Author Notes: Eh, so I have started this little thing to pass time while I get ideas for my other fic. It will probably be short and sweet.

xxx

Harry would have been entirely lost if it wasn't for the point me spells. As it was, he thought he was doing pretty well, and he would find what he had been searching for.

He stopped for a few seconds to contemplate the squiggle-like signs the were everywhere and sighed.

He should have drunk the Absolute Language Learning potion, but the first and last time he had taken that specific potion had been quite traumatic. A whole week of migraines and a lot of time spent feeling ill and vomiting. Mind Art stuff was not to be used lightly.

So he hadn't and had just chosen a nifty charm that, while giving him the ability to speak and understand the language, did nothing about the written word.

In this case, something called Kanji, Hiragana, and one other that he couldn't remember at the top of his head. He was sure Hermione had told him about it repeatedly, but eh, he had been only paying attention with half an ear. She would write it down for him if it were essential, anyways. She always did.

Finally, after hours of apparating randomly to the supposed way to go, he had found it. He breathed in and then breathed out.

He had taken an international Portkey to Tokyo, and there were just too many people. Too many people everywhere. It had made him feel nauseous. Or maybe it had been the Portkey, much more potent than a run-of-the-mill one. He didn't do well with crowds these days. Or ever. But especially these days.

This small town was much more relaxed, even if it looked like nothing special.

Well, Diagon Alley had been secreted away in London, so he guessed it was not so rare. It would have been worse if the place was in Tokyo, with all the people, the noise, the… everything. No, this lovely town was nice and perfectly quiet.

It certainly was very muggle looking, that was for sure, but it had the charm that it looked absolutely foreign to him. The Japanese style of architecture was much more charming than the endless sameness of Little Whinging, not to say Privet Drive, because at least Magnolia Street had nicer gardens.

Anyway, he decided to enter after locating the place and re-checking if he was in the right place (and he was). The door was open to the public, so he just went inside.

It did seem like a… well, not what he had been expecting, but he shrugged. Different continents, different cultures. Whatever.

He had been trying to find someone to help him with this particular problem for ages, and he was tired and very done of getting stares at work when he always came up with excuses about why. Magic, that's why.

He shouldn't even have to explain. They should have understood for Merlin shakes. They had magic too.

He had just an exceeding surplus of it, and well, for certain things, it was problematic. Not that he minded, not for real, but his friends had been nagging at him to get it fixed, and his boss, who was the actual Minister for Magic, had looked disappointed.

He didn't do disappointed. It made him feel terrible.

It was perhaps a leftover from his traumatic childhood trying to please his relatives, who knew, he would not ask a mind healer about that. Or get near six feet of one, that was for sure.

There was no one there that he could see, but he had used a very particular, very specific locator spell for this. Not a Point-Me.

He had needed to know who could help him with his problem, so he had designed a haphazard runic array to get it done, and Hermione had cleaned it up and made it shine. It looked very sophisticated and elegant in a way that his never looked.

Runes were a thing that he enjoyed playing with, but he did first drafts until they worked. Those were enjoyable, challenging. Getting over every rune to look perfect and be assembled in an aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly way was just not his cup of tea. He could do it, maybe, but he didn't have the time or the patience.

Hermione thought, would go through them with a fine-toothed comb and iron all the kinks while using her beautiful drawing skills and her more methodical mind to make them, well, over the top. Perfect.

So he was pretty sure this was the place for the thing he needed. He would just wait until someone appeared eventually.

He didn't have to wait a lot, maybe five minutes tops, until a man opened one of these weird sliding doors and came to the front of the shop, leaving a pile of colorful bags on a counter while waving at him at the same time.

"Oh, hello, hello, customer-san," he said in a cheerful tone. "Sorry to keep you waiting."

Harry sighed. At last.

"Uh, hello," he said, feeling a little strange using another language; it wasn't at all like parseltongue, which he didn't differentiate when he was using it or not. This felt like an overlapping in his mind. Not a nice feeling, but bearable.

