December 23rd 1988… Hawaiki, Oceania Expanse… Public Beach Fire-Load...
"Kuju-kiri?" Harry tentatively replied back.
"Kuju-kiri." Affirmed his masked, anonymous, guardian and sensei. Who only went by the name of her mask. The Oni.
"Aren't they just hand signs for meditation?" Harry asked his teacher with adept caution. His sensei had attacked more than once to keep his guard up after all. There was precedent for such things.
Sure enough his teacher threw a kunai straight between his legs with a flick of her wrist. Harry was prepared for that as he was able to back up enough even sitting down to avoid a kunai in the groin.
"You're reflexes are getting better, but you're still dumb as mud." His sensei relayed, as he dodged a second kuna aimed for his head.
"Kuju-kiri are the next step of development that all ninja must learn. You've already learned to shape your aura, thus mastered invisibility, deflection and recoil. You've learned to apply your aura to your physical attributes super-strength, agility, senses to name a few. You've even learned anti-wizard katas and aura drain." Oni informed him matter of factly, as if the hard work he had accomplished the last year and half was mere child play. Maybe it was to Oni, but Harry worked hard to learn those techniques, while learning a third language, potions, and of course, teacher Etera's lessons.
"And yet…" Oni purred.
"There are limits." Harry finished.
His sensei nodded, her hand correcting her mask slightly. "Kuju-kiri can immeasurably lengthen some of these arts given the right hand signs. Yet, that is mere tip of tanto, as Kuju-kiri helps harness the necessary psionic, null, and void energies to shape entirely new abilities."
His sensei flashed a hand sign. Her hands cupped together with her index fingers pointing outward. "This is Rin. Power, be that over oneself or others. It can strengthen your own aura, or others. Or it could be the catalyst for other abilities. Show me."
Harry took the meditative position, his aura sheathing over him with dark power that haloed in the brightness of midday. He cupped his fingers and pointed his fingers outwards like her. Nothing happened.
"Good, now repeat after me. I am empowered by power, strong and vital."
"I am empowered by power, strong and vital." Harry frowned when he said that, with no results to show for it. His aura still sheathed, with no noticeable changes.
"Good, you've learned sign and the mantra. Now bury it deep inside, become it and act through it." His sensei said.
"Uhmm…" Harry said, trying to buy time for his brain to catch up with what his sensei just said. What do you mean…"
"Each student has their own way. For all paths lead back to the same destination. Figure it out yourself."
Harry fell silent. This was hardly surprising. Much of learning how to harness his own aura over the years was through a tentative lesson and Oni leaving him to figure things out himself. That was fine, Harry thought. He was good at figuring his own abilities out.
First he tried repeating and imitating what Oni just did. Only to be left frustrated after an hour of self study with no results. Then he tried, repeating the phrase inside him. Again, after an hour, no results. It was frustrating. He needed to get results, or Oni would move him into another obstacle course.
Harry remembered that Kuju-kiri was after all a meditation technique. Maybe, if he tried meditating his aura, while internalizing the phrase and performing the hand sign, it would work? Well, as far as he was concerned it wasn't the stupidest idea Harry had besides trying to wrestle a stingray a couple months back. Before Etera literally overwhelmed him with psionic attack to prevent what would be his ignoble death.
Harry relaxed, returning to a sitting position, closing his eyes against the tropical paradise that surrounded him. Meditation was, from what he was taught, clearing one mind of obstacles and focus, either on mindlessness or down on a particular subject. In this case, I am empowered by power, strong and vital.
I am empowered by power, strong and vital. Nothing, because Harry had to admit he wasn't strong or vital, maybe he didn't have power either. Not if his aunt and uncle had to flee Japan because some crazy titanic britannic wizard wanted to kidnap him and do 'things' too. What those things were, he had no idea. But he did not have power, neither strong or vital.
I am empowered by power, strong and vital. Just because his power was small, Harry conceded did not mean that he wasn't strong or vital. Look at what he has done so far in his short time in life. He had defeated a shrine guardian. A nipponese troll-ogre-cyclops hybrid. He rescued his friend, and annihilated a millennial old wraith that had been sealed by the temple priests eons ago. Since coming here he had grown in leaps and bounds. While he hadn't made friends, he had earned respect and praise from wizards, sorcerers, and espers. Neither empty, nor contrite.
I am empowered by power, strong and vital. He was powerful. His aura power dwarfed even many of the elders back in Japan. And his uncle could barely perform a fraction of his own ninja abilities. And he was far older and wiser than Harry. His arm was some sort of natural psionic power of unknown ken and magnitude that made grown ups nervous. If that isn't some power, that isn't strong and vital. Then Harry didn't know what it was. He was empowered by His power, Strong and Vital.
Harry felt His power coursed through him. His power was immense. Like an everlasting maelstrom, the power was that immense. And he could do practically anything that he set his mind to.
Harry instantly reshifted his aura into deflection and velocity mode, narrowly missing the kunai of his sensei. The small drain of his aura compared to his power was laughable as it was insignificant. Speeding toward the waves lapping on to the beach, Harry reshifted his aura to walk on water. Taking a technique that he barely learned and enhancing it with all his power.
