Chapter 227
As soon as Harry closed his eyes he expanded his senses far beyond the dimension where Soul Society is located, he immediately sensed Hueco Mundo and saw how his shadow clone was still there after returning Harribel to her friends after Harry had the shadow clone get her while the quincies were distracted.
However, Nel was now refusing to let go of the shadow clone and was forcing it to play with her, much to the amusement of the rest of the Arrancars, all of this made Harry sweatdrop and mentally apologize to his shadow clone.
But Harry then moved on, he couldn't see nor feel the Quincy King's domain anymore which meant it had disappeared completely, the gap between the worlds was still there, chaotic as always and so was Hell, but Harry didn't let his senses linger there.
He still couldn't sense where the so-called Zero Division was located, "Huh?...".
Rimuru raised an eyebrow at Harry's sudden exclamation of surprise, "What's wrong?".
Harry kept his eyes close but still responded to Rimuru's question, "I can't sense the Zero Division, which means that the location where they are is in a dimension removed from all the ones I know, that's intriguing actually, I wonder how they pulled off that level of time and space displacement".
Rimuru tilted his head and then asked another question, "Are you sure we're dealing with shinigami, everything we find out about this so-called Zero Division makes me believe that they're not normal at all".
Harry shrugged and then said, "Who knows? It might have been the Soul King who did this, to begin with, we'll find out when we get there".
Rimuru nodded and Harry then expanded his sense far beyond the time and space of this world, it was then, that he found the Zero Division and the dimension where they reside, but Harry's presence made everyone jump in surprise when they sensed him looking at them.
Harry winced when they saw them begin to panic and get ready for something, "Oops, get ready Rimuru, I might have startled them in bit".
Rimuru sighed and then shrugged, "Of course, because why not?... Why is it that everything we do always has to come with difficulties?".
Harry opened his eyes and chuckled, "I blame it on my Potter's Luck, it never fails".
Rimuru grumbled a bit but couldn't argue with Harry's point, after all, he really did have a skill named Potter's Luck which did some of the most random shenanigans to happen to Harry at times, sometimes with ridiculous results.
Harry just smiled at Rimuru and then waved his hand to the side, a dark corridor sprouted from the ground almost immediately and Rimuru stepped through without any words, Harry did the same soon after and then the dark corridor dissipated an instant later.
~Entrance to the Royal Guard Palace~
Rimuru stepped out of the dark corridor and immediately had to summon and raise his magiststeel katana to block an attack from someone who came at him really fast, but Rimuru was still able to see him and that allowed him to stop the upcoming attack.
The shinigami who had a pompadour hairstyle widened his eyes as Rimuru's yellow eyes stared at him for a second before being pushed back and away by a smooth swing from the slime's magiststeel katana.
The shinigami soon found himself skidding back unable to stop himself from the power behind Rimuru's swing, but another shinigami shunpoed behind him and managed to help him stop.
Rimuru stared at the two shinigami and then moved his gaze towards the others that began to arrive, two female and another male, the shinigami glared at Rimuru, but the slime soon stepped forward and put away his weapon, "I would really like it if you don't attack me again, it's hard to hold back enough not to accidentally kill you".
The shinigami frowned and raised their zanpakutos in response to Rimuru's request, they definitely did not like what he said, but then someone else stepped through the dark corridor, and then everything went crazy.
Harry stepped through the dark corridor into the royal palace and then a powerful and potent spiritual pressure began to attack him to kick him out, but Harry was beyond being affected by such a simple and weak attack, so he just raised his power and clashed against the opposing spiritual pressure.
The clashing of both powerful energies immediately made the entire place shake and tremble, the five shinigami that appeared in front of Rimuru immediately dropped to their knees and began to sweat from the sheer pressure the energies were exerting.
The shinigami with the pompadour hairstyle looked over to the one whom he tried to attack and widened his eyes when he saw Rimuru standing there unaffected by the clashing energies.
A feminine voice suddenly spoke out to him, "Tenjirō! The entire royal palace will crumble to pieces if this isn't stopped!".
The now-revealed Tenjirō nodded but grunted when he tried to move, "I know Senjumaru! But I can't move!".
Another feminine voice suddenly called out in a bit of a panic, "Ichibē! Is that the Souk King's spiritual pressure! why is he reacting like this now?!".
