Hello, here is the latest chapter! Hope you'll like it!

Sorry for the delay, but I'm on an internship right now, and my writing time has been drastically cut off, so it takes me longer to get chapters out, sorry about that.

I've received a couple of suggestion about Sekirei that I could add to Harry's flock, but considering how I've been planning this story, I won't be able to do so, so in the end his flock will consist of four, max five Sekirei. Now, as someone pointed out, Harry's a bit "too" good at reading people, since he should only have the Dursleys to learn from, a rather flowed example. However, I should point out that because of the bullying, along with the fact that nobody ever believed him, he had to become extremely observant. After having gained Tom's knowledge, he will also have a lot more experiences to draw from, so don't be shocked if Harry is rather mature for his age.

Some also wanted to see how Harry would grow about learning magic, you'll see in the chapter that he hasn't yet tried to copy the Sekirei's powers, but it will come soon.

Now, onwards!

I don't own Harry Potter nor Sekirei.

04

Three years later

In the dojo that occupied one of the upper levels of MBI's Tower, two figures were sparring, though to those that weren't accustomed to the sight, their spar looked more like a deathmatch. Vicious blows were exchanged, the sound of wood against wood resonating in the dojo at an amazing speed, as the two opponents fought each other.

On one side, Karasuba was grinning wildly, as she held a wooden version of her nodachi, and to those who knew her, it was a telltale sign that she was greatly enjoying herself. While her opponent was sweating a lot, she didn't even have a single bead of water on her face, given that she wasn't trying to seriously fight, after all if she did she would have annihilated her adversary without allowing him to learn anything, which was precisely the point of their spar.

Facing the grinning grey-haired woman, a ten-years old Harry Potter clad in sweat-drenched training clothes was attacking her relentlessly, blocking her strikes and riposting. He was quite different from the little boy that Takami had found in the Dursleys' car three years ago. Thanks to his potion regimen and healthy food, he had gotten some flesh on his bones, and had finally reached the size of a normal ten-years old. His black hair had been left long and reached his shoulders, and he no longer had trouble seeing so he no longer needed glasses, leaving his deep green eyes exposed to the world. They were now hard, full of determination, and betrayed maturity far beyond what could be expected of children his age. He also had a toned body, thanks to his daily spars with Karasuba who had dragged him to the dojo as soon as the Healer had told him he was healthy enough to do so.

Under his new "mother"'s care, he had been trained in the art of the sword and in martial arts, something he had thrown himself into with wild abandon, to the point where sometimes the instructors had to drag him out of the room while he was sleeping. He was now a very decent fighter by Karasuba's standards, which meant that he was almost better than his own instructors, save for her. It wasn't really surprising, Harry was very intelligent and extremely observant, meaning he learnt very fast and quickly corrected his mistakes, that and the fact that he trusted his instincts to fight meant that he had very quick reactions, while most people at the same stage were still consciously trying to choose the best action, he simply went with the flow. There was also the fact, not that anyone knew, that after spending months sparring with Karasuba, Harry had gotten used to her speed, her strength, her ruthlessness. Human opponents simply couldn't compare.

Discovering that the woman who was taking care of him was in fact, an Alien in the truest sense of the term, had surprised Harry quite a bit, then again, considering his life, he had quickly gotten used to the idea. To know she had killed hundreds of people hadn't bothered him in the slightest, after all she had been the very first person to treat him as if she cared about him (Takami and Yume, while they had cared, hadn't taken him in, and hadn't spent nearly as much time around him as Karasuba). To see just how much more powerful she was compared to human had been a shock, after all it wasn't every day that you saw someone bend metal bars with their bare hands, or jump higher than some buildings.

They were called Sekirei, which Harry learnt meant Wagtail in Japanese, and there were apparently one hundred and eight of them, though the only ones "awake", whatever that meant, were the first ten, and even then, only two of them were fully "functional". The others had apparently left MBI's care, and unfortunately for the company, there was nothing they could do to get them back, as most of them were strong enough to destroy armies by themselves, and they couldn't afford to lose either Yume or Karasuba.

