No! I didn't vanish off the face of the Earth…. In case you were wondering…

Right…so I haven't written in a while but the story's still going on and now we're moving on to chapter 10!

Okay, until now we've been looking at everything from Harry's point of view but now let's see what the shinigami are thinking…

Enjoy!

Chapter 10

Renji shifted uncomfortably on the grass he was standing on. High above and around him were the faces of curious, anticipating adolescents. They were all expecting a show, a battle worthy of shinigami and wizards. What they didn't know was that all they were going to see was a miserable spectacle of a vice-captain getting utterly destroyed by a psycho. Renji had been fairly pleased when his name had been the first to be announced by the school's headmistress. He thought Zabimaru and himself could give a great performance and please the Captain Commander by making a good impression on this school that the Soul Society were so determined to have as an ally. Of course Renji still did not know why. Asking captain Kuchiki had just annoyed the man and Renji simply earned himself a stern glare and comment of 'know your place and follow orders'. He glanced up at the stands again, taking in the atmosphere of tension and pressure; the students were staring down quietly waiting for the match to begin. There was no cheering or shouting as might happen before a 'friendly' battle back home. Renji supposed they didn't know whose side to take though he could definitely use some encouragement right now. He fidgeted with Zabimaru in his hands, the hilt was damp but that was just because of his sweating palms. In a few moments a bell would ring somewhere and the end would come…well he probably wouldn't die since captain Kuchiki and Hitsugaya were sitting in the stands watching. He gulped and looked up at his opponent; Captain Kenpachi was stood twenty paces from him grinning widely as he usually did just before a battle.

"Get ready my ex-subordinate!" Kenpachi bellowed to Renji. "I'm thrashing you for siding with that pretty-haired guy!"

Kenpachi drew out his sword and pointed it at Renji menacingly. Renji took a step backwards but Kenpachi took two forward. Gulping again Renji looked to the stands towards Captain Kuchiki hoping for some look of support or trust. Of course as usual Byakuya was wearing his stern expression and didn't move an inch when Renji looked at him. Hardly surprised at all yet still disappointed Renji turned back to Kenpachi. He knew looking at Ikkaku or Yumichika would just make the situation worse as they were clearly on their captain's side, hardly daring to go against him, not that Kenpachi cared about their opinion.

DONG!

There was the bell, thought Renji. He immediately backed off to a further end of the Quidditch pitch. He knew he'd have to fight to the max straight away if he was to even have a chance of survival. Kenpachi stayed where he was but shouted at Renji, "GET OVER HERE YOU COWARD AND TRY AND CUT ME IF YOU DARE!"

Renji knew that's exactly what he had to do or Kenpachi would come at him and finish him. If he was lucky he wouldn't have to get close to Kenpachi anyway since his style of fighting was long range in Bankai form. The match was only set to last twenty minutes; all he had to do was last that long – there was no real question of beating Kenpachi anyway.

'Right!' Renji said to himself, "BANKAI!" he roared, "HIHIō ZABIMARU!"

In a huge flare of red light and reiatsu Renji released his Zanpakutō. After the flash faded there stood the vice captain now wearing some extra piece of fur around his shoulders, of course surrounded by his released bankai form of Zabimaru, a massive segmented snake.

"Go Zabimaru!" shouted Renji. With that he flung the snake forward towards Kenpachi.

"Huh, one stupid, big, slow snake," said Kenpachi, "there's no way something like this could possibly even scratch me…forget defeating me vice captain." He said these last two words mockingly. Kenpachi simply pushed the snake away with a simple stroke from his left arm.

Renji tried not to listen and flung his Bankai forward once more with greater force. It fell hard on Kenpachi's head and for a second Renji thought he had caused the Captain to fall. This was not the case. Kenpachi had dodged and looked slightly bored.

"Come here and cut me you idiot." said Kenpachi, "That damned snake isn't going to do anything!"

Renji sneaked a look at Byakuya again; his captain didn't look too impressed. Whether that was because he was a failure of because of Kenpachi's loudness was unclear but he had to somehow liven up the show. He called back Hihiō Zabimaru and reduced it back to its Shikai form. I need a strategy, he thought.

He ran at Kenpachi, who was standing with open arms welcoming his attack. He slashed and to his shock was able to draw blood. Good! He had gotten stronger indeed.

"Not bad, Renji." Kenpachi said slowly turning around to Renji who had leapt over the giant as he cut. He raised his sword to strike but Renji was already ahead of him. He aimed a second slash at Kenpachi's back – it cut again.

"You bastard! Let me have a go now!" Kenpachi flared.

Oh no you don't he thought.

Renji re-released his Bankai wordlessly and in a moment it was wrapped around the confused captain.

