Chapter 1 done and it only took me... less than 2 hours to write. TO WRITE 2285 WORDS. Damn, new record. I'm also uploading this right after finishing it (which is at 10:22 pm AEST) so I apologise for any mistakes I may have made. I'll try spotting those once I reread it at a later date - not now 'cause I haven't slept in 2 days.
But anyways, enjoy the chapter and if you want leave a review, it would help a lot! Have an awesome day/night.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter or Bleach, they belong to J.K Rowling and Tite Kubo respectively.
"OI! OPEN UP YA DAMN HAT 'N CLOGS!"
One could probably guess who yelled that. Who else would at a healthy 3am on a Monday morning while kicking the door down and preparing to beat the life out of a certain bucket-hat wearing shopkeeper?
"Maa⁓ you didn't have to break my door, dearest student," Kisuke whined as he trudged into the front room of the shop, seeming drowsy.
"Cut the crap, you knew about this, didn't you?" Ichigo near growled, throwing a letter emblazoned with a wax seal with the letter 'H' on it at the shopkeeper.
Kisuke casually caught the letter with a smile. "Why yes I did. Perceptive, aren't we?"
The irritated teen merely rolled his eyes. "You have the books and shit, right?"
"Yep! It's all in the back-"
"Great. Give them to me."
"Ehh?" Kisuke now had a bewildered expression on his face.
Ichigo scoffed at the shopkeeper's act. "You heard me hat 'n clogs, fork them over!"
Kiuske sighed and went into the back of the shop to retrieve the 'books and shit', as Ichigo had called them. While he was back there, Ichigo sat down grumpily at the table usually used for tea and planning totally inconspicuous invasion missions; legs crossed and a scowl on his face (like usual). As he was sitting, Rukia walked into the shop, already in a gigai, closely followed by Renji and lastly Tōshirō.
"Hey Strawberry," Renji said casually to Ichigo, taking a seat in front of him.
"Hey Pineapple," was the retort that came from said strawberry.
Tōshirō and Rukia sat down at the table as well, the former with an expression of annoyance. To the 3 shinigami and 1 substitute Shinigami, the current situation was quite odd. Magic? Wizards? It all seemed surreal, and yet they were both real and they were going to be going to a school in Scotland of all places which had both those things.
"I'm back!" Announced the voice of Kisuke, earning an eye roll from Ichigo and Renji.
In Kisuke's arms were 4 piles of thick books with frankly odd titles. Although there were a few ones that seemed useful. Kisuke set the books down on the table and nodded, pulling out his fan and holding it in front of his face.
Rukia raised an eyebrow at the piles. "Those are our books? There are so many! And where did you even get all these so quickly?"
Kisuke grinned behind his fan. "Why, a magician never reveals his secrets Rukia-chan! You'd all better get started on them, after all term starts in less than 3 weeks. Chop chop!" And with that the man had disappeared from sight.
Ichigo and Renji groaned and banged their heads on the table simultaneously, whilst Tōshirō – being the most sensible one there – simply rolled his eyes and picked up Hogwarts: A History and was about to read when he realised something.
"Do you think Urahara could make some kind of device so we could understand English?" The white-haired captain commented bluntly.
Rukia frowned. "Come to think of it, I don't know English either."
"Me too," Renji interjected.
Ichigo stared at the 3 for a moment, and they stared back, waiting for him to say something to indicate he didn't know English either, but he merely shrugged, picked up a book and started reading.
"I studied English in school," Ichigo confessed before Renji could make a remark.
Renji closed his mouth and sat in his seat, pondering some options. Not him, Tōshirō, or Rukia knew any English, but they were going to a school where they only spoke English. That annoyed him, and not just because the damn Strawberry didn't have that problem because he already knew English! Heaving a sigh, Renji stood up to go in search of Kisuke. Luckily, he needn't go far because the man himself had already walked in the door.
"I hear some of you are having language problems," Kisuke jested, then whirling around on his heel to exit the room. "Follow me."
Having no other choice, the 3 who didn't know English walked out, leaving Ichigo on his lonesome.
