Work of fanfiction

"You're…you're a Muggle?" breathed Ron.

"Hardly. I'm a janshi."

THE POWER THE DARK LORD KNOWS NOT

 They gaped at him open-mouthed. "Ja…janshi?" squeaked out Hermione.

He slapped his forehead. "I keep on forgetting that no one knows about us now! Look, I'll explain in class. But right now, I gotta go check the Ravenclaws for potential. Ja na. Remember, right after lunch, meet me outside the DADA classroom." He walked off.

The trio looked at each other. "JANSHI?" they all asked as one.

Transfigurations and Charms flew by quickly, Harry and Hermione soon finding themselves eating in the Great Hall, anxious to get to the new class. They did indeed have the exact same schedule. They both felt it was a lucky break, as Ron didn't have anything but the Warrior Arts class with them. Well, at least they had it every day. Ron sat down with a thump, looking slightly singed.

"Merlin, Ron! What happened to you?"

The redhead looked over at Harry slowly. "Salamanders, Harry. Nice, safe salamanders. Except that they live in a FIRE!"

"Ah." Harry slid a plate of food towards Ron. "Care of Magical Creatures, huh?"

Ron nodded as he shoveled down food. Hermione looked over at him. "So what happened? Did you fall in the fire?"

Ron muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "Sod off". Harry snorted and took a drink of pumpkin juice.

"Should we get going for Warrior Arts?" asked Hermione.

Harry pushed the rest of his food away and nodded. "Meet us at the DADA classroom, Ron?"

Ron mumbled his assent through a mouthful of his BLT.

Kai was back in the leather armor when he picked up the group in front of the classroom. Ron had to run to catch up, as he had taken too long at lunch.

The scarred man led them to a large classroom with a lot of open space. Desks had been set out in front of a freestanding blackboard, along with some benches and chairs. There was also a large table. The students took out their wands as they came in the door.

Kai turned around and looked at them. "Now, as I'm sure you all know…no, no, wands away!" The class grumbled and put their wands away. "Thank you. Now, as you all know, I am Professor Kai Reased. I teach Warrior Arts. The course goals in this class are…" His arm snapped up and a blast of coruscating fire flew out of it, destroying the blackboard. "Not important." He blew up the desks in the same manner. "Now," he said with a smirk on his face, "You all groaned when I told you to put your wands away. I can promise you that this class is entirely practical, so it shouldn't be boring. I also can promise that you will not learn anything useless in this class. Finally, I will also promise that you won't learn a single bit of magic in this class."

Shock, screams, and indignation. Kai snickered. Luna, the only person outside of the Dream Trio to be unsurprised, or at least to hide their surprise, raised her hand. "Professor? What will you be teaching us, then? This is a school of magic."

"Yes, it is a school of magic," agreed Kai, "But then, you can't expect me to teach you magic, seeing as I'm not a wizard."

"What!?" yelled Malfoy, "What is a Muggle doing at Hogwarts? This is worse than the Mudbloods!"

Malfoy rose into the air, rigidly enclosed in the coruscating fire. "Shutting up now, Mr. Malfoy?" asked Kai evenly. Malfoy couldn't answer, almost as if he was in a full-body bind. "Good. Now, the first thing you should realize is that Muggles are the majority of humanity. Wizards and witches are genetic freaks, proved by the fact that magical people can be born to completely Muggle families, and that Squibs exist. That being said, I'm no Muggle." The fire disappeared and Malfoy dropped to the ground awkwardly. "I am an even rarer form of humanity, a janshi. Now, for those of you who read the Quibbler, or whose father owns it, you might know that in this month's issue, there was an article on us. It tells you almost nothing. I can tell you almost everything. Now, who wants to know about the most powerful warriors on earth?"

"If you're so powerful, why haven't you killed You-know-who?" asked Justin Finch-Fletchley.

"I'll assume you're talking about Voldemort," said Kai nonchalantly, "Well, I probably would've, if there wasn't a prophecy that bans me from the act. Still, soul fire would probably be helpful for the guy to learn how to use." Harry could have sworn that the scarred man's eyes flicked over to him at that. "Anyway. Now, I won't be able to teach all of you to manifest soul fire, but that isn't the only thing I'm here to teach you." He pulled out his sword. Harry's eye took it in. The blade wasn't curved too much, but the blade was much longer than most katanas. The hamon was very well defined, and the whole blade shone. "I see someone in the room knows a bit about swords," smirked Kai at Harry. "We'll be using first names in here, so Harry, points to Gryffindor if you can tell me about this blade." He flipped the sword so as Harry could grab it.

