Okay, so maybe moving to Japan without telling anyone and using an alias to enroll in the first high school he could find in the phone book wasn't entirely the smartest plan.
But at least he was catching up on the education he missed, making new friends who didn't have the slightest clue about that damn scar on his head, and it was highly unlikely anyone would find him since he only used his wand during the magical cram school available to those either too old to join the Japanese academy or for certain reasons were unable to commit to formal magical schooling and chose to opt for an accredited night class that allowed them to pass their exams anyway.
In his case it was for the freedom to enjoy a normal high school life and still get his magical education on the side without the headache of the misadventures he kept getting into back in England.
"Black-san, day-dreaming in my class is hardly going to be conductive to your future," said Shido-sensei.
Honestly, if he didn't need the easy A from this prick's class he would have skipped it in a heartbeat. Shido was a bigger bastard than Snape, and he honestly couldn't believe anyone made him miss that petty dungeon bat.
He gave Shido a flat look, and continued to ignore the man. They both knew the only reason Shido kept slithering up to him was because somehow the fact he was the heir to a rather large fortune had gotten out around school, along with the fact he was technically English nobility twice over. Obviously the creep saw "Black Hadrian" as his ticket to an easy life or possibly abusing the connections only a noble would have. The fact Harry couldn't afford to opt out of the class only made it worse.
Thankfully, he could skip out early with the Skiving Snackboxes he had stocked up on before leaving England. The twins were more than happy to act as his suppliers, being the only ones that knew the general country Harry had moved to.
Ron and Hermione wouldn't have hesitated to blab about where he was the first chance they got. They still believed every word out of Dumbledore's mouth like gospel, whereas he had come to the conclusion the old man was an idiot and not to be trusted.
With the ease of practice, he slipped one of the 'treats'and was quickly allowed to evacuate the class. Shido made sure he got to the nurse personally. Both to make a 'good' impression on the most well connected student in the school, and also to leer at the nurse who had the biggest rack Harry had honestly ever seen on a woman that wasn't fake.
Shizuka, once Shido left, gave Harry a knowing look.
"Skiving off again with your pranks?"
"Can you honestly blame me? That guy is a total creep," shuddered Harry.
The first time he used the box to skive Shido's class, Shizuka-sensei had been really worried.
Right up until Harry demonstrated the entire thing was a minor prank to get as far away from Shido as possible without getting an absence. Once she realized there was nothing actually wrong the skittish teen, it had become their little secret.
Most teenage boys would be all too happy to fake an illness to oogle the rather...buxom and ditzy...Shizuka-sensei.
Unfortunately the nurse took her duties seriously and said boys were usually stuck with the less attractive male nurse if they tried it.
Harry was one of the rare, rare few who got to spend quite a bit of time with the woman without being chased out for it.
The first time he had to see the nurse for a minor injury (in his opinion) the woman immediately picked up on the fact he had a rather hard childhood with how easily he deflected his injuries with an "I'm fine".
In fact Harry appeared more concerned with the fact that Shizuka-sensei had such large breasts, and immediately asked what she used to deal with the back pain from having her center of gravity pitched forward so much. The fact he honestly seemed concerned about that had endeared him to the nurse, as did the fact he didn't leer at her once.
So far, Shizuka-sensei had managed to get bits and pieces about his past. Mostly the real reason he left England and moved to a country that he was still learning the native language to.
Whenever he could, he would spend lunch talking about medicine and introducing the nurse to the few 'herbal remedies' that he had a knack for making.
Considering herbalists were rather uncommon, Shizuka had made him verify that all the medicines he made and took were both safe and non-addicting before she allowed them on school grounds.
(Which was what made Harry start to trust her. She took the health of her students seriously.)
Once school was over he headed to the special archery range that belonged to the cram school he attended.
Apparently the Japanese were big believers in having alternative options to fighting with or without magic, and made it mandatory that students learn to channel their magic in some way into a weapon.
It was one of the rare areas in Japan were one could procure actual guns, though anyone who chose fire arms as their weapon had to go a very rigerous screening and psychological exam before they were ever allowed to use the real thing, much less take them outside the compound.
Harry was rather pleased he had passed that, even if he kept his guns under a special charm that could only be lifted by the teachers under extreme circumstances. Or it would unlock by itself if the holsters detected dark magic use too close to it.
Considering the Japanese put a special tracker on his wand to detect the magic used the moment he applied for the school, Harry thought their precautions were far more sensible. It was like a permanent Priori Incantum that kept a list of all spells used written down for the Aurors to use against him if he tried to hurt anyone.
(He had only been given a light reprimand when they found out he was using minor magic against Shido-sensei, until a background check came up. Turns out Shido's family was known for having a criminal background and was even blackmailing a few cops. As such so long as he kept it to small time stuff to keep Shido from bothering him, the Aurors would look the other way.)
By the time Harry got back to his apartment, he was tired but happy.
A week later...
Harry knew something was terribly wrong when he felt the holster hidden by his pants unlatch. He discreetly pulled out his phone...and found a general alert to a major catastrophe happening all over Japan.
All magical beings are to evacuate public and private structures and make to the nearest evacuation point! Code "Z" has been put into effect. Magic in public view has been authorized. Use of magical weapons or artifacts authorized. Standard method of dealing with Z-level monsters are recommended.
"Code Z"? repeated Harry to himself.
Which one was that again? He knew they had a "Code Kaiju" for large creatures that escaped the special island that was their designated home (and most people thought Godzilla was just a pop culture icon...Harry had seen the 'King of Kaiju' when he took the special tour!), but he couldn't really recall what "Code Z" was for.
Whatever it was, it had to be something really serious if his holster was unlocked and magic use in view of witnesses was being authorized to anyone who got the alert.
