Ahhh… on with chapter 3! It's been awhile, I will admit. Way to long for these atrociously short chappies, but! School's a bitch. And so we pick up where we left off… dun dun dun.

Fight or Flight

Chapter 3 – Guarding

***

*WHAM*

The sound echoed in the corridor, followed by a quick "Bloody Hell!" Ron and Hermione stared at the mass of writhing flesh as Harry managed to extract himself from Ichigo. The trio stared as Rukia and Renji appeared out of seemingly nowhere, while Renji smacked Ichigo with his notebook.

"How many times," Rukia started, "have I told you not to look over your shoulder while you shunpo? You cant see where" *SMACK* "your going and you end" *SMACK* "up running into things!"

"RENJI! IM GOING TO DEMOTE YOU FOR THIS!"

"Please… You don't have the guts." Renji tossed the notebook back to Rukia and rolled up his sleeve, while Ichigo extracted himself from the floor and aimed a kick at Renji. Harry chose this moment to speak up, while Ron and Hermione continued to look astonished at the Shinigami.

"Do you work together or kill each other?" Renji and Ichigo both looked over at him, momentarily forgetting their fight.

"Who are you anyways? You don't look like wizards, and wizards don't carry swords. If I didn't know better I would say you are muggles, but Dumbledore wouldn't let muggles in the school, so who are you? Or the better question would be what are you?" Renji and Ichigo let their jaws drop. Renji got it together first,

"She talks to much… Can I punch her-" and so saying Ichigo's fist connected with his chin, sending him flying into the wall. Rukia looked over at him,

"Unconscious, and the better question would be who are you?" She said, averting her eyes towards the three students.

"Harry Potter."

"Ron Weasly."

"Hermione Granger. But who are you?"

"Kuchiki-fukutaicho."

"Kurosaki-taicho, and The Red Pineapple."It was now Ichigo's turn to be propelled by Rukia's fist into the wall opposite Renji. She took a look at him, then proclaimed,

"Unconscious. And we are no wizards."

"Then what-"

"We are Shinigami." And so saying she picked up Renji and Ichigo and shunpoed off.

"What's a Shinigami?" Harry asked, looking at Hermione.

"I don't know… Lets go to the library." Ron groaned, and Harry shot him a look, and then they took off to the library.

***

"I don't understand!" Hermione shouted in frustration. The library was her source of information, where she got her knowledge, and so far the 3 had been through dozens of books, varying from large to small. The problem was that she had not found a single reference to these 'Shinigami'.

"Hermione." Harry said, pointing to a book. She grabbed it and peered in side, her eyes widening as she began to read.

"Yes! This could be it! 'Of the Shinigami, whose mere name brings shudders to the select few privileged enough to know of them, not much can be said. What is said is that they are a fearsome race. The Shinigami come from the land of the dead, where they live. They wield not magic, but swords, blades. They wield the Zanpakuto. While the katana has been said to be the greatest bladed weapon made by man, the Zanpakuto is the greatest bladed weapon ever made. Not much more can be said about Zanpakuto, except that the closest possible relative would be the Pigmy Darve's Ster, which when used,' that's it, then something about the Pigmy Darve's, which doesn't say anything about the Shinigami."

"They sound like monsters," Harry said, "we should talk to them about this."

***

Okay… so! I have a poll!!! This is for the continuation of the story, and I have a few possible plots in mind! I will take the first 9 votes! I will not update until those votes have been cast, and I will end the poll with the last vote. IF YOU ARE THE 10th VOTER, YOUR VOTE DOES NOT COUNT! Sry, but that's just the way this works. Thank you all for reading.

This is the poll… Please vote for 1 of the following FOUR things. This will determine where my plot goes, so if you vote for more than 1… your vote will not count. Please put your vote as a REVIEW or it will not be counted, so no PMs. Also, please in your vote either put just the letter of the vote, along with the poll number, or the poll number along with the sentence of the statement that corresponds with your vote.

POLL NUMBER 1

Harry gets Ichigo's powers

Harry gets Rukia's powers

Harry develops Shinigami powers on his own with some prodding from Urahara

Harry gets no powers

Below are 2 examples of proper votes for someone voting for B

Example #1

Poll number #1

B

Example #2

Poll number #1

Harry gets Rukia's powers

***

We all good? This will be my format and guidelines for all other polls… so please vote! (Actually I may allow more votes in future polls)

Next week's episode will be called – Kuckiki Mishaps, or Sentimental Adventures