Well, he had drunk a wit sharpening potion too, so hopefully, the language would sink, or better, he would be fast on his way home.

"So, I come from England, you see, and I need you to fix this, so it does work for me. They keep… well, you know," he said, gesturing a bit wildly and then very nearly pushing the box with the phone in the shopkeeper's hands.

It was brand new. Of course, it was. Because they always exploded in his face.

The shopkeeper looked at the box in his hand a little bemused.

He was dressed in traditional Japanese gear. Or well, at least not clothes like he had seen in Tokyo. Or maybe that was the way Japanese Wizards dressed; Harry wasn't sure. He hadn't met one previous to this one.

"You know, there is an electronic shop five just minutes away. I could even show you the way," he said, still smiling genially and even making the gesture to give the damn thing back to Harry. He did not want to touch the thing, so he stepped back and sent a glare to the shopkeeper.

Why would he want to go to an electronic shop, for Morgana's sake? They were full of muggle things that exploded at him. He would only go if this one exploded and they needed to try again; Harry wasn't leaving Japan without a working phone.

"No, thank you. Those places give me the creeps," he said, maybe very curtly, but Harry was tired and anxious, and he needed to find a place to drink a calming draught soon, or he was going to have an anxiety attack.

"Alright, but you are aware this is a Candy Shop, right?"

"Not really, but does it matter? Just fix it. I will pay whatever it is, in money, that is. I need to get that thing to work and stop ruining my life."

So what if he was being dramatic. It was very tiresome to have to buy one phone every other day because they always exploded, just stopped working, got transfigured accidentally, or just vanished.

The Minister, Kingsley Shackelbolt, had said it was time to modernize a little Magical Britain, and now phones were mandatory.

A Spellcrafter in Especial Alley was getting rich with all the new jobs she was getting.

Mrs. Freseria Fallow, of Madam Fallow's Thoughtful Trinkets, had been unable to make one of his work, and since her failures with his phones were giving her a bad reputation, he had been asked not to come back.

He didn't care if this magical shop sold candy or not. Maybe it was a bit weird, but he had seen weirder.

So he stared down at the man (metaphorically, since he was taller than him), and he must have seen how absolutely done he was because he kept the box in his hands.

"Alrighty then. What seems to be the problem, then? It does look a conventional model."

"They don't work for me," Hadn't he already told him that? "So, do your thing, and please, get it fixed."

"My thing…" the man repeated, and he took his hat off and looked at him a bit strangely.

Maybe he wasn't used to foreigners. Or maybe the translating spell was malfunctioning?

The man was younger than he had thought at first; he looked to be maybe a few years older than Harry at most, and well, was quite good looking, now that his face was visible, with all that fluffy looking blonde hair and those intense grey eyes.

Harry mused that those eyes reminded him of someone, but it could be anyone. All the Blacks had intense grey eyes. Wait. No.

He took a step back and looked, really looked. No, those were not Black Family eyes, thank Morgana, but they had the same kind of intensity. That was the thing that was ringing bells in his mind like crazy.

Damnit, but he could become paranoid over such silly things…

"Yes. How long do you think it will take you? I have got all the vacation time I want, but well, it would be good to have an estimate."

"Well, I will have to ascertain what is wrong with it first. So why don't you show me?"

"Show you? For real? But…" Harry despaired. If he had to make the thing explode again for the man to fix it, then he would have to go to that electronic shop and get a new one. Just his luck, as always.

"Can't you fix it without that needing to happen?" he asked almost plaintively.

"I am afraid not, Mr…?" And it was Harry, or was he looking amused. The nerve.

"Just Harry is alright," He was not telling strangers his name. Even if he was on another continent. He had a lot of enemies, and his lying skills were, as his men would say, subpar, so just his first name would have to suffice.

That seemed to stump the man for a moment, but he smiled brightly again after a few seconds.

