AN: Before you get too far in this chapter, know that I am not really a major "otaku" person. I find the culture interesting, but I don't have the time (nor money) to fuel any real obsession in anime. But I do find it fun.

I chose Japan because I wanted to bring Kagome Kagome back into this and I wanted to incorporate some infamous characters. The "-san" suffix and similar things are cultural to the region, so don't expect Harry to start using them frequently, learn kanji, start wielding katanas, or start shouting "Dattebayo!" every other sentence.

I don't own Harry Potter.

Sincerely,

-Crow

Slenderman walked around the house that night. Harry and Sally were playing in the living room with some crayons and paper. Jeff and Smile were out for a walk in the forest. Eyeless Jack was downstairs running a few experiments while Laughing Jack was out on… business.

He was glad to see Harry acclimating to the tenants' lifestyle. A few more visited and he became acquainted with them as well with a minor incident involving Harry and Mr. Widemouth, but Slendy was firm with the Furby-like creature and told him not to shove him to his death from the roof or convince him to juggle knives… again.

He groaned internally at the memory of finding Jeffery, Laughing Jack, and Widemouth chanting Harry on. Jeff even went as far as lending three of his sharpest kitchen knives for the attempt. Thankfully, Harry's abilities allowed him to levitate the knives in place when they started falling in a disastrous direction.

Needless to say, Jeff's "babies" were confiscated with the self-mutilated sociopath clinging to his ankle pleading like an impudent toddler the entire afternoon.

Seeing Harry's display of… "magic" encouraged Slendy to do more in-depth reading of the books he had on the Wizarding World and, frankly, he did not like what he saw. He could only pray that their society had improved in the hundred-plus years since he'd stolen –er "borrowed" the books. Bigotry, racism, sexism, severe isolationism, political corruption, special privileges to the elite families, denying jobs to those of common ancestry, the list went on. And even then, it didn't include the long history of Dark Lords systematically destroying the society one reign-of-terror at a time.

And now, there was news of this "Dumbledore".

He had contacted the London Fog Stalker a little while after Harry arrived to monitor any news that came through involving the boy. He trusted the Stalker to keep this between themselves and not involve the Council. If they found out they may take… action.

One that involved "eliminating the risk" Harry posed to their operation.

The Stalker informed him of the overheard conversation between two magicals at the café. It disturbed Slendy to know that these witches and wizards were on a man-hunt, er, boy-hunt at the word of just one man without a just reason, cause, or method. They just blindly accepted his orders as-is.

Truly disturbing.

What's more, apparently, he was adamant that Harry return to the abusive custody of the Dursleys. Slenderman had no clue how the mysterious wizard would do it, but he knew Dumbledore must be someone very powerful or very corrupt to be able to remove the Dursleys from their sentence.

He sighed internally, realizing that either they must cling to their magical children like a greedy octopus or Harry must be an important figure in wizarding culture… He doubted the last one, but still why go to such great lengths to bring one child back to a certain environment?

Then again, if they valued children so much, why place them with abusive non-magicals?

He shook his head. Too many things contradicted at the moment. He just watched over Harry and Sally as Sally showed him a picture of E.J. and Harry showed her an image of… a flying motorcycle?

He smiled and shrugged. At least Harry still had his imagination.

That same imagination came in handy with Dr. Halloway. He'd called in a favor with Jeanette and she came over on Wednesdays to oversee Harry. She was one of the few of their kind who had an adequate background in psychiatric care… who was not severely unstable or unsuitable for children.

He didn't care to imagine what would've happened if he'd, say, gone to any one of the mental institutions housing… "peculiar" doctors. He could reasonably guess Harry would return from a session sporting a few extra limbs, an unnerving glass eyeball, and possibly missing a few rather important organs. If he returned at all.

Harry was initially reserved when talking with Dr. Jeanette Halloway, but she encouraged him to play a few cleverly disguised mind-games to see how he was. From the "first-word-to-come-to-mind" game to drawing whatever he wanted or drawing certain emotions, it all helped build up a profile of Harry's mind. He was obviously distrustful of most humans (though his immediate trust in non-humans was rather disturbing, she admitted) and he still flinched slightly at contact, human or not.

That had been what the first few weeks had been. Mostly overcoming abuse and helping him come out of his shell. After the… "incident" with the Drug Lord, Dr. Halloway helped Harry fill in the gaps that Slendy's talk didn't cover. Particularly when he discovered one aspect of the murders that hadn't crossed Slenderman's mind at the time; hunting.

It was true that some of their kind needed a more… carnivorous diet and hunting was the only way to find it. Though, they tended to restrict themselves to the more "evil" of society or the trespassers, especially when times are scarce, they did need the occasional person or two who was just a "mildly bad" in terms of the Balance… and sometimes just go after the occasional college camper for a cliché "cabin-in-the-woods" slaughter.

