To say that Opera was startled to have been knocked off of his feet by his Lilith's movement-based ability, would be an understatement.

Almost as much as an understatement as the startled, shocked, suspicious, accusing look that Shichiro shot his way from where he was sitting on the ground. Where he had also been knocked onto his ass by the peculiar pressure that Ichigo had created when she'd run off.

Opera tried to ignore the look since he had no idea how to explain to the other demon that his Lilith wasn't just a human demon hybrid as Shichiro already believed, but she was also part Soul Reaper.

After all, the guy already knew that she was a hybrid. Couldn't he at least be happy with that?

"Opera?" He heard Shichiro say his name in a weirdly stern tone. It was the same tone that his master sometimes used on him when he was chastising him. His ears drooped a little bit because of the other demon's tone, and he did feel guilty for not coming clean immediately.

But at the same time, he didn't want to go into the details about his Lilith's existence without both she and his master present to fill in any blanks.

So, he tried to continue to ignore the giant demon's slowly simmering temper even as Shichiro leaned over into his personal space and said in a low, whispering tone, "What Ichigo just did isn't something that humans or even mere demons can do. Now, do you want to tell me what the hell I'm missing out on?"

"No." Opera said stubbornly but then slowly amended his response with, "I can't tell you unless my master gives his permission."

Shichiro had always been a clever guy, even when he wasn't using his Buzzer ability. It was a simple fact that made the usually gentle giant such a formidable demon. So, he was able to read between the lines easily enough to make an educated guess.

"Ichigo is more than just a human-demon hybrid, isn't she?" Shichiro asked, sounding both a bit accusing and worried.

Opera didn't dare answer aloud, not when Kalego was nearby possibly listening to them. He simply couldn't risk it while the hellhound was still in the dark about everything since he had no idea how he would react to some information. After all, it was one thing to give Shichiro delicate information. The demon was less likely to use it against Ichigo.

Kalego, however, was a spiteful demon. It was simply part of his nature as a hellhound. And while that wasn't exactly his fault, Opera was less inclined to trust him with the same information as Shichiro because of that spiteful nature of his.

Who's to say how he would use the information if he were to lose his temper. Granted Opera very much doubted that Kalego would actually harm his Lilith, she was after all a precious treasure of Babyls. And harming her wasn't something that the Guard Dog would do unless he deemed her some kind of threat to the other children.

But still...he couldn't help but worry since the hellhound already seemed to dislike her for some reason that probably had something to do with his master. Either way, he wasn't risking it right now.

Ichigo loved using the god-step technique that Yoruichi had taught her. The speed in which she could move her body while using it allowed her to move at the speed of sound. Which was why it often created a loud booming noise when it was used.

And unlike a simple flash step, it had practical uses during combat too.

After all, being able to move and out maneuver others during a fight is sometimes all that stood between you and certain death. No one understood that like she did due to the many, many life-or-death situations she had found herself in since becoming a Soul Reaper.

Another reason that she liked using god-step had to do with the fact that it felt like literal flying. Just...without wings.

She wasn't sure how far she managed to make it, distance-wise, since she didn't know the lay of the land at all. But she did at least know that she had passed a few of the other kids. So maybe, she'd gone far enough and can stop using god-step now?

She began the task of slowing herself until it was safe for her to finally stop, and once she did stop, she continued to use her reishi so that she could stand high above the valley. Her eyes scanning it for various things.

She was mostly looking for the other kids since she had been paying attention during their teacher's explanation. And the thing called, the Guardian of the Valley was apparently in a bad mood and going on a killing spree.

Though why their teacher had chosen a place where it's guardian of any kind was flipping out, instead of someplace safe and closer to the school- for their race, she couldn't fathom.

However, it did seem almost as if the teacher was attempting- though not completely outright- to thin their numbers down via natural selection. And that worried her.

"Where, oh where, are my Az and Clara?" She muttered to herself as she continued to scan the area below and around her, carefully. She couldn't see her little ducklings anywhere.

But she already knew that the pair had come this way. She could sense their energies nearby whenever she reached for them with her reishi. So, she at least knew that they were alive. But unless she saw them with her own eyes, she would worry about them being injured.

She was still in the process of trying to find the two when she saw something fast moving out of the corner of her eye a fair distance away and turned her head to see what it was. And saw the guy, Sabnock zipping by in a different direction that didn't look like the path that they had been instructed to take.

