Hey guys, here is another chapter.
It has been a week since Ichigo received his mission, in that time Ichigo had requested help from both Urahara and Yoruichi. After the Quincy war Urahara had decided to stay in the human world to look after Jinta and Ururu, Yoruichi on the other hand did on occasion do a mission for the Gotei 13. But still both of them had not a lot to do after the war and they would gladly help their old student.
Ichigo had asked if Yoruichi would go ahead and begin gathering information on this Voldemort, telling her to report back in a few weeks time.
During the week Ichigo had given over the everyday leadership of his division to his lieutenant, Lisa Yadōmaru, after the war Ichigo had asked Lisa himself to be his lieutenant. Lisa was an ideal candidate for the position as she had been the lieutenant of the Eight Division a century back.
And now Ichigo was arriving at the Senkaimon, he had ordered that it would be opened to London. Ichigo was also carrying a Gigai over his shoulder, it was a slightly more advanced Gigai that would allow the user to still use some Reiryoku thus the user would be able to use Kidō and shunpo although a weaker version.
Traveling through the dangai Ichigo arrived in London. Looking over the city Ichigo could see famous building like Buckingham palace, the Big Ben and the Tower Bridge. 'Ok first thing first I need to find a place to stay', Ichigo tough to himself, 'It may be best to search somewhere with not many people around', the quincy spirit suggested. Agreeing Ichigo set of, using shunpo Ichigo quickly found an abandoned warehouse. Standing in front of it Ichigo raised his hands and began setting up a kido barrier. After the war Ichigo had asked Tessai and Hachi to teach him Kidō and though initially he had some problems with it he eventually master it, and being the prodigy that he is Ichigo turned out to be quite good at Kidō.
After a few moments the barrier was done and ready, now only those that Ichigo wanted to enter could pass through the barrier without breaking, it would also discourage people without any Reiryoku. It did this by sending a kind of wave out which would heighten the discomfort and fear of anyone without any Reiryoku.
Entering the warehouse Ichigo put on his Gigai, quickly scanning the interieur he noted that the warehouse was mostly empty. 'That's good King we will need place to practice.', Zangetsu thought. Ichigo nodded, he fully intended to learn as much as possible about the wizard techniques of using Reiryoku and as he had learned that anything to do with Kidō could very easily go wrong which in turn would lead to explosions. After sending a message to his Division and Yoruichi notifying them of his location Ichigo set out to search for Diagon Alley.
After he had received his mission Ichigo had asked around in his division to see if anyone knew anything on these wizards and as he expected not many people even knew what he was talking about. Luckily a few did and though they did not know much Ichigo learned that wizards used wooden sticks as a focus for their Reiryoku. Though about that one Ichigo was kinda sceptical he also learned from a shinigami that was often stationed in London that there was an area with a high concentration of these wizards called Diagon Alley, he had been there once and described it as a shopping area of sorts.
Reaching out with his senses Ichigo noted that there was indeed an area with higher than normal concentration of Reiatsu in the distance. And so Ichigo set of in walk to not draw any unnecessary attention. After a twenty minute walk Ichigo arrived at a street where on the other side of a row of building was the high Reiatsu concentration area. 'Ok, now what,' Ichigo thought, he could just use Shunpo and jump over the buildings but that could raise questions if he were to be seen, 'I suppose there is an entrance somewhere to this Diagon Alley, search for it.', the quincy spirit said.
And so Ichigo set out and sure enough after a minute of walking Ichigo saw a strange looking building with some kind of invisible barrier around it. Walking up to the building which was seemingly ignored by all the other people walking on the street, a busy street as he was at the moment somewhere in central London, Ichigo tried to analyse the barrier. The barrier function seemed to elude Ichigo it clearly was not meant to repel but it still could do something harmful. Ichigo could easily send a wave of Reiatsu and break the barrier but that could alert the people inside. And so taking a breath Ichigo stepped through the barrier and nothing happened although Ichigo did notice that people seemed to ignore him completely now where as just a moment before they would atleast look at him for a moment to check out his hair. 'Interesting the barrier seems to make people more inclined not to notice what's behind it' Ichigo thought. Giving one more glance at the building Ichigo noted that apparently it was called the "Leaky Cauldron".
