her own and held it away from her.
"I merely want to try and see inside of your memories. After all, if you and Merlin are indeed childhood friends-" He scowled at her as Meliodas said,
"Then technically, since she's one of us, we have a right to check you out. You know, to figure out how important you are to her and stuff."
"In what capacity does my relationship with her mean that you have any right to my mind or memories?" Ichigo asked as she swatted Gowther's hands away from her head for the umpteenth time. The man made a frustrated growling sound and looked like he was ready to try lunging at her as Slader said,
"It doesn't. Not really. However I think that the lot of them are so curious that they can't really stand it."
"That doesn't give them any right to try and mess with my head." She said as she swatted Gowthers hands away from her head again, earning a dark look from the man along with a louder growl before then actually lunging at her.
Meliodas watched his fellow sin as he leaped towards the girl, only to wind up being caught in mid air by her and flung away from her. Letting out a quiet whistle as Gowther hit the floor and rolled a few inches before he jumped back to his feet and tried again, Meliodas and Slader both shook their heads in dismay at the two.
Gowther lunging repeatedly at the girl. And Ichigo repeatedly catching him and tossing him away.
It almost looks as if their playing with each other. He thought in bemusement as Slader finally decided to intervene to prevent the two from possibly either injuring one another or causing damage to the pub. The next time Gowther lunged at the girl, the knight grabbed him and held him suspended over the floor while he thrashed around and growled in annoyance.
Meliodas was somewhat startled to hear the other man continuing to growl like a rabid dog. Especially since he didn't usually display so much emotion. Normally the other sin was pretty blank and emotionless. So this was...well, both sort of pleasant and at the same time not.
"If he sets my pub on fire in an effort to escape later..." He said in a warning tone as he glared at Ichigo. She merely looked at him, her expression telling him that she totally did not care if the man set his pub on fire or not.
He wasn't exactly sure how to react to that aside from not really liking it any. After all, he'd worked really damned hard to open his pub and keep it open. Having Gowther set fire to it would destroy all of his hard work and leave him without a job/home.
Finally Slader seemed to manage to calm Gowther down enough to let him go, but made sure to let the smaller man know that he would be watching him like a hawk for any stupid moves towards the girl. Leaving Gowther to gnash his teeth in irritation and stomp off before then turning to Ichigo.
"I don't think he'll any make anymore immediate tries to peek into your memories-" Meliodas made a strained little sound knowing that the knight was wrong in his assumption.
Gowther was practically hellbent, he was so determined.
It wasn't something that any of them really witnessed all that often. So it was really sort of shocking. But he'd seen the flicker of utter determination in the man's eyes before he's stomped off. So he was already probably planning a sneak attack or ambush of some kind.
And if Meliodas knew him half as much as he believed he did, Gowther would be dragging Ban, King, and probably even Diane into his plans to ambush/attack Ichigo.
