Chapter Two

Recap:

Harry's jaw dropped. "I'm in hell!?" He exclaimed.

Chapter Start:

"Yes and if I were you I'd stop shouting. Drawing the attention of the Kushanāda would not be good for you right now."

"Kushanāda?" Harry said quietly, looking around. Fucked could not even begin to describe the situation Harry felt that he was in right now.

"See that huge lumbering beast over there with the samurai-like shoulder guard?"

Harry nodded, his eyes wide. "Jesus, that thing is huge." The Kushanāda looked to be a very large being that walked on all fours. It had an elongated skull-like head and a large piece of samurai-like armour on the right shoulders. It's head had raised up a little, and it seemed to be searching for something.

"Harry, try not to say holy names or prayers. Togabito - or sinnersare incapable of saying holy things. If they even try they can go mad. Since you're alive and can say it without problem, the holy energy created by use of the phrase will be sensed by the Kushanāda and they'll come after you. You aren't strong enough to face them yet, so try and keep to yourself and ignore the Kushanāda if they come near." Izanami suggested.

Harry nodded. "Okay, no Holy names, phrases or prayers. Gotcha." He paused. "Wait, did you just say 'aren't strong enough to face them yet'?" He asked slowly.

"Of course. How do you expect to survive in hell if you can't even defeat a first level Kushanāda?" Izanami said, as if it were obvious.

"Well, I was hoping to escape!" Harry exclaimed quietly. He seriously didn't want to fight one of those hulking beasts.

"Good luck with that. To be able to open the gates of hell and return to the living world, you have to be at least strong enough to defeat a Kushanāda. Even then, if you were a sinner, you wouldn't be able to leave because one, the Kushanāda would sense you leaving and two, the chains of hell would drag you back in."

"Damn." Harry cursed. He absently observed a few sinners try and attack a Kushanāda, then gulped as he saw them do absolutely nothing to it. It just waltzed right through them, not even paying attention to them, even crushing a few. "Hey Izanami, what happens if a sinner dies?"

"Hmm? Well at first it just looks as if they die like they would normally. After a while though, depending on how strong they are, they're resurrected on the fourth level of hell. The stronger they are, the quicker they're resurrected. However if they die enough times, or if they just have a week will, eventually they'll stop resurrecting and they'll decompose, their energy returning to the life-stream. The fifth level of hell is actually an enormous desert made completely out of the crushed bones of sinners."

Harry winced, that didn't sound good. Not at all. "So, how do you propose I get stronger?"

"Finally, the important question! What you haven't noticed is that you're actually a lot stronger than usual just by being here, in my domain. Since I'm inside you at the moment, as I get stronger so will you. Not by enough to defeat a Kushanāda so quickly though, so don't get your hopes up. I'll have to teach you some stuff first."

Harry sagged slightly in defeat, but stood up nonetheless. He looked around. The white block he was standing on was very large, and no sinners had made it up there. "This'll have to do." He muttered.

"Right. What I'm going to teach you is magic, but a different form of magic to the magic that wizards use."

"Why?" Harry had to ask.

"Because frankly, wizarding magic is shit. Honestly, I'm surprised wizards are still around. Even a low-class devil is more powerful than an experienced wizard."

Harry blinked. "Wait, did you just say that devils exist? Does that mean angels do as well? And if Devils exist, shouldn't I be running into them here, in hell?" He asked warily, looking around as if a devil was going to jump out at him.

"Yes, Devils and Angels do exist. No, you won't run into Devils here, they live in the Underworld, not Hell. And don't be too wary of them. They're actually a lot like humans, they just live for thousands of years and are infinitely more powerful. Oh, and they have bat-like wings on their back. Now, enough of that. We're wasting time. I want to get you started with magic as soon as possible."

"Okay, so what type of magic is it? Also, I don't have a wand." Harry said.

"Oh for the love of- I did say that I wasn't going to teach you wizarding magic, didn't I? You won't need a wand. Anyway, I'm going to teach you Judgement Magic, which isa form of Death Magic or Necromancy. Contrary to popular belief, while you can use Necromancy to summon and control corpses, that is not it's main function. Judgement magic is actually a form of light magic.I'll allow you to figure it out yourself, but all I'll say is that judgement is a pretty accurate way of describing the magic."

