Harry Potter: The Rise of the Technomancers

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. If you believe that I do, please send me all your cash and check yourself into your nearest mental health center, thanks :)

Chapter 11: A Fated Meeting in a Strip Club

"Pasengers please be sure to collect all personal items before exiting the plane. The current time is now 0842 hours on July 7th here at Nagoya Airport. Thank you for choosing JAL for your international flights. Please have a nice day. Okyaku-san doi-"

Harry walked off the plane feeling refreshed. The fourteen hour flight he took, having passed through several international airports and boundaries connecting London and Nagoya was long and slightly cramped but Harry had no trouble getting comfortable in the small seats as he spent the majority of his life sleeping in a cupboard under the stairs. The food was passable, he could finally understand all the jokes about airplane food, and the strange green, almost sea weed tasting, tea was strong but refreshing in his book. He had opted to use muggle travel as his name was mud at the moment and he wanted to attract as little attention as possible. Still in his Evan Magius, popularly known as Bob the Wizard, disguise, Harry had little problem purchasing a plane ticket and fabricating a realistic passport and identification for himself.

After exiting the long tram way, Harry immediately walked over to the customs counter where he unloaded his carry on and his computer. The customs agent, a skinny man with a balding spot on the front of his head, asked him in surprisingly excellent English the typical customs questions. Harry assented no as they rifled through his carry on, pulling out his MP3 player, a PDA, and a few other electronic gadgets. Harry just hoped they didn't try to open the power source and sighed in relief when they put the items back with a cursory glance. Having been inspected and passed, Harry thanked them and walked out of the customs area and into the luggage turn style, where he picked up his newly refurbished trunk and looked around until he heard someone calling his name.

"Mr. Magius!"

Turning, Harry smiled when he saw Mika Seiko, her long black hair flowing freely over her shoulders as she smiled and waved to him in a very un-Japaense like way, garnering the disgruntled expressions of several old Japanese men. Harry had always liked the strong minded Japanese woman since he met her several weeks ago.

"Miks! Hello, how are you doing," Harry asked walking over to her and lugging his trunk with him.

"I'm fine Mr.-" she started.

"Didn't I tell you to call me Evan, Miks?" he said, sighing slightly and shaking her hand.

She quirked a smile at him, "I'm sure you did Evan, but with all the bald old men looking at me like I should be beaten for talking to a MAN in such a familiar manner," she emphasized the word man as she shot a frowning old man a sneer, "I figured I could go back to the formal way until we were in private."

Harry chuckled to himself, and pulled his trunk along as they started out of the airport, "So is the meeting set up with the faction heads? I want to start production as soon as possible and have the mass produced phones and electronics out by next month at the latest. "

"The old men were tough to crack. They wanted nothing to do with any man who was represented by a woman," she said with distaste and a frown.

Harry studied his strong headed friend, "But I bet you made them squirm didn't you."

Shooting him a sly grin, "I wouldn't be here if I didn't. I got the meeting set up for tomorrow morning. If they take to the idea, we will be able to mass produce the products by the end of the week. But the problems are the placements for the Com and relay crystals. We've got your specs, but I'm still not sure if we have enough man power to suffuse it. Even Kenji nearly passed out trying yesterday."

Harry nodded. He knew of their problem with the relay crystals. They had been having problems in powering them. The original charms were fine, but the actual act of powering the crystal was giving them problems as none were strong enough in magic to actually get it done without passing out.

"Actually," he said, smiling at her, "I figured that out before I stepped on the plane yesterday. I'll show the group how to do it. It won't compromise anything if they know."

"Excellent!" she said, a look of relief flashing across her face, "That was Father's major issue with the plan. Now that we can get the main relays open, we should be able to function normally. I-"

She was interrupted by Harry's phone going off. Slipping it out of a pocket on his carry on, Harry flipped open the phone and answered, "Moshi moshi? Ah Satoru. Excellent the short range works. Yes, Mika's here. We'll be there shortly." Harry ended the call and closed the phone off.

