Disclaimer: as per usual, Morimoto is a queen among mangakas and JKR can kiss my succulent ass. My opinions about them notwithstanding, I never falsely claim to own their intellectual property and make no money from the online publication of this free-to-read fanwork. Cool? Cool.

Chapter 5

Evening Run

Soon, Dudley had to actively avoid matching up with Yamaguchi during boxing practice. He was the heaviest boxer on the UEL team, and Yamaguchi had started with the lightest. But she was working her way up to his weight class quickly.

He just made sure to pair up with someone else for exercises whenever it looked like she might ask to match up with him. It wasn't that he didn't want to fight a girl - he'd been firmly disabused of that notion by some of his classmates in his first few years of university. Besides, while Smeltings happened to be an all-boys school, young Dudley had been an equal-opportunity bully in his prime. It's just that he was a little afraid. He was afraid of how quickly she'd beat his teammates, and he was a little afraid of why her family's lawyer came over for dinner regularly, and he was a little afraid of the fact that the police had picked up one of her uncles like it was a matter of course. He was afraid it was related to her fighting skills. She toed the lines of the rules of boxing - she never made any illegal moves, but there was something about her style that made Dudley think that she might be accustomed to fighting in higher stakes scenarios than university bouts.

So, he wanted to wait as long as he could before actually facing up against her. Sue me! he thought. He wasn't the least bit disappointed when his efforts were rewarded, and he managed to push off his turn against Yamaguchi till their next practice. He wasn't. Really.

It's just that while half of him was terribly afraid, the other half of him was terribly curious. Gill, ever observant, called him on it in the locker rooms. "Why didn't you fight with Yamaguchi today? He was clearly trying to get your attention."

"After you called him a demon? No thank you," said Dudley.

"Bullshit," said Gill. "You're obviously curious."

Dudley looked at his teammate appraisingly, wondering how much he should share. Gill had cornered him after he showed up back at Waseda on Sunday morning, but Dudley had evaded answering. His time at the Kuroda household seemed sacred somehow, like he shouldn't be telling just anyone about it.

Gill was probably Dudley's closest university friend, but that wasn't saying much. Dudley didn't really have friends anymore, not close ones. Not when there was a whole world he wasn't allowed to tell them about, a world that had defined a whole period of his life. "I am curious," Dudley said. "But I'm also a little afraid. I'll fight him next practice."

"I'll hold you to that," said Gill, a skeptical glint in his eye. "What happened at Yamaguchi's house over the weekend?"

"Nothing," said Dudley, perhaps a little too quickly. "I got left by the bus at our snack stop, got lucky to be in his neighborhood. His family was nice enough to put me up."

"You gotta give me more than that, Dud."

Dudley looked at Gill a little oddly. This was really none of his business at all! "There's nothing more to tell," he said, firmly.

"Right." Gill looked a little hurt, but that didn't change anything. Not really.

The locker room suddenly felt oppressive, so Dudley quickly pulled his shirt over his head and zipped up his gym bag. With a nod at his friend, he fled. Yamaguchi was nowhere to be seen near the practice yard, so with no small amount of relief, Dudley wound his way toward Hoshien. He needed a walk, he decided. The delicious head-empty feeling of post-practice had been washed away by his conversation with Gill, and endorphins were the only thing that had ever kept Dudley's mind sweet and clear.

After dumping his gym bag in his room and checking to make sure his wallet was in his pocket, he set out into the darkening Tokyo evening at a slow run. In just a few blocks, he felt sweat begin to trickle down his back. He'd have to shower again, but as Dudley's breath picked up he knew it was worth it. The only thing he could keep in his head at this point was the number of lefts and rights and forwards he took, carefully assembling a map of his way back when the time came. And that was it. That was all the thought he had the brainpower for. Blessedly, his other thoughts began to melt away.

There on the corner was the Seven-Eleven with shockingly satisfying bento boxes, across from it a small coffee shop that Yamaguchi seemed to favor. A block later was the ramen stand, where Dudley had sat shoulder to shoulder with Yamaguchi in companionable silence. He waved to the proprietor through the gloom of twilight. It was nice to be recognized, way out across the world from home.

