Moa: Hi there! As I promised, the chapter is here! Whohoo!

Thanks to all the awesome people who reviewed and thanks to Sponges fan for her help.

Showdown: Hichigo vs The mysterious Thing. And I warn you all... If you can not stand bad-written action scenes... Cover you're eyes, they'll bleed. This is the first time I ever try to write something even with a small resemblance to fighting...

!IMPORTANT! I'm going to edit the first chapters, it shouldn't effect on this chapter but I'm going to call Hichigo "Kurosaki" instead of "Shirosaki".

And the one-shot collection is out! It's called Wicked Pieces of Life, go check it out it doesn't take that much out of your precious time...

Disclaimer: You know it already.

Oh yeah, just to avoid confusions:

"Talking"

'Thinking'

Flashback

Enjoy!

Hichigo ducked to the side and the thing missed him with just an inch. It hit the pavement on the other slide with an sickening wet sound, like something slimy had just hit the floor. Hichigo turned around to face it and felt himself cringe with disgust. The thing had now lost everything that could have been a form, now it looked like something along the lines of a candy that you had left in water for a long time... And then dropped it on the floor.

The thing didn't once again move. Had it died from the impact? It really wasn't moving at all. Hichigo moved closer, ready to strike if the thing so much as moved a muscle. He reached his hand forward to touch the things slimy skin.

The thing moved incredibly fast, taking Hichigo by surprise. He barely managed to dodge the claw like thing that had emerged from the brown pile. This time he couldn't deny it, the claw and the hand it was attached to were definitely one of a Hollows. What on earth had happened to it? And how had it ended up here?

Hichigo didn't have time to muse over the thing any longer, it was charging at him again. This time it nudged Hichigo's shoulder.

"Damn it!" He cursed and jumped, trying to land a kick in the area he thought the Hollow's mask would be. Surprisingly the Hollow didn't even try to dodge and Hichigo's foot landed square on the monster's assumed face. But the effect was not the one Hichigo was looking for, his foot went straight through the Hollow's body.

'What the...' Was the only thing he had time to think before he felt a strange burning sensation all along his leg and forcefully pulled it out. His jeans were fine but his leg was covered in small burns.

"No physical contact, then." He muttered to himself. Then before he had the time to blink a claw was thrust forwards and hit him square in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. He flew backwards and hit the pavement on the other side of the street. He lifted himself up and stared at the Hollow in surprise.

'Is it just me, or is that thing moving faster?' It wasn't just him, the mutated Hollow was definitely moving faster than before.

He cursed and dug his pockets for his wand. The stick felt unnaturally light in his hand, and right now he would have given his left arm to able to use Zangetsu. It would be so easy to just cut the thing in half.

"Shit!" He shouted as the hollow had lunged at him again, this time aiming for his head. Hichigo had no time to step aside.

'Come on! Spell, spell, spell...' "Incendio!"

Flames burst from the tip of his wand and the hollow was forced to stop dead in it's tracks, but other than that the spell did next to nothing. But Hichigo had the time to step aside and wrack his brains for something useful. Something that would make the thing unable to move...That's it! "Impedimenta!"

The Hollow stopped moving and Hichigo could to his dismay see that the hollow was feeling a lot better than he was. It looked more like it had grown stronger! And it wasn't as formless as it had once been... It looked like it was braking out of that pile of goo that had once been it's body.

'Getsuga Tenshoo would be great right now.' He thought angrily and glared at the Hollow while trying to come up with something, anything that would have effect on it. What was that stunning spell now again?

But the Hollow had gained movement as he thought and a clawed hand thrust out towards his head.

"Gah!" Hichigo cried out as one of the claws came dangerously close 'Doesn't that thing ever get tired?'

Apparently no, because the next thing he knew was that he was pinned under the hollows body as the beast was snarling in his face. The brown mass widened like a mouth and made a move to consume him whole. Hichigo reacted on his instinct and shouted the first thing that came up to his mind.

"Expulso!"

And the hollow exploded right above him, covering the whole alley in slimy brown... Stuff. The Hollow dissolved into small particles of spiritual energy but the slime remained where it was. And apparently the slime was poisonous.

