A/N: Sorry this chapter is really late, but finals and performances had left me with little time and no inspiration. But here's a bit longer chapter to make up for it, and thanks to you all for your reviews and support!

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, only the things I make them do!

Chapter Nine: Annoying Occurrences

WHACK!

Ichigo choked on a mouthful of rice as he was once again unexpectedly woken by Minobe. He had no idea what was with him and falling asleep in his rice bowl lately, but thanks to Minobe's lunch tray his headache was even worse.

He opened his mouth to yell at his friend when she smacked him out of his seat. "Why the hell didn't you tell me you were that good? I can't believe you! You made the teacher go full-out! Full-out!" She yelled at him as if he had no idea what had gone on yesterday, throwing her hands up in the air in exasperation. Then Minobe's eyes narrowed and she pointed at him. "That was you who blew a hole in the wall during testing, wasn't it? It was! Why didn't you tell me, making me think there was some kind of accident..."

Ichigo clutched his head, no longer listening. The familiar ache was slowly getting worse, no thanks to Minobe. Why the hell is this damn headache coming back? I thought Urahara said it was gone for good!

"Beats me, I'm hurting as much as you are. Now shut up. I don't want to have to listen to you as well as the stupid bitch."

Ichigo endured the small girl's speech until they were halfway to the gym, where he finally couldn't take it anymore and kicked her in the rear, saying "Shut the hell up!" He walked off mumbling miscellaneous swear words as Minobe was left to fume again.

Ichigo decided to skip the morning fitness session to try to relieve his pounding head, but as usual things never worked out the way they were supposed to.

"Um, excuse me?" His headache was almost gone when Ichigo looked up from his position on the bench and saw the clumsy kid from yesterday. "Uh, sorry to bother you. Can I sit down?" Ichigo nodded, somewhat amused that a kid three feet taller than him was acting like a nervous wreck.

"You're the guy I fought yesterday...um..." Ichigo scratched his head as he tried to remember the kid's name.

He jumped in his seat at the chance to answer. "My name is Choshi Naoki! I'm really sorry about yesterday, I was just really nervous and then I couldn't concentrate because you were so much better than me plus I'm pretty clumsy sometimes so I kept tripping over myself and I'm not good at zanjutsu at all because my teacher said I should work on other things but if I'm ever your partner again I promise to be better!" Choshi let out the little breath he had left and looked extremely apprehensive at what Ichigo would say.

He just shrugged. "It's fine. I doubt anyone was much better since everybody's in their first year." He gave the encouraging smile that he used to use on Orihime to calm her down...don't think about that. "This is an academy, right? So the whole purpose is to make you stronger. So what if your zanjutsu's bad? I know a lot of people who can't do any kidou," Including myself. "and they're perfectly fine shinigami." The kid seemed to brighten up a bit and silence fell over them, though Ichigo could see out of the corner of his eye that he was trying to work up the courage to say something else.

Minobe suddenly turned the corner and ran towards them, calling out "Kurosaki-kun!" and causing Ichigo's companion to close his mouth, putting off whatever he was going to say. Once Minobe got close enough to the two of them she bowed slightly to Ichigo "I'm very sorry for my behavior earlier, Kurosaki-kun. I'm usually very irritable in the morning and I took that out on you. Is your headache gone?"

Ichigo started. "Oh, you noticed? Yeah, it's just about over. How was the class?"

"Same as yesterday. But you know that's the only class you're allowed to skip, right?"

"Yeah, yeah. What do we have next?" Choshi was keeping quiet next to him, watching their easy conversation.

Minobe pulled out her schedule. "Um...I don't have anything until 2:00, but you might want to check your own schedule since you're taking more classes than me. Hey, who's your friend?"

Choshi snapped to attention and jumped to his feet, extending his hand. "My name is Choshi Naoki! Honored to make your acquaintance..."

"Minobe Kaeda." They shook hands as Ichigo yelled out in victory at having finally found his schedule.

Choshi gave a small smile. "A maple and a strawberry...you two have very interesting names."

"It means 'he who protects', damn it!" Ichigo interjected while scanning his schedule.

"Oh, sorry Kurosaki-san." It was odd to see a boy almost as tall as Ichigo used to be looking contrite to a little kid. "Minobe-san, how did you meet Kurosaki-san? I thought those from Rukongai didn't associate with the nobles, and it looks like you two have been friends for a long time."

Ichigo looked confused, but Minobe said "We just met a few days ago at the entrance exams. Kurosaki-kun was kind enough to spare me some of his food, even if he called me stupid." She stuck her tongue out at him. "You must be very good at reading spiritual energy if you could pick up that Kurosaki-kun was a noble, Choshi-kun. Even I didn't catch that, and he certainly doesn't act like one."

"WHAT?" Ichigo stood up abruptly and stared the two down, which was extremely hard since they were taller. "I'm not a noble! What the hell are you going on about?"

