Chapter Two:

The next morning, Jinsei woke up to an odd picture. It was him with Lily and James, but there was another with it, a small mug-shot of his newest sibling, Aurora. The small mark that meant 'love' in Japanese was on her cheek, below her left eye was visible, and her emerald eyes blinked at him. "My beautiful sister," he whispered, a tear falling. He pulled himself upright, and wrote another note, leaving it on the same table as the other one, and got into some running clothes. Jogging out into the cold November air, he took off down the street in Godric's Hollow, dodging men, women, children, animals, and debris with equal skill, but he was woefully out of shape, and so wound up stopping about a half mile down the street from where he lived with his 'mother,' 'father,' and 'sister.' He turned, and started back, having caught his breath, moving at the same speed. He reached the house just as James came outside, the note in hand, and as Jinsei stopped, he asked, "Why?"

Jinsei started to stretch, but answered his father-figure. "Because I get the feeling that I need to stay in shape, Father."

James' face tightened imperceptibly at the formal title, but ignored it. "This early?"

"Better time than roughly noon," said Jinsei, still stretching, incorporating a shrug into it. "I'd rather not run into someone, you know?"

After almost five minutes, during which time Jinsei finished with his stretches, and looked at James, who finally nodded, and the two men of the house walked inside, only to be confronted with Aurora's crying. "I'm going, sis," said Jinsei, about to step into his room. "I'm going."

He stepped inside, and closed the door, and like magic, his sister's crying stopped. He sighed, wondering how long it would take before she finally accepted him. His blessing had held true, and she had prospered, as he was staying out of the way of the family, cooking and cleaning for them, which drew some raised eyebrows from Lily and James, but when he said that it was so they could have time with Aurora, they accepted it. After all, Jinsei would often visit after Aurora had fallen asleep, and often murmured, "Toki ni, imōto o watashi o ukeireru nodarou ka?" When will you finally accept me, sister?

Eventually, he just stayed there, waiting silently for the cue to leave, which she'd often give just before she woke, so he'd slip out as she was waking up, and so he was just a comforting presence for her, but not one that she could put a face to, even if she was old enough to.

When that fateful Halloween night came, Jinsei revealed himself to his sister, by picking her up, and grabbing Lily and James around the waist, then launching himself out of the window just as a blast of light slammed into the house. "What -" gasped James, taken by surprise by the speed of their exit.

"Don't talk," grunted Jinsei. "It makes it harder for me."

Aurora was nestled in his arms, as her parents were clinging to his shoulders, as he'd hit another growth spurt that sent him well into the five foot range. He was roughly five foot eleven, but he'd been hitting growth spurt after growth spurt almost nonstop. Apparently some other Being wanted him ready for something. Aurora blinked at him, then hesitantly pushed her love towards him. He accepted it, then swamped her with how he felt, from his love to his terror. He loved her, she knew that then, had for a while, if all the pent-up emotion she was reading was true, and he was terrified that something would happen to take her away. Over it all was a deep need to protect, and most of it was centered around her, her father, and her mother. She felt genuinely safe in the arms of her older brother, who was surprisingly muscled, as she could feel the cords that made up his muscles flex and bunch with each step he took, straining, stretching, always trying to go faster. After nearly twenty minutes of running, which, to Jinsei's passenger's, felt like forever, he reached the place he was looking for, which was a literal hole in the ground.

"Are you okay, Jinsei?" asked Lily, looking at him with concern. He grinned at her.

"You know those runs?" he asked.

"Yeeeeaaaah?" Lily dragged it out.

"Ever wonder what took me so long?" Jinsei had a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Yeah," said James, nodding. "Sometimes."

"Follow me, and stay close," said Jinsei, slipping into the hole, Aurora still safely in his arms.

