She sort of felt stupid for hoping that everything would go well once it was time to leave the next morning. Truly she did. And if she was typically a violent natured person- she probably would have smacked the bejesus out of her guardian for not at least having the decency to tell his former master about her before hand.

Meeting Torino Sorahiko was weird.

The guy didn't seem all that pleased to have been dragged out of bed at the ass crack of dawn to begin with. And wasn't exactly shy about voicing his displeasure to her guardian while he carried the old man's bags to the vehicle that he'd borrowed for their trip, and started to load them into the back, before finally deciding to introduce her to the man.

"Ah, master I have something of a surprise for you." He said as he closed the back of the vehicle once the bags were packed away along with everyone else's. "I've become the legal guardian of the young lady going on the trip with us. Her name is Ichigo." Toshinori said as he quickly rushed over to her side of the car and dragged her out of it so that the elder could see her better.

Once she was out in the open, she tried to be polite. Truly she did. But the man had the manners of a rabid hyena pushing a hundred. Honestly he had a surlier temperament than Renji, Ikakku and Kenpachi combined.

As it was the man was looking at her as if she were a piece of meat that he couldn't seem to decide if he should like or outright hate the cut of. Which was only a tad bit disgruntling to her since she was fairly used to seeing that specific look of disdain on people's faces whenever they looked at her as if she were a bug.

Finally he seemed to come to a decision and nodded his head silently as he said, "Meh, you'll do I guess." Which was quickly followed by him dropping his cane and then attempting to punch her.

She reacted so quickly that he didn't even have time to follow through with it, much less track her movement before she was behind him with one hand resting on his nape and the other firmly grasping his wrist.

She was careful to keep her grip loose enough to not hurt him, but still firm enough to feel somewhat threatening to him. And was satisfied to see the look of shock on not just his face.

But the looks of slack jawed disbelief on their other companions faces as well.

Her guardian's face alone was not only hilariously funny, but the total look of horror that flitted across his features was enough to make her grin at the shock value of the situation.

Even she was intelligent enough to know that he'd worried that the old man would try something. She had known that it was a very real possibility when he'd mentioned the old man had a very distinctive, crotchety personality. He'd even mentioned that the man seemed to like terrorizing kids.

Not all of them mind you, but usually the ones that had anything to do with him.

So naturally she'd rolled her eyes and decided to see what was going to happen before she judged anyone too harshly. After all, she knew that old people were difficult.

She'd dealt with some of the oldest and most crotchety people in existence! She could handle one measly little old man. It couldn't possibly be that hard to deal with his antics. At first glance he literally seemed to stink of death. So both feet were technically in the grave already.

Still...she decided to reserve the right to kick the shit out of him if he pushed her too far. She even silently promised not to like it any. What with it technically being elder abuse and all. But she also resolved herself to at least plant a knife on him and make it look like self defense first.

If only to ease her conscience a little bit about the whole 'elder abuse' thing.

The old man gave her an side eyed look that was positively venomous. Obviously not liking the fact that she'd managed to get the best of him.

She gave him a smug grin and he let out a growl and then tried to free himself. It didn't work out the way that he wanted, because she was both holding onto him tightly enough to prevent it and earning more growls, snarls, and even a few really colorful- and inventive curses pat at her.

All of which had her guardian squawking and finally shaking himself out of his stupor enough to scramble over to them and separate the irate man from her before he really got pissed.

He got hit a couple of times for his efforts before Ichigo had had enough of the old man's tantrum and walked over and smoothly took him from her guardian and then unceremoniously tossed him into the back of the vehicle. He hit the opposite side of it with a dull thud and she slammed the door in his face before he had the chance to truly scramble back out and then turned a baleful look to her guardian and growled, "Get. In. Now."

Her guardian literally leaped to do her bidding after seeing how she'd handled his former master while their other companions waited patiently for them to rejoin them and get the trip started.

The first hour or so of the trip was spent in relative silence aside from the police officer- what was his name again? Momosa? Paprika? Ah, that was it. Naomasa!- took the time to catch up a bit. Their chatter tended to drown out everything including the occasional nervous squeaks and squawks of the other two kids sitting in the back with the old man.

Whom was apparently as belligerent as ever seeing as he was currently scaring them.

That and he'd been using a straw to spit spit wads at the back of her head. Which was really easier said than done since she could literally sense what he was doing and dodge them.

Still, it made for an interesting first part of the trip.

Between the old man and her trying to take each other out. The other two boys staying weirdly quiet. And her guardian and his police friend chattering away things were certainly getting interesting for her.

By the second part of the trip, they'd his a gas station for a bathroom break and to grab little snacks and even some drinks to tide them over until the next stop or so. Ichigo had just stepped outside of the station with her small bag of wonders and caught the old man tottering his way back to the car slowly.

Grinning maliciously, she took the straw that she'd grabbed from inside of the station for one of her drinks and quickly rolled a small piece of torn up paper into a ball, put it into her mouth, and then while she was wetting it she also took a minute amount of her spiritual pressure and forced it into the small wad and then put the straw to her mouth and took aim.

Honest to god she wasn't trying to kill the guy. He was a jerk sure, but not one that deserved to die. She just wanted to put a little bit of fear into him. Ya know?

A healthy- yet fearful dose- of respect of others was good for a person. It usually helped her with people. Especially if they generally feared for their lives after incurring her wrath.

So she should have known that something like this was going to happen. Especially once she got her spiritual pressure involved in her little immature tiff with the guy.

The fact that her spit wad hit the ground at his feet and blew up the concrete there and sent the old man flying as if a fucking meteor had just crashed to the ground had absolutely nothing to do with it.

But seeing him shit his pants was definitely pretty funny.

Even if everyone else around the gas station thought that a bomb had just gone off and ran away in abject terror while she quickly ditched her straw, and tried to look as innocent as possible for someone who was trying desperately not to laugh.

Needless to say things weren't very quiet once they were back on the road again. Nobody said anything at all about the incident back at the gas station. And Ichigo certainly wasn't going to give herself away as the person responsible for what had happened by opening her mouth.

She knew better than to tell on herself. And she managed to keep her silence, admirably up until they finally reached the cabin.