Author's Note

Hello, hello! I'm back with another chapter this month (yay!) and my first chapter after Bleach ended (not so yay). I've got things to say about that, but first: Why the hell is the special announcement a live-action movie in two years?! It's just agh! Cartoons to live-action don't generally go well! Why couldn't we have gotten the anime back or just a normal, animated movie? Ugh, stupid people making stupid decisions. I was so hoping for the anime so that the pronunciation of Yhwach could be cleared up. Anyway, next paragraph is my thoughts on the end of Bleach and contains spoilers for those who haven't read it. You've been warned.

Bleach ended *sob* but as an ending to a series goes, it was good in my opinion. The last two chapters were a decent show of how things have recovered and people have moved on after the war with Yhwach. Sure, it would have been nice to know what happened to Daddy Squad and Urahara Squad, but for what it did cover, I'm happy. The shipping wars got a canon settlement, IchiHime and RenRuki, which both have my support as pairings for Ichigo and Rukia. It's too bad so many people have to be salty about it, especially when those pairings made the adorable Ichika and Kazui. So cute! (I've got a coloring of them on my deviantart, go check it out!) What makes me sad about Bleach's end, besides the fact that it ended, is that the final battles kind of got skimped on due to the rushed ending. Kubo-sensei needed about another volume's worth of chapters to do it right, or at least better, and stupid Jump didn't give him that. Oh well, at least now I can refute all the people who would complain about me adding a dash of IchiHime to this story by saying it's canon.

Anywho, on with the story and this longer, meaty chapter!

Tonight was the night.

Tonight, she was finally going to get rid of that half-breed oaf, cleansing the school of another of useless teacher. She had gathered up a small party of Aurors to banish the half-giant and they were going to oust the oaf in the middle of the night at his cabin. To keep the students and other teachers safe, of course. Not because she didn't want a scene to be caused or to prevent anyone else from interfering. No siree, she was just keeping them safe from the horrible half-breed.

And this time, no one could stop her.

At least, that's what she thought until her small party arrived at Hagrid's door only to find that the groundskeeper already had a guest: Kisuke Urahara.

"Ara? What brings our lovely new headmistress out here so late at night? And with company too."

Umbridge just wanted to scream. The man's lackadaisical smile was more infuriating than usual as he calmly sipped alcohol of some sort from a mug at Hagrid's table. It was like he knew and was here to stop her.

"I have business with Hagrid. Please remove yourself, Professor Urahara. It's a private matter," Umbridge imperiously states in the hopes that the man will listen.

"Oho!" is his reply, and she doesn't like the sound of it. "You seem to have brought a lot of guests for something private, Headmistress. So what's it going to hurt having a humble little teacher like me sit in on it? We were having such an interesting conversation about some of the more… fantastical creatures of the area and I really would very much like to continue it once you're done with Hagrid-san." Urahara leans forward, almost glaring at her from under his hat, his cane held tightly in one hand.

Hagrid, sensing a hostility from Urahara not unlike when Ichigo had faced down the residents of the forest, quickly steps in before the blonde can get himself into trouble. "Yeh know, maybe yeh should go. We can continue tha' talk tomorrow or somethin'. Yeh migh' o' had a bi' much ter drink. Don' wan' yeh ter get in trouble jus' cause yeh can' think righ'." And he herds the lightly protesting Urahara out the door.

Urahara simply leans against the side of Hagrid's hut next to the door after being escorted out. While it may be true that he's had a bit too much alcohol, the fact that he had actually been considering pulling Benihime on Umbridge in a move worthy of Ichigo's recklessness was all the proof he needed of that, he was still plenty coherent, enough to know that it was not a simple notice of dismissal that Umbridge had planned for tonight. You didn't bring five professional fighters to sack someone who was half expecting it and accepting of that fact. You bring fighters when you are expecting a fight, or forcing someone to go somewhere else that they really didn't want to go. So he would wait here and provide assistance if necessary, and if that meant he had to fight Umbridge, well, he was supposedly drunk.

It doesn't take long for things to get lively. A few minutes after Urahara's dismissal, the door to the cabin bursts open, Hagrid's fight with the Ministry workers spilling onto the lawn.

"Bad wizard! Bad, bad wizard!" Urahara scolds as he happily smacks the closest wizard on the top of his head with his cane in a suitable impression of a drunk, or possibly a grumpy old lady. The poor wizard being bashed over the head with repeated light smacks from the cane tries to fend it off with one hand while the other is busy flicking his wand about in an attempt to stun Urahara, who's skillful staggering sees to it that every stunner misses its mark.

