Nice to see some interesting feedback about this story. However, keep this in mind, whether you love or hate Sword Art Online. There's no guarantee of this becoming a full story, and even if it does, it's only following the Aincrad arc, though we will have characters and elements from later arcs. The focus will also mostly be on Harry and Argo rather than Kirito and Asuna, even if they play significant roles. I will also be bringing in elements of Something Witty Entertainment's Abridged Series, like the buggy nature of the game, elements of key character's natures (Yui will be a bit more like her Abridged Series counterpart, as will Kirito and even Kayaba).
STRANGER IN STRANGE LANDS
CHAPTER 1:
A FRESH START, IN THEORY
Harry had to admit, he was glad to finally leave Britain. True, it was disconcerting to do so in the company of one of his oldest friends (who was now nearly thirty years his senior), and one who had a kid now. But frankly, at least Hermione was a friendly face, the only one of his generation at Hogwarts to show anything like that. She'd always acted as a bossy big sister…now, she was more like a mildly bossy aunt. Better her than that bitch Petunia.
Part of the reason that Voldemort's claims that Harry ran away, apparently, was that the Goblins had ways of telling that Harry was still alive. Dumbledore had his own means, but he couldn't find where Harry was, and so claimed that Harry was dead, as a dead Harry was less of a blow to morale than a live but cowardly one. Still, it meant that Harry could claim his family accounts, and shift them to Japan.
They took the plane back to Japan, Hermione having to explain to Harry what all the precautions over something called 'coronavirus' was and why the plane was relatively empty because of it. To Harry, it sounded like some superflu, but apparently it caused major problems that the world was still recovering from. International travel was still, if not restricted, then discouraged.
The reason why they took a plane back was twofold. The first was that Hermione and her daughter had taken the plane over, instead of a Portkey, and they needed to ensure no suspicious questions were asked if they took a Portkey back and then someone looked at their passports. The second is that Hermione was taking the opportunity to fill Harry in on her life since leaving Britain. She didn't want to talk about what happened after Voldemort's second advent, not that much, and to be frank, Harry wasn't sure he could blame her.
"So, you're working for this Japanese company called Argus, one that does games. Console games, VR, arcade, and now, they've developed the FullDive device known as the NerveGear. Which is basically people pulling a Matrix, right?"
"You weren't around when The Matrix came out," Hermione said.
"…Is that a film? I meant the one from Doctor Who."
"Oh, right, The Deadly Assassin(1). Sorry, there was a film, great one, after you disappeared. You've missed nearly three decades of really good movies. Even Doctor Who's started up again. I'm surprised you watched it at the Dursleys."
"Actually, I watched it a few time at Mrs Figg's. She nearly turned it off when she saw what the Master looked like in that story. I'm honestly surprised that wasn't my Boggart instead of a Dementor or Voldemort." When Hermione flinched, he asked, "Okay, why are you…?"
"Voldemort placed a Taboo Curse on his name. Basically, when someone spoke his name, his followers would be alerted, and they'd Apparate in to attack. He did that during his first attempt at taking over Britain, hence why so many people were afraid to speak his name." Hermione shook her head. "Sorry. It's been over twenty years since he died, and for good this time, Ron, Neville, Luna and I made sure of it, but…those were dark times."
"…Luna?"
"Oh, right, you never met her. Luna Lovegood. She was a neighbour of the Weasleys," Hermione said. "She's…eccentric, to say the least, even by wizard standards, but she's a very intelligent and spirited woman, and a very good friend. I've sent word to her, as she's on an expedition with her husband, Rolf Scamander. Trying to discern more about the mating habits of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack." On his look, she said, "I wish this was one of the things she makes up."
Tomo nodded. "The thing about Aunty Luna is…she's got an imagination the size of a planet, more smarts than even Mum…and a mind so open, any old crap falls into it. Not to mention a grasp on reality looser than the average politician's grasp on morals." She snickered to herself.
"You speak pretty good English, Tomo," Harry said.
"Thanks. Mum ensured I was bilingual at least. And not American English either. Most Japanese people, when they speak English, it's American English, because America has the most influence there, see? Of course, Mum, being a Limey, wanted me to speak proper English, me old China, eh?" Tomo put on a rather cod Cockney accent briefly that made Harry and Hermione look askance at her. "Anyway, Aunty Luna would want to meet you. I mean, she's seen you a few times from afar, but she never met you. Don't worry, she's not a fangirl."