So after sparring with one of the strongest beings on Earth, it was no surprise that Harry had quickly outclassed his teachers, save for Karasuba. After getting used to her physical feats, there was no way mere humans could hope to win against him. He wasn't stronger than them, he wasn't faster, but he sure as Hell was far more reactive!

Their current spar had been going on for nearly ten minutes when Harry was hit by a feint and sent to the floor by the strength of the hit. That was one of the first things he had learnt with the Sekirei number four, she wasn't going to cuddle him, she was going to train him, and if he slipped, he was going to get hit, hard. He would probably get a bruise, but he was used to it, and they didn't bother him, though each time Takami or Yume saw one, they berated Karasuba on how she shouldn't hit him that strongly. Not that she really listened.

"Good job, Harry-chan." said the Sekirei as she grinned, proud of her disciple. In the three years since she had met him, he had gotten better than most humans in the arts of the sword, enough so that he could hold several minutes against her, when most swordsmen barely held seconds, even if she wasn't being serious.

She had watched as he learnt, going from a total beginner to almost a master in barely three years. Then again, he spent a lot of time training, both against her and human instructors, so it was obvious he would become quite good. He had also learnt a lot more magic, from what he had told her, Japanese people learnt the same base spells as the British did, however they also learnt branches of magic that had never been taught or even explored in the West. Harry, with the knowledge he had gained from Tom's memories, had avidly learnt everything he could, and she was quite sure that he hadn't gotten more than four hours of sleep each night for at least two years. He had told her it had to do with something called Occlumency, an art that helped to organize your thoughts and made you able to go with much less sleep than normal, as the brain had a much easier time processing information when said information was organized.

He was currently finishing his education, having gotten his OWLs (the name had made her comment once again at how unimaginative wizards could be) the year before (with the highest score in a century, it was to the point he was hailed as a prodigy, but she knew better), and he was about to sit his NEWTs at the end of the year. She didn't really care about what the names of the exam meant, more about how Harry performed in them, though she was only interested about practical applications, not theory. From what he had told her, his magical core, while very strong, could not handle the strain the more powerful spells would place on it, so he had to wait until his eleventh birthday, the day when his core would start to stabilize enough for him to start trying them. That didn't mean he couldn't use magic, no, he could and he did, using many spells that Karasuba found very interesting, not that it mattered to her that if they were used on a live target, said target would die a horribly painful death.

She was also happy to know that legally, he would be of age as soon as he had taken his NEWTs. The magical world had a rather pragmatic view of age, as most people could live up to one hundred and fifty, some up to two hundred. They firmly believed that if you were intelligent enough to pass your exams, then you were old enough to be given the responsibilities of an adult. Not that it happened often, after all the OWLs and NEWTs could only be passed once, therefore it wasn't actively told to students, who would try (and often fail) to pass their NEWTs as fast as possible. In Harry's case, considering his more than unusual background, the praise of the private tutors he had hired, as well as his OWLs, the Ministry had been more than compliant to tell him.

"Thanks for the praise, Kara-chan." answered her future Ashikabi.

That was another thing she had liked. When he had discovered the fact that Sekirei needed someone to bond to, their "Ashikabi", as they called that person, Harry had almost immediately asked her if the reason she was training him was because she wanted him to be her Ashikabi. Anyone else asking such a question would have immediately become a smear on the ground, but in his case she had simply told him that it depended solely on him, as she would only take a strong Ashikabi, no matter who she reacted to (though she didn't tell him that seeing the way he was progressing, it was pretty much a given, that and she had been reacting to him since the first day, sometimes it got to the point where she had to leave for a week to calm down).

A meowl came from the entrance of the dojo, and Harry smiled when he saw Rin with a towel in her mouth coming to him. He had been surprised to learn she could change her size to an extent, for now the extremes he had seen were from the size of an average cat, to the size of a tiger (that day he had almost choked on his drink). She was very intelligent, that much was clear, and in the three years he had had her, he had come to suspect she could speak, since he sometimes heard a female voice coming from nowhere when she was around. She was also very attached to him, and though now she left Karasuba alone, there had been times the magical cat had tried to maul her, and it had taken Harry's intervention to prevent the Sekirei from skewering the Bakeneko.

