Chapter Text
The room was quiet as the people worked silently, keeping to themselves so as not to disturb anyone. The only sounds came from the soft hum of the massive computers and the small ‘blip’ that sounded every ten seconds. It was just another normal workday for the people in the room, with nothing out of the ordinary happening.
“Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!” The continuous ring of the computer’s tracking system rebounded around the room, shattering the silence. This was definitely not normal, but it wasn’t any cause for alarm. One of the workers left their station and gazed over the information scrolling down the monitor. They had gotten halfway through the information when the grand double doors opened with a loud bang. The person that strode purposefully in was feared by most of the people in the room, and most of the people outside the room as well. He was creepy and a little bit crazy, but he was smart. At the moment he had a frown set into his features as he roughly pushed the worker out of the way.
“Get back to work you fool! I doubt you would even be able to understand half of these complex words!” The worker hastily ran back to their station and quickly picked up where they had left off. The man in front of the over-sized computer read through the text quickly and stroked a few keys on the keyboard and then continued to read the new text that had come up. The woman that had followed the man in through the doors stood emotionless by his side as she too read the startling information.
“Anomaly detected in sector 142, grid 12, 600km north-east of the main sector in that area – sector 140. There have been no recorded anomalies detected in sector 142, grid 12 before.” She spoke with a voice as emotionless as the rest of her.
“Do you think I’m an idiot you foolish girl? I can read it myself!” He spat out at the girl. “Now go be useful for once and inform everyone that there will be an emergency meeting!” With that he strode out of the room with the girl following behind. Everyone let out a sigh of relief as they released their breath that they hadn’t even been aware they had been holding.
After fifteen minutes ten people assembled in the large meeting room in two lines with one person sitting at the very head. All assembled were worried; it had to be bad news if an emergency meeting was called. There were a few murmurings as some speculated what they thought was the problem, but they were immediately silenced as the old man banged his wooden staff loudly on the ground. They all snapped to attention and waited wearily for whatever news was to be told.
“Kurotshuchi Taicho, what has been brought to your attention that is so important that you felt the need to hold a meeting?” The undertone of authority was evident in the old voice, as though warning that this better not be a waste of time. The scientist stood forward out of the line he stood in so that all could see him.
“Earlier today my advanced tracking computers detected an anomaly in sector 142, grid 12 – or in other words an area in England. However, we have never had a problem here before, and my senses tell me that the entire area is just grassland with nothing of any significance there.” He paused to take a breath and look at all the faces around him. A few of them were completely stoic as normal, though a few looked unimpressed. What could be so important about an anomaly that they would need to have a meeting about it? The scientist continued.
“Currently we have no Shinigami in the World of the Living, so that is why this caught my eye, and the more I looked at it the more impossible it seems. The anomaly that my computer detected was an extremely high output of reiatsu – more powerful than anything I’ve ever seen before.”
“So are you saying that there is a human in England that has an abnormally large reiatsu – like Kurasaki Ichigo?” The captain that just spoke was Kyouraku.
“Well that was what I first thought, until my scanners matched the reiatsu pattern to the reiatsu pattern that is owned by a Shinigami. In fact, it was a one-hundred percent match.”
“Kurotshuchi Taicho, could you please get on with it.” All the captains waited to hear who the mysteriously strong Shinigami was that had caused the crazy man to bring them all together.
“This is the impossible part, because the Shinigami who belongs to this reiatsu isn’t in the Living World, in fact they’re here in Soul Society, in this very room to be precise.” The murmuring once more started up. What was going on? And whose reiatsu was it? None of the captains felt that their power levels were so high that it would surprise the twelfth division captain, who had data on all the captains. The captain of the tenth division silently looked at the scientist who also seemed to be looking straight back at him. And being a genius he figured out who Mayuri was talking about. But he had to hear it for himself. The hall once more silenced themselves as they waited for the last piece of news.
“The Shinigami is none other than the tenth division captain, Hitsugaya Taicho.” All heads turned to the boy and he frowned deeply. It wasn’t possible that he was releasing reiatsu in the Living World when he was standing right here.
