It didn't take me long to find the source of the noise.
Lo and behold It let me right to where I had left Yasaka and Kunou beforehand. It hadn't even been that long, what, like twenty minutes or so? I caught the tail end of some people running in the opposite directions but ignored them.
I now stood out in the middle of the street, where several buildings had holes in them, walls were broken, windows were shattered, and some craters littered the cobblestone walkway.
There was a person covered in a black hood and weird skull-like mask that was planted firmly in a stone wall not far away. He looked to be in particularly bad shape.
Another looked like he got thrown through a different wall, the stone around him shattered and half his limp body hung over the remaining blocks.
And perhaps a handful more scattered around, mostly unmoving if not slightly twitching with some groans barely audible amongst the ensuing chaos.
But most eye-catching of all was Yasaka, holding one struggling man up by his neck as he gasped for breath while pinning another under her foot, whining and begging as he sunk further into the ground.
She noticed me as I arrived and I gave her a curious look.
There was no anxiety on her face, so it was safe to say Kunou was in no way harmed or in danger.
"Did something happen?" I casually strode over.
"Oh, just taking out some trash." She said equally unceremoniously.
I glanced at the under beneath her foot that was trying very desperately to crawl away. "You know, I think there's a lot of people back home that would pay a lot of money for that privilege." I pointed out.
"Oh hush." She snorted.
"So, what happened?"
"We were just shopping, and these people suddenly burst through the door, magic started flying and they tried to –"
Before she could finish there were numerous popping sounds as the space around us became turbulent and the infamous nature of this place's method of teleportation reared its ugly head by the dozens
A good amount of people appeared quickly, wands drawn and ready for battle.
"Release them, drop your wand, and put your hands up!" The shout quickly followed.
Did they not realize she had no wand, or was it just a sort of automated response and assumption?
"Friendlies" I held my hands up as the Magical Popo treated us like criminals right off the bat.
Yasaka, for her part, did drop the person she was holding, rather abruptly. And she released the person she was pinning down with her foot.
She basically shrugged, taking a few steps back as what I assume were the Aurors took the two people into custody…protection? One or both of those. I doubt they're going to just let them run away, they need to figure out what happened.
Still, they were hesitantly still holding their wands up, pointed at Yasaka.
For good reason, mind you. She was certainly one of the most dangerous beings in the vicinity, and ignoring the side of virtue she stood on, they had to treat the situation properly.
"What are you doing, they're clearly unarmed and not making any threatening gestures." A woman pushed through. "Secure the area, take everyone that has their faces covered into custody and treat their wounds, prioritize any civilians that were hurt. Shacklebolt, you're in charge of the perimeter, I don't want anyone from the news sneaking inside or it's your wand! Williamson, you're on witness round up, hop to it."
I didn't know who this woman was, but she was obviously high up enough to immediately take charge.
"Auntie!" Came a shout from the Clothing store, perhaps the only store still relatively whole. A little head poked out, and followed was a girl, perhaps only a year older than Kunou, she ran out to one of the people in the lead.
"Susan!?" The woman replied as she gladly accepted a hug. "What happened, are you okay?!"
Kunou followed right after, running up to us. "Momma, did you beat up all the bad guys?"
"I sure did." Yasaka was completely unfazed by the looks and went back to doting parent mode. "Isn't your Momma strong?"
"Momma is the strongest." Kunou said with a big grin.
I kept a side eye on the supposed Aurors, because I wasn't entirely trusting of them to not do something stupid, but they sort of began working around us to settle everything. Obvious skepticism and hesitance thrown our way, and a look or two of disdain as well that was hard to hide. However, it didn't seem like someone was going to randomly throw out spells.
Well, glad Kunou wasn't scared at all. Frankly, she was treating it as a fun show to watch.
Finally, it seemed like we were important enough for someone to approach us.
A man came up, noticeably weary still, but he had a hand on his wand and a notebook out. "I'm going to need to get your statement. And I'm going to need your registration numbers." He held up his wand like he was about to use it as a pen.
"Pardon, registration numbers?" Yasaka blinked.
He didn't answer her and instead looked at me. "The Registration numbers for the Magical Beasts you're keeping with you. I need to see all the papers regarding your authorization to bring them into the country."
"….Magical Beasts." I repeated, dropping my usual tone for something a bit more sharp. "Are you referring to my daughter, or her mother, the woman I'm in a relationship with?"
There was a flash of something resembling disgust across his face as I said that. "If you don't have the proper registration, we're going to have to confiscate your Magical Beasts for further investigation. They will be assigned a danger level, processed and if found to not be a danger to Wizarding society, they will be released back into your custody after a thorough examination."
