There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible force was soaring through the air. Instantly, the spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakably dead. Several girls stifled cries; Ichigo smirked as he saw Weasley throw himself backwards and almost topple off his seat as the spider skidded towards him.
Moody swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor. "Not nice," he said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no counter-curse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me."
Ichigo rolled his eyes in annoyance at Moody's purposefully drawing attention towards Potter. Now all eyes were on the scarred boy, who had a strangely blank look in his eyes, as if he was reminiscing about something. Deciding to take some embarrassment off the boy, Ichigo stood up and pushed his chair back somewhat noisily, breaking the silence.
"Excuse me, Professor," he said, making his way towards the front of the class. "Did you say that it couldn't be blocked?"
"That's what I said, Mr. Kurosaki," Moody said, eyes narrowed. "Did you not hear what I said?"
"Just wanted to confirm," Ichigo said mildly. "Do you think it could be possible to block the killing curse, maybe using some sort of magical object?"
Moody frowned, and Ichigo felt annoyance as well as bloodlust emanating from the man's reiatsu. "Not that I know of. I'm an ex-Auror, been in the business probably longer than you've been alive, boy, and I've never heard or seen something that could block the killing curse."
Ichigo snorted at the thought that Moody had been an Auror longer than he had been alive. That would have to mean that the man became an Auror almost seventy years ago, and he clearly wasn't that old. "Could you cast it at me then?"
Harry gaped at that request, and he could tell many of his classmates were doing the same. "What?" someone gasped from somewhere in the room.
Moody's jaw dropped at Ichigo's seemingly insane request. Ichigo rolled his eyes, the golden pupils glinting in annoyance. "As an official magical envoy from Japan, I guarantee that there will be no damage to my person if you do so. I'd like to try something out, and if it doesn't work, I'll just dodge out of the way."
Moody blinked, and Ichigo sighed inwardly. Apparently wizards had never thought about dodging the killing curse. His initial observation of the wizards seemed to be proved correct: magic was making them soft and complacent. Honestly, how could the man even fight with a leg like that?
A shadow crossed Moody's face, and his expression hardened. "Alright," he grunted. "But if you die, all these students are witnesses to see that you asked for it."
Ichigo smirked. "Come on then." Drawing his ornately carved shell of a wand from a hidden holster in his sleeve, he readied himself for what he was trying to do.
Moody gave him ample time to prepare himself, and cast the curse with a sharp jab of his wand. "Avada Kedavra!"
The students all gasped as they watched the sickly green spell make its way through the air towards the orange-haired Japanese envoy. They were all too fixated on the killing curse to notice the red glow building up at the tip of Ichigo's wand. Pouring as much reiatsu into the spell as possible, since Ichigo didn't want to take any chances, he chanted, "||Disintegrate, you black dog of Rodanini! Look upon yourself in horror and then claw out your own throat!|| Bakudou no. 9, Geki!"
The green glow of the killing curse impacted the tip of Ichigo's wand, and the entire class froze as they stared at what was happening.
Ichigo whistled as he looked at the green killing curse wrapped in the glowing red of the temporal stasis spell. "Perfect," he muttered, ignoring the aghast stares of all present. He tossed the red-wrapped killing curse casually into the air, inciting small gasps, shrieks, and instinctive ducking of heads from around the classroom.
#
Harry stared as the Japanese envoy pulled some strange-looking device from within his coat and wondered idly how the man could fit a machine as large as his head inside a coat without people noticing a bump that apparently wasn't there. Inserting the entire wand, still holding the killing curse at the tip, into the machine, the Japanese wizard fixed his eyes on a screen of some sort, apparently forgetting about the existence of every single student in the classroom, along with Moody himself, who was staring in confusion at the man, both normal and magical eyes staring at the strange machine he held.
There was a beeping sound from the machine, and the Japanese envoy pulled his wand out of the machine, evidently satisfied with whatever was on the small screen he had been staring at. Stowing away the device beneath his coat again, still leaving no visible bump to Harry's bewilderment, Captain Kurosaki fished something small and glinting from an inside pocket.
Harry looked closer and found that it was a small silver tube, about the size of his thumb, open at one end. Captain Kurosaki took on a look of concentration, and he couldn't help but stare as the killing curse shrank inside the red glow, becoming about the size of a marble rather than the baseball it had been previously. He heard Hermione whisper "Impossible!" from beside him and silently agreed. He watched as the Captain directed the curse into the silver cartridge. Once it was fully inside, there was a small flash of black light, which somehow seemed oxymoronic to Harry, and the silver cartridge sealed itself off somehow, a silver cap appearing to cover the open end, closing the supposedly unstoppable, unblockable curse inside.
The Captain started suddenly, turning his gleaming golden eyes back to the students and Harry winced as a strangled sob came from Neville. Apparently seeing the Cruciatus and thinking about his parents, plus the fear-inducing gaze of the Japanese wizard, was enough to cause the poor boy to lose his nerve completely.
#
Ichigo shook himself to his senses again. "Sorry, I was a bit, uh, caught up with what I was doing," he said, not really apologetically, as he dropped the cartridge with the curse inside into a hidden pocket. Hopefully the students were too shocked by his containing of the curse that nobody noticed the fact that his machine had apparently vanished. He didn't want too many questions about his little pocket dimension back inside his coat. Ichigo cursed the genius scientist in him, as well as the impulsiveness his hollow personality had given him. Although it came in handy sometimes, it wasn't really helpful when he was trying to keep a low profile.