Hichigo lifted himself cursing of the ground, he too was covered in slime. It burned at every place it touched his skin and he tried in vain to wipe it off. But that wasn't what agitated him the most.

The Hollow had clearly been searching for something, and now Hichigo had no idea what. And he didn't know who the Hollow served and not even why it was here! He was in square one, god dammit! He kicked a piece of rock in frustration. The rock flew a few meters and landed on a pile of leftover slime. Hichigo found the sickening wet sound quite satisfactory.

Hichigo sighed and started walking towards the direction the Hollow had come from. He had no choice but to try to follow the very weak trail of spiritual energy the hollow had left behind. It had already mostly disappeared and Hichigo had to stop and turn around a few times because he had walked past it without noticing.

And eventually, it disappeared altogether.

Hichigo just stood on a shabby-looking street with a few offices, a pub and an old telephone-box. He tried in vain to find the trail but he came back empty-handed. And seriously pissed.

It wasn't before an old lady with her dog stared at him funnily that he realized that his hood had fallen off at some point. He pulled it on and flipped the finger at the lady, who shot him a last disapproving glance at him before walking off. Hichigo scanned his surroundings once more before he too headed back towards his temporary home.

Hichigo's mood hadn't lifted as he arrived at the Grimmauld place. He walked in and slammed the door shut behind him, forgetting Mrs Black. The portrait started screaming her lungs out in seconds, and Hichigo had had enough.

"Oh, would you just..." he said in a deadly calm voice before turning to face the ugly old hag.

"SHUT UP!" He roared and punched the painting in it's drawn face.

Mrs Black fell silent and stared at Hichigo in fear. There were her screaming mouth was just a few second ago was now a hole that reached a good few inches inside the stone wall on the other side of the painting. Hichigo shot her a glare and removed his fist from the wall. He had all the intention in the world to just get to his room and sleep the next day off when he heard a shrike from the top of the stairs. Mrs Black's screaming had alerted the rest of the house, and now they all were gathered at the top of the stairs.

Mrs Weasley was staring at him as if she had seen a ghost, hands covering her mouth. Hichigo just stared at her before walking up the stairs and pushing through the crowd, he decided that a shower would be nice right now. He was, after all, covered head-to-toe in slime.

Both Moody and Sirius looked like they wanted to say something but let it slide, the teenagers were staring at him in curiosity. Hichigo wasn't in the mood to say anything to any of them so he just walked past.

Leaving his hoody in his room he took a quick shower, wincing when the water hit his leg. It looked really bad now that he looked at it closely, just like something had tried to digest it... As disgusting as that sounded. Hichigo just sighed and closed the water.

When he emerged from the bathroom in a fresh set of clothes he found the the hall, for his happiness, empty. So he just limped to his room and fell straight in bed.

But he couldn't sleep, he felt way too restless. Right now he would love a decent spar, not one with him trying not to get killed just because he couldn't figure out how to use that god forsaken stick! Hichigo frowned at the thought and picked the wand out of his pocket. Ebony and a dragon heart-string from a Antipodean Opaleye.

/Flashback/

Hichigo heard a bell go off somewhere at the back of the shop as he entered. The shop was dusty and the walls were covered in boxes, the only furniture was a old couch and a desk.

"Hello?" He called out. His voice rang oddly around the shop.

Suddenly he heard a dusty old voice behind him.

"Looking for a wand, Mister?"

Hichigo spun around to find a thin man that looked just as dusty as his shop staring at him. The man didn't wait for an answer and walked to Hichigo and inspected him closely, or more importantly, his eyes.

"Interesting eyes you've got there, a disease of some sort?"

Hichigo took a step back before answering, the man had hypnotic eyes.

"You could say that." He said with a tone he hoped was giving the man the message that he didn't want to talk about that matter.

"Hmmm.." The man that Hichigo presumed was the shop owner, Olivander looked at him for a moment before speaking up again.

"I haven't seen you here before... Are you foreign?"

"You could say that, too. And yes, I'm lookin' for a wand."

"Ah, of course." Mr Olivander said and pulled a measurer out of his pocket. "Hold out you're wand-arm."

