Chapter 3: Green-eyed Stalker

It didn't take long for Mikoto to get fully settled into her new school. Everyday Shinji would walk her to and from school, but keep his distance during school hours. Every lunch period, Shuhei invited her to have lunch with him, Kira, Momo and Renji. It was hard to tell how her teachers felt about her. Some were already starting to show signs of concern, especially when things started to go missing. She was almost positive Kuchiki-sensei did not like her, and her grades in his class didn't help matters. And his class wasn't the only one she was doing poorly in.

One day, at the end of English class, as Mikoto was heading out the door with Renji and Ichigo, Ichimaru sensei momentarily stopped her.

"Mikoto, I'd like to see you in my office after school today." The 'don't be late' went unsaid.

She nodded in answer, murmuring a "yes, sensei" before leaving the room.

As she left, Renji caught up to her and looked from her to the professor. "Is everything alright, Mikoto?" he asked worriedly.

"Yes it's fine," she answered in her usual lack of emotion. "He simply wants to talk to me."

"Are you sure that's it?" he asked her again.

"That's what he said," she told him with a shrug. "I'm not worried. He's a teacher, what other reason would he have?"

Renji didn't answer that, but he wasn't fully convinced either. He like most of the other students felt the teacher was rather creepy when left alone with him.

"Well, if you have any problems, just let me know, alright?" He told her.

"I'm not sure you would be able to help me even if I did have problems with a teacher," Mikoto told him frankly.

"Well… maybe not," he mumbled rubbing the back of his head. "But I if anyone's giving you a hard time, just let me know. I'll put a stop to it."

"How?" she asked him.

"Well, if it's a teacher I can always file a complaint. And if it's another student, I'll just teach em a lesson," he said confidently.

Mikoto looked up at him. "Why would you go through the trouble?"

He appeared dumbfounded she would even ask. "Why? Cuz you're a friend."

Mikoto was silent for a few moments before smiling. "It's nice that you feel that way. Thank you."

Renji stopped in the middle of the hallway as he watched her walk away. "What kind of reaction was that?" he wondered blown away by her seeming lack of caring towards his worry. "Maybe I should just ask Shuuhei. There's obviously something up with that girl." With that thought in mind he followed after her towards their next class.

As he continued walking, he marched right past Temara who was leaning against the wall having listened to the whole thing. She was curious as to what Ichimaru sensei wanted to talk to the girl about but was sure it mostly had to do with school work. What really caught her attention though was the conversation afterwards between her and Renji. He'd willingly offered to be there to back her up if it ever came to that and she completely blew him off.

She was sure he'd caught on to the idea that the girl had some issues and suddenly wanted a chance to know exactly what those were. She had a sneaking suspicion that part of it had to do with her seeming spree of kleptomania around the school. Now, all she had to do was continue to find private conversations without being noticed. Considering who the person was though, she was worried that wouldn't be happening any time soon.

Still, at the very least she had the conversation with Ichimaru sensei later on in the day. Now, to figure out how to listen in without being noticed by the silver haired people watcher.

Mikoto knew that Renji was only trying to be friendly, and she did feel the churn of guilt building up when she caught sight of his affronted expression. She quickly squashed it down though by telling herself there was nothing to feel guilty for. She'd been through this routine before. People would start out being her friends, but once they found out what sort of person she was, they always left her.

The best thing for her to do was to conceal it and guard herself from getting attached. That way it wouldn't hurt later on when she lost it all.

Once PE was over she changed back into her uniform and made her way over to Ichimaru sensei's office.

"And where are you headed off to, Mikoto?" Shinji had managed to sneak up on her and was now walking in stride with her. Normally they went straight home after school since she didn't part take in any clubs.

"Ichimaru-sensei said he wanted to see me after school, so I'm going to his office," she explained. "You can wait at the school entrance for me. I don't think it will take too long."

"No I'll walk you there," he said not going anywhere. He didn't really trust that teacher...or anyone else at that school. "I'll wait for you to finish up as well."

"Are you going to be following me into the room as well?" she asked curiously.

"It's a private conversation so no, but I will be right outside when you finish up," he answered with a shrug.

"Okay," she replied with a smile. He returned it and the two fell silent as they went down the hall stopping in front of the teacher's office. "Be out in a minute." She quickly opened the door and slipped inside.

As she did so, Temara slid in through the doorway behind her and stayed near the door as she continued inside towards the desk of the teacher.

Shinji frowned, thinking he'd just seen something… or maybe someone go inside with his charge. If only they allowed swords at school… his hip felt so bare without one. He'd just have to keep his ear to the ground.