Entering the building that apparently was some kind of inn, it had a bar and tables with people sitting at them eating. The people, Ichigo blinked, they were wearing robes? Yes indeed those where robes, who would wear robes in this day and age, 'Maybe today is some kind of wizard festival' the quincy spirit suggested. After standing a moment longer in the doorway Ichigo walked in further to the bar. "Well hello there", and older man standing behind the bar turned his head to Ichigo, "Hmm, I've never seen you around here so you must be new then, Am I right?", he asked.
"Yes it's my first time here.", Ichigo answered.
"Your first time eh, well then you must be going to Diagon, right." the man asked.
Ichigo smiled, so this was the entrance he tough, "Yes, I was, could you perhaps point me to it?".
The man walked from behind the bar and started walking over to a door while gesturing for Ichigo to follow, "Of Course, my name is Tom by the way, I run this place, if you ever need a meal or a place to spend the night this is the place to be". So this was an inn.
Exiting the building Ichigo and Tom now stood in front of a brick wall and then Tom pulled out a wooden stick and began tapping bricks. This seemed important to Ichigo and thus he memorized what bricks were being tapped. And then the brick wall began to change and a passageway formed. Ichigo blinked through the passageway he now saw what must be Diagon Alley, and it was quite a site. There were rows of shops and masses of people all of whom had Reiryoku walking around. And again Ichigo noted that almost everyone was wearing robes and there were also quite a lot of pointed hats. 'This can't be what they actually wear right?', ichigo asked himself. Ichigo also noted that the stick Tom used must be a wand as he could sense a slight amount of Reiatsu from it. "Thank you Tom, My name is Ichigo by the way.".
"No problem, Ichigo now that is a strange name, you must not be from around here, oh well have a pleasant day and feel free to come back anytime." Tom said with a smile as he turned around and walked back to the inn.
'Ok so what now', Ichigo thought, 'Let's just have a look around, we need information, there are quite a lot of stores maybe we should start there', the quincy spirit suggested. Nodding Ichigo began walking, a lot of people were giving him quick glances now and again and they weren't looking at his hair but at his clothes. 'Looks like these clothes stand out here.', Ichigo thought, 'Maybe we should get some robes of …..', the quincy spirit did not finish speaking when, 'There is no way king is wearing that.', Zangetsu interrupted. Ichigo agreed there was no way in hell he would wear robes, the old quincy spirit just signed. As Ichigo was walking down the alley he saw a store called "Flourish and Blotts" which looked like a book store. Yes, maybe there Ichigo could get some kind of information.
Entering the store Ichigo saw rows and rows of shelves filled with books, walking through the store ichigo saw a counter with a middle aged woman standing behind it. Ichigo walked over to the counter and asked, "Excuse me, I was wondering if you could help me with finding some books on history, culture and magic".
The woman looked up to Ichigo and smiled, "You'll have to be more specific than that dear.".
"Ah, well you see I am not from around here and I wanted to read some about your culture and history, any books would do really. And for magic perhaps some beginner manual, anything ranging from beginner to advanced, really anything on magic is fine". Ichigo said.
The woman blinked, "Well that's quite the shopping list you have there, I suppose I have all you need, you probably will want school course books for magic then and I have some magic books not on the Hogwarts curriculum that could be interesting.", the woman said speculatively, "You have enough galleons right?".
Ichigo looked confused, "Galleons?", he said questioningly.
To woman looked at Ichigo, "Yes Galleons, money?".
"Money, I have British pounds with me, is that what you mean?" Ichigo asked worriedly, what in the world were Galleons.
The woman answered, "If you have pounds you should probably first go to Gringotts and exchange them into galleons".
Gringotts, what is she talking about, "Euh, Gringotts?".
"It's a bank, it's right here in Diagon down the street, the big building you can't miss it.", the woman said.
Smiling in understanding Ichigo said, "Ah thank you, I will be right back then, could you in the meanwhile prepare the books I asked for then?".
The woman smiled, "Of Course dear, they will be ready by the time you'll be back.", as she said this she left the counter and walked over to shelf and started picking out books.
As Ichigo turned to leave to the store the woman added, "You really are not from around here are you.".