It worked. It worked too well.
Harry was running across the water, dodging and shifting between too many aura shifts to be healthy. Or even possible. Water walking, invisibility, velocity, agility, and drain all happening at the same instance. It was only when his aura completely shattered that he fell into the ocean, his belief in his invincibility and potence, gone in an instant.
When he washed up on shore coughing out the sea water, he realized he wasn't as powerful as he thought. His thoughts washed away like he had just been washed onto the shores. If it wasn't for him staring at the leather shoes of his aunt and the wooden sandals of Oni, Harry might have thought he avoided all punishment. That thought was immediately scuttled when looking at the disappointed look of his aunt and the half crooked mask of Oni. Uh oh.
"I think that's enough for today." His aunt began, helping Harry stand on his town feet.
"Madame, there is still sun left in the sky." Oni replied, her head declined to the point practically going horizontal over him. Several kunai and flechettes of black steel reflecting from her grasp. Practically begging to be launched at him.
His aunt scoffed. "Considering the episode of… whatever that was, I think Harry has the time. So missing the rest of one day is not going to significantly impact that."
Oni disagreed. "Every hour is precious when the next could be our death."
"Flea, would agree with you, naturally." His aunt said coolly. "Though, humor me when I ask when do you usually teach Kuju-kiri? It was Kuju-kiri was it not?"
Oni paused for a singular long minute, her armaments reaching into the folds of her clothing, before replying "... Usually around thirteen or fourteen, depending on their marks."
"Seeing as my ward is half that age, I'm going to say, it doesn't matter here." His aunt said, taking his hand and leading him across the beach.
"Harry is the powerful person that holds up the house. Too little, and the house will fall down." Oni cryptically replied. Whatever meaning she meant was lost to his ears. As his feet tread after the back of his aunt.
"Too much, and the house will crumble while the beam remains." Euphemia shotback, nearly out of ear shot. That seemed to stymie Oni, though, Harry was lost at the meaning of the exchange? House? Beam? Harry filed that away for future pondering. Maybe Etera would know?
The walk back to the house was done in silence. It was obvious that his aunt was rather concerned about him. Her angry strides across the coral strewn streets of Hawaiki, kicking up dust, caused many passersby to give her a wide berth and a sympathetic eye to Harry. Her silence was deafening as far as Harry was concerned. He'd rather be verbally cursed and dressed down by his uncle than suffer the disappointing silence of his aunt.
Then they arrived at their house.
Their house was a stark contrast to many of the open air coconut leafed longhouses and stilted houses that populated Hawaiki. So different in fact, that he was often asked to provide tours. Though, his uncle was very firm about disallowing any locals trudging his aunt's work. Though, Harry could understand the locals' curiosity. Even if he was used to it; having lived in it since he was born.
The house was a part of a vast compound. First surrounded by a range of hedges, a perimeter fence his aunt had said when he had asked when he was but a couple years old. Inside, the perimeter sat a large but comfortable Britannic garden. Composed of different gardens each with a singular purpose. A garden full of common potion ingredients. Another with rare or exotic ones. Multiple greenhouses to grow others that can't thrive in this tropical paradise. And others still were mere decoration, or defense. More than a few of the statues, he had been told can animate in case of attack. A sobering thought as he and aunt walked through the central boulevard covered in statues of archers, knights, and vikings alike.
His home, his uncle said, was a unique blend of Celtic, Britannic and Neo-Sidhe design. All Harry knew was that it was a giant tree. Not that it was a bad thing. Most children he had invited over stood stock still and were awed that he lived in a giant hollowed out tree. Well, maybe not exactly a hollowed out tree. The central rooms were in the enlarged and expanded central shaft of the giant willow tree, but his rooms and others existed on lower and higher branches accessed by inbuilt stairs morphed into the very branches themselves.
Why they lived in a giant tree, was a question Harry had been asked until his uncle finally told him, 'if we tried to live in a normal magical house, we'd blow it up within 90 seconds.' Ended that discussion for the time being. Harry shrugged those thoughts away entering the foyer to his home, slipping off his shoes and hat and following his aunt into the main kitchen and eating area.
His uncle was there sipping some tea and reading the Twilight Press. The one true wizarding international newspaper in circulation in nearly every wizarding nation, besides a few like Britannia and Arabia. Who's own internal censorship and distribution policies forbade such international broadsheets.
Harry sat tentatively at the table, at his trademarked spot. His gaze slid toward the corner to another table, where a white cloth sheet was covering up his aunt's latest experiment. A doll servant, something called a homunculi, that was supposed to be able to work with his and uncle's antimagic.
Why did they need a servant? It wasn't like there was much to clean anyway. Especially because his uncle always bought the latest no-maj appliances to service them anyway. So, it really didn't make sense in his seven year old brain. But, questions like those he had learned were unlikely to be answered. Or fed the same answers, over and over again.
