Ichigo was rather enjoying his summer vacation, even if he wasn't in his home town at the moment. Uminari was about as peaceful as Karakura, though the air was a bit different from home. He couldn't figure it out until his father mentioned offhand about 'different energies' around the city. After that he ignored it for the most part.

They were staying with their relatives, the Takamachi's. While they weren't actually related by blood, his father was so close to the Takamachi patriarch that it didn't actually matter. They were welcomed to the small home like family anyway.

Karin got along great with Nanoha, the youngest while Yuzu got along better with the older sister. Ichigo got along great with the brother and sisters, particularly Nanoha and Kyouya. Kyouya was showing him a few moves he could do with a sword, and Ichigo took to them like a duck to water. Isshin wasn't surprised in the least, especially when Ichigo asked if he could take kendo lessons when they got home.

Though Ichigo especially loved the library. It was bigger than the one at home, and his card was still valid since it was an inter-library one. He had to pay four hundred more yen, but it was totally worth it in times like these. He sometimes took a train to nearby towns to check out books he couldn't find in his home town library.

His hand passed by a midnight blue backed book, and he paused. He had felt an odd twinge when his hand touched it.

Taking it off the shelf, he looked inside. The pages were relatively blanks, except for a few in the front. He couldn't read it at the moment, but he could read the title.

"Tome of Fallen Souls... What kind of title is that?" he mused aloud.

He placed it back, but his mind kept going back to it. Spotting a girl in a wheelchair having trouble, he went over.

"Which one did you want?" he asked carefully.

The girl blinked at him surprised, probably because he wasn't a native, but told him the book. It took him a few seconds before he found it and another.

"That one is pretty good. Had to hunt down another one to understand it, since I had started on that one first instead of going through the series, but it was still interesting."

"Thanks! My name's Hayate. Hayate Yagami."

"Ichigo. Ichigo Kurosaki."

The two chatted about books, and it took very little time for Hayate to calm down with Ichigo's easy going demeanor. She giggled at the description of his father. When she had to leave, Ichigo pushed her chair for her to her guardians. He bid her a good day, and went back to the dojo.

"So who was that Hayate?" asked Shamal.

"Someone on summer vacation visiting family friends. He was really nice and said I reminded him of his little sisters," said Hayate.

Ichigo stared in shock at the woman before him. She had long pinkish red hair and purplish eyes. Her armor was like something out of a manga, and the sword had exhaust vents. It spoke in a German accent, and she used it to knock out the other man and take something inside him.

She turned, and he went to hide...only for her eyes to pass by him completely. He heard a voice inside his head say (Invisibility Activated).

He noticed it said nothing about sound proof, so he wisely kept quiet. Aside from looking down the alleyway he was walking to a little harder, she left without noticing he was even there.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he then searched around his bag for the object the hum was coming from. Something had protected him, and he wanted to know what.

His hand touched something hard that had a familiar thrum to it, though he had only felt it twice. Reaching into his bag, he pulled out the same dark blue book he had found in the library nearly a month ago.

There was only one problem...he had never checked it out. As far as he could tell, only he had been able to see the thing to begin with. His father and sisters had overlooked it, even when he had placed his selections on the table, and he had noticed the stack was a bit higher than it should have been. They had looked through all his books and not once did they mention this particular title, and he knew they would have commented on it.

Opening it up, he found something that bothered him greatly.

Past the four entries which had been there previously, there was one new one...and it came with a picture. His picture in an outfit he had never seen before. It almost seemed like a cloak and the sword was pitch black.

(Activating...)

He dropped the book right then and there. But the book stopped from touching the ground and floated in the air without anything to support it. The pages flew as if moving to an unseen wind, before the book practically slammed shut.

A circle that would fit into any of the magical girl cartoons his sisters like to watch (well, Karin mostly, though she often complained that the main characters really needed to grow a damn back bone) sprang forth behind it.

Four shadows appeared before the book, though they couldn't take any form.

"What's happening?" he asked to himself out loud.

(Good evening, Master.)

The voice was decidedly female, though it had a mechanical accent to it, like it was from a computer.

We are the guardians who protect the Book of Spirits. We await your command, master...

Had Ichigo been a weaker person, he would have fainted right then and there when the book started to act so damn weird.

"Hold up! How the hell am I your master?!" said Ichigo in shock.

You are the first person in a thousand years who has ever been able to interest the Tome of Fallen Souls. You, who balances the powers of Light and Dark by your very existence.

Ichigo was thoroughly confused at this point.

We, the guardians of the Book, are yours to command...

The shadows vanished back into the book, unable to sustain a physical form without something to conduct their natural magic.

The book fell softly into his hands, and he could feel the power coming off it.

"What the hell have I gotten myself into now?" he asked.

Nanoha was not the most magic-sensitive person in her group of friends...but even she could feel Ichigo's linker core practically spilling out magic.

It was stronger than hers, which was unusual.

Yuuno and Fate had returned the night before, barely saving her from the mystery attackers.

She had a call to make...

"This is Lindy. What can I help you with Nanoha?"

"Lindy-san, I think my cousin is a mage. I can feel magic or some kind of energy similar to it pouring out of him, and I never noticed it until three nights ago..."

"Wait, you mean one of your cousins awoke as a mage recently? Are you sure?"

"I can feel something coming off him in waves, and it's really strong. I don't want him to be targeted like I was..."

"...Do you think you can get him to come to the outpost? We can do a diagnostic to see whether or not he's an awakening mage."

"I can probably manage it."

Ichigo went with Nanoha, who had hinted that she knew about the book he now had. Fortunately the place she was taking him wasn't too far, but he was still worried. For the past four nights he had been having vivid dreams of battles that were too brutal for the modern era. And everywhere were people shooting beams of light and wearing weird outfits.

