Dan and Bess found out that Koga couldn't read.

"How can you live without reading?" Bess asked in amazement. "Never needed it before, why do I need it now?"

Bess and Dan both gave him a dumbfounded look. "It's fun, you can go on adventures!"

"Of course not like the adventures you've went on," Dan said admiringly. "If I could go on half of the ones you went on, I'd leave school right now!"

Koga chuckled. "Stay in school, Dan, it's good for you."

Meanwhile, Nan and Nat were playing in the woods. "Find any old tombstones yet?" Nan asked.

"Nope," Nat replied. A few nights ago, Yumichika had told them a scary story about a man who was murdered at Plumfield and still haunted his own tombstone. His spirit had no head. Ikkaku yelled at Yumichika the next day; Ururu and Yuzu had been having nightmares. However, Nat and Nan quickly became obsessed with finding the tombstone.

As Nan searched through the trees she saw a head of blond hair. "Nat, come quick!" she yelled. When Nat arrived panting, he asked in surprise, "What do you think she's doing here?"

"I don't know," Nan said.

"Is she still alive?"

Nan bent down to check her pulse. "Yep." They somehow got her back to Plumfield, and everyone was shocked to see them laboriously carrying a seemingly lifeless girl.

"Ameil, take Karin and Bobby and find a medical squad member and Ikkaku," Tessai ordered seriously.

Nan attempted to help clean her up. When Ameil first called Ikkaku, he seemed annoyed to be interrupted while fighting. Ameil quickly explained.

"It's an emergency! Nan and Nat found a lady in the woods and she's hurt bad," Ameil said.

"Fine I'll come." "Us too!" Chad and Ichigo said. They were training but still wanted to get in on all the excitement at Plumfield.

"Stay here," Ikkaku said very sternly. "Awww," they complained in disappointment before and getting back to fighting. When Ikkaku arrived, Isane was already helping the injured lady, while Nan looked on and tried to learn her technique. Finally, the healer came out of the room.

"Who is she?" Ikkaku asked while everyone else got ready for dinner.

"I don't know, but it looks like she was beaten up very badly. Nan will tend to her till she wakes up," Isane replied. He nodded and went to join the kids for dinner.

"Who is she?" Jinta immediately asked in excitement.

"We don't know."

"How bad is she?" Bobby asked.

"Pretty bad."

"Will she get better?" Orihime asked in concern.

"Fortunately, yes," Ikkaku replied.

Suddenly, Bess piped up, "Ikkaku, did you know that Koga can't read?" The rest of the class looked up. "Really?" they said in surprise.

"How can anyone go through life without reading?" Yuzu asked in her soft voice. "Poor guy, it must be tough on him," Ameil said.

Just then, Koga walked in to put wood down by the fireplace. "Don't feel bad for me, I'm just fine," he said as they all stared. "By the way, Ichigo and Uryu, you have been feeding the sheep too much. Remember that they're just babies." Both boys nodded their heads in reply: they'd decided to try and raise sheep to see if they could get any money for the wool. As it was at Plumfield, Ikkaku encouraged this and supported them. After the traditional Saturday night pillow fight and all were in bed, Ikkaku went to the barn.

"Koga," he called.

"Yeah?" he answered, putting his pitchfork down.

"If you want, I can teach you to read."

"Nah, you have enough on your plate," he replied, waving a hand.

"It's no trouble, we can do it at night when the kids are asleep," Ikkaku answered carefully, taking his feelings into consideration.

"Maybe," Koga said with a small smile. "I'm heading into town, see ya," he said, waving goodbye. Nights were Koga's time alone and Ikkaku never questioned what he did.