Harry took the katana and looked at it. "Well, it's longer than most katanas are, but less curved. The hamon is very distinct, but it doesn't look like it was chemically etched, too uneven. So it was traditionally clay tempered." He swung it just a bit. "Feels like folded steel, and the balance point is near the hilt. And it's been used."

Kai took the sword back. "Naturally. I'd say fifty points to Gryffindor. Now, as for what you missed. This is an extremely old-style katana, dating back to the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. It's of full-tang construction, and is from a janshi swordsmith." He moved it through a blurringly fast routine, light flashing around his body. "Fully functional." He sheathed it. "Now, the first thing I have to teach you is how good Muggles are at killing." He smiled and amended himself, "Or rather, how ingenious." He walked over to the table and picked up a pistol, cocking it, and flipping off the safety. "This is a Heckler and Koch .40 caliber Unified Services Pistol, considered by many to be the most advanced pistol in the world." He spun and fired three times, blowing the smoke from the USP's barrel after he raised the pistol from firing position. "Come over here," he said as he safed the pistol and walked over to the wall he had shot. The class followed him, and looked at the three small craters, with smears of lead in them. "Now as I'm sure you're aware, the Shield Charm can defend against physical attacks as well as magical ones. What you probably aren't aware of is the fact is that the first bullet would have shattered the charm. The other two would have blown bloody holes in the person behind it, likely killing them. And this is just a pistol. I'm sure most of you have heard of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One bomb for each city. Makes 'let this thing be destroyed' look rather pathetic, neh?"

Cho raised her hand. "Professor?" He glared at her. "Kai? What is 'let this thing be destroyed'?"

Kai sighed. "The incantation for the Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra, is a bastardized version of the Aramaic for 'let this thing be destroyed'. That's not the point though. The point is, wizards are really novices at killing compared to Muggles. You'd all do well to remember that, especially as part of this class is learning how to use a Muggle weapon. In most cases, a sword." He walked over to the table. "Don't worry, you don't need to get one. I had Albus enchant a number of blades for this purpose." He picked up a straight blade with oriental styling. "Cho, this is yours. Tai chi sword." The sword and sheath floated through the air to her. "Luna, you'll be using a rapier, third generation." Her sword and sheath flew over to her as well. "Draco, kris sword." A wavy blade, looking much like a snake, moved over to the Slytherin. "Justin, broadsword." A no-nonsense broadsword floated to in front of the Hufflepuff. "Seamus, claymore." The Scottish blade moved to in front of the Irish Gryffindor. "Tonfa, I think, Neville." A pair of studded rods with handles sticking out of them, floated towards the round-faced boy. "Ginny, shamshir." The Middle Eastern scimitar flew over to her. "Hermione, ninja-to." The straight-bladed Japanese weapon zipped to in front of Hermione's face. "Harry, katana." The samurai blade flew to in front of Harry's face. "And Ron, double-sided, long-blade spear." The polearm, in three pieces, flew over to Ron. "The blades are all enchanted so that they won't cut for the moment. I want you to start carrying these around so much that you no longer carry them, but wear them. You will be the only people able to draw them. Now, Ron, Neville, here are your carriers." Special carriers flew towards them. "That's pretty much it for the day. Get a feel for your weapon if you want to, ask me about it, go study it, do homework for another class, or just plain screw off. I don't really care."

Harry thrust the katana's sheath through one of his belt loops. To be honest, it felt rather natural, hanging by his side. Hermione tried to emulate him before realizing that she was wearing a skirt. Harry caught her doing that and shook his head. "No, Mione, not like that." He took the still-sheathed ninja-to and showed her the strap on the saya. "Ninja-to are worn on the person's back. You want the handle to be over your left shoulder, so you can draw it cross-body with the right." He put the sword over her body and placed it correctly. "Like that."

