Ichigo entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom twenty minutes before the class started. He looked around, observing the room interestedly. This was the classroom of Alastor Moody, the man who had given off that dark reiatsu. Since Ichigo had an excuse as special envoy to observe the classes, he would take this opportunity to keep an eye on this suspicious character. Although Dumbledore had assured him that Moody was on their side, Ichigo had learned after decades of fighting to always trust his instincts.
His thoughts were interrupted when he sensed a faint reiatsu enter the room. He turned to face the source and was slightly surprised to see the figure of a ghost, one of the many he had seen in the Great Hall at the feast. "Hello, sir," he said politely, standing and bowing to the ghost, who looked startled at being addressed thus.
"Good morning, Captain Kurosaki," the ghost said, nodding.
"Is there something I can help you with?" Ichigo said curiously.
"In a way," the ghost said. "My name is James Barclay. I've been a ghost for a hundred and thirty-seven years. I made the decision to stay here in this world because I wanted to see my dear wife. But now, she's passed on too. I've overstayed my welcome in this world, and I wish to pass on."
Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Why are you telling me this?" he asked, crossing his legs in his chair, adopting a nonchalant pose, although he inwardly was tensing up. Was it possible that ghosts knew his true identity?
"I'm telling you, Captain Kurosaki, because I know. All of us ghosts know your true identity, Reaper." Seeing Ichigo visibly tense and reach his hand discreetly inside his coat, no doubt for a weapon, he quickly reassured him. "Not to worry, not to worry. Your secret is safe with us. All I want is to pass on. You can at least grant me that desire, right?"
Ichigo considered the offer. "Actually, I've wanted to try something like that ever since I saw you ghosts at the feast the other day. You English ghosts are fundamentally different from normal ghosts, in that you stay manifested in this world due to magic. I don't know if a normal konso, a soul burial, will even work on you. But if it is your wish, I shall do my best to grant it."
A look of gratitude and immense relief crossed Barclay's face. "Thank you so much, Captain! I can't thank you enough!"
A soft look of compassion appeared on Ichigo's normally hard face. "You can thank me by passing on and having a good life in the Rukongai. Try not to get into trouble, alright?"
Barclay nodded earnestly. "I will!" he said, nodding.
Ichigo reached a hand behind his back, wrapping his fingers around the black leather-bound hilt of the blade sheathed across his back. Standing straight, he drew it with a harsh rasp of steel against the scabbard. Seeing the ghost flinch slightly, as they always did, Ichigo reassured him. "Don't worry, I'm not going to attack you." He showed Barclay the bronze cap at the end of the hilt, on which a Japanese character was etched. "I'm just going to plant this seal on your forehead. If all goes well, you will be sent to the afterlife, which we call the Soul Society."
Feeling slightly more confident, the ghost stood proudly. "Please, Reaper. Do it."
Ichigo smiled softly. Even after all these years, performing konso and sending souls to Soul Society still gave him a sense of peace. Of course, until a few years after Aizen's death, the Rukongai where the normal souls were sent had been unorganized and in turmoil. But Ichigo had, long ago, made a promise that he would make the Rukongai a better place, and he had followed up on that promise. Now the Rukongai was a much better place.
Holding the sword so that the blade was in the air, with the hilt facing the ghost, Ichigo planted the seal firmly on Barclay's forehead. The glowing seal appeared on the ghost's forehead as Ichigo pulled the hilt away, and the ghost sighed with relief. "Thank you, Captain Kurosaki. Now I can see my wife again. Thank you."
In a flash of bright light, Barclay's body dissolved, leaving a sense of peace in the classroom. Ichigo breathed in contentedly, leaning the still-drawn sword against his shoulder. He just sat for a moment, taking in the atmosphere, before it was broken abruptly by the door slamming open and smashing against the wall.
A sporadic clumping sound jolted Ichigo out of his daze, and his eyes narrowed at the new figure that had just entered the room. "Good morning, Professor Moody," he said, not bothering to sheath his blade.