James and Lily looked at each other, then shrugged and followed. Lily pulled her wand, but Jinsei hissed, "Don't!" when he saw it in the all-but-non-existent light.. She quickly stowed it away, and she grabbed his elbow, James' hand in hers. They walked through the darkness, always following Jinsei's lead, for what felt like eternity, when they entered a room that was dimly lit. They slipped further through the cave system, which clearly had been Jinsei's project, though how he'd managed to find the time and tools was a question left unanswered. Slowly, the light brightened, and they reached a room that had full lighting. "Where are we?" asked James, stepping past Jinsei and looking around.

"You are currently inside of the cave system that I'd been working on for several months now," said Jinsei. "I knew we'd need it after I started to get dreams, although they were more like visions."

"Of what?"

"Of running to something," he said, looking at them. "It feels like there's something important that I needed to find, but there's something evil and corrupt following me, but it wants me and whatever I have at the time. That was when I started to work on this. The dreams started almost a year ago, not long after Aurora was born." He was surprisingly sober. "I only knew that it would happen tonight, although not when, exactly. I grabbed you three and brought you here, but we must be careful. If too many people know about this, then that will defeat the purpose of having this bolt-hole."

Lily was staring at him in shock, James looked like he'd been poleaxed. Aurora was looking up at him, trust flowing through the bond between her and him, and feeding back through her bonds with her parents, so they sighed, and accepted it. "What do we do now?" James asked.

"We have to wait until things die down, but we can get out of here if we need to," said Jinsei, looking at him. "Until then this is going to be our home. I must ask that you stay within the system, short of the entrance, as it's a labyrinth with a number of traps to confuse, maim, and kill invaders. The rest of the compound you can explore, but be careful, as I have some things I need to do. Don't be surprised if you don't see me for a while, but it's necessary. I've got something I need to get."

"Jinsei..." Lily's voice trailed off, and he looked at her. "Don't take too long, okay?" she asked tearfully.

"Mum, I will always love you, no matter what happens," he said. "I swear on my life, soul, blade, and blood that I will return, no matter what happens." Black flames raced over his form, and his face and voice were solemn. "I must go." With that, he turned, and sprinted out of the caverns, moving at a rapid pace. Lily and James stared after him, before looking at Aurora, who was looking after him as well. "Aurora, love," said Lily, catching her daughter's attention. "You need to rest, okay?"

Aurora gave an unmistakable sigh and nod, then lay down, falling asleep quickly. Lily and James sat on either side of her, holding one of her tiny hands. "We can't just let him go off on his own like that, James," whispered Lily, looking down at their sleeping daughter.

"Lily, you know that he has always been one to look after himself," replied James in a whisper. "He gave an oath that he will return, no matter the circumstances. We must look after ourselves and Aurora until then, okay love?"

Lily sighed, and nodded, before laying down, and closing her eyes. James did the same with the rustle of cloth, then his breathing slowed into the sleeping patterns. In seconds, both adults were asleep.

Meanwhile, Jinsei had managed to get out of the caverns, and away from the opening without being caught, and had begun searching for the phoenix he'd seen in his dreams. She was always sitting on a massive sword that was embedded point first in a stone pedestal, and he searched for the location, before slapping himself in the forehead, and launched himself sideways into the shadows, having remembered one of the many tricks he'd used to scare Lily and James that planted him miles away the last time he'd done it. He rolled on the ground of the other side of the shadow, which happened to be in a temple that had to have been older than anyone had thought. He slipped up to the pedestal, where a hand-and-a-half sword was embedded, and looked up to the dark phoenix. "My Lady," he whispered, bowing to her.

She bowed back, and fluttered off the hilt of the sword, and he pulled it out. It was a fairly simple affair, despite the cross guard and hilt wrap being black, and a skull engraved on the blade near the cross guard. A scabbard was resting nearby, which he grabbed and slid the hand-and-a-half sword into, before slinging across his back. Without any further ado, he sprinted out of the chamber that had housed the blade for so long, and launched himself sideways again, this time directly into the caverns that housed his family. He rolled with the clatter of metal against stone, and stood. A young woman was standing behind Lily and James, who had their wands out and directed at him, and he spotted the small Japanese symbol that said 'love' on the young woman's cheek. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, then said, "Hi, Lily, James, Aurora."