Jeanette handled it perfectly and Harry had recovered. He was progressing wonderfully and had even had an interest in learning that Jeanette encouraged Slendy to supply and develop.

After the incident, Slenderman's analysis of the books managed to correlate his magic with emotions and knew that Jeanette would be the best to turn to in that instance.

He met with her in private to discuss Harry's magic.

Flashback…

"Jeanette, a word if I may?" Slenderman asked formally. The masked woman nodded.

"Of course, Slenn. Harry why don't you go play in the music room for a bit, okay?" She replied with a slight English accent. Harry nodded and ran off.

If he could, Slenderman would be grimacing at his nickname. What's more, judging from how he knew Jeanette was smiling behind that blank bird-like mask, she knew it irritated him as well. She sat down and offered some tea she set up for Harry's session. "So, Slenn, what's the matter?"

"Please do not call me that." He deadpanned. "It's bad enough when my idiotic brother does it."

"Which one? The cute one, the gay one, or the sexy one?" She said, "smiling" again. For a female doctor, much less one who "lived" back in Victorian England, she sometimes had one of the raunchiest minds and most vulgar mouths he'd come across.

"Grr. Please, Jeanette, this is rather serious." The unseen grin disappeared and she set into a much more professional position. "Now, Harry is rather… special… now, please keep an open mind."

Her shoulders shook with a quick laugh. "Please, Slendy. I'm talking to a faceless entity that's been around since before the dinosaurs and I've helped a computer virus with the mind of a 9 year old get over a 17 year old online girlfriend breaking up with him… without him drowning her in retaliation. I can keep an open mind."

"Harry performs… magic. Real magic." Her back straightened in surprise, but she didn't interrupt. "Now, I want you to keep this a secret, but in my travels I have encountered another society. A secret society hidden within and underneath the human's society. They call themselves "witches" and "wizards" and apparently are particularly arrogant about their shared powers to manipulate the universe as they see fit."

"Oh, I bet the Council loved hearing about that one. A bunch of mental lunatics pissing around with the Balance is sure to make their Monday."

Slenderman's "eyes" looked away and (somehow) Jeanette noticed. "Well… you see… I haven't-… actually told them-"

"You WHAT!" She shrieked. "Slendy, that's serious information! The Council ought to know. It might be where all the abnormalities with the Balance keep coming from."

"That's the thing. I know it comes from them." She gasped. "Their manipulations, their backwards thinking, their stuck-in-the-past methods. I think it all contributes negatively to the Balance. When I visited back in the early 1800s, they still revered Medieval times and lived like it was 900 A.D. all over again! I can tell you what turbulent times those were. And if their progress at that time is any indication, things have not improved. If anything, it's gotten worse."

"Then why don't you tell someone?"

"Because despite their flaws they're too much for us. They could decimate our forces with a few simple spells. Even our most skilled killers couldn't help balance that society out. We would need to understand what we are up against before even dreaming of incorporating ourselves into that society."

"What do you, personally, want to do, Balance aside?"

"Personally? I want nothing to do with this world at all. Based upon how it has been going, I predict their society may self-destruct within a century or two if their ideals still hold up despite the raging progress of the world around them. But Harry is one of them and he has their powers which he needs help with."

"…Which only one of those 'Wizard' people can help with."

"Yes, but I want to avoid contact with that world for as long as possible. Though, I've learned through a few texts that there's a special, "prestigious" school in Britain who may seek him out shortly after his 11th birthday. Though, we will deal with that when the time comes."

She was lost in thought as she processed this. She looked up in a sudden thought. "Wait… so what do you want me to do with this? What's all this have to do with Harry's state of mind?"

"As I said, Harry is magical and from what I understand it's an energy-based phenomenon, but it's tied to their minds, souls, and bodies as well-"

"And emotions, I'm guessing?" She inquired.

"Yes. Whenever he is distressed or in danger, his magic saves him or reacts strongly. I saw trees ripped apart from his power just because he felt like he was in danger. What's more, it reacts badly with the code-based tenants such as BEN and Smile. But at the same time, this is a deadly force to be reckoned with and I fear for his safety as well as anyone around him."

"So, what you need is for him to have more control over this power?" She summarized.

"Yes. It would help me sleep at night to know that Harry is not a danger to himself or others… or at least he can do something about it."

Jeanette looked thoughtful before picking up her Victorian doctor's bag and rummaging through it. "I'm by no means a magician or sorceress, so I can't give you specifics, but I think one thing he really needs is help reigning in emotions and thoughts."

She pulled out a few books and handed them to the faceless entity. He mused momentarily how impossible it seemed for females' purses to hold such vast amounts in them. "Those are what I could find about meditation and emotional control. It helps most people who have difficulties focusing emotions and who don't want medication. I was never fond of those pharmaceuticals myself despite Timothy's aptitude with them. Incidentally, one of those books was actually written by some monks in China for focusing an energy they called "Zen". I'm not sure, but I think it might be on the right track for you."

