Harry stretched his arms over his head as he walked with a small smile on his face. He'd only been there a few days, and Karakura had already won him over. The small town atmosphere with the big city amenities, it was a nice place. He'd tossed a dart at a map to decide where to go, and he was glad it was here. It was the perfect place to unwind after the war.

While he was in his own little world, marvelling, he bumped into someone. The other person dropped their book bag, sending school work across the sidewalk.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Harry said, with the words coming out in fluent Japanese. He'd gone to George with his only problem with Japan – the language barrier. Within a week, George had gotten back to him with a currently unnamed product. The ring let the wearer write and speak another language, while the small stud that he'd had to get his ear pierced for let him read and hear the other language as English. The only downside was that his were set for Japanese-English translation, not any others.

"It's alright," the other teen said. He was tall – taller than Harry, though that wasn't difficult. He had bright orange hair that wouldn't be out of place at a Weasley family reunion, but was very out of place in Karakura, from what Harry had seen. There was something else off about him, but Harry couldn't put his finger on it.

He bent down, helping the teen pick up his papers.

"Here you go... er..." Harry trailed off.

"Kurosaki Ichigo," the teen replied.

"I'm pretty sure your parent's wouldn't have meant 'Strawberry', so 'One-Guardian'? Pretty heavy name to live up to. Mine's Harry. Potter Harry," Harry rambled, just remembering that the surname came first there in time.

The teen smiled slightly. "Thanks for helping," Ichigo said, gesturing with the papers.

"Don't mention it," Harry said, going on his way.

~*~*~

It'd been a few days since then, and Harry was wandering again. He had a few gifts for his friends with him, and he was heading back to his hotel to drop them off before heading out again.

Suddenly, a strange roar sounded nearby, and Harry just had enough time to duck before a set of claws slashed at the space his head used to occupy. He turned to see some sort of giant monster lumbering towards him.

"Shit," Harry muttered as he got out his wand. So much for relaxing.

Harry hexed and cursed the monster, while dodging and shielding from its attacks, but he didn't seem to be hurting it that much. With an angry growl he finally barked out, "Sectumsempra!" That actually did something – it made the thing pissed. Harry winced and started on his mental goodbyes to life.

The painful, bone-jarring hit never came. When Harry turned to look at it, he saw the thing's arm was missing. He also saw the teen from earlier, Ichigo. Except instead of the school uniform from before, or even a t-shirt and jeans, he was wearing... well it was hard to say. It was all black, except, from what he could see, a white sash around his waist. He had some odd sandals on too, with socks. But, the biggest thing different – literally biggest – was the huge sword in his hand.

Well, was it a sword? It looked reminiscent of a butcher's knife, except it was much longer, a bit out of proportion, and the handle was cloth-wrapped metal... Well, it looked nothing like a butcher's knife, but it certainly didn't look like any sword Harry had ever seen.

Harry was dragged out of his musing by the teen slicing the monster's head in half. It disintegrated.

"Shit," Harry muttered, looking on in shock as the teen just flicked the blood off his sword and sheathed it – well, was it a sheath when it was the wrapping from the handle?

"You, um... KUROSAKI!" Harry yelled. The teen turned in shock.

"You can see me?" Ichigo gasped.

"Yeah, you and the mutant lizard thing," Harry shouted.

Ichigo was suddenly in front of him. Harry flinched violently. "A little warning?"

Ichigo scowled. "You aren't a shinigami. Not a Quincy, either. What are you?"

"Confused, tired, and ticked off," Harry barked. He went to move his arm and winced. "And apparently bleeding," he sighed, looking at his now-soaked sleeve.

"Shit," Ichigo mumbled, looking at the wound. It didn't look too bad, but there was a faintly discoloured liquid seeping from it. "That hollow might've been poisonous. Best get that looked at."

"Do I have a choice?" Harry asked rhetorically.

"Nope." Ichigo hauled him over his shoulder.

After a few jumps that defied the laws of physics - especially the one that stopped in mid air over a busy street - they stopped infront of a small shop - "Urahara Shoten". It didn't look like much, but Harry could feel... oddness pouring off the place in waves.

The oddness was only accentuated by the man thatwalked out the front door. The man wore a green-and-white striped bucket hat over shaggy blond hair. It shadowed his eyes, but you could still see the laughter dancing in them. Beneath that... more green. Green shirt, green pants, loose green coat - though to be fair, it wasn't all green - it had white diamonds near the bottom. To top off the odd look, a set of wooden platform sandals.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" the man said, pulling a fan out of thin air and covering a lewd smirk.

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Is Inoue here?"

"In the back, why?" the man asked. Though it was hard to see, you could just tell he was raising his eyebrows suggestively.

Ichigo just scowled, grabbing Harry's arm to drag him inside. Harry hissed in pain. They both moved to look at the wound. The discoloured fluid was seeping out more heavily now, and the flesh around it was turning an ugly purple-brown colour.

Harry flicked his wand out of it's wrist holster, preparing to to cast all the healing charms he knew - which was a fair bit, compared to the general wizarding populace, but less than Hermione or Luna. Before he could cast, someone grabbed his wrist. He looked up to find the strange, green man staring at him oddly.

"So that man wasn't crazy..." he said with a touch of awe.

Harry wrenched his hand out of the man's grip, which made him flinch when it jostled his arm. It was getting worse.

"Ah, yes. That will need looking after," the man said, all joviality dropping from his demeanor.

Harry was escorted inside, toward the back. The two men ended up leading him to a room where another red-headed teen sat, though this one was a girl.

"Kurosaki-kun, Urahara-san. Who is this?" she asked.

Ichigo's eyebrow's furrowed as he tried to remember.

"Potter Harry," Harry said, putting Ichigo out of his misery. He went to sitck out his hand to shake, but winced as his left arm moved.

The girl - Inoue, he guessed - gasped, almost running over to examine his arm. "Oh dear, the poinson in the wound is spreading. I can't just heal the area, I'll have to heal the entire body," she said, urging Harry to lie down.

Harry warily complied, though he kept his wand in hand. He started when an orange dome closed over him. He was about to protest when a calming, pleasent feeling washed over him. He was almost lulled to sleep when the girl gasped, ruining the quiet atmosphere. He opened his slightly grogggy eyes to glare at here. Urahara and Ichigo were looking at her funny too.

"I... I've never seen so much lingering damage!" she gasped. "There's extensive damage to the nervous system, remenants of broken bones, signs of periods of malnutrition, and numerous scars, three of which have a strange feel to them..."

Ichigo looked shocked. Urahara looked contemplative. Harry just hummed.

"Nothing I didn't know about..."

~*~*~

Several hours later, the revealing of two secret worlds, and one very, shall we say, "out of body" experience later, Harry was slightly shocked. He now had a sword - though it managed to look like a dagger, making it easy to conceal - after a surprice shove down a hole. He wasn't pissed about that yet, he'd get to that later.

His only thought was, "So much for peaceful."