He still was curious about the killing curse, though. According to the Onmitsukidou scouts during the Voldemort incident fifteen years ago, the killing curse forcibly removed the soul from the body, similar to what Rukia's glove did. However, unlike the glove, it seemed to also cut the soul chain linking the soul to the body, causing the soul to quickly turn into a hollow. Although it seemed that preliminary tests with his portable device seemed to support that theory, he couldn't confirm it until he was able to get access to the full lab. Maybe he would take a quick trip back to Soul Society to give the contained curse to Urahara. He was also looking forward to fulfilling his promise to visit Rukia as often as he could. He also made a mental note to meet with Momo, Hisagi, and Renji. They had been good friends with Kira, and they had been devastated when he had died.
Turning to Moody, who seemed to still be in shock, Ichigo calmly pointed at the clock. "Professor Moody, I believe your class is over. Thank you for obliging my request." Standing from his chair without a noise, he soundlessly exited the classroom, the door shutting with a soft click behind him.
Ichigo strode through the doors, contemplating what had just occurred. If what Moody had said was true, then Potter had somehow survived the killing curse. He didn't think that it would work on a shinigami or a hollow, since technically they were already dead, but to be hit directly as a human would be deadly. He would have to do some research on Potter, to see under what circumstances the curse had been cast on him.
Ichigo stopped abruptly as a sudden thought occurred to him. Could Potter have been the baby the reports had spoken about? The Onmitsukidou report of the Voldemort incident said that the main part of Voldemort's soul, the part that had occupied his body fifteen years ago, had died after Riddle attacked a family. Both parents had been killed, according to reports, but the baby had survived. If Potter was that baby… things just got a lot more interesting.
"Oof!" Ichigo turned as he felt someone run into his back. Apparently standing in the middle of the hallway was not something people expected in England. He froze when he caught sight of the person sitting on the floor, her books scattered around her.
The face was different, but the reiatsu was definitely the same. Kira…
"Sorry about that," Ichigo said softly, a warm look on his face, which surprised some of the people passing in the hall. He bent down and helped the young blonde girl collect her books again, placing them into her bag.
"You're Captain Kurosaki," said the blonde quietly, and Ichigo had a sudden flashback of Kira during their mission to Hueco Mundo, when he had defended Ichigo against the venomous verbal attacks of Abarai.
"Yes, I am," Ichigo said, still somewhat shell-shocked at feeling that reiatsu after so long. "And you are?"
"Lune Lovegood," the blonde said, and Ichigo smiled kindly.
"That's a lovely name," he said, and Luna blinked in mild surprise. "You know, in Japan, many in the Thirteen Imperial Court Guard Squads have given my wife the nickname 'the White Moon'."
"Why is that?" Luna wondered. "It's a lovely nickname as well."
Ichigo grinned as he thought of Rukia and her fighting style. "It's because of the way she fights," he said, and the gold in his eyes seemed to warm slightly, appearing more amber than gold. "Her blade is pure white, and her style is graceful and beautiful. They call her the most beautiful fighter in the Gotei 13."
"You must be very proud of her," Luna remarked.
Ichigo nodded earnestly, drawing a wry smile from the blonde. "I am," he confirmed. "I'm a very lucky guy to have her."
"I'm sure she's also very lucky to have you," said Luna. "You seem like a very remarkable person as well."
Ichigo laughed. This time it wasn't a sinister-sounding, sadistic cackle. Instead, it was a warm, lively laugh. It sounded like a laugh a proud parent would give as they watched their child take its first steps or speak its first words.
If passerby had been watching, they would have seen the gold completely fade from his eyes, becoming a warm amber color. Experienced fighters would also have noticed that Ichigo's body, which seemed to be stuck in a permanently tense stance, coiled like a snake ready to strike, relaxed considerably as he spoke about his wife. Although he was still prepared for an attack, his stance lacked paranoia. His entire attitude had changed.
"You love her very much," observed Luna.
Ichigo nodded.
"I would love to meet her sometime," the blonde remarked, "along with some of your companions. From what I've read about it, Japan sounds like a lovely place. And your wife sounds like a wonderful person."
Ichigo smiled. "Maybe sometime in the future they'll come visit me at Hogwarts," he said with a soft chuckle. "My friends do enjoy surprising me sometimes. I think you would like them very much." He was of course referring to the shinigami that Kira had been close to. Although the possibility was slim that Luna retained Kira's memories, Ichigo was sure that Hisagi, Momo, and Renji would love to meet Luna.
"Oh, here we are!" Luna said, and Ichigo realized that while they were talking they had walked from one side of the castle to the other, where Luna's next class apparently was. "Thank you for walking and talking with me, Kurosaki-taicho, it was a very nice experience."
Ichigo froze. "Sorry, what did you just call me?" It has to be a coincidence.
Luna looked confused. "I'm sorry, did I say something weird?"
Ichigo shook his head. "No, it's nothing, I'm sorry. Anyways, it was very pleasant to talk with you as well. Now, you should get going, or you're going to be late."
Luna nodded. "Thank you, Captain Kurosaki."
Ichigo smiled again. "Please, call me Ichigo."
Luna smiled again, and Ichigo was struck by her smile. Although their faces were different, her smile was exactly the same as Kira's. "Ichigo, then. ||Ja ne, Ichigo-taicho. I hope we can meet again soon.||"
Before he could say anything, the blonde had skipped into the classroom, leaving a dumbstruck Ichigo standing outside, thoughts racing through his mind. I never thought… the odds are astronomical, but it's still possible. Could it be…?
#
Woo! Next chapter up! Don't have anything to say really, except some other shinigami might be making a visit to Hogwarts in the future! Hope you guys enjoyed this one, and I'll see you tomorrow!
~fokker333