Soldier

A/N: As a reminder: This story is set during the Zanpakuto Arc in the middle of the Huedo Mundo arc. So Shinji was still a exiled visord and hadn't regained his captaincy yet.

Disclaimer: See chapter 1. Reviews are welcomed, flames are not. Please note that the italicized speech is in Japanese. Kreacher is speaking English. Japanese terms are listed below if you are interested.

WARNING: There is some swearing in this chapter! We are sure those of you that know Japanese will pick it up, but we did have to post a warning. Any flames on this issue will be deleted. So don't bother posting.

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Chapter 17: Name of Heaven

Darkness had fallen, and Harry's day still wasn't over. He still had one more piece of business to do before he could seek the comfort of his bed.

He was still upset, and angry, that the headmaster dared try to invade his mind. Thank Merlin for Muramasa. Although he had to wonder – how many years and how many times had the headmaster read his mind, and why?

Harry snorted. He'd bet he could figure out the why; Albus Dumbledore was a master manipulator who claimed everything he did was for the so called 'greater good'. Look how he'd forced him into that thrice-damned tournament, kept him ignorant of his heritage, and how he'd kept Harry isolated from his so called friends this past summer.

Muramasa agreed.

"Don't worry, Harry. That old fool will never invade your mind again as long as I am with you," came the calm assurance of the zanpatoku spirit.

"I'm glad I have you Muramasa. You've been the light to my darkness these past few weeks."

"I too am glad." The warmth in his reply soothed Harry's lonely soul.

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The Forbidden Forest was called 'forbidden' for a reason, but that didn't stop Harry from entering. Sirius and Remus were waiting for him in the clearing he had described to them earlier, just inside the forest not far from the castle.

"So how did the meeting go after I left?" Harry asked as he stepped into the clearing.

"About what you might predict," Remus said. "I'll show you when you come to Grimmauld Place. Although, many of them were wondering what you did to Molly. It was pretty impressive.

"Several were disgusted with Albus for trying legilimency on you. Many others are still following Albus' lead on claiming you are going dark. Molly was very vocal about it."

"Harry what was that spell?" asked Sirius.

Harry shrugged. "It's one of my sensei's favorite spells," Harry replied, sidestepping the question adroitly. "He's pretty powerful in his own right." He looked over the clearing before continuing, "I could care less what those in that office think of me."

Then he sighed, rubbing his hands over his tired face. "I can't wait until this is over and I am free to be myself again. I hate all this acting. It just isn't me."

"I can imagine," Remus commented as he too looked around the clearing.

Sirius, who had been setting perimeter alert wards, came back over to the pair. "Think it's big enough pup?"

"Should be," Harry agreed as he stepped just inside the wards. "Most of it will happen in the air anyways. Why don't you call Kreacher? He has the right to see this," Harry mused with a slight smile.

"Harry, what do you have planned?" Remus asked as Sirius called the ancient elf.

The old house elf appeared. "Disgraced master calls Kreacher?"

"We're waiting for one more person," Harry said. "He should be arriving any minute now. You might want to do a translation spell as we will be speaking in Japanese. Kreacher, stay close."

"Already done," Remus told him. They'd cast the spell before Harry had entered the clearing.

"So when will your cousin appear?" Sirius asked.

Suddenly a mist arose high over the trees as glowing Japanese shoji doors appeared and slid open. Through a blinding white light, two black butterflies fluttered out as two figures followed them.

"Konbanwa Ichigo-kun, konbanwa Shinji-sensei," Harry greeted with a slight bow.

Remus and Sirius listened quietly, glad they could understand the Japanese being spoken. Mimicking Harry, both bowed respectfully.

"Oi! Runt! Geta Boshi said you found a soul fragment!" Ichigo replied, standing mid-air several feet off the ground.

Ichigo was dressed in the traditional black shihakusho outfit of a soul reaper. A huge, white-wrapped meat cleaver shaped katana strapped to his back.

Shinji Hirako had straight blonde hair and a wide, cheshire-like grin on his face. He was wearing a beige shirt and tie with tan slacks.

"Oi! Who's this?" the orange-haired teen asked, pointing to the trio beside Harry.

"Ichigo-kun this is my godfather, Sirius-ojisan and another good friend of my parents, Remus-ojisan. This little guy is Kreacher, a house-elf. Guys, this is my cousin Ichigo-kun. And this is Shinji-sensei, one of my teachers. Oh, and did I mention Ichigo is also a substitute Shinigami while Shinji's a former one? He's now a visord." Harry introduced his cousin and mentor to the Marauders with a smug look, knowing that Ichigo's and Shinji's strong spirit pressure would be taken as magic.

Kreacher stepped behind Harry muttering. "Death gods, scary little half-blood knows Death gods! He is more powerful than Kreacher thought."

The two wizards shuddered and tried to speak. There was something about the hovering pair that sent shivers up their spines as both stepped over the door's thresh- hold. Kreacher's muttered words only added to the feeling. The doors slid closed behind visitors and disappeared.