Harry nearly jumped out of his skin, when his aunt clacked a couple plates of seasoned fish with roasted taro roots and rice in front of him. His uncle folded away the newspaper and looked meaningfully at Harry, his glasses pointed at the tip of his nose before gazing back at Euphie.
"Your home early." His uncle said.
His aunt hummed a quiet tune as flying pans, ingredients, and literal fire flew through the air in a thrum of organized chaos. She turned her head a fraction to give uncle a sardonic smirk. "Yes, well, we had an accident today at the labs." Euphie responded.
Harry knew that when they lived in Japan, Euphie was an adjunct professor at Mahoutokoro School of Magic in the realm of Magitek and Planar Studies. When they had moved here, she had been recruited to serve as a junior professor of Potions at Whare Maire Wahi-rūaumoko, Hawaika premiere and only magical academy.
"What kind of accident?" His uncle asked, adjusting his glasses preparing to eat.
"The usual kind. The kind that make Koldovstoretz potioners seem like foremost experts in potion making!" His aunt groaned, before continuing. "One of those imbeciles decided that mixing Poukai feathers with Cindaku fur with a thimble size element of their blood was an excellent idea for a potion. Instead of doing what I had directed them to do!" Euphiemia gustly exclaimed!
"Ouch." Fleamont's only response. "They still alive?"
Euphemia chuckled, dark and menacingly. "After a fashion. Not before they destroyed over a dozen cauldrons and caused the lavatube to cave in. "
"I don't even want to know." Fleamont said in between bites of fish. "Out of curiosity, what year were they?"
"Their sixth year; technically. Yet, they have the potion skills of a particularly inattentive Hogwarts second year, or Durmstrang third year." Euphemia said. Her own attention focused on guiding the array of pans, batter and diced dried tropical fruits into their respective containers.
His uncle grunted, still chewing on the Red snapper that he was eating thoughtfully. He swallowed and continued. "Huh, don't know about. So, I'll trust yer word on that front. By the way, what potion were you teaching them?"
"Mmm… acne eraser potion."
Fleamont laughed, so did Harry. "Those poor poor fools. If only they had listened instead of goofing off."
"And you know who I say goofing off on the way home?"
"Who?"
His aunt pointed at Harry, her gaze darkening a tad. "Our dear nephew was practicing dodging kunai while running across oceans waves and multi-shifting his null-aura."
His uncle looked at Harry, looked at his aunt, then looked back at him. In an instant, Harry felt an affectionate hair ruffle by his uncle. "Always what I like to hear. Improvement!" His uncle looked practically proud.
"FLEAMONT CENRIC POTTER, WE DO NOT NEED TO BE ENCOURAGING THIS." His aunt said. As the storm of pots, pans, ingredients fell in a cascading rumble like a torrential downpour. Both of the same impact.
"Auntie Euphie, I just got carried away is all! Don't worry next time…" Harry breathlessly said some platitudes hoping to forestall any angry denunciations.
"Ahh, Euphie lay off the boy." Fleamont said.
"Lay off!" His aunt angrily sputtered. "Lay off! Are you serious Fleamont! Harry could have been hurt, or drowned, or cracked his core!"
"When we agreed to have Ms. Uesugi train Harry, it was with the expectation that these incidents might happen."
"Operative word is might here, Fleamont, MIGHT."
"Well, now they have! Harry has shown us even at a young age…"
"Harry is seven years old! He's not young, he's practically an infant!
"And yet when I talk to him, he's more like an undergrown teenager. He's mature and powerful like no one his age, so it's no excuse to talk down to him like he's…"
"Talking down to? What are you talking about FLEAMONT, he's still a child. A child given all these powers. I couldn't do even a fraction of things he could, neither could you!"
"He's powerful, we knew that given…"
The voices receded away as Harry backed away from the argument that was engulfing the dinner table. Harry didn't want his aunt and uncle arguing. Especially not about him. It was unfair. He was only doing what his sensei asked him to do. And while he was not being punished about it, they were arguing about it.
It was so unfair, Harry thought, climbing the stairs to his room. He went out onto the window, the same window years ago that he was propelled through by a wraith. And watched the ocean waves, accede and recede, his thoughts propelled by wanting to go back to Japan. And not have his aunt and uncle argue all the time about his training. And he could make friends here, or see his old friends back in Japan.
It was just so totally unfair.
January 9th 1989… Hawaiki, Oceania Expanse… Rangatire Etera's House, Interior...
His teacher, Etera, sat crossed legged on a bamboo floor open air facing the vast oceans beyond. His features subdued as he sat meditating this morning. Harry sat cross legged across from him as well, his features nervous and anxious. Etera was not Oni. When Harry failed at something, physical exercise or dodging her sharp projectiles were his preoccupations.
With Etera? When he failed, his disappointment was harsh like a lash to his back. When he had succeeded, his approval was like swimming in the warm waters around his house. Pleasant, refreshing, glorious.
