Summary:
Harry Potter / Sekirei Cross-over. Harry, forced into exile to save his heritage from thieves, begins traveling the world. While in Japan, Harry happens upon an intimidating woman dressed in black, and gets thrown into a plot he never saw coming.
Disclaimer
I don't own Harry Potter in any way. JKR has those rights... Also, I hear Sekirei is owned by Sakurako Gokurakuin.
*Author's Note *
Some back story on a few of the Sekirei has been changed, just cause I wanted to use the characters and needed them to come from a different place. If it bothers you, tough.
Chapter Original Post Date: 2012-02-28
Chapter Last Update: 2012-05-28
Chapter 2 – The Black Sekirei
Harry had been seated in a shadowed back corner of the shop less than a minute before the imposing woman walked into the shop. With no hesitation whatsoever, she immediately walked towards Harry without the need to look around to ascertain his location.
Harry casually fired a wandless translation spell at the woman from under the table. Harry had decided long ago he had no need to ever learn foreign languages after he discovered a translation spell in one of the older Potter tomes that wasn't stolen by Dumbledore. The spell literally made it so any language heard by the spelled person would sound like the person's native language to them. The spell was quite good at subtle nuances of current slang as well, and was perfect aid to casually into a new society without the immediate stigma of being considered a foreigner.
He eventually refined the spell by combining it with a modified charm created by Remus of all people. It was a joke spell from the Mauraders, which would make a person speaking appear to not have their mouth move, and another random person's mouth within eyesight of the victim appear to move instead. When the spells were combined with some tweaks it allowed for the affected individual to not see something akin to a badly dubbed foreign film, where the mouths did not move correctly with the sounds that were being heard.
The interesting thing that happened when the spell hit the woman was that she flinched slightly. She looked around casually, yet the motions were quite deliberate in nature. Clearly she had anticipated an attack coming from somewhere else in the room.
'So, sensitive to magic, but unable to precisely determine the origin of a spell,' Harry thought. 'This is going to be interesting.' Harry suddenly found the old Hogwarts motto floating through his head, and found that his current actions seemed to be going completely against the very wise age old piece of wisdom that said 'Never tickle a sleeping dragon.'
Which is exactly what his current actions felt like he was doing.
He stood slowly as she approached, and graciously said, "Would you care for a spot of tea, my lady?" while he gestured at the same time at the table near he was seated at.
Despite being three meters away, she tensed at the motion, ready to slash at him with the sword. She was definitely normally a kill first ask questions later sort of person.
However, the hesitation only lasted a second. Then she seemed to decide she was amused by this game for the moment, as she smiled a tight, well-rehearsed fake smile. She stared directly into Harry's eyes and without blinking, purred at him. "Sure".
It had been a very long time since Harry had heard a solitary word spoken in such a manner. The single word carried so many more meanings then simply an agreement to sit and have tea.
The word promised pain if the conversation proved not beneficial to her. The word promised death upon betrayal. When Harry then reviewed it a third time in his mind, he decided the word pretty much promised the likelihood of something bad happening to him regardless of what he did.
He couldn't help it and internally laughed. This was definitely going to be fun.
They sat down and a waitress immediately came over and asked for their orders. They both quickly ordered and watched as the woman walked away. He turned to his guest and asked, "Would you allow me to place some privacy wards up?"
The only response was a sudden quirk of one eyebrow which was contrasted by the glare of her other eye. But it was the slight tilt of her head that hinted that she had no clue what he had just asked. But the nod of curiosity that followed a few seconds later was all he was really interested in at the moment. Harry turned away and his wand flashed from the hidden holster on his forearm.
Anti-apparition, anti-portkey, silencing, eavesdropping, repelling, and anti-scrying wards flashed up in seconds from years of practice. It was a spell chain Harry had learned by heart. It was based originally upon the protections Hermione had come up with all those years ago during their year-long camping trip from hell. Since then he had expanded upon them greatly, the original eight spells now lengthened to almost two dozen spells.
He turned back to her and saw the eyebrow still quirked and her glare now demanded answers as to what he had just done. He leaned back, made a discrete gesture with his wrist that caused the wand in his hand to vanish back into the holster, and picked up his tea.
"Those are wards. Spells to make sure our conversation stays private to anyone who might interrupt us. Neither magical nor technological forms of eavesdropping will make it through what's around this table right now."
Harry barely caught the slight widening of the eyes that greeted this statement before it was quickly suppressed. She was obviously quite well practiced at suppressing her emotions overtly. However, she was definitely not a trained Occlumens, and her internal thoughts were practically screaming at him as she sat there.
She was definitely a killer, and almost every other thought that crossed her conscious mind at the moment could be summarized with, "He's dangerous, kill him and run now."
This thought was being fought though by the simultaneous workings of a highly analytical fighter's mind that told her to evaluate the level of threat he posed first, and that need to know what Harry was kept her in her seat for the time being.
Figuring it was time to move the conversation along before his paranoid impromptu date decided to literally 'cut' her losses, he decided to introduce himself, "I apologize for not introducing myself, I'm Harry Potter, traveler and exile of England."
He extended his hand, debating whether to shake or kiss it if she reciprocated, it would all depend upon her response.
With no hesitation, she extended her hand and said, "Sekirei Number 4, Karasuba. A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Potter."
Harry gently touched her fingers, bringing them forward as he said, "A pleasure to meet such a beautiful woman".
He gently kissed her knuckle. Her fingers were calloused and rough. Despite being a beauty, she was obviously no slouch and knew the value of hard work. The whole time, he had never looked away from her face other than to order his tea and to set the wards, but he finally truly looked at the woman across from her. She appeared older than him, but that could simply be from having lived a rough life. She was clearly half-exhausted, with large bags under her eyes and an ever-present weariness that barely showed through the feeling of menace that surrounded her.
He also filed away the 'Number 4' and word 'Sekirei' to be pondered later.
After he pulled away from and released her hand, she seemed amused at the action, and her thoughts were broadcasted towards him so loudly his passive Legillimency needed no real effort to pick them up, 'The stupid human seeks to woo me.'
'She isn't human.' Harry pondered this information, and in spite of himself found himself definitely intrigued by the news. It also meant he had no need to beat around the bush and could ask questions immediately.
"I'll get straight to the point then, I travel the world, visiting various schools and institutions of magic. I came to Japan to learn about magic of this country, since any real information about the magic that's practiced here never leaves or is heard about, since your country has refused to become a member of the ICW."
"Clearly you're a powerful magic user. I could feel your aura as you walked up the other side of the street towards me when you were still five hundred meters away. I was hoping to ask you about who trained you, where the local schools or Masters are, stuff like that."
