Wimallidge was kind enough to point out to me that I have been spelling some of the arrancar's names wrong. It should be Gingerbuck, not Gingerback, Sung-Sun, not Sun-Sung and Mila Rose, not Mila-Rose. I will try and spell them the right way from now on, but if I do accidentally spell them wrong; I'm sorry, please try to ignore it. Hints, tips and constructive criticism is appreciated.
There's a lot of headcanon in this chapter, but hopefully my line of thinking should be easy enough to follow.
Flashback
Head Captain Genryuusai Shigekune Yamamoto had seen many strange things in his lifetime. And considering that he was well over a thousand years old and his people dealt with freakish-looking hollows on a daily basis; safe to say it took a lot to surprise him. The arrival of Ichigo Kurosaki at Rukia Kuchiki's execution and the subsequent interruption of the the great phoenix-like spirit of the Soukyouku had merely raised his eyebrow. Now, however, he was sincerely wishing that he would wake up from this surreal, twisted dream(there was no other explanation for this state of affairs) to his nice, normal morning tea and paperwork.
"Urahara Kisuke! EXPLAIN YOURSELF!"
Twentyfour pairs of Soul Reaper eyes were fixated upon the group of teenagers clustered together in the middle of the hall; whose own eyes were a mix of courage, shock, complete deadpan and sheer, unadulterated terror.
When he had ordered Urahara to come up with a way to somehow suppress and monitor the powers of the arrancar prisoners-of-war, he had imagined something along the lines of a kido-based binding or a special gigai. Not...this! Not...de-aging of the soul form!
"Alright, I'll admit that it probably wasn't what you were expecting. But can you at least hear me out, Head Captain?"
The Head Captain let a tiny fragment of his reiatsu slip loose to signify his displeasure. Some of the lieutenants started to feel sweat beading on their brows involuntarily. "Ten. Minutes."
At the far end of the hall, 12th Squad Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi grinned his sadistic grin from ear to ear. He pulled something green and slimy resembling a pocket watch out of his haori, pressed a few buttons and smirked at the figure of Kisuke Urahara who stood in front of the Head Captain.
"Pedantic," 10th Squad Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya muttered in resignation of his clown-faced compatriot's antics.
Urahara swallowed nervously. Not only was the Head Captain demanding an explanation, but some of the other Captains would want to talk to him as well; not to mention the arrancar behind him were most likely slightly pissed. The presence of all the Captains of Soul Society was probably the one thing stopping them from taking out that anger on him. He'd better make this good then.
"Well, first I thought of something like the Gentai Kaijo, but I dismissed that idea as it only works on Soul Reapers. Then, when Kurosaki's friends were debriefed when they got back from Hueco Mundo, they revealed to me that the former Third Espada, Neliel Tu Oderschvanck had reverted to childhood when her mask was cracked, along with a loss of memory and a dramatic decrease in power; despite still being able to perform her signature techniques.
I theorised that an arrancar's mask fragment stabilises their reiatsu, otherwise their physical form would degrade in some way. I mean, what's the point of having a bit of the mask left over, if not that? I realised that if I could control the breaking of the mask, then I could control what parts of their reiatsu that they lost and to what degree.
Neliel-kun lost all of her reiatsu uncontrollably, which is why her transformation was so catastrophic. But I managed to successfully break the mask fragments of our arrancar in a controlled manner; while they retain all of their memories and still possess their original techniques, the power behind them is now significantly less than a Captain's."
"We are still here, y'know?" Lilynette muttered.
"Indeed," Sung-Sun added. "Oh, and, 'our arrancar'? While I can't speak for the others, I only answer to Harribel-sama." The snake fracción met the piercing glares of Lieutenants Matsumoto and Hinamori with dispassionate ease.
"If I might interrupt?"