"…..wilhelm." Yasaka said with a blank face.
"Yes?"
"Deal with him, otherwise I'm going to do something I regret." She grit out.
"No need." The woman from before stepped forward. "Mr. Robards, I will take their statements. You are dismissed."
"But, they're an unregistered Dangerous Beast, according to – "
"You are dismissed." She hissed.
The guy shuddered and quickly bailed away from her vicinity.
"I deeply apologize for that. He was very out of line, and he does not represent the DMLE."
"Oh, so I'm not a dangerous beast that needs to be caged?" Yasaka snorted, crossing her arms.
"I'm guessing by your accent and the fact that your lips aren't moving in accordance with your words, that you're not speaking English. In addition to your clothes, I can summarize that you're not from around here?"
"We're from Japan." She answered, still unenthused.
The woman nodded. "Let me introduce myself, I'm Amelia Bones, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The correct interpretation of the laws he was trying to leverage were in the case of Magical Beasts that did not possess intelligence to understand their actions." She muttered something that sounded like 'Pureblood ponce' under her breath in reference to him. "Again, I apologize for the treatment you received. But, if you would be so kind, I need to ask you some questions."
"Very well." Yasaka let out a sigh. "I understand the necessity of your job." She added with a flippant hand wave.
"I would like to first ask your identities and what you're doing in the country. I can't say we regulate every individual that passes through, but I'm almost certain I would have heard...rumors about your peculiarities."
Yasaka relaxed a little, perhaps accepting the apology. I was letting her take the lead here as it seemed appropriate. "I'm Yasaka, I'm the ruler of half of Japan's Youkai Population. This is Kunou." She said, gesturing to the little fox. "Our Daughter, she's going to be enrolling in Hogwarts for this upcoming year, we were here to shop for her."
Amelia Bones was taking in that information but she sort of froze. "Pardon, can you repeat what you said?"
"Hmm, about what?"
"You said you're the ruler of…?"
"I rule over half the Japanese Youkai." Yasaka said with a growing smile. "I'm sorry was that not clear? By your interpretation, you can consider me a Queen. But we're just a small group, only numbering in the millions. We can't really compete with humans."
Yeah, she knew exactly what she was doing.
I'm pretty sure that the entirety of the English Wizard and Witch community doesn't break a hundred thousand.
"...is there a reason you didn't go through the proper channels when visiting. The Ministry would have treated a foreign leader very well." The Woman got over her initial stupor and donned back her more authoritative look.
"I didn't think there was a need, I'm here as a Mother, not as a Queen." Yasaka emphasized again, using terminology that would resonate more with her. "Though, if it matters, I can call upon my armies to make a proper showing of myself. We wouldn't want anyone to think I'm a dangerous beast? What better way than for everyone in this country to know who I am?" Yasaka smiled kindly, contradicting her statements very much.
Amelia Bones cleared her throat. "There is no Law restricting foreign leaders from…..vacationing within Magical Britain." She settled on. And she once more muttered something under her breath something about 'strangling that old goat for not giving her a heads up about a new student he's getting'.
It's funny, I don't think she even knew what Youkai were, only that they were apparently strong by Yasaka's obvious actions, and that they weren't human.
But atleast she had a good head on her shoulders and took the matter seriously.
She then looked at me. "And….you're name, Mr…?"
"Schweinorg. Wilhelm Henry Schweinorg." I introduced myself.
She blinked for a moment. "Why does that name sound familiar?"
"Who knows." I shrugged.
"Once again, I thank you for your help and apologize for the rudeness of my Auror. I assure you that these incidents do not represent Magical Britian as a whole."
"Well, we'll see about that, won't we?" Yasaka didn't sound to convinced.
The Department Head smiled awkward, she held her hand out and that same younger girl from before awkwardly shuddled over into her grasp. "And I would like to thank you as the Lady of House Bones. Susan here is my Niece and I'm her Guardian, she's the only family I have left. She tells me you were protecting her? Would you mind giving me the details?"
Yasaka, properly relaxed a little at that. A shared sentiment there that even let her release the frustration she had from the earlier encounter. "I was taking my Daughter to get some custom Robes made, considering the obvious." Yeah, it must be hard to get clothes made specifically for their tails. "And this sweet little girl here came up, complimenting our Tails." Yasaka's tone turned a genuine warmness as she smiled at Susan.
The younger girl blushed a tiny bit. "They're pretty." She muttered.