Mika was grinning, "So Saya's little alteration she suggested worked out perfectly did it?"

"Yes it did. I'm glad I brought you guys in. So much better than doing the tourist thing huh?" he said referring to their first meeting.

She rolled her eyes, "Oh yes. We would have much rather spent a week in your smelly apartment above a strip club tinkering with your toys than going shopping and having fun in London."

Harry chuckled, "Ah you say that now, but who was it that was complaining at how boring the UK was the entire time she was, how did you say?, 'tinkering with my toys'?"

She flashed him an exasperated look, to which he laughed. As they approached the car, Harry was delighted to see it was a Limo.

Quirking an eye brow Harry commented, "Nice digs you got here, Miks."

"I thought you'd like it. Father insisted you travel in style. Said you need to learn how the better half lives so you'll have more incentive to make him more money and join him," she said chuckling to herself at the look of delight on Harry's face.

"Well," he said, flipping back his long blond glamored hair, "I've got to thank him. We've never spoken, but I'd be pleased to have a nice long chat with a man who provides so generously. And any man who could produce a daughter like you must have had a very interesting life."

Smirking, she shot him a look, "I think Father would say the same about you Evan."

They got into the Limo and took off. The two hour long ride was interesting to say the least. The limo was stocked with everything he could imagine, from alcohol to a tiny fridge with caviar. Although the extent to which Harry partook was half a bottle of Asahi, he was still a light weight, he was very impressed at the effort put into trying to entice him. He could get used to this kind of life, he thought to himself.

Mika and Harry, still in his Evan Magius guise, talked about everything from how her schooling was going to the state of the wizarding economics in Japan. The Japanese wizarding world was an untapped source of riches that Harry would be able to line his pockets with once his company was up and running. Exorbitant amounts of revenue was gathered from traditional areas of wealth in Japan. They controlled much of the older sites in Japanese history thus gained revenue from tourism. Another important export wizarding Japan controlled were the rare and expensive jewels gathered from the throats of sea dragons living in the sea of Japan. These were obtained by hunting parties that scoured the sea for the small elusive dragons, only a few meters long. They were plentiful but dangerous and smart, able to capsize boats and kill their occupants muggle and magical alike, thus the expense of the beautiful multicolored stones. Other expensive and rare commodities controlled by wizarding Japan was firerat fir, a substance gathered from the small, but dangerous, Fire rat whose fir was immune to fire and was tougher than dragon scales, imported from China. The Japanese were the only ones who knew how to cure the fir and turn it into fine robes and clothes that were sold internationally. Several other luxury goods came from the Japanese wizards. To put it lightly, they were among the richest of wizarding economies, but were so spread out and integrated into the muggle world, they could not make a great impact on world economy. That is until now.

With Harry's new inventions and the Japanese method of improvement and retail, they would promote themselves internationally and might even beat out wizarding France in economic strength and stability.

"We're here Evan," Mika said, snapping Harry from his thoughts.

'Here' was a large compound in Kyoto's Meiji Alley. Unlike Diagon Alley and several other European countries, the wizarding community in Japan were known extensively in Japan to an entire office in the muggle government. With that association, they were assisted heavily by the politicians who were given boons in the form of protection. With their help, wizarding Japan had been able to cordoned off certain parts of Tokyo, Kyoto, Shizuoka, and several other cities where large wizarding populations existed, thus by relieving the magical stress of casting constant wards and barriers, and the very inconvenient use of a singular portal, much like Diagon Alley uses. They had literally driven into wizarding Kyoto and had entered into the residential district of Meiji Alley where Mika's father lived.

Exiting the Limo, Harry pulled out his wand and shrunk his trunk and carryon luggage, putting them away into the pocket of his slacks. Straitening his white formal shirt and rolling down the sleeves, Harry walked through the large pine doors and was greeted by a small green and heavily muscled creature with combed sea weed green hair and a beak like mouth. A kappa, Harry recognized from Lupin's class in his third year.