The entity nodded in thanks and turned to leave before she stopped him again. "And another thing. I know Harry's hanging out with BEN and Sally, which is good, don't misunderstand me. Sally is very sweet and BEN is very intelligent and will help him navigate the modern, online world, but he should branch out more.

"He needs more friends to gain a broader perspective on life and build up more connections. I, personally, recommend finding some people who can age with him. I know it's hard for him to understand now, but I'm not sure how much fun "playing house" or video games will be when Harry's in his 40s and Sally and Ben are still 8 and 10."

Slenderman nodded in understanding. Jeanette continued. "Also, he needs friends who are more permanent than just the children-from-the-playground type. I mean, those are nice and fun to be with, but they hardly last. Find some kids his age that he can meet repeatedly.

"Also… maybe it would help to find some… more like us." He nodded again. It made sense. She was telling him that it would be necessary or helpful to find some peculiar people like themselves. He doubted any normal human friends would last terribly long around some of the other tenants… that is, if they didn't bolt the second they found out their friend's guardian was a faceless "monster".

He thanked her for her help and the books and started leafing through the books after she left, already planning a few routines for Harry to practice.

*End Flashback*

He searched around for anyone with children around Harry's age. It was easier said than done. Most of the beings and people involved in their world were above the age of 13 and, even then, any children of "their own kind" were very well protected, rather hostile towards other children, or very reclusive.

Akako's kids came to mind first and she agreed he could come over some time that day. He also received a missive from Yekcim and figured it would be... fun for Harry at least to go there (though Slendy, personally, wasn't a fan of the location). He figured Yekcim could wait as the entity enjoys surprises and really adheres to no schedule, whereas Akako expected them that day.

Plus, he had some "errands" and equipment to pick up in the region that he could get in the meantime.

He glanced at the clock and did a few quick mental calculations. Deciding it was a good enough time, he approached the group.

"Harry," Slendy spoke. "I have some errands to run and I was wondering if you wanted to tag along. One of them is in Japan and Miss Akako still offered to let you come visit."

"The woman in the cool Chinese dress?" Harry asked.

"I believe it's called a 'Kimono' and it's Japanese, not Chinese," Slenderman corrected, "but yes that is Miss Akako. She offered to watch over you and let you meet some of her own wards in the Japan area. I thought it might be a nice cultural experience and an opportunity to meet some new people. So, could you please get ready?" Slendy requested.

Harry nodded in reply and started packing away the crayons and drawings. Sally waved him goodbye and continued coloring in her current drawing.

Harry walked with Slenderman out of the house and the entity "jumped" to the destination. Harry felt the familiar "woosh" of the transportation method and, looking around, saw the dense blackness around him coupled with small whispers and possible glimpses of shady figures zooming by.

When they dropped out of the In-Between, as Slendy referred to it, Harry's eyes adjusted to the area. It was a completely barren town. A few tall apartment buildings stood dilapidated and forgotten while the streets were bare save for some occasional debris falling from the crumbling structures. Harry could make out a nearby park with a swingset on a broken chain and a few spring riding toys rusting with their paint chipping. However, the entire area beyond, above, and around them was completely covered in a dense fog.

He looked up at the ancient being. "Slendy? Where are we?"

"This is now known as the Matsuo Ghost Mine Town. It was a mining village before it was shut down. Now it's just an empty city."

"Why are we here?"

"To meet someone."

Harry looked around, not seeing a soul. "Where?"

"Don't worry, they'll be here." Slendy reassured him.

As Harry looked around the ambiance as Slenderman led him along the empty, abandoned streets. The mist muffled their footsteps to an unsettling silence, but the buildings themselves, being devoid of life, still echoed the sounds back before being dampened completely.

"Konichiwa."

Harry whirled around at the unexpected voice. Behind them was a girl around 9 or 10 in a white-dress hospital gown. Her eyes were somewhat vacant… well, "eye". Her one, blue eye was looking at them while the other was obviously hollow behind the bandages wrapped around her head and the socket. Oddly enough, her sky blue hair fell around her shoulders and had a messy ponytail on one side of her head. Her arm was missing and a white bandage was wrapped multiple times around her chest to secure the stump.

Harry hid behind Slendy, but, like most parents, the being stood aside and let Harry be seen again while giving a "look" not to try again and to say 'hello'.

Harry meekly hung his head at his attempt and turned to the deformed girl. "H-hello."

The girl's eyes lit up. "Oh! You speak English? Yay! Teacher always said we need to learn English, but I never had opportunity to try."

"'the' opportunity, my dear." Slenderman corrected. She nodded, taking in the fact before bowing respectfully to the entity.

"Hello, Slenderman-sama… er- 'Meester' Slenderman." Slenderman nodded at her attempt at English and she beamed before looking back at Harry. "I apologize. I did not ask for your name."

