Spoiler: show
Magic Calls to Magic
Prologue: Hospitals
Nanoha Takamachi hated hospitals. She knew that they provided necessary services, but to her and her family, hospitals represented pain and suffering. However, when they had an injured boy literally drop in on them out of nowhere, they saw the need to bring him here.
She looked over to see her father talking with a doctor and a police officer, the officer nodding and saying something quiet to the doctor, despite the skeptical look on her face. It was obvious to Nanoha, that the doctor had a hard time believing the information her father was providing. Shiro Takamachi was known for his complete honesty to many, but believing that someone appeared out of thin air with those injuries would be hard to believe, even for those who saw it happen.
Still, her father was clearly experienced at explaining things to skeptical doctors and police officers, as the two eventually nodded, bowed and went on their way. She watched as her father sighed and simply headed back to where she was waiting with her brother.
Kyouya, her older brother, gave his father a searching look. “Well?”
Shiro shrugged. “Officer Matsumoto said he would look into it, but he was skeptical of learning anything.” He replied. “Doctor Ishida was even more skeptical, but she's dealt with us before, so she knows not to ask too many questions.”
Kyouya gave a dry chuckle. “She knows what the family business used to be?” He noticed Nanoha giving him a confused look and remembered that she didn't know that their family had once actively been involved in bodyguard work, along with the occasional targeted killing.
Shiro shot his son a warning look as he turned to his youngest child. “Nanoha,” he said. “Everything will be okay. The boy may have given us a bit of a fright with how he appeared, but his injuries are not that bad. They'll probably keep him overnight, just in case.”
“Excuse me, are you Shiro Takamachi?” A voice asked.
Shiro turned to see who just asked for his identity, noting that Kyouya moved slightly to give them both a clear path to the person and that Nanoha had already moved out of the way, and out of the person's immediate line of sight.
The most noticeable thing about the man was that there was nothing noticeable about him. Everything was average, forgettable and didn't stand out. From his facial features, to his clothing, he could be any one of a dozen people at the hospital for any reason. Shiro knew that the entire thing was deliberate and was immediately on guard.
“I am,” he replied. “And you are?”
The man bowed. “My apologies, Takamachi-san. My name is Keiichi Shirasawa. I am here because of that young boy you brought in, or more appropriately, due to the means he appeared in your household.” He held up a hand as Shiro opened his mouth. “I will explain shortly, but not here. Too public. I have already made arrangements for a meeting room so we may discuss this.”
Shiro looked at Nanoha. “Nanoha, go to your mother and stay with her and Miyuki.”
For Momoko Takamachi, being in the hospital brought back painful memories of her husband surviving a bombing by the Clover Terrorist Group that had been intended to kill him along with the principal he had been protecting. Only his quick actions had ensured that both of them survived, though her husband had been severely injured in the attack.
It had been touch and go for months while he had been in a coma, but his principal, Hiroshi Kamikura, had spared no expense in ensuring that the man who had saved his life received the best medical treatment available, having a doctor who was on his payroll work closely with Dr. Sachie Ishida in treating Shiro's injuries and the long physical therapy which had allowed her husband to make a near full recovery.
That event, culminating from a number of close calls and near misses, had encouraged her husband to fully retire from the bodyguard business and dedicate himself to running the Midori-ya Cafe, the family's bakery. Along with his taking her family name, the Fuwa clan had effectively ceased to exist, though their children were listed as heirs to the Fuwa clan name should they choose to claim their heritage.
So far, both Kyouya and Miyuki showed no indication of being willing to do so and Nanoha had not been fully informed of her heritage. Though, Momoko mused. It would not surprise me if she knew more than we told her. She's a highly intelligent girl and she has demonstrated that she does notice things that others would not, or think that she would not notice.
She looked to Miyuki, her eldest daughter. Well, niece would be more appropriate in the biological sense, but the girl had been adopted with her mother's consent. The teen was sitting on a bench right outside of the room where the boy was currently being treated, her face giving an appearance of worry, though anyone looking at her eyes would notice that they were constantly moving and taking everything in.