"So you're Nanoha's cousin. You don't look related," said Chrono.

"We aren't. Our dad's happen to be close friends who are practically family in all but blood," Ichigo said bluntly.

"Have you been experiencing anything...strange...in the past week?"

Ichigo could see where this was going, and rummaged through his bag to bring out the book. Chrono's eyes widened, but he didn't say a word.

"That's the Lost Logia Book of Lost Spirits!" said Amy.

"According to the title on the cover, the name is Tome of Fallen Souls," Ichigo said, slightly annoyed. If they couldn't even get the name right...

"Sorry. Our previous data on that particular book had it labeled wrong," said Chrono. The Tome of Fallen Souls was in the same class as the Book of Darkness...though it's history wasn't nearly as bloody. Some claimed it was the more offensive of the two, though it ran on something different than regular magic, though the power was similar enough to pass for it.

"I found it at the library...though I wasn't aware it had followed me until a few days ago," said Ichigo.

"Mind if we examine it? I promise we won't harm it," asked Chrono.

"Sure."

Ichigo handed it over, and when Lindy asked him to follow her, he did it with some suspicion.

"So what are these supposed to do?" asked Ichigo, laying on the table.

"Mostly to measure your power levels, since Nanoha of all people was able to sense you. It has another purpose but that's just a formality for our records."

"Nanoha isn't the most sensitive to this kind of thing?" he guessed.

"She's not sensitive at all. She makes friends by beating them in magic battles," Lindy said dryly.

Ichigo snorted.

When the test came back an hour later, Lindy had to reread the data twice to be sure she wasn't seeing things.

Ichigo Kurosaki

Age: 14.9 Earth Years

Gender: Male

Classification: Soul Reaper/Vasto Lorde cross *designation-Shinketsu*

Power Levels: 8,750

Abilities: Zanpakuto, Kido (34+ ONLY), Magic (LL Type)/Belka, Hollow Transformation, Cero, High speed regeneration (Spirit Form restricted), Healing Spells (Higher Forms), Shun Po/Shun Ko, Guardian/Familiar possible *currently not activated*

Please note that this individual is capable of flight, but would require additional training to control power levels. Spirit form is currently locked, but it is highly likely that the reishi of this boy will start spilling out in less than six months. Chances of being eaten by hollows if not trained before then are at 68% and could climb the longer he is left alone.

This...was unexpected. The last time she had heard of soul reapers was the misunderstanding after one of the Quincy tried to help remove his family when the Soul Society ordered their destruction decades ago. The family lived, but the Soul Society had not been happy about it.

Lindy was the second great granddaughter of the man who died saving his wife and four children. She would have to alert the higher ups about this, before his natural powers broke through whatever bind his parents placed to protect him.

(She knew that one of them had to have done it, otherwise the kid wouldn't have lasted nearly this long without training.)

"Wait, what exactly does this mean?" asked Ichigo.

"Well for starters you would need training or you're going to be attacked almost daily because your power is spilling out. And since the Lost Logia has bonded with your Linker core, you'll have to be trained. The only good news is that you came to us before it started to go berserk, because the defense program in it was bugged. We'll need your administration powers just to get it fixed before it goes haywire," said Lindy.

"I thought Lost Logia were illegal?" asked Ichigo. From what Chrono said, they were ancient relics that caused no end of trouble.

"They aren't illegal, but they are powerful. Anyone who bonds with them are put on a watch list in case they cause trouble. Because you came to us before it started to act up, you'll mostly be trained and asked not to abuse it's power. As long as you don't try to cause trouble, we won't come after you because of it," corrected Lindy.

Ichigo didn't like the sound of it, but his next question sealed the deal.

"Will it help stop these weird dreams I keep getting?"

"With any luck, it is possible. Like I said, the Tome was bugged, so there's a high chance that it was trying to take over."

Nanoha added her two cents.

"It's not that bad helping them. You get to learn all sorts of things and see different worlds! Plus you get to use magic!"

Ichigo looked Lindy straight in the eye and asked "I won't be obligated to join this TSAB after training, will I?"

"You can be classed as a civilian helper like your cousin, but joining would be entirely up to you. We don't force people to join us," she answered.

"Then what are we waiting for?" said Ichigo.

(Administration Rights Active.)

Ichigo watched with interest as they removed the defective programs and started to replace them with similar ones from the era that hadn't been damaged by misuse. Before they could complete it, a message popped up on the screen.

WARNING: Programs cannot be added under current operational standards. ERROR 1456SS*

"What the hell is an Error 1456SS?"

"Since this is an Intelligent Device with a personality, it won't accept the current registration name," said Amy.

"Which means...?"

"It wants you to give it a new name," said Yuuno.

Ichigo thought long and hard. He was never good at naming things. For some reason though, naming this book was much easier than naming his pet goldfish when he was six.

"Gesshoku, the Eclipsed Moon," said Ichigo finally.

(Registration Name Gesshoku accepted. Programs now installed...)

"Why Eclipsed Moon?" asked Nanoha.

"I don't know. It just seemed right," said Ichigo.

Amy looked up from the computer.

"New registration was sent and approved. Your Lost Logia is now titled Eclipsed Moon under our records. On that note, all the programs are up and running like they should have been, including the heavily damaged Guardian programs," said Amy.

"How badly damaged was it?"

"The guardians, while not having any uploaded at this time, were so damaged that taking corporeal form for longer than fifteen minutes was impossible. Now they can stay out indefinitely as long as you have the program running," answered Amy.

Ichigo left the temporary base knowing that Lindy had his cell phone number in case Nanoha needed help. Officially he was classed as a civilian helper, like his cousin.