Kunou also peeked out from behind Yasaka. "Hi, I'm Kunou."
"I'm Susan." The other girl responded, a tiny bit of awkwardness there. "I like your tails and ears."
Said ears on Kunou's head twitched excitedly. "T-thank you." Kunou hurriedly replied, tinged with a speck of embarrassment and shyness. "I like your hair too."
Funny enough, none of us – the adults that is – interrupted them despite the situation not being appropriate for them to, well….this.
"Are you a first year?" Susan asked.
"Uh huh." Kunou nodded.
"I'm going to be a second year." Susan said proudly. "But…if you need anything, you can come to me. I'm in Hufflepuff and….erm, well, you'll be sorted into a house when you get to Hogwarts. It's great, you're going to love it!" Once the initial nervousness wore of, she was quick to open up. "We're getting a new D.A.D.A teacher this year, Gilderoy Lockhart, you've read his books, right? They're amazing, he's amazing, I can't wait! Well, we might be in different years, but that doesn't mean we can't hang out at school. I'll show you around everywhere, it'll be great!"
"Susan." Amelia put a light hand on her hand. "Time and place, dear."
"Oh." She shrunk back a tad. "Sorry, Auntie."
Did…Kunou just make a friend?
"Back on topic." Amelia Bones spoke. "Can you tell me what happened specifically?"
"Well, it was so sudden. Almost right after that happened, a bunch of people just burst in through the door, wearing costumes that screamed 'I'm not a good person'." Yasaka replied. "Not to mention they reek of Alcohol, I wouldn't be surprised if half of them won't even remember what happened by tomorrow."
"Death Eaters." Her lips thinned.
"Pardon?"
"Right, you probably wouldn't know. They're...terrorists." She seemingly chose her words carefully. "They were all black with the skull masks."
"How droll." Yasaka said dryly. "But yes, they swept in, started throwing around some spells, mostly to cause chaos and confusion, but they seemed eager to abduct Susan over there, however it seemed like a spur of the moment thing by their reactions. I wasn't going to stand by and watch a child be harmed, so I intervened. And, well….you can see the result."
The woman let out a short sigh. "I should have anticipated something like this."
"Piss someone off?" Yasaka hummed.
Amelia bones grunted in frustration. "Politics. We were able to push through some reformations that a certain faction of our society doesn't approve of. And this is what happens when they can't bribe or intimidate their way to legislate their views."
"Bold of them to go after the niece of the Magical Police chief, isn't it?" I questioned.
"You say bold, I say stupid." She snorted herself. "As much as I don't want to give them credit, they wouldn't have had the stones to do anything to Susan. Not that this makes it better." She frowned. "But they would have just used her as leverage to get me to vote a certain way for matters of law, then probably released her. Otherwise, the Ministry would have come down on them with the might of Merlin himself."
Makes sense, I suppose
Then again, I don't really know nor care much about their politics.
"You seem familiar." She changed thoughts quickly. "Not just your name, I could have sworn I've seen your face before?"
"In your dreams, maybe?" I smiled.
The DMLE direction barked out a laugh. "Aren't you a smooth one? You should keep him on a short leash."
"Believe me, you have no idea." Yasaka shared a small laugh.
"Well, that's all I need. I'll make a note that you cooperated fully and you acted completely in self defense and in the defense of others. There shouldn't be an issue, but just in case, If anything happens, you're more than welcome to contact me."
Well, hint taken then
She was basically saying that she would be behind us then as thanks. I wouldn't say no to having the head of the Magical PoPo in our back pockets, so to speak.
"I'm sure there won't be any other problems. Honestly, I'm more concerned about our little Kunou and to make sure nothing comes her way that she shouldn't have to deal with." Yasaka replied.
Amelia glanced down at our little fox, a warm smiling appearing on her face. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to keep an eye on things throughout the year."
Huh, maybe that potion wasn't bullshit?
[***]
I waved my hand as two familiar people entered the building.
Medea and Kuzuki saw us and came over quickly, joining us at our table.
"So, how'd it go?" I asked, almost instantly upon them sitting down.
"Just straight to it, huh?" Medea huffed. "Not even going to let us get our own Ice Cream?" She said, watching Kunou go to town on her four scoop monstrosity she was no doubt going to eat in its entirety.
"I'm sorry, you're right. You were very good today, Medea. Do you want some Ice cream too?" I rolled my eyes.
"Yes, I would, actually." Medea didn't rise to my teasing.
"Oh stop you two." Yasaka interrupted. "Seriously, how did it go?"
"It went well!" Medea happily exclaimed.