That's not good. She thought to herself. Yet despite the fact that she wanted to make sure that her ducklings were alright, she still decided to follow the blond demon so that she could make sure that he would reach the finish line safely.

Taking off after him, she tried hard to ignore the funny little feeling of dread that she started to get in the pit of her stomach.

A short time later, Ichigo was cursing a blue streak as she hung upside down from a massive crow's foot. How did something this spectacularly weird happen to her, you ask? Well, it was simple.

She obviously had some of the crappiest luck in the history of luck.

Let me explain.

She had been flying along, trying to catch up to Sabnock when she had suddenly been ambushed by a bunch of demon crows.

At first, she had just thought that they were trying to protect a nest or something considering the fierce fight that ensued shortly after they had spotted her. But no, that was not what was going on.

Apparently, they had been hunting for something to eat. Saw her and decided that she looked tasty enough to eat. It was only due to her unlucky streak that one of the crows actually managed to capture her to begin with. Especially when she'd been employing evasive maneuvers just to get away.

So, here she was. Hanging by a clawed foot, hanging upside down who knows how far from the ground, and growing more and more irate by the second.

She was going to murder someone or something at this rate. She just knew it.

Still...she allowed the damned bird to think that it had won and fly off with her purely to see if it may help her reach Sabnock faster. Unfortunately, the damned bird was going the wrong way.

And so, it was with the hardest kick that she could muster up- which was pretty damned hard in all honesty- that she slammed the heel of one of her feet into the bird's own and startled it so badly with the force of the blow that it dropped her.

Thankfully, whatever she landed in was fairly soft compared to many of the cliffs and ledges that she had seen them pass by so far. In fact, what she had fallen in was so soft by comparison that she almost didn't realize that she'd been dropped into a gigantic nest of some kind until she noticed the horned chick glaring at her.

She went completely still for a second, and then the thing started to flap its wings and shriek at her in outrage. She screamed and got up and started running for cover when it began to chase her around.

She didn't realize it at first, chalking up its clumsiness, to its young age.

But once she finally managed to find a hiding place where she could study the chick at length, she begun to realize that its movements were far too awkward to be normal.

Scanning the giant bird, she easily found the reason behind its strange movements and knew that she was probably going to be killed for this...but she couldn't just leave the poor thing to suffer.

She lured it in close by standing up and waving her arms to draw its attention. And then once it was close enough, she made her move. It was a bit hard to dodge its sharp beak when it leaned down to snap at her- but she somehow managed it. Then once she was clear of its beak, she made a beeline for its injured leg.

It didn't take much to heal the injury. After all, it wasn't as if the chick's leg was broken or anything. It simply had a long gnash on it. So, the energy that it took to heal it was barely noticeable to her.

But the chick, however, seemed to notice that she was doing something. Was it able to actually sense her energy? Ichigo wondered as she sealed the wound closed and then quickly scampered away when it slowly turned its head her way to see what she was doing to it.

After that, the chick was still and quiet while it tested its leg. Lifting it and lowering it repeatedly before it seemed to realize that it was no longer in any pain or discomfort. Once it finally understood the fact that she had healed it, it settled itself into sitting down and started chirping.

Its tone now was a far cry from the shrieking that it had been doing earlier. The only thing that she could compare it's chirping to was a baby's happy gibberish talk before they learned how to truly speak.

It was such a sweet and happy sound that Ichigo wound up poking her head out of her current hiding place to look at the chick.

"Feeling better?" She asked. Despite knowing that it probably couldn't understand her any.

She was slightly surprised when the chick nodded its head and then chirped at her as if it were saying, Yes, thank you. She nodded her head because she wasn't sure what else to do. She felt just a smidge bit nuts just talking to the bird aloud.

"Okay, well if you're done trying to kill me- I need to go and find my friend. I'm just a bit worried about him." She said as she stepped out of her hiding place completely and turned to use flash-step to leave. When the chick suddenly stood up and came over to her and used its beak to grab her by the back of her shirt and deposited her on its back.

And once there, it chirped at her a few times and then spread its wings and started to flap them. A few moments later, the chick was flying, and Ichigo simply made herself comfortable since she was curious enough to stay put and see what happened next.

A little while later, she found herself peering over the side of the chick, trying to see where Sabnock was when the chick approached what looked like another nest.