As Harry spoke, her eyebrows slowly rose higher and higher. Finally, when he finished, she stared at him, and finally laughed a low haughty laugh. "That has to be the single most ingenious pickup line I've ever heard, I won't kill you simply cause of that. But, I believe our conversation is now over."
After she stood, she muttered under her breath and chuckled afterwards, "Magic, seriously?"
Harry raised his hands slowly, in an effort to placate her, "Wait, please? Just for a moment? Would you care for me to prove it to you, in a completely innocuous manner?"
She stared at Harry, silently weighing the proper course of action she would take. Harry could tell that she still hadn't decided if he was a threat or not, merely that she thought him an imaginative foreigner who was still actively trying to get into her pants despite being called out on his bluff.
The woman sat back down and said in a clearly sarcastic yet amused tone, "Sure, amaze me with your magicians tricks, oh grand sorcerer."
'Well, this was certainly going to be a fun time walking the razors edge,' thought Harry. He quickly decided the spell he already cast on her would be his best bet to prove his claims true.
"First, I ask you to not attempt to attack me until I've finished talking," Harry raised his eyebrows at her, while he waited for an acknowledgement from her.
After ten very long seconds, where her amused smile vanished from her lips and was replaced by something quite calculating, she very slowly nodded.
"I don't speak Japanese. I assume that's the language you hear me speaking to you at the moment?"
The brief nod was the only acknowledgement Harry received.
"When I first left England I went to South America to finish up my basic education. I quickly realized I had a small problem because I didn't speak Spanish. Before bothering to learn the new language, I tried to see if there was a magical solution first. I found an old spell my family created a long time ago. When cast upon someone, they will understand literally any language spoken on this planet for the next twelve hours while the spell stays active."
"That's what I cast upon you as you walked up when you entered the store. I think you felt it, cause you looked around at the time like you expected an incoming attack, but you weren't able to figure out that it was me who cast it."
"Would you like me to prove that I cast it on you and I'm not making all of this stuff up? I'll do it using the waitress since I cast it on her as we ordered."
Her only movement was another brief nod, followed by the somewhat curious look to her eyes being replaced by a cold wariness. He waved their waitress over, casting a wandless Finite Incantatum at her as she approached.
"Excuse me, but could I bother you for another tea please?"
The waitress looked at Harry strangely, and didn't understand why he suddenly spoke another language. Harry turned to Karasuba and asked "You heard me speaking Japanese and understood me just now, right? Ask her if she understood what I just asked?"
Karasuba asked the woman and the waitress quickly shook her head, "No."
Karasuba turned to him with a now quirked eyebrow and Harry could easily see a slightly impressed smirk tug at one corner of her mouth. Harry's wand immediately flashed and he incanted "Obliviate" at the waitress, and then he quickly recast the translation charm on her.
"You don't remember walking up to this table just now, all you know is that we've both asked for another cup of tea and you were about to go and bring it to us."
The waitress blinked and shakily wandered away from the table.
"Believe now? By the way, the spell I just cast on her removed the memory of the event so she doesn't think we're strange and pay more attention to us then she normally would have. If you want further proof, I can remove the spell and re-add it to you just so you can see for yourself?"
She nodded her assent, and Harry quickly removed the charm from her and said in English, "You are the most beautiful woman I've seen in a very long time."
The smirk returned full-force this time and her eyes had a bit of merriment in them when she responded in kind in English, "It probably would've been quite a bit more humorous if you had spoken that in a language I didn't already know, but thank you for the compliment. You're still not getting in my pants."
Harry laughed out loud and mindlessly recast the charm on midsentence as Harry responded with "But did you at least appreciate the amazing English accent?"
Karasuba gave a small chuckle that quickly stopped as she realized she saw his hand move. After the movement, Harry switched from English to Japanese immediately afterwards.
"Ok, you've convinced me, what exactly did you want from me again?"
She was still very weary of him, but she seemed to at least think that I wasn't merely here to hit on her.
Harry sat back, and smiled at her again, "Like I said, ever since having to leave my home country, I just travel the world learning new kinds of magic that I wouldn't have been able to been exposed to otherwise"
"I've visited, North and South America, Siberia, Australia, Egypt, and a whole bunch of other obscure places in between, and now I'm in Japan. I've been doing this for the last eight years. I've just been roaming wherever I think might be interesting to go next. And now, here I am."
"Most people I've talked to don't know of any schools here in the country to teach magic. I've been here three weeks, and you are by far the most powerful magical person I've seen, and you appear to have some magical training. I can see your aura, it's very strong, very wild in fact, and it seems a lot of your energy is devoted to simply reigning in its power so it doesn't wreak havoc on things."
"The ability you're demonstrating right now would at least lend itself to believing you have had at least some instruction, from a school or during a master/apprentice sort of training."
"Again, I was hoping you could point me in the right direction."
Karasuba nodded. Harry could infer that she acknowledged what Harry said as likely true, but simultaneously thought he could still be a potential threat to her, especially since she was able to sense him across the street. Realization dawned upon him that he hadn't gotten to the point where she would be ready to pass information back yet.
"So you're not human then?" was the next question posed to Harry.
Harry definitely had not expected that question from her. 'Come to think of it,' Harry thought, 'I'm not sure how to answer the question either.'
"I guess you could say…" he paused a few moments, where he scrunched his forehead in thought, "we're an evolved human, natural selection and all that evolution nonsense."
"That really doesn't answer the question," smirked Karasuba.
"Well, you'd get plenty of 'Magicals' saying they are superior to humans, but to be honest those kind of Wizards who speak up like that overtly are usually absolute morons, believing only in purity of blood and their own superiority to first generation Magicals with no documentable wizarding lineage."
She laughed again, this time it was genuine and carried none of the hint of malice that her previous mirth had hinted at, "You honestly call yourselves wizards?"
At this Harry ducked his head down sheepishly, "I guess it is pretty silly, but it's the name I've grown up knowing while in England. There are many names for us around the world for people with our abilities: shaman, warlocks." Harry snorted and followed with, "Hell, I heard a drunken idiot even swear he was a Jedi once."
She sat in silence for a bit. It was still readily apparent, as she sat there and sipped her tea, there were still components of Harry's story she had not totally accepted and wrapped her head around.
Finally, she looked up and asked, "So why did you leave, or were 'exiled' as you put it?"
She was certainly interested now in Harry's story, both from a knowledge perspective and from a tactical one. The woman clearly thought if there were a group of part-humans on this planet with powers like his she should get as much information as possible on them. At this point, he certainly didn't care how or what she knew about Magicals, but he also was weary of telling his history of being betrayed dozens of times throughout my years of travels. So he decided to give a bit of back story and try and push the full tale off for a bit.