“Miyuki,” she chided. “You don't need to be on guard like that.”
Miyuki turned her eyes to her mother. “With how he appeared in front of us and how frightened he was, it makes me think we might,” she replied. “You noticed it as well. Something scared him badly enough to send him all the way out here from where he was.”
Momoko could only nod. For how surprising it was to have a boy appear out of thin air like that, especially the sound, something had to have made him do that. She wasn't one to believe in the unusual, but she was also not one to disbelieve, either. The fact that whatever he did had managed to cause him to be in enough pain to render him unconscious was also a concern.
A concern which was validated when they got him to the hospital. Old fractures, malnutrition, signs of previous internal bleeding, all of which showed signs of not being treated painted a grim picture on his life. Her eyes hardened at the obvious signs of physical abuse and she did not want to think on what his mental state was like.
The fact that he would find himself in a strange place and most likely did not speak the language would make things harder on him, though both herself and Shiro spoke fluent English and many of the hospital staff were at least conversant in it. Assuming that English was his native language, of course.
It would take some work, but she was sure that some favors could be called in to allow her family to see to the boy for the time being while his situation could be resolved, if they didn't just take him in themselves.
She noticed her youngest approaching her and felt a spike of alarm at the puzzled concern on the girl's face. Something was happening which had Nanoha somewhat confused, but she knew that things may be turning out wrong.
Shiro looked at the man who had brought both him and his son to an unoccupied room while his son immediately took a position which got him in place to move quickly, either to attack, or flee. His own eyes met the man's calmly.
“Ok, we're here,” He said. “Now, Shirasawa-san, what is it you wished to talk about?”
Keiichi Shirasawa calmly took a seat and indicated to both Shiro and Kyouya to do so, though he made no comment when the younger of the two politely refused. “Takamachi-san, I apologize for all of this, but the young man whom you brought in had arrived in a spectacular fashion which drew some attention.”
“You mean, how he appeared out of thin air with a sound that is more closely aligned with a high-caliber gun going off?”
The man nodded. “Indeed. His method of arriving is an ability which is routinely used by only a small subset of the population. Perhaps less than one in a thousand possess it.”
Shiro started at that. “You mean that one in a thousand people can simply teleport like that?”
Keiichi chuckled. “Not quite. The number of people who can do that is quite a bit smaller.” He looked at Shiro. “No, the teleportation is simply one thing that can be done by individuals such as him. It's not the only ability they have.” He gave looked at Shiro directly in the eyes. “Normally, I would not be doing this due to regulations and rules, but your reputation for being trustworthy and being able to keep secrets is well known in many circles, so a clear exception is being made.
“Tell me, Takamachi-san, do believe in magic?”
Shiro had sent Kyouya to bring Momoko over as the two of them began to talk with the man that the Japanese Bureau of Magical Relations had sent over. For the next two hours, they discussed the reason that the boy, Harry Potter, had managed to teleport himself from England to Japan, a feat which was considered suicidal at the best of times.
“Apparition, Takamachi-san, is a very dangerous method of transport, both for the person doing it and anyone he has with him.” Keiichi explained. “European magical folk, wizards in their parlance, do it routinely, but they are also known to have an almost reckless disregard for their personal safety. Even so, the most proficient at it would not attempt to apparate more than a few hundred kilometers, and only to a place they are intimately familiar with. Doing so blindly, at the distance the boy did has been attempted, but each time usually ended up in the respective wizard dying quite messily. It does have the benefit of being extremely difficult to track and virtually impossible over long distances, though.”
Shiro winced at the calm tone that Keiichi was using. “In other words, the fact that he survived, let alone did it successfully, is remarkable.”
Keiichi chucked. “To say the least, though I would not recommend that he attempt so again.” He frowned. “Now, as for young Harry, he is known to the larger magical community, if only because he survived an attempt on his life from a madman who used a spell that has, until him, been universally fatal to the recipient. It was fatal for his parents.”
Momoko gasped at that.
“So, he's an orphan?” Shiro asked.
