Oh my God, I thought I'd have more internet than this... I'm really REALLY sorry for the wait, but this time I really have the excuse of not having internet for SO long... Can we still consider it summer holidays?

Oops, the word 'brun' has no equivalent in English, so I had to put 'boy' and so it gets repeated more often, since I already put it in the text... Plus, the words 'roux' and 'rouquin' don't exist either, which is kind of annoying since I have to put 'orange-haired boy' each time, which is kind of too long...

Anyway, I hope you like this chapter too! I'm really sorry for the wait, but I couldn't do much about it... And this is one of the only days I'll have at all during the rest of the vacation, so...

I hope you'll enjoy this chapter, even if my translation is getting a little left behind by the original version. Good reading!

Lisbeth was nervous. She was starting out halfway through the school year, in a new school, of which she additionally didn't like the headmaster. She fidgeted with her collar as he knocked on her new classroom's door, then opened it. She let go of her uniform's collar and followed him, finding herself confronted with a class of thirty students who had their eyes locked on her. She mechanically moved her old watch about her wrist to calm down, then introduced herself. As she wrote her name on the board, she broke the chalk out of nervousness, however no-one laughed. Why was she that anxious again? Oh, right, she was scared of not being able to make new friends without putting them in danger one day or another. She had already been very lucky that Haruka had forgiven her when they had nearly gotten killed by a Hollow. Supposedly because it wasn't the brunette's fault if they were attracted to her.

After introducing herself, Lisbeth went to sit in the back, at a table near the window where there wasn't anybody. She took out her things before remembering she was in English class. Her mother was British, and had insisted that she spoke only this language at home, resulting in the fact that the brunette felt equally at ease with both languages. She sighed, English classes at school were horribly boring... And Haruka wasn't there to cheer her up. She discreetly took out a novel that she placed in her notebook, and pretended to listen. Until an orange-haired boy burst into the room, and apologized for his lateness.

"Go sit yourself down Ichigo before taking up more of our time."

Lisbeth looked around the classroom and made a face when she saw the only space left empty was the one next to her. The so-called Ichigo came and sat there, and carelessly took out his things.

"You're new?" he asked, scrutinizing her.

"Yes."

"What's your name?"

Her new neighbor was irritating, she didn't necessarily feel like talking to him... She nonetheless answered as politely as she could. However the boy must have noticed she didn't seem very pleased of talking to him, and sighed.

"You know, you can tell me if I bother you. Anyway, I'm Kurosaki Ichigo."

She dropped her book. A name identical to the one of yesterday's young visitor? A simple coincidence would be unlikely... They must be from the same family. The squinted slightly, and detailed her interlocutor closely. If you really looked, there was indeed a bit of a similarity.

"Don't you have a little sister named Karin?" she asked.

Immediately the orange-haired boy became more alert, and she classified him as a protective older brother. Like Naoki, Haruka's brother. She also missed him, though less than her best friend. But their group... No, not really. Her neighbor then asked her why she asked him that question.

"It's just that I met her at my father's shop, yesterday. She seemed exhausted," remembered the brunette.

The teenager's face tensed, apparently disturbed by the remark, and Lisbeth apologized. She knew it wasn't her business. The period ended, and Ichigo invited her to come eat lunch with him and his friends, so he could introduce her to them.

"No, not today, I have to call a friend, another day, maybe..."

And she left hastily. She wanted to take her time to make friends, friends to whom she could tell she saw spirits, and what the orange-haired boy suggested seemed to her... too quick. And she truly had a phone call to make.

She went aside a bot from the other students, took out her cell phone and searched her contacts for the number she wanted, then called.

"Haruka?"

"YEEEEEEEEEES MY DEAR LISBETH!"

She nearly would have pulled the phone away from her ear. Haruka's enthusiasm would end up killing her one day.

"Hey calm down, or I hang up," she warned, laughing.

"You wouldn't do that," declared her friend confidently, before asking, curious: "So?"

Lisbeth felt her heart sink. She didn't really wish to tell her friend she didn't see how she could stay, that she wanted to leave... But the young woman saw through the brunette's silence.

"What's going on?"

"My father is an idiot who doesn't want me here and I've got the feeling that I've ended up in a town particularly exposed to Hollows..."

"You know you can come over to my house if you need to, or to the Headquarters."

"The old man would be okay with it, you think?"

"He helped with controlling and hiding your powers, I don't think he'd refuse. I'll ask him."

"Thank you Haruka."

They went on chatting about this and that, and when she hung up the brunette felt appeased. If ever... If ever she needed it, her friend would be there to support her, along with, despite her doubts, Devil's Game... But she didn't trust them. They had helped Haruka and her, and her friend was part of that organization, but that was all. She was not part of them.

The afternoon's classes went by slowly, and she escaped from them gladly.

She left a message to her father saying she would be home late. She felt like walking, to free herself from all this tension accumulated while she was stuck in school. She was walking about the town center, when she heard a Hollow howl. Very close. But its presence disappeared almost instantly. Like if... Like if someone had killed it. Curious, but cautious still, swearing she would flee at the slightest problem, she walked briskly in the cry's direction, when she came face to face with a teen of her age. It was a boy with glasses, black hair and of medium height, wearing a white outfit adorned with two blue stripes made to look like a cross.

"Excuse me," he said impatiently as he walked past her.

Lisbeth turned around to address him, when a Hollow sprang up in front of them. It looked like a mixture between a hyena and an ostrich. A cat-like body, grey with brown spots, on which had developed two wings made of white feathers, a beak-shaped mask, and the usual hole in the chest, a smell of decay floating around it. How nauseating... Hell, this one she hadn't felt it coming, and there was someone with her. She didn't want to put him in danger... Her mind rewinded as she remembered the time when she found herself facing one of these creatures, and Haruka had come close to dying.

No. She mustn't think about it. She shook her head and didn't hesitate a moment: she grabbed the boy's sleeve and pulled him after her.

"Hey, what's up with you?" said the young man angrily.

"I'm saving your life," retorted the brunette.

She shoved him into an adjacent street and shouted for him to run, when she heard a growl. She looked behind them and saw the monster had climbed up to the rooftops to follow them. She stopped abruptly. If it had left the ground then she could stop him long enough to flee. She breathed in deeply and focused, she wouldn't be able to do it if she panicked. But an arrow darted from behind her and wounded the monster, making it disappear as a myriad of specks of light.

"You can see them," analyzed a voice.

She turned to face the boy she had pulled to safety, and that was now armed with a huge bow that he put away, turning it into a simple pendant, before pushing his glasses up his nose with the tip of his fingers.

"You too," she retorted uneasily.

"What were you about to do?"

"Defend us. You did it for me."

"What are you? A Quincy? A Soul Reaper?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "I've never known. I just see spirits ever since I was very small... and Hollows, too. I was taught how to defend myself against them. And also, what's a Quincy? And a Soul Reaper? What are you talking about?"

The boy sighed.

"Forget it. Just don't come across me, that's all. And don't attack Hollows. I am here to kill them."

She nodded, and the boy was about to leave when she stopped him.

"Wait! If I need help, where can I find you?"

He turned around and tossed her a card. She caught it in its flight and read it.

"Karakura Hospital... But... Hey, wait!"

Except that the boy had vanished. Grumbling about rudeness she went home, while a young Quincy went to inform his father that there was someone in town that saw spirits... And that was apparently not a Soul Reaper.