Mikoto approached the teacher's desk where her sensei sat working on some sort of needle and thread art. It was… rather peculiar, actually. So much so she had to pause and make sure that's exactly what she was seeing. She'd heard from many students he was an odd and eerie fellow, but she honestly didn't feel that way. Plus, it wasn't like she had any room to judge anyone else.

"Well now, that didn't take very long," the silver haired man said looking up at her with a smile. "I didn't expect you'd be here quite so soon."

"I thought it would be rude if I kept you waiting, sensei," Mikoto told him. She had to admit she was curious as to what sort of image he was working on with his needle craft, but that wasn't what she was there for. "Am I in trouble?"

"No, not at all," he assured her shaking his head. "I am simply concerned about your grade. Is the material too difficult to understand?"

"No," she answered feeling a small amount of relief that she wasn't in trouble. "It's not too difficult."

"Then might I ask why you seem to be having far too much trouble?" he asked curiously.

"I think I might be missing something but I'm not sure what," she answered calmly.

"I see...well in that case it may be advantageous to assign you a tutor," he suggested putting his needlework away and laced his fingers together in front of him.

"I'm not so sure," Mikoto said. "I kind of already have one."

His grin grew a little wider at this. "And we can see how well that's working out, can't we?" He paused before standing up from his desk. "I actually wasn't considering a professional. Merely someone from your class who's more than familiar with the material."

"I suppose that might work." If he honestly felt assigning her a tutor would help her, she wasn't about to object, despite how skeptical she was about its success. "Who were you considering?"

"Why, our little eavesdropper of course," he said with a chuckle before his gaze shifted to a corner of the room.

As soon as the bell rang, Temara found Mikoto and started following down the hall. She would have been surprised moments later when the girl was joined by Hirako Shinji had she not already seen the new guy seek her out every day after school. Unfortunately she also knew he tended to be one of the more observant people. If he caught onto her before she could get into that room she'd be out of luck.

Her luck must have been running high that day as she was able to travel down the hall without a single glance from him and when they reached the teacher's office, she waited for it to open before slipping in as quickly as she could behind Mikoto. Once inside, she ducked behind a bookshelf hoping it would keep her shielded from the annoying people watcher.

As soon as she was properly hidden, she glanced around her shield to see that the man was sewing at his desk. Who would've ever thought Ichimaru sensei could sew...it just wasn't something one would expect from him. She pulled her head back when she noticed him looking up from his sewing to address the new girl's entrance. Turned out the meeting was just because she wasn't doing well in class...not all that surprising. And she'd have to be stuck with a tutor...ha Temara couldn't help but feel like saying sucker to whoever got stuck with that job. Then she heard him stand and murmur to her he had someone perfect in mind. She waited with baited breath for the name of the sucker only for him to say the eavesdropper.

That statement shocked her so bad that hearing it caused her to bump into the bookshelf she was hiding behind knocking several books to the floor. "ME!" she thought in despair not wanting to come out despite knowing they knew she was there. "I CAN'T BE A TUTOR. ALL THE ATTENTION THAT WOULD BRING. I'D BE RUINED!"

A little before Mikoto had first entered the classroom, she'd had a feeling that she was being followed. When she had stepped through the door, she also had that sensation and had sworn she saw something duck out of sight just as she went to look for it. At first she'd suspected it was her paranoia, but now that the teacher had pointed it out, she knew for sure she hadn't been imaging things. The slight wiggling of the bookshelf via something being knocked up against it was more than enough confirmation as to where her shadower had taken refuge.

Mikoto wondered why someone would bother following her around. Were they planning on assassinating her? Or maybe they were in love with Ichimaru sensei? She started coming up with dozens of theories, many of which would be considered highly unlikely by anyone else.

"Why don't you come on out and properly introduce yourself, Little Mara?" The teacher called out pleasantly.

"Mara?" she thought wanting to demand why in the world he'd choose to give her a nickname. Still, there was no reason for her to stay hidden when she was already discovered. Grudgingly, she stepped out from behind the shelf and looked up at the two before her.

"There, now isn't that better?" Ichimaru sensei asked with his wide smile.

"Not really," Temara replied in a deadpan as she shoved her hands in her pockets.

"Well at any rate, Temara this is Mikoto, Mikoto this is Temara," he introduced placing a hand on each of their shoulders. "From today on, Little Mara will be your personal tutor. Make sure you two play nice."

Mikoto wasn't discomforted by the touch; rather she was intrigued that the person who'd been following her was the girl who lurked unseen in the back of several of her classes. She wasn't exactly thrilled by the idea of having a stalker/eavesdropper/possible serial killer as a tutor, but she figured it was best not to complain. Ichimaru sensei didn't seem like the type to be swayed once he made a decision.