He kept running, found himself perhaps a little farther from Waseda than was wise, but Dudley had good spatial sense. He knew where he was, and did not even think to be concerned until the deepening twilight turned full dark. Dudley was a big guy, but he still didn't quite have the hang of the painfully early sunrises. If he stayed out too late, the rush in his blood wouldn't fade until he started to hear birds.

Dudley was nearly back at Hoshien when there was an odd crack! of air displacing violently. Shit. He spun around, looking for the source of the sound - apparition was so damn loud it was impossible to tell sometimes, only to be violently body checked out of the way by a blur of tracksuit and twintails.

Red light lanced through the air where he'd been standing just a moment before. Dimly, he registered being shoved further back, and there was Yamaguchi standing fiercely in front of him, yelling at his magical assailant in rapid-fire Japanese. The wizard glared at Yamaguchi, looking absolutely bewildered, his wand gave a little flick and an odd pulse rippled through the air. By the time Dudley recovered, a red light was lancing at Yamaguchi. It wasn't green, but Dudley couldn't quite help the roar that came out of his throat, but before he could repay Yamaguchi's favor, she was dodging deftly and her hand was coming up under the wizard's. She had his wand in hand before anyone could react.

If Dudley thought for a moment that she might be a witch, he was disabused of the notion by how she looked at it. "What's this, you bastard?" Yamaguchi said, voice soft and incredulous, to the wizard. She drove her knee into the wizard's gut, and when he sank to the ground, she whirled to Dudley.

His brain was still running on adrenaline and endorphins, so it took him a moment to parse that she was speaking - and in English! "What's going on, Dursley-kun?" she was saying, in the rapid tone that told Dudley that she didn't really expect him to understand her. "I thought you were a fucking civilian! I thought you might get targeted because of your stay at my house last weekend, I was not expecting you to be attacked by random foreigners with magic sticks!"

Dudley looked at her in shock, not really processing any of the specific words coming out of her mouth. "You're speaking English!"

Her eyes grew wide and her hand flew to her mouth. "Shit," she said. Dudley wasn't sure why, but he would not have pegged her for someone who swore like that. It occurred to him that she wore a costume while she was at school, and Dudley hadn't gotten to see her without it until running into her in Kamiyama. And maybe not even then.

There was an incredibly tense pause while Dudley looked from Yamaguchi to the wizard. After a moment, Dudley extended a hand. Yamaguchi looked uncertain about it, but she handed him the wand.

Dudley took it gratefully, turned to the wizard. "Who are you?" he said, trying to wave the wand menacingly.

"You don't scare me. I know you're a filthy muggle," said the wizard. "Even if you're hard to find."

"Do you really want to bet that Harry Potter's cousin doesn't have magic?" Dudley was, of course, bluffing harder than he'd ever bluffed before. But his mother's sister had magic, and she had to have inherited it from somewhere. It hit the intended mark - there was a flicker of uncertainty over the wizard's face. Dudley pressed the advantage.

"Who are you?" Dudley said again.

"I'm but a servant of the Dark Lord," he said. "And you are leverage."

"Try again," said Dudley. "You can't serve a dead man."

The wizard lunged, and Yamaguchi's foot came down on his shoulder, forcing him back to the ground. Dudley could not believe that she was just going with this, taking his side in a firefight with weapons she did not even recognize.

The wizard spat on the concrete, glared at Dudley. "Hiding behind your little girlfriend, are you?"

Yamaguchi gave an indignant squawk, but Dudley did not dignify it with a response. Who's Cedric? Your boyfriend? "What's your endgame?"

"You're Harry Potter's cousin," said the wizard, like it was self-explanatory.

"If you think for a second that Harry gives a single shit about me," said Dudley.

"You're his cousin!"

"And family's complicated! Are you trying to use me as a hostage? Really?"

Yamaguchi placed a hand on Dudley's shoulder, comforting even as she maintained an air of threat. "What's going on, Dursley-kun?" she said, expression quizzical, like she was tasting each English word that floated in the air.

"I," Dudley paused. "I'm not entirely sure. Look. If it's what I think it is, this is dangerous."