"It's a long story," Harry said. He took a deep breath and pondered how to tell it simply and concisely.
"I'll try and keep it somewhat brief and short. Suffice it to say, there was your stereotypical bad guy wizard running around England from the mid-seventies and into the early eighties. I was a year and a half old when the guy killed my parents, and then tried to kill me. The killing curse, which was considered unstoppable at that point by everyone on the planet, bounced off my forehead instead of killing me."
Harry brushed my messy hair aside, showing her the scar which could only be faintly seen at this point.
"It bounced off me and hit him, temporarily defeating him, but not quite killing him either. I became an instant celebrity. I stopped the war that the wizards in England were only half-ass fighting anyways. The 'enemy' in the war were the family members of people in power, so they weren't really pursuing them or caring much for the mere commoners dying in the conflict."
"But of course, I never found out any of this until I was eleven. A manipulative old man had me taken from the ruins of my parent's cottage where they were hiding. He essentially abandoned me like a bottle of milk on my mother's sister's doorstep. They were people who hated my mother and magic in general."
Harry took a deep breath. He was absolutely not going to go into detail about the Dursleys, "It was rough, that's all I'll say about those next ten years."
"I eventually found out I was a wizard and went to the 'amazing' wizard school of Hogwarts in Scotland, run by the same manipulative wanker that stuck me in an abusive home. Basically, every year I was there, I was nearly killed multiple times."
"Eventually, the wizard that the society believed I had miraculously killed when I was a baby came back when I was fourteen, only no one believed me when I told them. Our press and media basically slandered me for a year, before the dark moron finally exposed his existence again on accident."
Harry then decided to gloss over a lot of the crazy details of the final two years, because all that really mattered was who died. He continued, "To wrap it up, the creepy old man who did his best to ruin my life got himself killed while being an idiot, but left a few parting gifts to screw with my life that I found out about after I permanently killed the dark wizard."
"The thing you have to understand is that the Magical part of Great Britain still lives three hundred years in the past, and still uses archaic things like marriage contracts between so-called noble families for business and political alignments. They're not valid anywhere but in England since they don't require any sort of magical bonding of two souls or vows at the time they were signed, but they are enforced like they were at least within their country."
"Long story short, the old man set me up to marry the daughter of one of his biggest supporting families. I also found out they all had been lacing my food with 'love potions' keyed toward the little slut for years. Her very poor family was to receive all my family's wealth in the event of my death even if I wasn't married to her yet. Her family would also take complete control of all my assets upon marriage because as a 'dirty half-blood'," and Harry pointed emphatically to his chest a few times here to drive those words home, "I wasn't worthy of my father's pure-blood heritage because my mother had sullied the line with her dirty blood."
Harry then leaned back, and smiled a grim smile at Karasuba, "Luckily, I found out about all this two and a half months before they were going to surprise me with all of it. In response, I had the bankers in England, for a very large fee, move my family's wealth to Switzerland, sold all my properties and holdings in the country, and then left England the day before I was going to be dragged off to a shotgun wedding."
"I may also have had the contract printed not only in England's newspapers, but in the international press as well so everyone knew what scumbags they were. The so-called war-heroes exposed as thieves. And I may have also not quite left the country when I told everyone I would, and then proceeded to raze the houses of anyone who ever slandered or acted against me to the ground."
"Since then, I've been travelling. I have an estate hidden and protected in Switzerland that I've basically moved all of my inherited belongings, but I've never lived or slept there for longer than a week in any given year. I've just going wherever, learning whatever subjects interest me. That was eight years ago."
Throughout the story, she simply shook her head more and more in disbelief at what he had endured.
He broke the silence that followed the conclusion of his tale and, "I'm sure I could expand the story further if you want, but we would likely be here for hours if you wanted me to describe every time one of those morons back there put me in a life-threatening situation or betrayed me in some manner."
"Basically, as long as that other family exists, a Potter cannot return to England because that contract would still be in effect and could tie down my descendants to some descendant of that family."
"So that's why I'm exiled."
Harry took a sip of tea finally and watched her as she processed everything he had told her. She had listened attentively as he glossed over the events of his life. She seemed half-surprised that he told her all this up-front, and that seemed to break the ice with her.
"Quite an interesting story you have there. There's no one you still talk to from back there?"
"There's a few." Harry took another sip from his tea and inwardly cringed. International tea was never as good as it was in England.
"I have a friend who just lives and breathes magical plants, the stranger and more potential to kill or strangle you the better. My time in Siberia really exposed me to a lot of earth and environmental magic, and when I sent him my notes, he was literally standing outside my hotel door a day later. Most wizards have no common sense. He was standing outside in the middle of a Siberian winter underdressed and shivering, begging me to help him get the same training."
"I still have some good friends, they're just not allowed to really advertise they're in contact with me, and I only get to see them every few years. A lot of people there are still plotting and dreaming of ways to get to me. Their goal is still to steal my families' assets, but probably more importantly, my families' magical knowledge."
"The libraries of ancient families are sometimes as important if not more important than the material wealth they've accumulated. I try and pass on some of the spells I found in my library to friends, and all of them understand they can never say where they got the information from."
Harry understood that he did not quite have permission to ask her questions yet. This sit-down was becoming more of an interview where he had to prove himself in some manner before she would open up a bit and disclose information. He just had to sit and hope her next question or the ones following gave the opening to ask a logical question in return.
"So, you said you saw me from down the street somehow, how did you manage that one?"
Karasuba swore she saw his eyes glow green as he looked around for a brief moment, but the coloration disappeared almost before it registered with her.
Turning back to the white haired woman, Harry smiled ruefully. "Unfortunately, we can't really do that here inside, would you care go to outside so I can show you what I did?"
"Sure," was the curt, one word response, again hinting that betrayal would be swiftly dealt with.
Harry laughed with just a bit of relief. The hard part was over. He just had to sell her a bit more and she would hopefully tell him a bit of information for his troubles so he could get going.
She was going to be a bit more difficult than most people to get information out of, but she wasn't anywhere near the worst. He couldn't count the number of times he had nearly been eviscerated or torched into a cinder by paranoid magical users who thought he was there to simply cause them trouble.
Karasuba definitely had no fear of the law or people here. She was simply weary of Harry being an agent of one of her enemies, which he guessed to be numerous in number.
Harry paid for their tea, and as they both stood up, he dispelled the wards with a casual wave of his hands towards the rest of the tea shop. When the wards dropped, her eyes snapped to his. "I certainly felt that, was that you undoing the privacy spells you mentioned?" she asked.
"Yeah, as long as you're the caster, they're quite easy to sense and remove."
