Hello my dear readers!^_^

I proudly present to you chapter 7! I sincerely apologize for the slight delay in posting, but I had to write a really long literature essay for school that was due for today. But, finally, I wrote and posted it. So, without further ado, please enjoy reading chapter 7!^_^

Words to know for this chapter:

Saketsu = lit. Binding Chain, the place where the Chain of Faith used to be and is necessary for a shinigami to use their reiryoku

Hakusui = lit. Soul Sleep, the source of spiritual power

demo = but

Dedication: This chapter is dedicated to Hotaru Nakama, who has written magnificent reviews on each chapter so far. Thank you so much for all of those reviews, Hotaru Nakama – they really made my days!^_^

Disclaimer: I do not own "Harry Potter" or "Bleach". They belong respectively to J.K. Rowling and Tite Kubo.

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Chapter 7: Resolve

***Kazuki***

Grey-green eyes watched in amusement as Keigo desperately tried to make Chado laugh. Kazuki pitied the poor guy, really – Ishida joining their group of friends for lunch on the school's roof had created a rather heavy atmosphere. The only one seemingly unaffected by it other than himself was Mizuiro. Then again, that boy never reacted strongly to any kind of situation. Keigo, on the other hand…well, Kazuki hoped that the boy would one day outgrow the phase he was currently in and mature a little bit.

The 15-year-old's thoughts turned to another classmate. Kuchiki Rukia had been behaving oddly ever since the crisis with the Gillian yesterday. It seemed like she was being weighed down by some unknown burden, causing the petite girl to look rather sad and depressed. He had an idea as to why the female shinigami was acting the way she was, but he didn't really want her to turn her attention to him. He considered himself lucky that she had not interrogated him about the events at the park the moment they had crossed paths in the school hallways that morning. The longer Ichigo did not know about him being a shinigami, the better.

Eating the onigiri Ururu had thoughtfully made for him, the blond-haired teenager pondered about the events that would doubtlessly unfold in the next couple of days. Rukia's time was running out and the incident with the Menos Grande was certain to draw Soul Society's attention to Karakura. A confrontation with the Soul Society shinigami was inevitable. He didn't want to think about what the results of it would be, since they would most probably put Ichigo in some serious danger.

Kazuki absentmindedly pulled a strand of his reiryoku that had escaped his control back into himself. He had agreed with his tousan that continuing with his "reiatsu blanket", as they had dubbed his technique, would be the best choice – they didn't want to make Quincy-boy aware of the presence of another shinigami before the time was right. It did not make it less tiring for Kazuki, though. He was very tempted to just skip school the rest of the day and go home to experiment with his new technique. His tousan had mentioned something about the higher-level Menos, specifically the Vasto Lorde class Hollows, being able to use their reiatsu to harden their skin, making it like steel and difficult to cut. Fittingly, this ability was called Hierro, Steel-skin. Kazuki wanted to find out whether shinigami were capable of doing something similar.

With a sigh, the blond teenager stood up from his cross-legged sitting position on the ground when the bell signaling the end of the lunch break rang. No, his tousan would make him endure one of his more brutal sparring sessions, if he decided to leave early.

Later that evening…

Kazuki laughed in joy when he finally finished his latest invention. His problem with controlling his reiryoku output whenever he used Kido or any of his zanpakutou's special abilities had been nagging him for the past few weeks. He had made a prototype, of course, but it would have been entirely too impractical to carry around, not only due to its fairly big size, but also because of its weight. For the past few days he had been tirelessly working on reducing both, whilst still making sure that the device would work. After tinkering around with some ideas and shapes, he had finally settled on two gloves and an earring.

It was a rather tricky invention, in Kazuki's opinion, making him all the prouder of finally making it useable in battle. The earring was the controller of the device, the "on" and "off" button, as it were. Kazuki had connected the earring and the gloves by way of a Bakudo he had created, allowing reiryoku to flow through them. On the earring's surface he had etched the runes for "one", "power" and "flow" in miniature in a small triangle, whilst the runes for "control", "limit" and "release" were stitched onto the inner lining of the gloves. One of the initial problems Kazuki had had was that, whilst the earring effectively controlled the flow of reiryoku and limited its output, it had no parametric limit. His tousan and Tessai had informed him that they had felt an unpleasant intrusion in their reiryoku and that it had hindered them from using any kind of Kido. So Kazuki had added the rune for "one" to the earring, restricting it to only affecting his own reiryoku output, as well as the rune for "release" to the gloves.