Ichibē grunted and shook his head, "I don't know Kirio! He has never reacted this strongly to anything, it shouldn't be possible! Ōetsu! Can you move?!".
Ōetsu shook his head and grunted when he tried to move, "No! Not even an inch! Just who is that guy!?".
Harry narrowed his eyes as he pushed back the familiar pressure that always tries to push him out of this world and has caused him nothing but headaches back when he first arrived in this world, "... I'm getting tired of you always doing this to me".
Harry suddenly raised a hand and then activated all of his energies and powers, the spiritual pressure was immediately pushed away from Harry and sent back towards the origin with a force beyond anything, this caused backlash against the Soul King who was damaged and now completely unconscious for the time being.
Rimuru stared at his friend as the energies he had obtained during his long journey swirled around him, he hadn't transformed into his hybrid form, but rather, just let the energies within him flow out.
It was always an impressive sight to see and one that he had only seen once, the day Harry became a monster like him, the day they both slaughtered thousands of human soldiers from Falmouth and church soldiers, it was something that still makes Rimuru feel respect for Harry.
That power and those energies speak of experience, of lifetimes lived, and of all sorts of emotions, it was always a sight to see.
Harry suddenly sighed and his energies settles down, though he looked quite annoyed at the moment, "Fucking twat, tried to push me out do you? Well get buggered!".
Rimuru chuckled as he heard Harry speak in his British accent, it always comes out when he's annoyed or very angry, but to Rimuru, it was always a funny thing to see and hear, of course, Harry heard Rimuru laugh and knew exactly why he was doing so.
So the dragon god did the mature thing and gave the slime the middle finger which only made Rimuru laugh even more, suddenly, a voice called out to both of them, "Alright, who are you both and why are you here!".
Harry turned his head towards the shinigami who just spoke and stared at him, the shinigami was a large and broad individual with a bald head, red eyes, bushy eyebrows, and a long black beard.
He wears the standard shikahushō beneath a white, long-sleeved haori decorated with the Royal Guard's emblem.
The top of his uniform is open enough to expose his hairy chest, he also wears a large set of red prayer beads around his neck and a pair of single-toothed tengu geta.
Ichibē couldn't help but gulp as Harry's gaze landed on him, to his relief however, Harry soon relaxed and spoke up to him, "I'm Harry Potter, you called for my presence and here I am".
The shinigami gaped at who they had before them, they had heard plenty of Harry Potter from the Captain-Commander but they hadn't seen him yet, they had tried to before, but something always stopped them from seeing him, as if someone or something had some sort of veil on him at all times
But now having him in front of them confirmed what Yamamoto had told them, Harry Potter had a connection to death, the soul, and everything they stand for, a way deeper connection than they could ever hope to achieve.
Suddenly, Senjumaru spoke up having realized who she had before her, "Y-you're the Master Of Death aren't you?".
Harry smiled at the female shinigami and then a dark and gray aura appeared around him while hugging him like a lover, this aura was Death's and she was showing the shinigami in front of Harry, who exactly they were messing with.
Harry chuckled when she felt Death's presence appear to scare the shinigami of the Zero Division, which worked very well with how pale and how much they were sweating now.
Rimuru smiled and shook his head at what was going on right now, {Death is as protective of Harry as always, it's a good thing she's not the jealous type otherwise Harry would be dealing with a yandere Death and that wouldn't be good for anyone}.
The aura around Harry soon dissipated and Harry spoke up, "Well, you guys told the Old Man that you wanted to meet with me and since I have a few questions of my own, I decided to come over and get this meeting over with".
"...".
"...".
"...".
"...".
"...".
Harry and the shinigami just stared at each other in silence, Harry because he was expecting a response, and the shinigami, because they didn't know how to react to all of this, Rimuru found the whole thing funny so he laughed out loud for a while.
~A few minutes later~
It took a bit for the shinigami to snap out of it, Rimuru didn't really blame them that it took them this long to come back to reality, Harry did drop a few verbal bombs on them, so it was only natural that they had been caught off guard and didn't know what to say.
But soon enough they regained their composure and began to introduce themselves, while giving out some very important information to Harry for some odd reason, first with the one they spoke with, Ichibē Hyōsube.