"So you're sitting in on the class today, Mr. Kurosaki?" Moody grunted as he stumped to the front of the room.
"That's right," Ichigo said smoothly. "I promise I won't disturb the lesson if I can help it. However, I suppose I must warn you. In my homeland, the method of teaching is sometimes… harsh. Please don't take it personally if I react in, er, unusual ways, please don't mind me."
Moody laughed harshly. "Sure, Mr. Kurosaki. Although I've seen some pretty unusual teachings in my days as well…"
Ichigo smirked inwardly. As if a mere mortal could have seen or experienced anything like what he had in his time.
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Moody took out a register, shook his long mane of grizzled gray hair out of his twisted and scarred face and began to call out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swiveled around, fixing upon each student as he or she answered.
"Right then," he said, when the last person had declared themselves present, "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures – you've covered Boggarts, Red Caps, Hinkypunks, Grindylows, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?"
Ichigo listened with interest at the list of Dark creatures Moody listed of. According to what he had read about English magical creatures, Boggarts took the form of one's worst fear. Ichigo chuckled darkly to himself as he considered the thought. I wonder what a Boggart would manifest itself as if it saw me? he wondered. My worst fear… He sighed and leaned back in his chair. Of course. It would just end up appearing as the dead bodies of everyone that I cared about. All my friends and loved ones… Byakuya… Toushiro… Ishida… Chad… Momo… Rukia… The people under my command, whose safety I was responsible… Kira… Ichigo jerked himself out of his stupor with a start. Dammit! Stop thinking that, stop thinking that. If you get all angsty over that again, you're just going to shut down!
"Che," Ichigo muttered under his breath, quietly enough so that nobody could hear him. That is, nobody but a certain scarred teen and a certain teacher with a magical eye.
Harry gave a slight start as he noticed the Japanese envoy sitting in the corner of the room. Since when did he get there? he wondered, slightly bewildered. That bewilderment was augmented by the sight of a katana, completely black, even the metal of the blade, resting against the Japanese man's shoulder. That can't be safe, he thought to himself. Remembering Dumbledore saying at the feast that Captain Kurosaki would be observing some of the classes, he decided to put the man's presence to the back of his mind and instead concentrate on the lesson.
"So – straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you counter-curses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it 'til then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful."
Ichigo found himself nodding unconsciously to what Moody was saying. It was true. During the war against Aizen and his Espada, intel was of uttermost importance. If they didn't know the full extent of the enemy's abilities, how would they be able to fight? Ichigo would never have been able to defeat Aizen if he didn't know about Aizen's zanpakutou abilities.
"So… do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"
Ichigo's head lifted and he stared at Moody intensely. This could be interesting.
Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Weasley's and Granger's. Moody pointed at Weasley, and the red-headed boy responded tentatively
"Er, my dad told me about one… is it called the Imperius curse, or something?"
"Ah, yes," said Moody appreciatively. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius curse."
Ichigo noted the fact that Mr. Weasley, the older man he had met at the Leaky Cauldron, was a Ministry employee. He might come in handy later as an information source.
Moody got heavily to his mismatched feet, opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. Three large, black spiders were scuttling around inside it. Ichigo grimaced slightly. Those legs… they always reminded him of Yammy's resurrecion form. Ever since that battle, Ichigo had despised the sight of anything with large amounts of legs, and spiders were not excluded.
"Imperio!" The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk, and began to swing backwards and forwards as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, then did a backflip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wan, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance.
Everyone was laughing. Everyone except Moody and Ichigo, who was frowning intensely, his golden eyes glowing sinisterly from the dark corner he was sitting in.
"Think it's funny do you?" Moody growled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"
The room instantly became silent.
"Total control," said Moody quietly. "I could make it jump out the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats…"
As he spoke, the spider leapt and perched sideways on the window, then at the edge of a cup of water on Moody's desk, and then onto one of the students' desks, causing the desk's occupant to back away frantically. Then, as it leapt once more into the air, high into the air, higher than it had jumped before, something happened.
