The moment that Gowther cast his spell, the Boar Hat tavern disappeared and an image of an ten or eleven year old Ichigo, and a fifteen year old mini Merlin appeared. And true to Ichigo's previous story- Merlin's memories of their first meeting played out in startlingly, clarity.

To the woman, their first meeting was literally as if it were just yesterday.

However there had apparently been some details that the girl king and Merlin hadn't been willing to speak of. It played out for them too.

"I'm too injured to fight anymore," Mini Merlin gasped as she dragged herself a little bit across the ground and propped herself up against what looked like a stone wall. Once in place she glanced up at the younger girl who was scanning the area anxiously for the- well to be perfectly honest- it looked like a demon even to Meliodas. Though he was somewhat confused by why exactly it was referred to as a 'Hollow'. He'd save his questions for later. "Hey, you want to save your family right?"

"Of course I do." The words were spoken clearly with an unnerving amount of grim resolve behind them. Far more grim resolve than a mere eleven year old child should ever have. Much less display.

They watched as Mini Merlin shifted her hold on her sword a little bit and then raised it with a shaky hand. "Then I'll give you some of my power."

Ichigo's eyes flickered to the older girl for a moment as the atmosphere shifted a little bit. A dark hole appearing out of nowhere as the only warning sign that the 'Hollow' was beginning it's return to finish the two off.

The younger girl completely turned herself to face mini Merlin and asked, "What do I need to do?"

Mini Merlin gave the girl a little bit of a feral smile and lifted her sword blade a little bit higher. "You need to take my zanbaktu and drive it deep into the very core of your being. Once that's done, I'll give you what I can- and then you can fight the Hollow in my stead."

Meliodas and the others thought that the idea of fighting such a terrifying monster by herself would send the girl screaming into the night. But...the lack of hesitation on Ichigo's part, was beyond impressive. Even for a little kid, Ichigo must have had nerves of frigging steel to be able to stand face to face with what should be certain death- and not let her resolve waiver even a little bit.

"Then give me your sword, reaper-"

"Rukia." Mini Merlin cut in. "My name is Rukia Kuchiki."

Ichigo's smile was dazzlingly beautiful. It could light up almost anything despite the situation that she was in. It sort of reminded Meliodas of how Elizabeth's smile lit things up.

A deafening roar was heard as a massive dark, shadowy hand reached out for the two greedily. The monster's intention was clear to them.

It was trying to take advantage of their distraction to seize it's prey. However even as it reached for them, Ichigo grasped mini Merlin's sword by the blade and put the tip against her chest without hesitation.

"Alright Rukia. My name's Ichigo." And then she quickly and deftly- jerked the blade of the sword hard enough to totally pierce herself with it through and though. There was a collective sound of utter dismay as blood sprayed into the air mere seconds before the girl seemed to be struck by something akin to lightening.

It was brilliant, and blinding and sent what looked like ripples of something out into the area around the two girls. And when it finally faded away, instead of finding what should have been a dead body. Mini Merlin had undergone a physical transformation of sorts. Her formerly black clothing turning stark white. While Ichigo...was now dressed in the same black outfit that mini Merlin had been wearing and had a massive- sword.

Seriously the damned thing had to be bigger than Slader's own sword. It was huge!

Meliodas felt his eyes bug out a little bit at the sight of the solid black steel blade as the girl drew it. One handed. One. Fucking. Handed. At which point Ichigo turned to face the monster again and said, "Alright you bastard, let's see if I can give you something to chew on."

They watched her defeat the monster and then go about her life after mini Merlin supposedly went 'home' again. They also could see her utter dismay when mini Merlin hadn't gone home after all. They saw the two girls interacting together while mini Merlin trained her to use her new found abilities.

They saw the two bonding. It wasn't exactly a slow thing. The bond was pretty much there from the moment that they spoke to one another. But seeing it grow- and mini Merlin and Ichigo both grow along with it- was beyond fascinating.

Things got considerably more interesting after mini Merlin was dragged home and assumed that Ichigo- whom had been left bleeding and broken- was dead. And while Merlin didn't seem to have many memories of that that she could show them.

She was able to show them some stuff.

Like how she had been imprisoned, and was to die by execution for giving Ichigo her power so that she could protect her family.

They could see that she occasionally felt something going on outside of her prison cell. How she was told from time to time that some 'people' had infiltrated where she was and seemed hellbent on saving her. And just how desperately she would search through the small slit-like window for something while thinking of Ichigo.

And how happy she was to finally see her again.

The girl was a little bit taller in that memory.

Probably from having hit a growth spurt of some sort during all of her time fighting and running. She was also covered in bruises and other various injuries and was wrapped in bandages. Her neck and torso were in especially bad shape. Her shirt had been torn to shreds and the bandages were pretty much the only thing covering her chest.

