Harry Potter thought he died when he fell into the Veil. But he ended up becoming a Shinigami. What is a sorcerer to do other than join the parade and make something of himself in Soul Society?
Sorcerer of Heaven
- Thread starter Dragonspectre
- Start date
- Crossover
- Created
- Status
- Ongoing
- Watchers
- 59
- Recent readers
- 0
- Threadmarks
- 3
-
Statistics (3 threadmarks, 14k words)
User Total Dragonspectre 3
Ch1: Prologue
Harry ignored the eyes and the whispers that followed him as he walked through the halls of the First Division barracks. If he didn't know any better, he'd have assumed he was in some sort of trouble as he was being called into the Captain Commander's office.
"You are in trouble, you idiot. I told you not to release my Bankai outside your inner world if you wanted to keep our power a secret."
Harry ignored the feminine voice coming from the depths of his soul.
"I placed a barrier to protect my privacy." Harry argued back.
"Clearly, your barrier was one weak little thing to contain my power."
Harry fell silent as he had no counter for that. His barrier collapsed right after he released the Bankai form of his Zanpakuto. In retrospect, he could see it was a mistake to unleash the full power of his Zanpakuto when he had yet to train with his Bankai properly. Early on, he had decided to go under the radar of pesky nobles and higher officials of the Thirteen Court guard squads. His intent was quite simple. He wanted to avoid any unnecessary attention and thereby get himself embroiled in unnecessary problems. He had a zillion of those in his previous life until he inevitably met his end at the hands of Voldemort and his Death Eaters. It was not his death alone that bothered him the most. He became the reason his friends also met gruesome ends in the Department of Mysteries.
Flashes of deeply buried memories passed through his mind, making him drop his shoulder.
Harry alone had come to Soul Society, and he had no idea what had happened to the rest of his friends who had died. The sad fact was that he didn't even know whether he was in the same universe. He died by falling into the Veil in DoM. It could be said that the Veil was a dimensional barrier between his world and Soul Society. Or his world could exist in a node of space where the Veil functions as one of the portals to different dimensions. He could have fallen into Soul Society by luck. There were infinite possibilities to consider when it came to space and time. None knew it as intimately as he did.
"And don't ever forget that, Harry. Always keep that in mind. Space and time are ever-changing, evolving and advancing. Nothing remains permanent."
Harry listened to the feminine voice coming from his soul.
"I know. I won't forget." he whispered back.
The rest of his journey was silent as he contemplated the fate of his friends in his old life. Even after the passage of decades, he always remembered those dearest to his heart. They lived on in his heart. He considered it a privilege to have known them and called them friends. Friends who had given their lives for him. His only regret was that he could not save them. He'd have gladly sacrificed his life to ensure that even one of them lived.
'Unfortunately, life never tends to go how we intend despite how hard we wish it otherwise.' Harry thought grimly.
This was why he went out of his way to seclude himself from the rest of the students of the Shino Academy and later when he joined the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. Besides, someone not strong enough to protect his friends and family didn't deserve to have friends and family. It was a lesson he learned from his enemy Voldemort. The Dark Lord was wrong about good and evil, but power was very important. Nothing lasts without power. Voldemort's power allowed the Dark Lord to survive without a body. Harry's lack of power left him and his friends dead. It was a valuable lesson that he'd never forget.
He finally reached the principal's office. He knocked on the door and waited quietly outside.
"Come in."
Harry slid the door to the side and stepped into the office of Head Captain Yamamoto, who was also the captain of Squad 1.
"Harry san. Take a seat."
"Thank you, Head Captain." Harry bowed before sitting across from the strongest Shinigami in Soul Society.
"I've been reading your performance reports from teachers of different disciplines. There is no Shinigami in my squad that could triumph over you when it comes to Kido. Your Zanjutsu and Hoho are on par with that of a Captain, and your Hakuda is level with the Lieutenants of many squads. What you lack is better control over your spiritual power, but that develops in time and with experience. And now, you have achieved Bankai."
Harry remained silent, merely observing the words of the Captain Commander.
"Lieutenant Sasakibe reported that you've one of the highest rates of performing Konso, paying diligence to our sacred duty of guiding souls to Soul Society. You've also dispatched many hollows while on duty, releasing the souls trapped to a new beginning. Your experience and dedication to duty are appreciated by the Gotei 13."
"Yes, sir."
"Good." The Captain Commander opened his eyes to stare at Harry. "You're effectively transferred to Squad 13 as the newly appointed Lieutenant under Captain Ukitake."
Harry's eyes widened as he registered the words of the Head Captain in his mind. There was the urge to protest in his mind, but Harry knew the Gotei 13 was a military organisation and had been in constant war with the Hollows since its inception. From a military perspective, the Head Captain was merely assigning resources at his disposal effectively. Squad 13 had been without a Lieutenant since Kaien Shiba fell to a Hollow, and Captain Ukitake has been shouldering all the responsibility ever since.
"I'll execute my duties to the best of my abilities in Squad 13, Head Captain." Harry dipped his head.
"See that you do, Lieutenant Harry. Captain Ukitake was my student once. His guidance will aid you in your development." said the Head Captain.
Harry thought he saw a ghost of a smile from the Head Captain, but it was gone the next moment.
"You may leave."
"Yes, sir."
Harry immediately stood up. Bowing one last time, he exited the Head Captain's office and went straight for his quarters.
Later that night, Harry stared off into the starry sky of Seireitei in thought. He was nearing a hundred years since he came to Soul Society as a soul in Rukongai. For a few decades, he had wandered around in Rukongai looking for his friends or someone from his world, but he found nothing. Even the last forty-odd years of his service as a Shinigami had left him only with more questions. He never got the opportunity to visit Britain as he was never stationed in the island nation. The closer he came to Britain was when he was assigned to Paris, which ended up being his sole mission in Western Europe. The sights he saw in Paris made him realise he had died and time travelled simultaneously or had fallen into an alternate reality.
Harry could only know for sure if he could find the wizarding world. Unfortunately, he had no idea about the entrances to other magical communities around the world. He had scoured Japan and Asia for any sign of a magical community during his missions in the World of the Living. Unfortunately, there was no luck.
'Perhaps, as a Lieutenant, I could visit Britain and search for the Leaky Cauldron.' Harry thought.
"What if you don't find anything, Harry?"
Harry tore his eyes away from the sky to look at the woman with flowing red hair that materialised by his bedside.
"I don't know," he answered honestly.
"What if you find something?" she asked instead.
Harry let out a deep breath and smiled. "Frankly, I have no idea. My heart tells me to search, so I search for a lost world. I guess that makes me an idiot."
"No, Harry. It makes you someone who listens to his heart,"she whispered, lying down next to him on the bed and staring at the sky.
They lay there for a long time, staring at the night sky.
"I should train with the Bankai." Harry finally said.
"Of course, you should. Let's go."
His Zanpakuto spirit returned to his inner world, and so did his consciousness as he slipped into Jinzen trance.
****
The flash step was one of the favourite skills Harry liked being a Shinigami. The kido spells were his forte, but he enjoyed travelling at high speeds far more than launching spells. Besides, Hollows tend to sense the gathering of massive spirit energy using their acute senses. As corrupted souls who devoured souls with greater spirit energy, Hollows were dispositioned to sense spirit energy better than the average soul reaper. Because of this, Harry had always used kido spells as a last resort during his encounters with a hollow. This left him to use the flash step and his Zanpakuto to dispatch troublesome hollows.
There were hollows of greater power like the Menos Grande or the Adjuchas. But Harry had rarely encountered them in the World of the Living and therefore had any reason to rely on his Kido skills. In the rare chance a powerful Hollow was located, the protocol was to send a message for help, and a Lieutenant or Captain would arrive to dispose of the Hollow.
Harry travelled through great distances inside Seireitei using shunpo. Using shunpo was fun but also necessary in his case. His skin complexion made him stick out like a sore thumb in the city. He attracted a lot of attention wherever he went because of his 'alien' look. Sometimes he felt like he was a circus monkey. It was one more reason for Harry to stay away from any social gatherings. Because he had no social life to speak of, he had thrown himself to his work with a gusto that made him score a few records. He had it on good authority that the number of souls he had purified in his forty years of service was the highest in his age group. The exact number was in the hands of Squad 12, but he was not going into that evil place. The captain of Squad 12 was a creepy dude with a clown face. He had seen hollows with more humanity on their masked faces than Kurotsuchi Mayuri.
The wind rushed past him as he made a few more quick steps taking a short route by accessing the city's rooftops. With a final shunpo, Harry found himself appearing before the entrance of Squad 13, startling a few Shinigami gathered at the gate.
"Phew. It looks like I'm on time." Harry muttered, taking off the backpack secured on his shoulders on the floor.
To his surprise, two Shinigami appeared by his side with impressive speed.
"Lieutenant Harry sama. I'm third seat Kiyone Kotetsu. Let me take your bags." A petite woman with blonde hair introduced herself, taking the bags from his hand just before the bottom of his bag touched the ground.
"Oh. Thank yo…"
"Harry sama. Third seat Sentaro Kotsubaki reporting for duty, sir. I'll take your bags." A man with a short goatee said, catching his bags with both hands.
"Oh, umm… hmm…" Harry rubbed the back of his neck as the two third seats glared at each other while tugging his bag back and forth.
"I was the first to take Harry sama's bag." Kiyone argued, glaring daggers at her colleague.
"I'm the senior third seat. My seniority makes me the authority in collecting the bag of Harry sama." Sentaro argued right back.
"That doesn't even make sense, you dolt." Kiyone screamed back, tugging the bag closer to her chest.
"It won't make sense to an idiot like you." Sentaro shouted, pulling the bag to his side.
"Umm, hello. I can carry the bag." Harry intervened with what he assumed was a solution to the quarrel.
"Look at that, you pig. You've made a bad impression on Harry sama, and now he wants to carry his bag to the barracks. Shame on you." Kiyone glared at her rival while shaking her fist in a threatening manner.
"How dare you? You're the one who disobeyed your senior and made Harry sama dislike us." Sentaro accused loudly.
"I don't…" Harry tried to say, but the two third seats butted their heads and began a contest of strength.
"All right, that's enough, you two." Harry snapped forcefully, letting out a portion of spiritual pressure to make his point across.
That seemed to do the trick as the two third seats snapped into attention.
"Good. Kiyone san will take the bag to my quarters while Sentaro san can escort me to Captain Ukitake's office."
"Hai, Harry sama." Kiyone and Sentaro chorused together.
Kiyone disappeared in a shunpo with Harry's bag while Sentaro led him inside the barracks of Squad 13 towards Captain Ukitake's office.
"Ah! Harry san. Welcome." Captain Ukitake greeted him with a bright smile.
"Captain Ukitake. I'm sorry if I disturbed you."
"No, not at all." Captain Ukitake shook his head with a gentle smile. "You need not have taken charge today itself. You could've taken a day off to say goodbye to your fellow squad members."
"Duty comes first, Captain Ukitake. How may I be of service to you, sir?" asked Harry, ready to assume the duties of a Lieutenant.
"In that case, I should start with the badge ceremony." Captain Ukitake said.
A few minutes later, Harry found himself standing before the members of Squad 13 with Captain Ukitake tying the badge of Lieutenant on his left arm.
"Hello, everyone. My name is Harry. I hope we can work together in the coming days and keep the balance of the Spirit world as is the mandate from the heavens."
****
Harry decided Captain Ukitake was a relatively easygoing man for leading a military wing of the Gotei thirteen. But that was until he had the honour of conversing briefly with Captain Koyaraku Shunsui.
"So this is your new Lieutenant." Captain Kyoraku said, an easygoing grin plastered on his face as he stared at Harry while drinking sake inside Captain Ukitake's office.
Harry stared at the captain of Squad 8, not knowing what to say to the man wearing a straw hat and a pink haori over the Captain's coat.
"Shunsui, meet Lieutenant Harry." Captain Ukitake said with a smile.
Harry had noticed that particular quirk of his captain. Among all the thirteen captains of Soul Society, Captain Ukitake had the most friendly smile. Even Captain Aizen came short of Captain Ukitake despite the popularity of the Squad 5 captain.
"Just Harry?" Captain Kyoraku asked with a raised eyebrow.
"That's all I remember, and I didn't bother making up a new one, sir." Harry said with practised ease.
On the off chance some Death Eaters were around, he didn't want anyone catching wind of his existence. It also meant his friends could not find him here as well. But as years went by, he leaned towards the theory that he had fallen into an entirely different reality. However, he had no idea whether the wizarding world existed here. Therefore, he abandoned the Potter name and went with just Harry.
Even the name Harry was rare. He suspected he was the only one with such a European name in the Gotei 13 and perhaps even Seireitei. Harry suspected that the Gotei 13 rarely extended its manpower into the continent because their focus was primarily in Asia. For some odd reason, more spiritually powerful souls were in Asia, which tended to attract the attention of Hollows. There was also the fact that Asia was more populated than Europe or any other continent. The only non-Asian soul he found in Soul Society was the squad seven captain, Tousen Kaname.
"Oho! Ukitake, we should look for a good last name for Harry san." Captain Kyoraku said, leaning forward on his seat and looking up from the sake he was drinking.
"I think Harry san can find a good name for himself in time, Shunsui." Ukitake placated his old friend.
"Uhh… If you say so, Ukitake." Captain Kyoraku pouted before turning his sights on Harry again.
"Anyway, Yama ji said you released your Bankai inside a barrier. Which barrier did you use?"
Harry blinked in surprise at the turn in conversation topic.
"The standard Three Mirror Deflector barrier, sir. It was taught to me by Sasakibe dono for training purposes." Harry answered honestly.
"I see." Captain Kyoraku observed him with a strange intensity before hiding behind his straw hat. "There'll be an inquiry into the release of your zanpakuto. It'll be conducted by Captain Aizen."
"But I had taken permission beforehand." Harry argued.
"Yes, but that was for releasing your Shikai under the standard training barrier. Anyhow, it won't matter much. Captain Aizen is rather lax when it comes to small discrepancies. You should learn better barriers from now on, or Ukitake could set up a suitable one when you're training."
"Yes, sir." Harry nodded stiffly before turning his eyes on Captain Ukitake. "I'd appreciate your help in learning more suitable barriers, sir."
"My my… this one is polite, huh? It seems you got lucky, Ukitake." Kyoraku playfully nudged his old friend. "Now that you have a proper Lieutenant, you can dump all the work on him and join me for some sake occasionally."
"I hope not, Captain. You are already a drunkard. Don't turn Captain Ukitake into one as well."
Harry eyed the woman who spoke up from the corner of Captain Ukitake's office. It was none other than the Lieutenant of Squad 8. For the life of him, he could not recall the name of the Lieutenant of Squad 8.
"That was cruel, Nanao chan. Now, you've painted a bad impression about me in Harry san's mind." Captain Kyoraku pouted.
Harry carefully noted down the name in his mind.
"I sure hope so, Captain. The last thing we want is for everyone to become like you." said Lieutenant Nanao, pushing her glasses up her nose.
Captain Kyoraku fell comically on the floor face down, bemoaning his subordinates were not showing him proper respect.
To Harry's eyes, this was an entirely new side of Gotei 13. He had only known strict discipline and bone-crushing work in Squad 1. Everything was formal in the squad, and discipline was paramount in the division. So, it was surprising to see this level of free interaction between Captain Ukitake and Kyoraku, who were the famed students of the Head Captain.
'Maybe I should've talked with those outside Squad 1 or even taken up on the offer of Captain Aizen to join Squad 5 when I was in Shino Academy.' Harry thought.
Harry was snapped out of his musings when Lieutenant Nanao gave him a flyer.
"Uhh…what is this?" Harry asked, staring at the pink-coloured paper with a frown.
"It's an invitation for the new Lieutenant meeting. All the details are available in the leaflet." said lieutenant Nanao.
Harry was surprised to learn there was a gathering of Lieutenants like the captains. He had never heard of such a thing. But then again, he had always spent most of his time on missions in the Land of the Living.
"Will Sasakibe dono be present during the meeting?" Harry asked curiously.
"You'll find out during the meeting." said Lieutenant Nanao, giving him a strange stare.
****
"Hi, green-eyes chan."
Harry could only blink and stare at the pink-haired kid who was happily waving at him when he arrived at the address that was on the flyer given by Lieutenant Nanao Ise.
"Uhh…hello." Harry awkwardly waved at the small girl. "Maybe I came to the wrong place."
"No. You came to the correct place Harry kun."
Harry was taken aback to see a woman with flowing blond hair, a curvy body and sizeable breasts. He was pretty confident this was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in Soul Society.
"I'm Rangiku Matsumoto, Lieutenant of Squad 10. You can call me Rangiku." Rangiky winked at him suavely before pulling him inside the room. "First, let's introduce you to everyone else."
The next few minutes made Harry sweat bullets as he was introduced to all the Lieutenants of Gotei 13 by an ever-excitable Lieutenant Rangiku, who hung on to his arm and Lieutenant Yachiru, who was conveniently perched on his head somehow.
"Sasakibe dono." Harry tried to bow his head, but Lieutenant Yachiru dragged his head back by tugging his hair.
"I've tried to shield you from the indignities of other squads for as long as I could, Harry san. There is nothing else to do but somehow survive. Best of luck." Lieutenant Sasakibe whispered.
Harry could do nothing but gape at the man who took a seat behind a small table in a dignified manner as if nothing had happened. Lieutenants Shuhei Hisagi, Tetsuzaemon Iba and Renji Abarai looked at him with pity.
"Good luck." Lieutenant Izuru Kira of Squad 3 waved at him with a thin smile.
"Come on, green-eyes. Let's meet Isane chan." Lieutenant Ichiru hollered, pushing him towards the Squad 4 Lieutenant, a beautiful woman with grey eyes and silver hair.