Choshi was taken aback. "You're not? But you were clearly born as a shinigami, I can tell from your spiritual energy. It's very hard to trace though, since yours is the most unique signature I've seen so far..." Ichigo got uncomfortable as the dark-haired boy peered intently at him. "I could be making a mistake though. I mean, it even feels like you're part human, but that's impossible!" Minobe and Choshi chuckled and Ichigo nervously joined in.

"How would you know that though? I've never heard of a 'signature' before." Sometimes Ichigo wished that Rukia could have sat him down and lectured him on all the 'extras' about being a shinigami. Without the stupid drawings.

Minobe quickly spoke up. "Every shinigami's spiritual energy is different, much like a fingerprint. It's that that helps shinigami in combat by recognizing their comrade's energy signature. I'm not very good at reading energy, since manipulation is more my specialty, but I heard that a prodigy in reading signatures was in the freshman year, though I didn't expect you to read to this extent!" Choshi was staring him down again, making Ichigo shift in his seat.

You're hiding somewhere, right? Cause this is getting too close for comfort. There was no answer. Good.

"Yes, yours is the most interesting and hard to read signature I've ever seen. It's as if layers and more complicated layers have been built upon an even more complicated base, not to mention the huge amount of energy you have. You're quite a challenge, Kurosaki-san!"

"Um...yeah that's great, but can you back away a little bit? I don't like when people come too close to me."

Choshi snapped out of his daze and backed away quickly, bowing multiple times and saying "Sorry, so sorry Kurosaki-san! I just get so absorbed in my work that I lose myself! I'm very sorry!"

Ichigo just said "Whatever, it's okay." before turning to Minobe. "I've got a class now, so I'll meet you for lunch in the same spot as yesterday. Try to keep the kid occupied, I almost feel a little sorry for him." Ichigo turned and waved behind him.

Minobe nodded, then yelled out as Ichigo started running away. "What class are you going to!?"

"Spiritual Energy Control!"

"You're going the wrong way, stupid!"

"Damn it!"

--

"Hey, Rukia! I forgot about this book, "The Fool's Guide to Energy Control" This one helped me a lot when I was in the academy, cause it's got really useful tips for beginners. All the textbooks assume you already know the basics of energy control..."

"Add it to the pile, Renji." The pair had taken their normal break time to go to the library at Rukia's request. Renji had eventually gotten Rukia to tell him where she was going on Friday and was very excited to meet another person who had trouble with kidou and manipulating energy. Ichigo's going to be pissed when Renji starts acting all high and mighty...but it's not like like I can just tell him that I'm somehow friends with this 'amazing prodigy' right now. She smirked to herself. Ichigo'll want to lord that over him once he beats him in the inevitable battle. Then it'll be just like old times...The only problem was that Renji was now insisting to come with her that Friday, so she and Ichigo couldn't discuss anything of importance.

And so they came here. The library outside of the academy held countless material on a vast amount of subjects, and so if Rukia couldn't provide her comrade with information about the future quite yet, she could at least give him access to material she wished she had when she was a student. Between the two of them a large stack of books had formed, including title ranging from "Refining Your Kidou" and "The Hollow Encyclopedia."

Rukia almost burst into tears when she spotted her old favorite book. She used to rent out the precious material whenever it was available, almost to the point where the Ninth Division delivered it to her door. She hugged the book to her chest, the placed it reverently on top of the pile. There was no treatment great enough for one of the two copies of the only book published by her nii-sama's mother, the other in the Kuchiki family museum. This book held the secrets behind her art and although she tried her best, only her nii-sama could properly reproduce the wonderful art from this amazing 'how to draw' book.

--

"Hey, Kurosaki-kun! Over here!" Ichigo looked up to see Minobe waving at him in a patch of trees. He grabbed his lunch and walked over, sitting in complete silence. Today he was not only accompanied by Minobe, but by her friend from yesterday and the creepy staring kid. Not his ideal lunch. This is just like in high school. Can't I eat alone just once?

"So, how was your class, Kurosaki-kun?"

He looked up from his food. "Bad." Ichigo resumed eating as Minobe quietly fumed while the other two with them exchanged apprehensive looks.

"Why are you so damned anti-social!?"

"...because." He remained stoic as he resumed eating his lunch, but inside he was glad to see the girl suffer a bit as payback for that morning.

"You're lucky, Stupid King. My headache still hasn't gone away yet...idiot energy reader...making me hide like that..."

"Excuse me, Ichigo-san." He looked up to see the girl that Minobe sparred with yesterday along with Choshi staring at him. From the looks of it she was asking a question he was too shy to. "You were the one who fought Ikoma-sensei yesterday, right?." He nodded. "Amazing! Where did you learn to fight so well?"

Better to stay with the same story... "I studied martial arts for a while when I was alive. I guess I was taught better than most people."