Lessons should have started by now, Harry thought, trying not to look around the sparse room agitated by the change in routine. Usually, they would begin a light number of topics in the morning ranging from psionic theory to power nullification, to mind influencing to the very basics of psionic power, as well as mutual investigation of the mystery that was Harry's right hand. All of it done with relaxed pace, with most of it about theory with no practicums yet.
It was a welcome respite before the storm that was Oni's training regimen. Now, though… something was afoot. Harry thought, his hands sweating with anxiety, he could see it, he could practically sense. The image popped into his head, of a challenge awaiting to be awarded to a boy becoming a warrior. Where did that come from? Harry thought as the thought disappeared as quickly as it appeared.
Fortunately, his teacher Etera stirred finally. Opening his dark almond eyes locking on to Harry's in an instant. His brow momentarily furrowed, before a genuine smile crossed his face. "A child's curiosity is a wonderful thing is not my student?"
Harry's thought paused, at the non sequitur. He fumbled about trying to put together a response to his teacher's question. His teacher put an end to his fumblings.
Etera smiled wider. "No need to speak, my student. I was merely commenting on the growth of your mind. Like the Octopus, you are curious and smart, always reaching out with your many arms testing the limits of the world around you."
Harry bowed, it was an old affectation from Japan, but he hadn't been able to lose it since arriving in Hawaiki. "Thank you teacher." Even if Harry hadn't a clue what his teacher was talking about.
Etera continued smiling as he stood up stretching his extremely well toned, tattooed and heavily war scarred body. Much of it uncovered as was the way of Polynesian custom. Something that Harry was still getting used to after spending all this time here. The amount of nudity was quite obscene at times. However, like his aunt said, just as he learned to respect Japanese custom, he too should learn to respect Polynesian custom.
"No, need to thank me, Harry, thank yourself and your strong parentage." Etera said, looking at the ocean beyond. "Instead, let us walk with our feet bare on the sands. Feel our connection to the world and spirits grow ever closer."
They walked from Etera's house along the white and black sand beaches that dotted Hawaiki. They walked in silence, as Etera seemed more lost in his own thoughts than to give Harry anything resembling a lesson. Instead, Harry's mind wandered all over the place.
The area that it wandered most too was that weird vision, or idea that had popped into his mind earlier. What was that? Harry tried to recall what he learned about psionics. And it's differences with shinobi art of utilizing null.
Psionics in its most basic form is the use of the power of one's mind to alter the physical world around them. This is the inverse of magick, where you use one's body to alter one's space around them. Wizards and sorcerers need instruments, wands, swords, staffs, hands, incantations or other foci to cast spells. With psionics one needed their mind, imagination and knowledge to induce that change. It was why Etera had been drilling the theory and history over the past year.
From what Etera had told him, espers had appeared across history often to be destabilizing elements to both the magical and muggle worlds. It was why wizards feared, hated and tried to emulate them on most occasions. Some magical arts like legilimency and occlumency were made respectively to emulate and defend against espers. While espers foremost abilities, like nullification, mind-control or annihilation had no defense, made them hated in most circumstances.
Was it possible, Harry pondered, that he was able to break his teacher's psionic shield? Did he really take a snippet from his teacher's mind? Considering his teacher was still being quiet as they were doing one long silent walk, maybe he was expecting a repeat? Psionics was an art in itself, encompassing a vast variety of powers from merely influencing a mind to viewing memories and thoughts to controlling a person completely and utterly to one's commands. Had he already progressed so far?
What was Etera thinking?
The question was simple. The result was not. Harry was subjected to a full vision. A man stood practically nude on a shore just like this one. Beasts of the sea and men on shore battled strange humanoid creatures of spikes, thorns, and horns. A great spherical portal stood in the sea. Its vistage is like a vast circle of tv static. As more, and more terrible humanoid creatures clad in strange blood-metal red armor flowed outwards like termites pouring out of a threatened hill.
And just like that the memory was gone. Harry found himself, collapsed in the surf, with Etera staring down on him with a smile that could warm a house.
"Excellent, my student, your skills are like a shark. Merely untapped until you exercise your fins into the shallows." Etera praised Harry.
"Errr… teacher, what do you mean?" Harry said, trying not to feel embarrassed
"My student, please don't be coy. Your mind's eye has grown so much that you can even ensnare passing thought-remnants from me." Etera said, sitting down on the tide line. Harry followed suit.
"I just asked a question. I didn't really expect it to work!"
"Ahh but, intent is a funny thing. You wanted to know why I was just sitting still for the last couple hours. Just as now you wanted to know why we were walking." Etera lectured Harry, though truth be told, Harry felt wrong for intruding on his teacher's memories. "The truth was I was testing you."
"Testing me?" Harry asked, slightly taken aback.
"Why of course. We've already gone over so much psionic theory to give a wizard aneurysm, it was time to put some of that into practice." Etera said simply.
"But I didn't do anything!" Harry said, more for saying. While most of the time he was always extremely grateful for whatever attention Etera may shower him with. This time, it felt wrong. Like he had just stepped on fish guts or stuck his hand in his own feces.