A Captain from near the front of the hall stepped forward. She was petite and delicate, with a serene smile and long dark hair braided down her front. Instead of the normal white obi sash, she wore her black shihakusho kimono-style. Healer division 4th Squad, Captain Retsu Unohana; the most terrifying current Captain in the Gotei 13, mainly because even 11th Squad Captain, Kenpachi Zaraki didn't dare question her. (AN1)
The Head Captain nodded to her in acknowledgment. She smiled and folded her hands in front of her as she addressed the unusual assembly.
"As Kisuke has just told you, the mask fragment of former Espada Neliel Tu Oderschvanck was severely damaged, resulting in her reversion to childhood, amongst other things. However, when Ichigo Kurosaki's life was in danger, she was able to return to adulthood and briefly succeed at resurreción. However, because her mask was damaged and therefore her reiatsu still leaking and unstable, she was unable to sustain either her resurreción or her adult form. It was only because she was focusing solely on protecting Kurosaki that she was able to temporarily muster her leaking reiatsu. However, we may be able to repair her mask.
Like everything in both Hueco Mundo and Soul Society, everything is made up of reishi. So theoretically, we can replace the missing pieces of her mask fragment with more reishi; with help from Uryuu Ishida of course."
There was a strangled "What?!" from Kurotsuchi. Unohana smiled serenely at him as he opened his mouth to protest. He thought better of it when he started shivering from the aura of primal fear she was sending his way and closed his mouth.
"As I was saying. As a Quincy, Ishida has the ability to absorb reishi and manipulate it into a different physical form. Through the use of his charm bracelet as a template, he manifests a bow. However, with a little practice, he should be able to reform the broken mask pieces and bind them to the original structure. The process will have to be gradual, of course, but once completed her reiatsu will stabilise and gather, enabling her to age normally and eventually return to adult form."
"The Quincy brat is just a child; you can't possibly expect him to perform such a procedure!" Kurotsuchi ranted. "Now, if you would just give that arrancar over to me, I could...'" He froze as the reiatsu levels in the room skyrocketed. All of the Captains and a majority of the Lieutenants were glaring at him in such a way that, if looks could kill, he would have been reduced to a smouldering pile of radioactive slop.
"You will not lay a hand on the Quincy, or any of the arrancar, Mayuri," 13th Squad Captain Juushiro Ukitake snapped; his usually calm and mild tone now harsh and edged with disgust and anger. "We haven't forgotten your actions after the Quincy massacre, and it is only your formidable skills and scientific prowess that enable us to excuse your ethics."
The teenage arrancar looked at each other in puzzlement. "Okay," Starrk said, blinking owlishly. "I really think we're missing something here." (AN2) He was ignored.
"You also have no right to insult the boy, Kurotsuchi," came another, more elegant and refined voice. "Especially when you complemented him when you first fought, on his use of complex Quincy techniques that would be impossible for another Quincy his age. I believe you called him a genius?" 6th Squad Captain, Lord Byakuya Kuchiki said, as he opened his eyes; the cool grey gaze settling on the painted scientist's scowling visage.
"ENOUGH!" Came the Head Captain's voiced, the command punctuated by the slam of his heavy wooden cane on the floorboards. "Captain Unohana and the Quincy Uryuu Ishida shall continue the treatment of the arrancar Neliel Tu Oderschvanck without interference from you, Captain Kurotsuchi. You will also refrain from meddling in the affairs of the other arrancar in any way, unless I give my explicit permission to the contrary."
"Eh, Yama-jii?" Interjected another voice. "I think this whole de-aging thing may be a bit of a problem in the long run." 8th Squad Captain, Shunsui Kyouraku said as he stepped forward, pulling the brim of his straw sakkat down to cover his face as he spoke. "Ah, I'm not complaining about the method as such, it's just that it leaves them kind of vulnerable.
After all, it's not just us in the upper ranks who hated Aizen, and now that he's dead, some in the lower ranks might choose to take out their anger on our young friends here. And the fact that their power has been reduced to only that of seated officers...well, the end result might not be pretty if it's not a fair fight."