"…I would've thought there'd be no fangirls left of me anyway," Harry said. "They'd have either died, or turned against me."
"Ginny is neither," Hermione said. "But…she took everything hard. We all did. I haven't sent word to the Weasleys yet, though I'm sure, even if Kingsley clamps down on the news, it's going to leak. I'll have to send word, but I'll have to ask that they not come until you're settled down. I've got to get this new identity of yours sorted in Japan too. You're fine with living with us?"
"…The Dursleys are dead…well, except for Dudley, and he's in the military, from what Shacklebolt told me. I don't want to live in a country that lauds me one moment, and then condemns me the next. They don't want me there because, in their eyes, I'm a coward. Voldemort is dead, and I can have a normal life…well, as normal as it could be given the circumstances, what with me being a time travelling wizard."
"And the fact that, despite originally being only a little younger than Mum, you're now about my age," Tomo snickered. "Let's just put it this way: the future doesn't suck too much. Quite a bit, true, but hey, we have Wi-Fi and Youtube. Hey, Mum, d'you think Harry can meet Little Sister?"
"…Once he's settled in, yes," Hermione said. "As long as she's not busy with Cardinal, Kayaba, or Kojiro."
"Uhh, sorry? Are those work colleagues of yours?" Harry asked.
"Yes. Akihiko Kayaba and Rinko Kojiro are my colleagues at Argus. We're currently working on something quite interesting…"
Tomo Hosaka-Granger, who frankly preferred her online handle of 'Argo', watched Harry curiously. She'd grown up on stories about this guy, not the free-range bullshit the wizards seemed to prefer, even in Japan, but her mum's stories, about the boy the Brits couldn't decide whether to put on a pedestal, or push him off it. To think he would pretty much drop out of thin air while she and Mum were in Britain, with her mum doing a guest lecture for Muggle Studies. Argo had passed the time exchanging tips on pranking with Peeves the Poltergeist.
Frankly, she wasn't sure what was worse. Hogwarts, for all that it bred prejudice and crap, was nowhere near as hidebound as Mahoutokoro. Many looked down on her for being part-British, with her mother being a Muggleborn and her father a Muggle, to say nothing of her being smarter than most of those half-bred fucktards put together. It was why she started her own little information-trading scheme there, trading gossip and insider information. She'd been inspired by tales of the infamous Nabiki Tendo of Nerima(2).
But then, she found out about one student with connections who was sleeping with other students for favours…and had become quite adept at blackmail.
Now, Argo already considered herself pretty mercenary, but this sort of thing was beyond the pale. She didn't blackmail people, at least not with such compromising stuff. Teasing material, yes, but stuff that could ruin lives and careers? Well, not to force people to do her bidding, though to protect others was another matter.
Well, that little saga ended her career as a Mahoutokoro student. She may have gotten that bastard expelled, but his kimono was kept the same colour as it was, thanks to his connections. Her kimono, however, was turned white. That was utter bullshit. It was only supposed to turn white if one had either broken the Statute of Secrecy, which she hadn't, or had practised the Dark Arts, which she hadn't, unless being an information broker or practising DADA counted. Which it didn't.
Thankfully, Mum saw through that bullshit. She just got tutors and when the Japanese Ministry came to snap Argo's wand, her mum threatened to release the dirt she had gathered. When they wouldn't back down, she released it. It didn't endear the Hosaka-Granger family to the higher-ups of Magical Japan, but damn if it wasn't satisfying as hell. They forgot that her mum had survived a war against one of the most vicious warlocks in recent history for a reason. She could be downright vicious and vindictive when push came to shove.
It was weird, looking at Harry, knowing he was still 15, after doing his little time travel jaunt. She knew he was trying to hold onto reality however he could, that he was still teetering on the precipice. Seriously, you can't just get hurled nearly three decades into the future and not feel fucked up in some way.
True, the world of the 2020s wasn't that much different from the 1990s. No hoverboards, no jetpacks, no aliens walking the streets. But the internet had infiltrated life in so many ways, entertainment was very different, and, well, so was travel and security, thanks to 9/11 and the War on Terror.
They'd gotten through customs, and were now driving home, Mum having parked her car at the airport. As they did so, Harry looked at her. "Actually, I have to ask…why do you use the name Argo online?"
As Argo opened her mouth, Mum said, "Tomo, please don't charge him for stuff. At least outside of an MMORPG, anyway."