According to him, he was given the title 'Monk Who Calls the Real Name' by the Soul King, he was also the first person to name everything that existed in the Soul Society, including the zanpakutō, shikai, and bankai.
At some point in the past, Ichibē was the first shinigami to obtain an evolved form of his zanpakutō, which was known at the time as shin'uchi, all of this made Ichibē quite the important individual but things didn't end there.
Ichibē also explained how he once tried to negotiate with the Quincy King only to be rejected and have to use the Left Arm of God to take away Yhwach's ability known as the Almighty, which apparently was a very dangerous ability of his.
However, the fact that Ichibē spoke about the Quincy King as if he was still a threat, told Harry and Rimuru that he didn't know that Yhwach had already been dealt with, it seems that despite Ichibē looking like an upbeat person at first glance, he was quite the cunning and manipulative man.
It was obvious that Ichibē wanted Harry to take care of the Quincy King and that's why he was called over and was being told all of this extra information, Harry and Rimuru understood then and there, that if the Zero Division knew that Yhwach was dead, they wouldn't be as accommodating as they are now, despite Harry being the Master of Death.
Next was a woman named Kirio Hikifune the, Second Officer of the Zero Division, Kirio was a fairly tall woman of fair complexion with green eyes, she had long, smooth purple hair reaching her mid-back that curled up at the ends and bangs framing the sides of her face.
She wears black lipstick and has red swirl-shaped markings under both her eyes, she normally has her hair done up into a bun and secured with a large silver, spoon-like adornment.
She also wears the standard shinigami shihakushō with a white obi beneath a white, long-sleeved haori decorated with the Royal Guard's emblem on the back, according to her, she's usually in a more plump form to compensate for her unique method of cooking.
Apparently, Kirio also invented the Gikongan, or artificial soul pill, a tool used by shinigami to be able to operate among humans with a fake body thanks to her invention, Kirio also used the same logic she used to invent Gikongan, to imbue the base ingredients of the food she creates by infusing the materials from the onset of growth with her reiatsu, fundamentally changing the nature and properties.
All the ingredients come from her body, and through the use of these ingredients, she can augment any food she prepares, which empowers anyone who eats it beyond any level they could ever reach naturally which is why she takes on a plump form.
Though Harry did ask why she looked skinny now, Kirio sighed and told him that it was because she used a great amount of her spiritual pressure just to stay conscious when Harry released his energies, which made her take in her real form.
Harry in response, just shrugged and said that she can blame the Soul King for being an asshole and trying to kick him out of this realm so aggressively, he had to respond in kind since he was tired of the Soul King always trying to exert pressure on his soul.
Kirio really didn't mind though, she was quite comfortable in her real form so she just shrugged and smiled showing Harry and Rimuru that she's quite the cheerful and carefree individual.
Next was Senjumaru Shutara, Fourth Officer of the Zero Division, Shutara was the female Shinigami who figured out that Harry is the Master Of Death, how she did so, she didn't say but instead she explained a bit about herself.
Senjumaru has the appearance of a slender and youthful woman with fair skin and long, black hair that is adorned at the back by a large golden ornament in the shape of a crescent moon with numerous small lines radiating outwards.
Senjumaru wears the standard shinigami shihakushō beneath a white long-sleeved haori, over which she dons a further white robe fastened at the front near the center of her chest.
Her height makes her the shortest among other members of Zero Division, but she wears a pair of extremely thick-soled kobo, she also has six long, golden skeletal artificial arms attached to her back that she uses in place of her physical hands.
She also seems to have the ability to manipulate cloth and thread with she uses to make the shinigami uniforms they use, this was a surprise for Harry, who had often wondered how the uniform was made and how it could be so resistant and at times, self-repairing as well, it can even transform according to the user's needs, like when they use their bankai and then need their clothes to transform or gain a resistance to their powers.
Next to introduce himself was Tenjirō Kirinji, the First Officer of the Zero Division, Tenjirō is a lean-built and very tall man with black hair styled into a crazy-looking and large pompadour hairstyle, with tapered sideburns.
He seems to like to chew on a small stick as well since he hadn't stopped doing that even when Harry's energy pressed down on him.
