Ichigo sighed as he trudged down the stairs to the Great Hall for breakfast. Not that he was complaining, but the constant celebrating of the Gryffindors, whose dorms were almost right next to his chambers, had kept him awake all night, leaving him with dark bags under his intimidating golden eyes, accentuating their unique hue and giving him an even more predatory look about him. It didn't help that his companions, whose familiar reiatsu helped greatly in suppressing his assimilated Hollow personality, had left, leaving him cranky and irritated in general.
"Move, please," he muttered through gritted teeth at the throngs of students crowded around the entrance to the Great Hall. Instantly their attention was focused on him, and Ichigo was suddenly deluged with questions.
"You were so cool when you faced down the dragons!"
"What was that you guys were doing?"
"Tell us more about your powers!"
"What was that giant ice dragon that that white-haired kid summoned?"
Ichigo groaned. All the chatter was giving him a migraine, compounded by his lack of sleep. The fact that apparently some students had seen him and his companions in combat and that rumors about them had already begun spreading didn't exactly help matters. A pulsing tick appeared on his forehead as the students continued to pound him with questions, blocking the way to breakfast, something that Ichigo seriously needed, especially coffee.
"Please shut up," he gritted out, trying to remain polite while pushing his way through the crowd. "You can ask me questions later, when I'm not tempted to rip all of your heads off." The quiet anger in his voice, along with a small pulse of reiatsu, silenced the students almost immediately, and they parted, allowing Ichigo to finally make his way into the Hall.
Taking his seat at the teacher's table, he immediately poured himself a steaming cup of coffee. Taking a long sip, Ichigo sighed in relief as the caffeine spread throughout his system. Perking up considerably, to the amusement of the other teachers, he rubbed his eyes blearily.
"Good morning, Captain Kurosaki," Dumbledore greeted him with a smile of amusement as Ichigo continued drinking coffee. "Have a good sleep?"
"Hardly," Ichigo replied as students began seating themselves with a clatter, the usual chatter and hubbub of mealtimes making themselves known to all present. "Damned Gryffindors celebrate too loudly, no offense, Minerva," he said with a roll of his eyes.
The elderly witch snorted. "Non taken, Captain Kurosaki," she said with a sniff. "Many a time have I had to tell the students to quiet down. But you can't really help it, they are still but mere children."
"And yet children can be exposed to horrible things," Ichigo mused aloud as he stirred cream and sugar into his third mug of coffee. "Many children around the world are not nearly as fortunate as those who attend Hogwarts. Child abuse, neglect, starvation, war," here he caught Luna Lovegood's intelligent gray eyes gazing at him from the Ravenclaw table, which he acknowledged with a short nod, "it changes them. Forces children to grow up at a rate much faster than they should. I heard a rumor that Lord Voldemort is rising again." He ignored the visible winces from the teachers. "If that is the case, I truly pity these children. War is something no child should have to experience first-hand."
"You seem to be very knowledgeable about the subject," Dumbledore noted with interest. "Can I safely assume that you have some experience in what you speak of?"
Ichigo nodded wearily. The night of sleeplessness had been long, and he had had a lot of time to think. Inevitably his mind had wandered to the war against Aizen, and he had spent the night agonizing over every decision he had made, every decision that had led to a victory or a defeat, to triumph or to the death of a subordinate. Those decisions were the ones that grated in Ichigo's conscience. He had visited the families of each shinigami who had fallen in battle under his command, and every time he was reminded of the life that had been lost.
"War is a terrible thing," he murmured quietly, gazing into his coffee tiredly, his shoulders sagging in weariness. "Being a commander in a war is even worse. Knowing that every choice you make could be the death of everyone you loved… it is a difficult burden to bear."
It was quiet as the witches and wizards took in Ichigo's words, the noise of breakfast fading into the background. Finally, Alastor Moody broke the silence. Gruffly, he asked, "were you in a war recently?"
Ichigo grunted in confirmation. "Yeah... War is a terrible thing," he repeated. "But this one was especially bad. It was a civil war, of sorts." Muted gasps came from some of the teachers. "I explained a little bit of our military system, but you need a thorough understanding of how it works. The Thirteen Imperial Court Guard Squads, or the Gotei 13, is divided into thirteen divisions. Each division is commanded by a Captain, who is assisted by a Vice-captain. The rank of Captain is signified by the white cloak with the symbol of the division embroidered on the back, and the Vice-captains wear brass armbands. You saw several of the Captains and Vice-captains yesterday when my friends came for the First Task. The Captains are the undisputed masters of their abilities, the strongest of each division. Under the Vice-captains are twenty seated officers, decreasing in strength as you move down the ranks. Beneath them are the unseated officers. Each division's total complement numbers about two hundred."
The wizards were impressed, and a little intimidated. With so many capable fighters, the Japanese equivalent of Aurors, Fudge had made a very serious mistake in antagonizing them. A force that large could take over magical Britain with almost no trouble at all.
"A few years ago, three of the thirteen Captains defected," Ichigo continued, heedless in his tiredness of the rapt attention the wizards were paying to his story. "The strongest of three divisions turned against the Gotei 13. They allied themselves with our enemies, and sought to destroy the Gotei 13 completely."
"But why?" Minerva McGonagall asked in dismay. "What reason would these three Captains have to turn against you?"
