Five months and three weeks ago
There was a sharp crack! as a man and a woman in black robes appeared in front of an old wooden building, the sign of which read(due to a translation charm) 'Urahara Shop'.
Professor McGonagall took a piece of paper out of her robe, unfolded it and scanned it. Yes, this did seem to be the correct address.
"Well," snorted Professor Snape, as he held up a hand to shield his eyes from the glare of the sun on this bright day. "Do you want to knock, or shall I?"
Before either of them could move however, the lattice door slid open slightly and a young girl, around ten years old, poked her head round the door. With her black hair pulled back into two bunches with the wisps of her fringe falling over large, pathetic doe-eyes, McGonagall's heart couldn't help but melt.
"Urahara-san," she called back over her shoulder in a quiet, whispering voice. "The magic Senseis from Britain are here."
"Yare, yare! Arigato, Ururu, I'm coming." A man said from inside. Then the door was flung wide open by, who McGonagall and Snape presumed to be, the owner and namesake of Urahara Shop.
Even though British wizards were sometimes known for their odd taste in colours, they at least made an effort to wear proper robes. Correspondence with the mysterious Commander Yamamoto had revealed that wizards from their Society also wore black robe-like garments. To say that the Professors were surprised would be a slight understatement. What was with this guy and the colour green?
Dark green leggings and a light green Japanese tunic tied with a black sash. Over the top was a holly-green, wide-sleeved open coat with white diamond shapes stitched along the hem. Ridiculous wooden platform sandals on his bare feet and(this really made Snape wince) a white-and-green-striped bucket hat atop his head.
"Ah! Welcome, welcome esteemed Professors! I, Kisuke Urahara, but a humble shop-owner, am honoured to have you here. Do come in, come in!"
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Snape studied the tea in his cup with a practice eye. It...was actually quite good, to be honest. He took another sip, taking advantage of the movement to study this 'Kisuke Urahara' sitting opposite him. Long, tousled blonde hair poked out from underneath the garish hat, the wide brim of which cast deep shadows over the man's eyes, making it harder to gauge his emotions and intentions. He had produced a cane from somewhere, as well as a fan. The latter he kept in front of his mouth, while the former lay across his lap.
"So, what exactly is your job, Mr Urahara?" Professor McGonagall asked. "I assume it's not just the post-office for your Society under the guise of a general store."
"Ah, such a sharp mind!" The man mused. "You are indeed correct, McGonagall-san. I provide various items that our wizards may require, along with a place to train, or in some particular cases, to stay. Along with my job of relaying messages, I have taken on private students in the past. However, they have somewhat moved on."
"Then why not take on some of these...arrancar students?" Snape asked. The man tipped his head forward slightly, as if feeling some measure of guilt for sins past.
"While my training methods are...effective, they are very practical-orientated and so not much time, if any, is spent on learning the mechanics, the theory or fine-tuned control."
McGonagall set down her empty cup and cleared her throat. "Well, l think I had best address a question that has been bothering us for a while, Mr Urahara. What exactly are hollows?"
Urahara's expression visibly brightened. Snape recognised that look. It was the look of a man who has been asked to talk about a subject he is knowledgeable about.
"I suppose the only British magical creature I can compare to a hollow is a dementor." Both McGonagall and Snape stiffened, but he carried on, regardless.
"A hollow is similar and different to a demetor in several ways. A hollow consumes souls like a dementor, but does not exude negative mental feedback. Whereas dementors are mostly generic in appearance, a hollow can be any size or any shape, but is identifiable through a bony, mask-like structure over the face and a hole through it's chest. My Society regards these creatures as pests and we make it our duty to kill these things with specially enchanted blades which can send the souls a hollow has devoured onto the afterlife at the moment of the hollow's death."
Both McGonagall and Snape were stunned at this revelation. It was Snape who asked the next question, in a now hesitant voice. "What of...arrancar?"
"Ah." Urahara sighed, snapping his fan shut with a sudden 'Clap!' "Another feature that a hollow does not share with a dementor...is that they are cannibals. By consuming another of it's kind, a hollow will gain the energy from the souls that that hollow had previously consumed. The more it eats, the stronger and more intelligent it gets.
However, if a hollow has enough power and conviction, it can divide the nucleus of it's being by breaking off it's mask. It takes the appearance of a human, the only aesthetic difference being mask fragments still attached and a hole through their bodies somewhere on their anatomy. That is an arrancar; the name means broken mask. These beings can revert to their former appearances and powers at will and although they can consume souls, they no longer need to do so, instead feeding off ambient magical energy in the area.
However, a traitor known as Sōsuke Aizen decided to test the power of a certain magical artifact by creating arrancar, as 'super soldiers', you might say. However, he betrayed them and left them to die; so we took them in. While two of the children are natural arrancar, the other's underwent forced evolution, or as we call it, arrancarfication."
McGonagall, who had been sitting shocked at the information, suddenly gasped. "Left them to die? Oh, the poor things."
Snape shot an incredulous glance at her. Had she not heard the bit about cannibalism and consuming souls?
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"This," Urahara said as he slid open a door in his hallway. "Is Coyote Starrk and Lilynette Gingerback, the two natural arrancar."
McGonagall and Snape honestly weren't expecting them to be so...normal looking.
A lanky teenager of about fifteen with shoulder length brown hair and the wispy beginnings of adolescent facial hair on his chin was sprawled on a futon, snoring quietly. A small ring of teeth along his collarbone seemed to be the 'mask remnants' Urahara had talked about; framing a small, galleon-sized hole through his throat. The eleven-year-old curled up next to him was the more unusual of the two. Her hair was a pale pastel green, but her mask fragment was bigger. It was shaped like a bicycle helmet, coming down into an eye socket over the left eye, hiding it. There was a long, curved horn on the left side, while it's counterpart was no more than a stub.