"Thanks, Rin-chan." he said as he grabbed the towel and dried himself, while Karasuba simply put back her training sword from where she had taken it. Rin simply purred as he stroked her head and scratched her behind her ears.

The Bakeneko had always taken care of him since the day he "bought" her (some could say she bought him), and Harry had made sure to take great care of her, though sometimes she had had to bump her head on his legs to remind him to pet her, as he spent a lot of time studying and training. She didn't look too displeased with her situation, after all she had an entire room for her in Karasuba's apartment, with a carefully recreated scenery and even a real tree. He often found her napping under the tree, while the sun warmed her. In these cases, he made sure to not disturb her, scratching her ears at most, before leaving her alone, after all if she was as intelligent as he thought she was, treating her like a person would be a good idea. Nobody would want a person with magical abilities to be pissed at them.

"So, what are you going to do now?" asked Karasuba, who had donned the cape of her Disciplinary Squad uniform once more.

"Probably train my spells a bit more, maybe try a few new ones. That old book I found on elemental spells is a true gold mine."

"Meh, so long as you don't slack off on your training..." said Karasuba, who had her usual grin on her face, as well as her usual bags under her eyes.

Harry didn't know what prevented her from sleeping well, but he had already decided that once he became her Ashikabi ( a goal he worked tirelessly towards), he would slip her some dreamless sleep draught. He didn't want to try before, otherwise she might kill him, just for the principle. He had come to know the grey-haired woman better than most ever did, probably because of the fact that he was the only being on Earth that didn't risk an immediate execution if she was angry. That and he lived with her, so he was bound to pick up a few things. He had learnt that she hated being tricked, or be regarded as weak (that didn't happen often, but it happened) by anyone. He had also learnt that she had a liking for quite a lot of food, like curry or bolognaise pasta. Seeing as he was the one to cook for the both of them (she didn't trust the chefs), he sometimes made her favorite meals on special occasions, like when she came back from a mission that she had found interesting (or boring, in that case it helped calm her anger down, if only a bit).

The first time he had cooked her favorite curry, she had stared at him strangely, and for a moment he had thought something big was going to happen, but she had finally shook her head and started eating, though she had been in an excellent mood for the remainder of the week. She always gave him strange looks when he made her favorite food, as if she suspected him to do so to either congratulate her on a job well done, or to soothe her anger when she got pissed at something.

Anyway, the point was, he was allowed to cook for her, so he didn't think he'd have trouble slipping the potion to her, though first he would have to make sure it worked on Sekirei. They may have been almost exactly the same as humans, it was the almost that made him unsure of whether wizardry potions would work on them. He was quite sure they did, and even if they didn't, he was quite sure they would only need a little tinkering to do so, and he had the knowledge necessary. He had tried to deal with Karasuba's sleeping problem by offering to teach her Occlumency, but all he got for his trouble was a hit to the ribs from the Sekirei, who had said that she wouldn't learn anything from him until he was able to give her a good workout when she was serious.

Considering that the longest he had held against her when she was serious, was approximately twelve seconds, he still had a long way to go. He wasn't even aware that most humans, and probably the weakest Sekirei, wouldn't even last that long, but then again, they hadn't spent three years training against the Black Sekirei.

Waving to his mother figure/teacher/prospective Sekirei as she left to see what Minaka had in store for her that day, he went back to the apartment he shared with Rin and her to take a shower, as he had sweated quite a lot. He didn't see anyone on his way there, after all the entire level was more or less reserved to Karasuba and him, and people only ever came over when something important was up or to clean the place. Despite the fact that she had toned down her mindless slaughtering of employees (something she did to calm herself down when she was angry), people only came to that floor when it was needed, and if possible when she wasn't there.

Opening the door, he entered the place he had lived in for the last three years. It was a far cry from the Dursleys' cupboard, decorated with style and every modern technology. Normal technology wouldn't work around wizards, but MBI's products had all been made after technology that came from the Sekirei's spaceship, and were all resistant to magic. Most of the other electronic devices had runes carved in them, courtesy of Harry. That had been what had earned him his Runes OWL, as he had managed to make a modern plasma screen work by using the ambient magic instead of electricity. It had taken him months of searching for the right combination of Runes to work, but once he had found it, the rest had been a breeze.

