Rank Vov- is the rank 6.

The second that Az and Clara were gone, Ichigo decided to go and fix something for dinner for everyone. Which left her grandpa, Opera, and Shichiro alone to talk for a bit.

"Lord Sullivan, what do you know about how your granddaughter grew up?" Shichiro asked, he'd been mulling over various things ever since the day that the girl had mentioned being killed. And to be honest, he had so many questions. Not just about what had happened to her and also about who may have been involved.

But also, about anything else that may be relevant somehow to said incident.

He wasn't a fool, despite the fact that many tended to treat him as such.

Shichiro knew that as one of the Three Greats- Lord Sullivan was more likely to know more than he was saying. It would simply be too difficult for much to escape the demon's watchful eye.

Not only that but Opera's skills at investigating/collecting information were top notch. Especially when he employed methods of fear and torture to get what information he needed.

Sullivan had known that Shichiro would be asking certain questions since a certain revelation had taken place. And while he had spent much time watching Ichigo over the years, he didn't know a ton of details about a lot of things. So, he was naturally still a bit unprepared to answer the other demon's questions to the degree that he was expected to.

Not only that but Shichiro's ability to tell when someone was lying about something was a tricky one to get around. So, he needed to tread carefully with whatever he did share with the gargoyle.

"Not really. All I know is that my poor granddaughter has had a very interesting upbringing." Technically, that wasn't a lie. So even if Shichiro's buzzer went off- he wouldn't be able to tell if it was a lie or not. Not outright anyway.

"That would be putting things mildly." Shichiro said as he thought back to the girl's combat ability.

It was obvious to him that she was used to fighting in one capacity or another. Which included the use of lethal force if it was deemed necessary.

He didn't know who taught her to fight in such a way, or how long it likely took her to master the various fighting styles that she had admitted to knowing- but she had obviously dedicated a lot of time, focus, and energy to learning them.

In actuality, despite just beginning school and being a first year at Babyls, the girl had the kind of combat experience that came from being a war veteran or something.

He didn't say it, but he would be incredibly surprised if she didn't rank Vov or higher once she was properly accessed and assigned a rank.

He was about to try another tactic to try and get the information he desired, when Ichigo came out of the kitchen and asked if anyone was allergic to anything- food wise. And had no choice but to pause for the moment to answer her questions.

Though said questions struck him as a bit strange. After all, who had ever heard of a demon with food allergies? Sure, there were certain kinds that had very specific dietary needs. But certainly not allergies.

The second that Ichigo got her answers, she smiled at them all and then went back into the kitchen to finish cooking. Which gave him a few extra moments to collect his thoughts before asking, "So, you truly know nothing about your own granddaughter's upbringing?"

Sullivan and Opera both looked at him.

And Shichiro just knew that they knew something. They were simply refusing to speak about it.

"Alright, let's try something different. Which of her parents was your child? Why did no one up until now even know that you even had a child?"

Sullivan started to sweat a little bit, while Opera merely waited to see what his master would do or say when they heard Ichigo's voice say from the kitchen doorway, "My mom was grandpa's child. And she was taken from him by strangers when she was still very young- and somehow wound up in the human realm. Where she was taken in and raised by some humans. But the family that took her in died when she was still pretty young. So, she wound up living with some distant relatives of theirs until she met my dad and the two of them married."

"Ichigo!" Sullivan said in shock. "What are you doing in here? Aren't you still cooking?"

"Of course, I am. But I overheard the question and thought I'd help explain." She said with a careless shrug.

Shichiro stared at her oddly but eventually hummed as he mulled over her explanation.

He knew that he was being lied to. At least somewhat anyways. Though he would be the first to admit that he hadn't expected anyone to mention humans or their world. But that would certainly explain quite a bit.

Not just about why Sullivan suddenly had a family when he was never married or had any offspring that anyone knew of.

To be fair, having a child in secret wasn't unheard of for high-ranking noble families in the Netherworld. Nor was keeping one's offspring hidden away from the many, many demons around that would prey upon them.

So having Ichigo explain that her mother was taken as a young child- was totally believable. Having said child even wind up in the human realm was also very believable. Since accidents did tend to happen frequently before the Border Patrol had been developed along with the many laws that prevented demons from crossing over into the human realm.

