Chapter 10. Dammed French.

"speech"

sound effects

"Spells"

System

Text, such as books and newspapers

Lily was more than willing to admit that The Prophet was far from the best news source, yet she still had the goblins send her a copy, mostly so as to know some of the things that happened in magical Britain. She first got to it after work, that was to be expected they were nine hours ahead of Britain after all. Settling down in the nice soft chair by the coffee table in the sitting room, a nice cup of tea and a piece of red velvet, unhealthy but a favourite of hers, to enjoy as she read the paper.

Technological wonder!

Frenchmen revolutionized communication.

A French pureblood by the name of Louis de la Blanc, has created a masterpiece of magic, the wizarding wireless. This masterpiece will be able to transfer sounds across hundreds of miles-. It was at this point she put her paper down and just thought, this French wizard had created a bloody radio of all things. did it? oh apparently it did actually work in places like Hogwarts.

This… this was going to fucking suck, she was god damme certain that R&D was going to throw a fit over this, she knew that they'd been having trouble getting them to work in such places, so finding out someone else managed to do it before them was going to sting.

The article didn't contain all that many details, but a few things could be inferred, first of all this had been something he'd been working on for decades, even if only putting a bit of work in every now and then. Secondly for some reason seemed to think that this would make him a prime candidate for the position of minister of magic, or whatever the French equivalent was she honestly wasn't sure what they called it.

With a flick of her beloved's wand a great spectral white stag appeared before her, seemingly hesitating for a moment before taking off, she sipped the last of her tea and poured another cup, she honestly didn't know what to think about this. Hopefully, this would help with the development of their prosthetics.

A Patronus in the form of some kind of large cat, not a lion or a tiger it lacked their defining features, a jaguar perhaps? "Lily, thank you for notifying me about this development, would you mind coming in to Gringotts for a time, we'll probably need a couple of hours to discuss this." The jaguar released a rather familiar voice, Kurasawa-senpai's voice.

Arriving at Gringotts she found Kurasawa-senpai standing by the entrance, with a nod he led the two of them off to a meeting room, beyond the two of them had there been a couple of goblins, Xuan Qi she believed he was called, the guy in charge R&D for the project, along with a young woman seemingly related to him. On the table between them was there a number of drinks and snacks, and some classical British biscuits? Had they had those prepared for her, it certainly wasn't something she'd think they'd eat normally.

"I don't believe we've been properly introduced before miss, I'm Xuan Qi, this Xuan Yun, my cousin." Beyond their names, they looked quite traditional Chinese. Introductions made they got down to business.

The reaction of the two cousins had honestly been worse than she'd expected, Apparently Kurasawa-senpai hadn't actually informed them of why he'd called this meeting, but how they'd managed to swear more in five minutes between them than she'd heard during her time at Hogwarts was honestly impressive, especially sine Olivia, one her roommates, swore like a sailor.

"Lily-san, do you speak French? If so, are you fluent? Or if not, how long would it take you to end up so?" Xuan Qi fired off a number of questions rapidly.

"I speak French, not quite fluently but rather close to it, I'd probably need a work week to get up to snuff. Why is it that you want to know it though?" it was honestly odd that he wanted specifically to know that didn't really feel like it fit in with the rest of the creation of the Prosthetics.

With a glance to his cousin, and with some sign she didn't notice, he answered her question. "We have a vested interest in keeping the number of people involved limited, the exact details are a bit too personal to share here, but some, like Akira-san here, are aware of it and involved all the same."

"I'll do it, but you should realise that I've never really done any real bartering, so who will be joining me on this trip of mine?" oh sure she hopped that it would be someone she'd met before, would hopefully make working with them easier, well hopefully.

"So, Akira-san, considering she thought you to be the best person to contact with this information, so might I inquire if you're to accompany her? I do believe you have a budding friendship, and I do believe getting a bit out of Japan could be good for you." Xuan Qi gave Kurasawa-senpai a rather loaded gaze, maybe to get him away from whatever had given him some heartbreak.

"Me? The guy who has a record for getting fucked the worst by jetlag? Who somehow managed to create to convince a cult he was an eldritch god?" Without even reacting he turned to her and said two simple words, "Another time," before looking back at Xuan Qi.

"Yes, I do believe you'll be rather well suited to this task, you are one hell of a negotiator and you damme well know it. Besides now we know what the hell happened to you when jet lagged, so we can prepare her for it." He somehow seemed to think that this was enough to justify making someone, who managed to be mistaken for a god damned old one, how the hell did that even happen.

With a rather loud cough she gained their attention, so she could actually speak his mind. "are we just going to brush over how in the world being jet lagged could somehow end with you apparently having no control over yourself?" seriously what in the world could do that type of shit to you.