"I-it's alright. My name's Harry. Harry Potter."

"Ah, allow me to clear some confusion beforehand. His name is 'Potter Harry'." Slenderman offered.

Harry made a look of confusion, but the girl was wide-eyed with understanding. "Oh! I see! Harry-san, in Japan we say our family names first." She explained. Harry nodded, absorbing the tidbit of information.

"Miss, I am expected by Ms. Akako any moment now-"

"Ah! Forgive me for delaying you. This way!" She led them through a few more buildings and crumbling ruins before bringing them a little ways outside the city to a small house hidden in the mists. "Take off your shoes before you enter." She called behind before removing her shoes in a small divot area by the front door.

Harry and Slender complied and were led to a large space with a bunch of kids varying between 4 to 16 were hanging out. Some were drawing, others were playing an odd game in a circle. Many wards were in robes or combat clothing and sparring or practicing motions in a training area with weapons ranging from wooden staves to aerodynamic needles to full katanas. Everyone stopped when the three came in.

"Ah, Slendy-san, I'm so happy you came." Miss Akako separated herself from a crowd of youngsters and made her way over. Their guide scurried off to go play in the ring game.

"Hello, Ms. Akako. I'm afraid I can't stay too long. I have a few errands I'd like to run, but I wanted Harry to come and meet some new people. You know how our manor doesn't exactly have too many kids his age."

"Yes, I understand. It must get a lonely with only Sally and BEN as age-mates. Don't worry, we will take good care of him." She smiled assuringly. Her broken neck still made her head tilt at an awkward angle, but she still managed to nod.

"Then, I'll take my leave." With that, Slendy waved to Harry before disappearing in a swirl of black vapor.

The faceless entity reappeared in a vacant alleyway. A bark-like shout alerted him to a startled jinmenken (man-faced dog) running in the opposite direction. He ignored it and put up his glamour. However, upon exiting the alleyway, he found people curiously dressed staring at him as he walked by. He knew he was slightly taller than the average Japanese male, but still it wasn't enough to gawk at, plus… was that girl with a chainsaw wearing a pink maid's outfit!?

Mentally shuddering at the impropriety of it all, he looked away from the gawking gir- … wait was that a boy in the pink skirt? He was unable to suppress the shudder this time and decided to do his best to ignore the… unusual nature of some of Japan's fashion choices. Though, when he glanced in a reflective windowpane, he noted his appearance was rather… western.

He passed by a small stand selling posters and noted a character with white hair taking up the entire space. He hmmed thoughtfully. Hair colors were difficult with glamours, particularly as he didn't have hair to begin with. He ducked into a nearby alley and focused on the character. The curious suit was still black-and-white but more akin to what he wore back in the late 1800s with Victorian frock coats and white frills and a black top-hat. It was still pleasantly formal, but interesting. He also allowed his white hair to cover an eye like he saw with the character, though he opted out of the odd, blue doll perched on the character's shoulder. He allowed the one visible eye to take on the wine-red color of the character mostly due to the difficulty to re-imagine the figure on short notice.

When he walked out of the alleyway he was stunned to see himself suddenly surrounded by teen and pre-teen girls all speaking spitfire Japanese [the next few lines are in Japanese].

"Oh my God! That is the most amazing Xerxes Break cosplay I've ever seen!"

The entity sighed. Of course he would choose a wildly popular character completely at random. He watched as more girls ranging from tween to mid-20s gathered around him.

"How did you do it!?"

"You got the hair just right!"

"Marry me, senpai!"

He backed away in terror as more and more conversations started echoing the last girls'.

"Please go out with me!"

"Marry me!"

"Have my babies!"

"Have Gilbert-san's babies!"

"AAAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE"

The pale entity paled further as the high-pitched squeal confirmed his worst fears… shippers!

The bane of their existence!

Without missing a beat, he ran in the opposite direction with a horde of teenaged girls after him who had apparently found some poor sap in a "Gilbert-san" cosplay along the way and were holding the protesting young man above their heads.

"I HATE SHIPPING!" The entity screamed as he scampered from the mass.

Harry watched as his guardian disappeared before turning back to the woman in the kimono. "Well, Harry-san, let's show you around."

She motioned him over to a group of kids in a circle with one of them in the center. "This game is called "Kagome Kagome". One person is the 'demon' in the center and the kids making the ring have to try to make the demon flinch."

Harry paled and shuddered at the sight of what the kids were doing, but the girl in the center did not flinch in the slightest. Ms. Akako noticed the twitches and misinterpreted. "Oh, don't worry, Harry-san. People rarely manage to not flinch when we play. Do not feel bad."