Wait- the human realm? As in the mythical creature human? He wondered, startled. But then quickly realized what the girl had just said to him in full. A demon mother plus a human father means that Ichigo herself was...

"A hybrid!" He suddenly shouted, scaring the others as he jumped to his feet and quickly crossed the distance between himself and Ichigo and practically started rambling while he loomed over her, "You're a hybrid! Half human and half demon. Oh my goodness, you're practically an endangered species! How is this even possible? Humans and demons shouldn't be able to procreate to begin with because they're genetically incompatible. Which would make you a frigging miracle of nature!"

Ichigo merely smiled awkwardly at him, and quickly cast a 'help me' look towards her grandpa and Opera who had both completely frozen and hadn't moved again just yet. So, continuing to give them the look was useless.

"Yeah, how about that."

"This is amazing. It's incredible! I-It's- I-It's..." There was a soft dinging sound coming from the kitchen.

"Oh, I should get that before it burns." She said before she walked off. Leaving Shichiro in a state or suspended shock.

A short time after that, everyone wound up sitting down together to eat.

Ichigo had outdone herself in the kitchen with what she had made- the food smelled good enough for them to salivate just from being in close proximity of it. It looked rather interesting as well.

Yet despite that fact as well as several others, Shichiro wasn't able to take his eyes off of the girl. To be honest he was still freaking out about her hybrid status.

After all, it wasn't often that a demon met someone like her. Hybrids were known to be very weak and tended to die easily. Which was contradictory to what he had seen and already knew about her.

Needless to say, he had so many more questions than he had had before and no clear place to start asking them. His head was simply spinning!

With everything going on in his head, he completely forgot about the fact that he was wearing his mask until he wasn't anymore.

Ichigo was seated right across the table from him, and while she wasn't staring at him or anything else rude. He suddenly felt very worried about the fact that his scarred face might scare her.

He reached over and started to grab his mask so that he could put it back on, but Ichigo beat him to it and grabbed it up and moved it across the table to sit next to her plate.

"You should eat." Was all that she said to him.

He floundered, but seemed to understand what she was trying to say without actually coming out and saying it. There is nothing wrong with your face. So, stop hiding it.

To say that he felt reassured by this, was a huge understatement. But because of it, he was at least able to enjoy his food without worrying any further about her becoming afraid of him because of his scar.

Of course, because of this occurrence he also managed to ask her some things about the human world too. Like did human animals- like cats or birds- act a specific way? The answer to that was yes.

What did they eat?

According to Ichigo, it depended on which animal he wanted to know about first. Cats ate a variety of things ranging from grass, insects, mice, fish and birds. Whereas birds could eat insects, snakes, rodents, seeds, and fish.

What did humans eat?

Anything that's edible to them.

How old was the oldest human?

She didn't know the exact age, but she knew of several humans in the world who had reached over a hundred and fourteen years of age before finally succumbing to old age.

What sort of hierarchy did they follow? Were they like demons and only follow the strong or those of higher ranks?

Ichigo told him that she'd have to get back to him on that one since hierarchy tended to be different for various age groups. There were also other things that usually factored into hierarchy structures that could heavily influence someone's place and who they followed.

Shichiro took that as a yes on a hierarchy thing. But understood that for more details on how they worked in the human world, Ichigo may need to be able to organize her thoughts better.

He suggested that she write the answer down if it helped.

Once dinner ended, Ichigo stood up from her seat and began collecting the dishes while Shichiro, Opera, and Sullivan all sat back, totally full from gorging themselves on what she had made for them.

"Dinner was delicious, dear." Sullivan said as he handed his empty plate to her. Ichigo smiled at her grandpa, pleased that he had liked her food so much.

"Yes, you will have to share the recipe with me sometime so that I may make it for us again." Opera said as he slowly got up and began to help her clear the table.

"I've got the dishes Opera, sit down and relax." Ichigo said as she frowned at the cat demon.

"But-" Opera started to argue as she pegged him with a look that froze him. His arguments, dying a quick death on his tongue as she plucked the dirty dishes from his hands and placed them in her pile.

"No buts. Sit." She said gently but firmly.

Opera looked between her and the pile of dirty dishes for a few seconds, obviously unsure about whether or not he should do as he was told.

Sullivan and Shichiro couldn't help but watch the demon almost start squirming from indecision.

