Contrary to popular belief, Ichigo wasn't hiding from her guardian. She didn't hide from anyone! She wasn't a coward after all. But she did have enough sense to know when to strategically withdraw from something before it escalated into possible violence.

Her past experiences had taught her that well enough.

And though she'd left via her bedroom window and knew what that was possibly insinuating to him- she wasn't running from the man either. Especially since running never solved anything.

No- as far as she was concerned, if her guardian wanted to be an asshole about her being placed in his precious Hero course at the school then she'd be a bitch right back at him.

It wasn't as if she were feeling particularly shy about her displeasure. Especially right this moment. But she knew full well that the repercussions weren't worth letting her ire run loose any.

No matter how loudly that crazed little voice of her inner hollow howled at her to be let out and reap some vengeance on someone's poor, unsuspecting head.

She'd rather have a arm hacked off than do something quite that stupid, thank you very much. Especially when it would bring her so much more unwanted attention.

So instead she found herself a nice- hopefully secluded patch of...grass?- somewhere as far away from the dorm as humanly possible without the use of alien technology teleporting her. And laid down on the ground underneath a tree and made herself comfortable.

She figured that she'd be occupied for a while watching the clouds or something. And whenever she got bored with that, then maybe she could do some work with the craft stuff that she'd brought with her. Ya know, to kill even more time before she had to finally return to her...shared living space and face her guardian again.

She had been sitting there trying to think nice thoughts. Soothing thoughts- but kept seeing her inner hollow set her guardian's smiling face on fire in her mind. So naturally, she told her to stop it since she wasn't being helpful.

Which led to her inner hollow sulking and grumble in her mind, "I don't get it, who doesn't like setting people's faces on fire?"

I don't. Now stop sending me weird visions. I'll have more nightmares than I already do.

Once her inner hollow finally fell silent, she sighed and tried to relax by watching the clouds. But there weren't any in the sky. Not in the immediate vicinity anyways. Which caused her a great deal of distress. Emotionally.

Not to mention caused the grass some distress when she started to tear it out of the ground in annoyance when someone walked up to her and asked, "What has that grass ever done to you?" She froze up, her fingers twitching around the blades that she'd been about to rip up as she tipped her head back to look at the person who'd just snuck up on her.

It was the little white furred animal thingy that her guardian had been speaking with yesterday.

Forcing her hand to release the blades of grass that had been about to fall prey to her temper- she slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position and waited for the creature to do or say something else. She didn't have to wait long since the little guy decided to sit down on the ground next to her.

"I hope that you don't mind my sitting here?" It asked politely.

She turned her head to look at it and just said quietly, "I don't mind."

The creature smiled at her in an indulgent manner that reminded her a lot of an old man. She blinked at him while wondering if he and old man Yamamoto had ever met. The creature seemed like something that the former Captain-commander would have at his side.

"My name is Nezu." The creature finally said after a heartbeat or two. Hearing him give her his name jolted her out of her thoughts enough to politely introduce herself to him before he tacked on. "I'm the principal of U.A school."

She couldn't have been more astonished if she tried. Really she couldn't. She'd expected him to say that he was someone's pet- well no, he was too much like a human in speech and mannerisms to be any sort of pet- or even a companion. But the principal of a school? A school that had human children and staff?

She blurted out what she was thinking without meaning too. And had to quickly slap her hands to her mouth to prevent herself from saying something equally rude or offensive. While he laughed softly at her as she eyed him somewhat warily. Her mind already figuring out what he was.

Nezu, as he called himself wasn't just any old creature. He was a mix of bear, rat, and dog. Making him a chimera. Normally chimera's were very dangerous. But then, they didn't have human reason or speech like this little guy did either.

Finally managing to calm inner turmoil enough to trust herself to try talking again, she eased her hands away from her mouth. "Sorry, that was...rude."

"It was," Nezu said in bemusement. "But I'm used to it."

Ichigo visibly cringed a little bit and drew her knees up to her chest and tried to make herself look small as Nezu suddenly said, "A seven foot two blond birdie has been zipping around my school and annoying the devil out of people." She curled herself up a bit tighter. "He's singing something of a sad tune about his new hatchling, not wanting to spread her wings and fly like other hatchlings."

She made an annoyed sound and glared at the ground.

"He's been quite distracting to those of us whom have been attempting to get some work done."

"I'm not apologizing." She said as she turned her head to look at him for a second.

"And you shouldn't." Nezu said kindly as he reached out and lay a little paw on her knee. "This is Toshi's issue to overcome. You have more than enough to overcome yourself. There's no need for the man to add more to your plate than you can already handle."

She was quiet as he removed his paw from her knee and sat in silence for a few more moments before then saying, "I think it would help him to better understand what your thinking. In regards to the Hero course. You know, maybe sit down and tell him exactly why your so opposed to it?"

"I'd really rather not talk about it."

"I understand that. And it is your choice whether you do or not. I know that there is a great deal of trust that must first be earned. But you also need to be aware that your guardian may nag you about your reasons until you tell him something."

"Let him. I can put up with his nagging until he's blue in the face." She said before then tacking on. "Besides, if he really wants to nag at me about it- then I get to nag at him for wearing his onesie outside in public. I mean how embarrassing can a man be?"

Nezu chuckled at her referring to Toshinori's hero costume as a 'onesie'. And could already see the man's expression when she finally brought it up to him. He'd be completely appalled. "Touche."

Ichigo shrugged, not caring in the least. They both fell quiet for several more minutes before Nezu shifted a little bit and asked, "Do you like cocoa?"

"Yeah."

"Oh good." He said jovially. "Come with me and we'll tweak your guardian's nose a bit for being an idiot while I try to finish up some of my paper work."

She blinked at him for a second before asking in a puzzled tone, "Is this your way of asking me to follow you like a kid that's been offered candy? You know, stranger-danger?"

"Take it however you like. I just want to have some entertainment while I work."

She didn't even need to weigh the pro's and con's since she wanted to see where this went. Cause it sounded suspiciously like he was asking her to let him kidnap her for a little bit to razz her guardian. She just nodded her head and slowly got up and grabbed her bag of stuff as he stood up and dusted his fur off and then started walking.