"That's not how you do it," he heard the disorted voice in his head. Ichigo growled, bubbles leaving through the teeth of his mask.
"Then tell me how to!"
"I did. Twice."
"You're not much of a help, you know that?"
"Or you're simply pathetic. Maybe I'll use the same teaching method as that creepy blonde guy did."
"Like you're the one to say who is creepy and who is not."
"Touché."
"But really. You're like the... Woah!" he shouted suddenly as a half-man, half-shark swam past him. To his shock, the hybrid seemed to be just as dumbfounded, and took a head-start to the surface.
"Hey, what the hell you're doing?! We're supposed to be training!" yelled the other part of him.
He gotta find a name for him soon...
"Well, I don't know about you, but if something almost bites my head down and then flees, I'd like to find out what was it. Ah, it's gone... And..."
"It's cold! It's cold, it's cold!" he yelled, jumping out from the water. Further away from the shore, his two helpers gave him a pitiful look.
"Ichigo, the next task is two days away. That's what you should be whining about, not how cold is the water, 'cause I doubt that it'll be warmer by then."
He scowled down at them, settling down in the air.
"But until then, I can whine about it whatever I want!" Rukia sighed and Momo shook her head, as the unspoken sentence passed between them - he's such a child sometimes...
"Come here, you overgrown baby. Let us dry your clothes, before going to Potions with the sixth year Slytherins."
-.-.-.-. -.-.-.-.-aaaa-.-.-.-aaaaa
"Look, he's back," Rukia indicated at a man who fell into the "really hard to miss" category - Hagrid. "I suppose the the seven of you have done your job well."
"Seven?" asked Ichigo, still not in a good mood due to Potions. Professor Snape had given them different tasks, ranging from the easiness of a first-year potion to those which would be hard to do even for the professional potion maker.
Naturally, he, along with Rukia and three from Slytherin got one of those. His blow up in the last ten minutes, ruining Rukia's potion that got acknowledging looks even from Snape, and according to the gossips around the school, he didn't give them easily.
"Yes, seven. You, Hermione, Ron, Harry, Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall, and I've seen Urahara once or twice, too. Hey, it seems like we're continuing unicorns."
True enough, two golden, albeit hornless unicorn foals were standing there, receiving delightful sighs from most girls.
"Easier ter spot than the adults," Hagrid told the students. "They turn silver when they're abou' two years old, an' they grow horns at aroun four. Don' go pure white till they're full grown, 'round about seven. They're a bit more trustin when they're babies… don mind boys so much… C'mon, move in a bit, yeh can pat 'em if yeh want… give 'em a few o' these sugar lumps… Hey, what's goin' on?" he yelled, as one of the foals lunged towards Ichigo and started licking him. The orangehead shot deathglares at anybody, who dared to laugh, but that ended in even more laughter, and grinning on his friends' part, who were kind enough not to make things worse for him.
"It must've mistaken him for a real strawberry, professor," said Rukia, with a cruel smile on her face.
That made the class laugh even harder, for all of them heard the nicknames the Shinou Academy students used for their champion.
-.-.-.-. -.-.-.-.-aaaa-.-.-.-aaaaa
The universe must hate him.
The trial's day came way too fast, and way too cold, for he was sure that the temperature had decreased since his last training.
And Rukia was nowhere to be seen since last evening.
From what Isane and Rangiku told him, she didn't return to their room, after leaving with Urahara.
He scowled at the applauding and shouting audience. Fleaur and Krum had already been there, and Diggory arrived two minutes later. But Potter was still missing.
Then he heard panting, as Harry arrived, muttering "I'm... here..." between two gasps.
"Where have you been?" asked the older Weasly that was sitting at Mr. Crouch's place. "The task's about to start!"
"Now, now, Percy!" said Ludo Bagman, who was looking relieved to see the fifth champion. "Let him catch his breath! Champions, please come with me." He was spacing them along the bank at intervals of ten feet. When he was finally done, he pointed his wand at his throat and said, "Sonorus!"
"Well, all our champions are ready for the second task, which will start on my whistle," his voice boomed. "They have precisely an hour to recover what has been taken from them. On the count of three, then. One… two… three!"
The whistle echoed in the cold, still air and the stands erupted with cheers and applause; Harry was the first to wade into the lake, without looking back. The other champions followed his example, some already had their wands out, some didn't.
Black energy swirled in front of Ichigo's face, blinding him for a moment, before he dove under.
Now he didn't have Momo or Rukia's assistance - so far he hadn't even realised how much he owed them for not freezing to death in the first minute.
It was strangely quiet and dark under the water, although he was grateful for that.
And he had to be grateful for his mask, too. Although he had no idea how can it do it, it kept the water away from his eyes and ears, while somehow filter out the oxygen from the water.
Well... His Hollow tried to explain it, but after the third time he slept in, he just smacked Ichigo across the head, and threatened to take over.
Something long and... Slimy grabbed his left leg. He turned back.
Oh, hell... He just had the luck to meet the giant octopus of the lake. And as it seemed to be, it didn't plan to release him for a long time.
