CHAPTER 7:

THE BETRAYAL OF ITSUKI KAWASUMI

"…Are you seeing this, Ren?"

"If by that, you mean a new timer that simply reads '7' on my status screen, then yes. The Wave wasn't that far off, but this…this is a problem. It means we've got a new countdown."

Harry ran a hand through his hair. "No…no, no no…Itsuki might not have made it! Kyo has broken the seal already!"

Raphtalia clasped his shoulder. "Harry, we need to remain as calm as possible. Panicking isn't going to do us any good!"

It was easy for her to say, though Harry was sure that she was saying that to reassure herself as much as everyone else. Her pink eyes betrayed her own anxiety. It said a lot when the usually unflappable Hedy and Elrasa looked afraid too.

And who could blame them? They'd stopped quite a way on their journey to camp after some days. Then, as he prepared dinner, a blast of wind hit them from the east, followed by an all-encompassing noise that seemed to shake their very bones, less a proper sound and more of a presence, a force. The noise shook them all, seemed to make them afraid on a primal level. It was less a roar or a shriek, and more of a natural disaster given voice. And yet, they knew that the source of that noise was alive.

And then, after the noise went away, another sound filled the silence that followed: a sound of breaking glass, not unlike that which happened when a Wave hit this world. And that's when Harry and Ren saw the new countdown on their status displays. And a new wave of dread filled them all.

"…Raphtalia, please contact Mirelia," Harry said. "I think the Four Saints Church in Faubrey has a means of telling whether the Cardinal Heroes are dead or alive, given what Mirelia said before, and I think she has a line of communication to the King of Faubrey." He handed the communications mirror to her, knowing she would probably be the calmest and best able to communicate.

Raphtalia nodded grimly, and went off. "And what of the rest of us?" Therese asked.

"We wait until we have news. If Itsuki gets into trouble, he'll probably take the Portkey as soon as he can."

"Fweh…Sir Itsuki," Rishia moaned miserably.

Several minutes later, as Harry got to cooking the food, Raphtalia came back. "Mirelia contacted them. It'll be some time before she can get back to us. The King of Faubrey will have to send someone to check."

Harry nodded. He went back to his cooking. It was an attempt to take his mind off these matters, and food was good for raising morale, most of the time, anyway. But the ensuing meal still had a pall over it.

It was some time after they had finished, however, that with a scream, Itsuki dropped down into their midst, tied up in the very rope Harry had enchanted into a Portkey. "Itsuki!" came the chorus of people calling out the teenager's name, in surprise and relief.

Ren instantly went to work, using the Sword to carefully cut the rope off Itsuki's body. Itsuki, however, remained lying on the ground, staring up at the sky at some unseen sight, his eyes bloodshot and glistening with tears. "…They ran…they tied me up and ran…left me to die…" he sobbed quietly.

Harry, after a moment, helped the sandy blonde teen over to a log to sit, and then filled a bowl and offered it to him. As Itsuki looked at the bowl uncomprehendingly, Harry said gently, "Get some food in you, Itsuki. Then, you can explain what happened…"

Itsuki reluctantly ate the food, everyone holding their questions until he had finished, though Rishia sat next to him, and Raphtalia quickly notified Mirelia and Fitoria via communications mirror, promising to explain more later. Itsuki seemed to take some small comfort in Rishia's presence. Eventually, the Bow Hero began to hesitantly tell his story.

They hadn't managed to catch up with Motoyasu, his party, and Kyo. They knew they had been too late when they reached the capital of Spirit Tortoise Country…only for the beast itself to rise up out of the city right in front of their very eyes, destroying the city in the process. Hundreds if not thousands of people wiped out in mere seconds. Itsuki had readied the Portkey, but he made the mistake of hesitating, wondering whether he could do anything to slow the beast down or infiltrate it, find Motoyasu and Kyo, and stop them.

"…And that's when they attacked me," Itsuki said, his voice thick with emotion, with despair at the betrayal he had suffered. "The next thing I knew, Mald was finishing tying me up with the rope. They told me that I was going to get them all killed, and I could die if I wanted to, but they weren't going to follow me into the grave. They fled, I don't know where. I sat there, tied up…only…he came along." His breathing became heavier, more panicked.

"…He came along?" Harry asked. But he got the feeling he knew what Itsuki was going to say next, who approached him.

"Kyo." Itsuki looked to Harry, his eyes filled with a bleak expression. "He was so horrible, Harry. I thought I have seen true evil before, but…even that noble I rescued Rishia from pales by comparison to him. He was dressed up like a mad scientist from a manga, but he spoke like some griefer so proud of hacking the game, mixed with some over-the-top hammy supervillain, and his eyes…so insane, and yet…so rotten-looking. He taunted me, called me a moron, a noob, a scrub, all those sorts of things, said he would put me and the Bow to better use than I was putting it to, to give him the power he sought. He was about to use a spell on me, and...I used the Portkey. Thankfully, it worked while I was tied up with the rope."

