Chapter One
"Sorry Potter-san, I can't help you!" An old Japanese man said, pushing a young black-haired teenager out of his shop. The old man looked somewhat scared, though not of the young man he was pushing along.
"Wait, please! You must know something. Please help me, I can't stand the voices any more!" The teenager said frantically, turning around when he was finally on the street. His last words caused a few heads to turn his way warily. The teenager in question was dressed in black jeans, black shoes and a black hoodie which had its hood raised, covering his face mostly in shadow. The only visible part of his head was his neck, who's skin was pale white, with faint signs of scarring.
The old man paused at his door, looking back at the teenager with a solemn look. "I'm sorry Potter-san. What has happened to you is beyond my power to do anything about."
Harry clenched his fist. "But you deal in curses, don't you? You at least seem to know what it is; so please tell me that at least." He begged.
"Young man." The old man sighed. He raised a hand to his forehead tiredly, looking up and down the street as if to make sure no-one was listening in. "What has happened to you can only be your own fault. This condition is the work of a god, not a lowly mortal. If you want to get rid of it, either become a god-" He snorted. "Or find the one that did this to you."
Harry looked thoughtful. "A god? I didn't even know they existed, and now you're telling me to find one? What pantheon? Which one in that pantheon? Where can I find gods anyway? It has to be some sort of god of death, right?" He asked. He was so desperate to be rid of this curse that he didn't even begin to object to the idea that gods actually existed. So far the only god he could think of was Death, the one that he was supposed to become the master of when he united the Hallows.
"I haven't the slightest. Either way, even if you did find a god there wouldn't be much you could do if they refused to help you." He said. "However, as to which god you are to look for; you united the Hallows, did you not?"
Harry looked startled. "How- how did you know?"
"We Japanese wizards may be isolated, but we do keep an eye on the goings on of the rest of the world. And honestly, news of someone being possessed by some unknown entity and then obliterating the entirety of the Death Eater forces including Voldemort is obviously news that is going to spread. The only artefact powerful enough to do that, that wizards possess at least, is the Hallows." He said.
Harry nodded. "So what does that mean then?"
"It means that I wish you best of luck dealing with this curse for the rest of what could only just be called your life. The god that did this is Izanami, the Japanese goddess of the land of the dead. If somehow you do manage to find her, wherever she is, you better hope to whatever god you worship that she is not like she is in the mythology." After saying this he slammed the door to his shop, turning the 'open' sign to 'closed'.
Harry groaned. "Izanami, huh?" He sighed. "Primordial goddess of creation, wife of Izanagi and now goddess of the land of the dead." he blinked. "Wait, how did I know that?"
"Harry..."
Harry clamped his eyes shut when he heard the voice call his name. "Dammit. Not now, please." He begged, pressing his palms to his temples.
"Help me, Harry..." The voice itself was unrecognisable, being a mixture of what seemed like thousands of different voices, male and female, young and old, demonic and angelic.
"If you want me to help you, then tell me where or what you are." He said. His eyes were still shut, he found that it helped him focus on actually being able to understand what the voices were saying.
"Ka..ku..a-To..n..." He snapped his eyes open, then immediately took out a small notepad and wrote down what he heard.
"I actually heard something this time..." He smiled grimly, though you wouldn't see it from under his hood.
You see, almost a year ago he had been in the final battle at Hogwarts. Voldemort had laid siege to the castle, having found out that Harry had made it there. Thankfully when Voldemort called for Harry to come out and confront him, Harry had a plan. He had managed to keep Voldemort from stealing the Elder wand, and had instead taken it for himself after disarming Snape, as it technically belonged to him.
He knew though, that even with the Elder wand, the amount of Death eaters and other enemies were too large, they outnumbered the residents of Hogwarts by more than ten to one. So instead, he had found the resurrection stone and his cloak, and had wielded each of them. He fastened the cloak over his shoulders, held the wand in one hand and the stone in the other.