Keiichi nodded. “He is, though he was supposed to be looked after. Back to how he apparated across the world, I will be honest Takamachi-san, he probably did not even know he was doing it. When he did, his only thought was probably of escape from whatever situation he was in. Why he arrived at your household was almost certainly pure chance.”
“And a fortunate bit of chance at that,” Momoko acknowledged.
“Shirasawa-san,” Shiro cut in. “You aren't telling us all of this to simply inform us, so why don't we cut to the heart of the matter.”
Keiichi nodded. “My apologies, Takamachi-san, but I felt that it would be best to give you some information.” He took a deep breath. “Mr. Potter's case is unusual for us and we wish to know if you and your family would be willing to look after him while we sort the matter out, since he did appear right in front of you. We don't expect this to take more than a week or two and your family will be properly compensated.”
Shiro and Momoko looked at each other and began to converse quietly for several minutes.
Keiichi noted that while Shiro was far more reserved in whether he would be willing to take in the boy, the man's wife was more than willing to, especially if it was for such a short time period. He noted a few words, such as malnourished, old injuries and clear signs of abuse which made him frown. He knew from his superiors that they had already sent an investigator to England in order to determine what had happened.
However, he did not know whether they had decided to report that Mr. Potter had arrived in Japan. Considering the relations between Japan's magical community and the European magical community, he doubted that they had.
He also considered the likelihood that they boy had been attacked and had fled in desperation. For all that the Japanese magical community followed protocols and tradition, a boy who was not even seven managed to apparate halfway across the world and landed virtually in their laps.
That was a good indication of the boy's current power, even if it was fueled by fear. It also said a lot about his potential, potential that he knew several families would love to have added to their own bloodlines if practicable. They wouldn't force the boy, but Keiichi could easily see them waiting until his teens to start giving him offers, or at least to consider staying in Japan.
The fact that it would score a massive coup on the Europeans was merely an added bonus.
Shiro and Momoko finished their quiet conversation and looked at him.
“Shirasawa-san,” Shiro stated. “We would be happy to look after the boy while his situation gets resolved.”
Keiichi smiled. “Excellent. Once the boy wakes up, we will gather everyone relevant together to discuss this further. There are some secrecy statutes involving magic that you need to be aware of as well.”
The first thing Harry realized as he came to was that he was not in his relative's house. As he cracked his eyes open, the light made him wince a bit as he slowly got his bearings. He heard a voice to his right saying something in a language he didn't understand and as he looked, it was a woman in a white coat holding a clipboard. A look around indicated that he was in a hospital.
He looked back to the woman, a doctor or a nurse, he believed and saw that there was a young brown-haired girl talking to the woman, while an older girl in her teens just watched. Well, until she apparently noticed that he was awake. She said something to the woman who then looked at him.
“Ah,” she thankfully said in English. “You are awake.” Harry noticed her accent was odd, but understandable, especially since she was seeming to make sure she was speaking correctly. Still, he wanted to know where he was.
“Where am I?” He asked.
“You are at Uminari University Hospital, young man.” The doctor replied.
Ah, that made sense. He was at a hospital named Uminari University Hospital.
Wait a moment.
“I'm where, again?”
The doctor blinked. “Uminari University Hospital, young man.” She seemed to think for a moment. “In Uminari, Japan.”
The statement that he was in Japan didn't quite register on him at first as he looked around the room. He saw something written on the wall and realized he could not understand what it said as it was not in English. It was then that he registered that the doctor said he was in Japan.
“In Japan,” he said dully. “I'm in Japan, across the world from...” He looked at the doctor and the other two in the room. “Can someone tell me how I am in Japan when I should be in England?”
The doctor was about to say something when the older girl told the younger girl something. The girl replied in that same language. I'm in Japan, so it's probably Japanese. Harry thought. He noted that the young girl looked at him, smiled and said something in her language before she left the room.
The older girl smiled at him and asked the doctor something. The doctor smiled and nodded before looking back to him.
“Nanoha went to go get her parents and older brother. They were the ones to bring you here, so they can tell you more.” She looked at him. “Ah! I forgot.” She smiled ruefully. “I am Doctor Ishida, young man, can you tell me your name?”