“I would recommend that we send a team down to England sir to investigate this anomaly.” Yamamoto nodded his head in agreement.
“I agree to that sentiment. Hitsugaya Taicho, you and your lieutenant are to be ready to depart at 0800 tomorrow morning. Also, take a small squad with you in case this is a trap. Dismissed.” With a ring of finality he brought his staff crashing back down so that wood met wood and everyone dispersed. Hitsugaya walked out to inform his squad of his departure and he couldn’t help but wonder what he would find when he reached the World of the Living.
~ ~ ~
Pain, that was all he could feel. It encompassed his entire being, unwilling to release its hold on his battered body. It wasn’t just the pain centred around the potentially lethal stab wound in his side – he’s had worse before – but the overall sense of pain and weariness that came with fighting for hours on end without stopping or pausing; the mind-numbing pain of pushing your body way past its breaking point and holding it there for an excruciating amount of time. His muscles screamed their hate for him as he struggled to gain consciousness; they hated him for the abuse he put them through. It had been such a long time since he was able to operate at his full power and his body wasn’t used to it anymore which is why it felt so strained now. There had been a time when he had been at full power – not too long after he had reached a complete bankai – where he could say that he was able to fight Aizen on the same level. He could remember one battle of epic proportions that had destroyed a whole town; thankfully it had been deserted. He had taken on the mantle of most powerful Shinigami in Seireiti, but even with all his power it hadn’t been enough; Aizen had won – just barely but it was still his victory. He hadn’t been able to beat that traitor, but he knew that if he trained harder, got stronger, he would be able to finally win. Though fate seemed to be against him because not too long after that the... incident occurred; the one where he lost touch with his closest friend and ally, Hyourinmaru.
The hospital smells seeped into his sensitive nose and he could feel the restricting tightness of bandages around his torso – a feeling that he was sorry to say, he had become all too familiar with. His body may not have been functioning right, but his mind was going a million miles a minute. There was one thing that troubled him most and it was the fact that Ron had been so incredibly strong – definitely espada level. But that was the problem, he had thought he had known all of Aizen’s top ten espada and his back-up ten espada, and Ron definitely wasn’t one of them. The espada of the present day paled painfully to the power of the espada to come, yet Ron had been even stronger still. It was concerning to say the least, and the first course of action would be to get up out of bed and go look for any hollows, arrancar or even possibly espada, who had followed him here – before they found him. He had made a mistake by waiting for them to come to him; a mistake he would not make again. If only he could get his damn limbs to move!
He finally forced his eyes open and they blurred against the bright light that shone down on him.
“My, I must say that this is awfully familiar, wouldn’t you agree Mr Hitsugaya?” Toushirou turned his blurry vision towards a man that sat in a chair beside the bed, looking at him intently. He blinked a few times until the picture came into focus and he realised that the man was Albus Dumbledore.
“I do believe this is exactly the same way we met – you in a hospital bed with severe injuries and me beside you. Though if I do remember correctly last time you said that your injuries had been sustained by,” he paused with a hint of humour in his blue eyes, “falling down the stairs.” He couldn’t suppress a small chuckle at that.
“So, tell me, what ingenious excuse have you cooked up this time? Perhaps you ran into a tree? Or maybe,” the merry twinkled left as the situation turned from the humour. “Maybe you were doing something that you weren’t supposed to be doing; in a Forbidden area no less. Tell me Mr Hitsugaya, what were you doing that allowed you to get such a large, deep cut, hmm?” The blue eyes now pierced into him as Dumbledore attempted to work out all his secrets in one go. Like hell he was going to tell the old man anything.
“It was a very... pointy tree.” Dumbledore sighed at the response; it disappointed him to no end that this particular student felt the need to constantly lie to him. He leaned in closer to the boy.
“Toushirou, I am the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Do you know what that means?” Toushirou sat up indignantly, only to fall back down again because of the pain in his side. Is he insulting my intelligence? How dare he!
“Of course Sir, I’m not stupid. You are responsible for making the school run smoothly and make sure every student stays safe, no matter what.”