Turning his head Ichigo said, "Yes I am from Japan", well technically that was not entirely a ly. Ichigo heard a silent 'oh' from the woman as he left the store.
Walking down the alley Ichigo saw a big building with the letter 'Gringotts' on it. Walking up to the building he saw two strange creatures standing guard beside the door, both of the creatures wore a nasty snarl on there faces. 'Any ideas what those are.', Ichigo asked his inner spirits, 'No idea king', Zangetsu answered. The creatures for their part looked at Ichigo and their expression changed from a snarl to wary with a hint of fear. What's that about he thought.
As Ichigo entered Gringotts he noted that the inside looked like a bank although instead of humans the workers were these strange creatures. And then all of the creatures stopped doing what they were doing and turned there heads to Ichigo and stared at him with wariness and fear. This did not go unnoticed by the other wizards in the bank as they also turned their heads to look at Ichigo though without the fear and wariness but speculatively. 'So far for not drawing attention', Ichigo thought and deciding that the best course of action would be to act normal he started walking over to a creature behind a counter that was not occupied at the moment.
Walking up to the creature the stares did not subsided, "Excuse me I was wondering if you could help, I was looking to exchange some pounds into galleons. " Ichigo said to creature.
The creature blinked once, then blinked again, "Is that all you want", it asked.
Seriously what's going on Ichigo thought, "Yes that would be it.". The creature in turn looked up to the room nodded and immediately the other creatures stopped staring and returned to what they were doing.
The creature looked at Ichigo, "This is the first time one of your kind came to this place, we did not know what to expect.", they know about shinigami Ichigo thought, could they, could they look through the Gigai? They must be good at sensing Reiatsu.
"My kind?", Ichigo decided to play dumb for a moment.
The creature sniffed, "You are a grim reaper of course we know about you, we have reports of your kind of how they destroy spirits.".
Ichigo blinked, these creatures though he was a grim reaper, well technically he was but he did not destroy souls, well if they know he is a shinigami or at least they are close to thinking that he might as well educate them about their real purpose. And so Ichigo sighed, "First of all we don't call ourselves grim reapers but soul reapers." Ichigo said making sure nobody else could hear. "And second of all we don't destroy souls we guide them to the afterlife".
The creature looked at Ichigo, "Guide you say, and are you here to guide our soles to this afterlife?", the creature said in a mistrusting tone.
"No, like I said I am here to exchange pounds into galleons.", Ichigo said before adding, "What exactly are you?".
The creature answered, "I am a Goblin.".
"I see…. well about the pounds…..", Ichigo did not finish as the goblin interrupted him.
"As I assume you don't have a vault I would suggest you open one, all the money deposited into the vault is automatically converted into Galleons.", The goblin explained, although in a tone as if speaking to a child.
"Very well." Ichigo said.
And thus Ichigo was walking once again through Diagon Alley, he had opened an account and exchanged pounds into Galleons. After that he had returned to "Flourish and Blotts" where the woman had prepared multiply stacks of books for Ichigo to pick up, Ichigo briefly wondered how he would carry all of that and then the woman tapped her wand on the books and they shrank. Ichigo was briefly startled by this before noting that it was probably one of their techniques. Quickly analyzing the Reiatsu that the books now emitted Ichigo realize that whatever she had done it was not permanent as the Reiatsu of the spell was being used up at a constant rate. Ichigo estimated that it would take a couple of hours before all of the Reiatsu would be used up and the spell would end after which he hoped the books would return to normal. Ichigo also noted that he should be careful not to disrupt the spell with his own Reiatsu. So far Ichigo noted that out all of the wizard techniques he had encountered none would function in areas of high Reiatsu concentration, a big difference with Kidō which worked well with any concentration of Reiatsu.
As Ichigo wanted to leave Diagon, he had what he came for after all he saw a store called "Ollivanders, maker of wands". 'Ichigo you should probably get a wand, you'll need it to practice their techniques', the quincy spirit said. Ichigo nodded and entered the store.
After entering Ichigo noted that the store was filled with rows of boxes which presumably were filled with wands. As the door shut close Ichigo heard the voice of man, "Ah a customer.". And then an old looking man appeared. "Well welcome to Ollivanders, I am Garrick Ollivander, how could I help you?", the man asked with a smile.