That was the first time he had heard the voices. That first time they had been as clear as day, asking him what he desired. Thinking it to be some sort of wish fulfilment, he had said that he wanted the threat of Voldemort and his minions to be eliminated. The last thing he remembered was the elder wand becoming heavier, the cloak turning black instead of invisible, and then he passed out.
He woke in the forbidden forest, thousands of dead Death eaters all around him. They all had frozen expressions of terror on their faces, and their skin had turned so unnaturally white that it looked like bone. Even Voldemort was not spared, being in the same condition. He had a feeling that the snake wasn't going to be resurrected, Horcrux or not.
He couldn't find the cloak, wand or resurrection stone any where, and when he returned to the castle, no-one remembered him. When he fell to his knees in despair and whispered 'why?', the voices had responded.
"The price..." they had said.
Harry had left, not sure what to do with his life now that he had no one that knew him. He had no problem getting money, being the Lord of an Ancient and Noble house had its perks, but money couldn't buy himself happiness, even after he tried. After a while he had noticed his skin getting pale, and scars that almost seemed like healed burns appearing on his face. He also seemed to be getting weaker, and it was now at the point where he looked like an emaciated vampire; he had even been mistaken for a vampire by a strange blonde-haired girl in Knockturn alley.
"Better get some blood in you, young one. Won't be long before you turn to dust at this rate." Was what she had said. She was wrong, obviously. He didn't have fangs, he wasn't thirsty and he wasn't stronger than a human or wizard. The only thing about him that was similar to a vampire was that his eyes had turned a vivid yellow, which either meant that a vampire was a Shinso, or had starved themselves of blood.
He also started hearing the voices, saying random things that never made sense until now. With this clue, he hoped to at least be able to figure out why the voice was talking to him.
Scene Change
Harry stepped off the train at Karakura town, pulling his hood further to cover his face. He got some strange looks as he made his way out of the station, a few people even hurried away from him. He couldn't blame them, the way he looked and acted would definitely look suspicious.
He had been following the lead he had got from the voice for a while now. He had taken the note to a few people, and one of them had said that it might be Karakura town, a fairly large section of a larger group of cities near the coast of Japan. It was the only city that matched the formation of letters he had written, so he booked a train ride there.
As he got nearer, he could feel the pure energy radiating from the city, as if every resident in the city were a wizard; only it wasn't magic that he could feel. He didn't know what the energy was, but in some ways it frightened him, being so much heavier than magic was. Especially now that he was so much weaker than he had been. He didn't know how much it would have bothered him if he back to normal.
That was what he had thought before he entered the city itself. When he did, a weight lifted off his shoulders. Somehow, for some reason, his curse had weakened. It hadn't disappeared, not even close. But it had retreated enough that he was now actually a little stronger than a normal human. Wizards were generally four to five times stronger than a muggle of equal build to them due to the magic passively strengthening them. Due to his curse, he was half as strong as someone with his build should be without magic. When he had entered the city however, some of his strength returned to him, as if the energy powering his curse was resonating with the power in the air.
He rolled his head back, breathing in deeply. "I haven't felt like this in a while." He whispered, smiling slightly. He had missed not struggling to walk, and the feeling of breathing easily was extremely refreshing to him.
"Hey, you okay man?" Harry turned to see a fairly tall teen looking at him and gulped when he felt the power literally pouring out of the teen like an ocean. That wasn't the only reason he was intimidated though. The energy coming off of him felt exactly like the energy permeating the city, which meant that this teen was powerful enough to saturate an entire city with his power. It didn't seem like he was doing it knowingly, so it was probably uncontrolled; but still, it was a frightening prospect.
'I am absolutely not picking a fight with this guy.' Harry thought. "Yeah, just breathing in the air. Haven't been in a city for a while, but I'm surprised the air is so clean here."
The teen nodded. "Yeah, tourists say that quite a lot. I don't know what it is to be honest. Maybe we don't have as many industrial areas as other cities." He theorized. "Anyway, sorry for asking; it's just that you look rather pale and my family owns a clinic. I sometimes can't help noticing things like that." He apologized.
