Gomen! I'm so sorry everyone! I am such a horrible person for making you wait for so long! I hope this extra long chapter will help you forgive me. Please no hate comments, I tried my best with this chapter. I love hearing your comments though so if you have any advice it will be welcomed! It is also a proven fact that more comments equals more updates! ;) So. ONWARD MY FRIENDS!
As it turns out, Cornelius Fudge is pretty good at staring contests. He and Ichigo had been at it for almost a minute now and neither really showed much incentive to stop. Urahara was laughing at Ichigo's side while Dumbledore and Snape watched in amusement (or in Snape's case, boredom).
'Ichigo, this is immature. We have things to get done. Quit this foolishness and continue with your mission.' Zangetsu scolded. With a sigh Ichigo bowed his head a bit, annoyed.
'You guys really don't ever shut up, do you?' He asked.
"There's nothing better to do. What else do you expect? I'm also pretty sure that if we stopped you'd probably do something that got all of us killed." Ogichi huffed. Again, Ichigo's eyes narrowed at the ground.
'Next time I see you, remind me to duct tape your mouth shut.' Cutting the connection Ichigo sent his gaze back to Fudge who was still staring at him in astonishment. "So, you gonna ask questions or should I just continue on my way? I have more important things to do than stand around here waiting for your reaction." Ichigo stated.
This seemed to force Fudge from his stupor. However, instead of addressing Ichigo himself like the group had expected he turned and began addressing the goblin who was still pacing in the background. "Is what this boy says true?" The goblin, both annoyed at the interruption and slightly insulted, stopped.
"The vault opened for him. He is who he claims to be." The goblin stated plainly. Fudge's gaze flicked back to Ichigo who was now giving him a very perplexed look. Did this guy not trust anyone?
"So…"
Fudge seemed ready to have a heart attack. "Y-Yes. My apologies, Mr. Kurosaki. I simply wasn't aware that anyone had survived the Kuro Massacre. And the odds that Masaki, a mere teenager, escaped the wrath of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named were slim to none. If I had known I would have held my tongue." He stammered, giving a small bow.
'Wow, this guy's a real bootlicker.' Ichigo thought. "Well, maybe you could try that first instead of jumping to conclusions." He huffed
"Of course. My apologies."
'And now he's repeating himself. Could this get more annoying?!'
"He could be trying to recruit you or something? Wouldn't that be fun, King?"
"Can I leave now?" Ichigo asked. Fudge seemed taken aback by his brash request but stepped aside nonetheless. "Thanks."
As he walked down the aisle toward the large entryway Ichigo caught a glimpse of Dumbledore's smirk which he found almost hysterical. So even the Professor disliked the guy. "Oh wait!" Ichigo turned back to Fudge. "What's your name?"
This seemed to be like a punch in the gut to Fudge who simply coughed to mask his wounded pride. "Minister Cornelius Oswald Fudge of the Ministry of Magic."
"Oh! So, you're a politician." Ichigo clarified for himself before continuing on his way. 'Go figure…'
"It was nice seeing you again, Minister Fudge. But I do hope that next time we might have time to discuss less depressing matters." Dumbledore stated plainly patting the Minister on the shoulder with Snape giving the man a small nod before also leaving him in the dust.
"Y-Yes…" Was all the poor man could say.
Outside a large crowd had gathered. Former patrons of the bank, witnesses of the sudden evacuation, and the members of Ichigo's group waited patiently as Aurors held a protective barrier in place.
"Do they honestly believe that a simple barrier will protect bystanders from attacks?" Byakuya scoffed. "They would have better luck teaching Lieutenant Kusajishi how to read a map." (AN1)
"I guess, but what do you think is taking them so long?" Rukia mussed. Toshiro was leaning against the wall of another shop with Karin and Yuzu at his sides. It had been just after the evacuation that his reiatsu had calmed down which made the rest of them slightly nervous. Either the threat was gone, or it was being blocked by something. Only one was ideal, and it wasn't the last. "Do you think we should-"
"No, here he comes." Renji's comment drew the group's attention back to the doors, where just like he claimed Ichigo, Urahara, and the two Professors were exiting.
"Ichigo/Ichi-nii!" Orihime and Yuzu cried at the same time. A couple of Aurors moved aside to allow them to come through. Ichigo gave the girls a hesitant smile.
"Hey guys, sorry we took so long. How's Toshiro doing?"
"That's Captain Hitsugaya to you, Kurosaki." Toshiro growled. By now he had pushed himself up and was slowly making his way towards the others. "And I'm fine. Did you find it?" Ichigo shook his head making the young captain's heart drop.
"No. We were only showed the ground floor."
"How come?" That was Renji. "From what I've heard the majority of the vaults are below ground. Shouldn't you have been, I don't know, escorted to the school vault or something?"
Ichigo shrugged before turning back to Urahara who was now talking with the Aurors and Dumbledore explaining how they had remained inside. "Things change. Yo, Professor, don't we need to be on our way?"
Dumbledore's gaze settled on Ichigo and his perplexed comrades before he nodded his approval.