Harry nodded. “Harry Potter, my name is Harry Potter.”
Doctor Ishida smiled. “Now, Potter-san, can you tell me what happened?”
Harry looked at the girl who had remained in the room questioningly. She returned his look for a second before pointing to herself. “Uh, my name is Miyuki, Takamachi Miyuki.” She told him haltingly. She looked to Doctor Ishida and asked a question which Harry supposed was if she had said it right. Considering how she had addressed herself, he wondered briefly if her name was Miyuki or Takamachi and figured, rightly he would find out, that her name was Miyuki.
He then remembered that the doctor had asked him what had happened to land him in the hospital.
He was wondering that himself, especially since it was a hospital on the other side of the world. The last things he could remember was being left alone by his relatives, again, a fire, the doors and windows refusing to open. He remembered that he had wished to be anywhere else but where he was. And then, a squeezing sensation that felt like an eternity before ending. He couldn't remember much after that as he hit something and was knocked out.
He told as much to the doctor, who looked skeptical, but shrugged it off. Despite her relative youth for her position as a respected doctor, she had treated and seen many things. For all that she had little belief in the spiritual or magical, she knew that there was always more out there to be discovered and learned.
Still, if such a fantastic story is how me kept himself more or less together, rather than panicking, she would humor him for now. It was clear to her that he had no idea what had really happened and was trying to cope with it the best he could.
Shiro and Momoko stepped out of the room they had their discussion with Keiichi Shirasawa and looked to each other.
“Shiro,” Momoko said to her husband. “Is it strange for me to think that the world had changed for us?”
Shiro shook his head. “No, dear.” He replied. “It's not strange to think that.” His look became pensive. “What Shirasawa-san said was strange, but true. He also demonstrated some of his magic to show that he was not lying.” He sighed. “I'll be honest, the fact that magic exists explains a few things about young Harry's arrival, and some things I've seen in the past when I was in my old line of work.”
His wife nodded her understanding. “I guess that being a bodyguard could expose you to it, even if you didn't know what it was.” She frowned. “Still, something about what he said is nagging at me. He basically said that the boy, Harry, had been driven by fear to do what he did and end up appearing in front of us all.”
“Yes,” Shiro agreed. “I think he believes that the boy was attacked, or was targeted. He did say that the matter was being looked into, but I wonder what they are looking into. I also think that they are also looking into a way to keep him in Japan, or at least to have strong ties to it.”
Momoko looked at her husband. “What do you mean, dear?”
Shiro shrugged. “It's nothing concrete, but Shirasawa-san indicated that what he did took a lot of power to pull off. I can think of a few reasons due to that.” He then noticed his youngest coming down the hall. “Nanoha, I thought you were with Miyuki.”
The girl stopped in front of her parents. “He's awake,” she simply said. “Doctor Ishida said I should find you two and bring you over.”
Shiro sent Momoko ahead and then noticed that Keiichi was still nearby, but keeping a polite enough distance to give some privacy. He motioned for the man and they started walking to the room that Harry had been assigned. Shiro looked to the man.
“So, how do we explain this to him?” He asked.
Keiichi frowned as he thought about that. To be honest, he couldn't come up with an answer that he was pleased with.
Nanoha continued to walk to the room where the boy had been taken to, thinking about what had happened over the last few hours. They had a few shocks with how the boy appeared out of thin air like he did, not to mention the sound, but her father had quickly taken charge and checked the then unconscious boy before telling her mother to call for an ambulance to get him to the hospital.
After that, it was her father talking with doctors, the occasional police officer and then that man who seemed to just blend into the crowd unless she looked right at him. The fact that he had pulled her father aside, before Kyouya came for their mother and brought her over to where they were talking had puzzled her, but it seemed that they had decided on something.
She didn't know what had been decided, but as she walked into the room where the boy had been taken, she decided that it couldn't be too bad.
Years later, she would look back on this unusual day fondly, as it would be what introduced her to magic. She would assume that she couldn't use it, at first, but the introduction to a boy named Harry Potter made the events that would happen later much less of a personal burden for her.
