A/N: Back again, and with a friend, this time. The wonderful Omnimessiah is now my beta reader. Praise be to him, and all those who have reviewed, fuelling the furnace of my imagination!

An important note for this chapter: The Japanese school system (and the fiscal year, for that matter) begins in April.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the Nasuverse. Those belong to J.K. Rowling and TYPE-MOON and Kinoko Nasu, respectively.

XxXxXxXxX

It was 3:35 on a clear, cloudless April day when Asharu first went to Kyōi no Mura cram school.

There were other institutions of magical learning throughout the country, of course; ranging from day schools with a mixed magical-mundane curriculum to solely-magical boarding schools, but the cram school situated on the northern side of the major Wizarding district was a popular recourse for children who attended 'ordinary' school.

Given its relatively short hours, the school's curriculum was well-known for being fast-paced and heavily based upon outside research from its students, but it nevertheless claimed a place among the best academies of the country.

It was a strange feeling for the 7 year-old wizard, emerging from the specially-constructed portal which had been installed in their house into the sunlight of the school's courtyard. Children milled around, ranging from his own age to the latter teens. Here and there, a parent stood like an island in the sea of brown and black hair, leaning down and whispering comfort the shy creatures which clung to them, urging them to go and join their new classmates.

The young wizard followed the katakana signs which pointed to Room 21, the homeroom to which he had been assigned by letter.

Passing through the sliding door, Asharu found himself at the front of a roomful of desks, a few occupied by other children. Conscious of their eyes upon him, he raised his head and walked purposefully to one of the desks by the window, settling into a seat and taking out one of the books that his mother had appropriated from the English wizards. The European wizards may have some… interesting policies but their mastery of raw prana and its application to the environment was impressive. The feats detailed in the book - Principles of Conjuration - were fascinating. A form of magic which, while operating on the same principles as the Projection practiced by magi, was capable of effects almost on the level of Denial of Nothingness, the creation of permanent object when used by a master.

So engrossed in his book was he that he missed the rest of the class arriving, and it was not until the teacher called for attention. Looking up, what he saw confused Asharu.

Sitting in the teacher's chair was a man-sized, humanoid fox, complete with a suit, tie and a name badge. Three tails waved placidly behind him through the hole cut in the seat.

"Good afternoon, class," said the fox, which the young wizard now realised must be a kitsune*, "My name is Akomachi no Sanbi, Akomachi-sensei to you. I'll be your homeroom teacher for your first year here, as well as your tutor in the art of manipulating magic without a focus. Any questions?"

A girl with shoulder-length brown hair in the second row raised a hand.

"Yes?"

She lowered her hand and coughed nervously.

"What kind of magic can you do without a focus? Okaa-san** always uses one of her ofuda to do magic."

The fox-teacher smiled - or at least the young magus thought it was a smile. There was a bearing of pearly white teeth and he didn't look angry. "An excellent question. The simplest answer I can give you is 'not much', at least not until you're determined to master the skill. 'Pure' manipulation, as it's known, is, on its own, a fairly useless skill which only masters can make meaningful use of. What it's mainly used for is in directing magical energy to something which needs it, such as activating ofuda."

The teacher's smile widened further, and he brought a hand up in front of his chest in a curious position, the little and ring fingers curled back towards his palm while the index and middle fingers were pointed straight up. His tails fanned out behind him and, with a soft whooshing sound, blue-green flames ignited at the tips of each.

"Of course, that's not factoring in individual talents that you might have. I'm a kitsune, for example, so I have a natural affinity for fire, making it easy for me to create these kitsunebi***.

"Now, any other questions?"

There were none.

"Alright. In that case, why don't we introduce ourselves to each other and then I'll tell you more about how the lessons are planned to work.

Behind him, the little balls of eldritch fire danced like fireflies.

XxXxXxXxX

It had been a week since Asharu's first day at Kyōi no Mura cram school and he was thoroughly enjoying it.

His previous knowledge of prana and its manipulation helped a great deal with the basics of wizardry, but not so much that he found the classes effortless. It was easy for him to circulate energy within himself, but pushing it out into the practice ofuda so that they lit up as Akomachi-sensei had demonstrated had been a pleasant challenge. The prana which was expelled from his core didn't seem to have quite the same issues as that from his circuits with regards to his Singularity alignment, but it was still sluggish and reluctant to discharge from his body.