"There were points I believe we could have performed better." Kuzuki pushed up his glasses. "However, despite the irregularities, we were offered the positions at the end of the interview. We have accepted."
"Well done."
"You're looking at the new teachers for Magical Theory and Muggle Studies!" She paused for a second. "Why is it called 'Muggles studies?"
"They call non magical people 'Muggles' here for some reason." I shrugged.
"That's strange." Medea pursed her lips. "I thought it was an underhanded insult at first when the Headmaster said it to Hubby. I was ready to rip his beard out."
"Right, I can't imagine why I had any doubts about you getting the position." I said rather sarcastically.
"Hmph, he would be a fool not to hire me! But the school itself was interesting, I'm going to have fun exploring it. I was only able to get a few cursory glances to see how it works. And did you notice how many leylines intersect right below it!?"
"I know, I noticed that too!"
"It's better than the temple! I'm going to make an amazing workshop in some far corner and tap into those babies."
"We should celebrate though. This is wonderful news, I'm happy for you, Medea." I said with full sincerity an without the previous mocking or teasing.
"…thanks." She muttered with a tinge of happiness mixed in. She's not good at this sort of genuine praise.
"Auntie Medea is going to school with me then?" Kunou asked.
"We both are, you adorable cutie!" Medea cooed, reaching over to rub her head. "We'll need to settle all the logistics though."
"I can find a spot to connect the house, but I don't want to put it too close to the school." I want Kunou to have her sense of independence without us being in her proverbial back yard. "Just make a list of things you think you need help with, I'll help you wherever I can."
"We both will." Yasaka added, her tail finding my waist again. "Whatever you need, we're here to help."
"Your assistance is greatly appreciated." Kuzuki lightly bowed his head.
"We're going to need to learn more about this place." Medea said licking an ice cream cone which…
"Where did you get that?" I looked at her.
She just grinned evilly and pulled her hood down over her face, not bothering to answer.
"Make sure to pay before we leave."
"Yes hubby~"
She scares me sometimes.
"Our day was a bit uneventful." Yasaka hummed. "I had to step on a few people, but it wasn't too difficult."
"I bought a lot of good things too." I remembered the very important thing too. "Also, have you finished a certain item you told me you were going to create with a certain feather?"
"I haven't completed it yet. Someone disturbed me and had me start helping with their stupid boat." Medea huffed.
"Shut up, you were just as excited to play with the ship as I was."
"Hmph." She didn't bother to deny it. "But what do you need?"
"We'll talk about it later, found something unsavory here that needs to be accounted for." I didn't want to spring that kind of thing on her with her being so happy right now. "Oh, but I also found something neat." I said, taking out the vial of golden liquid. "Look at this, they call it Felix Felicis, or Liquid Luck. It's supposed to make you lucky for a period of time."
"How absurd." Medea immediately commented. But she grabbed it off the table to inspect closely. "That's….no, that's strange."
"I should mention that I drank a little bit."
"Of course you did. The first thing you do when you find something you don't know, is to put it inside your body." She scoffed. "But it doesn't look harmful at least."
"Wait, you drank a luck potion?" Yasaka looked at me. "Why haven't you been getting lucky then? I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary."
I shrugged. "Maybe that whole thing from before counted as me being lucky? I mean….it didn't directly involve me, but Kunou meeting a possibly new friend, and us becoming acquainted with the head of the DMLE and her being indebted to us can't be said to be a bad thing."
"So it was your fault."
"It was not my fault!"
"It was definitely your fault." Medea chimed in. "Partly because most things are your fault, and I don't think this potion is entirely fake either."
"What's wrong with the potion?"
"Well, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it, I cast a few spells to see if it's twisting Fate and Casualty, but that's not really what's happening. Such potions and things aren't unheard of, but they're usually very scarce and valuable. The fact that you can buy a potion like this means there's some downside to it."
"What are your thoughts?"
"My first thought is that it's borrowing against your future luck, if that makes sense." She put it back down. "Your 'luck' as vague as that is, isn't something that can be inherently measured by that." She pointed at the potion. "To facilitate events around you that manipulate the fundamental laws of the world would require….well, that isn't capable of it at least."
"Yes…?" I felt there was a 'but' coming.