The air thickened and time seemed to slow. There was a hissing of air as something dark and glinting flashed in front of Harry's face, and he stared wide-eyed as the spider was neatly bisected, the two halves falling onto his desk. He whipped around and stared at Captain Kurosaki, who was calmly sliding his black katana back into its sheath on its back.
"Sorry, I don't like spiders," he said calmly, although his strange golden eyes glinted in the dim light. "And that one was getting a little too close for comfort. Anyways, you're done with that demonstration, aren't you, Professor?" he said.
Moody seemed a little startled by the sudden death of his teaching material, but recovered quickly. "Years back," he said gruffly, "there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius curse. Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will. The Imperius curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. Constant vigilance!" he barked and all the students jumped.
Moody stumped over to Potter's desk and swept the remains of what used to be a spider into his hand, depositing it into the wastebasket by his desk. "Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"
Hermione's hand flew into the air again and so, to Harry's surprise, did Neville's. The only class in which Neville usually volunteered information was Herbology, which was easily his best subject. Neville looked surprised at his own daring.
"Yes?" Moody said, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on the timid boy.
"There's one – the Cruciatus curse," said Neville, in a small but distinct voice.
Ichigo raised an eyebrow at this one. He had read reports of it being used by the self-proclaimed Lord Voldemort and his followers fifteen years ago during the first incident that had caused the Gotei 13 so much trouble.
"The Cruciatus curse," said Moody, reaching into the jar and trapping another spider, blatantly ignoring the nervous look on Neville's face. "Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea," he said, pointing his wand at the spider. "Engorgio!"
The spider swelled, and Ichigo was immediately reminded of how the Cero Espada grew in size as his anger increased. He smirked as Weasley abandoned all pretense and shoved his chair backwards, as far away from Moody's desk as possible. It seemed that the English version of the Pineapple had acute arachnophobia.
Moody raised his wand again, pointed at the spider, and growled, "Crucio!"
At once, the spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but Ichigo could tell that it was in intense pain; if it had a voice, it surely would be screaming. Moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently-
"Stop it!" Granger cried out, and Ichigo noticed that the Longbottom boy was pale and trembling, his hands clenched. His eyes had the look of a traumatized person, a look that he had seen on so many shinigami during the war.
Moody took the spell of the spider, and its legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch. "Reducio," Moody muttered, and it shrank back to its proper size. He put it back into the jar. "Pain," he said softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus curse… that one was very popular once, too. Right… anyone know any others?"
Ichigo's gaze swept the room and noticed that everyone's facial expressions were tense, wondering what was going to happen to the last spider. Granger's hand shook slightly as, for the third time, she raised it into the air.
"Yes?" said Moody, looking at her."
"Avada Kedavra," she whispered, looking slightly pale.
Nervous whispers broke out, and many people looked around uneasily.
"Ah," said Moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. Ichigo frowned. He could almost feel the bloodlust emanating from the man, not to mention his reiatsu… "Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra… the killing curse."
He put his hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the bottom, trying to evade Moody's fingers, but he trapped it and placed it upon the desktop. It started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface.
Moody raised his wand, and Ichigo leaned forward expectantly. This was intel that he couldn't afford to miss out on. A sudden thrill ran through the classroom, and there was an intake of breath.
"Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared.
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Muahaha, evil cliffhanger! Don't worry though, since I'm doing daily updates, you only have to wait a day to see what happens!
I guess some people were surprised at how Ichigo went all 'Byakuya' on the Golden Trio, and I suppose I have to explain the changes in Ichigo's personality. He basically merged with his inner hollow, becoming the 'perfect hybrid'. Because he merged with his hollow, he adopted some of the hollow's physical traits, such as the golden eyes and the white hair when he's worked up, as well as personality traits. He's become a bit colder and occasionally a bit bloodthirsty. I think you can see his attitude changes in his actions. I tried really hard to write him with a different personality, and I really like the way it turned out.
Thanks for reading, and I'll see you tomorrow for the next daily update! Also, I'm sorry to say that school starts exactly a week from today, so the daily updates will end then. See you next time!
~fokker333