Disclaimer: All characters of Bleach belong to Kubo Tite.

PA system Blues: The last Monday morning

After the fiasco with Kurosaki Ichigo and Kuchiki Rukia, the teacher of class 1-3 concluded that randomly picking a student to handle the PA system had been a bad idea after all. But, really, who to choose now?

Ochi-sensei's red ink pen hovered over the names in the class register. She knew none of her students were keen on the generous offer of handling the school announcements. They were too smart not to recognize the danger the job posed.

Last week, a senior under high exam-tension had spotted Kurosaki Ichigo conveniently standing unawares in the school courtyard. Well, the senior had noticed the perfect chance to obliterate the source of all the recent noise and distractions.

He opened the classroom window and maniacally chucked his school bag out from the third floor before anyone could stop him -a Japanese dictionary, an English dictionary, three science texts and various notes. The semi-assassination attempt would have been deadly if it had hit Kurosaki-kun like a load of bricks.

After that incident, the school could not help but notice that student Kurosaki never stood under any open windows, and had a nervous habit of looking up for objects in free fall. He didn't want to be easy prey for target-practice again.

Ochi-sensei's pen tapped on the names thoughtfully.

Sado Yasutora? No, he was a man of little words. Most likely he would read the opening, skip the entire contents of the announcement, and head straight for the closing.

Asano Keigo? Right, give the PA system to the class clown. Although, with the antics of Kurosaki and Kuchiki, that position had been challenged lately.

Inoue Orihime? The girl was fine actually. Sweet natured. But, a little weird. And the school had gotten enough strangeness from the last pair.

The teacher frowned. What I'm looking for –is a student who's serious enough not to fool around with the system, and smart enough not to mess up. Someone sedate, steady. Tame.

The red ink pen stopped at a name. And Ochi-sensei circled it decisively.

Done.

oooOooo

Ishida Uryuu climbed up the stairs to the third floor, the list of school announcements and the keys to the PA room in his hands.

As he unlocked the door, he sensed the lingering presence of reiatsu in the room. He pushed the door open carefully and scanned the silent room.

His eyes widened.

We've been robbed!

The table usually dominated by a tangle of wires and the ancient PA system lay unusually empty. He checked the windows. The alarm system hooked on by Kagine-sensei was still intact.

Not through the window. And they didn't use the door either. Strong spiritual energy…

The Quincy traced the lingering reiatsu to the wall. The energy appeared to pulse faintly from here. Did someone leave a trail?

As his fingers brushed against the walls, the reiatsu flared brightly. Someone had left a concealed message. Or an official statement, he decided with a smirk.

Confiscated item: One Karakura High PA system (-consisting of wires, microphone, etc.) is forthwith the property of Soul Society. Action taken upon reports that highly confidential matters were disclosed to the general public.

Undercover investigation carried out by Vice Captains Abarai Renji (6th Division) and Matsumoto Rangiku (10th Division) revealed that offense was result of unintentional error.

Ishida raised his eyebrows. They sent a loud, red-haired man and an attention grabbing, uh, well-endowed woman to do sleuthing? He could tell they were severely understaffed.

Warning: Further repeat of transgression will result in immediate disciplinary action. Thank you for your cooperation. Soul Society apologizes for any inconvenience caused by the removal of confiscated item.

This notice was witnessed by:

6th Division Captain Kuchiki Byakuya

10th Division Captain Hitsugaya Toushirou

13th Division Captain Ukitake Juushirou

The Quincy suppressed a laugh. If Kurosaki saw this, he would have a fit.

As Ishida walked past to leave the room, a hell-moth stirred from beside the Captain Kuchiki's official seal. It fluttered after the Quincy, feelers quivering. Satisfied by the trace of reiatsu, it settled on Ishida's shoulder.

oooOooo

"Ooh, Ishida! Did you know you've got a little passenger on you?" Mizuiro said, jogging behind his classmate on the school tracks.

"Yes, it's been following me around since this morning. Can't seem to get rid of it," Ishida replied, brushing the moth from his right shoulder. It fluttered away from his fingers and landed again on his left. He sighed.

Ichigo and Sado caught up with them, and Ichigo jeered, "Yo, Ishida! That's some strong perfume you're using, man! The butterfly thinks you're some kinda overgrown flower!"

"It's a moth, you ignorant fool," Ishida replied coolly. But, at the sound of Ichigo's voice the moth flapped its black wings and flew towards the orange-haired boy.

Ishida smirked, "Looks like my perfume is nothing to rival yours, Kurosaki!"

Ichigo began backpedaling from the flying insect. He bumped into Rukia a few paces behind.

"Going the wrong way much, classmate Kurosaki?" Rukia said in the saccharine voice she usually reserved for her performance in front of schoolmates.

The hell-moth's feelers quivered, ascertaining Ichigo's reiatsu as the one it was seeking out. Then, Ichigo fell over on the school tracks as 6th Division Captain Kuchiki Byakuya's frosty voice seemed to emit from the tiny insect.

"Your insolent behaviour has reached my ears. And frankly, young man, your impudence appals me!"

With that, the hell-moth flitted at Ichigo's nose as aggressively as it was possible for a light-winged insect to achieve.

Harassment from a butterfly? This isn't happening! And did I just get lectured by a bug?

Having completed its duty, the hell-moth fluttered past their heads -stopping only for a second to alight gently on Rukia's head in an inquisitive manner.

Rukia closed her mouth which had formed a round O of surprise. "Nii-sama?" she stuttered.

Ichigo decided that it would be a bad idea to chase the stupid butterfly –not good for his image. He would just have to live with the fact that he'd never get to pin it to a little glass display case. But, that didn't mean he had to just stand there and do nothing.

As the Hell-moth darted around above his head, Ichigo waved his hands about in violent 'shoo-ing' motions. A few of the girls from his class gave scandalized yells of reproach as the moth narrowly avoided his fingers.

"Kurosaki, don't bully small creatures! Leave that poor little thing alone."

Ichigo tried to suppress himself from giving them the evil-eye. This was all so highly unfair! Wasn't anyone going to feel sorry on his behalf? Not that he needed anyone to defend him from a tiny butterfly. The boy just felt demoralized by the fact that he couldn't even squish the stupid bug that was deliberately annoying him.

Ichigo glared at Rukia and said huffily, "Seriously, isn't this an abuse of official facilities? I'm sure they didn't hand that irritating pest to your honourable brother for this!"

Rukia smiled weakly as she watched the hell-moth swoop down on Ichigo's unguarded spiky hair. It rested there, like a pretty hair ornament –clashing with the dreadful scowl on Ichigo's face.

Author's Note: To the readers who have stayed with me all the way up to this chapter, thank you for reading. To those who have reviewed, thank you for letting me know who you are (even if it's just your screen name..). And to those who laughed, I can't tell you how happy that makes me.

Next chapter: Epilogue

The option for Anonymous Reviews was set to Disabled. It has been fixed. My apologies about that. And for those who wondered, "What on earth is a Mochi Rabbit?" -the link is on my profile page.

Shi-Sha Hariken, Procrastinator-starting2moro, inugrlluvsanime, Makino114, BlondieLocks, SHiNiGAMiLENNE, amwong88, kaolla asakura, flOofymikO, AznIllusion, comanderlink, xXxMysticalDreamerxXx, craziestanimefan... thank you for taking the time to review.