"You did indeed. You sought out with your mind answers to your questions. For someone so young to be able to do so! You may be ready already for the first rite! " Etera replied, his voice calm and even. So much so, that whatever inhibitions that Harry had ebbed.
"First Rite?"
"The First Rite of Manhood. Don't say your uncle has not talked about this?" Etera tone shifted from calm to curious, confused and confounded.
Truthfully, his uncle hadn't. Or more likely Harry thought, thinking about this critically, it might be that here in hawaiki there were such rites. While in Japan there wasn't. And maybe back where he was born in Britannia, it was a thought that didn't exist. It was something to ponder.
"No. No, he didn't say anything."
Etera's head snapped onto him, his dark eyes boring into him. "I know for a fact, that the land of Britannia, the Land of the Celts. With their druids, and shamans were masters of ancient rites. Rites that were envied the world over. Was why a Roman politico-mage, Julius Caesar I think, invaded them originally. Rites that your uncle should know! And rites he should have told you! Does your family not speak of the Rites and rituals of the stages of life?"
Etera said with a look of incomprehension on his face. As if Harry's admission tripped up a cultural touch-stone that was vital to Oceania, or at least Oceania's magical community. Harry fumbled his response. "I mean, no? I mean, I prayed at a few shrines in Japan, mostly because my friends did. My aunt believes in the Christian God, but they aren't especially religious. I haven't been raised religious, I don't think I am?" Harry rambled.
Etera lowered his arms and hand, his voice carrying a tone of sorrow. "Has Britannia sunk so low that they've forgotten about the important rites of life?" Harry didn't say anything. Mostly because he didn't know what to say. It's not like he even lived in Britannia before he, his uncle and aunt had to flee there because of 'institutional prejudice'. This whole degeneration of the conversation was weird as far as he was concerned.
Etera composed himself, his arms retreating behind his back as he got up to continue the previous walk across the beach. Harry quickly got up and followed after him, his thoughts momentarily set aside to keep pace with his teacher. "Harry, if what you say is true. Then something very wrong occurred to Britannia. I'll follow up with your uncle to be sure." Etera said.
Harry nodded. "Yes, sir."
Etera stopped and stared out into the Horizon, beyond the lapping waves into the great ocean beyond. "Regardless, in my culture it's required to teach the next generation everything that is necessary for them to participate in the world. Some of that is through instruction, other times it is through rites of passage. When a boy is circumcised, when he sexually mature, or his powers have grown, we conduct a rite to both test and celebrate this next change in the wheel."
"So, what does that have to do with me, Sir?" Harry asked. He didn't really know any of that stuff. Though considering how open the islanders were about stuff…
Etera smiled. "I'm getting there. Unfortunately, your aunt was very vehement about the first and second points as being too inappropriate for you. I would disagree, but I'm not your guardian, so I can't force the issue. That said, I do think considering the growth of your powers you are ready to prove the next step in your manhood."
Harry gulped, reviewing everything the conversation had degenerated down. "And what does that mean?"
"Well, usually we strip you, blind fold, tie you and then dump you alone in the Jungle in search of an object or lore at a temple, or tomb nearby. During which you might have to fight a plethora of magical creatures, avoid ancient traps or figure out arcane puzzles. After you find the ancient knowledge, we usually conduct a few night long banquets and a month-long process of implanting your tautau." Etera said with surprising frank equanimity.
Harry gulped. His aunt was going to have a cow. That was sure.
February 11th 1989… Hawaiki, Oceania Expanse… Temple of Unknown Achievement, Interior Jungles…
It was starting to become a trend now. No, scratch that, it was becoming annoying now. Harry thought, stealthily examining the stone encased temple. A near exact replica of the same one that he and his friends in Japan had been sent to. Only difference now, of course, was that he was alone.
Well, not alone. The Poukai, or the Haast Eagle guarding the perimeter of the temple ensured, just like the Troll-Oni that was guarding the last temple-shrine, a battle would ensue. The problem, in Harry's mind, was whether or not he wanted to engage in battle.
He remembered the teachings of Oni. Every battle you choose is a choice. Do you engage or do you not engage? Simple, yet not. Factors, terrain, numbers, enemies, dictate your decision. Your own abilities, allies, and advantages influence whether you commit or seek a different path. For every battle is an obstacle, one that can be confronted head on or circumvented.
The question stood. Crouched on a tree limb, carefully camouflaged, blending in with the surrounding jungle foliage. Should he circumvent the Poukai? Or face it in battle.
Poukai were gigantic birds, the one currently perched on a lip of the entrance to the temple, was easily twice as big as Harry. And just looking at the talons showed that they weren't to be messed with. As they seemed to drip some sort of liquid. Either of a recent kill or something else, didn't really didn't make trying to battle on particularly appetizing. Nor did sneaking up on one. As Harry recalled Etera's lessons about Poukai.
Poukai are one of the eleven Tapu birds of Oceania, considered both sacred and extremely dangerous. Full grown Poukai often hunt and kill Moas and Ostriches, and have been known in the past to hunt mana-less Iwi Tamariki. They can be as tall as a man, and have a wingspan three times that. Particularly dangerous Poukai excrete soporific poisons through their talons that slow and paralyze their prey. And their beaks are known to crack dragonbone on occasion.
