Ichigo's third day of school was surprisingly mellow compared to the past two days before. And the reason for that was entirely because her teacher, Professor Kalego had taken some impromptu time off without arranging for a substitute to take his place.

Naturally, she didn't mind this. Especially given the man's awful personality.

So, unlike many of the other students in the other classes, she decided to do something with her free time. Like taking a chance to wander the school grounds and finally learn the location of everything.

Az tagged along with her because he was concerned that she may be ambushed for some reason, and he spent a lot of his time 'protecting' her by using his fire ability to either chase people off if they wandered too close to her, or to burn that unfortunate enough to cross their path and not run away fast enough.

Because apparently not running away from them was seen as a lack of respect that couldn't go unpunished by her new pyromaniac buddy. And to be honest, she got tired of telling Az not to do that and being ignored by the stubborn guy.

Don't get her wrong, it wasn't as if she minded his intimidation tactics. But at this point he wasn't so much as intimidating others as he was showing off his abilities for her.

Probably so that she would see just how strong his fire abilities were. And since that was the case, she just let him do whatever made him happy and tried to ignore the malice that was often shot her way by many of the other students witnessing/experiencing his nonsense firsthand.

So far, they had managed to locate the library, some other classrooms- some of which were taught by people so terrifying that she and Az had had to avoid being mowed down more than once by students running away from the classes screaming.

After that, she decided to try something different to get the lay of the school. And of course, Az was on board with everything regardless of what she might suggest.

She began to suspect that he was just waiting for her to tell him to torch everything and leave nothing but scorched earth behind. She also suspected that she would have to be very careful with any sarcastic remarks she made in the future. Or else someone could wind up being murdered by him.

She asked him where the highest tower was, and after he pointed it out to her, the two of them began to make their way there but were stopped when something weird happened.

And by weird, she meant that they were passing by a classroom when they both heard some sort of commotion coming from inside. She couldn't even recall the runaway students screaming so loud, which naturally piqued her curiosity even as Az grabbed her and pushed her back behind him at the same exact moment that something came barreling out of the room. Forcing the doors open with such force that they broke the bricks surrounding it when they struck the walls.

"Master Ichigo, duck!" Az shouted in alarm at the same moment that whatever it was slammed into a bunch of boxes that had been piled up across from the classroom door, sending the boxes flying in all directions.

A few of the boxes flew towards her and Az, but he took care of them easily since the boxes were empty and weighed next to nothing.

"Master, are you alright?" Az asked once he'd swatted away the last box, his magenta eyes stared at her worriedly from over one of his shoulders. Searching for any sign of distress or injury.

Something vaguely like a person with lime green hair popped up out of the boxes with a squeal of laughter and locked onto them standing there. The next thing that she knew the person? Was in her face saying in a hyper tone, "My right foot is-"

Ichigo felt a little bit dizzy, so she sort of tuned the person out. Though she didn't do it on purpose.

"Master, we should leave." Az said all of a sudden, pulling her from her thoughts as the person, whom was apparently another student- a girl from the look of things- began to stack the fallen boxes up again while singing to herself. "We shouldn't speak to nor interact with this girl."

"Huh? Why not?" Ichigo asked curiously as she bent down and picked up an empty box that had landed just a few inches from her feet when Az had been swatting some out of the air a minute or so ago.

"Because she's weird!" Az hissed at her, looking more and more concerned by the second about being within close vicinity of the green haired girl. "She doesn't do as she told by anyone, not even the teachers. All she wants to do is play all the time. People get fed up with just being close to her!"

Ichigo frowned at him, her mind already turning over what he had said. It infuriated her to hear something so silly was being used as a reason to isolate someone. It was nothing more than bullying.

"Az..." She finally said after a heartbeat or so before saying softly. "You shouldn't spread rumors that you hear from other people. Nor should you judge someone without getting to know them first. Besides, can't you tell yet that I'm weird too?" She said as she stepped away from her friend so that she could approach the singing girl.

Said kid saw her walking over and gave her a wide, happy smile that to Ichigo, was far, far too innocent for someone that lived in the Netherworld. In fact, the kid's smile reminded her of...Orihime.

Her lips quirked up a bit at the thought. Secret amusement at the thought made her feel a bit warm and fuzzy in the vicinity of her heart as the girl sudden said, "I love going boom when I see boxes piled up. Don't you?"

Ichigo grinned at her for a second before handing her the box in her grasp and letting her put it on top of the others before then sweeping the smaller girl up in her arms and saying, "Yeah I do." And then threw herself into the pile with her laughing cargo.

The two of them popped up out of the newly knocked over boxes a second or so later, and Ichigo cast a glance Az's way to see what he was doing. Only to find him standing there with his jaw hanging open in shocked disbelief.

She climbed out of the boxes and slowly got to her feet as the girl asked her if she wanted to play for a while. And with nothing else to do at the moment, Ichigo didn't mind letting herself play some games. Especially since she got the feeling that the green haired girl was super hyper, and no one seemed to know how to deal with that here.

However, since she had agreed to play with the girl, she at least moved them all outside so that they could do so without being interrupted by teachers or bothering other students who were in class.

The girl introduced herself as Clara Valoc.

And exactly as Ichigo had surmised- she was very, very hyperactive. But Ichigo had helped to raise two younger siblings as well as several other people- her friends mostly- so having a hyper kid run circles around her didn't bother her half as much as it probably would have if she had been a single child.

So far, she had been playing with Clara for several hours. She could tell by the way that the morning sun had risen higher into the sky overhead. And at the moment, she was watching Az play the part of a promiscuous neighbor's wife after the poor guy got dragged into their games while attempting to talk some sense into her.

His performance thus far had been riveting but it didn't stop her from trying not to laugh at him. He was a much better actor than he was likely aware of. But he was also completely embarrassed by the spectacle that he was making of himself in front of her.

But inevitably, the poor guy collapsed because he was tired and unable to keep up with Clara's energy.

Ichigo however was used to going days- even weeks without rest of any kind thanks to her years working as a Soul Reaper- so she didn't tire as easily as others did and was better at keeping up with Clara than anyone else was.

So, after Az conked out to rest a while and recuperate the hit to his stamina, she decided to try and occupy Clara with a quieter game. One that didn't require much movement or running since Clara was beginning to wind down a bit herself.

They were sitting on the ground a short distance away from Az playing thumb wars, and she was beating the pants off of Clara when some kids that she didn't know came up and called the hyperactive girl over to them.

Clara hesitated for a second and looked at her as if seeking something. What, Ichigo could only hazard to guess at. So, after telling the other girl that she'd wait to resume their game once she saw what the other kids wanted, Clara nodded her head and then ran off.

Leaving Ichigo to watch the exchange between Clara and the other kids with a frown.

It wasn't that the new kids did anything terrible- at least not from where she was sitting- but their behavior set her teeth on edge anyway. Especially when they demanded that Clara give them stuff and then walked off howling with laughter.

Once that happened, she finally realized what had just occurred and it angered her almost more than if one of the kids had slapped the girl right in front of her. She was up and moving before she even realized what she was doing.

Her long legs eating up the distance between herself and Clara as she walked quickly over to the green haired girl and the second that she reached her, she wrapped her arms around her and hugged her.

Clara didn't know or understand just why she was being hugged but then she also didn't really seem to care whatever the reason could be. Ichigo was so angry that she was actually shaking from it as she thought of the smaller girl being taken advantage of and bullied.

The first chance that she got- she would make sure that those stupid jerks never went near Clara again!