Harry woke up as usual at 6 in the morning. The weather was still dark, and the air still seemed heavy with moisture from the day Harry had yesterday. It wasn't until he had gotten out of bed that he had come to the realisation that it was the first day of January. That meant that the whole day would be spent with visitors coming to their temple to pray for the new year, as well as eat some of the food cooked for them. Most people would even buy paper charms made by the workers in his shrine.

"Today is day one of Shogatsu!" Raijin declared as he burst into Harry's room, dressed in a fancy kimono. The first thing that clicked for Harry was the word Shogatsu, as he heard it his mind instantly supplemented that it was the name for the three day New Year's Festival that the Japanese held. The second thing was the crazy kimono that his thunder god friend was wearing. The kimono had a yellow top and black billowing pants, with an off white obi tied around his waist.

Within moments of entering the room, Kanae was staring at Raijin with such a straight face that Harry started getting nervous. With hard eyes, she looked at Harry and held out a neatly folded mass of dark fabric. "Your outfit for the festival."

"Thank you." Harry flashed her a smile then took the clothes from her.

"Master Raijin, I would ask you to wear something more appropriate while you are within our temple." Kanae said with a stern glare his way, before she left the room.

"What's wrong with your clothes?" Harry questioned as he looked through what she had given him. It was the exact same outfit as Raijin's but the shirt was a dark blue, and the rest was black.

"Men typically wear darker more neutral styles for their kimonos. But that's boring." Raijin grinned, snapping his fingers. Instantly Harry was wearing the kimono that Kanae had brought for him.

"Raijin." Harry said as he looked at himself in the mirror, debating whether or not he would put his glasses on. He didn't need them anymore, but out of a sense of familiarity he still put them on sometimes. He still had to decide whether he would wear them at school. "One of the miko described Kanae as full of water, what does that mean?"

"Full of water?" Raijin's thick lips instantly pulled into a smile. "She is full of water! For the Japanese, they believe that they are full of certain essence that makes them the way they are, like water. People who are full of water are commonly viewed as being clever and manipulative."

"Weird." Harry didn't know what else to say to what he had learned. Growing up in the UK he learned completely different ways of thinking than the Japanese. He hadn't heard of very many concepts like that, even within the wizarding community.

"If you say so." Raijin shrugged, his yellow shirt rustling as he moved. He, unlike Harry, had grown up in that culture and was very used to it. "Let's go out." Without waiting he guided Harry out of the honden.

In no time at all Harry was standing behind a stall with Raijin at his shrine. The top of their stand was covered with different talisman (or as the Japanese knew them, omamori). Each talisman provided support for a different thing such as prosperity, school, or protection. He watched as Raijin charmed multitudes of people into buying the talisman, using his eager personality to get others interested.

"This one!" Raijin exclaimed as he held up a green pouch to a small child, "is for good weather! Tenjin is not only the god of knowledge, but of the sky!" Harry eye's narrowed as he recognised the pouch, he had seen the god of thunder making those the other morning when he had been reading his books.

"No he's not!" The little girl with pigtails scowled at Raijin as she planted her tiny hands on her kimono clad waist. "Daddy said Tenjin is the god of school!"

"Well your dad's wrong." Raijin crossed his arms after he planted his talisman back onto the table. "Tenjin controls the sky. That's why he's friends with Raijin."

"No!" Harry watched with barely concealed amusement as his friend continued to fight with a six year old about what he had dominion over.

"What's your name?" Harry asked as he leaned over the stall and smiled at the girl, aiming to diffuse the situation instead of let it grow larger.

"My name is Haru!" The girl nodded firmly, glaring at Raijin before she looked at Harry. "I know you!" She instantly shouted, pointing at Harry.

"You do?" Harry leaned down and looked at her with a small smile. As soon as he saw the excited look in her eyes, he recognised her as the little girl he saw outside of the temple on his very first day as Tenjin.

"You were inside of the honden!" She leaned towards him with dark brown eyes that gleamed conspiratorily. "Are you a god? Mama says only gods get to stay in the honden."

"Do you promise to tell nobody?" Harry felt smile curve his lips as he watched the cute little girl nod seriously. "I'm Tenjin, the god of this temple." He picked up one of the paper talisman and handed it to her. "Remember it's a secret," he said with a wink.

"Thank you, Tenjin!" She exclaimed as she hugged the paper tag to her chest before she flushed and put her fingers to her lips. "Sorry, secret! I won't tell anyone!" Haru bowed to Harry before running away, the paper talisman she clutched in her hand waved in the air like a kite as she made her way through the crowd.

"I didn't know you were good with kids." Raijin shot Harry an approving smile as he looked up at the new god.

"Neither did I." Harry rubbed his forehead with a nervous smile. He had never really been around kids younger than 11, in fact, the youngest people he ever talked to were at the most two years younger than him. He had never seen such a young girl talk to him. The few that tried were usually dragged away from their parents who believed the Dursley's rumours about him being a scoundrel.

Harry picked up one of the blank cloth omamori and stared at is as his lips curled into a strained smile. He may have left England on bad terms, but when he returned he would try and fix some of the awkward situations he was in before he left. His chest tightened as he remembered the the life he had in the normal (more like mortal, he couldn't exactly say the wizarding world was normal) world. He was leaving behind a war because he became involved with a group of gods that were pretty much pacifists. That meant that he was leaving all of his friends to fight in a war that he was supposedly supposed to win for them.

"Tenjin, what's wrong?" Raijin asked.