Naturally, Etera had neglected to speak anything about important attributes. Like whether they could fly, what their hearing or eyesight were like. Or the tactics of how to kill one. Though considering if they could attack and kill ostriches, who were practically monsters in their own right. Harry had to conclude fighting one straight up was a death sentence.
His null aura was his biggest advantage. He had absolute stealth, as well as bursts of superhuman agility, strength and endurance. He had also learned the very basics of kuju-kiri, able to empower his aura several manifolds above his current level at a much longer time. He also learned a bit more of psionic thought-snatching. Yet that was with other people, not animals. Would he even understand what he experienced? Nevermind, alert it to his presence?
What to do. What to do. What to do.
Unfortunately, and fortunately for Harry, the giant bird took flight. Its massive wingspan unfurled and flapped, with nary a squawk heard. The giant eagle took to the skies. Above the towering canopoly. Off to pursue prey, Harry thought for a brief moment.
Harry, maddeningly briefly considered running across the open field to the temple's entrance. Before nixing that idea outright. For one thing, the Poukai might be merely hovering and flying out of view, ready to dive bomb him. Second, for what was ostensibly an overgrown temple in the far reaches of the volcanic and mountainous island of Hawaiki, there was a clear demarcation between the forest and the temple proper. As if the jungle itself would not approach the temple proper. Something that lined up exactly with the same temple in Japan. Not to mention the various lumpy volcanic stone statues that so happened to be scattered along the periphery said everything to Harry. It was a trap.
Not everyone considered that a trap however. Forward and to his three o'clock direction emerged from the undergrowth, a young man or older boy, wielding a staff of somesort and painted symbols. Who had seen the Poukai disappear made a mad dash toward the temple entrance.
And here, Harry was unfortunately right.
The tumbledown volcanic stone statue erupted from the earth with magicks unseen by Harry's eye. In fact, Harry could actually see it! Great heads of stone erupted from the ground, supported by diminutive bodies. Its heads gnashed and howled green magic that burnt the undergrowth around them. Other statues came together as monsters composed of boulders. Held together by strings of glowing yellowish energy that seemed to radiate light in the gloomy undergrowth.
And the blasted Poukai was back!
It came swooping in, barely missing the boy, as the boy casted some sort of shield charm that temporarily blocked the Poukai's claw from ripping the boy to shreds. The boy dodged a gout of greenish flame from one of the heads and retreated into a tumble down hollow. The statues futilely trying to retrieve the boy. Stone arms raking the entrance or trying to claw deeper. The Poukai circle at the top of the clearing, waiting.
Harry didn't consider whether or not to save him. Instead his mind bit down his own encounter with the oni that he had killed at the Japanese temple all those years ago. How close to death he was going into a situation he was at severe disadvantage. It was only luck and his special power that he was able to escape alive. Whoever this person was probably didn't have the same luck. Harry was going to be that luck.
Harry meditated briefly, his hand forming the hand sign of Rin, power, his aura shifting over him like one large dark fog bank instead of being haloed. When he arose, he was power and he knew what to do first.
Kill the Poukai.
Harry shifted his aura to give him better eyesight and increase his muscular density. Keeping his senses open, Harry slid down the tree, finding and hefting a small rock, about the size of his fist. Gazing up at the circling Poukai, Harry shifted his aura enhancing his upper body strength in an instant. Tracking the Poukai, just as he had done in bow hunting in Japan, he hefted and shot put the stone into orbit. Or well, pretty close to orbit as far as Harry was concerned.
His aim was straight on.
The stone rocketed out from his hand, causing a small amount of shockwaves to erupt around it, as the stone in one instant smashed into the poukai's unfeathered head. Momentarily stunning it as it fell like a stone to the forest floor below.
Harry didn't even take a glance at his handy work, he was already moving forward. His aura shifted from superhuman strength to magical drain and deflection. It worked to save him from the gout of greenish flames that the first head presented him. However, finding his hand full of his mysterious psionic energies, Harry rushed forward and sidestepped the second gout of flames before slamming his right hand into the statue.
Y'OUCH. His hand felt like he slammed it on something hard. Which, Harry did acknowledge after the fact, he did try to punch a stone statue.
The statue didn't scream so much, but much of the magical energies dissipated instantly in a small shockwave that rushed over him. Instead of feeling drained from using his special powers, he felt energized, as his aura shifted over him more powerful and thick than before. Good thing too, as Harry was literally punted across the temple grounds by one of the big boulder monsters.
Harry was lucky this time he didn't break any bones. Well, anymore bones. Looking at his bleeding right hand with bone showing through the skin, told Harry he couldn't do what he just did to that head against this monstrosity.
Jumping up from the ground, he ran sideways to the boulder monster. He shifted his aura into a raging blackhole of draining. Harry could see the magical bindings break, as he dodged lumbering attack after attack. Boulders sheared off the biggest monstrosity, tumbling and rumbling to the ground. Before Harry could celebrate his success, he was attacked. He had never checked to see if he had killed the Poukai.
