The Magic Inquisition

The World Cup is finally over! Now I can finally get back to writing and not sitting on the edge of my seat screaming at the TV. Congrats to the German team and their fans.

Please be aware, I recommend you read at least the first chapter (maybe even the second chapter to be safe) of my story 'The Protector's Temptation' to understand a little of what's happening here.

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Harry Potter.

"Normal speech"

'Inner speech/thoughts'

"Kido/Zanpakuto Attacks/Quincy Techniques"

"Zanpakuto speech/Inner Power"

"Hollow speech"

XXX

Prologue:

As the sun set over the Seireitei, the twilight hour found the Soul Reapers in relative peace. They were not currently under attack by a rag tag group of teenagers, or an experiment that they had tried to eliminate, or a group of exiles that they had confined to the Precipice world. Nor did they have to worry about a megalomaniacal madman plotting to overthrow the Spirit King and slaughter them without mercy. In short this was the most relaxed that they had been in a very long time. As many would attest to though, peace was always fleeting.

As the Captain Commander silently worked away at the few remaining items that warranted his attention, a burst of light appeared above his desk and from it floated down a sealed missive. Frowning at the display, he reached over and flipped it over, revealing the signet of the Spirit King stamped on the back. Sighing he whispered a chant under his breath, causing the letter to glow briefly, before it unfolded itself into his waiting hand.

Skimming over the letter, his normally narrowed eyes widened in surprise at the content within and his reiatsu flared in agitation. Dropping the letter back to his desk, he was unsurprised when it burst into flames, leaving no trace of its existence behind. Hearing the door to his office open, he spied his Lieutenant peeking in at him.

"Is there a problem sir?" Chojiro asked, entering the room fully after having been found out.

Not answering his most trusted subordinate just yet, he grunted and reached into his desk drawer, retrieving a blank sheet of paper. Hastily scribbling his message, he gestured for Chojiro to take it. "Take this to Kisuke Urahara. Ensure that you are not followed," he muttered in his gravelly tone of voice, his steely brown eyes burning into Chojiro's amber ones. Nodding his head in understanding, the Lieutenant vanished with a whisper of shunpo, appearing hundreds of metres away in an instant.

XXX

Within the World of the Living, Chojiro Sasakibe stepped out of the senkaimon just in front of the Urahara Shop, his expression neutral as he stared at the front entrance. Debating whether to knock and potentially announce his presence to the other residents of the store, he decided against it and walked around to the side closest to where he could feel Kisuke's reiatsu. Phasing through the wall, he spied the eccentric inventor, exile and former Captain whistling a tune to himself as he restocked the various shelves of his store.

Approaching him silently, he was mere feet away before the man spoke out loud, "A pleasure to see you against Lieutenant Sasakibe…how may I help you this evening?" Kisuke asked, still busying him himself with merchandising his store.

"I bring word from Captain Commander Yamamoto," Chojiro replied, reaching into the folds of his shihakusho and pulling out the letter laced with the Captain Commander's spirit energy.

Frowning, Kisuke set the goods in his hands down and took the proffered letter gingerly, as if it were a ravenous animal that would bite him lest he drop his guard. His mission complete, Chojiro vanished once again with a whisper of shunpo, leaving the shopkeeper alone to his thoughts. As he continued to read the letter, his lips grew thin and his eyes hardened, before he finally let out a sigh of frustration and scratched the stubble on his chin.

"My, my, the Gotei 13 certainly has found itself stuck in trouble once again," he muttered with a yawn as he stretched his arms above his head. "Now…how do I rope Ichigo into helping me this time?"

XXX

Speaking of the teen in question, he stood within the cavernous basement of Urahara's training ground, wearing a long forest green overcoat over the standard black shihakusho of a shinigami. Instead of the massive cleaver or the black daito that most people were familiar with though, he wielded a simple looking katana with a hexagonal guard, green hilt and inlaid with gold diamonds. Around him stood each of the ten Espada that Aizen created, each in their Ressureccion, glaring down at him.