Walking to the bathroom, he plopped his drenched training clothes in the dirty laundry basket, and entered the bathroom. He sat down on the seat and started showering himself, carefully cleaning his body. He had gotten the hang on the Japanese way of bathing, though at first he had found it confusing. First, he had to shower and clean himself, and only then was it allowed to get into the bath, which was made more to help relax than actually clean. In the end, it worked wonders for him after sparring with Karasuba, so he had adopted the system.

Getting himself into the bath, he enjoyed the way the warm water soothed his body. He was sure to be sore the next day, but he had gotten used to it after three years, and it was nowhere near the debilitating soreness he had felt the first times he had sparred with the Black Sekirei. He looked at his body and grinned (an habit he had gotten from Karasuba, though he didn't do so nearly as much as she did), proud to see he didn't have an ounce of fat, only hard and efficient muscles, most of them littered with the remnant of the scars the Dursleys had left on him, though he no longer felt ashamed of them, the remaining shame having vanished over the years, mostly thanks to Karasuba, who always looked at them like they were badges of honor.

-Break-

A little later, after having dried himself off and put on some clothes, Harry was looking over an old Japanese book, that he had found by sheer luck at a second-hand bookstore. It was one of the most interesting pieces of his collection, as unlike most books, which were either around "normal" spells, like stunning spells, piercing hexes, etc..., this one was all about elemental spells, something that European wizards used scarcely, if at all. In all of Tom's memories, the two most used elemental spells were Incendio and Fiendfyre, the two of them being fire-related spells. Japanese wizards, for their part, had a branch of magic entirely focused around elemental spells, not only fire ones. He had found spells that used lightning, ice, water, wind, even light and darkness. Most of them required more power to cast than "ordinary" spells, but they had the distinct advantage to be able to directly affect the environment of your foe, which allowed a smart wizard or witch to bypass their opponent's shields.

Harry could already use most of the lowest-level ones, and had started trying some middle-level ones, however he was still far from being able to use the highest-powered spells, those that could affect enormous areas and were extremely powerful. When he had asked Haruka about them during one of her occasional visits for the Ministry, she had seemed surprised to hear about them, a good sign for Harry, as it probably meant that those spells weren't well-known.

With a sigh, he stopped reading and reached down to pet Rin, who at some point had jumped on his lap and started purring like crazy.

-Break-

Later that day, he was reading through another one of his books to prepare himself for his NEWTs, just in case, when an alarm went off. He was quite surprised to say the least, in the last three years it had only gone off twice, and each time Karasuba had left for a few days, coming back in an excellent mood, meaning that she had gotten to have fun, which for her meant she had been able to slaughter countless people that had at least been able to represent a slight challenge to her.

He was about to return studying, when the interphone rang, and Takami's voice called.

"Harry-kun? You here?! Come to the surveillance ASAP, there's an emergency!"

Hearing the panic in the older woman's voice, he grabbed his clothes, put on his boots and ran off to the surveillance room. In all the time he had known Takami, the woman was almost always collected, and for her to sound so panicked was undoubtedly a very bad sign, so he didn't want to make her wait.

He was glad for his physical training, as it meant he had a lot of endurance, and it took him only a few minutes (most of the time was spent in the elevator) to reach the room, which he barged in without knocking. If Takami had said as soon as possible, then she meant as soon as possible, and he thus considered that bothering with politeness was not the priority.

Looking around quickly, as he had learnt to do during Karasuba's training, he spotted Minaka, Takami, and several other employees he had seen once or twice. Minaka was still wearing his usual all-white costume with high-collar and cape, and looked surprisingly serious, considering that all the times Harry had seen him, the man had been fooling around without a care in the world.

Takami was wearing her usual white blouse, her grey-white hair looking a little disheveled, a stark contrast to her usual very professional and prim appearance. She was holding what looked like one of the computer-tabs he had seen from time to time in MBI's labs, something he had learnt was around a decade more advanced than most outside technology.

