Chapter 5: Hope and Despair
When Harry had started trying to train the use of magic without a wand, he'd first started with the most practical uses. Things that were helpful in battle or in healing as well as covering his tracks. But from the start he had one specific goal in mind as proof of mastery.
The Patronus.
And he refused to use the Elder Wand as a cheat code to get it right.
Back in his original universe, one of the things he'd always expected when his Patronus came forth was for it to be shaped as a stag. Both his parents had deer or their respective genders as a Patronus. So, of course, with his idolization of his parents and associating them with safety, it was no surprise his Patronus was a stag that was eerily similar to James Potter's animagus form.
But that was precisely it.
Even from before being reborn in this universe he already knew he'd missed his parents' rebirth forms. They'd died before he was even conceived. Somehow, despite still loving them dearly and wanting to meet them eventually, even if they weren't the same people, he no longer linked them as safety the way he did before.
So, he had no idea if he still had a stag for a Patronus.
He wanted to find out what he had now, but he didn't want to cheat by using the Elder Wand. He wanted to work for it, like he had with his original Patronus.
And it was silly. He had bigger and more immediate things to worry about than something that, the most it would do, was cheering people up a bit, which was something a simple cheering charm could do in a lesser extent. Outside of that, the typical use against Dementors and other creatures that attacked the soul and sending messages, a Patronus had no practical use in battle.
Which was why he kept delaying learning how to do it wandlessly for so long.
And then the live prey battles had started and Harry felt too dirty to even consider using it.
One of the things he'd learned about the Patronus was that people who regularly practiced dark magic were unable to do it anymore. It was why Voldemort had been all too eager to join forces with the dementors and letting them have such free reign while they worked for him. He knew that if the Ministry or the Order secured them for their side, they'd have no chance.
And now Harry had gradually more and more blood on his hands and felt incapable of being able to conjure such purity. He'd also had very few memories to anchor it to, especially in this lifetime.
So, he'd foregone re-learning it.
But then he started thinking.
He wanted to find a way to save the life prey victims. The only way to do that would be to cast some sort of stasis spell. However, he only knew of such spells being used while pausing in the process of making potions and, even then, not at any stage the person felt like stopping at because certain reactions were just too volatile.
Which meant there was no way to pause the life of a person long enough without killing them. Not without the Draught of Death, which he not only didn't know how to make, but also likely had no ingredients in this universe for that.
Which meant he would have to rely on the feel of his magic and the emotions fueling them to even get the slightest chance of achieving that.
Harry wasn't a stranger to learning how to use a spell just by watching someone use it or knowing intimately what sort of effects it had. After all, he certainly didn't have anyone teaching him how to use the Cruciatus or the Imperius. He'd just done them through sheer emotion and knowing the effects it needed to have. And even then he'd only ever successfully used the Imperius in its entirety.
But this was different. This was a spell he'd never even seen. Probably something very complex too, considering how many systems the human body had and how pausing any of them could have some serious consequences. And all he'd have was his emotions to strengthen the spell and a vague idea of what he wanted to achieve.
And what better way to build up to that than to master the wandless Patronus, a spell that relied heavily on emotion to succeed?
So, he took some time out of all of his preparations to practice that.
It took too long for what he'd liked but he finally managed and it was a surprise.
Maybe it shouldn't have been as surprising as it had. One of the few things he had to look forwards to was to see Lupin and Sirius again. Or at least their reborn selves. So was it really a surprise that he had a wolf-dog hybrid for a Patronus.
It was huge, it's scruff reaching the height of a fully grown man's waist, and it's eyes expressive with determination afire inside them.
And Harry didn't know what to call him.
It was laughably easy to call his stag Prongs, but this wolf-dog paid homage to two different people. He ended up nicknaming him Ginkiba due to his fearsome teeth and the typical Patronus silvery color.
The kids liked Ginkiba. The first time Harry had him out, he lulled everyone to sleep pretty fast and there were no nightmares that time. It started to become a common thing to have him out at night whenever no one was watching just for that alone.