Hichigo held out his right arm and Olivander began measuring everything possible distance from the distance between his fingertips and shoulder to the distance between his knuckles. It took a while to Hichigo to notice that the measurer was measuring by it's self. Olivander was searching for something between the selves. The old man waved his hand and the measurer dropped to the floor.

"Here, let's try this..." He said and took a thin oblong box out of the pile of identical boxes. Inside was a thin wooden stick, a wand.

"Eight and a half inches, holly and a heart-string of a dragon. Give it a wave.

Hichigo took the wand and raised it but before he had the time to swing it Olivander had already plucked it out of his hand and was searching for a new one.

"Try this one, nine inches, marble and a feather from a phoenix."

And so it went. Olivander gave him a wand and before he had the time to wave it the wand was taken off of him and Olivander was giving him the next one. Hichigo began to feel slightly ridiculous. What kind of reaction was the man waiting for, exactly?

"Hmmm, tricky, are you? Maybe this one, yes I think this will be it... Nine inches, ebony and a heart-string of a dragon."

Olivander took one more box out of the selves and gave the wand inside to Hichigo. Hichigo noticed the difference immediately. The wand felt warm under his fingers, like a living creature. He lifted it and waved it shortly through the air, black and white sparks exploded from the tip that cast a eerie glow on the shop walls. Olivander seemed frozen and deep in thought.

"Yes, I didn't think I could sell that wand... But I can see the match."

Olivander took the wand from Hichigo and packed it in into the same oblong box it came from. All the time muttering "such a pity" to himself.

"Excuse me,"

Olivander looked up when heard Hichigo speak up.

"You keep repeatin' yourself."

Olivander looked thoughtful for a minute before he seemed to decide on something and opening his mouth to speak.

"The dragon heart-string is the only core wand makers use where you have to kill the animal to get it. And myself I think the best way to make a wand is to find the core myself."

Olivander held a pause and seemed to contemplate whether or not to speak anymore.

"The core in this wand is taken from an Antipodean Opaleye that is known for being the most beautiful one of the dragons. It's not a beautiful creature in it's self, but on dragon scale... Definitely the most beautiful of it's kind. The dragon I took the heart string from took this to a whole new level. The dragon was wounded when I found it and it wouldn't have lived very long anyways. But killing it was still a pity."

Olivander held a second pause, he looked almost... sad.

"The dragon looked at me for a moment and for a while looked surprisingly clever, even as dragons are known for being monstrous beasts. It looked really forlorn at the moment, but it wasn't afraid and fought until the end. A wand like that doesn't usually choose a wizard, too stubborn."

This time Olivander looked at Hichigo for a long while before continuing.

"Even so, this wand is a perfect match for you, mister. I hope you understand."

Hichigo didn't understand.

/Flashback ends/

And he still didn't.

Hichigo inspected the wand once again, like he had done on countless nights like this before. The black wood was smooth and felt like silk to the touch. It was simple but beautiful in it's own way, just like Olivander had said, "The most beautiful of it's kind".

Finally Hichigo felt his eyes close and he fell asleep.

Moa: Oh dear lord, this took forever to write! But now it's done and I can focus on the plot-holes of the first chapter. For now, send me PMs with you're ideas for one-shots and I will try to write them all... Assuming I won't get over twenty or so...

Oh, and I figured the have-to-kill-the-dragon part myself... So it's probably incorrect, but I don't see a way that you can remove a heart-string without killing the dragon. And the Antipodean Opaleye is mentioned in Fantastic Beasts an where to find them, I didn't come up with it myself. And if someone is interested, heres my explanation why I made a Hichigo have that wand:

Ebony: It's the only kind of tree that is pitch black that I know about... And such thing as white tree doesn't exist. (Black is the color of mourning and rebellion. It's too associated with death and evil, but also with honor and nobility all in different cultures. The Ebony tree itself stand for Hypocrisy and Blackness.)

Heart-string of a dragon: Phoenix? No. Unicorns? Absolutely not... Dragons are the only ones left.

Antipodean Opaleye: Their both white and have issues with their eyes. (Actually the Antipodean Opaleye is known for not attacking unless it's hungry but let's ignore that, shall we? XD)

Nine inches: Free styling here people...

Please review, it really keeps me going!

Flames will be used to burn the butt-ugly carpet in my house.