However almost as quickly as she had displayed happiness at seeing the other girl again, outrage and anger set it and mini Merlin started screaming at Ichigo for daring to come after her when she should have saved herself.

Meliodas supposed that in mini Merlin's place, he would have felt just like she did about the girl coming to save him.

Especially when she had already nearly died at the hands of the people who had captured, and intended to kill her. However Ichigo merely told her to shut up. She wasn't leaving until she was safe and that was all there was to it.

The girl's lack of beating around the bush or mincing words made him snigger. Especially when he could see mini Merlin fuming so much that the two of them took a moment to make faces at one another.

Everything after that pretty much became a blur.

Ichigo had managed to save mini Merlin. And even helped to stop an coup de taut. She also paid a pretty hefty price for doing so too, despite how she tended to downplay things in front of her friends.

"Hey Captain." Ban whispered without taking his eyes off of the memories that Merlin was showing them.

"Yeah?"

"The girl...she's weirdly just like you." Ban said softly. So softly that he almost didn't hear him. Well, might not have- if not for the fact that the man was sitting so damned close, anyways. Meliodas tried his hardest not to cringe because even he could see how alike the two of them were, yet failed.

Drawing Ban's eyes to him for a second.

As they continued to watch Merlin's memories, they could certainly see why the girl seemed to draw her so much. Ichigo was not only fiercely protective of those that she cared for. But was so damned loyal that the thought of being betrayed by anyone dear to her was literally inconceivable. Both to her, and to the others.

And yet...even she also knew that the very real possibility of being one day turned on and killed by her friends for being so powerful, was very real. The girl never at any point seemed to be bothered by it any.

She never spoke of it. Never seemed to think on it.

And then- she was betrayed. Several times in fact. Though it wasn't the fault of any of those whom betrayed her any as far as they could see. In fact the only fault of theirs that Meliodas and the others could see was the fact that they had been taken by surprise so easily.

And even then when she wound up fighting her friends- she never once seemed bothered by it. Which was incredibly stupid of her. But Meliodas supposed that her faith in them was simply ran far deeper than the faith that they had in her.

She didn't falter. She didn't quit or give up. She didn't whine or cry about the betrayal's any once they occurred.

She fought and fought and fought until she found a way to finally reach them and bring them back themselves. Showing them a side of her that they doubted that they would ever witness first hand.

She shed more blood than even he felt was absolutely necessary in the process though. But dammit the girl was one impressively stubborn little brat. He couldn't help but admire that fact even when it looked as if she were definitely on deaths door.

"She'd make a good Sin." He heard Gowther say in a low amazed sounding tone, as they watched her drop her sword at the last moment and let a brainwashed Merlin slash her throat. And couldn't help the feral little smirk that curved his lips in response to the man's sentiments as she grabbed the other girl and kissed her on the mouth and seemed to be pushing some of her power into mini Merlin to help her regain her senses.

It was a risky move. Especially for someone who was mortally wounded several times over and was obviously slowly dying. But it worked out in the end and she seemed to be happy with the results from the way that she wrapped her arms around the hysterically crying smaller girl and just held her.

Hell yeah, she'd make an awesome Sin.

As things progressed to one particularly vicious fight- Meliodas couldn't help but thinks that Merlin hadn't been wrong about the girl's power. It was greater than Escanor's.

So much so that it surpassed him by leaps and bounds and allowed her to defeat a god with her own two hands. And she even ate his heart too.

Which Meliodas wasn't going to lie about- was totally gross. But he could sort of understand why she did it due to the events that they had seen leading up to the confrontation in the first place.

'God' guy was one nasty piece of work.

They also saw her collapse once it was over. She was perfectly fine one moment and the next she was falling, the happy, joyous and proud expressions on her friends faces were wiped off and automatically replaced by fear, dread and horror as they were told that it was a backlash effect from forcing herself to obtain greater power than her body could handle.

The guy saying it, sounded as if she were dying. Even his grim expression made it seem as if she were dying.

But she didn't. She merely slept for a while. Weeks? Months? A year?

It was hard to say since time passed differently in one's memories. However they did get to see some of the conversations between some blond guy named Kisuke and mini Merlin and a few others from time to time.

"Ichigo will wake up? Won't she?" A cute auburn haired girl asked tentively.

"She will. But...I'm uncertain about some of the changes that are currently taking place within her body."

"What do you mean?" Mini Merlin demanded almost angrily.

The man- Kisuke sighed and toyed with his had for a moment before then saying grimly, "To put it bluntly, there is a pretty good chance that by forcing herself to achieve an unknown level of power to defeat Aizen... Ichigo has unknowingly forced herself to reach an evolutionary state that is unprecedented in any of our races. Right now she's changing into something that is no longer human. There's no telling how long she may sleep, but once she wakes up- she'll be even more powerful than any of us could ever imagine."