Harry too felt his influence on himself. It helped him focus more during the day.
Now came the hard part of creating a human stasis spell and applying it in a way that it seemed like a mortal blow to anyone watching.
Retrieving the bodies after was going to be easy at this point.
That too didn't have as much time dedicated to it as he would have liked. Because, really, the fasted way to make sure no one would have to kill again was to free them all and for that he needed to finish getting the safehouse ready.
Because, really, at the moment it was just a dark cave with barely any room and no one could live like that for too long.
He was trying to expand it in a way that no one would notice, and creating holes for the light to come through and smoke to come out, but every time he expanded the cave, he needed to redo the Fidelus to also cover the new area and it was a slow going work. Not to mention all the other spells he had to do for the sake of hiding the breathing holes peppered throughout the cave.
As if that wasn't enough, Danzou wanted him to start training his elemental affinities.
And wasn't that a mess and a half.
Of course Harry couldn't have just one like all the normal people. No, he had to have three! Naturally, he made sure the Root trainers only knew of one of them, but he'd initially had been trying to practice all of them just the same.
And there was a reason why Harry only allowed Root to know of his Lightening affinity. His other two were fire and wind and, to make matters worse, he couldn't, for the life of him, figure out how to separate them. It was like a kekkei genkai, except that if it was one, it wasn't hereditary. Danzou looked far too pleased with his lightening affinity for that to be the case on his father's side and his mother was a civilian.
The problem with having a mixture of wind and fire elements? It was uncontrollable! It was the sort of attack that would obliterate ninja armies in one blow. And it was the sort of thing that Danzou should never get in his hands.
But since separating the elements was proving to be impossible with what little information he had, and with him and the kids not wanting to risk excusing another 'incident' away on two people with those elements having fucked up while practicing to cover up his attempts, it made the value of those two elements useless for now.
On another positive note, Niji had gotten good enough at seals that he managed to create a good few seals for the safe house, lightening Harry's spell casting load.
One of the biggest problems Harry had been facing was how to bake what was essentially a cave livable. It was easy to create comfy room for everyone to sleep. It was even game and living rooms for them to relax in and dojos to train in. Heck, with Shirayuki around it was easy to have her freeze a room and put a simple stasis spell on it to keep it from going warm again (the only problem had been to get her there in the first place, though she wasted no time on spreading the news on how the construction work was going once she was back despite being to late at night).
The problem was everything else.
Electricity was the initial concern. This world had it and, while Harry was perfectly aware of how the wizarding world had coped with it, he still wasn't too keen on doing away with it altogether. Especially since flame lamps had their own sets of problem too. So, yes, they would need electricity. The problem was that they had no way to connect the grid to the cave unnoticed.
Then, after commenting it with Shirayuki, her partner, who was the only person she told this to so as not to bring down the mood, decided to observe how the few electronics they had worked and came up with a set of nifty seals that would be interconnected with a bigger seal and spread around the cave, with the bigger one serving as a generator.
The generator seal would then be linked to places with wasted chakra to recharge. This meant that the new dojo got a charger seal. However, because it wasn't in used, Harry had to carefully infiltrate the village and place a few seals in what was the best place to gather the excess chakra from poorly made ninjutsu attempts: the Academy.
Then there was heating, cooling and cooking. While Harry could technically use the first two, the spells he learnt were supposed to be temporary, so he would have to keep redoing them. Those seals had been the easiest. Everything they would nee to cook, not so much.
While Harry had created enough openings for light to come in and smoke to come out, they were still small and he could see the smoke accumulation in the chambers being too fast because of it. Then there was the fact that microwaves, ovens and stoves weren't cheap and they would need at least a temporary solution until Harry managed to acquire some. Niji once again came through.
Finally, there was the plumbing. Not only did they need water for basic things like drinking a glass of water at night, but also showering and washing clothes, there was also the fact that, with Harry making the inside of the cave water proof for the rain season, they had no way of draining the water that came through the breathing holes Harry had peppered out everywhere. And there was also waste disposal. Without plumbing they would have to get rid of waste another way.