"How do you know us?" demanded Lily.

"Mum, it's me, Jinsei," said Jinsei, confused. He sent a pulse of love, and confusion down his bond with all three of them, and their expressions changed from one of wary suspicion to one of comical surprise.

"What happened to you?" demanded James, running up to him.

"What do you mean?" asked Jinsei, confused as he looked at James, noticing that he had to look slightly down.

"It's been almost nine years since you left!" cried Lily, also running up, but giving him a bear hug. Jinsei staggered in shock. Nine years?

"Looks like I've got some birthdays to make up for, as well as Christmas'," remarked Jinsei to himself. "I don't know what happened, but I found what I was looking for."

"Oh?" asked Aurora, who'd stayed away from Jinsei.

In answer, he drew the hand-and-a-half sword sheathed across his back, and stabbed it point-first into the ground in front of himself. They took in the massive sword, and James whistled. "Big sword," he remarked, walking over to it. "Any idea of what it is?"

"No," Jinsei said, shaking his head. "I don't, but I recognize it from the dreams. The name supplied there is Ten'notsurugi, or Sword of Heaven. I'll just call it Kōken'nin, Guardian." The blade shimmered at the renaming, and the skull engraved into the blade was replaced with a dragon engraving that covered the entire blade.

"Guardian?" asked Aurora, cautiously approaching.

Jinsei nodded, hands not moving. "Yeah."

Aurora could tell that there was something almost... older about her adoptive brother, even if his body was young. He turned to Lily and James, and bowed, something that had carried over from before. "Arigatō for giving me an actual childhood," he said, softly. "For as long as you could, anyway." He turned to Aurora. "Arigatō," he whispered. "For giving me a reason for protecting, even if you rejected me before."

That made Aurora gasp.

"Upon my Will, Soul, Body, Blood, Blade, and Honor, I swear to protect Aurora Potter," said Jinsei, pulling Kōken'nin from the stone floors, and saluting Aurora with it, easily handling the blade. "Wherever she goes, I go, within reason." Black flames rippled up his body, completely obscuring it. When he became visible again, he was wearing an outfit that they had never seen before, but he was covered in scars. He wore loose black pants, woven straw sandals, and a tight black T-shirt tucked into the pants, with the belt that held the scabbard of the hand-and-a-half sword over it. Jinsei spun the sword, and sheathed it with a definitive clank, before kneeling. "My Lady," he whispered, bowing. Just then, a flash of dark flames announced the arrival of the dark, dark red phoenix. "Kage at your service," said the phoenix. "I'm the swordsman's familiar."

"A phoenix!" yelped James, leaping backwards.

"Yes, she's a phoenix," sighed Jinsei, straightening. "Now, we must leave!"

"Why?" demanded Aurora, caught off-guard.

"They're coming," snarled Jinsei, startling Aurora, as the need to protect became all but overwhelming. "Come!" he barked, setting off down the nearest tunnel. "Grab hold of me, I'm getting all of us to a safe place. Kage!"

"Yes, Jinsei?"

"Locate my mind once we're through, then fire-travel to us! Under no circumstance are you to attempt fire-travel with me, though, okay? The last time that happened, it nearly crushed both of us," said Jinsei, as his adoptive family grabbed hold of him. Kage nodded. "Godspeed."

"Good luck." With that, Jinsei vanished into the shadows, using his shadow travel ability. Kage shook with laughter, at first, then locked onto Jinsei's mental signature, and fire-traveled there. "Never thought I'd see this place again," whispered Jinsei, looking around the temple that he'd first found Kōken'nin. "Come," he said, shaking it off. "I'll get you situated, then we can get down to planning on how to get from place to place without getting attacked on either end or in transit. I can't shadow travel everywhere."