Continuation of the previous chap.

It's going to get dark-ish after this chap, so please pay attention to any warnings that I put in place.


They had been having fun taking turns singing and playing and joking around with each other. Ichigo was surprisingly good at singing. In fact her voice was really nice. However it appeared that once that memory changed- that the shit had hit the fan. Literally.

Meliodas's eyes widened and he sucked in a hissing breath at what he saw now. Ban and the other's all had horrified/angry expressions on their faces too.

It couldn't really be helped.

The world itself seemed to be ablaze with hellfire. There were people running and screaming as buildings blew up and collapsed in on themselves. Crushing and killing who knew how many bystanders while some of the people in the streets were suddenly swallowed up by the caving streets.

Ichigo was in the midst of it all, shielding people from what would have been gruesome deaths using her abilities and her phenomenally inhuman speed to grab people out of the way of new fires, explosions, and building/street collapses.

The girl looked utterly exhausted.

Almost as if she'd been at it for weeks and weeks on end without any form of rest at all.

She was dirty, blood spattered, injured- and had what looked like a few vicious looking burns on her neck, her right arm and her hands. Some of the skin there appeared to be coming off in chunks. And all of the wounds looked as if they had been smeared in mud and who knew what else and were dirty, and beginning to look infected in some places.

Her once long black hair was short now. So short that if one wasn't careful then they could easily mistake the girl for a boy.

It was...horrible. The devastation was...unlike anything that any of them had ever seen before. Honestly there were no truly accurate words to describe what they were seeing.

And the fact that Meliodas had no words for such horror- after being raised in an honest-to-god Hell realm- was very telling as to what he was thinking and feeling at the moment.

The girl was helping to get as many people as possible away from the chaos. Hopefully to a safe place. Mini Merlin was there too as well as several others that had shown up in her memories more than a few times to help them whenever something terrible was happening.

"Rukia! I need you to come with me and see if we can help as many people as possible. Uryu! I need you to run and find Orihime and get her to Kisuke's place. There's to many injured for the hospitals to handle! Chad! I need you to go and get my family out of the house. Grab my dad too. We need as many hands on deck here as possible!"

"Right!" Both boys said as they turned and started to go do as she bid them.

"Come on, Rukia." Ichigo said, earning a grimly determined look from mini Merlin as they both took off running into the chaos to do what they could.

As things progressed, everything seemed to calm down some. Only for the attacks to restart up again a little while later. Days? Weeks? They all seemed to blur together in Merlin's mind. Only giving them brief glimpses here and there of grief, sorrow, anger and despair.

Ichigo lost her dad during one of the attacks while he was trying to help evacuate some people from the ruins of a collapsed building. And then...she lost one of her sisters too.

Several of her other friends- civilians from the looks of them- tried to help, and also died.

Ichigo was called to go before some high ranking officials and several dozen nobles and was given the ranking of King after which each of them dropped to their knees before her and asked her what her first orders were as their ruler and liege.

Her first order of business had to been to start raising an army to help her defend them. Apparently she was concerned about how the recent attacks on them and their home town would spill out into the rest of the world and create a massive world wide war.

Her concerns were valid. And her thoughts and worries on the mass effects that would take place in the world- if the worst should happen- were also valid.

Once raising an army was under way, she then appointed some of her most trusted friends as her generals. People who could lead, think on their feet, and act as her right hand and last line of defense for the people who relied on them for protection.

Meliodas was more than a little bit impressed.

Especially since people has said off and on that the girl wasn't much of a thinking. And sure, she usually seemed more brawn than brain at times. But here she was...strategizing on the best way to prevent a mass world war and how best to protect everyone- not just those in front of her, but everyone in the world- from the inevitable that was about to occur.

To have such a heavy burden placed on her slender shoulders was inhumane to him. And yet, instead of collapsing under the terrible weight of it- of all the people and lives that she had suddenly become responsible for. She carried it with her head held high, with dignity and grace and all the strength in her small body.