Now, the water coming from the holes was easy enough to sort out. It was only a matter of placing a funnel with a highly reflective surface a whole foot below the opening itself, with pipes leading from it to a makeshift reservoir in the lowest part of the cave. The reflective surface of the funnel could be used to make a system of mirror lighting like those Ron had once told him about after visiting the tombs in Egypt before their third year.
It was everything else that was a problem. Niji was still trying to figure it out, but he'd done great so far.
Once that was sorted out, it would just be a matter of sourcing the furniture and household appliances, something that, once again, Harry would have to do because he was the only one capable of kage bunshin and had a nifty invisibility cloak.
He'd have to source things like mattresses and med bay stuff from Root when they left but there was no reason why he couldn't keep an eye on anything else he could get his hands on.
Which, of course, meant he had to go into the village.
Both the first furniture excursion and scattering the charger seals was done at the same time on a day they were training chakra control because to use the invisibility without calling on the cloak Harry needed to go himself.
By the end of it, Harry had successfully placed all the seals carefully hidden in the academy grounds and brought back a scroll with a water damaged cabinet; a couch that had definitely belonged to a ninja given all the kunai and shuriken tears on it; a full set of broken office supplies that had once belonged to the academy before seemingly having suffered the side effects of a small explosion that was easily fixable with a simple Reparo; several alarm clocks broken in gradually more creative ways (he had enough experience fixing broken alarm clocks even without magic, so nothing too worrisome, but some certainly were bound to be a challenge); and a worn out and moldy laundry basket.
His kids were pleased with his progress as they took turns visiting the safe house at night with him after Shirayuki had told them what she'd seen.
But while all these things brought hope to Harry and the kids, there were other things that tore it down. Things that Harry hadn't even been aware were happening right underneath his nose as he got busier and busier.
Gradually, the younger kids started being integrated into the 'live prey' ranks.
The problem was that, even without participating in a battle, there were kids who clearly were too pacifist to succeed on their first kill. And Danzou might not cringe at sacrificing useless kids, but he also had spent too much time having them trained to just let go of their potential just because they were very reluctant to fight back.
Which lead to his latest scheme.
He didn't want to outright kill those kids, so battles to the death wouldn't do the trick. His solution? Pedophiles. He made deals with civilian pedophiles to rough up the most reluctant ones and taking advantage of them after defeating them. What he'd wanted to happen was for the kids to snap and eventually kill those men and women and finally lose their reluctance on killing.
Harry hadn't known about that happening because he wouldn't be elected to go on that group from the start. As someone who no longer hesitated, there was no need to 'waste' a pedophile on him, after all.
The same couldn't be said for six other kids.
Kyoukan, due to his empathetic skills, felt unable to kill the normal Gennin prey they were given. He felt too much of their pain and fear, mirroring his own so perfectly. He simply couldn't handle it. When he was faced with this new kind of prey, however, he felt too confused by the emotions he'd felt coming from them. As a still nine year old, he had no concept of lust, after all. He was only caught by a pedophile one time. It was all it took. He still was too reluctant to kill the captured gennin, but he certainly no longer hesitated on killing the others.
Hebi was an eight-year-old former civilian orphan with heat vision in his aniridia eyes and ash brown hair in a low ponytail who was too shy and insecure. He was a victim too many times for Harry's tastes. Granted one time was already one time too many in his eyes. Unlike Kyokan who likes killing the pedophiles, Hebi now preferred fighting people who were solely after his life.
Ningyou, a little girl of five, going on six years old, with ringlets of dark wine colored hair with heterocromia, her left eye being apple green and her right one magenta, had a power that made getting her used to sex a priority in Danzou's books. Her power laid in was her pheromones and she was going to be trained for honeypot missions because of it. With them she could influence people to being nicer to her and, to a certain extent, even influence certain types of animals. Unfortunately that effect only made the new prey more ravenous for a piece of her. By the time Harry found out what was going on, her mental state wasn't the best. She blamed herself and her body for what was happening to her, like somehow her pheromones were the only reason this was happening to her and not just the schemes of an old bastard. And Harry didn't know how to make it better.