"Ah, Harry-kun! Thank you for coming so fast!"

"It's nothing. So, what's the emergency? And why did you call me? I thought that usually you used Yume and Karasuba in those cases?"

-Break-

Takami bit her lip. The attack on Kamikura Island's facility had been very different from the usual deployment of armed force and military technology, it had been a well-planned operation, made to be undetectable and allow a small group of around a hundred men to get past MBI's sensors. They had been separated in squads of five, which had arrived almost simultaneously on several points and had entered the facility, regrouping inside.

The only "lucky" point for MBI, was that only two Sekirei were on accessible levels of the facility, since it was linked to the ship beneath the island, and only a handful of people could access those levels. The others were either in MBI's labs, or still waiting to be "awoken" in the deepest levels of the ship, with security so high that it was simply impossible to reach them.

As soon as they had gotten wind of the situation, they had dispatched Yume and Karasuba, who for once were in agreement, as some of the men, obviously military scientist, had started experimenting with the two girls, no.88 Musubi and no.87 Kaho. Both single numbers now wanted to kill those men, though Yume did for an entirely different reason from Karasuba. Ever since meeting Harry, the no.08 had started getting gloomier, and was no longer as innocent as before. She was still childish and outgoing, but she now showed far less pity for soldiers trying to invade Kamikura Island. She had obviously been shaken by how Harry had grown up and behaved, and had taken it rather hard.

However, it would take them a few hours to reach the island, and by then they had no insurance that nothing irreparable would have happened to the two captured Sekirei, since Takami didn't put it past the men that held them to dissect them and send the information to their leaders, since their mission was clearly a suicide one.

That is why, when Minaka had suggested sending Harry to buy time, since wizards could seemingly teleport (they called it apparation, though in the end it was really teleportation) wherever they wanted, so long as they had enough information on the place. He had pointed out that Harry, being trained by Karasuba, would likely be underestimated, and be able to reach the two girls and take them to the lowest levels, behind the security. Despite her own reservations, Takami couldn't help but want the little girls to be safe, and despite a nasty little voice in the back of her head telling her she was only searching excuses for herself, she felt that Harry could pull it off, and would not be traumatized should he need to kill some people, since the combined effect of his own upbringing, Karasuba's own training and brainwashing, and that Dark Lord's memories, made it so that he didn't show a shred of remorse at the idea of killing people.

She had monitored Harry as closely as she could with Karasuba around, and while she had been happy to see that he had become mostly normal, there were still areas where his own philosophy and view of life were drastically different from normal people's. He wasn't a psychotic murderer, as he had even managed to prevent the Black Sekirei from killing innocent people when he was around, however he made it clear that most people's lives were of no consequence to him. In fact, he didn't accept mindless slaughter, but he wouldn't hesitate to kill someone should he have a good enough reason for that. That, combined with the fact that Haruka had managed to explain that he had the means to do so, and very easily at that, didn't help her sleep at night.

She had tried to find a better solution, one that didn't mean sending an emotionally scarred ten-years old to save the two young Sekirei, however, she hadn't been able to find one, and it was with a guilty heart that she had called him.

-Break-

Harry was now sitting next to a screen-table which was currently displaying the image of an island, Kamikura Island. Overlapping it was a plan of the facility MBI had built on the island to study the Sekirei and the ship, though interestingly the study of the ship could only be done when Minaka was present, the man didn't want anyone to steal the technology the "Gods" had brought to Earth. Though he had to admit that it at least prevented people with bad intentions to get information about the weapons the ship possessed.

"This morning at 09:47, a group of unidentified people invaded our facility on Kamikura Island. Instead of coming with large numbers, they came in twenty groups of five that escaped our sensors and landed on these points."

Three areas lighted up in red on the map. One of them was close to one of the facility's entrances, another was near what Harry identified as a communication tower, and the last was in an area removed from the rest of the island and difficult to access.