"Hello Gojou," Mika told the kappa, switching to Japanese, "is everyone here?"

The kappa nodded, careful not to spill the water in the cup atop his head, "Yes little miss, the entire club is here waiting for you and master Magius in the hall. Great master is there as well," the kappa, Gojou, said. Harry thought the name sounded familiar.

"I didn't know you used kappas as servants here," Harry said, "in Britain, the occasional one that shows up is usually malicious."

Mika nodded, "they usually are, but Gojou has been in our family for many generations. He was captured by our ancestor by chopping off his hand, but later returned the hand and freed him because he felt sorry for the kappa. Gojou was so impressed by my ancestor's generosity, he stayed with him as a body guard and a servant. He even took the name of Gojou Sa, the famous Kappa in Journey to the West, as a show of good will to his new master. He's been with us ever since and we've all come to love him."

Harry nodded. A little surprised that even a dark non-human creature like a kappa could have such a change of heart. They walked down the gravel pathway to a smaller building to the side of the compound. Hearing loud laughing from inside of the building, Harry smiled to himself remembering the raucous that they caused when they had stayed in his apartment for the week.

The pair climbed the steps and opened the sliding door, leaving their shoes behind and entering the room. It looked as a traditional Japanese home, the ground covered in tatami mats, the sides of the house covered in rice paper and the colors neutral in black brown and white. Walking further in, the pair encountered the source of the raucous.

Five individuals were sitting at a large table, indulging in sake and Japanese bar food including edame and tako-yaki. Most were still somber, but one was nearly dancing around, while an older much more distinguished man watched him with a hint of a smile on his hard face.

"Father," Mika called.

The entire room stopped in mid laugh and turned as one to look at the new comers, and, as one, jumped up and came over to slap Harry on the back.

"Evan!" one of the drunk men said, trying to give Harry a big hug while Harry fended the man off, grinning as he the man fell flat on his face and laughed, clearly having too much to drink.

Harry laughed with each of them as they said their hellos. There was Saya, the pretty girl who had given him such a good idea about short range transmissions, Kenji, the resident electronics expert who had helped Harry develop the method of shielding using his new theories, Satoru, the drunk guy on the floor who was excellent at public relations, and Hitomi, the girl who's father owned a large number of electronics factories.

"Come Evan, I would like you to meet my father Shinji Saito, the head of the Saito clan and the co-owner of Tadano Utilities Company. Father this is Evan Robert Magius, the man who's innovation will one day push Wizarding Japan into the forefront of Wizarding economy."

Harry moved forward and lowered himself to his knees in front of the man and bowed deeply, "It is a pleasure to meet you Master Saito, this is a gift in hopes that our business affairs will be fruitful."

Mika smiled. He remembered, she thought to herself.

Having been told how much her father obsessed about ancient wizarding history and enjoyed collecting different artifacts, especially weapons, Harry had gone in search of something suitable. He had purchased this particular jewel from a shop in Nocturn Alley from an old crone on her last legs. When he saw it Harry knew it would be perfect and had to have it. The crone had no idea what it was, he purchased it in hopes that it would impress the patriarch of the Saito clan. It had cost him quite a bit, but it would pay back in dividends if Saito came through. Pulling out his trunk, he removed a small thin object, the size of a thumb, placed it in front of him, and waved his hand over it, enlarging it to full size. It was a large dagger roughly a cubit long with an ornately carved ebony wood handle. Single bladed and wickedly curved the black, almost ethereally so, steel of the blade was carved with ancient runes and depictions of battle. When realization hit him Master Saito's eyes widened.

"That is a Dark Elf spirit knife!" He said examining the black metal of the curved blade, "From the Dark elf wars. I did not know one even existed anymore!"

"The Dark Elf wars?" asked Kenji what was just as entranced by the weapon as Mika's father, but with a curious quirk to his brow.