She offered a smile to the girl and bowed her head a little. "Nice to meet you. Please take care of me."

Temara scrutinized her for a few moments. It was a little infuriating how difficult it was to even begin to guess what Mikoto thought or felt about the situation. "Yeah, the pleasure's mine," she lied. While she wasn't totally creeped out by the teacher as most were, she had the urge to move out from under his hand.

"Now that that is settled I'm sure you both want to get home and prepare for your first tutoring session tomorrow," he said excitedly. "Don't worry, I'll contact your parents so they can assist as well."

"Heh, go ahead and try," Temara muttered under her breath. If he could contact her parents she'd believe he was some sort of wizard.

Mikoto simply replied with an "okay" before sliding out from under his hand and heading for the door. She took the comment to mean that she could leave so she didn't really think much of it. Temara was glad for the decision to leave and went with her ignoring the feeling of being watched as she headed for the door.

Once outside, Temara immediately began heading down the hall while Mikoto was met by a curious Shinji. "So, what was that about?" he asked, his eyes following the other girl down the hall.

"I've been assigned a tutor," she answered with a shrug. "It's that girl that doesn't stand out much."

Shinji thought about it for a moment. He did recall seeing a girl following Mikoto around, but the odd thing was is he couldn't quite recall exactly what she looked like. Even though he tried, no face came to mind. Still, the girl didn't exactly appear to be a threat from what he did manage to remember.

He gave a light shrug and then grinned toothily. "Well, maybe you'll make a new friend."

"Maybe…" She wasn't so sure considering how unenthused the other girl seemed to be.

As he watched the two girls leave his office, the smile on Gin Ichimaru's face widened ever so slightly. Once they were gone, he took out his cellphone and hit the number four speed dial before holding it to his ear. He waited a few moments before he heard the other line pick up.

"Yes, it's me. I have a little job for you…"

The next day was a rather interesting one for Temara. After spending the night trying to explain to her brother that she'd be tutoring one of her classmates in English because she was told to by an annoying teacher, she was finally able to figure out what she was going to do with it. She'd mapped out exactly what she was going to tell the unusual girl before the session that day even began as well as a way to determine where to begin.

By the time lunch hit, she was confident she had it all in the bag. Since she anticipated the session to begin once school was over, she never anticipated the other female to approach her before then. But as luck would have it, just as she was deciding which group of friends to sit with and listen to, she found the other female standing in front of her with a smile of her face.

"So what are we going to learn today Temara sensei?" she asked innocently.

"Don't call me sensei," she replied with a frown.

"Little Mara, then?"

"Don't even think about calling me that. It's Temara."

"Alright," Mikoto said agreeably. "Let's get started then."

Temara took hold of Mikoto and dragged her off to a secluded area. "Can't you wait until after school?" she said in annoyance once they were out of view.

"What's wrong with right now?" the other female asked. "We don't have any classes."

"No, but did you ever think I might be busy right now?"

"You mean eavesdropping?"

Temara flushed, partially out of embarrassment but mostly from irritation. "That's none of your business."

"Well, since you don't like being seen, I thought the rooftop might be a good place to study," Mikoto said moving on with the conversation. "I've noticed people don't go up there very often."

Temara didn't really have any way of disputing her observation so she was forced to agree and led the way to the roof top. Just as Mikoto had said, the place was void of others so she took a seat with her back leaning against the fence that lined the roof.

"Okay, if we're gonna do this we're going to have to set down some ground rules," Temara stated as she pulled her backpack off and started searching through it.

"Okay," Mikoto agreed sitting down next to her. "What are they?"

"Rule #1: you will never talk to me out of these tutoring sessions," Temara stated glaring up at her. "Rule #2: don't touch my stuff. I've seen you around the classroom. And Rule #3: NO PERSONAL QUESTIONS. Got all that?"

"Yep, I got it all," she answered with a smile. "Is that all?"

"Yeah, you keep those in mind and we won't have any problems," the dark haired girl answered having finally pulled out what she needed for the tutoring session before turning back to her sort of student. "So, let's start with something simple. What do you actually know about English?"

"Well, it's not that I don't understand it," Mikoto started. "I know the basic rules and all that."

"Well, obviously something's wrong if you're not doing well," Temara commented. "Or are you just lazy? Cuz I can't help you with that."

Mikoto shook her head, unabashed. "No, it's not that either."

The other girl's face tightened a little as she suppressed a frown. Not only was Mikoto being unhelpful with identifying her problem but Temara still couldn't make heads or tails of her.