Instead of the standard shinigami shihakushō, he wears a waist-length white jacket that leaves most of his chest exposed but still bears the Royal Guard emblem on its back, as well as the alternating circle and diamond pattern of a captain's haori along the bottom, his attire is completed by a black hakama, a large yellow sash around his waist and a pair of sandals.
To Harry and Rimuru, Tenjirō seems like a condescending individual, despite knowing who Harry is and having been sent to the ground by his energy alone, he still speaks to him as if he was a child or something similar, which got him a karate chop to the head by Kirio for being unnecessarily rude to Harry.
Harry didn't mind though, he was quite used to people like Tenjirō, despite being assholes and somewhat rude you can at least trust them to be honest about their opinions and he quite liked that.
However, to the surprise of Harry and Rimuru, Tenjirō was the one to create kaidō or the healing arts the shinigami have, this revelation made Harry wonder what is it about healers in the Soul Society that made them insane, psychotic, and bloodthirsty individuals after all Unohana is a healer and Harry was well aware of who she really is.
Lastly, Ōetsu Nimaiya, Third Officer of the Zero Division introduced himself to Harry and Rimuru, Ōetsu is a dark-skinned man with thick, black hair that is shaven and dyed green on the sides of his head.
He wears a variation of the shinigami shihakushō featuring instead a green undergarment, and a shortened hakama that exposes his lower legs.
Worn over this is a white, sleeveless puffer jacket that bears the Royal Guard emblem on its back, as well as the alternating circle and diamond pattern of a captain's haori along the bottom.
His attire is completed by gold-framed sunglasses with blue lenses, and a pair of green slippers that are gold trimmed and have a shoe-like appearance, overall, he seemed like a very stylish man to Harry and Rimuru, both even admired his hairstyle as well, which made Ōetsu smiled in amusement.
This stylish man also created the zanpakuto and even asked Harry to see his weapons, which he had heard of so much about, Harry let him see Oblivion and Oathkeeper, but the moment both Keyblades touched Ōetsu's hand, they immediately went back to Harry's.
Which surprised the dragon god, having not seen his keyblades react that way, Ōetsu smiled and then apologized, stating that he tried to use his spiritual pressure to see about the making and inside of the keyblades.
They clearly didn't like that and immediately rejected Ōetsu, in fact, the man showed both of his hands and let everyone see how horribly burned they had become after the backlash he received from both Keyblades.
"... That was stupid, aren't you a sword maker? What made you think that doing that to weapons of unknown making was a good idea? You're lucky Oblivion and Oathkeeper didn't just blast your hands off".
Ōetsu grinned but nodded to Harry, "I was just curious!... To be honest, your weapons perplex me, when I see them I can tell that individually, they're extremely powerful, more powerful than any zanpakuto I've ever seen, and yet...
Both feel incomplete, the white one, I believe you called it Oathkeeper right?", Harry nodded, "Well, I was only able to sense something very peculiar about it...-".
Harry narrowed his eyes and cut off Ōetsu, "Seven lights, what you sensed was seven pure lights... Oblivion has thirteen darknesses if you're wondering, but I'm surprised you were able to sense and see that with a single glimpse... you're right, my keyblades, one of light and one of darkness are incomplete individually.
But they are part of a whole, of something ancient and more powerful than you can imagine".
Harry then smiled and didn't say anything else, which Ōetsu took as him dropping the subject, Rimuru however widened his eyes as he understood exactly what Harry meant with what he said, {No way... does Harry have the X-Bl}.
But before Rimuru could finish his thought and probably geek out, Harry spoke to Ichibē, "So, given we're being told all of this and the fact that you mentioned Yhwach I can guess that the reason you told Yamamoto that you wanted to see me was that you wanted to ask me to deal with the Quincy King, no?".
Ichibē brightly smiled and nodded at Harry, "Hahaha, quite persuasive of you Lord Potter! Yhwach and his quincies are a threat to the balance of this world, he must be stopped, we have already heard of his attacks in Hueco Mundo.
Whatever he's planning right now is just the beginning, his end goal is to reach the Royal Palace and his father the Soul King, he can't be allowed to get to his father or he will become too powerful, enough that even you would have trouble dealing with him!".
Harry stared at Ichibē, while the man widely smiled and seemed rather cheerful despite giving Harry what amounts to very bad news, this and the way Ichibē spoke to him told Harry one thing.