As a breeze flitted through the area, ruffling his overcoat slightly, he whispered a single word, "Begin."

With a roar from Yammy, several of the Espada charged towards him, their reiatsu reflecting their urge to kill him. Being one of the faster Espada, Grimmjow reached him first, his claws lashing out at Ichigo and ghosting over his shihakusho. Growling in frustration, Grimmjow could only gasp as a shower of blood burst forth from his back as his spine was rent asunder, causing him to collapse to the ground, as his Ressureccion disappeared.

Flicking his blade to the side to rid the blood on it, Ichigo felt Nnoitra appear behind him, a twisted grin on the Quinto Espada's face as he brought all six of his blades down on his unprotected back. Moments before contact though, the ear-splitting screech of metal shattering echoed through the area as each of his blades were reduced to foot long metal rods in his hands, before his body was bifurcated from head to groin.

Stunned at the defeat of two of their number so quickly, the rest were slightly more cautious as they approached. It mattered little though as Ichigo disappeared with a soft buzz, appearing before the mushroom like body of Zommari. Knowing of his power to control another's limbs, he vanished again as he saw the hints of his eyes about to activate and swiftly decapitated the troublesome Espada. 'Seven more to go,' he thought, staring at the remaining Espada before him. 'Yet I only see six, so that means…'

His musings were brought to an abrupt halt as a tentacle like appendage burst forth from his feet, hastily wrapping itself around him to restrict his movement. Looking up, he grimaced as even more tentacles loomed above him, before he was swallowed by them, as the Eight Espada laughed maniacally. His laughter soon turned to a whimper though, as the tentacles along his wing exploded in a shower of blood and gore, painting the sandy ground a grim red. Twitching in fear, he watched as a completely unruffled Ichigo calmly turned in his direction, before vanishing from his sight and reappearing inches in front of him.

"Hado no. 73, Soren Sokatsui," he chanted, causing two brilliant blue fireballs to fire from his outstretched palms, reducing his target to naught but ash. "You're certainly not proving to be much of a warm-up for me," he taunted them, noticing how a few of the survivors seemed to tense at his words. "Well come on then, I'm not getting any younger here."

With so many of their brethren defeated, it was easier now for some of them to attack him. Such as when he had to quickly shunpo into the air as a tidal wave of water crashed down on his position from Harribel's Cascada, or when he leaned out of the way of Ulquiorra's Lanza del Relampago. Grimacing as the flaming green spear shot past him, he watched as it detonated in the distance, utterly destroying an area the size of a suburb, while the shockwave swept out demolishing even more.

"You failed Ichigo," a sombre voice stated, causing each of the remaining Espada to freeze mid-action, their eyes unblinking. Scowling, Ichigo watched as the environment and Espada seemed to melt away, leaving him in the middle of an empty expanse. Looking over his shoulder, he waited as a woman in her early twenties with light silver hair, emerald green eyes and wearing a light green silk robe that stopped just above her thighs walked towards him, a disappointed expression on her face.

"I got too arrogant again I know," he complained, sheathing his blade at his waist, before he sat down on the glassy floor of his inner world. Feeling her fist connect with his head, he winced and looked up at her with a glare.

"Don't just sit there so nonchalant about it Ichigo. This exercise was supposed to teach you to deal with your most dangerous opponents first and then leave the others for you to deal with at your leisure. If you had been fighting anywhere that you considered neutral territory, you've just allowed one of them to destroy countless lives!"

"I get that! But I've only failed a handful of times and you've made me run this simulation dozens of times now. I can't help it if they just don't feel like a threat," he explained.

"Bored already? I've only had you fighting against Captains or Espada recently; maybe I should up it to include Aizen or the Captain Commander. How does that sound to you?"

"Annoying," he muttered, sweeping her legs out from under her, before he caught her lithe frame in his arms. "We haven't had a break to ourselves in ages, can't we just relax for just one night?" he begged.