Harry was getting increasingly skittish as he had almost forgotten to hold long conversations. His decades of isolation were biting his back, with Harry struggling to find proper conversation topics. He even met Lieutenant Hinamori, who was the politest person he met in Soul Society. Two Lieutenants were absent. They were Lieutenant Nemu of Squad 12 and Lieutenant Omaeda. Harry was a mess by the time all the introductions were done, and his Zanpakuto spirit was conveniently silent. His only friend in Soul Society was his Zanpakuto, which was a convenient way of saying he was his own best friend. After all, Zanpakuto spirits were the other half of a Shinigami's soul.
To Harry's mortification, he was asked to draw pictures of everyone present. Supposedly, it was tradition for a newcomer Lieutenant to do this, and Harry had the most unpleasant time doing it under peer pressure. He had to play Pictionary with them, and he had to draw the pictures on the board. There were other activities planned for the following meetings, and Harry was already making up excuses in his head to somehow escape from the meetings.
Thankfully, the meeting took a turn from focusing on Harry and instead on magazines and newsletters to be published for the month. Harry had never even heard of the Lieutenants publishing any such readable materials. He chanced a sneak peek at Lieutenant Sasakibe, but his old boss was looking stoic as ever.
"Harry san. We'll have to take some photos of you for the magazine cover. A new feature would start about you, detailing your journey to soul society and climbing to the post of Lieutenant." Lieutenant Nanao said.
"My journey to soul society? Why?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Stories can be inspiring." Nanao said shortly and left it at that.
"After we are done, ladies will be queuing up to meet you, Harry kun." Rangiku winked at him, laughing her heart out, which did interesting things to her 'assets' that made Harry uncomfortable as he could not stop himself from staring.
"Yeah, right! They'll be queuing up to beat the crap out of you." Lieutenant Renji Abarai muttered, making Harry blanch.
'What have I gotten myself into now?' Harry thought fearfully.
****
Night had fallen over Sereitei, but Harry was not asleep. He had immediately set up everything he wanted in his office in the squad barracks. There was a lot of administrative work pending in the absence of Kaien Shiba. Though Sentaro Kotsubaki and Kiyone Kotetsu did an admirable job, some areas needed to be more thorough. The glaring failure he could see so far was their primary objective. Squad 13 had one primary objective: to look after the Jureichi. As an exclusive zone with the greatest reishi in the World of the Living, the Jureichi attracted a lot of attention from some of the most powerful Hollows from Hueco Mundo.
The monitoring systems on the current Jureichi, Karakura Town, were lacking in his observation. The sensing consoles and communicators used by Squad 13 were outdated for centuries. He'd have to take stock of the division members and formulate a new order for Squad 12 to complete. To make matters worse, some of the performance stats of the division members assigned to Karakura Town were subpar. There was a general problem with the stats of almost every member of Squad 13. While Harry knew comparing Squad 13 with Squad 1 was a bit too much, the fighting and defensive abilities of the Squad were too poor, in his opinion. In fact, Harry would bet Squad 13 was the weakest division in the Gotei 13, which was unacceptable.
But before he got ahead of himself, Harry had to run several of his proposals by Captain Ukitake.
'Which means I better start drafting the proposals.' Harry thought, grinning at the thought of doing his favourite administrative work.
Harry didn't know how, but he discovered he had a knack for formulating proposals, especially those meant for Squad 12 and Central 46. The trick was always to make it so that the proposals came with a tone stressing the importance of Squad 12 and Central 46. Stroking their egos always yielded better results, and Harry had certain patented flowery phrases that made the two groups disposed to heed his requests.
The next morning, Harry came up with three proposals and gave them to Captain Ukitake. One was about procuring equipment from Squad 12. The other two were about creating a Jureichi monitoring task force focused on fast communication, and the other was about revamping the training for squad members.
"Ah, I see. Now I understand why Genryusai dono sent you straight to my squad. The famed efficiency of Squad 1 members remains intact." said Captain Ukitake, signing all three proposals Harry wrote up after a cursory reading.
Harry was a bit bemused to see that Captain Ukitake signed all three without any reservations expressed or revisions to the original text. He had thought the Captain would take at least three days to properly study the proposals before making a decision.
'I guess Captain Ukitake was already aware of the shortcomings, but his health kept him from properly administering the division.' Harry thought.
"Do not worry, Captain. I'll make sure the Squad's performance rises to your satisfaction." Harry promised.
After he met with Captain Ukitake, Harry immediately went to work. First, he summoned all seated officers up to seat 10 of Squad 13 for an emergency meeting.
"Good morning, everyone. Please be seated." said Harry, watching all the seated officers arrive in a private hall he had set up for the meeting.
The seated officer bowed before him, and they took their seats as instructed. Harry nodded at Kiyone Kotetsu, who had arranged the hall for the meeting in short order.
"Does anyone know how many Shinigami serve in the Gotei 13?" Harry asked.
"About 6000, sir." Kiyone quickly answered.
"5874, to be exact. How many do you reckon serve in Squad 13?" Harry asked.
"327 members, including you, sir." Sentaro answered immediately.
"Correct. We have the lowest strength among all the other Squads of Gotei 13. Do you know why this is so?"
Only silence greeted his question.
"It's because our focus should be on the World of the Living while our patrolling duty in Rukongai is minimal. I've been reviewing the Squad's efficiency, and there are areas we can improve. With Captain Ukitake's blessing, I'm making several changes to the Squad's functioning."
Several uneasy glances were thrown between the seated officers hearing Harry's declaration.
"There'll be a reshuffling of seated posts in the Squad as I evaluate every seated member. I'll also categorise you into those with skills in Hakuda, Hoho, Kido and Zanjutsu. I recommend that you notch up your training if you hope to move up the ladder." said Harry, taking a brief pause to stare at all the nine seated officers in the room. "Is there anything you'd like to ask?"
More silence was Harry's answer.
"In that case, you are dismissed. More details will be relayed to you in the coming days." said Harry, dismissing the seated officers.
Harry started revamping the squad the very next day. He started off with a simple format to assess the performance of the seated officers till rank ten. They were asked to select the best ten Shinigami from Squad 13 and form a team. They were given time till noon to formulate a team and submit their names before him. Harry was relieved to see all nine seated officers of the Squad manage to form a team rather quickly.
When evening came, Harry summoned the third seat Sentaro Kotsubaki and his team, to the training grounds.
"Your task is simple, Sentaro san. You must lead your team and use any means necessary to take the Zanpakuto strapped over my shoulders. I'll be using only Kido and Hoho against you and your team. You'll have one hour, starting now." said Harry, nodding at Kiyone san, who started the timer for all the gathered squad members to see.
"But sir, you'll be at a disadvan…" Sentaro started to say, and Harry acted immediately.
Harry flickered away using shunpo, slipping right next to Sentaro in a crouching position. Harry struck out with force, gathering spirit energy into the palm of his right hand.
"Gha!"
Sentaro was blown away by Harry's strike on his abdomen, crashing into the Kido training range and kicking up a storm of dust clouds.
"In battle, there is no room for hesitation. Every second is an opportunity for victory or defeat." said Harry, disappearing again using shunpo.
Slipping inside the guard of a Shinigami, Harry threw two rapid punches to the stomach and struck fast behind the man's neck. Like a puppet with its strings cut, the Shinigami fell unconscious on the ground.
"Bakudo no.9: Horin."
A cackle of bright yellow energy formed between his index finger and middle finger on his left arm. Harry threw his arm out, and a long rope made of bright yellow spirit energy expanded outward quickly, binding two Shinigami in the group before they could even draw their Zanpakutos. Harry flipped over Sentaro as the third seat tried to catch the sword from his back while he was distracted.
While he was above Sentaro, Harry quickly drew a triangle with his spirit energy.
"Bakudo no.30: Shitotsu Sansen."
The tips of the bright yellow triangle shot out small triangular energy constructs that bound Sentaro's limbs against the ground in quick order.
"Against a superior opponent, speed and teamwork are necessary for survival." said Harry, flickering away using shunpo.
He proceeded to decimate the entire team using Hoho and Hakuda. By the time he was done, the whole group of Shinigami led by third-seat Sentaro was left on the ground unconscious or their limbs bound in Kido. The minute hand on the timer hardly moved since the exercise began, making Harry sigh in disappointment.
'This is much worse than I thought.' Harry thought, a frown of displeasure adorning his face. 'I'll have to increase their training.'
"You are in trouble, you idiot. I told you not to release my Bankai outside your inner world if you wanted to keep our power a secret."
Harry ignored the feminine voice coming from the depths of his soul.
"I placed a barrier to protect my privacy." Harry argued back.
"Clearly, your barrier was one weak little thing to contain my power."
Harry fell silent as he had no counter for that. His barrier collapsed right after he released the Bankai form of his Zanpakuto. In retrospect, he could see it was a mistake to unleash the full power of his Zanpakuto when he had yet to train with his Bankai properly. Early on, he had decided to go under the radar of pesky nobles and higher officials of the Thirteen Court guard squads. His intent was quite simple. He wanted to avoid any unnecessary attention and thereby get himself embroiled in unnecessary problems. He had a zillion of those in his previous life until he inevitably met his end at the hands of Voldemort and his Death Eaters. It was not his death alone that bothered him the most. He became the reason his friends also met gruesome ends in the Department of Mysteries.
Flashes of deeply buried memories passed through his mind, making him drop his shoulder.
Harry alone had come to Soul Society, and he had no idea what had happened to the rest of his friends who had died. The sad fact was that he didn't even know whether he was in the same universe. He died by falling into the Veil in DoM. It could be said that the Veil was a dimensional barrier between his world and Soul Society. Or his world could exist in a node of space where the Veil functions as one of the portals to different dimensions. He could have fallen into Soul Society by luck. There were infinite possibilities to consider when it came to space and time. None knew it as intimately as he did.
"And don't ever forget that, Harry. Always keep that in mind. Space and time are ever-changing, evolving and advancing. Nothing remains permanent."
Harry listened to the feminine voice coming from his soul.
"I know. I won't forget." he whispered back.
The rest of his journey was silent as he contemplated the fate of his friends in his old life. Even after the passage of decades, he always remembered those dearest to his heart. They lived on in his heart. He considered it a privilege to have known them and called them friends. Friends who had given their lives for him. His only regret was that he could not save them. He'd have gladly sacrificed his life to ensure that even one of them lived.
'Unfortunately, life never tends to go how we intend despite how hard we wish it otherwise.' Harry thought grimly.
This was why he went out of his way to seclude himself from the rest of the students of the Shino Academy and later when he joined the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. Besides, someone not strong enough to protect his friends and family didn't deserve to have friends and family. It was a lesson he learned from his enemy Voldemort. The Dark Lord was wrong about good and evil, but power was very important. Nothing lasts without power. Voldemort's power allowed the Dark Lord to survive without a body. Harry's lack of power left him and his friends dead. It was a valuable lesson that he'd never forget.
He finally reached the principal's office. He knocked on the door and waited quietly outside.
"Come in."
Harry slid the door to the side and stepped into the office of Head Captain Yamamoto, who was also the captain of Squad 1.
"Harry san. Take a seat."
"Thank you, Head Captain." Harry bowed before sitting across from the strongest Shinigami in Soul Society.
"I've been reading your performance reports from teachers of different disciplines. There is no Shinigami in my squad that could triumph over you when it comes to Kido. Your Zanjutsu and Hoho are on par with that of a Captain, and your Hakuda is level with the Lieutenants of many squads. What you lack is better control over your spiritual power, but that develops in time and with experience. And now, you have achieved Bankai."
Harry remained silent, merely observing the words of the Captain Commander.
"Lieutenant Sasakibe reported that you've one of the highest rates of performing Konso, paying diligence to our sacred duty of guiding souls to Soul Society. You've also dispatched many hollows while on duty, releasing the souls trapped to a new beginning. Your experience and dedication to duty are appreciated by the Gotei 13."
"Yes, sir."
"Good." The Captain Commander opened his eyes to stare at Harry. "You're effectively transferred to Squad 13 as the newly appointed Lieutenant under Captain Ukitake."
Harry's eyes widened as he registered the words of the Head Captain in his mind. There was the urge to protest in his mind, but Harry knew the Gotei 13 was a military organisation and had been in constant war with the Hollows since its inception. From a military perspective, the Head Captain was merely assigning resources at his disposal effectively. Squad 13 had been without a Lieutenant since Kaien Shiba fell to a Hollow, and Captain Ukitake has been shouldering all the responsibility ever since.
"I'll execute my duties to the best of my abilities in Squad 13, Head Captain." Harry dipped his head.
"See that you do, Lieutenant Harry. Captain Ukitake was my student once. His guidance will aid you in your development." said the Head Captain.
Harry thought he saw a ghost of a smile from the Head Captain, but it was gone the next moment.
"You may leave."
"Yes, sir."
Harry immediately stood up. Bowing one last time, he exited the Head Captain's office and went straight for his quarters.
Later that night, Harry stared off into the starry sky of Seireitei in thought. He was nearing a hundred years since he came to Soul Society as a soul in Rukongai. For a few decades, he had wandered around in Rukongai looking for his friends or someone from his world, but he found nothing. Even the last forty-odd years of his service as a Shinigami had left him only with more questions. He never got the opportunity to visit Britain as he was never stationed in the island nation. The closer he came to Britain was when he was assigned to Paris, which ended up being his sole mission in Western Europe. The sights he saw in Paris made him realise he had died and time travelled simultaneously or had fallen into an alternate reality.
Harry could only know for sure if he could find the wizarding world. Unfortunately, he had no idea about the entrances to other magical communities around the world. He had scoured Japan and Asia for any sign of a magical community during his missions in the World of the Living. Unfortunately, there was no luck.
'Perhaps, as a Lieutenant, I could visit Britain and search for the Leaky Cauldron.' Harry thought.
"What if you don't find anything, Harry?"
Harry tore his eyes away from the sky to look at the woman with flowing red hair that materialised by his bedside.
"I don't know," he answered honestly.
"What if you find something?" she asked instead.
Harry let out a deep breath and smiled. "Frankly, I have no idea. My heart tells me to search, so I search for a lost world. I guess that makes me an idiot."
"No, Harry. It makes you someone who listens to his heart,"she whispered, lying down next to him on the bed and staring at the sky.
They lay there for a long time, staring at the night sky.
"I should train with the Bankai." Harry finally said.
"Of course, you should. Let's go."
His Zanpakuto spirit returned to his inner world, and so did his consciousness as he slipped into Jinzen trance.
****
The flash step was one of the favourite skills Harry liked being a Shinigami. The kido spells were his forte, but he enjoyed travelling at high speeds far more than launching spells. Besides, Hollows tend to sense the gathering of massive spirit energy using their acute senses. As corrupted souls who devoured souls with greater spirit energy, Hollows were dispositioned to sense spirit energy better than the average soul reaper. Because of this, Harry had always used kido spells as a last resort during his encounters with a hollow. This left him to use the flash step and his Zanpakuto to dispatch troublesome hollows.
There were hollows of greater power like the Menos Grande or the Adjuchas. But Harry had rarely encountered them in the World of the Living and therefore had any reason to rely on his Kido skills. In the rare chance a powerful Hollow was located, the protocol was to send a message for help, and a Lieutenant or Captain would arrive to dispose of the Hollow.
Harry travelled through great distances inside Seireitei using shunpo. Using shunpo was fun but also necessary in his case. His skin complexion made him stick out like a sore thumb in the city. He attracted a lot of attention wherever he went because of his 'alien' look. Sometimes he felt like he was a circus monkey. It was one more reason for Harry to stay away from any social gatherings. Because he had no social life to speak of, he had thrown himself to his work with a gusto that made him score a few records. He had it on good authority that the number of souls he had purified in his forty years of service was the highest in his age group. The exact number was in the hands of Squad 12, but he was not going into that evil place. The captain of Squad 12 was a creepy dude with a clown face. He had seen hollows with more humanity on their masked faces than Kurotsuchi Mayuri.
The wind rushed past him as he made a few more quick steps taking a short route by accessing the city's rooftops. With a final shunpo, Harry found himself appearing before the entrance of Squad 13, startling a few Shinigami gathered at the gate.
"Phew. It looks like I'm on time." Harry muttered, taking off the backpack secured on his shoulders on the floor.
To his surprise, two Shinigami appeared by his side with impressive speed.
"Lieutenant Harry sama. I'm third seat Kiyone Kotetsu. Let me take your bags." A petite woman with blonde hair introduced herself, taking the bags from his hand just before the bottom of his bag touched the ground.
"Oh. Thank yo…"
"Harry sama. Third seat Sentaro Kotsubaki reporting for duty, sir. I'll take your bags." A man with a short goatee said, catching his bags with both hands.
"Oh, umm… hmm…" Harry rubbed the back of his neck as the two third seats glared at each other while tugging his bag back and forth.
"I was the first to take Harry sama's bag." Kiyone argued, glaring daggers at her colleague.
"I'm the senior third seat. My seniority makes me the authority in collecting the bag of Harry sama." Sentaro argued right back.
"That doesn't even make sense, you dolt." Kiyone screamed back, tugging the bag closer to her chest.
"It won't make sense to an idiot like you." Sentaro shouted, pulling the bag to his side.
"Umm, hello. I can carry the bag." Harry intervened with what he assumed was a solution to the quarrel.
"Look at that, you pig. You've made a bad impression on Harry sama, and now he wants to carry his bag to the barracks. Shame on you." Kiyone glared at her rival while shaking her fist in a threatening manner.
"How dare you? You're the one who disobeyed your senior and made Harry sama dislike us." Sentaro accused loudly.
"I don't…" Harry tried to say, but the two third seats butted their heads and began a contest of strength.
"All right, that's enough, you two." Harry snapped forcefully, letting out a portion of spiritual pressure to make his point across.
That seemed to do the trick as the two third seats snapped into attention.
"Good. Kiyone san will take the bag to my quarters while Sentaro san can escort me to Captain Ukitake's office."
"Hai, Harry sama." Kiyone and Sentaro chorused together.