"You can remember stuff like that?" Minobe, after trying to stay out of the conversation and fume was quickly drawn back in.

"Do you remember anything else?" Ichigo really wished he knew the names of these people. Then he be able to properly tell them to leave him be. Especially after that disaster of a energy control class.

"Okay, fine, here's the life story. My name is Kurosaki Ichigo, I lived in Karakura with my mom Masaki, my dad Isshin, and my sisters Yuzu and Karin. I only had one friend, Arisawa Tatsuki, because everyone else made fun of my hair. I was enlisted in karate when I was four, would always confuse spirits and people, and died when I was nine after I tried to protect my mom from a Hollow." He took a bite out of his sandwich and chewed slowly, completely ignoring the silence around him.

"Th-That's impossible!" It was the shy kid from earlier that surprisingly broke the silence. "There's...there's no way you could have that much spiritual energy if you were just a normal human! I've never heard of such a thing before!"

Oh shit, maybe I shouldn't have said that...oh well. Ichigo sighed. "Obviously it is possible, cause it happened. That was how I met one of my shinigami friends, Kuchiki Rukia."

"K-Kuchiki Rukia? Kuchiki? Wow, Ichigo-san, you have amazing connections! You'll get a high-ranking position no problem..." Minobe's friend almost looked green with envy.

Minobe just looked sceptical. "Are you sure you're not a noble, Kurosaki-kun? Cause you and that Kuchiki girl looked far too comfortable with each other to have just met a little while ago..."

Ichigo's scowl had been deepening with every word they said until he couldn't take it anymore. "Argh! I gave you my life story! What more do you want? I was always abnormal when I was alive, and now it's looking like I'll be abnormal here too! Some 'heaven' this is supposed to be. I going to class." He gathered his things and quickly strode away from the group, only hoping that he didn't look like he was having a temper tantrum since he was so 'young'.

Unfortunately, Ichigo had only gotten ten feet away from them when none other than Rukia flash-stepped in front of him. "What the hell are you doing here?" She was the last person he wanted to see right now, and he knew the group he had just left was staring at them.

Rukia, being predictable, punched him in the jaw. "What do you mean, 'What the hell are you doing here', I can do exactly as I please, bastard!" Ichigo quickly got up from the ground and stared her down, Rukia meeting his glare. They stayed like this for a few seconds before Rukia burst out into laughter.

"What's so funny!?"

"You, stupid! You're exactly the same height as me!"

She doubled over in hysterics again as Ichigo grunted and turned away. "I thought we covered that a few days ago. What the hell are you doing here?"

He waited not-so-patiently as Rukia slowly recovered. "I just wanted to tell you that Renji insisted he come on Friday, so we won't be able to talk then." Ichigo grunted angrily. "So instead we both gathered up a bunch of books at the Seireitei library and left them in your dorm."

"Oh...thanks," Ichigo said awkwardly as he scratched the back of his head.

Rukia grinned evilly. "I also didn't tell Renji that you're the supposed 'prodigy', so he's looking forward to beating some respect into a little freshman. You can borrow Sode no Shirayuki."

Ichigo matched her smile, then looked concerned. "Are you sure I can use your zanpaktou? Is that allowed?"

Rukia laughed. "Considering you used her for two months it should be fine. Or did you not notice that the handguard of the sword you used is the same as mine?" She pulled out her zanpaktou to show him.

"It was a whole lot bigger though..." Rukia jammed the hilt into his face.

--

Ten feet behind them Minobe and her friend, Terada Michi, were giggling at the exchange and how easily the noble was beating up their prodigal friend, though they wished they were close enough to hear what they were saying. Choshi, however, had taken out a small notebook and was frantically scribbling things down. He had been taught to be analytical by his teacher since he had arrived in Soul Society, and Kurosaki was a puzzle unlike anything he had ever seen. Choshi wanted another chance to get a look at the prodigy's energy signature up close, but he unfortunately didn't have the guts to start a conversation with the incredibly powerful child. He wrote like a madman as he added his observations to the list he had started earlier that morning.

Lacks control, extremely high power level, well trained in the arts of zanjutsu, can be patronizing, takes many classes, easily angered, name means 'one who protects' (sore subject), clearly born from a shinigami, denies being a noble, traces of human?, slightly sinister feel about energy, nervous when examined (something to hide?), bad sense of direction or unfamiliar with campus layout, seems to not like being around people, can completely remember his past life (transcript on following page), incredible energy when just a human, very friendly with Kuchiki Rukia

Choshi snapped his notebook closed and leaned back on the tree. Maybe I'm over-reacting...Kurosaki certainly doesn't seem like a bad kid...but sensei said to challenge my skills while I was here, and I'll show him the enigma of the century! He might even be able to help me on my next day off...yes, Kurosaki, I'll solve your puzzle!

A/N: Woot! It's summer time! So...much...time...to write...I'm almost overwhelmed by the free time! Man, do I live for summer...