The two started walking out the shop side by side and Harry elaborated further, "However, let's say someone else wished to barge in on us while we were sitting there and attempted to break through to eavesdrop. They would've been standing there for at least ten minutes, a few feet from us, unable to see us at all. The entire time they were doing that, they would be very visible to us while trying to tear all the spells down I cast."
"We definitely would've had time to respond to it at our leisure without them even seeing us as we prepared. Nor would they be able to see the response as it blew the remains of their corpses apart."
Karasuba smirked, "In my line of work, something like that would be quite useful."
"When I don't want to be found, it's usually very hard for me someone else to do so. It takes a bit of training to get to the point where it would practical to use, but I bet someday you could get to that point."
As we came outside, Harry looked around and noticed that the lunchtime crowd had definitely increased. In fact it was quite hard to easily see through the mass of people as he looked around.
Harry groaned and said, "There's too many people out right now because of lunch, it'll be hard to see a big part of the crowd easily."
Harry looked up instead and nodded to himself. He pointed at the roof of a twenty story building across the street, "I can apparate us up to the roof of that building over there, and we can look at the crowds easier that way if you want?"
Karasuba asked the obvious question, "What exactly is involved when you apparate?"
Harry considered for a moment how to explain it. "Well, easy explanation is, you teleport from one location to another."
Her eyebrows both rose at this possibility, and she definitely seemed interested.
"However, the slightly more accurate explanation is that I, and anyone I drag along with, am compressed very uncomfortably through a wormhole that feels about the size of a straw and then you appear somewhere else very suddenly. People usually lose their balance and fall on their asses whiles getting used to it."
"Oh, and its fast, dizzying, and people tend to throw up their first few times doing it, but you get used to it eventually."
Karasuba wrinkled her nose in distaste at the very thought of it and said "I think I'll jump over there myself and meet you there, thank you very much," and with that, she literally jumped twenty stories in the air, across the road, and onto the rooftop of the building Harry had pointed out.
Harry wasn't sure which fact was more interesting. That he had just seen this woman jump like Superman or the fact that no one even acknowledged that it had occurred.
After he laughed quietly to himself, he cast a notice-me-not spell on his clothes simply due to habit, and then apparated to the rooftop next to Karasuba. With a sudden pop, Harry appeared, and Karasuba's sword was instantly unsheathed and resting across his throat
Harry raised an eyebrow at the instrument of death that was half an inch from producing an invitation for to join the legendary Headless Hunt. For some reason though, he found the situation entertaining. He gave half an amused smile and smirked, "Hello darling, did you miss me?"
A glare was his only response for a few moments before she lowered her sword.
"You should take care to describe your powers a bit more thoroughly before appearing suddenly and loudly next to someone trained such as myself."
A lop-sided grin was Harry's only response to her as she sheathed her deadly looking katana.
'A sword… that might be a method of payment if she decides to help me,' Harry pondered after watching the fluid and graceful motion of the sword returning to its sheath that she performed effortlessly without looking.
Filing that away, right next to the meaning of the word 'Sekirei' and 'Number 4', Harry stepped up to the edge of the building, leaned against the ledge, and looked down.
"Perfect. Much better view from up here."
"Now, there is an ability most people with magic can learn eventually called Mage-Sight. Normally one learns this through years of meditation and training. It's very useful for things like scoping out and tearing down wards like I just had up in the tea shop. However, the way to cheat is to have someone cast an aura sensory spell on your eyes."
"I can do this for you, but be careful as you approach the ledge. You can quickly lose spatial awareness while using this and easily lose your balance while adjusting to it. I don't doubt after seeing your little jump earlier that falling from here would mean zilch to you, but I figured I would throw that out there anyways."
"May I cast it on you?"
A simple nod was the only response Harry got other than the expectant small smirk she now eyed him with. 'She certainly doesn't talk much," was all Harry could think before he added a final bit of information.
"A last warning, don't look directly at me, without closing your eyes first, and slowly opening them while facing me. I'm a bit brighter than most people."
Another quirk of her eyebrows was all Harry got. Half tempted to call her Spock or Teal'c at this point, Harry asked her to look forward and close her eyes in order to reduce any disorientation it would bring.
Harry waved a wand at her eyes, and then told her to slowly open them. She opened them and looked down in wonder as her eyes showed her things she never could see before.
"Look over the edge at the people below us, you'll see what I was talking about, and remember to not look at me yet." Harry offered casually.
She looked down, and could see the crowds of people below. "So normal humans look dull, as if in black and white, almost lifeless," she observed with a whisper.
"Yep, those are Non-Magicals as they are commonly referred to throughout the world. The politically incorrect term for them is muggles," offered Harry helpfully.
Harry continued, "The people who glow very faintly are usually called squibs. They cannot access magic themselves, but they often have relatives who do. In one or two generations, the ability to intentionally use magic will likely resurface with their descendants. Looks like there's quite a few of them down there today, so you should have plenty of examples of what they look like."
Another nod of her head was the only acknowledgement he received from the stoic woman.
Harry continued, "The brighter more colorful folks are full-fledged magical users. None seemed to me to have the tell-tale hint of training in their aura's, which is why I haven't approached any of them."
Harry took a deep breath, "That's also why I approached you today. Slowly look down at yourself."
She did, and let out a gasp at what she saw.
Harry tried to describe to her what she was seeing, "As you can see, your aura is very bright, much brighter than the ones you saw down there on the street. What really drew me towards talking to you are the waves of magic you see emanating from yourself, that's what I felt as you approached me on the street this morning."
"If you look even closer at yourself, you'll see that your aura compresses and expands with each pulse, like your magic is trying to rein in all this extra power for a while, then bleeds off the wild magic in a burst, and then flexes down on itself again. Normally, it takes training to do this."
With a quiet approach from behind, he spoke softly, and cautiously to her, "It also tells me something traumatic likely happened to you at some point. Traumatic events affect magic users in a lot of different ways, and there's often no rhyme or reason for what happens. Whatever it was, it looks like it damaged your magic and this pulse and release was the best way it could come up to compensate. That or you received some specialized training and learned to do this on a subconscious level at some point."
"Make sense to you?"
"Yeah, I guess. I never could've guessed I was doing this."
"It's a lot to take in, I know. All of this was dumped on me at the age of eleven with no context at all and just thrown at me."
Karasuba had just continued to gaze at herself for a few moments. She gave a casual wave here and there that allowed her to see the fluctuations in her magic that her direct actions caused. Suddenly, she grasped the hilt or her sheathed sword at one point, and both of them could see her power channeled through it, pure energy prepared to be released at a moment's notice Then suddenly, the surge vanished, and the normal periodic pulse of magic was the only action her magic took.