Kiyone disappeared in a shunpo with Harry's bag while Sentaro led him inside the barracks of Squad 13 towards Captain Ukitake's office.
"Ah! Harry san. Welcome." Captain Ukitake greeted him with a bright smile.
"Captain Ukitake. I'm sorry if I disturbed you."
"No, not at all." Captain Ukitake shook his head with a gentle smile. "You need not have taken charge today itself. You could've taken a day off to say goodbye to your fellow squad members."
"Duty comes first, Captain Ukitake. How may I be of service to you, sir?" asked Harry, ready to assume the duties of a Lieutenant.
"In that case, I should start with the badge ceremony." Captain Ukitake said.
A few minutes later, Harry found himself standing before the members of Squad 13 with Captain Ukitake tying the badge of Lieutenant on his left arm.
"Hello, everyone. My name is Harry. I hope we can work together in the coming days and keep the balance of the Spirit world as is the mandate from the heavens."
****
Harry decided Captain Ukitake was a relatively easygoing man for leading a military wing of the Gotei thirteen. But that was until he had the honour of conversing briefly with Captain Koyaraku Shunsui.
"So this is your new Lieutenant." Captain Kyoraku said, an easygoing grin plastered on his face as he stared at Harry while drinking sake inside Captain Ukitake's office.
Harry stared at the captain of Squad 8, not knowing what to say to the man wearing a straw hat and a pink haori over the Captain's coat.
"Shunsui, meet Lieutenant Harry." Captain Ukitake said with a smile.
Harry had noticed that particular quirk of his captain. Among all the thirteen captains of Soul Society, Captain Ukitake had the most friendly smile. Even Captain Aizen came short of Captain Ukitake despite the popularity of the Squad 5 captain.
"Just Harry?" Captain Kyoraku asked with a raised eyebrow.
"That's all I remember, and I didn't bother making up a new one, sir." Harry said with practised ease.
On the off chance some Death Eaters were around, he didn't want anyone catching wind of his existence. It also meant his friends could not find him here as well. But as years went by, he leaned towards the theory that he had fallen into an entirely different reality. However, he had no idea whether the wizarding world existed here. Therefore, he abandoned the Potter name and went with just Harry.
Even the name Harry was rare. He suspected he was the only one with such a European name in the Gotei 13 and perhaps even Seireitei. Harry suspected that the Gotei 13 rarely extended its manpower into the continent because their focus was primarily in Asia. For some odd reason, more spiritually powerful souls were in Asia, which tended to attract the attention of Hollows. There was also the fact that Asia was more populated than Europe or any other continent. The only non-Asian soul he found in Soul Society was the squad seven captain, Tousen Kaname.
"Oho! Ukitake, we should look for a good last name for Harry san." Captain Kyoraku said, leaning forward on his seat and looking up from the sake he was drinking.
"I think Harry san can find a good name for himself in time, Shunsui." Ukitake placated his old friend.
"Uhh… If you say so, Ukitake." Captain Kyoraku pouted before turning his sights on Harry again.
"Anyway, Yama ji said you released your Bankai inside a barrier. Which barrier did you use?"
Harry blinked in surprise at the turn in conversation topic.
"The standard Three Mirror Deflector barrier, sir. It was taught to me by Sasakibe dono for training purposes." Harry answered honestly.
"I see." Captain Kyoraku observed him with a strange intensity before hiding behind his straw hat. "There'll be an inquiry into the release of your zanpakuto. It'll be conducted by Captain Aizen."
"But I had taken permission beforehand." Harry argued.
"Yes, but that was for releasing your Shikai under the standard training barrier. Anyhow, it won't matter much. Captain Aizen is rather lax when it comes to small discrepancies. You should learn better barriers from now on, or Ukitake could set up a suitable one when you're training."
"Yes, sir." Harry nodded stiffly before turning his eyes on Captain Ukitake. "I'd appreciate your help in learning more suitable barriers, sir."
"My my… this one is polite, huh? It seems you got lucky, Ukitake." Kyoraku playfully nudged his old friend. "Now that you have a proper Lieutenant, you can dump all the work on him and join me for some sake occasionally."
"I hope not, Captain. You are already a drunkard. Don't turn Captain Ukitake into one as well."
Harry eyed the woman who spoke up from the corner of Captain Ukitake's office. It was none other than the Lieutenant of Squad 8. For the life of him, he could not recall the name of the Lieutenant of Squad 8.
"That was cruel, Nanao chan. Now, you've painted a bad impression about me in Harry san's mind." Captain Kyoraku pouted.
Harry carefully noted down the name in his mind.
"I sure hope so, Captain. The last thing we want is for everyone to become like you." said Lieutenant Nanao, pushing her glasses up her nose.
Captain Kyoraku fell comically on the floor face down, bemoaning his subordinates were not showing him proper respect.
To Harry's eyes, this was an entirely new side of Gotei 13. He had only known strict discipline and bone-crushing work in Squad 1. Everything was formal in the squad, and discipline was paramount in the division. So, it was surprising to see this level of free interaction between Captain Ukitake and Kyoraku, who were the famed students of the Head Captain.
'Maybe I should've talked with those outside Squad 1 or even taken up on the offer of Captain Aizen to join Squad 5 when I was in Shino Academy.' Harry thought.
Harry was snapped out of his musings when Lieutenant Nanao gave him a flyer.
"Uhh…what is this?" Harry asked, staring at the pink-coloured paper with a frown.
"It's an invitation for the new Lieutenant meeting. All the details are available in the leaflet." said lieutenant Nanao.
Harry was surprised to learn there was a gathering of Lieutenants like the captains. He had never heard of such a thing. But then again, he had always spent most of his time on missions in the Land of the Living.
"Will Sasakibe dono be present during the meeting?" Harry asked curiously.
"You'll find out during the meeting." said Lieutenant Nanao, giving him a strange stare.
****
"Hi, green-eyes chan."
Harry could only blink and stare at the pink-haired kid who was happily waving at him when he arrived at the address that was on the flyer given by Lieutenant Nanao Ise.
"Uhh…hello." Harry awkwardly waved at the small girl. "Maybe I came to the wrong place."
"No. You came to the correct place Harry kun."
Harry was taken aback to see a woman with flowing blond hair, a curvy body and sizeable breasts. He was pretty confident this was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in Soul Society.
"I'm Rangiku Matsumoto, Lieutenant of Squad 10. You can call me Rangiku." Rangiky winked at him suavely before pulling him inside the room. "First, let's introduce you to everyone else."
The next few minutes made Harry sweat bullets as he was introduced to all the Lieutenants of Gotei 13 by an ever-excitable Lieutenant Rangiku, who hung on to his arm and Lieutenant Yachiru, who was conveniently perched on his head somehow.
"Sasakibe dono." Harry tried to bow his head, but Lieutenant Yachiru dragged his head back by tugging his hair.
"I've tried to shield you from the indignities of other squads for as long as I could, Harry san. There is nothing else to do but somehow survive. Best of luck." Lieutenant Sasakibe whispered.
Harry could do nothing but gape at the man who took a seat behind a small table in a dignified manner as if nothing had happened. Lieutenants Shuhei Hisagi, Tetsuzaemon Iba and Renji Abarai looked at him with pity.
"Good luck." Lieutenant Izuru Kira of Squad 3 waved at him with a thin smile.
"Come on, green-eyes. Let's meet Isane chan." Lieutenant Ichiru hollered, pushing him towards the Squad 4 Lieutenant, a beautiful woman with grey eyes and silver hair.
Harry was getting increasingly skittish as he had almost forgotten to hold long conversations. His decades of isolation were biting his back, with Harry struggling to find proper conversation topics. He even met Lieutenant Hinamori, who was the politest person he met in Soul Society. Two Lieutenants were absent. They were Lieutenant Nemu of Squad 12 and Lieutenant Omaeda. Harry was a mess by the time all the introductions were done, and his Zanpakuto spirit was conveniently silent. His only friend in Soul Society was his Zanpakuto, which was a convenient way of saying he was his own best friend. After all, Zanpakuto spirits were the other half of a Shinigami's soul.
To Harry's mortification, he was asked to draw pictures of everyone present. Supposedly, it was tradition for a newcomer Lieutenant to do this, and Harry had the most unpleasant time doing it under peer pressure. He had to play Pictionary with them, and he had to draw the pictures on the board. There were other activities planned for the following meetings, and Harry was already making up excuses in his head to somehow escape from the meetings.
Thankfully, the meeting took a turn from focusing on Harry and instead on magazines and newsletters to be published for the month. Harry had never even heard of the Lieutenants publishing any such readable materials. He chanced a sneak peek at Lieutenant Sasakibe, but his old boss was looking stoic as ever.
"Harry san. We'll have to take some photos of you for the magazine cover. A new feature would start about you, detailing your journey to soul society and climbing to the post of Lieutenant." Lieutenant Nanao said.
"My journey to soul society? Why?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Stories can be inspiring." Nanao said shortly and left it at that.
"After we are done, ladies will be queuing up to meet you, Harry kun." Rangiku winked at him, laughing her heart out, which did interesting things to her 'assets' that made Harry uncomfortable as he could not stop himself from staring.
"Yeah, right! They'll be queuing up to beat the crap out of you." Lieutenant Renji Abarai muttered, making Harry blanch.
'What have I gotten myself into now?' Harry thought fearfully.
****
Night had fallen over Sereitei, but Harry was not asleep. He had immediately set up everything he wanted in his office in the squad barracks. There was a lot of administrative work pending in the absence of Kaien Shiba. Though Sentaro Kotsubaki and Kiyone Kotetsu did an admirable job, some areas needed to be more thorough. The glaring failure he could see so far was their primary objective. Squad 13 had one primary objective: to look after the Jureichi. As an exclusive zone with the greatest reishi in the World of the Living, the Jureichi attracted a lot of attention from some of the most powerful Hollows from Hueco Mundo.
The monitoring systems on the current Jureichi, Karakura Town, were lacking in his observation. The sensing consoles and communicators used by Squad 13 were outdated for centuries. He'd have to take stock of the division members and formulate a new order for Squad 12 to complete. To make matters worse, some of the performance stats of the division members assigned to Karakura Town were subpar. There was a general problem with the stats of almost every member of Squad 13. While Harry knew comparing Squad 13 with Squad 1 was a bit too much, the fighting and defensive abilities of the Squad were too poor, in his opinion. In fact, Harry would bet Squad 13 was the weakest division in the Gotei 13, which was unacceptable.
But before he got ahead of himself, Harry had to run several of his proposals by Captain Ukitake.
'Which means I better start drafting the proposals.' Harry thought, grinning at the thought of doing his favourite administrative work.
Harry didn't know how, but he discovered he had a knack for formulating proposals, especially those meant for Squad 12 and Central 46. The trick was always to make it so that the proposals came with a tone stressing the importance of Squad 12 and Central 46. Stroking their egos always yielded better results, and Harry had certain patented flowery phrases that made the two groups disposed to heed his requests.
The next morning, Harry came up with three proposals and gave them to Captain Ukitake. One was about procuring equipment from Squad 12. The other two were about creating a Jureichi monitoring task force focused on fast communication, and the other was about revamping the training for squad members.
"Ah, I see. Now I understand why Genryusai dono sent you straight to my squad. The famed efficiency of Squad 1 members remains intact." said Captain Ukitake, signing all three proposals Harry wrote up after a cursory reading.
Harry was a bit bemused to see that Captain Ukitake signed all three without any reservations expressed or revisions to the original text. He had thought the Captain would take at least three days to properly study the proposals before making a decision.
'I guess Captain Ukitake was already aware of the shortcomings, but his health kept him from properly administering the division.' Harry thought.
"Do not worry, Captain. I'll make sure the Squad's performance rises to your satisfaction." Harry promised.
After he met with Captain Ukitake, Harry immediately went to work. First, he summoned all seated officers up to seat 10 of Squad 13 for an emergency meeting.
"Good morning, everyone. Please be seated." said Harry, watching all the seated officers arrive in a private hall he had set up for the meeting.
The seated officer bowed before him, and they took their seats as instructed. Harry nodded at Kiyone Kotetsu, who had arranged the hall for the meeting in short order.
"Does anyone know how many Shinigami serve in the Gotei 13?" Harry asked.
"About 6000, sir." Kiyone quickly answered.
"5874, to be exact. How many do you reckon serve in Squad 13?" Harry asked.
"327 members, including you, sir." Sentaro answered immediately.
"Correct. We have the lowest strength among all the other Squads of Gotei 13. Do you know why this is so?"
Only silence greeted his question.
"It's because our focus should be on the World of the Living while our patrolling duty in Rukongai is minimal. I've been reviewing the Squad's efficiency, and there are areas we can improve. With Captain Ukitake's blessing, I'm making several changes to the Squad's functioning."
Several uneasy glances were thrown between the seated officers hearing Harry's declaration.
"There'll be a reshuffling of seated posts in the Squad as I evaluate every seated member. I'll also categorise you into those with skills in Hakuda, Hoho, Kido and Zanjutsu. I recommend that you notch up your training if you hope to move up the ladder." said Harry, taking a brief pause to stare at all the nine seated officers in the room. "Is there anything you'd like to ask?"
More silence was Harry's answer.
"In that case, you are dismissed. More details will be relayed to you in the coming days." said Harry, dismissing the seated officers.
Harry started revamping the squad the very next day. He started off with a simple format to assess the performance of the seated officers till rank ten. They were asked to select the best ten Shinigami from Squad 13 and form a team. They were given time till noon to formulate a team and submit their names before him. Harry was relieved to see all nine seated officers of the Squad manage to form a team rather quickly.
When evening came, Harry summoned the third seat Sentaro Kotsubaki and his team, to the training grounds.
"Your task is simple, Sentaro san. You must lead your team and use any means necessary to take the Zanpakuto strapped over my shoulders. I'll be using only Kido and Hoho against you and your team. You'll have one hour, starting now." said Harry, nodding at Kiyone san, who started the timer for all the gathered squad members to see.
"But sir, you'll be at a disadvan…" Sentaro started to say, and Harry acted immediately.
Harry flickered away using shunpo, slipping right next to Sentaro in a crouching position. Harry struck out with force, gathering spirit energy into the palm of his right hand.
"Gha!"
Sentaro was blown away by Harry's strike on his abdomen, crashing into the Kido training range and kicking up a storm of dust clouds.
"In battle, there is no room for hesitation. Every second is an opportunity for victory or defeat." said Harry, disappearing again using shunpo.
Slipping inside the guard of a Shinigami, Harry threw two rapid punches to the stomach and struck fast behind the man's neck. Like a puppet with its strings cut, the Shinigami fell unconscious on the ground.
"Bakudo no.9: Horin."
A cackle of bright yellow energy formed between his index finger and middle finger on his left arm. Harry threw his arm out, and a long rope made of bright yellow spirit energy expanded outward quickly, binding two Shinigami in the group before they could even draw their Zanpakutos. Harry flipped over Sentaro as the third seat tried to catch the sword from his back while he was distracted.
While he was above Sentaro, Harry quickly drew a triangle with his spirit energy.
"Bakudo no.30: Shitotsu Sansen."
The tips of the bright yellow triangle shot out small triangular energy constructs that bound Sentaro's limbs against the ground in quick order.
"Against a superior opponent, speed and teamwork are necessary for survival." said Harry, flickering away using shunpo.
He proceeded to decimate the entire team using Hoho and Hakuda. By the time he was done, the whole group of Shinigami led by third-seat Sentaro was left on the ground unconscious or their limbs bound in Kido. The minute hand on the timer hardly moved since the exercise began, making Harry sigh in disappointment.
'This is much worse than I thought.' Harry thought, a frown of displeasure adorning his face. 'I'll have to increase their training.'
Ch2: Under observation
"Captain Aizen, please have a seat." Harry cordially welcomed his former sensei into his office and served tea to the gentle captain of Squad 5.
"Thank you, Lieutenant Harry." Aizen accepted the tea graciously. "I'm afraid I'm here on a matter of official business. But that doesn't hold me back from extending congratulations on your well-earned promotion."
"Thank you, Captain Aizen." Harry nodded. "Captain Ukitake and Kyoraku briefed me about your inquiry because of the unauthorised release of my Zanpakuto in Seireitei."
"Ah, I had hoped they would when I passed on the information to Captain Kyoraku." Captain Aizen smiled pleasantly. "Some mishaps tend to happen in training. Unfortunately, the Central 46 insists on needless oversights even in Squad 1."
"I don't mind. Checks and balances make a robust system." said Harry.
"You haven't changed a bit, have you, Harry san?" Captain Aizen shook his head with a grin. "Frankly, I was surprised you didn't insist on joining Squad 6. You'd have fit right in with your strict adherence to the rule of law and procedures."
"I would have joined Squad 6, but then I thought I'd offend you, Captain Aizen."
"What do you mean?" Captain Aizen asked in surprise.
"You offered me a spot in Squad 5 during my final year at Shino Academy. I thought it'd offend you if I were to choose Captain Kuchiki's squad over your own. Therefore, I applied for Squad 1, a squad known for its disciplined Shinigami and power for obvious reasons." Harry admitted, making Captain Aizen chuckle.
"Harry san, you'd have never offended me. Although, I admit I was a bit disappointed that you chose to turn down my offer. But that was born out of the influence of my curiosity in your case."
"I have asked this many times, and you've always never told me why you think I'm a curious case. I'm sure there must be other Shinigami of European descent in Seireitei in its long history," said Harry.
"Hmm. Actually, no. You are the first." said Captain Aizen, but he suddenly looked hesitant before sighing. "I suppose there is no harm in showing you why you are a unique case. Come by my office at Squad 5 barracks on a free evening. As you have risen to the rank of a Lieutenant, you automatically get clearance for certain information."
"I'll do that, Captain Aizen." Harry nodded, as he was curious why Captain Aizen considered his entry into Soul Society a rare case.
