An explanation: Kouichi is/was in Slytherin for two reasons. One: So he could get to know Malfoy, just because I randomly put them in the same carriage in a scene I cut from HP-DF and was pleasantly surprised

In case you're brainless and haven't figured it out yet, the underlying couples/ships in this fic are as followed: Harry x Ginny, Ron x Hermione and Takumi. Any other couples that seam to get a hint or a nudge here are up to your interpretation. So please, quit begging me for crossover pairings. (Last time I tried that it was shot down the next book.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon Frontier, nor anything related to Harry Potter. Just a normal girl with an overactive imagination, folks. Enjoy.

Yin

Chapter 6: Favors

"Dammit, Takuya!" The shout echoed across the tunnel and up through the manhole cover as the group made their single-file way down the ladder. "You're late!"

"Don't curse in front of the kids, Ketaru." Takuya's groan echoed up as well.

Harry crawled down into the back-alley manhole and got his first good look at the original speaker. Ketaru-san seamed to be about twenty or so, a mop of uncombed black hair handing over his pointed faces and stark blue eyes. From where he was seated on a hovering broom, wearing a loose black robe that billowed around him slightly in the backwind of the flying magic, Harry was reminded of the crows that Kouichi had shone him while at the shrine.

The room was huge, a rounded dome with a number of stone stands set into the walls. When he jumped down, Harry realized that the floor was charmed to a springy softness that bounced as you walked. Three hoops set at different levels were at each end of the vast expansion, with familiar markings on the ground as figures on brooms flew through some very familiar warm-up exercises. Harry knew what it looked like, but it couldn't honestly be…

"What is this place?" Ron blurted, his eyes widening as he looked around.

"This?" Takuya grinned, pulling a loose black robe over his clothes and grabbing a broom. "This is our Quidditch pitch."

"Underground?" Harry asked, looking up at the charmed ceiling, which glowed lightly to illuminate the vast room.

"Hey, it's either this or bus to Yokohama twice a week." Takuya shuddered. "You ever tried coordinating eight little kids through nine train stops? Ugh."

"Little kids?" Harry turned his eyes up again and found that, yes, the oldest of the flyers couldn't have been more than 10. "What the…?"

"It's a conditioning workshop." Kouji jumped nimbly down from the ladder after sliding the manhole closed after them all. "Like little-league."

"Only bad side is that we can't get the Muggle-borns in this division, so we're kinda limited." Takuya shook his head, his broom hovering near to waist height for him to mount it. "But we've got more than enough half-bloods and purebloods for a decent number of teams…"

"Takuya!" Shouted Ketaru in annoyance from the air. "Quit yakin' and start coaching! The mock starts in an hour!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Takuya shouted, mounting. "Sheesh…"

Ron frowned up at him, as did Kouji. "So we're just supposed to watch?" Muttered the long-haired protector.

"Hey, it's fun." Takuya shrugged. "And we've got a mock-match with the Tanoshi in an hour. It'll be a ball, trust me."

Kouji scowled at him and wandered into a free corner, pulling out his bokuto and beginning some practice of his own.

Takuya shook his head at his friend, then turned to Harry with an odd gleam in his eye. He lowered the broom to whisper, "Actually, Potter, I kinda hoped you'd help me out a bit…Oi, Aki!"

"Yeah coach?" A pretty little redhead girl with bright hazel eyes pulled her broom to a stop roughly two stories up from them. She wore a light red cape loosely around her shoulders, designating which scrimmage team she was on.

Takuya motioned with his hands. "Come down here a sec. There's somebody I want you to meet."

Aki pointed her broom towards them and slide down to hover next to her coach. Takuya grinned and turned to Harry. "Potter, this is Aki Mitsuki, Seeker for the Shibuya Shinigami. I was hoping you could drill her a bit, if you don't mind."

"Sure." Harry hoped to dear god he wasn't blushing. Aki reminded him so much of Ginny when they had first met that it made his heart race.

"Great!" Takuya grinned broadly. "There's a spare broom in the closet over there if you need it. I gotta work with the Beaters a bit."

He zoomed off. Harry couldn't help but grin as he reached deep into his Hammerspace bag and produced his own broom. The Firebolt seamed to tremble with anticipation under his fingers, begging to be used and longing to zoom up into the air, light as a feather…

"Wow, a Firebolt?" Aki breathed excitedly, her hazel eyes sparkling. "You must be really good, Mr. Potter-san!"

