Me: BACK!
Ichigo: (Currently lying in a hospital bed- AGAIN- with his prizes around him. From Josie-Chan, a huge cake that reads "IM SORRY YOUR FRIENDS ARE SO STUPID THAT THEY MAKE U FEEL EVEN MORE BAD/SICK THAN BEFORE!", a lemon poppyseed basket of muffins from xXSweetestXAngelXNightmareXx, and a metal bat and cake depicting him torturing the shit out of Iga Clan ninjas from InugamiGod.) Yeah, yeah.
Me: Oh shut up! I didn't hurt you all that bad!
Rukia: (Sweatdrops as Ichigo reaches for his pain meds, his arm in a sling and a bandage wrapped around the side of his head) ...No, not at all.
Ichigo: Enh! Enh! ENNNNH!
Me: (While tossing him the pill bottle) Here. ANYWAY. Thanks for the reviews, ya'll are awesome as usual, keep 'em up! Today's cake ideas brought to you by rainbowdragongirl101:
Still Me: ...(Glares at Kon) THAT'S YOUR CUE!
Kon: YES, MANDY! (Wheels out Cake 1: Ten layered ice cream cake (Strawberry and Vanilla ice cream to be exact). At the top is Ichigo saving Peyton -who's in his arms- while Seth holds a club and bashes some ninja's head, Lindsay's sitting on top of a pile of ninjas with a sword in her hands, and the other Shinigami are basically doing the same thing all over the cake. The layers get smaller as they go up, giving it a staircase affect.)
Me: (Smile innocently) Since our usual cake-wheeler is bit occupied due to his BIG FAT BASTARDY MOUTH! ...We're using Kon. (Glares at aforementioned stuffed animal) NOW, MORON!
Kon: (Wails) WHY ARE YOU SO MEAN TO ME? (Sobs and wheels out Cake 2: Peyton on top of a red velvet cake with red icing surrounded by knocked out ninjas as electricity glows around her. The blood of the ninjas spell "I'M OUTTA HERE, BITCHES!"
Me: AAAND last but not least-
Kon: (Wheels out Cake 3 as quickly as possible, not even giving me time to yell at him. It's shaped like a muffin with Peyton jumping on Ichigo as Nanaw yells "I WANT SOME OF DAT HUNK MUFFIN!" With Peyton yelling, "I GET HIM FIRST!" and Ichigo sweatdropping and mumbling, "Why me?") Ta-DAAA!
Me: (Beams) You're LEARNING, Kon! Unlike SOME PEOPLE (starts smacking Ichigo on his un-injured leg to emphasize each word) Who can't. Keep. Their. DAMN. Mouths. SHUT!
Ichigo: ...Bitch.
Me: ICHIGOOOOO!
Rukia: (Winces and eats Chappy treats as she watches our Epic Needle And Syringe and Scalpels Battle) ...Enjoy.
"Come on...Come on...Come on come on come on..." Peyton muttered, encouraging her arm muscles as she flexed them, causing more and more spirit energy to flow into her fist.
The crack was currently pretty damn huge, if she might say so herself, and she figured one big hit would do enough damage.
Just one...big...hit.
She closed her eyes, breathing deeply. She had about a half-hour until they threw her some food.
That meant a half-hour head start if she could do it right now.
Sure, Peyton didn't have a damn clue what the outside looked like. It could be a high-facility prison with barbed-wire fence for all she knew.
She didn't care. Anywhere was better than this tiny room with the high ceiling and rats.
She counted to ten slowly in her head, flexing twice with each number, then reared back her fist.
With a yell, she hit the wall with all her might, and the structure shuddered. Peyton's eyes noticed a chunk of the wall loosen, the cracks branching out and making more and more chunks.
She grinned excitedly as she punched and kicked the chunks, careful not to fall off her stupid bed, not even registering the pain from her now-slightly-bloodied knuckles on her right hand.
Peyton nearly cried when it crumbled, revealing a hole just big enough to squeeze through if she was REALLY determined.
Which she was.
She crawled through head-first, getting caught on the jagged rubble halfway. Trying not to panic, she exhaled as much air as possible, making her poor empty stomach even emptier.
With one final thrust, she fell to the ground.
Peyton cried out happily, laying there for a second and letting the grass tickle her face, breathing in the air with huge gulps, not even caring that it had sliced off some of her shirt and had left a long scrape on her side.
Then she snapped out of it, realizing she didn't have much time, and ran for a wall a good fifty yards ahead, behind which was a dense forest.
Screw you guys, I'm going home!
MEANWHILE...
"Phew...I don't like this waiting..." Matsumoto said suddenly as she continued to pull her items out of the shopping bag and fold them.
Rukia sweatdropped, looking pointedly at Ichigo. He was passed out on the couch, and even though he was sleeping, he still looked like he was troubled, deep in thought.