Ms. Akako suddenly frowned and barked something in Japanese before getting up to deal with a few younger students trying to spar with a mace and a 2 foot long shuriken. He moved away from the ring of kids to a single boy doodling in front of a television set with static. He had a polo shirt and a bandage over his knee. The artist looked up and smiled. "Hello, I heard you talking in English. Who are you?"

"My name is Harry Potter. Er- 'Potter Harry' apparently."

"My name is Toshio. Saeki Toshio. Do you draw?" Harry nodded and accepted the crayons and paper before beginning. He glanced at Toshios' drawing. It was a picture of a bright yellow creature with brown stripes on its back and a yellow, lightning bolt shaped tail and two cherry red circles on its cheek.

"What is that?" Harry asked, pointing at the creature.

Toshio smiled. "It's called Pikachu. It's a Pokemon." He said simply.

"Pokemon? What is it?" Harry asked.

"They are fictional creatures. They were in a video game ten years ago. They also made a… cartoon? Yes, I believe they say it's called a 'cartoon', but we call it 'anime'. I thought they had it in America."

Harry shrugged. "I'm from the United Kingdom. Even then, I… didn't get to go out of the house much or watch much of the telly."

Toshio nodded and showed Harry some of his other drawings. Among them was an odd, green cocoon-like thing with a giant eye above a bump that resembled a nose. He also found an odd orange dinosaur thing with a tiny flame on its tail interesting. However, Pikachu came up multiple times in the drawings. Toshio explained how that was sort-of the go-to pokemon of the world.

They continued drawing before Toshio talked gain. "So, Harry-san, you lived in Britain. What was it like?" Harry was saved from the uncomfortable answer by a loud burst of static.

*chchhhhhththhhshhshshshshshshshs*

"Oh, yes, you haven't met her yet."

Harry turned around and saw the TV static had been replaced with a picture of a well. A figure climbed out of that well and slowly crawled her way towards the screen.

Toshio huffed and rolled his eyes. "Come on, Sadako-san, you are being slow again."

The figure stood up and walked (significantly faster) to the screen before pulling herself through it like BEN and his computer screen. Harry saw she was about 12 or 14, though her long, black hair covered a lot of her face.

She raised her hand in silent greeting. Toshio supplied a narrative. "Harry-san, this is Yamamura Sadako. She's shy so she spends a lot of time in the television."

"H-hello." Harry waved back. Sadako nodded, pleased she was seen and acknowledged before going back into the television well and returning the TV to static. Harry turned back to Toshio who shrugged.

"As I said, Sadako-san is shy." He returned to his drawing and Harry picked up a crayon and began something as well. The awkward question was, thankfully, forgotten.

The entity ran around a corner and waited. The shrill screams of those girls, those… "otakus" had long since faded, but he was not going to be caught. Who knows what those… demons would do to him if they caught him. He slouched in relief and glanced at a nearby book rack from a store.

Two essentially naked males were kissing passionately on the cover.

He was not homophobic. Not by a long-shot. But looking around the shop at the sheer amount of females squealing and enthusing over those very same books made him shudder in terror at the thought of what those girls would have done.

Ironic. An ageless entity that murdered territorially was scared witless from teenage girls obsessed with men having intimacy with other men.

He sighed, accepting the self-inflicted blow to his pride before carrying on down the alleyways and streets. He glanced around and teleported discretely inside a rather empty bullet train car. He took his seat, the only person who saw was a homeless man who was muttering about 'white-haired aliens' the entire ride.

After 30 minutes of nonstop travel, he glanced out the window and found he was close to his destination. It looked like another forest of trees, but he knew it was his location. He glanced around, sparing a glance at the homeless man still watching him before teleporting off of the train and into the forest.

He continued travelling by teleport until he came across a small shrine in the middle of nowhere. He saw no one was there yet, so he waited patiently and admired some of the odd stone statues of little men screaming or flailing. A few forgotten sticks of incense were extinguished in a small block. Curiously, multiple corpses of a large cicada had piled up in front of the shrine, creating a black pile of glittering exoskeletons.

"Good evening, Slenderman-sama."

The entity turned calmly to see a young girl. By instinct, he flinched to run off, but managed to calm himself by repeatedly insisting to himself that she was not a yaoi fangirl.

She wore a pink dress with an inappropriately short skirt, a ridiculously large red bow above her chest, and a matching hat on her head. Her indigo-blue eyes were vacant, but maintained a glint of madness he'd come to recognize. Otherwise, she appeared to be absolutely normal, save for some blood splatters on her front and a bloodied meat cleaver dripping from her hand.

"I trust you have my package?" The glamoured being asked. The girl nodded wordlessly and produced a small, brown package from inside a brown satchel at her side. As she was pulling it out, a decapitated head rolled out of the same pouch and fell to the ground.

Slenderman looked at it. The boy's head looked about her age. Given the look of the decapitation wound, he could confidently guess that the meat cleaver was the weapon. His glamour raised an eyebrow at the unfazed girl. "Old boyfriend?"