Prologue: Hospitals
Nanoha Takamachi hated hospitals. She knew that they provided necessary services, but to her and her family, hospitals represented pain and suffering. However, when they had an injured boy literally drop in on them out of nowhere, they saw the need to bring him here.
She looked over to see her father talking with a doctor and a police officer, the officer nodding and saying something quiet to the doctor, despite the skeptical look on her face. It was obvious to Nanoha, that the doctor had a hard time believing the information her father was providing. Shiro Takamachi was known for his complete honesty to many, but believing that someone appeared out of thin air with those injuries would be hard to believe, even for those who saw it happen.
Still, her father was clearly experienced at explaining things to skeptical doctors and police officers, as the two eventually nodded, bowed and went on their way. She watched as her father sighed and simply headed back to where she was waiting with her brother.
Kyouya, her older brother, gave his father a searching look. “Well?”
Shiro shrugged. “Officer Matsumoto said he would look into it, but he was skeptical of learning anything.” He replied. “Doctor Ishida was even more skeptical, but she's dealt with us before, so she knows not to ask too many questions.”
Kyouya gave a dry chuckle. “She knows what the family business used to be?” He noticed Nanoha giving him a confused look and remembered that she didn't know that their family had once actively been involved in bodyguard work, along with the occasional targeted killing.
Shiro shot his son a warning look as he turned to his youngest child. “Nanoha,” he said. “Everything will be okay. The boy may have given us a bit of a fright with how he appeared, but his injuries are not that bad. They'll probably keep him overnight, just in case.”
“Excuse me, are you Shiro Takamachi?” A voice asked.
Shiro turned to see who just asked for his identity, noting that Kyouya moved slightly to give them both a clear path to the person and that Nanoha had already moved out of the way, and out of the person's immediate line of sight.
The most noticeable thing about the man was that there was nothing noticeable about him. Everything was average, forgettable and didn't stand out. From his facial features, to his clothing, he could be any one of a dozen people at the hospital for any reason. Shiro knew that the entire thing was deliberate and was immediately on guard.
“I am,” he replied. “And you are?”
The man bowed. “My apologies, Takamachi-san. My name is Keiichi Shirasawa. I am here because of that young boy you brought in, or more appropriately, due to the means he appeared in your household.” He held up a hand as Shiro opened his mouth. “I will explain shortly, but not here. Too public. I have already made arrangements for a meeting room so we may discuss this.”
Shiro looked at Nanoha. “Nanoha, go to your mother and stay with her and Miyuki.”
For Momoko Takamachi, being in the hospital brought back painful memories of her husband surviving a bombing by the Clover Terrorist Group that had been intended to kill him along with the principal he had been protecting. Only his quick actions had ensured that both of them survived, though her husband had been severely injured in the attack.
It had been touch and go for months while he had been in a coma, but his principal, Hiroshi Kamikura, had spared no expense in ensuring that the man who had saved his life received the best medical treatment available, having a doctor who was on his payroll work closely with Dr. Sachie Ishida in treating Shiro's injuries and the long physical therapy which had allowed her husband to make a near full recovery.
That event, culminating from a number of close calls and near misses, had encouraged her husband to fully retire from the bodyguard business and dedicate himself to running the Midori-ya Cafe, the family's bakery. Along with his taking her family name, the Fuwa clan had effectively ceased to exist, though their children were listed as heirs to the Fuwa clan name should they choose to claim their heritage.
So far, both Kyouya and Miyuki showed no indication of being willing to do so and Nanoha had not been fully informed of her heritage. Though, Momoko mused. It would not surprise me if she knew more than we told her. She's a highly intelligent girl and she has demonstrated that she does notice things that others would not, or think that she would not notice.
She looked to Miyuki, her eldest daughter. Well, niece would be more appropriate in the biological sense, but the girl had been adopted with her mother's consent. The teen was sitting on a bench right outside of the room where the boy was currently being treated, her face giving an appearance of worry, though anyone looking at her eyes would notice that they were constantly moving and taking everything in.