"Would you believe me if I told you they're twins?" Urahara whispered conspiritally from behind his fan. "No-one knows why they're different ages, but they were definitely born at the same time. They've refused to be separated since we saved them."
"Why do they have different surnames, then?" Snape asked, lowering his voice.
"Arrancar pick their own own names when they become arrancar. When we asked them why they chose those particular names, they said 'they just felt right.'"
They quietly backed out of the room, closing the door behind them.
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Snape and McGonagall both gaped. They were standing in what appeared to be a barren wasteland under a clear blue sky.
"This..." McGonagall breathed. "Is amazing! However did you build this?"
Urahara tapped the side of his nose. "Ah, ah, ah! Trade secret. This place serves as a training ground, bunker and, if I ever get desperate, somewhere for guests to stay."
There was a loud crash in the distance and a plume of dust billowed into the air. "Oh look! They're over there. Shall we go over and introduce you?"
As they walked, two figures became visible at the base of the cliff from behind which the dust cloud had come. Another figure was perched on top of the cliff in question. As they got closer, they started to pick out what they looked like.
One boy was sitting down, playing with a pack of cards. He had short, messy blonde hair with an eyepatch over his right eye and a green stripe on the jaw of his right cheek. His mask fragment was some upper front teeth set in the middle of his brow. The other boy was standing, leaning against the rock with a hefty book held up in one hand and the other in his pocket. He was angled slightly away from them, so all they could see, was the ridged half-helmet with a sharp horn of his mask fragment. The girl sitting on top of the cliff was hard to make out, but her hair was blonde and she appeared to be watching something from her vantage point.
Urahara waved to them. "Tesla-san! Ulquiorra-san! Harribel-san! I have someone I want you to meet!" The three figures dissolved into blurs, which snaked towards the three adults before stopping abruptly in front of them. (AN1)
Both Professors blinked at the sheer speed they had displayed. But now the children were up close, they could have a proper look.
"Professors," Urahara said, wide grin on his face. "Allow me to introduce to you Ulquiorra Cifer, Tesla Lindocruz and Tier Harribel." He gestured to each of them in turn as he spoke.
Tier Harribel was a tall girl of about fourteen. Her skin was a light brown and her hair a golden blonde, with a figure that was a bit on the mature side for a girl of her age. She wore a pale blue halter-neck top that exposed her belly button and denim shorts fastened with a white belt. She also had a scarf wrapped around the lower half of her face, but one could just make out the nubs of bone poking out from over the top of the fabric.
Tesla was the boy with the eye patch.(AN2) McGonagall had originally thought that the stripe on his cheek was a plaster, but no, it was some sort of birthmark. The fourteen-year-old looked down nervously, scuffing the ground with his feet. He wore a soft maroon courdoroy shirt that was untucked over plain black trousers.
The other boy though, he made both Snape and McGonagall do a double take. His skin was a startling off-white, apart from the black of his thin lips and the green tear-track marks. If it were not for the longer, shaggier hair and the cat-like slitted eyes, he could have passed for Harry Potter's twin brother, seeing as this boy, presumably Ulquiorra, also appeared to be fourteen. If a little on the short side. Skinny too, even through the white shirt neatly buttoned up over black cargo pants.
But it was when the boy raised those eyes to stare into Snape's own that the older man truly felt the difference. Like Potter's, they were green; but that was where the similarity ended. Whereas the Potter boy's eyes reminded him of the women he had once loved and lost, in more ways than one, these ones were...disturbing. The Potions master felt as if those eyes were flaying him bare, disassembling him into his base components as he did with potions in class. Yet there was no curiosity in those green eyes, just cold, empty logic and an all-encompassing feeling of despair.
And then Ulquiorra blinked and the scrutinising gaze was gone, and in it's place only a blank façade of green.
"Pleasure to meet you," Harribel said, bringing both teachers back to reality.
"Yeah...uh...nice. Sir. Ma'am," Tesla mumbled.
"Indeed," Ulquiorra intoned. That was about as cordial as he was going to get.
"Ah, Harribel-san," Kisuke interrupted. "If you could bring the girls here. Ulquiorra-san, Tesla-san, if you could please wake up Starrk and Lilynette and bring them here as well? I think we're all going to need to have this conversation together." The three walked off in the different directions.
"Well," started Professor McGonagall as she drew her wand. She transfigured several of the scattered boulders lying around into armchairs. "I have a feeling that this is going to last a while, and I doubt it's going to be comfortable to stand for the entire duration."
AN1: Their speed has been modified, so while shunpo, sonide and hirenkyaku are on the level of 'was that apparition?' they're more like living colour trails(think Flash from DC)
AN2: Yes it's Tesla. I always kind of felt sorry for the guy, because he's no more than a plot device for the sole purpose of letting Kenpachi curbstomp him. So no he gets some character development.
Somebody asked in the reviews if Nnoitora was the arrancar who refused help mentioned in the letter last chapter. Fourteen/fifteen year old Nnoitora in a school full of kids...(goes and rocks back and forth in the corner for a few minutes) {Ahem} No. I know he has fans and yes, his reserrección is badass, but no. Just, no.
There will be a few explanation-heavy chapters coming up before we go back to The Hogwarts Express. Some of you are probably wondering what the 'fish-thing' Apacci and Mila-Rose were trying to catch on the train. Leave guesses in your reviews. Closest guess gets an imaginary cookie.