"Now, then – we can come to the matter hand." said Captain Aizen, taking out several papers from inside his Captain's coat. "The first point of inquiry would be the barrier that you used. You'll have to demonstrate the barrier you used for your training purposes on the day in question, and you need to produce the permission slip for your Zanpakuto release."
Harry understood why Captain Aizen always complained about the Central 46 being too restrictive and sometimes obstructive to the working of Gotei 13. They always loved to lord over the Gotei 13 by burying the Squads under paperwork. As a result, most squads had to expand their recruit pool among the Shinigami, searching for those with administrative skills. It was a waste of time and resources when looking from the angle of Gotei 13's primary objective. Tying down the Gotei 13 in the slow-spinning wheels of bureaucracy tend to hold back the Shinigami from tackling the hollows properly in the World of the Living. This, in turn, increases the strength of Hollows in Hueco Mundo and weakens Soul Society in the long run as Seireitei is deprived of more spiritually powerful souls.
Time moved on, and Captain Aizen continued to ask questions while marking down his answers on the official inquest papers from Central 46. Harry looked at the clock, and he saw an hour had passed.
"I told you this would take up a lot of time." Captain Aizen said, being the perspective guy he was without even looking up from the paperwork.
"I know, Captain. It's just that I had scheduled a training session with some subordinates." said Harry.
"I understand. Now, the last question. Was it the first time you unleashed your Bankai?"
"Yes." Harry answered truthfully.
"And that's it. We're finished here." said Captain Aizen, setting down his pen. "I'll be submitting the report to the inquiry committee of the Central 46. They'll review the report and summon you to take your testimony in… let's see…hmm…a decade from now or maybe twenty years."
Harry stared at Captain Aizen incredulously.
"Wait! A decade?" Harry asked with wide eyes.
"This is a minor offence, Harry san. The Central 46 likes to interfere, but they also don't act arbitrarily against a Lieutenant ranked officer of Gotei 13 who achieved Bankai recently. You also had taken permission for training with your Shikai."
"But still… a decade?"
"They'll look for any previous violations. I know you have a squeaky clean record, and therefore, they'll give it a decade or two for you to become sloppy to lord it over you during the trial." Captain Aizen shrugged, holding out the papers for Harry to sign.
Harry went over the report quickly before signing the papers one after the other.
"All right then." said Captain Aizen, standing up with all the papers in hand. "We both lost an hour of valuable time, and a decade from now, you'll be bored out of your mind as you wait outside a sessions court in the Central 46."
Harry escorted his former sensei from the Academy. Many of Captain Aizen's former students in the division came by to greet the gentle Captain of Squad 5 along the way. He had no difficulty admitting Captain Aizen taught him the proper Kanji and calligraphy, not to mention that the Squad 5 Captain was highly resourceful. He even developed his administrative skills thanks to Captain Aizen.
Sometimes, Harry even saw a reflection of himself in Aizen. He got the feeling the Squad 5 Captain was a lonely soul.
'Perhaps Captain Aizen focuses on helping others to escape from that pit of loneliness.' Harry thought.
"Don't forget what I told you. Come by my office when you have free time." said Captain Aizen before speeding away using Shunpo.
Harry stared after the Captain of Squad 5 for a time before shaking his head. Taking a deep breath, he returned to the barracks as he had to test out another group that day. He suspected it was going to be another disappointing bout.
But a few minutes into the fight, Harry felt an iota of hope for Squad 13.
"Sokatsui."
A wave of blue flames rushed towards Harry, making his eyes crease. His eyes found the onyx eyes of Rukia Kuchiki.
'Hmm. Promising.' Harry thought before disappearing using Shunpo.
He reappeared a few paces away from Kuchiki with a spell of his own to return fire. But before he could do so, his senses picked up on a blade coming his way. Harry flipped upside down mid-air, dodging the attack but also keeping track of Kiyone Kotetsu's movement.
'Not bad.' Harry thought, slightly impressed by the third seat's speed. 'But not enough.'
The gathered spirit energy on the palm of his hand fluctuated as he shaped it into the spell he had in mind.
"Hadou 11: Tsuzuri Raiden."
The layer of spirit energy on his palm turned into static electricity. He reached out and touched Kiyone's head. The static pulsating on his palm immediately passed through Kiyone's body, leaving her to fall face down, unconscious.
The moment Kiyone's body hit the floor, he was surrounded from all sides by her team, all trying to stab him with their swords save for one. Rukia Kuchiki was nowhere to be seen.
'Above.' Harry thought as he felt the air displace right above him.
Harry immediately surrounded his body with more spirit energy. With a sharp tug, he released a portion of his power in the form of a defensive vortex infused with a subtle kido spell that allowed him to manipulate the air. A torrent of spirit energy infused with a whirlpool of wind was created around him, blowing away all his opponents.
"Excellent teamwork. Using Kiyone san as bait was a daring move but acceptable under the current circumstances." Harry commented offhandedly.
His fellow Squad 13 Shinigami grunted and screamed as violent gales of wind swept them away. Harry could hear the muttering coming from the crowd watching the fight. Most of them were under the impression that he was using the power of his Zanpakuto. Harry had to hold back the urge to shake his head when he heard such comments being passed among his subordinates. It was not as if he was touching his Zanpakuto, nor was it in a released state. His Zanpakuto was in its sealed form, strapped to his back for all to see.
'If they can't even understand that, then Squad 13 is doomed. I'm doomed.' Harry thought.
Harry dodged a rope of energy that tried to ensnare him thrown by Kiyone san. A third seat was not supposed to be this weak. He was frankly disappointed in Kiyone, and it only became apparent just how screwed Squad 13 was compared to other divisions. He disappeared using Shunpo, sneaking past Kiyone's guard and punching the petite brown-haired woman on her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. He immediately followed the punch by striking the back of the woman's neck with a sharp jab, leaving Kiyone unconscious.
Harry spared a glance at the unmoving form of Kiyone, holding back a snort.
'So weak. This is pathetic. She didn't even release her Zanpakuto.' Harry thought before turning his attention away from Kiyone to Rukia Kuchiki, who was busy gathering a dense amount of spirit energy in her palm.
"Hadou 31: Shakkaho."
A red ball of energy punched through the air, and Harry smacked it away with the back of his hand while coating it with far more denser spirit energy. The Kido splashed next to a group of Shinigami, trying to sneak up on him. The resulting explosion blew away the last few Shinigami, leaving Rukia Kuchiki as the sole Shinigami standing.
"Dance, Sode no Shirayuki."
Harry observed Rukia Kuchiki's Zanpakuto assume Shikai form, but he could feel her spiritual pressure become dull once it crested over assuming the released state.
"I see." Harry muttered, looking into the eyes of Rukia Kuchiki, seeing someone who feared conflict.
He knew the reason why there was no conviction and only hesitation in Kuchiki's eyes.
"Bakudo 61: Rikujokoro."
Six wide beams made of spirit energy slammed into Rukia Kuchiki's waist, holding the petite woman in place. Using Shunpo, Harry appeared right next to Kuchiki and knocked her Zanpakuto out of her hands. Harry got the urge to say something but held off on that front. He knew Kuchiki san suffered from guilt, which weighed her down and affected her abilities. Standing close to Rukia Kuchiki, he could feel the conflict that was raging inside her spirit energy. Subconsciously, Kuchiki san was suppressing her own power. He could feel the power within her collapsing in on itself as a portion of her power was fighting off the other. It was almost fascinating to watch as he had never seen something happen so visibly in anyone.
Despite the self-imposed limits, Harry saw Rukia Kuchiki as the most competent Shinigami among the seated officers so far. He hoped that perception would change and someone better would come along in the days ahead.
"It was a valiant effort. Your teamwork was good, but it could be better." said Harry once the timer reached one hour.
Harry watched the downtrodden faces perk up at the minor compliment he gave. As he allowed the rest of his subordinates to help the injured, Harry understood his work in Squad 13 would only be far more difficult than he initially imagined. At least, he could see the Shinigami in Squad 13 showed remarkable teamwork skills.
'Perhaps. I can train them better by splitting them off into different teams.' Harry mused.
The next few days, Harry engaged with different teams in the training yard until he finished facing off all teams. There were no hidden gems as he had desperately hoped in the other teams he tested. However, he was almost certain Rukia Kuchiki deserved a promotion to the spot of third seat. But he held off on that particular change for the time being. Harry wanted to make sure Rukia could improve, and he wanted to give Sentaro and Kiyone a chance despite their lack of Shikai. While juggling with the training and reorganisation of Squad 13, he also had to spend a considerable amount of time and energy on focusing the Squad on their duty of protecting the Jureichi and patrolling the nearby human settlements close to Karakura Town.
To make matters worse, there were increased hollow appearances close to Karakura town, which gave his squad a busy schedule on most days. Squad 12 was also playing a game of cat and mouse on his request to upgrade the current monitoring devices in Squad 13's possession. Harry was almost sure that he'd have to take up the matter of updating their gadgets with Squad 12 Lieutenant Nemu. While Harry found Captain Kurotsuchi Mayuri's supposed daughter a little off-putting, he had to admit the woman was effective in her job.
All of these different problems kept him from taking Captain Aizen's offer to chat about his uniqueness among the Shinigami populace of Seireitei. When he finally got some free time, Harry went straight for Squad 5 barracks to meet Captain Aizen. While inquiring about Captain Aizen's whereabouts to a Squad 5 Shinigami, he was interrupted by a hell butterfly sent by one of his division members. Harry immediately abandoned his plans to visit Squad 5 and returned abruptly to Squad 13 barracks.
"What's happening?" Harry asked, rushing into the communications wing of the squad.
"We've just received a line of communication from Squad 12, sir. One of our teams sent a distress signal while on patrol near Soyoto city." the chief communications officer Ahmya Hori reported immediately.
"A distress signal? What did they encounter, Ahmya san?" Harry asked the distressed communications officer of the squad.
"A Menos Grande, sir." said Ahmya, looking ready to faint.
"A Menos Grande in the World of the Living?" Harry whispered to himself in confusion.
It was not normal for a Menos class hollow to appear in the World of the Living. Even spiritually awakened humans were not enough to satisfy the hunger of a Menos, so he couldn't fathom why a Menos would appear in the middle of a city in the World of the Living. It was not as if Hueco Mundo had a shortage of Hollows.
"Are there any seated officers among the team?" Harry immediately asked.
"Yes sir. Rukia Kuchiki."
"Kuchiki! Release the limiter seals placed on them. Tell her she is free to use her Shikai." Harry immediately ordered.
"Yes, sir."
Ahmya immediately went to work and conveyed the orders to Squad 12, from which the communications were sent to the team.
"Squad 12 has lifted the limiters, sir, but Kuchiki san is not using her Shikai." Ahmya said confusedly, staring at the readings on the monitor and noticing no major fluctuations in the spirit energy of the team.
"What is she doing?" Harry muttered, frowning at the screen.
Suddenly, an alarm blared as one of the team members rapidly lost their spirit energy. They could barely act upon it when another shinigami in the team lost their spirit energy almost completely, and after a few seconds, all readings about the second shinigami vanished.
'Dead.' Harry thought grimly.
"Request the Kido Corps to open a Senkaimon to Soyoto city." Harry ordered, seeing no other way to salvage the situation. "Tell them I'm on my way."
"Yes, sir."
****
Rukia was frozen in shock, and worst of her hands shook, unable to make a move against the monstrous hollow that crushed a colleague. Her sword was drenched in the blood of her fellow squad member, as was her whole body. She could feel the blood running down her face, and she remembered that dreadful day when her sword claimed the life of her friend and mentor, Kaien Shiba.
The Menos Grande gathered a massive red sphered of energy in its gaping maw.
'Cero.' Rukia thought, staring at the massive ball of energy with wide eyes in fear.
Her hands continued to shake, and her legs refused to move as blood dripped down her hands and face. Two of her comrades were crushed beneath the giant legs of the Menos. She could hardly feel the spiritual pressure of those two. The spiritual pressure bearing down on her from the Menos strengthened as the Cero was fully formed. With a blast of air, the Cero was released from the gaping maw of the Menos, and Rukia resigned herself to her death.
The expected attack didn't touch her. Instead, Rukia saw her Lieutenant hold back the Cero with his Zanpakuto. She could see the powerful reitsu of Lieutenant Harry splitting the Cero away from their position. The power of the cero collapsed buildings, blowing away the vehicles and turning over the road, gauging a deep scar on the earth.
"L…Lieutenant Harry sama." Rukia stuttered, seeing her Lieutenant standing before her with glowing green eyes.
"It is our sacred duty to kill the hollows and release the souls entrapped in their monstrous form to Soul Society to partake in the cycle of reincarnation. A Shinigami who fears blood and killing is useless for the Gotei 13 and the duties that entail in keeping the balance between the spirit worlds."
Rukia's attention immediately returned to the Menos as it let out an enraged howl. It pumped more power into the Cero, trying to drown them in its blasting power. She was startled when Lieutenant Harry placed his free left arm against the blade of his Zanpakuto and started a familiar chant.
"Scattered beast bones! Spire, Crimson Crystal, Steel Wheels! The wind if it moves, the sky if it stops, the tone of the spear striking fills the lone castle!"
"Hadou 63: Raikouhou!"
A massive bolt of yellow lightning gathered at Lieutenant Harry's sword before it skewered through the Cero like a long spear. The Cero was cut away cleanly in half, and the bolt of lightning would've skewered the Menos if it hadn't taken a step back. Instead, a long gash opened on the mask of the menos Grande, making it howl in pain.
Rukia felt the air shift as the Menos charged another cero in its mouth. Her ears picked up the distinct sound of a sword being unsheathed. When she looked at her Lieutenant, her eyes fell clearly on her superior's Zanpakuto for the first time. Unlike the usual Zanpakutos held by the Shinigami in Seireitei, Lieutenant Harry was holding a ninjato with a black handle and a round gold guard.
Her eyes widened as Lieutenant Harry disappeared from her field of vision. The next moment, she saw Lieutenant Harry standing behind the Menos with a bloody Zanpakuto. The Menos let out a howl as its giant legs were cut off at its ankles, which made it fall face-first into the ground.
'So fast and strong.' Rukia thought, impressed by the speed and power of her superior officer.
She had heard rumours that Lieutenant Harry was as strong as a Captain, and the Head Captain wanted Lieutenant Harry to replace Captain Ukitake as Captain of Squad 13. Of course, she had junked the whole rumour as nothing but fanciful claims made by some airheads, but she could see the rumours about Lieutenant Harry's powers were not unfounded. Quickly cutting down a Menos with an unreleased Zanpakuto was no easy feat.
Rukia gasped when the Menos Grande turned its enormous head to the side and tried to use the cero against Lieutenant Harry. But Rukia watched transfixed as her superior merely pressed his forefinger against the white mask of the giant hollow.
"Hado 4: Byakuri."
A bright blue bolt of lightning punched through the mask of the Menos Grande, abruptly cutting off the cero being charged in its mouth. The Menos remained unmoving for a moment before it dissolved into reishi.
"There are only two forms of battles, Rukia san. The righteous battle and the unrighteous battle. Those who pursue unrighteous battles seek pleasure in the suffering caused by the battle. But those who fight the righteous battle fight out of duty."
"We Shinigami are engaged in a protracted war against the Hollows for the sake of keeping the balance and guiding souls to Soul Society. When you raise your sword in battle, remember that you are doing a service to the soul you reap. In the end, nothing truly dies in our world. Life as we know it is a constant exchange of energy and nothing more."
Rukia stared at the impassive green eyes of her superior as she felt his judging eyes bearing down on her with force.
"Hai, Lieutenant." Rukia stuttered out.
"Good. If I see you hesitate again while discharging your duties as a Shinigami, I'll request Captain Ukitake to reassign you to the Kido Corps or Squad 4."
With that final warning delivered, Rukia watched her superior open the Senkaimon. The gateway to Seireitei opened with a bright flash of light with Hell Butterflies crossing through the portal.
Rukia became sombre, realising her Lieutenant was considering transferring her to some of the 'safer' divisions in the Gotei 13. She wondered whether her brother was involved as it smacked of Byakuya Kuchiki's idea.
"Don't get me wrong Rukia san. You are a talented Shinigami. All you need to do is find yourself and regain your resolve. A Shinigami without confidence in her own abilities is a danger to herself and those around her." said Lieutenant Harry before walking into the Senkaimon without waiting for her.
But the Senkaimon didn't close down as Squad 4 members, escorted by Kiyone san and other members of Squad 13, came to clean up the mess left by the Menos Grande.
"Rukia chan. Are you all right?" Kiyone asked in concern.
"I think so." Rukia mumbled, her mind elsewhere as she had much to think about.
****
"My apologies, Captain Aizen." Harry gave the Squad 5 captain an awkward smile. "There was an emergency situation that held me up."
"It's quite understandable," said Aizen, waving away Harry's apology with a gentle smile. "From what I heard from the Kido Corps members, Rukia Kuchiki was somehow involved, and you went hard on Kuchiki san."
"Kuchiki san has some issues that hold her back in discharging her duties despite her rank." Harry was careful not to reveal too much as he didn't want to divulge details pertaining to a squad member under his command to another captain.
"I see. Kaien Shiba's unfortunate demise continues to haunt her." Aizen said with pity. "Might I suggest something, Harry san?"
"Of course, Captain." Harry nodded.
"It'd be better if Kuchiki san is delegated to the duties of unseated officers. Having her deal with low-level hollows and some time away from Seireitei might do her some good to rediscover herself. We have so few talented Shinigami in the Gotei 13, and I'd rather not see a talented Shinigami like her wasted away," said Aizen.
Harry nodded in understanding. The Gotei 13 was already understaffed. Losing a talented Shinigami like Rukia Kuchiki, a skilled kido user who achieved shikai, would be a hard blow. In the never-ending struggle between Shinigami and Hollow, the Hollows had the advantage in numbers and strength. Even the most basic hollows were far too powerful compared to the average Shinigami. The numbers and the ferocity of even the average hollows always leave the Gotei 13 in a disadvantageous position. The only advantage the Gotei 13 had was in the Captains and Lieutenants. Their skillset and overwhelming power kept Soul Society in a strong position over the innumerable Hollows of Hueco Mundo.
