Warnings: AU, Gender-swap (features a Female Ichigo), violence, Ginny-bashing for sure….that's all for now.
Disclaimer: Tite Kubo owns Bleach and J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter. Honestly, if I owned Harry Potter, Ginny would be burning in the deepest pits of hell, and if I owned Bleach, Ichigo's final hollow form would be seen a lot more often…
Chapter 5:
"Why?", questioned Ichigo "what possible motive could he have to join with this dark lord? Nothing makes sense…."
Harry must have sensed her distress at having heard that her torturer was so close to what she now considered her escape. He again provided the emotional support she needed by wrapping an arm around her shoulders. The physicality of the act itself surprised him. Normally he was wary of physical affection due to not having much experience with touch not hurting, but now he found himself not only offering it, but craving it from the person beside him.
Harry tuned out the Headmaster informing Ichigo of the state of the war, having heard the same thing multiple times on the extendable ears, but had his interest piqued when Dumbledore asked what Aizen's prescence meant for the war effort.
"In esscense, your screwed. From what I've heard of your batttles, you wouldn't last a second on my battlefeild, which is exactly what Aizen can bring to the table."
"What about that soul society place? Could you perhaps send word to them and have them help us….you are a captain after all?"
"That's tricky….I may be a captain, but I am also expendable. The captain commander himself had been prepared to kill all his subordinates to destroy Aizen had I not shown up. What also needs to be factored in is that the war may not have completely relocated. Karakura town was a lynch-pin to Aizen gaining the king's key as it is spirit enriched land and contained the requisite number of souls. If attacks continue in my hometown, the soul society won't be able to sacrifice even a small contingent of warriors to aide us. Another factor that needs to be addressed is the nature of Aizen's power itself. I don't know if you have much information about how we classify power so just bear with me. All soul reapers have four basic fighting methods. They are as follows: Zanjutsu which is the art of the sword, Kido or the demon arts, hoho which is fast movement, and hakuda refering to any unarmed fighting techniques. Aizen is amazing at all of these, but by far the largest issue…and the one that is keeping me from involving the gotei, is his Zanpakto.
Kingsley than spoke up, "what is a zanpakto? I have heard of them before, but never really understood what was different about them.."
Ichigo scratched her head and said "It's pretty difficult to explain…..I know! I'll just show you." With that she tapped an area in front of her and opened up a smaller garganta that she had used to store Zangetsu so that she could run faster. Those in the room watched with awe as she pulled out what looked like a giant meat cleaver wrapped in bandages.
"This is Zangetsu", she stated with a flourish.
"You talk about that sword as if it's alive, but that's impossible", one person asked.
"You guys are the ones with screeching paintings, and misty memory birdbaths, and your saying that my sword having a soul is impossible?", mumbled Ichigo incredulously. "All zanpakto have a spirit, and it's up to the shinigami to learn there names to release there true form. This is Zangetsu's true form. If the shingami and the spirit get close enough, and they are able to subjugate the Zanpakto's spirit, they can reach the final release which is called bankai. My bankai is called Tensa Zangetsu, and it compresses all my power allowing me to fight at incredible speeds." Ichigo could sense that they were still skeptical, so she placed her hand on the grip of Zangetsu, unfurling the wrappings in the process, and pushed some of her spiritual pressure into the blade. Everyone in the room (save for Ichigo of course) became tense at the apeearance of a scraggly man in his thirties with long dark hair, a black ankle-length cloak, and a pair of sunglasses.
Ron, not liking this new intrusion yelled "Who the hell are you?" All the stranger said was "I am…Zangetsu."
After a few words with her unshakable zanpakto spirit, people finally understood why soul reapers got so defensive when people refered to them as mere swords. Realizing that she hadn't told them about what made Aizen so deadly, she began to contemplate how to once again take control of the conversation, luckily she was saved by the headmaster's eerry timing.
"You said that the reason you didn't want to involve your group was because of this man' sword spirit? Could you elaborate?"
"His zanpakto is named Kyoka Suigetsu, and is probably one of the deadlier ones out there….especially in the hands of a master, which he most definitely is. It's power lies in illusions. Aizen calls it Kanzen Saimin, or perfect hypnosis. It can perfectly replecate the sight, smell, feel, taste, sound, and overall aura of anything and all that is required is for you to see his sword release once. Before he defected Aizen managed to catch every member of the Gotei 13 in his illusions, so he could theoretically make them kill each other by making them think there ally was him. To put it into perspective, he convinced the whole of soul society that he was dead, when in reality he had killed and taken control of Central 46. He managed to make trained warriors of the best caliber think that the 46 members of the governing body were meeting as usual. I am the only one able to match his strength that hasn't seen the release of his zanpakto. If you hear the words 'shatter kyoka suigetsu', close your eyes. Your life is surely forfeit, but at least you won't be forced to kill your loved ones. Now that we have this settled, what am I going to do?"