He had never checked the body. It wasn't dead.
The Poukai screamed out of the sky, its talons reaching for Harry as he was dancing out of the way of the second boulder-monstrosity's boulder fists. Harry desperately in that moment tried to shift his aura to speed, but maintaining magical drain was both draining for him and the monster. So shifting over to agility in that moment was not possible. Harry still tried anyway.
Harry felt one of the claws impact his right shoulder tearing through the skin, tendons and muscle with little effort. The talons gripped him as Harry could see the Poukai reared its ugly head, its beak ready to gouge him of his entrails there and then.
In a moment of fortitude though as the eagle reared its beak and head to try to eat him, Harry pulled out his tanto with his remaining hand. Stabbing upwards Harry was rewarded with a stream of blood and guts as Harry's frenzied strike to the Poukai's throat ran true. Still the Poukai gripped him with its lone talons as it tried to flap away, now that its life was quickly running out from his sliced gullet.
Still he was now practically dead. His feet felt dead under him. The bird was practically on top of him. The aura had died down. And the second boulder monstrosity was aiming its boulder fist straight for both Harry and the Poukai. Harry was doomed.
However, luck was on his side. As the older boy from before emerged from his hollow. His staff was alight with magic that spiraled out, an incantation of Maori threw Harry in a loop. Until he translated what he said into english.
BOMBARDA. BOMBARDA. BOMBARDA. BOMBARDA SOLEM. BOMBARDA MAXIMA! BOMBARD MAXIMA TRIA!
The Poukai was blasted away, taking a pound of Harry's flesh with him. The boulder monstrosity collapsed from explosions raking its torso and head. The heads exploded in splinters of volcanic rock. Their green flames burning away the undergrowth. Lighting the scene as it were, as Harry shifted to aura to act as a bandage and stopper to his wound.
A shadow overmatched him and Harry tightened his grip on his tanto. His aura flared back into being like a ruddy black flame. A reaction drilled into him by his uncle, his sensei and his aunt about being wary about wizards who have espers at their weakness. Harry focused his aura, shaping it like a japanese snow leopard that charged and growled at the intruder with defensive intentions.
"Woah, woah, easy there mate, I aint doing nothing. Came to check after… whatever the fuck you just did there." The wizard said, his staff warding away Harry's aura that had shifted into an angry tiger.
"Sorry." Harry said, half not sorry, his aura shifting back around him still haloed to keep the wound from bleeding too much. The soporific was easily cured by snatching an antidote from his ninja rigging and drinking it on the spot. He sat up and evaluated his savior.
The boy was really more of a teenager. Easily twice of Harry's age. He had a pair of cotton shorts and a wrapped red bandana around his right arm. Unlike many other youths of his same age, he was tautau free. Unmarked, a sign that he either was from the untouchable caste or sign of very bad luck. And his skin was quite lighter, more tanned like Harry than browns or black like other islanders.
"Bloody hell, your Professor Ollivander's esper, what is an ankle biter like yous doing out here?"
Harry grunted as he finished straightening up, his ninja clothes ripped and torn from the frenzied fight that just occurred. Harry slapped on a bandage soaked in anti-magical healing ingredients, mostly fungi and bat droppings, to help heal what was likely his newest scar. On his chest and on his right hand. "A rite of manhood."
"Fuck me dead, mate. Youse awfully young, though yah taking down that Poukai and distracting the statues made the rest a piece of piss." He said, nodding before looking at my wound. "Yah going to be alright mate, need help making it back to town?"
"No, I need to get into the temple, finish the rite."
"Good on yah for that, but seriously, yah look like a trashheap. Best you seat your arse down and relax for a bit. Yah, are bloody as all hell." The islander said in the strangest English accent that Harry had heard.
Harry stood up tentatively. His steps uneven as he slowly moved forward toward the temple. "No. Can. Do."
"Bloody hell, ma, is going to have a fit when she hears about this. But I owe yah, so don't say I don't honor my debts you bugger." The teenage wizard said, as we loped our toward the temple. The wizard stayed out of Harry's aura range. But Harry admitted he wasn't going to be getting back to town easy either. Only way out in Harry's mind was forward. Solve the manhood rite, so his handlers would come back and him up. Maybe with the Wizard as well.
"Didn't mention me name, did I? Name's Jayden. Yousors?"
"Harrier. Harrier Potter."
The boy whistled. "So you're one of the missing Potter triplet, this explains much."
Harry raised an eyebrow but didn't push further. Whatever the wizard was talking about wasn't likely about him anyway. His aunt and uncle had told him that his parents were for all intents and purposes dead, and he didn't have siblings. And considering Potter was supposedly a common name, he figured the wizard had him confused with someone else. Not that Harry was going to correct him. As Oni said, lulling your opponents in a false sense of assurance leads to their downfall in the end.
