A/N: Hello everyone and welcome to chapter 7! This is where things finally start happening, our beloved Bleach characters begin their first introduction and Harry's world is toppled once more.

Enjoy!

Edit: Thanks to Dragoncraft for letting me know that the start was a bit confusing because I didn't mention the actual mirror until Harry was sitting right in front of it. It should be a bit clearer now ^^


That night Harry was startled awake at around 1AM by a bright light permeating the room and an odd sound like someone knocking against glass. There was also a weird language he didn't understand but perhaps that was because for once Harry had been sleeping somewhat peacefully and hadn't quite woken up yet.

"What the bloody—?" He glanced towards the side of the room to see the source of the light was that odd runic mirror he had spotted earlier. Huh, so it had a purpose after all...

"Ohayooo~! 誰もがありますか?" He more or less understood the first part but the second was complete gibberish to him. Still he groaned and rolled off of the couch, rubbing at his eyes and begrudgingly reminded that his mask hadn't left yet. Well, the outline of his mask, but still. He felt he had a right to be at least a little grumpy.

"What?" He asked as he dropped down on the pillow in front of it. The man on the other side wore an odd striped hat, which hid blond hair. From his features it wasn't too hard to guess the man was Asian, though he could hardly guess more than that.

What followed was a string of excited jibberish that had Harry's head spinning by the end of it. The man seemed to notice though and tilted his head of a minute before looking as if a light bulb had just lit above his head. That was one weird visual… Still, the man tried to show him to open his palm and touch the mirror, which must have been what the other had done to activate it. When he touched the side of the mirror he winced, immediately pulling his hand back.

He noticed a drop of blood on the mirror, which was obviously using the magic along the runes to coat them all, though he was certain such a small drop shouldn't have been able to. The mirror glowed for a moment before settling down again.

"Ah, can you hear me now?" The man asked, looking like Christmas had come early.

"Y-Yeah… Who are you?" This was really confusing to him, a magic two-way mirror at 1 in the morning? Nope, not a good combination.

"Ahh, I am Urahara Kisuke, young man. And you are?" Harry could see the man was holding back, probably because of the tired look on Harry's face, or perhaps Harry's face in general.

"I'm Harry, Harry Potter." He was about to remain silent before that name struck a chord. "Hold on, you're the guy who wrote that book about Hollows?"

He was rewarded with a chuckle from the man at his startled reaction. "I've written many books, Harry-Kun. It's always good to be able to educate the youngsters."

That… Should not have come as a surprise. He glanced back at the white bookcase and wondered just how many of those were written by this Urahara fellow. He'd check it out later.

"So… How come you have a mirror like this? Are you a wizard, sir?" It made sense, really, but things were never that easy for Harry Potter, especially not after his birthday.

"Ah, no I'm not. I'm a former Shinigami actually. You could say I'm retired." At Harry's panicked expression, he quickly moved to calm the boy down. It was obvious he had just recieved his Hollow powers and was in the process of dealing with it. Why the mask seemed to be under the boy's skin was a mystery though.

"Don't worry Harry-kun! Like I said, I'm retired. Besides, I have a few other Visored who are close friends of mine." He could only chuckle at Shinji's probable reaction to being called a close friend.

"What's a Visored?" He asked in confusion, at least a little more at ease now that he knew the man wasn't about to bury his soul or something like the book had suggested.

"A Visored is a Shinigami who has obtained Hollow powers. It was the result of a rather unfortunate experiment and they were banished from Soul Society when it was discovered. Not that it was their fault of course."

Harry nodded before another thought came to him. "What's Soul Society? I've only read the Menos chapter about Hollows but it was mentioned multiple times, just like something called Gotei 13." He really tried hard not to butcher that foreign name but Urahara's hidden chuckles told him otherwise.

"Soul Society is the home of Pluses and within it lies the Seireitei, where the Shinigami live. The Seireitei is divided into thirteen factions, called the Gotei 13, or 13 court guard squads." Noticing Harry's impending question, he continued. "The Gotei are court guard squads because we answer to the Spirit King, but I think that's enough about that. What I want to know is how you ended up like that, little wizard."

Ah, the impending and unavoidable question. He knew that if Urahara wasn't going to kill him, he was the most likely person to be able to help him out.