Lieutenant Hinamori, Acting-Captain of Squad 5, flinched at the mention of Aizen's name. But she knew that Captain Kyouraku was right; Squad 5 in particular had taken the betrayal extremely hard.
"Then them staying in Soul Society isn't an option, is it?" 7th Squad Captain, the half-demon Sajin Komamura rumbled. (AN3) "The Living World isn't very secure and it would be unfair to Kisuke Urahara to unload them onto him."
"Is nobody going to ask us how unfair that would be on us?" Mila Rose muttered under her breath, quietly, so that none of the Soul Reapers heard.
"What about that community of curious hybrids up North in Hokkaido?" Captain Ukitake cut in again. "We have strong ties with their government's Minister, even if he doesn't know what we are. With gigais, and the Minister's backing, we could situate them there."
"Wouldn't work," 2nd Squad and Stealth Force Commander Captain Sui-Feng butted in. "The mountains mean that reception on the soul pagers is notoriously bad and Hell Butterflies are more unreliable than electronic communication. It would be too easy to plan some type of ambush up there without us noticing."
"Those humans that can manipulate the spiritual energy within a specific object to perform Kido-type spells, but have no spiritual awareness?" Asked 10th Squad Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya. "That...might actually work. But we could put them in one of those communities in another country, one that is difficult to access by senkaimon and too far away to Flash Step to without being noticed. We could use our ties with the community in Hokkaido to construct a cover story."
"There is still the matter of our child-like appearance," came the smooth, flat voice of the former Cuarta Espada, Ulquiorra Cifer as he stepped forward from the midst of the group of teenagers. Completely undeterred by the Soul Reaper's eyes upon him, he merely stood there in his usual manner; hands in his pockets, with his eyes closed. "If we were still adults, our presence would have to be explained but not unreasonable. However, we appear as children and no doubt these humans you talk of will require an explanation of who we are and why we are there."
"That will not be a problem," said the Head Captain. "There is a community in Britain well known for it's teaching facilities in their ways. You can simply be students there; once we sort out the cover story of course."
"School," said Starrk. "Please tell me you're not serious. Us; school?"
End of Flashback
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Neither Professor McGonagall or Professor Snape specialised in Magical Creatures, but they were both pretty sure that these animals could not be found in any book or treatise.
Harribel had taken her pet out of it's small glass bowl and now it was hovering above her right shoulder.
It appeared to be a tiny shark, about the size of her hand. But had no gills and possessed the power of flight with no appendages that would make that possible. (AN4) Blue lightning-bolt markings coming from it's eyes emblazoned it's blue-grey sides and it's teeth appeared to be on the outside of it's mouth. It also had small gold ring piercings in it's fins and tail.
Harribel reached up and stroked it along it's back as it crooned softly, bumping it's snout against the side of her face in a show of affection.
"Miss," asked McGonagall. "Exactly what type of animal is that?"
"They're similar to wizarding familiars, Professor-san," Starrk began. "We all have them, except for myself and Lilynette. Even though they all look different, they're all the same species, you could say.
We call them zanpakuto."
Dun, dun, duuuuuuun!
AN1: If you keep up with the manga, you will know why this is.
AN2: It's possible that Aizen might have told them about the Quincy Massacre, but I doubt that they know about Mayuri's experiments.
AN3: Again, if you keep up with the manga, you will know why I called him a half-demon.
AN4: Like those mist sharks from the Doctor Who 'A Christmas Carol' Christmas Special.
Kira Akuma was the closest guess with 'fish fiend from Final Fantasy X' I suppose. Have a cookie!
One of the main reasons I started this story is because I have several headcanons in the back of my head. Plus, I am pleased to announce that I may have started a new Fanfiction market with 'Anime-bad-guys-go-to-Hogwarts'.
Cyan96, I promise you will not be disappointed with the dementors. I mean, the dementors are a lot like hollows, and even though they don't need to, arrancar are still able to...le gasp! SPOILERS! YOU WILL FIND OUT SOON ENOUGH!
Yes they will get wands.