Another bird? Ichigo wondered, already feeling wary from the very sight of the thing. If the chick had decided to play with her before bringing her home for dinner she was going to be pissed. Especially if she was the dinner.

Yet despite herself and her dark thoughts, she perked up a bit when the chick started chirping at her while it circled above the nest.

Kalego was staring at the video of his idiot students, while gnashing his fangs in annoyance. And who could blame him? It had been over an hour and so far, none of his students had made it to the finish line yet despite the fact that it was a mere two miles from the starting point.

Not only that but he had lost two of the kids and wasn't even sure if they were even still alive.

And to make matters even worse...one of the students that he'd lost was the damned Principal's granddaughter. The very same granddaughter that didn't have functionable wings but could move faster than anything he'd ever witnessed before.

He genuinely hoped that the twit hadn't run herself right into the side of a mountain or some random rock formation. He had no desire to see a grown demon weep. At least not right that moment.

He wasn't a total monster, after all.

But that wasn't even the worst thing about this situation.

No- the worst thing about the Principal's granddaughter being now missing, was the fact that he had yet to mention anything about her disappearance to Opera.

Mainly because he didn't want to die at the wretched cat's hands. After all, there was nothing more terrifying than the wrath of a Security Devil. Especially Sullivan's Security Devil once he found out that one of his charges was MIA.

So Kalego decided not to say anything about losing the girl unless he genuinely had no choice but to do so. Later... Maybe after someone went to retrieve the two kids' bodies.

It was while he was sitting there gnashing his teeth, and scanning the video feed for the two missing fools that he caught a flash of movement out of the corner of one of his eyes and lifted his head just in time to see the Asmodeus brat fly up and land.

"Ah, it looks like your the first one-" Kalego started to say when the Valoc girl jumped down from the boy's back.

"I'm here too!" She announced happily.

Kalego sighed and materialized a note pad and a pen to write with as he said. "Alright, Asmodeus Alice, first place. Clara Valoc, second place...by sheer dumb luck." While scribbling down their race placements.

There was a heartbeat or so of silence as Az looked around, and upon not seeing his master anywhere, asked. "Where is master Ichigo? She should have been here by now."

"Ichi-ken! Where are you?!" Clara began to call out once she realized that the other girl wasn't there either.

She even ran from one side of the rock formation to another looking around the various places that could be used for hiding spots in an effort to find Ichigo. Then once she had checked everywhere, twice, she let out a whine and flopped down on the ground and huffed in annoyance.

"Azz-azz, Eggy-sensei lost our Ichi-ken!" She yelled out while pointing at Kalego accusingly.

Kalego did a weird full body twitch from hearing her refer to him as Eggy-sensei, but quickly recovered enough to snap at her. "That nickname dies here, brat! My name isn't Eggy."

"Eggy! Eggy!" Clara snapped back.

Kalego nearly ripped his writing pad in half as a loud and feral sounding warning growl rumbled from the very depths of his chest. He. Would. Kill. This. Brat! He thought as he imagined wringing her little neck.

However, instead of doing as he desired, he got kicked in the shin by the little twit and then started to chase her around, shouting while she continued to taunt him by calling him Eggy some more.

Opera couldn't help the soft snigger of amusement that escaped him as he watched his Lilith's little friend kick Kalego in the shin and call him names while he chased after her. The child was absolutely precious. And was hilarious as well.

It was no wonder that his Lilith was so very fond of her. She truly was an imp.

"Do you think that Ichigo is alright?" He heard Shichiro ask, softly. His tone concerned and his eyes locked on the distance beyond where Asmodeus and the girl had come from.

"I feel that she's fine." He said easily, his tail doing a slow flick behind him as the green haired girl ran a little bit too close to where he and Shichiro were both standing and nearly ran into the giant demon before veering away and running elsewhere. Leaving Kalego to eat her dust.

"You brat! Get back here and take your punishment!" The hellhound shouted as he shook a fist at the girl's back.

"Never, Eggy!" Clara shouted back at him in defiance.

And Kalego ran off to keep chasing after the girl, like a typical dog with a bone. Then once he was gone, Shichiro and Opera kept watching the scene in front of them for a little bit longer before some of the other kids began to show up until all of them were present and accounted for except for two.