She smiled vacantly. "Something like that."

"Hmmm. And may I ask why the head?"

She picked up the body part in her arms and snuggled with it against her chest. "Because his head is so… cute. Either way, Keiichi-kun was being… difficult with Rena-san this week. Don't worry, he'll be back by next week."

Slenderman would normally question one's sanity upon hearing that given the rather permanent state the boy seemed to be in, but he had heard about this… particular town and how it seemed no one dead really stayed dead for long. He was not eager to get too involved. He had his errand. That was all.

He tucked the package away in his coat pocket and nodded his thanks. The girl bowed respectfully before adding, "Oyashiro-sama sends his regards."

The entity watched the girl skip into the woods, bloody head in hand. He glanced at the shrine one more time and noticed a small, Higurashi cicada landed on it and chirped before shuddering and curling up dead. He turned away and teleported.

Behind him, the Higurashi cried.

The next hour or so passed relatively quietly. Harry drew with Toshio, picked up some language skills from the others, and even played the ring-around-the-demon game once. He lost, but they said he made it further than anyone else who played.

Toshio showed him a comic he had. Harry was surprised to see that it read backwards instead of left-to-right and front-to-back. He couldn't make out head or tails of what the people were saying, but there was a lot of screaming and exaggerated poses.

At one point, the assistant caretaker, a woman wearing a surgical facemask named Kuchisaka, came in with a few snacks for them. She saw Harry and hmmed at his tuft of hair. She turned to Akako and asked something. Harry couldn't understand and turned to Akako.

"What did she say?"

Akako translated. "She says she wants to cut your hair. She has an obsession for cutting."

The other caretaker pulled out a pair of silver shears, but Harry shook his head at the offer. The woman shrugged and went on to take some long strips of paper and begin snipping away at it. Harry watched her as she pulled it apart, revealing several paper people in a chain with really, really wide smile cut-outs on their faces.

A knock came from the door and Miss Akako went to open it. Everyone was surprised to find a white-haired human in a black top hat and suit standing in the doorway unperturbed by the sight of decaying and undead children playing in the middle of the room.

"Harry, are you ready to go?" The boy eyed the person suspiciously. Confused, the white-haired human glanced down and "ah"ed in understanding. The air around the human rippled like a heat wave and Slenderman appeared. "I apologize, I found I needed to change my glamour to blend in better. Harry, are you ready to leave?"

The young boy nodded and they started saying farewell to everyone there before they vanished in their vapor of black smoke.

Slendy reappeared a few feet in front of the house and they walked in. BEN was sprawled in a winged armchair with a small gameboy consol blaring 8-bit music. E.J. was up from his lab and lounging on one of the sofas reading a book. Meanwhile, Sally was still drawing with a few crayons. The ghostly girl looked up from her most recent depiction of Jeff and beamed when she saw them walk in.

"Harry! How was the trip? Where did you go?" She asked. Harry relayed the story of Miss Akako, Toshio, Sadako, and the Kagome Kids.

He remembered something and called out to BEN. "Hey, BEN." The virus paused his game and looked up. "Can you help me set up a chat with some people in Japan?"

The virus nodded. "No problem. I have several friends over there anyway. I'll show you this afternoon."

The front door opened and slammed shut before a comical voice shouted out. "Oh, Honey, I'm Hoooome! Heeeeeheeheeheeheehee."

Jeff walked in from the Kitchen with a sandwich before mumbling around the food in his mouth. "'ey L.J. 'Ow's the 'unt?" (Hey L.J. How's the hunt?)

"Great, Jeffy, but it wasn't a hunt this time it was a job." The monochrome clown corrected. "It was a doosey this time." Jack walked in, grinning ear to ear and splattered in bright crimson being the only color in his otherwise black-and-white color palate.

"I can imagine, you were gone almost a full week." BEN said. "So, what happened?"

The lunatic giggled before crossing his legs in mid-air and hovering. "Well, it started out like this-"

The foster father was thrown backwards into a chair. Around him were a few of the childish drawings the kid had drawn over the past week or so. Each and every one of them had the image of a smiling clown with only black and white crayon. It had a pointy nose, sharp teeth, some black lines to represent claws, and black and white stripes along its unnaturally long arms.

For the past few days, the foster parent just ignored the brat's whines about "nightmares" and "imaginary friends" and just told him to shove it and go back to his room. Then, he'd usually just drown it all in beer he got from the government funds for keeping the brat in the first place.

Now, he was looking right at the "imaginary" friend, just a real as anyone else, but impossible all the same.

The clown grinned, exposing razor-sharp teeth set in black gums before shooting a razored claw right at his neck. The nails missed it, but only just. His neck was set right between two long, sharp claws pinning him to the upholstery.

The clown giggled mirthlessly before staring him down with cold, black eyes. "You know, my first kid was a lot like your son. Imaginative, fun-loving, happy even in the dreary conditions of his life. Of course, that was with his real parents.