He growled up, pulling his wand out, before turning it into the well known cleaver. Not really useful underwater due to it's shape, but a Getsuga Tenshou was enough to change the octopus' mind about letting him go.
-.-a-.-.-aaaa-...-aaaaa
Thirty minutes passed - so far he had the luck to meet with almost every inhabitant of the lake. He started to doubt whether using the mask had been a good idea, for it's energy seemed to draw the different creatures. He came across Fleur, who disappeared almost immediately, as if chased by something.
And then he finally heard the song.
"An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took…"
The voice suddenly silenced, but then it was back again.
"… your time's half gone, so tarry not
Lest what you seek stays here to rot…"
A cluster of crude stone dwellings stained with algae loomed suddenly out of the gloom. The merpeople were gray with green hair, silver fish tails.
And they didn't look friendly at all with spears clutched in their hands. They were watching him with narrowed eyes that sent a chill up in his spine - although it could have simply been the cold of the water.
At a village square like thing, a choir of merpeople was singing in the middle, calling the champions. Behind them rose a sort of statue; a gigantic merperson hewn from a boulder. Three people were bound tightly to the tail of the stone merperson, another drifting slightly in the water. Rukia was tied between Hermione and a silver haired girl, her hair flowing around her face.
And Harry was there, looking anxious, as if he had no idea what is he supposed to do.
He knocked gently at his back. Harry spun around, his eyes widening from shock, before saying something. As no voice came out his mouth, he suspected it could have been only one thing.
"Yes, it's me. What the hell are you doing? Take your friend and go!" he said, while cutting Rukia's bindings with Zangetsu. To his annoyment, Harry shook his head, mouthing something.
"What do you mean you can't?! Of course, you can! Your task is to..." He couldn't finish his sentence, as the merpeople started screeching animatedly. They saw something monstrous cutting through the water toward them: a human body in swimming trunks with the head of a shark… It was Krum. He appeared to have transfigured himself- but badly.
Ichigo wanted to smack himself across the head. It was only Krum who scared him to death?
He shook his head, and grabbed Rukia's arm pulling her with himself, trying to reach the surface sooner than Krum.
Although he said he could care less about winning the tournament, Urahara and Rukia would kill him, if he didn't do as much as he could. Or at least the half of it. And he valued his life, thank you very much.
By the way, was it just him, or his hand holding onto the girl started to literally freeze?
And then he finally reached the surface, just two seconds before Krum and Hermione did. He looked around - Harry was still nowhere to be seen. He cursed under his breath as he saw Harry sinking toward's the bottom, although Ron and the girl soon reached the surface.
"Ichigo?" asked Rukia slightly puzzled.
-.-aaa-.-.-dddd-.-gdd-a-ad-
Ichigo and Krum has already reached the surface, but he himself needed to deal with two people. Harry pushed up Ron and the girl but this movement made him sink towards the bottom of the lake. Deeper... And deeper. The wand fell out of his hand, and closed his eyes. Everything was black. But it was good. It embraced him, made him feel warmer... He let most of his remaining air with a shig...And then he felt pain in his arm which pulled him back from half - unconcioussnes. His eyes shot open.
"'Are you crazy?" He tried to back away which was almost impossible, due to the strength of the grip. Ichigo from this close was even scarier than the half-shark Krum - black and golden eyes were glaring at him and promised death. The mask was even worse. It was kind of skull shaped with red lines on it. It slightly reminded him the masks of the Death Eaters. But his own eyes started to close again...
"Damn it," he heard the other champion curse. He grabbed Harry's other arm too and started to pull him up with himself. He pushed with his leg, trying to help the other boy...
And then he felt his head break the surface of the lake, cold, clear air was making his wet face sting; he gulped it down, feeling as though he had never breathed properly before. All around him, wild, green-haired heads were emerging out of the water with him, but they were smiling at him. He looked up at his savior. The scary mask transformed into dark light and faded away revealing the face of Ichigo. He shot him an angry glare and a second later they were surrounded by three people. Two of them were holding the third one who seemed to be unable to swim.
"So what do we now, Ichigo? Should we just leave her here until Fleur comes?" asked Rukia.
"No. That idiot almost died while trying to save her." Ron, who heard that, paled.
"Are you crazy, Harry? You thought that they would seriously kill us?"
"But the song..."
"They only said those to make us not to wander off and to get back more-less in the time limit. Everyone who has some brains would have found that out," said the orangehead.
"I hope you didn't waste time down there acting the hero!" yelled Ron.
Harry was angry and felt ashamed. After all it was not his idea to join the Tournament. But he had to admit that his "friend-enemy" was right. Nobody else was wasting their time helping the others. Well, nobody, but the Japanese, as the merpeople seemingly were ordered not to help the champions... Ichigo sighed and let go of Harry, who immediately started to sink thanks to his inability to swim, before fighting himself back.
"Great, now that we talked it out, let's get going. And help me with her," said Harry to Ron shortly,"I think she's even worse than me."
