Chapter 5: A Broken Fall
Just a few moments ago, he had been laughing as he faced off in a duel against his insane cousin. He had even gotten one on mad Bellatrix. But...he'd gotten cocky. Too cocky. The last thing he had heard as he fell through the Veil (and when had that gotten there anyway) was his godson's voice as he screamed out his name. His godson, whom he had gone to the Ministry to save. His godson, whom he had failed. Time stretched and shrank on him until he hadn't been sure how long he was falling, nor how long he would have until it stopped, if it ever stopped.
And then he saw a blue sky, nary a cloud. The sun was especially bright in his eyes after so long, and he closed them-before he fell jarringly onto the ground. For a moment he was shocked, given that he barely remembered what it was like to have solid ground beneath his feet. Except that his 'solid ground' that was moving, not entirely solid.
It was at that moment that the pain from landing as he did overcame the shock and he expelled an expletive. "Damn it!" Sirius shifted, trying to get to his feet and figure out where he was. He may have missed the first exclamation of hurt of the person he had fallen on, but the second one completely jolted him back to reality.
"Itai!" shouted the person who was beneath him. It was a young man, perhaps in his late twenties, he'd never been good at guessing ages. His eyes were shut, either only open enough to see what was going on but not to reveal his irises or completely shut, however that worked. More shocking was his grey hair, nearing white at some areas.
"Gin? Are you alright?" Aizen had only been a block away when he felt a disturbance suddenly appear near Gin, and had quickly shunpoed over to see what had happened. He was momentarily surprised to see a man, thin with an unhealthy-looking mass of dark hair, laying atop his ally and former apprentice. As the stranger grumbled, something about killing a woman named Bellatrix and something else about a girl named Hari, tried to extricate himself from the situation, the surprise had turned to amusement and curiosity.
"I'm fine, Aizen-taicho." Gin replied with a small eye-smile. He had finally untangled himself from the man who had somehow fallen from the sky, or a nearby roof at the very least. He held out a hand to the man when he was upright, and the man took it. Interesting-must be new to Soul Society. Most people didn't trust a hand from a shinigami unless it was someone they had known prior to their having become a soldier.
"Who are you, if I may ask?" Aizen asked the question, but both turned towards the civilian inquiringly. The man didn't answer for a long moment.
Sirius was confused. At one point he fallen been pushed into the blasted Veil, he was sure he understood language. This was not proper english of any variety, this was something else entirely. First he decided to try to see if they could understand him even if he couldn't understand him. "Hello? Who are you, and where are we?" After not garnering any sort of response, he tried again. "Can you understand me?"
Gin did not recognize the language at all. Aizen, however, had had a stint or two in England a few years back, and so recognized the language. Luckily for him, he had long since learned it, a necessity when working in a different country with a different language. It was with this breadth of experience that he replied. "I can understand you, however my comrade does not know your language. " He paused long enough to see a grudging nod. "My name is Aizen Sosuke, or in your culture Sosuke Aizen. I would prefer if you called me Aizen-san. My comrade is Ichimaru Gin. As for this place, we are in Rukongai. You must have died recently and had a shinigami perform a konso on you in the Living World to come here."
Sirius interrupted Aizen, who let him go on indulgently. "But I didn't die, exactly. I just fell through the Veil. And what in Merlin's name is a shinigami, or a konso?"
Aizen smiled charismatically. "There will be time for explanations for your questions and more later. I believe that, given the unusual circumstances surrounding your arrival to the Soul Society, we would be best served by bringing you to the Seireitei, where we can inform Yamamoto-soutaicho and the other captains of your appearance." He did a quick scan of Black-san's reiatsu, and found more than he expected. "We can also make arrangements for where you will stay while we are there. With the levels of reiatsu you currently have, it would be dangerous to leave you in Rukongai for very long, especially with no source of income for the food you will undoubtedly need.
He gave the man a second once over as the man gave an affirmative. The malnutrition was very obvious, even in the somewhat tattered clothes he recognized from his time in England. It was quite odd to see these sorts of clothes in Rukongai, where yukata are the most common type of clothing. He met the man's grey eyes and felt a sort of deja vu. If Black-san was clean and in a different, more fitting for this culture type of clothing, he would almost think he was looking at a member of the Kuchiki family. It was decidedly unnerving to see someone who looked like the recently frozen Kuchiki Byakuya looking up at him in such a sorry state as Black-san was in. He wondered idly how the captains would react to him, and if they would see any resemblance or if it were his imagination.
Then again, he thought as he dragged Black-san across roofs in a burst of shunpo, it wouldn't be all that long before he got to see those reactions. There was a Captains Meeting scheduled for this afternoon, after all, and it would be a perfect time to introduce Black-san. His circumstances were interesting as well, especially because it seemed that Black-san had retained all of his memories from his previous life. That could possibly be a fluke, but he wanted to find out more about the Veil that he had mentioned before passing judgement on that.