Argo pouted, before she turned to Harry. "Well, Argo in Greek means quick, and it's the name of the ship Jason and the Argonauts travelled in. But, well…my dad's kind of a spy-film buff. James Bond, Jason Bourne, Harry Palmer, that sort of thing. Argo was a film that came out ten years back about a real-life spy operation, where the Canadians and the CIA rescued a bunch of Yank diplomats from Iran in the 80s. The rescuers pretended to be part of a film production, filming a science fiction film based roughly on a book by Roger Zelazny. It takes a lot of liberties, but it sort of stuck in my mind. I fancy myself a wannabe spy, you know?"
Harry looked at her with a dubious look on his face. "Hey, Hermione, what happened to my Cloak?"
"I've got it, actually. Dumbledore entrusted me with it for missions during the war. I'll give it back to you once we're home. I never felt comfortable about using it. It's yours, after all."
"Cloak?" Argo asked, her curiosity piqued.
"A family heirloom," Harry said, before looking at her mum. "Does she know?"
"I've spoken about the Cloak in our tales, but I never said we had it."
"…Wait a moment," Argo said, glaring at her mum via the rear view mirror in irritated indignation. "We've had THE Peverell Invisibility Cloak, one of the three Deathly Hallows, in our house, and you've never told me?! What the hell, Mum?"
"…Tomo, if I told you that, what would be the first thing you would do with it?" her mum asked, the rear view mirror showing a raised eyebrow. Argo knew what she was going to say next. "Yes, that's right, you'd use it to cause mischief and ferret out blackmail."
"…You make it sound like it's a bad thing," Argo grumbled.
"Besides, it wasn't in our house, but at Gringotts," Mum said. "No way I would keep something so dangerous in the house where you could get at it."
"…An Invisibility Cloak isn't dangerous, Mum."
"It depends on who's under it…"
Home for the Hosaka-Grangers turned out to be Odawara(3), and a surprisingly spacious house. When Harry remarked on this, Hermione said that she was, surprisingly, the heir to the Dagworth-Granger line, an otherwise defunct Pureblood family. She did a lot of her work at home, while her husband often worked elsewhere.
Having brought his stuff into the house, Harry shook his head as they were led into the living room. "How am I going to learn Japanese quickly enough?"
"Translation charm," Hermione said. "I've been working on it for some time. It helps not only translate while you have it in place, but it actually helps you learn the language far quicker. And given that, in Japanese, you have to know a lot of kanji to be considered literate, well…anyway, I've been homeschooling Argo since that mess with Mahoutokoro, so I will probably have to do the same for you. That being said…I have someone I'd like you to meet. But keep in mind, Harry, you can't talk about her to anyone else. This is more secret than the Statute."
"Sure. But…is this the girl Tomo called a little sister?"
"Yes." With that, Hermione took out what he had only just learned was called an iPad, a flat touchscreen that was basically a mini-computer. Activating a program on it, she spoke to it, "MHCP-001 remote access activate. Verbal language module: UK English."
The screen whited out briefly, before the form of a young, dark-haired girl with Japanese features appeared. "…Mama? Is that you?" she asked.
Hermione smiled. "Yes, Yui. Sorry to keep you waiting, but…things happened in Britain. Argo's here…and so is someone else. Yui, this is Harry Potter, the one I told you about. See?"
Yui seemed to peer at him as Hermione angled the camera built into the iPad towards him. She chuckled. "I think he needs a barber, don't you? All joking aside, it's good to meet you, Harry. I am Mental Health Counsellor Program 001. But you may call me Yui."
"…Program?" Harry met Hermione's eyes in shock. "She's a program?"
"Indeed, but she's more than a mere program. Yui is very special to me, to both of us. Harry, you're looking at the world's first sentient artificial intelligence. But she's more than that. In many regards, she's as much part of the family as Tomo is…"
CHAPTER 1 ANNOTATIONS:
What? Hermione has helped make Yui? And Yui is sentient so early? And Argo's thoughts on Harry, and why she chose that name…well, there you go.
1. Believe it or not, Doctor Who did the Matrix well before The Matrix came out, back in 1976…
2. In a perverse way, this is my little nod to jgkitarel's Mystic Knight Online, where Silica, Harry's love interest in that story, is actually Ranma Saotome's granddaughter.
3. Argo is said to live in the southwest of Kanagawa Prefecture, so I thought I'd pinpoint where she lived further.