"If I had to make a guess, like I said, it borrows from your 'future luck' for lack of a better term. Imagine your basic luck is measured on a scale of 1 to 10. Luck…fluctuates, isn't never set, and it can go up and down based on a plethora of events that can't be accounted for. Basically, say tomorrow, your luck was going to be a 10, it was going to be the luckiest day of your life. The following day, it was going to be semi-lucky as well, an 8, then followed by a 9. But today, when you drank the potion, your luck was a 4. This potion, is essentially, trading your future luck for your current luck, by taking a point or two off and adding them to the current you. Your '5 luck' becomes a 10 by borrowing from the future. The follow days would be be 7, 7, and 7 instead. This is how it gets around the recoil that a significant shift in the normal flow of worldly events would cause."
"Equivalent exchange." I understood. "It was simply shifting my luck around, it wasn't changing anything too overtly.
"Right." She nodded. "But there's still a downside, your future luck is hit more detrimentally than the benefit of your current luck. There has to be a further price. The equivalence of your luck being shifted, then the actual price that is to be paid is siphoned off, perhaps a 'fee' if you want to consider it that, for an 'early withdrawal'."
"And that's your first assumption?"
She shrugged this time. "Without experimenting with it and what-not. I wouldn't suggest using this often. Your fate might become muddled and certain things that should have ended favorably for you in the future will become uncertain. Or you might become unlucky as punishment for something happening when it shouldn't. Things should unfold naturally. And frankly, it's not difficult to interrupt from the outside. And It probably doesn't innately work too well on something like you. I doubt it would work at all on Me or another Servant. It's something meant for humans, and even that is debatable."
Well, It did sound too good to be true.
"Yeah, I haven't really felt lucky all that much since drinking it." And I personally didn't notice any shift around or inside of me.
Well, it's not a big deal. I don't want to rely too much on the concept of luck if it came down to me needing to drink that kind of potion in an emergency.
"Regardless, you all ready to go home? We already got all the things we needed for Kunou's school years, bar the robes that need to be made for her tails." It's unfortunate that we couldn't go look at the magical animals, they were closed after the whole fight.
"Sure, I want to get home and start packing. The School year starts soon and we need to move into our quarters and begin preparations a bit before the kids start coming." Medea stood up.
"And you also want to get back to the ship."
"Shut up." She huffed, once more not denying it.
I couldn't blame her, I was excited to get to work fixing up my new ship too. As a man, a magical flying ship is something we all dream about.
"You ready to go, sweetie?" I leaned down, kissing Kunou's forehead.
"Mhmphm." She nodded, cheeks literally bulging from being stuff with ice cream.
Well, even if I wasn't super lucky, it was a good day. I got some good stuff, Kunou made a friend, and we both probably feel more comfortable about Kunou going to Hogwarts now.
We just need to wrap everything up, and plan her birthday and then she's off on her own little adventure.
[***]
"Daddy, I wanna see the boat." Kunou tugged at my sleeve as soon as we walked through the portal, appearing right outside the door to the house.
"Actually, I want to see it too." Yasaka spoke up.
"I have some things I want to wrap up over there, I'll show you around." Medea perked up. "What about you, hubby?"
"I would like to see it." He nodded.
He kept his usual stoic demeanor but as a fellow man, I could see the desire in his eyes.
"Let me grab a few things from inside and I'll come join you all." Right, there were some more resources stored inside that we needed to fix the ship up properly.
It wasn't in bad condition, but a lot of it was amateurish in comparison to our usual quality. It wouldn't hold up against an attack of sufficient strength. The cannons on the ship, obviously magical in nature, also didn't pack enough of a punch. The speed wasn't as fast as we needed, and there were a plethora of other details that we wanted to add.
Updated facilities and comforts haven't even been considered yet.
I pushed the door open to see Jinn sitting down. She wasn't exactly surprised to see me, but she seemed a little startled.
"Jinn, I can't wear this, it's…..it's too lewd and revealing!" I heard Jeann's voice as she came walking down the stairs. "If anyone sees me in this, I don't think –"
Jeanne stopped, staring at me.
Jinn stared at me too.
And I stared at Jeanne.
Because, she wasn't most certainly not wearing her normal clothes.
No, she was wearing a string bikini, a very revealing string bikini that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. And by that, I mean literally strips hiding both her nipples and below.
Hell, I could see that the curtains match the drapes due to how skimpy it was.
Was….Jinn getting Jeanne to try on clothes?
It took a moment for Jeanne to react as she let out a rather adorable squawk, her face turning very red and she quickly put a hand up to cover her chest and lower parts, turning away to run back up stairs.
But even then, I was left with the amazing sight of her bubbly rear bounce as she ran away.
Huh, so that's where all my luck went.
Worth it.
[***]
A/N
If you want to read 9 chapters ahead or support me, visit my p.a.t.r.e.o.n.c.o.m / astoryforone
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