"And what exactly would you do with that break," she whispered sultrily in his ear, while she threaded her fingers through his hair.

"Oh I'm sure I could think of something," he said with a grin, as he lay her down on the ground, before leaning down to capture her lips with his own. Feeling her tongue probing at his lips, he chuckled softly and responded in kind, allowing their intimate dance to continue. As his hand slid down to her thigh though, he pulled away, getting a whine of protest from her. Seeing his look though, she forgot her disappointment for the moment.

"What did you feel?" she asked, looking up at him with a hint of worry.

"Someone's slipped through the barrier I placed around us," he whispered, turning back to her with a frown. "The only one that knows how to do that without triggering it is Kisuke, so he must want something from me again."

"You could just tell him to come back later," she said, her lips ghosting up his neck so that she could nibble on his earlobe. "After all, you made it perfectly clear to him that this is our private time."

"I know, I know," he said with a sigh, caressing her back through her silk gown, "but we both know that he would only come here if it was terribly important." Pulling away from him, she sighed in disappointment and watched as he disappeared, leaving her lying on the cool floor of his inner world.

XXX

Opening his eyes to his bedroom, Ichigo spied Kisuke idly sitting on his desk chair, a cup of tea in his hands as he stared down at the former substitute soul reaper.

"You better have a good reason for disturbing me at this hour Urahara-san," he grumbled, stretching his neck to get rid of some of the kinks in it. "As it stands Kyoka is royally pissed at you right now."

"I'll try not to take up to much of your time then Kurosaki-san," he replied with a strained smile, the slight action causing Ichigo to sit up a little straighter.

"What's happened?" he asked, his instincts telling him that he was about to hate the news.

"Do you believe in magic Kurosaki-san? In Witches and Wizards?" the exile asked, drawing a frown from his former student.

"I'd have said no if I didn't already know about ghosts, Hollows and Soul Reapers," he replied, scratching the back of his head as was his habit. "I guess it's not such a stretch to believe that they exist. If they do though, they hide themselves very well."

"That they do," Kisuke said with a chuckle. "In all my decades here, I've only encountered their kind twice and on both occasions they tried to wipe my memory of them. It was amusing playing along with their little game."

"I'm sure it was, but what does any of this have to do with me?" Ichigo asked, trying to get to the heart of the matter. Watching as Kisuke held up a palm to his wall though, his eyes widened as he raised a barrier isolating his room from the rest of the world, an act that was borderline forbidden by the Soul Society.

"Excellent barrier by the way, it took me a few minutes to think of a way to slip through without triggering the trap you left in it. You're clearly not one to want visitors anymore are you?" Kisuke said with a hint of jovialness in his tone, before he turned deadly serious. "Now what I'm about to tell you, does not leave this room. Not to your friends, family, allies or otherwise." Getting a nod from the teen in understanding, Kisuke took off his hat and pulled out the missive that Yamamoto had sent him.

"The Captain Commander was summoned to attend a meeting between the various Captain Commanders of the Afterlife, of which he is the representative of the Asia-Pacific region. The issue to be discussed is the eradication of every Witch and Wizard alive and the destruction of all artefacts related to them."

"W-What?" Ichigo spluttered, his thoughts echoed by Kyoka Suigetsu.

"This action is in line with steps taken in the past to combat the threat of the Quincies, where they all voted in favour of the complete removal of a threat to the balance of the afterlife," Kisuke continued, ignoring the shocked outburst from Ichigo. "The justification is that a technique among their kind prevents a person from dying and passing on. While a rarity amongst their kind, recent evidence has appeared that shows that someone might have used such a technique to survive a fatal attack."

"So one person cheats death and now they want to kill an entire race for it?!" Ichigo said in disbelief, getting a nod from Kisuke.

"Where one person has succeeded, more stand to follow. In order to protect the balance, they will take whatever measures they deem necessary."

"Didn't they learn anything from their war with the Quincies? Genocide is never the answer!" Ichigo shouted, his fists clenched in anger.