“Precisely! My responsibility – my duty – is to keep the students safe, and as part of that duty I must monitor certain... activities if you will, of creatures that could pose a threat to the way of life at Hogwarts. And if one of these creatures comes within a specified perimeter around the school I am immediately notified so that in the event that the defences around the school fail, I will be able to do the task of getting rid of these creatures myself. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about by now, am I correct in assuming that?” Toushirou kept his mouth closed. This wasn’t right; wizards didn’t know about the existence of Shinigami or hollows yet, but Dumbledore was clearly talking about hollows. Had the text books been wrong? If that was the case, what else were they wrong about? Everything I know about this time period and place has come from the text books; if they’re wrong then what would happen?
Dumbledore kept trying to make eye contact, but the frustrating boy refused to meet him. As the Headmaster of Hogwarts he knew about these supernatural beings with the giant hole in the chest dubbed ‘hollows’ but that was about the extent of his knowledge, other than the fact that they wouldn’t hesitate to kill a student and therefore must be disposed of before that. But Hogwarts was well guarded and the hollows hadn’t been much of a threat before. But two in only two days, that must be a record. It was obvious that Hitsugaya Toushirou knew something about the hollows – probably more than what he knew – so he would try and make it seem as though he knew more than he did on the subject. Unfortunately the boy was remaining tight-lipped about it.
“Toushirou, I need to protect the students in my school, and like it or not that includes you. And whether you chose to have my protection or not I still have a whole school full of people that need that protection. If any more of these creatures – and I’m sure you know by now that I’m talking about hollows – are going to come to the school then I need to know, and I have a feeling you would have that information. Am I right?” Toushirou looked straight into Dumbledore’s piercing eyes. And people say my eyes are unnerving...
“Professor...” Dumbledore leaned forward expectantly.
“Yes, go on.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I have never even heard of these... hollows was it? I’ve never heard of them before. I’m sorry that I couldn’t have been more help Sir, really. It’s not like I want some strange creature attacking Hogwarts anymore than you do, but I can’t help you.”
“I see.” Dumbledore stood up slowly.
“Mr Hitsugaya, when I first met you in St Mungo’s you were broken and dying with broken bones all over the place, including a broken spine. And despite all that and my own mind telling me to continue to inquire what had happened, even though you had said you would say nothing else on the subject, I respected your privacy and desisted with my questions. I even went as far as to accept you into Hogwarts even though by all rights I shouldn’t have. I have not even received one letter from your old school – which is quite curious if you do think. Now, I can overlook that fact, or I can rethink your position here and also conduct a formal inquiry into what actually happened that day that Tom found you in an alley. The choice is yours and I hope for your sake that you chose the right one. Good day and I hope you feel better soon.” And with that the Headmaster walked out of the room, turning the lights off after him.
All throughout the little speech Hitsugaya had been silent, but as soon as the Headmaster had left his carefully preserved mask dropped a fraction as a small bit of worry slipped onto his normally expressionless features. Dumbledore had placed him in a very hard position because there was no way he could reveal anything to Dumbledore, yet at the same time he couldn’t allow himself to be removed from Hogwarts either. He didn’t really care about the formal inquiry because it wouldn’t turn anything up, but if he was expelled this would have all been for nothing. Damn him!
There wasn’t anything he could do; maybe Dumbledore was bluffing and he wouldn’t expel him. Maybe he would just talk to his old school...
“Shit!” Toushirou’s eye widened as he thought of the implications that would have. Would Dumbledore really source out his ‘school’? He didn’t doubt it for a second. If only he could get out of this stupid bed! How long has it been? He raised a shaky hand and managed to find a clock beside the bed that read 11:29pm. That meant he had been unconscious for a few hours. It had felt so much longer.
He shifted his body to get more comfortable and was about to go to sleep to let his body rest when he heard a quiet shuffling outside the room. Whoever it was they were trying very hard to be stealthy, but in the dead silent hallway the noises echoed loudly. He tensed his body and his body screamed back ‘NO! Not another fight!’ But he ignored the cries. He got ready to spring up as the door opened when he sensed the familiar reiatsu, making him relax his body. The person slowly crept into the Hospital Wing and he thought to himself, she will never become special ops.