Harry waved it off. "No need to apologise, it's a normal question to ask." He held his hand out. "I'm Harry by the way, Harry Potter."
"Ichigo Kurosaki." The other teen said, shaking Harry's outstretched hand. "You starting high-school here?" He asked. 'Wow, this guy has a strong handshake.' he winced slightly. He himself had a slightly enhanced body even when not in soul reaper form, but the handshake he had just received actually hurt his hand a little. He narrowed his eyes, unnatural things happening in Karakura always seemed to indicate a new crisis that was about to happen.
Harry fell silent for a moment; in that instant of shaking hands with Ichigo, Harry had activated his legillemency out of habit. What he saw was a inverted version of Ichigo, laughing maniacally while standing on the side of a skyscraper. He had no idea what the vision meant, but it certainly had never happened when he tried to use legillemency on someone before. It had been unexpected enough that some of his remaining magic had flared up briefly, probably the reason the orange haired teen was shaking his hand slightly in pain.
"Oh, uh.. no." He said. "I've actually finished high-school in England. I left to travel because of a.. disagreement with some friends." He said sadly. He doubted he would ever actually be able to return to his friends. The voice's statement of 'the price' seemed rather final.
Ichigo nodded. "I'm sorry. It sounds like you have some stuff to sort out. Well it was good to meet you, but unfortunately I do need to go to high school. Good luck with whatever you're here for." He said, beginning to walk away.
"Heh, thanks." Harry said.
Around an hour later, Harry was still wandering around Karakura, trying to get the voice to say something, but all it kept saying was 'The door, the gates of damnation be the herald.' It sounded extremely ominous, but it was all he had to go on. One might question why he was listening to a voice in his head, but that was all he had now. Until he found out what the voice wanted, he was reluctant to try and make meaningful connections with anyone else.
"He should be near here somewhere, right?"
Harry paused on his walk. The voice he had just heard was extremely loud, enough that it should have drawn the attention of the entire street he was on. Instead, only he seemed to notice it.
"Idiot, he's a high-schooler. Does this look like a fucking school to you?" Another voice said.
Harry tried to act normal, glancing around himself after he continued walking. It was only when he got to the entrance of a fairly large alleyway that he found the source of the two voices, which made his eyes bug out slightly.
Standing in a group were a few people in some of the weirdest clothes he had ever seen, including those that wizards wore. They had long black cloaks clasped together by multiple metal squares, and masks that were black on one side and white on the other. Their arms were covered by white gloves and their feet by white boots.
Though that wasn't what really caught his attention. What he was really paying attention to was the huge double doors hovering in the air behind them. They were enormous, being at least twenty five meters tall, and just as wide. The door itself seemed to be made of a two foot-thick metal soaked with a red, blood-like colour. A series of flaming patterns adorned the surface, and emerging from the middle of each door was a huge skeleton, both reaching inwards to the middle of the door where their hands were clasped together. Ropes hung from the skeletons, and from them hung a countless number of paper tags covered in writing; though the language was one that he hadn't ever seen before.
"The door, the door! THE DOOR THEDOORTHEDOORTHEDOOR!" Harry fell to his knees, holding his head in pain as the voice screamed in his head. He absently noted that there seemed to be less voices melded together this time. It was only female voices screaming now.
One of the people, a rather tall one with tentacle-like arms glanced at the kneeling Harry, raising his eyebrow from behind his mask. 'Strange kid.' He thought. 'Wait.' He looked closer, seeing that Harry was actually facing in the direction of the Hell gate. 'Another Togabito got out with us? But his face isn't covered; why haven't the Kushanada come for him?' When Harry fell to his knees, the Togabito started moving towards him. 'Is he resisting?' Standing in front of him, he lifted Harry by the back of his hoodie to notice that he had fallen unconscious.
"What are you doing Gunjo? I told you not to draw attention yet and you go and kill some teenager?" The aforementioned Togabito turned to face his comrades, specifically the one who had spoken, who's attire was the same as Gunjo's.