"Well, I had something called a magical inheritance on my 16th birthday where every witch and wizard gains access to their full magic. Sometimes creature blood gets activated too and I ended up with a hole in my chest.

I didn't really look much different then but the more I was around magic, the more weird things started happening. At first I was seeing magic like sparks instead of just being invisible when it's not in spell form and then this started appearing." He traced the mask with his fingers gingerly. He didn't like touching it because it felt so weird. Skin wasn't supposed to be hard like that.

"Ooh, that certainly is interesting…" He could almost see the wheels turning in Urahara's mind. "A magical Hollow, that certainly will stir things up," The man mused silently.

"Have you tried using your powers yet?" The question startled Harry out of his observations and he shook his head.

"No, I've only just gotten into this room because everyone seems to think I'm doing something like Dark Magic and that that's why I'm like this now. I'm just lucky no one's seen the hole in my chest yet. That would've been a total disaster." Absently he scratched his elbow, wincing when he saw light green tinted powder escape his sleeve and float around him.

He hadn't paid much more attention to that actually but there were definitely two small clouds of the stuff forming and it was coming off of him. The clouds didn't have a shape yet but he was willing to bet they would after all the magical powder came off of him. Little did he know that powder was actually made out of spirit particles, a fact Urahara picked up on immediately.

"That powder coming off of you, do you know what it is?" Harry looked up in surprise. No one else had been able to see it thus far...

"No, I have no idea actually. It started a little while before my mask started showing up. It feels weird, like I'm disintegrating but that's impossible, so…" He stilled at Urahara's look. Oh.

"That dust is called spirit particles and happen when a Plus is turned into a Hollow. The particles create the Hollow's body, but I believe you read that?" Harry nodded, biting at his lip nervously. Was he going to vanish or turn into a full Hollow?

"Yeah, I did read that. But I'm already getting a mask now, what does that mean? And as far as I know, I'm not dead." Urahara nodded, taking in that information. Obviously the magic of the boy had something to do with this, including that Hollow was apparently in his blood. Perhaps he would become something not unlike the Arrancar then.

"You should read the next chapter then. I believe the part about Arrancars may very well be what you are turning into, rather than a normal Hollow, Menos or Adjuchas." Harry nodded, stifling a yawn as he realised just how late it was. The time was already nearing two in the morning and he knew he would have to at least attend classes tomorrow.

"Ara, it seems to be rather late for you, right Harry-kun? You're European?" The boy nodded, replying that he was from England, receiving an understanding nod from Urahara. "I see, I am from Japan. I'm not sure why we are able to understand each other so well but it must be a magic thing then. You should go to sleep. Perhaps you could find someplace to practice a few things like Cero? Don't worry if you don't get it right away though."

He nodded again, though he doubted he'd be able to do something like that. The only thing he was familiar with was magic after all, how was he supposed to use whatever these Hollow powers tapped off of? Unless it was his magical core, but somehow he doubted that. Hollows were technically dead so they couldn't have a magical core.

"How about you stay up a little later your evenings and I get up a little earlier and we'll be able to practice together. I'm sure I can help you figure something out. For now, you should go to bed young man."

Harry's wide-eyed expression only brought a chuckle from the other, but really, was it so unexpected for Harry to be amazed? He was so used to being kept in the dark and having to carry most of his burdens by himself but now there was someone actually willing to help him, even if he did live on the other side of the world.

"Thank you sir, I'd be delighted! Good night."

"Oyasumi, Harry-kun."

With that the connection broke and he was left staring at his own reflection. Even he had to chuckle when he spotted his own awed expression. He might actually have found someone to help him deal with this mess… Someone who didn't think this was his fault and didn't think he was practicing dark magic. Perhaps… Just perhaps he should simply tell everyone the mask is a latent reaction to his inheritance and that he had felt changes back then.

He wasn't about to just show them he had a hole running through him, but perhaps the professors simply wouldn't know what he had become and he could go back to his usual life? He certainly could dream… And dream he did, when he closed his eyes that night once more.


A/N: All right, Urahara finally showed up! How do you think he'll be able to help Harry? Not to worry though, he's far too interested in a magical Hollow to allow the Shinigami to find out about him and destroy the poor boy.

Leave a review with your thoughts and thanks for reading!

Until next time,

Love,
~Lumina