And now for the tricky part: getting Bad Wizard-san to hit one of his friends with a stray spell.

That plan is abandoned when McGonagall came out of the castle, trying to defend Hagrid by proclaiming his innocence, only to take four stunners to the chest. It's bad enough that they stunned Hagrid's dog, (the half-giant had not been happy, bodily throwing the offender, who did not get up from his ten-foot flight) but the obvious disregard for the elderly deputy headmistress just makes it worse.

Now Kisuke Urahara is going to join the fray.

Urahara stops beating the poor wizard over the head and instead draws Benihime, flinging the cane casing at the wizard and hitting him solidly between the eyes, knocking the wizard out cold. An easy mental command sends his beloved blade into shikai. Best to keep the element of surprise while you can. He then moves for the optimal angle and…

"Nake, Benihime!"

… sends out a whistling arc of crimson energy to separate Hagrid from his opponents. The wizards jump back in surprise and that's all the time Urahara needs to close the gap between him and the nearest conscious wizard, Benihime flickering forward to leave a light but painful scratch across the back of the wizard's hand, causing him to yelp in pain and drop his wand. Swirling on past the wizard now clutching his bleeding hand, a quick chop to the back of his neck putting him out like a light, Urahara brings his foot up, hitting the next man in the chin, the unfortunate soul gagging as the lower protruding block of Urahara's geta catches him in the throat. The final tag-along wizard receives a palm-heal strike to the nose, a crunching sound can be heard as blood gushes forth and the man drops to the ground like his companions. And, with a final flourish, Benihime comes to rest on Umbridge's collarbone.

"What do you think you're doing, Urahara?! He's getting away!" Umbridge screeches, only kept from chasing after Hagrid, who had grabbed Fang and was loping away towards the school gates, by the unyielding steel at her throat.

"Huh?" Urahara warbles, playing the part of a drunk. "But Hagrid-san is a nice teacher here and those meanies were attackin' him. And they attacked McGonagall-san. I was jus' helping my fellow teachers."

He watches in amusement as Umbridges huffs, backing away from his stationary blade. She was obviously displeased with the turn of events, but couldn't entirely blame him since he was supposedly drunk and was making a mistakenly noble attempt at helping, even if it was help to the wrong side in her opinion. But more than that, he's quite certain that she is now wary of his combat prowess. Especially since he wasn't entirely sober for the display.

"Well, I think I'll head back to my room." Urahara announces, then totters off, a sway in his step while idly swinging Benihime around and humming a jaunty tune. He's sure there'll be questions from the squat Headmistress tomorrow, but he's prepared.

He's always prepared.

The following afternoon, when Umbridge went to talk to Urahara about what the man in the bucket hat had done to help Hagrid escape, she couldn't find the man himself. Instead, she found a note taped to his office door. It read:

Dear Umbridge-san,

I'm sorry to say that some urgent business has called Hirako-san and myself back home. It should hopefully be finished by tonight, tomorrow morning at the latest. I apologize in advance for any troubles this may cause and for not informing you personally, as it was rather sudden and very time-sensitive.

Have a nice day,

Urahara Kisuke

She was sorely tempted to rip the note in two, but instead gives a mighty huff before walking away, never realizing that the man she was searching for was on the other side of the door, quietly waiting for her to leave so that he could finish giving instructions to the assembled trio before him.

"Do you really think it's wise to split our forces if something really is going to happen today?" Uryu asks once he senses Umbridge is far enough away.

"Normally, I would try something else, but our prey has proven to be surprisingly elusive," Urahara explains. It truly vexes him that he can't manage to predict their locations or get a solid trace on them. "So in the interest of wrapping this up sooner rather than later, we're going to take the bait to see if that won't flush them out."

"So we're springing their trap and hoping that we can get them instead?" Ichigo asks.

"Basically. At the very least, we should get a better handle on what it will take to defeat them, though I doubt they'll be as successful escaping this time." Urahara can see the resolve to end the threat in the teenagers' eyes and he smiles. "Well, I should get going, try to finish this quicker. Oh! Kurosaki-san, have Kon-san take your test this afternoon. It would be best if one of you can react immediately to any attack without arousing suspicion from Umbridge-san."

"Fine." Ichigo replies, removing the soul candy from his pocket and swallowing it, freeing his soul from his body. "You got all that, Kon?" The mod soul nods and, seeing that everything at Hogwarts will be handled, Urahara leaves.