Harry was about to object, purely out of principal. Necromancy sounded like extremely dark magic, but he stopped himself. 'What's the point? I'm in hell right now. This is the only way out that I have confidence in. If an honest-to-goodness goddess is telling me it will work, then I should have faith. Besides, it's not like I'm in good company. Everyone here has committed heinous crimes.' Plus, the fact that Izanami claimed it was a form of light magic helped somewhat.

Despite that and contrary to popular wizarding belief, Harry didn't have that much of a problem with killing. Sure, he didn't like doing it and when he did it was only if there was no other choice. But if the choice was killing a bad guy or his friends being hurt, you can be damn sure the bad guy is going to bite the dust. And Hell was full of bad guys. If he was going to practice a form of Necromancy on people, it may as well be on murderers and rapists.

"What do I do." Harry said resolutely.

"That's the spirit! Now, to start off with, I'm going to send a tiny sliver of my own judgementmagic to you. I want you to get a feel of it, how it flows and how it interacts with the environment around it. When you feel like you have it, disperse it and try and form your own. Don't worry if it doesn't work immediately, if you need to you can even meditate on it. It most likely won't come quickly."

"Honestly, even I'm not an expert in it. It's just that I want you to learn a unique form of magic, thankfully the only ones capable of learning judgement magic are Death Gods and those they teach it to directly, and even then, most who know it are minor gods who only equal an average ultimate class devil. Thankfully, you ran into the only Primordialgod/goddesswho can, or at least knows how to use it." Izanami explained.

"Right." Harry said. He supposed that he should feel lucky, but the fact that he was currently trapped in hell was hindering his ability to focus on much else other than getting out of it. He decided to sit in a meditative position, thinking it might help him focus. He held his hands out in front of him, palms facing upwards. "Okay, I'm ready."

"Okay, now this might feel a little weird. It's not actually your magic, so it will feel foreign. Ignore that feeling, and focus on the key characteristics of the magic. Here we go."

Harry twitched. He could feel energy stirring within him, but he focused on the energy that he could feel flowing out from his heart and through to his arms. He could see the veins on his arm bulging, like more blood than usual was being forced through them. "Sorry about the pressure in the veins. I told you even I'm not the best user of this magic, so channelling it carefully and non-threateningly through someone else isn't the easiest thing to do." She apologized. She sounded apologetic, but even Harry could hear the concentration in her voice. It slightly intimidated him, if an Elder Goddess found this difficult, how was a mediocre magic using teen like him going to learn it?

Eventually the energy got to his hands, where it slowly flowed out into the open. It was less forceful than he thought it would be, and contrary to what he thought a form of Death magic would be, the energy was not pitch black or sickly green, but rather a very vivid Gold colour. It was mesmerising, and he could feel himself getting lost in the golden flame-like energy. No-wonder it was a form of light magic.

"Focus, Harry!" Izanami said sharply.

Harry snapped out of his trance. 'Right, focus. Focus...' He thought, staring at the energy again, but this time he focused not just on how it looked, but how it felt.

The way it flowed through his arms felt as if hot water were running over his skin. It didn't hurt, but he could most certainly feel the heat. When it left his body, it was like plasma; it flowed like gas but had ten times the power of fire. It didn't hurt him though, since it was none threatening it responded to him fondly, but also warily; as if telling him that it would obey him, but if he didn't respect it, it would consume him. He also knew that this was no-where near all it could do. If it was just a better form of fire, it would not be called Judgement Magic, nor would it be a form of Necromancy. He could tell that there was a lot more to this magic than he was seeing now.

After a few more moments of observing the plasma-like energy, he let it disperse. He let out a breath, realizing that he had been so focused that he had been holding his breath to focus even more. "My turn now." he murmured.

"Okay. I'm not going to do anything for you here. I'll tell you if you're doing it wrong, but I won't guide your magic. It will entirely be you producing and controlling it now." Izanami said. "But Harry, if you feel like you're losing control, DO NOT try and force it back under control. Either gently guide it back under control, or just release the energy. Believe me, holding onto this magic while it is hostile towards you is not something good for your health."