The person shuffled forward and a bit of light played across their face to reveal Hermione Granger, but he already knew that. He waited until she was close before he broke the silence.
“You’re really loud, you know that?” The girl must have jumped at least a metre into the air as she spun around to face him.
“I thought you were asleep! Oh wait; I didn’t wake you up did I? I am so sorry!”
“Don’t worry, I was already awake. But aren’t you meant to be in bed yourself? If you get caught in here you’ll get in trouble.” She sat down heavily in the chair that Dumbledore had sat in not too long ago and bowed her head, her hair falling down to make a sort of curtain.
“I’m so sorry Toushirou.” His eyes widened in alarm as he heard soft sounds coming from her and he realised that the girl was crying.
“Wait! It’s ok, really! And if you do get caught I’ll make up an excuse for you, so you don’t need to cry.” Hermione lifted her head and he saw the sadness in her eyes and something else almost like... concern or pity it was hard to tell. But why would she be concerned about him or pity him?
“I didn’t mean to get upset, and it isn’t your fault. I’m not crying because I’m doing something I’m not meant to be doing or because I might have woken you up. But... there is something I need to talk to you about.” Her voice broke slightly on the last word and Toushirou felt confused. He was never very good at this kind of thing and so didn’t really know what to say to comfort the crying, upset girl.
“What’s wrong, Hermione?”
“Promise you won’t get mad at me, please.” Her eyes silently pleaded with him to accept and his curiosity sky-rocketed.
“Sure, I promise. Now, what’s got you upset?”
“I know everything.” She spoke so softly that he had to strain to hear her words, but the words he heard must have been incorrect. Did she say she knows everything? Everything of what?
“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear, can you speak a little louder?”
“I said, I know everything.” So he had been right, but what did it mean. His confusion must have been evident on his face because, after a small pause, she continued with whatever she needed to say.
“What I mean by that is that I know everything.” She drew out the word everything, but he was still confused. She obviously wanted him to be able to understand what she was trying to say without actually saying a word. How annoying. When she saw that he still didn’t get what she meant she got frustrated. And they say he’s meant to be smart, pfft!
“Toushirou, what I’m trying to say is... that I know you’re from the future.” Hitsugaya’s eyes widened in surprise and he wasn’t able to stop his mouth from hanging open. His mind told him to deny it and to make some excuse to whatever evidence she had but he was unable to. How does she know? That’s... impossible!
“I-I think you are mistaken Hermione,” he was able to force out after a few minutes of looking like a complete idiot as the surprise slowly died down.
“That would be impossible, ne? Future! You read way too many sci-fi books, you know that? What could possibly make you believe that I was from the future; you do know that time-travel is impossible right?”
“Watashi wa mōshiwake gozai mase n ga, watashi wa machiga~tsu te i masu, Hitsugaya Taicho.”
“But you are mistaken, because...” His voice trailed off as his mind processed what was just said. He had continued the conversation without skipping a beat because it hadn’t recognised anything wrong as he had understood everything that was said, but Hermione had just spoken to him in Japanese. She had said ‘I’m sorry but I am not mistaken, Captain Hitsugaya’. The fact that she had spoken in Japanese was, to be frank, surprising, but not outrageously so. But she had used his title – his Captain’s title. What is going on here? This cannot be a coincidence that she used my title and accused me of being from the future. She knows! That last thought was so loud he was surprised that Hermione hadn’t heard it. His facial expression had schooled itself so that it revealed nothing, but insides his thoughts were in turmoil. This is not possible! In fact I would go as far to say that it is impossible. Maybe... It wasn’t a coincidence either that he was attacked twice in two days by arrancar, one of those arrancar being best friends of Hermione. Did she know something about those attacks? Or worse yet, was she somehow involved in those attacks? But that makes no sense! Why would she be talking to me now if she was trying to kill me? Whatever it is, I need to be careful about what I say around her from now on, just in case. He noticed that she was staring at him and his suspicious instincts went into overdrive about why she would be staring, but then he remembered that she was still waiting for some kind of response from him.