"Well, some people say that." Harry kept his voice even, trying to be modest. "You ready to go?"

Aki smiled and her cheeks had dimples in them, just like Ginny's. "Yeah!"

Harry grinned softly as he mounted his broom. And then he flew.

( - ) ( - ) ( - )

"Honestly, Kimura, why do you bother with muggle things like that?" Draco rolled his eyes, leaning against light, wooden wall and pulling another stick of chocolate Pocky from the box by his leg.

Kouichi looked up and smiled at him through the thin black thread that was held loosely in his mouth. A quick grind of his teeth and the thread had snapped, tying off the repaired seam of the first-year boy's school shirt, torn by a misfired spell. "Magic cannot solve everything, Draco-kun." He whispered gently, checking to make sure the seam was straight. "And it is unwise to expend your magical energy on a simple task which you can easily accomplish through physical means."

"Whatever." Malfoy sighed as he took the thin waver in his mouth and turned to gaze out at the sunlit garden again. "Seams like a waste of time to me."

Kouichi smiled at his friend and shook his head thoughtfully. He pulled himself to his feet and made his way across the large room to where the training was going on. With Draco being eager to get out of the house and having recovered the strength to do so, it seamed only natural that the first place they should go was the shrine, if only so that the blonde foreigner could be formally introduced to the man who had assisted with his arrival.

They had not exactly expected him to be introduced to the class as a special guest observer, but that's precisely what had happened. Tomoki had been the most startled and a little offended, but was calmed when he realized that he was the first out of their little group to know about this.

As it was, Draco was sitting in the far inside corner of the room, watching somewhat patiently as the priests directed their students. Lecture was over for now, and the group was just practicing the spells they had been taught.

"Watanabe-kun." Kouichi called, approaching the first year Yin who was working bare-chested in the group of the others. "I've fixed your shirt."

The little boy smiled up at him and raised his arms, letting the apprentice pull the shirt down over his head. The little head popped out of the top with a cute giggle. "Thank you, Sempai! It's all fixed!"

"No problem." Kouichi smiled warmly and straightened.

A fifteen-year-old girl in Tomoki's year stopped in her training and smiled at Kouichi as he passed. "Konichiwa, Kimura-sempai." She giggled, batting her eyelashes and bouncing her blonde pigtails cutely.

"Hello, Kimiko-san." Kouichi gave her a kind smile and a tiny bow, despite the fact that Tomoki was behind the girl rolling his eyes. It was a well-known fact that Kimiko Tachikawa had harbored a lasting crush on her dark-haired sempai since her second year of training, and despite the fact that he had repeatedly expressed that he had very little desire to date or marry anyone at all, especially not a girl four years younger than himself, she kept on trying to get his attention.

Tomoki caught Kouichi's eye and grinned brightly, the same spark in his eyes as ever. Kouichi smiled back at him and nodded in encouragement at the younger's practice before making his way to the outside doors.

"Hakaishi-sensei?" He called softly, stepping outside and closing the door behind him.

The two teachers…his own and Kenkyo-san…turned away from their conversation and Hakaishi smiled at him. "Yes, Kouichi-kun?"

His assistant came up beside him, frowning softly with a worried gleam in his eyes. "Are you all right, Sensei? You look like something's wrong."

Hakaishi observed him a moment, silently, then smiled and pat his head gently. "Don't worry. It's nothing…"

There was a moment of silence. Kenkyo was off to one side, examining one of the many trees that grew along the cement walkway, utterly absorbed in one of the delicate green boughs. Hakaishi knew that Kouichi was standing quietly only a few feet away, waiting patiently, and quietly cursed whatever sensitivity it was that made his apprentice so in-tune with the feelings of people around him.

"…Kouichi." The priest finally sighed after a long while. "Have you had any… dreams lately?"

Kouichi turned his head slightly and blinked. "No, sir. None that I really remember, anyway."

"…I see." Hakaishi sighed softly, sounding somewhat at ease.

Kouichi took a step closer to his teacher. "Have you had any, sensei?"

Hakaishi sighed again and popped his jaw, frowning. Before he could give the negative answer he had planned, Kenkyo suddenly spoke up. "Just tell him, Hakaishi." Said the woman without looking back at him. "If you can't tell your own apprentice, who can you tell?"

Hakaishi rolled his eyes at the slightly-older woman, who just smiled at him. Once again he sighed heavily and rubbed his temples.