“Miyuki,” she chided. “You don't need to be on guard like that.”
Miyuki turned her eyes to her mother. “With how he appeared in front of us and how frightened he was, it makes me think we might,” she replied. “You noticed it as well. Something scared him badly enough to send him all the way out here from where he was.”
Momoko could only nod. For how surprising it was to have a boy appear out of thin air like that, especially the sound, something had to have made him do that. She wasn't one to believe in the unusual, but she was also not one to disbelieve, either. The fact that whatever he did had managed to cause him to be in enough pain to render him unconscious was also a concern.
A concern which was validated when they got him to the hospital. Old fractures, malnutrition, signs of previous internal bleeding, all of which showed signs of not being treated painted a grim picture on his life. Her eyes hardened at the obvious signs of physical abuse and she did not want to think on what his mental state was like.
The fact that he would find himself in a strange place and most likely did not speak the language would make things harder on him, though both herself and Shiro spoke fluent English and many of the hospital staff were at least conversant in it. Assuming that English was his native language, of course.
It would take some work, but she was sure that some favors could be called in to allow her family to see to the boy for the time being while his situation could be resolved, if they didn't just take him in themselves.
She noticed her youngest approaching her and felt a spike of alarm at the puzzled concern on the girl's face. Something was happening which had Nanoha somewhat confused, but she knew that things may be turning out wrong.
Shiro looked at the man who had brought both him and his son to an unoccupied room while his son immediately took a position which got him in place to move quickly, either to attack, or flee. His own eyes met the man's calmly.
“Ok, we're here,” He said. “Now, Shirasawa-san, what is it you wished to talk about?”
Keiichi Shirasawa calmly took a seat and indicated to both Shiro and Kyouya to do so, though he made no comment when the younger of the two politely refused. “Takamachi-san, I apologize for all of this, but the young man whom you brought in had arrived in a spectacular fashion which drew some attention.”
“You mean, how he appeared out of thin air with a sound that is more closely aligned with a high-caliber gun going off?”
The man nodded. “Indeed. His method of arriving is an ability which is routinely used by only a small subset of the population. Perhaps less than one in a thousand possess it.”
Shiro started at that. “You mean that one in a thousand people can simply teleport like that?”
Keiichi chuckled. “Not quite. The number of people who can do that is quite a bit smaller.” He looked at Shiro. “No, the teleportation is simply one thing that can be done by individuals such as him. It's not the only ability they have.” He gave looked at Shiro directly in the eyes. “Normally, I would not be doing this due to regulations and rules, but your reputation for being trustworthy and being able to keep secrets is well known in many circles, so a clear exception is being made.
“Tell me, Takamachi-san, do believe in magic?”
Shiro had sent Kyouya to bring Momoko over as the two of them began to talk with the man that the Japanese Bureau of Magical Relations had sent over. For the next two hours, they discussed the reason that the boy, Harry Potter, had managed to teleport himself from England to Japan, a feat which was considered suicidal at the best of times.
“Apparition, Takamachi-san, is a very dangerous method of transport, both for the person doing it and anyone he has with him.” Keiichi explained. “European magical folk, wizards in their parlance, do it routinely, but they are also known to have an almost reckless disregard for their personal safety. Even so, the most proficient at it would not attempt to apparate more than a few hundred kilometers, and only to a place they are intimately familiar with. Doing so blindly, at the distance the boy did has been attempted, but each time usually ended up in the respective wizard dying quite messily. It does have the benefit of being extremely difficult to track and virtually impossible over long distances, though.”
Shiro winced at the calm tone that Keiichi was using. “In other words, the fact that he survived, let alone did it successfully, is remarkable.”
Keiichi chucked. “To say the least, though I would not recommend that he attempt so again.” He frowned. “Now, as for young Harry, he is known to the larger magical community, if only because he survived an attempt on his life from a madman who used a spell that has, until him, been universally fatal to the recipient. It was fatal for his parents.”
Momoko gasped at that.
“So, he's an orphan?” Shiro asked.