“I have thought about it, and I have decided I will listen to this ridiculously far-fetched story of yours.” He mentally patted himself on the back. Nice job with the nonchalance!
“Thank you Toushirou. I’m not really sure where to start, but I guess I could start off by saying I know your entire life, starting with when you woke up in Soul Society, right up until you ran for your life to get to the library so you could travel back in time. It was a very... depressing life I guess you could say, what with you always getting teased and then having to prove your worth to the other Shinigami and constantly being betrayed by those you were close to or looked up to. But I’ve never felt power so strong in my life before, and I didn’t even feel your power first hand either! But I have felt your willpower first-hand, and I have to say your determination is inspiring. You’ve had such a terrible life, but yet you still have the will to move forward and create a better day. You truly are an amazing person Toushirou and I’m glad that I met you, even considering the circumstances of our meeting – what with you being from the future and all.”
The compliments rolled off his back as he ignored them; all his shocked mind could really think of was, this is impossible for her to know any of this stuff, so how does she? Who is her informant? They sat in quiet for a few minutes and Hermione was growing slightly uncomfortable. She didn’t know how Hitsugaya would react and that was one of the reasons she had waited so long to talk to him. But as she watched the play of emotions on his face she realised that she should have waited longer. She watched as his eyes widened with every new piece of information, going especially wide when she mentioned Shinigami. Then they had started to narrow in suspicion and distrust and all she could wonder was, what is he thinking of? And now as the silence lengthened she saw that there was a slightly annoyed glint in his distrustful eyes. She was about to break the silence when Hitsugaya beat her to it.
“Who is your informant? How do you know this information?” In his own mind the only way Hermione could have got the information was if someone told her – the only someone around who could potentially tell her being an arrancar. Hermione remained stubbornly silent. His eyes narrowed to angry slits. If Hermione was getting information from his enemy then that made her his enemy as well. What a shame, why would you do this Hermione?
Hermione didn’t know what Toushirou was thinking, but she knew that she couldn’t answer his question. ‘Just do not tell him that I helped you’. They had been the parting words Hyourinmaru had left with her. She looked at the boys face and her heart sank. She had wanted to help him so badly, but all she had done was make the situation even worse.
“Get out.” Hermione lifted her head to look at the bed’s occupant who was now not looking at her, but instead at the closed window.
“Toushirou, I-”
“I said get out, now.” She felt hot tears prickling at the corners of her vision. Why was he kicking her out? This whole thing had been a waste of time and all it had done was make her not friends with Toushirou, which made her feel even sadder. She silently crossed the room and placed her hand on the doorknob.
“I’m sorry Toushirou, I really am.” And with that she opened the door and exited, closing it behind her.
Hitsugaya felt slightly bad about making Hermione upset, which she had so obviously been when she left, but if she was the enemy than he didn’t really care. Things at Hogwarts are so confusing, and now apparently I can’t tell friend from foe. This whole thing has felt like a waste of time from the very start. What am I even doing here apart from learning things that I already know? Other than the arrancar – which was my fault, and wouldn’t have been here if they hadn’t followed me – nothing suspicious has happened at Hogwarts at all. Except maybe that Harry has been complaining about a headache or something, but that isn’t the type of suspicious where I need to be involved. Urgh!
Toushirou looked out the window again and he saw that the sky was darkening, hinting at rain – possibly even snow. That would be a good distraction from his thoughts. Every minute he stayed in Hogwarts he felt as though he was being weighted down, but now, with Hermione possibly being with the enemy, the weighted feeling increased. He had thought long and hard over what it could be but he was unable to decipher it. All he could do now was try and shut down his over-worked mind and try to once again find the blissful absence of thought in sleep.