Rather than ponder what the hell was going on, Harry pretended he had to use the restroom and secretly apparated to his house, which was a bit far from the school and had a good view of the city from the other side of the river.
What he found explained both the alert and the reason why his holster had been unlocked.
"Oh... the Z stands for 'zombies'," he said faintly.
Apparently they were under a zombie apocalypse. How or why didn't matter, but from the way things were progressing it would take at least another hour, two if they were lucky, before it reached his school.
While he could head to the evacuation point, the image of innocent Shizuka-sensei came to mind, as well as the grumpy Saya.
He couldn't leave his friends to fend for themselves.
Harry gathered all his supplies, put them into the special messenger bag to carry them, and then got his weapons.
You could get almost anything if you knew the right dealer, and unlike some of his friends he had used his trust fund to buy more weapons that couldn't be traced. Both mundane and magical.
He knew of a certain gun nut with actual training in how to handle real fire arms that could use some of his armory, and he didn't want to leave Shizuka-sensei or Saya behind.
Harry returned to the school with a grim expression on his face.
First things first...he needed to secure a place in the school to stash survivors. The teacher's loungue sounded like a good place...it was out of the way of the main path and easily barricaded. On top of that it had a few supplies and a working TV.
By this point the other students knew that there was a problem and it wouldn't be long before a mass panic descended on the school.
Hearing the intercom blare, Harry opened the window and got on his broom. It wouldn't be long before the hallways became a veritable death trap.
He flew up to the teacher's lounge and made sure to secure it. Then he sent a text to Saeko.
Teacher's lounge secured, bring any survivors you find up here. Knock three times and I'll unlock it.
He thought about letting others in, but knowing his luck one would have been bitten already. Saeko opted to call directly rather than text.
"Saeko-san, I've barricaded the teacher's lounge. How goes things on your end?" asked Harry.
"I've managed to retrieve Shizuka-sensei and Tsuki-san from class two. We'll head up there now," said Saeko.
"I'll try to find any other survivors worth keeping. It may be cruel, but I would rather have useful people in our group rather than obvious dead weight that will need saving all the time," said Harry.
Saeko's estimation of him rose considerably hearing that.
"I agree. It would be tedious having to rescue the same person repeatedly."
"On an unrelated note, if you happen to find the chance could you make sure that asshole Shido-sensei gets eaten or at least bit? Something tells me he would only become a bigger headache later on if we let him live," said Harry sheepishly.
"...Considering the number of times I've caught him leering at not only me, but other girls, it would be my honest pleasure," said Saeko. If there was a tiny hint of bloodthirsty nature in her voice when she said that, he said nothing.
Saya was at first surprised to see Black-san standing calmly in the hallway, but the second Kohta saw what the other teen had he made a beeline for him.
"Is that an actual gun with a real silencer?!" he said excitedly.
Don't get him wrong, Kohta didn't mind using a nail gun as a weapon. But being able to hold a real gun and taking out zombies without having to worry about the sound attracting them was too appealing to pass up.
"Yup. Glad you made it out, because it means I have two more survivors to hide while the world goes to shit," said Harry, handing over the weapon without hesitation.
He knew he could trust Kohta not to use it on him...after all, Harry had more often than not gone after the jerks that liked to pick on him for his love of guns and the fact he was just a little overweight.
As for Saya, she liked Harry because he treated her like she had an actual brain, took her barbed tongue with ease and never tried to get into her pants or cozy up to her because of her dad.
"How the hell are you so calm?"
"Trust me, I've been through a lot worse than a spontaneous zombie apocalypse. Do you want to come to the room I've already barricaded or not?"
"Where is it?" asked Saya.
"Teacher's lounge. Saeko-san is bringing Shizuka-sensei and another student we can trust with her."
Saya looked happy to hear that and followed without a word.
"What about the other survivors?"
"We need to consider resource management," said Harry. "Say we took in survivors A, B, C, and D. All are from decent families in a middle class background. A, C, and D are all normal teenagers with limited skill sets and acceptable grades with no particular talent, while B has martial arts training. What happens when they are forced into an active combat situation where they can't hole up until the authorities or adults arrive? Keep in mind that A and D are both female."
Saya got what he was saying.
"A, C and D would rely on B because he has combat training already, regardless of what his level is. Depending on the scenario, A and D could become liability or used as 'stress release' by the other two," she said unhappily.
"Exactly. And if B is tied up protecting the other three, then it makes it far too easy for him to be taken out by an outside influence, leaving them open to being killed as well," said Harry.
"I don't get it," said Kohta.
"To put it another way, we really can't afford to weigh ourselves down during a crisis of this magnitude with large numbers, as the group would only be as fast as the slowest member. Sure, most people would say 'quantity over quality', but in cases like this the smarter option would be 'quality over quantity'."
Saya nodded in complete agreement. It was why she had rescued Hirano over the other students...because she knew he had a valuable skill that would prove useful and was good at following orders from someone who knew what they were doing.
Kohta still didn't get it.
"Let me put it this way... if you had to chose over an armory of empty weapons or a handful already armed with extended magazines in a firefight where time was of the essence and every second you spent replacing the rounds you used up, which would you go for?"
Kohta's eyes lit up with complete understanding at that part.
"I get it. So instead of choosing the high calibur rifles with a limited number of bullets that need reloading during a firefight, you're going with a smaller gun with a larger capacity for bullets to be used since they're easier to handle and don't need to be reloaded as often!" said Kohta.
"Exactly!" said Harry pleased.
Any doubts about leaving weaker students to die disappeared once Kohta understood his reasoning. To be fair, he didn't like most of his classmates anyway and in times like these it was survival of the fittest.
Better to use bullets to protect those you knew you could trust your back with than to deal with people who might turn on you when the times got tough.