The History of Magic exam was nearly over and Uryū found it impossible to quit bouncing his leg, willing the sand in the hourglass up front to finish its journey to the bottom bulb. He had sensed Ichigo engaging a swarm of hollows nearly ten minutes ago and the numbers didn't seem to be abating. Someone, three guesses as to who and the first two don't count, was ensuring that the hollows were coming at a steady rate, just enough to keep Ichigo busy, but not enough to warrant unleashing more power. If he could just get to the battlefield, Uryū might be able to sniff out the boss of the hollows with his superior senses, seeing as Ichigo was apparently too inept, or possibly oblivious, to do so. So here he was, waiting for the exam's time limit to be up, having finished the actual exam shortly after he sensed Ichigo begin to fight.

Uryū's concentration upon the hourglass and distant battle is broken when Harry falls from his seat with a scream. Seeing Harry's reactions to his surroundings and what was a nightmare according to Harry, Uryū can't help but think of that night before the Christmas holidays where Harry had awoken in a similar manner. If Urahara hadn't convinced them already that the enemy was laying a trap and making their move today, this would have done it. Harry having another dream-vision of an attack could only mean that moves were being made.

Shortly after Harry was allowed to leave, remaining quite distressed if his reiatsu was any indication, the exam concluded and the students were released.

"[Inoue-san, you and Kon-san stick with Harry and the kids. I'll go help Kurosaki.]" Uryū quickly instructs the pair, the trio having come together as soon as the students were released from their seats. The pair nod and with a swirl of reishi Uryū vanishes from the crowd, his hirenkyaku whisking him away from the castle and out to the distant battlefield.

Orihime and Kon track Harry down, running into him on the staircase along with Ron and Hermione. Harry quickly drags them away to an empty classroom before explaining what's wrong: He saw that Voldemort was torturing Sirius in the Department of Mysteries.

While Ron, Hermione, and Orihime argue with Harry over whether or not that's actually true, Kon pulls Ichigo's denreishinki out of his pocket and dials the number for the one left at Grimmauld Place. Kon remembers what Ichigo had said happened when Mr. Weasley was attacked: the first thing Dumbledore did was send people to verify the vision. So he was going to call and verify this one as best he could.

"The number you are trying to reach is unavailable. Please try again."

Kon tries dialing the number again, ignoring the entrance of Ginny and Luna, who had heard Harry yelling. Kon pays more attention to dialing this time to make sure he got the number right, only for the unavailable number spiel to sound again.

"What kind of crap is this? I thought these things couldn't run out of battery!" Kon yells, sorely tempted to through the phone down. He'd spent forever as a captive of Urahara and the R&D Department, so with his computer-like memory, he could accurately remember all sorts of things about the technology that was used and discussed around him. One of those discussions had been about improving denreishinki, particularly how to improve their energy efficiency so that the power cells wouldn't need to draw in as much ambient reishi to power themselves. So unless Grimmauld Place had suddenly somehow become devoid of reishi, the phone should have at least rang once or twice.

"What are you talking about, Ichigo?" Harry commands, upset that the other has apparently not been listening to anything he's said.

"Huh?" Kon says, slightly embarrassed at drawing attention to himself like that. "Oh, I was just trying to call the phone Urahara left at Grimmauld Place after you broke into Umbridge's office, see if Sirius was really gone or not, but it said the number was unavailable. But you see, these things just absorb a little bit of energy from their surroundings to keep them running, so unless the power cell was damaged or someone turned it off, it should keep running forever," Kon explains, giving the denreishinki in his hand a little shake. "And I would think Urahara would tell Sirius not to turn it off when he told him how to use it."

"When you say 'Sirius,' are you talking about Stubby Boardman?" Luna asks, gaining a confused and helpless reaction from Kon while the others ignore that question.

"Wait, Kon?" Harry asks, noticing the difference in mannerisms, leaving him surprised and slightly disappointed to find out that it is not the shinigami that is with them. The name evokes confusion in Ginny and Luna, but no one pays that much mind either.

"Oh, that's it!" Hermione says, latching onto Kon's words. It's the only way she can think of for slowing Harry down and keeping him from running off half-cocked to rescue Sirius, who may not need it. "Harry, we should really make sure that Sirius isn't at Grimmauld Place."

"But Kon just said his thing didn't work," Ron points out, not really sure about the workings of telephones.

"Well, yes, but he said that it could just be because the phone got turned off. Most pure-blood wizards aren't good with Muggle technology, so maybe Sirius turned it off by accident and couldn't figure out how to turn it back on," Hermione says. "So we really should try to check another way."

"How?" Harry demands.