Finally, Harry figured it was time to wrap things up. "OK, last thing, close your eyes, and turn and face towards me." She did so, and patiently waited for instruction.
"Now, I want you to slowly… very slowly open your eyes and look at me. Look away if it gets too bright."
Karasuba had barely opened her eyes when she flinched violently away.
"Ugh, it's like staring right into the sun after coming out of a dark room." She was furiously rubbing her eyes while trying to sooth them.
"Yeah that's why I wanted you to look at me last, because you won't be able to look at any other magic for about a minute or so now. If you close your eyes, I'll remove the spell from you."
She did as asked, nodded, and Harry removed it.
When she had opened her eyes, Harry asked, "Starting to believe now?"
She nodded as she opened her eyes, blinking and rubbing them. "Least it doesn't leave bright spots in your eyes after you remove the spell. It's a very neat trick." was all she eventually said.
Harry walked up to the edge of the building, and leaned against the lip and looked down. She joined him after a few seconds, where she stood much closer then she had earlier.
Harry looked at her, "So I'm not sure how much formal magic training you've had, but you were the first person I've seen so far in this country with any hint of an organized aura, so I thought I'd take a chance and ask."
She nodded and simply stood there for a minute and said nothing. Finally she stated, "Sorry to disappoint, but I've had no formal training in magic. My story isn't quite as straightforward as yours. And that's with yours easily passing as the craziest series of events I've ever heard."
Harry sighed, "It was worth a shot. I guess there are no real schools of magic here in Japan. It was always a chance that I wouldn't find anything here. I mean, the ICW has nothing on what goes on here, but I couldn't really count on that being the end-all be-all on the situation."
She remained silent a few more minutes. An occasional glace was made at Harry before she turned and looked at Harry again quite strangely.
"Is this something I could be trained in?" asked Karasuba.
"I don't see why not. It's a large time commitment. I mean I did technically go to school for six years, fight in a war for a year, and then I've done on and off education and self-study for the last eight years," he said.
Karasuba looked a bit disappointed, but nodded her understanding and looked back at the street.
"But if that's something you really want, I'm sure we could make arrangements," Harry said at last. The fact she was obviously a killer made no real difference to him. She had acted respectful the entire time they had conversed. Only actions against him had been direct results of her paranoia, something he could hardly blame her for, especially considering how paranoid he was these days.
She turned her head back to him at this statement. She had most certainly not expected this statement from him by the look on her face.
Suddenly Harry felt what he could only describe as a very strong compulsion, almost like a Veela-like Allure. It emanated from her and tried to grab a hold of his mind. Harry shook his head, closing his eyes, while he involuntarily took a step backward and clamped down on his Occlumency shields. Finally he managed to blurt out, "What the heck was that?"
She looked at Harry strangely and half wondered if he had turned slightly deranged, and asked "What was what?"
Harry cocked my head and seemed to gain a better hold of himself. The allure was still present, but it had already begun to fade from its original intensity. He looked right into her eyes and said, "Veela are a magical race of women, with avian origins. One of their traits is to push out a lust based compulsion charm to addle the brains of men. It was almost like you just pushed out a Veela Allure. It felt like a massive compulsion charm trying to get me to walk up, grab you, and kiss you."
She blinked rapidly, and he could see her attempt to digest this statement before her eyes widened almost comically and she took a step back as well. "That shouldn't be possible," was her only response, barely audible as she whispered it to herself while she looked down at her hands and then shook her head.
After he had waited a few moments for her to elaborate, but received nothing but silence in response, Harry had to follow form and ask the stupid question of, "What shouldn't be possible?"
She looked up and straight into his eyes again, the sudden spoke of increased Allure dramatically. The mental attack caused Harry to lift his hand to his head in an effort to ward off whatever it was she was doing. The effect became so strong Harry audibly groaned under the mental onslaught.
Finally, after Harry took another step back and leaned against the wall for support, she turned away and walked a few steps. The pressure eventually reduced down to a manageable level, and she said over her shoulder, "I guess I'll need to tell you my story then, if you can hold that off for a while."
She looked completely out of sorts now. The tall, commanding, and half-crazed killer initially seen on the street seemed strangely shrunken. She steadied herself and asked, "Care to come with me back to my apartment and listen?"
Harry may have been slightly addled with the full-frontal blast of lusty compulsion that had just been leveled at him, but he wasn't outwitted enough that he couldn't respond, "But I was always told never to go home with strange women."
An eye roll was her response to the bad pun, but it caused the aura to drop significantly while said, "Cool it or I'll reintroduce you to my sword." A cheeky grin was all Harry could manage before he walked over to her again. The Allure had definitely settled and she seemed to be somewhat back to normal.
"How are we getting there?"
"That's simple, for me at least. I'm jumping there. I can either drag you along like a sack of potatoes or you can use your handy dandy teleport thing with the side-effect of vomiting and anal leakage and follow me there."
"I can only apparate somewhere I've been or seen before. Part of how it works."
She looked at him again, and pointed northwest. "I'm headed that way, try and keep up, Mr. Wizard."
"Yes ma'am," Harry shouted at her rapidly retreating form.
Harry found it incredibly difficult to line-of-site apparate and keep up with her. She was damned fast and hard to spot as took advantage of cover whenever possible on the rooftops she traversed. She was obviously very good at her profession, whether it be just straight out killing or assassination. Her occupation would've bothered a seventeen year old Harry Potter straight out of Hogwarts, but that was before he was betrayed by practically everyone he knew, and learned that people who lived in the real-world did not exist in black and white.
There were shades of grey everywhere. Those who moonlighted in lightest of grey could easily stab you in the back and, at the same time, even those bordering on pure black were worth getting to know on some occasions. Karasuba seemed to be one such individual. As long as her employer didn't point her in Harry's direction she would be no threat to him.
-o0o0o-
Eventually, they stood together on the street in front of a rather large skyscraper. MBI Headquarters, the corporate sign announced proudly in gaudy gold lettering.
Harry had heard of them previously. They were a large pharmaceutical, biotech, and military supplier, based in Japan that had a worldwide presence in almost every industry of note.
'This must be their corporate headquarters, and Karasuba had an apartment here? Looks like MBI has some shady skeletons in its closet,' Harry mused to himself, 'and I happened upon the one who makes the bodies.'
"Interesting place to live. I don't think I've ever had the luxury of being granted a corporate apartment during my travels," Harry said conversationally as they walked through well-manicured courtyard that led to the building entrance.