"Well, Harry-san, it is very nice to meet you. I am Urahara Kisuke, an humble shoopeker, and owner of this place.

Yes, Harry had gotten that. Now could they… well, no, maybe small talk was better than exploding phones.

"Righ. Nice to meet you, Kisuke….-san," he remembered at the end.

Hermione had told him Japanese people had a lot of weird name stuff they called each other. He had a list somewhere, he was sure. He didn't want to be impolite or cause a scene and an International Conflict or something. With his luck, it could go that way fast.

The man, Kisuke, conjured a fan wandesly and covered part of his face with it. So now he couldn't see his facial expression, which was annoying, but ah, well, wizarding people were known for their eccentricity.

"So… I have to do it, then?" he asked again, just to be sure.

Kisuke nodded from behind his fan.

Harry's shoulders dropped. He had been trying to avoid this. Ah, but no matter. This bloke could help him. The Rune Array, coupled with all the Arithmantic Equations Hermione had added, had no faults.

Hermione had even talked about patenting it, but Harry had told her no because what if someone used it for like "Show me who or what will help me become an Evil Megalomaniac Inmortal Dark Lord," things could end badly. Harry was very done with Dark Lords and Dark Lords wannabes.

As it was, "Show me who or what can help me have a functional phone that won't break in any way or shape under my magic." had seemed so benign in comparison.

Hermione had paled when he had suggested how it could be used and promptly made a long list of all the horrific things that could be accomplished with it. They had decided to keep it private, but they had agreed that they could use it. Hermione wanted to use it to find certain books for her research on things that Harry was not allowed to know, since, well; Unspeakables.

"Oya, Harry-san, don't look so gloomy. There, have some candy. You look awfully pale." Kisuke said, giving him a little bag of sweets.

"Oh, thank you. You didn't have to, and yes, traveling long-distance disagrees with me."

He took one little red ball and cast a spell to check for poison, potions, or undetectable malicious substances. Founding none, he popped it in his mouth. Uhm, Watermelon flavored.

Kisuke was watching him with an arched eyebrow and a more serious expression. Hmm, maybe he should eat more of them? Be more polite?

"It's good," he said while he opened the box. He took the phone out and pushed the button for it to start. When it did, he just took a picture with it, and yes, in no time at all the thing exploded in his hand.

"Damnit all to hell!" he exclaimed, throwing the smoldering thing at the floor. "Is there a restroom somewhere where I can clean up a little?" he asked.

Because now his left hand was burned. Not a lot since he had been keeping skin-shields but enough to smart and bleed a little. He wanted to clean and fix it and drink the calming draught.

Kisuke pointed him to a door while he was poking at the remains of the phone with his walking cane. Uhm, it seemed to be like Lucius Malfoy's one. His wand must be there surely. He was too young to need it, and Harry had seen no limp or injury.

But hadn't Hermione said that Japanese wizards preferred wandless magic or used another kind of artifacts as focuses? Well, whatever. He was just too on edge and overwrought to care.

He left the man to his poking and prodding and found the restroom. He took a pouch from his very muggle trousers pockets and enlarged it to search better for what he wanted.

The blue shirt he had been wearing had been burned a little too much. Well, he took another one, this time a black one, and put it on. Then he drank the calming draught and feeling much, much better applied murlap essence on his hand until the small burns disappeared completely leaving just reddish and somewhat more sensitive skin.

When he got out, Kisuke had the remains of the phone in his hand and was examining them; well, at least he was efficient, Harry thought with a lightness in his chest that hadn't been there before the potion.

"So…how much time do you think it will take?"

"Well, it does seem like quite the problem. How many times has this happened before?"

"I lost count. They are mandatory at work, so I have to get one, and if I just… use it in any way, it just explodes. The best times, it just stops working. But an estimate of two hundred maybe."

"And so, you came here to get it fixed. From England," Kisuke said with an undecipherable expression, fan in hand but not covering his face. He then put a slight smile on his face.