~ ~ ~
Harry lay in bed, the loud snores from the other occupants making his headache increase. The room, for the first time all year, was warm and cosy because their crazy dorm-mate was too busy freezing another room downstairs in the Hospital Wing. A few days ago he had sent an encrypted message to his godfather – Sirius – and today he – Ron and Hermione were there as well – had finally been able to talk to him, even if it was slightly weird seeming as his head was in the fire place. They had mainly talked about the problem of his scar – for which no solutions were presented – but they had also talked about Voldemort. According to Sirius the Voldemort had still yet to make his first move and there hadn’t even been one spotting of a death eater yet. But Harry knew that it was only a matter of time until the Dark Lord took his rightful place as ruler of the world, enslaving those who had dared oppose him. And he, Harry, would be by his side, aiding in his conquest by lending his power. Another thing Sirius had mentioned was that Sturgis Podmore had been arrested in the Ministry of Magic: Department of Mysteries the other day. WAIT! Back up a second! Did I just think what I think I thought? Did I just think of Voldemort as the ‘Dark Lord’ and then condoned his want to be ruler of the world, even going as far as to say I would help him?! Why would I think that?! I must be even more tired than I thought if crazy thoughts like that are slipping into my mind. I don’t even know where that came from.
This is crazy! I do not, and never want to join forces with the Dark Lor- I mean Voldemort! I would never betray my friends – so many people look up tom me and believe in me. I’m their saviour! I’m not a turncoat!
This is completely and utterly insane! I’m insane! I cannot believe that I am talking – no scratch that – arguing with myself over a matter that isn’t even open for debate.
Harry looked around the room and saw the relaxed, sleeping forms of the boys in his dormitory. For once he would like to lead a normal life like them, even if it was for just one day. Why did he have to have so much responsibility saddled on him, he just wanted to be a normal teenage boy whose worse worries was whether he would get a girlfriend or not. Was that too much to ask for?
Luckily the next day was a Saturday, which meant Hogsmeade. He had planned that he, Hermione, Ron and Hitsugaya would go together because Hitsugaya had never been before, but he guessed that idea wouldn’t work now considering the white-haired boy was stuck in the Hospital Wing. An image of the gruesome, blood-filled scene that he and Ron had run onto made him feel sick to his stomach. There had been so much blood everywhere, slowly seeping out of the unconscious boy next to Hermione. Why had he been in the Forbidden Forest in the first place, and how had he been hurt so badly? Whatever the answers, Harry knew that he would forever remember that mentally scarring image of Toushirou covered in blood and laying on a blood-covered field of ice, slowly dying.
He felt the familiar tug of sleep drawing him in. He would need to speak to somebody about his growing instability in his mental health, but he didn’t know who he should talk to. Dumbledore was ignoring and avoiding him for some reason that he was unaware of – and as much as he tried to deny it, it actually hurt. Also, Ron was terrible at these kinds of things and he didn’t really want to talk to Hermione about considering the strange strain that had been on their relationship recently. Apart from those three, the only other person he would feel comfortable talking to would be Sirius, but they couldn’t have regular communication. He let out a small sigh; he would think of these things tomorrow when his mind was more alert instead of sluggish. He then allowed himself to succumb to the tempting allures of sleep.
~ ~ ~
“Taicho, isn’t this place just adorable! Look at all the strange looking shops with weird names. Oh look, that store has a fifty percent off sale, let’s go in and buy things while they’re at such a reasonable price!”
Hitsugaya Toushirou, Captain of the Tenth Division stood with his Lieutenant Matsumoto Rangiku in the middle of a very strange town. He, Matsumoto and his squad of six people from his division had exited the Senkaimon an hour ago on the outskirts of town and he had promptly split everyone up to go look for, and list, anything that they would consider strange or out of the ordinary. He was going to have to go through some long lists, because the whole town was weird and out of the ordinary. Not too long after arriving he had been dragged all over the place by a very eager Matsumoto who wanted to do a bit of shopping ‘before the mission starts’ as she so puts it. It was annoying to say the least and he was slowly losing his temper. He glanced over at the store his Lieutenant was pointing at and he felt his eyebrows rise dramatically. The shop apparently sold all types of ‘goods for the average wizard in need’. This entire town focuses on wizardry and magic, what is going on? And why doesn’t this town appear on Kurotshuchi Taicho’s scanner?
“Matsumoto! We are not here to buy frivolous goods from some cult worshippers! We are on a mission, and before you say anything, yes, it has already started!” A few people turned their heads to look at the unusual pair and Hitsugaya narrowed his eyes. So they can see us?