She merely chuckled at the statement before the mask of menace that had clouded her face was allowed to slip back on now that she was on her employer's property. "It's definitely luxury, but I'm not sure I've ever considered it home. I can already tell you've a good idea what it is I do, so try and not wander off or appear too conspicuous. It would be best if you're not on their radar quite yet. I think you will be there whether you want to or not very shortly. For now I would like to avoid dealing with the consequences of that occurring."
At that very enigmatic statement, they proceeded forward into the lobby of the building.
"I'm putting a notice-me-not up on myself, I'll be right behind you, but you won't really be able to look at me directly and see me. Your eyes will kind of slide right past me if you try and stare at where my voice is coming from," Harry told her. He also disillusioned himself as well, since he figured there was no need to take chances.
They reached an elevator whereupon Karasuba produced a plastic key card from her waste and keyed herself into a specific floor. Harry could feel her allure rising again as the elevator climbed. 'It seems like someone is having fantasies involving elevators,' he internally chuckled. He was actually impressed that it was occurring while she stood there looking like one the most imposing individuals he had seen in his life.
Eventually, the elevator stopped and Karasuba walked out. He was surprised at the authoritative manner in which she stalked down the empty corridor. Harry could only assume there were security cameras here so she had to maintain appearances. They walked a good distance before they arrived at a door that appeared to be in a corner of the building. The door automatically opened as Karasuba stepped on the threshold of her residence.
It was a beautiful apartment, but definitely reflected the fact Karasuba had declared she really didn't consider it home. It had a few mementos and possessions, some artwork, and nice high-end furniture.
But it looked too clean, unlived in.
He was reminded painfully of Tonks making the comment about his Aunt's kitchen many years previous, and thought the analogy appropriate. This location was merely a place she would go to in order to sleep. The location itself held no value or meaning to her.
Harry dropped the spells on himself and walked over to the windows that overlooked the city. It was a gorgeous view, with two whole walls of the bedroom being fully comprised of floor to ceiling windows. The ocean in the distance and chaotic nature of a metropolitan city was displayed in all its glory. Harry looked at her as she approached his side and stood by him just out of arms reach.
"I love the view, this would be excellent to sit and relax in. Though I can see what you mean by 'it's your apartment, but not your home.' You don't seem to have personalized it very much," he said casually.
She nodded at the observation, "I meditate, eat, and sleep here, not much else. There's never been much of a need to make it more than that."
"So where is 'home' then?"
She looked at him, for a long moment. Harry could tell she normally was very close-lipped about her past, and she now waged some internal battle over whether to speak or not.
"I don't normally talk about…"
A sudden thought had occurred to Harry. He raised his hand up to stop Karasuba mid-sentence and looked around the room suspiciously. This conversation might lead somewhere dangerous and prying ears could be very interested in what was said. He had over the years become slightly more paranoid then Mad-Eye Moody, and right now was no exception.
The suspicious wizard motioned her over to a table in the center of the room and asked her to sit down. He palmed his wand and conjured a piece of paper and put an obscuring glamour on it, keyed to Karasuba. He then touched his wand to his head, and then the paper, which made writing appear on previously blank sheet. Picking the paper up and confirming the charms were present he intended, he passed the paper to Karasuba.
He could see her gasp as she read the note:
'I assume that whatever it is you don't normally talk about, may involve your current employer to some level. I remind you that they are one of the leading technology firms in the world, and it is highly likely that your room is bugged from here to Sunday. I would suggest not saying anything out loud which goes contrary to your employers vision for your future without letting me put up some privacy wards.'
She looked at him quickly, and nodded her assent to put the wards up again. Harry rapid fire burst out spells, adding even a few more this time.
When finished, Harry looked at her and said, "I added a few more this time. If anyone is listening or watching us, all they will see is you discussing the finer arts of a particularly obscure fighting style and it's forms. The spell is tied to you and your knowledge of fighting, so it should be pretty accurate. There's also a spell in there to make sure whatever is discussed is done so in the most mind-numbingly boring manner possible, so whoever is unfortunate to be listening in should be asleep or not paying attention after about five minutes."
She shook her head in disbelief as the abilities Harry possessed began to sink in.
Karasuba definitely was starting to get overwhelmed, and it did not look like this was a position she found herself in often. She seemed to be upset with herself that she forgot she couldn't let go of her public mask even in her own apartment due to it being in her employer's headquarters.
She looked even more exhausted now than before.
It was more and more obvious the haughty and carefree manner she carried herself with was a front, and so was the hardened visage of a killer. Behind both was a broken woman who never let her guard down for fear others might take advantage of her, despite her abilities making that chance almost negligible.
A few deep breathes later with her eyes closed steadied her, and she looked up at Harry and spoke, "Like I was going to say, I've never really talked about any of this, and I still don't know why I'm about to tell you."
Looking down Harry could almost see embarrassment in her face. "Well, actually, I think I do know why, but I'll get back to that later, because that will lead to a whole different set of problems."
With another deep breath, she looked Harry square in the eye and said, "I'm a Sekirei. What that means is we are literally extraterrestrials from another planet. Our ship crash landed here god knows how long ago and ended up in the ocean off the coast of Japan."
She sighed, and instantly looked older then she had previously appeared, "Twenty years ago, Minaka and his assistant found the ship on an island that had suddenly risen from the sea due to volcanic activity."
Her voice took on a cold monotonous tone now as she recounted, "There were one hundred and eight of us aboard that ship, and he woke the five most powerful of us up first. Numbers 1 through 5: Miya, Matsu, Kazehana, myself, and Mutsu."
"The ship has controls, to allow for subtle ways to help "adjust" our personalities and abilities. This was for us to adapt to whatever new world we found ourselves in when we were to be taken out of hibernation. Unfortunately, the only controls Minaka was concerned with were whatever would remove all inhibitions from the five of us and turn us into his own personal assassination squad."
"He called us the Discipline Squad and we were to be his enforcers. What we really were was a pack of rabid fanatical killers who could only marginally be considered sane."
"Soon, other countries found out about the ship, and they were all calling dibs on who would take control of what they assumed was massive upgrades for them in weapons and propulsion technology. As they approached, Minaka simply pointed us at them, and they fell by our hands."
"Tens of thousands of dead soldiers in seconds, it was a game to us, it wasn't real. Lowly humans thinking they could attack us, the Discipline Squad. We slaughtered them without warning, without mercy."
She finally shook her head and looked down, "They never even saw us coming."
She continued after a few moments silence, "That first squad didn't last long though, five people like us were never meant to be in close proximity to each other. Miya ended up falling in love for the chief scientist in charge of 'adjusting' us. I fell for him too, and in the end, Miya tried finding a way to make him love her exclusively, and it ended up killing him. She left after that, and she blames and hates me for the whole fiasco," she paused, and continued, "and I hate her for taking away the first person who had ever treated me like anything other than a 'thing'."