Now that Kazuki thought about it, completing his invention without the help of the runes would not have been impossible, but it certainly would have taken him a hell of a lot longer than it had to do it. He was very happy that his tousan had managed to establish a connection with one of the wizards they had met at the Okami no Houkou and who had taken a liking to Kazuki. He was more than willing to supply Kazuki with books about Runes, seeing as that was the only Wizarding branch that required no magic. Quite a few of his creations had runes somewhere on them.

The blond teenager looked forward to testing his invention tonight at the training grounds beneath the Urahara Shoten by using Hado 90: Kurohitsugi, the Kido that had drained a large amount of his reiryoku reserves a few weeks ago. Kazuki was certain that he would be able to successfully compare the drain on his reiryoku from when he used his invention and from when he did it the normal way. His tousan might even consent to a spar so that the 15-year-old could observe the effect his invention had on the abilities of his zanpakutou. Or maybe Yoruichi might be up for a game of tag.

As Kazuki mused about this, the blond teenager looked at the clock on his desk and then outside his bedroom window. It was already dark outside, even though it was only early evening. As the 15-year-old stood up from his desk, invention in hand, and made his way towards the door of his room, heralding his thoughts towards his training, a splattering sound on his window made him turn back around. It had started raining. Shrugging, he continued back on his way downstairs. Whilst Tessai had allowed him to practice Kido by himself, he could only do so for Kido up to level 65. Anything higher and he would need supervision. It did not irritate Kazuki because he knew that the higher level Kido were fickle and needed excellent reiatsu control to execute.

"Oi, tousan, can I use the training grounds? I need to test my new invention and experiment a little on another matter," Kazuki asked, watching as the eccentric shopkeeper looked up from what appeared to be a crossword puzzle.

"Oh, sure. Are you going to use Kido?" the blond-haired man replied, one dark grey eye fixed on the fingerless, black, leather gloves his son was wearing. Kazuki idly wondered what his tousan would say when he noticed the dark silver, diamond-shaped earring on his right ear.

"Yeah. Tessai is not busy, is he?" the teenager answered. He sure hoped that the former Kido Corps taichou was free – he'd hate to delay testing his invention by even a minute.

"Nope. Tessai-san!" his tousan called before looking at Kazuki, a small grin on his face. "You'll tell me the results later, right?"

"Of co-" the blond-haired teenager stopped mid-sentence, sharply turning his head towards the entrance of the shop. He had felt two unfamiliar reiatsu appearing and then following the familiar one of Kuchiki Rukia. Grey-green eyes locked with dark grey ones. The usually jovial man gave a slight nod.

"They've come to take her, huh?" Kazuki inquired, though he already knew the answer. If he were to guess the position of the two new shinigami in the Gotei 13, then he would bet on taichou and fukutaichou. He honestly wasn't too surprised by this: giving your shinigami powers to a human was a capital offense, after all.

"Well, Yoruichi-san and I better get going then. Tessai," the shopkeeper turned to the tall man who had just entered the room, "go downstairs with Kazuki and help him test out his new invention. Oh, and be prepared to use healing Kido later on," he finished. With that the blond-haired man stood up, took his umbrella and went outside, Yoruichi hoping onto his shoulder in her cat form. The uneasy silence in the room created by the former shinigami taichou's departure lasted only a few seconds.

"Well, Tessai-san, let's go!" Kazuki happily said, a fan hiding his lower face as he went towards the tatami mat hiding the opening to the underground training grounds.

Thirty minutes later…

The 15-year-old made a little victory jig after he jumped out of the entrance to the training grounds. His invention had worked flawlessly! Of course, gloves could always be shredded in a fight, if one was not careful enough, so Kazuki would have to work on something even more practical later on. For the moment, though, the gloves would do just fine. He had also toyed around with his reiatsu blanket a bit. By compressing a fair amount of his reiatsu onto his skin, Kazuki had discovered that it became much more difficult to harm it. Oh, certainly, if the force behind an attack was strong enough, then his skin would definitely be damaged, but it would be able to withstand lighter blows.

As he turned around to ask Tessai to make some tea, the blond-haired boy caught sight of the entrance of the shop opening, revealing the sight of his tousan carrying a bloodied and unconscious Ichigo. Grey-green eyes widened. His tousan looked grimly at him from underneath the brim of his white-and-green-striped bucket hat.

"Your friend's altercation with the Soul Society shinigami did not go very well for him. It appears that he has had the misfortune to have had Senka used on him," his tousan informed him as he passed by the shocked teenager. Kazuki gasped.