“On second thoughts, I think I did see a shop we could go to, follow me, and do not say a single word. Do I make myself clear?”
“Hai!” The two started to make their way through the crowds of people. He planned to get to one of the clothing stores that they had already passed so that they would be able to ‘blend in’ with the locals. It also wouldn’t do if normal humans saw two people in strange cloths carrying big swords – they would probably think that they were under attack or something like that.
When they reached the store Matsumoto’s eyes lit up like little light bulbs as the excitement shone in them.
“Arigato Taicho!”
“Urasai,” he mumbled, but it was no use because she was already gone, lost in the sea of racks and shelves. He followed at a slower pace and looked at the cloths on offer. There were a lot of dress like items – for both males and females. When he finally found a pair of pants and a shirt that looked half normal (and fit) he went over to the cash register and purchased them. After changing into them, he left the shop and waited outside for Matsumoto.
He watched as the sun steadily rose in the sky indicating the change from mid-morning to noon, but it wasn’t until after noon that Matsumoto finally left the shop, weighted down by mountains of bags.
“Matsumoto! I wanted you to buy some cloths, not the whole damn store! Go and return those this instant.”
“Oh, but Taicho, that’s so mean!” Her voice took on a whiny quality and to a passerby it would look very suspicious for an ‘adult’ (if you could call Matsumoto one) whining to a ‘child’.
“Stop complaining and do it. Also, stop whining to me, people are starting to stare.” She pouted but eventually gave in. After ten more minutes and a painful farewell to the cloths she would never get to wear, the two set off, hoping to find a disturbance on the scanner so that they could pack up and go home. The town was starting to freak Hitsugaya out – there was no such thing as magic, yet the whole town apparently thought that there was and it was unnerving.
“Toushirou? Toushirou!” Hitsugaya looked sharply to where he heard his name being called and saw a teenage boy, probably around fifteen or so, with black hair and glasses on his face, calling out to him and waving his arms wildly, almost hitting a person walking past. He could make out that the boy had a companion with red hair who didn’t look pleased to see him – though they were both surprised. He briefly met eye contact with the black-haired boy before turning away.
“Taicho, I didn’t know you had friends in this town. Or in England for that matter.”
“I don’t.” He creased his brow in displeasure and concentration. The boys were not even remotely familiar, yet here they were calling out his first name and now they were making a beeline for the spot where he and Matsumoto were standing.
“Let’s go before they get to us.”
“Are you sure? They might have information regarding our mission.”
“I am aware of that, but we can’t converse in such a public place. We will watch them from afar and wait until we can find the right moment to approach them. Let’s go.” The two started to walk away and soon they were out of the vision of the two boys.
Harry and Ron looked confusedly at the spot that they had just seen Toushirou at, but was no longer there.
“Hey Harry, are you sure that was Toushirou, I mean, he looked a bit short to be Toushirou. And anyway, isn’t he meant to still be in the Hospital Wing?” Harry thought for a moment. He was one hundred percent sure that the person they had just seen was Hitsugaya Toushirou – how many other people did they know with white hair? Also, when they had locked eyes with the other boy he had seen the same coldness, and they were the same colour as well. Though there was something slightly different, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
“Yeah, I’m sure it was him, though I don’t know how he’s out of bed yet, or how Madame Pomfrey let him leave either. Who was that other person he was with?” Ron smiled.
“I don’t know mate, but she was pretty hot.”
“She is so out of your league man!”
“Who’s out of whose league?” Hermione appeared beside Ron with a small bag clutched in her hand. She had quickly ducked into a quill store to get new ink while her friends had waited outside for her.
“Just some person Ron saw that he thought was hot.” Hermione smiled slightly at this; Ron thought anything in a skirt was hot. The friendly friend banter continued as the three walked down the street, and it was almost like old times. Harry wished that it would just stay that way forever, just having the friendly, relaxed and humorous conversations, just like they used to, without any of the complications life was giving them. That would be great if everything could stay as it was right at that moment – in Harry’s mind it was just perfect.