Yamaguchi's eyes flashed. "Don't give me that, Dursley-kun," she said, looking almost disgusted. "I need to know what needs to be done about this asshole, and I can't make that decision without information. Too dangerous? Please."

Abruptly, Dudley remembered the collective Kuroda family demeanor as Wakamatsu was carted away in handcuffs. Perhaps he didn't know what their metric for danger was. It occurred to him that Yamaguchi had to have been following him in order to intervene like she did. He shivered. "Why were you following me?"

"Don't change the subject," she said, and Dudley shivered again. He might only know Yamaguchi's speech patterns from a language he didn't speak, but he wouldn't have guessed she was capable of the cold, ruthless, practicality in her voice now.

Still, no matter what Yamaguchi was, what her family was, no muggle could stand against a wizard for long if they didn't know exactly what they were doing. Did the Statute of Secrecy apply to Japan? Dudley's odds would be significantly improved by spilling the beans, but he had no idea how much trouble that would get him in.

In his periphery, Dudley saw the wizard lunge again. He didn't even have time to flinch before Yamaguchi had the wizard face down in the dirt. "Stay down, or I'll be forced to make you, scum." Yamaguchi said. She turned to face Dudley without moving from where she had the ball of her foot pressed between the wizard's shoulder blades. "My family might be able to help with this, but not if you don't tell me what we're up against."

Well, she was faring better against a wizard than Dudley ever had. He let out a slow breath. Fine. "My cousin killed a cult leader four years ago. This guy is definitely one of the cultists."

Yamaguchi looked at Dudley like she was seeing him in a new light. "Huh," she said, looking down at the back of the wizard's head.

"But the thing is, both sides of this conflict can do magic."

Yamaguchi looked at the wizard under her sneaker. "Right," she said. "Guess that explains why I'm speaking English. Does this mean the stick's really a magic wand?"

"Yup," said Dudley.

"Wait, does that mean you can do magic?"

Dudley glanced at the wizard meaningfully, not quite willing to give up the advantage of keeping him uncertain. Yamaguchi moved her foot from between the wizard's shoulder blades to gently press on the back of his head, shoving his face into the ground. There was a muffled litany of swearing. Dudley and Yamaguchi both ignored it and, satisfied that the wizard's vision was blocked, Dudley said, "It is genetic." He coupled that with shaking his head for an emphatic no.

Yamaguchi glanced at the wizard, moved her foot back between his shoulder blades. "That's incredible," she said.

The wizard spat, this time out of necessity rather than emotional disgust. Dudley thought that he should be a little concerned about how naturally Yamaguchi expressed casual violence, but he found himself less surprised than he would have thought.

"So this guy wants to kidnap you as part of some revenge scheme?"

"I think so," said Dudley. "If only to use me as bait for my cousin."

"Right then," said Yamaguchi. "I think Uncle Tenkai's the closest, which is good, honestly."

Dudley did not remember meeting an Uncle Tenkai, but he'd be the first to admit that he wasn't great at remembering Japanese names, and he'd met a lot of people at the Kuroda house. Yamaguchi must have caught something speculative in his expression, because she said, "You haven't met him. He's ceremonial brothers with Grandpa, but our families are allies more than anything else. Normally, I'd call Kyou-san for something like this, but." Dudley did not miss the flash of pain across her face. He wondered who precisely that was, and if he had anything to do with the absent person Shinohara had mentioned at the Kuroda family dinner table. He didn't think Kyou-san was the name Shinohara had said then.

"Thank you," said Dudley. "Seriously. I'd be toast without help."

Whatever translation charm was allowing this conversation clearly did not account for idioms, because Yamaguchi looked at him like he was crazy, whispered toast? before shaking her head. "I hate English," she finally said. "But you're welcome."

She finally took her foot off the wizard's back, and he scrambled for Dudley's feet. Dudley was almost nervous, but Yamaguchi deftly used the wizard's own momentum to haul him up by his collar. "You'll cooperate, understand?"

"Muggles are boorish brutes, aren't they?" said the wizard, shooting both Yamaguchi and Dudley a look that said that he was disgusted to even be sharing their air. What an arse.

