Mentioned of a suicide attempt later in the chap.

It took some doing for her to push aside her anger and rage- but she somehow managed to do it so that she could continue to play with Clara until the final bell for the day rang. After that, she bid Clara goodbye but not until after telling the other girl that she would play with her again tomorrow.

Once that was done and the other girl had run off to go home- Ichigo went to check on Az since the poor guy had apparently been so exhausted by Clara's playing that he had slept for the past few hours.

Walking over to where he lay on the ground, she knelt down and put one of her hands against his right cheek, and then waited for him to stir.

She didn't have to wait for very long before his eyes fluttered open and he looked at her before asking, "Is the nightmare over?"

Ichigo merely smiled evilly and he let out a groan, already knowing that it didn't bode well and then pushed himself upright so that he could look around for a second before asking. "Where's Valoc?"

"I think she went home."

"Home?" Az echoed, looking a little bit lost.

"The last bell rang a little while ago." Ichigo explained.

"Oh, I see." He finally said after several moments, suddenly looking wide awake as she said seriously.

"I need to talk to you about something."

He straightened his spine and focused entirely on her as he replied, "Oh, of course master. What is it that you wish to speak of?"

"First off- I need you to know that you kind of disappointed me earlier." Az visibly drooped, his gaze shifting from her face to look down at his lap sadly. After all, disappointing her was something that he hadn't wanted.

"I had a feeling that that was the case," He said slowly as he remembered what she had said to him shortly after meeting Valoc. He hadn't realized that his master had such a poor opinion of herself. And in truth it made him cringe that he hadn't been more careful with his words given how upset she had been with him. "I apologize for upsetting you, master. Please know, that it will not happen again."

"I'm sure that it won't. But I still need you to know something," Ichigo said in a gentle tone that had him hesitantly looking up from his lap to gaze at her face. "It's important to be kind to others. People like Clara...others don't understand them. So, they bully, isolate, and ostracize them. They take advantage of their kind nature's and hurt them, often times irreparably... So, from now on- please, be kind to her."

Az stared at her wide eyed for several heartbeats before finally nodding his head in understanding. "I will." He vowed with a determined look on his face that had Ichigo nodding her head curtly before then going on to say,

"Okay, now that that is out of the way- there's one more subject to go over."

"I'm listening."

"Good, because I have a feeling that you're really going to like this." She said as she then quickly told him, "Earlier I saw a group of kids take advantage of Clara and her ability to create stuff."

"Oh?"

"Yeah! And the terrible thing about the whole exchange was the fact that they acted as if she owed them whatever they asked for just because they 'promised' to play with her but didn't."

"I see." Az said with a thoughtful look on his face as she went on to say,

"Clara desperately wants to make friends. So, she lets people do that to her in the hopes that they'll want to hang out and be friends with her."

Az got a look on his face as if he'd just had something occur to him and asked her, "You wish to stop them, don't you?"

"Of course I do! Clara deserves better than to be taken advantage of just because she's lonely."

Az smiled at her after a moment, his expression fond in a way that gave Ichigo pause. She'd only seen expressions like that one from her friends and immediate family. So, seeing it on the face of someone that had just met her- regardless of the circumstances- was just a little bit odd to her.

Especially when Az lifted a hand and placed it against his chest and said, "Master, you amaze me."

"Huh? How so?" She asked warily.

"Because the longer that I am around you, the more that I learn about you. Today I have learned that you are very kind, warm, and generous person who cares about others." Az replied, looking very proud for some reason.

For once, Ichigo didn't know how to respond. Mainly because she didn't think that she was a very good person though it was true, that she did try to be. Granted, that most of her trying generally ended up in failure of one kind or another. So, after a while, she simply stopped trying so much and just did what she could and if it worked, it worked.

And if it didn't, she decided not to let it bother her overly much.

Finally, she merely shrugged her shoulders and muttered, "If you say so." And let the subject about what kind of person she was drop in leu of coming up with a plan to make the jerks hurting Clara pay.

Needless to say, Az was totally on board with her plan regardless of what the risks were.

Ichigo suspected that he simply wanted to beat someone up for some reason. But was completely unbothered by that fact since she was planning to do so as well. Besides, she was sure that it would be a fun bonding experience for them both and bring them closer to becoming friends.

"When do you want to carry out your plan, master?" Az asked curiously, already itching to go.

"I plan to look around and see if they're still here. If they are then I'll do it, then. But if they're already on their way home, then it will have to wait until tomorrow. Preferably before school starts so that the teachers and other students won't bother to interfere."

Az made a pleased sound- or at least she thought it may have been a pleased sound. In actuality it was something like a low growl of excitement. So, she wasn't really sure.

"Very well then. I will assist you in your search." Az said as he climbed to his feet. Ichigo merely nodded her head in understanding and then got to her feet too and started walking towards the school.

She and Az looked for the better part of twenty minutes. Which wasn't terrible. In fact, her only true complaint about having to search a frigging castle had to the nearly unlimited amount of space that needed to be covered in such a short amount of time.