"...Yeah. Rangiku, you seem to be taking this the hardest out of all of us," She muttered as Matsumoto cut the tags off with a cheerful snipping sound.
"Everyone grieves in their own little way," the Soul Reaper replied brightly.
Toshiro's temple throbbed as he moved a soccer ball around with the bottom of his foot absently, sitting on the couch and eating some cake Urahara got from the same "unknown source" as last time.
It seemed like Ichigo knew who the "unknown source" was, and even Toshiro was kind of curious about it.
"Why don't you grieve in a method that involves finishing that paperwork?"
"Now now, Captain, you can't just TELL SOMEONE how to grieve! I simply feel that doing paperwork will neither calm my nerves nor help my emotional healing until we leave to rescue Peyton," she said dramatically, staring off into the distance sorrowfully.
His temple throbbed again. "...Dammit, Rangiku!"
She smiled pleasantly and plopped onto the cushion between him and Rukia, making the latter fly into Ichigo, waking him up.
"DAMMIT RUKIA, WHAT DO I GOTTA DO TO GET SOME SLEEP AROUND HERE?"
"BLAME MATSUMOTO, NOT ME! SHE pushed me into you."
"FINE, I WILL!" Ichigo turned his glare onto Matsumoto. "Dammit Matsumoto, what do I gotta do to get some sleep around here?"
She simply pouted while clasping her arms together, busting her infamous "Super-Super-SUPER SIZE!" chest move. "Why sleep, we can have so much fun while awake!"
He spazzed so bad he flipped right over the couch. "DAMMIT!"
"Now, Ichigo, I really don't wanna haveta kick your ass for cheating on Peyton while she's in trouble," scolded a painfully familiar voice.
Everyone's heads whipped around to look at Senna, who grinned and waved cheerfully beside Yoruichi.
Nel's eyes narrowed as the Shininju glomped Ichigo, nearly choking him to death. "OH, YOU POOR ORANGE-HEADED BASTARD! I HEARD ABOUT YOUR GIRLFRIEND! I'M GONNA GET HER BACK, I PROMISE!"
"WE are going to get her back," Toshiro corrected.
Senna shrugged. "Whatever floats your boat."
Nel wedged herself between Senna and Ichigo, resting on his shoulders. "Who might YOU be, and why are you hugging Itsygo? That's Nel's and Itsygo's girlfwiend's job!"
Everyone sweatdropped, and Renji grinned. "Damn, Strawberry. Even when your girlfriend's not around, you always manage to have at least two chicks fighting over you."
"Oh, you can just kiss my ASS!"
MEANWHILE...
"This way!"
"No, she went that way! I feel her reiatsu strongest over here!"
"Dammit dammit dammit dammit gooooddddd daaaammmittt!" She hissed as she continued running, stumbling through bushes and over tree roots.
Peyton had no idea where she was, other than that it looked a lot like Soul Society. She knew she had scratches all over her arms and legs by now, and her knuckles were starting to swell.
She didn't care. She just wanted to get far away from them.
But since when did things go her way? Peyton narrowly escaped tripping and therefore succumbing to the most common fate of heroines in scary situations, and was congratulating herself in her head when a throwing knife whizzed right past her, slicing her forearm and successfully scaring the crap out of her.
She cried out but kept running, trying to keep herself calm, which lasted pretty well. Until, that is, a ninja popped up right in front of her, grabbing her by the front of her shirt.
Peyton summoned some spirit energy, effectively blasting him in the chest, and kept running. Dammit, that had caused a delay, meaning the other ninjas hot on her trail had caught up and were practically on her heels.
She could practically feel them breathing down her neck, and her legs were begging her to stop, but she just pushed herself even more, rushing into a full-out sprint.
Unfortunately, that wasn't good enough. Peyton heard branches snapping, and one fell, clipping her heel and sending her flying.
She struggled to her feet, but nearly tripped over a ninja that jumped in front of her from a nearby tree.
Two more appeared, grabbing both her arms and placing some cold metal around them. It took her a minute to realize they were handcuffs.
She scoffed and tried to summon spirit energy...only to find that it was more difficult than it had ever been, then she had ever IMAGINED it could be.
Peyton felt tears sting her eyes as someone kicked her legs out from under her and she was suddenly on the ground, then airborne, caught by someone.
They were running.
The wall came into view.
Her vision grew dark. She didn't want to see any more of her epic failure. "Ichigo...You guys...hurry up," she muttered groggily, her words slurred.
MEANWHILE, HOURS LATER...
"Ichigo..."
Crunch-Crunch-Crunch-Crunch.
"Ichigo."
Crunch-Crunch-Crunch-Crunch.
"ICHIGO!"