"Yes, I mean, the person who tried to fix it before failed all the time, and she kinda kicked me out of her shop. You know, bad for business."

"Oh? And you think I will be able to fix your little problem?" Kisuke said fanning himself a little.

"Pretty sure, yes. Like 98% sure," Harry said, hands in his pockets now and feeling a little sheepish like every time this happened, but much calmer.

Hermione had worked the percentages, so yeah, this Urahara Kisuke would fix it, or at least he had the ability to do so. The Rune Array didn't count for free will, but it did for intent, and it had pointed here, so Harry was here.

Kisuke arched an eyebrow, still looking quite amused. "Very accurate numbers, I see."

"Yes, well, I made a custom-made Rune Array, and you know how exacting those things are," he said, waving a hand dismissively.

"Of course. Well, then let's go to my workshop to see what can be done."

"Brill."

They walked to another room, much far away from the entrance. And who would be guarding the entrance door, then? Maybe it had muggle repelling charms? Yeah, that must be it. He had been too overworked to look for such small details.

Kisuke's lab was way more disorderly than Hermione's, but well, she was a neat freak.

There were muggle-looking machines everywhere, and then bits of things, metals of all kinds, wires, and even bits of flesh-like substances. Lots and lots of papers covered in that unintelligible writing, computers, like a dozen empty mugs and at least another dozen of water bottles.

Well, all geniuses were kind of quirky, and he had worked out that this Urahara Kisuke must be one of the smartest men on the planet since Hermione Granger, the most brilliant witch of their generation, had not been able to help him, much to her irritated frustration.

So this guy must be, like, epic levels of smart.

He looked more like a Hufflepuff though, with the fluffy hair and the silly smiles than a Ravenclaw; that his eyes were pure Slytherin was not lost on Harry. Maybe this man was a hybrid.

Either way, like all geniuses he seemed to fail at living if all the trash accumulated around had anything to say. He knew they got into their heads and then things like eating or sleeping were lost to them until someone would try and feed and water them.

"Um, nice place," he said somewhat amused. "So, are you going to like start reading and tinkering for hours and forget about me now, or… because I can at least clean all these mugs and throw away the trash out while I wait." he pointed out logically.

"Ah, thank you, Harry-kun, but I will try some things first," he said, and this time he was the one looking a bit sheepish at all the litter he kept around.

"Righ," Harry said. Well, at least then he would be doing something, he hoped, because standing there for hours would get boring very fast. And apparently, his name has been updated.

"Here, try this. And put these gloves on first," Kisuke said, giving him a small rectangular thing that was not a phone, much smaller, like one of those weird watches muggles wore nowadays.

He took it and pushed the buttons until it started working. Then promptly exploded. Well, at least he had been wearing protective gear, but his shirt, the new, clean one, had a few holes now.

He sighed and did a wandless reparo.

"So, how many more muggle stuff do I need to make explode?" he asked, looking at Kisuke, who was now looking at him with a laser focus intensity that made him feel a little self-conscious. There were some annoying butterflies in his stomach too.

Must be the effect of the Portkey.

Kisuke's expression became neutral again really fast, smile included. That must be his default dealing with customers' face.

"Ah, well, we will try something different this time," he said and presented him with an orb. It didn't look muggle-like. Just a crystal-like sphere, like the ones used in divination.

Harry's brow furrowed, confused. What was he supposed to do with this non-muggle thing now?

"Do to it the same thing you did to your shirt and to the candy I gave you earlier," he said waiting, fan open.

"But those are two different things. Which one should I do?" Harry was super confused. The substance detecting charm was nothing like a repairing charm. The only thing they had in common was that both were charms.

"Either one is alright. Maybe both if nothing reactive happens; like an explosion."

Harry shrugged but did as told and sent areparo to the ball, which absorbed it and started glowing gold. Since it kept glowing and not exploding, he sent the detecting spell, and it continued to glow."