Harry's Point of View (a few moments ago)

"So they're actually going to fight down there?" asked Ron, "Like with swords and stuff?"

It was still a bit difficult to believe. It's true that Wizarding duels are a common thing, I mean the school has a club and everything, but swords! Surely that would mean blood! Harry knew it wouldn't scare him or anything, or even the other seventh years who had fought alongside him at the Battle of Hogwarts. But he was worried about the kids in the lower years. How were the teachers allowing this? These were the thoughts passing through Harry's mind at the time Renji was standing down on the Quidditch pitch, awaiting his doom.

Hermione looked uneasy too and Ron was babbling as usual (until Professor McGonagall had told him to hush up). The rest of the crowd seemed to be in silence. There was no 'Gryffindor side' or 'Slytherin side' as there normally is for a Quidditch match; everyone had come in and was sitting randomly in the stadium. Harry noticed that he and his friends were only sitting a few seats from two Shinigami captains – Hitsugaya and Kuchiki to be exact. In the dead silence of the stadium Harry could make out parts of their hushed conversation. Well, really it was Hitsugaya passing the comments while Captain Kuchiki occasionally nodded. The latter had a stern, fixed gaze down at his vice captain, which didn't change when Renji looked up at him. This is what Harry heard.

"Slightly unlucky, Captain Kuchiki," Hitsugaya began, "that your lieutenant should face Captain Kenpachi." Hitsugaya sounded sorry for his colleague.

A slight nod from Byakuya, followed by half a minute of silence after which Hitsugaya realised he was to receive no reply and continued, "Will he last the time allowed, do you think? Has his training made him strong enough?"

No movement from the 6th squad's captain. "What will you do if he gets out of control?"

DONG!

As Renji retreated below Byakuya raised an eyebrow and sat a little straighter (if that were possible).

"Captain Kuchiki, you haven't answered me. The Captain Commander left us in charge. If the man does anything to –" but Byakuya cut Hitsugaya off.

"Captain Hitsugaya, please remember that it is my subordinate in combat currently, thus my responsibility to do what will be done, if need be." Hitsugaya looked taken aback. He gave Captain Kuchiki a kind of "whatever" kind of look and shrugged back in his seat, frowning. On his other side vice captain Matsumoto tried to put her hand on his shoulder but he swotted it away.

Meanwhile on the pitch Renji seemed to have put some plan into action and when the rest of the crowd gasped Harry was pulled away from eavesdropping on the two captains and found that he was waving a gigantic wooden snake at Kenpachi. The snake was forced to lunge at the huge captain but they soon found he had dodged. Kenpachi seemed to be shouting something at Renji but no one could hear as they were too far down. Then the snake was gone. In another swift movement Renji cut Kenpachi, and then again before re-releasing his snake wrapping the man with it. It seemed to be squeezing him.

Back down on the pitch if you could hear Kenpachi talking you would have heard him say "Huh, pathetic!"

But as the people in the stadium could not the next thing they saw was Kenpachi slightly contracting his muscles and Hihiō Zabimaru broken to pieces and flying in all directions in a great burst of light. Kenpachi's spiritual power was so great that the pieces flew into the spectators and screams could be heard from the targets. Some of the teachers and students who had been quick enough used a shield charm to stop some of them from hitting people. Harry and Ron had been two of these people. Along the bench the two captains had stood as well, their swords drawn. In a second Captain Kuchiki was gone.

"How did he get there so fast?" Hermione said. Down on the pitch Byakuya had confronted Kenpachi; their swords were crossed. Renji was on the ground in a ball behind his captain. He slowly reached for the hilt of his, now destroyed, sword beside him. In a second all the broken blocks of Renji's bankai had vanished, and the original katana, which Renji wore was back.

Renji's point of view

What a loser Renji felt like! Complete failure! He tried to stand and saw that his Captain was there.

"Kenpachi, you have dishonored the Soul Society." Byakuya was saying.

"Oh shut up, Kuchiki!"

"What do you mean by attacking the students of this establishment? Do you forget our orders?"

"It's not my fault that they were in the way!" he bellowed!

"How feeble. What a barbaric rogue you are. I believe the Captain Commander was wrong to send you, but he would not listen to counsel."

"Listen you powdered up, prissy noble! If you got a problem with me, let me slice you up right here! But I know what my mission is!"

"I shall take that challenge to silence you and in your failure you shall cooperate thereafter instead of tearing around as you please. But for the sake of propriety let us leave and continue elsewhere."

"Doesn't matter to me where I cut you up. Shut your fancy talk and move it or I'll have you now!"

And they were gone.

Harry was utterly bewildered, as was everyone else. The teachers dismissed them, and as the walked back up to the castle Harry could have sworn he heard the clashing of swords on the ramparts of the castle.