"Right." He nodded. He held his hands out in front of him again, but this time he blocked everything out, including Izanami. He absently noticed that no sinners or Kushanāda had noticed him yet, which surprised him.

'Wait, how am I going to draw the power out without a wand?' He paused.

"Harry, I've already told you that you don't need a wand. Look, think of it like this. I've already planted the seed of Judgement magic within your magical core by channelling it through you. All you have to do is visualize your magical core and then draw on it, while trying to convert it into the energy used for judgement magic. Now enough questions! Just shut up and get on with it, you're wasting time." She said impatiently. Harry gulped, nodding quickly. He forgot for a moment there that he was dealing with a primordial god.

He closed his eyes, using occlumency to visualize his magical core, something that he had to do to master fiendfyre. When he finally found it, he recognized the tell-tale ball of blue energy that represented his magical core. However, it had changed from the last time he saw it. While most of it was still blue, wisps of it were turning gold. Also, right next to it was another ball of energy, only this one was entirely black. It was also more than twenty times the size of his own core. He assumed that this was Izanami's, as that was the only way he could explain it.

"You're correct." She confirmed. "Also, I wouldn't recommend touching it. It's nowhere near stable enough yet."

Harry nodded. He reached out with his metaphysical arms and touched his own core, visualizing it flowing through his body and out through his hands. He could feel the magic moving, but as of now it was just pure magic with no actual attribute to it, so it was just dissipating on contact with air.

Slowly, he remembered the feeling of Izanami's magic that had flowed through him previously, trying to change his own magic to match the feeling. It was difficult, so difficult in fact that he couldn't do it at all for the first hour. No matter how much he tried, it just wouldn't do anything. The only thing that happened was that his magic changed colour, which wasn't really a big deal according to Izanami since it was already externalized.

After an hour and a half had passed, Harry tried something new. Instead of trying so hard to force the energy to change, he took a deep breath and relaxed. He pictured the feeling of the magic Izanami showed him, then gently willed his magic to change into it. He felt his magic moving slightly differently, but other than that he couldn't tell since his eyes were closed to help him relax.

"Well done, Harry. You did it." Izanami said, a distinctly proud tone in her voice, causing Harry to open his eyes and grin at the sparking gold looking fire dancing in his hands.

* TimeSkip – 1 month later *

"Pleeeeeaaassseee..." Harry groaned, sitting cross legged on the grey dusty floor of the third circle of Hell/Yomi. He was resting his head on his hand, the elbow leaning on his right knee. The other hand was tracing circles in the sand. His clothes from before were ruined from his training, so he replaced them with a now tatty and torn black cloak and trousers. It was crude, but he couldn't really be choosy in hell, he would have to wait until he went back to the human world before he could worry about clothes.

Harry heard a slightly annoyed sigh echo in his mind. "No, I won't open the gate yet. You still haven't completed the final task I gave you." Izanami said.

"Excuse me." They both ignored the voice to their left.

The black haired eighteen year old slumped slightly. "Do I really need to though? I mean, I'm not exactly eager to confront that many Kushanāda, even if you say they won't attack me."

"Uh, hello...?" It trailed off, noticing Harry's non-responsiveness. "Wait, are you ignoring me?!"

Harry turned a bit more away from the annoying voice and carried on what he was doing, unknowingly pissing off the owner of the voice even more. "Yes, you need to Harry. Despite being on the level of a lower tier Ultimate-class Devil, you still have the body of a human. It puts you at a severe disadvantage. This way, you can even out the playing field without having to firmly plant yourself as a member of a specific faction."

"You have five seconds to answer me, before I come over there and smack you!" The voice said, and Harry blinked.

"Huh?" He turned, then saw the orange haired teen he met in Karakura a little over a month ago. He looked the same mostly, only now he wore a white Shitagi, black Kosode and Hakama; he has two white shoulder plates crossing his chest in an X shape that hold two black swords in place, with the plate on his left shoulder having three sections adorned with red scales, and a white cloak with black markings tied around his waist.