"Yes. I do believe we could cover more ground if we split up. Mr. Urahara and I will be taking Ichigo, his sisters, and Mr. Hitsugaya. Mr. Kuchiki and Professor Snape will be escorting the others until we can meet up once more at the Leaky Cauldron. Complete as much as you can for today, you have one more week until school begins so please don't worry." He explained, obviously misinterpreting the group's tense atmosphere for anxiety.
"Eeeeeeeee! I can't wait to see the other shops! This is going to be amazing, isn't it Ichi-nii!"
"Bro, what about money? We don't have any!" Karin stated. This caught everyone's attention. All eyes flashed to the Captain of Squad five who was just walking away like nothing mattered.
"We do. Enough to probably take care for all of our stuff until the end of the year." The lack of response (snarky or otherwise) caused him to sigh and turn to face them again. "I'll explain later. We need to go."
"Ichigo-" Renji started only to feel a single hand on his shoulder. Rukia was giving him a deliberate 'no' motion, she and the others could feel how Ichigo's reiatsu was jumping wildly causing small cracks in the stone of the road as he walked away from them.
"Let's leave it for now." She muttered.
With that the groups went their separate ways. Karin and Yuzu were quick to his side, each chattering about the things they had seen while he had been in the bank. All the while Toshiro and Urahara observed from behind. "What happened in there? Kurosaki seems… agitated." Was all Toshiro could say.
Urahara closed his fan suddenly, catching even Ichigo's attention as he listened to his sister's rambling. "If you want to ask him, be my guest. I don't believe that is the wisest option. For your own sake, I'd leave it until he decides to come clean."
Ichigo turned his head from the offending conversation and noticed that at this point Dumbledore had led them to the door of yet another building. Instead this one said 'Ollivander's: Makers of Fine Wands Since 382 B.C.' and lacked a cryptic message. Dumbledore did not hesitate to enter the shop. Therefore, leaving the group outside to mull over just how long this race had been around.
'Just how long have these guys been around?'
Ichigo thought before he and the others entered the room.
The inside was cramped, musty, and old which helped reconcile the date to the age of the shop. All of the walls were covered in small rectangular boxes; some of which were practically falling out of their respective cubbies. There was some rustling in the back as well as a very weak but present reiatsu that told then someone else was in the shop. The Soul Reapers were hesitant as per usual when someone with a constant fight or flight reaction is put in a bad situation. The girls were... loud.
"Hello? Is anyone home!" Karin shouted.
"Karin! Don't be so rude!" Yuzu blabbers giving her older sister a 'motherly' glare. Karin sighed and rested her hands behind her head.
"I was just checking. It's not that big a deal..." Their banter went on for a moment before an older man appeared from the maze of shelves. His white hair went to his shoulders and his pale silver eyes seemed to peer through to the very soul of whoever he laid eyes on. He smiled sweetly, like a grandfather would to a child and stepped up to the desk.
"What a day this is. To think that I would once again see a Kuro in my shop, it is more than an honor."
Ichigo could have sworn that his heart stopped for a moment. This man who none of them had ever heard of let alone seen, knew his relationship to the Kuro family with a simple glance. He didn't know how to react.
"Ah, Garrick. How are you my friend?" Dumbledore laughed.
"I am well. It is rare to see you here, Albus. Rare, but a pleasant surprise."
"Yes, well as you can see we have unexpected guests who are in need of wands. Since you are the best we have to offer and these are no ordinary guests I thought it proper to drop by." Dumbledore stepped aside to allow Ichigo a better view of the older man. His eyes seemed to grow younger and his smile wider with each passing minute. The two of their gazes connected for a brief moment before 'Garrick' offered Ichigo his hand.
"Garrick Ollivander." He said. Hesitantly Ichigo shook his hand.
"Ichigo Kurosaki. So how does this thing work?" He asked.
Ollivander didn't hesitate. In seconds, he had his wand in hand and a tape measure had begun to float around him rapidly. "Please hold out your wand arm."
Presuming that what he meant by 'wand arm' was his dominant hand Ichigo held out his right hand and almost immediately the tape measure began flying around him taking different measurements. "What the hell?!"
"I haven't sold wands to the Kuro in almost thirty years. Your mother's was a special case, as was your grandfather before her. I will never forget the day he brought her to me before her first year at Hogwarts." The wandmaker rambled.
"You knew our mother?" Yuzu gasped.
"Oh yes." His gaze traveled to Ichigo who was giving him a pleading look. Now was not the time for them to learn this stuff. "But that is a story for another time. Here my boy; Dogwood, 13 1/2 inches, phoenix feather core." Ollivander placed the wand in Ichigo's hand to which the boy simply stared at it slightly confused.
"That's a stick..." All eyes turned to Karin who was also giving the wand a perplexed look. Suddenly realizing she was being watched and shrugged. "What? It's true."
"Don't be so quick to judge, miss. Why don't we let your brother give it a wave?" Ollivander's gaze turned from the younger Kurosaki back to Ichigo.