Ichigo had picked up a book about ancient history of famous wizards and witches, but after reading through about 2 pages decided his mind would turn to stone if he read the whole thing and put it down. After shuffling through his pile for a moment he found a book that had a sort of latch on it. He picked it up and inspected it, confused. The cover was slightly furry, firm, and a sort of brown-ish green, and the edges were jagged like teeth. Odd. He decided to open the latch to see what the book actually was, since there was no visible title or author on the outside.
Turns out doing that was a mistake.
Upon seeing the book spring to life and try to eat his hand, Ichigo would have jumped out of his skin had he been in his body, but alas he wasn't so instead resolved to punch the book across the room. The book crashed into the wall, creating a large crack, and fell to the floor in a quivering heap. Ichigo sighed. Who in their right mind would make a book that tried to eat you? He walked over to the book, picked up the shaking thing, and walked back to the table with it upon seeing that it likely wouldn't be attacking him again anytime soon.
He sat down and turned to the first page where he finally saw the title: The Monster Book of Monsters. Well, I guess it makes sense why the book tried to eat me now, Ichigo mused.
He flipped through the book to a random page and read it. Hippogriffs. They seemed interesting. After reading that page, Ichigo turned to the next one, where he practically had a heart attack, for in bold at the top of the double-page spread was a singular word: Shinigami.
Why the hell are Shinigami in a book of monsters written by wizards?! He internally yelled, staring at the page with such an intensity that it seemed he was attempting to will it into inexistence.
He took a breath and read the page.
Shinigami
Shinigami are a feared creature of the dark arts, more powerful and ruthless than even dementors. They may be able to be killed but most are notoriously tricky to catch, and all Shinigami seem to age at least 10 times slower than wizards. They destroy the souls of the dead for seemingly no reason, not even sustenance like other creatures. When they destroy a soul, all that is left is a black swallowtail butterfly, which flies away, never to be seen again. They have their own for of magic they call Kido, translating to 'the Demon Arts', which they use to attack, defend and heal. They have weapons called Zanpakutō which they use to destroy souls and hollows, that are usually in the appearance of a Japanese katana or a similar weapon. However, there are rare cases in which a Shinigami will 'release' their Zanpakutō, and it will change shape, with a unique appearance and ability for each Shinigami. These abominations have not been seen since the last great war, and even then, they have only been spotted a small number of times. They are believed to be extinct, and with how terrible these creatures are, wizardkind can only pray they are indeed gone.
Ichigo stared at the page for another few seconds before coming up with something to say. "Well shit. This isn't good," he muttered.
If wizards knew about Shinigami, that meant they had enough spirit energy to see Shinigami, and could see hollows as well given what he just read. So if they ever showed up in front of a wizard in Shinigami garb, they'd be positively screwed.
Wait a moment. If they can see hollows and mentioned them in this section, then they would probably be in here somewhere as well, Ichigo thought, instantly starting to go through the book in search of hollows. And fate seemed to both love and hate him today, as at the end of the book he found them. He started to read with an impending migraine hammering at the back of his skull like a jackhammer.
Hollows
Hollows are foul creatures formed from the remnants of a person's soul after they perish. As a soul perishes, the negative emotions are left behind and form into a grotesque beast – each one with a unique appearance – with a hole through its chest and a white mask on its face. Hollows are driven by only the most basic of instincts and as such behave much like wild beasts, attacking anything or anyone it deems a threat or a source of food. These monsters should be avoided if possible and are a threat most commonly found in highly populated areas, especially wizard populated areas. Shinigami are sometimes seen destroying hollows with their Zanpakutō.
Ichigo set down the book, closed it, and proceeded to put his head on the table. The other three wouldn't really care about hollows being in here, only about Shinigami being there as they are Shinigami. But lucky me, I'm a Shinigami with a hollow living in my soul, so what does that make me?
The very definition of their enemy, King.
Ichigo rolled his eyes. Well thanks, your help is greatly appreciated Sir- hang on a moment do you even have a name?
Che, were you not listening in our fight with that stuck up noble guy? I literally said I don't have a name. To his face.
I was listening, idiot. I just forgot. And it gets kind of annoying calling you 'hollow' all the time, so I was just curious.
Give me a name if you want, King, I honestly don't care.