Negai, who was too sweet natured, was okay-ish about the situation. While she lost a lot against her opponent (just one who liked her in specific way too much and requested her a lot), her aural projection allowed her to check out as soon as 'things started', keeping her mind 'pure'.
As for Hitori, who had a low imunity system and was prone to sickness, he was simply too weak to kill his opponents. He was the one who suffered most with this change.
Shinku was the last one in the group but, more often than not, they managed to get away from it unscathed and unbloodied, though no one even knew how sometimes and Shinku refused to anser.
When Harry finally found out about what was going on, he purposefully started making himself look more attractive when the pedophiles were taken to get a pick of their victims. If anything else, he would try to cut down the number of predators for the others while using himself as bait.
Most pedophiles brought in were civilians but, even knowing that he was fighter, they saw how pretty he was, as well as how young and, with the help of a slight compulsion charm, were all too eager to try their luck against him.
Of course, they were killed with great prejudice. Harry didn't even bother trying to use them from practicing his Stasis spell.
Things were bad enough as it was… But then Tori died.
Omake: Through pain filled eyes
She didn't remember a lot of things anymore. The memories with her family were becoming vaguer and vaguer each time the ginger haired guy from that mindfuck clan came to visit. Her original name had been the first thing to go.
Now she only had Thirteen's memory to go by on how things used to be. He hadn't lived through it. He couldn't. He was too young. But she told him things before she forgot, so he remembered for her.
So, she told him things. Even things that she wasn't supposed to tell him. Things from her clan. She knew she had one, she just didn't remember the name because it was also her name. So she knew that she shouldn't have told him so many details about how she'd been raised. But she was desperate.
At times she would have forgotten certain memories if Thirteen didn't tell her something that would spark a vague recollection of what happened. And that could only happen if he knew things. She needed him to remind her. It was as simple as that.
And she tried to be an older sister for him in return for all his help. She really did. She was close to ten years old, now. And he was tiny, at most a 3-year-old. She was trying to show him what having older siblings was like and showing him that it was ok to relax a bit, that he didn't need to take care of everyone all the time. That it was ok to be taken care of as well.
She was pretty sure it didn't work, though. It felt more like he was indulging her. She didn't mind too much, though. She just liked feeling close to someone, anyone, now that she no longer even had the memories of her family to comfort her. She didn't care that he didn't look too comfortable at times when she was playing with him or that he kept others at arms length. Thirteen was still her partner and that made him hers no matter what anyone said.
Training with him was fun. But things didn't stay fun. Soon she turned ten and him four and suddenly she was expected to kill people. But not Thirteen. No, him she wouldn't kill. Maybe just hurt a bit with her kekkei genkai.
He needed to know.
He needed to know how unkind the world was out there. So far he was lucky and doing the killing so far. But he was too soft. He hesitated too much. Like that Chiame girl. But she'd shown her. She'd shown her how harsh the would could be and now she was strong.
If only Thirteen could do the same.
He didn't. He was still too kind. He still didn't fight back. And she needed to make sure he was safe. She tried to also make sure the others were safe too, but whenever he was near, he was her priority. He was her partner after all. And he was her rock.
All the world was chaotic and he was the only thing that was making sense in this mess. Everyone knew it. He was the reason why they all still had hope for escape. And maybe it was unfair to put all the pressure on having him learn to defend himself even from friends but they all needed him to be strong. And she needed him alive.
But when he was away, she tried to make others become strong like she did with Chiame. Chiame may hate her for it, but there was no doubt that none of those murder guys they were pitted against couldn't touch her anymore. Chiame was ruthless now and it was all thanks to her.
SO, when she had the chance, she turned to the most passive kid in this hell.
Shinkui didn't bloody their hands and the world was unforgiving. She knew sooner or later Danzou-sama would bring something much harsher upon them to force the issue. It was just a matter of time. Time they didn't have.