It was Hitomi that answered, her soft spoken voice turning heads, "The dark elves, also known as the Drow, are subterranean deviation of the high elves who practiced dark magics. Their high elf cousins banished them into the underground after their first war with them before the middle times of earth. In 321, a dwarven mining operation in what is now Germany came upon a major city of the Kilvari, a name the Dark Elves chose when they were banished meaning 'those who will be avenged'. They flooded from their millennia long imprisonment and waged war upon the civilizations of the world.

"After a year of battle, the Dark Elves began to encroach upon the territories of Alexander the Great, the greatest muggle military commander to ever live. He saw them and waged war upon them, decimating them within a few months. They retreated back into the depths and resealed the rift in their imprisonment rather than face Alexander once again."

Nodding to himself, Master Saito reached out and caressed the weapon, a look of awe on his face.

Harry smiled, "Mika informed me of your love of weapons collection and I was able to find this in a shop. The shop keeper did not really know of its true origin as you obviously do. When I saw it I knew you would appreciate it as I do."

The older man seemed to remember himself and straitened up, his eyes pushing the sight of the blade away and his face returning to his previous neutral expression, "your gift will be accepted in the spirit it was given," he replied and added quietly, "and much appreciated young Magius."

After that they talked business. Harry explained that he had solved the problem of the relay crystals and about several other issues he wanted ironed out before they announced the formation of his new company. Having completed their discussion and plans for the meeting next morning, Mika led him to his room where he unpacked and lay on his futon, in an attempt to sleep. He thought about his first meeting with his new friends and soon to be subordinates.

Harry had been living in his new apartment for little over a week. The privacy and freedom afforded by having his own place was near Heaven. He was free to do whatever he liked, to sleep in, to clean when he wanted without others making his work dirty, and he could eat as much as he wanted without consequence. It was pretty much heaven, at least to someone who lived in a cupboard under a stairs for ten years.

His research had born fruit in the form of a complete working cellular unit with the development of his magic battery system and the concurrent shielding that protected the system from strong magical interference. He had even been able to learn how to synthesize crystals that would act as information relay points that could hold thousands of conversations simultaneously and transfer that information to the appropriate places.

By far, the development of these crystals had been the hardest part. Originally Harry had thought to simply attempt to place engorgement charms on the diamonds, but he found they lost integrity when enlarged. He had tried to place impervious charms on the diamonds and several other methods of supporting the stress of magical enlargement, but nothing worked. Finally he had simply tried to build a diamond from scratch. With his greater control of magic, he had learned to harness his own pure wild magic and focus it into something manageable. Using this technique he was able to consciously pull minerals from the environment, a form of conjuration he recalled after having figured out the process, and was able to force them into molecular bonding. After many attempts he had finally been able to create a small diamond from nothing but the carbon found in the environment around him, and he was happy to find that the conjured diamond was completely stable and showed absolutely no signs of magical or structural decay even after he flooded the crystal with his magic.

It was the night he completed his first crystal that he had met his Japanese friends and started the small group that would soon turn into the most powerful wizarding conglomeration in the world.

He had just returned from an exceptionally nice night with Lana Kirkland. After their first rendezvous, they had agreed to see each other again when her husband was not around. This night had been one of those nights. Meeting her at the Hilton in London, where they got a room for the night, Harry indulged himself in the pleasures of an older woman and she in turn worked out her years of sexual frustration on the younger viral man. At around nine the next morning, he had gone home sated and happy, promising Lana they would see each other again, but for some strange reason had suddenly developed a need to have a drink. Entering the bar under his apartment, his doctored muggle identification and the glamours giving the impression that he was of age, he sat at the bar and ordered a beer.

The usuals were around, a pretty stripper was grinding the pole in the back ground smiling suggestively and normally Harry would have been interested in the pretty brunette, but having been otherwise occupied the entire night before with Lana's expert tongue, he couldn't have cared less. While he was nursing his beer, another group came in to the bar. Drastically out of place, it seemed to be five Japanese tourists, two men ogling the stripper on the stage and three women who were glaring daggers at the boys.