"Ah, it's you!" Harry jumped to his feet, then put his hand to his chin. "Hmm. What was your name again..." He trailed off, struggling to remember the name.

Ichigo sweat-dropped. "Ichig-"

"Ichigo Kurosaki!" Harry snapped his fingers. The orange haired teen looked startled, and Harry tilted his head. "Don't you remember me? Harry Potter?" He prompted.

Ichigo narrowed his eyes in thought. "...I have no idea." he muttered.

Harry slumped a little. "You saw me breathing in the air in Karakura and asked me if I was okay since I looked a little pale."

Ichigo blinked then widened his eyes. "That was you!? You look so different!" he exclaimed. He frowned suddenly, putting a hand on one of the swords. "Did you escape from hell back then?" He asked dangerously.

Harry waved his hands frantically. "No! No! Apparently some weird guy with tentacles for hands threw me in here while I was... sleeping." He said. He didn't tell Ichigo about why he was unconscious, he didn't really think that telling him he had a primordial God sealed inside him was a good idea. Ichigo looked sceptical, so Harry let his energy surround him, an action that would ordinarily reveal at least the shadow of the hell chains. "See, no chains. I'm telling the truth!" He was right, the only thing that Ichigo could see was the golden energy.

'Just like that time I fought Kokuto...' Ichigo thought, indeed, Harry's aura looked exactly like the energy Ichigo used when the Kushanāda helped him against Kokuto two years ago. "Fair enough. What are you still doing here? The Kushanāda should have found you by now and thrown you out." He said, relaxing slightly but still resting his hand on his sword as a slight warning.

Harry sighed in relief. 'Damn, I may be a hell of a lot stronger than a month ago, but this guy feels like he's on the upper levels of Ultimate-class!' He thought. "I've kind of been training..." He chuckled sheepishly.

Ichigo blanched. "Training!? Why the fuck are you training in HELL!?" He shouted incredulously. Harry made to answer, but Ichigo just raised up a hand, then used the other to massage his temples. "You know what, I don't know, nor do I really care. Just... do you need a way out?" He asked. "I came down here to... return something that I got from the Kushanāda. Once I'm done I can get you out if you want?" He offered.

Harry shook his head. "Thanks, but it's not necessary. I can leave any time I want, I just have something to do before I leave. You said you've got to return something to the Kushanāda. I assume that means that you have to go down to the fifth level?" He asked.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Yeah, actually I do. I won't question how exactly you can leave on your own, since I saw you outside before. But how do you know that's where I was going?"

Harry turned slightly serious. "Because that's where I'm going too."

* Scene Change – Fourth Level *

Harry peered over the edge of the Lava pond, absently trying to see how far down it went. He stumbled when Ichigo pulled him back, causing him to fall on his ass. "What the- what was that for?" Harry muttered, getting up while rubbing his back.

Ichigo peered around, as if searching for something. "We have company."

Harry paused, then settled into what appeared to be a relaxed stance, though his eyes were hard. "Togabito or Kushanāda?" He asked.

Ichigo didn't answer for a second, then he smirked. "Kushanāda don't usually stay on this level for long. As for who the company is, it's an old friend." He chuckled sinisterly, and Harry sweated slightly at the double layered voice.

"Well, well. If it isn't Ichigo Kurosaki. Back so soon to see me? It's only been a month." Harry looked up at the giant skeleton sitting in the lava to see someone sitting on its head. He wore the same black body suit that Harry remembered from the people inside the alley a month ago, only he seemed to have forgone the mask and hood. Over the black suit he wore a long black cloak with red lining, and had several hell chains attached to his body that were also worn decoratively. He has purple hair parted in a long fringe on the left side of his face.

Harry immediately didn't like the man, because he was obviously a lower level sinner, meaning he had done very bad things while alive. He looked to Ichigo, and blinked when he saw the now calm expression on his face. Before Harry had thought that Ichigo was absolutely burning with rage, but it seemed as if he had put a reign on it.

"...Shuren. Reformed have you?" Ichigo said.

Shuren sneered down at Ichigo hatefully. "Only just now, if you can believe it. I don't think that Taikon, Gunjo, Garogai or Murakamo will reform for a good few decades after what you and Kokuto did." He said.