"Oh," said Hermione softly. She tightened the strap a bit, so that the sword clung more firmly to her body. Harry blushed and looked away, as the strap pulled the fabric of her shirt down into the valley between her breasts.

Damn! When did she get those? Those are definitely bigger than they were at the Yule Ball. She's your friend, dammit! Shut up about that! Oh, this year is going to be hell, if we're supposed to wear these blades all the time. Harry turned back to her, only to see her walking away. "Where are you going?"

She turned around, looking kind of embarrassed. "The library."

Now why would she be embarrassed about that? "Why?"

"So I could learn about…"

He cut her off. "No, no. Why are you going there? They probably don't have much about the ninja-to, the primary weapon of shinobi. I can tell you a lot about it." At her incredulous look, he cocked his head to the side. "What? I worked at a sword shop for a summer."

She walked over and sat down against a pillar. "Okay. So tell me about this thing on my back."

He drew his sword and sat down next to her. "Now the first thing is, your blade and mine are quite alike. Both Japanese, right?" He pointed to where there was a color difference in the steel of the blade. "This is the hamon, or temper line. You see, Japanese blades have two types of steel on them…"

As Harry went on, a pair of multi-colored eyes watched him from across the room. Snake-face won't know what hit him.

"That is a wicked class," gushed Ron, "Absolutely wicked. What an awesome teacher!" He fingered the disassembled spear on his back. "We get to carry blades around!"

"Have to, you mean," said Hermione, tugging at the ninja-to's strap, "It feels just fine, but it's a little compromising on the modesty deal."

Ron looked at her strangely. "Huh?"

She shook her head. "Better that your immature mind doesn't get it, Ron."

He shook his head confusedly. He abandoned the thought and moved on to Harry. "So, Harry, looks like I got the bigger blade," he said, smirking.

Hermione's eyes were hard pressed to follow what happened next. Harry turned to Ron, freed his saya from his belt loop, and popped the blade. Then, in a flash of light, the blade came singing out of the sheath, stopping under Ron's chin. "All in how you handle it, Ron," he said, with a smirk on his face.

Ron stumbled backwards a few steps as Harry sheathed the katana. "Damn, Harry, what the bloody hell was that?"

"Iaijutsu," said Harry, "Admittedly, I've never done it that fast before, but that's what it was." He looked down at his arms, as if they had rebelled.

"Iaijutsu? Where'd you learn that, Harry?" asked Hermione.

"It translates roughly to 'sword-drawing art'," said Harry, "And Mr. McLeod taught me a little about how to use swords when business was slow." He smiled. "That's about all the time in one of those stores." He put the sheath back into his belt loop, and got a troubled look on his face. "But I'm not that good. Never have been."

"You are now," said Ron, still impressed, "We'd better get going to classes."

"Come on Harry, we've got Herbology."

"Right."

A/N: Can anyone guess what Mr. McLeod's first name is? Heh.

And as for the weapons I gave the students:

Cho Chang: tai chi sword: Like the Green Destiny sword from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

 Luna Lovegood: Third-generation rapier: The sword Commodore Norrington has in Pirates of the Caribbean.

Draco Malfoy: Kris sword: A kris blade implies that the blade is wavy, like fire or a snake. Obviously, Draco's is snake-styled.

Justin Finch-Fletchley: Broadsword: You know, what knights used? Not freaking hard to figure out.

Seamus Finnegan: Claymore: Scottish sword. Think Braveheart.

Neville Longbottom: Tonfa: Sun Ce used these. Dynasty Warriors 2-4 should have a model of him.

Ginny Weasley: Shamshir: Middle Eastern scimitar, not to be confused with the Asian variety. They show up in Aladdin. (The skinny swords.) Scimitar is actually the bastardized version of shamshir.

Hermione Granger: Ninja-to: The ninja sword, often misnamed as a straight-bladed katana.

Harry Potter: Katana: Samurai long sword. Come on, do I really have to explain this one?

Ron Weasley: Double-sided, long-bladed spear: Pretty much self-explanatory. One note, though. The spear breaks into three pieces, and the blades can be wielded much like short swords with long handles.

Kai Reased: Old-style katana: Zhou Tai's weapon from Dynasty Warriors 4.

                     Second Sword: No spoilers!