"Well," Hermione says hesitantly, rather scared to speak her idea because she knows that at this point Harry will do just about anything to rescue Sirius, "I suppose we'll have to use Umbridge's fire, see if we can't reach him that way. Ginny and Luna can help by being lookouts once we've got Umbridge away from her office."

"Okay, but you have to think of a way to do it quickly, otherwise I'm going to the Department of Mysteries right now," Harry says.

So they quickly hash out a plan in which Ron notifies Umbridge of false trouble to take her away from her office and Kon, Orihime, Ginny, and Luna clear the students out of the corridor and keep watch while Hermione and Harry sneak into Umbridge's office unimpeded under the Invisibility Cloak.

The plan seems to work as Harry is able to use the fire to contact Grimmauld Place, though he only gets a gleeful Kreacher supposedly alone in the house. That is until Umbridge pulls his head out of the fire. The toad woman is furious about him breaking into her office and insistent upon knowing who Harry was trying to contact. Harry, of course, refuses to tell. Then the Inquisitorial Squad comes into the office, having caught all of Harry's helpful friends plus Neville, who had tried to aid the others. They are all held rather tightly by the brutish Slytherins, except Kon who is magically tied, like Ichigo was on the night Dumbledore left, and forced to the ground where Goyle sits on him to keep him from running off. Kon laments Ichigo's reputation as his chest is crushed by the gorilla of a boy's weight.

Since Harry refuses to talk willingly, Umbridge sends Malfoy to fetch Snape and for a moment Harry can feel hope in his chest. There is a member of the Order of the Phoenix still at Hogwarts, even if he is one of Harry's most hated teachers. The problem, Harry finds, is informing Snape without tipping his hand to Umbridge, who is most displeased with the potion master's lack of Veritaserum after she used the entirety of his last bottle when she previously interrogated Harry alongside Ichigo. To Harry's dismay, when he does give Snape the coded message, the man seems to not care in the slightest

His hope of getting help from the Order shattered, Harry is faced with a new horror: Umbridge has decided that the Cruciatus Curse is the way to get him to speak. Not only that, but she was the one to send the Dementors that almost got him expelled during the summer. Luckily for Harry, before Umbridge begins to torture him, Hermione pretends to break, sobbing out a load of waffle about a mysterious weapon they were ordered to build by Dumbledore. Her acting convinces Umbridge to take Hermione and Harry out to the weapon, which did not exist, while Harry isn't entirely sure whether or not Hermione has a plan.

After a while, the sounds of the footsteps of the headmistress and her two victims fade away, leaving the rest of the captured kids in silence with the leering grins of the Inquisitorial Squad.

"You know what the problem with being 'Ichigo' is?" Kon asks conversationally from his position underneath Goyle, tired of the silence and inaction. "Everyone expects you to do something in a situation like this," he answers his own question. "Lucky for you kids, I can do a little more than something."

The Inquisitorial Squad members hadn't paid it any mind when Kon had shifted himself into a bow-legged position that allowed him to coil his powerful legs and get his toes planted against the ground. Then again, they hadn't known to watch out for kicking and jumping since Ichigo had shown himself to prefer holds or going punch happy.

So when Goyle is thrown off Kon's back like a cowboy from a bucking bronco, the others are caught off guard. By the time the Squad has recovered from their shock, it is too late. Kon makes it fully to his feet, having rolled forward while launching Goyle, and that is really all Kon needs to win: his feet on the ground.

A bounce that looks like it will barely carry Kon forward instantly covers the space between him and Goyle. Kon slips his foot under the gorilla boy as he struggles to get up and heaves, flipping the large Slytherin into the air where a little hop kick launches him at Crabbe, bowling over his fellow crony and releasing Neville in a tangle of limbs.

Kon barely touches the ground before he's launched himself at Warrington and Ron, planting a foot right before he collides with them and using the momentum to swing the other leg up into a round house that rattles Warrington's skull. He drops into a boneless heap on the ground, nearly taking Ron down with him.

The remaining squad members finally pull themselves together enough to start trying to hex Kon, but he crouches low before springing high enough to brush the ceiling, causing their spells to miss. The inhuman jumping feat draws their attention like a firework, making them momentarily forget about their other captives, which turns out to be a costly mistake.

Neville has managed to untangle himself from Crabbe and Goyle, as well as retrieve his wand, and when he sees that Kon has the Squad's attention, he hits the Slytherin girl holding Ginny with an Imediment Jinx. With her freedom, Ginny reacquires her own wand and hits Malfoy with a Bat-Bogey Hex. At this point, Kon comes down on the shoulders of the Slytherin holding Orihime, causing the boy's knees to buckle under the weight. Before the boy can get up, Ron hits him with a Stunner, having already stunned Millicent Bulstrode, who had been holding Hermione.