"…Good," Harry said. As Itsuki looked incredulously at him, he said, "Itsuki…it's a bad situation, but you tried to stop it from getting worse, and you managed to get back to warn us what had happened. You tried to stop Motoyasu, and while you had your worries about your party, you couldn't have known they would stab you in the back like this. Hell, I was worried about something happening, but this?" He shook his head. "I thought they wouldn't stoop quite this low."

"You're not a noob, Itsuki," Ren said quietly. "Impulsive, yes, immature, yes, but you were trying to do the right thing. Those deaths are not on you, they're on Kyo, as well as Motoyasu being an idiot. I know that is small comfort, but we're all feeling like we could have done more, done better."

"Exactly," Glass said. "We had thought Kyo a friend and comrade, along with others on our world who later turned out to be traitors, like Kazuki, the would-be Vassal Katana wielder. We tried to stop him after we learned the scale of his ambitions. But it wasn't good enough."

After a moment, Harry said, "Itsuki…I told you how I became known as the Boy Who Lived, at least in part. But…I didn't tell you how Voldemort found us. I didn't learn of this until years later, but…my family hid away using a type of magic known as the Fidelius, which locks a secret within the soul of a person designated as the Secret Keeper. The Secret Keeper was supposedly my godfather, Sirius Black, and he went to Azkaban not only for betraying my family, but murdering another friend of my parents, Peter Pettigrew, along with a dozen innocent people."

"…Except it wasn't Sirius who was the Secret Keeper," Raphtalia said. "It was Pettigrew, who faked his own death. Nobody else knew that Sirius was just a decoy, but Pettigrew was the real Secret Keeper. Pettigrew sold out Harry's parents to Voldemort out of fear."

"Years later, I had him at my mercy. I nearly let Sirius kill him, but decided to hand him over to the Aurors, the magical police, which was a mistake. Even though he'd earlier begged me to show mercy, he escaped, leaving us to nearly die to the Dementors," Harry said bitterly. "A year later, he murdered a friendly rival of mine, Cedric Diggory, and helped Voldemort regain a body. So I know what it's like to be betrayed by those who are supposed to be watching your back."

He didn't mention Ron and his episodes of being fickle. He didn't want to compare Ron to Mald. Ron wasn't a racist psychopath like Mald was, just an immature teenager at the time.

Itsuki, however, seemed to realise something. "The Boy Who Lived!" he yelped.

"Itsuki?" Harry asked.

"That's what Kyo called you, the Boy Who Lived!" Itsuki all but babbled. "He said that you had an overblown reputation, and you didn't deserve the power that you were born with when he, a Squid, had nothing, whatever he meant by that. He was monologuing hard, mixing in all sorts of gamer lingo."

Harry, however, felt a chill go down his spine. "…Itsuki…is it possible he said 'Squib' instead?"

"…Uhh, maybe? I dunno, he seemed to be using the English word for 'squid', not the Japanese, which was odd, because I hear you guys in Japanese, not English, but I guess I could've misheard it. Why?"

"A Squib is an English term used amongst the wizards of our worlds to denote someone who was born to magical parents, but has no magic. It's used to some degree amongst the wizards of Japan," Raphtalia explained. "Which means…"

"…He's from your timeline, or a variant of it," Ren realised.

"And he's got a grudge against me," Harry muttered. "Great. I wonder why? Sounds like a gamer version of Filch."

Itsuki returned his gaze to the campfire. "…I'm sorry."

"Itsuki, don't be. You got us valuable information. I don't think he was a Death Eater, they looked down at Squibs," Harry said.

"He was born on our world, Harry, not summoned," Therese said. "However, I suspect he was reincarnated, reborn as a native of our world. A few of our Vassal Heroes have been reincarnations in the past."

"So, we have a possibly reincarnated ex-Squib with a hell of a chip on his shoulder and willing to commit genocide to gain power," Harry said. "Oh joy…"

"I see," Fitoria said as they called her not long afterwards. They'd already notified Mirelia, but she intended to call them tomorrow to discuss their response.

Harry nodded. He, Raphtalia and Ren were gathered around the mirror, while the others, especially Rishia, tried to comfort Itsuki. "I'm sorry we couldn't get there in time."