"I agree, Captain Aizen. I'll have a word with Captain Ukitake. He knows Kuchiki san better than anyone else." said Harry.
"Of course. Now, coming to your matter. I promised you some information, did I not?" Aizen mused aloud before taking a thick folder from a nearby table and offering it to Harry.
"What is this, Captain Aizen?" Harry asked.
"It by no accident that you were admitted into Squad 1, Harry san. You must've figured out by now that Academy students do not get directly recruited into Squad 1. You were offered the post because it was easier for the Head Captain to keep an eye on you under the orders of Central 46." said Aizen, making Harry freeze.
"Why? What did I do to warrant such scrutiny?" Harry asked with a touch of disbelief.
"You didn't do anything, Harry san. You must have understood by now that the Gotei 13 rarely sends any Shinigami to Europe. And those souls that come from beyond Asia are tracked by Squad 12. Your soul went completely unnoticed by Squad 12 despite your power. Naturally, this raised a lot of concern."
"But I don't understand. What does my European ancestry have to do with…"
"Everything. Either you were a Quincy spy or an anomaly born with a special power hidden deep inside your soul, which allowed you to enter Soul Society without the need for Konso." said Captain Aizen, talking over what Harry was saying.
"Quincy? Special power in my soul?" Harry spluttered. "I don't understand."
"Everything that you need to know is in the file Harry san. Read it carefully, but don't show it to anyone else. After you've read everything, you may ask as many questions as you want."
Harry stared at the thick folder Captain Aizen gave him. He couldn't help but gulp in fear as he worried about what he might find in the folder. But Captain Aizen didn't say anything more, and Harry was allowed to take the folder to Squad 13's barracks.
Once Harry started reading the files inside, he understood why Captain Aizen had asked him to keep the folder discreet. Contained within the files were shocking information about the Quincies and their origin, as well as another group of humans that developed extraordinary powers thanks to the Reio. The more he read about the humans with special powers, the more amazed he became. He had studied about the Quincies in the Shino Academy just like any other student. But their origins were vague and confined to pure speculation. The Academy also taught nothing about humans blessed with fractured parts of the Soul King hidden in their souls.
Harry hadn't even known that parts of the Soul King's body were lying around in random souls.
For Merlin's sake, he had hoped to gain an audience with the Reio sometime in the future, who was supposed to be an Omnipotent God, the creator of all spirit dimensions. It was a shocker to know that his one hope of making sense of his unique situation was a corpse with most parts missing. He searched high and low inside the file for additional information on the Reio but could not find anything substantial.
However, he found the surveillance reports attached to a file with his name conducted by the Onmitsukido during his Academy days. Several charts were also drawn up on incisive scanning of his spiritual pressure. All the available charts showed the expected results in his eyes.
'There could be more data than what the files hold.' Harry thought.
To be honest, Harry was flummoxed with the whole reveal. He didn't know what to think, and then there was the growing fear in his mind that he could be shipped off to Squad 12 for experimentation or the Central 46 could straight up kill him if they deemed him a threat. Strangely enough, Harry could understand the concerns of Central 46. They were the governing body of the Soul Society, and their decisions were made by a popular vote. The many factions that comprise the Central 46 always engage in a tug of war in most cases. The only issue they take seriously as a united front without engaging in politics would be the safety of Seireitei. The Quincies were killed off because their power destroyed souls instead of purifying them. The humans with parts of the Reio, however, spooked him. Only he knew he was not part of either group.
Taking a deep breath, Harry engaged in a meditative trance that allowed him to connect with his Zanpakuto. He did not need to repeat what had happened, as his Zanpakuto already knew because she was a reflection of his soul.
"It could be a test, Harry." she said from the depths of his soul.
"Hmm. Are you suggesting that Captain Aizen came forward with the file under orders from the Head Captain or the Central 46?" Harry asked.
"No. It's merely suspicious that Aizen gave you information that should not be in the hands of a newly charged Lieutenant. The Gotei 13 is a military organisation, not a school like Hogwarts. Here, everything is done for the benefit of keeping the balance of spirit dimensions. I hope you haven't forgotten that, Harry."
"Of course." Harry muttered, his mind suddenly recollecting a lesson he was taught in the Shino Academy and then by the Head Captain himself before he was given a seated position in Squad 1.
"Seek no beauty in battle. Seek not beauty in death. Consider not your own life. If you wish to protect that which must be protected, strike while your opponent's back is turned."
Harry remembered those words keenly and tried his best to live by those words while serving in the Gotei 13.
"I understand what I've got to do now. Thank you." Harry whispered to the depths of his soul.
"Be careful, Harry. It'd be a shame if I can't share my garden with you." his Zanpakuto spoke softly.
Harry returned from the Jinzen trance and summoned Kiyone.
"How may I serve Lieutenant Harry sama?"
"I want you to seek out Lieutenant Sasakibe of Squad 1 and submit a request for a meeting with the head captain as soon as possible." Harry ordered.
"Yes, sir." Kiyone nodded before leaving his office.
Harry sighed and looked outside his office into the training yard of Squad 13. He could see some squad members training diligently in kido while others were training in zanjutsu.
'I guess I should join them in training.' Harry sighed, leaving the paperwork on his desk a pass.
It didn't take long for Kiyone to return from Squad 1 barracks with an appointment for a closed-door meeting with the Head Captain. Harry was more than happy that the Head Captain gave him an audience in the evening. Now, he had to ensure nothing was bothering him during that time.
When the time finally came, Harry left the Squad 13 barracks, giving the supervision of the division to Kiyone san as Captain Ukitake was under the care of Captain Unahona.
****
The sound of footsteps echoed in the expansive chamber, but Aizen didn't look up from his observatory. The footsteps drew ever closer until it finally stopped a few feet behind his back.
"Oh my! Now I see why you were ignoring me, Captain." Gin Ichimaru said with a thin smile as he looked at the screen showing a familiar-looking home in Karakura Town.
"What's it, Gin?" Aizen asked patiently, never taking his eyes off the Kurosaki home as one of his major experiments was living under that roof.
"Your ploy with Harry kun didn't pan out. Lieutenant Harry has sought a meeting with the Head Captain." said Gin.
"Hmm. That's disappointing." Aizen commented placidly.
"Should I take care of Harry kun?" Gin asked eagerly.
"No. Let Harry san become another bootlicker of Seireitei. I had anticipated something like this happening when the Captain Commander assigned him as the lieutenant of Squad 13 instead of the Kido Corps Commander, as I had requested." said Aizen, waving his hand dismissively.
"It's a shame though. Harry kun would've been a nice addition to our group." Gin said, the smirk never leaving his face.
"Yes, indeed. His fast-paced development intrigued me until I found out what he truly was. It'd have been quite ironic if he was by my side as I ascend to the heavens." Aizen muttered, his eyes perking up when he saw Ichigo Kurosaki stepping out of his house on the screen.
"Still, leaving him alone feels like a mistake, Captain Aizen. He could threaten your plans, and he has a scary growth rate, as you said." Gin warned, his trademark smirk dimming a little.
"True. But I'm intrigued whether he'll be strong enough to challenge me." Aizen admitted. "Besides, let's give Harry san a lifeline for now. After all, he served our interests when he assigned Rukia Kuchiki to Karakura Town as we wanted."
'Ichigo Kurosaki. I hope you'll develop as I envision.' Aizen thought, looking at the orange-haired teen with interest.
AN:
Artworks can be found in: Discord
"Thank you, Lieutenant Harry." Aizen accepted the tea graciously. "I'm afraid I'm here on a matter of official business. But that doesn't hold me back from extending congratulations on your well-earned promotion."
"Thank you, Captain Aizen." Harry nodded. "Captain Ukitake and Kyoraku briefed me about your inquiry because of the unauthorised release of my Zanpakuto in Seireitei."
"Ah, I had hoped they would when I passed on the information to Captain Kyoraku." Captain Aizen smiled pleasantly. "Some mishaps tend to happen in training. Unfortunately, the Central 46 insists on needless oversights even in Squad 1."
"I don't mind. Checks and balances make a robust system." said Harry.
"You haven't changed a bit, have you, Harry san?" Captain Aizen shook his head with a grin. "Frankly, I was surprised you didn't insist on joining Squad 6. You'd have fit right in with your strict adherence to the rule of law and procedures."
"I would have joined Squad 6, but then I thought I'd offend you, Captain Aizen."
"What do you mean?" Captain Aizen asked in surprise.
"You offered me a spot in Squad 5 during my final year at Shino Academy. I thought it'd offend you if I were to choose Captain Kuchiki's squad over your own. Therefore, I applied for Squad 1, a squad known for its disciplined Shinigami and power for obvious reasons." Harry admitted, making Captain Aizen chuckle.
"Harry san, you'd have never offended me. Although, I admit I was a bit disappointed that you chose to turn down my offer. But that was born out of the influence of my curiosity in your case."
"I have asked this many times, and you've always never told me why you think I'm a curious case. I'm sure there must be other Shinigami of European descent in Seireitei in its long history," said Harry.
"Hmm. Actually, no. You are the first." said Captain Aizen, but he suddenly looked hesitant before sighing. "I suppose there is no harm in showing you why you are a unique case. Come by my office at Squad 5 barracks on a free evening. As you have risen to the rank of a Lieutenant, you automatically get clearance for certain information."
"I'll do that, Captain Aizen." Harry nodded, as he was curious why Captain Aizen considered his entry into Soul Society a rare case.
"Now, then – we can come to the matter hand." said Captain Aizen, taking out several papers from inside his Captain's coat. "The first point of inquiry would be the barrier that you used. You'll have to demonstrate the barrier you used for your training purposes on the day in question, and you need to produce the permission slip for your Zanpakuto release."
Harry understood why Captain Aizen always complained about the Central 46 being too restrictive and sometimes obstructive to the working of Gotei 13. They always loved to lord over the Gotei 13 by burying the Squads under paperwork. As a result, most squads had to expand their recruit pool among the Shinigami, searching for those with administrative skills. It was a waste of time and resources when looking from the angle of Gotei 13's primary objective. Tying down the Gotei 13 in the slow-spinning wheels of bureaucracy tend to hold back the Shinigami from tackling the hollows properly in the World of the Living. This, in turn, increases the strength of Hollows in Hueco Mundo and weakens Soul Society in the long run as Seireitei is deprived of more spiritually powerful souls.
Time moved on, and Captain Aizen continued to ask questions while marking down his answers on the official inquest papers from Central 46. Harry looked at the clock, and he saw an hour had passed.
"I told you this would take up a lot of time." Captain Aizen said, being the perspective guy he was without even looking up from the paperwork.
"I know, Captain. It's just that I had scheduled a training session with some subordinates." said Harry.
"I understand. Now, the last question. Was it the first time you unleashed your Bankai?"
"Yes." Harry answered truthfully.
"And that's it. We're finished here." said Captain Aizen, setting down his pen. "I'll be submitting the report to the inquiry committee of the Central 46. They'll review the report and summon you to take your testimony in… let's see…hmm…a decade from now or maybe twenty years."
Harry stared at Captain Aizen incredulously.
"Wait! A decade?" Harry asked with wide eyes.
"This is a minor offence, Harry san. The Central 46 likes to interfere, but they also don't act arbitrarily against a Lieutenant ranked officer of Gotei 13 who achieved Bankai recently. You also had taken permission for training with your Shikai."
"But still… a decade?"
"They'll look for any previous violations. I know you have a squeaky clean record, and therefore, they'll give it a decade or two for you to become sloppy to lord it over you during the trial." Captain Aizen shrugged, holding out the papers for Harry to sign.
Harry went over the report quickly before signing the papers one after the other.
"All right then." said Captain Aizen, standing up with all the papers in hand. "We both lost an hour of valuable time, and a decade from now, you'll be bored out of your mind as you wait outside a sessions court in the Central 46."
Harry escorted his former sensei from the Academy. Many of Captain Aizen's former students in the division came by to greet the gentle Captain of Squad 5 along the way. He had no difficulty admitting Captain Aizen taught him the proper Kanji and calligraphy, not to mention that the Squad 5 Captain was highly resourceful. He even developed his administrative skills thanks to Captain Aizen.
Sometimes, Harry even saw a reflection of himself in Aizen. He got the feeling the Squad 5 Captain was a lonely soul.
'Perhaps Captain Aizen focuses on helping others to escape from that pit of loneliness.' Harry thought.
"Don't forget what I told you. Come by my office when you have free time." said Captain Aizen before speeding away using Shunpo.
Harry stared after the Captain of Squad 5 for a time before shaking his head. Taking a deep breath, he returned to the barracks as he had to test out another group that day. He suspected it was going to be another disappointing bout.
But a few minutes into the fight, Harry felt an iota of hope for Squad 13.
"Sokatsui."
A wave of blue flames rushed towards Harry, making his eyes crease. His eyes found the onyx eyes of Rukia Kuchiki.
'Hmm. Promising.' Harry thought before disappearing using Shunpo.
He reappeared a few paces away from Kuchiki with a spell of his own to return fire. But before he could do so, his senses picked up on a blade coming his way. Harry flipped upside down mid-air, dodging the attack but also keeping track of Kiyone Kotetsu's movement.
'Not bad.' Harry thought, slightly impressed by the third seat's speed. 'But not enough.'
The gathered spirit energy on the palm of his hand fluctuated as he shaped it into the spell he had in mind.
"Hadou 11: Tsuzuri Raiden."
The layer of spirit energy on his palm turned into static electricity. He reached out and touched Kiyone's head. The static pulsating on his palm immediately passed through Kiyone's body, leaving her to fall face down, unconscious.
The moment Kiyone's body hit the floor, he was surrounded from all sides by her team, all trying to stab him with their swords save for one. Rukia Kuchiki was nowhere to be seen.
'Above.' Harry thought as he felt the air displace right above him.
Harry immediately surrounded his body with more spirit energy. With a sharp tug, he released a portion of his power in the form of a defensive vortex infused with a subtle kido spell that allowed him to manipulate the air. A torrent of spirit energy infused with a whirlpool of wind was created around him, blowing away all his opponents.
"Excellent teamwork. Using Kiyone san as bait was a daring move but acceptable under the current circumstances." Harry commented offhandedly.
His fellow Squad 13 Shinigami grunted and screamed as violent gales of wind swept them away. Harry could hear the muttering coming from the crowd watching the fight. Most of them were under the impression that he was using the power of his Zanpakuto. Harry had to hold back the urge to shake his head when he heard such comments being passed among his subordinates. It was not as if he was touching his Zanpakuto, nor was it in a released state. His Zanpakuto was in its sealed form, strapped to his back for all to see.
'If they can't even understand that, then Squad 13 is doomed. I'm doomed.' Harry thought.
Harry dodged a rope of energy that tried to ensnare him thrown by Kiyone san. A third seat was not supposed to be this weak. He was frankly disappointed in Kiyone, and it only became apparent just how screwed Squad 13 was compared to other divisions. He disappeared using Shunpo, sneaking past Kiyone's guard and punching the petite brown-haired woman on her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. He immediately followed the punch by striking the back of the woman's neck with a sharp jab, leaving Kiyone unconscious.
Harry spared a glance at the unmoving form of Kiyone, holding back a snort.
'So weak. This is pathetic. She didn't even release her Zanpakuto.' Harry thought before turning his attention away from Kiyone to Rukia Kuchiki, who was busy gathering a dense amount of spirit energy in her palm.
"Hadou 31: Shakkaho."
A red ball of energy punched through the air, and Harry smacked it away with the back of his hand while coating it with far more denser spirit energy. The Kido splashed next to a group of Shinigami, trying to sneak up on him. The resulting explosion blew away the last few Shinigami, leaving Rukia Kuchiki as the sole Shinigami standing.
"Dance, Sode no Shirayuki."
Harry observed Rukia Kuchiki's Zanpakuto assume Shikai form, but he could feel her spiritual pressure become dull once it crested over assuming the released state.
"I see." Harry muttered, looking into the eyes of Rukia Kuchiki, seeing someone who feared conflict.
He knew the reason why there was no conviction and only hesitation in Kuchiki's eyes.
"Bakudo 61: Rikujokoro."
Six wide beams made of spirit energy slammed into Rukia Kuchiki's waist, holding the petite woman in place. Using Shunpo, Harry appeared right next to Kuchiki and knocked her Zanpakuto out of her hands. Harry got the urge to say something but held off on that front. He knew Kuchiki san suffered from guilt, which weighed her down and affected her abilities. Standing close to Rukia Kuchiki, he could feel the conflict that was raging inside her spirit energy. Subconsciously, Kuchiki san was suppressing her own power. He could feel the power within her collapsing in on itself as a portion of her power was fighting off the other. It was almost fascinating to watch as he had never seen something happen so visibly in anyone.
Despite the self-imposed limits, Harry saw Rukia Kuchiki as the most competent Shinigami among the seated officers so far. He hoped that perception would change and someone better would come along in the days ahead.
"It was a valiant effort. Your teamwork was good, but it could be better." said Harry once the timer reached one hour.
Harry watched the downtrodden faces perk up at the minor compliment he gave. As he allowed the rest of his subordinates to help the injured, Harry understood his work in Squad 13 would only be far more difficult than he initially imagined. At least, he could see the Shinigami in Squad 13 showed remarkable teamwork skills.
'Perhaps. I can train them better by splitting them off into different teams.' Harry mused.
The next few days, Harry engaged with different teams in the training yard until he finished facing off all teams. There were no hidden gems as he had desperately hoped in the other teams he tested. However, he was almost certain Rukia Kuchiki deserved a promotion to the spot of third seat. But he held off on that particular change for the time being. Harry wanted to make sure Rukia could improve, and he wanted to give Sentaro and Kiyone a chance despite their lack of Shikai. While juggling with the training and reorganisation of Squad 13, he also had to spend a considerable amount of time and energy on focusing the Squad on their duty of protecting the Jureichi and patrolling the nearby human settlements close to Karakura Town.