"So, I'll give you a joke that my first kid would've enjoyed."

The clown leaned in until its pointy, conical, black and white nose was almost touching his human, fleshy one. Its left hand still pinned him to the chair while its right was poised just over his stomach.

"What's black and white and red all over?"

*splatter*

"ME! AHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"

"-and that's what happened." L.J. finished.

Harry was pale, but had come a long way since the first instance. At the very least, he didn't vomit again. Jeff nodded thoughtfully at his chosen method. "Cool method, though was the joke really necessary?"

The clown shrugged helplessly before replying. "It's my 'thang' you know? Plus, you can't spell 'slaughter' without 'laughter'. HAHAHAHAHA!"

The still-giggling clown made his way up the stairs to clean off the blood splatters.

Slendy watched the entire thing from his position in the archway and was glad to see Harry becoming well adjusted. He was still a bit shaken whenever someone recounted their… business or hunts, but didn't go catatonic at least. A small voice in the back of his head reminded him that this was a good sign towards Harry eventually…

Harry turned towards him. The boy's one green eye glistened malevolently while the other was just a bloody socket. His hands flickered with green electricity, threatening to destroy anything it came in contact with. His toothy grin revealed his tongue was split down the center and showed between two lengthened incisor fangs.

Dripping from between those teeth was meat and gristle. He took a breath to speak-

"Uh… Slendy?"

The entity was jolted from his thoughts and saw a normal, albeit pale, 7 year old staring back at him. He shook his head. "I'm fine Harry, just… thinking."

Harry nodded and ran back over to Sally, showing her a drawing of several creatures he discovered from the wards in Japan. Looking at the retreating figure, he decided he needed to delicately approach the possibility of Harry eventually… participating in their "jobs". Especially because of the tendency for his wards to become… less human-esque over time.

The entity left the scene and went down to the basement. He entered one of the laboratory facilities and saw E.J. and Timothy in a lab coat. They were diligently working in front of a large array of colorful glass tubes and beakers.

He emitted a sound like clearing his throat and the two turned, Jack still swirling a red concoction in a small beaker. "Jack? Could you please come with me. I have an… experiment if you are available."

Jack nodded and left a few instructions for the experiment for Tim to continue before following the faceless entity to one of the other laboratories at the end of the hallway. The Mansion had several laboratory facilities in the lower levels; A medical lab, a chemistry lab, a morgue/surgical theater, a physics lab, etc. They currently entered the physics laboratory.

Around them were several delicate instruments currently switched off. A Tesla Coil sat in the corner humming with charge. A large workbench of wire coils and magnets had instruments necessary to build anything short of a particle accelerator and was littered with wire cuts and electrical tape rolls.

Slenderman walked in and went to a relatively empty wooden table. Brushing aside several bits of scrap metal, he set down a few books he picked up on wave-and-energy-based physics along with his "errand" from Japan, still in its small, brown parcel.

Jack put on some fresh latex gloves and straightened his lab coat before entering. His eyeless gaze quickly found the package on the table.

"So, I take it that's your "errand"?"

"Yes. I needed a sample of something and the Japanese division is more… lax in their secrecy as opposed to the European division."

He carefully unwrapped the package and revealed a small, green gem that glowed slightly despite the fluorescent lights in the lab.

"This is a 'magical' variety of jade used by Tibetan monks and stone arts practitioners along with their "wizard world's" wands. It has unusual properties and my sources have assured me it is of the same energy-based nature as this 'magic' that this society finds so fascinating. Unfortunately, none of my sources have looked deeper into this society, so they couldn't tell me much more than that."

Jack nodded. "Yeah, that would've been a great contact. So, you want to analyze the energy it emits?"

"Yes. If possible I hope to isolate it and find a way to suppress its effects on us." E.J. looked at him for explanation. "When Harry had his… incident with the kidnappers, his magic was wildly out of control and saturated the very air. Somehow, this energy interfered with my own. I could not teleport and I could barely use my mental abilities."

E.J. raised an eyebrow. "How was your glamour?"

The entity "looked" puzzled despite his blank face. "It… remained intact."

"No fluctuations? Glitches? Abnormalities? Ripples?" The entity shook his head each time. "Interesting. We'll have to run some experiments regarding glamours and magic. Admittedly, glamours haven't been researched a lot. They've mostly just been… there, so it's been taken for granted. There may be something we can find out from it."

"Yes, but for now, let's focus on isolating the energy first."

E.J. took the glowing stone and placed it on a slab inside a small, glass box. He shut the lid carefully and started up a few nearby machines. Oscilloscopes showed a green wave on their display and the Geiger counter started clicking as readouts started coming out.