"With that, the group fell apart and we all went our separate ways. Miya hides now under the guise of some well-mannered house-wife up in the north part of the city, pretending to be civil when she's the most ruthless of all of us. Matsu is on the run, likely hiding with the help of Miya, because she stole some important piece of technology from that helps control the colony ship, and MBI bigwigs have had a kill on sight order out on her ever since. She would need to be watched because she's a bit… off and would need someone like Miya nearby to keep her in line."
"Kazehana actually fell in love with the CEO of MBI, the scientist who originally found the ship. He flat out rejected her when he found out. She crawled into a bottle cause of it and hasn't come out since."
"Mutsu, Number Five, was the only truly sane one of the bunch of us. If you can call someone sane who has no real emotions at all. And that ended up being the problem. The only thing he ever truly enjoyed were mind games, not violence. He loved finding ways to sabotage things, and by his very nature us. He doesn't even refer to us by our names or numbers on the rare chance we encounter each other, just 'hannya', 'the pervert', 'the drunk', and…"
Harry knew that Mutsu had a name for Karasuba that she was reluctant to tell him. He reached across the table and lightly placed his hand over hers.
Harry spoke kindly, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. Like I said earlier, I glossed over a lot of the insanity in my life. You don't need to say everything right now to me."
She half-smiled at Harry, but it was a smile of sadness and regret. She looked down at the table, "Mutsu calls me 'the psychopath.' It's a name I've certainly earned."
She had had her eyes closed and she had tensed, just waiting for Harry to get up and leave the room in fear.
"Well, is that all? Shall I start naming all the names I've been called over the years?" Harry tried saying this with a smile, and a slight squeeze of her hand.
"The Boy Who Lived", "The Chosen One", "Undesirable Number One", "The Heir of Slytherin", "The Man Who Conquered", "Saint Potter", "Potty", "Pothead", "Scarhead", "Patronus Potter", "Delusional and Disturbed", "He-Who-Gets-His-Friend's-Killed", and my personal favorite, "The Boy Who Lies."
Harry snorted at the end at the ridiculousness of some of the things he had been called over the years. They seemed so childish now, and completely unrelated to the person he was now.
He gave Karasuba's hand one more squeeze and continued, "Names and descriptions have influence over you only when you give them power. I've found that the labels people impose upon others often fail to describe that person very well at one point in their life, let alone the entirety of their life. Are you the same exact same person you were then, at the moment in time when he labeled you with that word?
"Yes, and no," she looked away and stayed silent for a bit.
With a very noticeable attempt to change the subject, she continued "Anyways, the Discipline squad broke up, and everyone scattered to the winds, except for me. I had nowhere to go, so I stayed and was placed in the second incarnation of the Discipline squad, under the command of one of the other newly fully awakened Sekirei; Number Eight, Yume.
"Yume was…" she paused and searched for words to describe the woman, before she gave up with a shrug and a shake of her head, "different than any other Sekirei I had met at the point. She believed fully and completely in love, and thought that was our goal as Sekirei, to find love and be with and protect our Ashikabis."
"Yume ended up giving her own life to save another Sekirei who had been kidnapped by a rival country's military. I never understood Yume. I resented her, I resented her beliefs, and I resented the child she saved for so long. Yume was my biggest rival in my life besides Miya. Miya was never subtle in displaying her powers. It was easy to see her as a rival. Yuma never revealed anything until it was needed, always allowing others to underestimate her."
"I never understood what she meant about love and its effects, and I never was able to beat her in a sparring match. I was angry when she gave up living to save that child, and for a long time, I've held a lot of resentment against her and that little girl who's now a full grown Sekirei."
"Finally, a third Discipline squad was formed with me as its leader. They gave me two overpowered newbies as grunts, and it's been my job to keep the damage they make under control while trying to somehow enforce the rules MBI imposes on the other Sekirei. And finally, MBI felt I would be more conducive to abiding the company's wishes if I was bonded to an Ashikabi, so I and the two girls were forcibly bonded to an assistant to the CEO of the company."
"Wait, what? Forcibly bonded?" Harry said in confusion.
This reminded him too much of that crap the Weasleys tried to foist upon him years previous when they stated that Harry and Slutty were magically bonded because of the contract. They spouted that nonsense constantly, even after Gringotts got involved and very publicly swatted them down like flies. True bonds, after all, were voluntary and only activated through intent, because bonds usually imposed a price for all their benefits. If one person died, the other person went with them.
"Yeah, of all people they picked a gay guy who works here. They took some spit from the guy and had it placed upon some chopsticks I used. I never saw it coming."
"That's how we Sekirei bond to an Ashikabi, usually through a kiss and the small amount of saliva exchanged. It didn't bother me all that much at the time, I never thought I would find the supposed mate for myself that all Sekirei are told they'd find like some kind of fairy tale. After losing the man I was falling in love with to Miya, I lost all hope I would find another."
"Our powers are limited normally until we find our Ashikabi's. I'm lucky to be stronger than the rest because I was a low-number. I was stronger un-winged then almost all other Sekirei are after they've been winged. But there's no love in our bonding, and so I don't believe I ever really gained anything from it. In fact, all I ever really gained is a weakness, since if he dies, I'm supposed to go with him, despite how weak are shared bond is."
"The two girls on the squad were forcibly winged too. Benitsubasa is rather upset by the whole thing and it's really affected her moods. She's managed to somehow convince herself she loves the guy, but he won't touch her."
"Haihane is just glad she's bonded at all. I sometimes think she thought she would never be bonded. She doesn't have a lot of self-confidence. Her choice of weapons hasn't been easy on her. She's good with the things, but she always ends up cutting herself with them accidentally when not fighting. The cuts get infected and then she gets scars everywhere cause of them. She's pretty fair skinned too so she never goes outside. Some of the other Sekirei gave her the nickname 'The Grim Reaper.' Basically, they've lead to her not having a high opinion of herself."
"So, the three of us are the newest squad, and all the other Sekirei pretty much live in fear of us. Our standing orders are to enforce the supposed rules of the Sekirei Plan, and to terminate any Sekirei that leave Tokyo, or we get terminated ourselves. It's rough at times. The latest group of un-winged Sekirei went out yesterday, so I've been on patrol for almost a day straight dealing with the madness. I had to take down one probably twenty minutes before we met. I was still trying to deal with that when I saw you walk into that tea shop."
"And that's my story, I left a bunch out, like you, but that's the general gist of it."
All Harry could think of was one statement which repeated over and over in his mind, which he eventually said out loud. "You weren't given any choice about your destiny either. You were turned into a weapon, just like me."