Keiichi nodded. “He is, though he was supposed to be looked after. Back to how he apparated across the world, I will be honest Takamachi-san, he probably did not even know he was doing it. When he did, his only thought was probably of escape from whatever situation he was in. Why he arrived at your household was almost certainly pure chance.”
“And a fortunate bit of chance at that,” Momoko acknowledged.
“Shirasawa-san,” Shiro cut in. “You aren't telling us all of this to simply inform us, so why don't we cut to the heart of the matter.”
Keiichi nodded. “My apologies, Takamachi-san, but I felt that it would be best to give you some information.” He took a deep breath. “Mr. Potter's case is unusual for us and we wish to know if you and your family would be willing to look after him while we sort the matter out, since he did appear right in front of you. We don't expect this to take more than a week or two and your family will be properly compensated.”
Shiro and Momoko looked at each other and began to converse quietly for several minutes.
Keiichi noted that while Shiro was far more reserved in whether he would be willing to take in the boy, the man's wife was more than willing to, especially if it was for such a short time period. He noted a few words, such as malnourished, old injuries and clear signs of abuse which made him frown. He knew from his superiors that they had already sent an investigator to England in order to determine what had happened.
However, he did not know whether they had decided to report that Mr. Potter had arrived in Japan. Considering the relations between Japan's magical community and the European magical community, he doubted that they had.
He also considered the likelihood that they boy had been attacked and had fled in desperation. For all that the Japanese magical community followed protocols and tradition, a boy who was not even seven managed to apparate halfway across the world and landed virtually in their laps.
That was a good indication of the boy's current power, even if it was fueled by fear. It also said a lot about his potential, potential that he knew several families would love to have added to their own bloodlines if practicable. They wouldn't force the boy, but Keiichi could easily see them waiting until his teens to start giving him offers, or at least to consider staying in Japan.
The fact that it would score a massive coup on the Europeans was merely an added bonus.
Shiro and Momoko finished their quiet conversation and looked at him.
“Shirasawa-san,” Shiro stated. “We would be happy to look after the boy while his situation gets resolved.”
Keiichi smiled. “Excellent. Once the boy wakes up, we will gather everyone relevant together to discuss this further. There are some secrecy statutes involving magic that you need to be aware of as well.”
The first thing Harry realized as he came to was that he was not in his relative's house. As he cracked his eyes open, the light made him wince a bit as he slowly got his bearings. He heard a voice to his right saying something in a language he didn't understand and as he looked, it was a woman in a white coat holding a clipboard. A look around indicated that he was in a hospital.
He looked back to the woman, a doctor or a nurse, he believed and saw that there was a young brown-haired girl talking to the woman, while an older girl in her teens just watched. Well, until she apparently noticed that he was awake. She said something to the woman who then looked at him.
“Ah,” she thankfully said in English. “You are awake.” Harry noticed her accent was odd, but understandable, especially since she was seeming to make sure she was speaking correctly. Still, he wanted to know where he was.
“Where am I?” He asked.
“You are at Uminari University Hospital, young man.” The doctor replied.
Ah, that made sense. He was at a hospital named Uminari University Hospital.
Wait a moment.
“I'm where, again?”
The doctor blinked. “Uminari University Hospital, young man.” She seemed to think for a moment. “In Uminari, Japan.”
The statement that he was in Japan didn't quite register on him at first as he looked around the room. He saw something written on the wall and realized he could not understand what it said as it was not in English. It was then that he registered that the doctor said he was in Japan.
“In Japan,” he said dully. “I'm in Japan, across the world from...” He looked at the doctor and the other two in the room. “Can someone tell me how I am in Japan when I should be in England?”
The doctor was about to say something when the older girl told the younger girl something. The girl replied in that same language. I'm in Japan, so it's probably Japanese. Harry thought. He noted that the young girl looked at him, smiled and said something in her language before she left the room.
The older girl smiled at him and asked the doctor something. The doctor smiled and nodded before looking back to him.
“Nanoha went to go get her parents and older brother. They were the ones to bring you here, so they can tell you more.” She looked at him. “Ah! I forgot.” She smiled ruefully. “I am Doctor Ishida, young man, can you tell me your name?”