At first, the small jade stone just sat there, but as Jack gradually altered the dials, the glow intensified and it began shining like a floodlight. Soon, the Geiger counter sounded more like TV static than anything and the oscilloscope shorted out from impossible data. An EM shielded computer barely managed to suppress the immense field to gather rudimentary data on the radiation emission.

If Jack had eyes, they would be wizzing back and forth in their sockets, absorbing all of the information. "This is… spectacular! Look at this wavelength! I didn't even think a particle could move like that let alone cause that kind of reaction with matter!"

Slenderman nodded. While he wasn't terribly well-versed in quantum physics outside of teleportation and his radiation, he could see that the graphs and readouts were unlike anything he'd ever seen. He allowed the eager, eyeless doctor to continue enthusing about the data before interrupting.

"Jack, please focus. Do you think it is possible to develop a… sort-of callus to this? Something that gives us a buffer when we encounter it?"

"Well, sure, but why?"

"Well, for one, I would like BEN, Smile, and anyone else who may be affected to have a fighting chance against this energy. Additionally, I expect us to have a direct encounter with this society. Given that they quite literally enshroud themselves in this energy it could be debilitating."

E.J.'s sockets narrowed despite being devoid of flesh. He turned off the machines which whirred down to a dull hum and the jade piece resumed its faint glow. "How soon do you expect this "encounter" to be?"

"Within four years. When Harry turns 11." Slenderman admitted.

Jack waited for an explanation before shouting in frustration. "Well, why?! Why do we need to expect these people at all, Slendy?! Why 11?! What the f*ck is wrong with these people that we need to… essentially raise our defenses like we're going to war?!"

The faceless entity growled. "I. Don't. Know. To all of your questions. This society is completely backwards and has so many odd ends and corruption that it's filled with people who couldn't find their backsides with both hands and the hands of several others!"

The tall sighed being slowly settled himself onto one of the stools by the lab bench. "Jack, these people, these… 'wizards', are completely unpredictable. I don't know why they want Harry or what they will do with him when they find him. And, what's more, they are a complete unknown in any regards to us as a society, us as a… "family unit", or us as in the entirety of the Balance. I'm bolstering defenses because we don't even know what they have for offence."

The doctor sat in silence as the machines beeped and whirred in the background. After a few minutes, he spoke. "I understand, sir. I'll continue running some diagnostics and get back to you, but if it means anything, a resistance method looks promising."

The entity nodded and headed back upstairs, leaving the eyeless scientist to analyze the glowing rock. He brought along a few copies of the initial readouts with him. He made a beeline straight for his usual armchair before sitting down heavily and letting his "eyes" look over the documents as the others played calmly. Finally, Harry noticed the papers in his hands. Jeanette and the past month had helped him bolster his confidence significantly to the point where he was asking pertinent questions. "Slendy, what are you reading?"

Slenderman looked at the young boy. His innocent green eyes belied a power brimming just behind them. He "smiled" and replied, "Nothing, Harry. Just some documents E.J. gave me."

Harry nodded and continued his doodling. Slenderman let the "grin" slip back to his neutral blankness and went back to his documents.

This power was a force to be reckoned with for the Balance. The more he'd read about the frequency on these readouts, the more it became apparent that this power could change everything. This power could alter reality in any way, shape, or form and was clearly a danger to itself and humanity as a whole. Just the power of one wizard bent on world-domination could send the entire world into a mass panic.

Looking back at the child happily drawing, he had difficulties imagining the boy being capable of on the slightest whim reducing the world to ash.

Kudos to whoever gets the reference to whom/what sent out the other invite for Harry to meet more kids.

I want to say this out loud: I AM NOT HOMOPHOBIC! The "yaoi" references up there are just for comical relief. Also, one of Slendy's brothers may or may not be gay to toss in some variety. You'll see soon.

Disclaimers: I don't own Harry Potter or the creepypastas. I also don't own the "can't spell slaughter without laughter" joke, but I couldn't find the person who did.

I also don't own Ju On (the Grudge), The Ring, Pandora Hearts, Pokemon, Naruto (the top AN), Is This A Zombie? (the chainsaw-wielding boy in a pink dress), or the Higurashi series (Rena and Keiichi).

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Until next time!

Sincerely,

-Crow

-Akako and the Kagome Kids: "Kagome Kagome" by unknown

-Kuchisaka-Onna (Slit-mouth woman): Japanese urban folklore

-Jinmenken (man-faced dog): Japanese urban folklore

-Toshio: Ju-On (The Grudge): Japanese Horror Film

-Sadako: The Ring: Japanese Horror Film

-Keiichi and Rena: "Higurashi When They Cry": video game/anime/manga franchise

-Xerxes Break: "Pandora Hearts" by Jun Mochizuki: anime/manga series

-Chainsaw boy in a pink dress: "Is This a Zombie?" by Shinichi Kimura: anime/manga series

-"Dattebayo" AN: "Naruto" series by Masashi Kishimoto: anime/manga franchise