Harry, thanks to having integrated Tom's memories and knowledge of tactics, as well as having been drilled by Karasuba, quickly understood why such a plan had worked. First, the group close to the communication tower had probably either stopped the communications or hacked them, allowing the second group to start the attack while the first group could then be used as reinforcements, as could the third. The third was a safety, a way to ensure that in the off case the other two groups were dealt with, they still had a presence on the island. There was also the way they had landed to consider: this was probably a suicide mission, as it was clear as day they would have no means of evacuating the island and get away before the Disciplinary Squad arrived. However, the one thing that was clear, was that there was a mole in MBI. The attack implied that someone had given those people information as to where to attack, where to hit, and when.

Kamikura Island was heavily fortified, even when the Disciplinary Squad wasn't there. However, at the moment, most of the military presence was gone for an exercise, and two Sekirei had been brought out of hibernation only a few months prior. That meant they were still on the island, and were nowhere near old or trained enough to have more than a modicum of control over their powers. It was too good for whoever had sent those soldiers to ignore it, however, the only reason they could have known was that someone had been feeding them information. He was leaning towards one of the scientists, a grunt that would have done it for money or recognition by a country.

"After having killed our security team, they eliminated our scientists, and proceeded to the rooms of the Sekirei currently on the island, number 87, Kaho, and number 88, Musubi."

A screen on the wall showed two little girls around seven years old. The first one had long, dark hair, and looked slightly nervous. The second one resembled a mini-Yume, though she had a big happy smile on her face, something her older lookalike had shown quite a bit less since his arrival at the Tower.

"For what we know, this is a suicide mission, and they will study them as much as they can before being killed. They need to send as much intel as they can to whoever sent them there. That is why we have a little time. They will probably start by taking some blood and bodily fluids before doing anything truly harmful to them. They will also probably want to see their powers before anything, and as both of them are physical types, they will need some time to figure it out.

However, by the time both Karasuba and Yume will reach the island, we can't be sure that they won't have moved to more dangerous and lethal experiments. So, Harry, we'd like you to use your ability to teleport and go save both number 87 and number 88. We aren't asking you to eliminate anyone, what we want is that you get both Kabo and Musubi and bring them here."

A blue circle showed a part of the facility that seemed to be somehow linked to one of the ship's sass.

"This sas separates our own facility from the ship. We have already made sure that you are keyed into the securities, as such the door should open as soon as you approach it. Once you're behind it and it closes, you will be safe."

Nodding, he got up and took the earplug and micro that Takami was handing him. She was obviously very nervous and more than a little conflicted in letting him go on his own, but she had assisted to some of his more recent spars with Karasuba, and he should be more than able to take the two Sekirei to safety, as long as he didn't try to fight the soldiers head-on. At least he wasn't exactly like his mentor, or he would have gone through the entire facility to kill the whole group of intruders before actually helping those two.

"Harry-kun, remember: if you can avoid fighting, then do so. While I am worried about Kaho and Musubi, I do not want you to put yourself in danger for them."

"Have a little faith, please. I know that to you I'm ten, but remember, I've got Tom's memories, and I've been trained by Karasuba. So long as I am careful, I shouldn't have too much problems getting Kaho-chan and Musubi-chan to safety. Besides, even if I'm spotted, they will probably underestimate me.

Though I'm more concerned about the mole that gave those people the information they needed to make such a plan."

"You noticed too? I've asked that security review everyone's profiles and dealings, that should allow us to narrow down the number of those that could have done that. Nobody had a suspicious behavior, then again, that isn't saying much. But when we know who did that, I'm going to sic Karasuba on them faster than you can say "traitor"." growled the white-grey haired woman.

Harry pitied the mole, he truly did. If there was one thing he had learnt in his stay at the Tower, it was that Takami could be even more terrifying than Karasuba given the right circumstances. She could make any sane man (thus, Minaka didn't count) cower in fear with but a clipboard.

Putting on some gear someone had brought for him, he found himself clad in a black uniform that hugged his body tightly and seemed incredibly resistant, something to be expected, since it was produced by MBI. He could feel some harder parts in his clothing, probably alloys used to reinforce his defense. After all, fabric, no matter what it was made of, could not stop bullets enough for him to get out unscathed. It could slow it down to a degree, but certainly not stop it before it dealt damage to his body.