CRUNCH.
"WHAT?" He snapped, turning to look at Rukia. She and the others (minus Nel and Senna) were well behind him, looking pretty tired.
"Let's call it a night. We can resume in the morning."
"Are you insane? We're finally out here, on our way to rescue her...from A HORRIBLE DEATH...and you wanna 'resume in the morning'?"
"We can't fight very well if we're tired," Rukia replied as if talking to a toddler.
Ichigo felt his jaw clench. "Yeah, well, I'm sure Peyton's tired too. But I'll bet my autographed Social Distortion CDs that she's still fighting, right now. If she's not giving up, neither am I."
With that, he kept walking, and Senna waited for him to catch up. She looked at the Soul Reapers pointedly. "He's right, you know."
"Ichigo..."
Orihime looked at the others before jogging to catch up to him. "I'm with you."
"You guys can rest if you want and catch up to us later, but I'm gonna keep going until I collapse," he told Rukia, who sighed heavily and stomped after him.
Everyone else followed, cursing him with every step. Not that he really cared. He knew he was being a stubborn ass, but dammit, she was counting on them!
Counting on him.
He wasn't about to slack off when she needed him the most. Matsumoto sighed heavily. "I bet that poor kid's about to crack any minute now..."
MEANWHILE...
"Ohhh...my...GOOOODDDD," Peyton moaned, sinking lower into the steaming hot bath water. The two women they sent to keep an eye on her as she bathed watched in amusement at her immense pleasure.
"I've never been so happy to epically fail in an escape attempt in my WHOLE LIFE," she informed them.
Peyton figured there was some major downside to all this wonderful treatment, but dammit, she was gonna enjoy it.
"Yoruichi was SO right...This almost makes up for lack of sex..." The women giggled at that, and one of them whispered in that high-pitched girly voice common among gossiping ladies, "She must be talking about that orange-haired man."
Peyton opened one eye to look at them suspiciously. "How do YOU know about Ichigo?"
They stopped their giggling to look at her strangely, and the older of the two spoke first. "Everyone in Soul Society knows of the orange-haired substitute Shinigami that rescued Kuchiki Rukia from her execution a year or two ago."
Peyton sat up a little, both eyes now open and bright with curiosity. "REALLY, now? Why was Rukia going to be executed?"
The younger one opened her mouth to answer, but the older one elbowed her not-so-subtly. "We are not permitted to talk to those sentenced to death about other crimes punished with the death penalty."
She shrugged and blew water bubbles. "Whatever. Just curious."
After a few moments, she processed what the woman said and slowly ceased her bubbles. "I...I'm sentenced...TO DEATH?"
The women jumped, eyes wide. "You did not know?"
"OF COURSE NOT! IF I HAD, I WOULDN'T BE SITTING HERE TALKING TO YOU SO CALMLY!"
The younger one eyed her disdainfully. "How can the human being responsible for the death of our great leader not expect to be punished?"
"...Come again? The only dude I've killed is that Bount boy...wait...WAIT a minute."
Peyton gasped. "DAMN NINJAS!"
MEANWHILE...
After a few more hours of running, and walking, and shunpoing, and running again, they managed to get through the woods and came to a rather tall wall.
They exchanged looks, and Senna nodded. "This is it. Can't you feel it? It practically REEKS of Iga Aura."
Ichigo and Matsumoto were the first to scale the fence, jumping down with ease. Next came Rukia and Renji, who caught the former by the waist as she nearly faceplanted.
Matsumoto turned to look at them and smirked. "Now's not the time to be getting physical back there!"
"SHUT UP RANGIKU!"
"Shhh!" Senna and Nel hissed. "Dey might be listening!"
After staring at the part-cement-part-wooden structure for a moment, Ichigo noticed a random scrap caught on some rubble from the cement wall to his right.
He walked towards it, then ran when he recognized it as part of Peyton's shirt. As he removed it from the debris, he noticed something glinting on the ground.
"Maybe we should check the perimeter, she's obviously been moved to another more secure cell," Toshiro commented.
They all nodded, and ran off into different directions to inspect the building. Senna paused to look at Ichigo with concern as he stared down at the object in his hand, then shook her head and ran off to check around the outside of the wall again.
Ichigo wiped the dirt off with his thumb, staring down at the shiny thing for a minute longer before sighing and sticking it into his Soul Reaper robes.
It was a necklace. A gold necklace with Japanese writing and a thick brown cord.
"You mean to tell me...I'm gonna die...because I killed your corrupt leader? AND YET YOU GIGGLE ABOUT MY SEX LIFE- or leack thereof lately- AND ACT AS IF WE WERE AT A TEA PARTY OR SOME SHIT?"
The women blinked at her, their gazes hardened and cold now. "Perhaps Master Kyabetsu was right when he said it was best not to talk to the prisoners."