"Keep going. Maybe… something stronger?" Kisuke suggested mildly.

Harry nodded. This was better than having things exploding in his face.

He sent a wandless incendio, and the thing just absorbed it too. Umm, interesting how these orbs keep absorbing his magic instead of being affected by it.

He sent an accio, and expelliarmus, an alohomora, and it kept getting brighter and brighter gold.

"Stronger?" Kisuke repeated his suggestion, his voice deeper and sharper. He was taking quick notes on a tablet or such muggle-like object.

Harry thought of a strong spell to send, something over the top that would maybe make this over.

Theexpecto patronum charm made the orb, which was golden, start glowing a blinding white.

"Oh, for fuck sakes, not again," he said, and he dropped it in the table and covered himself and Kisuke with a strong shielding charm.

The thing exploded, and the blast of magic made several of the electronics in the room start beeping like crazy. One thing even started smoking.

"Righ, Harry-kun, sorry for that. We will try with another, more resistant orb."

Joy.

Harry spent the next hour casting spells at differents crystal spheres until, at last, one of them seemed to absorb everything. Even a Fiendfyre. What? He was an Auror, Head Auror, in fact, and he had a license to use it if necessary. This was absolutely necessary.

When it finally glowed blue instead of gold, Kisuke hummed and took it away to put it in another strange muggle-looking machine who started beeping randomly.

"Well, well well. This is so interesting," Kisuke said, with that look Harry knew so well. It never ended well for him. "Well, the next test will be a bit invasive, so sign this, please," he said, giving him a paper with Japanese letters printed on it.

"Umm, sorry, but I can't read Japanese. Do you have an English version?"

Kisuke seemed a little put out. "No, but really is nothing too bad. Nothing more dangerous than what we have been doing in any case."

Harry sighed and nodded. "Alright then. Whatever."

Kisuke pointed his cane (that was 100% a wand) at him and pushed with it hard on his forehead.

"Ouch," he muttered. Oh weird, he saw himself, or well his body, fall until Kisuke caught it and gently let it on the floor in a seated position.

Harry looked at his hands. They seemed pretty genuine. Had he been cloned or what?

Oh, there was a golden chain attached to his chest. Weird. He touched it, and it was cold.

Kisuke was looking at it too and poking at it with his cane (wand!). There were places where the gold had different colors and several areas where chunks of it seemed to have been repaired by a drunk goblin.

"Hmm, so Harry-kun, have you ever been reincarnated?"

"Not that I know off." If he was, all that bad karma he kept getting must mean he had been a terrible person in his past life.

"Dead then?"

"Uhm, yeah. Umm, like three times that I remember," he said, "but one didn't even count."

Kisuke hid his probably grin with his fan. Harry had caught on that he did it whenever he looked amused at something Harry did or said.

"Oya, dying, and you don't think it counts, Harry-kun?"

"It was like," Harry thought of the Chamber of Secret and of the seconds it had taken for Fawkes tears to revive him. He had died, he hadn't known it at the time, but a test by the Goblins had stated it, so he must have been. "Well, seconds. I don't remember. That day was kind of hectic. Also, a ton of years ago."

"Oh, I see. And the other two?" Kisuke looked very interested in his answers. What dying had to do with malfunctioning phones Harry didn't know, but he was not the genius here.

"Well, train station, the two of them. Different people though. Or maybe the same one but like with a glamour? Or Polyjuice? One of them was ten minutes or so, and the other like twenty."

"Hmm, yes, that sounds right, see, you can see them here, here, and here," Kisuke said, pointing at the places in which the chain had turned completely obsidian.

"What about the ones that look all wonky?"

"I am uncertain of these. But we have time."

Harry groaned.

xxx

Author Notes: So yeah, Harry can be totally clueless, but he's not totally wrong right? I mean, Urahara will have it working in no time. Being experimented on, well...

This was going to be a One-Shot, but it kept growing and I was sleepy, so there. Hope you liked it.