"Nice."

"I know I'm being an hypocrite in saying this, since I'm sending you to save two girls in a facility with around a hundred armed men inside, but be safe. This should help you avoid most of the damage if you ever have to fight against one of those soldiers."

"Don't worry, I don't plan getting myself killed so soon." said Harry, as he checked one last time that he had everything he needed. Wand in wand holster? Check. Protective gear? Check. Ninjato offered by Karasuba for his ninth birthday? Check. Set of smaller blades, just in case? Check.

"Well then, I'll be off. Time to kill a few people."

-Break-

With but a noise, he was gone, leaving a worried-looking Takami staring at the place where he had once stood. Kami, please make sure he doesn't have to kill. He deserves some measure of peace after everything he has lived through.

And she wasn't only thinking about the abuse/torture. She knew about the memories he had, memories that no ten-years old should have. While nobody could tell her exactly how bad it was, Karasuba had, on her orders, bought several books on the man known as Voldemort and the war he had brought upon Magical Britain. It had not been pretty. Apparently magic allowed anyone who knew how to cast a spell, to use it as they wished, and unfortunately, that meant that nearly wizard or witch could equal the worst Mundane psychopaths and even surpass them easily. To know am emotionally-broken child had to live with memories of torture, rape and murder did very little to calm her guilty feelings.

The fact that he was being raised by Karasuba, if "raised" could even be applied here, was all the more worrying. She had trained him in the art of the sword, as well as hired tutors for him to learn from, and he had already, in less than three years, learnt most of what they had to offer. In fact, he was just below being a Master himself, as his skills were excellent, if a little rough on the edges. The only reason he managed to beat people that were still better than him was simple, his reaction speed could only be described as monstrous, and she knew where that came from, it wasn't hard to guess. The Black Sekirei had insisted that they had daily spars, and as such, Harry had had to get quicker in his reactions, as he was slower than Karasuba, meaning he had to react almost before she attacked him.

He also had shown no qualms about harming his opponent if that allowed him to win. Nothing serious, a hit to the stomach, enough to break their concentration, but it was here, and she was afraid that it may evolve into maiming his foes permanently. Admittedly, if he was up against people like those in the facility, she really couldn't care less about what would happen to them, but what if he got aggressive, and then fought innocent people?

In the end, she could only hope for the best, as she knew nobody that could help her with her dilemma. Yume was still afraid of hurting Harry if she ever got too close to him, something that was a definite change from her early self, that would have been smothering him to death, Minaka was his usual mad self, so he was out, and she couldn't ask Miya for help, the ex-no.01 would not know how to deal with a kid as broken as Harry, nor would any of the Sekirei she knew. And she was not about to ask this Ministry of Magic, she had been able to learn some things about how Mundanes (Muggle was an insulting term, so she wasn't about to use it) were seen, even now, by magic users. While the Japanese could at least acknowledge that as a whole they were dangerous thanks to their technology, they still didn't consider them as "normal" human beings, more like some kind of weaker counterparts of themselves, like healthy people looking at disabled.

Deciding that enough was enough, she went to check on how things were going, swearing to herself that at some point she would introduce Harry to Minato and Yukari. He may be broken, far more mature than any child his age should be, trained by a psychotic alien, but he needed friends his own age.

Especially now that Minaka had expressed the wish that MBI try to experiment with Harry's powers. Until now, they had been happy with the odd experience now and then, and they were all harmless, but now the CEO wanted a closer type of experiments. He wanted to see if Harry could replicate what the Sekirei could do, and if so, then how to transfer that ability to Mundanes.

As she walked back to the communications' room, she wondered why Minaka had not asked to do such a thing right away. I bet it was to let Harry grow into his powers peacefully. Minaka may be mad, but he's a genius, and he asked quite a lot of questions to that Ministry girl that comes over to check on his "son". I think Harry said something about his magic needing to stabilize before he could use most of it, maybe that's that? I doubt the bastard would want to lose his little lab rat.

Shaking her head, she took out one of her cigarettes and lighted it, before releasing a cloud of smoke with a satisfied sigh. I'm too old for this kind of shit.

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