"So both his Saketsu and Hakusui are shattered?" he exclaimed, following his tousan into one of their guest rooms with Tessai close behind him. Kazuki quickly laid out a futon on the floor and watched as his tousan gently put the orange-haired boy down and Tessai started using healing Kido.

"Hai," his tousan replied. "Demo, he could probably get his shinigami powers back. I don't think he'll let go of Kuchiki-san that easily. He'll probably want to go save her, go to Soul Society," he continued.

The blond-haired man's last statement broke Kazuki's usual equanimity, causing conflicting feelings to run rampant within him: fury, sadness, fear, grief…He was awash with emotion. His inner turmoil must have shown on his face, despite the fact that his eyes were still obscured by the brim of his own bucket hat, because his tousan stood up and came over to embrace him.

***Urahara***

Kisuke was stunned at the emotions he sensed from his son's usually tightly controlled reiatsu, which was chaotically whirling around the 15-year-old. The former shinigami didn't know why his son felt all the emotions he did, but seeing the usually coolheaded teenager so open and, in a way, vulnerable was unexpected and shocking.

"Perhaps his emotions are tied to his past?" his zanpakutou softly suggested as she gently sent out a tendril of her own reiatsu and wrapped it around the clearly distraught boy, trying to sooth him.

"It is a possibility, Benihime. You know, though, that he will demand to go with Kurosaki-san, right?" Kisuke replied, adding his own reiatsu to his zanpakutou's. Dark grey eyes watched as his son's tumultuous reiatsu seemed to calm down bit by bit.

***Kazuki***

Kazuki ignored the ferocious wind that was howling around him, his gaze seemingly fixated on one of the distant mountain peaks in his Inner World, yet he didn't really see anything. His tousan's words were repeating themselves in his head. Ichigo, his brother in all but blood, would go to Soul Society to save Kuchiki Rukia. Kazuki knew that trying to delude himself into thinking his tousan was wrong for once was useless. He knew his orange-haired friend pretty well and he knew that his tousan's prediction would come true. The image of Ichigo facing all of the taichou and fukutaichou of the Gotei 13 all alone and dying was vitriolic, burning itself into his mind.

A pair of leather-clad arms wrapped themselves around the blond-haired teenager and a pair of midnight black wings plunged him into a stygian darkness.

"Do not despair, aibou, nor seethe in helpless anger," the winged zanpakutou spirit lightly murmured into the teen's ear.

"I…I don't know, if I will be able to protect Ichigo there, Arashi. According to Yoruichi, Aizen is still there and a taichou no less! It was his nefarious scheme, which led to tousan's exile from Soul Society, and he will also undoubtedly try to get his hands on the Hougyoku. He is desperate to possess it and he won't stop at anything to achieve that goal. This is the worst possible time for Ichigo to go there…" Kazuki muttered in a defeated voice. The zanpakutou spirit frowned at his wielder's unusual behaviour.

"Then we will grow stronger to be able to protect that, which is precious to us. Is that not the reason you became a shinigami in the first place? To protect? Then don't back down the moment a more difficult challenge has appeared on your path! Grow stronger to overcome it! I did not lend you my powers so that you cower when you are faced with a powerful opponent. I lent them to you so that you can rise above and fly free!" Arashi firmly stated, his conviction clear with every word he spoke.

Kazuki looked at the magnificent feathers in front of him. Did he truly forget his reason for being a shinigami? Did he truly forget the promise he had made to himself? Was his resolve so fragile that it shattered at the mere thought of coming face to face with as immoral a man as Aizen Sosuke? Was he so weak as to break at the idea of fighting this man?

The 15-year-old smiled as he lightly looked over his shoulder at the half-hidden face of his zanpakutou spirit, his grey-green eyes glowing an ice blue colour as his resolve became visible within them.

"Arigatou, Arashi," he thanked the winged being, his determination reverberating across his Inner World and dissipating the tenebrous clouds that had been covering the sky until then.

Arashi smiled. His wielder was ready for the next stage.

***Urahara***

Kisuke jumped away from his son when the teen's reiatsu spiked before it suddenly calmed down. The blond-haired man smiled when his dark grey eyes met the glowing grey-green ones of his son when the 15-year-old raised his head.

"Tousan, I am going to the underground training room," was all the teenager told him before suddenly a wispy figure started forming behind the boy's shoulder. Without another word, his son turned around and went outside the guest room, the vague figure following after him.

Kisuke let out a sigh of relief. His son had found the will to fight.

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Well, I hope you enjoyed reading chapter 7!^_^

Please, leave a review! I would really appreciate it.^_^