"Unfortunately while the scope of the two events will be similar in size, it will be a one-sided massacre this time," Kisuke commented dispassionately, taking a sip from his cup. "While the Quincies were able to resist them to some degree, from what I've seen of Witches and Wizards, they do not have the power, or the numbers to effectively mount a resistance."

"This is just so…fucked up," Ichigo said, resting his head against his hands. "Hang on…why tell me this? What does any of this have to do with me?"

"Captain Commander Yamamoto believes that such an action is excessive, but as the main supporter of the move to exterminate the Quincies, his judgement will be called into question and his counsel ignored. Because of this, he's asked if I could take a look at the situation and perhaps find enough evidence to suggest that the Magical community should be left alive."

"Good for him. He's shown that there is a heart beating in that withered old body of his, but that still doesn't answer why you told me about this?" Ichigo muttered sarcastically, the base of a plan forming in his head for what he would do if in Kisuke's situation.

"Well considering that I would have to do this without drawing the attention of the intended victims, or the other regional heads for that matter, I was wondering if I might be able to enlist your unique abilities in the pursuit of information gathering."

"You want me to use my Kyoka Suigetsu to infiltrate them and gather information for you? Oh sure why not, it's not like I have a life here that I can just put on hold. Hell it's only my final year at high school. The year that determines whether or not I go to University on a scholarship or not!" he shouted once again, his eyes boring into Kisuke's own. "Why would you ask me to do this Urahara? You know that I've washed my hands of the Gotei 13 and the Soul Society as a whole, so why get me involved in another of their messes?"

"You're right Kurosaki-san it's not fair, but you yourself said it; 'Why do they deserve extinction because of one individual?' Are you telling me that, knowing what you know now, you would not sacrifice part of your life to save their entire race? You've changed a lot since you bonded with Kyoka Suigetsu, but you aren't so changed that you would ignore their plight."

"Ichigo, I don't like it any more than you do, but I know the moment he asked for your help you agreed," Kyoka cut in, much to his annoyance. "Even as you grouse and complain now, you're thinking of how to make this work. We both know that all the Gotei 13 care about is maintaining the balance, but if there is a chance to rub their noses in it, shouldn't we take the chance and stop them?"

'It's putting us squarely in their path Kyoka. I vowed to neither help nor interfere with them. If I do this, I'm risking our lives for the lives of people I don't even know.'

"Don't you already do that on a daily basis whenever you take on a hollow? It's just like when you had to go rescue Rukia, except now we're out to save an entire race."

'Except this is not a fight we can win by destroying our enemy. We need to prove to them that they don't deserve to die. What happens when we discover that they can defy death and in fact seek to do it? What happens when we discover that they actually are a threat to the balance?'

"Then we stand back and watch as a race is massacred. If they are guilty, the punishment is clear. But if their guilt is in question, it falls to someone who cares enough to stand up for them to fight their case, to argue against their unjust punishment. We're not in this alone Ichigo. Kisuke's already committed to helping us and with my power, that's all we need. He'll plan out every little detail, dissect every ounce of information we get him and help us every step of the way. As much as I hate to admit it Ichigo, we owe him this much at least."

Sighing as he relented to her way of thinking, Ichigo looked up to see Kisuke staring at him with a hopeful look on his face. "If we do this, what's the worst thing they could do to us?"

"Well the punishment for wandering into a region under another Division's control is normally a disciplinary hearing, but that's only for official soul reapers. Considering that we're and exile and a former substitute, we could face being executed or having our powers stripped from us before being left to rot in prison for the rest of our lives."

"So death, or wishing I was dead, so no different from normal," Ichigo said with a chuckle. "So, where do we start?"

"The same place everyone starts when trying to solve a problem. We go to the source," Kisuke answered, his own smirk matching Ichigo's own.

XXX

A different take on the whole 'Hey let's merge the two fandoms together' but one that I think is at least different enough to hold up for at least ten chapters. Also who doesn't love a Ichigo/Kyoka Suigetsu story?

Till next time, bye-bye.