She'd forgotten all about their rabid guard dog.
It hurt. It hurt more than all of her family's training. She hurt deep inside because she couldn't be there for Thirteen anymore.
But at the same time it was such a relief.
And with that, Amamori Senshiko, currently named Kutsuu, passed away all alone in a pool of her own blood.
.
A/N:
Sorry for the wait. I couldn't decide on only two affinities for Harry so I did as some suggested and gave him three but, to avoid him become too OP too soon, I made his fire and wind ones very difficult to control. I'm not quite happy with his Patronus name but I felt that giving it a foreign name would sond too weird for the japanese so silver fang it is.
I was a bit hesitant on adding the pedo part of the chapter, but I don't think Danzou sees them as people, only weapons, so I don't think he's too troubled at the extent he is willing to go to just to get what he wants. Besides, it's sort of a nod the the inspiration of Negai's character.
here's an updated list of the characters:
Gensui (final look inspired in Hela from Norse Mythology, has power of Nuclear Radiation and controls it with her feelings, gets paired up with an empath for obvious reasons);
Shin (you know him, he's Sai's first and best friend,, this time his sickness correlates to radiation sickness that wasn't properly healed both due to lack of knowledge and, more importantly, lack of care for what repercussions he might have, gets paired up with Sai);
Yon (One of Harry's sisters, mother unknown, definitely has a bloodline but... could she have two!? who knows! Gets paired up with her sister;)
Go (One of Harry's sisters, mother unknown, definitely has a bloodline but... could she have two!? who knows! Gets paired up with her sister;)
Sai (You defenitely know him, he joins team seven in shippuden, he isn't yet as socially retarded as he is in shippuden, but he still has a bit of it, gets paired with Shin);
Kyoukan (I didn't inspire his looks on anyone in particular, I just wanted and empath on the team for reasons and after I developed Gensui I had even more reasons to have him here, gets paired up with Radiation girl);
Kutsuu (well, I think it's pretty obvious in whom I was inspired by for this one, and her power is definitely the shinobi equivalent of the cruciatus curse, fortunatly it's still just a fraction of a real cruciatus or Harry wouldn't handle any sort of sparring with her. despite her resemblances she isn't, in fact, Bellatrix's reincarnation); Status: dead
Negai (someone once told me it would be a good idea to inspire my OCs inalready existing characters, well, here you have one inspired by Dreaming Mary, both in looks as well as powers, her back story isn't the same, though; she's partnered with unintroduced character with a canon kekkei genkai);
Shirayuki (Mentioned only, but she is the girl that screamed back at Harry last chapter, she has a canon kekkei genkai and gets paired up Niji);
Niji (has chakra chains, his looks and some of his powers were inspired in a free online platform game named Rainbow, gets pai, red up with Shirayuki);
Datenshi (Inspired in Twisted Angel/Allison Angel from Bendy's ink machine, Sai sort of becomes her 'Bendy' in a way, gets paired up with Chiame);
Chiame (inspired by Sachiko from Corpse Party, gets paired up with Datenshi, has Stokolm syndrome with one of the instructors and calls her mom);
Shinku (based on Frisk from Undertale; mute; gender neutral but biologically male; seems to have precog abilities and doesn't like fighting);
Kyara (based on Chara from Undertale, still good with knives, still messed up from their death, even if this time is the methaforical death of their innocence rather than a literal one);
Tori (based on John Egbert from Homestuck);
Hebi (Heat vision, inspired on how people used to think, and still do, snake's saw this way. And, because of the way genjutsu works, basically imune to visual genjutsu because he doesn't see things the same way as normal people.);
Ningyou (Inspired on a ceramic doll looks-wise, with pheromones her power. She is more efficient against people with sensitive noses and animals);
Hitori (bloodline still a secret, has problems with his immune system and is sickly because of it, yet Danzou still finds him highly useful)
Jyuu San (Harry's codename, paired up with Kutsuu).