"Well, let's get started, shall we?" Shinji said with that weird, cheesy grin of his. "I'm not really looking forward to this," he said with a shudder.

Ichigo gave Harry a curt nod. "Let's do this."

Harry raised his arm and called, "Whisper Muramasa!" A long, gleaming katana shimmered into existence in his hand.

"Is he behaving himself?" Shinji asked with curiosity, studying the zanpakuto then relaxing at Harry's nod. "Looks like the pair of you have gotten even closer, which is good. I'm still surprised that the Soul Society hasn't realized he's still around."

"Muramasa and Byakuya-sama have an understanding," Harry said with a chuckle. Being around Ichigo had seen Harry pick up some of his cousin's attitude over the summer. "Well, I must say it's been interesting. Old Fudge didn't know what hit him, and Dumbledore managed to tick him off. Surprised the old codger's still alive, but Muramasa's been great!"

"Oi! What's that!?" Ichigo asked, looking back to Kreacher, who was still muttering about how scary Harry was.

"Kreacher? He's a house elf, I told you about them. He hid this thing and tried to destroy it on his late master's command, but couldn't," Harry said as he held up the small glowing energy box that had the tainted locket in it.

"This the soul fragment then?" Shinji asked, breaking the barrier around the locket as he whistled. "My, my, this is one evil little piece of kuso!"

"Whoa! I can feel the evil from here!" Ichigo said as he reached for the hilt of his sword. "Who wants to do it?"

"I must, Ichigo-kun," Harry said, stepping up. "I called you in, just in case. There are things in this forest that can give hollows a run for their money in nastiness."

"Good call, runt," Shinji agreed. "With the evil radiating from it, we all know what's going to happen."

"Just what is going to happen?" Sirius asked nervously, the foreign language falling easily from his tongue.

"He'll be doing a Konso, or what you would call a soul burial," Shinji said. "Get ready Ichigo-kun. Once this is over, we'll probably have company."

"Ah." Ichigo reached up and grabbed the handle of the huge wrapped zanpakuto strapped to his back as Remus and Sirius gawked in shock at the size of the blade.

Harry took a firm grip on Muramasa and tapped the hilt to the closed locket. A cloud shrieked as it rose from it. He was thankful that he hadn't needed to open the horcrux. The Konso was very powerful, and simple. One tap from a zanpakuto's hilt, backed up by spirit pressure, and the soul was on its way to the After Life. Riddle had made a fatal mistake in dealing with soul magic without proper knowledge.

The forest grew even more dark and forbidding. The five men looked up into the misty night sky as something started to appear, blocking the light of the stars. Kreacher quivered in fear as he clung to Harry's robe.

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Remus and Sirius shivered uncontrollably. They had never experienced a night such as this one, nor the fear it evoked. After dealing with the soul fragment, the forest grew frigid, plumes of white mist were visible with each breath they took.

'And I thought Azkaban was hell on earth. That. . . that. . . ' Sirius thought, heaving the last of his dinner onto the forest floor.

Overhead a whirling dark cloud blocked out the night sky. Harry could hear a woman's scream and knew that the dementors were coming.

Ichigo snorted, pulling his zanpakato free from its wrapping. "I can see why you called me. This feels like that pair I dealt with last summer."

"Ah," Harry agreed, backing away from the fight. Although he had became proficient with Muramasa, Ichigo was a master with his zanpakuto.

Shinji pulled out a strange device. "I'm sure Urahara wants all the information we can gather about them. Let's at least leave one for me to capture, Ichigo."

The air grew heavy and even more icy.

"Harry! We need to get out of here!" Remus shouted, reaching for his wand as Sirius collapsed into his arms,.

"No! Wait! Let Ichigo deal with them!"

Ichigo jumped into the sky as several dementors soared towards them. Holding out his zanpakuto, Ichigo swung it into an arc and shouted. "Getsuga Tensho!"

A large wave of black energy ringed with red erupted from Ichigo's sword towards the dementors.

The energy bisected them, destroying those in the lead completely, leaving only a few tattered remnants of black material fluttering to the ground.

Shinji who had been manning a small device, sighed. "My my, Ichigo. Couldn't you have drawn it out a bit more?"

"Che! That was too easy," Ichigo said, standing in the middle of the air, lowering his zanpakuto.

"At least I was able to capture one," the blonde shinigami sighed, holding up the device. "I hope Urahara will be happy with his new test subject."

"Ah."

Slowly the two shinigami's lowered themselves to the ground. Harry chuckled as he turned to see the stunned looks on his god-uncles' faces.

"Ichigo, you know I did tell Urahara-san that the dementors guard the wizarding prison. If he would've been willing to wait, I would have taken a team to Azkaban. I'm sure he would have a most enjoyable time experimenting on them," Harry assured the pair. Both Shinji and Ichigo shuddered at the thought.

Kreacher, who had been hiding behind Harry, peeked out cautiously. The poor old house elf had been very quiet throughout the whole episode.