Peyton sweatdropped. "Your great leader's name translates into cabbage. You know that, right?"
They ignored her. "Or perhaps we just shouldn't have brought up her execution."
"YA THINK?"
They paused as they heard someone running outside the door in the hallway. Peyton almost stood completely out of the bathtub, her face flushing happily. She knew that sound, she knew it anywhere.
The sound of Soul Reaper shoes.
They all met up in the main room, breathing heavy. "Anything, Orihime?"
"No...Not a thing. Rangiku?"
"Nope. How about you, Senna?"
"Negative. Nothing around the wall. And Rukia?"
"Afraid not. What about you, Toshiro?"
"No. Ichigo?"
"Dammit, if I had, would I be here right now?" He snapped, having been sweatdropping at their calm exchanges.
Rukia stomped her foot. "Dammit, Ichigo, no need to get all pissy! We don't like this any more than YOU DO!" She stomped her foot again for emphasis, and they all watched in amazement as a wall opened to their far left.
Senna was the first to get to it. "It leads into a hallway! I see...I see...steam?"
Everyone sweatdropped and ran after her, running to inspect each of the seven doors in the hall. Ichigo was the last to get to his, the last one on the hall.
He kicked down the door, and his eyes widened...
Peyton shot back down as a man in fancier clothes than the ninja assassins strode in, not even looking in her direction.
"See to it that the prisoner recieves a warm meal and clean clothes. And a satisfactory bed."
"Why the hell are you being so nice to me? I thought I was ordered to be executed?" She snapped, glaring at them all from where she sat, stewing in her own filth.
He really did look at her this time, staring at her, assessing her. Peyton flushed for an entirely different reason as his cold gaze grew even colder. She didn't really care what he thought about her being naked, there was only ONE person's opinions in that department that she cared about.
It was those eyes.
Those cold eyes.
"Jukeishas in a predicament such as yours should not question amenities, but readily accept them and graciously thank their suppliers."
"Why the hell would I thank you, you NOT ONLY kidnapped me and put me through misery the past couple weeks, but you just called me a convict with a really nasty look on your face as if I were trash. So...FUCK YOU."
The two women looked at her as if she were the scariest, rudest, bravest person they'd ever seen.
They then looked in disbelief at their superior, who simply held up a few fingers. "Three days. Three days until you are free of your duties, no longer have to tend to this filthy wretch, and the power of our Clan is tripled."
He then turned to Peyton, who was holding up a very special finger of her own, and he glared at her before strolling out of the room as if he had won.
Which he hadn't.
She loved using that finger.
MEANWHILE...
"If they're not here, where the HELL are they?" Rukia asked no one in particular as they stared at the empty indoor hot spring, no one quite in the mood for bathing.
Obviously.
None of them were happy about this, but Ichigo was definitely taking it the hardest. He was currently perched on the windowsill, twirling some kind of shiny thing between his fingers with one of the saddest expressions she'd ever seen.
She hated seeing him like this.
But what could she do?
The other Soul Reapers were all sitting scattered around the room, legs crossed, eyes closed, trying to sense Peyton's reiatsu.
Senna sighed. "It's no good. Her reiatsu's been sealed off."
"How do you know?"
"Because on my way to Kisuke's shop I was trying to find her reiatsu, and when I did...it just...got cut off. Almost as if it were eradicated."
She stuttered at the stricken expression that almost immediately crossed Ichigo's face. "U-Uhhh, but then it rose a little! It rose a little, then vanished completely except for the tiniest throbs. So I assume they used some type of device to seal off her reiatsu. They probably realized she had managed to help you all sense her the night before."
Toshiro stood suddenly. "I remember reading about that! They have these type of handcuffs that seal off the wearer's reiatsu! ...Only..." He glanced cautiously at Ichigo, who just sighed impatiently.
"Spit it out, stop looking at me like I'm gonna pass out."
"Well, after wearing them long enough, the wearer's strength gets weaker and weaker. They play tricks on the mind. They cause depression, fatigue, even illness. Maybe death after the wearer becomes too sick to eat or drink. Resistance would be futile. The Iga Clan probably used them to make the execution go by smoother and without any hitches. It would take an immense amount of strength and...an insane amount of luck...to even come close to using reiatsu while under the influence of those handcuffs. The victim would essentially be powerless in the face of death."
Ichigo's face, which had looked ashen before, looked even worse now. So...She's a victim now to you guys?
But to his credit, he simply nodded and cleared his throat, looking down at her necklace one more time and for a second there, he flashed back to the day he gave it to her and she essentially flipped him over her right in the middle of the street.
He stuffed it back into his robes before walking out of the room and down the hall. "Well then, we better start looking for her so we can help her daring escape."