All that's left is the poor boy holding on to Luna, who points his wand at the freed D.A. members, trembling something terrible. Before he can even form the words for a spell, Ginny has disarmed him and Neville has stunned him.

It only takes a few seconds to stun the rest of the Inquisitorial Squad that hasn't already been stunned.

"Hey, can someone unbind me?" Kon asks, lifting his shoulders to show off the magical ropes. With a flash of light, the ropes fall down around Kon's feet, severed by Orihime's Koten Zanshun. "Thank you," Kon says in a chipper voice. He then saunters over to the window, which Ginny claimed to have spotted Harry and Hermione out of while she was still captive, and opens it, peering down at the ground.

"I can do three stories," Kon says to himself with a nod. He could jump up three stories as Ichigo before the substitute had any real training, so dropping three now wouldn't be a problem.

With his assessment made, Kon climbs over the sill and drops three stories to the ground, landing easily and ignoring the screams of the Hogwarts students as he sprints off after Harry and Hermione. Ichigo will never let me hear the end of it if those two get hurt while I was supposed to be watching them, Kon thinks as he follows their reiatsu into the Forbidden Forest.

Kon finds the forest to be as gloomy and dark as Ichigo had described, if not more so since the sun was going down. But a job's a job, so he ignores how spooky it is and keeps running, jumping bushes and brambles like hurtles. A crashing sound brings Kon to a stop, trying to determine which direction the danger is in and whether or not he'll have to fight it, depending on if it's going after his charges. Before Kon can get a solid lock on the direction, the crashing reveals itself to be caused by a sixteen-foot figure tromping through the forest.

The figure must have spotted him, curse Ichigo's bright hair, because it stopped in the middle of the path in front of him.

"Ichigo," the large figure rumbles and man, oh man, Kon really hopes this won't be a repeat of arrancar Grand Fisher. Human bodies aren't meant to be tossed around by over-sized monsters.

"ICHIGO! WHERE HAGGER?"

Well that meant absolutely nothing to Kon, but considering how big the guy is, he figures he should try answering, or you know, sending the giant away from his charges.

"I think 'Hagger' is that way," Kon says pointing in a random direction that does not cross with Harry and Hermione's current heading.

Grawp nods and tromps off, calling out for 'Hagger' and leaving Kon to breathe a sigh of relief having avoided that potential crisis.

Unfortunately, that did not do anything for the trouble Harry and Hermione had already gotten themselves into, which now included an angry herd of centaurs.

"-We are an ancient people who will not stand wizard invasions and insults! We do not recognize your laws, we do not acknowledge your superiority, we are-"

The centaur is cut off by Kon slamming into his chest, the mod soul having taken a fast and low bound over the heads of the assembled centaurs to reach Harry and Hermione in the center. Kon pushes off the centaur's human gut, winding him, and axe kicks the arms of the centaurs holding Harry and Hermione up, causing a sickening crack to resound. The centaurs bellow in pain as the kids hit the ground, though they don't remain there for long as Kon picks them up, one under each arm, and springs up, pushing off one of the overhead branches to escape the centaur circle. Kon takes off running as soon as his feet touch the ground again.

"Kill the Changeling!" After that rallying cry, the centaurs give chase.

"Damn it. Stupid horse bodies!" Kon laments as the thundering hoof beats chase them. He really had been hoping that having the face of the 'kin of Death' would deter them from giving chase, but he supposes it's just his luck that they'd know he wasn't Ichigo. A quick glance over his shoulder to gauge their pace and Kon knew that if he wasn't weighed down by Harry and Hermione he could have outrun them. As it is, he can barely maintain the distance and just has to hope that if he can clear the forest the centaurs will give up.

"Oh crap!"

That hope is crushed when an arrow goes whistling by his head.

It seems that the centaurs have realized that Kon can match their speed and accordingly decided that to catch their quarry, they must first shoot it down.

"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!"

The arrows come in thicker as more centaurs begin to shoot at the fleeing trio. Kon would normally start running in a zig-zag to avoid projectiles, but with the non-existent gap in speed, such actions will only bring the centaurs closer to them. And so their luck runs out as one of the arrows takes Kon in the calf of his left leg.

"Damn it!" Kon curses. He knows there's no way he can keep running like this. Ichigo's body needs its muscles in working order, unlike Kon's usual plush form which can move as long as all the pieces are attached. So he tosses Harry and Hermione forward. "Keep running! Don't worry about me and just keep running!"