"No. It's fine," Fitoria said. "At least we now know for certain that Kyo has caused the recent troubles. And that he knows of you, and was a Squib from your timeline, or a similar one. Reincarnations and summoned heroes can come from any time period on their world, though they usually come from a time when computer games have been developed on your world. So while he may come from the recent past, the present, or even the future, he was reborn on that world. In addition, it is possible he comes from a similar timeline to yours, where another Harry Potter is famous amongst the magical community there. But that is irrelevant speculation. What is relevant is that he needs to be stopped."

"The Spirit Tortoise needs to be stopped first," Harry said.

"Agreed. The innards of the Spirit Tortoise include many chambers he could be hiding within. The Spirit Tortoise is as much artifice as it is a living being. I suspect it may have been created, though by whom and how, I do not know. But that means that, to access them, you need to bring the Spirit Tortoise down. But do not mistake that for killing it completely. I believe it will be impossible to kill simply by, say, decapitating it. That is only the beginning, I believe, especially with Kyo's interference. I am making my preparations here. I need to speak to Mirelia about something that may prove to be a key part of the battle."

"Okay. Good luck with that, Fitoria," Ren said. "I have a feeling we'll need all the luck we can get."

"Perhaps, but luck is as fickle as human hearts and minds," the Filolial Queen said. "Comfort Itsuki as best as you can. However, time is very much against us all. It cannot be wasted. I ask much of you, but the stakes demand as such. I'm sorry, I really am. This burden should not have been foisted on you so soon. We will see each other on the battlefield. Farewell…"

As Fitoria disengaged the mirror call, she heard, from nearby, "Will they accept my help?"

Fitoria turned to look at Lüge Lansarz Faubrey, formerly known as Aultcray Melromarc XXXII, the king consort of Queen Mirelia. The old man was no longer dressed in the robes of royalty, but while for a time, especially after Malty's betrayal, he had lost much of his regalness and authority, to say nothing of his confidence, he was starting to regain them. And not in the obnoxious way he presented himself prior to Mirelia retaking charge of Melromarc again.

"Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of choice," Fitoria said. "The Vassal Staff may be beyond your ability to use for now, but we still have your strategic and tactical mind. And Mirelia is open to it, as long as you do nothing to hinder the other nations participating. I can find means to concealing your identity to prevent mistrust…but I would suggest revealing yourself to the Cardinal Heroes and their parties."

"…I understand. Potter…despite our mutual antipathy, he helped me understand a few things." He looked to the sky. "I remember the argument I had with Lucia about my vendetta with Siltvelt, prior to what I thought was her murder, but instead, was her elopement. I had told her, in my anger, that she was a traitor whom I had wished had died with the rest of my family. I regretted those words not long afterwards, but she clearly was hurt by my words. Why else would she not contact me after all those years? Atla and Fohl are all I have left of her. And for all my issues with his father and his blighted race, I will admit that Blake Ga Fayon was a valorous fighter, far better than his sire. When Potter brought Atla and Fohl to me, I realised what had happened. One should live to atone, not die for atonement. Dying is all too easy. Besides, I remember what he told me once, when I tried to force him to teach the other Cardinal Heroes the magic of his world."

"And what was that?"

"He spoke highly of Melty, even while insulting me. He even said that she would be a better monarch than I ever would be. I thought he would despise the entirety of my family, but his sincere praise, even if he meant it to hurt me, struck me in another way. And while I thought he had kidnapped Melty soon afterwards…" Lüge shook his head. "When Mirelia asked him to devise my punishment, he could have done so many things, even demand my head and Malty's. But he showed mercy, our stripping of our authority, as well as my name, aside. Humiliating, and I still despise him and his comrade to some degree, but still measured. His mercy was wasted on Malty, something I am still coming to terms with…but even if I do not intend to be on friendly terms with him, I will make up for what I have done, by deed, not by hollow words."

"Well said," Fitoria said. "Then let us prepare. This will be a hard-won battle…

CHAPTER 7 ANNOTATIONS:

Itsuki has been betrayed, and barely escaped the clutches of Kyo. But he's in a bad way. Still, some new allies may be making themselves known…

I always intended for Itsuki to be betrayed as he was in canon, even if the outcome will be somewhat different. At least Itsuki has others to support him to help him get over this.

And the King Formerly Known as Aultcray may be making a move to redeem himself in earnest sooner than in canon, albeit at Fitoria and Mirelia's request. I know he was in a bad way in canon, but Aultcray didn't even try to give any proper tactical advice in Book 6, just ranted and raved about sending Naofumi out as cannon fodder…well, Tortoise Fodder. I know his pride was badly injured, but still…you'd think with the fate of the entire world at stake, he'd get his fucking act together. Here, at least, he is. He still has a long way to go, and it'll be a long time before he can bury the hatchet with Harry, but he's at least making an effort.

No numbered annotations this time.