After all, it was Opera's duty and job to serve his master and mistress. If he didn't serve them, then what good was he? Of course, he also understood where his Lilith was coming from at the moment as well.

The past few days had been difficult on everyone. Especially her.

So why? He wondered. Why was she being so stubborn about this small and simple thing? Why wasn't she letting him help? Did she think that his strength had diminished somewhat because of the past few day's events? That was it, wasn't it? She thought that he had weakened!

He would be the first to admit that he was tired, but that had more to do with the fact that he'd wound up close to that wretched Hollow earlier and the damned thing seemed to leech his energy from him, albeit subconsciously. so, his tiredness had nothing to do with actual exhaustion.

And besides, he was feeling much, much better now after managing to rest a bit earlier. So, he could easily resume his duties and be perfectly fine.

However, the moment that Opera started to open his mouth to tell his Lilith all of that- she carefully picked up all of the heavy dishes and walked off. Causing him to practically flop himself down in his seat and look sullen.

"Are you alright, Opera?" Shichiro asked.

The cat huffed in aggravation and grumbled that ladies like Ichigo weren't supposed to do dishes like commoners.

Shichiro had absolutely no clue how to respond to that. But he could at least agree with Opera somewhat.

Lord Sullivan's granddaughter was part of a high-ranking family amongst the Netherworld's nobility. So, of course she wasn't supposed to do stuff like washing dishes.

That was a servant's job.

"Calm yourself, Opera. Ichigo is merely doing as she was raised by her human family to do." Sullivan said hoping that his words might ease his security devil's anxiety. All it got him was growled at. So, he decided to tack on, "A little bit of dish water and soap isn't going to hurt her any." This one time, went unsaid by the elderly demon.

Yet despite not saying the words, Opera still picked up on the them anyway. And responded by shooting him a look of disdain so dark that Sullivan decided to find the table interesting while Shichiro sniggered at the two of them in amusement.

There was a long stretch of silence between the three after that, but eventually Sullivan said, "Shichiro, I'm sure that you understand better why we were so reluctant before to answer your questions about Ichigo."

"Yes, I understand." Shichiro said before then hastily adding, "And you don't have to worry! I won't tell anyone."

There was another heartbeat of silence before Opera muttered. "Well, you may have to at least tell Kalego."

"Oh? Why's that?" Sullivan asked curiously.

"Because if you don't... And at least stress to him that she was raised by humans and has vastly different knowledge and values than many of the demons in the Netherworld...then it will cause everyone trouble later on. Especially if she just decides to kill him for being a threat to not only herself but the other students. She's...strangely protective of the children Asmodeus and-"

"Valoc." Sullivan supplied helpfully as he recalled the little green haired young lady that his granddaughter had attached herself to.

"Yes, them. If Kalego doesn't watch himself, she'll end him." Opera said even though he was picturing the spectacle in his mind.

He couldn't help but wonder if his old friend would attempt to sink his fangs into her before she killed him. He was betting yes since he knew Kalego was a spiteful man.

Shichiro thought his words over for several moments before deciding that the cat demon was right and simply muttering, "Good point. I'll make sure that he's informed. But first I at least want to allow him some time to get to know his students."

"Fair enough," Opera said, agreeing to the gargoyle's terms. After all, it wasn't as if Shichiro was wrong to let Kalego have some time to get a good feel for his stunt's personalities and such. "Master, I have a request."

"Hn? A request?" Sullivan asked, sounding confused.

"Yes."

"Alright, let's hear it."

"I'd like to begin working at Babyls as a teacher effective immediately." Opera said.

If Sullivan was startled by the cat demon's request, he didn't show it. Not beyond the slightest widening of his eyes behind his glasses anyways. It took him a second or so to weigh the pros and cons of allowing his security devil to do as he'd requested. But once he finished mulling the request over, he agreed.

Besides, Opera was a very good teacher already.

He was patient, kind, he had a great understanding of other people's limitations. And he also had a non-sadistic personality that Sullivan just knew that the kids at the school would love.

Babyls would be damned lucky to have him around. Regardless of what his security devil's personal reasons for being more present at the school may be.

A little while later, Ichigo returned from the kitchen with some cups and a tea kettle and set them down on the table within all of their reach as she asked.

"Do any of you need anything else done immediately?"