"Kon, no!" the pair shout back, not wanting their rescuer to sacrifice himself for them.

"We have you now, Changeling!" one of the centaurs roars as the herd bears down upon the defiant mod soul.

BOOM!

Something hits the ground with an almighty crash between Kon and the centaurs, shaking the earth and throwing clouds of dirt and debris into the air. Harry feels a spark of hope rising in his chest as the centaurs pull to a stop and paw nervously at the ground. The area is suddenly filled with a heavy pressure as the meteoric something reveals itself to be…

"Ichigo!"

It is amazing to Ichigo how having Uryū join him in fighting these hollows seems to accomplish nothing. How they are getting no further than when Ichigo was fighting them on his own is beyond him, but it's getting to the point where he's about ready to remove his limiter bands.

"Kurosaki!" Uryū calls urgently.

"What?" Ichigo replies irritably after realizing it wasn't a warning for an attack from one of his blind spots and nearly getting a chunk bitten out of his arm for the effort.

"I'm sensing Harry-san and Hermione-san being separated from the others alongside Umbridge."

"Shit! Inoue can't handle it?" Ichigo asks, cleaving a hollow in two.

"I'm not sure she's in a position to stop whatever's happening over there," Uryū replies. After a moment's pause, he continues, "You should go help them."

"What?! We're only just managing things here!"

"Just go before I change my mind and decide to leave you here instead," Uryū retorts, getting an annoyed outburst in reply.

"You're not trying to get yourself killed by handling this on your own, are you, Ishida?" Ichigo sarcastically asks, not quite convinced he should leave the Quincy alone with the hollow swarm, but also not willing to openly show his concern.

"Oh please. It'll be easier without you. I won't have to worry about hitting you because you stupidly got in my way anymore." Uryū replies, rolling his eyes. I mean, really? I'm more than capable of handling this much. I don't need Kurosaki worrying over me. Besides, the boss here won't be coming out until Mr. Killer-protector leaves the scene. Uryū had been sensing it for a while now, that the arrancar from that night was hiding just beyond his range, tamping down on his presence even more every time Ichigo moved in that direction. Obviously the arrancar had been thoroughly cowed by Ichigo's charge back on Valentine's Day and was unwilling to actually face the substitute shinigami, so the only way to get him would be to send the idiot away and hope the enemy would come out on the offensive.

"I've been saving your sorry ass from getting bitten off by those hollows!" Ichigo refutes. Uryū wants to sigh at his companion's stubborn stupidity.

"Don't you remember what Urahara-san said about something happening tonight? If Harry-san is getting separated, they might just go for him, so get going already!" That seems to do the trick if the shock and mild worry flashing across Ichigo's face is anything to go by.

"Just don't get yourself killed, Ishida," Ichigo grudgingly replies before vanishing in a flash of shunpo, a line of defeated hollows marking his path.

Uryū lets out a sigh, glad to have at least one problem taken care of. Now on to the next… and he finally gets to say the words he's wanted to say since approaching the swarm.

"Licht Regen!"

And it is indeed a rain of light that sweeps through the swarm, piercing through and slaying many of the hollows.

"My, my. How impressive. But I wonder if you'll be able to defeat me, Archer-san," the arrancar says, appearing behind Uryū in a burst of sonido.

"I think I'll manage," Uryū replies with a fierce smirk, turning to face his opponent.

"So this is the place, huh?" Shinji asks, looking around the abandoned factory warehouse.

"According to my- my- achoo! My findings," Urahara says, pulling out a hankie and whipping his nose.

"It's very dusty in here," Yoruichi dryly comments. "Are you sure they're here?"

"Not at all," Urahara chirps, putting a filter mask over his mouth and nose.

Shinji lets out a sneeze himself. "Ya got any more of those breathin' masks?"

"I'm afraid not," Urahara replies.

"Well, let's find this twerp and be done with it," Yoruichi says, and the group fans out to search for their enemy, not noticing the sweet smell in the air.

"Harry, Hermione, Kon, you guys all right?" Ichigo calls, not looking away from the herd of centaurs before him. He guesses that there's about thirty or so of them, but he's not particularly concerned about that as far as his ability to beat them goes. What does concern him is that he's pretty sure he saw Kon favoring his left leg. If that is true, that means Ichigo's body has taken damage and that just pisses the substitute off.

"Yeah, we're fine, Ichigo," Kon replies, relief overflowing in his voice. Getting Ichigo's body killed was not very high on his to do list, not to mention that he isn't so sure he wouldn't die along with a living vessel.