'I feel so stupid right now.' Without any more hesitation Ichigo waved the wand with a flick of his wrist. Sparks flew from the tip furiously causing the desk top to erupt into blue flames.
"Crap." Ichigo groaned before dropping the wand.
"Aguamenti!" A wave of water burst from Dumbledore's wand summarily putting out the fire as well as drenching the floor. Once the smoke had disappeared no one dared to move. Not even to pick up the now charred, broken wand that laid on the floor. "No, no, that won't do." Again, Ollivander disappeared into the shadows of the store only to come back with another three wands in hand. "Try this one. Blackwood, Dragon heartstring core, 15 ¾ inches." (AN2)
Ichigo took the wand and held back a sigh as his friends stepped back as far as they could. Who knew that Soul Reapers could be afraid of a stick? He flicked the wand as lightly as he could this time hoping that the damage would be reduced with the lack of force…
Sadly, that wasn't the case.
A harsh wind began to blast through the room so harshly that the closed windows shattered instantly into thousands of tiny pieces. No one could hold their grounds, not even Urahara and Toshiro who had had practice in withstanding any attack. The sudden cries of his sisters as they flew back into the wall forced Ichigo to his senses, and he dropped the wand before snapping it in two only for the wind to rip the twig into shreds. The gale-force winds faded slowly allowing the carrot top teen time to run to his siblings who were now rubbing their skulls.
"Yuzu, Karin, are you guys alright?" He asked worriedly. For a moment, the two remained silent before Karin flashed him a furious look.
"Do we look alright! Watch where you point that thing, someone could get seriously hurt!" She shouted. Ichigo rolled his eyes and lightly tapped her head with his fist.
"You're fine." Standing, he moved to let Urahara and Toshiro take control of the situation. "Go outside. This could take a while and I don't think Gramps would appreciate any of you getting hurt."
Toshiro and Urahara gave him twin hesitant looks before helping up the girls and moving toward the door. The shorter captain sent Ichigo an icy look that said more than any word ever could 'If you die in here, I'll kill you again.' Ichigo gave him a curt nod before the boy closed and locked the door with a quick flash of icy reiatsu.
With a sigh, he turned back to Ollivander who was smiling brightly once again. "Let's finish this."
Time Skip thirty minutes because Ollivander would not appreciate my verbally destroying his shop
After thirty excruciating minutes Ichigo finally was ready to give up on the whole wand deal. With all the power these flimsy pieces of wood possessed it surprised him and the others that the Soul Society dubbed the wizarding world as harmless. Within a span of half an hour the shop had experienced flooding, fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, sudden combustion and much more resulting in what appeared to be a war zone. But despite all that chaos Ollivander never lost his mirthful gaze. He seemed to enjoy the challenge, even as his hand made pieces were destroyed one by one.
"Close but not quite, however, I do believe I know what wand is yours at this point." The old man laughed before disappearing into the back for the thousandth time.
"How many of these things do you have!" Ichigo shouted.
"Enough to arm as many wizards as I must. Here you go." Ollivander returned this time with another wand box in hand, but something was different. The moment Ichigo set his eyes on the box he felt his hold on his reiatsu slip. It leapt toward the wandmaker wildly in an effort to reach the wand he held. Unaware of this fact, Ollivander still held the black wand box out to him.
Ichigo hesitated for a moment before taking the box into his own hands. Lifting the lid, he found a slick black wand. The wood was polished to the point that it shone like metal, it didn't have an obvious hilt nor any designs like the others he had seen. The light seemed to leap from in creating a faint halo of light like the silver glow of the moon. Ichigo had learned the hard way that most bad things come in pretty packages; and he was getting that same chill down his spin that he got around Unohana just by looking at the twig in its box.
"What are you waiting for!" A muffled voice cried out. Turning, Ichigo saw that Karin was giving him an icy glare along with the real Ice User. "We're getting sick of waiting! People are staring!" Her words were faint but still barely audible.
"I'm going all right!" With that single phrase, he pulled the wand from its case. The moment his hand contacted the wood a surge of his energy flew wildly out of control until it was visible. A torrent of blue, black and red energy swirled around him in every direction creating a visible shell of energy around his arm. And the roots of each stream began from the tip of his wand.
Slowly the light began to dim until nothing remained but the natural rays from the windows. As the shock of the last moments began to recede Ichigo's gaze returned to the wand in his grasp. Its features had changed. The hilt was now like Zangetsu's and the shaft had symbols like crescent moons etched to the tip. Where the two met was the Kuro family emblem. The once rigid wood felt natural in his grasp, almost as if it was made for him alone.
"That's one hell of a stick." 'Aizen, you're as good as dead.'
AN1: For those of you who are not aware Lieutenant Kusajishi is Yachiru, the directionless lieutenant of the Eleventh Squad. Most of you should know this but it is understandable if someone doesn't know since her last name isn't used that often.
AN2: A water creating spell.
Another chapter is already in the works so please don't be mad! I hope to get another chapter up soon so just hang in there. Again, please comment, favorite and follow. The more comments the quicker the updates simply because it makes my scatter brain get back on track! More story to come. Sorry everyone.