The three of them exchanged a look as Sullivan replied, "I think we're fine now that you've seen to feeding and watering us, dearest."

She chuckled at his reply and shook her head slightly before saying, "Then if it's okay with the three of you, I'd like to go and use some time to prepare for school tomorrow."

All three of them looked startled as Opera asked her. "You're planning to return to classes in the morning?"

"You won't take tomorrow to sleep in or rest? At all?" Sullivan asked in concern.

"I'll rest when I'm dead." Ichigo deadpanned with a scary feral looking smile. All three demons sputtered a little bit at that while she then went on to add, "Besides, I've already missed a few days- so I should probably avoid missing any more if I can really help it. If I want to avoid falling behind, that is."

Sullivan laid his head on the table and began to cry, loudly. Opera's ears drooped and he looked sad. And Shichiro...couldn't do anything but admire her more than he already did.

He nodded his head in silent agreement which was probably a good thing since he very much doubted that saying anything aloud wouldn't have gotten a chair tossed at his head by one of the other two demons.

"So, do any of you need anything?" She asked again.

And received a tearful, "No." From her grandpa in response to her query. After that, she spent a few minutes longer with them, purely so that she could calm them down.

Sullivan especially since his tears were going to make the wood of the table rot right out from under his head if he didn't stop crying. But once she managed to calm the elderly demon down enough, she gave he and Opera both a kiss on the cheek and then made her way over to him and upon finding him staring at her, huffed a quiet laugh and then kissed him on the cheek goodnight too.

Ichigo didn't manage to actually go to sleep until the early morning hours despite the fact that she had retired hours ago. She had simply been too engrossed in checking her room for anything that she could use as a substitute school uniform- since Opera was still holding her current one's hostage.

But aside from that particular task there were also some other things that had required her attention to.

One of them had been the cell phone that Kisuke had given to her when she'd become a Soul Reaper.

Since coming to the Netherworld, she hadn't really had a chance to charge it any and to be honest, she had other reasons for wanting it to function right then.

Like the fact that it was one of the only means of staying in contact with not only her human, family and friends- but the Soul Reaper ones to.

But after some trial-and-error little experiments...she had finally recalled one way to recharge it without the use of a charger cable. And since the battery in the cell was different from other cell phones due to Kisuke's tinkering with it. And thanks to the man's genius, he had managed to fix the cell so that a charger wasn't required.

All it needed was some of her reishi.

Which was where the little trial-and-error experiments had come in. Because she had so much damned reishi, she had to be careful about how much she used to charge the cell. Especially since Kisuke wasn't around to fix it if she blew the battery up.

So, once she managed to charge it- without frying it- she had then flipped it open to see if she could check her messages and found that a bunch of her friends, both human, and Soul Reaper alike had blown up her inbox. Many had even tried calling her and had even left her some messages ranging from humorous, to panicked gibberish as well.

After that, she had spent the past five hours answering and texting everyone back to let them know that she was alive and well. She made sure to explain a bit more about why she was MIA from the human world at the moment. But only a few people would really understand anyway.

Still, she did mention that she was with her grandpa. And that she had sort of gotten married to a red-haired stunner.

Of course, she hadn't meant to tell anyone but a select few that last bit. But nevertheless, within ten minutes of her letting said people know about that- her phone blew up with over four hundred messages. After that, she gave up and decided to go through the messages in the morning sometime, and she went to bed.

She only managed to get an hour or so of sleep before her alarm went off and she had to get up. She went about her routine, and was in the middle of getting dressed when Opera poked his head into her room.

"Oh, you are awake." He said, sounding surprised.

"Of course, I am. I said that I was going to school today."

He didn't say anything more, he simply slipped into her room while she was buttoning her shirt and set something on the bed, behind her. She turned her head to look at him and he just smiled at her and then turned and walked back to the door.

"Breakfast will be ready when you get to the table." He said and then left her alone.

It was the most bizarre exchange that she'd had with him so far since coming to live with Sullivan. So, she was naturally concerned about what her dear kitty cat was plotting now. She also hoped that when she found out it would be something pleasant for once and didn't involve anyone's body parts.

Glancing down at her bed, she noted with a soft hum that he'd returned one of her uniforms. But once she picked the jacket up, she saw something fall out of the folds of the fabric and blinked down at it.

Ew. She thought as she stared at the cringe worthy corpse of a mutilated dead mouse.