There had to be something odd going on for a British citizen dying in Britain to show up in Japanese Soul Society, instead of the other one that he should have gone to. He was fairly certain that there was a separate Soul Society near Britain and that covered surrounding countries. He thought he remembered it as being Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, and Britain, but he was not entirely certain. It had been a low priority at the time.
Either way, though it was possible to reach different Soul Societies from the same realm, without viable long-distance methods (most shinigami couldn't do extended shunpo, and the ones that did generally would exhaust themselves eventually) it was relatively impossible to reach one settlement from another unless you were in the Living World using a gigai or similar technology usually and the Living World's transportation systems to get a Senkaimon near the correct place. The only reason he knew that tidbit was because he had met a small team of shinigami, called soul reapers by that faction, who had explained it to him when he had asked.
He sensed several of the Captains' reiatsus moving towards the First Division and figured that it was about time for the Captain's Meeting. Gin followed closely behind him as he dragged Black-san into the hall behind him. Though he got many inquisitive looks, some downright suspicious, all of the regular business that usually saw people drooling, though whether they were adept at hiding it or not was another story, was completed and summarily shoved out of the way beforehand. That worked, given that this was likely to be an issue given significant consideration.
A short period of silence separated the different sorts of busniess, during which every eye in the building came to be completely focused on Aizen. He smiled kindly, standing tall under the attention if not outright basking in it. He returned the favor threefold. "Captains, this man is Black Sirius. He came to Soul Society recently, and in a very unconventional way inasmuch as I understand..." He proceeded to spend the next few minutes summarizing what he knew of how Black-san had come to Soul Society and his interactions with the man. Kurotsuchi left briefly, under instructions to find an old experiment he remembered that would apparently help Black-san understand their language.
Surprisingly, it was Kenpachi who broke the silence. Perhaps not so surprisingly, because while the man was hardly eloquent, the Eleventh Division was nothing if not extremely direct. They were painfully blunt about whatever was on their small minds regularly. This particular statement was obviously not upheld by a modicum of thought, which is why it possibly provoked the reaction it had. "So, Kuchiki-hime, got yourself a twin we don't know about?"
Usually Kuchiki Byakuya would barely twitch longsufferingly at the moniker, long since having gotten used to Zaraki's crass diction. Though given the rest of his pronouncement, it was perhaps expected that he would level the acid glare that he did at his fellow Captain. His composure flickered back to its characteristic impassiveness after a bare moment, and he responded. "The Kuchiki Family is a noble clan, Zaraki. We are born and raised in the Soul Society, usually within the Seireitei." He emphasized it slowly, as if he were talking to a child that wasn't Yachiru. "This man is recently of the Living World. Therefore any resemblance is superficial and greatly exaggerated."
This being a verbal fight that would only be unnecessarily tedious and impossible to win against the resolved Kuchiki, Kenpachi backed down. He knew from experience that he couldn't try for a fight during a meeting, troublesome as it was he'd have to catch Kuchiki another time. "Geez, Hime. He muttered as he turned away. "Don't need to be so damn touchy 'bout it."
It was at this point that Kurotsuchi shunpoed back into the meeting hall, carrying some sort of earpiece that apparently would help him understand the language and internalize it fairly quickly. Decidedly wary of anything that the rather odd captain had brought, Sirius had accepted the item with a lack of grace and an even more obvious lack of understanding. Aizen translated in English to explain to Sirius what it was for, and so he put it over his left ear, grudgingly recognizing that he would need to know the language regardless of what happened next.
"Irregardless," Aizen raised his voice to be heard over the general chatter that followed Byakuya and Kenpachi's argument had provoked. "Of any possible relation to the Kuchiki Clan, which we might as well test for, waste of time as you believe it to be, Kuchiki-taicho. Black-san still needs a place to stay for the time being. Preferably in the Seireitei, given the amount of reiatsu he possesses. Given the correct training, he could possibly even become a competent shinigami." His eyes strayed from one member in the assembly to another.
"It is quite obvious from the way he entered the Soul Society that however he came here, he will not be leaving us by the same way. That is to say that his body is still alive, of course, and not having died or been lost on his way here. Given that he did not come through a gate that specifically allowed matter through, it is quite likely that he is stuck here, having died either in the Living World or in transit."
The hall was fraught with an awkward silence. Aizen was sure the if Ukitake-taicho weren't sick right now, he would have offered the Thirteenth, or Kyouraku-taicho the Eighth, but things being as they were at the moment, it was likely that they didn't want Ukitake to be overstressed. Kurotsuchi had been summarily shot down in the first few seconds in favor of not letting him experiment on the newcomer.
Sirius suddenly snorted. "Isn't this awkward. Am I truly that unappealing?"
Zaraki grinned maniacally. Black Sirius seemed to be an interesting person, one who might enjoy a good fight like his squad could.