To make matters worse, there were increased hollow appearances close to Karakura town, which gave his squad a busy schedule on most days. Squad 12 was also playing a game of cat and mouse on his request to upgrade the current monitoring devices in Squad 13's possession. Harry was almost sure that he'd have to take up the matter of updating their gadgets with Squad 12 Lieutenant Nemu. While Harry found Captain Kurotsuchi Mayuri's supposed daughter a little off-putting, he had to admit the woman was effective in her job.
All of these different problems kept him from taking Captain Aizen's offer to chat about his uniqueness among the Shinigami populace of Seireitei. When he finally got some free time, Harry went straight for Squad 5 barracks to meet Captain Aizen. While inquiring about Captain Aizen's whereabouts to a Squad 5 Shinigami, he was interrupted by a hell butterfly sent by one of his division members. Harry immediately abandoned his plans to visit Squad 5 and returned abruptly to Squad 13 barracks.
"What's happening?" Harry asked, rushing into the communications wing of the squad.
"We've just received a line of communication from Squad 12, sir. One of our teams sent a distress signal while on patrol near Soyoto city." the chief communications officer Ahmya Hori reported immediately.
"A distress signal? What did they encounter, Ahmya san?" Harry asked the distressed communications officer of the squad.
"A Menos Grande, sir." said Ahmya, looking ready to faint.
"A Menos Grande in the World of the Living?" Harry whispered to himself in confusion.
It was not normal for a Menos class hollow to appear in the World of the Living. Even spiritually awakened humans were not enough to satisfy the hunger of a Menos, so he couldn't fathom why a Menos would appear in the middle of a city in the World of the Living. It was not as if Hueco Mundo had a shortage of Hollows.
"Are there any seated officers among the team?" Harry immediately asked.
"Yes sir. Rukia Kuchiki."
"Kuchiki! Release the limiter seals placed on them. Tell her she is free to use her Shikai." Harry immediately ordered.
"Yes, sir."
Ahmya immediately went to work and conveyed the orders to Squad 12, from which the communications were sent to the team.
"Squad 12 has lifted the limiters, sir, but Kuchiki san is not using her Shikai." Ahmya said confusedly, staring at the readings on the monitor and noticing no major fluctuations in the spirit energy of the team.
"What is she doing?" Harry muttered, frowning at the screen.
Suddenly, an alarm blared as one of the team members rapidly lost their spirit energy. They could barely act upon it when another shinigami in the team lost their spirit energy almost completely, and after a few seconds, all readings about the second shinigami vanished.
'Dead.' Harry thought grimly.
"Request the Kido Corps to open a Senkaimon to Soyoto city." Harry ordered, seeing no other way to salvage the situation. "Tell them I'm on my way."
"Yes, sir."
****
Rukia was frozen in shock, and worst of her hands shook, unable to make a move against the monstrous hollow that crushed a colleague. Her sword was drenched in the blood of her fellow squad member, as was her whole body. She could feel the blood running down her face, and she remembered that dreadful day when her sword claimed the life of her friend and mentor, Kaien Shiba.
The Menos Grande gathered a massive red sphered of energy in its gaping maw.
'Cero.' Rukia thought, staring at the massive ball of energy with wide eyes in fear.
Her hands continued to shake, and her legs refused to move as blood dripped down her hands and face. Two of her comrades were crushed beneath the giant legs of the Menos. She could hardly feel the spiritual pressure of those two. The spiritual pressure bearing down on her from the Menos strengthened as the Cero was fully formed. With a blast of air, the Cero was released from the gaping maw of the Menos, and Rukia resigned herself to her death.
The expected attack didn't touch her. Instead, Rukia saw her Lieutenant hold back the Cero with his Zanpakuto. She could see the powerful reitsu of Lieutenant Harry splitting the Cero away from their position. The power of the cero collapsed buildings, blowing away the vehicles and turning over the road, gauging a deep scar on the earth.
"L…Lieutenant Harry sama." Rukia stuttered, seeing her Lieutenant standing before her with glowing green eyes.
"It is our sacred duty to kill the hollows and release the souls entrapped in their monstrous form to Soul Society to partake in the cycle of reincarnation. A Shinigami who fears blood and killing is useless for the Gotei 13 and the duties that entail in keeping the balance between the spirit worlds."
Rukia's attention immediately returned to the Menos as it let out an enraged howl. It pumped more power into the Cero, trying to drown them in its blasting power. She was startled when Lieutenant Harry placed his free left arm against the blade of his Zanpakuto and started a familiar chant.
"Scattered beast bones! Spire, Crimson Crystal, Steel Wheels! The wind if it moves, the sky if it stops, the tone of the spear striking fills the lone castle!"
"Hadou 63: Raikouhou!"
A massive bolt of yellow lightning gathered at Lieutenant Harry's sword before it skewered through the Cero like a long spear. The Cero was cut away cleanly in half, and the bolt of lightning would've skewered the Menos if it hadn't taken a step back. Instead, a long gash opened on the mask of the menos Grande, making it howl in pain.
Rukia felt the air shift as the Menos charged another cero in its mouth. Her ears picked up the distinct sound of a sword being unsheathed. When she looked at her Lieutenant, her eyes fell clearly on her superior's Zanpakuto for the first time. Unlike the usual Zanpakutos held by the Shinigami in Seireitei, Lieutenant Harry was holding a ninjato with a black handle and a round gold guard.
Her eyes widened as Lieutenant Harry disappeared from her field of vision. The next moment, she saw Lieutenant Harry standing behind the Menos with a bloody Zanpakuto. The Menos let out a howl as its giant legs were cut off at its ankles, which made it fall face-first into the ground.
'So fast and strong.' Rukia thought, impressed by the speed and power of her superior officer.
She had heard rumours that Lieutenant Harry was as strong as a Captain, and the Head Captain wanted Lieutenant Harry to replace Captain Ukitake as Captain of Squad 13. Of course, she had junked the whole rumour as nothing but fanciful claims made by some airheads, but she could see the rumours about Lieutenant Harry's powers were not unfounded. Quickly cutting down a Menos with an unreleased Zanpakuto was no easy feat.
Rukia gasped when the Menos Grande turned its enormous head to the side and tried to use the cero against Lieutenant Harry. But Rukia watched transfixed as her superior merely pressed his forefinger against the white mask of the giant hollow.
"Hado 4: Byakuri."
A bright blue bolt of lightning punched through the mask of the Menos Grande, abruptly cutting off the cero being charged in its mouth. The Menos remained unmoving for a moment before it dissolved into reishi.
"There are only two forms of battles, Rukia san. The righteous battle and the unrighteous battle. Those who pursue unrighteous battles seek pleasure in the suffering caused by the battle. But those who fight the righteous battle fight out of duty."
"We Shinigami are engaged in a protracted war against the Hollows for the sake of keeping the balance and guiding souls to Soul Society. When you raise your sword in battle, remember that you are doing a service to the soul you reap. In the end, nothing truly dies in our world. Life as we know it is a constant exchange of energy and nothing more."
Rukia stared at the impassive green eyes of her superior as she felt his judging eyes bearing down on her with force.
"Hai, Lieutenant." Rukia stuttered out.
"Good. If I see you hesitate again while discharging your duties as a Shinigami, I'll request Captain Ukitake to reassign you to the Kido Corps or Squad 4."
With that final warning delivered, Rukia watched her superior open the Senkaimon. The gateway to Seireitei opened with a bright flash of light with Hell Butterflies crossing through the portal.
Rukia became sombre, realising her Lieutenant was considering transferring her to some of the 'safer' divisions in the Gotei 13. She wondered whether her brother was involved as it smacked of Byakuya Kuchiki's idea.
"Don't get me wrong Rukia san. You are a talented Shinigami. All you need to do is find yourself and regain your resolve. A Shinigami without confidence in her own abilities is a danger to herself and those around her." said Lieutenant Harry before walking into the Senkaimon without waiting for her.
But the Senkaimon didn't close down as Squad 4 members, escorted by Kiyone san and other members of Squad 13, came to clean up the mess left by the Menos Grande.
"Rukia chan. Are you all right?" Kiyone asked in concern.
"I think so." Rukia mumbled, her mind elsewhere as she had much to think about.
****
"My apologies, Captain Aizen." Harry gave the Squad 5 captain an awkward smile. "There was an emergency situation that held me up."
"It's quite understandable," said Aizen, waving away Harry's apology with a gentle smile. "From what I heard from the Kido Corps members, Rukia Kuchiki was somehow involved, and you went hard on Kuchiki san."
"Kuchiki san has some issues that hold her back in discharging her duties despite her rank." Harry was careful not to reveal too much as he didn't want to divulge details pertaining to a squad member under his command to another captain.
"I see. Kaien Shiba's unfortunate demise continues to haunt her." Aizen said with pity. "Might I suggest something, Harry san?"
"Of course, Captain." Harry nodded.
"It'd be better if Kuchiki san is delegated to the duties of unseated officers. Having her deal with low-level hollows and some time away from Seireitei might do her some good to rediscover herself. We have so few talented Shinigami in the Gotei 13, and I'd rather not see a talented Shinigami like her wasted away," said Aizen.
Harry nodded in understanding. The Gotei 13 was already understaffed. Losing a talented Shinigami like Rukia Kuchiki, a skilled kido user who achieved shikai, would be a hard blow. In the never-ending struggle between Shinigami and Hollow, the Hollows had the advantage in numbers and strength. Even the most basic hollows were far too powerful compared to the average Shinigami. The numbers and the ferocity of even the average hollows always leave the Gotei 13 in a disadvantageous position. The only advantage the Gotei 13 had was in the Captains and Lieutenants. Their skillset and overwhelming power kept Soul Society in a strong position over the innumerable Hollows of Hueco Mundo.
"I agree, Captain Aizen. I'll have a word with Captain Ukitake. He knows Kuchiki san better than anyone else." said Harry.
"Of course. Now, coming to your matter. I promised you some information, did I not?" Aizen mused aloud before taking a thick folder from a nearby table and offering it to Harry.
"What is this, Captain Aizen?" Harry asked.
"It by no accident that you were admitted into Squad 1, Harry san. You must've figured out by now that Academy students do not get directly recruited into Squad 1. You were offered the post because it was easier for the Head Captain to keep an eye on you under the orders of Central 46." said Aizen, making Harry freeze.
"Why? What did I do to warrant such scrutiny?" Harry asked with a touch of disbelief.
"You didn't do anything, Harry san. You must have understood by now that the Gotei 13 rarely sends any Shinigami to Europe. And those souls that come from beyond Asia are tracked by Squad 12. Your soul went completely unnoticed by Squad 12 despite your power. Naturally, this raised a lot of concern."
"But I don't understand. What does my European ancestry have to do with…"
"Everything. Either you were a Quincy spy or an anomaly born with a special power hidden deep inside your soul, which allowed you to enter Soul Society without the need for Konso." said Captain Aizen, talking over what Harry was saying.
"Quincy? Special power in my soul?" Harry spluttered. "I don't understand."
"Everything that you need to know is in the file Harry san. Read it carefully, but don't show it to anyone else. After you've read everything, you may ask as many questions as you want."
Harry stared at the thick folder Captain Aizen gave him. He couldn't help but gulp in fear as he worried about what he might find in the folder. But Captain Aizen didn't say anything more, and Harry was allowed to take the folder to Squad 13's barracks.
Once Harry started reading the files inside, he understood why Captain Aizen had asked him to keep the folder discreet. Contained within the files were shocking information about the Quincies and their origin, as well as another group of humans that developed extraordinary powers thanks to the Reio. The more he read about the humans with special powers, the more amazed he became. He had studied about the Quincies in the Shino Academy just like any other student. But their origins were vague and confined to pure speculation. The Academy also taught nothing about humans blessed with fractured parts of the Soul King hidden in their souls.
Harry hadn't even known that parts of the Soul King's body were lying around in random souls.
For Merlin's sake, he had hoped to gain an audience with the Reio sometime in the future, who was supposed to be an Omnipotent God, the creator of all spirit dimensions. It was a shocker to know that his one hope of making sense of his unique situation was a corpse with most parts missing. He searched high and low inside the file for additional information on the Reio but could not find anything substantial.
However, he found the surveillance reports attached to a file with his name conducted by the Onmitsukido during his Academy days. Several charts were also drawn up on incisive scanning of his spiritual pressure. All the available charts showed the expected results in his eyes.
'There could be more data than what the files hold.' Harry thought.
To be honest, Harry was flummoxed with the whole reveal. He didn't know what to think, and then there was the growing fear in his mind that he could be shipped off to Squad 12 for experimentation or the Central 46 could straight up kill him if they deemed him a threat. Strangely enough, Harry could understand the concerns of Central 46. They were the governing body of the Soul Society, and their decisions were made by a popular vote. The many factions that comprise the Central 46 always engage in a tug of war in most cases. The only issue they take seriously as a united front without engaging in politics would be the safety of Seireitei. The Quincies were killed off because their power destroyed souls instead of purifying them. The humans with parts of the Reio, however, spooked him. Only he knew he was not part of either group.
Taking a deep breath, Harry engaged in a meditative trance that allowed him to connect with his Zanpakuto. He did not need to repeat what had happened, as his Zanpakuto already knew because she was a reflection of his soul.
"It could be a test, Harry." she said from the depths of his soul.
"Hmm. Are you suggesting that Captain Aizen came forward with the file under orders from the Head Captain or the Central 46?" Harry asked.
"No. It's merely suspicious that Aizen gave you information that should not be in the hands of a newly charged Lieutenant. The Gotei 13 is a military organisation, not a school like Hogwarts. Here, everything is done for the benefit of keeping the balance of spirit dimensions. I hope you haven't forgotten that, Harry."
"Of course." Harry muttered, his mind suddenly recollecting a lesson he was taught in the Shino Academy and then by the Head Captain himself before he was given a seated position in Squad 1.
"Seek no beauty in battle. Seek not beauty in death. Consider not your own life. If you wish to protect that which must be protected, strike while your opponent's back is turned."
Harry remembered those words keenly and tried his best to live by those words while serving in the Gotei 13.
"I understand what I've got to do now. Thank you." Harry whispered to the depths of his soul.
"Be careful, Harry. It'd be a shame if I can't share my garden with you." his Zanpakuto spoke softly.
Harry returned from the Jinzen trance and summoned Kiyone.
"How may I serve Lieutenant Harry sama?"
"I want you to seek out Lieutenant Sasakibe of Squad 1 and submit a request for a meeting with the head captain as soon as possible." Harry ordered.
"Yes, sir." Kiyone nodded before leaving his office.
Harry sighed and looked outside his office into the training yard of Squad 13. He could see some squad members training diligently in kido while others were training in zanjutsu.
'I guess I should join them in training.' Harry sighed, leaving the paperwork on his desk a pass.
It didn't take long for Kiyone to return from Squad 1 barracks with an appointment for a closed-door meeting with the Head Captain. Harry was more than happy that the Head Captain gave him an audience in the evening. Now, he had to ensure nothing was bothering him during that time.
When the time finally came, Harry left the Squad 13 barracks, giving the supervision of the division to Kiyone san as Captain Ukitake was under the care of Captain Unahona.
****
The sound of footsteps echoed in the expansive chamber, but Aizen didn't look up from his observatory. The footsteps drew ever closer until it finally stopped a few feet behind his back.
"Oh my! Now I see why you were ignoring me, Captain." Gin Ichimaru said with a thin smile as he looked at the screen showing a familiar-looking home in Karakura Town.
"What's it, Gin?" Aizen asked patiently, never taking his eyes off the Kurosaki home as one of his major experiments was living under that roof.
"Your ploy with Harry kun didn't pan out. Lieutenant Harry has sought a meeting with the Head Captain." said Gin.
"Hmm. That's disappointing." Aizen commented placidly.
"Should I take care of Harry kun?" Gin asked eagerly.
"No. Let Harry san become another bootlicker of Seireitei. I had anticipated something like this happening when the Captain Commander assigned him as the lieutenant of Squad 13 instead of the Kido Corps Commander, as I had requested." said Aizen, waving his hand dismissively.
"It's a shame though. Harry kun would've been a nice addition to our group." Gin said, the smirk never leaving his face.
"Yes, indeed. His fast-paced development intrigued me until I found out what he truly was. It'd have been quite ironic if he was by my side as I ascend to the heavens." Aizen muttered, his eyes perking up when he saw Ichigo Kurosaki stepping out of his house on the screen.
"Still, leaving him alone feels like a mistake, Captain Aizen. He could threaten your plans, and he has a scary growth rate, as you said." Gin warned, his trademark smirk dimming a little.
"True. But I'm intrigued whether he'll be strong enough to challenge me." Aizen admitted. "Besides, let's give Harry san a lifeline for now. After all, he served our interests when he assigned Rukia Kuchiki to Karakura Town as we wanted."
'Ichigo Kurosaki. I hope you'll develop as I envision.' Aizen thought, looking at the orange-haired teen with interest.
AN:
Artworks can be found in: Discord
Last edited:
- Location
- Massachusetts
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Why is this? Soul Society is pretty racially diverse, especially in modern times with foreigners being more and more common. The main reason there aren't more Europeans is because Europe, London specifically, is the domain of West Seireitei and Wing Guard. Europe's whole shtick is that it is where the fusion of spiritual and physical happens, with the dragons and the Quincy both originating there.
This implies that they know about the Wandenreich?
Burn the Witch is a spin-off series that doesn't make much sense in the established Seiretei. I'm not including that bag of crazy in the story.
No. There are other Quincy outside of the Wandenreich. The Wandenreich is a secret army hidden in another dimension, while there are Quincies in the World of the Living. Also, the higher-ups in Soul Society are aware of the Fullbringers because of their connection with the Soul King.