"Hey there, my name is Ichigo Kurosaki and I was wondering I could buy a wand?", Ichigo asked uncertainly.
"Well of course that's what I am here for.", the man said jovially before turning a walking over one of his shelves where he began rummaging through boxes before bringing one over to Ichigo and giving him the wand inside. Ichigo took the wand uncertainly and looked to Ollivander for some more information on what to do. "Well, give a flick", Ollivander said.
Ichigo did so and the wand gave a burst before sending a spark to one of the shelves which instantly broke down all the boxes inside it falling on the ground in a heap. Ichigo panicked, he had broken something, opening his mouth to stammer an apology he was interrupted when Ollivander took the wand back before adding, "Not that one.".
And so it went on for about 20 minutes, Ollivander would bring Ichigo a new wand which he would try out and every time Ichigo would break something. Ichigo did not really understand what they were doing and why Ollivander wasn't mad that Ichigo was causing so much damage.
Then finally, "Try this one." Ollivander said. Ichigo took the wand warily not wanting to break anything more, as he took it he felt a warmth spreading through his hand accompanied by a wave of Reiatsu. "That's the one.", Ollivander said before adding, "Blackthorn, 12 inches, Dragon heartstring.".
Ichigo blinked, "What?".
Ollivander smiled and then said, "That's what it is made from.".
"Oh", Ichigo said in understanding, well that took long enough.
"That would be 11 galleons then young man.", after quickly paying the money Ichigo left the store not mentioning the damage.
It had been two weeks since Ichigo's visit to Diagon Alley in that time he had returned to his warehouse and began practicing magic. And he quickly determined that while most spells were useful in the human world they would not work in Soul Society or in any area where there were beings with high Reiatsu concentrations. As it was the spells were a lot like Kidō, although where it could take centuries to learn the higher levels Kidō, these spells were extremely simple and required a lot less power and control. Magic as it was called by the wizards was divided into multiple categories.
Transfiguration was the first kind that Ichigo tried, it took him a couple hours to get the hang of it but after that even spells that were supposed to be for people with a couple years of experience he could do. Now the thing was that transfiguration was completely useless in combat, at least in combat between Shinigami, the spells would simply break and their effects would vanish when exposed to high concentrations of Reiatsu, high concentrations which during a fight were common, also none of the transfigurations would hold in Soul Society which naturally had a high concentration of Reiatsu in the air. There were permanent types of transfiguration which actually transformed the object permanently and those would hold but only if the spell had been casted in an area with lower concentration of Reiatsu otherwise the spell would break before it could complete what it was meant to do.
Conjuration which was most the same as transfiguration had the same problems, and charms too, while extremely useful most charms would break in areas of high reiatsu concentration.
Ichigo did see Hachi transfigure something once in Soul Society, but that was completely different as far as Ichigo could tell and something extremely advanced that he had not gotten too yet.
There were only a few spells that would hold up and most of those were meant for combat. Some spells were interesting as the more power you put in them the more powerful they became much like Kidō actually. Others would fail if you put too much or too little power into them.
After practicing Kidō for 5 years these spells well, let's just say that if you are used to university level math and then are sent to do some basic addition and subtractions with some basic algebra it would not be much of a challenge. And this is what it was, the spells were much simpler than Kidō, Ichigo often only had to try once before succeeding.
Potions and Herbology were a different matter as Ichigo did not have the means to practice them so instead he recruited Zangetsu and the old quincy spirit to read those books, which they could by materializing in the real world.
Arithmancy was essentially high school level math and was fairly easy compared to what he was used to. Magical Theory was actually a lot like Kidō theory in certain aspects, it spoke a lot of magic manipulation and the like, though again highly simplified.
Runes was interesting though the shinigami equivalent was far more developed as far as Ichigo could tell.
In general Ichigo had no real problem with anything and as he was a quick learner he managed to breeze through the books especially with help of his spirits. It was unfortunate that most of these spells would not work in Soul Society, it was to be expected, high Reiatsu concentrations is not something the makers of these spells had thought about. Their idea of high concentration was something different.