"They shot Kon in the leg," Hermione reports, wanting to get the mod soul treated as soon as possible.

"Did they now?" Ichigo says softly, dangerously, as he glances over his shoulder, confirming that Kon is indeed favoring his left leg and that something is holding the robe out and away from his body.

"This is none of your business, Death One," Magorian calls.

"None of my business? None of my business?!" Ichigo roars, causing several centaurs to back away in fear. "That is my kaizou konpaku, my body you just shot! Not to mention that the only god damned reason I'm even in this stupid country is to help protect that boy and his friends!" Ichigo points to Harry with his enormous blade.

"Do not think that you can just attack and threaten the people under my care and claim it is not my business!" The blade swings back around to point at the centaurs. "Now piss off or I start slicing and dicing."

"You dare to threaten us!" a centaur roars in reply.

"No!" Magorian shouts, but it is too late, the enraged centaur and his friends have fired shots at the shinigami before them.

Ichigo powerfully swipes his blade, the air pressure sending the arrows spinning away.

"Fine. Slice and dice it is."

The ground cracks as Ichigo pushes forward, his mighty blade at the ready and the centaurs with any sense in them turn and run, galloping away through the trees. The ones who were angry enough to shoot at Ichigo are, of course, also the ones stupid enough to stay and attempt fighting him.

It's not much of an attempt though, because as they draw their bows to fire once again, Ichigo vanishes from their sight, reappearing behind them a second later. Then to the centaurs' surprise, they feel an immense pain as long cuts appear all over their bodies, blood spraying out, and their bows and arrows are all turned into so much kindling. As their brethren run on by, they collapse to the ground in pain and only one of them tries to regain his feet.

"I'd stay down if I were you," Ichigo says in a dispassionate voice, the tip of his blade barely in the centaur's line of sight as it looms over the downed creature's shoulder. He shudders as it sinks in that while Ichigo may look human, he is truly a monster of enormous power. The centaur stops trying to rise.

Ichigo gives a little huff before flicking the blood off his blade, sheathing it, and walking back over to Harry, Hermione, and Kon, eyes sweeping over them as he checks for any other injuries beside the arrow in Kon's leg. Besides the fact that Harry and Hermione are trembling like leaves in the wind, eyes wide and robes flecked with centaur blood, the group seems fine.

"Alright, let's get you back to the castle before anything else tries to kill you," Ichigo says, gently putting a hand on the kids' shoulders, ignoring how they flinch at his touch, and turning them towards the castle. "Go ahead, Kon and I are right behind you," he reassures them as he loops the mod soul's arm over his shoulder to take weight off the injured leg. Ichigo's sure Orihime can have his body patched up in no time, but there's no point in letting the injury get worse when that can be easily prevented.

They've walked only a few steps before Harry snaps out of his horror induced numbness and spins around to face Ichigo. "We can't go back to the castle, we have to get to the Ministry! Voldemort's got Sirius!"

Ichigo stops walking and blinks in surprise.

"So you weren't able to reach him in the fire?"

Harry spins around to find Ron, Ginny, Luna, Neville, and Orihime approaching through the gloom. At first he is surprised, then he realizes that for Kon to have come, they must have all gotten free. It was just the stand-in's superior speed that let him arrive without the others in tow.

"Right," Harry replies, receiving his wand from Ron, who then handed Hermione her wand as well. "So we've got to get to the Ministry."

While this sparks an argument among the kids about how to get to the Ministry and who will go, Ichigo takes Kon over to Orihime. Kon lets out a hiss of pain as the arrow is removed, then Orihime's Sōten Kishun expands over the wound, quickly rejecting it out of existence.

"I think there are nine of us, actually," Luna says, having counted out the group. "So we need nine thestrals."

"Nah, just six," Kon replies, getting an owlish blink from the girl. "I'm gonna stay here, make sure someone can tell the others what's going on, and Ichigo can pretty much fly on his own and carry one other without getting impaired too bad. So six should be enough for you."

"Look, even if Kon is staying here, we can't all go," Harry argues.

"Harry's right, you all can't go," Ichigo agrees, getting looks of surprise, including one from Harry. "I'll go, by myself, and rescue Sirius. The rest of you will return to the castle."

"What?! No! I'm coming to rescue Sirius too!" Harry furiously refutes, to which Ichigo smirks.

"Well, then it's all of you or none. I'm not taking you anywhere without a decent team to back you up," he counters, staring Harry down. "Chances are Borudemoru isn't there alone and, depending on who's with him, I may not be able to fight all of them and protect you at the same time. So unless you bring all your friends here for their added strength, I won't let you go," Ichigo delivers his ultimatum. Truthfully, Ichigo wants the young wizards and witches to come. He's got a gut feeling that the enemy will be waiting there for him and if there isn't someone else there to handle Voldemort's wizard lackeys, he's going to have a very rough time of it.