Thanks for the chapter. Harry in Bleach is quite a new thing for me. Nice. Hope this Harry is the smart!Harry that knows alot of spell and rituals and bs them all to becoming something ridiculously OP and convenient...
Ch3: Woes of a lieutenant
New
Harry let out a deep breath as he enjoyed the ambience in the shrine dedicated to the god Raijin. The early morning sun shined its first red rays of light into the shrine, traversing through the thick fog that hung around the place. The place had a strange sense of calm and quiet, and Harry couldn't help but enjoy it. It was sad that he couldn't enjoy it for long.
Unfortunately, he was here for work.
Though majestic and peaceful, the lack of spirit energy around the place was off-putting. It was to be expected, though. Unlike Soul Society, the World of the Living was not saturated with dense spirit energy. Even if Shinigami don't consume spirit energy from the surroundings to survive like the Hollows, they prefer a spirit energy-enriched area to live. Staying in the World of the Living for too long was like an average human living in a deep mine shaft for too long.
Harry walked out of the shrine and stretched, popping the joints of his limbs.
"Such a good day." Harry smiled, looking up at the rising sun.
He felt like his zen was up because he was feeling like he should go for canoeing.
"Oh my!" Harry happily skipped over to the lake adjacent to the shrine, where he saw a small row boat on the shore.
Feeling quite giddy, he skipped over to the boat and made it ready for a small trip across the lake. Harry whistled a jolly tune as he rowed the boat across the lake with a straw hat on his head. He felt like a fisherman going about his work in the early morning. Now, if only he had a fishing pole, it'd have been a perfect day.
"Ah, what the hell. I'll ask for a fishing pole in the next mission." Harry muttered under his breath.
The foggy mist lingering on the lake surrounded him, obscuring his eyes, but his senses remained sharp even though he was in a gigai. Closing his eyes, Harry breathed in the chilly air while focusing on the slightest bit of change in the spirit energy in the area. A ripple formed on the lake's surface, and Harry opened his eyes, his green eyes sharpening with intent. A giant two-headed snake-like hollow jumped out of the lake and tried to devour Harry.
"Bakudo 44: Sekisho."
A wall of green energy formed before Harry, and the hollow slammed against the kido barrier he had created.
"What the…?" a snake-head muttered in surprise before shooting an accusing look at the other head. "You said that's an ordinary human."
"You can feel what I feel, you jerk. Do you feel any spiritual pressure from the human?" the second snake-head shot back.
Harry was thankful the hollow was busy distracting itself. He was always grateful to hollows that made his job easy, but this time, it was not his job to kill the hollow.
"Bakudo 30: Shtotu Sansen."
Three rods of light slammed into the hollow's body, disrupting the spirit energy flow within its body.
"Rhhhhaaaa! Release me at once, human! Or else you'll suffer the wrath of Basilio Malvada." the hollow screamed in rage, struggling against the binding spell.
Three of his squad members rushed out of the tree line along the edge of the lake and stabbed the hollow through its mask. The hollow let out one final screech before dissolving into reishi. All the souls trapped within the body of the hollow were now released into soul society. Harry took a moment to fold his hands and prayed for their good fortune.
"Reio sama. Please grant these souls a kind life in your world." Harry muttered.
Ever since he had a private chat with the Head Captain about the surveillance and studies conducted on his spirit energy, he found himself indebted to the Reio. Captain Mayuri of Squad 12 was quite insistent on conducting more invasive studies on his body, and the Central 46 had given that freak permission, but it was a direct order from the Royal Palace that saved his skin. According to the Head Captain, the Royal Palace had issued a direct order to the Central 46 to stop any more experimentation on his spirit energy or body. By the order of the Reio, most records pertaining to the studies conducted on his spirit energy were sealed. The less informative records were only accessible to the Captains of Gotei 13. Even Harry was denied access to the sealed records, which were supposedly stored in an underground chamber of the Central 46 building.
He was not one to look at a gift horse in the mouth. Therefore, he let the matter drop and thanked his lucky stars that the Soul King decided to save him from what was most likely an extended stay under the care of a creepy freak like Mayuri Kurotsuchi. For that reason alone, he could appreciate the existence of an all-powerful entity like the Reio. Harry was almost a century old and lost all hope of returning to his old world. But he still hoped one day he could ask the many questions deep inside his heart to the Soul King. Unfortunately, the only way Harry could access the royal palace was through his selection into Squad Zero. And that was probably not going to happen in another century.
His subordinates opened the senkaimon, and Harry happily walked through the gate to the Seireitei after completing the mission. They had three more missions like these in the World of the Living, where his physical presence was required because of the threat analysis done by Squad 12. All lieutenants were required to do these types of missions from time to time. Squad 12, working with Squad 2, develops a list of hollows that are too effective in devouring souls and eluding the usual Shinigami patrols in the human world. Once the list was developed, all thirteen squads split the missions evenly.
It was during these missions the Lieutenants usually encountered Adjuchas level hollows. It was a rarity to encounter Adjuchas level Hollows in the human world. However, such hollows often hunt for sport or escape into the human world to escape from other Adjuchas in Heuco Mundo.
By the time he cleaned up all the missions on his list, he never encountered an Adjuchas. All hollows he came across were low-level hollows, and they were quickly dispatched.
After months of perilous campaigns that took him to different places in the Asian continent, he could finally rest his back in the squad barracks and enjoy the sunny disposition of Seireitei.
A huge mountain of paperwork fell on his table with a thud, making his sweat drop.
"Umm… What is that?" Harry asked, directing a betrayed look at Kiyone.
"I'm sorry, Lieutenant. After battle actions, reports were requested by Squad 12 for updating their database." Kyone said sheepishly.
"This is his way of getting even." Harry muttered.
"Lieutenant?" Kiyone looked at him in askance.
"Captain Mayuri. He dislikes when squads request new equipment as it cuts into his 'research' time. Drowning us in paperwork is his method of retaliation." Harry grumbled.
"Shall I deny the request then, sir?" Kiyone asked hesitantly.
"No. That'll only make the situation worse." Harry resigned himself to long evenings filled with tedious work, all for no reason.
He knew all his reports were, at the end of the day, going to end up in a dumpster.
"There is one other thing, sir." said Kiyone before handing him a pink flyer.
"Oh, come on." Harry slammed his forehead on the table after seeing the invitation for another gathering of Lieutenants.
It was going to be both humiliating and a colossal waste of time. Suddenly, a light bulb lit up in his mind.
'Maybe I can skip this one using paperwork as an excuse.' Harary thought.
****
Rukia was bleeding profusely, and she could feel her chances of survival slipping by the second.
"You fool!" Rukia winced as pain flared up when she tried to stand up and pick up her Zanpakuto.
"Did you think that Hollow would leave your sisters alone if it got your soul?" Rukia glared at the idiotic human boy who brazenly threw himself towards the Hollow.
But she admired the selflessness and the courage shown by the human who looked eerily similar to her deceased Lieutenant Kaien Shiba. It was as if fate had a sense of humour and was finding it very entertaining to torture her like this.
'If I waste more time here, everyone will become food for the Hollow. Somehow, it needs to be killed.' Rukia thought.
She once again tried to reach for her Zanpakuto, but her arms were seriously injured, making it painful even to move an inch.
Rukia slid next to a wall and rested her back against it. She looked upon the shocked visage of the human she saved today. The fact that he looked so much like her former Lieutenant made her determined to save him from the Hollow by any means necessary. If she ignored the horrid orange hair, the human was an exact replica of her former lieutenant, Kaien Shiba. It was for this reason she was determined to save the human's life by any means necessary.
'I'll not have more blood on my hands.' Rukia thought to herself.
Her eyes strayed to the Hollow, which was howling with pain of its own because her sword had cut into its mask, injuring it but not enough to kill it. Her eyes then strayed to the injured sister of the human boy.
"Do you want to save your family?" Rukia rasped, feeling the coppery tint of blood in her mouth.
"Of course, I want to save my family. Tell me how to kill that thing, and I'll do it." Ichigo Kurosaki claimed.
'You're brave for a human. I'll give you that.' Rukia thought as she stared into the determined brown eyes of the human before her.
"There is one way…" Rukia said, her eyes falling on her Zanpakuto.
She grasped the blade's hilt with effort and slightly pointed the tip at the human.
"You must become a soul reaper." Rukia declared.
"What?" Ichigo gasped.
"Push the blade's tip through your heart, and I'll pour my spirit energy into your soul. Your innate strength will temporarily absorb some of my power, giving you Shinigami powers. That should empower you to kill the hollow." said Rukia.
"Okay. Give me the sword soul reaper." said Ichigo after shooting a look at the hollow.
Rukia grinned at the lack of fear in the human's voice.
'So, you don't just look like Kaien but even act like him.' she thought.
"My name is not Soul Reaper. I'm Rukia Kuchiki."
She could see the orange-haired human grin as he grasped her blade with his bare hands.
"I'm Ichigo Kurosaki."
Rukia watched as her blade pierced human flesh for the first time, and she poured the last iota of strength left in her. There was a blinding flash of power as reitsu levels soared.
'How can a human hold this much spiritual pressure?' she silently wondered.
When the powerful aura died down, she saw Ichigo in the black shihakusho with a giant blade strapped to his back. She looked at herself and found herself dressed in a white robe.
'I lost all of my powers.' Rukia mused before looking up at Ichigo, who unsheathed the blade on his back and delivered a swift slash against the hollow.
The hollow howled in pain as one of its hands was severed by that one strike.
Meanwhile, Rukia was in a state of shock.
'I meant only to ignite the innate power within him. But he took all my powers and assumed a full soul reaper form. How is that even possible? What is he?' Rukia thought.
She watched, transfixed, as Ichigo proceeded to decimate the hollow all on his own with his giant sword.
"Now you die for hurting my family, monster!" Ichigo screamed before driving his sword through the hollow's mask.
Rukia watched dispassionately as the hollow's body broke apart into reishi.
'Who are you, Ichigo Kurosaki? A human with Shinigami-level spiritual pressure. That must be a first.' Rukia thought.
Later that night, she struggled to decide what to do next. She had left the Kurosaki family behind after helping Ichigo's soul into his body. Unfortunately, she was alone and weak in a world alien to her in most sense. Her interaction with the human world was limited and now she was expected to survive in it for a long mission.
Her eyes strayed to her phone.
Rukia knew her only option was to call for help from Squad 13. But the problem was she was not supposed to transfer her powers to a human. One look at her state would let the squad know what happened. Not only would Lieutenant Harry be disappointed with her, but there was a chance that he'd send soul reapers to forcibly extract the power she transferred to Ichigo. If that happened, there was a strong possibility that Ichigo might die.
She could not let that happen. Not on her watch. Otherwise, this whole night would become pointless.
"Perhaps I can be of some help, Kuchiki san."
Rukia was startled by the oily voice coming from the dark corner of the street. A man wearing a dark green samue with dirty blonde hair and a striped green and white bucket cap stepped out of the darkness. His footsteps echoed in the dark street as his wooden sandals clapped loudly against the paved floor.
"Who are you?" Rukia asked warily.
"My name is Kisuke Urahara." the man introduced himself before hiding his face behind a fan.
"I'm a humble shop owner and a philanthropist for lost souls. I believe I can procure a gigai for you until your powers return."
Rukia felt this guy was bad news, but she had no solution to her dilemma. In the end, her desperation made her follow the sketchy-looking guy.
****
"Well…well…well… It seems your plan is working seamlessly, Captain Aizen." Gin said, with a wide smirk as he stared at the screen showing Ichigo Kurosaki becoming a soul reaper while Rukia Kuchiki lost her powers.
"Hmm… What else did you expect, Gin?" Aizen asked with a placid smile.
"I expected Urahara san to intervene."
"Who says he didn't?" Aizen smiled.
"Huh?" Gin cocked his head to the side.
"Look at Kuchiki san. Don't you find it strange that all her powers left her, and she continues to remain powerless even after many days since the incident?"
The imagery on the screen shifted showing Rukia Kuchiki in a gigai following around Ichigo Kurosaki as the duo battled hollows all over Karakura town.
"Are you saying Urahara san is responsible?" Gin asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Maybe." Aizen said cryptically.
"To what end? How would it benefit Urahara san if Kuchiki san remains powerless?" Gin asked, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"How indeed." Aizen muttered.
"Well… I'll leave it in your capable hands, Captain."
Gin turned away from the screens and walked out of their secret hideout. He wasn't the least bit bothered about the tug-of-war that was going on between Kisuke Urahara and Sosuke Aizen. He already knew Aizen would win all these conflicts and overcome all the hurdles in his path. What mattered was the final battle.
He knew he was nearly prepared on that front, and that was all that mattered.
****
Harry let out a sigh and stretched his sore limbs. The mountain of paperwork had halved after his diligent, uninterrupted work. Most of the data he got from the Squad 13 members in their missions were subpar at best. He had to cross-check their reports with the surveillance team's reports.
It was a good thing that he did because he flagged a strange thing from the reports, and it had to do with Rukia Kuchiki. He observed an anomaly in the spirit energy readings her communication device was transmitting to their observatory. Sometimes, her energy readings were similar to a powerless soul in Rukongai, while at other times, it was half that of a seated officer. While he'd have dismissed it as Kuchiki san suppressing her spiritual pressure for stealth, the readings he received showed two charts. It was as if her communication device was picking on two Shinigami at the same time.
'That's strange. Did someone else accompany Rukia san on her mission? I don't remember ordering such a thing, nor do I think there was any mission overlap with other squads of the Gotei 13.' Harry mused.
"This has to be looked into." Harry muttered.
Harry took the bell on his table and let it ring once. The door to his office slid open, and in a flash, Sentaro and Kiyone were there.
"Sir." the third seat and fourth seat bowed.
"I noticed an incongruity in Rukia Kuchiki's spirit energy readings. I want her contacted immediately through her phone and have her report anything out of the ordinary."
"Yes, sir."
Sentaro and Kiyone rushed out of his office in a flash.
Harry leaned back in his seat, staring at Rukia Kuchiki's file on his table. Her work was top-notch when it came to guiding human souls to Seireitei and dispatching hollows. The reason he had posted Kuchiki in Karakura Town was because souls were running around in that place in droves. He wanted to remind Kuchiki that killing hollows was not the sole duty of a soul reaper. Guiding souls into the afterlife was also an essential duty.
Harry reached across his table to pick up the teapot when a new visitor appeared on his doorstep.
'Oh no.' Harry thought in horror as the lieutenant of Squad 10 appeared in his doorway.
"Lieutenant Rangiku. What a pleasant surprise." Harry said skittishly.
"Harry kun. It was a bad idea to skip the Lieutenants' meeting. Now, you'll have to compensate it somehow."
"I was busy with paperwork…" he started to say, but he was abruptly cut off when the blonde woman unexpectedly invaded his personal space by staring into his eyes while their noses were nearly touching.
"Umm…"
"Lieutenant. (cough)"
Harry looked around the tall, shapely form of Rangiku Matsumoto to stare at Sentaro and Kiyone, standing awkwardly by his doorway with several papers in their hands.
Rangiku suddenly caught his shin with her hand and forcibly turned his eyes away from his seated officers. He was once again forced to stare into her crystal blue eyes.
"You are coming with me for deserting the meeting." Rangiku said as a matter-of-factly, dragging Harry from behind his table.
"Whe… where are we going?" Harry stuttered as he was dragged out of the Squad 13 barracks with everyone watching.
"Someplace where you will repent for your bad behaviour." Rangiku said ominously.
Half an hour later, Harry stared comically at a run-down bar on the outskirts of the fourth district of Rukongai.
"This is a bar." Harry deadpanned.
"A bar that allows soul reapers to open tabs. Isn't this a convenient way of paying back for your earlier rudeness?"
"No." Harry answered blandly.
"A beautiful woman takes you to a bar, and you're not even the least bit excited." Rangiku pouted while pushing him into the bar, forcing Harry to sit near the counter while Rangaku joined him.
"Rangiku chan."
A barmaid suddenly appeared behind the counter. Harry was taken aback by the sudden appearance of the barmaid, who had her black hair in pigtails. Her brown eyes were glimmering with excitement upon seeing Rangiku, which meant the Squad 10 lieutenant was a familiar face around these parts.
"Hana chan. Two of your strongest sake. Put that in Harry kun's tab."
"Hey – wait a minute!"
Before Harry could properly protest, a blue ochoko filled with sake was before him on the counter.
"Have at it, Harry kun." Rangiku said before draining her bowl in one go and immediately asking for the next.
Harry took the bowl full of sake in his two hands and stared at it hesitantly.
"I…" he started to say, but Rangiku forced the bowl against his lips and made him drink the liquid.
Unfortunately, that was not the only bowl he'd drink with Rangiku that day.
When he regained his senses, Harry found darkness around him and was greeted by the sound of crickets.
'What the hell! Where am I?' Harry thought, blinking his eyes rapidly to clear his blurry vision.
His limbs felt heavy, and he felt like his head was resting on something soft and squishy. With some effort, Harry slightly turned his head and found himself staring at the thin golden necklace. Suddenly, he felt a pair of hands snake around the back of his neck and pull his head against the squishy surface.
"I hope you're enjoying yourself, Harry-kun." a sweet, melodious voice whispered teasingly against his right ear.
Harry jumped when he realised where he was. He was mortified to find that he was drooling over Rangiku's ample bosom for the entire night inside a cave of all things. For the life of him, he could not recall anything that happened for hours after he drank sake with Rangiku.
'This could not be any more humiliating.' Harry thought, holding his head in his hands.
AN: More content can be found on Patreon
For artworks related to the story: Discord
Unfortunately, he was here for work.
Though majestic and peaceful, the lack of spirit energy around the place was off-putting. It was to be expected, though. Unlike Soul Society, the World of the Living was not saturated with dense spirit energy. Even if Shinigami don't consume spirit energy from the surroundings to survive like the Hollows, they prefer a spirit energy-enriched area to live. Staying in the World of the Living for too long was like an average human living in a deep mine shaft for too long.