"My apologies Shuren-sama. I believe another Togabito followed us out, he resisted the call of the Kushanada, but he's fallen unconscious." He explained.
"Really now?" Shuren said. He walked closer to his subordinate, inspecting the young man. "Hmm. Doesn't look like anything special." He murmured, stroking his mask over where his chin was. "Bah, just throw him back into hell, Gunjo. He'll just get in the way if we leave him here." He ordered.
Gunjo bowed slightly. "Yes, Shuren-sama." He made his way over to the Hell gate, which slowly inched open as he got nearer. When he got close enough, he haphazardly tossed the unconscious body into the red abyss. He turned back to his comrades, but he couldn't help a feeling that he had just made quite a large mistake. Perhaps not in the way that it would come back to haunt him, more like he had wasted an opportunity.
Harry's POV
Unaware of his fate, Harry found himself hovering in an empty void. It was dark all around him, a never-ending solid black colour that seemed to radiate outwards forever. The place itself also felt strange, he felt like he was floating rather than standing.
'Wait, I am standing, not hovering.' He realized. Now that he was becoming more aware, he found that he was standing on solid surface, but he couldn't see any shadows or light. It was very disconcerting, as he could see himself, but not what he was standing on. "Where am I?" He muttered.
"Finally where you should be. Or rather, if you're talking about this place specifically, your mindscape." Harry spun around, searching for the voice, but couldn't make out anything in the darkness.
"Where are you? Show yourself!" The voice's words slightly unnerved Harry. If it was telling the truth, then not only did his mindscape look totally different to how it should, there was someone else in his mind.
"I am showing myself, Harry." The voice repeated. It was female, and quite raspy, as if it hadn't been used in ages. It also seemed to come from no particular direction, rather it radiated from all around him. It wasn't hostile, if anything it sounded rather kind, but the scratchiness of it as well as the void around him put him on edge.
Harry's features scrunched in confusion. "You are..?" He widened his eyes and glanced around, looking at the darkness. "Are you the cause of this darkness?"
"You could say that. A more accurate statement would be that I AM the darkness you see around you, although even that is not entirely correct." The voice said.
Harry sighed. "Very descriptive and helpful, thanks very much." He wandered around, but nothing popped into view. "My mindscape shouldn't look like this, is there a way you can bring back my castle?"
"Unfortunately not, I'm afraid. I'm sorry, I quite liked the sky and gardens that were here when I first entered your mind; but if it is protection of memories and secrets you are worried about, then fear not. If anyone were to try and enter your mind, they would find themselves either cast out very quickly, or driven mad by this darkness." The voice said. It was strange with the raspy tone, but there was unmistakably reassurance in the way it spoke the sentence.
"Uh, thanks. You said 'when I first entered your mind'; are you the one that took me over when I united the hallows?" Harry asked.
"I am, yes." It said shortly.
"Are you the one that decided the price for my request?" He asked.
"No, that wasn't decided by me. I am just the being that lives inside the relic created when you united the Hallows. Since you had not trained to use the relic at all and your needs were imminent, your own magic decided on a price to use the relic for a short period of time. The memories that the inhabitants of Hogwarts had of you supplied the price for the power, and the weakening of the link between you and your magic supplied me with the route to take you over long enough to perform your request." It explained.
Harry nodded, though the information saddened him. All this time he had thought that the price for his wish had been decided by the being in the Hallows, but it was actually his own magic that decided on it. He tried to blame the voice, say that it was lying, but he knew that it wasn't. This was his own mind, he couldn't be lied to inside his own mind. It was why when using legillemency that getting caught by a skilled occlumens was extremely bad. If the occlumens could trap you somewhere in their mind for long enough and you didn't resist well enough, they could interrogate you.
"You say you are the being that lives inside this 'relic'. I haven't got any relic that I can see." Harry said.
"Well of course. Since I the relic I inhabited isn't meant for something as powerful as me, it isn't very stable. So after I fulfilled your request, I forced it into dormancy inside you. It's why you can only talk to me so clearly here, where there is so much spiritual energy."