…What about White?
How original. Where'd that come from, Einstein?
Do you want it or not, dammit?
Fine, you annoying piece of shit.
Ichigo sighed in relief that the brief argument was over, before remembering the topic at hand. "Oh yeah, the book."
"What book?" Asked Rukia, who had returned from wherever she went with Renji and Tōshirō and was standing at the other side of the table.
Ichigo yelped in surprise and his attention snapped to Rukia, remembering he should tell her about what he found. "Oh, yeah, I was reading one of the books and guess what I found out?"
"What?"
"Shinigami and hollows are in there, and apparently the wizards don't like either. And I mean at all. They'd probably kill either on sight, given the chance."
Tōshirō walked back into the room at that moment and he looked at Ichigo for a moment before walking over to the table and sitting down. "That's concerning. If both Shinigami and hollows are in there, that means if we go in front of one of the wizards without a gigai – or a body in Kurosaki's case – our cover will be blown and it's likely we'll be hunted down."
"Kinda figured that out already," Ichigo mumbled annoyedly, but was ignored by Tōshirō.
Rukia nodded in thought. "This is indeed a sticky situation."
Ichigo just sighed. "Can we discuss this later? I already have a migraine from reading this stuff and having a mini-argument with a psychopathic voice in your head doesn't help things," he groaned, propping the side of his head on his hand.
Rukia, Tōshirō, and Renji (who had walked back into the room while the other 3 were talking) stared at him, trying to figure out what he meant by a psychopathic voice in his head.
"Forget what I said," Ichigo interjected before Rukia could ask anything, standing up in his spot and grabbing his pile of books. "You guys can do whatever the hell you want, I'm going home for the day. Jaane," he said gruffly before walking out the door.
Rukia kept watching the door he left out of as if expecting him to walk back in any moment, before sighing internally and turning away. Surely that voice he talked about couldn't have been his Zanpakutō, right? I heard bout his Bankai training from Renji and his Zanpakutō spirit seemed like the exact opposite of a maniac, so if that's the case thwn who was he talking about? She sighed again, this time aloud. Maybe I'm thinking too hard. Renji just could've misinterpreted what his Zanpakutō is like. Or maybe I'm on the right track about being suspicious of this. Because I noticed that Ichigo seemed stressed about both Shinigami and hollows being in that book, maybe the latter even more so.
Rukia walked over to her place at the table and picked up a book. 'One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi' by Phyllida Spore (which she could understand thanks to the language kido Urahara had used on them) and thought while she started to read.
And from what I heard from both Byakuya from his second fight with Ichigo, and what I overheard from when Urahara was making notes about Ichigo's training he did with him – I still don't understand why the creep was making notes about it, maybe something important happened – something's up with Ichigo and it involves hollows in some way.
Rukia looked out the window into the sky. The clouds were puffy and white, and the sky was a perfect shade of baby blue that made it seem almost like a painting. A flock of birds flew past, diving, turning and pirouetting midair like a dance. It was almost ironic how peaceful the scene was compared to her thoughts right now. Ichigo… what's going on with you?
Jaane (じゃあね) = Bye
NOTE: if speech is underlined, it means the speaker is using the language not native to the area they are currently in. Meaning, if the Shinigami and Karakura squad speak Japanese in Hogwarts, it'll be underlined. Their speaking isn't underlined now because they're speaking Japanese while in Japan.
Oh yeah for those wondering, THERE IS NO SHIPPING IN THIS STORY UNLESS IT IS A CANON EVENT IN THE ORIGINAL STORYLINE OR I CHANGE MY MIND AT A LATER DATE. Sorry to disappoint those of you who want ships. That also means no IchiRuki, even if it kind of looks like there is some of it in the end of the chapter, because trust me it's not. There might be some Ichihime though.
But on the plus side (for me at least) you can be expecting a lot of White/Shiro/Hichigo/Zangetsu/Hollow Ichigo action (I chose White for this story since it's technically his actual name along with Zangetsu) cause this dude is an absolute menace and it's fun to write his character because everywhere he goes a fight follows. And writing fights is fun, so yeah, expect to be seeing him come up a lot.
Well thanks for reading. Have a great day/night!