'Ah, so that was why Ichigo was here before now. But what would the Kushanāda have given him..?' Harry wondered. "Ichigo, who is this?" He asked.

"Hmm?" Shuren glanced at Harry in confusion, probably wondering who he was.

"His name is Shuren. He's a Togabito, obviously." He said tightly.

Harry nodded. "Yes, I got that, but how did he know you?"

Ichigo sighed. "A little over a month ago, he kidnapped my sister, Yuzu. He brought her down here and she was corrupted by Hell's miasma. She died." He said, looking down.

Harry immediately felt guilty. "Oh, look, I'm sorr-"

"It's fine." Ichigo interrupted. "I got him back good, don't you worry. And my sister is fine now, thanks to the Kushanāda." He smiled.

Harry could tell though that Ichigo was still extremely livid at having to see the man again, and to be honest from his description Harry wasn't so happy to meet him either. 'Izanami?' He asked softly.

"...Of course. He earned his penalty when he involved a child." Izanami said readily.

Harry smirked slightly. "Hey Ichigo?" He said conversationally, slowly raising his hands into a praying position whilst closing his eyes.

Ichigo glanced at him. "Yeah?"

"You mind if I get rid of him?" He asked.

The other teen rose an eyebrow but shrugged. "Go for it."

Shuren glanced between the two, not being able to hear them since they were talking a little quietly. "What are you two fuckers talking about!?" He exclaimed.

"Be Silent." All noise ceased when Harry's eyes snapped open, now being completely black, as if looking into them would cause you to fall into a pit. His voice had turned female, but it was a little scratchy, though Harry would comment that it was much better than it was a month ago. Still, the presence of the voice cause both Shuren and Ichigo to take a step back in shock, a chill creeping up both of their spines.

"H-Harry?" Ichigo stuttered. This looked all too similar to Hollowification, except Harry wasn't forming a mask, he had no irises, even yellow ones; and the voice belonged to a different gender.

Izanami turned Harry's head to face Shuren, who had stood and was now clearly sweating in fear. "I-It can't be, surely..?" He said, sounding slightly crazed.

Izanami tilted her/Harry's head. "Oh? You can tell who I am?" She narrowed her eyes. "No... You don't know who I am, but you know what I am, hmm?" She chuckled throatily, the scratchiness serving to creep the two other people out immensely. She suddenly stopped, looking back to Shuren with a face of disgust. "No matter. Shuren; For your crimes in your time during life, I find you... guilty." The ground cracked, and Ichigo jumped back when dozens of Hell chains shot up from the ground. Shuren tried to run, but they all impacted his legs, wrapping around them and making him fall to the floor.

Izanami walked forwards, not stopping her speech all the while. "For the crime of not repenting for your actions during your time in Yomi, I find you... Guilty." Another set of chains shot up and wrapped around his right arm. "For the crime of attempting to escape Yomi before returning to the life-stream, I find you... Guilty!" Yet again chains shot up and wrapped around Shuren, binding his arm and his entire torso, now leaving only his head free.

Izanami was right in front of Shuren now, and the Togabito looked positively hysterical. "No, please, I'm begging you, don't..."

Izanami ignored him. "And lastly, for kidnapping an innocent child, for bringing her into hell, for attempting to use her to bribe your way out of hell; I FIND YOU GUILTY!" She exclaimed, causing a huge arm made of black energy to burst from the ground and grab onto a screaming Shuren, then quickly descend into the lower depths of hell to imprison him in an even worse punishment than before.

Izanami stood quietly in Harry's body for a moment. "It is done." She said finally, before Harry's eyes closed and then opened, back to Harry's now normal yellow colour.

Harry clapped his hands and looked at Ichigo with a grin. "Right, time to go to the fifth level, hmm?"

END CHAPTER

Woah! An actual second chapter!

Anyway, here's the second chapter to the story.

For those of you wondering, no, Harry will not be able to let Izanami take over and curbstomp everyone they come across except Ophis and Great Red. The only reason she can take over so easily right now is because they are literally inside of the Domain she rules over.

Thanks for reading!

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