"Well, let's try practicing a few English exercises and see if we can come up with something," she suggested.

Temara instructed Mikoto to write some passages and then rewrite them in a different order. As she did so, she did what she did best and observed. At first she didn't really notice anything new. It didn't take long for Mikoto's attention to stray elsewhere, much like it did in class, and Temara had to keep redirecting her attention. Well there's her problem, thought Temara, she can't stay focused.

"Come on, you only have one more sentence to write," Temara said exasperatedly. "What's distracting you this time?"

Mikoto didn't say anything, but pointed. Temara looked over and to her surprise saw a dark haired, fluorescently pale skinned male standing on the opposite side of the rooftop. She hadn't even heard him come up. Had she been that distracted?

"I know that guy," Temara murmured. "Ulquiorra Schiffer. He's at the top of our class." What was the deal with that? He never came up to the rooftops.

"Should we invite him over?" Mikoto asked.

"No. You need to focus and…" Temara suddenly noticed something was missing. "Hey! Where did my watch go?"

"What watch?" Mikoto asked curiously.

"What do you mean what watch?" Temara demanded. "The one I was wearing obviously." How had she missed it being pulled off? "I already told you not to touch my stuff."

"I didn't touch it though," Mikoto replied looking hurt.

"I hate it when people lie through their teeth, so just cough it up and let's move on," she sighed in irritation.

The bespectacled girl began feeling around for it. Temara waited impatiently for a couple minutes until Mikoto reached into the top of her shirt and pulled it out.

"Oh… here it is."

"Don't look so surprised," Temara exclaimed, snatching it back from her. "Go buy your own watch."

"I really didn't know," Mikoto insisted looking unabashed.

"Oh, right," Temara said patronizingly. "So I supposed it just jumped off my wrist and down your shirt?"

"Now that's just silly," was the other's reply. "Watches can't do that."

"No kidding," Temara grumbled. "Let's just get back to this." They continued with the tutoring until the lunch bell rang signaling the end of the break time. Temara gathered up her things feeling like they didn't get anywhere with the session and that it'd been a big waste of time. She glanced up towards the end of the building as she got to her feet and noticed the dark haired classmate was gone. "Huh, guess he finished before we did," she thought with a shrug. "Well, it's better than having him stare at us the whole time."

"That was fun, let's do it again after school," Mikoto suddenly exclaimed getting up as well.

"Let's not," Temara mumbled. "Once a day is enough for me."

"Alright, tomorrow at lunch then," Mikoto said decidedly. "See you then."

"Hey, wait a minute," Temara called out as Mikoto walked away, but the girl didn't stop as she disappeared inside the doors. She sighed in disgruntlement as she began making her way to class. "Great… at this rate it'll take me forever to dig up dirt on anyone."

After the school bell rang, Shuhei left his final class of the day and made his way to the gym for after school basket ball practice. Half way there, he heard his buddy Renji calling out to him to wait up as he ran down the hallway, nearly plowing down a freshman girl in the process.

"Renji, you know you're not supposed to run in the halls," Shuhei scolded him as he stopped to let the red head catch up.

"Yeah, I know," Renji muttered. "But I don't wanna be late for practice. Muguruma-sensei already chewed me out once for that."

Shuhei nodded in understanding, knowing how strict Muguruma sensei was when it came to being punctual. He was sometimes even worse than Kuchiki sensei.

"So, hey you're really close to Mikoto right?" Renji asked curiously as they headed off for the gym together.

"Sort of," Shuuhei answered nervously. "We sort of grew up together in the same orphanage. Why?"

"Well, something really odd happened the other day when I was talking to her and I was hoping you'd be able to shed a bit of light on the why," Renji answered. "See, I was trying to be a good friend and let her know I'd back her up if she ever needed it. Even if it was a teacher. She pretty much just told me I was stupid for thinking I needed to help her at all and she didn't see the point in it."

Shuhei looked at him in confusion and disbelief. "She actually said that?"

"Well… she didn't actually say it," Renji told him. "But when I told her all of that she just smiled and said 'I'm happy you feel that way'. Everybody knows what that's code for."

The older male sighed and shook his head. "You got it all wrong, man. She not… she's wasn't trying to snub you or anything. She's just… really reserved."

"How do you figure?" the red head asked curiously. He appreciated the fact Shuhei knew her better than him, but he still couldn't understand the way she acted.

"Just trust me on this, alright?" Shuhei told him as they entered the gym. He really didn't want to go into Mikoto's past with someone behind her back. He respected her privacy, and he knew she would do the same for him. "All you have to do is keep being a friend to her. She's got some major defenses, but I'm sure she'll come to appreciate the fact you mean well."