Thankfully, finding the small group of kids was fairly easy for her to do since she could spot a delinquent from a mile away. And as such, delinquents all had certain habits.

Like smoking, looking at girly magazines or drugs.

Which meant that they would be easier to find if she and Az searched areas that couldn't be seen easily. Like rooftops or stairwells. And thankfully, there was only one stairwell nearby that hadn't been searched yet.

She hadn't realized it until then, but she was feeling unusually anxious about dealing with the jerks. So much so that she couldn't help but question herself about her reasons for wanting to protect Clara.

Don't get her wrong, it wasn't that she minded helping the girl out. In fact, beating the hell out of bullies was one of her favorite past times when she was still back in the human world.

But the Netherworld functioned differently.

Everyone had abilities here because everyone was born with them. It was a form of survival instinct that had evolved over time to become something more than just some intangible force.

She wasn't one of the select few born with inhuman abilities anymore.

She knew that she didn't have to protect everyone anymore. Because here everyone else could protect themselves in one way or another and didn't need her to do it for them.

Which made her doubt for a short time whether or not she should truly do anything at all.

But she was nothing but a stubborn creature, one that had proven many, many times the insane lengths that she would go to just to prove someone wrong. And she had already made up her mind to stop Clara from being taken advantage of. So, she wouldn't stop.

The doubt that had briefly surfaced was squashed like an insect underneath the weight of her convictions once she found the small group of five.

The second that she spotted them, she grabbed Az and roughly pushed him up against the nearest wall, startling him. Especially when she pressed herself so close to him that it probably seemed as if she were trying to become one with him.

To his credit, Az, didn't yelp or yell in surprise. Instead, he only made a weird strained little sound in the back of his throat that sort of sounded like a strangled little groan as he stood there trembling in her grasp. She shot him a puzzled look, wondering what the hell he was trembling for and lifted a hand to his face and motioned for him to look.

He blinked at her for a second but then finally caught on and did as she bid him and peered around the corner to the stairwell.

Technically, they didn't have to see them to know that they were there. The kids were all laughing rambunctiously while passing around a magazine and a cigarette.

Both of which Az seemed to find disgusting considering the way his lips pulled into a sneer before quickly masking it as he turned back to her.

"Are they the ones?" He asked, barely managing to mask his contempt for them.

"Yeah."

There was a heartbeat or so of silence before Az hesitantly asked her, "Are you alright, master?" She didn't say anything immediately. Which must have told him that she was having second thoughts since he went on to tack on. "You know that it's okay to have second thoughts. Or not to do this, right?"

"I know," Was all that she could think to say as she got a mental image of Clara and Orihime standing side by side laughing about something together and steeled her resolve even more. "But I refuse to back down now. Besides, Orihime would cry if I didn't do something to help Clara."

Az blinked down at her face again. He'd obviously heard her mention Hime and wanted to ask what she meant, but simply didn't out of respect.

She rolled her eyes and quickly explained. "Orihime is a friend that I have back in my hometown. She's...like Clara. She was bullied and taken advantage of a lot growing up. And things got really bad, and she eventually tried to commit suicide after her older brother died." She fell silent for a moment before going on to say, "After she tried to kill herself and failed, people started to pay closer attention to her wellbeing and step in to stop such a thing from ever happening to her again."

Az got a horrified look on his face when she mentioned Orihime had tried to kill herself but that soon morphed into a strangely determined expression.

Though she wasn't exactly sure what he was so determined about as he settled his hands on her shoulders for a second and gave them a slight squeeze before saying, "Then let us make sure that neither Orihime or Clara ever cry again."

She nodded her head in grim understanding and let him gently push her back away from himself so that he could move around the corner first. And she waited a heartbeat before stepping out behind him and taking up a position flanking his right side.

It was the same position that she usually used when she was with others. Unless she was leading them for some reason, that is.

And despite the fact that Az had sworn himself to serve her, she still didn't see him as a servant. She saw them more as equals and friends despite the fact that she also wanted to respect his wishes as well as the law/traditions of the Netherworld.

So, once she was in position, the two of them moved as one. Just like a well-oiled machine. Every step they took to reach the group- they took together. Every breath- they took in sync. And once they finally reached the kids, they both lashed out together too.

Each of them nailing the face of the same person with a sickening crack of flesh meeting flesh. Followed by a loud scream of pain as the kid fell and his friends suddenly started scrambling in every direction to get out of the way. It was utter chaos.

But it was also so much fun to get back to something that was familiar to her as she grabbed one kid trying to scamper past her to run and get help by the neck and put him in a headlock while kicking the crap out of another kid. In between the screams and frantic struggles was laughter.

She simply wasn't sure if it was hers or Az's. Though it didn't really matter who the laughter belonged to. They were misfits, and they were completely crazy.

She couldn't ever recall at time when she smiled quite so wide that it hurt before but she definitely did then.