The outing the class was on now, though, was the current focus of his thoughts. They had left the school and were walking to the focus-maker's store in the village proper to buy their first magical channel. It would not be the last, of course, as a person's magical self changed over time and, unless made by a master, foci did not, but it was nonetheless a significant event.

The excited voices of the rest of the class sounded around the young wizard as they followed Akomachi-sensei through the streets. He kept up a conversation with the boy who usually sat next to him and who he had struck up a mild friendship with, Terauchi Heiji, talking about what they thought that their foci would end up being. Heiji was hoping that he would be matched with a fan like his father, while Asharu favoured the idea of a ceremonial knife or maybe a ring.

The conversation petered off as they reached the store, a wood-fronted affair with a selection of different artefacts and implements displayed in the window, from bowls to ofuda to even a kimono woven, or so said the card beneath it, with the threads of a Jurogumo spider.

Akomachi-sensei pulled open the door and ushered the dozen children inside.

The room was lined with shelves, upon which sat an eclectic variety of objects, from blocks of wood to feathers to spools of thread. The centre of the room was dominated by a complex arrangement of benches, tools and unidentifiable paraphernalia which nevertheless had the look of being well-used and kept. At a few of the low stools surrounding the benches, men and women - more than former than the latter - sat, crafting various items from the materials on the wall. A short, black-haired man noticed the gaggle of children and came over, carrying a small clipboard which he seemed to have been using to take note of the items on the wall.

"Ah, Akomachi-san. Here for another class?"

"That's right Fukuya-san." He turned to the children. "Alright, if you could follow Fukuya-san here, he'll see what kind of focus would suit you best."

"Come this way, then," said the small man. He walked towards one of the benches in the centre of the room. Upon this one sat a stone bowl, about a foot and a half in diameter. It was filled with a liquid which might have been water, were it not for the faint trails of silvery light that flashed through its depths.

"Now, who wants to go first?"

There was a brief and heated whisper-fight between a number of the children before a boy named Kenji stepped forwards, victorious. Asharu decided to wait and see what happened.

"Alright, now if you could touch the water - just with your fingertips - and channel some magic into it, that would be marvellous."

Kenji did so, his face screwing up in concentration. From his position in the middle of the class, Asharu could just make out that the lights in the water seemed to become stronger and faster, swirling and darting like fish. He could make no sense of it but Fukuya-san evidently could, as he commented "Well, looks like you'll be best suited to a fan, then, probably with kamaitachi claws for the braces. If you could go and talk to Aoi-san over there," he pointed to one of the craftspeople at the benches "And say that you want a fan. Next, please."

There were a few more children before Asharu had his turn. Trailing his hands in the water, which was oddly warm, he closed his eyes and pushed out a fraction of his prana. The silver motes immediately split into two sections, some taking up a central position and spinning in a column while the rest formed a ring around that and circulated slowly.

"That's an interesting result." commented the black-haired man. "Well, it's fairly obvious that you're suited for a ring, but I don't know about materials. Go and speak to Toyama-chan. She does the rings, so she might have a better idea than me."

Making his way over to the young woman who had been indicated, the young wizard opened his mouth to tell her what Fukuya-san had said before she interrupted him.

"Yes, I heard. A ring, unknown materials. Which is your dominant hand?"

Caught off guard by her quick speech, it took a moment for the words to sink in before the young wizard held out his right hand.

What followed was a storm of measurements, calculations scrawled in the air with the tip of a finger and odd, seemingly random questions ranging from whether he preferred hot weather to cool weather to whether he had ever flown in an aeroplane. By the time she had finished her interrogation he was utterly mystified, although he had managed to catch a few mutters of 'maple wood' and some references to various creatures and beasts, foremost among them 'nure-onna' and 'tengu'.

Having had the most suitable components and shapes for their foci chosen and the orders placed, the school party left the focus store, writing down their addresses so that the foci could be delivered once they were made. Apparently using magic in their construction could have detrimental effects on the function of the foci, so they had to be crafted by hand.

The group trailed through the town, illuminated by the lights of store displays and the occasional early-lit lantern. The crowds were far sparser than they had been earlier and the procession was a merry one, excited chattering reigning loud over the entire group as each child talked over the rest about their focus, what it was made of and how awesome their magic was going to be.