"If the tension in here was any more potent," Sirius drawled sarcastically, "I could cut it with a regular knife, let alone one of those fancy swords of yours." He was curious, bored, and confused-a bad combination, as any Hogwarts teacher who survived his seven years could tell you.
"The Eleventh'll take him." Kenpachi kept grinning as he saw the looks being shot at both him and Black. Several uneasy glances between different Captains clearly displayed their discomfort about letting Kenpachi at the new guy. Especially Kurotsuchi, who didn't want to lose a potentially valuable and useful specimen to the violent ministrations the Eleventh Division were known for.
"What's with that reaction?" Sirius questioned. "Would it really be that bad for me to go with the big guy over there?" Seeing the further opposition, he decided to try another tact.
"So, why don't you just stick me with Aizen over there, or Ichimaru? Even if I don't know them that well, I've had a conversation with them and that's more than I can say for any of you all. Besides, if I hadn't fallen on them, then who knows when you all would have found out about me?" He grinned mischievously. "Then again, it should really be Ichimaru. I did have a head on collision with him, not Aizen, and so it's mainly his fault that I'm here. Don't worry, I'll try not to give anyone any concussions in that way again."
Gin cocked his head slightly, eyes still shut and mouth stretched in a thin smile. "Eh, I don' see why not." He glanced at Aizen next to him, who merely shook his head slightly.
"Are there any objections to Black Sirius-san staying in the Third Division for the duration?" Kurotsuchi's whiny positive was drowned by the negatives of the other captains and summarily ignored. "Very well then." The soutaicho rapped his cane sharply against the ground as a decision was reached. "Black Sirius-san will spend the duration of his time in the Seireitei attached to the Third Division. If he is truly as promising as Aizen-taicho believes, then Ichimaru-taicho will be responsible for procuring a tutor in the shinigami arts for Black-san. Should he ever become an active shinigami, unless there is further contention at that time he will do so as part of the Third Division." He rapped his cane again. "Is that clear?"
"Crystal, old man." Sirius smirked.
Yamamoto twitched slightly as he adjourned the meeting and dismissed the Captains. Ichimaru dragged Sirius along to the Third Division post-haste. If the soutaicho had decided to get angry at Sirius's less-than-respectful remark, he wanted to be well and truly out of the blast zone.
A significant amount of sake had been drunk and Snape was getting to be quite hoarse by the time he finished detailing what he knew from Harry's school years and the time they had spent together the previous year preparing to finally kill Voldemort.
Urahara's incredulous exclamation wasn't exactly unwarranted by Snape's tale. "And you're still among the living?"
"Indeed." Snape shifted comfortably. "Quite amazing, actually. Though I would be lying if I said it wasn't sometimes a near thing. And, despite all of the shocks and surprises that that boy brings, it was more than worth it to make him my apprentice."
"He's good then," Urahara commented. "I know exactly how much of a perfectionist you are, you bat." The mirth in his eyes darkened as he took the opportunity to ask about the other questions that had been plaguing him since he had received the letters. "Potter-san can see hollows, then?"
Snape shut his eyes, tired both by the influence of the alcohol and by the subject. "Indeed, the boy is able to see them. The rather curious thing, aside from the truly amazing length of time he has been able to do so, is how he can hide himself from them entirely." At Urahara's surprised expression and inquisitively raised eyebrow, he continued. "If he wills it, hollows can neither see nor sense him or anyone he might have physical contact with at that moment. More so, they avoid the area wherein he has hidden himself if they come too close."
Urahara pressed on. "And shinigami?"
Snape allowed his mouth to twist into a frown as he muttered a quiet "Indeed." He met his friend's eyes over their table as he sipped another drink. "We nearly had an encounter with a hollow. The little brat grabbed my arm and pulled me back before hiding us. A moment later a shinigami, presumably the town's guardian, showed up and dispatched the hollow. He seemed to be vaguely aware that something was where we were, but seemed unable to see us. I presume he attempted to sense us, found nothing, and continued on his merry way."
"Do you know much of when this started manifesting for him?" Urahara was running options through his head, trying to figure out what may have happened to give the boy that sort of power. Or what experiment the Technology Division may have been tinkering with to produce such abilities."Or how?"
"No." Snape pursed his lips. "All I know is that it started before his time as a Hogwarts student, and the brat has always been incredibly close-mouthed about things that happened before he turned eleven. From what I can tell, he has not told anyone from Hogwarts about that time aside from perhaps Black. Who is dead as you know, and it is unlikely that we will meet him again unless he has enough reiryoku and will to become a shinigami. There have been no indications of anything of note except that he was one of the few who has historically asked the Headmaster if he could stay at Hogwarts over the summer, and I know that he considers the castle his true home, possibly his first. The conclusions that can be drawn from that are hardly encouraging."
"Indeed." Urahara responded, sipping his sake, not further pressing the topic as both men were left to their own private contemplations.