"Oh, that's just wrong." She muttered as she grasped the mouse by its little tail and went over to her window and opened it so that she could toss the critter outside. Then once that was done, she took several moments to carefully inspect her jacket for any possible blood stains.

She couldn't see any blood on her jacket, but that didn't mean that she felt comfortable wearing something that a mangled rodent had been wrapped in. So, after tossing her jacket into the laundry basket, she went back to her bed and grabbed her pants and paused in disbelief when something fell out of their folds.

At first, she thought that it might be another mouse. But it wasn't a dead animal this time, thank god.

It was, however, a trinket. A ring to be more specific. Reaching down, she picked it up and looked it over.

It was a simple gold ring with some little markings similar to runes or hieroglyphs on it, so it obviously wasn't an engagement ring. Though it might qualify as a wedding band of sorts.

But she wasn't entirely sure that she should wear it in public.

So, she set the ring aside for the moment and pulled her pants on. Then once that was done, she slipped her shoes on and grabbed her bag and then headed to the dining room to grab her breakfast.

Once she was seated, she said her greetings to her grandpa and Opera while noting that Shichiro wasn't present. She wasn't really sure how she should feel about the giant demon having left a while ago to go back to the school. Especially since she very much doubted that he had gotten all that much rest.

She suspected that he, her grandpa and Opera had stayed up well into the early morning hours talking about one thing or another. She could tell by the dark bags under her elderly grandpa's eyes and the way that he was zoning out that he must not have gotten any rest at all the previous evening.

Whereas Opera didn't have any dark bags under his eyes at all.

I wonder if he's an energy vampire of some kind. She wondered as she eyed the cat demon curiously. If he was an energy vampire- he was obviously feeding off of her grandpa.

And she wasn't really sure how to feel about that since the mental images that the words conjured up in her mind were beyond disturbing to her. At least up until the elderly demon faceplanted in his food and began to blow bubbles in it when he started snoring, startling her out of her thoughts.

She heard Opera sigh in exasperation as he hid his face for a moment behind his hands and muttered, "Oh sir..." Before he then stepped forward to turn her grandpa's head so that he wouldn't smother while sleeping in his food.

"Lily, perhaps you should go on to school so that I may tend to your grandfather." He suggested after several heartbeats or so.

"Uh...y-yeah. Okay." Ichigo said, uncertain about whether or not she should voice what she was thinking or not.

Either way, she was freaking out a bit. On one hand- ew, she had married an energy vampire. And while things like vampires didn't typically bother her- on the other, said vamp was feeding off of her grandpa and she didn't want to be around when Opera began chewing on the elderly demon's neck. Bleh.

So, of course she bid Opera goodbye and took one last look at her poor grandpa. Sure, that she may not see him again as he once was and then left.

The second that she was gone, Opera stood there staring hard at the door that she had scampered through thinking, What the hell was that? He'd felt her emotions through their bond and wasn't sure what it was that he was picking up. Her emotions were all over the place.

Sighing again, he sent her feelings of reassurance and affection in an effort to calm her emotional turmoil and then moved to pick his master up and take him to bed so that he could leave for the school.

Today was his first day as a teacher after all and he had no wish to be late.

Ichigo couldn't recall the last time that she'd ever been so happy to see/be in a school before in her life. And that was saying a lot since she hadn't exactly hated her any of her school's back when she'd still been a kid.

Yet here she was, utterly ecstatic to be back in Babyls. She didn't even care if it was a demon school and she was still somewhat human. The first thing that she'd done upon reaching the school was run up to the kids in the black and red uniforms, greeting everyone as they passed them, and asked them all for hugs.

Granted, she wasn't usually the touchy feely type. But she couldn't help it this time. She was just that frigging happy to be back.

Then once she had gotten her hugs from the totally baffled group of kids, she smiled and thanked them and then quickly ran off to see if she could find Az and Clara.

Luckily, the two were easy to find since they were looking for her too. And the second that all of them found each other the two kids wasted no time at all in running up to her and attaching themselves to her.

Then once they had done that had had greeted each other, the three started walking together.

"How are you feeling today, master?" Az asked, making sure to keep his voice down due to the sheer amount of people hanging out in the hallway.

"I'm fine. What about you and Clara? Are you both okay?"