Ichigo and another student were both missing. And while Opera could tell that his Lilith was fine, he couldn't help but start to feel a bit anxious given the amount of time that had already passed.

"Are you certain that she's okay?" Shichiro asked.

Opera merely shifted his position a little bit and crossed his arms over his chest before answering him. "Yes."

"What do you think is taking her so long?"

"I'm guessing that something must have happened... After all, another student is missing as well." Opera said, matter of factly.

"Oh! That's right. What do you think happened?"

"It's possible that the other student got themself into trouble and she went to save them."

"Really?" Shichiro asked, sounding intrigued by the fact that Ichigo would risk her life for another student. Or for anyone outside of certain circumstances.

After all, it wasn't something that just anyone would do.

Demons just weren't wired that way since they were greedy by nature. But then again, maybe she got that part of her from her human half?

Were humans typically so unselfish? He wasn't sure. But he would ask her once he had the chance.

It was right around the time that everyone seemed to realize that two of the students were being erased by Kalego when the guardian of Cutthroat Valley appeared. Causing a lot of the kids to panic and scream as they shielded their faces from the wind that the beast's wings were creating.

"Sorry that we're late everyone!" Ichigo called out from in front of Sabnock from where they were both sitting on the massive bird's head.

Opera smiled, fondly. While next to him Shichiro began totally geeking out. After all, the guardian of the valley was an enigmatic creature. One that was rarely seen around people. And yet...

Ichigo was riding on top of its head as if it were perfectly normal for her to do so.

The huge bird perched itself carefully on the top of the rock formation where everyone was gathered, and then stretched one of its wings out so that Ichigo and Sabnock could both slide down it, instead of simply jumping off of its back.

Then once they were down, Ichigo moved to pet the giant bird's beak and give it a kiss.

"Thank you for bringing us here." She said as she gave the bird some attention.

Both of her hands stroking, its soft feathers, her fingers idly scratching the delicate underneath it's beak when it lowered its head to nip at her with its beak. Eliciting a laugh from her while its chick chirped warmly at her and jumped around a bit on its mother's back.

Ichigo was still skritching the Guardian's jaw when someone came up behind her and roughly grabbed her by the back of her shirt and then started to drag her away from the birds. She whined at being interrupted, but stopped when she was finally let go and was then spun around to face the angry scowl of her teacher as he hung something around her neck.

It was a sign.

And it read, Reflecting.

While Sabnock sat in the seiza position on the ground a few feet away with a sign that said, I will not smash things, on it.

"Go. Sit next to Sabnock and think about what happened today." Kalego instructed her sternly as he pointed to the place where he wanted her to go.

Ichigo merely nodded her head in understanding and went and gracefully dropped to the ground in a position just like Sabnock's.

"This is humiliating." Sabnock said after several moments of silence. "That man is far too spiteful for my liking." He growled out as Kalego smirked evilly at them from a ways off.

"Well, we did break the rules." Ichigo muttered, and then looked at the blond demon. "Try to calm down, though. As spiteful as our teacher is- that doesn't mean that you should give him the satisfaction of knowing that he's bothering you. After all, the best way to deal with someone spiteful is to smile and pretend like nothing bothers you." She said as she smiled brilliantly as the smirking teacher.

While Sabro watched as the man's evil smirk fell and he instead bared his teeth at them.

This time, the blond demon took her advice, though he didn't actually react. Ichigo just smiled again and lifted a hand to wave at their teacher. And the spiteful demon stomped off fuming.

It was funny to see their teacher react in such a sullen manner to the girl's lack of embarrassment. So much so that Sabro couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him, though he did try to hold it back.

"You are a very special woman. May we speak?" He asked as he turned his body a little bit in her direction.

"Sure. What's on your mind?"

"First, I wish to thank thee for saving me." Sabro said as he bowed to her. "Going up against the Guardian of Cutthroat Valley was...far more difficult than I had anticipated it would be. And for a moment, I feared that I would die and leave my ambition unfulfilled."

"Don't worry about it, man." Ichigo said with a careless shrug as she tacked on. "Saving other people is what I do."

"Oh?" Sabro said, sounding as if he were waiting for her to elaborate. But he didn't seem disappointed when she didn't and simply left things up to his interpretation.

There was another heartbeat or so of silence before Sabro finally asked, "May we continue speaking?"