Harry studied the group out of the corner of his eye. The tourists were older than he, the two boys enjoying themselves immensely and immediately going straight to the stage where the young stripper was performing, pulling out a wad of pound notes as they approached. The girls scoffed and walked over to the empty bar, sitting down close to where Harry was sipping his beer.

Interested as Harry had never heard Japanese spoken by Japanese before, but had learned the language himself last year in his studies, decided to listen in. They were speaking it a little too fast for him to keep up completely but he was able to understand.

"I can't believe those perverts! Dragging us in here, what were they thinking?" said the loud energetic woman.

The tallest one with long unbound hair, replied, "they weren't thinking. At least with the head that counts." she took a sip of her drink, some green spirit on the rocks, then shot the two Japanese men, who were having fun stuffing bills into the stripper's underwear, a scathing look.

The energetic woman replied, "Look at that idiot drooling over that stripper!?"

"Is he really?" the quiet girl asked the energetic one looking longingly at the spiky haired guy jumping up and down with his eyes popping out of his head as the stripper did an interesting move that looked quite painful.

"Don't worry Hitomi," the long haired girl said, "he may be thinking with the wrong head now, but that doesn't mean that his head doesn't think you're attractive as well. It's just a matter of clothes to skin proportion," she finished giving the shy girl a wicked smile.

"Mika! I don't-I-I mean," she stammered.

"It's out now Hitomi! I'm going to go tell Satoru after this!" said the energetic girl.

The shy girl covered her mouth, blushing, "Don't you dare Saya!"

They laughed at the girl's discomfort.

"Well, now we know why they thought to come in here. It wasn't that it was the Leakey Cauldron. I thought it was on Crown Street last I heard," said the tall girl.

Harry immediately coughed into his beer, inhaling several ounces up his nose and making a coking sound. Did they just say what I think they just said? When Harry turned back, the three girls were looking at him with interest.

Switching to Japanese, glad to finally have a reason to use it, Harry asked, "Excuse me, but are you girls looking for the Leakey Cauldron in London?"

The lead girl, the tall one, looked at him and smiled with realization, "Yes, we heard it was on Crown Street in London, but this is the only establishment," she looked around, seeing the bartender at the far end of the bar, "Wizard I presume?" she asked. Seeing his nod she continued, "We thought we could try some shopping at Diagon Alley, but it seems we got into the wrong place. I don't suppose there's a portal in the back is there?"

Harry grinned and shook his head.

She sighed, "that's what I thought. You wouldn't happen to know where Crown Street is would you?"

"This is Crown Street, but in south London. You want Crown Street in East London. That's where the Leakey Cauldron and Diagon Alley is," he said sipping his beer.

"I see," she said. Looking over to the two men jumping up again as a new stripper walked out of the back, "I don't think we'll be leaving any time soon," she commented with a roll of her eyes. She looked at Harry with a strange expression, as if she were thinking or weighing him, then picked up her drink and walked over, sitting down next to him.

"I'm Mika by the way," she said, holding out her hand. Harry took it as she continued, "That's Sayako, Hitomi, and the two idiots over there are Kenji, that's the more subdued one, and Satoru, the one with the spiky hair getting slapped by the stripper over there."

"Evan. Evan Robert Magius," Harry said, introducing himself by his pseudo persona, "But everyone just calls me Bob the Wizard," he finished with a shrug.

She quirked her eye brow trying to cover her mirth, "That's a strange name Evan." She started to play with her drink, looking down and slightly embarrassed, "So, are you a regular here?"

Harry grinned at her, "Well, I do have an apartment above the bar, but I only come here when I need a drink. Just got back from a date this morning and had a feeling that I should come in," he shrugged at her questioning look.

"Well I'm glad that you did. If we hadn't met you I think we would have made the barkeep mad if we tapped everything in sight with our wands," she said smiling.