Harry walked out of the shrine and stretched, popping the joints of his limbs.
"Such a good day." Harry smiled, looking up at the rising sun.
He felt like his zen was up because he was feeling like he should go for canoeing.
"Oh my!" Harry happily skipped over to the lake adjacent to the shrine, where he saw a small row boat on the shore.
Feeling quite giddy, he skipped over to the boat and made it ready for a small trip across the lake. Harry whistled a jolly tune as he rowed the boat across the lake with a straw hat on his head. He felt like a fisherman going about his work in the early morning. Now, if only he had a fishing pole, it'd have been a perfect day.
"Ah, what the hell. I'll ask for a fishing pole in the next mission." Harry muttered under his breath.
The foggy mist lingering on the lake surrounded him, obscuring his eyes, but his senses remained sharp even though he was in a gigai. Closing his eyes, Harry breathed in the chilly air while focusing on the slightest bit of change in the spirit energy in the area. A ripple formed on the lake's surface, and Harry opened his eyes, his green eyes sharpening with intent. A giant two-headed snake-like hollow jumped out of the lake and tried to devour Harry.
"Bakudo 44: Sekisho."
A wall of green energy formed before Harry, and the hollow slammed against the kido barrier he had created.
"What the…?" a snake-head muttered in surprise before shooting an accusing look at the other head. "You said that's an ordinary human."
"You can feel what I feel, you jerk. Do you feel any spiritual pressure from the human?" the second snake-head shot back.
Harry was thankful the hollow was busy distracting itself. He was always grateful to hollows that made his job easy, but this time, it was not his job to kill the hollow.
"Bakudo 30: Shtotu Sansen."
Three rods of light slammed into the hollow's body, disrupting the spirit energy flow within its body.
"Rhhhhaaaa! Release me at once, human! Or else you'll suffer the wrath of Basilio Malvada." the hollow screamed in rage, struggling against the binding spell.
Three of his squad members rushed out of the tree line along the edge of the lake and stabbed the hollow through its mask. The hollow let out one final screech before dissolving into reishi. All the souls trapped within the body of the hollow were now released into soul society. Harry took a moment to fold his hands and prayed for their good fortune.
"Reio sama. Please grant these souls a kind life in your world." Harry muttered.
Ever since he had a private chat with the Head Captain about the surveillance and studies conducted on his spirit energy, he found himself indebted to the Reio. Captain Mayuri of Squad 12 was quite insistent on conducting more invasive studies on his body, and the Central 46 had given that freak permission, but it was a direct order from the Royal Palace that saved his skin. According to the Head Captain, the Royal Palace had issued a direct order to the Central 46 to stop any more experimentation on his spirit energy or body. By the order of the Reio, most records pertaining to the studies conducted on his spirit energy were sealed. The less informative records were only accessible to the Captains of Gotei 13. Even Harry was denied access to the sealed records, which were supposedly stored in an underground chamber of the Central 46 building.
He was not one to look at a gift horse in the mouth. Therefore, he let the matter drop and thanked his lucky stars that the Soul King decided to save him from what was most likely an extended stay under the care of a creepy freak like Mayuri Kurotsuchi. For that reason alone, he could appreciate the existence of an all-powerful entity like the Reio. Harry was almost a century old and lost all hope of returning to his old world. But he still hoped one day he could ask the many questions deep inside his heart to the Soul King. Unfortunately, the only way Harry could access the royal palace was through his selection into Squad Zero. And that was probably not going to happen in another century.
His subordinates opened the senkaimon, and Harry happily walked through the gate to the Seireitei after completing the mission. They had three more missions like these in the World of the Living, where his physical presence was required because of the threat analysis done by Squad 12. All lieutenants were required to do these types of missions from time to time. Squad 12, working with Squad 2, develops a list of hollows that are too effective in devouring souls and eluding the usual Shinigami patrols in the human world. Once the list was developed, all thirteen squads split the missions evenly.
It was during these missions the Lieutenants usually encountered Adjuchas level hollows. It was a rarity to encounter Adjuchas level Hollows in the human world. However, such hollows often hunt for sport or escape into the human world to escape from other Adjuchas in Heuco Mundo.
By the time he cleaned up all the missions on his list, he never encountered an Adjuchas. All hollows he came across were low-level hollows, and they were quickly dispatched.
After months of perilous campaigns that took him to different places in the Asian continent, he could finally rest his back in the squad barracks and enjoy the sunny disposition of Seireitei.
A huge mountain of paperwork fell on his table with a thud, making his sweat drop.
"Umm… What is that?" Harry asked, directing a betrayed look at Kiyone.
"I'm sorry, Lieutenant. After battle actions, reports were requested by Squad 12 for updating their database." Kyone said sheepishly.
"This is his way of getting even." Harry muttered.
"Lieutenant?" Kiyone looked at him in askance.
"Captain Mayuri. He dislikes when squads request new equipment as it cuts into his 'research' time. Drowning us in paperwork is his method of retaliation." Harry grumbled.
"Shall I deny the request then, sir?" Kiyone asked hesitantly.
"No. That'll only make the situation worse." Harry resigned himself to long evenings filled with tedious work, all for no reason.
He knew all his reports were, at the end of the day, going to end up in a dumpster.
"There is one other thing, sir." said Kiyone before handing him a pink flyer.
"Oh, come on." Harry slammed his forehead on the table after seeing the invitation for another gathering of Lieutenants.
It was going to be both humiliating and a colossal waste of time. Suddenly, a light bulb lit up in his mind.
'Maybe I can skip this one using paperwork as an excuse.' Harary thought.
****
Rukia was bleeding profusely, and she could feel her chances of survival slipping by the second.
"You fool!" Rukia winced as pain flared up when she tried to stand up and pick up her Zanpakuto.
"Did you think that Hollow would leave your sisters alone if it got your soul?" Rukia glared at the idiotic human boy who brazenly threw himself towards the Hollow.
But she admired the selflessness and the courage shown by the human who looked eerily similar to her deceased Lieutenant Kaien Shiba. It was as if fate had a sense of humour and was finding it very entertaining to torture her like this.
'If I waste more time here, everyone will become food for the Hollow. Somehow, it needs to be killed.' Rukia thought.
She once again tried to reach for her Zanpakuto, but her arms were seriously injured, making it painful even to move an inch.
Rukia slid next to a wall and rested her back against it. She looked upon the shocked visage of the human she saved today. The fact that he looked so much like her former Lieutenant made her determined to save him from the Hollow by any means necessary. If she ignored the horrid orange hair, the human was an exact replica of her former lieutenant, Kaien Shiba. It was for this reason she was determined to save the human's life by any means necessary.
'I'll not have more blood on my hands.' Rukia thought to herself.
Her eyes strayed to the Hollow, which was howling with pain of its own because her sword had cut into its mask, injuring it but not enough to kill it. Her eyes then strayed to the injured sister of the human boy.
"Do you want to save your family?" Rukia rasped, feeling the coppery tint of blood in her mouth.
"Of course, I want to save my family. Tell me how to kill that thing, and I'll do it." Ichigo Kurosaki claimed.
'You're brave for a human. I'll give you that.' Rukia thought as she stared into the determined brown eyes of the human before her.
"There is one way…" Rukia said, her eyes falling on her Zanpakuto.
She grasped the blade's hilt with effort and slightly pointed the tip at the human.
"You must become a soul reaper." Rukia declared.
"What?" Ichigo gasped.
"Push the blade's tip through your heart, and I'll pour my spirit energy into your soul. Your innate strength will temporarily absorb some of my power, giving you Shinigami powers. That should empower you to kill the hollow." said Rukia.
"Okay. Give me the sword soul reaper." said Ichigo after shooting a look at the hollow.
Rukia grinned at the lack of fear in the human's voice.
'So, you don't just look like Kaien but even act like him.' she thought.
"My name is not Soul Reaper. I'm Rukia Kuchiki."
She could see the orange-haired human grin as he grasped her blade with his bare hands.
"I'm Ichigo Kurosaki."
Rukia watched as her blade pierced human flesh for the first time, and she poured the last iota of strength left in her. There was a blinding flash of power as reitsu levels soared.
'How can a human hold this much spiritual pressure?' she silently wondered.
When the powerful aura died down, she saw Ichigo in the black shihakusho with a giant blade strapped to his back. She looked at herself and found herself dressed in a white robe.
'I lost all of my powers.' Rukia mused before looking up at Ichigo, who unsheathed the blade on his back and delivered a swift slash against the hollow.
The hollow howled in pain as one of its hands was severed by that one strike.
Meanwhile, Rukia was in a state of shock.
'I meant only to ignite the innate power within him. But he took all my powers and assumed a full soul reaper form. How is that even possible? What is he?' Rukia thought.
She watched, transfixed, as Ichigo proceeded to decimate the hollow all on his own with his giant sword.
"Now you die for hurting my family, monster!" Ichigo screamed before driving his sword through the hollow's mask.
Rukia watched dispassionately as the hollow's body broke apart into reishi.
'Who are you, Ichigo Kurosaki? A human with Shinigami-level spiritual pressure. That must be a first.' Rukia thought.
Later that night, she struggled to decide what to do next. She had left the Kurosaki family behind after helping Ichigo's soul into his body. Unfortunately, she was alone and weak in a world alien to her in most sense. Her interaction with the human world was limited and now she was expected to survive in it for a long mission.
Her eyes strayed to her phone.
Rukia knew her only option was to call for help from Squad 13. But the problem was she was not supposed to transfer her powers to a human. One look at her state would let the squad know what happened. Not only would Lieutenant Harry be disappointed with her, but there was a chance that he'd send soul reapers to forcibly extract the power she transferred to Ichigo. If that happened, there was a strong possibility that Ichigo might die.
She could not let that happen. Not on her watch. Otherwise, this whole night would become pointless.
"Perhaps I can be of some help, Kuchiki san."
Rukia was startled by the oily voice coming from the dark corner of the street. A man wearing a dark green samue with dirty blonde hair and a striped green and white bucket cap stepped out of the darkness. His footsteps echoed in the dark street as his wooden sandals clapped loudly against the paved floor.
"Who are you?" Rukia asked warily.
"My name is Kisuke Urahara." the man introduced himself before hiding his face behind a fan.
"I'm a humble shop owner and a philanthropist for lost souls. I believe I can procure a gigai for you until your powers return."
Rukia felt this guy was bad news, but she had no solution to her dilemma. In the end, her desperation made her follow the sketchy-looking guy.
****
"Well…well…well… It seems your plan is working seamlessly, Captain Aizen." Gin said, with a wide smirk as he stared at the screen showing Ichigo Kurosaki becoming a soul reaper while Rukia Kuchiki lost her powers.
"Hmm… What else did you expect, Gin?" Aizen asked with a placid smile.
"I expected Urahara san to intervene."
"Who says he didn't?" Aizen smiled.
"Huh?" Gin cocked his head to the side.
"Look at Kuchiki san. Don't you find it strange that all her powers left her, and she continues to remain powerless even after many days since the incident?"
The imagery on the screen shifted showing Rukia Kuchiki in a gigai following around Ichigo Kurosaki as the duo battled hollows all over Karakura town.
"Are you saying Urahara san is responsible?" Gin asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Maybe." Aizen said cryptically.
"To what end? How would it benefit Urahara san if Kuchiki san remains powerless?" Gin asked, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"How indeed." Aizen muttered.
"Well… I'll leave it in your capable hands, Captain."
Gin turned away from the screens and walked out of their secret hideout. He wasn't the least bit bothered about the tug-of-war that was going on between Kisuke Urahara and Sosuke Aizen. He already knew Aizen would win all these conflicts and overcome all the hurdles in his path. What mattered was the final battle.
He knew he was nearly prepared on that front, and that was all that mattered.
****
Harry let out a sigh and stretched his sore limbs. The mountain of paperwork had halved after his diligent, uninterrupted work. Most of the data he got from the Squad 13 members in their missions were subpar at best. He had to cross-check their reports with the surveillance team's reports.
It was a good thing that he did because he flagged a strange thing from the reports, and it had to do with Rukia Kuchiki. He observed an anomaly in the spirit energy readings her communication device was transmitting to their observatory. Sometimes, her energy readings were similar to a powerless soul in Rukongai, while at other times, it was half that of a seated officer. While he'd have dismissed it as Kuchiki san suppressing her spiritual pressure for stealth, the readings he received showed two charts. It was as if her communication device was picking on two Shinigami at the same time.
'That's strange. Did someone else accompany Rukia san on her mission? I don't remember ordering such a thing, nor do I think there was any mission overlap with other squads of the Gotei 13.' Harry mused.
"This has to be looked into." Harry muttered.
Harry took the bell on his table and let it ring once. The door to his office slid open, and in a flash, Sentaro and Kiyone were there.
"Sir." the third seat and fourth seat bowed.
"I noticed an incongruity in Rukia Kuchiki's spirit energy readings. I want her contacted immediately through her phone and have her report anything out of the ordinary."
"Yes, sir."
Sentaro and Kiyone rushed out of his office in a flash.
Harry leaned back in his seat, staring at Rukia Kuchiki's file on his table. Her work was top-notch when it came to guiding human souls to Seireitei and dispatching hollows. The reason he had posted Kuchiki in Karakura Town was because souls were running around in that place in droves. He wanted to remind Kuchiki that killing hollows was not the sole duty of a soul reaper. Guiding souls into the afterlife was also an essential duty.
Harry reached across his table to pick up the teapot when a new visitor appeared on his doorstep.
'Oh no.' Harry thought in horror as the lieutenant of Squad 10 appeared in his doorway.
"Lieutenant Rangiku. What a pleasant surprise." Harry said skittishly.
"Harry kun. It was a bad idea to skip the Lieutenants' meeting. Now, you'll have to compensate it somehow."
"I was busy with paperwork…" he started to say, but he was abruptly cut off when the blonde woman unexpectedly invaded his personal space by staring into his eyes while their noses were nearly touching.
"Umm…"
"Lieutenant. (cough)"
Harry looked around the tall, shapely form of Rangiku Matsumoto to stare at Sentaro and Kiyone, standing awkwardly by his doorway with several papers in their hands.
Rangiku suddenly caught his shin with her hand and forcibly turned his eyes away from his seated officers. He was once again forced to stare into her crystal blue eyes.
"You are coming with me for deserting the meeting." Rangiku said as a matter-of-factly, dragging Harry from behind his table.
"Whe… where are we going?" Harry stuttered as he was dragged out of the Squad 13 barracks with everyone watching.
"Someplace where you will repent for your bad behaviour." Rangiku said ominously.
Half an hour later, Harry stared comically at a run-down bar on the outskirts of the fourth district of Rukongai.
"This is a bar." Harry deadpanned.
"A bar that allows soul reapers to open tabs. Isn't this a convenient way of paying back for your earlier rudeness?"
"No." Harry answered blandly.
"A beautiful woman takes you to a bar, and you're not even the least bit excited." Rangiku pouted while pushing him into the bar, forcing Harry to sit near the counter while Rangaku joined him.
"Rangiku chan."
A barmaid suddenly appeared behind the counter. Harry was taken aback by the sudden appearance of the barmaid, who had her black hair in pigtails. Her brown eyes were glimmering with excitement upon seeing Rangiku, which meant the Squad 10 lieutenant was a familiar face around these parts.
"Hana chan. Two of your strongest sake. Put that in Harry kun's tab."
"Hey – wait a minute!"
Before Harry could properly protest, a blue ochoko filled with sake was before him on the counter.
"Have at it, Harry kun." Rangiku said before draining her bowl in one go and immediately asking for the next.
Harry took the bowl full of sake in his two hands and stared at it hesitantly.
"I…" he started to say, but Rangiku forced the bowl against his lips and made him drink the liquid.
Unfortunately, that was not the only bowl he'd drink with Rangiku that day.
When he regained his senses, Harry found darkness around him and was greeted by the sound of crickets.
'What the hell! Where am I?' Harry thought, blinking his eyes rapidly to clear his blurry vision.
His limbs felt heavy, and he felt like his head was resting on something soft and squishy. With some effort, Harry slightly turned his head and found himself staring at the thin golden necklace. Suddenly, he felt a pair of hands snake around the back of his neck and pull his head against the squishy surface.
"I hope you're enjoying yourself, Harry-kun." a sweet, melodious voice whispered teasingly against his right ear.
Harry jumped when he realised where he was. He was mortified to find that he was drooling over Rangiku's ample bosom for the entire night inside a cave of all things. For the life of him, he could not recall anything that happened for hours after he drank sake with Rangiku.
'This could not be any more humiliating.' Harry thought, holding his head in his hands.
AN: More content can be found on Patreon
For artworks related to the story: Discord
In these situations you say no. I can't stand it when characters suddenly go doormat as soon as someone sets alcohol in front of them. The stuff is disgusting, just don't drink it. Also, why bring up a report from Rukia only to immediately ignore it? Feels like forcing canon. Otherwise really enjoy this story so far.
- Location
- PR
Exactly what it is.
Same as other stories having the character in the past changing things and being very proactive and successful to have something happen to them that impedes any sort of canon change at all.
So Fate, ROB or Spirit King then?
- Location
- PR
Author forcing things.
If he help rukia the story changes completely.
That's what makes fanfics the most interesting though...
He didn't ignore it. Read again.
How is drinking sake make someone become doormat?
It may not be immediately apparent, but all stories are shaped by the author's discretion.
As for 'helping' Rukia, this is not a summer camp. Gotei 13 is a military organisation. The superior officer doesn't go around and play hero based on a report.
He didn't ignore it, the story did. Drinking sake doesn't make him a doormat, his inability to say no when he clearly doesn't want to do something (and has urgent work to do and no time to get shitfaced) does.
It didn't.
I see. The concept of friendship is alien to some.