She showed absolutely no signs of weakness to anyone at all. And in return...she earned the reverence of everyone around her even more then she already had with her previous actions and heroic deeds.

It was as if the very strength of the core of her being had been forged in fires more devastating then the one's in Hell itself. Meliodas and the other Sin's had never seen anything like it before in their lives.

It was as if they were staring at something that was breathtaking, amazing, and miraculous. Something that none of them could find any words for, nor truly describe or define but wanted to bask in the presence of anyways.

Things seemed to be going fairly well for a while, despite the fact that the war that Ichigo had been worried would happen- eventually did. She spent a lot of her time after that on the front line trying to help her soldiers beat back the enemy.

She was doing well. Until about six to seven months into her reign as a King. And then things took yet another unbelievable turn for her.

The same group of people that had made her a King marched right up to her when she was sitting in a chair using a wet rag to try and clean some of the blood, dirt and grime from her face, hands, arms and neck and suddenly demanded that she come with them immediately.

When she asked them what they wanted, they only gave vague answers about how something off the battlefield needed her total and undivided attention.

Whatever they wanted sounded shady to Meliodas.

But then he didn't really need to say anything.

Apparently the girl from Merlin's memory seemed to think that something was pretty shady about their behavior and 'request' for her company too. Still, even so... she informed her generals that she would be leaving for a short time to take care of something. And then grabbed Mini Merlin- who's presence was highly protested against by the others. And then left with them.

The moment that they had all reached her place of residence- a weird looking house like structure instead of a castle- the group had literally rounded on her and told her that she was to be married and begin the process of producing heirs effective immediately.

Meliodas may not have known where exactly Ichigo and Merlin hailed from originally, but from various interactions between the two and a lot of their friends and comrades, he didn't think that the news of being married off and having kids was going to be very well received by the girl.

And true to her usual behavior, it wasn't.

Though before she tore into the daft fools trying to order her around- she did make a point of turning to mini Merlin and whispering in what could have been outrage given the frown on her face. Or maybe it was just shock, "Did you hear the nonsense coming out of their mouths Rukia? They want me to marry and start popping out babies!"

"I know. I heard." Mini Merlin whispered back with a frown of her own.

"I mean, do these people even know me at all?" Ichigo nearly hissed out as Meliodas thought, Ah, there's the anger. "I'm fourteen for fucks sake! What the hell do I care about stupid boys or kids at my age?"

"I know. But I don't think that they particularly care."

"Well, this is crazy and I'm not going to do it. Being six months into a fucking war is no time to be settling down and having kids!" Ichigo growled out, her expression darkening as she turned back to the others and demanded, "And what exactly makes you think that I will go along with these plans of yours?"

"I'm not sure if you've noticed, but we're in a war here. Not only that, but I'm also fourteen. My age coupled with the fact that we're in a war that can possibly devastate the entirety of the world itself- is no time to be saying vows and laying down on the job. I'm needed far too much at the front lines to be taking a break to get pregnant and raise any kids."

"You would not be raising any of the children my lady." One man, a snake-like faced guy with shifty eyes said. Ichigo didn't really react to the news that she wouldn't be raising her own kids. Mini Merlin though let out an angry feline hissing sound and her hand went for the grip of her sword as Ichigo asked.

"And why exactly is that, councilman Davi?"

"It is as you say, my lady. Pregnancy and child rearing is not in your immediate future. Once you have birthed several children, you will be expected to return to the front lines...if the war isn't over by then, that is."

"Any my kids? What will happen to them?"

"Why, they will be raised by our most efficient nannies and tutors so that they can be properly educated on how to fight. So that they can join you at the front lines." The guy smiled widely, as if his idea of putting her children on the front lines during a war was the most brilliant thing that he'd ever thought up while the others behind him nodded their heads.

Meliodas saw Ichigo narrow her eyes at the lot of them before she lifted an arm and pointed at them.

At first nothing happened, but after a second or so, her index finger started glowing an ominous red a second before there was a loud Bam'ing sound and the man, Devi, fell to the floor without his head.