"Spirit Energy? So that's what that energy outside was. The whole town was saturated with it." He got a faint feeling of acknowledgement which he took to mean 'yes'. "Did you hear the conversation I had with that Japanese wizard before I came to Karakura?"
"No, I was only able to access your senses at varying times. Whenever that happened I tried talking to you, so basically if you could hear me, that was when I could see and hear what you could."
"The shopkeeper said that this 'curse' on me was done by a god. Is that true?"
The voice was silent for a while, and Harry worried that he had angered it with the question. He couldn't be sure though, as he got no feeling from the darkness around him.
"Yes, it is true. I can tell that you think you know which god I am, so go-on. Have a guess." The voice didn't sound angry, if anything it sounded amused.
"Izanami no Mikoto, Primordial Goddess of creation, Goddess of the Land of the Dead and former wife of Izanagi?" Harry said. He wasn't entirely sure he was correct, the only reason he guessed that it was Izanami was because that Japanese wizard said that it was.
"Indeed. So? What do you think? Are you disgusted? Angry? Repulsed? Do you want to throw me into a prison and forget about me because of my 'evil'?" She asked. The question itself should have sounded insistent, but Izanami made it sound casual, as if she expected a specific answer.
"Well, if the story was true, then it wasn't really your fault, so I don't think you're at fault for being trapped in Yomi. But honestly, did you have to swear to kill a thousand humans per day because Izanagi looked at you?" He asked.
"You humans always get the stories wrong. It wasn't because he looked at me that I got angry, and I did not threaten to kill a thousand humans a day. It was because he looked at me with disgust and hatred when he saw my new form that I got angry, and because he trapped me in Yomi that I threatened to kill a thousand generations of his human children. He died before mating with any mortals though, so that promise is invalid now." She explained.
"But how did humans get it wrong? If Izanagi gave life to humans-" He began.
"Neither I nor any other God in the Shinto pantheon created human beings. No pantheon is quite sure which of us created humans, but the generally accepted idea is that it was Yahweh, the Christian/Judaic god; although he's never actually openly interacted with the other pantheons, so we don't know." She said. "Now, enough chatting. You aren't exactly in the best place to be resting in your mindscape."
Harry jolted upright. "Right, I just fell over in the street!"
"Uh, no. That's not what I meant." Izanami said, almost sheepishly.
Harry frowned. "Then what did you mean?"
"Just wake up and you'll see. Don't worry, now that we've spoken once our link has been properly formed. I'll be able to talk with you when you're conscious from now on."
"Okay..." Harry said, closing his eyes.
Harry POV, Hell – First Layer: City of Madness.
"Ugh, my head." Harry groaned, sitting up slowly.
"Might want to get a move on there, Harry." Izanami prompted.
"Okay, okay." Opening his eyes, Harry had to blink once just to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
First of all, the sky was red. Somehow, that wasn't even the weirdest thing. Everywhere he looked, there were endless blue roads, outside of which were hundreds if not thousands of giant white blocks of some sort of stone. He was resting on the top of one of those stones right now.
"Izanami, WHERE THE HELL AM I!" Harry shouted.
"Yomi."
Harry's jaw dropped. "I'm in hell!?" He exclaimed.
END CHAPTER
There you go, the beginning of another story.
In Harry Phenex and the Fourth Sorcerer, quite a few people asked whether the Harry Potter world would play a big part. In those stories, yes it will. In this story, you will see almost zero of the Harry Potter world except the few times that he stumbles across a wizard.
So for those that noticed, I.E, those of you who aren't stupid, this crosses over with Bleach as well, though not by much. The only things that may appear from bleach after Harry leaves hell are perhaps characters that have been recruited to a peerage or something. As far as the events in Bleach go, just assume that the Vandenreich all self-combusted after the training in the Soul King's palace.
If you'd rather I sent out another chapter to one of my other stories, sorry! I wrote this story and thought it would be a waste if it just sat there not being read.
Anyway, thanks for reading!
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