This man cannot be trusted, "... Do you mind not treating me like a naive child? Despite how I look I'm over a billion years old, I'm not a fool, I know what you want to get out of all of this shinigami".
Ichibē's joyful expression immediately changed, now he was frowning and staring at Harry with narrowed eyes, but the dragon god didn't care and just went on, "You're hoping the Quincy King and I kill each other or at least, for one of us to die and the other to be weakened".
Ichibē sighed and shook his head before explaining himself, "The Quincy King is a threat to everyone in this world, his and his quincy's very nature destroys the delicate balance the Soul King created.
You're very existence causes the Soul King to react in ways we have never seen before, it has begun to affect him, his body is breaking down as we speak, and the very same balance we want to protect is being threatened by you as well, something has to be done.
But we can't rely on the shinigami squads either... you have garnered the respect of all the squads, even the Captain-Commander doesn't want to go against you".
Rimuru narrowed his eyes towards Ichibē, discreetly, he also scanned the other members of the Zero Division, but unlike Ichibē, who seemed to regard Harry as a threat, they instead were looking down and unsure about the situation.
It seems that confirmation that he's the Master Of Death and the show of power he gave them had them doubting what they were originally planning, Harry of course looked utterly tired, and Rimuru had to sweatdropped with the look Harry was giving Ichibē.
It was a look that screamed 'Are you stupid?' Ichibē of course, noticed it and frowned, but Harry didn't let him say anything and just decided to speak up, "Alright... it's been a long day and I have been dealing with a lot of stuff in this world.
So! This is what I'm going to do, first, Yhwach is dead, killed him earlier in the day, Aizen is dead as well all under the orders of Death herself, I only have one more objective to do and I rather not have to deal with this level of stupidity.
So here's the deal and listen closely...".
Ichibē looked at Harry's face closely, the other members of the Zero Division leaned their heads close as well intent on listening with close attention, Harry's eyes suddenly became dragonic and his mouth was filled with fangs causing the shinigami of the Zero Division to jump back in a panic.
Rimuru watched this happening and even he began to sweat, unlike with Harry unleashing his energies, which is a very controlled and even flow of power, this was something far more potent, something primal, something called a dragon's aura.
An initiate ability within all dragonkin, Rimuru had experienced it with Veldora and Milim, but he had already gotten accustomed to such pressure and high level of instinctual fear.
Demonlords have something similar called maou haki or a demonlord's aura, but a dragon is far worse if a demonlord's aura makes you feel terror and makes you freeze on the spot, a dragon's aura makes you want to run away as far as possible as you can.
It can even drive weaker beings into insanity and then there are those not even able to resist only to die instantly, Harry's dragon aura is even worse as well, him being a dragon god, a very old dragon god at that, the pressure he exerts is even more potent.
It was only natural for the Zero Division members to jump back and look about ready to bolt, it was only their high levels of spiritual pressure that allowed them to not run away, but they were definitely terrified now, in fact, they were all pale and sweating something fierce.
Rimuru sighed and then softly smiled, {Looks like Harry is tired of dealing with the problems of Soul Society, if it wasn't for Death's quest, I wonder if he would even bother to do anything with these issues?... Well, if the Kurosakis were to have gotten involved he might have, Ichigo is way stronger now.
So are his friends, I doubt they would have much difficulty dealing with the quincies and Yhwach, still... this old guy might have used Ichigo in some way or form and Harry realized that, no wonder he's not showing mercy on Ichibē... I feel bad for everyone else though".
Harry stared Ichibē directly in the eyes with his cold green and glowing dragonic eyes and then began to calmly speak, "Death wants the Soul King gone, I will fix the situation with the balance of the world as well, so you can relax about that but...".
The pressure suddenly increased in strength causing the members of the Zero Division to begin to unconsciously step away from Harry, the dragon god ignored this and instead continued, "If you try to get in my way, I will destroy your souls.
One word from me and I can have your soul break down slowly and painfully, nothing of you will remain, you will cease to exist and all I have to do is just say one word, so don't get in my way...".
The members of the Zero Division felt like their very souls were being constricted and it began to become difficult to breathe for them, this began to terrify them even more, to the point that they began to drop to their knees, it was then, that they understood what it truly means for Harry to be the Master of Death.