"Sure." Ichigo said as she watched Az walk up to a little owl and stick his hand inside of a pouch on it's stomach and pull something out.

"I know what you are," She wasn't sure how to react to knowing that he knew anything at all about her. So, she refused to show any signs of surprise when he went on to say, "That you are a Soul Reaper, I mean. I also know that your kind are...basically extinct."

She gave him a blank look and waited for him to finish speaking.

"I also have no intention of saying anything to others about what you are given the fact that it's entirely possible that you are the last of your kind. It isn't after all, my secret to tell. I would however like to make you, my ally. If you are amendable to that."

"You want me to be your ally? What for? From what I saw earlier- you're plenty powerful. Why would you possibly need someone like me?"

"True, I have power. But I am also still young and learning the same as yourself. I already know that you are far stronger than I am at present. I...would like to be able to catch up to you. Strength-wise. So that I can one day achieve my ambition to be demon king of the Netherworld."

"Then you don't necessarily need me, you need a rival." Ichigo said feeling as if a rival would be much better for helping him than she would.

"A rival?"

"Yeah, someone of strength that you can chase after and compete with. Someone who will show you the levels that you can reach if you keep working hard and don't get discouraged."

Sabro got quiet as he mulled her words over for several moments before then smiling and saying, "Then you can be my rival."

"Huh? Me?"

"I would like to learn from you. And to compete against you as well. This will be good for both of us, do you not agree?" He said looking happy with himself.

Ichigo merely looked at him as if he were nuts. And how could she not? She already had a few hundred rivals back in both the human world and Soul Society. She didn't need even more of them to come around and challenge her more. That was how she wound up being sent to the Netherworld to begin with.

What if by agreeing to a rivalry between herself and Sabnock, she somehow achieved even more power? Would she have to leave her grandpa, Opera, Az and Clara behind to start over again elsewhere all over again?

She was a second away from shooting Sabnock down in flames when their teacher's voice suddenly called out her name, causing her to jerk to attention and look at the man with a scowl as he said, "Fool, it's your turn."

She didn't move. And her teacher pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation as he then told her to get the hell up, walk over to the owl, and draw her badge from its pouch.

She moved once she knew what she was supposed to be doing, though she mocked her teacher a bit while she was walking up to the owl.

"Fool this. Fool that. He sounds as disrespectful as a frigging rapper." She grumbled before turning and pointing to him as she said in her best Mister-T impersonation, "I pity the fool!"

Which earned laughter from the kids, as well as Opera and Shichiro. But all she got from the humorless jerk that was her teacher was a loud dog-like growl.

However as intimidating as that growl of his sounded, she wasn't afraid. So, she simply smiled prettily at him, knowing that it would bother him immensely and then turned her back to him and reached for the owl.

It only took a second or so for her to pull out a badge and when she did, she couldn't help but stare at it in both wonder and shock. This can't be right. She thought to herself as she stared at it warily.

She remembered the ranks that were mentioned several times before in previous conversations and knew that she was in so much trouble if she let anyone know that she had this particular rank.

After all, who had ever heard of a new student managing to do something like achieve the rank of Chet? Especially right off the bat. Biting down on her lower lip, she stared at the badge in dread and nearly jumped out of her skin when her teacher spoke from behind her.

"What does it say?" Kalego asked as he meandered over to see for himself what rank she got since he was a mite curious considering the extraordinary feats that she had pulled off today.

But she quickly closed her hand around it so that he couldn't see it and then stuffed her hand into her pocket as she lied and said. "I got the first rank. Aleph."

"Alright, Aleph it is." Kalego said as he recorded her rank in his book as Az started to complain about how she couldn't possibly have gotten the very lowest rank imaginable.

She was awesome!

Ichigo didn't feel like Az should concern himself with her rank since it didn't matter anyway. She wasn't sure how she had managed to get a Chet ranking, but it was one that was unearned.

So, she would simply lose the badge or something and never speak of it again.

Across the way, Shichiro stared at Ichigo with slightly narrowed eyes. His buzzer ability having gone off when she had just lied about her rank.

Oh-ho. I wonder what rank she really got? He thought as he leaned over and whispered into Opera's ear. "She just lied about her rank."

Which caused the cat demon's ears to flick a bit, as he focused on his Lilith before saying softly, "I'll find out what rank she really got. Until then, please keep quiet until I can sort this out."