"Fine, fine! They can come," Harry angrily concedes, knowing that it is beyond him to defeat the shinigami. He doesn't like the idea very much, mostly because time is of the essence and, "We still have to find more thestrals-"

"I don't think so," Luna says, looking behind Harry. "There's some more coming over here now. See?" And there are indeed more, six or seven in fact, picking their way between the trees and approaching the small group.

"Well then, mount up!" Ichigo orders. Harry, Neville, and Luna easily find a way up onto their thestral's back, but Hermione, Ron, and Ginny are left looking lost, unable to actually see their mounts. At least until Ichigo easily hoists them up by the back of their robes and deposits them one by one onto the backs of the other thestrals. He then crouches down and lets Orihime settle herself on his back before standing back up.

"We're all ready to go," Ichigo reports.

"Right. Um, the Ministry of Magic, visitors' entrance, London, then," Harry hesitantly instructs his thestral, wondering if it would actually know what to make of his words. "Er… if you know… where to go…"

It takes a moment for the thestral to move, but when it does, it is with explosive power. Its wings snap out and it rockets into the air, nearly unseating its rider. The wind roars in his ears as they speed away and Harry presses his face close to the thestral's neck to lessen the air's rush against his face. A quick glance reveals much the same going on with all the other riders and their steeds, Orihime being no exception while Ichigo looks as unbothered by the wind as the thestrals are as he runs across the sky with them. It's an odd sight, but at this point Harry would believe that Ichigo could move unbothered through almost any environment.

The flight is long, taking them from a sky of sunset hues into the dark of night, illuminated only by the faint light of the stars and the towns and settlements far below them. On the few occasions Harry glances back to make sure that everyone is still with him, it surprises him to find Ichigo continuing to keep pace with the thestrals without any apparent problems, including fatigue. But even the bizarreness of Ichigo's power can't distract Harry's thoughts from concern for Sirius. He's continually telling himself that if anything more had happened, he would have felt it. Not that his self-reassurances are helping him all that much. So it takes him by surprise when the thestral's direction changes to down, without slowing. Harry thought for sure that they would go crashing into the pavement with their speed, but is pleasantly surprised to find that the thestral touches down light as a feather.

Harry slides off his thestral and watches the others land softly, even Ichigo. And while Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville all dismount on the more shaky side, Luna and Orihime seem unaffected by the trip.

Harry then quickly ushers them to the old phone booth that is actually the entrance to the Ministry of Magic. Once they are all crammed into the booth, Ron dials the Ministry's number as instructed by Harry and Harry tells what he assumes is the magically automated response their names and purpose as fast as he can, eager to go down and rescue Sirius. They receive their badges from the phone's coin slot, each one bearing one of the party's name and the words 'Rescue Mission'.

Let the mission begin.

Author's Note

And so we make it to the beginning of the Ministry Raid, as I like to call it, and the show down with the OCs I made for the Bleach crew to fight. Hopefully those fights will be good to you guys 'cause I've never done special OCs like this before, just random hollows.

So I figure some of you might harp and say "But Urahara found Yukio and Riruka for the Thousand-year Blood War Arc, so how can he not find the rag-tag OCs" and, besides story convenience, I counter that with Riruka stayed in his shop for recovery, so he could have put some spirit tag on her during that time and Yukio runs a company, that's how Xcution was funded, so all Urahara would have to do is keep track of the company to find Yukio. The enemies here aren't staying in one place or allowing themselves to be caught, so it's more and harder work.

And apparently Kon runs faster than horses. He runs the hundred meter in 3.8 seconds, the fastest horse, according to Guinness World Records and math, could do it in about 5 seconds. So Kon could have outrun the centaurs, if he was unburdened and they didn't have bows.

Also, Ichigo is allowed to go fast and carry someone here because it's really no different than riding one of the thestrals, except that he might make a better windshield than a horse neck.

Oh yes! And since we're nearing the end of Weirdos from Japan (I'm hoping to finish it by the end of the year) I've been thinking about what to do next. Currently I'm leaning towards a little something called Harry Potter and the Children of Death, which you can find the first chapter of in my Bleach Story Idea Dump along with several other first chapters for ideas I've toyed with (including Weirdos from Japan), but basically I'm trying to get you to read stuff and give me feel for what my next popular thing should be. So go check it out!

Please comment/review.