Akomachi-sensei was engrossed in explaining to Kenji that no, just because his fan was made of kamaitachi claws, he wouldn't just be able to do wind magic, and so it was that he did not notice when Asharu suddenly stiffened, then relaxed and calmly wandered away from the group and into an alleyway between two shops. There was a dim flash, and then nothing. It was not until they reached the school again and the teacher took roll that he noticed that the black-haired boy was missing.

XxXxXxXxX

Behind the wheel of her never-before-used Jaguar XJ220, Semiramis pondered her good fortune.

The day had been excellent. The morning had been spent with Asharu, teaching him magecraft, and with the new Mystic Code which they had created, the Qabsu, his spells were quite impressive, for his age. Control of two non-material forces, the concepts of 'attraction' and 'repulsion' before the age of eight was quite a feat, especially as the forces could be used to attract and repel everything from ordinary matter to heat. It would make for a powerful defence at the very least.

After lunch - a delicious meal of fried fish and vegetables cooked by Shintani Ai, the chef that Semiramis had hired to cook for them -, Asharu had begun his lessons with his tutors while she took drove into Fuyuki proper. Most of the rest of the day had been spent in a conference room, talking with investors and board members of the businesses and enterprises which she had assumed command of, both in the magical world and the mundane one.

Most were doing well - she had deliberately chosen those which looked to be stable or in the ascendant - but there were a few problem cases. An unfortunate side effect of implanting hypnotic commands in the minds of others was that it all too often led to a decrease in their reasoning abilities and independence, meaning that with many of the crises she was forced to intervene herself, offering 'advice' on how to rectify falling profit margins and unfortunate turns of the market.

Another pet project of hers which she was working on in conjunction with the goblins of Gringotts was the founding of a number of minor, seemingly unconnected companies, which spanned the borders of the wizarding and mundane worlds over in Europe. The isolation of the wizards would be a great asset in this, as the disconnect between the prices of mundane and magical goods allowed her to buy cheaply in one 'world' and sell at high prices in another. For all that the transfiguration of the wizards could not create noble metals without high-level alchemical catalysts, many materials which could be transmuted - silicon, for example - were becoming valuable in the mundane world for the manufacture of computers and similar devices. Similarly, commodities such as furniture could be bought in the mundane world and sold for higher prices in the wizarding world, where production lines were unheard of and such items were all handmade. Even with magic to aid them, it was far less efficient.

All in all, it had been a most productive day - week, in fact - and she was looking forward to hearing about the Mystic Code - focus, the wizards called it - which Asharu would be purchasing today. The concept was an interesting one and only so much could be learnt from books on wandlore and the making of foci.

Slowing down, the ancient queen turned down into the driveway of the house and pulled up, turning off the engine. She gathered the folder on the passenger's seat, along with her new laptop - a most wonderful tool - and climbed out of the car.

As she opened the door of the house, Semiramis noticed a small piece of paper on the floor. Picking it up, she unfolded it.

In bold, computerised type it read:

We have your son.

Come to Warehouse 4 at the Fuyuki docks at 10:30 PM. Bring

¥ 80,000,000†. Inform no-one and bring nothing else.

We will be waiting.

Her face horrifically blank, the resurrected sorceress carefully placed her folder and laptop down on the sideboard in the hallway. Only her hands, which shook slightly, betrayed her mingled fury and terror for her son. Her thoughts raced, scenarios tumbling through her head, each one more terrible than the last. Then ways in which she could exact her vengeance. There was no question of defeat. It was not an option. Whoever these mongrels were, they would be no match for the power of a Heroic Spirit, even in the limited shell of a Servant. She refused to even consider the possibility, let alone yielding a single yen to the thrice-accursed curs.

The trembling stilled. A decision was reached.

Whoever the worms were which had stolen her son, they would pay in blood and whatever else she saw fit to take as reparations.

Their lives would be the least of the penalties she would demand.

XxXxXxXxX

* A shapeshifting fox spirit

** Mother

*** Fox-fire

†About £550,000

A/N: Aaaaaaand cliffhanger. Aren't I evil?

Anyway, I've got this out as quickly as I could. I hope you enjoy it and leave me a review to help me improve my writing a little more.