Due to that the boys had to pull Fleur's sister through the water, the Japanese made it back to the bank sooner. They could see Madam Pomfrey fussing over Hermione, Krum, Cedric, and Cho, all of whom were wrapped in thick blankets.
Percy, who looked very white and somehow much younger than usual, came splashing out to meet them while Madame Maxime was trying to restrain Fleur Delacour, who was fighting tooth and nail to return to the water.
"Gabrielle! Gabrielle! Is she alive? Is she 'urt?"
"She's fine," they heard Ichigo growl."
Fleur had broken free of Madame Maxime and was finally hugging her sister.
"It was ze grindylows… zey attacked me… oh Gabrielle, I thought… I thought…"
"Come here, all of you," said Madam Pomfrey, then looked at Ichigo, who seemed to be... Day-dreaming. Of sort. "That includes you, too."
'"Ah, sorry.'"After all of them got a blanket, they had to drink a big cup of some kind of healing liquid. Harry was immediately attacked Hermione, and Rukia pulled Ichigo a bit further from the others.
"You did it. You did it without us. Work well done," she said smiling, then did the thing he wasn't prepared for - she hugged him, before releasing him with an apologetic smile. And then she kissed him.
"Tell me," asked the orangehead, still stunned, but not feeling uncomfortable at all. "Was there sesame in that drink?"
"I don't think so."
"Then it means..."
"It does." A stupid grin spread across his face.
"Byakuya is gonna kill me."
"He will."
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our decision," shouted Bagman. "Merchieftainess Murcus has told us exactly what happened at the bottom of the lake, and we have therefore decided to award marks out of fifty for each of the champions, as follows…
"Fleur Delacour, though she demonstrated excellent use of the Bubble-Head Charm, was attacked by grindylows as she approached her goal, and failed to retrieve her hostage. We award her twenty-five points."
Fleur murmured something they couldn't hear due to the applause.
"Cedric Diggory, who also used the Bubble-Head Charm, was first to return with his hostage, though he returned one minute outside the time limit of an hour."
Enormous cheers from the Hufflepuffs in the crowd; Harry saw Cho give Cedric a glowing look.
"We therefore award him forty-seven points. Ichigo Kurosaki,"
Rukia winced... Why couldn't they say their names in the right order?
"Was the third. According to Headmaster Urahara, he used a technique which is more of an ability some people have, and although it's rare, it happens from time to time that somebody has this rather helpful gift. As the task said retrieve your hostage, and come to the surface, and did not say anything about going back to help his enemy, nobody less, which was indeed a very noble move. Although some would like to argue it," he said, looking mostly at Karkaroff. "Forty-three points. Viktor Krum used an incomplete form of Transfiguration, which was nevertheless effective, and was third to return with his hostage. We award him forty points."
Karkaroff clapped particularly hard, although there was a thin line of anger around his mouth.
"Harry Potter used gillyweed to great effect," Bagman continued. "He returned last, and well outside the time limit of an hour. However, the Merchieftainess informs us that Mr. Potter was first to reach the hostages, and that the delay in his return was due to his determination to return all hostages to safety, not merely his own."
They saw as Ron and Hermione both gave Harry half-exasperated, half-commiserating looks.
"Most of the judges," and here, Bagman gave Karkaroff a very nasty look, "feel that this shows moral fiber and merits full marks. However… Mr. Potter's score is forty-five points."
"There you go. Harry!" Ron shouted over the noise. "You weren't being thick after all - you were showing moral fiber!"
"That's not fair. You returned before him and even went back to help." Rukia muttered, holding his hand.
"You know what? I don't care. I got something much better," he said, still grinning.
"But I think Krum does. Even though you only got more with three points," she said smiling, before pointed at the Bolger competitor who seemed to be even less happy than usual.
"The third and final task will take place at dusk on the twenty-fourth of June," continued Bagman. "The champions will be notified of what is coming precisely one month beforehand. Thank you all for your support of the champions."
The two of them went back to the others. He touched Harry's shoulders who seemed to be delighted.
"Hey. You were good."
"Thanks, but without you I'd probably dead by now."
"I don't think that they would have let you die without a word."
"Yeah. Maybe."
"Come on, Harry! Party in the Common Room!" shouted Ron.
"Well, then..."
"Just shut up and go."
"Okay."
"Hey, Rukia!" shouted Rangiku from somewhere the crowd. Ichigo winced as the girl suddenly pressed his hand so hard that the bones in it were near breaking. "Don't think I did not see that!"
"And there comes another headache," she said, sighing.
adg...-agsaédféa-ggg
Aaaannddd finally they're together... Although I planned to do it somewhat later on...
Woah! Plenty of you hate Rita, I can see that! And although I haven't found out whether he'll kill her, or not... I can say that she won't return home with happy memories about him... :D
Ah, yes. Before you start to complain about "but his mask isn't supposed to work that way", well... Think of how many things did Kubo do. He should have been declared dead (I mean, really dead, sometimes it was only his backbone that kept his body together!) at least a thousand times, yet he lived! So I don't think that breathing underwater with his mask should be much of a problem.