"Sensei?" Kouichi asked gently. "You…You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to."

"No…No, it's all right." Hakaishi sighed, opening his eyes again and looking up at the fading light of the sunset-filled sky. "I've had a recurring premonition every night for a short while now…about three weeks, actually."

"That's when Draco-kun came." Kouichi mentioned softly, nodding.

"Indeed." Hakaishi's gaze grew less focused, as though he was seeing something no one else could. "The dream, as I have said, is always the same: A pale yellow bird with a wounded wing escapes from a den of foxes and falls to the ground. A black kitten finds the bird and cleans the blood from the wound, trying to help him. Then a red fox comes after the bird again with a green snake around its neck. The kitten tries to defend the bird…and is killed by the fox."

Kouichi frowned softly. It was a priest's inheritance to have dreams of the future, whether they be real-time ideas or, far more often, symbolism. "What does it mean?"

"…I don't know." Hakaishi admitted. He turned to his apprentice, noting the young man's worried expression as he bit the end of his thumb lightly, and smiled softly. "Don't worry about it, Kouichi. It's probably nothing."

"…But the kitten died." Kouichi said softly. "You know what means, Sensei."

Hakaishi nodded absently, his mind wandering. But before he could speak comfort or anything else, Kenkyo's voice shot out. "Hakaishi!"

"What is it?" Hakaishi turned to the older woman, whipping out his wand.

Kenkyo already had her hands on a bow, stringing it easily as she stared at the trees in front of her. "Look."

They looked. The rice-paper scrolls hanging from the branches and tied to the trunks had begun to glow with a soft red that grew with a steady intensity, the black ink marking written across them changing to a light blue. Several smaller links began to rub together, making a sort of ringing chime as they shown green.

Kouichi drew in a sharp breath between his death. "Is this…?"

"Demons." Hakaishi growled softly, keeping his wand arm steady and taking a determined step forward.

Kenkyo's sharp blue eyes were focused just ahead of them, down the long steps that lead to the city street. "There's quite a few of them. Heading this way. They're definitely after the shrine, Hakaishi."

"But the sun's not even down." Kouichi spared a glance upwards at the still-light sky above them. There was some orange tinting the edges, but it was obvious they still had an hour of sunlight left.

"They're bold." Hakaishi whispered.

"Very bold." Added Kenkyo.

Both of them were silent a long moment, staying perfectly focused on the impending threat.

"Kouichi." Hakaishi was tense, his voice trying desperately to be level and even as he spoke. "Take the kids and your friend to the safe house. Make sure no one goes outside of the main building. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir." Kouichi bowed quickly and took off back to the shrine. He paused a moment on the front step to look back at the two teachers. "Sensei?"

"What?" Hakaishi turned back to him ever so slightly.

"Please be careful." Muttered the apprentice, and disappeared inside the building to warn of the attack.

TBC…

"Eight little kids…" - Seven players + One alternate.

You may have noticed that I mentioned a 'Masamu' in the last chapter. Originally, I planned for there to be a face-to-face showdown between Takuya and a cross-town rival coach of the same name, but the timing was way off, so I cut it out. It was just an accident that I forgot to change that one sentence.

Takuya and Ketaru's brooms are both Inazuma 450s. (Izumi, with her perks as a Tester for such things, has upgraded to the Inazuma 780) The Firebolt is an internationally-standard racing broom, used in the World Cup and all, so it's pretty impressive to have ones. The kids are mostly on Maiagaru 2020 'Chibi' models.

Yes, I'm well aware that 'Mr. Potter-san' is an oxymoron. I just like the way it sounds.

I'm having far too much fun with the little aspects of Japanese wizardry, aren't I? Oh well, I need some time to have fun and play with minor original characters…

Heh heh…Kouichi sounds like Kurapika from Hunter X Hunter. Lots of big words. I actually talk like that too…

'Aki' is a name I borrowed from Socrates In Love. 'Watanabe' is a common last name in Japanese, similar to 'Smith' in the U.S. 'Kimiko' comes from Megatokyo, and I figure you can guess where Tachikawa comes form. Her crush on Kouichi is similar the one junior high school students get on their teachers.

The kids called Kouichi 'sempai' because he's not old enough to be their teacher quite yet, but he's still not one of the students. The youngest ones use the term Sempai by itself, because he's several years older than them. Fifth-to-seventh years mostly call him 'Kimura-sempai'. Tomoki, of course, has permission to call him by his first name, so that's what he does.