"I'm fine!" Clara said automatically.

"I am fine as well, thank you for asking." Az said with a warm smile.

"I'm glad that you're both alright. I've been worried that your families might not want any of us to speak to each other again." Ichigo confessed after a few heartbeats.

"What?" Az asked, in startled disbelief. While Clara merely wrapped herself around Ichigo's body and hissed like a cat in displeasure at the mere idea of not being able to speak to her again.

Ichigo gently patted Clara on the back as Az sputtered for a moment before then saying, "That will never happen, master. Should such an event ever occur, I am prepared to leave my family home and my family name behind just to continue serving you."

"There's no need to take things that far, Az." Ichigo said gently and then explained. "It's just something that I was worried about because of what happened. Especially since the two of you could have been hurt or worse and it would have been my fault. If your families forbad us to ever speak again, it would be perfectly understandable. Because they care about the two of you."

Az got a look of understanding on his face. Because he did. Whereas Clara merely tightened her grip on Ichigo's body and hissed some more. So, either she was ready to rebel too, or she just didn't understand.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that things didn't come to that. I'm just saying that I was worried about it." Ichigo said.

"Of course," Az said after a second or so of silence before deciding to shift the subject to something else. "Oh, I wanted to tell you that I found our classroom earlier."

"Oh?"

"Yes, it turns out that the three of us will be attending classes together."

"Is that so?" Ichigo said, a small smile flitting across her face as she asked. "Will you show me where it is?"

"Of course, master. Please, follow me." Az said as he then turned and began to lead/clear a path for them as she and Clara both fell into step behind him.

They followed him out of the main school building and all the way over to a door with graphiti all over it. And once they were past the door there was a darkened stairway that led down.

"Well, this isn't ominous at all." Ichigo muttered to herself as she made Clara release her so that the two of them wouldn't trip or fall. Those damned stairs could break their necks if they did.

Stuffing her hands into her pants pockets, she made sure to stay close to Az and Clara both as they made their way down, down, down- at one point she took a chance to look around and thought that she saw a window with dinosaur bones encased in layers of dirt and stone to her left.

Needless to say, this place was starting to give her the creeps. So much so that she half expected some figure in a mask to suddenly appear out of thin air and start chasing them with a pickax or something.

"I know it looks a bit off putting," Az said with a slightly nervous sounding chuckle. "But as bad as the place looks, we should reach our classroom soon. So, please. Bear with me, master."

"You sound like you're expecting someone with a pickax to start chasing us too." Ichigo said almost accusingly.

"A pick-what?" Az asked, sounding baffled as he turned his head to look at her.

"What's a pickask?" Clara asked, curiously.

"A tool." Ichigo deadpanned.

"Oh. What's it do?"

"I'm...not going to explain the nuances of murder to you Clara." Ichigo said as she cast a funny look at the smaller girl. Az made a sound that was suspiciously like a giggle. Earning a scowl from her before he quickly cleared his throat to hide the sound.

"Oh." The girl said in understanding as they started to walk past a huge pile of garbage.

Ichigo huffed quietly, feeling at least somewhat happy that Clara wasn't going to ask her anything about murder. At least until Az decided to.

"What do you know about murder, master?"

Damn Az for asking me something so terrible while in possession of such an innocent face! Ichigo thought darkly as she tried to think of what to say. Sure, there was literally a million different things that she could say to shut this terrible conversation down. After all, Az and Clara were just kids.

Innocent and impressionable kids...

"I'm not explaining the nuances of murder to you either Az." She finally said, hoping that the two of kids would listen to her and drop the subject.

Instead, the two stopped walking and huddled together and started whispering. Loudly enough for her to hear them.

"I think master knows more than she's saying."

"Her answer means that she knows lots!" Clara said in a super excited tone.

"Should we ask her about it? Or do you think she may not want to talk about it?"

"I can hear the two of you whispering, super spies." Ichigo said sarcastically as she thought. Espionage is not their forte. The kids, both paused their whispering for a moment and then quickly took several steps back away from her and then started whispering again.

"Should we ask for details?"

"Yeah!"

"Do you think we should take notes too?"

"Yeah! Notes! Notes!" Clara sang as she jumped up and down.

Ichigo sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose between her fingers to stave off the beginnings of a headache as she idly wondered if anyone else had to put up with things just like this.