Harry slumped back in his chair, almost as if in defeat. Here was a kindred soul, one who raised and forged in hell just like he was. She however had never been given the chance of escape that Harry was able to grasp onto when he left England, so she had everything she had valued taken away from her.
"You haven't discussed one thing though," Harry finally said into the silence, "…and I get the feeling it's quite important."
Harry could see her stiffen at this, and realized that if there was something that she still felt needed to be hidden after even after she had admitted to her role in the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers.
Harry phrased his questions carefully, and spoke as softly and delicately as possible, "What was the impossible thing you mentioned on the roof earlier and why do you suddenly think you have a better understanding of Yume then you did before?"
"Yume always said that finding her Ashikabi would change her and re-prioritize her life. That it would be the single greatest and scariest moment of her life. Up there on that rooftop, it hit me that you should have been my Ashikabi."
Harry was shocked speechless. He couldn't think of anything even remotely appropriate to say to that, so he chose to remain silent.
"I could feel it. It was like your soul was singing to me. It was as if everything I knew or thought of the world was as different as night and day. I could remember… I could remember being a thoughtless killer, reveling in the blood I was spilling because there was no other reason to live for. Now, I can look back on it all view it differently. I can see my mistakes, and I can see where I would've acted differently had I never given in to the despair of never finding my Ashikabi."
"But it doesn't matter, there's no chance of it ever happening anyways since I'm already imprinted onto Natsuo." She stopped for a moment, shook her head, with a harsh chuckle continued, "And I already know you got out of one forced 'marriage' in your life and did so by running to the other side of the planet to get away from the greedy bastards."
"I think it would kill me to see you forced to do the same here. I don't think I've ever apologized to anyone in my life, but I'm sorry I just laid this all on you, especially when there's no possible thing for either of us to do about it."
Harry was stunned by this, but realized he had not yet cringed internally like he would have if someone like Ginny Weasley just thrown the same life-changing curve-ball at him. All he could really think to himself was that here was a woman who would never reach her potential, and never be with the person who her magic had told her she needed to be with. All of it because some poof had already claimed that vulnerable bond against her will.
It was a rather helpless feeling he now felt course through his body. Normally his "Saving People Thing" complex would have roared already and been in full-effect, and he would've likely winged Karasuba if it meant her happiness on some biological level. But it wasn't even an option in this case.
So Harry did the only thing he could think of.
He got up and walked over to Karasuba, leaned down without hesitation and embraced her. She didn't immediately react, but slowly she raised her arms and wrapped them around his back, slowly squeezing harder and harder. Harry finally whispered in her ear, "I wish I'd come to Japan years ago if it could've prevented this for you. I wish you knew a way for me to help you."
Slowly, he felt her silent sobs began.
Her body twitched with a complete absence of sound as she tried to hold in an emotional outburst he could tell would have never been tolerated before they had met that afternoon.
"Shhh, let it out Kara. It's always just a bit better after you let it out. I'm not going anywhere."
And with that the floodgates opened. The sobs intensified as she audibly began to cry and purge herself of years of pain. She continued for at least fifteen minutes like that, the only sound in the room being her sobs and the sound of Harry's hand on her back as he slowly rubbed circles on the coarse fabric of her uniform.
Eventually she calmed down enough that she let go of Harry. As she released, he reached down and kissed her forehead, then leaned in close and wiped the tears from her eyes softly with his thumbs, and whispered, "There's always hope, we just have to look long enough for it to appear."
She nodded, and gave a small half-smile, though it definitely did not reach her eyes. She did however reach up and squeeze both of his hands that were holding her cheeks with her hands, closing her eyes as if trying to hold on to this memory for a bit longer. Eventually she let go and allowed Harry to pull back and look at her.
The emotional release had definitely been necessary, but Karasuba would need to go back to her duties soon, and if Harry could return her to her proud state, he would help her do so. 'Let's see if she has a sense of humor that can shine through,' he thought to himself.
He tilted his head and looked at her with a rueful smile, "You're still quite pretty even when you look like crap, you know?"
She snorted and sent him a glare that would make most sane people piss themselves. He quickly conjured a small hand-held mirror for her before she could react and handed it to her.
"Here, let's fix you up, shall we? Make sure you watch."
With one wave of his wand, the tear tracks were gone on her face, and another wave vanished her ruined and runny mascara and eyeliner as well. He didn't stop there, and proceeded to then restore her eyeliner to its previous state, refreshed the light mascara on her cheeks, and then placed a lightly colored gloss on her lips.
With a final wave of his wand, her disheveled hair returned back to somewhat resemble what it had looked like earlier in the day before she had begun to vault from rooftop to rooftop.
"Wow," was the highly intelligent reply she blurted out as Karasuba's mind finally caught up to what he had done.
"Stand up a second," he said while smirking down at her. She stood, and Harry promptly waved his arm again, the wrinkles in her clothes disappearing. Finally, with a last wave a freshening charm hit her, making her feel like she had just taken a hot bath and was wearing clean clothes
"Feel better?" he asked with that lop-sided grin that had so infuriated her earlier in the day when they had first met, but now warmed her insides visibly
"Yeah definitely, you're hired. When can you move in?" she said with a laugh, and the confident woman from earlier was present and accounted for once again.
Harry thought that last comment was worth one last compliment, "I'll say it again. You are absolutely beautiful."
A smile was his reward. 'I could get used to hanging out with her,' he thought.
Her wit seemed to have returned as well, "Dare I ask where you learned how to apply a woman's make-up with such skill?"
She was rewarded for her observation when Harry's cheeks turned a bright-red. "Wizards have a potion you can take, called Polyjuice. It allows you to turn into anyone whom you can grab a hair from for one hour. I learned all that in a stealth and infiltration course where I had to turn myself into a woman and learn to apply make-up believably."
She merely stared before bursting out in laughter. Harry could only shake his head and absently run his hand through his hair. He just had to ride out his embarrassment while he tried to keep the redness from his cheeks.
"So what now?" was the only logical question Harry could ask to steer the conversation elsewhere.
She looked shrewdly at him, "Well, how abo…"
But whatever she was about to suggest was never finished, as a loud knock on the door suddenly interrupted her.
"Hey boss, let's go, it's time for training," a very loud and obnoxious voice could clearly be heard through the thick door of the apartment.
Karasuba looked at Harry, with a positively feral look on her face, "Care for some fun, darling?"
'Oh, she's definitely going to be fun to be around,' thought Harry.
Harry couldn't help but chuckle and grin at the thought of wrecking havoc on one of her overconfident Sekirei minions and said, "Sure, I haven't pranked anyone nice and good today. Let's do it."