Harry nodded. “Harry Potter, my name is Harry Potter.”
Doctor Ishida smiled. “Now, Potter-san, can you tell me what happened?”
Harry looked at the girl who had remained in the room questioningly. She returned his look for a second before pointing to herself. “Uh, my name is Miyuki, Takamachi Miyuki.” She told him haltingly. She looked to Doctor Ishida and asked a question which Harry supposed was if she had said it right. Considering how she had addressed herself, he wondered briefly if her name was Miyuki or Takamachi and figured, rightly he would find out, that her name was Miyuki.
He then remembered that the doctor had asked him what had happened to land him in the hospital.
He was wondering that himself, especially since it was a hospital on the other side of the world. The last things he could remember was being left alone by his relatives, again, a fire, the doors and windows refusing to open. He remembered that he had wished to be anywhere else but where he was. And then, a squeezing sensation that felt like an eternity before ending. He couldn't remember much after that as he hit something and was knocked out.
He told as much to the doctor, who looked skeptical, but shrugged it off. Despite her relative youth for her position as a respected doctor, she had treated and seen many things. For all that she had little belief in the spiritual or magical, she knew that there was always more out there to be discovered and learned.
Still, if such a fantastic story is how me kept himself more or less together, rather than panicking, she would humor him for now. It was clear to her that he had no idea what had really happened and was trying to cope with it the best he could.
Shiro and Momoko stepped out of the room they had their discussion with Keiichi Shirasawa and looked to each other.
“Shiro,” Momoko said to her husband. “Is it strange for me to think that the world had changed for us?”
Shiro shook his head. “No, dear.” He replied. “It's not strange to think that.” His look became pensive. “What Shirasawa-san said was strange, but true. He also demonstrated some of his magic to show that he was not lying.” He sighed. “I'll be honest, the fact that magic exists explains a few things about young Harry's arrival, and some things I've seen in the past when I was in my old line of work.”
His wife nodded her understanding. “I guess that being a bodyguard could expose you to it, even if you didn't know what it was.” She frowned. “Still, something about what he said is nagging at me. He basically said that the boy, Harry, had been driven by fear to do what he did and end up appearing in front of us all.”
“Yes,” Shiro agreed. “I think he believes that the boy was attacked, or was targeted. He did say that the matter was being looked into, but I wonder what they are looking into. I also think that they are also looking into a way to keep him in Japan, or at least to have strong ties to it.”
Momoko looked at her husband. “What do you mean, dear?”
Shiro shrugged. “It's nothing concrete, but Shirasawa-san indicated that what he did took a lot of power to pull off. I can think of a few reasons due to that.” He then noticed his youngest coming down the hall. “Nanoha, I thought you were with Miyuki.”
The girl stopped in front of her parents. “He's awake,” she simply said. “Doctor Ishida said I should find you two and bring you over.”
Shiro sent Momoko ahead and then noticed that Keiichi was still nearby, but keeping a polite enough distance to give some privacy. He motioned for the man and they started walking to the room that Harry had been assigned. Shiro looked to the man.
“So, how do we explain this to him?” He asked.
Keiichi frowned as he thought about that. To be honest, he couldn't come up with an answer that he was pleased with.
Nanoha continued to walk to the room where the boy had been taken to, thinking about what had happened over the last few hours. They had a few shocks with how the boy appeared out of thin air like he did, not to mention the sound, but her father had quickly taken charge and checked the then unconscious boy before telling her mother to call for an ambulance to get him to the hospital.
After that, it was her father talking with doctors, the occasional police officer and then that man who seemed to just blend into the crowd unless she looked right at him. The fact that he had pulled her father aside, before Kyouya came for their mother and brought her over to where they were talking had puzzled her, but it seemed that they had decided on something.
She didn't know what had been decided, but as she walked into the room where the boy had been taken, she decided that it couldn't be too bad.
Years later, she would look back on this unusual day fondly, as it would be what introduced her to magic. She would assume that she couldn't use it, at first, but the introduction to a boy named Harry Potter made the events that would happen later much less of a personal burden for her.