"Scary master, what do you want Kreacher to do?" He peered up at Harry, who was holding the now cleansed locket. "Scary Master did what Kreacher could not. Good master Regulus now can rest in peace at bottom of lake with others like him."

Harry reached down and handed the now cleansed locket to the old elf. "I believe this is yours, Kreacher. Your master gave it to you to keep safe."

Kreacher took the locket with wide, shocked eyes. "Thank you, scary master. Kreacher will keep this safe."

"Well, that's all done. Call us if you need us again, Harry-kun," Shinji said as he pulled out a small dagger and stabbed the air beside him. A pair of shoji doors appeared and slid open."We need to get back. Sayonara."

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Harry crawled into his bed in the boys' dorm, very tired but pleased with himself. He could tell that Muramasa was happy within his mindscape which added to his contentment.

'Night Harry. Sleep well. Don't worry about any nightmares," came the spirit's voice.

'Night Muramasa. Thank you.'

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Up in the Headmaster's office sat a lone figure. He was brooding over what had transpired in his office earlier.

Albus was now convinced that he had lost all control of Harry. There was no way he could lead the boy to his destiny now. The members of the Order of the Phoenix were now fractured. A few, like Molly Weasley, sided with him, while others, like Shacklebolt, were slowly pulling away from Albus' leadership. Didn't they know they had to stand together against the coming darkness?

Harry was very convincing in his talk about being kept a prisoner in his relatives' home and not having any freedoms. Another young lad had had the same views, and there was no way Albus Dumbledore would allow Harry to follow in that young man's footsteps.

Then there was that thing . . . that being in Harry's mind. Where did he come from? Was it the horcrux? No, it didn't feel like Tom. Whatever that was, it was strong and he needed it gone for Harry's sake.

He needed a new plan.

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Hermione Granger had followed Harry out of the castle. She wanted to see what he was doing out after curfew. She was sure it wasn't good. Also, she wanted to ask him about that strange magic he was using. She was sure she had heard of it before, but just couldn't remember. . .

She'd watched in horror as Harry, along with Sirius , Remus and two other figures she didn't recognize, performed what she could only describe as a dark ritual. The evil that radiated out of that clearing was overwhelming!

What she hadn't realized was that her ignorance kept her from seeing most of what they were doing, or the actual destruction of the horcrux.

When an orange-haired man rose into the air and destroyed the Dementors as if they were nothing to worry about, Hermione gasped! No one could kill those foul creatures, according to everything she'd read.

Who were the two odd beings that appeared through the light from those strange Japanese-styled doors? What relationship did they have to Harry?

"You know, you shouldn't be out here?" came a girl's voice. "Harry wouldn't be pleased if you interfered."

Hermione whirled around to see Luna Lovegood standing behind her.

"But. . Harry is performing something dark. . . "

"It's only dark here," Luna said. "In Japan, it is quite legal and morally correct. Harry isn't turning dark, if that is what you are wondering. He's only being Harry."

"But his coldness?"

"Well, I would be cold too if my best friends ignored me like you did him this past summer. If you want to make up with him, you have to back off. He won't appreciate any more meddling. And tattling to the old 'bumbling bee' will only make it worse."

Hermione sighed. She knew the girl was right, but still. . .

"Well, I'm off to bed. Don't let the wrackspurts rob you of your sleep!" she called merrily as the young Ravenclaw skipped back to the castle.

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Dolores Umbridge was a witch on a mission. She was heading for the private room at St. Mungo's that held her beloved, but injured, Cornelius.

She vowed silently to make Potter pay for his insults. After the aurors guarding the hospital door allowed her admittance, Dolores was ushered into the room.

Her dear Cornelius was sleeping, with a nurse sitting in the corner reading Witches Weekly.

"He just went to sleep, Madam," whispered the nurse. "The healers just left."

Dolores walked over to the bed, disappointed that she couldn't speak with her Cornelius. She noted that his wand hand had been reattached to his arm, if the white bandages were anything to go by.

Scowling angrily she thought. 'Potter will pay for this.'

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Thanks everyone for the wonderful reviews. It is nice to see people getting the point we are trying to make.

Until next time – GF and The Frau

Konbanwa – Good evening

Ojisan – uncle

konso –The ritual whereby a Shinigami sends a soul to Soul Society by tapping the soul's head with the hilt of their Zanpakutō.

Shoji doors – In traditional Japanese architecture, a shōji is a door, window or room divider consisting of translucent paper over a frame of wood which holds together a lattice of wood or bamboo.

Getsuga Tensho – Ichigo's sword technique. According to Bleach wiki: "Moon Fang Heaven-Piercer; "Piercer of Heaven" in the English anime): At the instant of the slash, the blade absorbs Zangetsu's Reiryoku and releases highly condensed spirit pressure at the tip of the blade, which magnifies the slash attack and flies forward. This slash takes the form of a crescent moon or the shape of a wave. When Zangetsu uses this technique, it is red in color, while in the physical world, it is black in color with a red outline.