Ichigo chuckled bitterly. "Their leader, a rotten bastard named Aizen, wanted to become God. Don't ask me how, that's classified information. I'll spare you the gory details of the war that followed. We lost a lot of people in the war. I had only become Captain a few days prior, and suddenly being thrust into a commanding position was the hardest thing I've done. None of the Captains died, though some came close a few times, including myself." Ichigo's hand absently traced across his chest, where he knew underneath his clothing a large scar, courtesy of Ulquiorra Schiffer, the Cuatra Espada, marred his pectoral. "A lot of the lower-ranked members of our force died, some of them under my command. It was tough."
Ichigo suddenly became aware of the sympathetic, and borderline horrified, looks the teachers were giving him as the coffee finally kicked in, jolting him out of his semi-conscious, babbling state of mind. Coughing awkwardly, he dug into his food, mumbling through a mouthful of bacon, "Erm, sorry. I was babbling. If you don't mind, please don't bring up that topic again. It's not exactly one that I'm comfortable with sharing, if you know what I mean."
Despite his warning, Moody ventured a question. "So, this civil war. Is it one of the reasons that Japan has remained in isolation?"
Ichigo's ever-present scowl deepened, his gold eyes flashing in irritation. "Perhaps," he replied ambiguously, and left the topic there. He had already inadvertently revealed too much, both about the war as well as about the Gotei 13. Thankfully, magical Japan was still completely cut off from the rest of the world. For all intents and purposes, he was the only way an outsider could contact the Japanese magical government. Ichigo inwardly sighed. Piggybacking off the Japanese government was an incredibly risky gamble that he had taken in order to infiltrate Hogwarts. When this entire mission was over and Riddle was finally dead, there would be a lot of memory wipes they would have to conduct.
#
Ichigo stood on the sandy shores of the lake, staring deep into its dark waters. He had been informed that the Second Task would take place in the lake. In the damned lake. Underwater, of all places. Ichigo was many things and had many unique abilities, but breathing underwater was definitely not one of them. He rubbed his temples as he felt the beginnings of yet another headache set in. "How the hell am I supposed to act as security when the task is underwater…" he muttered, cursing under his breath. "I mean, I'm a decent swimmer, but hardly good enough to stay underwater for an hour. Can't ask the wizards to perform a spell on me to help me breathe underwater, despite them almost definitely being able to. That would just draw attention to the fact that I can't actually do magic… dammit!"
He began pacing, his boots making shallow imprints on the firm wet sand beneath him. "I can't ask them to change the Task," he continued muttering, running possibilities through his head, "since the hint in the Golden Eggs are already set. But more importantly, we haven't received any intel about Riddle and his subordinates' actions lately."
The last had been a murder in the tiny village of Little Hangleton, where the elderly gardener for the old Riddle estate had been found dead of unknown causes, with not a mark on him. It was obviously the work of a wizard using the Killing Curse. Ichigo knew that the Onmitsukidou investigators had detected signs of Riddle's reiatsu on the scene, as well as two others. He would have to send for the data on the two unknown reiatsu signatures, since it might be useful.
Ichigo's mind wandered to other matters, focusing on the dark reiatsu he had sensed on Moody, Snape, and Karkaroff's arms. They were a mystery as well, although Dumbledore seemed to trust them, or at the very least didn't distrust them. The old man was definitely a shrewd one. He would have to see about asking around for information about the three suspicious characters, professors or not. This was a vitally important mission, and all factors had to be taken into account.
The crunch of feet on sand alerted Ichigo to another's presence. Without turning around, he felt the approaching person's reiatsu and relaxed a little bit, recognizing her signature. "Good morning, Luna-chan," he greeted the blonde with a smile.
"Good morning, Kurosaki-taicho," the Kira reincarnation replied, a wide smile also on her face, one that was slightly dreamy. Ichigo felt a stab of guilt. The sudden rush of memories had caused the young student to become unfocused at times as she was assaulted with a hundred years' worth of memories, many of which were extremely difficult for such a young soul to experience. Still, it was already done, and he might as well take advantage of a resource with knowledge of his mission and the mechanics of his organization, while also having access to the matters of the magical world. Although she was still a student, Luna could still be an immense help.
"Hey, Luna-chan," Ichigo said thoughtfully, turning to the blonde. "How would you like to help me with a little project of mine?"
#
I'M SORRY! Gah, losing inspiration for a story is a really crappy feeling to inspiration. So, it's been almost a month, and this chapter is really short. I'm not really sure where to go with this now. Agh, it tears me apart! Please, please, please, if anyone has any ideas on what I should write for the next big stage of this story, let me know. I need all the help I can get for this story now.
On another note, I'm putting The Reaper on temporary hiatus for the month of November. This is because… November is National Novel Writing Month! NaNoWriMo is an event where writers attempt to write 50,000 words in one month. I will be participating in this event, so I won't be writing The Reaper for all of November. Sorry for that, but on the plus side, my NaNoWriMo story will be the story that I wrote a summary for a few chapters ago. I'm not going to repost that summary in this author's note, so if you want to read it again, go back to whatever chapter it was posted in. The story will probably be more than 50,000 words, but I'm going to finish writing it before posting it. It's going to be another Bleach/Harry Potter Crossover, and after it's finished I'll probably post it in two-week increments. Also, if anyone has ideas for a title for the story, please PM me and let me know, since I don't have a formal title for it yet. I hope that once that one is finished, you'll enjoy and support it as much as you have for The Reaper so far. Thanks so much for reading, drop a review, and again, I'm sorry that you waited so long for such a short chapter. See you in a while!
~fokker333