The temple itself on closer examination showed that while it shared the same architectural properties as the one that he and his friends had encountered in Japan. There were marked differences. The one in Japan looked like a very old Japanese shrine with its tilted, slanted roofs supported by giant stone walls. This had the angled roof yet was more supported by a giant stone box with the entrance descending into the earth instead of the structure being predominantly above ground.
What this meant, Harry had little idea. Only similar structure like this was Egyptian tombs. And even then, it was mostly by inference. As his aunt had many photographs of visiting Egyptian tombs when she was a small girl. How they were carved into a slide of a cliff or descended under a pyramid, was too… similar to be coincidence in his mind.
What this entailed in the grand picture, Harry had no idea.
Pushing open the half-rotten wood entry door, he and the wizard descended down an ever slanting stone staircase past etched carvings of… something. The wizard had graciously lit his staff with a ball of light that floated on top of it. Illuminating the carvings.
The first scene depicted various worlds confined to a ring of all things. Long lines of various humanoids descended past. A few of them looked familiar. Centaurs, goblins and giants being most apparent. It looked like they were at peace, as many motifs showed the signs of trade, wealth and prosperity as they passed them by.
That changed in the next scene. The images encompassed wherewithin were not of conflict, but of arrival. Two arrivals in fact. One showed a line of kings, or maybe princes of creatures that evoked religious imagery. Some looked like literal devils, others angels, and others like fish people dressed in regalia and crowns commanding legions of similar followers. The other one was… difficult to explain.
Instead of arriving via portal, they arrived in what looked like space rockets. Only much bigger, if going by their relative size compared to the ring. Instead of the funnels, cylindrical rocket shapes that he had spied on no-maj sci fi films that he and his uncle had watched from time to time. These rockets looked blocky, angular, more like flying bricks than space rockets that he used.
After that though… The carved murals were disfigured, destroyed, and ultimately undecipherable. The reason why their destruction wasn't clear, though if this temple was maybe a testament to what happened. Maybe someone didn't want that history to be revealed again? Harry didn't have a clue.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, it was apparent that this temple or tomb had no traps. No tricks to befall unwary visitors. Instead most of its defenses were built into being at an inaccessible location and its guardians out front. Or more likely, any traps had long been disabled by previous visitors that had looted and likely ruined the carvings they passed in the last five minutes, Harry thought sourly.
Harry's mood was not helped when they discovered the room they found themselves in was completely empty. Fifteen feet by fifteen feet, the room was not large nor was it particularly big. The walls were completely smooth. Too smooth in fact, that when Harry hobbled to look at them, he was sure they looked melted. Weird.
"Beauty mate! All that work to find ourselves the right old empty room. Damn right dardy their mate." The wizard called Jayden said, in a tone that Harry thought might have been sarcasm. The wizard's voice echoing against the walls in an unnerving fashion.
"We fight our way right through those bloody shits, go past a strange headache inducing murals and what do we find, a bloody fucking empty room. Gods of fires, ocean and gahhhh…" The wizard broke out whatever he said, as Harry turned to see what was the matter. Harry's eyes went wide as saucers.
The wizard was now floating in the middle of the room. Harry backed away as he could smell the sickening scent of raw magic in the room. He couldn't see it, but for some reason he could smell it. And worse, the wizard rotated to stare at Harry. His eyes rolled back inside his head that only the white could be seen. His voice changed tone from strange twangy accent to deep, and ravenous tone of something very dark, nebulous and dangerous.
Born under the Conjunction of Unknown Spheres
The Three Heirs of Death Shall be Heralded
Three Terrible Confluences of Val
Three Horrific Results Await
You shall know each by the Sign they leave.
One shall end the Dark Messiah
Bringing forth the Age of Apathy
One shall be reborn to the Dark Messiah
Ushering forth an Age of Conflict
One shall remit the Primordial
Delivering an Age of Rejuvenation
Beware their personage...
For it speaks of great calamity and change…
Cunning is the Naga for he has Simple goals
His court rife with intrigue and unlikely allies as they overturn the old Order
Wrathful is the Nyctimene for her Wings have been clipped
Her Rage will make the World weep tears of blood that shall fill Oceans in their Apathy
Patient is the Kraken for his tentacles are long
For he shall hide in Oceans, deep and vast, waiting to emerge with all his Brethren
Then you will come face to face with the Aspects of Death
For when the Deathly Hallows Rise again
You will all know that Death is indeed a Jealous God.
Harry barely had time to consider, whatever the 'bloody hell' if he were to quote his uncle here, before he felt the sickening sweet magic disappear. Dropping the wizard unceremoniously onto the ground. His body falling in a twisted and unnatural fashion.
Harry stood breathing, in and out. His mind awash with questions. Deathly Hallows? Naga? Nyctimene? Kraken? What was all of that gibberish? Harry had neither the context nor the experience to really understand what he had just heard. Scratch that, anything that he had experienced since walking down the steps he had no context for. And he didn't want context now, as he went to help the wizard.
Only when he got to the wizard, he heard the tell tale sounds of voices echoing down the chamber. At least he wasn't going to hobble his way back to town?