Harry chuckled, "yeah, Tiny over there really doesn't like people poking around his bar."

"Tiny!?' she asked, looking quizzically at the six five giant.

Lowering his voice, he leaned in close to her, "Well, it's a name that one of the girls who works at the bar made up. You see, she dated the guy for a few months, then called it off because of nocturnal problems, if you know what I mean," he finished with by wiggling his eye brows and smirking.

"Tiny. You mean?" she whispered then laughed loudly, nearly falling off her chair, gaining the attention of the enormous barkeep and a scowl from the stripper as she pulled the eyes of the customers away from her.

After that they felt more comfortable with each other and started talking about everything. Mika told Harry about her life, about Japanese wizarding society, and the fact that even though she was a Business major at Tokyo University and graduated at the head of her class, no one would hire her since she was a woman.

It was then that his plan started to click together. He needed a good business manager to oversee his ventures. Harry had book smarts and practical experience with magic and fighting, but absolutely no experience in personal and professional finance. He had lost millions of galleons because of his ignorance and it was one of the major flaws in his plan. If he could get someone who would have the same drive and devotion as he had to the project to carry his plans through to the end, he could focus on the political aspects of his plan rather than be mired in the constant struggle of cut throat business tactics. Mika, if she was telling the truth, would be perfect for his plans, if he could convince her. And money was very convincing.

But if he were to do this, he would have to do it slowly. He couldn't just spring it on her, they had just met.

As the conversation started winding down, they had been in the bar for nearly six hours and even the two Japanese guys had grown tired of the constant parade of sub par naked women, they got up and stretched. No one was very tipsy, although Satoru was hanging over Hitomi in a poor impression of drunkenness.

"I guess we'd better get going," Mika said, gathering her things, "the place is filling up with gross guys and we haven't found a hotel yet, although it's going to be rather difficult since we don't know the place."

Harry saw his chance, "If you guys want to crash, my place is upstairs. It's a pretty nice flat and there's plenty of room."

"I think that would be nice," Hitomi commented looking at Satoru, "I don't think Satoru would be able to walk around London in his condition."

Satoru, who was hanging off Hitomi's right shoulder, turned his head to Kenji and winked, "Yeah, I don't think I can move around very much the way I am," he took the opportunity to nuzzle his face in the side of Hitomi's neck, causing her to blush and giggle.

Mika sighed, "Fine. Thanks for everything Evan, we really appreciate it," she finished smiling at Harry.

"No problem Mika. Grab your things guys. And Satoru," he said grinning at the likable Japanese guy, "quit trying to feel up Hitomi, we all know you're not that drunk." Turning he led the way, as he head a slap and a chorus of laughter.

"This is my place guys," Harry said, opening the door and herding them into the moderately sized apartment, "Make yourselves comfortable," he said as he walked further into the apartment under the premise of preparing the two rooms he had available for the girls and grabbing some sheets for the guys.

Harry knew he would have to do this subtly. He left the door to his workshop open and the light on to tempt his new Japanese friends. He wanted to have them come to him on their own with questions about his work so that he could propose the idea to them properly instead of just throwing it out there and making himself look unbalanced.

After coming back, the rooms were in order and everything he didn't want them to know was locked up tightly. It wouldn't do to find out their new friend was a sixteen year old and a man with more hit-wizard marks than JFK.

Getting them settled and the rooms squared away, he left them to their own devices, stating he had things to do in town and to make themselves at home. As he was leaving, Mika came up to him with a strange expression.

"You're pretty trusting for a guy that just let five strangers into his apartment," she commented.

Grinning widely at her, Harry replied, "I'm a wizard Miks," he said as she smiled, enjoying her new nickname, "and an expert at wards," he left it at that as he saw her smirk.

After that, Harry had to decide how to kill the next few hours. Maybe he could check out that butterbeer shop down in Diagon Alley, he thought to himself as he walked to the nearest floo and disappeared.

AN: There we go...REVIEW!!