Yamaguchi sidled close to the wizard, leaned in to purr in his ear. "Would you like to find out? Because I can arrange that."

A shiver went down Dudley's spine. He believed her, utterly. And so too must the wizard, because his expression shifted into something like meek horror. Dudley swore softly.

"Get a load of this coward," Yamaguchi said, now looking disgusted herself. "Don't try to kidnap people without being willing to suffer the consequences. That's just common sense."

Dudley did not think most people would call that common sense, but whatever. Dudley had practice being around people with honestly terrifying abilities. He could walk unafraid at Yamaguchi's side, even when she suddenly seemed to exude confident violence from her every pore. Dudley roughly grabbed the wizard's other arm, looked at Yamaguchi, said, "So, where are we going?"

She looked at him over the wizard's head, expression speculative. She jerked her head off to the right, said, "that way."

Kumiko was compartmentalizing. After Dursley's visit to her family home, she'd been somewhat obsessively following him until she was sure he was in for the night. She knew that the police hadn't quite believed the family when they insisted Dursley was just a foreign exchange student, and she knew that anyone else who'd managed to find out about it would also be hard-pressed to believe it.

Foreign exchange students don't just accidentally end up in Yakuza households. Except that Dursley had. And so Kumiko had taken it upon herself to protect him. She was not expecting that the main threat to Dursley's safety would instead be someone from his own past. She was not expecting to suddenly have English coming out of her mouth when she was sure she was speaking Japanese. She wasn't expecting Dursley's smooth transition into someone who warily expected real violence, and was clearly not afraid to do what needed to be done for the sake of survival.

She looked around at the lamp-lit street, looked at the wizard she had sandwiched between her and Dursley, and pulled her Nokia out of her pocket, considered the keypad. She was suddenly very concerned that she would call Uncle Tenkai and the words in her mouth would come out in incomprehensible English. Shit. Well. There wasn't much she could do about it, at least without giving the wizard his 'wand' back, and she didn't need to know exactly what a wand could do to know that was a bad idea. She swore under her breath and dialed Tenkai's number from memory - bad enough that she had her own family all on speed dial, there was no need to leave the other families she had contact with vulnerable should she ever be arrested. (Not that Kumiko could afford to ever be arrested. Her dreams would go up in flames if that happened.)

It was not Uncle Tenkai who picked up, but his wife. Honestly, that was probably lucky. Tenkai anego-san scared Kumiko more than anybody. She privately suspected that most of the Tenkai's success came not from their kumichou but from the not-so-subtle influence of his wife.

"Tenkai anego-san!" said Kumiko, voice still sounding like English to her ears. Nothing could be done for it, so she kept talking and hoped. "It's Kuroda Kumiko. I've got a situation near Waseda University, and I need a place to take a kidnapper."

"Kumiko-chan!" said Anego-san. "You'd better not be getting the Tenkai clan into a mess."

So she could understand her. Perfect. There was a part of Kumiko's brain that wanted to go seek out why exactly that was - did Anego-san speak English? Was the effect somehow localized? Was the magic more about being understood than it was language-specific? - but that wasn't the priority she needed to focus on, so she redirected her thoughts.

She glanced at Dursley, but he was too busy looking at her cell phone in vague surprise to offer any guidance. "It's not related to Tenkai or Kuroda," Kumiko said. "It's a foreigner after the exchange student I'm hosting."

There was a long pause on the other end of the line, a faint puff of breathing was Kumiko's only insight to what might be going through Anego-san's mind. The woman was uncompromising, every bit the leader a gang needed. "I'd personally owe Tenkai a favor," Kumiko finally said, regretting it already. "But it can't be something that would jeopardize my teaching career."

"Bring him over," Anego-san said, and Kumiko tightened her grip on the wizard's arm.

"Thank you," she said just before the line went dead.

"Who are you people," said the wizard. Dursley said nothing, but his silence made it clear that he had the same question.

"Shut up and keep walking."

They did.

Word Count: 3208
Date Posted: Wednesday, June 29th, 2022

Hope y'all enjoyed this fifth installment of Dudley in Tokyo! We're half-way through! Concrit is, as always, welcome. Let me know what you thought in a review!