"You really think so?" Renji asked thinking about how little she actually showed.

"Yeah, you'll see," Shuuhei told him confidently. Renji nodded in understanding as a grin spread across his face. It was clear the guy was feeling a lot better about the whole situation and he was sure things would turn out alright. Mikoto may be different, but he was sure, and he hoped he was right, that she'd come around eventually.

For the next several days, Mikoto spent her lunches with Temara for tutoring. The latter seemed to be enjoying the sessions less and less each day. It didn't help that Mikoto kept finding her stuff stowed away in her bag, her pockets, or… other places. Something peculiar she had noticed, however, was the lurking presence of the pale boy from English class. Recently he seemed to be everywhere she went (at school anyway) and she knew it wasn't a coincidence. She also wasn't the only one who noticed.

"Mikoto, do you know that guy?" Shinji asked her one day as they were meeting up to leave for home.

"He's in my English class," she said, watching him from across the schoolyard. Even though he was currently reading a book beneath the shade of one of the trees, Mikoto was sure she had felt him watching her moments before. "Other than that, I haven't really met him."

The blonde male was disconcerted to start with, and this news didn't really help. He'd give the guy props for subtlety, but he didn't like the idea of Mikoto being followed around, even if he was a schoolmate. "Well, whatever you do, it's probably best if you stay away from him."

When he received no answer, he looked to see Mikoto was striding purposefully across the way to the pale skinned male.

Shinji resisted the urge to slap his own forehead as he saw her walking across, but it was a very close call. How dumb could she really be? She's deliberately going towards the person who is presumable stalking her. Certainly not smart.

Mikoto didn't see it that way though. As far as she was concerned, if he was going to follow her she was going to find out why. As she got closer to the pale boy, he looked up from his book at her.

"What do you want?" he asked uncaringly.

"I'm just curious to know why you've been following me," she asked getting straight to the point.

"What makes you think I am?"

"Well, you seem to be everywhere lately, and since it only just started happening earlier this week it wasn't that hard to figure out," she said just as bluntly.

"I see, so you're not completely clueless after all." The boy commented. He took several moments to look her over, as though he were sizing her up. Finally he said, "It's nothing you need to know."

Mikoto stared wordlessly at him and he stared right back. Then she said, "Fine, if you're going to watch me, then I'll just watch you too."

He watched as she sat down next to him and kept staring at him. Deciding to ignore her he went back to his book. A few moments later though, he could still feel her there and glanced back up to see she hadn't moved. "You're irritating," he muttered to her.

"People tell me that," Mikoto replied unabashed. "But until I find out why you're watching me I'll keep watching you."

The pair stared at each other for a few moments as Ulquiorra tried to put together why on earth she was doing any of this. His thoughts were cut off though as a smiling blonde came up behind her.

"Come on, Mikoto, we have to get going," Shinji said placing a hand on her shoulder. "Your class is going to start soon and I know you're looking forward to showing how much your tutoring has paid off."

Mikoto didn't want to leave just yet, but she knew he was right. So she stood up, readjusting the bag on her shoulder. Before leaving she made the two finger gesture to the pale boy that she had her eye on him.

As she left with Shinji she missed the whispered, "Irritating… yet intriguing."

"Geez, what kind of girl actually approaches a guy who's following her around?" Shinji commented from Mikoto's side. "A normal person would either avoid them or report it."

"Well… I don't think he means any harm," she commented thoughtfully.

"Oh?" His gaze slid to her, wondering if he actually might be able to see inside that unfathomable head of hers. "What makes you say that?"

"I didn't get that bad feeling from him."

Shinji raised an eyebrow at this. Her statement made it seem like she was able to discern the danger level of people simply from a feel. Then again, a lot of people avoid others because of "bad" feelings so he guessed it wasn't that unbelievable.

"Well, even without that it'd be best if you avoid him as much as you can," he told her seriously. "I doubt his reasons for following you are entirely pure."

"He seems harmless," Mikoto murmured. "What could happen?"

"A lot," he told her. "And I'd really hate to see such a cute girl get hurt, so just be careful, alright?" That and the boss would probably tear him a new one if anything happened to her.

"Alright, I'll try to be more careful," she promised.

She missed the mildly annoyed look on Shinji's face. He'd just called her cute and he didn't even get so much as a blink or a blush. Talk about no fun.

CM: Yes, the arrancar are in this too. How could we resist? Hopefully the story is beginning to pick up, and if not, don't worry, it will very soon. :)