"To make a long story short, genetics." Though he may think this to be enough she most certainly didn't, and the look she gave him made that clear. "Huh, to expand on it, there is it that I have all of 4 great great great grandparents that share their species with another one. None of them individually have any of those problems, but somehow the mixing of their genetics causes jetlag to fuck me up, I've never really managed to find a real equivalent to it, but drunk is the best thing I've found to compare it to." That Kurasawa-senpai honestly seemed to believe that this was the reason behind his problem.

"And there isn't some curse or something like that affecting you right?" She knew it was a long shot, the guy was a ward breaker and worked with curse breakers on a weekly basis, if they somehow didn't find it then they were honestly idiots.

"Got checked the moment I got back, they even invited a number of curse breakers from different places, just to see if we simply didn't know about the curse, yet the only thing they found was that I'm allergic to mango." He ran his hand through his hair as he spoke, seemingly unbothered by the randomness of that discovery.

Turning to Xuan Qi Lily spoke, her tone stuck in a deadpan. "And you think it's a good idea to send someone that's affected that badly by jet lag on important business regarding a project you supposedly have a vested interest in?" she just couldn't make sense of that thought process, whatever it may have been.

"Well, as I said, I have an interest in keeping the number of people involved limited, and of the ones already involved with experience in more diplomatic areas is he the only one you know. Secondly most of the others with such skills have rather strong views either on gender roles or your homeland." He was fidgeting under her gaze, she was well aware that she had a piercing gaze, she'd held James and his buddies under it a number of times.

"And the ones that don't?" he'd mentioned that it wasn't all of them, so there had to be somebody else right?

"Most of those aren't human, and Europeans aren't all too well known for their acceptance of those different from themselves. The others, like yourself, are missing some limbs, they however are missing things like legs or other things making travel difficult." Her lips had thinned into a line, could she get his reasoning? Yes, did that mean that she agreed with it? No.

With a deep breath she turned to Kurasawa-senpai and let her gaze pierce him for a few moments before speaking. "Kurasawa-senpai, I'll let you decide if you're going or not, it's you that'll feel horrible after all, but if you do, I want all the information available on what happened every other time." Did she want him to go? Gods no, she'd rather deal with a sexist bastard than whatever affected him, with the sexism she at least knew what to expect.

Kurasawa-senpai leaned back in his seat, slowly sipping his coffee, seemingly deep in thought. "I'll have a document with all the necessary info compiled for you by Wednesday." So, he'd be joining her, well it was an unknown, but she'd manage, probably, maybe, hopefully, she wasn't really sure, at least it would only take two days for her to get the document.

Well, it was time to get to her least favourite part of this kind of discussion, budgets.

She'd had some thoughts on a better way to describe what happened to Kurasawa-senpai than drunk, but she'd hoped that she was wrong, unfortunately she wasn't, he was high as a kite, well and drunk, how none of them recognised the signs of being high she didn't know. Or at least he suffered from similar enough effects, as for why she recognised it? Well Olivia might have somehow thought it was a good idea to bring a bong and a good bit of marijuana to Hogwarts during their last year, those had been some of her oddest study sessions.

She'd been spending most of her time stuck in penthouse keeping an eye on Kurasawa-senpai, this was going to last almost a week apparently, and it wasn't even that it was gradual thing or something to do with his schedule being thrown off, no when he quickly moved across large distances, roughly moving across 2 time zones, about three hours later he'd crash. It didn't matter if it was across 3 or 7 zones, the same effects would affect him, whilst if he moved at a slower speed, he could avoid the effects, but that would take them 3 weeks minimum.

So, she'd made sure to buy a load of groceries before they got to their hotel, a lovely penthouse at a high-quality hotel. she'd made sure they booked them in at a place with a good kitchen, and that was something she was fully taking advantage off, so she was baking Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, or Black Forest cherry cake.

Baking was something she truly loved, it was one of very few things she had to remember her mother by, she'd always loved baking with her mother when she was a child, no matter if it was buns or brownies. It had been during the summer after her fifth year that she had truly started to learn, sure she could bake a chocolate cake or something like that, but anything more advanced? Fat chance. Beyond simply reminding her of her mother, had she found that baking was a great way for her to work off stress, she'd probably left a number of death eaters confused and suspicious every time she ended up leaving a half-baked cake behind when they left a hideout behind, wouldn't even surprise her if they thought it was some sort of message for the order.

She hummed to herself as she put the sponge into the oven, one of the unfortunate needs of this cake was the need for two ovens, whilst stasis charms could keep something it an unchanging state, she'd never licked using them in cooking or baking, she didn't even know why it just felt wrong for her. At this point she started on the whipped cream, she still had a good 12 or so minutes until she needed to remove the baking paper from the dough.

It was at this point Kurasawa-senpai stumbled into the kitchen, his eyes distant and unfocused, and this was something she'd noticed quickly, the man lost all sense of balance. "what are you making? smells delicious." The man mumbled as he stumbled forward and reached for the cherries. Whack, only for him to get hit in the face with a pillow.