And it was so that Ichigo was reading a book on Charms when he felt something come through the barrier he had set up outside the warehouse. Recognizing the Reiatsu as that of Yoruichi he stood up to greet her. "Hey there Yoruichi, hope everything went well."
"Oh everything went well." Yoruichi said as she sat down on a chair.
Ichigo brought over a chair and sat next to her, "Did you manage to learn anything", he asked.
Yoruichi looked at him, "Of Course I learnt something, I learnt quite a lot actually.", she said indignantly.
"Well?", Ichigo said.
"Inpatient much are you, I do all this work to gather information and you don't even offer me drink when I get back.". Yoruichi said.
Ichigo sighed and summoned a bottle of milk and proceeded to conjure a glass in which he then poured the milk. As he was doing this Yoruichi looked on, "Ok that was something new, I suppose I should also read some on this magic.".
"It has it's advantages but the drawbacks will make it useless in some situations.", Ichigo said.
Yoruichi took a sip from the glass and said, "Ok then let me explain what I learned."
"These Wizards have a central government called the Ministry Of Magic, after doing some digging around there I can tell you it is filled with some of the biggest idiots that central 46 can only hope to be."
Ichigo looked up at this with a light smile of amusement on his face, "That bad, eh", he said.
"Don't let me even get started, well anyway, what I learned is that 14 years ago Voldemort was supposedly defeated by a at the time 1 year old boy called Harry Potter.", Ichigo looked up at this, he had already know this by reading a history book that he had purchased, but it was in a summery and it had not mentioned that he was only 1 year old.
"That's hard to believe, any idea of where or who this Harry Potter person is now?", Ichigo asked.
"I have an address if you want, it was slightly hard to find but I found it, I also discovered that he goes to something called Hogwarts a magic school of sorts." Yoruichi said.
Ichigo knew about Hogwarts via his books, "Anything else on Voldemort's whereabouts or just anything on him is good?", he asked.
Yoruichi sighed,"No, it appears someone made sure there is not much information available on him.", she said and then added,"They only real lead is this Harry Potter, now hear this, this year at Hogwarts there will be some kind of big tournament, it is not common knowledge and is being held under wraps, it's supposed to be a big deal."
Ichigo nodded,"Big public events could easily lead to trouble, I better keep an eye on this tournament and Harry Potter.".
Then Ichigo got an idea,"What if I go to hogwarts as a student, that is, that way I'll be able to keep an eye out on this Harry Potter, maybe even befriend him, he could very well lead us to Voldemort."
"That may work but from what I understand you normally begin your magical education at age 11", Yoruichi said before adding, "Hey, maybe you could pretend to be an exchange student from Japan."
Yes that would work Ichigo thought, he better also order one of his subordinates to go to this Potter's address and keep an eye out on him, he'll send a message to Lisa about this later he thought.
"Now Yoruichi, do you have any idea, what message by owl means, the books I have read keep mentioning this.", Ichigo asked hopefully.
Yoruichi looked at Ichigo and shrugged, "It means exactly what it says message by owl, they use owls as their means of exchanging letters and packages.".
Ichigo stared, "You aren't kidding are you.", somehow though he was not too surprised by this. He sighed, "Could you write a letter to this Hogwarts then and request and exchange, say you're a teacher at some Japanese academy, who would like to sent a student to Hogwarts for a year to experience a different culture.". That was a good idea, from what Ichigo gathered Japan's magical community was reclusive and closed off so there was no real way for someone to check their story.
"No Problem Ichigo, I'll get right on it", Yoruichi said as she stood up and walked over to desk to begin writing a letter.
"Are you going to use an owl?", Ichigo asked after a moment, he really wanted to see how that worked.
Hehe, Well thanks for reading I suppose :)
I read the reviews and noticed some compliance about the grammar, I'll make sure to edit past chapters when I find some time. Please note that English is not my native language and this is my first fanfic ever.
Some people asked some questions about this story and I would just like to say that yes Ichigo will be much more powerful than the wizards, no Ichigo's human friends will not be making an appearance although shinigami like Yoruichi and Kisuke will pop up on occasion. And I do not plan to make the romance the main focus of the story.
Hope that helped, till next time.