Harry stuffed the omamori into the obi that was tied around his waist before smiling at the god beside him. "Nothing, don't worry about it." Harry shook his head before turning to look at the people coming to the stall. His focus was supposed to be on them, he could focus on the future later.

"Good morning!" Harry squinted his eyes, ignoring Raijin who had just bounded into the library. It was the second day of Shogatsu and it was also nearly time to return school so Harry had taken to reading as many books as he could when he wasn't involved in the festival. He wouldn't be able to read them at school, after all, and Kanae had imprinted on him the importance of knowing Japanese History. So, he had to ignore his rambunctious friend every once in awhile.

"Good morning," Harry said absently as he read his book when he realised that his friend wasn't about to go away anytime soon. As soon as Raijin saw the scroll in Harry's hands his smile dropped and was instantly replaced with one of worry.

"No! Tenjin!" With a blink from Harry, his scroll was suddenly gone. "You can't just read like that!"

"And why not?" Harry frowned and looked at the lightning god who had was rolling up the missing scroll.

"If you become a scholar, it'll be boring again." Raijin sighed heavily. "I miss the good old days. when the I would run around with the first Tenjin, and Fujin while creating storms."

"You didn't exist then, you replaced Raijin after Tenjin became the scholar god," Harry said, smiling at the shocked look that flashed across his fellow gods face. He had learnt that yesterday in one of Tenjin's journals. He had particularly not liked the new incarnation. Which made sense considering he had taken to shocking (quite literally) the scholar god at every chance he could.

"Ah," Raijin said as the surprise was followed with a hearty laugh. "I should have known you would find out, it's true, I was not alive during the good old days. But I may as well have been, my predecessor told me all of the stories."

"He wasn't alive then either."

"Fine, fine, he told me the stories that the original Raijin told him." Raijin scoffed, yet a large smile was still curling his thick lips. "You're a keen person. I'll have to remember that. Where is your miko?"

"I don't know." Harry relaxed in his seat as Raijin sat down in the chair opposite his. "I haven't seen her since breakfast."

"She isn't buying your tickets, is she?"

"No." Harry frowned then stared at the grining god suspiciously. "Why?"

"I was going to offer to fly you to the UK! There is no predominant god base there so we should be fine. The Norse gods won't be involved with anything, they aren't around very often, they aren't even in their base country very much. We won't go near Turkey, the Hittite gods have always been so clingy." Harry blanked out as Raijin listed out the possible gods they could run into and why they wouldn't run into them. "So it'd just be easier for me to fly you two."

"Sure." The words came out of Harry's mouth before he could stop them (he wasn't fully coherent because of Raijin's tangent).

Instantly Raijin cackled and shot up. "Great! I'll let your miko know! I'll drop you off at your school, it'll be much easier than stopping by the airport. Mortals always tend to misinterpret such things."

"The school?" Harry almost choked as he imagined the reactions he'd get from students, or even the future promise of extra hard sessions with Snape. "Raijin!" His calls were useless, the lightning god was already far from the library and no doubt talking to Kanae.

Suddenly Harry realised that Raijin asked where his miko was so that he would make sure she wouldn't change Harry's mind. Rubbing his scar (he had to stop and remind himself it wasn't there anymore) he sighed heavily. Maybe one of Raijin's minor titles involved manipulation.

When Raijin finally told Kanae of his plan to fly them to the UK, and how she couldn't refuse because Harry had already agreed….. She wasn't happy.

And so Harry ate a paltry amount of rice and fish for supper. She claimed it was for cleansing his body of whatever madness had overtaken him. His only refuge was the fact that Raijin had eaten the same thing opposite him. Except, the lightning god also had a revolting smelling wine that was apparently purely medicinal and tasted horrible. He, of course, got the worst of it because he suggested the idea. And Kanae just plain did not like him.

Yet, despite her well made punishment, they still found themselves outside of the shrine on the final day in front of a smug looking Raijin. "Is everyone ready?" Kanae merely glared at him. "Great!" Raijin acted as if she had done no such thing, and picked up her luggage. As he picked it up it shrank until it fit perfectly into his pocket. "What about you, Tenjin?"

"Only this," Harry said as he hefted up his old backpack. There weren't many clothes he could wear to school that he found in the honden. There were a lot of kimonos (as he discovered they were called) and a few shirts and slacks, but not enough for him to take. And, he didn't feel right taking them either. It still kind of felt like stealing, it felt like they weren't his. Plus, he felt like he had enough in his trunk as well.

"Best put it on," Raijin said with a smile. Harry nodded and put it on. Instantly, the fabric became new and the backpack fit him better. "It needs to be as strong as possible for this trip." He laughed and Harry looked over at Kanae who only shot him a glare, as if saying that it was all his fault. "Throughout your studies, did you find out what I'm famous for."

"Devastation." Harry held up a finger. "Crazy storms," said Harry as he lifted another fingers.

"And?" Raijin grinned at Harry as white clouds started billowing at their feet.

"Clouds." Harry grinned back as his friend as the cloud's started condensing at their feet. The tips of his shoes were starting to become slick from the moisture as they started floating into the air.

"Don't worry about the mortals seeing us," Raijin said with a wave of his hand. "Not only are they naturally oblivious, but we are able to control what they see."

"Be careful around the foreign territories." Kanae said as she knelt onto the cloud, looking as controlled and dignified as she always did.

"Of course." Raijin rolled his eyes, but his eyes were lit up with amusement. "I would tell you to hold on, but, there's nothing to grab." His declaration was followed with loud laughter before the cloud shot forward, sending Harry tumbling to the soft humid tufts of cloud beneath him. Perhaps he hadn't made the right choice.