"Cake. And don't touch that, they're needed for the cake." She said sternly as she glared at him. It was honestly odd seeing the normally controlled man like this, felt like she was dealing with a whole other person, thankfully she didn't need to take care of him when they got back, Nakagawa-senpai could deal with him then.

The largest difficulty with dealing with him wasn't how his sense of balance and control had been thrown out of the window, but how unstable his level lucidity was. He could be mostly in control, if lacking in balance, too stuck in his own mind not even realising it if a hand was waved in front of him. Even if she scolded him there, had it lacked any real heat, she was seeing him at his weakest, and what kind of friend would she be if she took advantage of him here? That he'd been willing to show her this side of himself wasn't something she'd expected.

So, she cast a cooking charm to make sure the gelatine wouldn't burn and would be mixed with the cream when ready, she might not like them, but they were useful when Harry needed her. she guided him into the sitting room and had him take one of the chairs, she placed a glass of juice and some olives under a stasis charm in front of him, she might not like them, but he was fine with them, so she'd use them, they were useful after all, especially since they stopped flies from landing on the item in question.

She'd even tried observing him with the system to find out if it could tell her what was wrong with him, however all she received in return was this.

Name Akira Kurasawa (natively Kurasawa Akira)

Species Chimera(to mixed for any one species)

LVL 72

HP 7750=100*LVL+10*end

MP 8000=100*LVL+10*int

HPR 83=HP/100+0,1*vit

MPR 88,5=MP/100+01*wis

Str 55

Dex 55

End 55

Vit 55

Int 80

Wis 85

Status effects

High strung magic

"the mixing of ?, ?, ?, ? and a sudden shift in ?(probably related to time zones) has caused the users' magic to be thrown into hysterics, side effects highly individual but often include some of the following. Mood swings, hysterical laughter, loss of memory, loss of direction, lack of reason, lacking lucidity and hallucinations.

Certain things may lessen side effects, but like the side effects are individual, but these are some of the common ones. Strawberry infused ?, fruit juice, basilisk blood, phoenix tears, Hungarian Horntail spit, leviathan scale powder, ?, ? and ?.

Cure, ?

Time until effects naturally pass 5 days and 17 hours.

She'd encountered question marks in the system before, from what she'd managed to find this was due to it being partially tied to her own knowledge, so whilst it could and would tell her knew information, there were limits to this. The new information often came in the form of explaining things she already knew partially, or on something she had in her hands. Even if the only things she got here were some potential side effects and things that helped, and all of the side effects could be found in other illnesses or things like drunkenness, and the things that helped? The ones she knew were all high-level potions ingredients or seemingly random thing., that phoenix tears of all things were included, and that they may not help, showed just how incredibly expensive this cure may be.

But honestly though how in the world was leviathan scale powder supposed to be consumed.

Ding

If put into water, roughly five grams per 100 ml, will it dissolve and turn the water into a jelly like state, allowing it to be consumed.

Note if one is not at minimum 1% ?, ?, Ryu yokai, linnorm or similar creatures this jelly may cause side effects varying from stomach cramps to death.

Well that certainly wasn't ominous, yea she certainly wasn't going to suggest they try and find if that helped, she didn't want him to die, he was a friend dammit! But maybe she should recommend testing whether or not certain potion ingredients might help, wouldn't be out of the question considering they'd pretty much confirmed it was a biological process that caused it, and certainly wasn't more ridiculous that orange juice helping.

"Lily?" he called out questioningly, his eyes suddenly back to their usual sharpness.

"Yes?" ah one of his wholly clear moments, those were supposed to be few and far between.

"Remind me again why I agreed to subject myself to this?" ah seemed he was having second thoughts now that he could actually taste purple.

"Something about being unwilling to willingly damme another man to getting smacked in the nuts with a spear, along with you being too much of a gentleman to let me smack a racist chick on the head with it, or at least that's what I gathered from you. Which honestly, did you really think I'd just attack them? What do you take me for, a bandit?" Which seriously, she wasn't that aggressive, she wouldn't just beat their ass over nothing, no she'd ask them for help, after all they were "better" than her, so obviously they could give her some pointers right?

"Ah right, you'd just get them to help you somewhere public and furiously humiliate theem-" he trailed off at the end, his eyes seemingly losing all focus. Lily sighed, she'd been made aware that he'd at times end up just losing all perception of the world around him without warning, but there was a difference in witnessing and reading about it.

With a flick of her hand the orange juice he'd been drinking floated back to the table, the stasis charm repowered. She wasn't a master of wandless magic, she'd most certainly not been so back when her Husband had been by her side, but whilst her practical's in charms as a whole was lower, had she still managed increase her wandless skills when compared to before. Well might as well get back to work, that cake wouldn't bale itself, well it actually would with the charms she cast when she left the kitchen, but that was beside the point.

AN

Well, uh, sorry about the chapter being late, I kind of ended up getting sucked into a number of Christmas gifts, well I should hopefully be back on track by next upload.

Peace

Lamablade